Ahoy! Baby shower

My sister-in-law Mariah is pregnant with her first and it's a little girl! Because she lives in Texas, I decided, while everyone was in town, we would throw her a surprise baby shower.

We got her out of the house for the day by sending her down to Vanessa's house to "help her with the boys." We also had all of the sisters and their mom go out for dinner. It worked perfectly! Shannon and I stayed back and put the thing whole thing together. 

My sister-in-law Jessica made the adorable cake!

The food turned out great, and it was a total success with 19 people in attendance! She was totally surprised and came out with a pretty good haul! Congratulations Mariah, we can't wait to meet that sweet little girl soon!

Family pictures

While everyone was in town, we decided it would be a good idea to get an updated family picture. We didn't really want to pay anyone to take them, so I took on the job. With the help of a tripod, a borrowed camera with an awesome lens, and some amazingly kind people walking by, we were able to get this shot.

It may not be a "perfect picture" but I think it turned out great for not even being behind the camera.

Family pool day

At the end of August, all of Ethan's family came into town for a little family reunion. Ethan's sister Vanessa lives right down the road from their neighborhood pool, so one day we decided to take it over for a couple hours. The weather was beautiful and the water was great which constitutes a win in my book!

My husband–The Mechanic

Anyone that has ever lived in a hot and humid climate knows you can't live too long without air conditioning in your car. While I was out in Idaho, our Fusion air conditioner went out. Poor Ethan was driving it back and forth between work and school.

He decided to take it in to the shop and see how much it would cost to fix it. There was another thing going on with the wheel bearing that we were going to have checked out as well. In total is was going to be over $1,000. We didn't have the money for both, so the guy told us the problem with the air conditioner was a small little sensor that cost less than $13 for the part. He told Ethan it was something he could actually change himself. So what does Ethan do? He took that as a challenge.

Long story short, we bought the part and decided to tackle it. Ethan had found a YouTube video that went step-by-step on how to change out the sensor. Unfortunately, the sensor was smack dab in the middle of the dash and the very front, making it difficult to reach.

I was even able to be of some help! In order to pull the dash off, we had to pull of the gauge box (where the gas, oil, speed, etc. are located). Ethan had tried to get it out but wasn't having any luck. With my patience, and ingenuity, I was able to pop it out no problem, making it possible for us to pull the dash completely out.

Up to this point it had gone fairly smooth. We got the sensor changed and starting putting the dash back on. Right behind the gauge box is a square nut and bolt that attaches the dash to the frame. We got the dash put back on when the nut moved and fell in this metal box-like area that was almost impossible to get to. It took us almost 1.5 hours to get that nut back to where is needed to be. Luckily, I was small enough to climb in underneath the dash where the pedals are, used a little duck tape to attach the nut to my finger, and maneuvered my finger up through the box so Ethan could screw in the bolt. It worked!!!

The whole process took about 8 hours to totally finish and put everything back together, but saved us hundreds of dollars! I've said it a hundred times before, but I'm so thankful that I have a husband who is able to fix things himself, because it was a total blessing to not have to have someone else fix it. Who knows, if he decides dentistry isn't for him, he could always become a mechanic? Actually... I think we'll stick with dentistry!

A day in Mooresville, NC

A few weekends ago, we, along with our friends, the Esselmans, went to Mooreseville, NC. Jesse is from there, and his parents still live there. It was only about an hour drive up there, which made it the perfect day trip. 

His parents have a fairly large backyard with a great swimming pool and BBQ area. We swam, grilled up burgers, played a little Cornhole, and shot some guns. The perfect equation for a good time!

Safety first when it comes to guns! It doesn't look like it here, but he actually kept them on really well the whole time. 

Nixon was definitely loving on Rylee. He was being so snuggly, and I'm pretty sure she loved it too. 

 They also had a couple swings hanging from a large tree. This kid loves a good swing!

It also made for the perfect nap spot. He stayed there for a good two hours if not more. He even kept his ear protection on the whole time. It was so stinking precious. I kept checking on him to make sure he wasn't moving and going to fall off. Sure enough, he was in the exact. same. spot.

We loved spending time with them, and feel so blessed to call them friends. We've had quite a few adventures with them so far, and we hope to have even more in the future. 

Anniversary at Carowinds

Ethan surprised me this year for our 3rd anniversary. We knew we couldn't too anything too extravagant, given our financial situation, but we still wanted to do something special.

The day of our anniversary, I had asked a couple questions regarding what I should wear, shoes, etc., and unfortunately for him, I guessed what we were doing without really trying. Fortunately for both of us, I was super excited! We had been wanting to do this for some time, and we finally got the chance. We got tickets to the amusement park here called Carowinds.

We left Nixon at home with Sarah and were ready to ride as many roller coasters as we could. We expected to ride a couple because of lines, but when we got there, the longest we stood in line was 15 minutes max! Although the heat was a little bit of a killer, it was amazing!!!

We had ridden about 5 or 6 of the biggest roller coasters before it was time for us to ride The Fury. This is the newest ride and is definitely the most intense! We were able to ride it back-to-back and I was done for.

I stayed in this position for a good 30-40 minutes. I felt like a loser, but Ethan went and rode a spinning ride without me and I couldn't even look at the ride. It literally made me nauseous just looking at it, so I kept my head down. I'm pretty sure people thought I was dying, which didn't seem too far off, with how I was feeling. We ended up grabbing a Sprite to see if it would help. It helped ever so slightly. I had drank so much water/Sprite throughout that I headed to the restrooms. It was FREEZING in there and it felt amazing!! I was actually starting to feel a lot better just getting out of the heat and cooled off, but then it happened.. The person in the stall right next to me was throwing up... a lot. I got out of there real quick, and regained some of my nausea.

Because I was still feeling pretty crummy, we walked around for a bit and found this!!

The North Carolina and South Carolina border runs right through the park. Cheesy? Absolutely! But we have now kissed while being in two different states, and on our anniversary nonetheless. So precious. The only thing that could have made it better was if I was actually from South Carolina, but I'm an Idahoan.

Ethan rode a couple more rides while I enjoyed it from afar. We were wrapping up our day and I knew I had to ride at least one more ride and go out with a bang. Cue the Intimidator! Not quite as intense as The Fury, but about twice as long. I was proud for going on one more, but I was D-U-N done.

We had planned on staying a little later at the park, but with the heat and me feeling sick, we went to dinner a little bit early. We wanted to go somewhere other than fast food, but not too spendy, so we hit up Smashburger. I LOVE Smashburger. It's fantastic. The burgers are great and the Smashfries.. forget about it. It was on a Monday as well, so they had free milkshakes if you bought an entree. Ethan enjoyed both of ours.

We went home after dinner and hung out with Nixon for a couple hours before it was time for the movie we were going to see. We went and saw The Man from U.N.C.LE., which was surprisingly funny. It almost reminded me of Get Smart, a little bit.

It was such an amazing day. I don't know how many times throughout the day we would look at each other and say how much fun we were having. It's been a while since we had us time where we got to let loose a little bit. We also agreed that we want to make things like anniversaries and Valentine's Day about experiences, not gifts. Memories, for the most part, will always last, and be more cherished than things.

Three years

It's late, big surprise, but on August 17th, we celebrated three years together. It's amazing how fast this last year went. With Nixon, another move, starting school up again, and life in general, it flew by.  I will say though, year three has probably been my favorite. I feel like this was "our year" with one another and it makes me so hopeful for our years to come!