outer banks

After our weekend in New York we met my family in the Outer Banks for a week at the beach.

Chelsea was gifted a "grow a boyfriend" and she wanted pictures of the two of them.


We made a quick stop at Camille and Ryan's on the way home.



I have a feeling Chooch is going to love this picture. Which is why I made sure to put it on Facebook and my blog.

Camille is now 8 months pregnant

Katherine helped Camille do a little reorganizing in the kitchen

The boys raked the pile of dirt in the new part of their backyard and then seeded it.



Back to the Outer Banks

We went to the beach almost every day


Virginia was not afraid of the sand, water or strange uncles and aunts.

One of my favorite quotes was from Savvy, she listed off everything she found in her buried treasure followed by, "it is everything I have ever wanted!" Classic.

Jackson was a paddle ball pro, he and Ryan got up to 300 continuous hits. He got 22 hits with me, then I was done.

All Bennett really wanted was an orange cake because it is his favorite color. His birthday got even better when he got an orange shirt and an orange bike.

This is how excited he was about orange.



Jackson was a crowd favorite. I would say the most common phrases of the trip would be, "but where is Uncle Jackson", "Can Uncle Jackson sit next to me?", and "Can we play with Uncle Jackson?"

My parents watched all the kids one night so my siblings could all go out to dinner with each other. We had some great Southern BBQ.

P.S. I have noticed a lot of blogs have gone private lately. Can I get an invite if you went private? Please? I promise I am not a scary stalker...

NYC

This is right before I got hit by the bicyclist. He was not a happy camper.

Brooklyn Bridge

30 Rock? We weren't sure, but it looked right.

Central Park

Owen siblings

John Lennon memorial

Times Square or as I like to call it, the arm pit of New York

Jacks had never been to NYC before. He loved all the lights.

U.S. Open

We went to the U.S. Open to celebrate our fifth anniversary. I was so excited because we got to see the Bryan brothers play (and win).

We also got to catch a glimpse of The Donald and his buoyant hair.

On the subway ride to the Open a mariachi band went from car to car singing and playing, it was awesome.

We watched Melanie Oudin and the next best American hope, Ryan Harrison, play mixed doubles. They lost because they played Bob Bryan and the Bryan's are unstoppable.

The smash zone. We got to see how fast our serves were, Dave topped off at 100 mph.

Jacks worked hard to get 98 mph, he claims the net got in the way of his toss.

I hit a whopping 50 mph, luckily it didn't test aim.

Jackson and Dave were enamored with the giant ball and racket.

In front of the tennis globe

We were lucky that several of Jackson's siblings joined us, we had a fabulous time.

Mardy Fish after his win

J Dawg

We spent most of the time in Louis Armstrong stadium

We got to watch Caroline Wozniacki play, she was awesome.

Robin Soderling

Jackson could not have been happier to spend the weekend watching tennis.

games

hula hooping with the Nelson's

bowling with Pam and Jordan

you would never guess that Pam had a knee replacement

Jackson won.

Opening Game Day Gift Ideas?

When Cara and I first got married, we went through every holiday in the year and determined which were gift giving holidays, and which were non gift giving holidays. One day that we deemed as a gift giving holiday is Utah's first football game of the year.

Here are some examples of previous years game day gifts

We haven't come up with anything yet this year.

Any ideas?

If you want to help us with our gift this year, you can follow this link on Facebook and "like" Cara's comment. The person with the most "likes" will get a $200 gift card to the U Bookstore. You have to scroll down to find Cara's comment.

Thanks! and Go Utes!

one more

Jackson drove to Iowa to help Jordan and Camilla find a place to live and move them in. This is Camilla signing the lease.

I got to dress up as Martha, sister of Mary for church. Super stylin'.