Number 17

For all those who remember my post about the 16 Reasons Why I Love Utah, here's number seventeen!

Mabel Wilkins

Utah Trip/Family Reunion

During June, David and I went to Utah for a family reunion. Along the way we were able to see some of my friends and have a wonderful time! Thank you everyone for making yourself available for us to see and also for allowing us to have a great family vacation!

216ers (This was taken just about a week before Angie had her baby):

Cousin's wedding barbeque (cookout):

This is our family's vacation home in Wales, Utah where we had the family reunion:

David and I getting ready to go 4-wheeling with our chique de mais sun glasses:

Looking down on Sanpete Valley from the canyons:

See, Utah is pretty too, David!

We were there over Wales Days so they had some festivities. Our family consisted of the majority of the children's parade:

The other half was goats in tutus:

We were also in the main parade the next day:

David drove the gator in the parade....he LOVED it:

But he did come back a little crispy!

Visiting friends:

Birthday Fun!

My birthday was.....memorable! David and I did a lot of wonderful things. The week before the big day we took a one-night trip to the beach. Although we had been planning the trip since last year so it wasn't necessarily just for my birthday, David did surprise me by booking an ocean-front suite for the night. With its own kitchen, jacuzzi, living room, and balcony we had an absolute blast! It was the first trip just the two of us had taken since our honeymoon and it was amazingly relaxing to just show up at a hotel with nothing planned at all and to just spend two days doing anything we wanted anytime we wanted!

Here are some pictures of our hotel room:






This is the view from our balcony. And since we were right on the ocean we took a nighttime stroll on the beach. There was no one else out and it was gorgeous in the moonlight!

We had been planning on camping but because the weather wasn't cooperating we stayed at a hotel. However, since we'd already bought the stuff for s'mores we decided to make them anyway...in the microwave.

The next day we went to the Fort Fisher aquarium. It was fun, fun, fun!

This is an albino alligator (or crocodile). But cool either way!

Apparently North Carolina has a large variety of carnivorous plants (who knew!?). I was so excited to see a Venus Flytrap for the first time! (I know, I'm a nerd)





A picture of the USS North Carolina that fought in WWII. We didn't take the tour because it was raining too hard.


Here's a kind of bad picture of us on the dock in historic Wilmington, NC.


Also for my birthday, David bought me some beautiful flowers.

Finally, and the reason my birthday is so memorable, is I decided to get my EARS PIERCED! However, as many of you know I'm a little itty bit afraid of needles. So, would you really be surprised to find out that I fainted? Um, well I was surprised! They even had to use smelling salts on me and everything. It was loads of fun waking up in the middle of Claire's with no idea what had just happened and a bunch of twelve-year-old Miley Cyrus wannabes staring at me like, "I got my ears pierced when I was three and I didn't even cry!" Anyway, I really did have a great birthday. Thanks to everyone who made it so wonderful!

Our Garden

One of the reasons we bought our house was because it already had a garden plot. Still, the ground needed a lot of weeding and tender loving care before it was ready for planting. Now our hard work is paying off and our garden is growing fabulously! We are so excited for fall to come so we can harvest all the yummy things that we grew ourselves.

Here's a picture of our garden out our bedroom window. The big green plants you see growing are lettuce.

Another shot of the lettuce with our butternut squash plants in the background. Also, the other smaller plants next to the lettuce are spinach.

Zucchini plants....

We had a lot of volunteer onion plants come up. In front of them our two of our pumpkin plants.

Another shot of the garden. In total, we planted pumpkins, watermelon, carrots, zuchini, peppers, tomatoes, squash, lettuce, spinach, jalepenos, and corn.

Bonus Pic: When we were trimming the yard yesterday we cut down these bushes. I thought they were so pretty that I put them in our watering can on the porch. I think they make our entry look bright and happy!

Visit

This past week I had the most wonderful blessing of being able to have my friend's mom over for dinner. Sister Jones (mother of the incomparable Julia Jones) was in North Carolina for a conference and took the time out of her busy schedule to visit David and I. We had dinner and showed her our house (so she could return and report to Julia). I had such a great time. I really cherish any opportunity I have to be with friends and family members that I don't get to see often. Thanks again Sister Jones--we loved having you!

Camera Purge

This post is horribly out of order but it just contains a bunch of pictures I've been needing to get off my camera--nothing too exciting.


The other night we decided to have a boys night. A bunch of our wonderfully amazing guy friends came over, hung out, and then spent the night. It was very fun to have them all at our house. We love them!







In April we took a quick trip to Atlanta to see David's aunt, uncle, and cousin. We spent an entire day at Stone Mountain Park (where the Confederate leaders are carved onto the side of the mountain) and just had a great time relaxing!




You can't really tell, but this is a picture of my odometer at 66666....we just had to record this important event!



During March, the ACC tournament was held in Greensboro and David's mom got us GREAT tickets to the UNC game. Even though UNC lost we still had a great time!