Six Months Later...

So for a while there I thought I'd just keep a journal instead of a blog. Now I realize, pictures are way more fun than just reading. So Here comes a quick update in pictures. Of course I didn't capture all the highlights of the last six months but once I'm sort of updated I can start doing smaller, more detailed posts again.

In August Brig spent the entire month in Houston for a special rotation. We are so lucky to have family there to feed and entertain him so He didn't have to spend the entire time alone in a hotel room. It was a loooong month though! Luckily I got to spend two weeks of it at home with my family which was amazing since I hadn't been home in over a year.  As great as it was, I was missin' my hubby something fierce. During the last week of his absence I came home from work one night to this:

Brig was able to come home a few days early and surprise me. Pretty awesome.
After that it was back to the regular routine for a while. In October we celebrated Halloween by trick or treating with my sweet nanny boys (Brig was a good sport during that adventure) and by eating lots of candy and mummy hot dogs while watching Ghost Busters.

We also had a pumpkin carving night with some buddies and I won the ward costume contest by dressing up as one of our sweet/injured Elders.

Apparently we live our lives from holiday to holiday because the next event I can think of is Thanksgiving. This is the first year we stayed in Nashville. We had dinner and spent the day with some good friends in our ward. We're lucky to live in a ward with A LOT of young married couples in our same stage of life. We had a HUGE dinner with them (we had a 21 lb. turkey for 6 people) and spent the afternoon playing games, talking, and watching A Christmas Carol. I keep meaning to ask for the pictures from a friend who took some with a nice camera. Maybe I'll post them late.

The one picture I do have of the day is this one of Brig scrapping up the monkey bread overflow that caught on fire in our oven.:) Luckily the monkey bread was unscathed and delicious. Also, our smoke detectors definitely do not work.
The day after Thanksgiving we got our tree and broke out the Christmas decorations! Wahoo! Believe me, Christmas music has been playing nonstop ever since.

The last day of November Brig took off to Guatemala with a surgical service team. He was the sole pharmacist and completely ran the pharmacy for the entire trip. He was totally swamped with work from early in the morning until late at night so it wasn't really much of a vacation but it was a great learning experience and a valuable addition to his resume for residency's. Not to mention all the many kids and families that benefited from the surgeries (and drugs :)  ) the team provided. He got some amazing pictures of the people and the city but I didn't steal them from him yet. So more to come on that experience. He got home a few days ago and we are thoroughly enjoying having a little time to relax together and watch Christmas movies. Yay for holidays and not being in separate countries!

On a totally random note, I snapped this picture the other day. There is a church on every corner here, just like in Utah, only they're all different churches. We're soaking up our last few months in the South.:)

Independence Day!

Our 4th of July celebrations this year were fun but very low key. I worked a few hours that morning and then when the boys' parents came home the five of us walked over to a little, annual neighborhood parade. We decorated the kids bikes and they pedaled like little champs. They looked so cute.

 Walking to the parade.

 Hydrating. It was HOT outside! Super hot, we were all pretty soaked when we got home.

After the parade Brigham met us at the house for a bbq. There was a ton of delicious food!

After the BBQ we spent most of the rest of the day getting ready for girls camp, which I had to leave for the early the next morning. That night after I was mostly packed we decided to go see a movie instead of fighting the firework crowd like we did last year. It was a nice, relaxing night. And to top it all off we still saw plenty of fireworks going off along the highway on the way home!

Take me out to the Ball Game!

Last Monday Brig and I got to go to a Nashville Sounds game with some good buddies; The Traylor Crew and Tyler and Angela. We went to one a long time ago with some people from our ward but this time I took pictures. And stole some from Alex. We were also on a different side of the stadium this time which was awesome because it wasn't crowded at all and we could talk and mess around without bothering anyone.

$1 hot dogs night!

Cutest photo bomber ever

All the Gals

All the Guys

Guitar scoreboard, Nashville is the best.

We had such a fun night! The company was great, the hot dogs were yummy, and a storm earlier that evening brought the temp from the low 100's down into some comfy 80's. Talk about lucky!

"Business" Trip

Holy Hannah it is summer in Nashville. It has been SOOO hot outside this past week, and the humidity is crazy. I feel like I walk out the door into the rainforest every morning. I guess I shouldn't complain too much though, in June Brig spent a few days at a workshop in Houston (to prepare him for an upcoming rotation) and it's much hotter there. Even with all the sweating we are definitely still enjoying the summer. Right before Brig left for Texas I got to spend a few days in the Great Smokies "working" for the family I nanny for. It was a little cooler there, and I LOVED seeing some mountains!

 They rented a cabin that was pretty good sized for only three adults. I stayed upstairs in this huge bedroom. The corner I was standing in to take the pic had a giant jetted tub and a window with an awesome view.

Sweet porch swings! I LOVE porch swings.

Amazing view from the porch swings.

We went on a little hike one day, throwing rocks in the river was the highlight for the boys.

 The aquarium. It's hard to see but that white thing that looks like a bunch of twigs with leaves hanging off is actually a fish. Crazy.

Big Turtle

There was a game room in the basement with an air hockey table, pool table, dart board and this arcade game thing. The arcade game definitely got the most use. They loved it! If they had one of these things in their house they wouldn't need me as a babysitter. We also did some mini-golfing and swimming in the pool but I didn't get pictures. Even though it was a short trip, it was great to come back to my own bed and (don't tell Brig I admitted this) to a quiet, childless house.:)

Summer time!

Yay! Lately it has felt like summer is really in full swing! Probably because in the last week we've done a lot of playing. We kicked off the summer with a great Memorial Day bbq with Jeremy and Alex and their two awesome boys. Every summer needs an inaugural bbq. I think in my heaven there will be weekly Bbq's. I just love them. We had good food and good talks and played around with Brig's helicopters. They did surprisingly well outside. When it started to get dark the firefly's started coming out and there were TONS of them. Probably the most I've ever seen at one time. As usual, wish I had pictures. There will be more bbq's to come though, and this post has enough pictures already.
That week Brigham had a few days off between rotations so Tuesday afternoon we decided to check out the Nashville Zoo. We now have memberships (thanks for the deal Alex!) which is nice cause it's a pretty place to walk around. The whole zoo is covered in tree bridges which I love. I think they are both romantic and poetic. One day I will have a big yard with a tree bridge.  We did take pictures at the zoo.

Elephants. One of them was throwing a huge log around with his trunk, it was crazy.

Tigers. If Brig were an animal, He would be a jungle cat.

Alligators snuggling.

Hahaha. Just chillin.

It's hard to see but there is a crazy ugly animal sticking it's head out of that river.

Brig took me to get shakes after! Mmmm.

That weekend we went kayaking with our buddy couples from the ward. It was very good times. The weather was perfect, the company was great, and the scenery was amazing!

Look at all those pretty trees!

All the girls chatting it up.

Brig found the smallest frog I've ever seen when we stopped on the side of the river for some lunch.

Unfortunately the camera battery died before we got to the rope swing half way down the river. And before I got severely sunburned. Another sign that summer is here! That night we met back up with the group for dinner at Red Robin and then a movie. I guess the next day we still weren't sick of each other so after church we got together for home made pizza and a competitive game of Bocci ball- males vs. females.

Crazy meditation path next to the field we were playing on.

Bocci Ball! I hate to admit, the boys won. I don't remember the score but I'm sure it was close.