{The Call, The Departure}

This big white envelope FINALLY

appeared in Grandpa and Grandma's mailbox around 11:30 a.m

on June 15, 2010.

They where like kids on Christmas morning

anxiously waiting to open it! But

to their dismay they would have to wait

until all their kids got on a conference call later that

evening to open it. In this envelope contained

information that would determine the next year

of Grandma and Grandpa's lives.

And do you know what that letter said? Well, this is what it didn't say... It didn't say they would be staying in the United States of America, it didn't say that we would be able to call them on their cell phones still, it didn't say they were close enough to travel to and visit them, it didn't say they would be able to speak their native language, it didn't say they would stay in their comfort zone, it didn't say we would get to see them again in 12 months, instead it said quite the opposite...

It said.....

ROMANIA.

Need i say more.



 Grandma and Grandpa McFadden chose to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and willingly said they would go anywhere they were needed. However, they were just as shocked as we were when they read in the letter that they would be serving in Romania. Diligently, prayerfully, and nervously these two immediately started preparing themselves to serve the people

in Romania. They worked hard everyday to study the language, the culture, and get everything ready before they went.

 Aug. 30th came way to fast. Before we knew it my sister and I where headed to SLC at 5:30 in the morning taking my parents to the airport. The dreaded goodbye that we all didn't want to do. It was a very emotional morning, sending my parents off to another country for 18 months wasn't exactly easy. Knowing there at the airport would be my last time to wrap my arms around my parents for the next year and a half was heartbreaking. Although, this was a hard thing to do I know this is where they needed to be, serving and bringing the gospel to the people of Romania.

We are sure going to miss you, Grandma and Grandpa!

We love you and not a day goes by that we don't think of you!

{3 places, 45 days}

Whew...the title just wears me out thinking about

our busy, crazy summer. In a span of a 45 days, or

to make it sound better a Month and a half we lived

in 3 different places. So in a nutshell here is how

our month and a half went....

 Place #1.

On July 18th we moved from place #1 were we had been

living for the past year. We loved our stay in Wyoming.

We then temporarily moved to Grandma and Grandpa McFaddens house

for 2 weeks while Tyler studied his guts out for his 2nd

set of boards which he had scheduled to take in St.George

on Aug.1st.

 During the 2 weeks we were there,

Addie made her first debut in the New Harmony

parade on July 24th, Pioneer Day. Earlier

that day we got to go watch a parade in Ivins, UT

with Grandma and Grandpa Hansen and enjoy some

carnival fun after.

 Addie and Trey also swam their hearts

out while staying at Grandma and Grandpa

McFadden's house with 24/7 pool access!

1 day after Tyler took his test we moved

to place #2.

 I introduce to you...

Place #2.

A small quaint apartment that suited us just

fine for the month we would be there. It was

located in Cedar City, UT. Tyler signed up

for a Pediatric rotation in Cedar City and wanted

the family to join him for the month. So we packed

up the bare necessities to get us by for a month and

headed up to cedar city. Lucky for us we found a

furnished apartment so we didn't need to haul

furniture.

 While we were there we found great

joy in headed up Cedar Canyon

and taking the kids to the Kids Pond

to do some fishing. It was beautiful up there

and not to mention like 10-15 degrees

cooler! The kids would have fun

casting and reeling in for the first 15 minutes

then get bored and go play in a pile of sand

they found. While they were happily

occupied with the sand Tyler and I got

do some fishing of our own! And guess

who got the first and only fish???

 Me!!!!

I guess there is a first time

for everything, right?!! I have to say I was very excited

when i reeled this baby in and saw that it was

a pretty good size. So we kept him and cooked

him up for dinner the next night! Yum!

We also enjoyed going on hikes, playing at the

parks, and making new friends while we

were there. After Tylers rotation was done we moved

to place #3.

Place #3. St. George, UT.

A place we can finally call HOME.

A place we can finally settle into for good

("for good" meaning, a year)

And fortunately for me this place really is HOME.

I grew up here and am very grateful for the

opportunity to live here and take care of the

place while my parents are gone. We are finally feeling

settled and into a more normal routine of things.

And it feels so good to not be living

out of suitcases anymore!!! Yay!!!

{Snail Art}

What is Snail Art?

A. Kind of Gross

B. Fun

C. Artistic

D. All of the above

 D. was our answer!

My kids had such a fun time with this.

It made them giggle, laugh, and explore

hands on fun!

 These slimey, slow, creatures can make

quite a master piece without even trying to hard!

Put them to the test and see how yours turns out!

What you'll need:

* Snails (any size)

* Paper  (thicker paper or freezer paper so the dye doesn't go through)

*Liquid Food coloring

* And cute little helpers



Put a drop of food coloring on the paper then have your

cute little helper place a snail right on top of the food coloring drop.

If the snail doesn't come out right away, just wait a minute and it will.

Then sit back and enjoy the show! We had about 7-8 snails going

at one time. And when they would go off the paper we'd just pick

them up and put them back on.

And when their all done you have beautiful

snail art!!!

(no animals were hurt during this activity!!!)

Martins Cove

I feel like through out our medical school journey we have somewhat

followed the pioneers path but in an air conditioned vehicle.

Starting in Iowa (Nauvoo, and Winter quarters) then trekking

our way to Independence Rock and Martins Cove, Wyoming.

Then landing in Utah as our home stretch to being done with

medical school.

It has been really neat to be so close to many of theses

great church history sites along our way. We have taken

full advantage of them being close. So on our way out of 

Casper with ALL of our stuff in tow we stopped at Martins Cove. 

We toured the visitor center and watched a movie.

Unfortunately, they weren't taking people out to the cove

that day unless you wanted to walk to it. And with the kids

and our time frame we really didn't have the time to walk out there.

But we did push around the hand carts. They are A LOT harder

than you think. They have this little circular trail that you can take 

them on and Addie made it the whole way with her little cart.

She got tired, but finished the course. So Tyler and I put the kids

in a big cart and together pushed them along the course. It's not as

easy as it might seem. And this was on a cut out flat trail. Lets

just say I wanted to cry for what those pioneers had to go through.

I can't even imagine having to pull and push one of those through

the snow with all my belongings on it. I'm so grateful for the faith

of those great pioneers and the many hardships they went through.

Move #3...Destination: Utah

Two days after we got back from Iowa we moved.

Crazy? Ya, you could say that. This time we were headed

to Southern Utah. A 10 hour drive that turned into 17 hours due to

our awesome budget truck that topped out at 70 mph going down hills, with an average of 60 mph on a straight away, and a whopping 35 mph going up hills!! (and there are quite a few hills along our route) It made for a very long trip, however,

we arrived safely with no break downs or problems. And for that we are very grateful.

We are also very grateful for those who came to help us move. We couldn't have done

it ourselves.  And for those who let us stay with them while

we were in transition.

As much as we hate to move, there are many other factors that

make moving around worth it. My favorite being the awesome

people you meet along the way that become your dearest friends.

For us we were fortunate enough to meet and become close friends

with the Rupp family. They are an amazing family.

Addie and Trey absolutely loved going to their house

and spending time with them. We all loved spending time

with them and their boys.

They too came to help us move on that HOT hot day in July and

convinced us we needed to take a break and cool off in the pool

with them. I'm so glad we did. It was our last time to get together

with them before we were to take off for Utah the next morning. 

Good times that we will forever cherish! Thanks for being

apart of lives! We will miss you lots.

{Good ol' Iowa}

As if we hadn't been on the road enough lately....

Why not throw in an 11 hr. drive to Iowa?

Yes a week after the kids and I got back to Casper from Utah we loaded

up the van with ourselves and 3 of our favorite people and headed

out to Iowa.

(but that week in between...we spent packing up our whole house!

so fun, I know!)

It was a pleasant drive and all 3 kids did very well.

We rolled in late Sunday night but woke up Monday

morning ready to hit up the zoo with our friends,

Rykker, Brigham, and Mindy Stromberg.

After a year of being apart, Addie and Rykker reunited

like they had seen eachother yesterday! They had so much

fun exploring the zoo together and the new Dinosaur

exhibit they had there. They were side by side the whole time.

We saw lots of fun animals and we even got

to ride the zoo train. Trey thought riding the train

was heaven. He was grinning ear to ear the whole ride.

And the other kids loved it too. Thanks again Mindy

Rykker and Brigham for inviting us to the zoo.

Next stop on the list:

PELLA!!!

And when I say list I mean list. Addie had a list

of places we had to go when we were in Iowa.

The zoo being one of them and Pella being another.

She loves pella. And who wouldn't love this sweet

little dutch town full of dutch charm.

The morning started out stormy and rainy so I was hesitant

to make the 45 min drive. But Addie convinced me we

should still go. Well, as it turned out we had beautiful

sunny weather the whole 2 1/2 hours we were there!

And you can't go to Pella without having a treat from

the awesome Jaarsma Bakery. Dutch pastries of all

sorts and chocolate and nuts galore! The kids

always go for the brightly colored frosted

sugar cookies.

I have yet to go to Pella when the Tulip festival is going on.

The town is covered in beautiful tulips and i'm dying to

see it. Maybe at Ty's graduation we'll be able to see them!

You also can't go to pella and not watch the

Klokenshpel. This is Addies favorite part.

The clock goes of every odd hour and plays a 10 min

chime/song and little figurines that come out at the windows

below the clock. Each figure represents some sort

the Pella history. Yet another great trip to Pella!

And no more than 5 min after getting on the road to

head back to Des Moines it started to

DOWN POUR rain, and not just sprinkles. I mean

the classic Midwest down pour! I miss that kind of rain....

We couldn't have picked a more beautiful time of year

to go to Iowa. Yes it was hot and sticky because of the

humidity, but it was also so GREEN and lush. With

wild flowers everywhere!! I miss the tall green cornfields

and flowers that grow where ever and all over!

Our trip was short and sweet. After 4 fun days of being back

in Des Moines, IA we made the 11 hr. trek back to Casper.

Ty was amazing as usual and drove the entire way home.

I got to sit back and watch the MILLIONS of bugs splatter

on our windshield...yes those are all bugs on our windshield in

that picture...not rain. Our windshield was covered inch to inch

with bug splats! But even more fun was the rain/lightning storm we drove

through at about midnight. The lightning was amazing and lit up the

entire sky around us. I love lightning storms and they don't get much

better than in the Mid West!

We had such a great time in Iowa. It made me miss it so much

and all our great friends that are there. A huge thanks to

one of those good friends for letting us stay at their house

while we were there! And a thanks to Ty's school for making

him come back to do some mandatory testing at the school so

we could come back and visit. So I guess in reality, the kids

and I were the ones that really had fun...while Tyler was

being tested everyday and studying more every night.

Although, he did manage to go out shopping with us at all our

favorite places for an entire afternoon!! And believe it or not

we ALL had a fun time shopping...yes even Tyler!!

{4th of July 2011}

Our 4th of July was kind of sporadic this year

but fun nonetheless!! Daddy took the kids out

for patriotic donuts to kick off the morning.

Then as the day went on we packed some

boxes in preparation for our big move.

Around dinner time we decided to randomly

drive to the waterfall on Casper Mt. and eat dinner there!

The kids did some hiking up the waterfall

and played around for a little bit.

Then we decided to go hit up the last

few innings at the Casper Ghosts baseball game.

All the while enjoying some circus animal

cookies in red white and blue icing of course!

After the game was over it was just in time for

the firework show. The fireworks went off near

the field so we got our chairs out of the car

and made ourselves at home in the parking lot

of the game. We had a great view and a great

show. It was such a sporadic day but so much fun.

We're just glad we got to spend it with Dad!