New Jersey!!

Today on the way home from Duke Island park we were stopped at a stop light when Sam noticed someone smoking for the first time (in the car next to us):
Sam: Does that guy have a pen with fire on the end? ... and SMOKE??
Me (not wanting my naive 3 year old to find out about smoking): No....
Sam: What IS it?
Me (realizing I couldn't escape it as the light was STILL red and Sam was just staring at the guy smoking): It's called a cigarette.
Sam: What is he doing with it?
Me: He's kinda' sucking on it but it's really bad for his body and could make him sick.
Sam (a minute later): Can we get one of those pens with fire and smoke on the end?
Me: No, remember they're really bad for our bodies.
Sam: Is that man sick?
Me: He will be if he keeps using the cigarette.
Sam: Well then why is he doing that?


Great question isn't it???

We love our inquisitive Sammer boy. Nothing gets by him.

Well we are in New Jersey!!! We're having so much fun here. But first, here's a recap of the past couple months. It's going to be long and full of pictures.
On April 24th Samuel turned 3!! He wanted to hike to the cave for his birthday so we did and the Johnstons joined us. He got a bike, helmet, and the long awaited "X-blade" motorcycle for his birthday. I don't have any pics on this computer so I'll have to add in pics and more details later about that. He loves riding his bike and pretends it's his motorbike or "superbike" and even tries to "lean into the turn" just like a really motorbike. We love how Sam loves to do what is right and how he tries to be such a good big brother. He tells everyone: "Now that I'm 3 I get to play on a soccer team!" He will in the fall and we can hardly wait!

Caleb finished finals and left a couple days later (April 25th) for the MBA study abroad Asia trip!

He got to meet up with Tour and her husband and little boy. Tour lived with Caleb's family as a foreign exchange student when she was in high school.

He was gone for 15 days and had a really great time. He went on the trip mostly because he was awarded the Eccles Scholarship. Part of the scholarship money had to go toward a trip like that and he was really glad he got the experience. Thankfully we got smartphones the day before he left which allowed us to communicate at least once a day. He found out while he was there that he finished the year in the top 10% of his MBA class! Isn't he awesome?? That was his goal and I was SO proud of him for accomplishing it. He has worked so hard and somehow has still made his wife and kids not feel neglected either. Honestly he has amazed me this year.

Here's a ton of pics to show what we did while Caleb was gone!

 Hung out for a couple days with the Webb kids! Had so much fun with them.

 Met Uncle Jeff at the creamery!

 Hiked the Y with Laura and Tom! Afterwards we went to Big Springs with Jeff and Kerri too.

Eliza Loo at the top

Played outside a lot at Wymount. Eliza's obsessed with these types of cars.

Every night for a couple months we read Sam's motorcycle book. He had to have all his motorcycles lined up before we started reading.

Shaving cream fun...

Turned into not so much fun.

Met Josh, Stephanie, Jonathan and Vivian at Wheeler Farm. Eliza was chasing the geese and squealing with excitement!

Farmers Jonathan and Samuel

We went to a BYU baseball game with Jeff and Kerri. It was fun while it lasted!

Not only did he sit on Cosmo's back while he did push-ups, but he got to break dance with him! Sam pretends to be Cosmo at home all the time by "break dancing" so it was like a dream come true to break dance WITH Cosmo! People gathered around to watch and everything. It was hilarious to watch and so cool!

I spent my evenings working on a (surprise) quilt for Caleb. Got the top done but need to piece the back together still. Can't remember what else we did but we were doing pretty well until the last few days of Caleb's trip. I was out of patience with Eliza who was crying almost all the time (teething??? Although a tooth never came...) and just wanted Caleb home! He did finally come home. :) We celebrated our 4th anniversary apart. Kinda' lame but I did make this video for him since we couldn't be together (copied ideas from Lindsay and Elise's awesome anniversary videos!).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WDdoORj_V4E#!


A couple days later we moved our stuff out of Wymount and into a storage unit so we didn't have to pay rent there over the summer. We debated even as we were doing it if it was worth it. Moving is just a big pain! But we did it. We spent a couple nights in Elk Ridge at Caleb's parents' house (who are on a mission in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) before heading up to Idaho for the Baker family reunion. It was May 17 - 20 at this really fun house in St. Anthony. We had a great time. I highly recommend that house for anyone looking for a place to gather for a reunion. It's AWESOME.

Sammers out canoeing with Caleb

Andrew and Samuel

Natalie and Eliza

In front of THE house

 
On the way back we stopped by our fourplex and got the sprinklers working and saw the Chattertons and Taylor (who was baptized!) which was really fun. I miss that place and all the people there a lot!

Taylor, Caleb, Samuel

We stayed in Elk Ridge the rest of the week with Esther and Hazel and their families. The kids love being with cousins and they love Grandma and Grandpa's backyard -- especially the water feature! They'd each go through several outfits a day! Seemed like as soon as they got changed they'd get wet again.

Eliza and Emma

MUSCLES!

Of course the only good picture I got of them is fuzzy. Oh well.

Our chunky little scooter rider

She found some wipes so she laid down and started wiping her diaper. :)

Yes, he's naked. His clothes were wet so he thought it appropriate to strip down completely. When I first looked out there he was sitting at the top of the rocks posing like a little European statue!

Gabi, Sam, Abish, James, unidentified floating head, and Elias

Sarah, Mikaela, Gabi, Eliza

She sleeps just like her Dad -- mouth wide open! :)

Friday night we stayed the night at Josh and Stephanie's in Cottonwood Heights so we'd be closer to the airport in the morning. Stephanie made us a wonderful breakfast then we headed out. It was a long day of traveling after that (we got to our apartment in NJ at midnight Saturday night) but I just kept thinking how grateful I was that we weren't driving!! Luckily J&J said they'd pay for us to fly and ship our car out. I was also VERY grateful that Eliza didn't have a blow out on the airplane! She'd had diarrhea and I was just sure it'd happen on the plane. Luckily it didn't.
 

Ready for take off! This was before he lost his all-time favorite "black gun." I think he left it in the rental car. SAD day(s).

Hadn't even taken off and we already had to dig into the pringles! She threw a little fit right after we sat down on the airplane (and she is LOUD. Her voice carries incredibly well) and the guy in front of us said to the lady next to him "4 hours?!?" and the lady busted up laughing. That's how long our flight was. Part of me wanted to make her be louder haha but of course I didn't and she really did pretty well. She showed him! :)

Samuel and the pilot. He even got to push a couple buttons!

When we got to our apartment I realized our pack 'n play was in the van (which hadn't arrived yet) and I was just sure it was going to be the worst night of my life. (sidenote - I'd told Caleb when he suggested that maybe we didn't need to bring the pack 'n play at all to NJ: "If we're not bringing the pack 'n play, I'm not going!"). Anyway so Caleb and Samuel went to work trying to build a nice bed for Eliza. Using couch cushions and the right space they made a perfect bed for her. Grateful for Caleb's innovative, think outside of the box ways, especially when I'm being so dramatic! haha
We went to our ward the next morning and felt so welcomed. Everyone was really friendly and the Harts even invited us over for dinner that night AND let us borrow a pack 'n play! Wards outside of Utah/Idaho just feel different to me. They seem to bond together more because most of the people don't have family around, whereas in Utah nobody would ever invite you over on your first Sunday because they probably have plans with family or they assume you do! Anyway we were very grateful as we didn't have ANY food. There's no 24 hour grocery stores around here so by the time we got here everything was closed. Made me want to reach out better to new folks, and everyone for that matter.
Some first impressions of New Jersey: It's very green and humid, people drive REALLY aggressively (there's no yielding or letting someone in but plenty of flipping people off and purposefully cutting off, etc.), you don't want to leave the house anytime around 8 am or 5 pm, there are lots of beautiful parks, there's a mixture of really nice friendly people and snooty New Yorker type of people. We like it. Caleb feels a little claustrophobic here with the lack of open land and the trees that constantly surround you. But overall we like it. We have 2 1/2 weeks of adventures under our belt now so more posts and and LOTS more pics to come!