Before Baby

I'm going to be playing some major catch up here on the blog. In April the whole family got to go to Iowa for a job interview. All the kids were so good on the two flights there and the two flights back. The hospital interviewing Tanner spoiled us. They got us a two bedroom cottage at a resort and had a basket full of snacks and a basket full of activity books and toys for the kids. I think we all ate our weight in cheese that weekend. After Tanner's interview Brittany and Baydon and their kids came up to hang out for a day. We swam at the water park and the kids had so much fun with their cousins. Besides the snowstorm on the way back to the airport, everything went really well.

 Austin fell asleep both flights on the return trip. The little guy was tuckered out.

The kids and I got to ride bikes around the resort. Austin wasn't too happy about having to ride in the bike trailer. He really wanted to ride a big kid bike like his brother and sister but he couldn't even reach the pedals. He pouted the whole time. But the rest of us had fun. 

We took advantage of the beautiful spring days to get outside as much as possible. 

 Dandelion Princess

 On a hike by our house

We spent a day at Chestnut Ridge and had so much fun. We had a picnic and the kids swam and caught salamanders and Tanner and I got to relax in our hammock. It was a good day. 

 Mariah was an expert salamander catcher by the end of the day. 

 We said goodbye to dear friends. I'm sad Claire isn't in the picture.

 We went to the temple in Columbus. There is a little creek by the temple. As we walked up to it I told the kids to not get too close because they didn't want to get their shoes wet.  In less than a minute both Chet and Mariah got their feet soaked. I really should have known... After the temple we spent some time with friends from medical school. It was neat to see how our kids played together so well. Chet and William share a love of cowboys and Mariah loved holding Adalyn's hand and reading her stories. 

 On the way home the kids got to go to a Cabelas with Tanner while I did some kids-free shopping. 

Mariah lost her first tooth! She was so excited. Her front bottom adult teeth were growing in behind the baby teeth and so we told her she had shark teeth. She thought that was pretty cool. Now we're just hoping her other baby tooth falls out on its own too.

Mariah wrote a few poems for me. She loves to write fancy like in the second poem. I love when she does things like this without prompting.