Cockroaches, escaping pigs, shots, and bamboo forests

Introducing: the American Cockroach. This was after we caught it in our room. Yesterday I found another one. The thing is, they are way too easy to spot and we haven't seen one in our apartment before. We think they're coming in through the vents. eh...

Below is Addilyn after having way too much fun!

She had her 2 month appointment the other day. She is 12.2lbs and 24.5in long. She's a tall girl! She was also so good her entire appointment. Even after her shots she only shed a couple of tears and then went to sleep. It wasn't until later that night that she told us how she felt about them. She cried, a lot.

 Her cute little bandaids..

 The rest of these pictures (except the last one) are these pigs that were by Scott's work. No one at his work believed him that they were there. There were like 25 yards from the road...kind of hard to miss.

Scott got out of the car and they started coming towards him. I think they escaped from someone's house- which is kindof funny to think of. Escaping pigs...

I love this picture! This was yesterday when Scott got home from work.

We also went to another geocache, which we did not find. It was in a bamboo forest and I got a gazillion bites. I'm not sure how much Cabo enjoyed it, he had to jump and climb under a lot of fallen bamboo.

Another lovely week

So I don't forget- an update on our house. We turned in our request for repairs to the sellers on Friday and should hopefully hear from them today. We also ordered the house to get appraised. There is so much that goes into buying a house! We are scheduled to close this Friday, the 22, and be allowed to move in the next Friday, the 29th! Our plan is to paint, paint, and paint before our things get moved in. We have our temp. apartment until August 8 and might stay here that entire time...just so we can paint everything before we move in. (it really needs it!) Our anniversary (the 9th) may be spent unpacking! Then my mom flies in the 10th to help us. (which I'm so excited for)

Scott multitasking

Friday we went to Tanglewood Park. We heard it was pretty cool, but didn't think it was this cool... They have a little lake where you can rent canoes and paddle boats, a golf course, tons of playground toys all over the park, a pool, and a mini water park for kids. We're so excited for when Addi gets bigger and can fully enjoy this awesome park!

Tanglewood Park

The sky in the water

This past week we've had some rather unusual cool weather. So we took advantage of it and went outside to eat lunch. Well, at least I ate lunch. These two just hung out together.

Our car seat doesn't fit like others do in shopping carts, so we always stick her in the basket. This is us at Costco. People just loved seeing her! They would pass by and I would hear "Did you see that baby?! How cute!"

Saturday was really nice and cool. We decided to go to Bathabera park and do a multi-cache geocache. It first took us to a graveyard. We had to find different graves that gave us different numbers for our next coordinates. Once we got the coordinate, we went hunting for it. Along the way, we walked right by this turtle that was in the walking trail.

Since Scott was carrying Addilyn, I had to climb over all the fallen over trees to find the bottle that had the next coordinate. Cabo was like a wild animal running in the woods. He loved it.

Cabo standing by the geocache.

It had been there since 2004! The log book was super full and we were on one of the last pages. Look for Lorrox & Smitholian! (our geocache names)

Cabo was wiped out!

When we got home, he drank some more water and then laid in the same spot for a couple of hours. He was so tired! Like I said, he was like a wild animal running in the woods so he did that to himself!

Hobby Park

We went to another park, I don't remember what day...It's called Hobby Park and it's right by our house we're buying. The park is exactly what the name is, hobbies! They have a landing strip for remote control airplanes, a course for RC cars, a course for BMX, mountain bike trails, tons of fishing ponds, etc. So cool.

No, we're not torturing her...she actually loves being blown dry!

This morning, you would think I drug her or something!

It was a pretty good weekend overall! I had to give a talk on Sunday and then we had the missionaries over for dinner because the original people had canceled. Scott made his famous omelets. I also got some pictures that I had forgotten about! Here they are-

At Scott's Uncle Mori & Aunt Leah's wedding reception with Lucy Meldrum

Me and my niece Lucy

Again, me and Luc- this was when we were coming back from our 30 day road trip last summer

Scott's sister Rachel with husband Brad and Lucy

I thought it was fitting that I found these photos because the Meldrum family just took of to China for several months! Brad is doing an internship with John Huntsman jr. Two people are missing from this picture, Addilyn & Charlie! The funny thing is, we had just found we were pregnant the week before this picture was taken, and Rachel didn't know it, but she was pregnant as well!

The anticipation is killing us!

Saturday we did a lot of dreaming. Since I've been obsessing over the HGTV channel (and Scott too secretly) we decided to go to Lowes. But before we did, I wanted to look at some stores like Bed Bath and Beyond and Pier One to get some ideas of colors and styles that I like. Here is just a taste of what I picked out.

All of these I like the color and patterns, maybe not so much of what it is, like this chair.

When we got to Lowes, we went to every single department. We looked at different flooring, tiles, sinks, paint, hardware, tools, lawnmowers....everything! It was a really fun "date" with Addilyn in our shopping cart looking around at all the tall shelves and lights. We talked about what we want to do in our house and when we would do them.

Our date also included going to BabiesRUs where they were having their big sale. All I'll say is Addi is one stylish girl. We went to ChefSmart which is our newest favorite place to shop. They have to put a sign out that says it's open to the public. It's AMAZING. Our kind of place- bulk bulk bulk! And chef quality cookware at a steal of a price. It's where you go to shop for a wedding or ward party :)

We then went to the Grecian Corner. To. Die. For. It was recommended to us by another couple. We ordered the classic Gyro. Wow! It was heavenly. It is seriously in the most ghetto building, under an overpass. The waitress has been there for 15 years, she sat down with people who came in just to chat. The tzatziki recipe was the owner's grandma. Total hole in the wall, which screams authentic. Their lamb is out back rotating on a skewer all day and they just cut slices off to put in their food. Anyone who comes to visit us here, we will take you here your first night. AH so good.

After our feasting, we went on a walk around the Reynolda village. In past posts I said it was an old plantation. Well, I was wrong! It's actually J.P. Reynold's old place- the cigarette/tobacco king. It's massive! And very beautiful. This was from one of the many walking trails.

Here are some other photos from the past week:

Addilyn ready for church. It was her first time wearing shoes!

Going out for a walk. She has the cutest cheeks and she loves to watch where we are going.

Evidence that Cabo has been there.

Sleeping while covering her eyes...just like her mom.

For an update on the house, Scott went with the inspector last Thursday. Of course there are some updates that need to happen, but overall the house is in awesome condition! Now we just need the sellers to agree to fixing a few things and get it appraised. So excited!!!

Happy 4th!

Before I begin this post about our wonderful 3 day weekend, I wanted to announce that my mom's brother, Uncle Ralph, passed away around 4pm pacific time on July 4th. He was an Army Veteran. Uncle Ralph (also known as Lenny) was diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer 6 weeks ago and had been told he had less than 6 months to live. He was in a lot of pain and has been released of that and is back home awaiting for the rest of us :)

This weekend has been wonderful! With the exception of Addilyn having a hard time getting rid of gas, it was great! Scott of course had the 4th off. Here are some pictures (like always) from our weekend.

 Addilyn being adorable as always.

 She likes to watch her dad play Angry Birds.

 On our walk behind our complex into Bethabara Park. I had to get one with Cabo, he was anxious to keep going!

 We live in a crazy rainforest jungle!!

 So beautiful, a little stinky, but beautiful.

 After our walk/hike. We were sweating so bad because it was sooo humid that day.

(Above) Addi's cheeks overflowing.
(Below) We went to Old Salem for a Moravian service that read the Declaration of Independence. Old Salem is like Nauvoo, Illinois for those of you who have been there. However, instead of all the homes and houses being museums, they are still in use. The homes are still lived in, the original bakery is a working bakery, etc. This is the home of the first and oldest women's college in the nation. And it is still in use for the school.

 The prelude music. They played played all folk American songs.

 The pulpit that they read the Declaration from.

 The church behind the band is the original Moravian church here. The Moravians here in Winston-Salem were originally German. "On January 10, 1783, a Preliminary Treaty of Peace was signed at Paris, which virtually terminated the war. This good news was officially announced to the North Carolina Assembly by Governor Alexander Martin on April 19th, and before the Assembly adjourned it instructed the Governor to appoint July 4th as a day of public thanksgiving. North Carolina was the only state that anticipated the national day of thanksgiving by celebrating the Fourth of July, and so far as it is known, the Moravians were the only group within the state to obey the Proclamation of Governor Martin." (Records of the Moravians in NC- Volume IV by Dr. Adelaide L. Fries)

 Me and Addilyn standing by the college.

 And of course, in front of the college.

 We then walked around Old Salem before any festivities began. Since half of the place is a campus, there were some modern things outside.  But the buildings are all original and beautiful.

 There was some cool recycled art work all around. It was so fun to find them in their inconspicuous places.

 Notice her hand coming out :)

Probably the coolest thing we saw yesterday was this. Old Salem hosted a special Naturalization Ceremony for the first time. The color guard was obviously dressed in colonial garb in celebration of the 4th.

 (Below) It's hard to see because there are so many people. But in the middle is where 110 people are raising their right hand and pledging their Oath of Allegiance. They were originally born in 40 different countries (if you saw my facebook post, I was wrong and it is 40). It was so neat to witness it along with their families and friends, especially on the day we celebrate our Independence. There were also tons of news cameras and it was on the news that night. Sadly we did not see ourselves.

So on our 4th of July, not only were we in one of the original 13 colonies to celebrate, but also the first city to celebrate it. Not to mention we celebrated it with the newest citizens of our country!

We left Old Salem for home. It was 94 degrees when we got home, and online it said it felt like 104, which it did. We decided to go swimming (no pictures) and then give Addi a bath. What a cutie.

Did I mention that she was 2 months yesterday?! When I made her doctor's appointment for her 2 month check up, the receptionist said that they base it off of the calendar month, not by weeks. (So there dad!) She will be going in next week.

Her only Mariner outfit given by her Grandpa Jadwin. It's still really long on her, but she will get lots of wear into it before she grows into the Yankee outfits her Nana got her- which I'm still debating to put her in...:)

Then last night before she went to bed, Dad was watching cartoons on his phone for her bed time story. She absolutely loved it. I'm not too sure about that kind of bedtime story...