Doing Our Part

Some good friends of ours, Eric and Whitney, have been trying to adopt a baby for the past year. I was at the zoo today with Whitney and I had this overwhelming desire to grab a baby and give it to her. Since that is technically frowned upon, I figured I could help her out some other way.

If anyone you know is pregnant and considering adoption, please consider looking at their parent profile. You can also catch a glimpse of their life via their blog, http://culbie3.blogspot.com/

There is a link to their family profile on their blog. I cannot imagine what it would be like to give a child up for adoption-- but I do know that my biggest concern would revolve around finding the best family for my baby.

Eric and Whitney are some of the best parents I have ever seen. They have a beautiful four year old boy who challenges them with everything a four year old can throw at you-- and yet as I watch them teach him, I see their love and the desire they have for him to grow up into a strong, smart, polite young man. I see how they teach him not only HOW to behave, but WHY such behavior is necessary. I see the kind of parents I would want for my own child, if I could not do it myself.

I love them dearly. Spread the word.

AHH!

The past two days have been interesting. Caleb has been teething big time. Of course, since he is my child, he figures he should do it in some dramatic way. So it's not just one tooth coming in... or two or three or four. No. My child has five teeth coming in at one time. Needless to say our home has consisted of crying, teething rings, baby orajel, and of course, tylenol.

Someday soon I hope sleep is included in that list...

Pictures

Lazy Hazy Days of Summer

The summer season is winding down quickly for us-- Pete starts school again on Monday. Since this is his last summer break, uh, ever, we decided to try and pack in as many summer activities as possible. Last weekend we went to New York City with the Montgomery family (another family in our ward). They have two children, Marlee (4, going on 25) and Sage, who is just a month younger than Caleb. They watched Caleb while we did a session at the temple and we watched Sage and Marlee while they were able to do some sealings. The temple in NYC is right next to Central Park so we were able to get in a small taste of the city as well. We had a great time driving up and back with them-- they are always super fun!

Today we went to the shore with a new couple in our ward. Chris and Katie Miller just moved in last month and Chris is attending Wharton Business School for his MBA-- a very prestigious school here in Philly. Katie is 37 weeks pregnant and is due the first week in September. They are so nice and it's great to see people just jump into the ward and get involved right away.

I'm almost excited for Pete to start school so I can hang out with all these girls this school year!

Caleb is up on all fours at the moment so I should probably make sure he's not destroying anything (wishful thinking).

Great-great Grandma Farr

My Great Grandma Farr (Caleb's great-great grandmother) just celebrated her 100th birthday. She has close to 250 descendants-- and even better, we found out that Jane Austen is one of our ancestors. Pretty cool huh? Here are some pictures from the festivities!


When she turned 98, she decided that she had to make it to 100 so that her face could be on a Smucker's Jar. She also had letters from the President of the United States, the Governor of Utah, and The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Caleb was loving all the attention he was getting from family members!
Some of her descendants from my grandfather's (her son) line. We weren't all able to make it, but we had a good showing, especially considering how far most of us had to travel to make it-- we had three from western PA, Pete, Caleb and I from Philly, three from Maryland, one from Minnesota, three from Utah and one from Hong Kong.
Five generation picture-- not the typical shot, but we thought we should take advantage of the opportunity while we could.

Our Trip to Arches

We flew into Salt Lake City on Tuesday evening and early Wednesday morning we headed out to Arches National Park, near Moab, UT. The drive was long, but beautiful. Every few minutes Pete would say, "Oh, look at that... wow..." I forgot how incredibly breathtaking the mountains and canyons could be. Caleb was amazingly cooperative and didn't fuss much at all during the five hour drive. We got into Moab, ate lunch and headed into the park. Our plan was to hike out to Delicate Arch and then set up camp. Even though we got to Delicate at about 3 in the afternoon (only the hottest time of day) we decided to stick to the plan and head out on the hike. It was about 105 degrees Fahrenheit during our little adventure, which just added to the craziness of it all. Luckily, we survived the 450 ft elevation change from the trail head to Delicate, as well as the incredible heat and the 5,000 ft altitude (Give us a break... we're from Philly-- the only thing closer to sea level is New Orleans). Despite our realizations of how out of shape we are and the desperate need to breath air that has A) more oxygen in it and B) more water in it we had a great hike. Caleb survived and even learned how to drink from the camelbak.

Caleb is totally asleep in the backpack... He wasn't impressed.
Everyone was commenting, "Well if this little guy can make it, so can I!"
There are people on this rock face... they look like ants-- we had to climb this during the hike.
Resting at the top of the rock face.
It was all worth it when we got there!

After our hike, we drove into our campsite-- it was 18 miles into the Park. Here's a picture of our campsite


We decided to take a walk after setting up camp-- Caleb wasn't having the backpack any more so we took the stroller... Needless to say, that stroller died on vacation.
The walk was so pretty though! The pictures just do not do it justice.

The next morning we broke camp early and hiked to the Windows section of the park. These are pictures of Pete standing in the Window. It helps to show just how huge these rocks are.
After our hike to Windows we headed back to Provo to meet my new niece, Sophie. She was born in March and this was our first chance to meet her! However, due to a missed exit and a small 173 mile detour through Richfield, UT (there's still nothing there... just in case you were wondering) we ended up going straight back to my cousin's place so that we could shower and clean up. We then headed to Salt Lake to have dinner with my brother and his wife and of course, his beautiful little Sophie. Even though she wasn't feeling well that evening, she was (and is) one of the most beautiful babies I have ever seen. Her entire face smiles-- and her eyes are swirls of green and brown. She's absolutely lovely!

We Survived!

We made it back from Utah last night and are in the midst of trying to reorganize our lives before Pete starts school again here in two weeks. I'll post more details later, but here's a brief synopsis of our trip:

- 4 hour drive to Arches
- Hiking in 105 degree weather with Caleb
- Camping with Caleb
- 173 mile detour on the way back
- Meeting little Sophie for the first time
- Eating in Salt Lake
- Park City, Alpine Slide and Zipline
- Temple Square
- The restaurant formerly known as Beto's
- Midnight release of the last Twilight book with 2,000 of our best friends
- Snobird with two babies
- Birthday party for my great-great grandmother
- Family, Family, Family
- More eating

Don't worry-- details and pictures are to follow!