The Great Swamp

 I'm way behind on updating my blog because of our move to California, but I'm going to try to get caught up! Here are some pictures from one of our favorite places in New Jersey, the Great Swamp. It was about 15 minutes from our home and it was the perfect place to enjoy nature and let the kids run around.

 Watching the toads and turtles. We also saw the coolest thing on this trip to the swamp: there was a little birds nest in a tree right off the boardwalk and while we were watching the baby birds in the nest we saw the beautiful yellow mama bird fly to the nest and feed her babies. So cool!

Hiking with the Newmans

 We love living close to my cousin Cara and her family. We also love living close to the Watchung Reservation. So when we combine those two things it makes for a good time!

Lucy, Bryn, Olivia, and Mya

Sweet, silly second-cousins

Hiking in Watchung

 The Watchung Reservation is just 5 minutes from our house, so we've loved doing some hiking there this fall. 

 Bryn's poses are always so off the wall.

My favorite little hiking crew!

Utah: Cecret Lake

We just got back from a wonderful three-week trip to Utah. What a great time we had! Josh was working in Newport Beach for the first two weeks, so I just hung out at my parent's house with the kids while he was away. It worked out perfectly. 

One of our favorite activities while Josh was in Utah was hiking Cecret Lake in Little Cottonwood Canyon. My parent's house is just a few minutes from this canyon, so this is a hike we used to do when I was younger. It's so fun to hike it now as a mom!

 My mountain goat Brynlee!

Tate snoozed for most of the hike

Doing a little bouldering with her shirt tucked into high-rise gym shorts. I was loving it. 

The Great Swamp

For Family Home Evening on Monday we went to the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge. It's only about 15-20 minutes away, but we hadn't been there before. We went with our friends the Thomas family, who have been to the Great Swamp many times before. Josh has been travelling so much lately, so it was a rare moment together as a family and we loved it!

Usually Mya is extremely quiet and cautious, but for whatever reason she was feeling brave on Monday and was tagging along with all the other kids. It made me so happy!

Eliza was trying to get a closer look at a snapping turtle by being lowered down to the water. She was lowered down several times and it was cracking me up!

 Of course, little daredevil Bryn wanted to follow Eliza's example and she was begging to be lowered down. She was so bummed that she wasn't long enough to reach the water. 

Lest you think we are horrible parents, we never would have actually touch a snapping turtle! We knew she wouldn't be able to reach it! :)

These two!!!! 

We had such a fun night. I'm grateful to live in such a beautiful area and for the great friends we've made in New Jersey. 

Utah: Our 7th Anniversary

 While we were in Utah Josh and I celebrated our 7th anniversary. Josh had two weeks of training in California, but he flew back to Utah for the weekend and we had a fun anniversary date of dinner and hiking. We drove up Little Cottonwood Canyon and had such a great time chatting about the future and all the upcoming changes with the new job, new baby, new home in New Jersey, etc. The hike we planned on doing was closed, so we did a big of hiking along some random trails and then decided to drive back down the canyon and hike to Bell Canyon reservoir. 

 I sure love this guy! These have been the best seven years of my life!

Great night with my favorite guy!

Highlights from Our 2 Years at Dartmouth

Our two years at Dartmouth were wonderful - both for the education that Josh received at Tuck but also because of all the fun things we fit into those two years. We tried really hard (with a limited budget) to fit in as many fun things as we could because we thought for sure those two years at Dartmouth would be our only two years living back east. It turns out we only moved 5 hours south and we'll be back east for a while now, but I'm still glad we fit in lots of fun New England activities while Josh had a flexible schedule. Below are a few (ok, more than few) fun highlights from our time at Dartmouth. 

The Tunbridge World's Fair in Vermont was one of our first adventures.  

See the original blog post HERE

 You can't live in New England without taking advantage of the fruit farms.

Raspberry and blueberry picking HERE

Peach picking in Springfield, VT HERE

Apple picking as a family HERE

 Hiking to Boston Lot Lake

Our first time hiking it was with friends HERE

We hiked to Boston Lake about once a week in the warm seasons- sometimes with kids, sometimes without; sometimes taking the trail straight from our neighborhood, sometimes taking the main trailhead; sometimes catching newts, frogs, toads, snakes, sometimes opting to keep our hands clean and just watch the ducks. 

More Boston Lot posts HERE HERE HERE HERE  HERE

 The Newmans came for a visit and we checked out Sugar Bush Maple Syrup Farm in Vermont.

HERE

 Supporting Dartmouth Football. We went once in 2012 and once in 2013

2012 HERE

 Thanksgiving weekend in New Jersey with Josh's parents, the Fillmores and the Jake Hawkins fam.

The Macy's Day Thanksgiving Parade HERE

NJ park date with my cousins Diana and Cara HERE
Bronx Zoo HERE

 Christmas Lights at the Joseph Smith Birthplace Memorial in Sharon, VT

2012 HERE

2013 HERE

Successful Craft Fairs at Christmas time
Craft fair with friends 2012 HERE
Tuck craft fair 2013 HERE

Josh went on a Dartmouth-sponsered trip to Peru for a school project - one of the perks of grad school!
HERE

 Baking courses at the King Arthur Flour headquarters in Norwich, VT

Lasagna date night with the Laytons HERE

Pie class with my girlfriends HERE

 Getting all fancy for Tuck's Spring Formal

HERE

 Ben and Jerry's Factory in Waterbury, VT

2013 HERE
2014 HERE

 Day trip to Lake Champlain in Burlington, VT

HERE

A fun week visiting Josh's sister Jess in Virginia

HERE HERE HERE

 Lots of fun at Washington D.C.

Monuments HERE

Museums HERE HERE and HERE

Mt. Vernon HERE
National Zoo HERE
Washington DC Temple HERE

 Josh spent the summer of 2013 interning at Google, but he came home for the 4th of July weekend and we had fun at Lake Sunapee

HERE

 A dreamy, child-free weekend in Portland, Maine. Best time ever.

Day 1 HERE
Day 2 HERE

A few beautiful trips to Quechee Gorge

Our first time in 2013 HERE  

Our last time with my family HERE

 Such a fun weekend in Boston with our good friends the McKenzies

Day 1 HERE and HERE

Day 2 HERE

 Lots of good times with good friends

Our Halloween party HERE

Our Ugly Sweater Christmas party HERE

 Great hikes with my girlfriends. A few favorites were

Mt. Cardigan and Mt. Ascutney HERE

Mt. Tom HERE

 Three fun family hikes to Mt. Gile

Fall 2013 HERE 

Spring 2014 HERE 

With my family HERE

 An awesome day trip to Shelburne, VT

 Shelburne Farms HERE

Shelburne Museum and Stowe, VT HERE

 Two fun days in Montreal, Canada to visit our friends the Gillespies

Day 1 HERE

Day 2 HERE

 A great Thanksgiving trip to New Jersey for the second year in a row. Lots of fun things, but the best was the full day Josh and I had in NYC without the kids

NYC day HERE
Date night with Jake and Ty to the NYC temple HERE

The rest of our New Jersey trip HERE and HERE

Dartmouth Tree Lighting Ceremony

2012 HERE

2013 HERE

Sledding at Occum Pond in Hanover

HERE

 Supporting Dartmouth Hockey - the big sport at Dartmouth

HERE

 Playing in the forest behind our house, trying to survive the polar vortex of last winter

HERE

 A day trip to Boston's Museum of Fine Art with my friend Ashley

HERE

Rauner Special Collections Library to see a first edition copy of the Book of Mormon
HERE

Trip to Maine during Josh's spring break from Tuck

Day 1 HERE

Day 2 HERE

 Easter in Boston with lots of our Tuck friends from the year before

HERE

 A day in Vermont checking out the VINS wildlife museum, the famous Quechee Antique Mall, and the quirky Toy Museum of Vermont

HERE

 Nathan's Garden in Hanover

HERE

Monthly date nights to the temple in Boston. Thanks to the Kolstes for doing a babysitting swap with us again and again!
Our last time HERE

Canoeing on the Connecticut River

In 2013 HERE

With Jake and Tyra's family HERE

With my family HERE

 A weekend trip to the beautiful White Mountains of New Hampshire

HERE

A day trip up the Maine coast, stopping off in York, Perkin's Cove, Ogunquit, and Wells

HERE

A fun week-long visit from my family and Josh's MBA graduation

HERE

What a great two years it has been! It was fun to walk down memory lane and look back on our pictures from the past two years. 

(Of course, most of our days at Dartmouth were mundane and filled with dirty diapers and lots of studying, but those simple days aren't pictured :) ).