Boca Raton

As I previously posted, our friends

the Swartzlanders recently moved to

Boca Raton (about 3 hours south of us). 

We miss them a lot so we drove down 

for a few days to visit and check out Boca.

It was a quick trip, but we packed

in a lot of activities!

We rode bikes...

Checked out the Gumbo Limbo 

Nature Center...

Went to the beach...

And I learned how to make
Trista's famous mint ice cream cake!

(Thanks to Jake for the aerial

view to make us pregnant

ladies feel skinnier)

Other than that, we just enjoyed

catching up and letting the kids play.

(Corbett and his buddy Tate)

Thanks to the Swartzlander's for

hosting us. They are great friends!

Busch Gardens

Back in November, Jake took a day off

and we drove to Busch Gardens in Tampa

with our friends, Chris and Carrissa Logan.

We had to take advantage of the cheap

weekday tickets for Florida residents.

I was expecting to be underwhelmed after

going to Disneyworld regularly, but I was

actually really impressed. The park was big,

clean, and not too crowded. There were tons

of roller coasters for Jake, a pretty impressive 

collection of animals, and an awesome kids 

section for Corbett. He even went on his

first roller coaster ride...

Just kidding!

Not quite tall enough yet.

But it did melt my heart to see Corbett

riding this car all by himself. He absolutely

loved it and went over and over again,

waving to us every time he drove by.

There were lots of fun rides for kids.

Corbett was also introduced to the

cast of Sesame Street. I believe this trip

started his love for all things Elmo.

We had a great day, and I'm glad we had 

the chance to check out Busch Gardens 

before moving from Florida.

Corbett and Emi

Corbett's friend Emerson (he calls her "Emi")

stayed with us for three days while her parents 

welcomed her baby sister into the world. 

Corbett loved having a built in playmate, 

and these two were thick as thieves. 

I took lots of pictures of their adventures 

to share with Emerson's mom, and 

wanted to save them here. 

Dinnertime

 Shopping

Cartoons

Trick or Treating

Testing out the Harley

Bathtime

Just monkeying around

Binkie Babies

It was a fun three days for all of us. 

I changed a lot of diapers, but the experience 

gave me hope about handling two of my own soon!

D.I.A.P. 2013

(Dinner in a Pumpkin 2013)

Sadly, the group shot that I KNOW

we took with the missionaries has

disappeared from both our camera

and our computer. Very strange.

But here is this year's dinner prep

(I had a special helper):

And here are the missionaries

who joined us (second year in

a row for Elder Jackson):

*Side note: some neighbors passing by

complimented the Elders on their "costumes"

And here is the proof that

the meal was consumed!

Halloween Babies Take II

Corbett and I have attended a
Mommy/Baby playgroup since

he was about 3 weeks old.

Last year we got such cute pictures

of our babies, so this year we 

attempted to recreate the moment:

(Taylor, Claire, Corbett,

Emerson, and Eliana)

And here is a group shot with some of the 

other kiddos we hang out with each week:

(Finn, Taylor, Haley, Claire, Corbett,

Colin, Mason, Jordan, and Eliana)

A Hobbit Halloween

Since this is probably the last year we will

pick Corbett's Halloween costume for him,

we combined our love of "The Lord of the Rings"

with Corbett's curly hair and decided to dress 

him as a Hobbit. My mom made an awesome 

costume, and the results were pretty adorable.

As my brother Cameron said, 

"I kinda think this might be the best combination 

of real person and Halloween costume ever."

Corbett didn't seem to mind dressing up,

so we had a couple of fun photo shoots.

Jake garnered the most attention on 

Facebook with this photo and caption:

Several months later, we are still

getting comments from people about 

how much they liked Corbett's

Halloween costume.

My costume was also pretty apropos:

And here is Jake's attempt at a costume:

But hey, good year to be a Red Sox fan!

Looking forward to seeing what 

Corbett wants to be next year for Halloween

(my early guess is Buzz Lightyear).

Frequent Flyers

Jake and I did quite a bit of 

traveling this fall, just not together. 

Between September 6 and October 17, 

Jake flew to the following cities 

to interview for a fellowship: 

Portland, Chicago (twice), Indianapolis, 

Houston, New York City, and Durham.

Meanwhile, my parents decided that with

Jake gone so much it would be a good

time to steal Corbett and I away to Utah.

We were there during the first part of
October, and I loved showing Corbett

Utah in the fall. Here are some 

Instagram highlights from our trip:

Cruising in Grandma Claudia's Mustang

Red Butte Garden

Apple Picking in Midway

Apple Picking II

Hogle Zoo

Visiting my alma mater, Skyline HS

Temple Square

Corbett was a trooper on the planes,

and showed that he has perhaps inherited

some of his parents' love for travel.

And with the interview season behind us,

we are back together and awaiting results!