First Southern Road Trip...

Steve and I took our first road trip since we've been here in South Carolina. My mom was visiting my sister and her family in Florida so we decided to meet up for the weekend in Tennessee, where a lot of my dad's family lives. Growing up in Alabama, we spent all of our holiday's and most of our summers there together. Although things have changed over the years, it was great to see my uncle, aunts and cousins that I haven't seen for a long time. I was glad Steve was able to meet them too. Here are some pictures of our trip.

On Thursday, we went up to the mountains, had a picnic and the kids played in the water.
The kids had a great time in the water. They even found a little "waterslide" in the rocks so they were all excited about that.
Uncle Lloyd took us on a "quiet walk". He was our tour guide. We weren't very quiet though.Steve and I on our "quiet" walkAunt Nancy, Aunt Judy and mom

My grandparents passed away a number of years ago, however, their house is still there with some of the their things still in it. The girls had driven by it a few days before, but I wanted to take Steve by so he could see where I would run and play with my cousins. As you can imagine it's not in the best of shape since it has been sitting there for years without much care, but I thought I would share these pictures anyways, mostly for my family that hasn't seen it in a long time.The light post
The front of the house
The back patio... for some reason, my grandparents put their garbage cans in the ground... kind of interesting, but I guess it was a space saver.The downstairs patio, we used to ride the big wheel all the way down the sidewalk from the upstairs patio to the one below, and there was mint that grew along the house to the right of this picture.

There used to be a huge pine tree and a willow tree back there that I think all of the grandchildren made forts under at one time or another.

Heads Carolina, Tails California...

I guess you could say our coin landed on heads... Well, at least the school coin did. As most of you know we recently moved to South Carolina so Steve could attend Clemson University to get his Master's Degree in Real Estate Development. We will be here for the next 2 years and as hard as it was to say good-bye to our family and our home in California, we are excited for the opportunity that has been made available to us. We are looking forward to living in the south, where I spent the first 14 years of my life. We live in a small country town, surrounded by beautiful trees. It's definitely an adjustment, but a welcome one. We have already met a few young couples whose husbands are in the same program as Steve. We all live in the same apartment complex very close to each other. The other two wives are both expecting their first child as well, so it is nice to know that there are other people going through some of the same things as us.

We are pretty much all settled, just a couple more boxes I need to find places for, and then we will be settled, at least until we have to start getting serious about the baby gear. In all the craziness of packing up our house and getting it all ready to ship, I'm sad to say that I didn't take one picture of the process!! I decided to try to make up for that. Here are a few pictures of the moving process from this end. I'll post more as we continue to get settled.

Our new home...

The moving truck...

Some of our things still in the truck...

I felt bad for Steve because in the state that I'm in, 6 months pregnant and unable to lift or really move much, he had to do a lot of the lifting. We did have a lot of help from one of the other students and the elder's quorum later that night. It was a long and tiring day and he was a trooper!!

Clemson Dinner

A few nights before we left for Clemson, Steve's parents and sister-in-law, with the help of others, put together a great little party for us for family and a few close friends. Everything was decked out in orange and purple, Clemson's colors. Unfortunately, I don't own any orange or true purple yet, so I wasn't really showing my spirit in that way, but I have been informed that that will change very soon and orange and purple will be added to my wardrobe. It was great to have everyone together one last time before we left. At one point everyone went around the table and said a little bit about Steve and me. As you can imagine I was crying after the first person, which continued all around the table, but it was neat to hear other people's stories and comments about us, even stories that we had forgotten about. Thank you, thank you to everyone that came and helped with the dinner!! It was a great night. We missed all those that couldn't be there!! Here are a few pictures from the event.

The cute invitation... Thanks, Kelly!!


The adult table

Steve, Sam, Max, Chase, Me, Kate and Abby

Steve and I with Bill and Kelly and their family

3 cute little girls