The beach!

We tried a couple of times to go for a walk on the boardwalk, but it was super cold and windy the whole time we were there. The first day when my mom was with us, we only lasted about 10 minutes. Dan and I went back the last day we were there and went for a longer walk, but it was still super cold. Even so, Hannah was super excited to see the ocean and kept trying to dive into it.

                                                                  
                                                                     King Neptune

Bellissima!

When we lived in Virginia, my mom and I sung in a semi professional women's choir called "Bellissima!" We both loved it and were very sad to leave. On Tuesday we had lunch with one of our best friends from the choir, Mary Zimmerman, and then that night we stopped by the beginning of rehearsal to see everyone. While we were at Mary's house, Hannah had the best time ever because she got to meet her first cat! She freaked out. It was seriously hilarious. She kept screeching at the top of her lungs, which of course, totally freaked the cat out. She would not take her eyes off of Hannah for anything.

Us with Mary:

This is Deborah Carr, the conductor of Bellissima!

Melinda

Dan, my mom, and I have a dear friend in Virginia who was at the very top of our list of people to visit. She is one of the most special people I know, and she has touched all of our lives immensely and we miss her so much. Her name is Melinda Mills, and she has a condition which is essentially a complete medical mystery. She became dehydrated, was given saline in an IV, and subsequently lost control of her entire body. She has retained her intellect, and communicates by fluttering her eyelids- up for yes and down for no. They have broken the alphabet up into a 5 line grid; so you say "line 1, line 2.." etc until she lifts her eyelids indicating that the letter she wants is on that line, then you go through to find the letter. It is a time consuming process, but very fulfilling once you've mastered it. Melinda has impeccable spelling and very strong opinions. She also has a wonderful sense of humor and an enormous amount of faith. Any time I find myself going through difficult times, all I have to do is think of Melinda and the poise with which she deals with her situation, and I find the motivation I need to do what is needed. Hannah was a pill the entire time we were there, and wouldn't stop whining and crying, but we still managed to have a good visit with her and I'm so glad we were able to go!

Monday night block party

Monday night was when we got to spend time with most of our friends from church. My best friends' mom, Jacquie, invited a ton of people over for a pot luck dinner. It was a lot of fun and the food was pretty amazing. My friend Rachel brought her son, Anthony, who's in 1st grade now. Well, Hannah was ALL about  Anthony. It was too funny. She kept following him around and trying to play with him. At one point, Jacquie got out a bin of big legos for Hannah and small ones for Anthony. Well, Hannah wasn't having any of it and would only play with Anthony's, which of course drove him crazy. It was hilarious. Finally she got distracted by a chair. There was a little blue plastic chair that was just her size, and she spent about 15 minutes moving it, sitting in it, moving it again, and so on. What a goof.

                                                            Little flirt

One of our friends, Kari Brimhall, and her family have a small business writing E-books for kids. Hannah LOVES them. She reads them over and over on my mom's kindle.

A picture with the author herself. As you can tell, she loves them so much she can't be bothered to smile.

I have no idea what she was upset about in these pictures, but I thought the were hilarious.

Thank you, Jacquie! We love you!

Sunday night

The best part of our trip to Virginia was getting to visit so many good friends. After church on Sunday, we had dinner with a couple of families from our old ward, the Ankneys and the Brimhalls. We had a great time and ate some great food. It was so crazy to see how much the kids have grown up. I didn't realize how long I'd been gone until I saw all of the "little kids" all grown up. After dinner and a delicious dessert, Hannah was on a sugar rush and had a great time running around being crazy and talking everyone's ear off.

                                              Making friends with Sister Ankney

Virginia!

For my birthday, Dan, Hannah, my Mom, and I went to Virginia Beach for vacation. It was so nice to be able to go and see so many good friends and to show Hannah the beach. Our timing was kind of bad though. The weather was cold and windy with the after effects of Sandy, and then while we were there a Noreaster hit the northeast, and so we got a couple days of cold rain as a result. It was only warm enough to go for a walk along the beach the last day we were there, and even then it was pretty cold. But even with that, we still had a good time. I miss Virginia a lot. I get asked all the time what I miss most about Virginia. Well, here's exhibit A:

And here's exhibit B:

Trunk or Treat

A few days before Halloween, our ward and the other ward that meets in our building had a joint activity. There was trick or treating at people's trunks, but there were also other activities such as a cake walk, a photo booth, and Grandpa Whitworth's infamous Candy Cannon. Hannah wasn't much interested in the activities, or the trick or treating for that matter. She mostly just wanted to run around and be cute. We dressed her up as Lady Bug Girl, the main character from some of her favorite books- the Lady Bug Girl books. No one but us knew that's who she was, but that's ok. Shse was not very keen to let me take pictures of her, so I pretty much had to follow her around and get what I could...

 

 

                                This is one of my favorite pictures of Hannah like, EVER.

 

 Hannah went to check out the Candy Cannon and say hi to Grandpa, and that's all she wanted to do with it

 

 Hannah's cousin, Isabelle, was "Wonder Mowan" for Halloween. I kept trying to tell her it was Wonder Woman, but she didn't believe me.

Hannah loves Jack-O-Lanterns!

                                                        HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!