September

 September was spent around town.  I went on a date with millie.  She likes the "Fancy Nancy" books, and there is one where nancy makes a beauty spa for her mom and "pampers" her mom.  Millie always talks about getting pampered, so we went to get her nails painted.  She thought it was pretty cool! (the lady in the background is also pretty cool)

 We had an apple tree across the street.  Everyday logan would try to venture over there by himself... so we ended up talking daily trips to pick apples. Because of his love of apples, he learned to say apple at the early ago of 13 months :)

 Even though I don't always think our town is pretty in general, I have seen some really pretty things.  In september the whole town is filled with these yellow wild flowers.  This is one of the trails we have run on.  Although, I am nervous to run on trails very much because I'm afraid of being attacked by a bear.  haha, but true.

 Because we loved our first triathalon, we found this one out in snowflake.  It was super fun!  The swim was in a pool, and the gal in charge of my lane must have been quite confused.  She made me swim an extra lap (I think everyone in my lane must have had to do an extra lap), but at least I still won so I could just count my extra lap as much needed swimming practice!  Josh did the race first, then once he finished I went and got in line to start.  this is a fun way to do it because then the kids get to watch.  Millie was able to run with me for a little while and that was really fun!

Late summer

We moved to Pinetop-Lakeside Az. in the middle of July.  It is a small town up in the white Mtns. in Eastern Az.  Josh had a job here with his bro. in law who is an opthamologist.  They are really enjoying working together.  We Moved from the big city of Memphis to this "quiet life"  above is our back yard and view from our porch.  We love the house we are living in right now.  We have had an interesting time adjusting.  Even Millie still has breakdowns every now and again saying she misses her memphis house, and her memphis target, etc. etc.

 There are horses in the pasture behind our yard, which is heaven for millie and logan.  Logan especially LOVES them.  If I ever give him a carrott, he will walk towards the door and reach the carrott out to the horses.

 This is the main scenery of the town. We had a friend in memphis, who was from idaho.  He commented that Memphis was too green, with too many trees, and he wanted to go out with his chain saw and start cutting them down.  I feel like that sometimes. haha

 

This lake is right across the street from our house. It is georgous! we can see it out our front windows, and many days, it is my saving grace.

This little cutie turned one in August!  (1 yr photo taken by tracy hill)
- good walker (started at 9 mo)
-says a few words (including mom, dad, ball, and Duck!)
-loves to "chase" around dad and millie
- loves his bike
-loves animals - especially ducks!
- loves mac & cheese and strawberries

 

 

 Poor little logan was so sick (sinus infection) for his birthday.  I made him this duck cake (because ducks are his favorite) but he didn't want to have anything to do with it... he was just grouchy and sick...so we don't have any exciting cake eating photos to share.

 

Some of my family came out to visit.  We went out to eat at a mexican restaurant and had a long long wait.  My sis Lindsey had a bunch of quarters, so we bought these mustaches from a vending machine :)

 

This is just a random photo of millie that I thought was hillarous.  She insisted on wearing her winter coat to eat her breakfast in. 

Josh and I both got road bikes after his graduation (I got one for josh for his graduation present, and josh got me one for my birthday).  So, we decided to do a local triathalon because we had some family doing it.  we were both nervous because we had only gone swimming twice in our lives (in the "proper form" that is) and we had both only biked once or twice... but it actually went really good and we both ended up loving it!

We went to the rodeo in snowflake.  we had a good time!  Logan of course loved looking at the horses and cows, and millie had a fun time going out in the arena to chase chickens (with a bunch of other kids)

family photos

My little sister tracy is an amazing photographer (recently featured in Utah Bride).  She is in the BYU photo program and will graduate in another 1 1/2 years.  We love these family photos she took in July!!!  check out her blog (www.tracyhillphotography.blogspot.com)

 

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June & July

I am sooo behind in blogging, I don't always try to make up for lost time, but I am going to now because I finally decided that I am going to make a blog book... so I will try to hit the major events from the last 5 1/2 months that I haven't blogged.

 

We Headed out of Memphis in the end of May.  It was so sad to leave behind a place where we had built a "home" and where we had so many memories. I miss it almost every day. We spent June and part of July in Utah.  Josh's parents live in Utah now too, so we were able to spend time with both sets of grandparents! It was fun for our kids to get to spend that time with grandparents!

The reason we went to utah was for Josh to train for his (3rd) olympic trials.  His coach is in Utah (at BYU) so he wanted to be there with him. Josh and I always jest over where our kids will go to college. I say Utah State, he says BYU... so the above photos are kindof controversial.

 

 In the end of June we headed out to Eugene OR. for the olympic trials. Josh's parents came, and his  sister had just come home from her mission the week before so she got to come too!  Josh had an awesome prelim race and made it to finals, but didn't make the cut for the olympics.  This was bitter-sweet for us.  Josh had a crazy year with several sets of boards and his rotations and figuring out a job and having a hard new baby (is that mean to call him that?). He trained hard and really wanted to make the team, but at the same time was kindof feeling "done".  He had an amazing running career.  In the last 5 years he has won Nationals twice, and had a 3rd place finish and 2 4th place finishes, he won the Pan Am games (like the olympics for all of N. and S. america), made 2 world teams, and made it to the Bejing olympics! I am very proud of him! (but happy to be in another chapter of our lives)

Outside of the track stadium they had some fun things to do.  Millie, who is our FEARLESS 3 year old, (a true McAdams) went repelling way up in the tree. she did it a few times because she liked it so much.

After the racing was done, we headed out to the coast.  This is at the "sea lion caves." Hundreds of sea lions living in these caves on the rocky coast.

Oregon is such a pretty place!!!

 

 After the trials we spent out time enjoying some of the things there are to do in utah... this was our mini hike to bridal veil falls.

 This is just a cute chubby picture of Logan that I liked.  11 months and busy!

 Millie's and my 4th of july project (every post of mine seems to have to contain something about food. haha)

 We went out to this fun little man-made beach & pond with many of the McAdams cousins.  The kids loved it, we could have stayed all day! Millie has 4 cousins within a year of her, and she LOOOoooVes her cousins!

10 months

This little guy is now 10 months! He is busy, busy, busy! He started walking a couple weeks ago... but still doesn't crawl (just scoots). He likes to hear his own voice, loves other kids, loves to explore and chase Millie around, loves patty cake, eating, and jumping on the tramp- but is starting to refuse baby food.  It's so fun to see his personality coming out more and more.

Graduation

Josh has finally graduated!  Congrats to this new Doc., we are proud of you for all your hard work!  excited to get on with another phase of our lives... Look out all you citizens of  Pinetop/Show Low AZ., you are about to get some stellar eye care!

Enjoying Memphis

 One stop we had to make before leaving Memphis was the Peabody Hotel... the Peabody is a super nice hotel downtown. They have some ducks that live in their lobby fountain.  If you go there at 11, or 5  you can hear the 'duck master' tell the story of how the ducks came to live in the fountain.  Then they have the ducks travel down the elevator (from there palace on the roof of the Hotel) and march down the red carpet into the fountain where they stay for the day ! 

This is the view from the top of the Peabody hotel.  (You can go up there to see the 'duck palace', where the ducks spend their nights).  You can see the Mississippi river and all of "downtown". Very pretty.

We LOVE our zoo! this is something that we will really miss!  They have a dino exhibit at the zoo now.  The dinos move and make noises etc. I kinda think Mill thought some of them were alive. haha.

                                                                     camel ride at the zoo

Logans favorite part of the zoo is sitting in the grass and trying to eat it.

They have some of the prettiest houses in Memphis!!!I love this style, large front porch, shutters, kind of plantation style... I decided I wanted to get some photos of some of my favorites.  But I only got 1 photo before my camera battery died... so I don't have some a lot of my favs. but these are pretty too.

They have really old beautiful mansions!

                                               I LOVE all the German Tudor style houses!

You know you've been in memphis to long when...

1. you back into your driveway
2. you shake out your clothes and shoes (for bugs) before putting them on
3. you use your garrage as a 2nd living room (complete with recliners and plasma screen T.V.)
4. you have hosted a party in your garrage
5. you decorate your house for Marti Gras
6. you take a large stick with you when you go out for a walk
7. you have shared your bed with cockroaches
8. you have a humongous fluffy tool wreath on your door
9. your nike running shorts are worn for everyday apparel
10. your baby boy has a plad jumper with something cheesy embroidered on it
11. you start to use checks instead of a credit card
12. you pay someone to mow your lawn (and fertilize it with stuff that is dyed green so your lawn looks green)
13. you walk your dog from your car
14. you use bbq sauce in place of spaghetti sauce
15. your parting phrase is "have a blessed day"
16. your lisence plate says something like webprasin
17. you know how to pronounce the name La-a

so many good things about memphis! gotta love it.

Time is winding down

We only have 2 more weeks here in Memphis... I'm having mixed feelings about it!  I am for sure excited for Josh to be done with school, excited for us to finally be making some $, although there are a lot of things I won't miss about Memphis, there are many things I will miss.  These last few weeks we have been trying to hit up some favorite places before we head out.

Gus's Fried chicken is one of our favorites.  (We like the collierville location)  the fried chicken is just SOOO good!  the fried green tomatoes and chess pie are also pretty good... and it is cheap too!

 Mill is a little southern girl.  We realized when we got there that they use peanut oil to fry their chicken... Mill is allergic to peanuts.  Peanut oil is SUPPOSED to be free of the peanut allergen.  (Mill is NOT deathly allergic).  Josh is very daring when it comes to allergies (as you will see in a coming post) so we let Mill try the chicken (my epi-pen was on the ready) and luckily she was fine :)

 We also went to collierville town square.  It is a little block of cute little shops, a soda fountain, a old historical cabin, and also a train that you can climb on and tour.  Logans favorite was eating the rocks.  He was very persistent on his attempts to get them in his mouth.