Virginia and Pennsylvania!

We left D.C. and headed down to Charlottesville, Virginia where we stayed with the awesome Merkely family on their beautiful farm!! Jared has talked a lot about this place and it definitely lived up to its name. It was so peaceful and relaxing.
This photo with Kai and the dog just is such a farm pose I think. Perfectly fitting for this place. Kai was in heaven between the dog, cats, horses, pony, chickens, and baby chicks she couldn't be happier!

Sarah and her husband Brian pretty much run the farm now. 

They took us on a little tour of it all. The lightening bugs were all over of course!

Kai meeting the Pony!

Sarah and Brian and a bunch of baby chicks that they kept in their living room. Kai could not get enough of them. 

Anytime we were at the house she was right there. I  don't think the chicks liked her much though, the poor things would always runaway. It is amazing none of them died of fright!

 

 The next day we headed down to walk around the University of Virginia's campus. This is where Jared went to Med school. He loved being back there. It was a beautiful campus with a lot of history to it.

The next day we headed back toward New York. We stopped at the D.C. temple to walk around and get some photos in front. I would have loved to be able to go in and do some work but we didn't have the time!

 The Christus in the D.C. temple visitor center.

 

Then we headed to Gettysburg. This place was cool and very solemn. We didn't have a ton of time but we did take a tour in the cemetery there where Pres. Lincoln gave his famous Gettysburg Address. Kai spent her time collecting sticks and had quite a big collection by the end of the tour!

Hanging out with Abe!

Overlooking one of the huge battlefields. So crazy that so many men died there.

The next day we headed to Hershey, Pennsylvania so Kai could have some fun!

 

We met up with Jared's good friend Emily from UVA and her two adorable little girls. Kai became instant friends with them.  We went to Chocolate world!

They had a fun little ride that shows you how Chocolate is made, the singing cows were a hit and then at the end you got a free piece of Chocolate. Can't beat that!

We did the ride a few times!

Then the girls got to manufacture their own Hershey kisses. Here is Kai picking out her container!

Getting ready to store and collect the kisses!

Hurray and catch them all!

Then you have to give it a good shake.

They take your picture and then stick it on as the label and you are all done.

Hershey was definitely fun. The whole city was based around chocolate. The lampposts where Hershey kisses and so forth. If we ever make it out that way again we would love to go the Hershey Amusement park!

All in all it was a fun trip and a great way to end our stay in New York. We got home and a few days later the movers came and packed up all of our stuff and then it was on to the next adventure. 

Road trip to Texas!

D. C.

We went to D.C. back in June for Jared to take his Facial Plastics boards!! I had never been there before so it was fun to see everything. Of course, it would of been more fun if Jared could have gone with us to all the sites but his tests were pretty much all day! 

We got in Friday evening and decided to run down to see the Jefferson Memorial. 

It was awesome because we were there right at sunset. 

Always the adventurous one! 

Daddy and Kai taking it all in!

Checking out Jefferson.

 There were some pretty amazing quotes in there by Him. 

Our Fore Fathers sure were religious men. Too bad our leaders today aren't!

 

 As we were reading all the quotes, I looked down and noticed that Kai was gone. So scary!! We were calling her and running around. There were people everywhere so it was so scary! We found her out here just chilling on the steps! 

Little Stinker!

 

Jared and never ending work calls!

 

The sunset wrapped around the monument. 

It made for some awesome photos!

 Playing with my favorite squirt!

As we were walking back to the car we came across a little grassy section with a bunch of Fireflies. These are seriously the coolest things I have ever seen and by far my favorite thing about living in the East. At our house in Syracuse we lived next to a field and there were hundreds of fireflies out there every night.

 So  Amazing!

 The next day, Saturday Kai and I headed off to have our own adventure while Jared went to his test. 

Our first stop-Arlington National Cemetery!! 

This place was obviously pretty cool. W

e walked around and saw John F. Kennedy's grave as well as other presidents.

 But of course, my favorite part was the tomb of the unknown soldier. Just such a reverence and spirit there. Makes you grateful for all the unknown and known soldiers who have fought for you!

By this point it was getting pretty hot and we decided to head down the the Natural History museum to cool off. It was cool but not really great for toddlers.

 

 The best part was meeting up with our dear friends Sean and Tiff and their two cute kiddos.

It was so awesome to see them and hang out! 

It felt just like ole times in Hawaii!

These two hit it off right away!! 

So cute, they held hands as we walked towards the National monument. The Capital is in the Background.

Sean was their own personal vehicle. 

He is a stud and made sure these two little monkeys were safe!

Saying goodbye to our friends. 

Our visit was definitely way too short!

By this point we were both pretty wiped out but Jared was pretty close to being done and I really didn't feel like taking the subway home so we headed over to the white house to check it out. 

Kai feel asleep on the way there. I asked these two gay guys to take the photo and one of them was like you have to wake her up for the photo and I was like oh no we don't, clearly you don't know anything about children!! You never wake up a sleeping toddler unless you  have to. 

It was funny!

It was a fun day but we were pooped. Walking around all day and being 5 months pregnant in the heat and humidity not fun!! Thankfully Jared was able to come pick us up.

The next day, we went and saw the Declaration of Independence, etc. It was cool but so faded you really couldn't see much of it. Mostly it was just really nice to be inside the nice cool building.

Then we headed out to the national mall.  This is the World War Two Memorial! This was one of my favorite things we saw! I took a photo of Kai in front of all the state she has lived in and Utah since that is kind of our home base!

One of the coolest things about this memorial is that you are able to sit around the edge of the water and dip your feet in it.

 It felt so nice. 

It was definitely tricky to keep this two-year-old from jumping and splashing in the water but she did pretty good. 

We hung out for quite awhile just people watching and enjoying the day! 

 

Then we made our way down to the Lincoln Memorial. It was super crowded but really cool to see. 

Although I must say that this was the most stressful places for me. Kai just kept taking off up the steps because she loves steps and has her whole life but I had the stroller and couldn't just run up after her. She was being a little stinker and not listening to me. A few times random strangers would grab her while she was running away and bring her back to me.

D.C. was fun and cool to see but next time I want to go sans kids so I can actually enjoy it!

Jared came and picked us up and we headed down to Virginia for the next leg of our trip.

 If your wondering how Jared did on his boards, he passed with flying colors. It was funny because in  April he had taken his ENT Boards and called me halfway through them telling me he should just quit now because there was no way he was going to pass them. He was certain that he failed them so the whole time preparing for the facial boards he just felt defeated and had a hard time focusing. Then the day we were leaving to go to D.C. he received his ENT board results in the mail and found out that he had passed, just like  I knew he would the whole time. That was perfect timing and really lifted a big stress off of him!

5 months and Happiness!

 This little man turned 5 months two days ago. The time is flying by!! I remember when I first had him my friend Andrea's little baby was just 4 months old and she kept saying how she was Loving this stage, how Madi just sat there and smiled all day. Well now I Totally get what she was thinking. I LOVE THIS STAGE. When Kailie is crazy I just look over at him and he always just smiles back at me and I think "Man I love you, just stay this way FOREVER"

No wonder people always say that want another baby. Babies are easy!! Three year olds on the other hand!! Not so easy!!

 

Speaking of Madi why is that Women always have the thunder thighs while the guys always get the chicken legs! Ha Ha! McKean is a skinny little thing just like his daddy.  I just took him to his five month appointment (yes five months, I missed his four month one so five it is) His height was 25 in so he is definitely following after his genes and being tall and his weight was 12 lbs. 5 oz which is just double his birth weight. I was expecting him to weigh more but it sure makes it nice to carry him around.

Skinny winny. This kid loves to eat and he is filling out some!!

We have been trying to keep up on giving him a bottle. 

He did fine at first and then for a few weeks he would cry forever and then finally give in and take it.

This day he wasn't so "Kean" on the idea!

Now he will even let Kai give it to him and

he is even working on doing it himself!

Chilling with his besty!

All Smiles!! 

This kid loves to smile and laugh. I love his cute little laugh!! 

I will post a video soon for you grandparents!! I especially love when he smiles with his binky in, it is the cutest thing!

Tummy time. Most of the time he just rolls over to get out of tummy time and then sometimes it seems he forgot how to roll over and he will just sit there and cry!!

Play time! He is starting to really love playing with Kai, most of the time anyways! I usually hear him laughing while she is over by him.

She on the other hand is absolutely loving it. This girl was made to be social and play with people. I keep telling Jared the best thing we can do for this girl is to give her lots of siblings to play with!!

I bought this adorable outfit to keep him warm on the cold days here which we do have. He wasn't too happy at the moment.

Oh so precious!

He loves his bumbo and spends more time in it each day!

I love being able to have him right by me as I cook or do dishes. Who wouldn't love to look at the smiley face while doing chores! He is looking more and more blond with each day but his back and side hair still looks reddish to Jared and I, so we aren't really sure what hair color he is going to have.

Where's Waldo? I mean Where is McKean?
Sometimes I will forget he is there and then I will just see movement out of the corner of my eye. So funny!

He also loves his playmate, he is getting pretty good at rolling. Now that he can roll he sleeps the majority of the time on his side. He is still obsessed with his binki and unfortunately when that is not around he has learned that his thumb works pretty good as well. He has got quite a few nicknames, first is Kean which Kai has been calling him since he first came home, now we can add Keaners, Kean Kean, little man, buddy and Manners. No wonder he doesn't know his name yet poor kid.  He is pretty good at sleeping except for the fact that he keeps getting sick and after taking him to his 5 month check up I found out he has fluid in his ear which is probably why he hasn't been sleeping the best. Most nights he sleeps from 11 to 6 or 7 which is awesome. 

We are loving having this little guy in our family. He is so fun. He loves to talk and makes noises pretty much all day long. I just keep telling him that he can't be crazy like his sister he just needs to stay this happy little easy, not making an messy or getting into anything baby!!