We made it to Washington....driving...

I'm not really the "blogger" I should be, but I do like to write what we are up to for my own records, because I am also not the "journaler" I should be! So here you have it.

The rest of our trip in Utah was lots of fun. Bennett got to take a trip with his Grandma and Grandpa to Colorado to see his cousin's Ty and Weston one weekend and they had lots of fun visiting Santa and getting pictures.

I got to spend time with my friends Emily and Shaun quite a few times and eat WAY too much Cafe Rio! I also got to spend time with Jenn and Jamie! I love seeing all of my friends! I wanna come home!

My friend Ryan Bragdon was in Provo for a OSU vs. UVU basketball game and Steven and I went to visit him while he was here from Ohio (he is the women's basketball coach for Ohio State). We also ate at Cafe Rio! Only Ry's second time ever.

Steve and I celebrated our 6 year wedding anniversary with a stay at the Zermatt Resort in Midway, Ut and the following night on the 11th (our actual anniversary) we went to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's Christmas program featuring Natalie Cole. We had a great time doing both.

We celebrated Christmas at Steven's Uncle Stan's house making gingerbread houses and eating scones. We got to see Stan's family, The Smart's, and tons of us Wrights! His Aunt Terry always does a wonderful job making the night so nice for everyone. I will have to add pictures because we had so much fun!

We had our Family Christmas Party the night before we left on the 15th. We had Hawaiian Haystacks for dinner followed by present opening (youngest to oldest....made me realize how old I am!) and for dessert we had LuAnn's Cupcakes, my dear friend LuAnn provided them for us and they were fabulous! Visit her website if you can! www.luannscupcakes.com!

We were up really late packing and loaded the car down with all of our stuff and headed out by 6AM on Wednesday the 16th to visit Grandma Donna in Washington. The road trip was pretty fun. We really like driving and the kids are pretty good. We hit a few patches of icy roads but overall a great trip....HERE we ARE! We have only had time to visit with Grandma and PA Fiorelli and Grandma Donna so far!!! Oh and Uncle Rob too.

Just messing around in Utah!

Not too much going on...we are hanging out in Utah until mid December when we head up to Washington for a couple of weeks and then back to PA. I drove out to Utah from PA with my Mom and the kids and Steven flew after an interview in Buffalo, NY. Steve started his trip out here with a 2 week rotation at the UofU anesthesiology department, which he loved! We got here a week later after battling a snow storm in Wyoming and Nebraska. My Mom and I spent 3 wonderful days in places like Ogallala, Nebraska. We got to Utah at 6:45PM on Halloween so Bennett threw on his costume and headed out trick-or-treating with his cousins. We had a blast at Aunt Genevieve's house the night of Halloween. Mom had to head home the next day to Spokane, so we barely made her flight. We were very lucky to be able to celebrate Halloween at all this year! Since then we have just been enjoying family and hanging out with friends. I am working part time while I am here at Banana Republic at the Gateway (which has been really fun so far!). Steve is headed off to Iowa City, IA and Omaha, NE next week for more interviews. Good thing I have awesome In-Laws who help me with the kids! I think I have eaten Cafe Rio like 5 times already too. We are loving the SUNNY days and family packed weekends!

Family Picture Fall 2009

Our first day of Fall Festivals

The kiddos and Mommy at our first outing for the Fall season in Central PA!


Love a John Deere


Bennett picked out his favorite gourd, there were many to choose from!


This was at a Fall Festival at greenhouse near our home in Hershey, Stauffer's of Kissel Hill.

Bennett learned to ride a 2-wheel bike

One day Bennett told me that Daddy needed to take off his training wheels because he could ride his bike without them. The next day Dad did and Bennett just took off! He had a little trouble starting at first, and now a month later hes a pro!

Our Trip to Maine

We took a family trip to Maine in August. I am a little bit of a slacker when it comes to actually documenting our life so I thought I would post a little bit of what we did...

1) We drove up to York, Me our first day and spent the night. Before we even got to our hotel that night we stopped in Portsmouth, NH to go to a "Good Feet" store (I know sounds exciting!!) Its a store that sells insoles for shoes. I know you are thinking what adventurous people we are, but if you knew my father in law...you would know that if he wants you to do something - JUST DO IT- life will be SO much easier!
2)Day Two we went to York Beach and Nubble lighthouse. It was very picturesque. The beach was fun, the water was decently warm and the lighthouse was really pretty. We continued to drive through little towns up the coast.
3) Olivia had never jumped off of a bridge, so we saw a little one with 12 yr olds jumping off and we jumped off too! We even convinced Steve to do it too. Fearless.
4)We changed a ton of blowout diapers! The worst one of all there on the grass by the bridge we jumped off. A little treat after jumping off, I guess it scared Elizabeth!
5)We stayed night two in Brunswick, ME.
6) Wake up and go to Freeport to shop at some pretty cool outlet stores. Its the capital of LL Bean or something too. There was a huge LL Bean store, but more impressive was the Northface Outlet.
7)Drive, Drive, Drive to Bar Harbor, ME. We stayed 3 nights at a campground in Bar Harbor right outside of Acadia Nation Park.
8) We went to Acadia and drove around the park. We saw tons of really cool places with awesome waves (there was a hurricane off shore!), beautiful seashore with rocks and trees, pretty scenes of the ocean with cool boats and islands. It was really breathtaking! We saw Thunder Rock, Sands Beach, and lots of cool hiking trails.
9) We went to a cool magic show at our campground and swam in the pool that was closer to a hot tub because it was so warm! Did I mention that we swam at all of our hotels, when you are 4 this is more exciting than the vacation itself!
10) Pick out a live lobster and eat it! I got to eat a whole lobster that I picked out, they cooked, and I cracked open and dipped in butter. No one else appreciated this. THE BEST LOBSTER I HAVE EVER EATEN.
11) Stroll the streets of downtown Bar Harbor, very cool and quaint. Pretty shop lined streets, neat restaurants, and fun Inn's.
12)I forget already a lot of what we did.
13) We drove another loop of the island on Bar Harbor and got to see another lighthouse. Bass Harbor Head lighthouse. It is still lived in today and active. We got to walk right up to it and overlook the ocean.
14) Drive to Newport, RI.
15) We stayed in Newport for 2 nights and spent our full day there touring the Elm's, a mansion owned by coal mogul Edward Berwind. It was built in 1901 and was only a "Summer Cottage" for the coal mogul. It cost 1.5 million to build way back then. AMAZING. Enough said, if you ever get the chance to go to Newport, RI...GO!
16) We drove a scenic loop around the island and saw a little of Fort Adams. We then toured downtown Newport and had a great time taking amazing pictures at sunset and shopping in little tourist shops. We had ice cream at a little restaurant and called it a day.
17)Drive back to PA in a day. Exhausting.

So that was our trip to Maine and Rhode Island. What a Blast. I hope one day we do it again.

Cafe Rio Post #2; Kids in training...

Here are only a couple of the kids in training to LOVE Cafe Rio. We are starting out there little lives the right way! There were 8 kids, 4 babies, and 2 on the way! I'm not sure how we fit 20 adults and 12 kiddos in our house, but it sure was worth it.

Cafe Rio Sunday...again!

We have occasional Cafe Rio parties out here in PA. Usually its our class of 2010, but we had some guests this time! Here are some pictures of the party. Jordan gets props for the awesome quac and being faithful to the tortillas all night long! Mel gets props for her AWESOME cafe rio rice (and also for leaving me with the leftovers)! Chrissy gets props for the nicely cut romaine lettuce (if the lettuce is cut wrong, the whole night gets thrown off!) Jessica Heslop, we use her last name because she just married Jeff and its fun to call her by her new name, gets props for the creamy tomatillo dressing, Ashely brought the BEST peach and raspberry pie ever! Katie picked out the most beautiful bunch of cilantro and chopped it so nicely! Becky did amazing black beans, well maybe Joel too....Seriously amazing beans! I don't want to forget Nancy's prop for her (as always) perfect pico! Wes brought the best coconut sorbet ever, but the best part is that no one ate it so we got to keep it all for ourselves! Thanks everyone for an awesome party.

Lake Tobias

Some girls in our ward at church decided to take a trip to a place called Lake Tobias, which is a Zoo really and not much of a lake! Here are some pictures of our day. As soon as we got there we had lunch at some picnic tables and the kids played at a pretty cool playground. First we went on a safari ride where you can bring crackers and feed the animals that come right up to the topless bus. There were a lot of ostrich and buffalo. Pretty cool. Then we got to go to a petting zoo and Bennett claims he touched a goat. (If he really did is negotiable)! Then we went to a reptile show and Bennett got to touch a huge albino boa!

Lake Tobias

New Pictures of Elizabeth

Here are a few recent pictures of Elizabeth. She is sprouting like a weed and she loves to pull herself up, although she mostly needs help getting all of the way up. She just got her bottom two teeth and is chewing on everything. I love her big blue eyes and blonde hair, who's is she anyway?! She is 7 months now and such a blast!

Happy 4th of July

We celebrated the 4th of July with a BBQ with lots of friends and then a show put on by the Hershey Symphony. The Symphony plays across the street from our house at the Hershey Medical Center starting at dusk. There is ice cream (free for all to enjoy!) and lots of people. They play right on the lawn in front of the main entrance to the medical center. There is lots of grass so everyone just brings chair or blankets to sit on and enjoys the music and people. After that we watched fireworks from a distance as we sat on the lawn in front of the medical center and enjoyed Hershey Parks firework show! Very fun (and tiring) day.

Wow, they are growing like weeds!

I haven't posted in a really long time. I need to post so much, at least for my own records, since this seems to be the only record keeping that I do! I just thought I would post a quick pic of the kiddos to show how big Elizabeth (and Bennett) are getting. She is 6 months and doing a pretty good job sitting on her own. She is scooting around mostly pulling herself forward with her arms. Bennett turned 4 at the end of April and we had a pretty awesome Batman party in Utah that I will post pictures of soon (only 2 months late..oops!). Bennett is busy with swimming lessons and playing outside for the summer. Pretty cute kids if I do say so myself!

Pretty Princesses, Pink, and HULK???

I am a girlie girl. I love makeup and hair and shopping. I love a good pedicure, ok, I love an alright pedicure too. I love frilly things and big flowers in my hair. I love to wear dresses and skirts. So last August when I went in for my ultrasound to see what I was having and it was a GIRL I was soooooo excited for all of the things that come along with a girl. pretty hair, pink, dolls, care bears, my little ponies, cute tights, shoes, dresses....you catch the drift.

HULK? really, a bright green HULK?? Yep, the only thing she wants to play with is a bright green HULK that I picked up for less than 5cents at a yard sale. hmmmmmm

So where did I put my neon unitard????

When my sister Nikki was visiting a month ago we went for a little jog back to the early 90's. We decided that it was about time to break out our long lost skating moves we used to impress the Boys in Middle School. NOT SO IMPRESSIVE!

But Bennett had so much fun and it was a riot. I am seriously thinking about an 80's skating party for my 30th birthday. Any takers??

Disney on Ice

We celebrated Bennett's birthday early this year because we will be in Salt Lake for his actual birthday. We decided to take him to Disney on Ice and it was a blast! He was a little afraid at first because it was so loud (but what isn't he afraid of right????) So after a few minutes he warmed up to it and we had a great time, well minus the little bit where we had to say "NO" to the $15 Disney sword that he wanted =) Anyway here are a couple of pictures of our night out.

So after a closer look at the family picture, take note of Elizabeth's "look," it sums her up without any words! I try to explain her "skepticism" and here it is in person!! And like I said, Bennett is a little freaked out!

Girls are SO expensive!

I haven't posted in a while and I just thought I would share my love, or should I say addiction to shopping with my friends. I have been eying this swimsuit for Elizabeth for a while now. So I did it - it was on sale and I just bought it, not to mention that I already have one for her this summer and how many swimsuits does a 6 month old actually need???? (Maybe a lot considering we live at Hershey Park in the summer, right? =)

Anyway I wanted to share these pict's with you...

Yeah for Pittsburgh!

Here is a picture of Bennett....

A couple of weekends ago Steve finished up his surgery rotation. He got home after his shelf exam and we decided at the spur of the minute to go to Pittsburgh for the weekend. We know its not the most exciting place in the world, but we had never been there. So we packed up the kiddos and headed out. It was so fun to just pack up and head out. We consulted our friend Lori who used to live there for hotel locations and decided to just find one when we got there ( a pool was a MUST though, as is the case for most vacations with a 3 year old!) We visited the Carnegie Science Museum and walked around the "Strip District." The Strip district was really cool, a renovated area of old warehouses that has been made into a street market with fresh food, flowers, fun vendors, art, and cool little boutiques. We had so much fun eating at a small Italian bistro. The man who helped us was an old Italian man with a huge cigar hanging out of his mouth, not lit though?! Then we headed out to the Museum. We really thought for a minute that Bennett was going to pee his pants he was so overwhelmed with excitement when we walked into the museum. There was 4 floors of really cool stuff for kids to do. It was all interactive learning and play. We go to go inside of a WW2 submarine and play with lots of balls and water, and even sit inside an earthquake simulator. All in all we had a fun weekend full of Family, Food, and Fun!