progress on the house!

yay! the house should be done within the next week. i'm amazed that it's gone up so quickly. these shots are from a couple weeks ago:

in the great room in front of the fireplace

calvin posing by his new garage

mason in his new room

calvin's new room

here's one from last week - don't be confused by the fact that russell's wearing the same shirt in all the pics. (we only packed for a few weeks, okay?)

some new neighbors walked over with us, hence the extra children in the shot.

we are grateful to good friends who have opened their homes to us as we've waited for the 45 day project!

still in school

sorry! many of you are confused about what's going on with us. russell is still in medical school. his first year was in mesa, az. his program is set up so that for the last three years, all of the students are sent to community health center locations throughout the u.s. so, we're in southwestern ohio, just outside cincinatti. russell will get more clinical experience this year by working with a doctor at 11 different clinics in the area and then he'll do rotations out here for his last 2 years. hope that clears things up... we'd love to have visitors if you're out this way or would like to be!

summer?

i'm not sure where summer went. i guess time flies when you have a baby and move across the country. here's a recap of our adventures...

we loved having my mom visit after mason was born.

she was such a big help and stayed until russell was finished with his last finals. grandma was a great buddy for calvin as we adjusted to life with a new baby.

mason's first walk:

calvin requested that we take his picture every time we took one of mason. here he is being a good eater...

three boys on father's day

calvin and i made daddy a baseball cake for father's day:

fourth of july family shot

we had lots of family in town on the weekend of the fourth for mason's blessing. here's heather and ezra being patriotic:

hannah and jacob with our flag cake

grandpa perkins snuggling with mason

max and ezra enjoying ice cream in the hot (and melting) arizona sun

grandma roberts with mason on his big day

grandma and grandpa roberts with the boys

family shot on blessing day

here's the handsome boy

a couple shots of mason, one month old

moving day - calvin posing with our truck
we'll miss our home, our friends, and our ward, among other things. we will not miss the high heat advisory temperatures that made loading the truck miserable!

the boys were packed like sardines in the back of the good old corolla for a cross-country trip. calvin and his moving buddy, iguana, are ready for one of many showings of "the happiest millionaire," his new favorite show (which luckily is 3 hours long!)...

we stopped in el paso overnight and then stayed in san antonio for a week. we got to see family, eat good food, and meet kelly and john's new baby marin, who is just 5 days younger than mason. it was great to be there for her blessing and for calvin to get to know cousins.
we went to the zoo:

reese, savannah, westin, calvin, mackenzie and hal

loved the hippos - i couldn't get calvin to turn around and pose!

crocodiles (another favorite) and fishing

can't go to the zoo without brushing a goat!

great-grandma roberts treated us to rudy's bbq, one of our favorite spots to eat.
here she is with the boys:

waiting for the grub...

kelly and baby marin - so cute!

grandma roberts took us on a train ride at brackenridge park. one of calvin's new obsessions is trains, so he was thrilled.

we did lots of swimming at grandma and grandpa roberts' house. here's mason lounging by the pool:

we went to the witte children's museum and calvin and russell had great fun exploring the exhibits

mackenzie, westin, savannah, hal and calvin building an ancient egyptian pyramid

we spent a day at sea world with kelly, kim, savannah, mackenzie, marin, hal and reese

feeding the dolphins

shamu show

calvin could have stayed at the water park ALL day

he also got another moving buddy, shamu, for the rest of the trip. can you tell that he LOVES it?

calvin, kelly, and westin at grandma's house

aunt kyle moved back to san antonio just in time to spend a couple days with us!

we celebrated rod's birthday before we left... here he is enjoying birthday breakfast at taco cabana:

on the road again...

we stopped in wichita, kansas to visit katy and dan's family. we got the grand one day tour of wichita, including an awesome ymca, delicious steak burgers and shakes, and the keeper of the plains monument (below)(not sure what milo's doing in this picture!) =)

delaney, magavin, and koby by the flaming torches:

our last overnight stop was in st. louis

we had a brief interlude in kentucky where we got stuck in the mc donald's parking lot during a monsoon...

12 days and 2441 miles later...OHIO

we've already had some adventures here as well - a visit to ride thomas the tank engine and a quick trip to kirtland, among others. we have good friends here who have generously made the wait for our home much more comfortable. it should be ready by the end of the month. stay tuned for more updates (sooner, i promise) and pics of the progress on the house...