Dismal Falls, Aug. 1, 2009

Dismal Falls is about an hour away and just a short walk down to it. The falls were small, but it was fun because you could climb up them. (Carefully--it was slippery!) We had fun doing that and wading in the water and swimming in the small swimming hole at the base of the falls.

Sam apparently thought he should draw attention to my belly (36 weeks).

We saw some little fish and a small snake. As much as I love finding snakes on land, I do NOT like seeing them in the water while I'm in it. Especially when I have no idea what kind they are and whether or not they are poisonous.

Sam did a little cliff jumping, which scared me, because I was afraid he'd hit a rock.

M+M Visit, July 30, 2009

Morgan and Melissa made a detour on their way to the coast to come visit us. We were excited to have family visitors way out in Virginia.

Josh and Sam

We decided to check out the frisbee golf course and played just a couple of rounds. I can't ever play disc golf very well anyway, and especially now that I'm large with child, but besides that, I have to admit that my biggest goal was to avoid poison ivy. I seem to have acquired a patch or two on every outting we've gone on out here. So I never threw it anywhere near the woods. Sam and Morgan went hunting in the woods a couple of times. Of course, their rounds were 2 and 3s where mine were 6 and 7s.

Eli found a little toad. He also impressed us with his frisbee skills--throwing and skipping.

We unintentionally (at least most of us) had a blue theme that morning.

Poison Ivy

So I don't really know what it is for sure--some say it's poison ivy; others say they're spider bites. But since our first week here, I've frequently had new itchy rashes show up on my arms and legs. These are just a few of them. (Sam's also had his share, but in different forms.) We've been outside and in the woods a lot, and poison ivy seems to be everywhere. I thought I was being careful, but now I'm really careful. And paranoid of any unfamiliar plant.

Pandampas Pond, July 27, 2009

Summer's family invited me along for a little outing. We walked down to Pandampas Pond for a picnic lunch. There were little turtles, fish, and salamanders to see.

Paige, Clint, Summer, Kaden, Lindy

(Lindy had been fully dressed when we started the excursion--long story.)

What I wish I'd gotten on video: While we were still on the boardwalk, we saw some geese (?) coming down the path a ways off. We decided to go feed them, but Kaden couldn't wait for the rest of us and took off running down the path with his bagged sandwich in his hand. As soon as he got a little close to them, he threw a couple pieces of bread towards them. As soon as the geese took one step towards him (and maybe made some noise), Kaden dropped his bag of food, turned around, and ran yelling back towards us. You can see in the picture he was still pretty hesitant. I can't really blame him--they were pretty bold and feisty.

Pioneer Day Ward Campout

For Pioneer Day, our ward had a big campout. We shared four or five campsites, and there were several families in each campsite. We hung out at the campfire, had a little fireside talk (finally, a literal fireside!) about the pioneers and ate s'mores. Sam and I did what we could to make sure there weren't many leftovers. We had a great time, and it was nice having a chance to get to know more of the people from church.

Pioneer Day was for me a bittersweet day, remembering Ginger's funeral exactly a year earlier. It was kind of comforting to be sleeping in the tent she gave us for our wedding just a few weeks before she passed away.

Sam and our bishop and his wife.

The "Virginia Walk" hike was only about a mile, but you actually cross into West Virginia and back.

There was a cool stream that ran through our campgrounds. The kids caught crawdads.

Cascade Falls, July 19, 2009

We took a beautiful two mile hike (one way) to Cascade Falls. Sam was very patient with my slow pace and frequent rests.

I was pretty excited to see begonias growing in the wild. (And I just love the moss and the trees.) Sam pretended to share my enthusiasm.

Belly shot: 34 weeks along

The trail had a lot of stone trails and stone steps and followed the river the whole time. Really a thoroughly enjoyable hike.

The falls are 66 feet high. You could get pretty close to them without getting too wet.

Sam contemplating a swim. Right beyond the shelf was a deep swimming hole. We'd planned to go swimming, but I wimped out because it was little chilly and I was already a bit uncomfortable. There was also a place where some people were sliding down the gently slanted slippery rock that looked pretty fun.

Beautiful wild rhododendrons. There's another reason I took this picture, but I'll leave it at that.

We made it!

Virginia is beautiful, it seems out in the country but with all you need nearby, the people are friendly, and Virginia Tech seems like it'll be great for Sam, but what I've loved most is having my sister and her family so close by.

I love having all the kids around, but Paige is making me especially excited to have a little one of my own. She is one of the most easy-going babies I've known, and I can't get enough of her. Sam appears to feel the same way. Sometimes we're a little jealous over who gets to hold her.

The day we got our apartment was my birthday. We'd arrived the night before and stayed with Summer. We spent some time cleaning our apartment, then Summer helped Sam move some furniture they had for us while I played with the kids (Clint was out in El Salvador, and once again, I wasn't much help lifting things), fed us meals and gave me a little birthday party. Sam gave me the Children's Songbook, which I've been wanting for a long time.

Kaden, Paige, Summer, Lindy, Amber

Kaden has really taken to Uncle Sam. Here Sam is teaching Kaden how to do the dishes.

The worst part about our apartment was that it had apparently been smoked in. A lot. Even with new carpet, it was really bad. We've spent a lot of time attempting to get the smell out. It is definitely better than it was, but it's too absorbed in the walls to ever really go away.
I thought Sam had a good idea with the goggles, but decided to take it a step further with a mask.

Ingenious Sam

I came home one day (in Provo) wondering what all the blue tape marks on the floor were. Sam explained that he'd mapped out the container we were going to use to ship our stuff out to Virginia. He then measured and mapped out each major piece of furniture we were moving (which wasn't much--we didn't even have a couch and left the desk--but the container was only 6'x7'x8'), allowing us to see what space we'd have for everything else. I was pretty happy to have such a smart husband, and it eased my concerns about everything fitting. Though I was still a little unsure. . .
Sam was quite the Tetris-master fitting everything in. We filled it pretty much up to the very top. Apparently, we also went way over weight, but they didn't charge us extra. When the forklift operator was delivering it to our new apartment in Virginia, he commented on how heavy it was, took one look at me, and said, "What you got in here--baby stuff?" Here's the container when it was mostly emptied. (I promise it was much more impressive when it was full.)

We were grateful for a lot of help, both from our old ward and our new ward in moving all the boxes and furniture in and out of the container.

Trip to Virginia

On our drive moving out to Virginia, we spent two days in Iowa with Sam's family. We were just in time to get some of their famous rhubarb pie.
Ginny, Amy, Mama L, Gordon

Doris and Estel came for a visit. Here with Josh, Melissa, and Morgan.

He probably just wanted my pillow, but I was flattered that Eli wanted to come be next to us. I fell asleep watching home videos, and the next think I knew, I was the only one on the floor and their home teacher was in the middle of giving a lesson. Kind of embarrassing. . . I'm not usually such a heavy sleeper.

We went to check out a train that had derailed. Sam, Guy, and Gordon had fun climbing on top and jumping from car to car. I was a little jealous I couldn't join them. (And a little nervous about some of their jumps.)


The day we left Iowa, we stayed the night in Kentucky with Brandi and Alan and Alan's family. That was a treat as well. Too bad I didn't get any pictures.

Elder Z

Though Derek hadn't gotten his call yet, I knew this would be the last time I would see him. We took him out to dinner the day before his birthday. It was pretty exciting to get his phone call a couple of weeks later to announce he'll be serving in the Morristown, New Jersey Mission--Spanish Speaking, leaving in September.

I Love to See the Temple...

Sam, Beth, their cousin Jen and I went through the open house tour of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. It was neat going through, and pretty amazing to be able to see other temples (Jordan River and Draper) from this one.

Just a few days before we left, my friend Veronica invited me to go with her to the Provo Temple one last time. I will sure miss this temple and the service and experiences I've enjoyed there (and all the people I love there). I've sure grown in so many ways since first attending there six years ago, attending it with Sam our first year of marriage, and being an ordinance worker there for the last three. I will especially miss that. I wish I'd gotten a picture of it in the daytime. It's especially beautiful in the spring and with the mountains behind. Here you can just barely make out the spires.

Livin' It Up: Our Last Few Adventures in Utah

Realizing we were leaving Utah and there was still so many places we hadn't been and things we hadn't done, we tried to cram in as much as we could before we moved. Still never made it to Arches, Great Salt Lake, etc., but we had some good times.


One last time up beloved Rock Canyon. We'd had an unusually wet spring, so it was pretty green.

And the snow run-off filled the river bed. (Not the most flattering picture if me--27 weeks along, but I loved this little make-shift bridge.)


I'd never known that when the river up Rock Canyon is flowing, it actually continues flowing through Rock Canyon Park. The water wasn't very deep, but we decided to try tubing it anyway.

The best part is at the end when it gets a little deeper and faster, and then you get sucked in the drain.

We convinced Kristel to come along with us. Here she just missed the pipes that the water seems to aim you towards.

Sam found another good use for the tubes. He got going pretty fast.

June 12, we went camping with Dave and Jeff (Sam's co-workers from Terracon) and their families up American Fork Canyon. It was one of the neatest camping areas I've been in (with tons of different types of trees, deep ravines and streams, hills and mountains with rock outcrops, etc.), but it was raining most of the time, and we didn't explore much at all. Went to Cascade Springs the next day instead, having made it through the night without getting too wet (which seemed a miracle to me).

More Family in Utah!

On the way back from California, we stopped in Cedar City to see Pete, Emily, and Henry--a nephew we hadn't yet met. Pete (Sam's brother) brought his family out for a summer internship.

I'll bet Sam can't wait to try this one out with our little guy.

Hoover Dam

We took a detour on the way to the Z fam reunion so Sam could see the Hoover Dam. He was like a kid in a candy shop, exploring this engineering marvel and the new bridge they were building. Just disappointed we couldn't get down below the dam or closer to the bridge.

Family Reunion... aka, "The Zierenberg Zoo!"

This post is going to be a continued work in progress.


Click on the picture to see it bigger.

Classic

Lest you judge her, keep in mind that of all of us that tried, Wendy was the only one that took the paddle board out in deep water and back without ever falling. . . until the end, of course. I could hardly stay up at all, but I'll blame it on my shifted center of gravity and loss of stomach muscles... Make sure the volume is decent--the 2nd best part is her scream. That's Sam on the boogie board.