Calvin, Ashton, Camden & Coulton

Is it too late? Christmas 2011

2012-02-04T06:33:00.000-08:00

So, is it too late to write a post all about Christmas?! In an effort to catch up without missing too much, here is a gigantic post all about what we did over our Christmas break.

The festivities began when Calvin finished his finals on Friday, December 9th, one week ahead of the end of finals! He crammed all of his tests into the first week so that we could have as much time off as possible. That night, we went to our ward Christmas party. I cooked a turkey and entered my lemon sour cream pie into the pie contest. I didn't get a picture, but it looked and tasted great! We had a nice dinner and Camden frosted a cookie. We enjoyed visiting with our friends before heading out to see our families.

Camden was too focused on frosting his cookie to look up for the camera-he did try to smile though :)

We first went to visit Calvin's family in Fallon. We had a great time there. Here are the boys on Christmas Eve in their Christmas pajamas that I sewed! It was my first sewing project in quite a while. Thank you to both my mother and my mother-in-law for all of the help, I couldn't have done it without their help and advice!

The boys had a wonderful Christmas morning-which began very early! They both were happy to see that Santa had found us in Nevada.

Even Coulton enjoyed his new toys.

It was a nice morning and we were happy to be able to attend church on Christmas Sunday to be able to help us remember the true meaning of the holiday.

We also had a lot of fun preparing for the holidays with some of our favorite traditions-sugar cookies and spudnuts (not pictured).

Camden frosted all of his cookies blue.

These are my angel cookies, I know, they are amazing.

Coulton loved hanging out with all of his aunts and uncles.

And here are my boys, they also loved spending time together.

We also helped with some work while we were in Nevada. Camden helped get 2 loads of firewood and was a big helper. Coulton and I also came along for the ride once. It was a beautiful day!

Look at those tough guys!

Can you spot Camden?

Coulton will be more help next year :)

Camden took this picture of Coulton and me!

One day, Grandpa Winder took us to his work to show Camden all of the big equipment! Camden was in heaven, he made sure to sit in each and every piece of equipment in the lot.

After our fun trip to Nevada, we made it out to Utah to visit my family! Our trip started out with a stay at the Bear River Lodge in one of the beautiful five-bedroom cabins and a fun snowmobile ride! Luckily there was enough snow to ride on the highway. This was Camden's first real ride on a snowmobile and he had a great time!

We also got to ride our sleds down the road to the fishing pond and the sledding hill. We had a lot of fun!

Camden really enjoyed playing in the snow. He was having too much fun to pose for the camera.

We also discovered that Coulton loves to wear cowboy hats! He was content to keep Camden's new hat on without even bothering it.

We had so much fun visiting our families! I wish I had taken even more pictures to document all of the fun things we did. Christmas was wonderful and it was so nice for Calvin to have some time off from school. Now just pray we can all get through this last semester of law school and make it to graduation! We are enjoying the rest of our time here in North Carolina, but can't wait to move on to the next chapter in our lives!

Camden's Photo Shoot

2011-12-02T12:00:00.000-08:00

Camden got a hair cut two days ago and yesterday we got him dressed and he looked so good, we decided he needed his own photo shoot too! This is our good-looking 3 1/2 year-old boy! He is becoming a wonderful big brother and a great helper. He is growing quickly and learning so much. He is a hard worker and loves to help his dad. We sure love Camden!

Coulton's Photo Shoot

2011-11-29T12:43:00.000-08:00

The other day, Coulton and I were hanging out in the morning, waiting for the rest of the family to wake up. He looked so cute lying on his belly on the floor that I decided to take a few pictures. He did such a great job smiling for the camera! He is 4 1/2 months old and we sure love this little guy!

Fall in North Carolina

2011-11-28T12:53:00.000-08:00

Of the three years we've been in North Carolina, Fall this year has been the most beautiful. The weather has been nice for such a long time that the fall colors stayed for a very long time. We may finally be to the end of our 70 degree days-so here's a recap! I love my boys! We were able to have a few nice picnics outside while enjoying the beautiful weather and colors.

Here's a picture from a walk on the trail near our house.

I also thought I'd take a few pictures around our complex so that our family members who haven't been here could see what it's like! Below, you can see the end of our favorite bench and our hammock down by the pond.

Here's Camden sitting down by the pond, we were outside riding his bike and he asked me to take his picture.

This is the front of the building where we live. You can see Calvin's black truck and my blue camry. Our door is right in front of Calvin's truck and the windows on the bottom and top left are our house.

Here's another view of the pond and the back from the sidewalk.

This is taken across from the pond, if you turn right on that street, that goes to our building.

Here's the playground at our complex. Camden loves to climb up the ladder and across the monkey bars above the swings.

We went again this year to the North Carolina State Fair. Camden got to milk a cow and afterward got some chocolate milk from their dairy.

Coulton had fun at the fair too! We got to see animals, huge pumpkins and watermelons, and watched some freestyle motocross riders and BMX bikers.

I got to climb the wall and I made it to the top :) We all had a lot of fun at the fair!

I also got to take the boys on an outing with some other ladies and kids in our ward to see Farmer Mark at his local farm. Although we could see most of these things at our parent's houses, it was fun to get out and see some animals :)

Camden liked the chickens-I can't wait until I can have some of my own!

A big pig!

Then we got to pick a pumpkin from the "pumpkin patch."

It has been a beautiful Fall and we have really enjoyed the beautiful weather and leaves! We will miss these warm days!

Fall Break-Utah & Nevada

2011-11-10T11:35:00.000-08:00

Coulton took his first flight on our fall break trip! We were so excited to be able to go and spend time visiting for a week. Calvin spent a lot of the trip traveling. However, it was all worth it, as he has now accepted an offer to work with a law firm in Salt Lake City next summer. We are really excited and very proud of Calvin.

I love our stroller, I wasn't sure we'd be able to take it through the airport, but they said it was ok!

When we got to Utah, we were greeted with much cooler temperatures than we've had in North Carolina! There was even snow up at the lodge. It was beautiful up there with the changing colors and white snow from the night before.

I love our family of four.

After our stop at the lodge, we headed to the BYU football game. We got everyone bundled up for the cold temperatures and the 8 pm kickoff time!

Oops, sorry Camden!

Camden had a lot of fun at the game! Here he is yelling, Go Cougars, and joining in on the chant, "That's another Cougar, First Down!"

We were able to spend some time with my parents at their house in Morgan that they are building. They have done a lot of work! We saw this family of deer near their property. The Fall weather was beautiful!

Here is Coulton, relaxing with Grandma on the couch after a long day of work!

We also had another adventure while on our trip-buying some cows! We are working on starting our own herd with Calvin's dad and here are the lucky 13 that will start it all. We drove up to Idaho to purchase these 13 heifers that were born this spring, then drove them to Calvin's parents' house in Nevada.

Camden was so excited to be able to see his Winder family too.

It was a fun and adventurous trip, we were so glad to be able to spend time with our families and can't wait to get back there for Christmas!

Camden the Swimmer

2011-11-07T10:40:00.000-08:00

Camden had a lot of fun taking swimming lessons! He loves the water. Now that he is 3 years old, he was able to take a class all by himself, without Mom! He was never afraid to jump right in-even without his life jacket on...his teachers had to catch him a couple times :)

He was always first to get back in line to jump off the board! The teachers had to coax some of the other kids into the water-but not Camden. He even got really good at swimming all the way down to the other end after jumping in. Calvin got to come and watch Camden's last lesson. Camden did a great job and we are very proud of him!

Here's a video of Camden jumping in, and being a little goofy.

Storms

2011-11-05T05:59:00.000-07:00

We've had some pretty good rain storms here in the last couple months. One of them brought down this big tree in our complex!

Here's a video of a crazy rain storm, there was so much rain coming down!

Brothers

2011-11-04T06:07:00.000-07:00

I love having two little boys! (Camden would correct me and tell me he is a big boy, haha.) Camden is also enjoying having a little brother, and Calvin couldn't be happier about having these boys. Camden has been pulling around his wagon with his bicycle lately and was excited to give Coulton a ride!

Camden also likes to hold Coulton and asks me all the time if he can hold his baby brother.

These boys love being together!

And napping together...

Sometimes I get them to take a nap at the same time, which is awesome!

They also love to take baths together. If I get Coulton out of the tub before Camden is ready to get out, Camden says, hey, I need a friend!

Here's Camden and Coulton enjoying some warm blankets that just came out of the dryer.

Camden loves having a baby brother, but can't wait until Coulton is old enough to run with him and play tackle!

I love these boys!

To the Rescue!

2011-10-30T06:28:00.000-07:00

Look at these good-looking boys! Camden told me he wanted to be a fireman for Halloween-so we dressed Coulton up as his dalmatian and his truck up as his fire truck! Thanks to Calvin, we were able to pull off making these costumes ourselves. We stayed up very late the night before the party and got them done.

Coulton loved eating these little paws :)

And here is Camden driving his truck for the trunk-or-treat. It was a huge hit!

Here's a short video of Camden driving.

We sure love these boys!

Happy Halloween!

The rest of the summer...

2011-10-20T06:48:00.000-07:00

Alright, here it is, one big post with everything I wanted to put on about the summer to get us caught up! Then I can finally focus on what we are doing now!

We had a fun time with family at the Oyler reunion in Boise, Idaho. Great-grandpa Oyler helped us paint bird houses!

Camden had fun being around lots of little kids. I caught him here eating his watermelon...

Dropping his watermelon....

And you can barely see, but here he is eating the dropped watermelon...

Daddy and Coulton in our hotel in Boise.

Fishing for Coulton's prize.

Smiling for the camera

Yay! Look at that bag of candy and prizes!

We also got to visit Grandma and Grandpa Eggett on our way home. We went over to their property in Morgan where they were waiting to get started building their house.

Starting to dig for the barn.

Beautiful views!

Here's where the house is now being built!

Camden loves visiting Grandpa!

Great-grandpa and grandma Eggett came to visit too!

One last stop before heading home-Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Calvin's Uncle Dan took us for a wagon ride and let Camden help!

We had a great steak dinner and enjoyed a little entertainment.

We also got to see the beautiful Tetons at sunset.

We did a lot of driving in the car, but these boys were wonderful! We like our family road trips!

And there you have it! It was a great summer filled with many adventures! We were so happy to return to our house in North Carolina and find all was well. It was also fun bringing Coulton back with us! We headed out West a family of 3 and came back a family of 4! Wish us well with this last year of law school, we love it here in North Carolina, but we are really looking forward to the time when we can be back closer to our families. We love you!

Twin Falls, ID-Then & Now

2011-10-20T06:13:00.000-07:00

We traveled to Boise, Idaho for this year's Oyler family reunion-Calvin's mom's family. The last time we went was just after Camden was born, and I remembered these pictures we took in Twin Falls at the Perinne bridge. I thought it would be fun to compare pictures of the two boys! Camden is 4 weeks old in these pictures and Coulton is 5 weeks old. Enjoy!

Camden

Coulton

Camden 3 years later!

Boating at Pineview

2011-09-23T05:12:00.000-07:00

We had such a fun day boating at Pineview with my family! Amy and Olivia flew up from California to spend the week with us, Emily and Brooklyn were both home, Jacob was staying with my family for the summer to work, and Katie drove up from Provo to spend the day with us! It was so much fun having everyone there. Thank you Mom and Dad for the great day! We went tubing, wakeboarding, and water skiing; it was a great day (minus a couple injuries-a broken finger for Calvin and a rope burn for my dad, luckily it wasn't worse-they both stuck it out though and had a good day!).

Our setup back on the beach-we took turns taking care of Coulton and Olivia and Camden part of the time.

Woo! That is one good-looking guy driving the boat!

Jacob and Brooklyn

We had such a fun day! The next day, we spent the day swimming and playing at Cherry Hill for my birthday. It was a lot of fun too! Unfortunately, we don't have any pictures. Camden was such a big boy and went down the tube slide and the mat slide! We also had a lot of fun playing miniature golf. Thanks for the fun time everyone!

Coulton's Blessing Day-Aug 7, 2011

2011-09-15T13:44:00.000-07:00

We were really happy to be able to bless Coulton in Fallon on Sunday, August 7th, as we were in the process of traveling across the country-West coast to East coast. It was so nice to see our families and have them there for Coulton's special day, Calvin gave him a wonderful blessing. Thank you to the Winders for hosting and to the Eggetts for making the drive from Utah.

Proud Grandparents:

Unfortunately, we are missing one proud grandfather here-he had to hurry out of the church after the blessing to save us all from a possible flood! Calvin's dad bravely drove to the bottom of a dam to check out a leak that could have become much more serious. Luckily he got it taken care of and we didn't learn of the danger until he returned.

My dear sister Brooklyn-we couldn't have done it without her help in California!

And my dear sister Emily-such a wonderful Aunt!

I wish I had taken a few more pictures of everyone else there and a close-up of Coulton, but that's how it goes when you're taking care of a newborn! We are so grateful to have Coulton as a part of our family!

Fathers & Sons Camping Trip

2011-09-14T05:59:00.000-07:00

I'm doing some catch-up on my blogging! We couldn't make it to the fathers & sons outing in our ward so Calvin wanted to take Camden on a camping trip over the summer. The weekend after Coulton was born, Calvin and Camden took a trip with Calvin's dad and brother Mckay while I got a little extra sleep! The boys all had so much fun. Calvin and Camden stopped and got new fishing poles and some gear. They fished in a river near their campsite and caught 2 trout! Here are the boys with their catch.

Grandpa taught the boys about cleaning the fish.

Chef Calvin's gourmet trout.

It was so good, even Mckay and Camden liked it!

It was a short trip, but they had a good time! Camden enjoyed playing with his football...

Drinking orange soda...

Climbing and playing outside...

And even seeing some wildlife right in their camp!

We can't wait until next year when we can plan a longer camping trip and Coulton and I can join the fun! Camden loved it!

Coulton

2011-08-31T04:55:00.000-07:00

The last month has been beyond busy! We have traveled coast-to-coast and inbetween. I will write more about the details later, for now, enjoy some pictures of our new addition!

3 Days Old

4 Days Old

9 Days Old

2 1/2 Weeks Old

7 Weeks Old (how did it go so fast?!)

Brooklyn Comes to Visit

2011-07-17T16:34:00.000-07:00

We were so lucky to have Brooklyn come and stay with us for 2 weeks! We had a lot of fun with her here! Camden loved having someone to play with :) And I loved having someone to talk to!

We spent a lot time just playing around, going to parks, and wondering when the baby was going to come!

Here's Camden enjoying some cherries-I think Brooklyn picked those at the store.

Brooklyn was pretty excited that we made it to the weekend without a baby so that we could take her to the beach! We went to Half Moon Bay. It was beautiful.

Camden loved playing in the sand and chasing the waves with Dad.

Calvin, Camden, and Brooklyn were all brave and got in the cold water! The waves were pretty strong too!

Here we are, a week away from being a family of 4!

On my due date, the 4th of July, there were no signs I would be having a baby that day, so we headed out to have some fun! We went out to Shoreline Lake and rented kayaks!

Everyone loved it!

We did some hardcore racing...here's Brooklyn's fighting face!

In this case, two were not better than one-Calvin and Camden beat us with just one paddler!

We had so much fun with Brooklyn here! She was such a great help for the 2 weeks she stayed. We also got to watch fireworks, go on walks every night to get the baby to come, wait in lines at Wal-Mart, and lots of other fun things ;) Thanks Brooklyn!

Coulton Riley Winder

2011-07-09T17:45:00.000-07:00

He has arrived! Coulton Riley Winder was born at 2:14 am, July 9, 2011. He weighed 8 lbs, 2 oz, and was 20 3/4 inches. I was fortunate enough to be induced on Friday at about 6 pm and we were able to hold him in our arms 8 hours later.

At 4:30 pm, I got the call I had been waiting for. The nurse at the hospital asked if I could be there in 30 minutes to be induced and I said yes! I called and emailed Calvin telling him to come home and pick me up, but when I didn't hear back from him, I had to call his office and get a secretary to track him down for me. I think I scared her a little when I said, this is Calvin's wife, and we need to go to the hospital! I guess she didn't know Calvin had a pregnant wife :)

I'll just give a few of the general details for those who are interested-if not, skip down for a few more pictures!

We got to the hospital and after all the checking in and getting ready, they started the pitocin around 6 pm. My doctor was the one on call that night, which was really nice. He broke my water around 9, I got an epidural around 10:30, and by midnight I was at a 7. In the next couple hours, I could tell I was getting close and I mentioned it to my nurse a few times, but she said she wouldn't check me again until 2 am because she should only check every 2 hours to lessen the risk of infection to the baby since my water had been broken. Well, I tried my best and waited it out and at 1:55 am, I called my nurse and told her I really thought it was time and that she should check. She checked and said, oh, you're at a 10, the baby's head is right there, I'll call the doctor. Even then, she told the doctor he could come in 5 minutes or so and that we would start pushing. It only took 9 minutes of pushing for Camden, so I knew it couldn't take long. She had me push through one contraction, then started on a second, but then she told me to stop-we needed to wait for the doctor. So then we waited while he got ready, and a couple minutes later-Coulton was born! My doctor did such a great job walking me through the pushing and taking it slowly-I didn't even need any stitches! I am so grateful. So that's the story! Now I'm just hanging out here in my recovery room, counting down the hours until we can go home. I feel really good and I am excited to be home with my boys!

This morning we were able to have some visitors!

Camden is already a wonderful big brother! He hopped right up and wanted to hold his little brother Coulton. He patted him, kissed him, and even sang songs to him. It was very cute.

We have been so lucky to have Brooklyn here helping us! I don't know what we would do without her. She has been patiently waiting for almost 2 weeks now to hold this little boy! What a wonderful aunt :)

We love our little boy very much! Keep watching for more pictures! Thank you to everyone for all of your love and support.

Videos of Camden

2011-07-08T07:15:00.000-07:00

The day has arrived! I am scheduled to be induced sometime today-so instead of waiting for my water to break or waiting for contractions, we are waiting for a phone call! I am so excited to welcome another little boy into our family. However, with all the excitement over the new baby, I hope this little boy knows how much we love him :) I thought I'd put up these videos so that you can be reminded of how much you love him too. Wish us luck!

Camden is a great singer-he was just singing this song in the car one day when we were waiting for Calvin.

Camden loves to talk to people when we are out; here he is waving to all the cars while eating his ice cream from Baskin Robbins.

These are just a couple of videos from Camden's birthday. I already had this one on the post from his Birthday, but some people said it didn't work when they tried to watch it, so this should work better.

Camden was so cute when he was opening his presents, he kept saying "Wow, thank you guys!" before he even knew what it was :)

We love our Camden and can't wait for him to be a big brother!

A visit from Emily and Grandma!

2011-06-26T18:32:00.000-07:00

We had so much fun having my mom and Emily come for a visit! It was nice to be able to show them around and do a few fun things before the baby comes! We went with Grandma to explore a nearby mall and ran into this amazing French bakery. After looking at all the amazing desserts in the window, we just couldn't walk away without trying some!

We got a chocolate cake/mousse roll and bread pudding with fruit on top. They were both delicious!

After some re-routing of Emily's plane trip to get here, we were able to pick her up in Oakland on Friday. When Calvin got off of work, we headed out to Santa Clara for some hot dog and marshmallow roasting! It was nice to be near the ocean and enjoy some time together. Camden was much too busy digging in the sand to notice the hot dogs or marshmallows-right until we decided to pack up to go, haha.

Our s'mores were awesome! We used chocolate chip cookies and also mint Milanos, along with our chocolate bars and marshmallows....yum!

On Saturday, we headed to San Francisco to take a ferry ride across the bay over to Sausalito. I loved being out on the water.

Unfortunately, this guy taking his jacket off totally ruined this cute picture of Emily and Mom! Even more unfortunate, Emily had her eyes closed in the one I took after it to get a better shot. Oh well!

Here's a view looking back at the ferry terminal where we left from.

We were able to see the bridges going across the bay and got a nice view of Alcatraz! We also saw some dolphins and a seal.

In Sausalito, we just explored some of the shops in the little town and had some very good ice cream! My favorite part was walking along the boardwalk in the yacht harbor, picking out our future yacht :)

When we got back to San Francisco, we walked (and walked and walked) down to Pier 39 for some sourdough bread bowls, clam chowder, sourdough sandwiches, and sourdough pizza. It was all very good!

We went and showed Grandma and Emily our favorite sea lions on the pier!

Camden had found a dollar when we were buying our ferry tickets and chose to use it for a ride on the carousel! He was pretty excited about it!

And Emily was excited to spend her dollars on a churro :)

Probably the best adventure of the day was driving over to Chinatown and driving up and down the steepest roads I have ever been on! It was absolutely crazy!! We were going up one very steep road, the one these cable cars will take you up, and as we were going up, we had to stop mid-hill!! I don't know if it was a stop sign or a stop light, or if the people in front of us were just crazy, but they were getting out of their cars and taking pictures, which meant we had to stop too! It was a little bit scary. The steepest road was the one we went down, it was insane. You couldn't see where the road was going to go until you got right up to the edge, then it seemed like it went straight down. In the end, I thought it was actually pretty fun :)

We had quite the day in San Francisco and everyone was very tired by the time we got home! It was nice to have Sunday to relax and celebrate Father's Day with Calvin. I love you Calvin! Thank you for being such a wonderful father. I was sad to miss out on celebrating Father's Day with my own dad, I love you too dad! I couldn't ask for a better Father. And one more father I am grateful for, my father-in-law! How many girls have a father-in-law who calls them to chat and check in on them? I am lucky to have so many wonderful fathers in my life! I love you all!

Big Basin Redwoods State Park & Santa Cruz

2011-06-20T15:52:00.000-07:00

We had a lot of fun driving through Big Basin Redwoods State Park about a week ago on our way out to Santa Cruz for our ward beach party! We left early and took the scenic route through the forest. It was beautiful and the trees were amazing!

After our scenic drive, we arrived at the beach in Santa Cruz. Our ward had built some bonfires, so we had fun roasting hot dogs and marshmallows. Camden and Calvin braved the cold ocean and pretty big waves and had a lot of fun in the water. After Camden was pretty much frozen, he finally decided to come and get dry and eat a hot dog. He was pretty excited about getting buried in the sand!

Probably my favorite part of the day was buying a big box of strawberries on the way home from this guy standing on the corner selling fresh fruit just a few blocks from the beach. They have many fruit farms out near Santa Cruz and these strawberries were beautiful! They were delicious too! We ate a lot of them on our way home :) It was fun day spending time together!

Trips to San Francisco

2011-06-12T21:05:00.000-07:00

We've been able to take a couple fun trips into San Francisco. Both times we road Caltrain. Camden really enjoyed riding the train! It was also nice that we didn't have to worry about traffic or parking.

The day after Camden's birthday, we took him to a San Francisco Giants game. Camden loves baseball! The ballpark was awesome! It was right on the bay and you could see all of the sailboats and yachts out on the water. They had a "splash counter" that counts all of the home runs hit out into the water.

Here's a video of Camden cheering on the Giants! We had a lot of fun at the game, and the Giants won!

On our Saturday trip into San Francisco, we saw this hotel. I just had to take a picture :)

We ventured into Chinatown and enjoyed some of our favorite treats from Hong Kong in a delicious bakery! Calvin enjoyed hearing all of the Cantonese being spoken and surprising people with his language skills. It was fun to be around all of the Chinese people and walking through the stores, remembering the sites, smells, and sounds of Hong Kong.

Mmmm, my hot dog bun.

Yum!

Here are couple of pictures from the famous, steep streets of San Francisco.

We also went to Fisherman's Wharf to see the Sea Lions. We also took a ride on a trolley, and by that time, Camden was worn out! So we headed back to the station and took Caltrain home! We enjoyed our trips to San Francisco and still have a lot more to see!

Happy Birthday Camden!

2011-06-03T14:33:00.000-07:00

Happy third Birthday to Camden! We had a fun day with him. In the morning, Camden went on a bike ride. Then for lunch, Camden and I went to McDonalds where Camden had a lot of fun playing at the playplace. When Calvin got home from work-the party began! We celebrated with a Kung Fu Panda cake before heading out to see Kung Fu Panda 2.

What do you think? I have never been confident in my creative/artistic abilities, so I was pretty excited with how the cake turned out!

Here's Camden blowing out the candles...with a little help.

We had a great dinner with some of Camden's favorite things, hot dogs, watermelon, corn, and cheetos!

Camden had fun opening his presents. Here he is opening his new bug house.

We had so much fun celebrating this special day with our little boy! We love him so much and are so grateful to be his parents. Happy Birthday Camden!

Mountain View, California

2011-06-01T14:19:00.000-07:00

Well, we have been here just about two and a half weeks now! We're enjoying our new surroundings and having fun exploring. Calvin is doing well at his internship and we're excited for what the rest of the summer will bring! Here are some pictures of what Camden and I have been doing while Calvin is at work.

The pool doesn't open here for another couple weeks, so we got this pool for Camden and set it up on the back patio. He loves going out there and playing in his pool and digging in the dirt. He also loves his new sandals.

Sometimes we eat our lunch outside.

There are so many nice parks around here! This morning, Camden rode his bike to this park just down the street from us. We go to a park almost every day! Camden loves to be outside. One morning, I told him it was kind of cloudy outside, and he said, no mom, it's warmy outside!

Camden wanted to take his bat and balls to the park one day. When he got there, all he wanted to do was play in the sand!

We drove out to this place called Shoreline Park. They have this lake where you can go sailing, kayaking, paddle-boating (?), etc. Look for this place again as I want to include renting a little sailboat as one of our summer activities! Camden just had fun chasing the geese. We miss our geese back home!

And here are a couple more of the nice parks we've visited...

Camden went and stood in front of this tree and said, take a picture of me mom!

For Family Night one Monday, we took Calvin and Camden to get hair cuts. This was Camden's first hair cut from someone other than mom and dad. He was so cute! He did a great job at holding still! When he got done, he said to me, that lady cut my hair mom!

Summer in California is going to be a lot fun! Tomorrow we celebrate Camden's 3rd Birthday! I love him so much and can't believe he is going to be 3. He is growing up so quickly! We are so lucky to have him as part of our family. He is going to be such a wonderful brother. Love you Camden!

A month in review...

2011-05-22T19:51:00.000-07:00

I am sorry that it has been a whole month since I've written anything on the blog! I promise to be much better throughout the summer. We've had a great and very busy month. Here are a few pictures from Easter! We had a fun time with our friends having a little easter egg hunt for all of the little kids.

Camden had a lot of fun searching for all of the easter eggs.

Camden and his friends. We miss our playgroup!

Thank you so much to my dad who flew out to North Carolina to drive to Utah with Calvin. Camden and I got to fly to Utah and spend some time with my mom. As soon as Calvin finished his last final, he and my dad loaded up the truck and pulled the camry out to Utah in a marathon drive!

Camden and I got to help pack the house in Farmington! It was so fun to see my family and I'm very sad we didn't take any pictures! We were so busy the whole time. We organized, packed, and had a yard sale! It was also nice to be able to be there on Mother's Day. I love my mother! For our mother's day dinner, my Dad and Danny went grocery shopping and Calvin cooked on Sunday for me, my mom, and Amy. It turned out great!

After our visit in Utah, we headed to Nevada. Calvin's dad came out to drive with us and we got to drive through Zion National Park where Calvin's grandpa grew up and where his great-grandfather had a ranch. It was neat to hear about Calvin's family. We also drove up to where the old farmhouse was. There are still the doorpost remaining.

Camden had a great time in Nevada playing all day long.

One of his favorite things was the playdough Grandma Winder made. He and Camille played with it for hours!

He also enjoyed being outside and getting VERY dirty!

It was so much fun to see our families! I wish we could have spent more time with them. We are now settled in to our apartment for the summer in Mountain View, CA. It is only a few miles from Calvin's office in Palo Alto. More pictures to come of what we've been up to here!

Our little boy...

2011-04-21T08:17:00.000-07:00

Is not so little anymore! Wow, Camden is just growing into such a wonderful little boy, and it is all happening too quickly! I am so excited for him to be a big brother. I think he is going to do a great job. Here are some pictures of Camden and some of the things we've been doing lately. After a lot of back and forth weather, I think it is safe to say that Spring is finally here! The trees and flowers have been beautiful.

Along with the trees and flowers come bugs! Camden has really liked looking at bugs lately and thought it was so fun to have this caterpillar crawl all over his arms.

Camden also loves playing in the water. Camden and I just finished our 4 week swimming class. He has become quite the swimmer! At the last class, he got to wear a life jacket, and he swam all by himself! He kept telling me, "don't hold me mom!" One day, we took his buckets down by the pond. I asked him what he was doing and he said, "trying to catch something!"

Here is the "after" picture.

Camden is also learning to get dressed all by himself! I heard him wake up from his nap one day and I came into his room to find him putting on another shirt. He loves wearing more than one shirt.

We often take a drive with Camden's truck over to the playground, check the mail, and swing on the swings.

We have a lot of fun going to friend's houses and parks with our playgroup! One day we took a drive out to the airport where they have an observation park where you can see the planes taking off and landing. We could have been at any park with a sand box! Camden was completely happy playing in the sand and probably didn't even notice the airplanes.

Camden also loves to help me in the kitchen. Don't worry, he is always well supervised!

Calvin has been riding his bike to school lately and which got Camden excited about riding his own bike. He was doing so well that we decided to get him his own big bike!

After riding to school almost every day for a month on the bike we had purchased for Calvin at Wal-Mart a while ago, it was time for something a little nicer. His poor bike was literally falling apart. It just was not made very well. Here is Calvin's nice, new road bike! It is awesome! I am so proud of him for riding to school every day (rain or shine)!

Dad was going out to fix something on the truck, so Camden went out to help with his own tool box.

We went to the Durham Bull's baseball game on opening weekend! Camden loved watching the game and also loved his footlong corn dog! He was excited to see Wool E. Bull and the Blue Monster (the mascots at the game).

Camden would not smile for the camera, he just kept making goofy faces.

On Saturday, Camden and I got to help out for the Great Day of Service for our stake and other churches in the community. We weeded and planted flowers. We also found and held a little snake! Camden thought it was pretty neat.

Yesterday, two families of geese with their little goslings came out to the pond! We have been watching for them. Camden loved going out to see them. Aren't they cute?!

We love Camden so much and just can't believe how quickly he is growing up! He is so much fun (when he's not tired) and we are so lucky to have him. We can't wait to be able to spend some more time with our families this summer and share our little Camden!

Days 5-Florida Keys

2011-04-11T11:27:00.000-07:00

Our last day of sight-seeing was spent in the Florida Keys. As you can see in the pictures above and below, Camden was a little moody because his nap schedule and our touring schedule were not working together. We took a fun tour out to a little island called Pigeon Key. The water was beautiful! I loved being out on the short boat ride.

The palm trees, beautiful weather, & slight breeze all combined for a tropical paradise scene!

The island has been used for many things over the years, but was first used to house the men who were working on the longest stretch of railroad (or road after it was no longer used for the railroad) over open water through the keys-7 miles!

Look at that view!

After our tour, we took Camden over to the beach. He was asking to build sandcastles all day!

Before heading home the next day, we spent some time at the pool. Camden loves to swim!

We had a wonderful trip! It was just so fun to be able to spend time together as a family and enjoy seeing places we've never been and soaking up some sun!

Day 4-Fort Lauderdale, Florida

2011-03-23T13:53:00.000-07:00

We had so much fun on Monday doing a couple of activities around Fort Lauderdale. Our first activity was a snorkeling trip on a glass-bottom boat. It was a beautiful day! 81 degrees, sunny, and calm-a perfect day out on the ocean! We rode for about 30-40 minutes out through the bay/harbor into the ocean to the spot where we stopped to snorkel. If you look closely, you can see the fish in the water by Calvin and Camden. We all got out into the ocean to swim, snorkel, and see the fish. Camden had his lifejacket and noodle and Calvin just held onto him while we were out in the water. It was so much fun!

The boat had these areas where you could look down into the water and see the fish swimming below the boat.

After about half an hour, Camden was getting a little cold, so we brought him back onto the boat and took turns snorkeling for our last half hour.

I had so much fun snorkeling! I think it was my favorite part of the trip.

We saw so many beautiful boats!

There were some HUGE boats.

And so many amazing houses.

Camden fell asleep on the way back. He was really tired after all the swimming! And when he woke up, he was very hungry! It was so cute. He said, Dad, I'm hungry! When we asked him what he wanted, he said he wanted a hamburger. We were so surprised at how much he ate! Usually he is more interested in fries or an ice cream cone, but he was a hungry little boy.

Our second activity was an airboat tour in the Everglades!

We saw some real, live, wild, alligators. Can you spot the animals in the following pictures?

Alligator....

Bird...

Turtles...

Baby alligators...this is probably the hardest one. Look to the left of the lily pads right near where the water turns to land and you may see some little stripes, that's the baby alligator.

Here's a video of part of the ride.

After the airboat ride, we got to see some of the alligators they had there.

We also got to watch this "wildlife show." This guy was hilarious. Here he is holding a baby alligator.

A little bigger...

And even bigger! He actually stuck his hand inside this alligators mouth! He showed us how he could put his hand inside the open mouth and the alligator wouldn't bite down if he didn't touch anything. But then when he put a pen inside and tapped the alligators mouth, it chomped down so hard and fast! It was crazy!

At the end of the show, we donated $3 and got to hold this live alligator!

It was such a fun day! I loved everything we did and had so much fun just being with Camden and Calvin.

Spring Break Day 2-Savannah, Georgia

2011-03-21T04:52:00.001-07:00

On our second day, we drove to Savannah, Georgia. We went to the train museum and history museum in Savannah. Camden really enjoyed seeing all of the trains and taking a ride on one!

Here we are up in a caboose!

We were sitting up in that top part with the windows.

This is an old bridge from the 1800's used to bring the trains into Savannah.

They converted the old passenger station into the history museum.

That's all for our stop in Savannah! That evening, we drove down to Valdosta, Georgia and visited Calvin's sister and her husband. We went to church with them the next morning, then on Sunday, we drove down the western side of Florida, then crossed over through the Everglades to Fort Lauderdale and checked into the hotel we would be staying in for the next 3 nights. That takes care of days 2 & 3! Next post will be day 4!

Spring Break Day 1-Columbia, South Carolina

2011-03-14T16:46:00.000-07:00

We had such a fun time on our spring break trip! We left on Friday and headed for Columbia, South Carolina. We took a small highway most of the way there instead of taking the freeway. It was so nice to be out of the city and off the beaten path a little bit. We were able to see some beautiful green fields and some open spaces. On our way, we saw a huge orchard and they had a sign for their farm store. In the store, they had all kinds of ciders, jams, produce, etc. I was wishing it was a few months later and we could get some fresh peaches! There was also a small "museum" with quite a collection of tractors and other things.

Camden had fun trying out all the different trucks and tractors.

Two of our favorite shows right now are on the history channel, American Pickers (two guys who travel around and look through peoples' barns to find antiques and things) and Pawn Stars (a pawn shop in Las Vegas, they show people bringing in all kinds of antiques and they figure out if they are real or fake and then sometimes have things restored). We felt like we were right in one of the episodes with all of these antiques and things that we've seen on the shows!

This is a visible gas pump, you could see exactly how much gas you were getting-yes, we learned that on American Pickers :)

We took Camden to the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia. He had so much fun running from exhibit to exhibit to see all of the different animals. His favorites were the lions and the bears.

The kangaroo exhibit was really cool, you could walk right into the exhibit to see the kangaroos.

Camden enjoyed posing with all of the different animal statues.

They also had a farmyard area where we fed some goats and milked a cow!

At the end of the night, we checked into our hotel then went to get some dinner. There was a guy at the restaurant making balloons into anything kids asked for! Here is Camden's dinosaur hat.

Check back soon for Day #2!

Videos of Camden

2011-03-13T19:20:00.000-07:00

We have had so much fun with the warmer weather. I just wanted to share a couple videos of what Camden has been up to! He is getting much better at steering his truck. He loves to go outside and drive his truck.

Another thing Camden loves to do is play with water. He loves to pour the water back and forth between different containers. I decided to let him play in the tub for a while one day and try out his new swimming suit before we went on vacation!

One of those nights...in the kitchen

2011-03-01T17:24:00.000-08:00

So, you know those nights, the nights when nothing seems to work out? Specifically, when you are cooking? I had one of those nights last night. The first problem was that I wasn't exactly sure when Calvin would be home to eat, so I was trying to make dinner so that it would be ready whenever he got home. I was going to cook some pork chops with bbq sauce on the grill outside, but it started pouring rain, so I decided to just bake them in the oven.

Well, by the time we got around to eating them, Calvin described the pork chops as "pork jerky." They were a little over-cooked, to say the least. In addition, I steamed the broccoli until it was just broccoli mush. Luckily, the mashed potatoes turned out ok. Then, I had tried a new brownie recipe for our family night treat, and it was terrible. I had decided to be creative and put in some chocolate chips, mini marshmallows, and chopped nuts (rocky road?) and that just added to the mess. Overall, it was not my best night in the kitchen.

So, just remember, set a timer, follow the recipe, be careful when trying a new recipe, and if your husband's coming home late, get some take out :)

Last Day of February

2011-02-28T12:28:00.000-08:00

Wow, February has been such a busy month! Calvin has had so much going on this month with school, the Duke Law Journal, and everything else in between! I truly appreciate him and how much he takes time to spend with Camden and me, even when he has so much going on. We had a fun Valentine's Day weekend. Calvin got me these bright and beautiful flowers.

On Monday, he brought home some sugar babies for Camden and some chocolate-covered macadamia nuts for me, yum!

We got to go out on a date to Rockfish Grill at Southpoint over the weekend. It was fun to spend some time together and the food was really good!

Thank you Calvin for all you do and for working so hard! Thank you Camden for being such a sweet little boy and my little companion every day. What great Valentine's I have!

"I do reading"

2011-02-24T04:01:00.000-08:00

I was making dinner yesterday and Camden was playing in the living room, when I heard him go into the bathroom. A minute later, he came back out to get a chair from his little table in the kitchen. I went to check on what he was doing, and this is what I found :) He had set this up all by himself. I asked him what he was doing and he said "I do reading."

I took a little video, but you can't hear him talking very well.

It's starting to warm up outside, so we've had the chance to get out and enjoy some of the nice, sunny days! We cleaned off our patio and ate some lunch outside.

On Saturday, we went over to the park to play in the sand. Camden was having too much fun to look at the camera!

When we're not outside, Camden loves to build roads with his blocks and play with his collection of cars.

We are so excited for Spring to be here! It can't come fast enough! Especially because that means Calvin will be caught up on more of his school things (he has been extremely busy!!) and we'll have a chance to go on a vacation for spring break!

It's a BOY!

2011-02-08T04:45:00.000-08:00

You may have heard the news, but we found out yesterday that we are going to be having a baby boy! He is due on July 4th. We are all so happy and excited. Camden has been saying that he is going to have a sister, so now we are working on convincing him that it actually is going to be a brother (and that the baby is in mom's tummy and not his own). I think it will be so fun for Camden to have a brother.

I have just started to feel the baby moving, which is also really exciting. I can't wait for Calvin and Camden to be able to feel it too. I think that will help Camden understand even more.

We are just so grateful to be a family and to be able to add one more little boy. I am going to be even more outnumbered! Calvin's dad pointed out that I might begin to get a feeling of what my dad went through all those years with all girls! I love my boys and I am so happy to have another one!

Lots of Shirts!

2011-02-04T07:25:00.000-08:00

Camden is so funny! Lately, he has been telling me he wants to wear "lots of shirts." One morning, he brought down this whole pile of shirts from his drawer and told me he wanted to wear them all. So I put an extra one on, and he said more. We kept on going until we could not put any more shirts on. The funniest thing is that he wore them all day! He did not want me to take them off. I think he had on about 6 shirts, including at least one sweatshirt.

This is the most extreme day of our "lots of shirts" but there are plenty of days that he still gets out a pile of shirts and asks to put them all on. What a funny boy!

New Year in Nevada

2011-01-17T12:01:00.001-08:00

We had a great time visiting our family in Nevada! It was so much fun to be able to spend time with them and celebrate the new year. Here are some pictures of some of the fun things we did!

Camden enjoyed helping Grandma Winder in the kitchen.

We brought Grandpa Winder a new puppy! He came with us on the airplane all the way from Utah.

Here's Camden-driving a truck at the age of 2. Well, steering a truck at least! Don't worry, we were just out in the field...no hazards around.

Here are some of the tracks Camden made while driving the truck.

I love the Nevada landscape! It's so nice to be able to see so far. Camden, Daddy, and Uncle Mckay.

One afternoon, we headed out to the desert to do some shooting. We set up a target stand and we each got our own paper target to put up. Calvin won the competition.

Calvin showing Camden how it's done.

Grandpa taught Mckay too!

Laiel's husband Dusty...the target was pretty far away!

We also had a chance to gather everyone for a family picture.

Yes, Mckay was being a little silly in all the pictures...this is the best we could get! Pretty good of everyone else though! Look at that old guy on the left-he's even smiling too!

Happy New Year!

On another afternoon, we got the chance to go up past Reno to a place we could go sledding. It was beautiful!

We found the perfect little sled for Camden. It had a seat belt and a back rest and it slid down the hill really well! We took the sleds we got for Ivan and Mckay last year too.

Don't look too closely at the faces here...I think I'm the only one who got the memo to smile :)

Katie and Ashton! We had a lot of fun together.

Camden loved sledding, he kept saying, again! again!

And for one more outing-for FHE one night, we got to go to the "best place in the whole world" according to Mckay-the Fun Center in Fernley. The kids got to play in this 3 level play ground while we played a couple of games of bowling. Everyone had a lot of fun!

And finally, for your viewing pleasure, Camden's rendition of the Heigh Ho song from Snow White. His version goes, "Heigh ho, heigh ho, I do work!"

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-26T08:00:00.000-08:00

We have had such a wonderful Christmas season...and it's not over yet! Tomorrow we leave to visit Calvin's family in Nevada. Here are some pictures of what we've done so far...to start out, we went to our ward Christmas party. Camden had fun seeing Santa and the only thing he said he wanted when Santa asked him what he wanted for Christmas was a candy-cane (the treat Santa was handing out :)

Camden also had fun decorating sugar cookies. I couldn't get him to look away long enough to catch a picture. I love how he is smiling though!

On the Sunday before we left, we got up and had our own Christmas morning! Santa Claus brought Camden his own Ford F-150 to drive and didn't want us to have to try to bring it back from our vacation, so he came early! Camden and Dad in their new Christmas pajamas-a Christmas Eve tradition from my family.

Camden was excited to leave a note, some milk, and a cookie for Santa Claus. I don't have any pictures of our Christmas morning because I was using the video camera. Needless to say, Camden was very excited about his truck. He kept saying, "Santa Claus bring me big truck!" "Santa Claus bring me presents!" He didn't even want to open anything else after he saw his truck. We had a lot of fun driving it around before we left.

When we got to Utah, we had our 3rd annual Saturday-before-Christmas Eggett party. Since Amy and I have been in different places on Christmas day, we've been having a party while we were in the same place at the same time. We also carried on the tradition of the packing-tape-ball-game. Inside the ball, there are prizes and mints wrapped up in the tape. We all sit in a circle and roll some dice and whenever you get doubles, you get a chance to try to rip apart the ball and get the prizes out. You get to keep ripping until someone else in the circle gets doubles and then you pass it to them. It gets pretty intense! At the end of the game, you get to trade your mints in for envelopes with other prizes, including gift cards (some valuable, some kind of worthless, like ones with one or two dollars left), money, and sometimes other silly coupons, etc. We always include a service project as part of the days activities, and this year we got to use some of the money to buy some presents for a family we adopted for Christmas.

You can't tell from the pictures, but the ripping action is pretty crazy!

Danny's trying to get out one of the valuable mints.

While we were here, we got to visit some of my favorite places to eat. I've been dreaming about them for months! Nielsen's for some custard and a Finer Things Combo sandwich (warm turkey, cream cheese, and avacado, mmm), Mandarin for Chinese, Robintino's for a shrimp salad, and Keva Juice for a fruit smoothie, yum!!! Here we are at Nielsen's.

We had a lot of fun putting together a gingerbread house from Great-Grandma Eggett. Thanks Grandma!

We enjoyed going to see the lights on Temple Square on Christmas Day after seeing a movie with my family and having dinner at Little America. Thanks Mom and Dad!

Camden had fun playing with some new toys, including this train!

And we can't forget a couple of videos! We went down to Provo to see the Carl Bloch art exhibit and afterward went down to Spanish Fork to see the Festival of Lights. You drive through this park where they have set up all kinds of lights! It was really fun. I'm glad we could take Camden back there and take my family too!

On the way home, Camden was having fun singing Christmas songs, including this version of "Jingle Bell Rock."

We have had a wonderful Christmas and we are looking forward to spending some more of the holidays with our family in Nevada. Merry Christmas, we love you all!

Winter is here!

2010-12-10T05:42:00.000-08:00

We were all very excited to put up our Christmas decorations! Camden enjoyed trying to wear his stocking. We had fun decorating the tree with all of our fun ornaments, including ones I've made and ones Calvin made when he was a little kid. We're working on a few for Camden to add!

We tried to take a family picture on Sunday, but with the automatic timer, it didn't focus quite right, so black and white looked a little better! We'll have to take some more when we have a photographer around!

Camden looking very handsome on our way to church.

On Sunday, we invited some friends over to watch the First Presidency Christmas devotional. We made some more cinnamon rolls! Yum!

One morning we made one of Calvin's favorite breakfasts from when he was a little kid-one eyed sailor boys!

You cut out a circle in a piece of bread (we decided to use our Christmas cookie cutters)...

Toast it in the pan and crack an egg in the middle...

Flip it so it is cooked on both sides, then once it is done, you have a fried egg in the middle of your bread. You use the piece you cut out to dip in the yolk. Camden loved it! He ate two!

The finished product...

We were also lucky enough to get a little snow storm! It definitely added to the Christmas spirit.

Camden and dad had a lot of fun building a snowman!

We are looking forward to Calvin finishing his finals and going to visit our families for the holidays!

November-a month in review...

2010-12-07T10:14:00.000-08:00

Wow! What a busy month we had and how few pictures I took! November was beautiful here in Durham. The leaves were changing, the weather was nice, it was a great month. Here is Camden outside the church on a Saturday that we went to help clean.

On the Saturday before Thanksgiving, we went to see Harry Potter. Here's Camden by our favorite little marching band statues.

On November 22nd, we celebrated Calvin's 25th birthday! We love you dad!

We had delicious homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast!

For Thanksgiving, we had a nice dinner together at home. It was fun! I cooked from 7:30 am until we ate at 3 pm! It was a lot of work. Everything was good-the only thing I forgot to make was the stuffing!

Delicious pecan pie.

Here's the spread, what a lot of food!

November was a good month! It went by so quickly. And now...on to December! Happy Holidays!

Halloween & More!

2010-11-10T06:13:00.000-08:00

This post has been many days in the making, but I am finally getting it up! Here is our family at the ward Halloween party-unfortunately Camden did not look at the camera.

We had fun at the trunk-or-treat, when Camden was finished with one side of the parking lot and we turned around to head back on the other side, he said excitedly, more?! It was really cute. He did a good job of saying trick-or-treat and thank you!

After a tiring morning at the party, the cowboys needed a little shut-eye.

We also took the opportunity to try on Dad's Mexican sombrero we found in the attic!

That night, we carved our pumpkins! Camden got very dirty!

Slime!

We roasted the pumpkin seeds, yum!

And here are the finished pumpkins! Camden's, Mom's, Dad's

Here are some pictures of a few of the other things we have been doing lately!

Playing in the rain...

Growing some flowers...

Chopping wood...

Building fires in our fireplace....

And spending time together...Camden and I went to this International talent show at the law school which was put together by my friend's husband. A friend sitting behind us caught this cute picture!

Camden had fun putting on all the leis!

We are having some fun in the beautiful Fall weather here in Durham but can't wait to see all of our family over the winter break!

Fall Weekend Fun!

2010-10-24T13:42:00.000-07:00

We had a fun weekend, doing a few fall activities! On Friday night, we went to the North Carolina State Fair. I am so glad we parked and came in the entrance we did. The first area we came to was dedicated to plants, flowers, and gardens! Last year we got so lost in the maze of rides and food stands that we didn't even find this part of the fair. I loved it!

We then headed off to find Camden's priority-animals! He had so much fun looking at all of the different animals. He really enjoyed petting and feeding the goats!

We also saw cows, pigs, a horse with a baby mule, and chickens! (Someday Calvin will have cows and I'll have chickens :)

We ended the night with watching the Demolition Derby! I love these! This one wasn't the best one we've been to, but it was still lots of fun.

The nights are getting cold here!

On Saturday night, we headed out to find some new cowboy boots for Camden. About a week ago, he suddenly became interested in wearing his cowboy gear-which he had completely grown out of. So for the past week, he's been walking around in his boots that are 2 sizes too small. Camden was very proud of his new boots! I asked him if I could take his picture and he even stuck out his foot to display his new boots.

After the mall, we went to TCBY for some frozen yogurt. I had pumpkin pie and chocolate! Yum! Then we walked over to Trader Joe's for some pumpkins and a few other things. Camden is asking for the camera to take a picture of mommy!

And here is what he got!

Just to show you how much Camden loves his boots, he slept with them next to his bed last night and put them on first thing when he woke up this morning!

We had a really fun weekend spending some time together! Next weekend-Halloween!

Outdoor Adventures

2010-10-19T18:24:00.001-07:00

We've gotten out a few times in the last couple weeks to enjoy the beautiful fall weather! Our first adventure was a trip to Hanging Rock State Park with a hike to see a couple of waterfalls.

The leaves were just starting to change.

In addition to riding on Dad and Mom's shoulders, Camden liked walking/running along the trail too.

His favorite part about the hike was collecting rocks and acorns. His pockets were bulging by the time we left!

Our second adventure was "hiking" along the banks of the Haw River, near Jordan Lake. We were going to go to some hiking trails at Jordan Lake, but with the $5 entrance fee and no cash, we decided to see what else we could do. We found a canoe access to the river, so we parked the truck and headed off on this little trail that went along the river. Camden was really excited to "go hi-hing."

We found some large trees!

Looking at this picture now, it looks like we are very bad parents-just notice Calvin's foot on the right side of the picture :)

The scenery was beautiful! I love rivers.

Family photo-thank you automatic timer.

I love this time of year! The leaves are changing and the weather is so pleasant. I'm grateful for the opportunities we have to get outside and enjoy time together as a family.

Duke Gardens in September

2010-09-29T07:56:00.001-07:00

One morning after dropping Calvin off at school, Camden and I went over to the Sarah P. Duke gardens. I was amazed at the difference in plants from when Brooklyn and I were there in the spring.

Here is Camden saying "hi" to a bug.

We also saw this hawk!

Camden had a lot of fun with the ducks!

In the video, Camden is saying "come here duck! come here!"

Nevada & Hot August Nights

2010-09-27T07:54:00.000-07:00

We were so excited to finally arrive in Nevada! We were a day late, but we made it (after staying a night in a hotel in an airport in Taiwan, hanging out at the airport, talking the airline staff into sending us to LAX instead of SFO so that we could leave 8 hours earlier, spending 13 hours on the plane, getting through the long lines of customs, and then again talking the staff into sending us on to Reno...what a trip!).

The first order of business after arriving at the Winder household-a haircut for Camden!

We helped out while we were there by baling the hay. Camden loved riding on the tractor.

While we were there, we stopped in Reno for Calvin to interview with a law firm. We just happened to be there during this huge car show called Hot August Nights. There are contests, parades, concerts, and more. It is a lot of fun! Someday, Calvin plans on building some awesome cars for each of us :)

We had a lot of fun spending some time in Nevada and can't wait to go back!

Last Days in Hong Kong

2010-09-20T11:06:00.000-07:00

After Calvin's exams, we had one more day to do some sight-seeing in Hong Kong. We went to see the Hong Kong temple. It is so beautiful!

Across from the temple is a new church building that opened in June. There was an older building there that they tore down and replaced. We visited the mission offices that had been moved into the church building-they were previously inside the temple.

We also went to see the Hong Kong convention center.

We walked along the promenade in front of the convention center. Behind us you can see the tallest building on Hong Kong island, the IFC 2.

At the end of the day, we watched the light show that happens every night! It is almost 20 minutes long and is coordinated between many of the buildings on the island. It is so amazing! From the promenade across the harbor, music is played that goes along with the show.

Here is a short video of the show. It doesn't look as impressive as it really was because it is hard to see some of the lights on the video, but hopefully it will give you an idea of what it was like!

I hope you've enjoyed sharing this journey with us! Now on to some posts about what we're doing now!

Calvin, Ashton, & Camden EAT

2010-09-06T12:40:00.000-07:00

Man vs. Wild is one of my favorite shows. One of the episodes is a collection of all the crazy things Bear Grylls eats while surviving in the wild. Although we were not trying to survive in the wild, I did feel like I ate some unusual things! In addition to the unusual, we ate some delicious food in Hong Kong! Following are some things I caught on camera:

This is called a Dragon Fruit. It is so good! It has a mild, sweet flavor, I think similar to watermelon. Not the same flavor as watermelon, but the same amount of flavor, if that makes sense. The texture is similar to a kiwi with the small seeds. Yum!

This is traditional Hong Kong dim sum. If you look closely, you will see the strangest thing I ate, chicken's feet! (in the back on the left). It is kind of like eating chicken with the skin on, although having those bones in there makes the experience a little too much to handle. Needless to say, I only tried it once.

Camden enjoying the dim sum.

Shrimp-not strange, shrimp swimming around in a tank of water one minute-on your plate the next minute, a little more strange. In the seafood restaurant we went to, you just walk over to the tank of fish, crab, shrimp, etc. and pick what you want, then they cook it and bring it out!

After exploring one day, we were looking for a place to eat some dinner. Calvin led us into a Vietnamese restaurant. We ordered the dinner set for two and made a few choices, not really knowing what we were ordering. I was pretty skeptical, but pleasantly surprised when everything was wonderful! The fruit drinks were very good, the soup smelled and tasted great, and the meat (not in the picture) was so tender and flavored so well. I wish I could go back tonight!

After a lot of eating out, we decided to buy a few things so we could cook in our room.

McDonalds was a frequent stop for ice cream cones, Camden's favorite! He could spot the McDonalds arches and always asked for an "I ee done" (done pronounced like cone).

And he usually ended up looking like this.

After eating a lot of Chinese food, we were craving some burgers-Monster Burgers!

They definitely lived up to the name.

One of my new favorite treats-gots zi bang (that is definitely not spelled right, but that's what it sounds like). It is made with a warm waffle, spread with peanut butter, butter, sweetened condensed milk, sprinkled with sugar, then folded in half. Heavenly!!

We went to Shaffi's twice because it was so amazing! Calvin was introduced to Shaffi's Indian food on his mission. The tradition lives on today-we saw two missionaries there on our second visit!

Tikki masala, another chicken curry dish, naan (the bread), and rice.

I saved the best for last, bakeries! There are some amazing things here. We visited this bakery in the morning when everything was hot. It was so good!

These are one of my favorites, warm buns with hot dogs inside. Who knew a hot dog could be so good??

Another favorite, pineapple buns. Not flavored with pineapple, but the crumbly topping looks like the outside of a pineapple.

It was hard adjusting to different types of food and different ways of getting food, but I think we found some pretty good things! I would take Hong Kong over the places Bear Grylls goes and the things he eats any day!

Hong Kong Zoological & Botanical Gardens

2010-08-25T19:04:00.000-07:00

So, Hong Kong may be old news by now, but I have just a few more posts to put up!

On one of our last few days in Hong Kong, Camden and I took a trip to the nearby Zoological and Botanical gardens. The minibus doesn't exactly stop there, but it goes right by there, so I stayed on and asked the driver to stop when he got close, even though it was on this really steep hill. He told me in Chinese (translated by a few nice people) that he couldn't stop where we were, but he would stop in a minute. We hopped off and it was only a short walk up the hill to the entrance.

The first thing we saw was the reptile house. Camden enjoyed pointing out the sleeping alligator.

There were a lot of different kinds of monkeys! We enjoyed watching them swing through their exhibits.
Camden wanted to climb up and sit with King George VI. This statue was built in 1941 to commemorate 100 years of British rule in Hong Kong.

There were also many different types of birds, our favorite were the flamingos.

This is what I saw most of the time, Camden running away from me.

We went into the greenhouse and saw all different kinds of carnivorous plants! Crazy!

These ones attract bugs with the bright red on the leaves, then trap them when they fall into the liquid in the center.

There were also all different kinds of orchids. They were so beautiful!

We then walked through a bamboo garden. Camden loved running along the winding paths and sitting on these little benches. Each bench had a different animal holding it up. Look closely in this picture and you'll see Camden disappearing behind the bamboo.

After we left the zoo to find the bus, we had a great view of the huge buildings in Central.

After we saw several #3 minibuses going past us up the hill (they did not stop on the steep hill on the way up), we decided to go into this grocery store to get a snack and regroup. As you can see below, grocery stores here aren't quite the same as in the US. This one had an escalator for your grocery cart because it was on two levels! You really have to look in the right places to find grocery stores, they're just tucked into the lower levels of all types of buildings.

So we got a few buns for a snack, went outside to a little park, ate, played on the playground, then asked a lady who spoke English about the buses. We went down to the road where other buses were coming, and luckily all the bus schedules/routes are in English as well. I found one that said it was going to Hong Kong University, so we got onto that one. Well, it got close to the University, then turned and started heading another direction. By the time we came to a bus stop, we were quite far away, so I just stayed on the bus, and it eventually headed down to Central. Camden was asleep by that time. Luckily, we came to the spot our minibus stopped when we would go down to Central, so I was able to get on that bus, and go back home. It was quite the adventure, but I was pretty happy I was able to figure it out!

Here and There

2010-07-25T19:19:00.000-07:00

So our last couple weeks here in Hong Kong, we have been busy getting applications ready to send out for jobs for next year and Calvin has been getting ready for his tests, he's also had the opportunity to go meet with a few firms here in Hong Kong about possible opportunities. This hasn't left as much time for sight seeing; luckily, we got to see most of the places we wanted to see in our first couple weeks here. As soon as Calvin finishes his tests today, we will have 2 more days to finish doing the rest of the things we want to do before flying back to the USA! Camden and I like to go to the nearby playground in the mornings and we have gone out and done a few things here and there. Here is a collection of pictures from a few of the things we've done.

The above picture is of the church building in Kwai Fong. On Calvin's first Sunday here in Hong Kong as a missionary, the bishop asked him to give his testimony in Chinese.

We also visited the Tsuen Wan promenade and had fun on these "massaging" rocks (I don't think that's what they're officially called, but as I understand, that is their purpose, to massage the bottom of your feet).

Calvin lived in this building in Luk Yeung San Tsuen (you'd never guess how to pronounce it).

Here's Camden at our favorite park. He was more interested in the leaves and dirt than the playground on this occasion.

One morning, Camden and I walked down to Hollywood Road to look at the antique stores. My conclusion-if you price it high enough, it must be a real antique! We also saw the Man Mo Temple, the oldest Buddhist temple on the island. Between holding Camden and trying not to die from the amount of smoke coming from all the incense burners, no pictures were taken. You can CLICK HERE to see a virtual tour from the Hong Kong tourism board.

One morning, we went with my friends Arie and Na Young to the space museum. This is all of the museum that we saw. It didn't open until 1 pm. We went to the art museum instead.

Here is Camden sitting with a group of Chinese kids at the art museum. He saw them all sitting there listening to a lady talking and he wanted to join the group.

My favorite exhibits in the art museum were of the ancient ceramics and pottery and also the exhibit made up entirely of gold (jewelry, hair pins, belt buckles, etc.) Here's a video of Camden playing with some huge, foam cubes with Chinese characters on them at the art museum.

And lastly, here are a couple pictures of Camden doing another one of his favorite things, showering. He loves playing in there with the removable shower head.

We will have a few more posts about Hong Kong, and then it's back to the USA for us!

The Star Ferry

2010-07-16T19:52:00.000-07:00

My mom asked for some pictures of the Star Ferry, so here they are! Yesterday, we went to Mong Kok to get Calvin fitted for some suits (3 nice suits for about $250 USD!). There are a few ways you can get there from the island, where we are. You can take a bus or the MTR from Central, or you can take a ferry across the harbor, then take a bus. We decided on the ferry so I could get some good pictures, with the added bonus that the ferry is just fun (and another added bonus, it is cheap!).

Here is the pier where you pay your $2 to sit on the bottom deck, or $2.50 to sit on the top (that's in HKD! approximately $1 USD = $7.6 HKD).

Each ferry has it's own name, like the Northern Star, Twinkling Star, etc.

Camden liked watching the sailors and paid attention so he could do the job someday :) They wear these sailor uniforms that have stars on the front. The seats on the ferry are also decorated with stars.

The views from the star ferry are amazing! You can see the museums, art, science, and space, in the background on the left.

Here is a video when we were on our way home of the great view of Central across the harbor. The lights on the buildings were just coming on!

Sai Kung

2010-07-11T05:02:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, we left around 9:30 in the pouring rain and took the minibus down to Central. We then got on another bus that took us to Shun Lei Tsuen where we had dim sum. It was good (mostly)! Then we got on another minibus that took us to Sai Kung. In Sai Kung, Calvin haggled with one of the ladies offering boats, and got us our own little boat out to one of the islands. It was a little more expensive than some of the other boats, but we got to go out on our own instead of waiting for a boat to fill up and they came and got us when we were ready to go back.

We ate our ice cream cones on the way out, it was a hot day!

When we got out there, we walked out to this island on the land bridge that was exposed because it was low tide.

We also spotted this really funny typo/mis-translation on one of the signs giving information about the rocks in the area. It was showing the process of the salt water, weather, and erosion, making these rocks look like a popular bread here called a "pineapple bun." Look closely for the mistake.

This is a real pineapple bun. The name comes from the topping which looks like a pineapple, not because it has any pineapple flavor.

We had a really fun time exploring the tide pools along the land bridge out to the little island. We saw sea urchins, sea cucumbers, crabs, fish, and clams.

It was a beautiful day! The breeze on the ocean felt so good.

Calvin and I decided we wouldn't mind owning one of the many yachts drifting through the harbour.

We also found some coral!

We climbed some really cool rocks right there on the ocean!

Next time I want to go snorkeling here!

I was really relieved when our boat came back to get us :) Calvin assured me he had done this before and that they really do come back and get you.

They just pull their little "junk" boat right up to the pier for you to hop on!

When we got back over to Sai Kung, we took a bus ride out to another area nearby to see a place Calvin had served on his mission. We then met up with some friends we had met at church for pizza in Sai Kung. It was the best pizza! Here in Hong Kong, they have a different idea about what goes on a pizza, but this was a place owned by an Italian-American guy from New York, so it was really good.

On a side note, we saw this Hong-Kong sized fire truck pulling up to an apartment building-it was small!

We had a great day! On the way home, we stopped and bought a hot-plate burner, a pot, and some bowls and spoons so we can cook some more meals here in our room. We already have a refrigerator and a thing that boils water, but nothing else to really help us cook. We also stopped at a grocery store to get some food. It will be nice!

P.S. Leave us some comments and let us know who is reading the blog! I hope this lets you share in our adventure. We love and miss all our family and friends!

Stanley Market and Aberdeen

2010-07-11T03:00:00.000-07:00

On Friday afternoon, we headed to the back side of the island to see Stanley and Aberdeen. We passed Repulse Bay, which was absolutely beautiful. I think it is my favorite part of Hong Kong so far. Stanley was such a nice, quiet place; it was great. We walked through the shops, which was a lot of fun, just looking at all the things they had. There were a lot of handbags, clothes, knick-knacks, etc. We got 6 ties for Calvin for $100 HKD, which is just less than $13 USD, pretty awesome! We also stopped and got ice cream cones, or "i ee done" (done sounds like cone) in Camden's words, at McDonalds, where a family from Taiwan took pictures with Camden because I guess they just thought he was so darn cute! Camden now recognizes McDonalds and asks for an "i ee done" any time we pass one.

We also walked along the ocean front promenade in Stanley. It was so quiet and really beautiful!

We then took a bus to Aberdeen, historically a fishing village, that has recently grown to include many apartment buildings. The harbour was full of fishing boats because in June and July there is a fishing moratorium (in case you don't know what that means, as I did not, it is a time where they don't fish, to build up the fish population again).

Along the walkway around the harbour, there were many chinese women offering boat rides for a tour of the harbour, a ride to the famous floating restaurants, etc. We decided not to go, as Camden had fallen asleep on the bus ride over. We just walked along the walkway and read these little plaques telling about the history of the area and identifying the different types of fishing boats and methods. It was really interesting!

I really enjoyed learning more about the area and seeing a different side of Hong Kong. It is amazing the difference from the busy life of Central to the slower pace of areas like Stanley and Aberdeen, only a 30 minute bus ride away!

Monkey Mountain, Nan Lian Garden, Chi Lin Nunnery & Kwun Tong

2010-07-07T21:04:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, Calvin had the afternoon off, so we went off on another adventure and headed first to monkey mountain. We saw this statue just off the road and knew we were in the right place, so we hopped off the bus just in time. I took a picture just in case this was the only monkey we saw.

We started walking down the trail and I saw these beautiful butterflies! There were so many on these flowering bushes.

As I was standing there, trying to catch some good shots of the butterflies, monkeys started coming out from under the bush right where we were standing and walking out onto the road right there by us! Camden was finishing a bun we had purchased on our way there and these monkeys were eyeing it! Calvin hurried and put it in his mouth to keep the monkeys away.

You can see on the left there, those are the bushes I was taking pictures of and there are the monkeys right where they were coming out.

We kept walking down the trail to this reservoir. We got some good pictures that we thought Calvin's dad would like. He works with water, reservoirs, dams, and other water related things.

On the one side, the water wasn't very far down, but on the other side, the dam was huge! The water must have been pretty deep!

This looked just like a giant ruler.

We then walked back up the trail toward the monkeys and stopped for a picture in this monkey trap. Calvin checked really well before we walked inside to make sure we wouldn't be trapped! He has a picture of when he was on his mission of the missionaries in a trap like this.

The little baby monkeys were so cute!

After monkey mountain, we got back on a bus and then onto the MTR and got off at Diamond Hill. We walked over to the Nan Lian Gardens, which are part of the Buddhist Chi Lin Nunnery.

Look for the frogs in the right hand corner.

Bonzai trees!

Everything was so beautiful!

After visiting the gardens and nunnery, we rode a bus over to an area where Calvin served on his mission. We visited Brother Ng who Calvin worked with. He has had quite an interesting life! It was neat to meet someone Calvin had told me about.

This is where Calvin lived for almost 6 months! Those windows in the middle with the bars are the windows to the apartment he lived in. It is very close to the church building.

We then walked down to one of Calvin's favorite street markets and got the most amazing treat ever! It is called gaak jai behng (or I think it sounds like got zhi bang). It is this warm waffle with peanut butter, butter, sugar, and sweetened condensed milk spread inside and folded in half. It is absolutely amazing!!

We stopped and got some dinner, then headed back home! We rode a bus then took the star ferry across the harbor, then got on our mini bus #3 that took us back up the hill to our dorms! It was a fun day!

Lantau Peak, Big Buddha, and Disneyland

2010-07-04T06:55:00.001-07:00

Camden loves the shower here. The shower head comes off so you can hold it, so he likes to hold it and do it himself. He was really excited when daddy helped wrap him up in his own little towel (a hand towel)! Anyway, I thought I'd put that on here then tell you about our adventure on Saturday.

We got up at 5:30 am, hurried out, and took a taxi down to the ferry pier. We got on the 6:10 am ferry (the first one of the day!) that went to Mui Woi, Lantau Island. The ferry took about 45 minutes and Camden slept the whole way. When we got to Lantau Island, we took a bus up to where we would begin our hike to Lantau Peak.

This picture was my first excuse to stop and take a break, I think we had only been hiking for a few minutes!

The whole trail was made up of these stone steps. We went up along the ridge line of the mountains, so you could look over either side most of the way. There were no switch backs, just strait up! After we crested a few of the hills/mountains, Calvin said, we're almost there, it's at the top of this one! Well, when we got to the top, there was another mountain and more stairs! This happened at least two more times before we were actually "almost there." It was probably a good thing though that I thought I was "almost there" for about half of the hike, or I would have turned around! Calvin was so awesome carrying Camden all the way!

Look at those steps all the way up that mountain! We were up in the clouds for a lot of the time, which was really nice. The breeze and the coolness helped a lot! I can't imagine what it would have been like if we had gone later in the day. It was still very humid, but at least it wasn't too hot. Because of the mist and clouds, I couldn't get a good picture of the entire trail. You'll just have to believe me when I tell you, it was far and tough!!

And finally, we made it to the top!! It was about 3 kilometers. Not extremely far, but so steep most of the way.

I was so grateful to be at the top! Then, we started the trek down to Big Buddha. It was really neat when we were walking down, we could hear the monks chanting. Going down from the peak was about 1 1/2 kilometers. It was even more steep than coming up! It was a relief to be going down, but after a while, my legs were so sore from going down all those steps. Once we made it to flat ground again, I was really happy.

These are the steep steps coming down from the peak, looking back up from where we had come down.

Some of the clouds cleared a bit and we could see down to the monastery and the Big Buddha.

We stopped for a minute to take much-needed rest on this bench.

We could see Big Buddha better as we came down the mountain.

This is a view in the opposite direction; you can see a reservoir and the ocean.

More steps and the mountain in the clouds.

A better view of the mountain we came down.

We finally got all the way down and entered the monastery area. There was this rooster (?) to greet us. I don't really know much about it, except that it looked pretty cool.

There was also this thing called the Wisdom Path. Each of those pillars had writing on them that signified something for the Buddhist monks.

We saw this crazy caterpillar when we were walking to Big Buddha.

Here it is! Big Buddha. It is huge! By the time we got there, I was not exactly interested in walking up all the steps all the way to the top of that hill, so we enjoyed the view from below.

We then walked through this little village of shops and restaurants and purchased tickets to take a cable car down. The cable cars have only been running for about 3 years and this "village" was built because of the increase in tourism in the area. The cable cars have made this area much more accessible and attractive to tourists.

From the cable cars, you could see the Hong Kong airport. It is on an entirely man-made island. You can tell from this picture that it is just a flat area (very different from the islands!) and you can see how it can be man-made. When I was actually there, I couldn't tell.

After the cable cars, we went over to the MTR (subway) station and ate at McDonalds for lunch. It was great. We took the time to change out of our sweaty clothes (Camden had to wear his pjs from earlier, we didn't expect to need to change him too, but, sitting on Calvin's shoulders got him pretty wet, haha).

There is a special MTR line that takes you to Disneyland. As soon as you walk over to that part of the station, the magical disney music begins. Then the train pulled up and the windows were mickey mouse ears and the inside was all disney-style, it was great!

Welcome to Hong Kong Disneyland! I love Disneyland, so this was really fun.

Hong Kong Disneyland is much smaller than the regular Disneyland. There were not a lot of rides, the only big ride was Space Mountain. Everything else, Camden could do. First we went on the jungle cruise. Then we went over and watched this 30 minute Lion King performance with songs from the broadway musical. That was really neat. Then we were walking to the next area and Camden was so beat, he fell asleep. Calvin had splurged and rented a stroller. He had been carrying Camden and a bag around long enough! I am glad we did that.

While Camden slept, we went over to Space Mountain and each took a turn going in the single rider line, where you could pretty much just walk on. Then we just walked around Dinseyland, which didn't take long, just to see what was there. They had 3 areas, Adventureland, Fantasyland, and Tomorrowland. When Camden woke up, we went on some more of the rides. We did the Toy Story, shoot Emperor Zurg ride, Winnie the Pooh, Carousel, Autotopia, & It's a Small World.

By the time we were done with those rides, we were all pretty worn out from the day. We stopped and got a little souviner for me and a Mickey Mouse sugary marshmallow thing on a stick for Camden. We then walked back to the MTR station, took that back closer to home, looked for this restaurant Calvin had talked about from his mission, found out that it cost $178 HKD for dinner (compared to the $50 Calvin had paid for lunch) and decided to eat somewhere else, then headed back home, showered, and fell into bed, exhausted! What a great day!