Pictures from our Trip

I made another Smilebox scrapbook with some highlights from our trip (at least those I got on camera)

Amazing Angela

In case any of you were wondering about the awesome music on our Holiday Park scrapbook, it is one of the new songs from Angela Soffe's new solo album, "Sand and Rain." Angela is Randall's very talented singer/songwriter sister. We got one of the first copies of Angela's CD at her release party earlier this month and then played it throughout our vacation week. Eva and Noel now ask me every day if I can put on Aunt Angela's music and they love to sing along. If you're interested in her music, you can buy it on itunes, digstation, and CDBaby. Angela was recently featured on Cherie Call's New Music Show. She gives a great interview and the podcast includes some of her new songs if you want to take a listen. We're so proud of Angela--she really is AMAZING!

We Just Got Back

We were up in the mountains for the last week--Randall's much-anticipated vacation. I made a digital scrapbook with some of the pictures I took (see following post). My great grandfather built a cabin in Holiday Park and left it for his descendants to enjoy. Isn't that a neat legacy? It is in the lower Uintas just past Oakley and is such a beautiful place. The kids love pointing out all the letter H's built into the furniture and deck and reminding me that the H is for "Hardy" (my mother's maiden name). The Weber River, which runs past the cabin, was overflowing its banks due to the rapid snow melt. Randall was disappointed because he wanted to try fly fishing, but the river was just too fast and dangerous. He was able to catch one small fish in the cold stream behind the cabin, but threw it back because it wasn't worth cleaning for two bites. We enjoyed visits from the Newells, the Mouriks, and my mom and dad during the week. As usual, I wish I had remembered to get my camera out and taken more pictures. Our kids had so much fun with their cousins and Randall and I appreciated more stimulating adult conversation. Dad also rescued our keys for us after we locked them inside the car.

Residency has taken its toll

I found my first gray hair a couple weeks ago. And not just one--five! Dun...da...dun...dun...Sorry, guys, no pictures.

Randall and his coworkers go to great lengths to keep a sense of humor and stay sane. They all grew mustaches for a month. Now be honest, if your doctor looked like this, could you seriously let him deliver your baby?

I couldn't!

Randall is on OB call tonight and I have this bad habit of staying up really late when he's not here. I decided to paint our front door and surprise him in the morning. The only problem is that it takes a while to dry both the primer and paint coats and I don't feel comfortable going to bed with the door ajar. Okay, so this probably wasn't the smartest late-night project...

The Camera

Randall has officially relinquished his job as our family photographer due to the demands of his new career. I admit freely that my documentation of Pace family life is severely lacking--due to lack of talent, lack of time, and lack of stick-to-it-iveness. But as Eva learned at Greenacres Elementary this year, "You get what you get and you don't throw a fit." We must move forward! So here we are loving life in Idaho. We are ready for it to quit snowing already so we can get our vegetable garden out of our living room and into our backyard. Anyways...a few days ago (when it wasn't snowing), the kids were out in the garden playing with one of our wheelbarrows. They were so cute all happily playing together that I whipped out our camera to capture the moment. I'm not sure I actually DID capture the moment, but I had fun seeing the ways my kids behave for the camera these days.

Eva quickly became aware that she was being watched and started posing.

Noel whipped out her fake smile.

Sophia either glared at the camera or gave it a blank stare. I thought this picture of her was particularly choice. She pulls all the barrettes and ponytails our of her hair as soon as I do it in the morning, preferring the shaggy dog look these days. Oh, and the dress she's wearing is one I found at a garage sale for 25 cents or something ridiculous. Why pay $30 for a Disney princess outfit when they are just as happy with the fru fru dress somebody else is throwing away?

And Hunter was oblivious that pictures were being taken. I had a hard time getting him to look at me most of the time.

Picture Highlights

I won't give my excuses, instead I'll just fill you in on the past 10 months (has is really been that long?!)

November

We took a weekend trip from Lynchburg to see more of the country in western Virginia before really heading out West. We went to church in Buena Vista (home of Southern Virginia University) and happened upon this strange tourist attraction called "Foamhenge."
It is a recreation of the famous Stonehenge in England only it is made out of huge foam blocks, carved and painted to look real.We thought it was a little hokey, but decided to take advantage of the opportunity in case we never get to Salisbury to take pictures of the real thing :)

October

Being a botanist, I couldn't resist creating some Halloween zinnias this year. I was pleased with how well they turned out :)


As you can see, the only reason the pictures turned out was with some heavy lollipop bribery!


October was an incredibly busy month. After our trip down to Raleigh we switched into high gear and packed up our apartment. We moved all of our stuff with the help of friends from church (who were absolute lifesavers!) and moved our family west to Lynchburg for a few weeks. Randall rotated with a country doctor in a little town called Big Island. He didn't mind the 30 minute commute each way because the Appalachian Mountains were glorious in the height of fall color. And the personalities of the locals were just as colorful as the countryside!




Randall signed up for a sprint triathlon to help motivate him to exercise. It really worked and he performed well the day of the race. The triathlon was just outside of Raleigh, so we stayed with Chase and Laura in their beautiful new home. It was a lot of fun to see them and enjoy most of general conference together. The girls loved hanging out with cousins just their size.

September

Okay, so my kids love playing in the water. The biggest treat is when we get a heavy summer rainstorm and we run up and down the street in front of our apartment splashing puddles. We're kind of the freaks of the neighborhood that way!

Again, here we are playing in the water. I'm sure our landlord will be glad when we're gone because there will be a significant ease up on the water bill. Sometimes the girls will take three baths a day, not because they are dirty, but because it is just so much fun. Three of the girls in the tub are mine and the fourth is Lauren Peterson, a friend we were babysitting.
As you might have guessed, Randall is the one who introduced the idea of playing with latex gloves in the bathtub. It has been a big hit ever since.

August

James and Natalie's wedding was the event of the summer. We felt fortunate that Randall was able to rearrange his rotations at the last minute so we could come back to Utah. We love every moment we get to spend with our families. James found an amazing girl and it is wonderful to see him so happy. Mun spoiled Eva, Noel and Sophia with cute matching dresses they got to wear to the wedding.


We took advantage of our time in Utah to get some great out-in-nature time. Randall convinced Spencer to help him take Eva and Noel on a fun hike in the Uintas. We weren't prepared with warm clothes, so Chrissy lent the girls some things to wear.


We visited the fair in Spanish Fork to listen to Angela perform with her band, Marigold. They were amazing!

Randall convinced Angie, Spencer and his dad to join him on an overnight adventure in the mountains. He just can't get enough of it. How can you blame him when you have vistas like this? It also helps to have great company.

We were privileged to escort Karie and Chris Urick to the Raleigh Temple. This is another amazing couple and we loved being there when they became a forever family--married for time and all eternity. I didn't know Chris very well before this trip (Karie and I worked together through our callings in the Relief Society) and it was fun to discover his enthusiasm for the gospel and witness his deep love for his wife. He's definitely a keeper, Karie!

July

The Hafer family graciously invited us to join them for a fun 4th of July camping/fishing trip on the Chickahominy River (near Williamsburg).

Check out this campsite on the beach. Pretty cool, huh? It was only accessible by boat, so we took several trips across the water getting all of our supplies over.

There were some rough turns of events (rain and a broken outboard motor), but we still managed to have fun. Fred and Casey were gracious hosts and bent over backwards to take care of us.

The creature from the swamp...no wait, that's Sarah! As you can imagine, the only inspiration for such a gross costume was a dare from Randall.

June

More strawberry picking...only this time with friends (Seth, Eva and Grant). Eva called her friend Seth a few weeks ago when it was her birthday. After a lengthy conversation, Eva handed the phone back to me. She said Seth had to go because "his ear hurt." I laughed for a long time about that one. I think Randall can sympathize with Seth surrounded by a house full of girls. Sometimes when you get a girl talking...

May

I love strawberry season! As you can tell the girls aren't worried about eating a little dirt with those berries when they've just been picked.

My friend Michelle made adorable matching green skirts for the girls. I took these pictures with Daddy after church. We were in Raleigh for a family medicine conference over the weekend.

When Randall was on his surgery rotation he brought home extra surgical hats, gloves and scrubs for the girls to dress up in. Randall always seems to know how to liven things up and make things more interesting for everyone. It's probably because he is still a kid at heart.