Blueberry pickin'

What a lovely weekend! Friday Dave was off so we had a chance to go to the temple together which was wonderful. Saturday, we decided to go on our annual blueberry picking expedition. This fun family tradition started a few years ago when we were in Boston. We were driving home from a church activity and decided to stop by a little U-Pick farm in New Hampshire. We had so much fun picking berries and eating goodies in the little country store. Then last year we went with Dave's brother and sister-in-lay John and Rachel. Saturday we went back to the place we went to last year, Blueberry Hill. The weather really cooperated, it was only 95* instead of the 105* it's been the past few weeks. Plus we had some cloud cover which was great. This is nearing the end of the blueberry season so we kind of had to work hard to fill our baskets, but it was worth it. The blueberries are so sweet and delicious. Ellie pooped out on us after just a few minutes of picking, but we had a little chat about the Little Red Hen and she half-heartedly picked blueberries with us until the bucket was full. Dave and I felt like it was a good opportunity to teach her about sticking with a job until it's done. When we finished we enjoyed a picnic on the porch and headed home. This morning we made blueberry waffles! Yum Yum! It's so fun to get out and do things together as a family! On a totally different subject, it was clouding over when we left church today, and by the time we got home a huge thunderstorm was going on. We all stood on the porch and enjoyed the show for a while. After a bit things got even more exciting when it started hailing chunks of ice between pea and quarter sized. I was a little concerned for our cars, but what can you do? Maybe now that it's stopped raining I should go outside and take a look...

Texas Ramblings

So it's been a while for me to post, but there have been so many things happening that I thought that I'd better write something. We moved on out to Texas and have been living with our friends Danny and Becky Dura for the last few weeks. We found a new home in the Plano area and are excited about moving into the house and beginning to make it our own. We had some really good fortune and were able to rent out our Arizona home fairly quickly. It was only empty for three weeks and it is now occupied which is such a weight off of my mind. I have been adjusting to my new role at Raytheon and am enjoying my time so far. Elisabeth and Charity seem to be enjoying themselves here in TX and they often go to fitness club where Charity gets to excercise while Ellie gets to go to the kiddie playland. They babysit for up to 2 hours each day. They also are enjoying the pool there at the fitness center as well.
We have a few things that we are going to be doing with the house pretty soon. The major issue will be having to put up a fence on the property. Without the fence, the house looks a little bit out of place since every other house around it has one. I also would like to investigate the radiant barrier concept. I am a big fan of getting the variable monthly bills as small and predictable as possible. We aso went out last weekend and bought all new appliances for the kitchen. The seller is taking the refrigerator and the other appliances are a bit dated. The dishwasher is a bit rusty on the inside for example. We will have all of the appliances delivered shortly after moving into the house next month.
One of the reasons why we liked this house is because the house faces a small forested area instead of other houses. From the front windows, you can see a walking path, trees and a small fountain in a pond. I think the biggest thing for Charity though is that the house has the open floorplan in the kitchen and living room area as opposed to having most every room segmented off. We are really looking forward to getting settled down in the new place.