Fall is here!

I know it has been a long time since I updated this.... I don't even have a good excuse. I just haven't done it! So here is a little picture update for September. (Are you happy now Bethany? ha ha) I'll try to post a video or two soon.
It's been a beautiful month with temperatures in the 70's for the most part. We did have a few thunderstorms, but mostly it has been really nice. There are several parks near where we live so I try to go for a walk and take Anna a few times a week. She loves to swing and would do it all day if I let her! She also loves animals and gets excited every time she sees a bird flying or a cat or a dog. Fortunately for her there are tons of people in Flagstaff with dogs, so she gets to see lots of them besides Cooper. I don't think she even thinks of him as a dog. He's just Cooper.












































On Labor Day we went to the county fair. They did a really cool thing and said if people biked to the fair instead of driving they could get in free. So we went to the fair and didn't spend a dime! Yes, we were too cheapskate to even buy some fair food. It was so expensive! But we had fun biking there and walking around for awhile. Anna loved the animals, especially the turkeys for some reason. She kept saying gobble gobble at them! She knows her animal sounds so well and loves to say them to the animals! I don't know if the animals were too thrilled about it, but we sure had a great time.
Anna is a little bookworm! She loves to look at books and be read to. She brings me books all day long and asks "book? read?" It's pretty cute. We got a new bookshelf and put her books on the bottom and she seems to think her shelf makes a pretty good chair as well as a book holder! She sits in there all the time!


Anna is totally obsessed with shoes! She puts them on her dolls, stuffed animals, and even poor Cooper! He's such a good sport and puts up with anything from her.

I think this picture is hilarious! First of all, she's sitting in a baby bouncer and it's about hitting the floor... Second, she is wearing fuzzy boots that are 2 sizes too big with her church clothes (she loves to wear these boots as well as put them on her teddy bear). And third, she is holding Barrett's Portuguese bible. She doesn't even care if books don't have pictures. She just likes to carry them around and flip the pages. What a silly silly girl we have!

This picture doesn't show it very well, but Anna fell down and got a big dark bruise right on her cheek. She's also wearing the fuzzy boots again! By the way, I do do Anna's hair every day, even though it's not done in most of these pictures!


A couple of weeks ago we went for a little hike on a Saturday. We live so close to the mountains that we only have to drive a couple of miles to get to trail heads. This hike was pretty neat because it went from ponderosa pines to juniper trees (Barrett is standing by an enormous one we found) and then turned rather deserty with cactus and yucca plants. We got quite the variety of scenery! It was a fun little hike and nice to get out in nature. It was my birthday on the 24th and I turned 24! It seemed like my birthday all week because I got packages from family almost every day. Everyone was so nice! It was also because Barrett ordered me some things online and they didn't get here in time so I got presents after by birthday too! I'm posing with the delicious raspberry cheesecake I made myself. I don't know why I made so much for just us though, we still have some in the fridge and we have been eating it every day! It is really yummy though!



While I went to the Relief Society broadcast Saturday night Barrett tried to ship Anna off! ha ha
They had a lot of fun with a box of packing peanuts! I like how happy she is just chilling in the box surrounded by Styrofoam! Those two have a lot of fun together. Anna is so much of a mommy's girl still that sometimes I'm really glad to leave her with Barrett so they can have some good bonding time.

Well that about sums up our month. I'll try not to wait so long to post next time!

Flagstaff

Whew, now that we are here in Flagstaff and are over the unpacking and are back into the swing of things I have a few moments to blog! It's kinda a long story about getting our apartment and everything, so basically what happened is that we used rent.com to find our apartment so they had us emailing the manager through the website. Well we found out that I didn't get half of the emails from her, the most important being the one where she told us she got the application. Basically she gave up on us when she didn't hear back (because I never got her email) and almost gave our apartment away! We talked to her on Monday night August 3rd and headed down Friday the 7th. So that week was a crazy one of getting deposits sent, getting a Uhaul, and planning our trip. Barrett's parents were wonderful and helped us move. We drove both of our cars down (Barrett's mom rode with me to take care of Anna) and Barrett's dad drove his truck and pulled the Uhaul.

We took two days to get down here so we got to our apartment around 5:00 (Arizona time), signed our lease, and got moved in. Barrett's brother Jason also helped us move. It was so nice to have so much help. We were a little bit surprised at the apartment since we hadn't seen it at all before we came down, but it is a nice little place. It is a townhouse style so we have our bedrooms upstairs. I like it because it seems more like a house that way. I was sad to find out that there was no dishwasher, but it actually isn't that bad washing dishes by hand as long as I stay up on them.
Barrett's parents left on Sunday after we went to Sacrament meeting at our new ward. It was a fast trip for them, but we appreciate it! We have spent the past few weeks unpacking and organizing and exploring Flagstaff. The city design is very strange since all the major highways in Arizona run through the town. We quickly learned where to turn to not end up on the highway going to Phoenix or L.A.! The city is beautiful and covered in trees. We have found lots of parks and a trail system near our house so even though we don't have a yard at our apartment there are still lots of places for Anna to play.


Barrett started the physical therapy program a week ago and is excited about his experience here. It will be a lot more laid back than we thought (thank goodness) so I will actually get to see him a lot more than I thought! We also found out that his whole third year is just doing internships so we may only be in Flagstaff for two years. I think the time here is going to fly by. Barrett has a former mission companion, Mark Moss, who started the program with him. The weekend before they started school we went down to Mesa with Mark and his wife Paige and went to the temple and did some other fun things. It was so hot there! I couldn't believe it!


We counted that little day trip as part of our anniversary celebration. Our 3rd anniversary was on the 25th so we went out to eat at Olive Garden. I also surprised Barrett by buying some high heels for the occasion because he likes it when I wear them but I always refuse. He thought it was great! ha ha
We are just enjoying life here! Anyone is welcome to come visit us in the forest!

Finally some pictures!

I know these are really late in coming, but here is a slideshow of some of the things we've done this summer. Unfortunately there are a lot of things we have done that we didn't take pictures of either because we forgot the camera (both times we have gone camping) or we had it but didn't take any pictures (swimming and family stuff). But enjoy the pictures we do have!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Venting

Things are still going well for us, but I feel a little frustrated tonight. We are supposed to be moving to Arizona in two weeks and we still don't have a place to live. We tried to buy a manufactured home, but that fell through. We didn't end up selling our trailer and are renting it out instead. I was planning on having over $5000 from selling our trailer to cover deposits for apartments, moving costs, and other living expenses but now we may have to take out another loan. The cheapest places we can find to rent in Flagstaff are over $800 a month + utilities. Yuck.

I really am excited to move and have some new adventures, but it just seems like everything is against us moving there right now. I know things are going to work out and Barrett doesn't understand why I stress so much about this (neither do I, really!) but it really makes me nervous not to know what our plans are. I tend to be a person who likes to see the big picture and plan things ahead, so this is tough for me. Worst case scenario is that Barrett will have to go down without us to start school and find us a place to live and we'll come down after. Not a big deal. So why do I feel so uneasy? Who knows? I think I have a disease called antispontaneosity. Where is my sense of adventure? I should be jumping at the chance to have a little suspense in my life. It's like a good book or movie. Who knows what will happen to the Gibsons around the next turn? Stay tuned next week for the conclusion of this exciting adventure!

In the meantime we're enjoying nice weather, free food (we're living with Barrett's parents until we move), and fun with family. Anna gets cuter everyday and can always make me laugh. Thank goodness I have her to keep me entertained and to keep my mind off all this moving stuff!

Summer Time!

I love summers in Rexburg. This summer is crazy as they usually turn out to be. I am way behind on posting my pictures but hopefully I will get them on here soon. I figured it would be better to write about things without the pictures than do nothing at all! About a week ago we moved out of our little trailer house that has been our home for almost 3 years. We are living with Barrett's parents for about a month until we move to Arizona. Barrett's sister Jacque moved into our trailer so it was kinda funny helping her move into our old house. I'm actually not very sad to leave it though.
Since we have only had summer weather for a couple of weeks we haven't done a whole lot of summer activities yet. We did go canoeing with some friends about a week ago and had a lot of fun. Thanks Cody and Brittany! We have gone on lots of bike rides since I got a used baby bike seat for Anna. She loves to ride the "bipe"! I have been running quite a bit lately and really love it. I ran the 5k for the Teton dam marathon and just ran the 4th of July 5k. I have really enjoyed racing again after a 5 year break! I placed 3rd in the Teton dam 5k with a time of 24:04 and 3rd in my age group (7th overall) in the liberty 5k with a time of 22:10. I was pretty proud of myself because I only trained for a few weeks. I have forgotten how much I enjoy competing.
Anna is growing up so fast these days. She started walking around the first of June and hasn't stopped for a second. She loves to walk around the house carrying as many toys as she can fit in her chubby hands. She loves to climb things, especially stairs, so she really likes living at Grandma's house. Grandma also has a big back yard and a trampoline or "bouncy" as Anna calls it. She really likes to bounce. Anna talks so much that sometimes I forget she is only 14 months old. She can say over 40 words I think ( I keep losing count) and learns more all the time. It blows me away how fast she picks things up and how observant she is. She copies me all the time so I have to be really careful what I say and do!
We had a lot of birthdays in our families this past month or so. My sister Lara's was on the 17th of June, Barrett's sister in law Amy's was on the 20th, his sister Bethany's on the 29th, Barrett's on the 1st of July, and my brother Greg's on the 2nd. My niece Myah's birthday is on the 7th too. Lara Jane turned 12 this year and Greg turned 18! They make me feel so old! I've been graduated from high school 5 years now. I can't believe how much faster time goes when you are an adult. I remember being a kid thinking that it would be an eternity before I was grown up, but it went by really fast.
Anyway, we had a fun 4th of July just going to the parade and spending time with family. We are enjoying being close to family right now because we won't have anyone close when we move. It will be a big change for us, but I am excited to have a little adventure. I hope everyone's summer is going well!