Greenville~Week Two

Monday, June 8

A girl from our ward, Amy, who I met at church emailed and invited us to dinner and home evening on Monday. They have a girl Halle's age, a boy Gray's age, and a baby girl. There was another couple there and the wife, Ryan, turned out to be the daughter of one of Jason's MBA professors. Small world. We had a great time. I really think that all of the nicest people on earth live in Greenville, South Carolina. No pictures from Monday. Sorry.

Tuesday

A lady from church, Rosalind, invited us to go to Clemson with a bunch of moms and kids from the ward. We saw the botanical gardens on Clemson's campus and we were supposed to visit the Geology Museum, but it was closed. The trip to the Clemson Creamery made up for it, though. I've been craving it ever since. If it wasn't almost an hour away I would drive down and get some more lemon custard.

You can tell how hot it was that day. We had just gotten there and Nash's face was already pink.

Most of the kids. This isn't all of them because I counted 23 kids at the creamery, and 2 moms had already left at that point.

They're good sports to even be faking smiles here. Can you tell how tired they are of me taking pictures of them? I love the mud hole in the background.

These tiny frogs were all over a dried creek bed in the garden. The kids were all catching them and my kids were amazed.

Excited for ice cream. You can't believe how noisy this place was while we were there. I felt bad for the workers. BYU Creamery is used to that kind of chaos, Clemson Creamery, not so much, I'm sure.

Racing the humidity to eat their ice cream before it's all over them.

I wish you could see how covered he was. It was dripping everywhere and Nash does not share food so every time I tried to help clean up his drips he would scream at me like I was doing the worst thing possible.

Yum.

I must say I think mine were the cleanest kids of the bunch. Some of them were completely covered.

Thursday

We were very excited to find a coach pitch team at the YMCA in Spartanburg (home of Denny's headquarters) that still had 2 spots open and was in need of a coach. The best part was that Denny's employees get free memberships at that particular YMCA and with a membership it was only $10. Without a membership it's $80. This was the Yankees first practice. Halle was thrilled that there's a girl named Jasmine on her team. Jason told Gray that Brett doesn't like the Yankees, but Gray assured him that Brett would like this Yankees team.

"Go Yankees!"

Friday

Another girl in our ward, Lauren, invited us over for a play group at her house with 2 other moms in the ward. Lauren has 2 boys who are my kids' ages. Gray absolutely loved the boy dressups. My kids were introduced to playing spy which they all played together for a good majority of the time. Apparently all you need to play spy are some binoculars, magnifying glasses, and a bit of rope. Halle and Gray are hooked. Halle declared as we left that it was "still fun, even though it was a boy's house."

Saturday

We invited the Bishop/Jason's boss's family to swim at our pool and go to dinner afterwards. This was the first time I'd met them since they'd been in Orlando since we got there. The kids all hit it off immediately. They are the sweetest people.

Maddie and Nashy. She is 10 and was so darling with him and Gray. They are both completely in love with her.

Gray standing on Jason's hands. I predict that by the time they're grown, we will have thousands of these pictures of each child. It's the standard pool trick around here.

Halle, Gray and Sarah. Sarah is 6 and is so similar to Halle in many ways. These two became fast friends.

At Denny's after swimming. This picture is my favorite. It's a total engagement picture. I love how serious they look. These two were darling together. Halle is a little older. She just barely had her 3rd birthday on Karlee and Ashton's birthday, but still a very cute couple.

I love Sarah's hair in this. She has such pretty curly hair, but straight from the pool, it's a little crazy.

Gray and Maddie hung out together the whole night. They were talking and talking. Gray really seems to enjoy being around older girls. Hopefully it's not an indicator of the future. This family actually left for Utah today and we won't see them again before we leave, and maybe not ever. It's sad to meet such good friends that are only apart of your life for a short time. We'll miss them.