Our little girly girl

I snapped these photos of Eloise and Dylan really quickly before we went to a wedding reception last month. I love how girly this little outfit is (thank you, Granny!)

4th of July

Our 4th of July here in Greenville wasn't all that spectacular, mostly because it was WAY too hot to do anything outside. They had some booths and stuff downtown, but we mostly just spent time together at home, ran errands, kept Eloise's naps going strong, and went to a friend's house for the tail end of their bbq (or cookout, as they call it in the south - weird). We did end up going downtown to the park to watch the city's fireworks show, but sweated it out the whole time (it doesn't cool down here at night...at all). I've gotta say, I didn't realize how good we had it in Provo for the 4th. Utah knows how to do this holiday WELL (the street fair for days, huge fireworks shows, parades, bbq's at every corner, snow cone shacks everywhere, stadium concert/fireworks...sigh. Some day I'll be back in Provo for the 4th.)
We took these pictures while we were waiting for the fireworks and watching them.

Our friend, Meg, took this. I love having family pictures!

Dylan: "Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo!"

Awesome face, Dyl. And Eloise couldn't have cared less about the fireworks. Her interest lasted all of 2 minutes, then she just wanted to play. Guess being up 2+ hours past your bedtime makes you less engaged in life?

Hahaha. Love this face.

Camera malfunctions due to it being pitch black outside, but still a fun/funny picture of us

West Coast Trip: California!

Yes, I am FINALLY getting around to posting pictures from our time in California. We got back a little over a month ago, but it feels like months and months - we miss it, a lot. We miss Dylan's family, and seeing the ocean every day, and hearing the waves crashing, and non-North Carolina-type things (In'n'Out, Cafe Rio, Rainbow Sandal outlet, super Target, sidewalks to go for walks on, cooler weather, etc. etc.)

I look forward to this week all year, and even though there are lots of tough parts about staying in a gritty beach house with 20 other people and your little baby, come on, you're still staying ON THE BEACH, running water and showers, and real beds to sleep in! And, the place we stay is an old nuns' retreat and has photos of the nuns on the sand and stuff all over. Oh, and there are gargoyles/demons? painted over the fireplace. Awesome.

Anyway, I took lots of picture on...one day there. I posted a bunch of Instagram pics to Facebook while we were there, so these are just my big camera photos.

Dadda and the Wheeze, ready to play!

Eloise and her Uncle Alec and cousin Chloe

Aren't the boys' faces in this one PRICELESS??

She LOVED the water, way more than I anticipated. She did not care about the NC beach we took her to a week or two before this, but wanted to be in the water all day, every day here

With Uncle Phil!!

With Uncle Quinton!!

Randi and Chloe

Getting soothed by Gigi (Grandma Pat)

Oh, a different day/different swim suit! I guess I took the camera out more than once, after all. She LOVED the sand, too. And surprisingly didn't try to eat it (well, there was that one time, but one lick and she never tried again.) Thank goodness! No sandy poop!

Favorite photo of her. My little model

It was Chloe's birthday while we were there, so she got to go swimming in her birthday suit :)

Oh, and Eloise's Uki-Monster (grandpa) got the girls matching Yankees dresses, so they had a dance party to show them off. Even though I am an avid Yankees-hater, I still think this was pretty darn cute

Can't wait for next year!! I'm already dreaming of it. Thank you Ann and Ken and LaVell and Pat and everyone for making it happen. We love you guys so much, and loved the time we got to spend with you.

This

Much to my shame and disgrace, I have to admit that I like two country artists. One of them is somewhat excusable, or at least I like to pretend. His name is Darius Rucker, and I feel that he is an exception because well, he is black and he used to be Hootie from Hootie and the Blowfish. The other country singer I like I have no defense for other than that she speaks to my inner 16 year old girl (Taylor Swift). ANYWAY...Rucker (formerly Hootie) has a song called "This" in which he sings about things turned out differently than he had initially thought (and even hoped that) they would.

As Hootie, Darius once said, "I'm such a baby that the Dolphins make me cry." As a life-long Jazz fan, I understand his pain.

Don't you judge me!!!

 Looking back on my life, things have not happened how I thought they would. When I was a kid, and even now, I loved superheroes. I loved the idea of people (or aliens in the case of Superman) with extraordinary powers using their gifts to crush evil. I also loved sports. I loved all three of America's games: football, baseball, and basketball. I even liked soccer--though I thought it was more of a game for wussy kids who came from overly protective moms and dads. Naturally, when I was a child, I thought I would be a pro baseball/basketball/football player (think of the endorsements) who moonlighted as a vigilante. Of course, like all superheroes, I would need a girl. Just like in all the comics, I thought that girl would come from the house next door where my best friend Nikki Barnson lived. Just like they always seem to in the comics, Nikki really hit her stride in high school and became a very beautiful woman.

Remember the scene where Spidey loses his powers and is just a normal guy like me? Oh, come on, of course you remember it. Everybody loves those movies. Right?!?!?

Pretty much how I felt about soccer.

But, while Nikki was hitting her stride, I found out that my genes from my Cannon side were killing the genes from my Edwards side. While my Edwards cousins were shooting up like trees, I was lucky to make average height. With each year, my fastball had even less zip, my feet were slower and slower, and I found out that I couldn't take a hit like my Grandpa. It was a sobering day when I realized that not only would I not be a professional athlete, I wasn't even good enough to play on my high school's b-ball team that only won 1 game, I rode the bench in baseball and I couldn't seem to not get concussed while playing football. What was worse was that I wasn't even being bitten by any radioactive spiders!

By the time I was finishing up high school, I turned my thoughts and dreams to serving a mission for my faith. I saw my brother before and many of my friends going on missions--some to exotic places like Brazil, Belgium, or Tonga. So I turned my ambitions towards going on an exotic mission where I would preach the gospel of Christ to stunned citizens of a new land with such force that they would have sworn that I was Paul the Apostle.

But, when the time came, I couldn't go. I had some things that I needed to work on and I was deemed not healthy enough to serve. I watched all my best friends go, and even saw some of them come back. When I was pushing 21, I finally got things straightened out so that I could serve....in Wisconsin. Definitely was not expecting that. Where were my droves of people who just couldn't wait to hear me? Where were my beautiful, humble natives of a distant land?

When I came home from Wisconsin, I found that not much had changed (except that I was 50 pounds fatter...mmm, cheese, brats, butter burgers and custard). I got repeatedly turned down by girls when I asked them if they would like to go on a date with me (or if I said 'can I sit there?' on a crowded bus...or just said 'hello' to a girl). I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and discovered that leaving for two years and only reading scriptures had not made me a better English major (you mean people don't say thee and thou in everyday speech?).

Well, this blog post seems kind of depressing...until you realize that Darius Rucker's chorus states, "thank God for all I missed, because it lead me here to this." Things did not turn out exactly how I planned, it's true. But, I had experiences in Wisconsin that I would not trade for the world. I met people there who have had a major impact on my life. And, as it turns out, the first person that I baptized was a beautiful, humble Native American woman. I also received a Hmong name and was adopted into their culture. I had a Mexican, Hmong, and American Thanksgiving (all on the same day) and met an African American man from a much different background than mine that turned out to be one of my most favorite people in the world.  Apparently there is more in Wisconsin than just cows and the Packers!

Later, I met the most beautiful woman I had ever seen in my life and she agreed to go on a date with me. It turns out that she was also fun, funny, and very intelligent. In Wisconsin we had a saying that every time you worked in the snow, your wife got a little hotter. While that may be extremely shallow, Julie is living proof that it is true. I am so grateful that all of those girls turned me down when they did because Julie was in the midst of breaking up with her moronic ex-fiance and could not yet date me at that time.

Now that woman and I have the most beautiful baby girl in the world. She just started to crawl, last week, and now the world is even more her playground. I did not become a professional athlete, but I am doing something much more meaningful with my life. Julie helped me find out that English was not for me (I don't speak it well, anyway) and that I could find something that fit me better. Now, I am helping families overcome their problems and find happiness together. Plus, the Yankees are in first place and Jules allows me to catch their games every now and then. She also took me to go see the new Spider-Man and did not judge me when I tried to imitate his moves in the movie theater.

In other words, at the end of the day, THIS is not what I expected but it is so much better.

West Coast trip: Eloise with cousins in Seattle

Eloise was lucky enough to meet most of her Duke cousins during our Seattle trip. I took these pictures of her with some of them on one of our last days there. These cousins flew all the way from Shanghai JUST to meet Eloise! (well, and to see everyone else, too, I guess)

Don't worry. Eloise actually LOVED Abigail. Abigail was her little mommy the whole trip, and they grew really attached.

The Jonah! Last time we saw him, he was Eloise's age now. So crazy how fast kiddos grow up!