Pop-Pop, we'll miss you

December 18th, we got a call saying that Pop-pop had passed away. He was an amazing person who would have done anything for anyone. He had a big mouth and a soft heart. If it was in his mind it was on his tongue. He loved the rebellious ones and admired the good ones. We all flew back to be at the funeral, which was right before Christmas. It was a sad occasion, but wonderful to see our family out east. We love them and are glad to have their love and support of us. We were happy to find Gram holding herself together and being the strong woman that she is. We are lucky to still have her and have her know our little angel.

10 Months

I'm just going to say that I have the cutest family. Hallie turned 10 months in December and a few days later decided to take her first steps. Not that she is walking, but attempting.

Posting OVERLOAD

Just to warn you....

So I took a little hiatus from posting on the blog due to many reasons...being on vacation, not having the internet connected on my computer, busy just living life. But I have finally taken the time to just sit down and get it done. So there are like 10 different posts or something all the way from August to right now. So go ahead, take a browse, see how the last few months have been for the Buswells. We think they have been wonderful!

26

Moved

After much consideration and many visits, Ashton and I have decided and have already moved to San Diego. Ashton's brother Jordan lives here with his family and is an entrepreneur of sorts and Ashton decided that he would really love to work with his  brother Jordan. We came down in October and then again in November. Ashton had been looking around and interviewing at many different places and this seemed to be something that he wanted to do and was excited about doing. So we found a place and moved down the weekend after Thanksgiving. We have settled in nicely. I don't mind the cold Utah winter, but I sure got used to this climate quickly, especially being from AZ. No white Christmas? No problem. I'm still getting used to the fact that I live in a place where many people come for vacation. We love the people here and we love being close to Jordan and Rebecca and their wonderful kids. We look forward to finally being someplace for a while.

November--Thanksgiving

Me and Hallie on Thanksgiving

The 5 cousins that are all around Hallie's age.
It's getting a lot harder to have them all be still for a picture.

We spent Thanksgiving up at the Buswell house in UT this year. That is actually where we have been living since we got back from Europe and the summer until Ashton figures out what he really wants to do and where he wants to go. It was absolutely wonderful staying there. No one ever thinks they would ever say that about living with their in-laws, but really, we couldn't have been any place better. We love them and are grateful for everything that have done and continue to do for us. We are particularly grateful for their love and support of us.

November--Hallie 9 months

Our little Hallie bear is almost 10 months, well tomorrow she will be 10 months. I have loved this age. She is ALL OVER the place. She can crawl up stairs, get into cupboards all in the blink of an eye. She makes me laugh almost everyday. I love to make her smile too. She learned to clap her hands, she waves hi like a pro, gives kisses, stands on her own, loves her walking toy. Now what she did by nine months and what she did by now, I can't really remember, but she is growing and learning so fast. We are so grateful for her in our life. And she is just so dang cute!

October Halloween Half

I ran in the Provo Halloween Half marathon this year. It was a wonderful race. I did pretty well 1:39. It has actually inspired me to train to run a marathon in January and try to qualify for Boston. I think I can do it. It was wonderful to have Ashton and Hallie out there cheering for me! I am grateful for their support during all the time that it takes to train for these races. I've decided I'm more of a runner, not a racer. I run like I'm training for something, but this is only my third race ever. I enjoy them, but I enjoy just running much more.

I just LOVE this face

October Homecoming

 Ashton loves the Homecoming Parade. He loves most any parade...happiness and joy. We had a great time again this year with cousin Heidi and Caleb and their friends.

Pres Samuelson

The Marching band

Cosmo

Quill and Sword

Our parade crew

At the homecoming game

Happiness and joy

October (part 1)

In October (almost 8 months old) Hallie got this little walking toy from a friend and she loved it...she still does, but is getting much closer to walking on her own. This girl loves to be up! For the video click here

Back to UT--end of September

Michigan State Capitol

Missouri State Capitol

On the way back to UT we stopped in Michigan and Missouri to play croquet. That makes 41 state capitols!

We also stopped at Liberty Jail on the way home. The spirit was strong there and it was a wonderful reminder of the sacrifices made to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to the earth.

And almost most importantly, we stopped at the largest hand dug well in America located in Greensburg, KS.

September 2010 (Europe)

Ashton and I left Hallie and took off for Europe at the end of August and spent 3 weeks in Europe. It was fantastic! We missed Hallie so much though, but it was wonderful to spend time with just us. I couldn't think of a better time to go. The more kids that come along, the harder it will be. Ashton was in between jobs, we don't own a house so we weren't paying for housing that whole time we were gone. Conditions were perfect.

We flew into Paris, went to the beaches of Normandy where Ashton's grandpa Buswell was a commanding officer during D-Day, flew to Milan, took a train to Cinque Terre, Pisa, Florence, then on to Rome, up to Venice, took a night train to Munich. From Munich we went to Fussen and Salzburg, Austria. Rode the Chunnel to London, and then back to Paris to fly home.

I loved Paris a lot more than I thought I would. I learned a lot at the beaches of Normandy tour...history came alive for me. Milan was kind of dumpy but held my most treasured cathedral of all we visited. Cinque Terre was quaint, colorful, and warm. Pisa was still leaning. Florence is the home of the most beautiful sculpture my eyes have ever beheld--David by Michealangelo was inspired by above. Also, the gelato was amazing as well as this Tuscan soup I had, it was the best soup I've ever had in my entire life. Rome holds something from every period of time which is incredible. The vatican would have been cooler if people were more reverent there. Venice is a port for all people. Bavaria and Austria has the prettiest country of all the places we were...it was so green and lush and I love the mountains there. London was busy and all in ENGLISH which was so nice.

I love to run and in every city we would put on our running clothes and run to all of the sites in a few hours and then after we had gotten all cleaned up we would go back to the places that we wanted to spend more time at. It was a great way to see a lot in a short amount of time for no money.

Here are some experiences that I wrote in my journal that were meaningful to me.

We didn’t go to the Uffizzi, but we did to go the Accademia and saw the Michaelangelo’s David. That was both our number one favorite thing about the whole trip. I don’t know why but it was so beautiful. David was just standing there in the soft white light. His intestse, yet calm eyes, the smoothness of the marble. Everything about it. The feeling you get when you see it. It is just simply amazing. Who knew you could love a sculpture so much?

After Rome we went to Venice. It was so nice and quiet there. No cars, no buggies, no scooters, not bikes even. Just pedestrians. We went on the most beautiful run. We took a boat the the end of the grand canal and ran all the way back. It was beautiful. I loved the colored buildings and the water. And again, the weather was wonderful. We spent a Sunday there and decided that we would go to church. So we looked up a church and a time. One that we knew we could actually get to. We took a train to a town called Padova. We had drawn a map for ourselves of how to get from the train station to the chapel and followed our map. The time we had was 10:50 am (although to find out later that they only post sacrament times not the time church starts and they had sacrament last). So we almost make it to the church when a guy, around our age, is stopped in a parking lot asks us if we need a ride to church. We say yes and hop on in. We asked him how he knew and he said that we just looked like we were going to church. I was wearing a skirt and flip flops and Ashton was wearing shorts and a polo with tennis shoes. Giole was his name. He had taken a church member to the train station and saw us on his way there and thought we looked like we were going to church and then when we were still headed that way on his way back he knew. I think that he was just in tune enough with the spirit that he knew. And it is wonderful and strengthening to know that the Lord knows us wherever we are in the world and helps us and he never stops taking care of us. My testimony was strengthened that day. Giole is soon getting married to Miriam and his sister and her husband were also there at church. Giole sat behind us and translated to English for us and then invited us over to dinner. (Ashton had kept saying that he was hoping someone would invite us to dinner). He gave us a ride to their house and made us cabonara, which is spaghetti with egg and nutmeg and parmesan and cream mixed with cooked bacon or ham. We really enjoyed our time with them and are grateful to them for their hospitality. We hope to be that way to people who cross our paths as well. That was such a wonderful day!


The next day we took a train to Fussen the next day to see the castle that Walt Disney fashioned his Disneyland castle after. It was so beautiful. And it was in the most beautiful spot. Up on a cliff in the mountains of Bavaria. All the mountains and the trees. While we were waiting in line to go into the castle Ashton saw some people who he thought were Mormons. So we decided to talk to them and tried to find out where they are from. Ashton decided that if he could find if they were Utah then he would almost certainly know that they were Mormon. And sure enough they were from West Jordan (Ashton could see their garments under their white shirt). We talked a while and went through the castle with them. Their names were Brett and Stacy Wall. They were on their 30 year wedding anniversary and Brett had served his mission in Germany. Anyway, they took us to lunch and I had some delicious raising pancakes with applesauce. And it was so yummy. They asked us if we wanted to ride back with them in the Mecedes that they rented. So they took us on the romantic road through all these little Mideval towns and then on the Autobahn back to Munich. Those towns were so cute and the ride on the autobahn was crazy. There were all these cars zooming past—lamberghini’s—I don’t even know how to spell that.  We decided to meet with them the next morning and go with them down to Austria, Salzburg, to be exact. We met with them at their hotel and then they took us to Dachau Concentration camp. That was a sobering experience. It is amazing to think of how many people died under the reign on hitler and how horribly people were treated. And how wonderful it is to think that people are now free.


It is still sobering to think that the Lord know who we are, wherever we are and that there are people who do good things all over the world. 

August 2010

August this past year was a great month. Hallie and I went on vacations ALL month long. For the first two weeks we went to Utah and San Diego for the APA conference. In Utah I left Hallie with Grandma Buswell and went canyoneering with my friends and it was fantastic! My favorite was the wet canyon and the 150 ft rappell of corona arch.

When we got back to North Carolina we went on even more vacations. North Carolina has much to offer as far as beautiful scenery--both the beach and mountains are not too far away. So we first ventured east to the beach. We went to the outer banks which holds the home of the first flight by the Wright brothers. So we went that the museum there, enjoyed the beach, and toured a coast full of old, stately lighthouses.

Then we ventured to the western side of the state to go camping in the mountains among other things. We went to Mt Airy where the Andy Griffith show is filmed after, we drove along the beautiful Blue Ridge Parkway, went to the "Holy Smokies" (Smoky Mountain National Park), and toured through the amazing Biltmore Estate. I have never seen anything like that mansion. If anyone ever gets a chance, you must see it!

To finish up the month we traveled up to PA to visit my grandparents before we took off for a vacation for the whole month of September. We met up with Janice Smith who is a SAINT! I was talking to her one day on the phone telling her about how Ashton and I were going to Europe for a graduation gift for finishing my Master's degree and she asked if we were going to take Hallie. I said that I was still unsure and she said that she would fly from AZ to the East coast and pick Hallie up for us and watch her the whole time we were gone. And it was just that which she did. She flew out there, picked up dear Hallie, watched her not only while we were in Europe, but while we drove back across the country. We are so grateful for her in our lives.

Columbia

So I'm pretty sure this is our 39th State capitol or something like that. It's hard to keep track without my little map (that I accidentally left in UT). This weekend, we went down to South Carolina and played a rousing game of croquet on the lawn of the state capitol. These grounds were probably some of the most beautiful Ashton and I have ever seen. The landscaping was absolutely beautiful. Lots of southern looking trees and bushes, magnolia trees, the SC palm that flies on their flag, etc.

One thing that I have found interesting among visiting the southern states is how much the confederate states still means to these people. In the very front on the building is a confederate flag with a monument dedicated to those men. If you look closely in this picture, you can see that the statue of George Washington, his cane is broken off. This is because during the Civil War an angry mob of confederates broke off the bottom of his cane. I remember going to Alabama; that place is filled with confederate history: the place Jefferson Davis gave his inaugural speech, the first confederate white house, multiple statues recognizing the confederacy. It seems to still be quite alive in the South.

After our game we stayed with the Connell family. Ashton wrestled at UNC with their son Ben. It was great to be with them. They have 5 boys and 1 girl and seem to be a great family who love each other and are strong in the gospel. It goes to show that no matter where you live, among many members of the Church of few, strength comes from within the family, not from being around many members. It is what is taught in the home that matters most. We are grateful for their hospitality and love for us. We had a great time with you!