The Adventures of Evan and Lacey: Summer 2016 Part 1

It's been an exciting summer for Evan and I! Starting with completing our first 10k race at Universal Orlando to moving from Oklahoma to Mississippi to visiting all of the family members possible. Here are a few memories from along the journey.

Our first adventure was the race in Orlando. It was the biggest race we competed in with more than 10,000 participants! We spent some time in the parks (really just the Wizarding World of Harry Potter) and we spent time at the pre-race event - which included a meet and greet with BB8!

Race day was overwhelming and exciting and exhilarating! We bested our times at 1:45:00.

After the race we met up with some friend from Oklahoma to explore HP World again!

Then we prepared for moving from Oklahoma to Mississippi by packing up the house and getting it ready to be sold. UPDATE: our paperwork is all completed and we should close THIS Friday!!

Our week was full of farewell parties, including a great last hurrah with our Edmond 3rd Ward friends.

My parents came to help us pack up the moving truck, drive to Mississippi, and unload all of our stuff. We definitely had fun along the way too :)

Their favorite part of the trip was eating all of the fresh seafood!

We moved so early in the summer so that Evan could go to Pitkin, CO to set up a new course with the faculty at the University of Southern Mississippi (USM) called Field Camp. It's for the senior geology students to put all of their skills to the test in the real world. To say he had an awesome adventure is an understatement!

While he was gone I worked in the house/ back patio - sprucing it up and making it feel like home. I also had surprise visitors! My sister's sweet family kept me company during the third week and we had a blast exploring the coast/ Hattiesburg area.

Then came the text from Charith - what if we road tripped out to Mississippi to visit you guys? My reply: sounds awesome to me AND I'll even help get you here! I flew to SLC to meet up with Charith and the kids. We drove through the night and stopped at some awesome places along the way - including a quick stop to take a picture of Evan's mission area.

We met up with Kirk in New Orleans on the 4th. We stayed to watch fireworks and spent the night so that we could explore this cool city all the next day.

And what do you do when you just want all of the beignets? You bring some mix home to make your own! Especially when Reid says "I just love them!" How can you deny him more of the sweet goodness?

We had so much fun adventuring with the KC crew.

Then we took the band on tour and drove to California to visit Quinn and Dewi's family.

And then we played and caught Pokemon and played and caught Pokemon and played and didn't quit until they kicked us out!

My favorite moment was when Hazel said to Safira, you totally have feelings for Aunt Lacey! Lol. Right back at ya kid. Building relationships with these sweet kids is worth all the hours in the car.

But the road called once more and it was time to take the KC crew home. Of course we made the best of a long trip and of course we drove straight through.

And guess who I found when I got to Washington?! I went to the room where I was going to sleep and saw a tuft of hair sticking out of the bedding. I almost turned around to tell Kirk some rando was in the bed already and I couldn't sleep there. Then Eli gave me a sly look and I hesitantly pulled the covers back. EVAN!!!!! I maybe didn't stop hugging him for 3 hours straight. After a long nap it was time to get up and play again. The week went play with all the family, catch all the Pokemon, eat all the food, sleep briefly, repeat.