Leavenworth, WA

On Thursday September 24th, we left the kiddos with Grandma and Grandpa and headed for Leavenworth, WA. We spent our honeymoon here nearly 8 years ago and wanted to have a small get-away before rotations started.

Here are pictures of the bed and breakfast that we stayed in: The Abendblume

The view from our window

The Jacuzzi in our room

Our fireplace that we didn't need to use since it was about 90 degrees when we were in Leavenworth!

After sleeping in a King sized bed, it made me really want one! So much room for both of us!

Staircase leading to our room

Breakfast room

On Friday morning after breakfast we decided to go for a bike ride. We had always wanted to try the tandem bikes and luckily The Abendblume had one available for its guests. We found out that it was a lot harder than it looked! I am sure that it didn't help that I was pregnant and huge!

After resting from our bike ride, we hit the Bavarian shops in Leavenworth. I am standing in front of the Gingerbread House.

The flowers around the city were just beautiful and so vibrant!

On Friday morning while we were exploring the shops, Morgan finally received his call from Ross University letting him know where he would be able to start clinical rotations. This is him actually on the phone with Ross.

He will be going to New York (St. John's Episcopal hospital) on October 8th to start a surgery rotation. He will be there until the end of December! The kids and I will not be going with him due to the little one getting ready to hatch and the fact that it is just too expensive for a family to live there on student loans. After December Morgan will be in Atlanta, GA for the remainder of his rotations. So after Christmas the kids and I will move to Atlanta so our family can be together again. This was a very difficult decision that we had to make...the hardest yet, in my opinion.

After the phone call, we went for a walk along the river and began talking about everything that needed to happen before Morgan leaves. So much to do now!

We had dinner on Friday night at the Visconte, the Italian restaurant on top of the building behind me.

Morgan's favorite shop was The Cheesemonger. Such delicious cheeses...some that had been buried in the ground for 10 years!

One of my favorite shops was the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. So many yummy choices!

We are so grateful to Morgan's parents for watching the kids while we went away. This trip meant even more to us when we found out that we would be separated temporarily in just a few weeks. I love you Morgan! Thanks for taking me back to one of my favorite places on earth!

Mt. Saint Helen's

Friday afternoon we drove down to Mt. Saint Helen's. It was a sunny and warm day...perfect road trip conditions!

Our first stop was the Hoffstadt Bluffs Visitor Center. The kids were a little scared of the elk head but I had to tell them that it wasn't real before they agreed to pose for the picture. (I think that it was real...dead, but real.)

Behind us is St. Helen's. We are about 20 minutes drive from the next stop.
Much closer to St. Helen's! Inside this visitor center we watched a short film on the eruption and destruction of the area. Really intense movie! Luke was telling Maw Maw on the phone tonight about the volcano. He said: "We went to see a volcano. Volcanoes are dangerous. You can get blown up." Great science lesson learned.

Morgan and Miriam examining the glacier that has now formed on St. Helen's.

Mt. St. Helen's after the eruption in 1980.

Petrified trees from the blast.

A little chipmunk we saw on our short hike. Believe it or not, there were signs in the visitor center warning guests of these creatures. They said that they would attack us and to not provoke the chipmunks. Are you serious? Luke and Morgan trying to decipher the compass and our best possible route home...just kidding! We leave all navigating up to our GPS now. Oh, GPS how we love you and we could never live without you!

We had a blast at St. Helen's! ;)


P.S. For those of you that requested to see pregnant belly pictures, enjoy the pics above. Only 6 more weeks!

Morgan's Test

Just wanted to let everyone know that Morgan passed the STEP 1 of the USMLE! He is now anxiously engaged in trying to find a spot for clinical rotations. We hope to know soon where we will be headed next. We'll keep you posted! Thanks to everyone who fasted and prayed for Morgan's success.

Luke's 1st day

Luke began "school" today. He goes twice a week for 2 1/2 hours each day. Luke has been very excited to go to Mrs. Rumel's class ever since our orientation meeting a few weeks ago. As I walked him up the sidewalk, he kept saying good-bye and dismissing me. I guess he was just ready to do this all by himself!

4 year old Luke with his new school clothes and folder

This is how we found the kids when it was time to pick them up. They made American flags and had cupcakes for snack. Sounds like a great first day!

One of the very neat things about Luke attending Mrs. Rumel's preschool is that this is the same preschool Morgan attended 25 years ago! Same teacher and everything! When we called Mrs. Rumel to ask if she had an opening, she said that she always had room for a Fife. We are so happy to have him in her class!

Monday Night FHE

My children love Grandma's house. 2 weeks ago we spent our Family Home Evening in the backyard. Here are some of the things we did:

Luke, Grandma and Miriam relaxed in the hammock...well, sort of. The kids climb on either side of her while she tries to keep the hammock balanced and the kids from falling off. Grandma is getting pretty good at staying balanced on the hammock after a few tumbles earlier this summer. ;)

Miriam loves to pick Grandma's flowers.
Here's my little princess striking a pose. She is such a character!

Miriam likes to also walk on the trails on the side of Grandma's house.

Grandpa was showing Luke his cool paper airplane designs. Grandpa made Luke his very own "Luke Air Force."

Luke loved flying his plane in the yard.

Grandpa and Grandma designing their planes.

Luke and Grandma trying out their planes from the top deck.

We had a great evening just being all together and enjoying the beautiful outdoors.

Mt. Rainer

The last of July in Seattle was HOT!!!! On one of Shelley's days off we decided to take the kids to Mt. Rainer and hopefully escape the 100 degree weather we were experiencing. Luckily, once we got to the mountain, there was a rain shower that cooled everything off. It was a wonderful 60 degrees! The mountain was gorgeous and the wildflowers were stunning.

I was pretty impressed that I could fit in the cavity of this rock along with our 2.5 children. Getting out was a little more complicated though.

Can you believe that it was late July and there were still patches of icy snow?

Luke was quite the trooper walking all over exploring the wildflowers. Miriam was of course the princess and got to be pushed around in the stroller. He wanted to help push Miriam along the trails but wanted to let go of the stroller too when we got to the top of hills. Thus Luke didn't get to push his sister too many times. Grandma was also a great help in getting Miriam up the hills. Thanks for taking pity on the pregnant lady!

Thanks Grandma for taking us to Mt. Rainer and helping us cool off on such a hot day!

4th of July in Richfield

We celebrated our nation's great independence in Richfield, UT. I love how small towns really go all out for the 4th of July. We began the festivities with a parade down Main Street. Luke and Miriam loved gathering the candy that was thrown from the floats. Two sweet local girls volunteered to help them collect the treats. Some times Luke and Miriam were too slow to get the candy from the mad rush of older children, then the girls would share theirs with them. I was very impressed with their genuine kindness for my children.

Daddy and Miriam

After the parade, we headed to the City Park for lunch and games. A very smart farmer hooked a bunch of carts up to his tractor and turned it into a profitable ride for himself. Here is Morgan's sister Erin and her children on the "train."

Morgan, Miriam and Luke

After a nap back at the hotel, Emma, Grandpa, Daddy, Luke, Miriam and I headed to this hill beyond the freeway to shoot the potato gun that Grandpa made. Emma was a great helper with Tanner.

Grandpa getting ready to blast the potato off.

Here's Grandpa's creation from a few years ago...the tennis ball launcher.

A small firework experiment.

We had dinner with all the extended family at the park before heading to Uncle Kendall's to watch the fireworks from his lawn. He truly has the best spot in town. Morgan was very helpful in rounding up the children and getting them to the van after playing at the park. Now where will he put the 3rd one?

Please take note of the purse that Miriam is carrying. Grandma bought her the purse at the park on the 4th and she had to immeditately switch purses. Miriam now has 3 purses that she rotates from carrying everywhere we go. My sister-in-law Brandi got her a personalized purse for Christmas and started her addiction to handbags. Miriam is definitely all girl and cannot leave the house without a handbag. What will she be like when she is 16?