Our trek across the country!!

We made it to North Carolina!!

What an 

ADVENTURE!!

I know we will look back on our trek across the country with the fondest of memories.

And we are off!!
We embarked on our journey on February 29. It was a special day since it only comes once every 4 years and was the perfect day to begin our new adventure! We loaded everything we could into our trailer and packed our Yukon to the brim. Nelson was our chauffeur while I sat in back and tried to entertain the boys for 40 hours.

Are you surprised I'm not bald from pulling all my hair out?? :) 

Both boys actually traveled really well considering the circumstances. Ashton received lots of gifts to entertain him (thank you SO much everyone!) Aunt Tara gave him this cute camera he is holding to take pictures along the way. Let's just say there are a lot of pictures of his feet! :) 

This is what Beckham did for the majority of our trip! He was such a good little traveler!

Coolest kid on the block with his shades on!

Nelson up front driving!! He drove the whole way since I didn't feel comfortable driving with the trailer. What a trooper! 

We saw lots of windmills along the way, especially across windy Wyoming!

We drove for 10 hours our first day and made it to Gering, Nebraska, where my Granma and Aunt Tige live. That was Ashton's motivator for being good in the car: "Do you want to see Granma Carol? No more whining then!" We spent the night in Gering and had lunch the next day with the family. This picture is Ashton pushing Granma's cart...what a good helper!

Here's my Uncle Mike, my cousin Cathy and Nelson!

Me and Ashton with my beautiful Granma and Aunt Tige!

Ashton loved riding this horse! I just love John Wayne on the wall too! 

Ride 'em cowboy!!

We decided to drive out towards Chimney Rock to take a picture by it. This nice gentleman stopped to talk to us for a moment and gave us four Nebraska quarters, one for each member of our family. This man actually designed the quarter for the state and you'll never believe what is on the quarter:

Chimney Rock!!
It was pretty awesome to meet this nice man!

Here we are posing in front of the famous Chimney Rock!

The many faces of Mommy and Ashton...I was doing everything possible to keep this 2-year-old boy entertained!

Sweet Ashton eating his Lunchable!

Since we ate lunch with our family in Nebraska, we only put a half day in. We made it to Lincoln, Nebraska and stayed the night there. Then we were off again the next morning and arrived in St. Louis that evening. It is a good thing we didn't leave a day earlier or we would have been right in the middle of those awful storms. The Lord was really looking out for us! Day 4 was a success and we felt awesome because we made it to North Carolina! We stayed in Asheville and only had 6 more hours until we would reach our final destination!

We started to get very excited when the roads were lined with trees!

By the last day of our journey I was beginning to feel like strapping the boys into their car seats could be considered child abuse. Thankfully we made it across the entire country safely and with no mishaps! Phew!!

We arrived in Hampstead, North Carolina on Sunday evening...YIPPPPEEEEEE!!! Nelson started his job on Tuesday, March 6. Of course I had to take a "first day of work" picture! :) I am so so proud of my handsome husby!!

Both boys are adjusting exceptionally well to life in North Carolina!

I really am proud of Ashton. His life keeps getting turned upside down, but he is still our happy, good boy who throws at least one tantrum daily to remind us he is two. :)

We bought a Yukon before we headed out to North Carolina. We love it! 

My BOYS!! Oh how I love them!! I'm so grateful for this new journey we are on, and especially thankful we are on it TOGETHER!!!

Big boy Beckham!! He is getting tooooo big toooo fast!!

Our precious boy sleeping in the swing!

Brothers!

Three handsome boys!

The Young Women President who I served with in Bozeman made these adorable matching hooded towels for our little boys!

Cute, cute, CUTE!

Ashton's new thing is "showing the mirror" as you can see by all the cute little fingerprints on my mirror. :) He loves to put random clothes and accessories on and then exclaims, "Let's go show the mirror!"

Becks doing tummy time!

Ashton is the BEST big brother and is so good at playing with Beckham.

Our GREEN family on St. Patrick's Day!

Beckham gives us the SWEETEST gummy grins that melt your heart!! I love this age!!

Ashton stacking blocks!!

One of the best parts about living in NC is the warm weather!! 80 degrees?? Yes, please!! Talk to me again in August when the heat is sweltering...I might have a different opinion then! :)

Check out that block tower!

The boys doing tummy time together!

Ashton is still completely obsessed with letters and will put his puzzle together all by himself several times in a row. 

Seriously cute brothers!! How did we get so lucky??

Little Beckham trying out the shades, haha!!

We live 20 minutes from the beach...oh yes, be jealous!! 

Ashton LOVES to go to the beach and isn't afraid of the water. The tide knocks him on his behind and he still loves it! The water is still chilly right now but supposedly it gets as warm as bath water in the summer!

The boys building a sand castle! Ashton brought home lots of seashells, which he lovingly calls "sheshells!" 

Cute boy!!

I like to send pictures of the boys to Nelson while he is at work. On this morning, Ashton asked me to take his picture and show Daddy his "bracelet!"

Little buckaroo!

Our favorite part of the day: when Daddy comes home!!

Beckham on his 3-month birthday!!

Sweet Ashton reading a book to Beckham. Beckham adores Ashton...he is definitely his favorite person!

Mommy reading to the boys!

Congratulations for making it through this post!! I promise I will try harder to update more often so the posts aren't 10 miles long! :)

We feel so happy and blessed to be out here in North Carolina. The ward here in Hampstead has been so welcoming and Nelson absolutely loves his new job. Mike McLeod, the architect Nelson is interning under, is a member of the Church and it has been fun for Nelson to work on lots of Church jobs. Mike and his wife Laura have invited us to dinner several times and even brought toys for Ashton and Beckham from Disneyworld. They are truly some of the sweetest people I have ever met. We are so blessed to be able to work with them. They have become like grandparents to our little boys. I can't express how blessed and grateful we are. 

Just for fun, to finally put a wrap on this monster post, here are a few brother comparison pictures. It has become my new hobby to compare their baby pictures! :)