Goodbye Benches!!

We are so grateful for having such amazing family. We all loved staying with Mama and Papa Bench all summer long, especially Hailey. Our favorite memories from this summer:

Happy Birthday Hailey


The Great Escape


Hogle Zoo with Uncle Kyle and Aunt Chelsea


Weekend away in St. George


Rodeo!


View from the Cabin


We love you guys!

Dancing Machine

What a Summer!

With just a few weeks left here in Utah, we've been reflecting on all of the fun we've had. It's been an experience not having a place of our own for the last few months. More than anything though, we're glad that mama and papa Bench were willing to put us up at their house this summer. We had a barbeque for Lindsay's sister's birthday tonight, and the whole family was together. It was pretty great, and we're really going to miss having everyone around. Here are a few of Hailey's favorite things about staying at Grandma's house:

Baths with Kamdyn


Her very own car


Running through the sprinklers


...and sweeping the garage in the buff

A new addition to the Millsies

We've been putting off making this announcement, but we finally couldn't wait any longer. Lindsay is pregnant! We expect the baby will be due at the end of January or beginning of February next year. We should find out if we're having a boy or a girl shortly after we get back to North Carolina at the end of August. Unfortunately, Lindsay has been pretty darn sick, although compared to her last pregnancy this one is a walk in the park (when she was pregnant with Hailey she was kneeling at the porcelain throne multiple times a day, this time it's usually only once or twice a day). We're excited to have another kiddo joining our family, especially if this next one is as amazing as Hailey has been.

Speaking of Hailey being amazing, we went with Lindsay's parents to the Ute Stampede Rodeo on Friday night and stayed the night down at the family cabin. Here's a photo from the Rodeo and a video from the cabin:

Happy 4th of July

For the 4th of July we made the 8-hour drive out to Colorado Springs to visit Brian's family. It was an eventful and fun weekend.

We spent Friday hanging out at Brian's parents' house, Saturday at a water park with the whole Mills clan, and on Sunday, Brian's brother blessed his little boy.

Trip to Boise

Lindsay's great-grandmother passed away this last weekend, and her funeral was in Boise this Wednesday. I've never met Lindsay's mom's family, so we thought we'd better take the chance to go visit them. We were sad to see Nana go, but we were glad we had the chance to see Lindsay's family. Hailey met her great-grandma and great-grandpa Salas, and Lindsay's Uncle Arthur and Aunt Josie for the first time.

Happy Birthday Sweetheart!

Last Saturday was Lindsay's 26th birthday, and we took a weekend away and went to see Les Miserables at an outdoor amphitheater in St. George. It was a blast, even though we did miss our Hailey just a little bit.

We also got to go to the temple

The stage at the theater

And of course when we got home we had a little cake!

Under Construction

Excuse our wierd formatting and colors...we'll be done fixing it up soon, we hope!

Prison Break

Every day Hailey stands by the front door and gazes outside waiting for Lindsay or I to take her out to play....we knew it was only a matter of time before she figured out her own way of breaking out.

Hailey's Prison Break

Happy Birthday Hailey!

The last year has gone by so fast! Our little girl already seems so grown up. She has 2 teeth, she's walking around and in to everything, and even says a few words: "Hi", "Duh" - which we think means dog, and she points and says "no, no" to the dogs at her Grandma Bench's house. On Saturday we celebrated her birthday by going swimming at Grandpa Brig and Grandma Gale's house and having some delicious cake.

Baby Momma

Hailey loves the baby doll her Grandma Bench got for her, she's been toting it around with her everywhere she goes...

Babies and Teeth

Some big news this week...Lindsay's sister Julie had her baby on Monday. Hailey's first little cousin on the Bench side of the family was born. She is adorable! (Her name is Kamdyn by the way)



In other news...Hailey FINALLY sprouted her first tooth. It only took her 11 months and 17 days! Sadly, Hailey's mouth can close like a vice grip and it would take the jaws of life to get a decent photo...and after about 20 attempts we finally gave up. We'll see what we can do for a future post.

...to grandmother's house we go!

After Brian finished up his finals and the casenote competition (writing a paper to get on to a journal next year) we finally left for Salt Lake City for Brian's summer job. We'll be staying with Lindsay's family for the next 12 weeks.

As we descended in to Salt Lake the sun was just setting behind the mountains...


On Friday night we went out to a baseball game with the fam


Hailey loves the new toys grandma got for her!


We're glad to be with our family!

Hailey is Cute

Isn't she the cutest?!

1 Down 2 To Go

Brian took the last final of his 1st year of law school on Friday, so today we went to the beach to celebrate and relax in the sun. Of course I'm sure everyone is very excited for Brian, but let's not kid ourselves, this post isn't really about Brian, it's about Hailey playing at the beach. Hailey still doesn't like the cold water of the ocean (see last year's experience), but she LOVED the sand!



What's this? A shell?


I probably better taste it just to make sure...



Dad I was just making sure it was really a shell!

(nice job watching the baby eat dirt camera-woman!)

The Happy Family

It's Shake 'n Bake and I helped!

Remember those commercials where the little girl helped her mom make Shake 'n Bake chicken? Yeah, having an 11 month-old help with dinner is nothing like that. Hailey helps even when we don't ask her to, in fact she helps even when we tell her not to. The last few weeks she has gotten especially curious, and is finding new ways to wreak havoc, especially when we're trying to get something done...like making dinner.

Taking Candy from a Stranger...

When I finished my last day of my 1st year of law school classes last week, we felt like we needed to celebrate a little...so we went down by the mall in South Durham to find a good restaurant. As we walked past a sports bar that had outdoor seating we passed by a group of very drunk youngish looking guys. One of them approached Hailey and offered her the biggest lollipop I have ever seen. It must have weighed as much as Hailey! Wanting to set a good example of what to do when a crazy drunk man offers you candy...Lindsay gladly accepted the lollipop on behalf of Hailey.

Swimming in April?

One of the many wonderful things about living in the South is that summer comes a couple of months early...okay, that's really only wonderful for people like us who are leaving before it gets really hot. It's been so hot, and Hailey's been so adamant about going outside, that we went to Target today and bought the cheapest inflatable pool we could find. Lindsay LOVED it!! Oh, and Hailey seemed to like it alright too. I've come to realize that most of the stuff we buy for Hailey, really isn't for Hailey it all...Lindsay loves to see Hailey experience new things and have fun, and she certainly did today!






I just realized that we never posted about Hailey walking...so this video is of her in the pool and she takes a few steps. She took her first steps on her 9mo birthday, then lost all interest for the last month or so until this last week. All of a sudden she decided to try it again, and can now successfully take about 5 or 6 steps at a time. It's crazy how fast these changes happen!

Cherry Blossoms

Our friends Kyle and Lindy invited us to go to DC with them this last weekend.
Lucky for us it's Cherry Blossom Festival time, and the city was beautiful!


We took a walk through Arlington National Cemetary


I must really be a law nerd, because the coolest part of the cemetary
for me was seeing the gravesites of a number of former Supreme Court Justices.


Lindsay, Hailey, Lindy and Amelia


Family Photo on the bank of the Potomac River

Happy Easter!

For Hailey's first Easter, she didn't get any candy...


But she did get some bubbles that she loved popping.


Lindsay made her the dress, and donated her candy for the photo


Happy Easter!