The Boulton Blog: Oh It's a Marvelous Night for a Moondance

We've had a really busy week, but we've each gotten to have a ton of fun and the weather has been pretty perfect since the rain we got Wednesday.

Caleb: This week he's been sweet and fun. He's learned what “It's bedtime” means, and will fight you all the way up the stairs, but he loves meeting new people, which is pretty adorable, and will probably be talking by the end of the summer.

Byron: He's been really busy working hard this week putting together new tutorials for work, but managed to get away for a short lunch on Friday to spend time at the park with Caleb and I in beautiful weather. Thursday night he got his bicycle to Dick's and hopefully it will be fixed by the end of this coming week.

Arielle: I've had an awesome week. Monday I thought I had to babysit but ended up getting the day to myself and went to a cool picnic at my brother Roger's school. He and other students from the school sang us a couple of cute songs before getting to have picnics outside with their families. It was fun to see him and he seemed to be happy to have us there. Thursday my mom and I went to 2 yard sales that women in her ward were having and I found some really good deals on Caleb's next size of clothing, some cute new toys for him, and a set of bunk beds that we'll store in the garage at least until after I have the baby. I'm not interested in doing any more re-arranging until I have to hahahahaha.

In General: We've managed to get a lot done this week. Tuesday night we got to attend my brother Chandler's chorus concert, which had a “Motown” theme, and it was hard not to dance around in our seats to the fun, upbeat music they were singing. Wednesday night we had guests for dinner and we had a grand time. The elders were here, as well as the brother Byron home teaches who also served in Hungary and his 11 year old daughter, and we made sure to invite Byron's home teaching companion. We had a relaxed “picnic” style meal and they all had a crack at using Byron's Hungarian bull whip. There was lots of conversation and laughter and I felt so incredibly blessed by the end of the evening. Friday night Byron and I went putt-putting for our date and pretty much had the course to ourselves and enjoyed getting to go at our own pace. Yesterday we spent time cleaning and doing the last of our unpacking so I could get pictures of the house to show off. :) We also reupholstered our rocking chair! It was a steal that we picked up at Goodwill when we moved to Ohio but it had a hideous fabric on it, and a sketchy stain on the seat, so I started taking it apart Saturday morning to see how hard it would be, and by Saturday night we were finished :) We also got to go to my sisters pool party birthday party and Caleb had a blast playing in the water. Tonight, after a nice picnic with all the Ohio family (excluding Aunt Liz and Uncle Ben, they were missed), we came home in time for Byron's sister Melissa to arrive. We're looking forward to spending time with her tomorrow before she returns home to Kentucky tomorrow evening.

David: He likes to move around and will probably be as well muscled as Caleb was when he was born. I like feeling him jump around and am looking forward to meeting this active little spirit growing within me.

**Memorial Day Weekend Special: This weekend marks 3 years since Byron and I went to Zion's Camp in Kirtland, Ohio. I hadn't originally planned on going. My friend Kiera and I had made fun plans for the weekend to hang out and go to a wedding reception for a couple in the branch, but my parents convinced me to go. Our car pool was thrown together pretty last minute, the day before we were supposed to be leaving, after David realized he didn't want to drive his truck to Kirtland, so he called Byron, who was the only person who had responded to his request for a roommate that weekend, and Byron agreed to leave the carpool he had originally found to be a driver. That same night I called the hotel my brother had gotten a room at and managed to get 1 of the last 2 available rooms. Byron and I spent the 4 hour drive there talking about everything - from the music we liked, to how excited he was to be in a singles branch where he could dates lots of girls that summer while David snoozed in the back seat. When we checked into the hotel the rooms my brother and I had booked 2 weeks apart just happened to be right next to each other. David spent his time meeting and socializing with as many new people as he could, and Byron and I spent most of the weekend in each other's company (I thought it was because he didn't know anyone else being so new to the branch, turns out he was just enjoyed being around me). We drove home Sunday evening and I invited him into the house to meet my parents so I wouldn't have to explain as much to them about who I spent the weekend with. He ended up staying for almost 3 hours (every time he tried to leave my mom would say something like "Oh look, he's ready to leave" so he'd stay longer. We ended up talking about a ward picnic my family was going to the next day and I invited him to come along since he didn't know anyone else in the area and I knew his roommates weren't the kind of people he would want to spend time with, so he was back at our house bright and early the next morning and spent the whole day with me again. I was introducing him to people at my parents ward picnic and explaining he was just a friend and that there was no romantic interest, and we went to Chick-fil-A for lunch, after which we went to a picnic for our singles branch. By the end of the weekend I thought he would be a pretty cool friend to have that summer. Who knew what an incredible opportunity we would have to build a beautiful eternity together. <3