Blogger Header Part 2

Okay, so maybe the old header wasn't motivation. Jason couldn't stand looking at it. Carissa, though flawless, didn't care much for it either. So here's an updated version that they both could look at for the time being.

New Blog Header = Motivation

What does marriage life do to you? Take a gander at our blog header and then go to our archives and check out our wedding pictures. That double chin you see on Jason was only about 1 1/2 a chin little over a year ago. Sad. So to help Jason in his quest to get back into honeymoon shape he changed the header so he'd always have it as a reminder that if he wants to maximize life with his two beautiful girls he needs to make better choices at the dining room table and also make time for a bit of exercise.

But Jason will be changing the header picture as soon as there is one that doesn't show off his chinny-chin-chins.

Leah's Locks: A Milestone

So here we are 2 years and nearly 7 months from the time that our beautiful girl entered this world and she finally has enough hair to pull it into a ponytail. Kind of. Carissa was so excited that she ran to Target the other day just to buy hair ties. Anyway, we felt that this was significant enough event to share with all of you. After all, it's been quite the journey for our hair-challenged toddler. She's made quite a bit of progress since the days of her coiffure like Hitler as evidenced here:

That was Leah a little more than a year ago. Our little baby is growing up. Here she is today. Pretty ponytail and all.

Leah loves her new backpack from Grammy and Grampy in Oregon. Leah says "Tank Chu!"

Seeing us off to Virginia . . .

We felt the need to make a quick post about Carissa's family coming to visit us before we left for Virginia. Carissa's mom and step-dad and her dad and step-mom came to Utah about a week apart right before our trek to Virginia. It was very good of them both to come see us off, considering that it may be sometime before we can make it back to Oregon for a visit.

When Carissa's mom and step-dad came we went to our favorite park by our home and walked through the gully. In the park we played on the swings and teeter-totter. Leah learned to swing on the big girl swing when all of the swings with safety restraints were occupied. Leah loved playing with her grandma and grampy Dale and we will miss them.

A few days later Carissa's dad and step-mom came into town to see us off. Carissa's step-brother Stephen, step-sister Nikki, and brother Garner also made the trip. Leah had a blast playing with her uncles and aunt. Grandpa was their favorite toy though as he was a trampoline and jungle gym for Leah and Garner.

Leah loves her Grandpa! Everyone loved spending time at the pool swimming and sunbathing. It was especially nice to have so many people around to entertain Leah while we finished packing and when the movers came to take everything to Virginia.

We are so fortunate to have family that loves us enough to make such a long trip to spend so little time with us. The hardest part of this move for us has been relocating so far away from our family and friends. You're all in our thoughts and prayers.

The Price is Right

So what it's a misleading title. We were not Grand Showcase winners. We didn't even play Plinko.

But we did spend Independence Day with our great friends the Iverson's in picturesque Price, UT. It was a much needed break for our little family and it was wonderful to be able to reunite with friends who recently moved far from us. And that is just as good as shaking Drew Carey or Bob Barker's hand in our books.

The 4th of July is Carissa's favorite holiday. We're happy to report that this one did not disappoint. After making the few hour drive to Price, we spent the night with our dear friends and then woke up the next morning to check out the natural history and dinosaur museum there in town. For those who don't know Price is a hotbed of Indian archaeology and dinosaur fossil hunting.

Caitie was our guide for the morning since Micah had to work. But we met up with him at Big Moe's for lunch and then it was off to visit the San Rafael Swell and the Wedge. About 40 minutes south of Price there is an impressive canyon. A long, dirt, but well maintained road takes you out to the lookout and it was stunning. It's basically a miniature Grand Canyon.

Down in the swell there are some cool little hikes and also some Indian drawings that we decided to check out. It was hot. Really hot in fact but it was well worth it.

We spent the rest of the afternoon in Huntington cooling off with their Fourth of July Festivities. If any of you have the opportunity to partake in the future we encourage you to do so. They have an amazing talent competition where we saw some pubescent teen rock out to Jessie's girl complete with air guitar. If that doesn't make you stand up, salute, and shout "God Bless America" then you just ain't a patriot. We returned the following morning to hang out, collect candy from the parade, and enjoy the festivities with Micah, Caitie, and Maisie. Then for the finale we headed to the county fairgrounds and laid on the grass and watched fireworks above. Then we put the kids down to bed and Micah and Jason started lighting their fireworks from Wal-Mart while Carissa and Caitie chided them for acting like little boys. Good times.

Many mahalos to the Iverson's for being so hospitable and opening their home to us. We miss them quite a bit now that we have moved and live even further from them.

Virginia is for Lovers

2 weeks and 32 hours later we're finally here in Virginia and we've been busy getting settled. Carissa has been unbelievable in putting together our new home, unpacking, and organizing everything to boot. Jason went right to work the day after arriving at 2am. He only had to be up at 5am and travel from Fredericksburg, VA to Bethesda, MD. But now that we've been here for two weeks we finally are able to sit down and catch you all up on everything that has been going on:

• Leah has finally warmed up to Nana and Papa Chong. It took awhile but not she'll give them hugs and kisses before bed. They just finished their basement and have an incredible theater room complete with a candy and snacks. Leah loves digging into the jars of goodies. The other night Leah had her fill of sourdough pretzels and when she asked for more Carissa told her no. 5 minutes later, Nana walked down the stairs and Leah picked up the pretzels and ran over to Nana and asked her if she could have some. Of course, Nana obliged. Leah is quickly learning where her bread is buttered.

• After Jason bragged about the awful humidity and heat of the South, this Virginian August has been rather tame. In fact the weather has been so nice that we have been eating dinners outside on the back deck. I guess Carissa deserves it though since she had to endure a brutal winter in Salt Lake City this year.

• Carissa has quickly learned how to get around our little 'burg. She knows where all the essentials are: Wal-Mart (All 3 of them. I don't know what kind of indicator that is when you're little town has 3, 2 of them of the Super variety), Target, Michaels and the Mall. I do know that she missed the old grids of Salt Lake City for the first few days. The roads in Virginia really are just an indication of how old the place is. The roads meander around countless properties staked out centuries ago in no logical manner. To confuse things further, roads here all have numerical markers and often the same road will turn into a few different roads altogether. For example Route 1 is also Richmond Highway, Kings Highway, and Jefferson Davis Highway, all depending on where you're at on the road.

• Jason has been busy with his new job. In his first two weeks he has probably put in 120 hours and traveled to Manhattan twice and Bethesda, MD 6 times. He has been incredibly tired. Unfortunately, this means that he is also incredibly irritable and cranky. Apologies to the wife and daughter. He is a project manager for VitaTech Engineering where we design shielding solutions for electromagnetic fields. The first paycheck in a long while went a long ways to make up for the hours worked.

That's a brief snippet of what we have been up to. We're all doing fine here though we do miss our friends and family out west. But as the time passes we are feeling more and more secure and safe with this move. We thank everyone for their prayers. In an effort to make up for the lack of posts we'll add some more from the last month.

Virginia, Ho!

I know it's been awhile. Okay, a long while. Things in the Chong Ohana household are hectic at the moment so this is a little post to catch you all up. Pictures and additional posts to follow.

First off, the big news...we're leaving Utah and trekking east to Virginia. Jason received a job offer that was too good to pass up and will be working as a project manager for an engineering firm minutes away from his parents' home. We're excited for this new chapter in our lives and the adventures that lie before us though we will miss our friends here in Utah.

Secondly, we got a new computer after our last one bit the dust. Jason tried to transfer all of our old pictures and files from our old hard drive to the new one. He was ultimately unsuccessful. However, he did successfully corrupt his entire "My Documents" folder containing all of our pictures and important documents. Did, Jason back up those files on disc? Of course not. He really hates Vista. So we're hopeful once we get to Virginia that we will be able to salvage all those files. Then we will be able to upload some of our pics from the last month or so.

Third, Carissa celebrated a milestone birthday. The big 25! Jason is happy because now he is only 4 years older than his beautiful wife. Jason also surprised Carissa with a new car. Carissa had been wanting a Mazda5 for quite some time and Jason bought the last one on the lot.

Sorry for the gap in posts. It won't get much better as these next few weeks will be very busy for us all. That's going to have to suffice for now folks.