Barbados

Day two of the cruise-Barbados!!!
We went with Chris and Megan on a snorkeling and SCUBA excursion.  Dave, Megan and I are certified SCUBA divers, and Christ totally went out of his comfort zone and decided to join us on a dive.  He took an intro to SCUBA class (Megan refreshed her skills too) while Dave and I snorkeled with turtles.  Then we all went SCUBA diving together, and then back to snorkel with the turtles some more.  We ended the day with pina coladas on the beach. Great day.

The beach in Barbados was probably the prettiest one we saw.  The sand was so soft, and the water spots on our underwater camera are awesome too.

Turtle time.

Chris and Megan in their class.

This picture doesn't do it justice how beautiful it was.  The combination of the green trees, white sand and blue water was amazing.

SCUBA diving.  Megan and I are wimps when it comes to being cold-hence the wet suit...the guy next to me didn't want to be cold either.

The dive was a fun one...ship wreck, and a little Ariel-esk feeling looking through the port holes in the sunken ship to see fish.  And Chris survived!  He did almost run out of air though!
After the dive we went back to snorkel with the turtles (after a little planking of course - and no my face is NOT touching the seat.  Gross. Jess, I can't believe you thought I would do that).
It was so cool to be able to see so many, and be able to touch them.

Notice how calm and peaceful Megan and I are here...

and then for some reason we thought the turtles were going to attack us and leave our kids motherless.  We kinda freaked out.

Some guy is building an ark.  That's what is under the black tarp.  If it ever rains enough and I need an ark, I am heading to Barbados!  Note to self: wipe the water off the lens!!! Argh.

That night for dinner we did casual and ate at the buffet. Clearly we never lacked for good food! The pizzas, the brownies, the salads...and I didn't have to cook any of it! Hooray!

Micro-phome

Joshua gave his first talk in Primary today. It was on choosing the right. He was so excited to talk into the micro-phome. Austin loved being in Primary. He sat so still!

Southern Caribbean Cruise- Part One

To celebrate our 10 year anniversary, Dave finishing residency, and to spend some quality time with some of our besties, we went on a seven day Southern Caribbean cruise back in October. It was amazing. Lots of food, lots of laughter, and lots of fun memories made!

Sunday, October 9th - Puerto Rico
The cruise left from Puerto Rico. Before we got on the ship, we went to the beach at the hotel where we stayed the night before. It was fun laying in the sun and playing in the waves.

The humidity made the pictures look blurry.

Getting to the cruise port.  We're excited!

The food.  Glorious food.

That day we just walked around the ship, ate, took pictures, walked to the front of the ship and couldn't believe how windy it was, sat in the hot tub, and then probably ate some more!

Very Titanic.

Monday, October 10
At sea.  We worked out (the first and only time), we slept, they rock climbed, we all ate, laid in the sun, read magazines and books (vampire ones-Colby), and the boys played some weird video game.

That night was formal night.  Megan and Chris had escargot, but we passed!

That night was when the planking started.  If you have seen The Office, you know what planking is. We thought we were hysterical, but I'm sure everyone around us thought we were so lame.  Who cares. It was so funny, my cheeks hurt from laughing so hard.  We walked around the ship planking all over the place.

Top to bottom, left to right:

Me planking in the disco lounge

Megan in the disco lounge

Mandy on the dance floor

Chris in the arcade

Megan in the arcade

Dave in the arcade (his shirt was super dusty after)

Colby by the pool

Me by the pool

Chris on top of the dirty laundry

Megan in the elevator 

Mandy on the cigarette thingy 

Colby in the elevator with random woman

My all time favorite planking picture was when all three husbands planked in this little sitting area, and this couple got up from their seats and saw our crazy husbands like this:
I'm sure they thought our husbands were nuts!!

A little midnight snack of french fires, onion rings, and some fruit-to be healthy. My kind of meal.

California

We drove to Colorado on Oct 1 and 2, unpacked more (thank you Bruce for meeting Dave there the week before and getting so much unpacked for us.  I am so spoiled), got settled in some, and then left for California on October 5th.  We were able to spend some time with both of our families, which is always so fun.  We flew into San Francisco and Bruce and Marianne picked us up and we took a little trip down memory lane.
Dave's dental school.

Our very first apartment complex.  This is where we moved thinking Dave was going to do the business thing.  Joke's on us!

The apartment complex we managed for 3.5 years

We didn't make it to our third apartment we lived in. Dave The kids were tired of being in the car. So we went to one of our favorite places to eat, Boudins.  Dave's favorite food is bread, and this place is the best of the best when it comes to sourdough bread.

Joshua pointing to his GAP San Fran shirt.  I love that shirt.  GAP is what brought us to San Francisco originally (Dave worked for corporate finance).

It was so fun spending time with both our families.  We celebrated and partied hard.
We had a little graduation party for Dave at Melissa's beautiful home.  We are all so proud of Dave!

A little tradition that we do...on someones special day (birthday, graduation, etc) everyone goes around and says something nice about that person.  Dave's turn. 

We loved spending time with our families.  Dave and I left our sweet kiddos there and left on Saturday for Puerto Rico for our CRUISE!!!!! Those posts to come.

Eleven

11 years ago today I did the best thing I have ever done...I said yes.

11 years ago today Dave and I got engaged. We were living in Utah at the time, I was going to school and he was applying for business school. February 16th, 2001 was a Friday night.Dave's sister was coming into town so the plan was to go to Salt Lake, pick up his sister and then head to my friend's wedding reception. Once we got to the airport, Dave had me go inside to wait for his sister while he circled the car outside. While I was waiting, I felt someone come from behind me and give me a big hug. It was Dave and he had a dozen roses, and two packed suitcases. I was VERY confused. He took my hand and just said, "Let's go."I had a so many questions but he wouldn't answer any of them. We had designed my ring together and the ring store told us it wouldn't be done for at least another two weeks. I thought Dave had planned the trip hoping to get engaged, but since the ring wasn't done we were just going on a fun trip. We flew to Oakland, and our rental car was waiting for us. I felt so excited, but a little disappointed because I really wanted to get engaged and I thought the ring wasn't done. Dave blindfolded me and drove me to a beautiful lookout of San Francisco, where we ironically spent six years of our married life together. It was there that he asked me to marry him, and of course (and obviously) I said yes. He then pulled my ring out of him pocket. It was finished! The ring store had to work extra hours to get it done in time, but they promised Dave it would be done for Feb 16th and they delivered. We then drove to Dave's parents and knocked on their door and surprised them with our visit, and with our good news. We then drove to my parent's house and totally surprised them as well. Our families got together on Sunday night to meet each other and start planning the wedding. It was a perfect way to get engaged. I love Dave 11 times more today than I did on that day, and my love will just keep growing.

Kisses

May your Valentine's Day be full of lots of love.

Austin's First Birthday

My baby boy is one. One. How I love this little guy. He melts my heart, and his sister's too. His Dad and Joshua think he's pretty awesome as well. We spent the day as a family, sledding in the morning, and swimming (in an indoor pool of course) in the afternoon. With presents and cupcakes in-between.
Happy birthday little man.

Finished

Rob.  Bob.  Dave.  This was Dave's graduating endo class.  A few months before "graduation" (going to dinner with all the faculty and staff but no caps, no gowns, no parents or kids invited--not my choice of how to celebrate such hard work, but it wasn't my choice) the director of the program changed the date of the  dinner.  That date didn't work for us, we had already planned on moving by then.  So they changed it again, but that date didn't work for Bob, he already had set plans.  So Dave, Rob, and Bob decided it was all of them, or none of them for the dinner.  If they all couldn't be there, they weren't going to have a big celebration dinner with all the faculty and staff.  The three musketeers. Six weeks before the dinner, Rob suffered a brain hemorrhage. Since Rob couldn't attend the graduation dinner, Bob and Dave decided there would be no dinner. Instead, Rob and his amazing wife Mercedi, Bob, Dave and I went to dinner together.  This was Rob's first time leaving the hospital in 45 days.

Rob and Mercedi.  Power couple.  They have been through so much, and are such amazing people.  Dave and Rob became really good friends.  Spending 12 hours a day with someone for over two years, especially when there are only three people in your class, has a way of solidifying your friendship.  While the last month of Dave's residency was the easiest academically, it was probably the hardest month emotionally of our whole married life.  It was hard to watch such an amazing family have to endure so much.  In our 10 years of marriage I have seen Dave cry probably five times, one of them being for Rob and Mercedi.

The whole clan, minus Bob's wife Meese.

Friday, September 30, 2011
The day finally came.  Seven years of school- prerequisites, dental school, endo residency, all completed.   Since Rob was able to leave the hospital, the faculty and staff put on a little lunch at the school to congratulate the graduates, and especially honor Rob and Mercedi.
I remember while I was driving into the school for the lunch thinking, "This is it." I was so proud of Dave.  He has worked so hard to accomplish this goal and has sacrificed so much to do so.  He is a great example of truly following your dreams, and doing what it takes to get there.  Like studying organic chemistry, and general chemistry in the paint room of our apartment complex and teaching himself all he needed to know to take the DAT.  He never took an organic or general chemistry class, but he taught himself so he could take the DAT.  After he took the DAT he took those courses at a community college (at night, while working full time) so he could meet the requirements to start dental school. He hadn't taken anatomy since 1992.  I am so amazed at what a disadvantage he had when starting dental school, and yet he worked so hard and did well enough to specialize.  The underdog pulled through.  That's my man.

It was a really neat experience being there.  The faculty and staff said very nice things about these guys. Then all the graduates (all three-ha!) went around and thanked those that helped them achieve this accomplishment.  So many nice compliments were passed.  When it was Rob's turn, there wasn't a dry eye in the place.  His story is truly remarkable, and we feel blessed to know them and learn from their example of strength and faith.
Congratulations Rob, Bob and Dave!

Joshua's Beloved

Joshua loves Claire. Claire is nine. If I could hand pick a wife for Joshua, it would be Claire. She is the nicest, most helpful little girl. I hope Audrey grows up to be like Claire, and I hope Joshua can marry someone just like Claire, if not Claire herself. Although she is 6 years older than him. Bummer.
Joshua is not ashamed or embarrassed of his affection towards Claire. He would proudly announce to all who would listen, "Hey. I'm going to mawwy (marry) Cwaire." When his sister or friends would tease him about having a girlfriend, Joshua would say, "Yep! Me do. And I'm going to mawwy her!" If I wanted Joshua to try a new food, all I had to do was tell him Claire liked it and he would automatically like it too (passive aggressive much?). Most little girls would be embarrassed to have a little boy be obsessed with her, and probably not be very nice, but Claire was so sweet to Joshua. Before we moved, Claire gave Joshua a framed picture of her, and he sleeps with it by his bed every night.
This picture was taken the morning we moved.  Great wedding video material huh? Ha! Joshua (and I) wish.

 

We love this little family.  These four little girls have one great mama, Leah, a great friend to me who is the best example of service. She would do anything, for anyone.  I'm so grateful we lived close, that we got to carpool to and from school, for the endless playdates at each other's houses, the park dates, and that we got to be such a big part of each other's lives.  
The day we left Texas.
Joshua, Audrey F, Audrey, Hallie, Claire, and Julia.

 

Twas the Night Before Moving

The night before we left, Megan and Mandy planned a fun little party. We ate food from our two favorite places, Thai and Taco Casa, and had a fun last night together.
The girls all got matching lockets with each other's pictures in them. Thank you Tatum and Abby!

The boys got little goodie bags full of fun things.  Thanks Jason and Seffy!

We watched a video we made in Galveston in July 2010 where we each guessed where we would all end up in a few years.
Watching Chris and Megan.  Chris guessed we would end up in Colorado.  I thought for sure we would have stayed in Texas.

Dave and I thought we would stay in Texas, Chris & Megan in Texas (I think) and Mandy and Colby in Utah or Texas.

I really can't remember but I think Mandy and Colby thought we were staying in Texas and Chris and Megan were going to California.

Photo shoot time. The three babies.  It has been so fun to have friends that have kids the same ages as ours. 

The boys.

The girls.

All the littles.

The Moms.  Why didn't we get some of the Dads?

Everyone. Very fun memories with these people. Love them all.