Lake Powell

We are back from our 9-day trip to Lake Powell and had a great time. Ethan and Tanner were such good boys and it was by far the less stressful year since Jared was with us. It's been far too long since he's been able to come and most likely will be far too long before he will get to go again. It was SO nice having him there to play with us and help.

Ethan was so brave this year and loved riding on the boogie board, tubing, the jet ski's, and going down the waterslide off the houseboat. He would have stayed in the water all day if we let him. Carly and I rode with him most often on the tube and it was so funny because Ethan was yelling "faster, faster" as Carly and I are yelling, "No! Slower!" The whole time he was laughing saying such funny things, "Let's do some cool tricks mommy." We were going at a good speed and Ethan held on so well and loved it! We were all in awe. At night the adults played lots of games including Nertz (a fun card game Joel and Carly taught us) while eating homemade ice cream. At the end of the week we got to visit and go to church with Joy since she is an hour away from Lake Powell in Fredonia. It was nice visiting with her for a few hours. She seems to be doing well and enjoying her time there. It was another amazing year at Lake Powell.

How they have grown

We had one last playdate with the Bedke's. It was like old times going up to the park. When we became really good friends Ethan and Madison were babies and Blake was two years old, now look at them! Mary-anne has four kids and I have two. Everytime we see each other, the kids seem to be so much bigger. Time flies!

Friends Forever

I was searching for a specific picture in my files this morning and came across a picture of Ethan and Madison as babies and was flooded with the great memories and times we have had with the Bedke's. I am grateful for the friend Mary-Anne has been to me. She is an amazing person and someone I'm happy to call my best friend. They will be leaving to San Francisco to start a new adventure very soon. I'm happy for them and this big step in their lives but I'm sad she will be leaving Irvine. I will never forget the late night talks we have had, the beach days, babysitting swaps, kids birthday parties, walks around UCI as people thought we were crazy with so many children, getting our nails done, swimming, many target and costco runs, many many park days, and really anything either one of us wanted to do we made it an outing and did it together. I've missed that this year as we have been in LA but everytime we go down to Tustin we always make a stop to see the Bedke's. I am so grateful for our friendship, for how real it is and how I can totally be myself and she the same. I can walk into her house and help myself to food. I love the way we know each other's kids so well and can take over in a minute's time if needed. We can talk to each other like no other and get side tracked constantly!! We start one story and in a minute we are already onto the next without finishing the first. If I call her with a question I have to ask her right away or the question never gets asked or answered while we spend an hour on the phone. I know that though we will be further apart our friendship will never fade. Friendships like ours are rare and don't come around that often. Tomorrow is not a good-bye...just a see you later.

Camarillo Premium Outlets

I heard about the Camarillo outlet mall here in LA  from a friend and convinced dad and mom to come up and go with me. It's about 30 minutes beyond where we live. It was the coolest outlet mall and although I didn't get much (just because I didn't want to spend the money because believe me there was plenty to buy) it was worth it. It was unbelievable!! There were several strips of 40+ stores and we drove from strip to stripe to cover what we wanted to. They have stores like Banana Republic, Coach, Giorgio Armani, J.Crew, Kenneth Cole, Lucky Brand, Last Call by Neiman Marcus, Nike, Puma, Adias, Polo Ralph Lauren, Saks Fifth Avenue Off 5th, Tommy Hilfiger, Forever 21, Gap, Carters, Children's Place and so on. They have the higher end stores and then the more reasonable stores.

As mom and I shopped Dad, Ethan and Tanner enjoyed the samples and other treats along the way. Throughout the strip they had restaurants or fast food places that most often had samples. The boys were great but we had so much to do in such short time that Dad kept them busy from the get go with food and 25 cent horsey rides. They got an order of fries at Johnny Rockets so they could get the boys a balloon. That was a hit as Tanner loves balloons! It kept him content the rest of the day. On the way home it was the cutest thing as he fell asleep with his blanket in his mouth as always and had his little hand wrapped around the balloon so tightly. He was one happy boy.

At one point as we were walking along Ethan saw the mannequins in Giorgio Armani and ran in the store and held the hand of one of them. It was so funny and very cute as we saw him through the window striking a pose. I directed him out before the approaching store worker had something to say about it. I'm telling you, this will not be the last time those outlets see my face. I think it's a must do at least once a year. Thanks Dad and Mom for a fun day!

Over worked and under paid

This is how Jared always feels (life of a resident) and how I have felt the last few days. The days have felt long as we haven't had much to do and Jared's been gone a lot. We are both ready for our month vacation! Jared has been working six days a week for several weeks now and most of his days off have been spent creating presentations for morning report and ground rounds. They make the residents give morning report on a specific topic to their fellow residents and medical students, and it was Jared's turn the other day.  Ground rounds is a bigger deal as that is given to the attendings on another topic for about 30 minutes. Not having him home on most weekends is a huge bummer. What would that be like? The rotations where he has weekends are so amazing. He can go to church with us, go explore LA or just stay home and play. It makes all the difference in the world. I have never seen someone fall asleep as fast as Jared does when he is on wards. He is asleep in seconds, no joke! It's quite amazing!

The boys and I have been doing what we can to keep busy, playing lots of london bridges, going to the park, the normal things like workbooks and puzzles. Ethan loves to help me whenever I'm doing something, so  yesterday as I vacuumed he followed with his pretend vacuum after me. We washed the car, vacuumed the interor, did all the laundry and spot treated the carpet. He was such a big help and loved it. Next week we will be super busy and fun since we are going down to Orange County to start our break. The Bedke's are moving to San Fran on Wednesday so we will drive down in the morning to see them, get my haircut, Evan's 3rd birthday party, lunch with Barbara, may go to the beach and whatever else our heart desires. I heart OC!

A little of this and that

We have been putting up pictures around our house. We put up several when we first moved in but never finished the project. In the last two apartments we have lived in we haven't done too much to them because 1) we haven't had or wanted to spend the money and 2) we knew they would be short-term places. In this house we are doing the same but decided our playroom needed some family pictures. It has really helped make it more of our own. I'm glad we did it since we will be living here for two more years and we might as well be surrounded with some things we love. Little projects can make a big difference.

I love Target! I don't know what it is but they could be my one-stop-shop for almost everything. You go in for one item and come out with five! Luckily Ethan keeps me on track because if not the whole store would be in our cart as he wants everything in his path too.

I'm excited for Jared to open his Father's Day gift tomorrow. Unfortunately, Jared has to work so he won't get to wear the tie Ethan made him in primary to church but we have a few other fun things up our sleeves once he gets home. I made silhouettes of the boys and framed them which we will add to our home decor. It should have been a very easy project but due to my lack of photoshop skills it became a two day ordeal. Not to mention it's very difficult to get a good side shot of Tanner that looked liked him in silhouette form. The first attempt made Tanner look like a little black baby. In the end, I think they turned out great.

Don't know if anyone else has noticed but post office workers are the most unhappy people I have ever met. A few weeks back when we were getting our passports for the cruise I couldn't believe how mean the workers were to everyone that came through their line. It wasn't just one worker but all the postal workers and I have been back and few times and have seen the same thing. I felt sad for them and can't imagine that working at a post office could be all that bad to make you so mean for no reason. Crazy to me that anyone could act that way no matter what their circumstances were.

Jeff turned 30 the other day, Happy Birthday to him! It got me thinking about my 30's and I'm excited. I love where I'm at now but I think my 30's will be great. I plan to have more children and eventually finish our family, hope to own a home, Jared should be set in a job working in a hospital doing what he loves, the boys will be in school, we will be busy going to piano, soccer, baseball, eventually (towards the end of my 30's) all our children should be in school allowing me to have a few hours a day to work on things I would like to accomplish. I have been thinking about going back to school lately and I'm so excited to take a class here and there of my liking. I don't know if I will go back for a formal degree in anything, but I would love to take cooking classes, sewing, and maybe have a workout class too. I'm excited to go to the temple once a week, go on lunch dates, find and develop hobbies, etc. The possibilities are endless and exciting.

In other exciting news, Jared passed Step 3! This was no surprise to me but a relief for him to have that behind him. He only has a few more weeks of this rotation and he will officially be starting his second year as a senior resident. Can you believe it? He can't either! He feels like he is just finally getting the hang of things and now he will be over first-year residents having much more responsibility and more weight on his shoulders. He will do great, just scary at first.

Brothers?

Ethan on the left, Tanner on the right

When I saw Tanner in this stance it brought me right back to Thanksgiving Point almost three years ago when Ethan was doing the same thing. Tanner is just a few weeks older than Ethan was at the time. I remember that moment at Thanksgiving Point as Ethan had the whole place laughing as he performed different stunts through his legs.