Flat Tires and Beautiful Beaches

So it's over. Our much anticipated trip to Maui was all we hoped and dreamed for...but all good things must come to an end, unfortunately. We took off a week ago monday morning...early morning. I'm talkin', we were on the road at 4:50 am. Although we didn't get very far. About 1/4 mile onto the freeway we heard a loud pop and the car started shaking. Nathan pulled off to the side and, sure enough, we had a flat. In the pitch black Sydney (who was driving us) held a flashlight for Nathan while he skillfully changed the tire, and gave Andrea (Nate's sister) an early morning wake-up call... Within 15 min the tire had been changed, Andrea had brought us a 'functioning vehicle', and we were back on our way. From then on out it was smooth sailing!

For those who didn't know about our planned trip to the beautiful island of Maui, Hawaii...we were so lucky to go with Justin and Ashley (my cousin Justin/Nathan's sister Ashley...who happen to be married...long story) and their two girls (Macie is 7; Marley is 5). Justin had a work conference there that week and we got to play while he worked hard. :) We stayed at the Hyatt Resort in Lahaina, Maui. It was an amazing resort. Awesome pools, beautiful view, scenic beaches, delicious food and the world's best pina coladas! Pretty much heaven, right? :) We thought so. We spent several days just chillin at the pool/beach. It was perfect...Nathan played in the water with the girls (he loved it)...and Ash and I just relaxed and layed out in the sun. We made good use of their great gym with a view of the beach and personal tv's on the treadmills (love it!). Went snorkeling one day at Molikini (the tip of a volcanic crater that juts out of the ocean and creates a calm spot...great for snorkeling). I will admit I totally conquered a fear that day...jumping into the black water in the middle of the ocean was not initially appealing to me...but it turned out to be so much fun! Even the girls did it! We went on a couple hikes...jumped into some waterholes (except for me due to the fact that I was COVERED in mosquito bites and didn't want to wash off my bug spray!) Nathan and I drove the "Road to Hana" on our last day there (Ashley and the fam had already gone). We got to go to a Luau. And, what Nathan and I consider one of the best/most accomplished aspects of our trip...we have a new found love for seafood!! Anything from swordfish, to mahi mahi, to opakapaka (sp?)...we love it all!!!! I never thought Nathan would agree...but we seriously went on a seafood binge while we were there and it was awesome!

So...I could go on and on. But I think you all get the point...we had a blast! :) I love Hawaii. It was such a sad day when we had to come home and go back to work. But there's always the next thing to look forward to...and for me that next thing is Kristie's induction on Saturday!! That's right--Kristie is going to be induced on Saturday morning (April 26th) and I get to be her nurse and I'm going to have an official nephew!!! Can't wait! And then a week later my parents are going to come out and spend a week with us! Life is good, people. I am so grateful for the many, many blessings in my life.

Hot Dog, Anyone?

So we're walking into Walmart the other day and what do we see? None other than the Oscar Mayer Wiener Mobile! Nathan was pretty excited. I will admit that it is pretty entertaining. We even got to go inside the Wiener Mobile! They had a little game where we had to throw a ball into buckets that were three different distances away from you...each bucket had a prize in it. I only made it into the first bucket...so I got a wiener whistle. Nathan made it into the second and hit the rim of the third! He won a wiener keychain that played the Oscar Mayer theme song. We spent the next hour in walmart listening to all the little kids play their wiener whistles (including Nathan). Oh the simple joys of life!

Snowboarding

For as long as Nathan can remember (ok maybe just since high school), he has wanted two things: a snowboard and a season pass. This year, both dreams came true. Thanks to Intermountain Healthcare (the company we both work for), he got a pretty sweet deal on a Season Pass to Sundance. Since December, he's been able to hit the slopes about once a week...and he's loving it. I refused to join him until temperatures rose above 35 degrees. I finally did go with him a few weeks ago (it was about 50 degrees outside that day!). I've only been skiing about twice in my life, and each time I think I am more terrified than the last. While it did take us about 40 minutes to get down the first run, I warmed up a little and became pretty comfortable by the end of the 3 hours. That's right...three hours. That's enough for me. I told Nathan that the money I spent for my ticket and rentals was worth it to me as long as I was having fun. Once I stopped having fun, I was done. So three hours later we were on our way back down from the mountain. It was a fun day. I'll admit I did enjoy the experience more than I thought I would. Nathan was grateful that I finally came with him, and he hasn't asked me since to come along. My once-a-year obligatory ski trip is now complete, and I'm relieved. :) A couple weeks later Nathan took my sister, Sydney, with him. Let's just say she's a bit more adventurous than I am and they had a blast. Syd got some pretty great shots of Nathan flying through the air. I will say that he has impressed me with his snowboarding skills...he's gotten pretty good at it this year. Good thing we're moving to Arizona for the next four years and he'll get plenty of opportunities to continue practicing! Bye-bye snow...bye-bye snowboarding. Sorry Sweetie. Nathan took Syd snowboarding...
My one and only appearance on the slopes this season...

The Happiest Place on Earth!

Ok so I know it's been a while since I posted anything. I'm making a goal to be better about updating our blog. But here's a quick update on the past couple months. Nathan and I just crossed over the 'one year married' mark in January and decided to celebrate by visiting the Happiest Place on Earth--Disneyland! Our good friends the Stotts had four free tickets (Tyler spent some time working for Disney last semester) and since their first year anniversary fell just a week after ours, we decided to make the trip together. We split the 10 hour drive in half by staying in Vegas with Nathan's parents for a couple days. In Vegas we saw the show, La Reve. It was incredible. It was one of those really cool, acrobatic shows but there was diving and synchronized swimming involved...I'm pretty sure Nathan spent the entire time wishing he could wear one of those speedos! After our brief day and a half stay in Vegas we made the rest of the drive down to Anaheim.

It was rainy in the morning so there was almost no one in the whole park--The lines were only about 10 min each! Nathan often jokes about our differences in opinion when it comes to things being "worth the money". He always wants to stay until the bitter end so that he can get his money's worth. I'm pretty much ready to go when I've done everything I wanted to do. Well needless to say we left early to "keep the wife happy", in Nathan's words. So after we left the park I really wanted to go eat at Ruby's (a little Diner on the end of the Huntington Beach Pier). We made the 30 minute drive only to find out it had closed literally 1 minute before we got there. Feeling rather deflated we decided to just head home and eat at the cheap IHOP around the corner. When we got there our hunger and sleepiness quickly turned into anger when we saw that the prices had been jacked up because it was across the street from Disneyland!

A couple weeks after our Disney Adventure we took off for Portland to visit Ashley and her Fam! We spent a wonderful, relaxing week just hanging out...making quilts...(throwing up with the Stomach Flu)...going to the Nike Employee Store...and eating at the best restaurant we'd ever been to for Nathan's Birthday. Ashley and Justin treated us to the Portland City Grill and we are still so grateful for that night! It was so much fun! We wish we could have every part of our family all living close by, all the time. It stinks to be so far apart from everyone. No matter where you are...you always miss someone. Oh well...that's life I guess--makes you more grateful for the times you do get to spend with those you love.This is the quilt I made for Kristie's baby, Jake. I'm definitely not a professional---but I was pretty proud of myself.

Back to Reality

So the Holidays are over and everything is back to normal here in Provo. Nathan and I had a perfect Christmas back home in Virginia...I honestly could not have asked for more. We were both lucky enough to get 2 whole weeks off of work. Kristie and Wes weren't able to come out till Christmas morning and we were all so happy for their arrival...everyone was finally together. To start things off, the boys were more than enthused over their new remote control helicopters. They dropped everything they were doing to get those babies fired up! The excitement, however, quickly shifted to the much anticipated and hard-earned Wii Game System. Needless to say, we spent the next week improving our golf swing and bowling like we'd never bowled before! We even got our grandma, Mutti, to bowl--she scored a 119! Despite the occasional injury incurred by overzealous arm maneuvers, we had a great time!


A last minute attempt at family pictures. It's always quite the challenge
to get David to put down his Barney phone and look at the camera...close enough
Me teaching Mutti how to bowl...she bowled a 119!
Guess that means I'm a pretty good teacher :)
Mom and Dad boxing
Nathan and Wes boxing
The boys flying their new remote control helicopters

Nathan and I had to fly home on Dec 30th so that we would be back for work on the 31st and 1st. Unfortunately, our plane in Denver was delayed a good 4 hours or so and we finally put our heads on our pillows at 5:45 am. Luckily, we both got canceled at work that day. So now we're back to the good old routine: working three 12 hour shifts each week, and spending the other four days just hanging out, snowboarding (nathan), cleaning, doing laundry, etc. We really do have a pretty nice life right now. I feel so blessed each day. And we're coming up on our 1 year anniversary! Holy Cow time flies. It's been a good year.

The Snow Has Arrived!

It finally snowed last night. We woke up to a white winter wonderland this morning and I couldn't have been happier :). On top of that--my dad surprised us last night by driving up to Provo from LA (he'd been on a business trip)! We've had a great day with him. We drove up to Sundance to pick up Nathan's season pass. It was so pretty up there! The snow has made this Christmas season even more real for me. I just don't know how I could ever live in a place without snow at christmas. Speaking of living in warm places...Nathan found out last night that he'd been accepted to Midwestern Dental School in Arizona. We are so happy to know that no matter what we will be starting school next fall. Now I just need to start praying a little harder that VCU will give him a chance as well. We'll see what the next few months have in store for us. In the meantime, it's time to focus on the holiday season! Christmas cookies...trees (we bought our first real tree together the other day!)...music...movies...It's all so much fun! In Nathan's words...everything is just 'jolly'!

The Holidays are Here!

So we finally faced the reality that the website created for our wedding was too complicated to maintain and turned to the 'blog'. I'm hoping it will be easy enough for me to maintain without Nathan's help. I'm excited to start sharing our lives with family and friends, especially those we don't get the chance to talk to very often! Nathan's family has always had the tradition of sending out email updates to friends and family. As of two days ago our ten months of marriage had yet to produce any such updates. Nathan, however, recently took the initiative to format a "November Letter"! I figured I'll just let him write the letters until he starts dental school next year because I'm sure at that point I'll be stuck with the responsibility for the remainder of our lives. Although much of the letter is clearly one-sided...I must admit it's not far from the truth :). We love you all and hope you are enjoying the holidays as much as we are!

"I caught some flack for not getting dressed up for Halloween but I decided I needed to send out a letter to let people know I really did dress up. I was a super hero, and I was so comfortable with my tight stretchy pants that I wore them to work. When the patients woke up that morning I had to reassure them this was not a hallucination, and that I really was there. After I got home from work I was tired of having people stare at me so I changed into a costume that stood out less. So that is why you see me as a cowboy in Jessica’s Halloween pictures.

Well contrary to my wife’s beliefs Christmas does not start officially until after thanks giving. So far this year I have managed to hold off the decorating, cookie making and all other things Christmas except the music. Every time we get in the car we are bumping Christmas music for all the neighbors to hear. It really hurts my gansta image, people just have a hard time believing I live the thug life when they hear Santa baby blaring on my radio. On Nov 1^st Jessica officially kicked off the Christmas Season by making some hot chocolate and listening to Christmas music. I decided to rebel and use my cool Halloween glass I bought at the grocery store; frankly it was all I could do.I have discovered a conflict in our marriage lately. Its BYU football season and so the games are in town. Well I always want to watch and support our team. Jessica…well lets just say she is more of a fair weather fan. Getting to the game after the first quarter, not attending when the weather is bad, watching ER when the game is on; for her all of these activities are acceptable. We both got shirts from the BYU bookstore that say “Fully Invested” meaning we are fully invested in the BYU football team. I am just starting to doubt that she can truthfully wear that shirt. Is she really being honest with her fellow man if she proclaims to be fully invested but her actions speak otherwise? I just don’t know what to do. I guess as long as she does the cooking I will pretty much keep my mouth shut.

Well that’s about it for now so I will talk to you all later." I just got home from work and saw the web site Jessica made...I feel so validated right now. Fight the Christmas Machine!!! Well, only until after Thanksgiving.