Fun in the Sun

Caleb took his boards on the 20th and then we flew to California on the 21st. It has been a busy but really fun trip. On Friday the AMGEN tour of California time trials were in the valley. Caleb was so excited to see all the pro racers up close and racing. The whole valley was set up for the race, and the major sports stations were in town. It was amazing to see how fast the racers went. The weather was cool, high 50's-60's and a little rainy during the weekend.

Friday my nephew Jared got his mission call, so we all went to Travis and Susan's for dessert to see him open it. He got called to the Kentucky, Louisville mission. We are so excited for him and know he will do a great job. It is amazing to see all my nephews and nieces getting so grown up.

Saturday was my birthday. Caleb made an amazing breakfast and got me a year pass to Shelburne Farms, I am so excited. Then my parents took me out to lunch and to the grocery store to pick out all my favorite foods for dinner. Sunday everyone came up for dinner and a birthday party for me and for Ezra's first birthday. It was so much fun to see everyone, and celebrate.
Monday we woke up early and went to Disneyland. It was so much fun, we got to go on so many rides with Joshua. Basically every ride without a height limit we could go with Joshua. He was so excited looking at all the fun things as we rode through the rides. On the other rides we could get buddy passes and take turns riding. Elizabeth's boys loved it because they got to go on every ride twice. Then we spent the night and went to California Adventure the next day. It was really amazing weather, mid 80's! It was so much fun, but has a totally different feel than Disneyland. The rides are bigger and more extreme.




We go home Saturday, and are just hanging out and enjoying being with the family and the sunshine.

Tagged: 10 years ago

Natalie tagged me, and this seems like a really fun one.

10 years ago I was a senior at Bainbridge Island High school Washington. Some of my friends were Lindsey Griffith, Amanda Jensen, Maggi Holbert, Blaire Keller, Ryan and Taylor Simmons. I had a crush on Jared Dever, who was older than me, and have always had a thing for Brad Pitt.

Snacks I enjoy: Any kind of fruit, wheat thins, raw carrots, vegan chocolate chip cookies (See post below)

5 Things on my to do list:
1. Start Joshua's scrapbook
2. Clean my house
3. Go for a run
4. Get a haircut
5. Do and fold my piles of laundry

Things I would do if I were suddenly a billionaire:
1. Buy a 20 acre ranch in Santa Barbara County, CA with a farm house, gardens, dirt bike trails, pool, tree house, chickens, ducks, horse and a pet cow. All this so Joshua and his future siblings can play, explore and discover outside everyday of the year, like when I was a kid.

I'd use the remaining few dollars to:
2. Pay off all our debt and my siblings debt.
3. Go on an African Safari to see the big cats, and then travel the rest of the world.
4. Get my masters and possibly doctorate.
5. Make Caleb work 1/2 or 1/4 time so he can spend lots of time with us.

3 of my bad habits
1. I pick at everything.
2. People watching, I find people and all their quirks very interesting and often find myself staring and eavesdropping.
3. I like to get job done quick, sometimes at the expense of the finished project.

5 Places I have lived:
1. Santa Barbara, CA
2. Spokane, WA
3. Bainbridge Island, WA
4. Narva, Estonia
5. Vilnius, Lithuania

5 Jobs I have had:
1. House Painter for 5 years with my brother-in-law
2. Child care worker at a day care
3. Receptionist at Rob Rosenberry Physical Therapy
4. Teacher at Lindamood-bell learning processes
5. Substitute Teacher

Things People don't know about me:
- I have had pet rabbits, chickens, hamsters, rats, turtles, fish, ducks, crows, parakeets, cats, dogs and about any other critter I can turn into a pet.
- I have ridden a camel and climbed into the inner tomb of the pyramids in Egypt.
- I am a health nut. I take my vitamins daily, buy organic foods, read the labels of everything I buy, workout, would rather spend money on good food than on clothes, read and study about homeopathic medicine, and am paranoid about using any over the counter or prescription drugs unless absolutely necessary. I think that the food and drug industry is a business, like any other business they are out to make a buck even at the cost of the American public. Caleb calls me his closet hippie, it is my favorite soap box subject. [Editors Note: Caleb doesn't entirely approve, condone, or support some of the author's opinions...in fact he wonders why she fell for someone planning on a career in the health care establishment]
- My oldest brother is closer in age to my mother than to me, which makes makes the oldest of my eighteen nephews and nieces 21 years old.
- I love to work, not in an office (I hate that) but manual labor. It physically challenges me and makes me feel really good. I can't sit still and am constantly doing something.

Living with Board-om

Caleb is taking the Step One of the Medical boards on February 20, so he has been studying like mad. I must say he is an amazing husband and father and I absolutely adore him. No matter how busy he is or stressed he is he always takes time out to be with us, and do all his church duties. He is really good at keeping his priorities straight, even when I know he is stressed with school. With the board studying he leaves in the morning and comes home around 5:30, plays with Joshua, and eats dinner with us. By seven he is back at the books until about midnight. This is nightly Joshua and daddy time.

I really appreciate and am proud of his diligence, and am grateful that he takes his role of providing for us so seriously. That said, honestly I have been getting a little bored of the boards. Even for my hour or two a day I get him, his head is wandering through micro biology and pathology. (By the way I have declared my hour of dinner time with Caleb a phone free time, so if we don't answer we will call you back, but our time together is short and sacred. You all can wait.)

I have been finding ways to entertain myself. I have my daily routine of waking up and bundling Joshua up in the jogger and going for a run. Since my surgery I have not been able to run, compounding my boredom for these last two weeks. Instead I have been taking long gentle walks in the frigid Vermont air. It gives me meditation time and fresh air for the day, which without I would go mad. To break my boredom I went out on a limb and invited all the med student wives and their kids over for lunch. Now for those of you who know me best you know this was really going out of my comfort zone. I have always been a bit of... well you could say a loner (Caleb says introvert-ish). I am perfectly content running, gardening, cleaning, reading, doing whatever all day with little to no social interaction beyond my family. I love to work, be outside and basically always be doing something. The problem is that before medical school I always had lots of family around to interact with all day. My family has always been my friends (I still talk to my sister everyday around 12). So being here by myself I have noticed that I actually do need more social interaction than previously assumed. I think Heavenly Father moved me here to Vermont, with long lonely winters, a social husband, and none of my normal society anywhere nearby so that I could learn to step out of my bubble and rely on others more. Anyway I had a wonderful time at lunch and am very grateful for all the wonderful friends that I have nearby, who know exactly what is like to live through medical school. I am also very grateful for free long distance calling :).

Besides hosting lunches, I have been playing with Joshua. He is very entertaining. This is one of his favorite toys.



Today he is eight months old. Since he has started to crawl he has really taken off; he is non-stop movement and noise. He is extremely sociable, loves to snuggle, and to play with me or Caleb, but not so much by himself. Part of that is being the first, but I have consciously tried since he was little to let him play on his own, but he never wanted to. He would much rather sit with me and see what I am doing and interact with me than play with toys. So he keeps me busy, he really has a great little personality, and is very smiley and funny. I spend half my day crawling around playing peek a boo with him around the furniture. I really could not imagine are more fulfilling and wonderful job as mothering. Not that it is not hard; I remember thinking that my mission was the most physically, emotionally and spiritually draining, yet fulfilling work in the world. I stand corrected. Mothering beats it a hundred times over. Anyway, Joshua has decided to go all out in getting his teeth. All four of his top front teeth have been cutting through at once this week. He has taken it really well, but defiantly has been uncomfortable and not able to sleep. Hence, I am a little loopy this weekend.


Every month around his month birthday I do a little photo shoot with Joshua. One day I am going to get a "real" SLR camera, with manual focus, interchangeable lenses and all that fun stuff. Of course, by that time we also might have a TV that is not purple and green, a perfectly functioning car, a dishwasher where the hoses don't explode off every time we run it, a computer that has a functioning hard drive... and all the other little non-necessities of life. I can always dream, right? :) Anyway, these are a few of my favorite pictures from the latest photo shoot, although they are getting harder to take as he becomes more mobile.

Grandmas, write up your orders :)

Our Europe/Russia trip Summer 2006

I know this trip was a long time ago, but my parents are planning a trip for this summer and wanted to see our pictures. It was the greatest, most tiring trip we have ever taken. We went to 8 countries: Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Russia and saw a lot of the sites within those countries! In the Baltics and Russia, we also visited the people we knew while serving on our missions. (I served in the Baltics & Caleb served in Rostov) We took a lot of trains, and planes and stayed in a lot of hostels. It was really a once in a lifetime experience, and really fun.

Disclaimer: there's a hundred-and-something pictures, so you might want to take advantage of the "view all images" button, unless you have lots of time...which we're fine with.