Trip to Ephraim

David's sister who lives in Idaho was spending a week at Grandma Bailey's house with her kids and since David was so swamped with work, we decided to go down for a few days and play with the cousins.  We live next door to David's brother and his wife, Nicole.  So Nicole and I packed up our kids and made the trek down to Ephraim to play for a short weekend.  It was so much fun and great to see everyone!
It rained right after we got there, and the kids had lots of fun playing in the puddles on the porch.  Brigham was getting some pretty good air before he slipped and fell.  Poor little guy!

One of Isabel's cousins who is a few years older than her was so cute with all the girls.  They would have "girl parties" and go in the bathroom and put on the play makeup.  They were so adorable and the girls were all so excited to be wearing makeup.  It was hilarious, because they would come out of the bathroom looking VERY done up and they thought they were princesses.  I am glad I don't have to worry about her wearing makeup full time for quite a few years, we have lots to learn about the "less is more" rule of thumb with makeup:)

We took a picnic to Palisades and went swimming for a few hours.  It was so nice because it was so hot that the water felt nice.  The kids could have stayed all day long they were having so much fun.

Brigham spent the whole time just playing in the sand.  He would wade into the water up to his bum and throw sand and then come back out.  He did try to walk out to Aunt Rachel who was a ways out and we barely got to him before he went under.  It is scary how fast those kids can get away from you!

The kids had popsicles out in Grandma's back yard and they were loving life.  We always sleep good at Grandmas cause we get so tuckered out.  We went out for pizza one night and my little brother who just moved to Ephraim for Snow College came and met us.  It was hilarious because David's mom and sister met him and then immediately started brainstorming of who of Rachel's friends they could set him up with.  They called a friend right up and asked her to come down and introduced the two to each other, it was great!!!  Caleb was a good sport about it and has actually become friends with the girl, so that is nice, huh?

The halo hides the horns!

Oh, I just love this little man!  He is so sweet, but so mischievous sometimes, but I can't get enough of his snuggles.  These little kids just melt my heart!

Dental School Graduation - May 15th

Well, better late then never, but I wanted to get these up here for journaling purposes.  I cannot believe that our journey that is dental school has come to an end.  There are so many emotions that I went through that day, it was wonderful!  These last four years have been such a whirlwind, but we have grown and learned (and aged) so much with this journey.  We had both of our children while David was in dental school, moved halfway across the country and made some wonderful friends and memories through it all.  I am so grateful for my husband and all he sacrifices for our family, we are so lucky he is in our lives.             So, I am trying to figure out this new format with blogger and can't write underneath each photo, so just enjoy the photos and make up your own captions:)

We are so proud of you David and know that you gave your heart and soul to your dental education.  Now he is in a 2 year pediatric dental residency program here in Salt Lake.  We are grateful to be closer to family and look forward to more fun these next two years.  He is lucky enough to be in the same program with his brother Sam, so we have fabulous neighbors right now:)  (literally, we live next door to each other which is so awesome!)

Maui in June = Paradise!!

Since I am LOOOONNNG overdue for some new posts, I thought I would start with our trip to Maui last month.  We went with David's parents, his brother and his wife, and David's little sister and her friend.  It was amazing and you can see from the pics!!!  We left the kids with David's sister, Liz, and they had the best time up there and we are forever grateful to her and her family!!!

Beautiful ocean front condo!

We hiked to a blowhole and this was some of the views, incredible huh?  The pictures just don't do it justice.

Our room with a fabulous jacuzzi tub and gorgeous views

I want one of these showers someday:)

The wind was crazy up by the blowhole, but so much fun

Our own private lanai, I am in love with this place!

Our boys risked their lives to pick these flowers and make us leis for the luau, plumerias smell incredible!!!

The luau was so much fun and it was right on the ocean which just added to the atmosphere.  We made ourselves sick on virgin pina coladas and lava flows!

Sam and Nicole looking pretty smooth at the luau

David was so deep in thought watching some of the dancing, I just love this pic.  Love my man!

It is hard to see, but there are lots of people snorkeling, as well as tons of sea turtles, this is one of our favorite places to snorkel.

This is David, trying to get out of the water on the lava rocks.  He would not go in the water without his shirt on because he was afraid of getting burnt:) 

And again, here he is wrapped in a towel because he was so afraid of the sun!  I can't blame him though, he got fried when we went a few years ago and was miserable the rest of the trip, and he got a little burned the first day on this trip, so he was through with taking any chances:)  Poor little lobster.

We all took a turn cooking a dinner for everyone.  David made a fabulous shrimp boil and I think we were all in heaven that night:)

This was along the beach path on ka'anapali beach.  It is so beautiful, you can't even believe it!  We had fun walking down to whaler's village and getting yummy samples of frozen yogurt (we probably had a few too many samples, but it was sooo good.  Toasted coconut and root beer float were my favorit fro-yo flavors:)

Oh man!  I am dying just thinking about this place it is so dang delicious!!!  It is called the Gazebo and they make THE best food!  We went there twice for breakfast cause we couldn't get enough.  We had macadamia nut banana pancakes with white chocolate chips and coconut syrup, oohhhhweeee it is good!  They also make this fried rice that is incredible.  I know, fried rice for breakfast???  Trust me, you will be in heaven (quite literally because you may eat so much you pop!)  We would come eat breakfast and then go snorkel with the turtles, what a way to spend in paradise!

This is the condo we stayed in, we had rooms on the 6th and 9th floors, and it was heaven.  They have the funnest pools, you could spend your whole trip there.  We liked to play bocche ball on the lawns and lay under the palm trees.

We love Bubba Gumps!

Bucket o' Boat Trash is one of our favorite things here.

We had to get our shop on in Lahaina and we had lots of fun bartering for jewelry and souvenirs

We went hiking through a bamboo forest and had to scale this scary ladder, then hike along a creek, jump in a waterfall pool and then swim 100 feet to a waterfall and climb it.  Sounds crazy, but it was one of the highlights of our vacation.

We went to Warren & Annabelle's and were selected to sit up by the table where Warren did his magic.  David got picked on by Warren, we got free pina coladas and we saw some amazing tricks!  Just ask us and we can tell you about the $100 bill I held in my hand while it burned, then appeared later in a lemon!!!

Some of us (not me) decided to bike down the backside of the volcano.  I didn't want to do it because I was 8 weeks pregnant, but David went and they had a good time.  Don't worry, I went and shopped instead:)

We had so much fun in Maui and can't wait to go back with the kids.  We are so grateful to David's parents for letting us come along and showing us such a great time. 

Hopefully, I can get back into blogging regularly. Lots of pics to post and stories to tell, so keep your fingers crossed I can get motivated:)  I am starting to feel better, so I have more energy to do things and wrangle the kids in. 

Spring Break...and some birthdays!

A few weeks ago, David's mom came out to visit us for a few days and to see him get inducted into an Honor Society at Creighton.  It is a Jesuit Honor Society, and since he is going to a Jesuit University, there is the connection!  We are so proud of him and all the hard work he does for our family.  Love you Babe!So it has been a really rough winter, to say the least.  With horribly cold temperatures, blowing wind that makes you want to cry, and so much snow, you can't even see out your front window, we are all dying for Spring to come!  So, this week is David's springbreak, and we got a taste of what it feels like to be above freezing.  The kids were so happy to be outside, and had fun getting in the mud and kicking ice balls around with Daddy.  They got filthy, but I didn't care because I was so happy to enjoy sunshine and fresh air.  We have been able to play outside every day this week, which is so amazing and I feel that I may actually survive until spring arrives:)

So, since it is David's spring break, we have been playing all week.  We really wanted to go to Utah to look for a place to live and go to my little brother, Kyle's wedding.  But since, funds are tight, and there are no rentals to look at that will be available in May, we had to stay home.  Now don't get me wrong, we are excited to spend our last spring break in Omaha, but I was bummed we couldn't go to my brother's wedding, and couldn't find a place to live.  But we are making the most of it!

Monday was my birthday.  David is such a sweetheart.  He woke up, cooked me breakfast, took me to try and find a swimsuit for our trip to Maui (yeah, we won't talk about swimsuit shopping, talk about depressing!), and took me to lunch at our favorite restaurant here.  Then, we got our neighbors to monitor sit our kiddos and he took me to the IMAX to see Avatar.  Wow, that movie was incredible.  I was so pleasantly surprised, because I really wasn't that excited to be going to see it.  I totally love it!  I smile each time I think about watching it, and wish I could afford to go see it again.  I had no interest to go see it, but thought I should see a movie David wanted to see if he was sweet enough to want to go out to a late movie with me.  I am a believer now!

Tuesday we went to the Zoo, and everytime I go, I wonder why I don't go more often.  We are so lucky to be so close to an amazing zoo, and I will really miss it when we move!

This was the first time we had been to the zoo since Brigham started walking, and he had a BLAST!  He loved that he could go wherever he wanted to explore and he was jabbering the entire time, so funny!

We also went out to Quaker steak and Lube.  It is a fun restaurant and David enjoyed his all you can eat wings!  We took some friends out that David is using for one of his board patients and we had a great time with them!  The kids enjoyed themselves and let us have a few conversations with adults while they played...yay!

Wednesday, I took David out to Cabelas to try and spend a giftcard he got for his birthday.  Yah, it is really hard to get him to spend a giftcard.  Let's just say, we are VERY different in that respect:)

He cooked me an amazing dinner of rack of lamb and asparagus.  He cooks a mean rack!  It was delish, but the kids didn't really know what to do, they weren't the biggest fans of the flavor, but I know it will grow on them:)

Today, Isabel went with David to the school to do some lab work while I went to the Dr. for my knee pain.  Then we went to Bass Pro for David to try and find something for Another gift card there (yeah, no luck there either)  What am I gonna do with this man?

David's mom helped buy Isabel a bike for her birthday (tomorrow), and I brought it upstairs to adjust the training wheels tonight.  We were looking at it, and it had big problems with the gears.  So back David went to the store at 10pm to exchange the bike.  We just didn't want Isabel to be heartbroken when we had to take her present back to the store on her birthday. I always thought it was funny that people always seem to have problems with bikes/trikes at 11pm on Christmas eve....yah, I feel their pain now!

We are having a wonderful week and trying to enjoy every minute!  Our time here is quickly coming to a close, and it is so bittersweet.  So tomorrow it is the Children's Museum and the Amazing Pizza Machine for our little Isabel's birthday.  Can she really be 3?!!!  She is my partner in crime, by cuddle buddy, the kissing machine, one feisty mama, and my little miracle.  We are so lucky she is in our family and hope she always knows what a special little sweetheart she is!  Please don't grow up so fast...