It's the story of my summer..but I miss my hubby:(

Road trip up the Pacific Coast Highway

Natalie had a few days off over the 4th of July so we took off Friday for California! We took our bikes with us to get a little exercise and see the sights a little slower. Of course, the first thing that happened is we got a flat tire. 2 of them. This is the second, on the side of the road on our way back to the hotel. We were in scenic Port Hueneme ("you-n-me" cute, huh?), there were tons of green fields and cute little fruit stands all along this road.

There were tons of these types of trees that all looked like giant bonzai trees getting blown over. It made the whole town look slightly tipsy.
In addition to the drunken trees, there was the most random sign on the road out of town.
Pirate Staffing? Seriously? What do you need them for? Do you go to those guys if you have a pirate ship you need staffed, or is it for placing buccaneers in corporate offices?

We drove through some really pretty wine country... on accident. We made a wrong turn on our way to Santa Barbara for the 4th, and wound up cruising through some really pretty farms. We played "Name that Agricultural Product" as we drove. We got pretty good at recognizing strawberries and grapes, and that's about it. If it wasn't for the sign, we never would have guessed those fern-looking things were artichokes (of course, we didn't take a picture, but that's ok).

We stopped in Santa Barbara on the 4th, there were SO many people!!! This is us taking a break from the madness.US-1: Pacific Coast Highway. It was so gorgeous the whole way up. As you can see, it's a windy little 2 lane highway that hugs the coast as much as possible. A couple of places were pretty scary but the ocean was breathtaking.

Natalie thought these trees looked funny, so we have about 15 pictures of these and others just like them.

Stopped along a little turnout somewhere up the coast, I think this is near Carmel.

Why is Dallas making this funny face, you might ask?

That's why.

We made it all the way to San Francisco and rode our bikes over the Golden Gate Bridge.

The thing about taking a vacation with just the two of us, it's hard to get good pictures of us together. Maybe if I was a little more adept at Photoshop I could do more than just put my picture close to Natalie's picture, but that's ok.

More to follow...

miss you

it's funny the things that i have stopped caring about this last year. it's not only that my priorities have changed...but i have started to just not care!
i don't seem to care what the background on my blog is, in fact for a while I wanted it to be the most boring plain jane background i could find. funny how that made me feel better.

on the other hand i've started to really care (or obsess) about the time i spend with dallas. nothing else can make me feel as calm and in control as when i'm talking to my love. life with him is my baseline. it isn't cheesy, it's true. the time we get to spend together just makes me feel inspired. a lot of that time seems to be just chatting on the phone rather than physically being together.


i was thinking the other day about all the "what if's" in my life. it seems there are an endless number of them. as my imagination wondered through each possibility i realized that the ones that made me happy included dallas. the life possibilities that brought sad tears to my eyes were the ones where dallas had been left out of my life.

the truth of the matter is...DALLAS YOU ARE THE HAPPINESS IN MY LIFE!!

It's official: Rotations have begun

This post is a little out of order, so bear with us...

Natalie has officially finished her first year of PA school, which is why we were able to go with her family to San Diego. It was so much fun! We spent 3 days lounging on La Jolla beach. The weather was less than perfect for everyone but me: it was cloudy and windy with a high temp of about 65. Everybody was pretty cold for most of it, but wierdo me was absolutely loving it! :)While we were there we took the time to go to the San Diego temple with Natalie's parents and her sisters. It was a nice break from the giant kegger party that is Southern California in the summertime.

Natalie's first two rotations are up in Show Low, so we spent last weekend moving her and her friend up to Show Low. She's working in a Family Practice doctor's office and so far it has been pretty uneventful. She mostly just follows the doctor around as he sees all his patients. It has been kind of weird having Natalie gone, the house feels really empty without her! I (still) haven't received a schedule from my work for this month, so it looks like I'll be able to spend a lot of time up there hanging out with her little brothers while she's at work!

I updated our slideshow with some of the pictures we took in San Diego, and one thing I've noticed is that we really like to take pictures of ourselves in goofy sunglasses. The pictures are randomized, and while I was watching it there were 4 pictures in a row of Natalie and me in weird weird sunglasses.

San Diego Trip

I got a chance to use my camera in San Diego last week!!

Kyson was adorable...he liked the water but he loved the sand.
He could have played in it all day!

Zack the Strong!

Kyson was having a lot of fun playing in the little waves that came on the shore...until a big wave came and knocked him over :( This is a picture right after the wave hit him...so sad!!

After the wave got Kyson, he was happy to lay in a blanket on Grandma.

Kyson back to playing in the sand.
I insisted on being in the middle of it all and knocking down the wall Andrea, Jared, and everyone else built!
He looks pretty excited about it!

Caleb and Me...He was trying to smile...
I guess he was just cold and he couldn't figure out how to get the sand off his hands.

Tuesday it was really windy! If you look in the background of this picture you can see our beach neighbors:) Their umbrella turned inside out!

Kyson decided that my mom needed to be covered in sand.
The funny part was she just sat there and let him!

Me, at the campsite

This is typical Kyson. He's giggling!!

We had a crazy ride over to Coronado Island.
We stopped at a park and had dinner!

This is Katie and Jason playing "King of the Hill"

Christy and Zack

Caleb got left in the swing...all by himself.
He didn't complain that much but he sure looks miserable:)

More pictures to come.....

Our Herb Garden

The only part of our garden that is actually growing....

Rosemary

Basil

Peppermint

Lavender

The Pickle got me through it!!!

The story goes something like this...

I needed the perfect pencil for finals...one that wouldn't let me down!! I searched high and low. Then it found me...a bright green pencil with the words in shiny dark green print that read "DILL PICKLE!" I couldn't resist, it had to be the one!

Of course we all know you can't go into a test with one pencil. You have to have two, just in case something catastrophic happens to the other one. (I've actually lost many pencils to nervous jitters. They usually fly under the seat in front of you.)
My second pencil I chose because it speaks for itself, "Primary makes me happy." Nothing could make the jitters disappear faster than a statement like that.

So, well armored, I entered my tests with confidence...maybe that is a little too strong of a word... I entered my tests knowing my pencil would get me through.

AND it DID!! I SURVIVED MY FIRST YEAR OF PA SCHOOL!! I MADE IT THROUGH MY LAST FINALS WITH AWESOME/FLYING COLORS DUE TO MY TRUSTWORTHY DILL PICKLE PENCIL. IT DIDN'T LET ME DOWN ONCE!!

I am so excited to be done with that part of school. It was rough and involved a lot of complaining on my part. I couldn't have done it without... my awesome husband Dallas(you thought I was going to say Dill Pickle pencil) He stayed up late with me Thursday night keeping me motivated to study my last night.

I'm so thankful to all my friends who helped me through. I learned to love them even when the stress made us a little hard to be around. They are awesome girls, I am going to miss being around them during rotations. THANKS GIRLS!!

Shawna and Heidi right after our last final on their way out to head to PA conference in San Diego!

Mara (who had no idea I took this pic:)

Heidi, Shawna and Katrina
We went back for one last study session at Paradise Bakery, one of our favorite study nooks. We usually take over this table in the corner and study there for hours. If we leave when they close they usually give us leftover cookies:)
Today they brought us a box of cookies just for good luck!! Aren't they sweet?!

Me...with a weird look on my face

Katrina, studying hard

Katrina after her last final!!

Melinda after her last final!