Picnics and the Zoo

On Friday night we got together with our med school friends at the park. Dave has a good group of friends that he has spent the last 3 years with. In fact, he's probably seen more of them than he has me over the last 3 years! They are good guys and the wives have fun when we get together too. We even spent a month in Europe together 2 summers ago. It will be sad next year when we all go our separate ways. Actually, Aaron (the guy in the red shirt) is going to D.C. in a month for a year of research, so he won't be graduating with them. We'll miss him, but it will be such a fun experience for his cute family.

Aaron (Or A-Rod) and Andrew

Anna loves hanging out with lots of friends.

On Saturday we took Anna to the zoo for the first time. She slept through the first half of the trip, but then the elephant spit at us and got her wet, so she woke up. I laughed to myself when we were there thinking of my friend Amy's post about the zoo on her blog. We avoided the monkeys in her honor. Anyway, we went and saw the Albino Alligator or the "Ghost of the Bayou" since it's technically not an albino.

Normally alligators are pretty lame because they just sit there, but this one was special because it's white. It's only 1 of 10 in the world (apparently, but I don't know how they know that for certain) You can kind of see it in this picture. Anna is getting a good look at him. Don't mind the ghost in the picture, it's just Dave. Our camera battery died, so we didn't get many pics, but we had a good time with the hundreds of other people that decided to go to the zoo on Saturday too.

Goodbye!

We were so sad to say goodbye to Morgan and Ashley and their four sweet boys on Friday! They packed everything up in the UHaul and took off for Colorado Saturday morning. Morgan got a great job in Colorado, so it's great for them, but sad for us. We sure will miss them! We are all very close with their four boys and loved watching them grow up. Now we'll just have to make some visits to Colorado! Here are a few pics I got of the now Colorado cousins.

Anna is saying goodbye to Matthew. They are only 3 weeks apart!

James and Anna

Brigham and Anna

I didn't get a picture with Brooks, but here are 3 of the boys anticipating the egg hunt on Easter. Holidays just won't be the same with out them! We love you and miss you!!!

And on a side note, I changed my blog for now because the old one started to seem too '80s to me. I love Tiffany and MC Hammer and all, but I need to move on. Rad! On some browsers it looked neon. So it was time for a change.

W-O-W!

So time has been flying by so fast lately and I haven't posted for awhile. Things have just been super busy, so to sum up this post all I can say is WOW!

• 1st Wow: Anna is getting teeth! I am having a hard time believing that my little baby is old enough to get teeth, but I guess she is because she's got a sharp one sticking out of her bottom gum and the other one is on its way! Wow! I would try to get a picture for you, but unfortunately you'd most likely get a picture of her sticking her tongue out at you. (in a cute way, of course)


• 2nd Wow: If you turn Wow upside down it spells Mom...for Mother's Day of course! I had a great mother's day, but I was definitely exhausted by the end of the day. We spent time with both our moms and we truly love and appreciate them both so much. I feel so lucky to have my mom and Dave's mom in our lives. And Wow...I'm a mother now! It's kind of weird to be called a "mother." It sounds much older than "mom" and much more intimidating. I do love motherhood though. I can honestly say that I have never been happier! Yes, really, even with the spit up, the poopy diapers, the 10 extra pregnancy pounds that I'm still trying to lose, the sleepiness, the laundry, and getting my house taken over by baby toys. I still love it! What a small trade off for all of the smiles, the giggles, the loving gazes, the curious looks, the excited shrieks, the peaceful sleeps, the squeezes and cuddles, and the purest love of all. I love being a mom!


• 3rd Wow: So this isn't so much of a wow, but my watch broke last week and it was driving me crazy not knowing what time it was. I wish I didn't have to ever know the time, but it's the 21st century with places to go and people to see so tough luck. I got a new watch for mother's day and I love it! Dave picked it out and it suits me perfectly! Wow! I finally know the time again! I feel much better now.


• 4th Wow: So to continue on my mother's day surprises, I had the biggest surprise of all when I went to church. I knew I was getting a church calling because I had a meeting with the bishopric. I didn't really know what to expect, but I was thinking they were going to have me team teach the teenagers Sunday school with Dave since he's gone on some Sundays. Well, that would have been nice and simple. I hope you're sitting down because you will be shocked to know that I have been called to teach Gospel Doctrine! What?! Me? Oh, Wow! I am a primary teacher! I sing songs, give simple lessons, and hand out treats. How does this qualify me to teach Gospel Doctrine? Too bad I don't have a picture of my face when they asked me. I still am in shock over this one! (For those non-LDSers, Gospel Doctrine is the adult Sunday School class. So everyone from 18 to 100. And since about 90% of the class is older than I am, they are all more knowledgeable so it will be pretty funny for me to try to teach them.) I don't know how I'm going to do it! I guess if the bishopric has faith in me, then I should too. It's just that I always think of the Gospel Doctrine teachers as scripture masters and the spiritual giants of the ward and I am definitely neither. I have a long ways to go, but hopefully I'll learn and grow a lot from this new challenge. I'm still scared though!


• 5th Wow: To usher in summer, last Saturday night Dave and I took Anna to the Sno Shack that finally opened on Friday. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that it was after 9:00 and we took Anna out when she should have been in bed. Don't judge me. Anyway, I guess we found the hang out for the Highland and East High School kids. The Sno Shak was packed with teenagers and we waited in line for about a half hour for our sno cones. (it was totally worth it!) As we stood there in line, we watched all of the girls and boys goofing off in the parking lot of Rite Aid and it seems like that was just yesterday for us. (Although I think I remember wearing more clothes than the girls do these days!) And there I was standing in line with my husband and our baby in a stroller. Wow! I felt so old. It was weird. Loved the sno cone though!
• 6th Wow: Anna can wave now. I'm not sure if she knows what it means though. I was at the store on Saturday and she was patiently waiting because it was taking so long to get through the line. I started waving at her telling her it would be another minute and she started to wave back at me! Wow! It was really cute. Then all day Sunday she was waving at anyone she could. I think we have a social butterfly on our hands.

So I think I'm out of wow's for now. (which I'm sure you are grateful, it's getting a little annoying) I'm getting sleepy and I ramble when I'm sleepy so I better stop now. Here's some pics from the last few weeks...

you can't tell really here, but she is in the most uncomfortable position. She fell asleep watching her fishies. It was hilarious. Yes, she only has a diaper on.

Portrait Session with my mom. (In other words, Grandma's favorite way to babysit while I'm at work)

This is tonight after she woke up from her nap. Happy Girl!

More smiles!

High School Never Ends

So, 11 years ago when Dave was considering running for senior class president, being the supportive girlfriend that I was, I tried to discourage him, reminding him that the sr. class prez is in charge of planning the reunions for the rest of their lives. If I had known then that I would go from the supportive girlfriend to the supportive wife, I would have definitely put my foot down on this one. Now I am the wife by his side and guess what is coming up this summer? His 10 year reunion! And guess who's planning it? :) So, I need your help! This is quite a bigger challenge than one might think. Where to have it? How many people will come? How much to charge? What happened to the reunion committee? and on and on. Let me give you the scoop on what we have in the works so far and I would really love of it if any of you could give your thoughts or any ideas of your reunions or anything you can come up with!

Since so many of us have kids now, we thought it might be fun to have a little picnic get together in the afternoon at Sugarhouse Park. We will only provide cookies and drinks and so everyone can bring their own lunches if they want to eat. That way, people can casually socialize and see each others cute kiddies. Charge would be $10 per person - kids are free. (cost is to cover refreshments and cost of rental)

That evening we are thinking of renting a ballroom at the Gallivan Center Marriott or Little America and having a dinner for the adults only. We would do some sort of a package deal if people come to both. Now, here's the problem: If we did this, we would have to charge about $50 per person or so to cover all of the costs involved. (rental, dinner, taxes, bartender, etc.) I'm afraid if we charge that much, less people will want to come because for 2 people it would be $100. And if we reserve it and less than 200 people show, we get stuck with the cost. (yikes!) We've called to a few places at the U, but the problem with them is that the drinking crowd might be upset that there's no bar. (but I think they can get it over it for one night, don't you?)

Another option is to have it somewhere cheaper, but then we get into the possibility of lameness. Wheeler Farm? Shilo Inn? Chuck E. Cheese? Seriously people, I need your help and suggestions. What would you pay to go to your reunion? And would you rather have it at a little shabbier place with not as good as food so it would be cheaper? I'm just worried that if we go somewhere cheaper, people will still end up complaining that they paid $35 for a crappy meal.

Also, what do people do at 10-year reunions? Is there a program? We were thinking of having the historian bring her slide show from the good ol' days (I bet that job is much easier now that everything is digital!) Maybe we'll have a contest for who has the most kids, lost the most hair, etc. I'm not really sure what else to do. Any thoughts?

Please help!

On a side note, I need to give a shout out to our little cutie who turned 5 months today! Whoa! Happy 5-month B-day Anna! Here's her birthday pic enjoying her favorite swing...

Well Deserved

Last Friday night we went to the Alpha Omega Alpha banquet for Dave. It was a nice evening that Dave deserved after all of his hard work. Congressman Matheson spoke during the program and he gave an inspiring talk on priorities and excellence. Did you know that Kristi Yamaguchi was born with club feet and had to wear corrective casts during her childhood? Her parents encouraged her to take up ice skating as a sort of physical therapy for her feet and then of course we all know how much she achieved from then on. Wow! I pretty much feel lazy now. Congressman Matheson seems like a really good person and I enjoyed hearing him speak. Dave's dad came along for the evening as the proud father and as they spoke "med talk" I spoke with some of the other students' wives. It was quite refreshing to speak with other wives who have husbands with the same drive and dedication as Dave (i.e., study a LOT and at the hospital a LOT). Their husbands never wake up if the baby is crying because they're so darn tired and their kids are so surprised if Daddy's ever home. One of the wives told me a story about a surgery resident's wife who got into a car accident with her 3 kids. No one was injured, but it was still scary, and when she called her husband for help he said, "Um I'm kind of in the middle of an emergency here " I just had to laugh because I can totally picture that happening to me. (especially since I don't have a good track record with accidents) It's true though, he probably was in a real emergency and couldn't do much about his wife's accident. But they all survived and it makes for a funny story. Most of the student's were 4th years, so they are done and off to residency in a month. How exciting! I can't believe that will be us next year!

Congrats Dave!
Proud father and wife of Dave