Lazy Days of Summer.......Yeah Right!

I wish I could say that our summer evenings have been filled with leisurely strolls and laying about in the back yard but alas they have been go go go. The first two weeks have been crazy with cub scout day camp, father son camp, trips to the parks, pool, and movies, and girls camp. The kids did have a great year of school, the both loved their teachers and learned a ton. They are looking forward to next year.

I talked Bryan into getting the hammock for the back yard (and by "talked Bryan into getting" I mean I bought it when I was out with Andrea shopping for curtains) and have loved it. It is So nice to have place to sit and watch the kids play. I am looking forward to a little bit more relaxed pace to the summer (I am ignoring the fact that next week I am watching my friends kids one day, have a big Young Women's project to do, have card night at my house and am trying to plan some fun projects to do for the 4th of July and Bryan has Friday off so we have to do something then too!) Oh well, here's to wishing!

Oh Boy......

Why is that wet sand or even mud can feel so good between my toes, but mashed banana just feels gross?

Yeah, its been one of those weeks! I am ready for a nap....oh wait, I just took one, oh well.

From Ribbons and Curls.....to Make up and Pearls

My little girl turned 7!

Here are 7 things she got on her birthday:

1. A new webkinz to renew her account for another year

2. More littlest pet shops (can she really need more?)

3. New clothes

4. A Barbie Movie (Fairytopia..joy)

5. A Voice recorder that makes the sounds go slower and faster

6. A Tinkerbell reading chair

and....

7. Holes in her ears!

She has been looking forward to her birthday for months for really one reason, getting her ears pierced. She did great and didn't cry at all. She is growing up SO fast. I can already see how she is turning into a little lady! We LOVE our Kaylee and being the only other girl in the house I couldn't imagine life without her!

Happy Birthday Kaylee!

Oregon Trip Part 3.....The Aquarium

For the final leg of our trip we drove down to Newport and went to the Aquarium there. I would rank it as the best aquarium we have been to. It was very cool. We got to see an octopus, sea lions at feeding time, tons of jelly fish, and we even got to pet live sharks and sting rays.

They have 3 large glass tunnels going through huge fish tanks that you can walk through and see fish swimming all a round you....very cool.

At the end there was a cute little playground and we were the only ones playing on it so we got some fun pictures:

Over all we had a fabulous trip, my favorite part was by far the beach, but this kids favorite part was the hotel (swimming pool most of all) and the fact that our room came with "fancy" cups that they could drink their orange juice out of.

Oregon Trip Part 2.....The Beach

It is amazing how 2 years can change a person's life. A young boy goes on a mission for 2 years and comes back a man. Bryan and I tried for 2 years before we were able to start our wonderful family. We lived minutes from the Beautiful Florida east coast while Bryan went to graduate school for 2 years. All of these things felt forever long while we were going through them, but looking back they were just short glimpses of life that passed by much to quickly, but changed our lives forever.

I didn't realize how much the beach meant to me until I was back on one. I nearly cried as a walked outside and a rush of sensations hit me at once. I could smell the ocean in the air, I could hear the waves crashing on the beach, I could see the white crests of the waves, but best of all I could feel it. Something about the ocean calms me, helps me meditate. I was able to get up around 5:30 each morning and spend a while by myself out on the beach. After spending 3 years separated from that feeling, I think I will have to go back at least once a year.

Now don't get me wrong there are a lot of differences between the Florida coast and the Oregon coast. We didn't even get in our swimsuits for our beach excursions this time, but it was fun and we got to see lots of live creatures, from small fish, to washed up jelly fish, to rocks covered in live starfish. It was truly AMAZING!

Oh and here is the view from our hotel patio...man it doesn't get much better than that! They even had a lighted surf at night so we could sit on our patio after the kids went to bed and watch the tide come in (we didn't watch long...it was pretty cold at night)

Here was our first time to play on the beach and our first time to use our Mother's/Father's/Anniversary Gift (a new digital video camera!)

Here are a few more short videos of the kids playing on the beach (the quality is much better on the computer and TV, blogger must have cut the quality down to fit in on the blog...darn)

Oregon Trip Part 1.....The Zoo

On our way to the Oregon Coast we stopped at the Portland Zoo. We bought a year pass last year and it was going to expire on the 31st of May so we decided to stop on in and see what was new. Not much was new....zoos don't change much year to year. But the kids enjoyed it none the less. Ashton loved it and we had a good time. Here are some pictures of the trip.

My favorite part of the zoo was feeding the birds. Two of them bit me, but it was so cool to have them land on you and get to feed them:

This is as close as Nathan would get

Kaylee and The Birds

Trevor and The Birds

I am not much for taking pictures of animals (that is one reason Trevor had his own camera, I think he got a shot of EVERY animal we passed by) So here are a few more pictures of my rowdy zoo creatures:

And because it is too hard to exclude any pictures of such cute subjects here are the rest of our shots from the zoo:

How We Came to Be

My 11th Anniversary is coming up and I thought someone out there might be interested in our "how we met" story.  I would post it on our anniversary, but we are taking a family vacation and I figure I will have plenty to post about our trip, so I would do this one a little bit early.

Spring 1997:

Locations:  Me-Ricks College, Bryan: Guatemala

Me:   

I had a boyfriend that was wanting to become more serious and so I was praying if it was "right"  As soon as I finished one of my prayers I received a very clear and concise answer that I was not to marry this boy because I wanted to date Bryan Davis when he got home from his mission.  I though..."hmmm..Bryan huh, I haven't ever gone out with him, nor have I written to him on his mission, but he is pretty cute and a good guy so I guess I will start writing him and see what happens."

Bryan:

At this time he had just written his mom asking her for my address so that he could write me a letter.

Spring-Early Winter 1997:

We exchanged a series of letters and I secretly called him "my missionary" to my roommates.

November 1997:

I knew it would be Bryan's homecoming so I made an excuse to come home from Ricks to attend.  I brought my roommate with me.  After sacrament meeting there was a crowd around Bryan so I decided I would just talk to him later, because I didn't go up to him, I didn't get the memo that everyone was invited to his house afterwards, because I didn't get this memo, I didn't go over.  I had to leave for Ricks that night.  About 1 hour before we had to go something strange possessed me and I called Bryan's house to say goodbye, he was not home, but his mother said she would give him the message.  A few minutes later Bryan showed up at my door (apparently his mother liked me and after I called she tracked Bryan down as quickly as possible and told him I was leaving soon, so Bryan RAN to my house in order to catch me before I left)  He came in and chatted with my family for about 10 minutes, shook everyone's hand (like a good missionary should) and left.  My heart was beating 1000 times per minute, I said goodbye and headed back to school.

The next week:

I had a friend leaving on a mission, and wanted to see Bryan again, so I headed back down to Utah with my roommate.  During Sacrament meeting she was my eyes and ears.   We sat right behind Bryan's family, she let me know every time he looked back at me, or whispered something to his sister.  (I couldn't be caught staring at him after all) He looked several times.

December 9, 1997, my birthday:

I received a very peculiar package from Bryan that contained a banner that said happy birthday, a cake mix, and a little thing called a hum-bug (it was a little toy bug in a box whose legs moved when you shook the box)  That night he called me and my heart leaped!

Later in December:

Bryan came up to Rexburg to "look for housing"  He later admitted that he could have found his housing online, but that he really wanted to see me, so he took a bus up with no way to get home.  He stayed at a friends house but came over one night to watch a movie with me.  He sat on the couch and I sat on the floor.  The movie we watched was My Best Friends Wedding.  After he left I was sad because I had convinced myself that I would be the Julia Roberts someday at his wedding.   His plan to get home was to ask me for a ride.  It was the last week of school and he knew I would be heading home.  I was thrilled to spend 4 hours in a car with him.

Christmas Break 1997:

We saw each other, or at least called each other every day.   One night it was getting late around 11:00 and I had not seen him, and he had not called, I was distressed and came to realize that he was not going to call, just as I did this the phone rang, it was him, he had spent the last 1/2 hour deciding if it was to late to call, someone had been on the Internet so he couldn't call earlier (yes, dial-up Internet, the good old days)  Once again, my heart leapt.

January-March 1998:

We were both at Ricks and saw each other every day, I felt SO lucky to be able to spend time with him.  We were both unsure of what was happening.  I was insecure about how he felt and thought that he might have a crush on my roommate (back to the My Best Friends Wedding feelings) and it didn't help matters that on a date he laughingly told me that when his roommate had asked if we were "dating" he had laughed and said no.  A month or so later on March 14th he proposed.  I guess we skipped that dating thing.  Of course I said yes and the rest is history.  (the proposal story is pretty good and I will share it another time)

May 29, 1998-Present

Our love has grown in leaps and bounds.  He still makes my heart leap sometimes when we are sitting close and I think about how lucky I was to be his creme brulee (if that doesn't make sense, go watch My Best Friends Wedding)  I am so glad to have been guided by the spirit to find someone so perfect for me. 

Happy Anniversary Bryan!

Here is our wedding announcement picture