8 years!

That's right! Today's our wedding anniversary. And to celebrate: we're home. Max is complaining about going to bed without a story (punishment for not getting ready for bed when asked), Sultan in laying at the screen door wishing he could come in, Ginna's burning photo CDs for friends and I'm blogging.

Sounds a little lame, but I had the day off work since we were supposed to be camping--more on that in a latter post--and, honestly, we had a really nice day. Max woke us up already dressed and we spent the day cleaning up, playing outside and being happy. I had forgotten how fun it is to jump on the trampoline in the sprinklers.

I thought, I'd take a minute while we wait for Max to fall asleep and post some musings on an amazing 8 years.

Year 0

We married June 30, 2001. It was hot that day. We were both still in college--which shocks many of our new east coast friends. Ginna was working at a camera store and I was doing insulation. We lived in an upstairs apartment in Provo.

Year 1

We celebrated our first year in Vienna as part of a study abroad. We took this picture is in the Czech Republic. It was the best summer. Whenever things are really stressful and unpleasant I find myself thinking about Vienna and the times we had there.

Ginna had basically finished college and was working at the music store (see what a music degree gets you!! vindicating every music major's parents' fears). I was still in college, but knew I would try for dental school. We lived in my parent's condo in Orem, which we loved.

Year 2

Here we are in Yellowstone. We spent a few days camping that summer while Ginna was pregnant, realizing that camping would be very different once Max was born. I had just finished taking the dental admission test and was confident I'd get into school. We took the trip to relax and celebrate. We also got to visit Kari and Aaron, who were living in Idaho. I still remember how scared Ginna got during a thunderstorm while we were in the tent. I had neglected to seal the rainfly seams and we were getting dripped on. We tried to distract ourselves by watching Ghostbusters on the clam, but the battery died during the opening credits. That was our last summer in Utah.

Year 3

This year we had our chubby little man with us. For our anniversary, my mom came out to stay with us and we got to go out for the entire night. It was our first night away from Max and Ginna was pretty nervous, but we had a good time. We were in Kansas City and we had bought a house. I was starting dental school in the fall and at the last minute Ginna crushed the gmat and started her MBA. Yikes. That summer I didn't work at all; I just stayed home and helped out with Max while Ginna worked. It was an awesome summer. We spent all our time together and we're very happy.

Year 4

This is a picture of us in Snow Canyon. We were visiting my parents at their condo in St. George (you'll regret selling it come winter, dad). I had the summer off and we were recuperating from a very hard year. I had a job in a forensic lab doing chemistry and Ginna was swamped with work herself. We were super busy, but this was the year we discovered Planet Sub. We started going for the kids eat free Tuesday night special and then hardly missed a week for the next 3 years. Grinding through school and taking care of Max was a huge team effort. I'd rush from class to meet Ginna on campus just in time to exchange a kiss and Max so she could go to class, then I'd take him home and get him in bed so I could study. During this time we learned that we could do anything together--cheesy, but true.

Year 5

Still in Kansas City, still in school. We set the camera on Ginna's work desk to get this picture. That's right, the desk was in the living room. This was another one of those grind-it-out years. Somehow during that year we decided that I would try to go on for more training after dental school. Ginna is so supportive of me and our family. And look at how cute max looks in this picture. What a cute toddler.

Year 6
Here we are in a rotating restaurant in Kansas City. I can't remember what it was called, but it sits on top of the Hyatt hotel that I stayed in when I first came to Kansas City for my dental school interview. We got to watch the sun set and a fire works show during dinner. This was soon after we had sold our house and started renting a new place in the city. We loved the new place and aside from the great collar bone break of 2007 this was a fun year for us. We applied for residency and I spend a lot of time traveling, externing and interviewing, not to mention the mission trip to Nicaragua. Ginna worked like crazy too keep me on track and to finance the whole endeavor, what a sweetheart. But most importantly, I finally earned the title of "best husband ever".

Year 7

This is a picture of us taken in Newport, Rhode Island. We finally finished graduate school. Ginna and I were totally wiped by the end of it all. Ginna graduated on a Friday, me on a Saturday and Sunday morning we left Kansas City for Rhode Island. It was the craziest time of our lives. I can't image ever having that much to do again. Just reminiscing as I type is making me grind my teeth. Anything--even residency--was going to be a move toward less stress.

Unfortunately, I had to be in Brooklyn, NY during on our actual anniversary, but we made up for it.

Year 8

We've come a long way since that picture of us on the steps of the Temple. It's been crazy and good. This is sure to be another exciting year for us as I finish residency and we figure out where we're headed next. Who knows? These past years have been hard work, but we've been a great team...I know I'll save my sappyness for after Max goes to bed--he's still awake!

::weekend::

We were busy going to graduation (congrats guys!) and camping in the rain to celebrate Kris's b-day. I'll have more to report later!

::more prizes::

One of Max's recent prizes for a successful week of chore-doing was a set of large Nemo pens. Thank goodness for the dollar section of target, otherwise his chores would be much too expensive!
Anyway, he got right to work with them, and proceeded to go through most of my printer paper.

I can't help but post this one--all the others were good too, but this one was my favorite:

Translated it says:
Dear Mom, I love you (obviously there's some abbreviating going on here). Max for Mom.
The triangle with lines coming out of it is an airplane. (This is appropriate since we now live super close to the airport and have planes flying by our house all the time.)

The smiley person is me, and when I asked who the other guy was Max looked at me with surprise. It's him of course. And he said "Well, I DO look like a potato..."

Uh, yeah, he does. A sad potato at that. And if he looked like a sad potato in real life that'd be ok too. He's just too darn cute.

::fathers day::

Just a quick father's day report. We had a good day--I'm hoping Kris felt special!
We had some fun gifts for him, including a new church shirt. The poor guy hasn't gotten new clothes for a long time, since he wears scrubs most of the time these days.

The best gift Kris got though was an awesome tie that Max made in primary at church. It's adorable.

Sultan found it very interesting, especially the feathers. He had to make sure it wasn't going to attack anybody.

I really enjoyed seeing Max singing the father's day songs in sacrament meeting. It was super cute the way he kept looking over at us, all proud of himself.

We had a super yummy dinner of watermelon and chicken roll-ups and relaxed together all afternoon while it rained.
If only we could get some sun, a rainy afternoon would be a welcome change. Maybe someday.

We sure love the daddy of this house!!

::::

What's wrong with this picture?


(besides of course the clutter and mess that is our storage room, the dirty floor, and the incredibly serene air of Wilby lying on the dog bed)

::happy fathers day::

Happy father's day to the two best dads in the world. The two of us feel so lucky to have you! Thanks for being our dads!


(on the left, Guy and Charlotte on the river deck, 1990ish? on the right, Ken with Kris and Kari 1982)

::a boy & his dog::

::time travel::

It seems like we're slipping backwards in time somehow.
This was May:

(at least the end of it)

Warm sun, sweaty boys, popsicles, pink cheeks, blue skies.

Panting dogs.

But June? So far June has been really disappointing. I don't even have any photos to illustrate my point. It seems to have been raining pretty much the whole month, and I don't think it's gotten warmer than about 75 degrees. Even on the sunny days (like when we got the tramp) it's rained either at the beginning or the end of the day! It's been grey and soggy and sometimes chilly.

We're not sure if summer is ever going to actually get here. And I'm worried that once it's here I'll want it to go away again. I like heat in small doses.

Really we've just been hoping it would be nice enough that we could go to the beach with our friends before they graduate and move away in a week. It's not looking good for that though.
Remind me in August that I was wishing for heat and sun now!

(for some reason lately when Max is out playing hard and gets hot and sweaty he comes in panting and says "there's one dead animal looking for a popsicle" I'm not sure where he got it, but it happens all the time. Dead animals keep showing up, and they want popsicles morning and night.)

::not just for jumping::

::new toy::

I've been watching Craig's list quite closely, and as a result of all my hard work saturday we went and picked ourselves up a new family toy.

What do you think it is??
It's pretty fun and took a lot of (re)construction.

Good guess! It IS a half pipe!

Just kidding.

If you haven't figured it out by now I'm a little worried about you!

We went and picked it up from a toothless guy out in the boonies in the morning. By the time we got it all put together it was late afternoon. Max was all cranky from staying up late the night before for the fireworks, and it was driving him nuts that the trampoline was there and he couldn't use it.

Sultan just lay in his special hole in the corner of the yard and wondered what all the big deal was about. He's not that impressed.

Then once we had it all up--including the "enclosure" of course--it was time for some fun.
And we had to have the fun fast, because though there was sun on saturday morning, the storm clouds started moving in, and we knew rain was sure to come!

Max was kind of like Mr. jelly legs when he first got on there, flopping all over.

Especially if Kris was up there jumping. It barely took a step for Kris to knock him over.

It doesn't take too long for these little guys to learn though, and by the time we had to get off he was doing really well.

Anybody ever played crack the egg? It's that game where one of you sits in the middle of the tramp and holds onto their feet and the other person tries to bounce them around until they have to let go of their feet.
Much more fun though--crack the mama fish.

It was hilarious because he could hardly get her to bounce--not for lack of trying. Or for lack of serious face making.

And he certainly couldn't get me to bounce very high. But it was fun all around anyway.


The biggest triumph is that he taught himself over the weekend to bounce to his bottom and back up to his feet. He tried a zillion times on saturday and could never figure it out.

It's definitely good exercise. I was sore all weekend!

::friday fun::

So the rain finally let up on friday, luckily it was early enough that the fireworks show could go on.
First we headed over to the revolutionary war reenactment encampment that was supposed to be going on. But it looked like all the soldiers were still setting up and getting dressed. I guess even those guys have to have day jobs too.
After that we went over to the little park where the fireworks were going to be, so we could snag a good spot.

The view over the water was pretty amazing. Very serene. And the sunset was beautiful. It was a little ruined for me though, because somebody somewhere had the bright idea to bring a great big huge light unit with a loud smelly generator. That was dumb.
But oh well.
Max isn't usually out past his bedtime (which is eight or earlier) and so at first he was a little worn out.

This was just shortly before he got his second wind though, and started jumping on Kris, knee first.

I tried to get him to take a little nap, but he "wasn't tired." Yeah right.
He thought it would be hilarious though to pretend to be asleep in some pictures.

Proof I was there. For once.

Goofiness.
It seemed like we waited for the sun to set forever. It didn't help that the opportunistic flashing light stuff salesmen were there selling glowing things and flashing things. Bunches of kids were fencing with flashing light sabers. What kind of crazy parent buys those stupid things? Max was convinced that they were free. He kept saying they were "handing them out!" Yeah, handing them out in trade for LOTS of money!
So finally they turned the big lights off and the fireworks started.



Turns out they were shooting the fireworks off from a couple of positions. One looked to be out in or by the water, and one looked to be just beyond where the people were in the park! We didn't realize it until things were happening. Some of the big ones seemed like they were so close. My parents would've hated it.
Ever wonder what 30 seconds of fireworks might look like to a camera?

I didn't mean for my exposure to be quite that long, but once it started I was commited and I just tried to hold still. It's pretty cool.

When they started shooting a bunch at once (the finale type stuff) it got SO close and SO intense and SO loud that Max and I could hardly watch. I kind of felt like I was under attack or something. It was beautiful and amazing, but I think next time I might like it from a little further off!

But we had a great time together. And though Max was super duper cranky all day on saturday, we're still glad we went.