Vacation

Oh how I wish I could go on a big vacation every couple months! They are just so enjoyable! Life has been super busy since we returned from California two months ago. Thus I am just barely posting about our big trip. To keep this from being a HUGE post I think I will just go through each day of the trip and try and choose a favorite pic and give the highlights...

We left Saturday May 5th bright and early and drove directly to Las Vegas. I was anxious to start getting my tan on so we went swimming at our condo. Later that night we went to a mediocre buffet on Fremont Street that we thought would serve crab, but sadly they only served it on Tue and Fridays so we rolled with it. Then we just drove the strip and observed all the interesting people who were partying it up for Cinco de Mayo. It was entertaining.

This is the view from the balcony of our condo. We have stayed there several times. They have a really nice pool.

The next day we got up and went to church at the meeting house next to the Las Vegas Temple. We enjoyed walking around the grounds and snapping pics. It was a nice ward and we were glad we went.

After we checked out of the Condo and made our way to Cali. The usually not so long drive took us twice as long due to traffic. We think it was super bad because of all the people going home after Cinco De Mayo but who knows. The slow go traffic landed us in a little place called Bakers California where we stopped at a  shop called Alien Jerky. It was hilarious, but they had really good cold drinks and yummy beef jerky. I enjoyed it. It was definitely a placed I had never been before. 

We finally made it to our condo in Anaheim later that night. It was a super nice condo where you could see the fireworks from Disneyland from the roof every night. The next day we went strolled down a little place next to our condo that was kind of like a mini City Creek in SLC. It had restaurants and shops and was really cute. After that we went to the beach. It was wonderful. Chris is a fish. He loves the waves. We went to two different beaches Newport and Crystal Cove. When the sun set we went and checked out the Newport Temple. 

                                                 Crystal Cove was secluded and beautiful!

                      The waves were HUGE that day! This is us running away so we don't get pummeled.

Newport Temple

Tuesday was our first day at Disneyland! It truly is one of the happiest places on earth. I wish we had season tickets. It was so fun, but man it really wears you out! Chris got motion sickness from riding Space Mountain so he had to sit out the rest of the night. It was sad. That night we saw The World of Color for the first time., which totally made up for it. WOW.  Seriously, it was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. I actually felt emotional watching it. Everyone should see it. I can't tell people enough how magical it is. 

                                                The closest Chris got to going on the teacups

                                                         I love California Adventure!!!

World of Color

Wednesday we took a day to recuperate and spent most of our day in LA. We walked the Hollywood strip, saw the Hollywood sign, ate lunch, saw the LA temple, and then headed to Venice Beach. Venice beach was a trip. Josh enjoyed skateboarding and Chris and I found it very entertaining to walk the boardwalk and see all the crazy people trying to sell us souvenirs and marijuana. Lol. We ended the day by watching the sunset while swimming in the ocean. 

                      This was a cool restaurant on the Hollywood strip. Best Grilled cheese I've ever had!

The LA temple is massive! 

Thursday everyone but my mom went to Six Flags Magic Mountain. It was awesome! The roller coasters are insane! Chris made it on most of them without getting sick, but Tatsu got the best of him. I am usually not afraid of roller coasters but the Green Lantern was terrifying! I thought my brain was going to explode from all the G force. ha ha. The craziest roller coaster of all was X2. You flip around so much you don't even know what is happening. What a fun park, and its cheaper than Lagoon, but definitely more for adults than little kids. 

This coaster has 7 loops!

                                      
                                                                      Green Lantern

X2..don't let its' looks deceive you...insanity

This is us after getting off X2

Friday was spent enjoying Disneyland! 

Heimlich's Chew Chew Train is a must.

Toontown

Chris finally got his Funnel Cake he had been craving since the beginning of our trip

Mom and Dad by the Matterhorn which was sadly under maintenance :(

Saturday was spent at the beach and then we visited Laguna Beach where we found a quaint little park for Shelbee to shoot hoops. That night we ate at Joe's Crab shack! It was excellent. 

Sunday we drove back to Las Vegas and celebrated Mother's Day. Monday we drove home and it was over. It was such a fun trip! It was great to spend time with my family and we all had such a great time. It was hard to come back to reality. Two months later and I wish we were going back tomorrow. 

  

Crafts

Here is my latest project!  I absolutely love it. Perfectly patriotic and it has a little special meaning to me as well. My Grandma Lois who passed away about 5 years ago was so crafty. She was incredible at knitting, crocheting and so much more. My Grandpa Wes was so kind to give me go through her craft room last summer. The amount of felt had me grinning from ear to ear. I was able to make this for under 10 dollars because of her. I feel like it has a little piece of her. She loved the fourth of July. I had so much fun making it with Starlee! Crafts are so much more fun with friends! I would love to be able to have a craft night every month! How fun would that be! Well that's all for now. You can make this too just learn how at Capital B!

Disneyland pictures to come soon! :) I miss it already!

Just a (not so) little update...

I thought it was time to give a little update on our life since it is now the end of April. We have been so busy! I have now been working at Primary's for almost 2 months and I love it more that ever. My experience on the infant floor was wonderful. So much so I was wishing I didn't have to move on. I have now been on Children's Medical Unit (CMU) for 3 weeks. I really didn't think I would like it was much as the babies, but I actually love it. Almost every patient I have had on CMU has been over 10 yrs old. The older kids are so fun. Their little individual personalities make me laugh. I love that they aren't as afraid of me, they interact so much more, and they can tell me what they are feeling. The transition from infant to CMU was a big one. I have come to realize that I have to know so much more taking care of kids of all ages than I did with adults. For instance with adults the reference range of normal vital signs (blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate, etc.) are essentially the same for all them. With kids it changes as they get bigger. A heart rate of 150 is normal for a newborn baby, but for a 5 year old is very high. There are also so many different illnesses that kids come in with whereas at McKay we got a lot of the same problems. It just means there is so much to learn. It can become very overwhelming, but I am just taking it shift by shift and sometimes even hour by hour or it would just consume me. Still not loving the drive, especially when I got pulled over the second week and then got a serious flat tire last week and got home 2 hours later than normal. But it's still all so worth it. Thank you to the kind officer who let me go, I have now been being much more cautious about driving within the speed limit. Also a big big thanks to my cousin Kajsa and her amazing husband Monty for helping me change my tire. I have so many blessings to be thankful for. Chris finally finished the semester! Thank heavens! This semester has been so brutal for him. Not only did he have more credits but it has been very difficult to focus with ever increasing family drama. It has been extremely hard on him. He has to take a couple classes this summer so he can get into the finance program, but I truly believe that things happen for a reason and the Lord knows what is best. It will be so good for him to have a little break from school and our vacation in a week or so is much needed. Disneyland here we come! We are super excited! Happiest place on earth! :) One last thing. Things with Chris's family are improving. His mom is doing a lot better. I can actually feel the difference when I am around her. I actually feel like I am talking to my Mother-in-law instead of someone I don't know. It just shows that you must always have hope that people will be ok and that prayers are answered. We are so grateful! The Lord works in mysterious ways. We found out that Chris's grandpa (the one whose hospital stay was the reason I met Chris) has stage IV metastatic melanoma cancer. We aren't sure on the plan for treatment but his amazing faith and strength has really brought the family together. I am so grateful for his priesthood leadership and example. Wow sorry this turned into such a long post. I will try and get back after our trip to Cali. Thanks for tuning in :)

( This is a pic from our day at the Tulip festival last Saturday, one of my new favorite places! It was so beautiful! I am so glad I got to share it with Chris and Marinda.)

Well, one week down! What it week it has been. I am tired and drained from all the change, but I am so grateful to be where I am. After a couple days of orientation last week I worked a couple shifts and then another today. Right now I am on the infant medical/surgical floor. I can't tell you how much I love taking care of those sweet babies. As I was sitting in a rocking chair feeding a two month old last week looking down at her beautiful face I thought "Wow, this is my job?" It couldn't be better.

But let me tell you it is SO different than working with adults! To put it simply everything is just small small small! Tiny feet, tiny cribs, tiny medication doses, tiny diapers(YAY). It is hard to adjust to doing things at such a smaller scale when are used to taking care of some big people! The diagnoses are so different too! I have so much to learn! It is bit overwhelming, but I am all for it!

So far I am surviving the drive. I feel like I need to use some Star Wars powers and force push the cars all out of my way. Poor Lu (my car) is racking up the miles and due to the gas prices I am draining our checking. I am still pretty hesitant about spending an extra hour getting home by taking the frontrunner. It just isn't worth it to me when all I want to do is get in bed. I found I can stay awake just fine driving home in the morning as long as I have Celine Dion to blast in my car.

I have to admit that seeing babies all the time just makes me even more baby hungry. Chris told me he doesn't think that is possible, but let me tell you, IT IS. I am so ready for that next step. I am also hearing some pretty cute name options that I am remembering for later use. I am afraid to mention any to Chris in fear he will shoot them down imediately. Which he has done a lot. Well I think about it pretty much all the time, but for now I am just having the faith that it's going to happen when it's supposed to happen. Just like everything else has. :) Life is good

I'm back!!!

One of my favorite pics from the family shoot in October

Hello everyone! I am finally back to the blogging world! It has been over a year, but I have decided it was time since I want to keep in touch with some of my former co-workers at McKay who don't have facebook.

There is WAY too much that has happened since my last post to try and recap so I will just try to start fresh and hopefully I can back track a little bit.

Overall though I am very very happy. Chris and I are doing great! We are more in love than ever and we both agree that marriage is wonderful. I am so grateful to have such a wonderful husband. He makes me so happy. I don't know who said the first year is the hardest, but if that is the case then WOW I am in for some amazing years! I guess we are almost at 2 years now. It is crazy to think that I have know him for almost 4 years! I know in the big perspective that is nothing, but it seems like a lot. At the same time, it seems like we've been together forever.

I got a new job! I am now an RN on the Float Pool at Primary Children's Medical Center. For those of you that don't know what Float Pool is it just means that I will be going to all the floors where ever they need me. The floors are Infant, children's medical and surgical, immunocompromised, NICU, PICU, neuro trauma, and the rapid treatment unit, with the option of training in the ER (which I'm not sure about yet). I am so excited to be with the kids. When I did my capstone (135 hours) there for school I loved it. Pediatrics has it's own sadness and difficulty, but the Spirit is soooo strong there! I know it is where I am meant to be.

Amidst my ever growing happiness it is hard to see the difficulties Chris is going through with his parents' divorce. It so hard on him. The dynamics of it all are so messy. I can't imagine how rough it must be on him when I know how much it has affected me. I know things will never be the same, but I hope that our relationship with certain people can renew and heal. I wish I could be more Christlike about it all. I know my attitude could be better. For know I just pray for him and his family.

Things to look forward to include:
Disneyland in 2 months!
The end of the semester for Chris
Summer
Hopefully our family will grow :)
and much more but those are the top!

I plan on trying to update this weekly if possible. I hope to hear from everyone! Please leave comments so I know people are reading. :)

FINALLY!

I finally graduated! It has been such a long and hard process, but I am very grateful! So many wonderful things have happened in my life since I started Nursing school. I have the most wonderful and supportive husband and I am very grateful for the family that he comes with. I don't think I could even begin to say how grateful I am for my parents and brother and sister. They had to put up with all of my breakdowns and helped me through every assignment since I was in kindergarten! I love them all so much!

Visiting Grandma Miller

On Sunday we were privileged to go visit Chris's Grandma Miller at her new home. It is always so nice to be able to see her. We set up her Christmas Tree for her and it turned out so cute! We are so grateful to have her in our lives!!!