Seven Years

Mine and Clay's anniversary was on the 25th of July. We have been married for seven years. Here is where our journey started, on our wedding day, in California. I was 19 and Clay was 25.

Before we knew it, it was time to pack up and leave for New Orleans. Clay would be attending Tulane to work on a Masters/PhD in anthropology.

We arrived in New Orleans. There was lots to see.





Our first apartment was uptown. It was student housing but a bit of a walk to get to campus.


At the end of the semester, we moved into the basement apartment of this beautiful uptown house. We spent a lot of time upstairs with our awesome landlords!

Downstairs was nice too.


When summer break came, we flew to Queltzaltenango, Guatemala, more often called Xela. This is the view from the roof of the school we lived in.


Inside the school, eating with the spanish students.

Mid-way through summer, we moved further up into the mountains to the small village of Santa Catarina Ixtuahacan.



At the end of summer, we had a flight to go back to New Orleans, but had to cancel it because of the hurricane. We were lucky to get to live with Clay's parents for this semester. This is the only picture I have of all of us at their house, and it's in the back yard. Clay was lucky to get to finish his course work at SDSU.

The following semester, we went back to New Orleans, but we couldn't move back into our awesome basement apartment that we loved so much. It was flooded pretty good.


Instead, we moved into a great apartment off of St. Charles in the garden district of New Orleans.


At the end of the semester, Clay found out that he would get to study K'iche at the University of Chicago for the summer. Here's Clay and Cole by Lake Michigan.

We loved living in this small, IKEA furnished apartment. It had a great view of downtown Chicago.

For the fall semester, we drove back down to New Orleans, and stayed in our friends apartment while they were on a medical rotation. (Here Cole is pretending to be the lion king.)

It had a nice little back yard.

Halfway through the semester, we moved into this "creole cottage". It was soooo fun. We were right next to the french quarter.


And the mississippi.

Then we moved into my parent's house for a semester while we prepared for what was supposed to be a year in Guatemala.



At the beginning of summer we flew back to Guatemala. We only stayed for a month...instead of a year...but that's another story...



Not knowing what to do with ourselves, now that Clay's career as an anthropologist was on hold indefinitely, we stayed with Clay's parents for a couple months while we figured out a new life plan.

We decided to move to this apartment in Vista, while Clay worked as a long-term substitute teacher. (As you can see, Thomas and Friends was our one constant through a lot of change.) This is also where we lived when Luke joined our family.



During this time, he chose Public Administration as his new passion and USC as his new school.

Now we live on this beautiful street in the cutest little city, with two adorable boys and a job that Clay loves. We've lived here for two years, which is 1 1/2 years longer than we've ever lived anywhere. The nomadic lifestyle has definitely slowed down, but I have a feeling we're still not home yet.

Clay has given us such a great life! He is the most amazing husband. He is all about making me and the boys happy and completely spoils us. Thanks for the journey so far, Clay! Happy anniversary! I love you!

Aren't cousins the best?

Cole and Luke had so much fun at their cousin Sage's 5th birthday party. This girl has lived soooo far away for way too long, and will now be living a lot closer. Hooray! Her party was at Grandma's house which is a superb location with ocean views and a swimming pool. When we first got there, Cole got to pick out a kite and Luke got to pick out some bubbles. It wasn't super windy outside, but the kites did great and Cole loved it (he's been asking to fly kites for forever).

Opening presents in the cool rec room after a delicious lunch.

Picture with Grandma.

After some swimming, it was time for birthday cake.

Luke keeping his eye on the cake.

After cake the kids had fun playing together with Grandma's toys.

Cole, Blake, and Sage

Fun with cousins

A couple weeks ago, Cole attended "Camp Grammy 2010: Fun in the Sun". My mom had wanted to do something special with the older grandkids while everyone was on summer break, so this is what she came up with. She decided to invite Molly, Annie, Olivia, Ben and Cole to spend a few days at her house with no parents. Cole loved "camping out" at Grammy's. My mom was so sweet to take care of these 5 children and provide them with non-stop entertainment. Of course she did have the help of her assistant camp director, my brother Mikey (what a sport he was!!!). Together, they took the kids to parks, splash pads, on picnics, swimming (night swimming too), museums, out to restaurants and more. My mom always says she isn't crafty, but she even had a craft for them to do.

While Cole was enjoying camp, Luke and I stayed with my sister, Amanda. We had so much fun spending time with her and her little boy Connor. Luke and Connor are such good little buddies.

Amanda got them some matching clothes.

It was fun taking them on little errands.

It was a constant cycle of play, get messy, take a bath. I think they ended up taking at least 3 baths a day!


And one day, when Amanda was out, I couldn't resist staightening Connor's hair. I LOVE his curls, but I was just too curious...

It was super tough because the heat of the straightener was making Connor's head sweaty, which made his hair start curling again. He was so sweet to let his silly aunt mess with his hair.


Thanks for playing with us Connor!

A low-key 4th of July

This 4th of July was the first in a long time that I didn't feel worn out by the end of the day. It being Sunday, we didn't do a whole lot. Our community had a little celebration at a nearby park, so after church we decided to go for a nice stroll down to the park. We just sat on the grass and watched the high school band perform their songs and enjoyed each other's company.

This Silly Boy

This boy who likes to go into the fridge, pull out a carrot, and start munching and chomping

also likes to say, "Cheers" anytime he has the same thing as someone else (be it meatballs, or like today, two plastic cows)

and can't resist going into his aunt Katie's jewelry box and modeling its contents

and likes to make hot dog-applesauce surprise

and likes to dress up as half one thing, half another, (in this case, half prince/half baseball player)

and likes to diaper his chimpanzee and take it to the park for the other kids to be amazed by

and INSISTED on wearing these various wrist bands to bed...well this boy's name is Luke.

The Mormon Battalion

Cole's last day of kindergarten came and went and now it's onto summer break!!!! It is such a relief! After we picked him up on his last day of school we headed straight to my parents' house to see their new place. It was so nice relaxing with them and they were so nice to take us to see the newly revamped Mormon Battalion Visitor Center. I highly recommend visiting! The tour is totally geared for little kids and much more "disneyland-esque" (lots of special effects!)


Cole and Luke (with lots of other kids on the tour).

It was great to have my parents there to help keep Luke from wandering all over.

A very heavy musket.



Panning for gold.

You get to keep your two best peices.

The view at the top.


Thanks for the fun outing, Mom and Dad!