Happy Birthday to You!!

Well, my baby turned four today. I can't believe it. Four years have come and gone so quickly. After our situation with Austin and Taylor I was a little hesitant to want to have any more kids. Dave and I felt that it was the right thing to do however and we had Caden. Caden was and is such a blessing to me. He is the one who helped me break the nurse shell and be able to really come out and feel like a mother. He has always been a sweet, patient little boy. He still loves to snuggle with me (which I love) and he is very kind to his brothers. Caden is a talker, if you will listen he will talk to you. Caden loves to play pretend and is so funny when he makes up stories. Caden we love you. You hold a very special place in our family. Happy Birthday! First thing, and I mean 7:00am we all got up before Dave had to go to school and opened prizes. He was thrilled with everything. I wasn't going to do anything like a party for him this year because he really didn't ask for one or seem to care about it. However, when Dave told me is was going to have to be in lab until 6:00pm I started feeling bad that he wasn't going to have a good b-day. I called a bunch of little friends and invited them to Chuck E. Cheeses for a get together. I got a yummy Costco cake and bought a ton of tokens. Everyone I called ended up coming. 19 kids (including babies) plus their mommies. 28 in all I think. Caden thought it was fantastic. Thanks to all of you who came and helped make his day so great. It was a little crazy, but I appreciate all of you. When we got home Caden got to talk to Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Bob on the phone and open his gift from them. Remember the burned monkey story from an earlier post? Well, Grandma made him a replacement. You will see by the picture how excited he was to have it. When Dave came home and per Caden's request we went to a McDonald's play place for dinner. It was a great day.

The final instalment of our summer break...the part with Dave anyway.

After we got home we still had a lot of time to fill. We had a fun BBQ with the other LDS grad families that were still in town. Caden got to hold baby Max, his first real baby, and we went to the zoo (a few times). The boys got to touch a Gator, an Elephant and goats. They love to play in the splash area.

Our good friends gave us their little boy's old bike. Dave got some new training wheels for it and we put Caden on to try it out. He loves it!! His mom on the other hand is still trying to get used to the idea that he is going to go fast and yes, he will probably fall, a lot. Yes, he usually does wear a helmet, this was just a trial run.

Next up was no small thing. Austin and Taylor turned 7. I wanted to share their story a little but realised that it would take entirely too long. Lets just say we are so blessed to have these little boys as part of our family. Congratulations Austin and Taylor for overcoming so much and working so hard to improve your quality of life. Mom and Dad love you more than you will probably ever know. Thanks for taking a chance on us and deciding to stay with us in this life. So, for their birthday they got new bikes. Taylor's is your typical bike. Austin's however is a specially made adaptive bike so that he can ride a bike like little boys should. They both love their bikes. Austin kept riding by me saying, "I love this bike, I love my bike!" It was so fun to see both of them doing something they were never supposed to be able to do. Austin doesn't really care for cake so I made them a fruity pebbles crispy treat "cake." We also had Grandma in on the festivities through the computer. That was way fun for the boys to show her how they ride their bikes and to sing while they blew out their candles.

So you have heard me talk about Del Taco, right? Well if not it is probably Dave's favorite place to eat. He found out that there is one up in South Bend. So with a last minute decision we drove up to Michigan City, Indiana, played on the beach for a while and went to Del Taco for dinner. The beach is awesome, you can go really far out before it gets too deep to stand. We had a great time. Oh ya, Del Taco was good too.

We have some great friends from when we lived in student housing at the U. They live in Cincinnati. We have visited a couple times and they come down here but this time we took a couple pictures. The first is on the Purple People Bridge, you can walk from Kentucky to Ohio. The big Ice cream cone looking thing is just that, it is a very yummy ice cream stand called The Cone. They have hundreds of things to choose from. Yummy!!

Are you still with me? Two more pictures left. Our buddy Russ (another 2nd year dental student) went home to Utah and got married during summer break. The first day back to school we had a BBQ as kind of a congratulations get together. These are the first pictures we have of all the guys, and girls for that matter together. We were only missing one of the guys and two of the wives.

Well there you have it. I think now we are caught up to date. See you soon!!

WE INTERUPT YOUR PREVIOUSLY SCHEDULED POST FOR THIS EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT!!!

I just wanted to take a quick minute and tell everyone why I am the luckiest girl in the world to have been married to such a wonderful guy for the last 10 years. Yes, 10 years. Where has the time gone? Sometimes it feels like yesterday that we were going to the Salt Lake temple to be married and sealed for all eternity. I love saying those words. I am so blessed that I get to be with my best friend for ever and ever. Dave is the most patient, kind, loving, understanding, helpful, caring husband I could ever ask for. He has a great sense of humor and people can't help but feel comfortable around him. He is the perfect dad to our little boys who in turn adore him immensely. Dave, I love you. Happy 10th Anniversary!!

Part 3 of 4

After our time in Utah we drove down to Newport Beach, CA to spend some time relaxing with just our little family. The boys absolutely loved the beach.

When we go to Cali we stay at Quality Suites. Dave's family stayed there when they would go down and we have stayed there every year we go too. They have a yummy cooked to order breakfast, and a great pool that is almost always empty. This trip Taylor and Austin learned to jump into the pool by themselves.

Newport pier always has tons of fisherman on it. The boys love to go walk the pier and see the "dead fish." On Sunday we went up to the Newport temple.

We checked out of Quality and headed south to San Diego so we could go to Sea World. Austin and Taylor were tall enough to ride Atlantis with a parent. They didn't love it, but were brave and went on it with us. Sea World has a new Sesame Street area. They boys don't watch Sesame Street but they had a great time on the rides. WARNING!! The last picture in the set is Austin looking like he is flipping you off, in reality he had just hurt his finger and was showing us where it hurt. We thought is was funny, is that bad?

When Dave was little he remembers going to stay at a beach house in Mission Bay. We were able to find the exact beach house (sorry no pictures of it) Then we went over to a carnival type place that Dave had fun memories of. The boys played at the arcade, rode a couple rides and ate cotton candy. After that fun we went to Gina's pizza, which is arguably the best pizza out there. Then it was time to head home. What a fabulous vacation and fun family time.

Even though our "vacation" has come to an end we still had 2 1/2 weeks of break, so stay tuned for the rest of our adventures (probably in the next day or two).