Road Trip!

The Monday after Justin's graduation my parents, the kids, and I road tripped from South Bend to Vegas. I know what you're thinking, 'A road trip with four tiny humans? Surely you're insane!?!'. Perhaps I am slightly insane but I'm not exaggerating when I say that we had a great time.

We broke the trip up into three days. Day 1: South Bend to Nauvoo, IL for a pitstop then on to Des Moines, IA to our hotel. Day 2: Des Moines, IA to Omaha, NE for a pitstop at Winter Quarters and then on to Denver, CO for the night. Day 3: Denver, CO to Green River, UT for a pitstop at a park and then on to Vegas!

A few things I learned on my road trip:
1. Electronics (GPS, iPads, iPhones, DS, portable DVD players, etc.) are lifesavers. How my parents ever took us anywhere without them is unfathomable.
2. Even though electronics are undeniably awesome, old school travel is fun too. I made the kids spend a portion of each day road tripping 'old school'. The license plate game, I Spy, hangman, etc. can be even better than electronics.
3. My parents are saints. Seriously. Best Grammy and Opa ever.
4. I'll eat just about anything on a road trip.
5. I used to think that western Colorado/Utah was so beautiful and green. Then I moved somewhere truly beautiful and green. I'm not as impressed by those landscapes anymore.
6. Mountains are fun and pretty, but I'm not one of those people who loves mountains and needs to be near them. Give me trees and green and woods and I'm happy.
7. Always travel with more than 2 DVD choices. ALWAYS! (I don't know if I can ever watch 'The Emperor's New Groove' again.)
8. As we travelled, I'd think 'okay, if the car broke down here, we'd call __________'. I love having friends all over the country (and also glad that my car never broke down).
9. My kids are awesome. (Okay, I already knew that one, but it's still true.)

How about some photos:
As I look through these, I swore I'd taken more. Then I realized that I didn't. They're on my dad's iPhone. Maybe he'll send them to me.

My favorite part of our road trip was going to Nauvoo and seeing my good friend, Carrie. Her family is doing residency in Iowa City which is less than an hour from Nauvoo. She graciously agreed to not only meet us there (with her 5 kids) but to bring us lunch! (Which, if you know Carrie is not surprising. She's pretty much the best.)

Josie and Naomi. These little girls were just babies when we left Vermont (seriously, I think Naomi was only a month or so old). They got along so well together that it made me a little sad. I think they'd be good friends.

 Me, Carrie, and sweet little Alice. It was so nice to see Carrie and catch up. I miss our VT friends!

 The Smith and Randall kids! It seems like a ton.

I also loved stopping in Winter Quarters. I was so awestruck by the early pioneers. They went through so many hardships but relied on their faith to know that they were doing what God had asked. It humbled me to walk around with my own kids, knowing that many of the saints lost their own children there. It made me even more grateful for eternal families.

Josie and Noah dressing up like pioneers.

 Sammie and Opa.

 I adore little pioneer Sammie!

 Pulling the handcart.

After that, our road trip was pretty much uneventful. The two exceptions being the stop at the park and splash pad in Green River, UT (where it was so blazing hot that my mom had all my kids strip down to their underwear and play - that's right, we were those people) and our dinner stop at Wingers in Cedar City. Oh how I've missed Wingers. It's probably a good thing I don't live near one. I would dip everything in creamy buffalo sauce (so could Sammie).

We got into Vegas around 9:00p.m. on July 3rd (which was perfect since our goal was to make it to Vegas by the 4th) and thus ended the first of our two long road trips.

Stay tuned. Next up...Vegas Baby!

He Did It!

It's been a very busy summer over here at Casa de Smith. So much has happened and I'm painfully close to becoming so behind on my blog that I've considered giving it up altogether. However, like so many others, I will not quit (yes, Anisha, I'm looking at you)! You're welcome.

Aside from the fact that I know that there are fives to tens of you out there who find my life absolutely riveting and cannot wait for another post, this is pretty much my journal right now and I figure I should keep it up. If for no other reason than so that when my kids grow up and whine about the crappy childhood they had, I can pull up the blog and say things like "we visited a cranberry bog" and "I potty trained you" and "I didn't murder you for coloring on the walls with sharpie". You know, important stuff like that.

Usually, when I get this far behind I have a hard time deciding where to start again. This time though, it's easy. The moment we've all been waiting for finally happened...(drum roll)...

Justin graduated residency!!!!!!

That's right! He's done (well, except for fellowship)! He passed his boards and is now a board certified, totally legit, doesn't-have-to-say-resident-anymore, doctor! We began the celebrating by going out to a fancy dinner, just the two of us:

While we were at dinner, Justin gave me a gorgeous (and totally unexpected) diamond necklace to let me know he appreciated my support and love. He told me he couldn't have done it without me. This journey has been rough at times for both of us. I cannot say how much I appreciate and love that he acknowledged that it was a team effort. We've grown so much together throughout this experience and I'm more in love with him than ever (diamonds aside). I'm married to a great guy - the best guy, if you ask me.

For his graduation, we had my parents, Justin's dad, and Justin's sister come to visit. We had a great time. We got to meet our new nephew, Xander, and get to know our niece, Abby, better. It was fun times hanging out with the Smith cousins. (As usual, I am pretty much the worst when it comes to taking pictures.)
This series with Sammie and Xander cracks me up though:

We travelled as a pack and our van was crowded! Packed to capacity (I'm glad we got the one that seats 8!)

It was a great weekend. It all culminated in Justin's graduation ceremony. For graduation, they do a nice event with appetizers, drinks, a sit down dinner, yummy dessert, slide shows, awards, and speeches. I loved sitting at the head table with Justin, I was so proud to be there next to him. Justin was given an award for being an exemplary teacher to interns and med students (which is something he loves and is really good at).

Each resident is asked to give a little speech. There are a few things about Justin's that I particularly loved: 1. He asked me to stand next to him. (When each resident is called to receive their certificate, their significant other is called to stand and be recognized too. However, when the resident gives their speeches, most significant others stand in the background. Justin had me stand next to him. We're a team. Love him.) 2. He danced. Not only did he dance, he called one of his old attendings out of the crowd to dance with him. He taught her how to booty bounce. I know that there is video evidence of this somewhere. Dad, Missy, if one of you have the video, please send it to me and I'll post it. It really deserves to be seen.
He totally rocked the three piece suit to graduation. Handsome devil.

I didn't bring a camera to graduation. I should probably try to get some pictures that other people took there but I haven't attempted that yet. This is one that my dad took. Not sure what Justin's doing, but look at how yummy my chocolate cake looks!

There are a thousand little details that I'm missing about graduation, but the short story is: my man is an official doctor now. He did it. We did it. I am so proud of him. One more year of fellowship and then it's off to the real world for us (I'll do a post about that in a few months when we've decided where we're going).

Love you Just. You're pretty much the most amazing person I know.

Wolf

This devilishly handsome cub scout:

...earned his wolf badge last night.
He actually earned a whole bag full of badges, arrow points, belt loops, etc. We are so proud of how hard he's worked to earn his wolf.

As the mom, I also got an award. I got the wolf pin. It signifies how hard I worked to help him get his badges (which is kind of funny since Justin's the one who did most of the work with him on his scout stuff).

 I love my little cub scout. He loves the scouting program and I love what it's done for him. He can't wait to get started working on his bear.

 

Doppleganger

Yup, there's no denying who this kid belongs to. Every time I see pictures of Justin as a boy I do a double take. Love this boy and the man he's a clone of!

Sneaky Sneaky...

This snot-faced girl thinks she can get away with anything (like eating cereal in my family room) as long as she gives me a big smile:

She's mostly right. My heart melts for this little lady.

(**She's getting four teeth right now so she is especially snotty and gross, but - Heaven help me - I love this picture and this sneaky little girl.**)

Happenings

Life has been just chugging along over here at Casa de Smith. A few exciting things, a few fun things, and a few mundane things. Here's what's been happening:

Clayton had been taking an acting class with the civic theater. At the end of the session they put on a play, "Fractured Fairy Tales". It was a completely random story with lots of characters thrown in. Clayton was Spiderman. It was pretty awesome. I do have some little video of his performance but I hesitate to add it because I was fighting with Sammie while filming so the video isn't great (Justin was working so we were trying to capture the performance for him).

He was amazing though. He had great comedic timing and had everyone laughing in all the right places. I was a proud mama watching him! He's going to be doing a camp later this month all about improv. I love that he's found something that he loves and is good at. Plus, I love going to his performances!

The boys had a spirit week at school last week. Tuesday was crazy hair day. Unfortunately, they'd both just gotten haircuts so there wasn't much we could do that was crazy other than spike and color. They loved it though!

Wednesday was favorite sports team day. The boys weren't 100% sure who the Portland Timbers were (until I told them) but these were the new shirts we'd brought them back from Oregon and they really wanted to wear them.

Thursday was pajama day. Who doesn't love the idea of going to school in your super comfy pajamas!?!

This awesome and crazy, messy baby turned 21 months. It's wild to me that she'll be 2 in just a few short months. Where does the time go?

She has reached the age where she loves to wear our shoes all around the house. I think it's written in some contract that all toddlers must go through this stage.

 She has started to assert her independence a bit more which is fun and frustrating at the same time (getting shoes on this kid is a battle). She has temper tantrums periodically but overall she's still a super sweet, super funny, super happy little girl. Love that she's mine!

A few weeks ago, Justin finished the railing on our deck. We put our deck furniture that we bought off Craigslist last fall out there and have been hanging out 'decking' almost every day. It's our new favorite room in the house.

The kindergarten classes at Noah's school have been learning about the rainforest. Therefore, my whole family has been learning about the rainforest. It's amazing to me the information Noah knows. He now also wants a chameleon. Good luck buddy.
The kindergarten had a 'rainforest open house' last week and we all got to go and see the projects he's been working on and the things he's been learning. It's impressive. Here's Noah and his teacher. We've loved Mrs. Helms. She was such a great teacher for Noah!

The boys still have one week of school left but, sadly, Noah's best friend moved to Arizona the day of the open house. They literally left the school with their moving truck. It was hard on Noah especially since his other best friend is moving at the end of this week. Here are the three boys together. They've been such good little friends!

I have been training for a 10k and finally ran the race last Saturday. I had a goal in my head that I wanted to run it in under an hour but my very best time was an hour and thirty seconds. No matter how hard I pushed I just couldn't break that hour mark. So my ultimate goal was to break an hour but my realistic goal was to be under an hour and two minutes (which would put me at a 10 minute mile average - which is pretty good for me).
The day of the race I got up and put on my Team Jen shirt (this is the magic shirt I ran my 5k in a few weeks ago when I had a new personal best of 27 minutes). This shirt is to show support for my friend Jen Roper and I love it. The back says, "I can do hard things". It's kind of become my new running mantra. Anyway, the day was humid but otherwise a pretty good day for a race. I wasn't feeling that great about the way I was running until I hit mile 5. I was getting pretty discouraged because I didn't feel that I was doing the pace I wanted but I ran by the mile marker and they'd set up a clock to let you know your time so far. The clock said 47 minutes! By this point I was dragging and my legs were really tired (no wonder - I was running at a faster pace than I'd ever run in training) but I was renewed with this news. It is seriously what got me to the end. When my final time was posted it was 58:55!! I was unbelievably happy with that. Plus, I finished 32nd in my age group out of 119 women. Not super stellar, but I was in the top half! Makes a girl feel pretty good so I'm going to keep up the training and try to do another half marathon in the fall. I can do hard things!

We took an afternoon to get some yard work done. Everyone pitched in.

 Love these hard working men!

These little ladies didn't have much attention span for the work we were doing (which was just fine since their 'help' wasn't really helpful anyway).

As Justin was finishing up, he had us come outside and see what he'd found. A next with three baby cardinal birds in one of the bushes by our garage! (We know they're cardinals because we've been stalking that bush now and we see the mama with the babies.) Justin was trimming the bush with hedgeclippers and almost took out these little babies! Thankfully he missed them by a narrow margin and they're safe and sound. Because of how close a call it was though, this nest is easily visible to us now and we've loved watching these little birds!

The kids don't want the birds to grow feathers and fly away, but I think I'll feel a little relief when they finally do! I've become very concerned about their well being since we've found them and have started checking on them several times just to make sure that they're all still alive and well!

I think we're all caught up now. Which is excellent timing because school gets out this week and we have some adventures planned! Yay!