Cam's Graduation

Cameron graduated the week after we got back from vacation.  He graduated from Seminary, which is a program where high school students take a class each year to study from the scriptures, learn, and strengthen their knowledge and testimony of Jesus Christ.  

^^ We are so proud of Cameron and grateful for the good example that he is to us! ^^

^^ Four of the six of us siblings.  We missed you Lindsey and Curtis! And sorry, boys, this is the best picture we got. :) ^^

^^ Then of course the high school graduation!  I can't believe that my youngest brother has graduated from high school! ^^

^^ The weekend after high school graduation Cameron also received his Eagle Scout.  ^^

^^ After the Eagle Scout ceremony we went to the Middleton Cemetery and visited the graves for Memorial Day. ^^

We are so proud of Cameron and excited for what the future holds for him!  We know that he will do great things!!!  One thing about being the oldest child is that I get a bird's eye view of my siblings growing up.  It has been fun to watch Cam grow and I am excited to continue to see where life takes him as well as the rest of my siblings.  Congratulations Cam!!! We love you!

Clogging Nationals

Clogging nationals this year was the rainiest yet!  The rain just kept coming down and didn't seem to ever let up.  Despite this my teams did great and got first place on all of their team dances!

^^ Cute little Pearls. ^^

^^ The Jades trying not to freeze as we waited to go on stage. ^^

^^ I thought that Shelby would hate clogging after sitting through Nationals!  He said though that it wasn't too bad and actually would have been enjoyable if it wasn't for the rain.  Good thing since he could possibly have lots of dance competitions and recitals to sit through with our future children! ^^

One Bachelor's degree down!

We finally have a Bachelor's degree in our house!!!  One down, on to go! :)  I completed my RN (Registered Nurse) to BSN (Bachelor's of Science in Nursing) the beginning of May.  This basically means that I get a raise at work and will have more doors and jobs opportunities open up that otherwise wouldn't be if I stayed an Associate Degree RN.  I am so grateful that I am a nurse.  Sometimes it is hard, sometimes the scheduling is not the greatest, but I know that this is what Heavenly Father wants me to do with my education.

I am grateful for Shelby and supporting me mentally and emotionally as I worked full time and did school full time for the last year and a half.  He looked at me the other night and said "It is so nice to have you back."  And I agree wholeheartedly!  I am definitely way more relaxed and able to completely focus on the people that I am around instead of having a million things on the to-do list in the back of my mind.  Our house is cleaner and staying clean and I finished a book that I have been trying to read for the last year and a half!  It's amazing what being done with school can do!  Thanks to everyone who has put up with me that last few years and supported me in my educational endeavors!  

Cruisin' Part 1

About three months ago we decided that a vacation was desperately needed.  Between both of us working and school things have been busy.  So, we decided that the week after clogging nationals would be a good week since school would be out and I would be done with my Bachelor's program.  At first we were planning on heading to southern Utah.  After looking at the cost of hotels, restaurants, gas, etc, we realized that we could go somewhere that we had never been before for not much more of the cost.  So, we booked our first cruise!  We went on the Carnival Imagination.  It was fun and super relaxing.  We recommend that everyone try a cruise at least once in their lives. :)

^^ Flying out of Salt Lake bright and early! ^^

^^ Hanging out in Long Beach waiting for our ship to leave. ^^

^^ View of Long Beach from the cruise ship. ^^

^^ We left on Mother's Day.  Since it was Mother's Day all of the women got an extra dessert at dinner as well as a flower. :) ^^

^^ Beautiful ocean sunset. ^^

^^ We love towel animals!  They were definitely a highlight of each day! ^^

^^ The first day we stopped at Catalina Island.  Since the water is pretty shallow the ship dropped its anchor further out and we rode little tender boats to the island. ^^

^^ The little bay area of the island. ^^

^^ Riding on the tender boat with our cruise ship in the background. ^^

^^ We decided not to do anything super "touristy" like ziplining or anything while we were on Catalina.  Instead we hiked around and explored the island.  It was a good decision since there was plenty to see and do just by walking around the Island. ^^

^^ That night was "elegant night" which we both wanted to boycott, but what the heck, we wanted to eat the good food in the dining room so we sucked it up and got dressed up.  As you can see, it was worth it for Shelby who got two Lobster tails for dinner! :) ^^

^^ More of Catalina ^^

^^ One morning the workers decorating all of the chairs on one of the main decks with towel animals-so fun! ^^

^^ The second day of our cruise we stopped in Ensenada Mexico.  We loved all of the colorful buildings! ^^

^^ These are some gold statues that we found.  My limited Spanish vocabulary did not help in figuring out who they were but they still looked cool. ^^

^^ Photo bomb! ^^

^^ We found some sea lion friends on a dock.  They just wanted to sleep...^^

^^ I am fascinated by different cultures.  I could just sit and watch people's lifestyles all day. ^^

^^ This is one of the shops that we saw in Mexico.  They have many beautiful colorful items. ^^

More pictures to come!

Spring break & Easter festivities

Spring Break and Easter have already come and gone!  I technically didn't get a spring break but Shelby did. :)  I was able to arrange my work schedule do that we had at least a few days to spend together over his Spring Break.  We went and saw the new Cinderella-which I loved.  We also has a sleepover with my siblings as well as went to eye doctor appointments.  Let's just say I hope that our future children inherit Shelby's vision genes and not mine!  We also explored some new running trails in the area.

^^ Once we got to the top of this giant hill there was a great view of the city! ^^

^^  I'm really glad that he'll run with me every once in a while. :) ^^

^^ We also went Frisbee golfing one afternoon. I think it was decided that Twin's ^^

Frisbee golf areas seem much more organized... 

We had a week of normal school and work before Easter weekend.  Honestly, we didn't get into the whole Easter thing too much this weekend.  We both had complete opposite work schedules and saw each other for maybe four hours total throughout the whole weekend-such is life though!!!  We still took the time to study and celebrate Holy Week.  It was uplifting to study the events of the last week of the Savior's life together.

^^  We did take the opportunity to dye some eggs! ^^

^^ We found a fun "mini-monster" kit at the store. ^^

^^ We were also able to watch General Conference this weekend.  I am still catching ^^

up on the sessions that I missed!  We are grateful for technology that allows us to do that.  I know that Jesus Christ lives and loves us.  Because He lives we can overcome our sins and weakness.  Because He lives we can live with our families forever.  We love the Spring season and the chance that it gives us to reflect on new beginnings and the Savior's Resurrection!

^^ And one thing that's helping us push through our school ^^

work-we booked a cruise!!!  So excited for this desperately needed vacation away from work and school! :)

A little Birthday fun!

Shelby had a birthday!!!  His day was full of food, golf, and more food with some work thrown in there. :)

^^ One of Shelby's favorite breakfasts is waffles.  I whipped up some for ^^

him in the morning before he had to head to work!

^^ After Shelby got off work we went to the driving range at one of the golf ^^

courses in town to hit some golf balls.  Now, I have never been golfing before and Shelby has been wanting to teach me.  That was his birthday activity of choice and it was super fun!!!  He is a great teacher!

^^ Look at that technique! ;)  ^^

^^ He is focused.  I didn't have much of a voice all day so I didn't provide too ^^

much of a distraction! 

^^ The newbie's turn!  We were loving the sun! ^^

^^ One of the first things that Shelby noticed when we moved here was that there ^^

was a Firehouse Subs within a few miles of our apartment.  He has been holding out all these months to go when he can get a free sub sandwich for his birthday.  The day finally came!  I seriously could have just taken him to Firehouse subs and he would have been happy all day. :)

^^ We had family over for cake and ice cream that night.  Shelby requested Confetti ^^

 frosting on his cake. :)

I'm so grateful for Shelby and the person that he is!!!  He adds the perfect balance to our marriage and is definitely my better half.  Happy Birthday to my Shelby!!

Just checking in!

It's been awhile!  January flew by and February is doing the same thing.  The last few months have kept us busy with life-work, school, and church responsibilities.  Here is a quick updated on some of our happenings that last few months! 

^^ The day after Christmas Shelby's trusty high school care broke down.  For the ^^

last few weeks of Christmas break we shared a care but knew that as soon as school started it would just not be very cost or time effective to continue to have one car between both of us.  We are constantly heading in different directions due to where work vs school is located.  So, meet our new-to-us car!  It is a Honda Civic with a lot of miles on it so it is definitely just our commuter car.  We are just grateful for a car that runs at this point in time!

^^ Sorry if this is too much for you...it is a shoulder.  In January I had some ^^

minor skin surgery to remove some questionable areas of my skin.  It was a very itchy, skin-irritating experience and I was oh so excited to get those stitches out!

^^ Just a blurry selfie of us hanging out. :)^^

^^ Oh and another side-note for our family record.  Shelby's car had just broken down ^^ 

and we were a little stressed about how we were going to make things work with either paying to fix his car or buying a different one...Shelby went to open one of the drawers in his dresser and the handle area came off and as you can see, it is slowly falling apart.  It totally still looks this way too!  And probably will until we can buy a dresser with more quality...Walmart/Target furniture may be a quick fix but is not always the best way to go...

^^ On a happy note, Shelby got a job!  He is working at a place called The Little ^^

Gym teaching classes to elementary school age kids.  It will be a great part-time job while we are finishing up school here and the little girlies in his class already have crushes on him. :)  We decided to celebrate his new job with a little classic Martinelli's Cider.

^^ We have had a really weird end-of-winter with weather in the 50s and 60s. ^^

These tulips seemed like a good touch in hopes that the warm weather would stick around!

^^ We are so blessed to live so close to the Boise LDS temple and have been trying to ^^

take advantage of it as much as we can!!!

^^ My competition dance teams had their first competition over Valentine's ^^

weekend.  They did so great and received 1st place in all of their team dances! I also ended up doing Pro freestyle for the first time in 6 years which was nerve wracking but somehow I survived. :)

^^ Shelby's Valentine's Day gift...reasons why I love him. :)^^

^^ One of my teams-they received an overall award thanks to all of their hard work and practice!^^

^^ My Valentine's day present-a bouquet of Kit-Kats. ^^

We are so excited for what is to come in the next three months.  Vacations, another semester down, and hopefully I will be done with my BSN program!!! Here's to the rest of February and the coming Spring!  Blog to you soon!