In Loving Memory...

Last Wednesday, after spending all day packing boxes and loading our moving truck and cleaning, I received a phone call just as I was getting into bed to let me know my Grandpa had passed away. In a way, this was a blessing. My Grandpa was diagnosed with lung cancer about 14 months ago, and even though he gave it quite a fight, the last few months had been very hard on him and he was so sick that we were glad to see him released from all his pain. However, this is the first Grandparent that I have lost and I had a very hard time with losing him, especially since I was so far away and not able to see him one last time and really say good-bye. The last time I saw him was in April and he didn't look good then, and I knew it could be my last chance to see him, but I hoped I would have at least one more opportunity.

My Grandpa was an amazing man who was loved by all who met him. His viewing was Wednesday evening and there were so many people there who came to pay their respects. The line was so long all night. My Grandpa was so giving and so kind and had such a great sense of humor and was so much fun to be around. He will truly be missed!

I have many memories of my Grandpa - He was such a joker and LOVED to tease! He was constantly teasing my Dad about his hair (or lack of...), my mom about how many children she had, my brothers about their "Girlfriends", my sister about her lack of direction and me about why I hadn't scored more points or won my last game. He always knew how to get to all of us, but he never went too far. My grandpa also always had a good joke and knew how to laugh! He also had a myriad of little tricks to entertain us, like pulling one arm longer than the other, or the pencil trick, or removing his thumb. He also loved to have my brothers hit his hand as hard as they could. He would tell them it wasn't hard enough and make them continue to hit over and over, until they really wound up and then he made his hand into a fist and they would always walk away with a bruised hand...and ego, although the next time they visited, they always went back for more. One of his favorites was to tell us there was a dragon in the basement. There was a trap door to his cellar in the bathroom and then when the unsuspecting victim went to use the bathroom, he would pound on the door and make so much noise and scare us to death! He LOVED practical jokes!

One of my favorite things about my Grandpa was his kisses - When you gave my Grandpa a kiss, he would make this funny popping sound and rear back, almost as if you had just knocked him out. When I was a little girl, I thought this was the greatest thing ever! And after I had kids, they also LOVED this and would always want to go back for another and another and would always be laughing. My Grandpa loved it!

Something I will always remember are Sunday night visits to Grandpa's house. He was always kicked back in his armchair watching the Cowboys or the Jazz or an old Western. My Grandpa always had yummy treats at his house, or ice cream and root beer for Root Beer Floats, or ice cream sandwiches. He loved to torment us - He would always have some treat ready when we got there, and then give it to one of us and tell us we could only have it if we didn't share with anyone else. There was enough for all of us, but he said that if we did share, he would take it back. This was great for the person with the treat, but torture for the rest of us and my parents as they had to listen to the 6 of us without the treat whine and complain, especially when the visit fell on Fast Sunday and we were all starving! My Grandpa would then sit back and revel in the mischief he had achieved and loved every minute of it!

My Grandpa was an expert fisherman and hunter and loved the outdoors. I remember when I was very little going to Bear Lake with my Grandpa, which was his favorite place to fish. He loved to take others fishing and loved to have them catch the biggest fish. My favorite fishing memory was when I was about 8 years old. We went to a fish farm and my grandpa was teaching me how to cast. I unfortunately cast too early and somehow got the hook up the nose of my pregnant mother! It was really stuck in there and she had to get some medical help. My grandpa had a heyday with this and LOVED to tease me about what I had done to my mom and that I had caught a WHALE! Since you pay by the pound at the fish farm, he also enjoyed teasing my dad about how much that catch was going to cost him! Whenever we went to the fish farm, he would always try and help us hook the biggest fish in the pond, so that my dad would have to pay for it! Grandpa had 2 HUGE fish mounted on his wall in his house and Logan loved to go and see the "big fishies". He was a little wary of them though because my Grandpa would make sounds for them or tell Logan they might jump off the wall if he got too close.

My Grandpa was so great with kids and babies and my kids loved him so much! He loved spoiling them! There was a video at the viewing of him feeding my cousin's baby some root beer float that was SO my grandpa. He also had a $5 or $10 for the kids every time we saw him. Even at the funeral, my Grandpa had left 5 $5 for each of his 5 great-grandchilren. It was so fitting! He got such a kick out of Logan and all of his antics and always called him the Energizer Bunny and referred to him as a fireball because he had so much energy and never stopped. He took us to breakfast a little while back and was so amazed at all the Logan could eat and kept giving him food to see how much he could put away and then would tell everyone about it. Rylee and my Grandpa also had a very special bond. Rylee has been an extreme Mama's Girl since birth and will rarely let anyone else hold her, including my parents, sisters and sometimes even Darren. At family functions, everyone would pass her around and she would cry for all of them, until she ended up on my Grandpa's lap. She was always so content there. She would even frequently end up asleep there and always looked so sweet. At my sister's wedding luncheon, she sat with my Grandpa the entire time and fell asleep in his arms. Maybe part of this bond is because Rylee is partially named for my Grandpa. Darren and I decided on the name Rylee pretty quickly and without too much argument but we couldn't agree on how to spell it - I preferred Rylee because it looked more feminine and Darren liked Riley because it was more traditional. However, my Grandpa was diagnosed with cancer just a few weeks before Rylee was born and since his name was Richard Lee, I felt it only fitting that Rylee's name be spelled this way, and Darren couldn't really argue that. She may have to spell it for people the rest of her life, but she will always carry a special part of my Grandpa with her.

My Grandpa could build anything and my house has so many special treasures that he has built for me and my kids. He built Logan a beautiful dresser and has built me so many things, including a hope chest, an incredible doll house, a dresser, a trunk and many others. He started out making mostly furniture but he got quite crafty and would also build cool birdhouses, frames and shelves and cool things to hang on the wall. He would build anything for anyone and never charged anybody or would accept any payment. The things he built were so beautiful and I am so glad that I have so many amazing reminders of my Grandpa around our home.

Probably my very favorite memory of my Grandpa was when he came to Vegas about 4 years ago to visit Darren and I with his girlfriend, Elaine. They were staying out at Boulder Station and was so excited for us to come out there so he could treat us to the buffet and see the little patriotic program and afterwards teach us how to play

the slots! Probably a big part of his joy in this was that he couldn't wait to get home to my dad and tell him that he had got me on the slots, but he also LOVED to gamble! He took many trips to Wendover and had won many jackpots (he never mentioned when he lost, so it looked like he always won!) He was like a kid at Disneyland in the casino! He was so excited to show us how to play the penny machines - He would get us going on one machine and then find another "HOT" one and send us over there. I don't know if he played at all - He was having so much fun watching us! By the end of the night, I think we ended up with about $30, which my Grandpa insisted that I keep. We had so much fun - I don't know if I ever saw my Grandpa so excited about anything. It is such a great memory for me!

I remember my Grandpa's visits each Christmas morning. He would bring us all a $20 bill and always seemed to know where the tracks from Santa's sleigh and the reindeer were in our yard, which we loved to discover! He also LOVED reading the letter that Santa left and giving my dad a hard time about it. It became a bit of a thing each year and Santa seemed to write more and more nice things about my Dad, and Grandpa loved teasing him about them all. My Grandpa was staying at my mom's over this last Christmas when we were there visiting. He never complained or asked for anything - Even at his sickest! Even when he was in so much pain, if you asked how he was, he would say he was fine, even though you could tell he really wasn't. We also had to constantly ask him if there was anything he needed because he would never just say that he needed a glass of water or the TV turned on or anything - He never wanted to be a bother. I was glad that we had that time to spend with him. Logan would get up each morning and tell us he wanted to go see Great-Grandpa and run up to his arm chair to say hello. I feel a little cheated that my Grandpa left us so young - He would have been 71 last Monday. I feel especially cheated for my children who won't get to really know their Great Grandpa. At his funeral, it was said that he "didn't tell us how to live, he showed us how." I think that is a great description of my Grandpa. He was never preachy, but was always a great example of kindness, giving, charity, forgiveness and love. Although I am sad that he is gone, I am grateful for the lessons he has taught me. I am also grateful that he is no longer in pain. I am grateful for the gospel and its teachings that give us the hope of eternal life and the blessing of knowing that my Grandpa is somewhere better and I have the opportunity to see him again. We Love You and Miss You Grandpa!

My Grandpa and Logan on his Blessing Day

My Grandpa and Rylee on her Blessing Day

Rylee and Grandpa's Hands - I LOVE this picture! My Grandpa was a big guy with big hands and even when he lost so much weight from the chemo and being sick, his hands were still so big and strong. At his funeral, they said my Grandpa had 2 things out of proportion on his body - His hands and his heart!

Sick Day

As a mom, you do not get too many sick days, but I am getting one today and actually am enjoying it, minus the throwing up! (I haven't thrown up for a really long time and I forgot how much I HATE it!) We were supposed to be at Darren's nephew's baptism today, but I woke up puking, so I stayed home and Darren took the kids to Centerville. When I was in college, I used to love an occasional sick day to veg on the couch, eat Ramen and watch the movie "Little Women" my favorite sick day choice, or occasionally "Little Rascals". Unfortunately, we don't have a TV hooked up yet, but it has been nice to have a quiet house for a little while. Don't get me wrong - I LOVE being a Mom and LOVE spending time with my kids, but wasn't it Chicago who said "everyone needs a little time away"? I can't remember the last time I took a nap for as long as I wanted or had unlimited access to the internet without interruption, thanks to someone else's wireless connection! I am quite enjoying this break despite the frequent trips to the bathroom! I better enjoy it while I can - They will be back in a few hours.

Leaving Las Vegas!

I have to say that my daily posting went better than expected. However, when it came to crunch time with the move, there wasn't much time for anything else but packing and cleaning and adding my final blog entries were not my top priority. Things got a little crazy the last 2 days that we were in Vegas. I was so organized and orderly in my packing to begin with...but it seemed to NEVER end!!! I couldn't believe how much stuff we had and it was a mess to pack! Even after the truck was loaded last Wednesday night, there were so many random odds and ends to take care of. It all ended up being shoved into random boxes, which are now sitting in my garage, unlabeled and who knows when they will be unpacked because we don't really know what is in them! The cleaning also took much longer than expected and we ended up leaving Vegas last Thursday about 5 hours later than planned. However, we made it and although we still have a LOT of unpacking to do (which I am learning may be WORSE than packing!!) we are here!
I have to say that I was a little sad when it was time to go, and even shed a few tears. If you would have told me 3 years ago that I would miss anything about Vegas, I would have thought you were crazy! The first year that we lived there, Darren and I were in 3 major car accidents, totaling all three cars and 2 of the accidents I was pregnant with Logan so I ended up being hospitalized. We had a few car breakdowns, one on the way home from the hospital after I had Logan and also had our car stolen from our home. If that wasn't bad enough, the car then broke down on the thieves and we had to pay a lot of money to get it out of the impound lot and have it repaired! I had a job that I didn't particularly love when we first moved there and not too many friends and Darren spent much of his time studying. We also had Logan the first year and he came 6 weeks early, so even that happy event was a little hard as he had to stay in the NICU for 2 weeks. After all of this, I couldn't wait to leave, but things got better and I will actually miss more about living there than I ever thought I could. I know I have posted a list of several of the things I will miss, but I never got a chance to finish my list, so here are a few "Honorable Mentions" that didn't make the daily post listings!

1. The Weather!!! How can you talk about Vegas without mentioning the beautiful weather! We could go to the park 9 months out of the year - (You can't go in the summer because it is SOOO hot!!!) We did leave at a great time though because it was up to about 110 the week before we left, which is TOO hot for me! I am happy to have seasons again, but I think when those cold Cache Valley winters hit, I might be hoping for some sun and palm trees again!!!
2. Visitors - We always had people coming down for something or coming through and it was so fun to see friends and family and show them some fun things to do in Vegas. I don't think Cache Valley has quite the same tourist appeal, but we hope that some of our friends and family will still come visit us sometimes! We also had some friends from Utah who were living in Vegas for different things. My old roomie, Mindy, moved to Vegas a few weeks before we did and she did so much to help us get moved and was so great to come over and hang out or babysit for us! Also, my friend from high school, Lacey, recently moved to Vegas for her husband to go to medical school and I have had so much fun hanging out with her and catching up this last year. There always seems to be someone you know in town or coming through for something, and we will miss seeing familiar faces!
3. Vegas has EVERYTHING!!! - There is pretty much one of everything in Vegas - There are so many stores, restaurants and other entertainment and pretty much every major show or concert comes through eventually. The downside to this is that we were poor college students and we couldn't really take advantage of all the cool stuff there was to do - For instance, I REALLY wanted to see Celine, but I could never justify spending all the money! Anyway - Maybe now we will have an excuse to come back and visit old friends and see some of the great things Vegas has to offer!!! There were a lot of cool free things to do, like the Bellagio fountain shows and other neat places to visit like Mount Charleston and Red Rock and Lake Las Vegas. We will miss having so much to do!
4. Our cute condo and community - The place we lived in was so great! We had some ornery old neighbors, but we also had some great neighbors too. Logan and Rylee got so much attention because they were some of the few kids living there and they loved it! They loved going for walks and to see our neighbors and their dogs, especially Phyllis and Angel. It was such a nice place and so quiet - We really loved our time there!
5. Darren will miss all the expensive cars! Everyone in Vegas seems to drive some exotic car and Darren loved spotting them all or driving by the Lamborghini dealership - I don't think he will be seeing many Bentleys or Vipers or Lamborghini's here in Cache Valley!

I do have to say, that there are also things I will NOT miss about living in Las Vegas! Here is a list: Traffic all hours of the day, crazy drivers, being afraid of being shot, mugged or broken into, all the naked billboards, the HOT summers, living so far from many of our friends and family, living so close to the Strip, not being able to see the stars at night, school and studying, student loans, and some not so friendly people!

Confessions of a Shopaholic!

I never thought of myself as much of a shopper...that is until I moved to Las Vegas and discovered the outlet malls! They are SO FABULOUS and I will definitely miss this about living here! I am a MAJOR bargain shopper and refuse to pay full price for much of anything so the outlet mall is like heaven to me. There are so many great deals and it has become one of my biggest addictions! I LOVE finding a great deal - It gives me a weird adrenaline rush. The first store I discovered at the Outlets was The Children's Place Outlet and I can not get enough of that store - I buy my kids' entire wardrobes one season in advance and rarely pay more than $5 for anything! It is so awesome! I also love visiting the Disney store, the Osh Kosh Store and the Carter's store. They also have some great stores for me - When I am pregnant, I love going to the maternity store, but they also have lots of other great stores that I enjoy shopping at and can frequently find awesome deals! They just opened up a new wing with a GAP outlet! I have been loving it! I bought a whole bag full of clothes a couple months ago for $25! I rarely buy myself anything, but since the Gap has opened there, I have picked up several new items and decided that buying new clothes is very addicting. Once you realize how much you love having something new to wear, you just can't stop finding other new buys - Good thing there are such good deals! It will probably be better for us financially to move to Cache Valley because it will keep me away from the outlets, but I will definitely miss my shopping!!! There are a few good places in Logan - Old Navy, Kohl's, and a mall, but no Children's Place, no outlets and NO TARGET!!! This one might be hard to recover from, but hopefully I will adjust! At least there is always online shopping...

Our Ward Family

Today was a hard day at church being our very last Sunday here. We have been very blessed with excellent wards while living in Vegas. We have been in 2 different wards. The first ward we were in was so wonderful and we felt so welcome! However, it was split about 2 1/2 years ago. At first we had a really hard time with this ward, but we have since grown to love it and made some very special friendships. We have been very blessed to have a ward who has made us feel very welcome and been our family away from home and we will really miss everyone. I think wards away from Utah are a little more that way - Not as many people have family to rely on and so we all rely on each other. We will really miss that! We have had some excellent teachers and examples in our ward and I feel that we have learned a lot. Logan has had the BEST Nursery teacher, Sister Heaton, and I know that he will miss her so much! He is one of only about 3 kids in our nursery (on a busy day) and last week he was the only kid in there with 3 leaders. He gets really spoiled and I think it will be so hard for him to adjust to our new nursery, which we heard has 90 kids!!! He has learned a lot in our ward and also made some great friends at play groups and other things. He has also loved the opportunity to have the missionaries over for dinner so frequently. He loves to show off for them when they come over and sing "I Hope They Call Me On A Mission" for them! There are some things that are really neat about living in the mission field and having the opportunity to share the gospel a little more often than you do in Utah.
We will miss a lot of things about our ward - I personally will miss the ladies who I have served in the RS Pres with for the past 2 1/2 years - They have been so great! We have had a lot of fun together! I will also miss our FABULOUS Enrichment nights - They are always so amazing! (However, I will not miss all the work that goes into putting them together, even though I only play a very small part, they always seem to stress me out!) I will miss playing volleyball with the girls in my ward, even though I only got to do it once! I will miss the girls from play group and all of our little chats on parenting and so many other things. I will miss seeing so many people in the halls at church and their smiles and just talking to them. I will miss everyone fussing over Rylee and Logan at church. There are so many kids in Utah that they are not such novelty - Here everyone is always fussing over how cute they are! I will also miss the Conner's. They are an older couple who we love! We have had some great talks over at their house and will miss them a lot! They are always so excited to see us at church and genuinely miss us when we are not there. I will also miss our good friends, the Wennerlinds, who we became friends with through my Visiting Teaching. They have been so much fun to hang out with and Logan has become very attached! Karmann has been my listening ear so many times and helped me through a lot! I will also miss hanging out at the White's house. They have been so kind to our family and include us in everything they do. They are such great friends and let us hang out in their beautiful home until all hours of the night. My kids LOVE their house and all the fun toys they have and their fun backyard. Her older kids are so good to help with my kids and love to babysit them and Natalie and Logan are the best of friends! Jen has been my scrapbooking and blogging partner many nights until very late and Darren has spent many late nights watching BYU or the Jazz with Sandy. Both of my kids also love to be there and I think we will be a little lost without having them close by! They have been great to babysit our kids and include us in so many holiday celebrations and other things and have fed us so often! We will really miss them! We will also miss our Stake President and his sweet wife, Valerie, who have made us feel like family while we have been here and been so good to us. Church activities will just not be the same without being able to see "Grandma Valerie"! Logan used to call President Christiansen "President Hinckley" but has since updated that to "President Monson". So funny! Darren will miss all of his basketball buddies on Tuesday nights. He will also miss all of those who he has served with. I don't think that he will miss his calling all that much (He has been Elders Quorum President for the past 9 months) One thing I think he will NOT miss is all of the moves though! I think he is gone moving someone every weekend! One of my biggest fears with moving is going to a new ward. We are not very good at making friends very quickly and I hate sitting in a ward and feeling so alone! The good thing about the gospel though is that it is always the same wherever you go even if the people aren't. I'm sure that after awhile, we will grow to love our new ward just as we have our ward here.

Tonight we took the kids up to see the Las Vegas Temple. We have been telling Logan that we would take him there for awhile, but just seem to get lazy on Sundays and don't go. He keeps calling our chapel and also the Greek Orthodox church next door 'The Temple" so we wanted him to see the REAL temple before we left! Our kids really enjoyed being on the temple grounds - Logan wanted to jump in the fountains and Rylee loved all the flowers. We have been lucky to have a temple nearby, although we have not taken advantage of that as much as we should have. We are also blessed to have a temple near our new home - It will only be a 10 minute drive - and hope to do better when we move in attending the temple and teaching our children the importance of going there!

It's Official....

The past 2 days have been Darren's Graduation from Dental School! We have had lots of family in town to help us celebrate and it has been really fun. It is a little wierd that school is now all over and Darren is officially a dentist and earned the title of Dr. Webber (which he is insisting we all call him... Just kidding!) Last night was a small ceremony with just the dental school. It was really nice because it was just Darren's classmates so it was small. When they walked across the stage, they were called Dr. for the first time, and they also told each person's awards and future plans, which was interesting to hear where everyone is headed. Darren received an award for excellence in Operative Dentistry, which was neat. After the ceremony we got some photos and refreshments and then we went to dinner at Bahama Breeze, which is one of our favorite places and another thing we LOVE about Vegas - they have the BEST coconut onion rings! I totally crave them!

Today was the University Ceremony at the Thomas and Mack at UNLV. I couldn't believe how many people were there - It was packed! Darren was hooded at that ceremony. It was pretty long, but the kids managed to make it through. Thank goodness they started reading the names really fast or we might still be there! The speakers were really good at both ceremonies and kept everything pretty short. I felt so proud of Darren as he walked across the stage! He has worked really hard and has done a great job with school. Besides being a great student, he has also been a wonderful husband and father and really balanced everything so well! He will always be our FAVORITE dentist! We LOVE YOU!! Congratulations Babe!

My sister took a ton of pictures of everything with her really nice camera, but I can't get them off her camera until we get back up to Utah, so these snap shots from my camera will have to do for now... Anyone who knows me well, knows that I will have lots more pictures, so I will probably post a slide show later, but these are some of the pictures from our big day! Thanks to our family for making the trip down to support us this weekend! They were a great help with the kids so I didn't miss anything during the ceremonies and helped me get pictures and everything. Our families have been a great support over the past 4 years and in all that we do and we are excited to be able to closer to them soon!

The only thing that I was sad about was that we didn't get a really good chance to see our friends and to say good-bye to them. It was a little crazy with all the crowds and family and everything. We will miss you all and wish you luck in your future plans and hope that you will stay in touch! Congratulations to all of the class of 2008!!!

2008 Grads!
Nate Bartschi, Darren, Brad Belt, Jon Scott and Devin Johson

Darren and some of his good buddies - Cody Johnson, Russ Bird, Jon Scott, Keith Packer, Joe Wilson, Darren, Nate Bartschi, Todd Baggley, and Eric Davis

No More Teachers, No More Books!

This may sound a little weird, but I think that another thing that we will miss when we move is school! We have been working to finish school for the past 5 1/2 years of our marriage, but now that it is over, I think there are some things about the simple student life that we will miss. We will NOT miss paying tuition and it will be nice to be earning a paycheck soon, but we will miss how much simpler life is at this stage. Darren will also not miss studying or tests and all of the requirements and stress and politics of being a student, but he will miss a lot of the people he has worked with. Darren has had a great group of friends at school and has also had a lot of great staff and faculty to work with. (There have been some not so great ones too, but overall, I think he has enjoyed his experience...) We have had to go into the school for a few things lately and Logan loves going in there! He thinks it is so fun and he calls anyone in a white coat "Dr Richards" who is Darren's mentor and insists on seeing him anytime we are there which is kind of funny! I think Darren is getting pretty anxious to get going at his practice, but I think he will also miss having people around just in case there is a problem, although I don't think he will miss having to have 10 people check off every little thing that he does and having 3 dentists all give him a different opinion on how to do the same thing. Another part of school we will really miss are the LONG breaks between semesters. We sometimes complain that he only gets a week or two, but that is much longer than you would normally get at a job, so we will definitely miss the time off, especially at Christmas where we would get 3 or 4 weeks! We are also not anxious to start receiving our bill for our student loans - I think that will come as a bit of a shocker! I know that the time in school has been hard at times, but we have actually really enjoyed our journey and will look back with a lot of good memories on UNLV and our experiences here.

Darren at his operatory - Doesn't he look cute?

Hard at Work!

Burgers and Bass!

Today we went and did 2 things that we love and will really miss about living here in Vegas. My family came into town around lunchtime today and so we all went to In-N-Out Burger. We LOVE that place! I don't know why it is so different than other burger places, but we think it is! Their burgers are so yummy and I also love their chocolate shakes. I used to think their fries were pretty gross, but I have since discovered that you can order them "animal style" and they come smothered in sauce with cheese and are much more yummy...maybe not so healthy though! The funny thing is that we never just go there unless someone is visiting and then we rarely miss a chance to treat out of towners to an In-N-Out! Logan LOVES In-N-Out! He can spot their sign from really far away and gets very excited. He can eat his burger faster than I can and downs the WHOLE thing! Pretty impressive for such a little guy. He has even been known to ask for a second! We might have to move him to the double-double soon. Rylee also really enjoys In-N-Out food! She likes the fries a lot and loves to steal bites from our burgers. Today, I forgot to bring something for her to eat, so we just ordered her her own burger for the first time and she ate about 3/4 of it! She is such a good little eater and LOVES to eat!!! She gets very excited about food and she looked so funny chowing down that HUGE burger! Utah does now have an In-N-Out Burger in St George....Maybe Cache Valley won't be too far behind...

Logan LOVES an In-N-Out Burger! He hardly stops to breathe!

Rylee LOVES her Burger too!

We also took my fam to the Bass Pro Shops - another place that we live to visit! The kids get so excited to go there and it is such a nice place to just stroll around and check things out and the best part is its Free!!! Logan loves to see all the animals (stuffed, of course) and especially likes the big sharks and both kids LOVE to see the fish! They especially love the huge tropical fish tank and their favorite is the sting ray feedings. A diver gets into the tank and feeds the sting rays and answers questions and stuff and the kids think that it is so cool - They love it! Rylee gets very excited about the fish and starts signing fish over and over and pointing and yelling. She will walk right up to the tank and doesn't get scared of those big fish at all. Logan is much more cautious but enjoys it a lot! I don't think that Cache Valley has anything quite this impressive, but we are excited for regular visits to the Willow Park Zoo, which is one of my favorite places to go in the summer. It maybe doesn't deserve the title "Zoo" but the kids always love it!

The Pool!

So the daily post thing didn't work too well! I got home late last night because our ward had our first volleyball game! It was so fun - It felt awesome to play again...even if I was really rusty! The other team looked much more experienced than us. (They were wearing knee pads. Need I say more? ) We came away with the dramatic, come from behind victory though - Yeah Hacienda Heights! I am bummed that I only got to play once, but it was really fun. Then I HAD to watch the season finale of er --- If you are wondering, Abby and Luca are back together (Yeah!) and someone blew up in an ambulance...but we don't know who yet! I HATE when they do that! Then I HAD to watch The Office Season finale that Darren had taped for me. It was hilarious but not all that I hoped for, although the final scene was quite a shocker! I was so excited for Jim's proposal...I should have known they would drag that out a little longer! Anyway - By the time that was all over, I was too tired to blog! I will try and get 2 in today to make up for it!

Anyway - Yesterday we went to the pool for a little while. This is definitely one of the things that we will miss about Las Vegas! Our condos have 2 pools, and we love to be able to go to the pool whenever we want and swim...especially when the temperatures here reach the 100s on a regular basis! (Next week is supposed to be 102!) I am not that into swimming...I always think the water is too cold...but it is so nice to have the pool as an option! Logan is a fish - He LOVES the pool and has so much fun there! Rylee is more like me...She would prefer to just sit on the side and splash her toes and does not like cold water at all! She will swim for a little bit though! It has been great to go for a little dip whenever we are bored or need something to do with the kids, and they always sleep SO good afterwards! It will be much harder to do lots of swimming in Utah. Last summer they banned swim diapers from all the public pools there because people were getting sick, so that means that my kids can't swim in public pools. Luckily, Darren's parents put in a pool, but we won't be living too close to them, so I don't know how much we will get to swim there! And, swim weather in Utah is pretty limited! (It was still snowing up there a couple weeks ago...) So...I think we will be soaking up all of our swim time here while we still can! Logan - My little fishie! He loves the pool and will jump in and everything - He has no fear! He also swallows half the pool!

Rylee - My little sun baby! Isn't she so cute? She looks like such a little diva!

The boys drying off

Me and my baby girl soaking up the sun while we still can!

Fabulous Friends!

In honor of having only one more week in Vegas, I have decided that I will post one thing that I will miss about living here each day we have left. (Yes...there are a FEW things that I will miss about this place!) I have never tried daily posting before, so we will see how this goes... One of the biggest things that I will miss in Vegas is the Fabulous Friends that we have made while living here. Without having family around, we have really relied on our friends a lot and have made some very special friendships here.

This is a picture of our group of friends from the dental school. It is from our last little get together we did in March. It is really funny to look back at this group and see how it has grown - When we first started out, there were only a couple of us with kids and now we have to go to the park to get together because there are so many kids running around! It has been so great to have so many friends in our same situation who understand what we are going through and who have done so much for us. Although we don't live very close to many of them, I know we could call them for anything! They have helped us in so many ways - moving our piano in, visits to the hospital and dinner when our babies were born, picking us up when our car broke down or when were in an accident, teaching me how to make bows and bracelets and having us over for dinner or to hang out and our little get togethers that we enjoy so much. We have had lots of fun getting to know them all! The good thing is that we are all leaving together - Every single one of us is on to new adventures, so no one is being left behind! I'm glad that we all now have blogs so that we can stay in touch! They have been such a big blessing to us here in Vegas!

We have a few other groups of friends that we will miss. I have been going to a book club since October and it has been a lot of fun for me. It has gotten me to read once in awhile, which I love to do, but never really take the time. I wish I would have taken a camera to our last meeting, but I forgot! Anyway - This once a month dinner and discussion has been so fun for me to get out and hang out with other girls and moms and have a little "adult talk" and venting! I will definitely miss that! I will also miss our play group and story time at the Library each week!
I also recently started doing a Meal Exchange group - It has been so much fun and time saving! We each prepare one meal for everyone in the group and then get together once a month and swap so we come away with 8 different freezer meals! It is great! I rarely have had to cook since then, so I will miss doing this because I will have to start coming up with dinners again once we move! I think I will have to start another one in Logan - I have LOVED it so much!
Darren also has loved playing basketball with the guys in the ward each Tuesday night. It has been good for him to have something to do besides school and studying!
Thanks to all our other Vegas friends! We will miss you all! The good news is that we are moving closer to all of our family and lots of friends that we have really missed the last 4 years, so we are really excited about to be near to all of them and be able to go to family events and other things that we have missed out on while we have been here! We have definitely missed being close to so many people we love!

The Results are In... FINALLY!!!

Drumroll please...... Darren has FINALLY received his results from the WREB, which is the Boards that he took last month, and he PASSED!!! We had to wait forever to recieve the official results! For some reason, all of Darren's class received their results about 2 or 3 weeks ago, except for those with last names of S - Z. (It was one of those times that it SUCKS to be the end of the alphabet.) We had to wait a week and then request a duplicate and wait for that to come in the mail. Luckily, the school had received Darren's scores and let him know that he passed, but it still felt much better to finally be holding the OFFICAL results! We are so proud of Darren and all of his hard work over the last 4 years! He has done such a great job with school and has put in a lot of work and hours without complaining! We are getting so close to moving on with our life - Graduation is this weekend and Darren sent off his application for his license today!!! We are also boxing up our house, which feels a little wierd, to get ready to move next week! It seems so wierd that all of this is coming to a close!
We also went to Disneyland and Sea World last week and had SO much fun! I took over 500 pictures and as soon as I figure out what is wrong with my camera, will add a little update with some of them!
Congratulations on Boards D! We LOVE you!

Family Fun!!!

This week is Darren's first official week out of dental school and we are having so much fun! Last week, he took an elective class and got lots of experience doing root canals - Exciting huh? Even though he was technically done with school, he still spent as much (if not more) time at school that week, so this is the first week that we have felt like school is really over. We decided that it feels like we are on vacation! We have been doing lots of fun things - It is like being tourists in our own town (although I don't REALLY claim Vegas....)
Saturday, we went down to the Bellagio to check out their Butterfly display in the atrium and to see the water fountain show. Logan LOVES going down there and we had a great time with our friends, Lacey and Lance and their 2 cute little girls, Elliot and Rya. The Bellagio is our favorite hotel to visit because their floral displays are always so amazing and the fountain show is great for the kids! Of course, while we were down on the Strip, Logan piped up in the backseat and said, "Dad, Is that a naked lady?" We are definately getting out of this town before it is too late!!!
Monday, we went down to the Secret Garden at the Mirage with our friends Jon and Annie Scott and their little girl Shelby. Darren went a few weeks ago and Logan hasn't stopped talking about it since. It was really fun - They have dolphins and white tigers, lions, and some other animals. We had a good time - The kids LOVED the dolphins! Rylee kept trying to climb in with them - She is so fearless!
Tuesday we went to the Children's Museum. Logan got a free pass last summer from the Library's summer reading program, but we had never used it and it was about to expire, so we tried it out. It was really fun - Much better than I expected. Logan had so much fun trying out all the exhibits and they even had some fun things for Rylee too! Darren also really enjoyed some of the experiments - They had this big table with water flowing and you could place these little boards to change the currents and flow of the river - Darren had a great time on that one! They also had a cute little store the kids loved and a little mining thing they thought was so fun.

Wednesday we went to Hoover Dam. I had never been there and Darren hadn't since he was really little so it was kind of cool to go out there. There was more to see than I expected and we had a good time! It is pretty fascinating! They are also building this really cool new bridge there to bypass the dam and it is awesome! Darren and I also watched the movie "Juno" that night - We Loved it! It is so funny!

Thursday we took the kids swimming - THis is something that we will definitely miss about living here! The fabulous weather and use of a pool!!!
Today we had to go and get my glasses, which took ALL DAY and was such a pain! Can I just say that I HATE going to the eye doctor! I feel like the biggest idiot when I can't read the chart! I can't stand it! I don't know why it bothers me so much, but it does! I would much rather go to the dentist than the eye doctor!!! And deciding on glasses is so bad for someone so indecisive - especially since I have had my last pair for 8 YEARS and know this is a major investment! I finally decided to listen to some random strangers opinion and made a choice. Tonight we went to an amphitheater here to see Rachel (and Hopkins) from Signing Time. My kids LOVE that show and they had lots of fun at the show and were even able to meet them and get a picture afterwards (We waited for about a half hour - Darren was a really good sport!) Logan REALLY wanted to meet them! Rachel kept referring to herself in the show as Rachel Coleman so now Logan will only call her by her full name. It is kind of funny, I think!

Anyway - We are enjoying our time off so much, I don't know if we can ever go back to the real world! We are headed to Disneyland and Sea World next week and I am SOOO excited!!! When else will you ever have six weeks of vacation, right? We are trying to make the best of it! Needless to say, I should be working on packing and cleaning and all of that, but it just doesn't sound that fun! Maybe when we get back, I will get started on that HUGE task...but for now I am just enjoying hanging out as a family! (My camera is doing CRAZY things right now! I have TONS of pics from this week...Hopefully I can post a few soon!)