Peru Deposit

Peru or Bust!!

We put our deposit down this week for a trip to Peru in March. We are so excited. We have always wanted to go, especially since Chris served his mission there. We will spend 3 days in Cusco and go to Machu Picchu and explore some ancient ruins then it's off to Lima for 5 days to indulge ourselves in the culture, celebrate Easter, and explore some of the ruins and churches there. All the while we will be doing humanitarian services as oral hygiene educators and dentists (me as an assistant) with clinics for the public. We are so excited!!

Machu Picchu...hopefully my pictures will be just as picturesque. I'm not sure. Also......get this....I have to get a shot for typhoid fever....Ummmm....SCARY!!

Anniversary Trip

More Precious Time Together

Santa Cruz and Monterey

We spent the weekend exploring Santa Cruz and Monterey for our anniversary. It was a ton of fun. We love exploring this state. However, we didn't take many pictures. I hate it when you do something and don't document it well with pictures. We were just having so much fun I forgot.

We loved this carnival game in Santa Cruz. They were these airguns that shot tennies balls at targets at 180 mph. They were loud and gave a good kick. Watch out! Of course we competed to see who could hit the most targets. It was about even. The moving ones were the hardest. We didn't hit any of those.

Go Chris!

Look at that concentration!

We poked our head in this cute little thrift store. I like to go into those every now and then to see if I can find inexpensives treasures. You'd be surprised. Chris and I both got some hardcover best seller books for $1 each. That beats the library fees!

We walked around all day and were exhausted by the time we got to our hotel. We rented some movies to watch but we were out cold before we could even put them it. A whole day at the beach in the sun (we were tempted to rent surfboards until we felt how cold the water was) and a great dinner does that. We woke up to an amazing buffet breakfast. I made my own waffles. I loved it! Here's to many more years to come!

So TIRED!

Just how tired are you? That tired!

Lauren started preschool this week and she has been so tired. In a 10 minute drive from ice cream to the house she was out cold. Notice the apple half eaten that she was munching on stuck to her shirt and of course the drool. I love these girls. They never cease to entertain.

Deer

Our Dear Deer

I came home from work one day and was startled to see 5 deer in our backyard just about 10 feet from our door. They are here almost everyday but sometimes they scare me. Missing from the picture are 3 spotted babies. They are so cute! Sometimes I feed them oatmeal but I don't want them to become beggars. They are just such beautiful creatures.

The Anniversary Tradition

Has it been 4 years already?? Where does the time go?

Chris and I started a tradition when we first got married. We have a change jar that we put all of our spare change in for a year. However this one has a twist. It's a marriage bank. Every time you put money in it you have to do something nice for the other person. At the end of the year, on the eve of our anniversary, we count the money we saved by building up our marriage and find something fun to spend it on for our anniversary. This year's total since anniversary #3 was $140. That's been about the average. That way we always have money to do something fun on our anniversary. Even if we are broke dental students.

The tradition is to separate it all out and put it into rolls. I know there are easier ways to do this but the time together is worth it. It makes for a fun activity. Plus we have some currency from the different countries we have traveled together in there just to reminisce. It's a lot of fun!

Chris made us wear gloves this time because he is studying about all the microscopic germs in his Microbiology class. Yikes! I'm so glad that we did!!

The picture doesn't do it justice. Talk about dirty money. LOL.

A New Toy

Look at Chris' new toy!! As if my mouth isn't big enough already!!

This crazy thing holds back your lips and cheeks so the dentists can work on you. I think they mostly use it when they do stuff on the front like veneers and such. It was actually quite comfortable.

Chris wanted to practice taking pictures of the mouth. Why do I always have to be the guinea pig?? I won't do anything that is painful. Weird? Maybe but nothing painful. This qualifies as weird.

And he had to practice taking shots of the tops of my teeth. These are my uppers taken by placing a large mirror in my mouth. Yikes...look at those fillings.....I need to get them replaced with resin composite. Chris....? Dental school is fun!

Girls Camp!

Young Women Girl's Camp 2007

Hard Hats Soft Hearts (construction theme)

Building a relationship with our Savior

The group shot. We had 86 girls and about 30 leaders up at Treasure Mountain Camp in Sierraville, CA (almost to Tahoe in the mountains)

I drove up the big van without any problems except for the fact that Tiara, Kelti, and I got very lost. Blast mapquest directions!! It took us 3 hours longer than it should have going 10 miles an hour on some back country dirt road named National Forest 05. We drove the whole thing which was about 30 miles. Yikes!! We were so glad to finally arrive!! Since we were on the dirt road so long the dust got up in the van and everything by the door in the back was covered with dirt. It took us a while to clean it all up.

Speaking of cleaning, the girls in our ward won the Golden Dust Pan the first morning for having the cleanest yurt and campsite. We would have had it all week but we decided to share. LOL. It was hard.

The San Rafael 2nd ward crew. AKA SR2. We quickly became a camp favorite with all of our energy and crazy antics. We brought a lot of life to camp to put it mildly.

Lots of watermelon!! It was hot! This was to welcome back our girls from their hikes. Some of them went just for the day and others went overnight. Even with all the bears!! We had one in camp the last night which was really scary. Thank heaven for the guys with their ATVS who scared it away and kept watch. We tied the doors to our yurt closed with rope. Not that that would have helped if a bear came but it was a little peace of mind.

The 1st group of tired girls returning. If you look close for the purple bandanna you will see me with the camp director big megaphone. As if I'm not loud enough already...

So we added a little flavor at the talent show with a self made rap about the interesting things that happened at girls camp. It was really fun!!

That's rapper Patience. Can't you tell? I'm such a rapper....not.

The ending pose. Young Women.... represent...virtue....word. Of course with our fingers posed in a Y and W for it all.

Our home base. The Yurt that the girls named Bob. ?? The sign says the Priceless Pearls -polished by the Master's hand. Each of the pearls on the string was decorated and had one of our girl's names on it.

Our lovely head table, our clothesline, and our water station.

Another shot of Bob and our kitchen station with stoves. Overall it was a blast. The girls that came were such a strength and example to me even though I was supposed to be a strength and example to them. I think one of the highlights was the massive dance party in the gazebo with all of the girls the second to last night. It was all decked out in Christmas lights and all of us were getting our groove on. I invented some cool new moves!

How do I drive this thing?

This is our new car! Well.....temporarily. It's the bus to camp. I'm the Girls Camp Director for camp this year. We have so much stuff that I had to borrow our Bishop's van. Yikes!! No it's not just for my stuff Mom. Good thing that I learned how to drive in a van this size. Thanks for the lessons Mom and Dad. The big greyhound bus full of 86 loud excited teenage girls will follow. I will survive this week. I will survive this week!!

My Poor Baby!! Or Baby Toe....

Poor Chris broke his baby toe yesterday. Poor Thing!! He had to walk around on it all day at school before he could go to the doctor and get it looked at. You never realize how much you appreciate that little toe until it's broken and you can't use it. Yikes!!