5 Years

The first day of our journey together: 5 yrs later our journey looks like:

What an amazing 5 yrs it has been for us!!! Who knew 5 yrs ago what kind of experiences we would have so far together. I think that both of us had a different vision of where our journey would take us. Thankfully we have a loving Father in Heaven who knows us and the kind of trials and experiences that we would need to help us learn and grow individually and together as a family.

Some of our experiences together have been:

-Both of us finishing up college & becoming licensed in our field of study

-Curtis being able to keep his job through the MANY lay-offs that have happened

-Curtis learning how to deal with 12 & 13 yr old boys as Assistant Scout Master and now as Scout Master

-Hundreds of doctor appointments, pharmacy runs, and lab tests (99.9% of them have been for me)

-Several surgeries, procedures, and overnight hospital visits

-Getting use to taking medical equipment with us where ever we go

-Having a friend live with us for 2 months, my brother live with us for 1 yr, and now my sister living with us for 2+ yrs

-Finally having a successful garden (after several different attempts)

-Being a part of an "empty nesters" FHE group once a month and becoming friends with many people in our Ward

-Serving others and also learning to accept and allow others to be blessed as they provide service to us

-Spending time watching movies, playing games, and reading fiction books together

-Having fun babysitting and doing fun things with other family & friends kids (and then later sending them back to their parents...)

-Learning what is truly important in life...love and family relationships

The list could go on and on....

Through all of our experiences in the last 5 yrs we have grown closer to each other, our faith and testimonies have been strengthened, and we have learned to accept Heavenly Father's plan for us. Yes, there are days that are hard and we may get frustrated that our life isn't exactly how we had pictured it would be right now...but we LOVE our life and we wouldn't want it any other way.

Thank you Curtis for all of the love and support that you give to me each day. I wish that I could put into words exactly just how much you mean to me and how much I love you...but I don't think that anything means more than these simple words: "Thank You" and "I Love You!" I'm so thankful that you are my BEST FRIEND and that I'm married to you for Time and ALL Eternity. I'm excited to see where our journey takes us over the next 5, 10, 20+ years.

Happy 5th Anniversary!!! I LOVE YOU!!!

Seattle-part 2

Here is the rest of our trip:


Thurs. June 24th: We went to the Pacific Science Center. It had a ton of different hands on experiments that you could do that explained the workings of science. There were displays on animals and some life size games set up that you could play. They also had several different movie theaters that were showing 2D & 3D science movies. The unfortunate thing for us was that several of the exhibits were not working and a few of the movies and exhibits cost extra money to see. However, what we did get to see was fun and pretty cool to see.

This was in the walk-in butterfly exhibit. There were at least 20 or more different kinds of butterflies in this room and many of them would fly right in front of you and land on you (so we had to be VERY careful while walking around so we didn't hurt them)


Beautiful!

I love the color of this one!

Curtis & T-Rex
I'm scared!

A Douglas Fir tree that is over 600 yrs old!

Friday June 25th: We went to the Seattle Aquarium, walked around Pike's Market, and took a 1 hr. harbor cruise. This was the only day that was fairly cloudy and cooler. It did rain, but it stopped before we left our hotel for the day, which was nice!

Star Fish

You could almost touch this octopus....good thing there was extra thick glass in between you and the octopus.

tropical fish

HUGE fish! There was no need to zoom in on this big guy!

Tiger Fish

Marlin & Nemo at home in their anemone w/Dory swimming by

This anemone is a fish eating anemone....I was waiting for this fish to be eaten.

A multi-level open market place....It was cool, but my balance problems made this a not-so-fun place for me to visit.

Here is the harbor where we got on board the Argosy and took a 1 hr. harbor cruise.

The Seattle Aquarium is completely over the harbor!

Some of the many cranes that load & unload the cargo ships that come in from all over the world

Another view of the harbor

Sat. June 26th: Drive home! Seattle was lots of fun! We didn't get to see everything, but that's ok....we left if for another vacation. :o) This vacation was just what the doctor ordered for us: a change of scenery and some much needed time together.