Utah

 We stayed with Steph and Adam our first weekend out west and then came back for Memorial Day weekend. Their kids are SO good with our boys!! It's like having built in babysitters. They were so awesome. Jack and Anderson LOVED being there and playing with all the kids, and BJ the dog.

 Jackson, Anderson (not happy), Jaden, Jack, McKenna, and Carson

The first night we were there, Carson asked Jack if he wanted to sleep in his bed with him. I went to check on them in the morning and this is how I found them. They were both trying to stay warm and stay on the twin bed. 

We had fun playing outside, going to a pirate restaurant, playing with their new chickens, and just hanging out. It has been forever since we had been to their house so we were trying to soak it up. It's always a good time when there are cousins involved! 

The Mortensen's

 We flew from Mississippi to Salt Lake to stay with Justin's sister Stephanie for the weekend. While we were there, we were lucky enough to see the Mortensen family!! We were so happy to see them. They left Cleveland so fast and we have been dying to see them ever since.

 Can Eli be any cuter??

Kara, Eli, Will, Scott, Justin, Anderson, Stacey, Jack

Miss you guys!

Beautiful Planet

A few days ago Jack leaned in really close to Justin and whispered to him...

Jack: I have a secret for you.

Justin: What?

Jack: Earth is a beautiful planet. It's beautiful because it has trees and Costco!

Yes...Costco is a beautiful thing.

Biloxi, MS

 After graduation, we headed down to Biloxi, Mississippi to check out where we will be living for the next year. We made the 17 hour drive from Cleveland in one straight shot. The kids were dying by the end, to say the least. But we wanted to hurry and get it over with. So, we stuck it out and made it to MS by midnight. Keesler Air Force Base, where Justin will be stationed for his residency, is right on the Gulf Coast. So we took advantage of the warm southern sunshine and spent some time at the beach. We were loving it!! I am so happy to be so close. It will be fun to make the 5 minute drive and play in the sand with the boys.

 Jack was working on his push-ups.

 Hooray for the beach!!

 Anderson preferred to be up away from the water. If any of us went down by the water he would get upset. We are thinking that he was scared of the waves because he loves to be in the bath or a pool, but for some reason the ocean wasn't his favorite. I'm planning on being there a lot so hopefully he will get used to it. 

 Justin finally convinced him to come a little closer.

 We stayed in a hotel on the base and did lots of playing and exploring.

 Justin was able to meet this year's residents and they were super helpful. They invited us over for a BBQ and answered a lot of our questions. We felt so good after being able to visit and hear all that they had to say. There were so many unknowns that made us both a little nervous to move down there and for Justin to start a new program. But now we know that everything will be great. We are going to live on the base and the housing is really nice. They are all brand new, since the previous housing was destroyed in Hurricane Katrina. I'm not sure if that is comforting to me, but at least we get to live in a new house. Now we just need to pray that we don't get hit by a massive hurricane, flood, or tornado. 

We are super excited to finally get down there! We will meet up with Justin there after my sister's wedding in August. For now, we are living it up in Washington and Justin is hoping to survive at his Officer's Training in Alabama. I'm hoping the next 6 weeks goes by fast, so we can finally be a normal family in our own house again. In the meantime, we are having a blast with the fam.

GRADUATION!!

 We had such a great day at graduation. This event has been long awaited and I could not have been more proud of Justin. He was all smiles from ear to ear and he deserved all the happiness that came with the big day. Dental school is not an easy road and Justin made it through with flying colors. Of course I knew he would do great, but he is always so hard on himself. We have been talking about dental school since we first started dating and now....we are DONE!! Done with dental school! Now that is AMAZING! :) ...I'm not excited at all...

 We had a nice luncheon after the CASE graduation and before the dental school ceremony. Jack's friend, Lily, came to see us for a while. We love this little girl! We have missed all of Jack's cute little friends since we left.

 The dental graduation was in a beautiful church.

 Waiting to get his diploma!

 YAY!!!

 Dr. Jean was Justin's favorite preceptor at school. She was a HUGE help to Justin and she is the reason Justin made it through to the end. She is great and we will always remember her.

 The Bjarnason's.

They have moved to Japan. :( We miss all of our friends so much!! And we didn't even get to say goodbye to everyone. Thank heavens for blogs so we can keep up with everyone.

 Adam and Justin

 Being commissioned to a Captain in the Air Force.

 Anderson and Denise

 Ryan and Justin

 Justin's fam

Such a great day!!

Kirtland...for the last time!

 We have loved being so close to Kirtland, OH but we have been there so many times, we could give the tours ourselves! When Justin's brother, Ryan and their parents came into town for graduation, we decided to let them go on the tour and we would just hang out with the kids. 

 Jack and Connor were instant buddies. :)

 They were loving running through the grass. It was a much better choice than struggling with them through the entire tour. :)

Cute boys :)

NYC Ch. 2 (finally!)

Wow, it as been a long time since I have blogged!! We have been traveling everywhere and spent 5 wks. with Justin's parents who don't have internet at their house. Now that we are in Washington I can try to get caught up.

We chose to get away from the craziness of Manhattan and spend a day at the beach. Unfortunately, it was the coldest day of our trip. The boys didn't seem to care though. They were in heaven just running around and digging in the sand.

 Our masterpiece :)

Unfortunately, our camera died while we were at the beach. I told you it had been dying a slow and painful death! The good part is we got a new camera when we got back to Cleveland. The bad news is these were the last pictures I have of our trip. But it was a good way to kick off our summer of craziness!! Since this trip, we have been back to Cleveland, to Mississippi, Utah, Idaho, Utah again, and now we are in Washington. We are slightly tired of living out of suitcases, but we are having a blast hanging out with our families. In August, we will be heading to Mississippi for good. I think we will be a little traveled out!