Há quatro anos

Four years ago today, Sam completed his 2 year mission in Manaus, Brazil. He describes it as two of the hardest, yet best, years of his life. He loved the people he met there, and they loved him right back. Someday we will make it back, but for now these pictures will have to do!

What do you do when....

nothing seems to be going your way?

Move back to Hawaii, of course! As of January, Sam and I will say aloha to Utah and ALOHA to Hawaii.

Sam and I couldn't have enjoyed our time in Ogden more. However, since graduation and moving to Provo, it seems like our life has been misplaced. I have never believed in bad luck, until this last year. HOWEVER, the bad luck was not all bad. It brought added strength to my faith, my marriage, and my respect for Job :)

Sam's job not working out meant that he began exploring all options, one of them being Edward Jones. After a few months of interviews and paperwork, he has been hired on as a financial adviser. His office will be in Mililani, Hawaii. It's been hard to stop smiling since we heard the news:)

Things have slowly been falling into place. Like Sam's thousand dollar mountain bike was stolen, so we didn't have to worry about shipping it! And our car was rear ended by someone without insurance, who we threatened into buying it rather than taking them to court! We don't know where we will live or where I will work or any of the details, but we feel happy and peaceful and just plain blessed to be able to move back to Hawaii.

Scraping ice of the car windshield isn't nearly so bad when permanent 80 degrees, sunshine, and ocean are right around the corner!

Tubular!

Jill threw Matt the most killer 30th birthday party ever! That girl knows how to plan a party. We had a blast!

Matt was "Mr. T". Jill surprised him with the costume and he was a very good sport :)

Aaron ended up looking like an 80's child molester. You can never have too many blackmail pictures :) Sam's fanny pack was filled with a slinky. Somebody please bring back the fanny pack!

I sure wish this picture showed Sam's legs, because they were quite bare. Those were some short shorts!

The Bates Boys! I love finally having brothers. They don't get more entertaining than these 3. Sam got a little shy and changed his shorts, while Aaron was loving being able to show a little leg...

I really, really love this man.

Update

With so many friends and family praying for us during my fertility treatment, I figure I had better give an update... I am sorry to say that things did not go as we hoped. Normally it takes about 10 days of shots to get the eggs nice and ready (that sounds really weird). Well, it took me almost 30 days, which was very unusual (most doctors won't continue the shots for longer than 2 weeks). This meant a whole lot of injections and ultra sounds, which wasn't the best for my body or my wallet :) After a month I was finally ready, so they went ahead and did the insemination. After a couple of weeks of waiting, I could have sworn I was pregnant. I was feeling queasy in the mornings and was very bloated. When I went in for my ultrasound, it turned out I was not pregnant but had plenty of giant cysts - a reaction from having so many shots. We were ready to try again, but my doctor said it would not be safe to continue the treatment, seeing how my body reacted, so that's the story in a nutshell. We don't really know where to go from here, as there are no more fertility treatment options. We are, of course, disappointed but still feel like somehow something will work out for us when it is right. Thank you for everyone who sent prayers our way, we honestly could feel your support and really appreciate them!

So Thankful

We had ourselves a wonderful time in Arizona for Thanksgiving! Our week flew by. It was filled with baseball games with the boys, bike rides, shopping trips, huge breakfasts, my mom spoiling us, Flake family cousins and aunts and uncles, the best Thanksgiving meal I have ever had, Oregano's and Namebrands girl's day, Car show for the boys, late night games at Brooke's, and best of all - just sitting around talking and laughing with my family. It was extremely hard to say good bye to such an amazing family!

We went through Vegas on our trip home. Britt had never been so we stopped and went through the Bellagio and Caesar's Palace. After driving ALL DAY we came home to some snowy weather.

We split into teams and played Minute to Win It Games on Friday night. We caught Dad leaving them games when he saw we would be wasting toilet paper ! I told him we would save it for him to use later on but he called it quits :) The bottom left picture is my favorite, Brooke looks like she is in a diaper with a crazy hair-do, he he.

I got to run Brooke's first 5k with her! She always said that the running gene skipped her, but I have proof that it definitely did not. She did awesome. It was so fun running with her. Cody and Sam were thrilled to have their picture taken.

Ethan is quite the entertainer. He loves anything to do with sports, so we played a lot of baseball this trip. It is always fun to play with him, because he provides quite a show. He is really talented, but extremely competitive and almost every game ends in a funny tantrum. Here he is in timeout after throwing a tantrum :)

I literally can't say no to Kade. He is too cute. He LOVES gum, and has no problem asking around for a piece. He was hitting up all the realtives for gum at Thanksgiving, and when someone would tell him no, he would ask if he could check their pockets. Took em' by surprise every time :)

I need to take more pictures with Rhett. He is the sweetest kid I know. Whenever we visit, he spends every minute he can with us. I loved playing catch, jumping on the trampoline, and drawing monsters with him.

The actual feast... I don't think there is anything better than being surrounded by family (although we missed our Ashley who was forced to be surfing North Shore instead)

Nice Blades

There aren't many things I have to beg Sam to do, but roller blading is one of them. It doesn't help that EVERY time we roller blade the Provo River Trail, some smart aleck BYU student (male) tells Sam, "Nice Blades" as we go by. This week I talked Sam into going, telling him that he just had to go because all of the fall leaves would be changing colors. Well, all the trees were dead, but Sam humored me anyways and got into the above stance when we would pass by people. I really, really love being married to someone that makes me laugh.

Big Sister

Brooke is the best big sister I could ask for. Even though I must have been a FEISTY little sister from the stories told to me (remember those round brushes that were impossible to get out of your hair if you twisted the wrong way? I thought it was funny to use ours as a weapon and I remember my mom spending her evening untangling it out of Brooke's hair), I cannot think of one thing Brooke did to tease. She has always just been a great friend. Whenever we visit, she goes out of her way to plan her entire schedule around ours to make sure we have time to fit in plenty of sister time. Even though she has three boys, is going through nursing school, and does a million other things, somehow she has time to continue to look out for everyone else. After a rough couple of weeks, we got a knock on the door the other night, and these beautiful flowers were delivered from Brooke. Thank you, Brooke! I absolutely love them.

Nelson's Grove

This little park is my favorite thing about our neighborhood. All summer I ran down to this park and ran a couple loops as the sun came up. It was quite a way to start the day. I gotta give it to Utah, they have the prettiest parks in almost every neighborhood. If only they weren't covered in snow 3/4 of the year :)

Proud to be married to a man who...

Still checks for extra quarters in the ski ball machine :) We had a wonderful night as VIPs at Happy Sumo with Richard and Rachel. Lately I have been craving seafood and sushi. Which I got both of on this evening.

Our after party got pretty wild at the arcade. I just love ski ball. Someday I may have one in my home :) We played so well we were able to get fake teeth and bracelets with our tickets.

Conference Weekend

For the past two years, Brittany has been able to make it down for conference. I love being able to make nice breakfast while we watch the morning session, and then go up to Salt Lake for the afternoon session. Hearing the church leaders speak leaves me so refreshed.

I have finally convinced Brittany that rollerblading is awesome! I sacrifice and wear five pairs of socks with Sam's size 12 blades, Britt wears mine, and we blade the Provo River Trail. It has gotten to where she actually requests to go, rather than me forcing her :)

Ultimate Moutainbiking

Sam was in heaven last weekend. He read about this mountain bike trail in the middle of nowhere that had ramps, jumps, teeter totters (for bikes) and everything else a crazy biker like my husband could dream up :) So we took the trek to the trail and it was actually really cool. They had a regular trail for scared-y cat bikers like myself, and then next to that trail there was another trail with all sorts of jumps and ramps the whole way up and down the mountain. We left, amazingly, without a scratch and I'm sure will be back again.

Britt Spit

I just love having Brittany go to BYU Idaho - it means she visits me on her way to and from semesters! She stopped by last weekend on her way to fall semester. Sam was in California so she actually got to sleep in a bed instead of on the couch. We found a way to make it to Cafe Rio 2 times in 3 days, rollarbladed the river trail, caught up on chic flicks, and, of course, went shopping. I love spending time with Brittany. She is one of the sweetest, most fun to be with, people I know, and Sam loves when she is here because she can handle his teasing and give it right back to him.

When shopping, Britt bought some jean slip on shoes that she was sooo excited for. That is, until we had left the store and I mentioned something about them being jean, and she realized she had nothing to wear them with because you can't wear jean on jean :) She was too embarrassed to return them half an hour later, so she bribed me to do it.

Every time Britt visits we get asked if we are twins, and this time was no different. Brittany hates it because I love teasing her that she looks old like me :) Brittany was a little bit angry after she found out that the fondue she had been dipping her fruit in was made with avocado and carrot purees, he he. I have a slight obsession with trying to cook healthier by adding purees. Brooke was a victim of my applesauce cupcakes, which turned out nasty, but I have had many successes which have tricked Sam into eating his veggies.

Last year...

Last year Sam and I were just getting back from a month in Hawaii. We were living in Ogden so close to all our best friends, I was in a job I loved, Sam was about to graduate, and we were so completely ready to have a baby, for Sam to get a great job, to buy a home and live in la la land :)

This year our life has turned a 180. Right now Sam is outside selling his motorcycle to pay for next months round of infertility treatment. Sam has been without a job for the past four months, after the job we moved here for didn't turn out as expected. Our savings is going quickly to medical bills, and we miss our Ogden friends and jobs daily.

But something amazing has happened. I have gone from being bitter and wishing I had this and that, to really appreciating our current situation. These last few months have been some of the best of my life. For the first time in my 26 years, I have been able to really understand that I am not the one in control. That even though I think I know what is best for me, I really don't. That just being alive is a blessing enough, and I am not really entitled to everything working out just how I want it to like I previously believed I was.

Next month I start taking injections (well, I guess I won't be taking them, Sam will be giving them to me) that cost more each month than both of ours cars put together, yikes! There have been more than a few times when I have felt like taking a couple trips to Hawaii instead, but something inside me is telling me these little shots might be worth it. Of course we are crossing our fingers and our toes and praying they will work, but if not, we will be just fine---and I don't think I could have said that last year.

Professional Conferencer

I have been working for the Utah County Health Department for the last 4 months, and have gotten to go to 4 conferences. It is, by far, my favorite part about the job. Nice hotels, great food, and the feeling of being in school again, just without the homework. This last week I went to Denver, and it was the best trip yet, because Sam got to come with me. We had so much fun together. We spent the evenings downtown going out to eat, going to a Rockies game, avoiding eye contact with freaky people on the bus, and watching The Office late at night in our hotel room.

I can check one thing off of my bucket list. I did something I have ALWAYS wanted to do on the final day of our conference. They were drawing raffle tickets for prizes, and kept calling and calling people but no one that they were calling was there to claim it. So when they announced, "Kelly ..." I gave a big holler, my table cheered for me, and I ran up and claimed my prize. Woo hoo! Never mind the fact that as I walked back to my table with my prize, a nosy man noticed my name tag didn't exactly match.

Rich and Rach

Richard and Rachel took the trek down to Provo to join us for a day. Each time we have gotten together this summer, we seriously are jinxed with weather conditions. From our 30 degree, extreme winds, camping trip to tubing down the freezing Provo river with zero sunlight, we have been left with some pretty funny memories.

We thought it would be great to rock climb first, then tube down the river when we were all hot from climbing all day. We ended up climbing longer than we planned on, got to the river as the sun was going down, and finished the river run near frozen. We definitely realized it was too late to be tubing when Rachel almost got pegged in the head by a bat :) We were all literally shaking and were laughing at just about everything by that point. We made up for the pain and ended the night at Carrabbas.

Last month we got to go to Lagoon together as well. We had a blast at the water park in the rain, almost making Richard lose it on the spinning swings :) , getting drenched on Rattlesnake Rapids, and eating out at Pei Wei afterwards. I love it that Utah is finally catching on to all of the great AZ restaurant chains!

Lazy weekend

Saturday was nice. We rode Sam's motorcycle up the Payson canyon where we met up with Jamie, Kolby, and baby Mckenzie at Payson Lake. Jamie and I walked the trails while the guys fished. I know we really should be making new friends here in Provo but we just enjoy meeting up with our Ogden friends every chance we get :)

AZ for a weekend

I was lucky enough to get to fly home to AZ for a few days, and some much needed family time! We spent the first couple days in Snowflake at the Flake Family Reunion, and the last couple days swimming, shopping, getting spoiled by all mom's good cookin', and just hanging out. Having all sisters is too much fun... it makes it too hard to be away! (We missed you, Ash!)

Our looooong Road Trip

Sam and I took a true road trip last week. We drove to Washington and had a great time visiting Aaron's family for a few days. Then we drove down the Oregon coast to Sam's hometown, Crescent City, CA. This little city was amazing. It has the ocean on one side and the redwoods and the most beautiful lakes/streams on the other side. We loved spending the mornings hiking through the redwoods, the afternoons at the beach, and the evenings going out to eat and staying up late eating IT's ITs (an amazing ice cream treat that we have only been able to find in northern CA) while watching TV in our hotel room.

Aaron and Janna spoiled us big time. We went crabbing and caught about 20 of the big guys. Sam learned how to knock their heads off and we were eating them 20 minutes later. On the 4th of July we set off more fireworks than you could believe. The night ended with the guys shooting the Roman Candles at each other from 5 feet away, and Aaron got a pretty good battle wound.

Josi made me "fancy" several times throughout our stay, and Levi is the sweetest kid I have ever met. We had a blast roasting marshmallows, going to the beach, and just hanging out.

Believe it or not we spotted Bigfoot! (See above photo). Ha ha. Either that or a vampire. I am sending it in for my Twilight audition. Sam loves to take flattering pictures of me :) The redwoods in Crescent City were amazing. Some were over 20 feet wide, and 300 feet tall.