HES HOME!!!!

Look who's back where he belongs! The only thing that makes these long weeks apart worth it, is the anticipation and excitement of picking my husband up from the airport!! Seeing his attractive self and knowing he's safe and healthy and HOME always gives me a huge rush of emotions! We have some great family and an overly excited little girl who came to the airport to welcome our soldier home! She almost beat me to him!! ;)

Ethan flew in on the perfect day. Thursday night right after I finished work for the week and was ready to party for 4 days before we were both back to real life. I planned a few activities for the weekend as if just being together doing nothing wasn't good enough ;) We had a little lake time riding the jet ski Friday and then dinner with his parents that night. Basically just a few days devoted to whatever he wanted to do! After 30 long days & nights of being told what to do constantly I felt it was the least he deserved.

I also surprised my babe with tickets to the demolition derby Saturday night! He's a sucker for surprises ad I really need to start doing them for him more often! We weren't really sure if we were derby-lovin kind of people but after last night, we are!! It's a good thing Ethan drove us home because I was feeling a real need to ram somebody!! :)

 How adorable are these two!! My heart can't wait to make this man a daddy!! I'm in absolute heaven over here having my favorite person back home where he belongs!! Now back to real life with us both back to work on Monday and school starting in the next week. I love real life with Ethan and I' so glad to have him home (:

Give me back by Husband!!

Ok Army, it's time to give my husband back. Sharing is caring!! #lessthanaweek #dontbeselfish

As many of you may already know, Ethan has been gone for the past month in Kentucky for CLC. (His second half of basic, sort of) We survived the first half of this training last summer but that did not mean I was ready or excited about this one. I have been dreading it since January!! Ethan has been such a trouper. He never once complained about having to go again. Actually rarely do I ever hear him complain. Hes's such a a good example to me. Anyways, I cannot believe how fast this past month has gone. The days are long, but man oh man those weeks were fast!! Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I was gone on vacation for a little over a week of this month. I think I also have to admit I am just getting stronger when it comes to being away from my husband. Doesn't mean I like it anymore though.

I am so grateful for him. He has gone through so much over this past month. Sleeping outside in just a sleeping bag under the stars or rain, the gas chambers, heavily humid weather EVERYDAY, more than half of this training without AC, heat rashes, showering once every couple of days, and just being away from his everyday comforts and convenience of being home, yet he still finds things to be happy about.
Its hard to explain life without him. I have had a good month, a happy month. But just nothing at all compared to the happiness and completeness of sharing it all with him. It just makes me realize again why I chose him. Why I choose him again and again. He's my whole life and my partner. My best friend and I am sooo ready to have him home in just THREE days!!!! I have a fun weekend planned that I can't wait to share with him!! Good job babe, I'm so proud of you!!!

WEST COAST (part 4)

Wednesday July 19th
Redwoods, CA

Thursday July 21st

(OUR 24th BIRTHDAY!!)

Glass Beach, CA

San Francisco, CA

I am the only one in my family who has been here so it was a lot of fun to show them around the town, especially on our b-day!! We only had so many hours before our flight but we fit in as much as we could! We mostly saw the Golden Gate Bridge, Lombard Street, Fisherman's Wharf, and Pier 39. What an amazing week we had and I wouldn't have wanted to share it with anyone else!! :)

Choosing my pearl and getting it set into a ring for my birthday!!

WEST COAST (part three)

Monday July 18th
Seaside, Oregon

Iredale Shipwreck

Cannon Beach, Oregon

Tom's Fish and Chips, Dad's absolute favorite place we ate. He even had to buy a t-shirt from them and get a picture!

 Tillamook Oregon

Tuesday July 18th

Sea Lion Caves, Florence, Or

WEST COAST (part two)

Sunday July 17th
Astoria, Oregon

Long Beach, WA

Cape Disappointment Lighthouse was not disappointing!

WEST COAST (part one)

What do you do when your husband leaves for a month with the Army during the middle of Summer and you're living with your parents? You talk them into going on a trip they've always wanted to do and take me with them! And because it happened to fall right over the week of my birthday, we had to bring my twin! Happy Birthday to us! Honestly though, I'm so grateful my parent's agreed to go as long as we helped them plan the plane tickets and hotels. They would have been LOST without us! ;)
We made arrangements to fly into Pasco, WA Friday  July 15th and head over to Portland, Oregon and then down the Coast to  fly back from San Francisco on July 22nd. Just a week to get through every little seaside town and beach all the way down the coast!! Sounds impossible right? But we did and most importantly, we enjoyed it!! I wish I had time and the memory to write about the details of each day but instead I'll just share the photos and destinations along our trip.

 Friday June 15th 

Flew into Pasco, WA where we spent the night with some family. That day we headed up to see Cooley Dam and Dry Falls. 

 Saturday July 16th
After picking up our rental car we headed west in search of the Coast. Along the way it went from flat dead fields to incredibly green moss covered hills along the Columbia River. We began to fall in love with Oregon after just entering it. Just before getting into Portland we stopped along the Columbia River highway to do a couple of famous hikes and it ended up being one of our favorite days of the whole trip because of the breathtaking hikes.

Multnomah Falls

Oneonta Gorge

This hike was a total copy of Zion National Park's Narrows hike...only GREEN!!! Absolutely amazing and my favorite one.

After  couple of Hikes we stopped in downtown Portland, which didn't last long. We stumbled into a bad part of Portland and just didn't care much to see anything there, so we headed to the only thing we actually cared about. The LDS Portland, Or temple! After we went to our place in Camus WA for the night at a fireman's house my dad used to work with. We were blessed to have many friends and family offer us places to stay along our trip!

LDS Portland, Or Temple