S'mores, S'mores, S'mores!

Who doesn't love a s'more?! There's chocolate, graham crackers, and marshmallows. What's NOT to love? We had a bonfire out behind my parents' house quite a few nights during our stay in Washington. There is something so relaxing and peaceful about sitting around a bonfire. Josh especially loved making fires with grandpa and eating roasted marshmallows and hot dogs. He wanted to do it every night, of course! Every little boy's dream come true! And every grandpa's dream come true too! My dad loved having bonfires just as much as Josh did, maybe even more. And what was even better, they slept outside in the tent together after enjoying a good bonfire. I hope all these memories stay with Josh as he grows older. We had so much fun!

Hot Date With My Boy

I've wanted to go on a special date with Josh for awhile now. I feel those one-on-one moments are so important. Especially if that child is no longer an only child, those moments can be crucial to them feeling loved and noticed. The two of us had an action packed night full of Burger King, feeding the ducks, playing at the park, and last, but not least, eating something really yummy at Dairy Queen! Josh was being his usual goofy self for the camera and loved getting a toy with his dinner. I can't even tell you how much fun we had together, just the two of us. It is a tradition I will continue thru the years with all my children!

Family Tradition

We love playing games! Whether it's a card game or outside with a stick and ball. Doesn't matter how many people are available....2,3, or more. Someone is always ready to play. You may say we might be a bit competitive, but I say it's just to have some fun together. My mom and I, especially, will try to get a game going just about anytime when we're together. Our newest game to play was croquet, which I hadn't played in quite some time, which my boys absolutely loved! Give a boy a mallet and very hard ball, and what more could he ask for?! My parent's house had the perfect backyard to set up our course and we all had fun, fun, fun!

Drew's First Trip to the Beach

I don't know how many of you are familiar with the Pacific Northwest and the Pacific Ocean in that area, but all you need to know is that it is REALLY COLD! Add in cloudy weather with lower temperatures and that is Drew's first experience at the beach. Josh, Drew, and I were with my parents and my brother Daren's family at Ocean Shores. Daren also had 2 little ones, Jude and Lily, 13 month old twins, that had never been to the ocean. It was fun to see all their first reactions. Drew wasn't sure what we had done to him. Sand and him were not instant friends! But we gave him some time to get used to it, and then the fun began! Jude on the other hand, couldn't get enough sand! :) And I'll let the pictures speak for themselves once we tried to get Drew in the water!! Priceless!!

4th of July

This is our first 4th of July in Texas and we celebrated by attending a yummy breakfast put on by our church, watching a mini parade that came thru our neighborhood, and dressing up in red, white, and blue! There were no fireworks lit that night which was very different. All was quiet on this frontier! However, they did light fireworks the night before somewhere in town. We just didn't see them!

Our Little Visitor

Three weeks after we moved to Texas we had a visitor. This little visitor decided he wanted to see Drew's room, particularly the wall next to Drew's crib where we found him. From the look of him, he was maybe 1.5 inches in length and no more than .25 ounces. He was a gecko! Any day, I would rather have this guy in our house than some other things I can think of....cockroaches and spiders. The boys loved seeing the gecko and Josh managed to pick him up. I was afraid he was going to squish him just because he was so small, but no worries. We set the gecko free.

Fishing with Daddy

This is one of Josh's favorite things to do with daddy. They go to the pond in our community and fish for bass or bluegill. Almost every time they go, they catch something and then throw it back in. Their largest catch to date has been a bass. Can't remember how much it weighed, but in these particular pictures, you will not be seeing a 10 lb. bass! They do look like they are having a good time!

Feeding the Ducks

We have this really huge, cool pond in our community that is full of ducks, swans, fish, turtles, etc. Josh loves to feed the ducks and look for anything moving in the water. He gets so excited when we go. It's the highlight of his day!

Moving to Dallas

Around Thanksgiving time Jeremy decided he wanted to do oral surgery and had a friend who was in a program who told him to try and do an externship. So he went to Dallas for 2 weeks on an externship to work with the famous Dr. Edward Ellis at Parkland hospital. About a week later after the externship, Dr. Ellis called and offered him the internship position which would begin July 1st and last for 1 year. So now here we are saying our goodbyes to our good friends and dry heat, packing up our things, loading them into a huge moving truck that we are sharing with 2 other dental school graduates moving to the Dallas area, and are on our way to the great state of Texas! We are so excited for this next phase in our life and I'm excited to have a plan of where we'll be at least for a year! Life is much easier to handle, for me at least, when I have a plan to work with.
It took us a solid 23 hours plus or minus some minutes to drive to Dallas which should have taken us only 18 hours 23 minutes. I don't think the people of mapquest factor in children when driving long distance trips. But I will admit it went fairly smoothly, minus both Jeremy and I each driving separately in our cars. My genious husband thought to get walkie talkies for us to communicate without having to use our cell phones which was fun. Lots of movies and children's music later and the classic "Are we there yet?" questions we arrived! I have never been east of Utah so the landscape was a definite change for me. Once we reached Amarillo, TX one could see miles and miles either direction without a single hill or mountain in sight. This continued for a long time. Not much to look at, but in a way, very peaceful. I wasn't exactly sure what to expect once we got here, but so far, so good! People are very friendly, the drivers will kill you with their inability to drive the speed limit (meaning they drive slow and it drives us crazy!!), lots of fun, family activites, tons of humidity, and churches on every street corner. I do prefer dry heat to humidity, as I'm sure many of you would agree, however nothing I can do about that now. I'm here!

Long Awaited Graduation-Yeah!

Graduation has finally arrived!! We are so excited for this day because that means Jeremy is finally done.....with this part, anyway. All I have to say is that I am so proud of my husband for accomplishing his educational goals and finding something that he will enjoy as a career. I do realize this isn't the end of the student life road for us since Jer has developed a insatiable fascination with oral surgery, but we are definitely on our way. I just have to remember to take one day at a time and that everything will work out just great!
Jeremy's mom was able to join us for the festivities, and I think it's safe to say she is one proud mama! And I know our 2 boys are young, but I think it was good for Josh to see his daddy graduate as well. Nothing more inspiring to a young child than for them to see their hero do something honorable and great. Now you may call my honey.......Doctor Jeremy Hixson! :)

Graduation Gala

The dental school held a gala which was basically like a college prom night except there were awards given out. It was held at the Black Mountain Country Club in Green Valley the night before the first graduation with just the 2009 dental class. It was fun to have a catered dinner and enjoy good company before everyone headed out their separate ways. Although it was a VERY, VERY warm evening. You could say there wasn't a lot of air conditioning going on, but we had a good time nonetheless!

The Beautiful Dominican Republic

Jeremy and I really wanted to go on a trip to celebrate his upcoming graduation from UNLV's School of Dental Medicine. We were having a hard time figuring out where a good place would be to go and that also wouldn't break the bank. We ended up looking online at Costco.com at their travel section and found a 9 nights/10 day deal to the Dominican Republic. That sounded pretty exotic to me....the breathtaking Caribbean sea, white sandy beaches, not far from the U.S., a nicely secluded all-inclusive resort and......no children. Let me rephrase, other people had children, we did not. The resort was called The Majestic Colonial located in Punta Cana which is on the easternmost side of the country. It was so nice to be just the two of us and to relax before we were thrown back into a frenzy with graduation and our move to Dallas. Some fun things we were able to do besides admire all the topless beachcombers, JUST KIDDING!, were to go deep sea fishing which Jeremy had an absolute blast doing because he was lucky enough to catch a 30lb. yellow-fin tuna while I was puking over the side of the boat. We also went para-sailing which I was kind of silently freaking out about. I'm not a huge heights fan. As soon as we were all the way up, I was holding on for dear life and wondering what would happen to our boys when we didn't come home. :) On the other hand, Jeremy was right behind me having all sorts of fun, of course, and filming the resort and landscape with our camera which we had to sneak up there. Now I know why they don't want you to take cameras/video recorders with you. THEY GET RUINED! Luckily we brought 2 cameras with us. Last, but not least, I convinced Jer to get a pedicure with me and a couples massage. The rest of the time we soaked up the sun, read books, ate great food, played ping-pong, slept in, etc. I can't wait to go on another trip with my honey! And with the kids, of course!