Kutztown Folk Festival!

Today was a great day, Darin has every Sunday and Monday off during this rotation...YIPEE!  So today after naps, we decided to take a ride out to the Kutztown Folk Festival.  What a fun place, there are a ton of craftsman that come to this festival.  A lot of Amish, and Mennonite made things.  The Festival is to honor the German heritage in the area.   I think our favorite part was the petting zoo.  Nash perked right up and wanted to see all the animals....

BUNNIES!  Marjean this totally reminded me of you!  Mrs. Bunny Woman.

Nash loved the baby ducks and bunnies.  He would grab onto the rail and we would have to pry him away to see the next animal.

He wasn't too sure about feeding the goats at first.

Especially when this one got up close and personal.

Darin wasn't about to get up close to this llama.  He said it was giving him the eye.  There were people behind me giggling just waiting for the llama to spit on Darin...lol.  Doesn't Darin look worried!

This is Pedro the donkey.

Nash was a little afraid of Pedro, but they soon became friends.  As long as Nash was not looking at him.

These pictures are for my mother, the quilt queen.  There were so many beautiful quilts.

And each one of them had a beautiful price tag too!

Cooling off in the misting bridge!  This was a fun festival and I think I might go back later this week, since we have 2 free tickets to use! Fun Fun hanging with the Pennsylvania Dutch!

The Hammock Swing!

We finally have an opportunity to use our hammock swing we got in Guatemala 3 years ago.  We actually only used it for this afternoon and then took it down just because we need to pass it by good ol' landlord Bruce! But it was fun while it lasted...Nash had a blast swinging in it...

And of course he found some pine cones to eat!

Nash loves his daddy that is for sure.  While they were swinging he was belly laughing like crazy!  It was hilarious to watch.  

Oh the joy this child brings into your home!

Our Emmaus Home....

I have had some requests to post pictures of our home since we moved in so here it is...

Before Darin's parents returned to Utah they took us flower shopping, and we were able to pick out these beautiful hanging baskets for our porch. I have been so good at keeping them alive. I even saved them from a crazy rain/hail storm that started pelting them. That storm was so crazy it uprooted many HUGE trees in the area. Thanks Mom and Dad W.

This is the front living room. Our TV is now for movies only. We get no channels here and we are too cheap to pay for it. I miss my shows especially SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE...I will have to buy the season. It is amazing how much time we spend as a family with out having a TV. Kind of nice!

The reading room.

Dining room. I have a lot of Nash's toys in this room, it is right off the kitchen so while I make dinner I can see him play. Although he mostly plays on the stairs.

This kitchen seriously is the perfect size. It isn't massive or overwhelming to keep clean. The bottom cupboards are awesome because the shelves are on rollers so it is easy to get to things way in the back.

This is our favorite room of the house. Often I will lose Nash and find him in the sun room playing with his toys or just looking out the window. There is a window from this room into the kitchen so I can see Nash while he plays. SO CONVENIENT!

The Doctors office. Darin cracks me up. He always wants a study area and yes I am all for him having an area but it tends to be a junk collector rather than a study area. Before we moved in we had the great idea of making the VERY LARGE closet into his office. It worked out great! He loves his office and occasionally I will find him in there studying.

This last picture is the dorm room. This is a random room that we hang out in. It is the only room in the house at the moment with A/C...thus the reason we hang out here.

I will post Nash's room later. Our landlord is a little anal about things. He has requested that he be the one that hangs our things on the walls. So I have to do it on his time. Kind of weird, although it is nice having him do it, then I don't fret on getting it perfect. I just realize it won't be because a man did it! haha. We love our house so much. It is very comfortable and close to the Emmaus pool, a small pond, running trail, and a couple parks. It has a very small town feeling, I don't know how you couldn't feel at home here.

Snappidy Snap!

Our little Nasharoo doesn't know how to walk yet, but he can sure snap his fingers!

California Amusement Parks!

We finally uploaded all the pictures off of Darin's phone. Here is a montage of the fun times we had with our families in California during our move and Darin's graduation. We thought our families would love to reminisce of these good times. 

Splash Mountain is always a favorite.  Check out all of our faces.  Classic. We conveniently put Cody in the front and he sure did block the water from getting us!  Thanks Cody!  Your the best!

(I don't know how to turn this picture around.)

Space Mountain!  Sorry Ked for covering your face...lol.  My mom gets sick on rides like these so she volunteered to watch the grandkids.  Thanks mom!  We are so happy to spend our last days at Disneyland with all of you.  Thanks for moving us to Utah, we appreciate all your help!

All Darin wanted for graduation was a trip to Six Flags Magic Mountain with his brothers.  So we ditched the graduation dinner and enjoyed a day of TERRIFYING rides!!

Here we are waiting in line for X2.  This was supposedly the BEST ride and we waited for 2 hours to get on it. (the longest line of the whole day!)  It was a good ride, but I wouldn't say it was the best.

Trevor sporting a pretty pink purse.  I think it totally goes well with your shoes.

Mom W. was told by her doctor she was not allowed to ride any roller coasters.  This was earth shattering for her because she LOVES them so much.  Troy held her to this advice and she was a great babysitter.   Although we were able to sneak her on to the SUPERMAN ride.  Which she loved and wishes she had gone again.  Thank you mom for watching Nash!

This picture is for Mom W. here is the view of the Superman ride.  Superman himself is up there waiting for you!

We all agree that Tatsu is the best ride at 6 flags!  This ride is so amazing, they lift you up so you are parallel with the ground and you fly through the air.  I was attending to Nash when the boys rode it the first time.  But don't you worry they made sure I got my turn.  I was scared out of my wits and made the worker check me twice and he assured me the harness was on as tight as it would go.  Then Travis assured me that if the harness broke then I would be saved by the foot rest.  Some how the picture of me flapping in the wind upside down, dangling by my feet was not so reassuring.  The scary part is the worker told me the same thing.  THANKS FOR THE IMAGE PEOPLE!  Darin knew that I would have my eyes closed through the whole ride so he was so nice to record the whole thing for me...lol...enjoy the SCREAMING ride!!!

It was true, I kept my eyes closed for the majority of the time.  My head was down too, like that helps, but that is why I do not have a face in this picture...haha...I can be such a wimp.  But hey I did it and I hope Darin enjoyed his day at Six Flags because after every ride this is what we looked like....

Thanks to all of the brothers, Mom and Dad W. for coming and spending the day at Six Flags as well as sitting through graduation.  We love and miss you all!

This is Travis and Darin on the Viper. 

4 years and counting...lol

May 28, 2005, Manti Temple

Amongst all our moving craziness, Darin and I celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary on May 28th. Well I wouldn't say celebrated, Darin and his parents arrived in the big Penske truck, and Nash, myself and my parents arrived by flight on the 28th. By the time we all were reunited we were exhausted!

Here in Pennsylvania you often see billboards that read "What have you done for your marriage today?" So I would like to do a little tribute today to our marriage and remind myself of how lucky I am to be married to such an awesome man! (this is going to be a long one!)

I met Darin on January 1, 2005 around 1:30am in Orem, Utah. I had moved to Orem to teach the Emotional Disorder Unit at Canyon View Junior High (which is around the corner from Darin's home). I originally accepted a job in Logan, but felt strongly not to sign my contract, and low and behold this other job in Orem came about and I felt positive about the move. (8 kids sounds better than 25 on a caseload...right!)

I spent that Christmas in Blanding with my family, and originally planned to stay for New Years. However, I have a wise father that urged me to go back to Orem before a HUGE storm hit...so I did. Darin spent Christmas with his family in Grand Junction, they too decided to come home early because of the storm.

On December 31, 2004 my good friend Marjean came down from SLC to spend New Years with me and my friends in Orem. We had no clue what we were planning on doing. We knew there were some parties in the ward so we decided to party hop. The final party was the best with the most people, including my crush ENRIQUE!! So we began a good game of IDIOT, this is game where if you lose you are labeled the IDIOT and have to do something stupid. I never lose, however this night I did and I had to to do somersaults in front of everyone. In the middle of one of my beautiful somersaults Darin walked in. He had been on a date in SLC with girl name Betsy that went pretty much sour and he decided to come home early. He remembered a party that an old friend was having and decided to stop by. It was LOVE at first sight for Darin...haha, he liked my somersault skills...lol. He joined the game and then joined my friends afterwards for some major sledding in the snow. My friend Jennifer had a huge crush on him so we continued to invite him to hang out with us. After awhile I started to feel a strong force (seriously) towards Darin and I developed feeling for him. (it was okay with Jennifer of course) Darin felt the same and I invited him over one Sunday to watch "The Other Side of Heaven" and basically we were together ever since.

Darin at this point was beginning his interview process for medical school. This put a niche in our relationship because I had a strong belief you should date a person for a year before you marry them. We had some long talks about long distance dating and came to the conclusion that it wasn't for us. So we decided to squash my ideas, and either get married or break up completely.

In March we took a trip together to Kirksville, Missouri for one of Darin's interviews. It was close to Nauvoo so we decided to do some sight seeing too. I was really hoping Darin was going to ask me to marry me on this trip. In fact I wanted him to give me the ring right here in this picture. Instead he gave me a nail ring from the Blacksmith shop.
Soon after we made a trip to Blanding for some four wheeling fun into comb ridge. A top my favorite rock looking over the valley, Darin began asking me how I would like him to propose and where. Thinking he didn't have the ring with him or wasn't really going to propose I told him right here and I continued to tell him everything he should say to me...haha. Darin got on one knee and I laughed said "heck no" and walked away from him. Then when I turned around he really did have a ring in his hand and he was proposing! Boy did I feel foolish. However, he would not let me wear the ring at that point because he had not spoken to my father yet. Later that day we decided to go the Monticello temple. Before leaving for the temple, Darin asked my dad to talk to him. My mom was up-stairs drilling me on what Darin was talking to my dad about. Once she found out the whole town of Blanding knew! lol. Darin gave me the ring to wear in the celestial room of the temple. (he asked for a kiss but I was embarrassed by all the people I knew in the room...to this day I have phobia of kissing in the temple...lol)

And so we decided to get married, after knowing each other only 5 months. The original wedding date was June 11th. But Darin decided to do the ISAC program at Western University which started the first week of June. So we moved the wedding. I finished teaching on May 27th, we were married on May 28th in the Manti Temple, we spent 2 night in Park City and then packed up our things and moved to California.

Our engagement pictures were taken by Brooke Pehrson Photography (btw Brooke look how far you have come! These pictures were when you first started.) Our announcements were made by my Aunt JoAnna who I give complete credit to helping me learn Photoshop. And our wedding pictures/bridals were all taken by Jamie Broadbent Photography.

I chose to put most of the black and white pictures of our bridals because Darin looks high in the colored ones.  They were taken in a field that he was highly allergic to.  DANG ALLERGIES!

Our wedding day was beautiful. My family stayed in Manti that night because of past experiences of cars breaking down, landslides, back-ho's being buried, etc. on special days in Manti. Darin and his family traveled from Orem the morning of. I was so excited that when I put my wedding dress on, I forgot to take off my skirt (which was white), all day long I couldn't figure out why I was so hot....well I had 2 extra layers of fabric on! During the sealing my mom was holding Darin's ring and was playing with it too much. It ended up flipping out of her hand and hitting the mirror behind her. I had to control my laughter because the sealer was in a deep discussion with us! She spent most of the time looking around her for the ring. When it came time for the ring to be given it was found and Darin and I exchanged them. However, Darin couldn't get my ring on my hand. So I had to tell him very sternly to PUSH! I don't think our day could have been any better. We spent time with family and celebrated our happiness. I am very grateful for the guidance that was given to me in finding Darin. We had a lot of opposition and many disagreements/arguments, but in the end we know we made the right choice. I love you Darin and am grateful for you in my life. HERE'S TO 4 HAPPY YEARS and an ETERNITY TO COME!