Summer Starts

Let's be honest. . . this online journal of mine comes and goes according to my school breaks. Yesterday marked the first week of summer. Which means I need to start catching up!

Since January, we've been on two vacations (Disneyland + Sun Valley), moved twice, and both of us finished the 2014-2015 school year. Now it's summer!! Brodie is currently working for his dad landscaping, I tutor a few times a week, and we are moving again next week!

This has been the year of moving! Since July 2014, we have moved 3 times and helped 3 family members move. Back in July we made our initial move from Provo, UT to Vancouver, WA. We stayed in the basement apartment of Brodie's parents from July to April. Brodie's parents then moved to Oregon, so we were on the hunt for our own place! We found the perfect rental house right across the street from my school and were scheduled to move in June 1st. While we waited for the home to come available, we moved in with our brother & sister-in-law (thank you so much Cohan and Emily!!!). We stayed there for a month until June rolled around. The day we were scheduled to move in, we received bad news and the rental house fell through :( We were so disappointed!! Not knowing when we would find a home, we packed up again and moved back in with Brodie's parents in Gresham, OR (thank you Mom and Dad Fish!!). And now (finally!!!!), we found the perfect rental home in Camas. We are moving next week on July 1st. Wahoo!!!  Lesson learned. . . .family members are lifesavers and blessings come to those who wait!

Meanwhile, here's what we've been up to since January!

1) Trip to Disneyland with Lambert Family

arriving in CA!

future dad in the making (no, i'm not pregnant)

so happy we got to see Taylor perform!! Go Pocahontas!

a little rain doesn't stop us!

And of course no Disneyland trip would be complete without high quality photos of the rides.

kissy face/monkey ears

crossed eyes/scared Brodie

and my favorite. . . sleepy dad/amputee Dave

2) Ski Trip to Sun Valley with the Fish Fam





3) Weekend Getaways to the Beach!

attempting to sit on Brodie's shoulder

this was actually very tiring!! orrr maybe i'm just out of shape

Danner obviously enjoyed the ride

4) Tulip Festival in Oregon



5) Date Nights





6) End of the School Year

see you in August!!

the "goodbye gauntlet"

my fabulous kiddos

yes, this actually happened, mom. cleanest classroom in the whole school!!

 Pictures of our new home will be coming soon! :) So excited to no longer live out of a suitcase!

Birthday #24

When there are no more T-Swift songs to describe your age, you start to feel old and more adult-ish. The other day I asked Brodie, "How old am I?? Am I really 24??" It's such an in-between age. . .no exciting milestone to celebrate & squeezed between 21 and 25. My fifth graders frequently ask how old I am, and it does feel good to tell them that I'm 24 now. . . it sounds older and more mature. Little do they know that this is only my second year teaching and that I've never taught fifth grade before haha.

 For my birthday my fam all went out to lunch at Olive Garden, which apparently was a big deal because nobody really likes it but me (?!?!?) But they came along and I ate my body weight in breadsticks. Afterwards we hit up the K1 Speed Raceway (much more exciting than birthday #21), and then finished off the night with some pie and volleyball. 

moving up on the racing ladder. woohoo!

the enthusiastic birthday singers . . . lol

I could tell how much I enjoyed the break because it was sooo hard to get out of bed and back to school in January. Oh well! That's the teacher life . . . I can't complain too much since I had a full 2 weeks off of school :) 

Can't wait until Spring Break! Just have to survive the last few months of winter . . . .

aloha vacation!

There's nothing like kicking off your summer with a family trip to Hawaii. Thanks Mama & Papa Fish for planning the trip! Brodie and I have been waiting for this trip since before we were even engaged!! We had been anxiously waiting all year to spend a week with Fish Fam in paradise. Here are just a few Hawaiian highlights of the trip:

10 seashells

9 family members 

8 Hawaiian Shaved Ice  

7 days 

6 hours on a plane 

5 beaches 

4 books 

3 turtles 

2 scuba dives 

1 temple trip 

10// we found lots of shells while scuba diving! Brodie is quite the shell hunter and found this beautiful shell on our second dive. 

9 // We are lucky enough that everyone in the whole family was able come! It was a long plane ride for baby Danner and Tek came all the way from Ohio.

8 // Of course while we were in Hawaii we had to get some Hawaiian shaved ice! It was ironic that the Hawaiian shaved ice stand was called Scandinavian Shaved Ice. Still tasted great! 

5 / / There are lots of different beaches to visit in Hawaii (obviously), and we went to a new beach almost every day. Brodie, Tek, Dad, and Durant all went to a lava beach with HUGE waves . . . some of which were slightly unexpected. As illustrated by the pictures below :) Thank goodness Dad was there to catch the whole thing on camera. Hilarious!! 

4 / / The great thing about vacation is the time you can spend reading!! I got through four books in a week, all of which I would recommend! I read The False Prince, The Uglies, The Mysterious Benedict Society, and Safe Haven. The False Prince is a new book that my fourth graders recommended to me. One of my students gave it to me as a gift and I absolutely loved it! 

3 / / We saw three turtles while in Hawaii. One of the turtles we spotted on the very first day! It was just sitting right on the rocks on the shore. We were lucky to sneak up and get a few pictures before the crowds came :) 

2 // The Fish Fam is certified for scuba diving. The last class I took at BYU was a scuba class to become certified in anticipation of this trip. It was so nice to rent the equipment and go out diving on our own time without an instructor. We did two separate dives and it was a blast! 

1 // We were so blessed and lucky to be able to go to the Hawaiian Temple. The temple is much smaller on the inside, but the temple and the grounds are absolutely gorgeous!

We LOVED our trip and are hoping we will be able to go back :) 

only babies wear rompers

on Mother's Day weekend my family went to Maui (yes I am behind on blogging. . . )

I sported my romper which was not well received by the rest of my family. Apparently "only babies wear rompers".

Speaking of babies, we were able to talk to the baby of the family on Mother's day! My brother is in Brazil serving his mission, I we finally got to see his face and talk to him after 4 months. Only 20 months to go! And in t-minus 7 weeks I will be joining him in Brazil :)

I'm so blessed and love my family so much! It's probably just because they are my family, but I think they are the funniest people and love to be with them. For instance, this video cracks me up. Nothing funny in particular, and yet so funny. We all thought Mel was taking pictures when really she was filming. And this was the result.