Adios amigos

We are out. Congratulations to Adam for finishing his first year of dental school. We are headed down to Nicaragua to practice some of those expensive dental skills. Adam left last night and won't see Eli for 17 days. Sad. It's just that E wouldn't really be all that helpful in a Latin American dental clinic. He is going to have a blast being pampered by his Nana, Chelsea and Grandma. So I am headed to Utah in the morning to drop Eli off and I will join Adam next week. "What are you going to be doing in a dental clinic in Nicaragua, Ashley?" you might be wondering to yourself. That is a good question. To be honest, I don't know. What I do know is that people in Latin America don't care whether you have actual dental training as long you have on a pair of scrubs. They just want you to pull out the tooth that hurts. So I have my scrubs.


I totally failed on the Father's Day front. Adam left last night and I didn't even so much as acknowledge that he rocks. There wasn't enough time in between his 72 hour sleep drought and his departure; he left about 8 hours after his last final, which gave us just enough time to gather all of our crap, pack and get the oil changed. But you all know my husband rocks, that he adores my little buddy, and that he has magical priority balancing powers which enable him to be a top notch student and a far higher than average help dad. If anyone in Nicaragua is reading this, please find my husband, tell him Happy Father's day and give him a nice long kiss for me...nevermind, I'll take care of it when I get there. Peace out.

A wedding is to be had

I'm sure the whole state of Utah already knows this, but after a lengthy courtship of exactly 2.5 weeks, my favorite sister and friend is engaged to marry her favorite friend. I'm just kidding, they have been dating since they were 16. Britten Maughan just got home from his mission three weeks ago and will be marrying my sister Chelsea on August 21st. WAHOO! I love this kid. In fact, so do my parents. The inlaw children in my family are surely going to slowly back all of us blood into a non-favorited corner. Adam was the favorite child in my family long before we were even considering marriage. Britten also managed to capture the admiration of my dad as an extremely bright, patient and good humored kid of 17. Anyone who knows Steve knows that doing so is not easy. He is much like Mr. Darcy in many ways: "My opinion once lost is lost forever." You don't mess around with Steve, or at least he doesn't want you to THINK that you mess around with him. So Britten will be welcomed with more than open arms into my family by all parties. I don't think my parents could have arranged marriages they liked better for their daughters; I told you us bio children are on our way out.... I just wish we could talk Britten into dental school and get them out here to California. All the cool people are doing it.

Though they had already decided, obviously rather quickly, that two years was as much apart time as they ever wanted to spend, Britten still managed the element of surprise. Chelsea was up in Idaho this weekend for my little bro's baseball tournament and Britten drove up and surprised her. He got down on one knee in front of the fountains at the Idaho Falls temple. Cute. So they are legitimately engaged and seriously getting married in two months. This means my sister is getting married. And it now means that I am going back to Utah 4 times in 3 months. Party on.

Aren't we cool?

I know. Look at us. We rock. Fortunately for us, none of the friends we invited to go to the Wild Animal Park on Saturday consented to tag along. Otherwise, we would have had to decline an incredibly appealing invitation from our neighbor Wayne, not to be confused with my dog Duane-actually, they are frequently confused with one another as I am all too often yelling at my dog, Duane, for running into Wayne's, the neighbor, garage to chase his cat named Ninja. So Wayne always thinks that his crazy lady neighbor is yelling at him for no apparent reason. I can't believe he still invited us to go dirt biking.

Actually, I can because we are always out admiring his new toys, telling him that he is Mr. Fox racing himself and making him feel all cool and what not. One of the greatest parts of the invitation is that after choosing all of the equipment we would need and chatting it up with him in his garage for ten minutes prior to our departure, he asked our names. We have lived here for 9 months, talked to him weekly, declined several times to go biking because he always invites us the morning of to go like four hours away, and hello, we have a kid. But we are the type of neighbors that talk all the time so it's just too late to ask names because we are already great acquaintances. But he just did it. I love people who don't feel dumb doing things that might make them look dumb.

My dad has indoctrinated me for years about the inferiority of four wheelers when compared to motorcycles. And while I still may have felt more comfortable on a two wheeler, zipping up and down this gorgeous mountain, I had such a blast! I really just went thinking we would get some much needed time outside, not expecting to rid myself of my little hip-hugger or get any real riding time. But Wayne's girlfriend, Karen, totally stripped me of parental responsibilities and let me ride all day on my new found love, this sporty little ATV, with the boys. My dad would be so proud...well sort of proud because I was, after all, on a quad. But when we got to the top of some pretty steep hills, Wayne said, "Wow, you really know what you are doing. People totally screw those hills up because they don't know what gear they are in when they start." Oh yeah. I can totally hang with the boys on a motorized vehicle. Thank you Dad, for teaching me how to make it on the open road.

And here is a picture of Cade and Eli playing that same night WITHOUT uncle Cam who refuses to come visit us every time he comes to California. Look what you missed out on Cam: pushing Tonka trucks around the house and eating strawberry-peach homemade ice cream. Pity, it is.