New Adventure!

Me and two friends in front of a Blackhawk
MEDEVAC helicopter, Afghanistan, 2010. 

The time has come for Kyle to deploy again! He will be going to Afghanistan again as a nurse on a medical team. His unit will be leaving in January and they expect to be gone less than a year. As a medical unit, we feel he'll be safe. We don't know how often we'll be able to communicate yet while he is overseas, but plan to make the best of it. 

It will be a new adventure for our little family, and we are excited for the future. We will miss each other deeply, and look forward to his safe return. We are excited that he has the opportunity to serve, as well as learn and grow in his career. 

Kyle will get to spend about 4 weeks with our daughter prior to leaving. We're grateful that he will be home for her birth and the Christmas season. We're also grateful for the technology that will allow Kyle to record himself reading books to our daughter that she can watch while dad's gone. 

We will both be updating this blog frequently. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to comment on the blog or text/call Kyle directly. He will take care of all the questions while Eva will focus on welcoming our baby into the world. A big "thank you" to all our families and friends for their continued support and love!

Flaming Gorge

Last weekend Kyle ran a trail running relay race (Ragnar) up at Snow Basin.  While he was doing that I was at Liberty park watching my friend Whitney play in the AVP professional volleyball tournament.  Then on Sunday morning we drove up to Flaming Gorge to meet up with my family.  My dad rented 4 wheelers to hunt with in the morning then in the afternoon everyone else rode them.  We stayed in a couple cabins at Red Canyon Lodge right by a little lake, which is definently my idea of "roughing it."
It was a busy yet fun weekend.

Annie and Maia

Eric and Alex

Lydia and Faith

Maia and Alex

Caleb

Backpacking Trip

This past week Kyle, his dad, and two of his dad's friends drove to Wyoming to go on a backpacking trip for the week.  They took 11 pack goats with them to help carry the weight.  They spent the week hiking, fishing and enjoying the outdoors.

Kyle and hid dad (Charlie

Family get together

This past weekend Eric and Annie's family came into town from Colorado and the rest of the family came down from Cache Valley to hang out for a couple days.  We rented a bouncy castle, and tie-dyed t-shirts on friday.  On Saturday we went to the church history museum (they have a great section for kids) and to liberty park for a pic nic and to ride some rides.  On Sunday we all headed back up to Logan or Jace's blessing (Ben and Natalie's new addition).

Faith, Eric and Alex getting ready to ride the ferris wheel

Annie, Maia and Faith dancing at the museum

Ben and Jace

Alex and Faith riding on the swings at Liberty Park

Keelee, Maia and Lydia putting their feet in the water at Liberty Park

5th Anniversary

Kyle and I just celebrated our 5th anniversary on the 1st of March.  I can't believe its been 5 years, here is a little bit of an overview of the last 5 years.

We have lived in:
         Maryland
         Ogden
         Draper.
Kyle was in Afghanistan one year.
We have gone to:
          Montana twice (Missoula, Bozman, Yellow Stone and Glacier National Park)
          New York twice (New York City, Niagra Falls)
          California twice (Disneyland, Laguna Beach)
          Hawaii
          Mexico
          Thailand
          Texas (Dallas)
          D.C.
          Las Vegas
Kyle as ran:
          2 Ragnars
          1 Tough Mudder
          1 Marathon
          3 1/2 Marathons
          1 Red Rock Relay

We have learned a lot these past 5 years and I am excited to see what is in store for the next 5.

Christmas and Caleb's blessing

This year for Christmas we spent Christmas eve and Christmas morning at the Jennings and the rest of Christmas day at my parents house.  Since Judson and Michelle were not going to be there on Christmas day we did presents with them Christmas eve.  We woke up early Christmas morning to wake up Kyle's parents (I guess its a tradition they have) and had a nice morning with them opening gifts and eating yummy sticky pull a parts :).  Then we headed over to my parents house and opened gifts with them and Ben, Natalie and Keelee.  After we opened gifts I actually took a nap.  I must be getting old, I don't ever remember taking a nap on Christmas before, and let me tell you it was awesome.  Then we headed back home so Kyle could get up early to work the next day.

On the last weekend in December we drove to Colorado to visit Eric and Annie's family and attend Caleb's blessing.  They just moved into a new house so we stuck around until tuesday so we would help them paint a couple rooms.  It was a crazy house full of people, but it was a lot of fun to see them.


Seems like a good distraction
Cindy and Wynn                                                            Me, Marianne and Rowe

Keelee Christmas morning (left) 

Apparently presents are not more important than a nap :)

Maia liked getting her picture taken with Caleb

                                                                   Caleb and Me

Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving we were all able to go to my parents house, so we were able to see Eric and Annie's new son Caleb for the first time.  Since Maia and Keelee's birthdays are also close together this time of year, we had a birthday party for them the night before Thanksgiving. It was funny to watch them "oooooh," and "ahhhhhhh" over each others gifts. Maia had more fun putting sprinkles on her cake than blowing out the candles and Keelee didn't want to blow out her candles because she liked looking at them.  On Thanksgiving, Grandma, and Cynthia and Chris's family were able to join us for Thanksgiving dinner.  It was a full house and a lot of fun.

Maia and Keelee 

Faith, Alex, Maia, Keelee and Natalie wearing hats Aunt Cynthia made.

Me holding Caleb.