Just a quick thought!

So I don't have any pictures to post of this past weekend trip to Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  For some reason I didn't find the energy to take any photos.  The volleyball games took a lot out of me and I mean a lot!!!!  I ended up tearing my ACL!!!!  After the initial shock of it all I am beginning to see that although life is difficult it will get better!  I am supposed to have surgery in a few weeks and I am ready to work hard to get my left knee strong again.  I more or less wanted to post this unfortunate news to say that I am so grateful for the man I married!  He has been so calm and even when I was rolling on the court yelling a few choice words he was right by my side comforting me.  It is amazing to think that I am so lucky to be blessed with such a perfect man for me!  I am also blessed that I have wonderful friends and family who have been there and will continue to be there for support.  I'm not sure why certain events happen, but I do know I will look back and know that it taught me ......something......right?  ......maybe patience......faith.....one day I'll know why?  In the mean time I am struggling with the fact that I can't go 100 percent seven days a week!  I guess I need to slow down!  Maybe that is why it all happened......who knows?  I'll keep you all updated!

One fabulous year and a few more Maui pictures!

So officially Ryan and I are celebrating a full year together!  It has gone by so quickly and we have had so much fun.  I am excited to spend many more years with him.  I had to post the picture below because he looks so darn adorable and I just want to pinch his cheeks!  I love him SO MUCH and I look forward to the many more adventures we will share together.  Oh and I had to post a few more pictures of the beach.  We miss it and Idaho is so cold right now.....I am freezing and turning pale white again.  Good thing Ryan loves me so much he actually is allowing me to turn up the heat!!!! ha ha

The picture below is Aiden smiling after spitting up on his Uncle Ryan.  He thought it was pretty darn funny!

the kemp boys checking out one of the beaches......they looked identical walking out to the ocean so, again I had to take a picture.

Ryan looking for sea turtles.......he didn't find any at this spot!

Sunday church with an ocean view.  Nice location!  Tempting though I wanted to run across the street and into the ocean :)

One last view of beautiful Maui, Hawaii

More Maui Please!

So Maui, Hawaii was such a beautiful vacation.  I had to post tons of photos so everyone can see how spectacular it really is.  Honestly though it is better in real life and all who have been there I'm sure agree with me.  Where do I begin with what we did and all of the funny stories.  I'll give a brief overview and if you want more details you'll have to give me a call!  Seriously I have to start with bringing Aiden was surprising really fun!  He did great the whole time.  He slept on the airplane and the beach.  I am sure Heide will blog about him too so I won't say too much, but I loved having him with us.  We all enjoyed snorkeling, playing in the waves, seeing a whale jump, seeing a huge sea turtle, eating, relaxing, tanning, cliff jumping, boogie boarding, card playing ..hmmmmm

I could go on for hours!  Basically I want to go back tomorrow even if I have to fly                                        stand by again and stay at a rinky dink hotel for two extra days!  I would do it all again to have the sand between my toes and the sun tanning my skin.  Let's just say I now want to look for a job there so we could enjoy 

the laid back life that Hawaii has to offer.  Ryan is on board for an adventure living on an island, but I'll keep you posted if any crazy ideas develop.....ha ha.  Enjoy all of the photos they took me forever to post.  Sending love to all and 

I am sad to say my tan is already fading and I just arrived home Wednesday afternoon.

Oh and if you want to know how our extra days went without our husbands Heide and I survived, but we were missing our boys! The stand by situation wasn't my favorite part, but I would honestly do it again so I could see that darn sea turtle and look out at the ocean holding hands with my adorable husband!  We will celebrate our first anniversary as Mr. and Mrs. Kemp on March 1st.  We combined Valentines and our Anniversary and celebrated by taking a trip to Maui!  What can I say I love him dearly and am grateful everyday I am married to him.  

McCall with the Zickgrafs

Last weekend Ryan and I decided to try to escape the inversion and drive to McCall to visit Cindy, Adam, Izabel, and Ford. We arrived Friday night and both kids were asleep. Ford woke up at about ten that night and decided to hang out with us for a couple of hours. The next morning we surprised Izabel as she nearly fell off the table in amazement. She had no idea we were there and she also has a crush on Ryan ( she thinks he is pretty cute)!!! After breakfast we headed out for some afternoon sledding. Seriously I am going to post the video so all can see how extreme it was. I wasn't able to capture Ryan's first run because I was laughing so hard! He flew like four feet off of his sled. It was hilarious so I made him try it again! While we tried to convince a new group of extreme sledders to try the same hill they popped the sled running over a tree! Thankfully no one was hurt, at least severely! After a few hours of sledding Cindy decided the kids better take a nap. We ate lunch and then after nap time (for everyone besides Izabel and me) got on our swim suits and drove to Zim's hot springs! Izabel and Ford had so much fun swimming in the warm water while it was snowing! It was a whole new experience for them, they loved it! After a few hours of swimming we ate at Chapalas against Izabel's request of a hamburger and fries! We finished the evening watching the Miss America Pageant . Well, Ryan and Adam kept switching from ESPN to the beauty pageant! Cindy and I love it because it reminds us of when we were little pretending we were in the Miss America Pageant! Both Izabel and Ford fell asleep quickly and we weren't far behind them. We had to watch the crowning of the new Miss America! We ended the fun weekend attending church Sunday morning. Ford ended the meeting with a loud "ALL DONE"!!!!!! It was hilarious! People around us were smiling and laughing. Thanks again to Adam and Cindy for letting us crash on your extra bed! We had such a fun weekend.

A weekend away....

Last Thursday I had the pleasure of visiting my good friend Kelly!  I flew into Denver, Colorado thursday night after I barely made it flying stand-by, but that is another story.  Kelly and I had such a great time catching up and remembering when we were in dental hygiene school together.  Let's just say we shared stories and laughed until 2 am.  We haven't seen each other for almost three years so we had a lot to catch up on.  Kelly and I attended a dental convention in denver and completed our requirements to renew are licenses.  After a full day and a half of courses we went on a wonderful hike in Boulder.  The weather was amazing, 58 degrees sunny and clear!  It was a much needed escape from the terrible inversion that is looming over the Boise valley!  I also had the pleasure of meeting her adorable boyfriend (Jeff) and also reunite with her puppies (Cyrus and Jammer)!  It was such a fun weekend and the only thing missing was my hubbi.  I missed him so much and although the weather in Denver was beckoning me to stay longer I couldn't wait to get home to Ryan!  Thanks Kelly for a great weekend!  Now we can't let three years go by before seeing each other again!  

Kelly and me overlooking Boulder, Colorado

Kelly, Jeff and Jammer!  Kelly said she could only bring Jammer because "he is tough enough"!

Kelly and me towards the end of the hike.  Look at the blue sky and no jackets.  

This Christmas.....

I am sad to say the holidays are over and now I get to re-cap our Christmas events!  This was officially our first Christmas together as a married couple.  We kept it sort of low key due to the fact that most of our extra money has been spent on remodeling projects!  None the less it was a brilliant holiday spent with my large family!  For the first time in a long time everyone was home to celebrate Christmas Eve in style.  Let's just say as the number of grand children grows the louder it gets at the Blackhurst house!  I enjoyed every minute of it as for Ryan I think he found refuge in the basement with the brother in laws watching........you guessed it football!  Christmas morning we had the pleasure of visiting little Elly as she captured the pure joy of the season with her kitchen that Santa brought!  We stopped over at the Zickgrafs and played with all of the play dough that Izabel and Ford received!  We opened our gifts to each other and surprising enough my dear husband gave me beautiful pearl earrings and a pearl bracelet.  So much for keeping it simple.......I got him an electric razor :).  We ended Christmas day at the movie theater with Brian, Riley, and Emily.  We also enjoyed sledding with the nieces and nephews!  Ryan got a work out hiking up the hill with a kid in each arm.  The best part was watching Ford and Ryan go off of a jump.  Ford came back up smiling and saying "Let's do it again"  Ryan let me know he kind of hurt himself by landing on his tail bone!  Thankfully enough no one got seriously injured because there were many collisions that afternoon.  What can I say he loves kids and they love Uncle Ryan!   We had a glorious holiday spent relaxing, sledding, eating, laughing, and loving every minute of it!  Hope your holidays were spectacular and perfect.  Sending love to all friends and family we weren't able to enjoy the season with this year.  We love you!

let it snow.....let it snow.....let it snow!

Ford can hardly wait to get on his snow gear and head out into the winter wonderland!

The beautiful table that Emily put together!  She has such a talent for decorating!

The new mommas and their new little babies.  :)

Ready to go!  Ford never stopped smiling.

the madness Christmas eve!  Uncle Brian was the horse and all the grand kids wanted a ride.  Sam thought this was the greatest event of the night.

Uncle Brian is home for good now.  Here he is meeting baby Kaisley for the first time.

Ryan and I at the annual Zickgraf "Ugly Sweater Christmas party"!

Finally an update!

So here is our finished bathroom!  There are still some small things left to do.  Like put up towel racks and a few shelves, but the big project is complete!  I am loving my new granite countertop with an under mount sink!  We put in the bead board ourselves, which took us all day to do because we had no idea what we were doing.  In the end I am happy with the finished project and grateful for Ryan's hard work.  

below is a the bead board almost installed!

Ryan working his safety glasses and using some borrowed power tools!  Thanks Danny for letting us borrow your saw!

.....one more just because I'm proud of how it turned out.