Boy's Birthday Party (9&6)

I promised the boys we would have a birthday party for them before we moved.  Which seemed like an okay idea 3 months before the move, but on the week before the party it was a little stressful.  But, we had it, and it was wonderful, and I'm glad we did.  :)

Happy birthday boys!!!!

Preschool Graduation II

This Past week Sterling had his second preschool graduation!  (Sterling's first preschool graduation)  He was so lucky to be with Miss Kris for two years.  He's made so much progress over the last 2 years and has really blossomed in the last 5 months.  We feel confident that he'll do awesome in Kindergarten!

Here's Sterling on his first day of preschool in the fall of 2014...

And here he is at his preschool graduations....

Miss Kris is the first Vegas friend that we've really had to say goodbye to.  It's hard to believe that Monday after lunch, we won't pack up and head out to preschool.  It's hard to believe that anything is going to change at all when, really everything is about to change a lot.  It was very sad.  We love you Miss Kris, thank you for being such a special part of our family's life here in Vegas.

Waching at California

Check out "Waching at Sea Side" from 2010 when the Wachs took us to the beach!

We took a weekend trip with our friends, the Wachs, without our kids to California last month and I finally downloaded some of the pictures off my phone so I can blog about it!  :)

We spent Friday at Six Flags, which is always a great time!  The new virtual reality ride is pretty unreal, but it made Brandon motion sick. :(

Friday and Saturday night we stayed the night at my parent's condo in Oceanside.  We spent Saturday in La Jolla.  Could La Jolla be any more beautiful?

The boys *had* to go boogoie boarding, even if it was freezing!  (look close at Dave's face here)

 We also ate a lot of great food, went to Nathan's comedy show, sat in the hot tub, and enjoyed good company.  Thanks to my parents, our babysitter, and Wachs for making a spectacular vacation!

The Grand Canyon!

"Visit the Grand Canyon" was one of those things we wanted to do while we were living here in Vegas, so last weekend we packed up the kids and hit the road!  We stayed in Williams and rode the train to the Grand Canyon.  We swam in the pool, ate at a surprisingly good Asian buffet, and enjoyed the "shoot out" in the morning.  The train had entertainers, and even train robbers!  And of course the Grand Canyon was incredible, even if it was a little cold..

We're Moving!

I met Brandon twelve years ago, when I was 17 and he was 22.  Even then, Brandon knew he wanted to be a Chiropractor with his own clinic.  So we got married, finished up undergraduate school, and moved our family of three to Portland so Brandon could go to Chiropractic school.  We spent three rainy years in Portland while Brandon went to school non-stop.

Nearing graduation, we knew that we weren't ready to start a clinic right out of school, and we spent a lot of time looking for the perfect job.  We tried everything to get a job anywhere except Las Vegas.  Brandon had job interviews all over, Seattle, Orange County, Portland, Denver, and even Kentucky.  Nothing was coming together right.  Until Julie and Lisa convinced us to "just apply" for the job in Vegas.  The job at Neck and Back came together so perfectly, and we just knew that it was what we were supposed to do.

So we packed up and moved our family, now of four, to Las Vegas.  The plan was to be in Vegas for two to five years, gain experience, and then move towards business ownership.  We have loved living in Vegas.

Two years ago, we started the process towards our 10 year old goals.  We decided that Denver, CO was where we wanted to be.  They had favorable laws for small business and Chiropractic, and we liked the idea of raising our family there.  Except for two years, nothing worked out right.  We looked at two practices for sale, and moved into lease negotiations (lasting as long as six months) three times.  Finally, in early February, we thought we had found it.  We had picked a space, ironed out all the kinks, and we were ready to go.  But at the last possible moment our lease fell apart.  Again.  We knew we had to do something different.

So that weekend we drove to Santa Ana, picked out a space and 17 days after our lease fell apart in Denver, Brandon signed a lease in Santa Ana, CA.  So we're moving our family, now of five, to Southern Orange County.

This is a strange reality for us.  For twelve years Brandon has been talking about this, and for two years we thought we were moving to Denver.  We bought winter coats and a four wheel drive car.  I don't know why it was important for us to try the Denver thing for so long, and I don't regret it.  Just like Las Vegas was where we were supposed to be, I know Southern California is where we're supposed to be.  So with faith, anticipation, and a healthy dose of anxiety we are moving.  In June.

For years, we talked about where we wanted to live and what we wanted to do.  You can read some of our waverings and thought processes in these blog posts:

Where would you want to live?

Seattle vs. Spokane, WA

50 Hours Later

When I Grow Up

Near Alicia Parkway

When I Grow Up Part II

Paducah, KY

Faith for Kentucky

Can I Tell You a Secret?

I didn't realize there were so many of these, and I certainly don't expect anyone to go back and read them, but they're there.  After 2011, we couldn't be social media public about our processes because we didn't want Brandon's bosses to know that we were trying to leave.

Gooo Lakers!

Truth: Basketball is fun.  Basketball is more fun, when your teams wins.

Chandler came home from school a couple of days after basketball registration and said, "My friend Trevor says he's going to put me on his basketball team.  His dad is the coach and gets to pick."  We couldn't have been more lucky.  Trevor's Dad and his assistant coach were fantastic, and the Lakers were just a great bunch of kids.  And, I swear, a few of the kids grew, like a lot over the course of the three months.

The Lakers lost one game and came in third place for the season.  At the end of the season there was a single elimination tournament, and the Lakers made it all the way; winning the championship!  The last two games were particularly intense.

Being on this team really helped Chandler with his confidence and aggressiveness.  When he started he would kind of get out of the way if someone else was playing near him in a , "Excuse me.  Oh, sorry," kind of way.  By the end of the tournament, he was ripping balls away from people, passing, rebounding, shooting and dribbling with confidence.  He made a lot of progress and we are really proud.

Chandler left the awards ceremony yesterday with three trophies: third place in season, first place in the tournament and the sportsmanship award.  Each coach picks someone from their team who showed exceptional sportsmanship.  We couldn't be happier for him to have had such a wonderful, positive experience with athletics.