5 Years

Phil and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary on August 17. I can't believe how fast time flies. We had a very romantic dinner at The Melting Pot, a delicious fondue place. I am still thinking about the dessert. I compiled this little video as a gift for him.

From the moment I met Phil, literally, I knew that I would marry him. I actually wanted to marry him the first time I saw his picture in the mission home in the Canary Islands. In the picture he was wearing a too small, all white suit at a zone conference (only dark suits are allowed). I thought he was hilarious and I didn't even know him. I'm a sucker for a sense of humor. Even though missionaries are supposed to lock their heart, I couldn't help thinking how handsome he was and I hoped that I would get to meet him someday. That day didn't come for quite some time. He had been home from his mission for about a year and a half and I had been home for seven months. I decided to go to the birthday party of a missionary I had served with. When I got to the house I was walking across the lawn and I spotted him on the other side. My heart skipped a beat. I grabbed one of my old companions who knew him well and demanded, "introduce me." We were inseperable for the rest of the night. Two weeks later was our official mission reunion, he asked me out that night and the rest is history.

I could not ask for a better companion than Phil. He is the best thing that has ever happened to me. He really was made for me.

Newport Beach

I told them I was going to take a picture and Evie immediately assumed this position.

Michael slept in his hammock on the balcony

The Ashton clan. It's hard to believe this isn't even everybody.

The Fam. Unfortunately we were missing Nate and Leah, Eric and Ashley and Tommy and Julie

most of the girl cousins and aunts

sisters!

she LOVED "It's a Small World"

this was Livi's reaction to the Winnie the Pooh ride. Some of those rides are pretty creepy.

Maddie, my mom and Maddie's friend McKenna

petting starfish

Uncle Bret

skimming is way harder than it looks!

We had a family reunion with my mom's side of the family in Newport Beach, CA a few weeks ago. We had SUCH a good time. It was seriously difficult to come back to reality. We got home Saturday evening and Sunday I felt like a zombie, I didn't feel like doing anything. I just kept looking at pictures from the week.

Our house was right off of the beach and we enjoyed many days lounging on the beach, body surfing, boogy boarding, bike riding, walking to the pier where we saw dolphins and sting rays, going to the Aquarium (amazing!) and having an overall wonderful time. I was able to fulfill one of my life long dreams of riding a tandem bike. It was awesome. We went to Disneyland one day where we met up with some dear friends. Cecilia and James used to be in our ward here in Houston but they moved to Las Vegas a year ago. They drove over from Vegas and we met up and went to dinner and then went to Disneyland together. We sure miss them!

We shared a beach house with my Aunt Cami's family and had a blast hanging out with them. There were about 20 people crammed into a 4 bedroom house, but somehow it never felt cramped. Our days were spent at the beach and at night we would all eat together and have feats of strength, watch movies or go out. I can't even begin to express how much I enjoyed having all of those hands around to help with my kids. I don't think I held Jack for longer than 10 minutes at a time and Livi had a blast playing with her cousins. This week really made me wish we lived closer to family. It made me so sad to know that Livi and Jack won't get to see everybody again for a while. Family really is the greatest.

This was an extremely condensed version of a very wonderful week!