2013

Recap of 2013

This is hands down one of my favorite pictures from this past year. 

Live: Alpine, Utah
Drive: BMW, and a Mazda6 (yes we got a new car AGAIN, it was an early anniversary present... more to come on that later). 
Work: Blue Lemon for Jen and then not Blue Lemon for Jen. Spring mobile for Jason and IHC working as an EMT up at Snowbird.

School: BYU for Jase half the year, then GRADUATION!
Church Callings: Jason got called to the Elders Qurom Presidency and is now serving as secretary.  Jen is still on the RS Activity Committee and also taught the 7 turning 8 year olds.
Pets: One goldfish.  Ash also thinks he is either a dog or a cat 50% of the time. 
Traveled to: Hawaii for Mom and Dad, Park City trip for all of us, plus another Park City trip just for grown ups.  As well as a big family trip to Florida.
Highlights/Big Events: Traveling firsts, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, the beach! Playdates with friends.  Graduation, completing and passing the MCAT, Med School acceptance(s).  Lots of biking.  Moving on to new adventures and being able to stay at home with Ashton all day every day.

Sent Stephanie off on her Mission.  Aunt Stephy was easily Ashton's favorite, she will be missed but Georgia is lucky to have her.

Lost Grandpa Joseph Beckstrand, who is now reunited with his love in the eternities.  He was not only a war hero and POW captured at Battle of the Bulge, but from everything I have heard he was a real world hero of a man that we are honored to be related to.  It was one of the most memorable and inspiring funerals I have ever attended.

Last Years Goals: "Play harder, laugh more, make it to the Temple, find time for each other even with our busy school/work schedules, try and drive the same cars all year long, take the MCAT, graduation, hug Ashton till he just can't take it anymore."

Well we definitely played harder, having a mobile child the whole year sure makes that more possible and fun! Ashton makes us laugh daily, sometimes I cry I laugh so hard with him.  He has the greatest laugh and cracks up any time I think somethings funny, which just makes me laugh harder.  We were able to attend the temple more, but not as often as we should/need to.  Going through the Temple with Stephanie this past year was a great experience as well as attending Alex's sealing for her wedding.  We almost made it with the same cars the whole year... so close! We can definitely cross off the MCAT and graduation and hugging Ashton.

Goals for 2014: Attend the temple more will probably always be a goal, I guess it is never wrong to want to go more.  Seek the spirit more often, church often turns into a blur with Ash, but now that he is in Nursery I'm finding more peace and light through even the littlest moments in primary.  I want to stay caught up on this blog and write more personally.  Not because I think anyone out there cares, but because I want to remember my thoughts and feelings and be able to look back on the moments that created our family.  Live in the moment.  I'm a planner, and tend to plan far in advance and forget about the now.  I want to remember the NOW, and live in the moment and cherish the days, hours, minutes, and seconds, with Ashton. 

2014 is a big year for us.  We are headed to Texas for the start of Med School.  A new chapter in our lives.  We are also welcoming baby number 2. 

 Little Brother is due April 26th!  

Merry Valiversary

Last February Jason attended an INS (International Neuropsychological Society) Conference in Canada.  I was bummed he was leaving me with a little two and half month old, and that he was going to be gone over Valentine's Day, but I wasn't that jealous that he was going to Canada.  

This year however the conference was in Hawaii, so we took full advantage and decided to combine Christmas+Valentine's+Anniversary for a nice vacation for just us two.  It was much needed and came at the perfect time.  We spent four days just the two of us.  We didn't event turn the TV on once while we were there, which really meant a lot to me.   

Day One was mostly traveling.  We stayed at the Hilton Waikoloa Village, on Hawaii Island, which is where the Conference was being held.  This place was amazing.  It is so big that it has a tram and boats that takes you from one end to the other.  We still walked most everywhere I wanted to enjoy the sunshine as much as possible.  It is located right on the ocean and the views were incredible, no matter which way you looked. 

It was also filled with so many different kinds of birds and other natural wildlife. 

We spent most the day exploring everything and then met up with Jason's friend, and mentor, Brock for dinner. 

Day Two was the day Jason was presenting at the conference so while he got all dressed up and headed out to be smart,

 I dressed down and spent the morning reading and relaxing here.  I read a whole book and half this trip.  Can't remember the last time I was able to have enough time to myself to just read like that.  

Jason joined me that afternoon for some pool time and snorkeling . The resort has a big ocean fed lagoon in the middle of it.  I had heard that you can often see sea turtles in the lagoon and was determined that we would see one.  We ended up seeing so many, this was the first time I had ever seen one in the wild, another thing checked off my bucket list. 

 Since the lagoon is directly connected to the ocean there were all sorts of incredible fish that I had never seen snorkeling before.  That night we found an empty hot tub and just relaxed together.

Day Three I made Jason take me to breakfast at Lagoon Spoon.  They have the most genius breakfast menu.  You pick two cereals and two toppings, and milk.  I went with Cookie Crisp, Frosted Flakes, Gumi Bears, and Skittles, don't worry I used Skim Milk.  Jason had granola and fruit (still love you and your healthy cereal choices)

We spent the morning whale watching from our breakfast table.  That afternoon we went with some of Jason's friends and drove to Hapuna Beach and went boogie boarding and played in the ocean.  That night we met up with more people and drove up Mauna Kea, to go star gazing.   

Day Four we spent breakfast whale watching again.  It was migration season for humpback whales and we couldn't even keep count of how many we saw.  

We went snorkeling one more time and this time we got up close and personal with the sea turtles.  I thought one was going to kiss me it came so close, instead it ate a leaf right in front of my face.  We realized they would eat the leaves right out of our hands.  

Jason said he thought this was the best part of the trip.  

We hit up the water slide and hot tub and swam through the different waterfalls that run into the pools before we had to go pack up.  We had to check out of the hotel at noon but didn't need to leave for the airport until 5:30 so we left our bags and took a trolly to some shops to get Ashton a present.  We had some time to kill when we got back so we sat and watched the dolphins.  Oh ya did I mention the resort had dolphins?  This was another daily thing for me.  I could watch them forever.  

There was a mom with a five month old baby, this made me miss Ashton the most watching how the little baby just followed the mommy around the whole time.  Our flight home was delayed and miserable.  While the trip was too short and over too quickly I was sure excited to see my little Ashton baby.  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Beckstrand for taking such great care of him for us.