Our "Flower and Fruit Anniversary"

You know that the Silver Anniversary is the 25th year and the Golden Anniversary is the 50th, but did you know that the 4th year is the Flower and Fruit Anniversary? We didn't know either, so we celebrated our 4th Anniversary without Fruit and without Flowers. It was still great. We went out to eat at an interesting little restraunt in the Fan (the kind of artsy/college town part of Richmond). The food was great and we had a good time reminicsing about our favorite memories from the past 4 years.

Here are the top ten:

Raking the leaves

Eating a great dinner in San Diego for our first anniversary

Cooking Together (especially homemade pizza)

Playing on a Coed soccer team

Going to a Ben Folds Concert together

Take Physics together (I know geeky, but we got to spend more time together in class)

Having Rich read me the Harry Potter series

Exercising together

Temple trips

Sitting by each other at graduation

Change

In You've Got Mail (the world's best movie) Kathleen Kelly says, "People always say that change is a good thing, but what it really means is that something that you didn't want to happen, has happened."

One of Rich's family's favorite vacation spots is Tides Inn and it is just off the Rappahanock River. I have been hearing about this place for years. They are always telling me about Tides Inn and the Miss Ann (a very old yacht that is owned by the resort). Well this weekend I finally got to experience it (it was amazing!!). However, when we got on the boat we were told that the Miss Ann had been sold and would no longer be a part of the Tides Inn experience.

It was sad to hear the boat captain talk about that change. I guess that is why it is important to enjoy things while they are around. Bon Voyage, Miss Ann!

My Hike - By Richard

So, almost 3 weeks ago I flew out to Utah by myself to meet up with my BYU Roommate, Kendal, and his brother and nephew, Paul and Tanner, and two other BYU homies, McKay and Andy. Our plan: to tackle the High Uintahs, in a little spot called Granddaddy Basin. We left Sunday morning and drove about two hours up Provo Canyon to the trailhead, where we hit the latrine one last time, signed our group in, and took off. We stopped about 10 minutes later so this boy from the lowlands could catch his breath.

We hiked about 4 miles in over Hades pass, and stopped to camp at the namesake for the valley, Granddaddy Lake. It rained just a little, which was nice, because the mosquitoes were horrible otherwise (but only on this first night). Unfortunately, we had no luck with the fish at this lake, but it was pretty.

The next day, after ruining one pot trying to cook cinnamon rolls, we headed off for a spot that we were sure was going to be good fishing, because Paul had read about it in a hiking guide (note the foreshadowing). This is what we saw one the way:

We got a little lost, but eventually, we found the lake; it was beautiful, but there were zero fish. This is how Andy reverted to fishing:

We had a lot of fun in that COLD mountain lake water, but we decided we'd give one more lake a try the next day. That night, and I wish I'd taken a picture, Andy lit his chest hair on fire - on purpose. It was a controlled burn, to "trim things up," and yes, it was hilarious.

The next day though, we hiked to a place called fish hatchery lake, and sure enough, there were plenty of fish there, here's what it looked like that night, and then the next morning as we were packing up:

Kendal was the big fisherman, and caught a lot of our fish (and so did Andy) so we ate pretty well. If it was that, it was tuna or bagels or something else tasty, so while we were "roughing it" it wasn't so bad. Honestly, I'm excited to do it again sometime.

Confession

Rich's board score came in the mail last week and I was sitting around last Sunday watching it on the table unopened. The temptation was too much for me so I thought, I won't open it, but maybe if I hold it up to the light I might be able to see what it says. Then as I was holding up to the light I realized the envelope wasn't sealed all the way. I lifted the edge and the only thing I could read was, "candidate does not meet requirements..." I freaked out. What do I do now? I can't call him and tell him he didn't pass, so I decided to seal the letter back up and pretend it never happened. I picked him up from the airport that night and when we got in I told him to open his board scores. I tried not to pace and rehearsed my you-are-still-smart-I-love-you-no-matter-what-it's-okay-you'll-pass-next-time-speech, when he said, "yes, I passed." I ran over to him and said, "what?!?!? Show me where it says that." He showed me and sure enough it said pass. Then I tried to figure out what I saw. I found it, in small print it said "candidate does not meet requirments for certifcation at this time." (meaning he still had finish dental school and take the other two portions of the test before he could practice dentistry). Well, needless to say, I am happy that he did pass and I learned my lesson about snooping in other people's mail.

The Bachelorette

Rich has been gone on a hiking trip to Utah this last week and I have been living the bachelor life. I went to both of the drug rep dinners that were offered, didn't go grocery shopping, didn't cook and didn't get the house unpacked. Now he's coming home and I feel like I should have the house presentable when he gets here, but I find that blogging is a much more enjoyable use of my time. The past couple weeks have been busy. We had a great trip to DC on the fourth of July. We got to watch the fireworks from the roof of our friends parent's condo that is one block from the National Mall. Here was our view(except when it was our view we weren't in it):

The fireworks were great and when it started raining we didn't have to get soaked. We just went back down to the condo until the show started. It was such a fun weekend, we got to see old friends and tour museums. After going to the Photo museum I really want to learn more about FDR.

Anyway that was our trip. Then I started work. Then Rich took the boards. Then we moved into our new apartment (which is only 2 blocks from our old apartment). Then I worked on cleaning our old apartment. And now you are up to speed on our comings and goings for the last month.

Decisions

I don't know if any of you ever feel like this, but sometimes I just want to go back to kindergarten. Sometimes I think it would be nice not to have to make anymore decisions. Back in kindergarten someone was always there to tell you what to do: eat this, take a nap at this time, play at that time, wear this, be friends with that person and take a bath on this day. The most difficult thing you had to decide was which color crayon you should use to color skin (orange, pink, white?) and the only consequence to your decision is that your mom might think your self-portrait was a pumpkin. I started my new job last week and I am supposed to make all these decisions: what do I diagnose the patient with, how should I treat them, when should they follow up, does this guy really have back pain or does he just want percocet, should I give an excuse note for work, do I tell the 17 year-old's mom that her daughter has an STD, and should I charge this person for not showing up for their appointment. So much of it isn't taught in school. The truth is, I am glad I am not told when to eat, sleep and what to wear, but the most exhausting thing about my job is that there are so many things that don't have a "right" answer.

Happy Birfday Ricardo!!

Richard's birthday was July 1st. I just wanted everyone to know that Rich rules! He is my best friend and is always there for me whether I need somebody to crack me up, hold me when I am sad or clean the kitchen after I make a huge mess making dinner. Rich, as I said to you the first time you brought me flowers..."YOU'RE THE BEST!!"