Utah Summer Fun!

After our Cruise to Mexico, Daddy had to head to New York to start his Fellowship and look for a place to live for us. Kailie and I drove with Grandma and Grandpa Theler to Utah from California. We stopped in Vegas for the night and stayed with Chris and Jed! Kailie of course had to get into their pool and swim! The girl cannot resist water! Chris, Jantzen, Jordan and Carolyn watch on!

Kai gives loves to Aunt Chris!

We stopped in St. George on our way home and grabbed a quick bite with Kandis and her kids! Kai and Weston both had to put their hand in the same spot!

Me and Kandis crazy as always!

Then it was onto Utah where we got to spend the 4th of July. Kailie running in the nude away from Papa!

 Chilling with Tuffy on the front porch!

 Sometimes he bites cause she pulls his tail!

 Eating lunch while watching Papa pull weeds!

 Getting tickles from Papa!

So tired from all this playing. Fell asleep while eating!

Sadie and Cory and Baby Isaak came and played with us!

 Swinging with Sadie

 Pushing cars with Isaak!

Jenn and Kelly wanted to go to Lagoon so we took our kids. It was their first time riding rides. They  loved it! This was Kai's first ride so she was a little uncertain about what was going on!

 Kelly and Ava, having fun! 

 Kai and Ava fly around!

 Weeee!!

 Maybe I don't like this so much!

 Cousin Love

 Taking a break with Baby Bennett!

 Riding Puff the Magic Dragon. A favorite from when I was little!

  These two are so cute!

 Oh water time!

Kai and Ava about to take flight!

The slow boat ride was their favorite. They loved ringing the bell!

Kai and Mommy had fun and got scared on the haunted ride.

Uncle Kelly helps the kids cool off in the fountain.

Kai checking out Baby Bennett!

I got together with a lot of my High School Friends. Tiff Lebaron, Jill Davis, Monica Mortensen, Andee Bott, Sarah Jarvis, Karen Murphy and Me and Kai. It was so fun to see all of them. We had amazing times together and I am so thankful that I had them as friends during that time. They are amazing women!

Papa, Puttchee, Tuffy and Kai run around Great Grandma Gardner's house!

We headed down to the Freedom Festival Parade. It was pretty crazy and we couldn't find a good spot but I wanted to start Kai on the tradition that I did every year growing up!

Sadie and Cory were brave enough to join me!

These two sure do love each other!

Kai, Ryann and Tracen all hang out on the 4th of July just enjoying the irrigation water an

That night we went over to the Cox's house with Megan and Trevan to watch them do fireworks. 

Trevan, Kaleigh, Megan, Emma!

While we were there we got to go to my cousin Jason's daughter's Cindy's wedding. I can't believe Cindy is old enough to be married. Made me feel so old!

Kai hangs out waiting for the happy couple with her two "other" Grandma's. Aunt Sylvia and Aunt Judy!

Me and my favorite little girlie!

Kai tried to get into the giant temple doors!

Uncle Kelly takes a break with Kai in the shade!

 Jenn and Kelly and Kai!

 Kaylee Pitts and Kai!

 My little cutie!

 The door knobs on the temple are so amazing!

 Love her cute little dress we got from our dear friend Joy Vink!

 Exploring the temple grounds!

Papa Gardner and Uncle J.R. chat under a tree!

 Watching the happy couple take their photos!

 Walking with aunt Judy

 We stopped in the genealogy center of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and played with some of the fun stuff there. 

 I had to get a shot of this. Since this was soon to be our new home state!

 I love to see the Temple

  Kai kept Photo Bombing Aunt Jenn and Uncle Kelly's photo!

The dinner was at the Joseph Smith Memorial building, I love this view of the Temple!

Kai with Cindy and her little Sister Kaylee.  The dinner was so nice and beautiful. Jordan and Cindy are going to be a fun couple!

 Of Course it wouldn't be a trip to Utah without playing with our Theler cousins as well! On the attack for Cole!

Hawaiian Adventure the 2nd beginning!

Now is where Jared comes into play. Jared was in the same singles branch as me the whole time but I never talked to him until March 19th. I had to give a talk in church and I guess previous to that Jared had noticed me but thought that I was a 19 yr. old and to young for him than after I gave my talk since I was so "mature" he thought I was older. The funniest thing is that he said he knew that I was older once he actually talked to me that day and noticed that I had wrinkles by my eyes. How sad that that is how he knew I was older. :)

After church that Sunday he invited Jamie and I over for some Navajo tacos at his place. I was just excited one: because I love food and after living in a hotel for 3 months I jumped at the chance and two: I found out he was an ENT doctor and of course I wanted to ask him about my chronic throat problems. At that point I hadn't really even thought about dating him, seeing as I was on a dating hiatus and just having fun.We hung out a few times and then I found out he listened to Patti Griffin and then I started to realize that we had a lot in common. Eventually he got the guts to ask me out. Our first date was on April 7th, we went to Haliewa Joe's and then hiked to some pillboxes that overlook the ocean and a couple of little islands. It was a great first date and we hit it off. Every thing else in my life was changing, the interns were all getting ready to go home and Jamie was leaving for a while so I was sad that everyone was leaving, but happy to have Jared around to keep me busy!

Right in the middle of all these changes these three guys came out to visit and we had an amazing time. Rob to my right was one of my best friends in SLC and was and is so dear to me. The other two are good friends too so we had a blast. I think we watched either the sunset or sunrise every single day they were here. We went and went and went, until my car died, then we went in my friend Ed's car.

We discovered this amazing breakfast place. Still to this day these pancakes rule the pancake world or should I say the Macadamia Nut sauce that goes on top rules the pancake world.

If you are every here on Oahu you must go here but expect a 1 to 1 1/2 hour wait. The place is called Boots N' Kimos and it is in Kailua. Yummy!!

The guys crashed in my hotel room, I kind of felt bad that I had this huge bed all to myself and they were all crammed on the floor, but hey it was a free place to stay in Hawaii. While they were out here I of course told them about Jared and that we had gone on date. One day we were hanging out in Chinatown and Jared called me to ask me on a second date, after that Rob told me that I was going to marry Jared and I thought that he could be right. On our second date we went Kite surfing or more kite flying on the beach. It was super fun and scary, those kites are strong! The third date we went to the golfing range, before I met Jared, I didn't like golf or golfers at all. I thought it was a stupid sport and that they were all snuty. I eventually really enjoyed golfing and became good at some parts of it.

Jamie moved back and we did a lot of hanging out on the beach!
No wonder I got so tan!

Jared and I spent all of our free time together and moved really quickly from dating to serious in just a few weeks.

Of course we had our rival going on, him in his BYU hoodie and me in my Utah hoody! Don't worry though, really I am still a cougar!

(Heather, ?, Helene, Me, Jamie, Brandi, Heidi)

The time eventually came that I my internship was coming to an end and by this point Jared and I were pretty much engaged, minus the ring and actual proposal. This was my first Aloha Oe and such a sad one. I loved all the people in my branch and was so sad of course to be leaving Jared.

Jared made this beautiful lei for me, isn't it pretty?

(Right after he proposed)

June 19th was my last day here and that night Jared recreated our whole first date except this time he brought his guitar and a shiny little rock with him. When we got to the pillbox, he sang some songs and then eventually got down on one knee and proposed. So crazy!! I was so scared, excited and nervous all at the same time.

The next morning I woke up with a sore finger, because the ring was so heavy since I wasn't used to wearing anything. I was all worried that I wouldn't even be able to wear it but eventually I got used to it. I flew back to Utah that morning having my whole life completely changed and no idea where I was going to live or work until Oct 7th which was the wedding date.

Pretty ironic that we leave exactly 4 years to the date of our engagement, June 19th!

Before and right after we got married I was not super excited about living in Hawaii for another 4 year. All of my good friends were moving off island so I was sad and felt very alone, now here I am totally sad to be leaving!
As I am writing this, I am sitting in our almost completely empty apt on our last night in it and cannot believe that our time here is over. It feels like we have been living in this weird dream world and now we are going back to reality. This is Home to us now. We have so many dear friends that we have made here. Hawaii is all that we have known together as a couple and it is scary to think that in a week we will get on a airplane with only a one-way ticket.

Hawaii has definitely been good to me and I will always have all the fond memories that I have made here. Can you imagine where I would be right now had I not decided to extend my internship, I definitely would not have this little squirt and I cannot imagine life with out her!

Soo Tired!!

Two Sundays ago, Kailie went to her first day of nursery and loved it. Usually I try to get her down for nap before church or she takes one during EQ/RS but she didn't take one in the morning and then she was in nursery so she didn't get one at all. We got home and had just over an hour until we were supposed to go to dinner at the missionary couples house in our ward so I didn't put her down, big mistake!! Right as we started eating dinner Kailie just started freaking out. She wouldn't eat, she didn't even want some of her favorite things. She threw her first full fledged temper tantrum that lasted the whole dinner. She just layed on the floor under our chairs kicking and screaming. It was pretty funny because we really didn't know what she wanted so we couldn't even calm her down. We had already given her her insulin so we knew that she needed to eat something. We offered her ice cream and brownies and she would't even eat those either. So we ended up leaving pretty fast to get her to calm down. Here is the hilarious video of her eating at home. Obvioulsy she was just super tired and melted down. FYI-I don't usually let Kailie eat in her Sunday dress but Jared was the one that set her up to eat and by then it was already all over her!!

Memorial Day

We have had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. We got to do a lot of hiking and and just spend time together as a family and with some great friends and it is all possible due to these men and women who gave their lives to keep us free.

Every year growing up we always went to the cemetery on Memorial Day to visit families graves but this was the first year that I got to go to a war memorial cemetery. Jared had never gone to a cemetery on Memorial day and he really enjoyed it. It was calm and peaceful and just made you think about those who came before.

At Punchbowl National Memorial Cemetery there are 30,000 soldiers along with some of their wives and children that are buried there. Every year the boy scouts place a flag and a flower lei onto every single grave.

I took this picture and when I got home I looked at it more closely and realized this young soldier died on his 24th birthday during WWII. So many of the WWII graves were young men in the prime of their lives and it just makes me grateful to them for their sacrifice.
May we always Remember their Sacrifice

Memorial Day Weekend Adventures

We had a really great Memorial day weekend even though Jared was on call. The best part is that this was Jared's LAST weekend of Call in residency and his last holiday call of residency!! WOHHOOO!! We are very excited about this and am grateful that the call pager was so nice to him to this weekend. Saturday night we hiked KOKOHEAD crater, this was mine and Kailie's second time doing this killer hike and Jared's first. He got the privilege of carrying the little squirt up it, I had my turn last time and we were both huffing and puffing the whole way.

We hiked it in the evening so it wasn't too hot and it was beautiful and nice to see a little bit of the sunset.

View at the top.


We hiked with our dear friends Andrea and Justin who we are going to miss so much here in a few weeks.

Sunday we just got to hang out together at home, which never happens on Sunday, it was nice and relaxing and gave our sore bodies a chance to recover for our next hike which we did on Monday.

We hiked to Maunawilli Falls and according to all the websites this was a nice, easy hike. Maybe it was just because we had a lot of kiddos with us but this hike did not seem easy and was definitely longer than we thought

But we eventually all made it! Jared enjoyed jumping off a really high cliff into the waterfall pool and Kailie enjoyed playing with Savannah in the water.

My good friend Mykel from SLC is here, she and her friends joined us on the hike. Her brother Rob also a very dear friend of mine came out here 4 years ago and we started this same hike but it was rainy and we decided not to finish it, so pretty ironic that I finally do the hike after all this time with Mykel.