The Luckiest

Timeline

Well as most of you have noticed we've been absent the past few months and I can say the reason for that is 9 parts lethargy 1 part carpetbaggery (I like this word. I know it makes no sense).

So in lieu of our absence I am posting the mega posts of all posts.
A display of all that is beautiful and important in this world (according to us at least).
A surefire blog stalker dream come true that will knock your friggin socks off.

So the following is a timeline of our life since you last blog-stalked us (As far as I know, my brother-in-law Clint coined this phrase. Who hasn't been tempted to jump from blog to blog seeing if anyone has posted a new picture of their kid's on a playdate at the park with cousin Jimmy or their excursion with grandma to the local petting zoo? I'm definitely guilty).

April 28-June 6Nothing interesting or blogworthy happened, sorry.

June 6-June13--Hawaii
Kelti and I were lucky enough to go to Hawaii for a week and we had a blast. Here we are at the Laie temple.


Some of you may remember Elder Vola Vola, he served in our ward back in San Rafael. This is him with us at the Polynesian Cultural Center. He was by far the best Fijian dancer with his group. His back was really sweaty though.

This is just a good picture of us at Waikiki Beach.


We had our first trip to Benihana's. It was tons of fun. Here's our cook Blake slicin up some onions and making a volcano. We even were sitting at the same table as another dentist from Bakersfield, CA. Kelti wanted me to talk to him about jobs in Bakersfield until I informed her my mom calls it the armpit of Cali. Sorry if you're from there.

We went snorkeling just off the coast of Kailua Bay. Recognize those mountains? Part of the TV show "Lost" are filmed right there, I think that's Hurley's golf course and where they filmed some of the airplane scene's with the African guy, I forget his name. The guides told us on the way back in that Kailua Bay is also the mating ground for Hammerhead sharks and that mating season began a week before we got there. They told us a few had swam in between Kelti and I. No pictures of the sharks.


These two pictures are of Lanakai on the windward side of Oahu. Best beach I've been to hands down. It was a nice peaceful way to end the trip.




June 13 and June 15 (The 14th didn't get skipped it has it's own section) -- Graduation
We got home from Hawaii and went to the Alumni Banquet at the SF Ritz Carlton. Kelti looked beautiful and it was a fun night. I wish I could post about 30 pictures of us and our friends at the banquet. It was bittersweet knowing it was the last time we would be with them. We miss them and we think about them almost daily when Ben asks why Hadley and Evan aren't at the pool or church. Yeah, I know, it's sad. We had an awesome 3 years in school.

Thanks to my Uncle Bill and Aunt Debbie who made the 3 hour drive from Fresno to be at my graduation. It was great to visit with them again and they helped out a ton with our kids, they really are like a 3 person job anyways.




June 14th--Emme's Birthday Bonanza
We missed Emme's birthday while in Hawaii, so we celebrated it when we had Gramma and Gramma Palmer and Sean and Kelsey for one day before they went to Hawaii for Sean's regional soccer tournament (I live all my soccer fantasies vicariously through him, check out his team here). Emme is at a fun age. She's old enough to know it was her special day and she liked being the princess, but she's not old enough to really beg for toys or milk it. Gramma brought a car full of toys for her anyways. Instead of a cake, Kelti made a platter of Oreos, Emme's favorite cookie. Kelti really put alot of energy into that.

We love our Emme Rose. Thank you Gramma and Kelsey for watching the kids while we were partying in Hawaii and being so good to us. June 16-Present day--Arizona
Once graduation was over we decided that moving to Arizona would be a smart move . We've been here since the beginning of July and so far we've really liked it. We're renting a house in Mesa, near the temple. Yeah, it's the ghetto. We're hoping to buy soon though in Gilbert or around there, hopefully the kids won't be fluent in gang sign language before then. We're adjusting still to the weather, we got the kids into swimming lessons and there are some fun swimming pools in the area and there is actually plenty of opportunity for them to play outside. Ben and Emme love their new backyard, it's the first one they've had. We're also lucky to have the Thompsons close by and some other friends from school live not too far.
I start work in a week and a half at Gentle Dental in Mesa 3 days a week and I'll be working with another dentist the rest of the time which will hopefully turn in to a full-time thing. Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed the time off, but I feel like a slug just bumming around the house. I think Kelti will be happy to have one less child to care for as well. So things are good here. We feel very blessed. Who knows how we ended up here or if we'll be here forever, but it's great for now.

July 22-July 30--Utah
We figured since we had lots of time on our hands and didn't have work yet, it would be a good time to visit Utah. It had been almost a year and a half since going back and I didn't realize how much I missed it. Everything was so green, the mountains were beautiful and we finally got to be together with the entire Palmer clan. I-15 still sucks worse than any freeway during rush hour.

Ben and Emme spent the entire time playing outside with their brothers, that's what Ben calls his cousins, Payton, Addison and Ella. The kids ate about 30 popsicles each over 7 days and they made sure to share with whoever wanted a lick. Gramma got up with them every morning so it was another nice break for Kelti and I and I got to see Seaner play with his team in a tournament in Layton (They won the tournament and went without being scored on in 5 games. Sean was solid, he didn't miss a single 50/50 header and he even scored in the final from about 35 yards out).

The whole family went to the Gateway on the new Frontrunner train. Ben was very excited, as were Payton and Addison. We went to the Children's Museum and played in the fountain and Kelti discovered something earth shattering about one of her college friends (you're gonna need to ask her about it). The day before we went to Cherry Hill, formerly Utah's fourth greatest water park. We had lots of fun until someone decided to puke in the kiddie wading pool and they shut half the park down. It's things like that that make you realize how fragile our society really is.