So, it's been a year.  Well, it's been longer than that. But it's been a year since my Dad got some incredible new cells growing inside his bones.  What more could you need for a celebration???  My parents have been going non stop since the beginning of summer. They have been jet setting all over the states.  They wanted to do something to celebrate this momentous occasion so they decided to throw a party.  I didn't think I could make it. We had a lot of traveling coming up and it was a very expensive flight.

Friday night before the party Ryan and I got to go out on a date here at home. We went to see a comedian, he was hilarious. The whole night, I had this nagging feeling. I was missing this party and I really shouldn't be missing it. It was a big deal, even though Mom tried to make it okay that I was missing it. I couldn't handle it. I asked Ryan if I was being ridiculous, he said it was important that I go if I felt that strongly about it. Saturday morning I woke up at an insane hour and couldn't go back to sleep. I checked airline flights for that day, I called Uncs, I texted my cousin Steven, I tried to go back to sleep. I went back to the computer and I booked a ticket. I was going to leave in a few hours for a less than 24 hour trip to Arizona. I couldn't have been more excited.

Uncs was coming to pick me up. Uncs and Auntie don't like surprises, so I knew it would be tough!  I threw Olivia in the mix because it's important not to show up empty handed when visiting the grand parents. So we hopped on the plane and landed in Arizona about two hours before the party started.

When I walked in the door, Mom's back was to me and I yelled out 'I hear there's a party here tonight!'.  The look on her face and my Dad's face when he woke up was worth every penny. I was so happy I could make it and be there to celebrate with everybody. Some people had never met Olivia and she of course delighted the crowd. She and her cousin Brody got the dancing gene and spent most of their time on the dance floor (yeah, I was there too!). It was a great night and wonderful morning with Mom and Dad and the rest of the family. I had been homesick for Phoenix so it was perfect timing.

We all know how rough the last 18 months have been for my parents. I always loved a good hug from my Dad and it's even more special when I get one now. It's hard to think he spent any time sick from this leukemia shenanigans because looking at him now, he seems relatively unscathed.  I'm so happy we are celebrating the one year anniversary of something so amazing and can't wait to spend the next twenty years doing the same.  Dad, you know I love you more than anything.

Enjoy the pictures my Mom took... I didn't have a camera!

~Ahna

What?!?! Ryan is 30! My aunts and uncles came up for a visit last week (well, like two weeks ago now, I'm a little behind). They took a few days to hang out at the coast... and they took a few days to WATCH OUR KIDS! 


I took Ryan on a surprise birthday trip up to the Olympic National Park in Washington. There are a few rain forests there and a hot springs and the ocean... but more importantly... it's the birthplace of a little known book called TWILIGHT. I thought the website for the hotel we were staying in was cute because it discussed Forks, WA being the setting for the books and how this particular bed and breakfast 'slightly resembled' the Cullen House but it was definitely not affiliated in any way with Twilight, yada yada yada. We pull up to the house and this is the conversation that ensues.


Ryan: Um, the guy is in the window.
Me: What guy?
Ryan: The guy from the movie.
Me: What? That's impossible, they just said it kind of resembled the house.
Ryan: Yeah, it's him, you'll see.
Me (after getting out of the car and seeing 'the guy'): AYKM? Is that a life size cutout of Robert Pattinson??? That's...phenomenal.


So, it turns out, the bed and breakfast actually vomited Twilight paraphernalia. Every room had the books and the DVDs (even the 'Making of' DVDs that nobody ever watches). Each room also gave you the chance to pick a particular character and put that on the door of your room. The rooms were even named for certain characters (only some of them, which threw me off a bit when booking... like maybe they weren't TOTALLY obsessed with Twilight).  At any rate, I'm sure Forks, WA did exist prior to Twilight, but it wasn't nearly as cool.  There are stores that carry just Twilight related things (and I'm sure plenty of non-Twilight things that they just made up for tourism purposes). We got over all this very quickly and then it became hilarious.  Funny enough for me to get out of the car and stand in front of a huge Twilight sign for a picture! 


We quickly started our exploring on Saturday morning. The sun was out for most of the day on our 8-ish mile hike to Deer Lake.  So much green and so much water, the sound of it followed us the entire way.  When we sat down to breakfast the next morning (where the eggs were named after Edward or some Twilight character), the hotel inn keeper asked us how our hiking was the day before so we told him it was beautiful and we went to Deer Lake. He seemed impressed, as was I. I thought I would be a lot more sore after that hike, but it worked in my favor.  These trees are amazing.  They are huge, hundreds of feet in the air.  On our drive, there were signs everywhere that talked about cutting the trees and replanting. They use that whole area to grow trees for the rest of the country. It was kind of cool to see where one huge area was cut down back in 2000 and then replanted in 04.  You could see how they had already started growing tall again.  We definitely want to go back to spend more time in the rain forest and hope we get to do the trip soon.  A lot of what we saw was like a different world and we didn't get enough discovering done!


The Aunties and Uncles got a lot of time with the kids and the kids were wonderful for them. They hopefully enjoyed their week up here... even though they spent much of it babysitting!! In other news, Cooper started preschool!! I still remember the day he was born, I can't believe he's in school! He seems to be doing really well with it so far. Olivia is walking all over the place even though she continues to resemble a drunken sailor more than a tiny dancer.  


~Ahna & Ryan

So, every year we go back to Arizona for a very special reason. It's to visit Ryan's grandma in Pinetop. Pinetop is special to us in many ways; it is always so relaxing and peaceful... or it was until a little thing called kids came along. Take this picture for instance, it looks like a great walk around a fun lake in Pinetop right? If you were there though, very shortly after this picture was taken Cooper had a meltdown where he decided to just stand in one place not moving for what felt like hours but was probably five minutes. He didn't care that we all kept going or that he almost couldn't see us anymore, he just didn't want to come with us. Then, Olivia decided she was done being carried and wanted to walk, only she can't; minor details.  It was as if she was yelling at us that of course she knew how to walk and all we had to do was put her on the ground so she could show us just how good she was at it.


It's okay. We decided to cook in more than we ate out, because Olivia likes to crawl OUT of her high chair.  And we walked around the golf course by the house instead of going on hikes because Olivia likes to put EVERYTHING in her mouth; duck feathers? Sure, bird droppings? Most likely.  


Here's something else; I'm writing the blog and thinking about what to say next when Ryan walks in behind me, looks at the picture and says, 'oh yeah, the disaster walk'... but I digress.  


They're kids, babies really, they're bound to have off days... or four in a row, not that anybody was counting. It wasn't all bad. Cooper LOVED getting in GG's hot tub. He asked every day to go in the 'hot pool' and he learned how to blow bubbles! This is huge progress and it will be great for him when he starts swim lessons in October (with his preschool class!). Ryan made it to a hike in Greer one morning where he took pictures of what the fire left behind earlier this summer. We took Cooper to the go karts in town and he LOVED them! Our sweet Olivia took some steps! On the last night, we were sitting on the floor and she saw me, took about four steps and gave me a hug. I looked at Ryan to see if he saw it but he didn't. Then only a few minutes later, she took about 6 steps toward me and everybody saw it! It was as if she won an oscar. We all got huge smiles on our faces and started yelling and screaming and clapping our hands. Well she turned around to face us and had the HUGEST open mouth smile I have ever seen. She knew exactly what had happened and she stood there clapping right along with us. It was an amazing moment. I don't know that I'll ever forget the look on her face. She was so proud. 


We made it back to Phoenix for our last day so we could spend some time with my family and with our best friends the Smiths/Pickards/Kolsons. Yeah, it used to just be the Smiths but we all grew up, got married, got rid of our maiden names (tears), and had babies. For whatever reason I didn't get the camera out so all the pictures of that night are logged away in my memory (or on a future email from somebody that did take pictures). I loved this night. I felt like I got a chance to talk to most everybody for a little bit and I got to watch the kids play. We got to see Olivia and Toni and even Connor take a few steps. The boys played together (the little boys AND the big boys).  At one point, we were eating dinner and a hush came over the crowd. Colette looked at Courtney and me and said, 'hey, look who's at the adult table' and we realized that all us kids had taken over the adult table at my house and our parents (and the other actual adults) were at the 'kid' table. We get it; we're adults now, but I don't think we always GET IT. I still sometimes look at both babies and can't believe they're mine and that I have kids of my own. It was just yesterday I was sitting at that kid table with Colette and Courtney and my brother while we plotted out our next move for the night. Would it be 'Ditch Em' in the back yard, or Atari... oh wait, my house didn't have video games until Nintendo. I'll always look forward to our 'Friday Night Party Nights' no matter how few and far between they are. It will be so great watching our kids grow together.


It was a great vacation away and it was also nice to be back home.  This weekend, Ryan and I are celebrating something special. 10 years ago on Labor Day weekend, we went camping with a bunch of friends. This curly haired sophomore sat down in front of me that night and with a little bit of liquid courage asked me what he should do about a girl he liked. I still remember every detail about that moment. So, we're celebrating 10 years of dating the same way it all started... camping.


~Ahna