Well, the last month has been a whirlwind, but the most exciting part was for sure that Justin graduated with his Doctorate of Physical Therapy!! It takes me back to the spring day in early 2003. Sitting on the grass at Scera park in Orem Utah with the boy that made my heart skip a beat, talking about future career plans.
I was so impressed to watch as he went though the process of picking an area in which to dedicate his life. I remember he was pretty intent on studying it out and doing his soul searching at the beginning so he wasn't changing his mind or his major in a few years. He looked to his examples and heros and those whose lives he wanted to emulate. He thought of his future family (i'm so grateful!) and what could make him truly happy. And, that was the beginning of our journey.
When you do something that takes 7 years it's easy to get lost somewhere in the middle. Somedays to feel like it might never end. That our lives would always be defined by semesters. Justin did wonderfully at BYU, with a needy wife and 2 jobs. It was a good part of our lives. Easy in retrospect. Then he started gradate school in a top rated program without so much as a weeks break. He did great, once again with a needy wife and 2 kids. I'd say it was the hardest and most rewarding season of our lives thus far. Why do those two always seem to go together? We know that this isn't our last hurdle, and that working and real life won't be without it's challenges, but I think we've started out on the right foot.
Thank you BYU, thank you Physical Therapy department at the University of Utah, Thank you everyone who gave us a chance or a helping hand or a word of encouragement, thank you family for the never ending support, thank you economy for being in a good place for us right now, thank you God for being in control of all of the above.
Thank you Justin for being my SK.
At the department hooding ceremony. As they were hooding him I realized that I never once doubted that this day would come and just how thankful I am to have been a part of it from the very beginning. I'm so proud of you!
Asher and Caleb are also very proud of Dr. Carrier! Way to go, dad!
Thanks for giving them such a wonderful example.
Oh, how I love you.
When we first moved here they were having unusually rainy weather. For about a week it rained everyday, but the great part is it only rains for a short time then it's beautiful the rest of the day. We like the rain so we loved every bit of it.
My boys have some super cool cousins. They really miss them and talk about them all a lot. It's especially awesome to me how highly they think of Andy. If it's cool then it must have been Andy's. If it's fun then Andy must have taught them how to do it. I grew up with fantastic cousins and I'm so glad that my kids have them too!
Asher and Caleb were really excited about getting mail from Lily and Andy at our new home in Washington. We love you Lily, Andy, Ben and Baby Grace!
Today we got to go see our baby girl in the ultrasound. It was so fun! We are so excited to be having a girl! A sister is just what we need. The doctors office is right across the street from Justin's work so he met us there. The boys were excited and they were so good while we were there. She looks healthy and whole and we feel so blessed once again. When the sonographer said that she was waving at us Caleb started waving back and yelling "hi". They are so happy for a sister and still insist her name should be "Jujigaka". 
Caleb really liked seeing her and was sad when it was time to leave. He didn't let go of the pictures for the next two hours until I finally made him take a nap without them. He was being silly in this picture with his sad little face....
Well, the last month has been a whirlwind, but the most exciting part was for sure that Justin graduated with his Doctorate of Physical Therapy!! It takes me back to the spring day in early 2003. Sitting on the grass at Scera park in Orem Utah with the boy that made my heart skip a beat, talking about future career plans. 
