Koen Evan Smith

Everyone, meet Koen Evan Smith. He was born on August 30th at about 4:40 am. He was 3 weeks early and he is perfect! Welcome to the world Koen! You were born into a strange family but we're fun and we sure do love you!

5 Years

Today was our anniversary. We've been married for 5 years and while sometimes it's been hard and life hasn't turned out how we planned, it's been a great 5 years. So at the risk of sounding cheesy, thanks Zach. You're the best and I love you.

One Year

Our fake family photo. We took a similar one last year with Jude.

I recently had my white coat pinning ceremony. The actual pinning doesn't mean very much except that I've made it through my first year of PA school. Probably the hardest year of my life and hopefully one day I will be able to say it was worth it. Now if I can just make it through one more!

Happy Father's Day

This is my dad.  He's a superhero.  Now, not everyone is lucky enough to have a superhero for a dad.  I am.  Since today is Father's Day, I thought I'd take the time to tell everyone a little bit about him.

Squareknot has many super powers:

Life Saving.  Squareknot worked very hard and sacrificed much to develop this power.  As a child I remember Squareknot ripping the ears off my stuffed bunny so he could practice sewing them back on.  This is the level of commitment he has shown to his super power of life saving.  I hope one day to be as good at saving lives as he is.  

Teaching.  This may seem like a strange super power but that is because it is so rare these days.  Being a teacher is one of SK's greatest powers.  He is always teaching.  Growing up I sometimes didn't appreciate being woken up at 6:00 am on a Saturday etc. but I now know that Squareknot was using his superpower to help me learn important lessons.  

Defying Death. Squareknot has defied death many times.  Just ask him.  He's been in snowstorms on the top of a mountain and almost died...but didn't.  He's gone on an 18 mile hike with a  98% blocked artery in his heart and almost died...but didn't.  I highly encourage anyone to ask Squareknot about his superpower of defying death; just make sure you have lots of time to listen.  I'm glad I've had the chance to witness some of these events because it has given me a love of adventure!

These are just 3 of Squareknot's superpowers.  A few others are cooking, knot tying, working, knowledge, wisdom, story telling, encouraging and the list goes on and on.  If you want to learn more, check out his super hero tutorial.

 Happy Father's Day Squareknot!  You sure are my hero!

Providencia

A few years ago Zach and I hiked the Inca trail.  While on the hike a couple told us of a small Colombian island off the coast of Nicaragua called Providencia.  It's the third largest reef in the world next to Australia and Beliz.  This year when trying to decide where to go on vacation we remembered their suggestion and decided to go.  It was quite the adventure.  We ended up having an island pretty much all to ourselves for a week.

It took 4 plane rides to get there, the last of which was in this tiny little thing.  I was terrified but it was actually not too bad.

This is the place we stayed.  We had made reservations at another place but it was very far from town, pretty much everything so we went here instead.  It was awesome.  We had a room on the third floor that overlooked the beach.  Did I mention there is not a single shower with hot water in all the hotels on the island.   

This was my favorite beach, Southwest Bay.  We spent most of our afternoons here.  There were times when we literally were the only people on this beach.  That was a little weird at first and definitely took some getting use to.

Our second day we took a boat tour of the island.  One of the stops was a tiny island called Crab Caye.  It had beautiful views from the top and we got to snorkel all around it.  

One of the days we hiked around a small island connected to Providencia by a makeshift bridge called Santa Catelina.  It is famous for being the place that Pirate Morgan had landed and hidden treasure.  You can see the cannons etc.  There's a rock formation that they call Morgan's head that we snorkeled out to.  

Another fun thing we did was hike to the top of the Peak.  It's the highest point on the island and ended up being about 8 miles round trip.  We had a native guide who spoke very broken English but was so friendly and so much fun.  He knew everything and even opened a coconut up for us to drink and eat on the way down.  This is a view from the top.

The next day we did another hike around the Lagoons of the island.  This was my favorite hike.  It had great views of the reef and the water.  These island are the 3 Brothers Caye.  No one is allowed near them because of some birds that live on them.  While hiking by the water we also saw some turtles and a huge sting ray.  Our guide was a local guy they call Nino.  He was very rasta.  

This island is famous for their crabs.  Every year starting now the crabs come down from the mountains to the beach, leave their eggs and head back up to the mountains.  There are crabs everywhere and when I say everywhere, that's what I mean.  They are all over the road, walls, trees...everything!  This pic barely gives you the idea of what it is really like.  NUTS!

Our last day on the island we rented a scooter and went all around.  There is only one road on the island and it goes all the way around.  Zach drove and I got to tell him to stop wherever I wanted so I could take way to many pictures.  Most people on the island get around by moto so there are a thousand scooters on the road.  

It rained on the island almost every day we were there.  That was a little frustrating but we managed just fine.  The one thing I was disappointed about was that there was no sunset when it rained.  I love sunsets and wanted to see one.  Thankfully, it cleared up on the last day we were there and there was a spectacular sunset!

Some of my other favorite things about the trip

1. FOOD!  The food was amazing!  Fresh fish, crab, shrimp, lobster...you name it, they had it and it was fabulous!

2. Language.  The island has 3 languages: English, Spanish, and an English Creole mix. It was amazing to hear the natives speak this language.  I couldn't understand a word.

This was a great trip!  I remembered how much I love adventure.  I'm already starting to plan our next big one!

Birthweek

Yesterday was my birthday.  It was a great day but the great thing about it was that it was the end of about a week long celebration.

Last Thursday Mom and Dad, Tessa and Zach surprised me with a trip to the Melting Pot.  I've always wanted to go there.  It was amazing!  We spent almost 3 hours eating.  Who could ask for anything better?

We started with 2 kinds of cheese and breads and veggies and chips.  Then we moved on to the main course.    This is Zach with his tempura battered broccoli.  

Mumsy and Papi at the end of the dinner portion.  They look like they are in a food coma because they are.

I got 5 chocolate covered strawberries that were as big as my head.  They went great with the white chocolate fondu and the smores fondu.  It was awesome!!!

On Saturday Zach's mom and dad came down and took us out to dinner.  We went to a little burger joint in Scottsdale called Delux.  It was awesome.  The chi was amazing and they had some of the best french fries I've ever had!

Monday night Tessa came over and read me Dr. Seuss's happy birthday story.  All I can say is that I'm glad I'm not 3 baked potatoes.

Tuesday morning Zach woke me up with breakfast in bed.  He made cottage cheese pancakes!  I spent a day at school.  My school friends took me out to lunch.  Then for dinner we did the traditional Joe's restaurant trifecta starting at Joe's Farm Grill.  

Desert of Salt River bars at Liberty Market.

And dinner for today at Joe's BBQ.

It was a great birthweek.  What more can a girl ask for?

12 Years!

Wednesday we celebrated Preston's 12 year anniversary of his heart transplant.  I think it's been a great 12 years.  The party consisted of good people, gourmet soda and Tessa red velvet cake.  I think those 3 things are perfect for a party celebrating Preston's life.  

Here's to another 12 + years better than the last.

Mindi and Jude.  Jude was way to into his cookie to smile.

The red velvet cake complete with Zelbie decor.  Yes, the fox is giving the owl his heart. (The cake was amazing by the way.)

Do you think this could be Preston's son?

And this pretty much sums it up!