After much research and debate, Melissa and I decided to take some time off and take the kids to Disneyland. It is amazing how difficult it can be at times to get both of our schedules in sync to actually pull off a trip like this. We left on a Wednesday afternoon (right after Caden was done with school) and started driving straight through. Melissa, bless her heart, shouldered the responsibility of keeping the kids entertained on the drive down. She created a paper timeline that she taped to the roof of the car so the kids could track our progress from home to Disneyland. For every 50 miles we traveled, we were able to move the Lightning McQueen and there yet”, though once the first one came out, they didn’t stop for a while. The kids were pretty good and we were able to drive straight to St. George before stopping for gas or food. After McDonald’s in St. George (because of the playground), we were back on the road. At this point it was getting dark so we pulled out the portable DVD player and let them watch Tinkerbell. After that was over the kids started to fall asleep. The only incident we had was after leaving Las Vegas, Caden decided that he needed to go potty now!! Well, we didn’t have much place to stop, so we told him to hold it in. By the time we got to the next available restrooms, he was asleep, so we forgot all about his need to go potty. To make a longer story short, he ended up having a little accident about 20 seconds before we arrived at a restroom.
Wednesday night we arrived at our hotel, Portofino Inn and Suites. Melissa selected this hotel because it had bunk beds in a separate room for the kids. The kids were exhausted that night so we quickly put them to bed. The next morning we were going to Disneyland with one of our early morning passes. We got dressed and headed over to Disneyland!!
We said hi to Goofy just inside the main doors in front of the large Christmas tree and the magic began!! The kids were really excited!! Whenever we would see and/or meet one of the Disney characters, Caden would always ask, “Are they real?” or “Why can’t they talk?” I think we were able to convince him, to his satisfaction, that they were indeed real.
The kids loved every minute of Disneyland, though, I think Melissa enjoyed it more. In the evenings, I would take Katherine (and sometimes Caden) back to the hotel so they could sleep, while Melissa would stay and play until Disneyland officially closed.
On our way home, we had a little mishap - a small fender-bender (3 mph) that did enough damage somehow to not allow us to drive the car home. We then re-checked into the hotel (it was a Sunday) so I could attempt to get it fixed the next day. To make a long story short, we ended up driving a rental car home and I came back a week and a half later to pick up our 'fixed' car. Definitely a vacation that we will not soon forget.
Fowler Family
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Disneyland!!
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Pow Wow
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
Friday, July 18, 2008
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
8th Anniversary Today!!
Today is our 8th Anniversary! It is hard to believe that we have actually been married that long. As I think back over our 8 years of marriage, I have thought about our many experiences together.
The picture above was from our trip to Florida last year - just the two of us for almost a whole week. It was a lot of fun to have time by ourselves (though, we must admit that we did think about the kids quite a bit). Below are a few other pictures from that trip to Florida.
On that trip we went on a segway tour, ate at the Beech Street Grill (which had the yummiest food ever) and spent time in the ocean.
As I think about our years of marriage, I cannot help but think how grateful I am for Melissa and the great job she does as a mother to our children. I am also very grateful that our kids got her good looks. She understands them in a way that only a mother can.
Melissa hates being photographed, but I think she looks great in all of her pictures (even if she was not looking). Below she is getting ready to roll eggs on Easter with her family. We have enjoyed spending Sunday evenings with one or both of our families. We are pretty lucky to have such great parents who sacrifice so much for us.
We have started a few traditions in our marriage (or at least tried to start some) and one of those is the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point. Melissa loves tulips, so I figured I had better at least display one picture from our last trip to the Tulip Festival. Believe it or not, I actually enjoyed being there and seeing all of the tulips and other flowers.
I don't have all of our pictures with me right now, but I wanted to go down memory lane and share some of the experiences we have had in our first eight years of marriage (with many more to come).
- First apartment on campus at the University of Utah married student housing: 350 square feet surrounded by cinder block walls. No air conditioner, no dishwasher (a few scars on my hand as proof - when a glass broke in my hand), no carpet, a tiny TV, a tiny bathroom (with the falling out of the shower experience), and our first kiss in that apartment in the bathroom (sorry sweetie).
- Caden - a great surprise: Caden came as a surprise to both of us, but we have loved having him in our lives. He was a big chunk from day one and our Bishop thought he would play football at the U (luckily, he started crawling and walking and stopped gaining weight). He spit up over all of our clothes (some of which I think are still stained). I stopped wearing suits to church when he was a baby because I was tired of having them ruined. After Caden was born Melissa somehow managed to work and go to school. She is amazing.
- Graduation: I graduated in Accounting from the University of Phoenix and Melissa graduated with her Doctor of Pharmacy from the University of Utah. People ask us how we were able to do this and my response has typically been, "we didn't have a lot of time together, but we knew that it would be worth it." Now that we are both finished with school (at least for now) and making money for a change, it was worth it.
- Vacations: Disneyland with her family, Denmark at the last minute (sorry Melissa I didn't let you see all the sights you wanted to see), Homestead Resort (horseback riding), Park City, St. George (Tuacahn theatre), Zions National Park, Philadelphia, Florida (x 2), Denver, and many more to come.
I could go on forever about our many experiences. Happy anniversay Melissa. I look forward to many more years to come. I would be lying if I said that these past eight years have been perfect, but I do feel that I know you much better now than I did before and I love you more now than ever before. Thanks for your patience with me (that is the real reason we have made it this far).
Our journey together is just beginning. . .
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