a journey...

*this is the first picture i took with cam (taken by my college bf lindsay!)...we'd been dating for a month or so...

*this is the shed cam built in my dad's backyard...

to actually get my dad to talk to him.

*sometimes i look back and think i was a naive little girl to get married two months before my 20th birthday (yes i was 19 & yes i was naive)...but then i think about the past 10 years of my life and i'm very grateful to have every experience shared with my very best friend and eternal companion.

and so the journey began...i knew this cute first basemen when he was majoring in radio broadcasting...

...then he thought physical therapy was the way to go so he graduated with his bachelor's & had to go back and do two more years of undergrad...worked as an "administrative assistant" (aka receptionist) at an urgent care (DOCS ON CALL)...an awesome nurse (molly) trained him to be a medical assistant...and then he decided medical school was his dream...

...so he took some semesters of 20+ credits...we both worked for pennies & sometimes struggled to pay our $250 a month rent in our little apartment in grand junction...but enjoyed those rides up on the national monument in that beauty of a black jeep...and hoped one day things would work out...

i remember i got home from work first & saw the manila envelope...i called cam, he was working at st. mary's hospital as a phlebotomist...i raced up to the hospital...we met in the parking lot & he opened the envelope & we screamed to the top of our lungs!!! and yes, i made him take this picture on his first day at Midwestern University in Glendale, AZ...

...and so the medical school adventure began...these guys still think they are bad! we made some great friends, bought our first house, i got my first job as a labor & delivery nurse at maryvale, we luved our little chihuahua daphne, luved cam's scooter he drove to school, luved our ward and learned some valuable life lessons.

...and yes, these girls still think they are bad too...

had to post this cause it's comical.

...there is alot more to the story (deciding on a residency speciality, work stories, moving, interviewing for jobs, etc) but i won't bore you with details. it hasn't always been easy but then again, most things in life that are worth it...aren't usually that easily obtained. my mom always taught me that while enjoying life's moments, it's always fun to plan things for the future...which always helped us get through hard, lonely times...little trips, our family visiting us & family reunions, cam's days off (which weren't many), going on runs together, and i think the best things were the arrivals of:

savannah jaell march 2004

lucy larae september 2006

jillian alofa may 2009

*august 2008*

so cam, here's is to the last year of your residency...remember when the girls & i made that paper chain...seemed kinda long, now it's all gone. you did it!

i'm so proud of you...truly i am.

*september 2008*

*october 2008*

*november & december 2008*

*january & february 2009*

*march 2009*

*april 2009*

*may 2009*

*june 2009*

today is cam's last day of residency (nothing like ending on a 30 hour shift!). he woke me up this morning in the wee hours to take this little pic...hence we both look like we just woke-up.

i gave this quote to cam after he graduated with his bachelor's and realized he had to go back and do more undergrad work before applying to med school...which was slightly discouraging to him at the time...

but it's theme has stuck with us both throughout the journey.

“When things go wrong and they sometimes will. When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill. When the funds are low and the debts are high and you want to smile but you have to sigh. When care is pressing you down a bit, rest if you must but never quit. Life is queer with its twist and turns as everyone of us sometimes learns. And many a failure turns about when he might have won if he’d stuck it out. Stick to your task, though the pace seems slow – You may succeed with one more blow. Success is failure turned inside out. The silver tint of the clouds of doubt. And you never can tell how close you are – it may be near when it seems afar. So stick to the fight when you are hardest hit…It’s when things seem worst that
You Mustn’t Quit!”