cel-e-brate good times, come on...

lots of pics = a good time!

our freeze family reunion is always during the 4th of july and usually in provo but this year we all flew to chicago to spend the holiday with my sister amy and her family. we all crashed at her beautiful home and let's just say it was slightly wild...thanx for being a great host am, we had a blast!

..the cubbies were out of town but that didnt stop this die hard from making the trek to wrigley to purchase some gear and take in the sites. the boys did make it to a sox's game for "boys night out" and my dad even caught a foul ball, booyah!

...a day at lincoln park zoo...it's pretty amazing, it is right down town and it is free to get into the zoo so there are all these different entry's around the park, just open gates. you can take paddle boats from the zoo out to a stretch towards the city buildings, cool.

4th activities: sparklers...but even better in the mid-west liGhtENing buGs! savannah was amazed and collected a few in a jar! a great water balloon toss game, celebrating ty's 10th birthday, pizza from mancinis!, awesome park with fountains & a game of baseball...

...the oak park parade, matching outfits for the cousins (thanx nanny!), an early morning run "4 on the 4th"...some of the little guys even came at 6:30am for the fun run...can't you tell they were happy! the race was legit, a perfect way to start the day!

...a day down at the navy pier...matching outfits (again, nanny you really are the best), hotdogs at parky's, a ride on the ferris wheel - beautiful scenery of downtown, kids going on the drop ride, the children's museum (totally awesome, a must do if in chicago!), odd pirate acts...seriously a pirate was hitting on my sister emily and it was scary.

...girls night out! dinner at the grand lux, shopping, and dessert at the signature room while we watched the nightly firework show from navy pier. the signature room is located on the 95th floor of the hancock tower in downtown. it has the most amazing view of the city, we all went out to eat there the night before we left...phenomenal as cam would say.

...park & pool obviously a fam favorite and perfect weather (go amy!). one of my favorite parts of the week is when cam put together a slide show at the end of the week with all our pictures...he set it up outside on the projector and we watched it after the fireworks...it was legit babe!

savannah & ellie thought they were so funny on the airplane, they kept beggin me to take pictures of them making silly faces...they were laughing so loud, it was cute. how sweet is miss mallory, she will be ONE this week!

...i did my danskin tri the weekend before we left for chicago. lindsey & emily came in for the weekend. emily had done it before but it was mine and lindsey's first tri. it was so awesome! we had a blast...it was a bit of a bummer because they ended up shortening the swim because race officials felt the water was too cold (which we didn't think it was bad at all and we are kinda wimps when it comes to cold water!)...but it really was a perfect race day. we all decided to stay together and finish together (click), so it was pretty cool to keep a look out for each other and keep each other going!it was so freakin comical when we headed off on our bikes, lindsey comes riding up next to me a few minutes into it and her helmet was on backwards...i'm like, check it...your helmets on backwards! she was all miffed and "i know! people keep telling me!" she was too focused to stop and change it so all throughout the bike people kept saying, "do you know your helmets on backwards?" i sure luved racing though and hope i can do it more* hope you all had a great 4th, sorry for the novel.

question "tell me what you think"

*okay so i'm a nurse, blah blah blah. but lately i've been getting irRitaTeD at work by a couple things, for instance...i have a patient the other day who had severe, severe HELLP (pre-eclamptic, etc...SICK) okay and when i say sick, i mean not good...her platelets were 14 (should be 100). so then you have the husband, sitting on the lounge chair listening to his i-pod in the corner...i've just told his wife she cant have an epidural because her platlets are so low...she's crying...so while i'm sweating taking care of his wife and making sure she remains alive...he has the gaul to say to me as i'm emptying the foley catheter "guess that's probably not your favorite part of the job...gross huh?". um...did he just say that to me? okay now he is dead to me and i might kick him where it counts. additional instance, this time of the year at the hospital we get new interns (new docs fresh out of med school). gotta give em a break right...okay my little mom today was the sweetest little thing...but her labor turned into a nightmare to put it lightly. she pushed for 3 hours (epidural not working), had a forcep delivery, baby's first minute apgar was 2, and to top it off she had a 3rd degree tear. so the intern after watching the doc sew her back up and leave the room, he says, "well good, that's all over, you gotta feel better now". What, What the H did you just say...her bottom is swollen up like a hot dog bun, her baby is just now starting to turn pink, and she doesn't even realize what hit her. i'm not even going to go into the bi-polar patient i had the other day whose boyfriend ate licorice all afternoon while lounging out in tight jeans and watching jerry springer. It's like mayday-mayday to the male race...watch out or this nurse is going to start turning medieval on your butts.

...sound off my friends, anything "fun" irritating you lately :)
ps. im doing my first sprint tri this weekend "sink or swim" is my motto
pss. okay so addressing my irritability, i've been telling myself it's one of two choices: medication or a vacation so our whole family is headed to chi-town for vacation next week & the 4th, booyah
pss. my sister amy was a question on jeopardy last week, under the category "making sense"

*dont mess.

sPf

*who doesn't luv summer...and if you don't please don't tell me because i'm in denial that someone could actually not luv this rockin time of year...

*vannah's first official "dance camp" at heritage high school...go belles! she went for three days with her cousin morgan and gave a legit performance to 'material girl'! cam had to pretty much straight jacket lucy because she wanted to get down on the floor and dance with her sis!

*parks, parks, parks

*lucy-lu saying hi to doggy's on their morning walks and "search, pondering, and praying" with her church books

*denver's SUMMER SOLSTICE RACE to fight melanoma. my sister amy flew into town to be apart of this race (like she has for the past 11 years). the race was founded in 2000 to focus the public's attention to the dangers of exposure to the sun (melanoma is significantly higher in colorado than the rest of the nation). it is in honor of kristin michelle o'connor (foundation) who died at the young age of 31 from skin cancer. founded by bruce fierst, her fiancee at the time of her death...who has become one of my sisters close friends. life is short...seems lately i've been learning that lesson more and more, you never know what path life is going to take you on. live and enjoy it. thanx bruce for letting us be apart of the amazing evening!

*jess, morgan dominated the fun run, marie coming straight from work to join in!

*we luv you daddy...get to playin that new Uke.

*what's the big deal it's JUNE right? WRONG! the count down is on for cam to be done with residency...he had his end of the year spring fling...coming off a 30 hour shift, he played some golf, had a picnic/softball game at the park downtown, and a fun night on the town with his end of the year banquet. we took the light-rail downtown and as we were riding, we realized we hadn't been out on a date since january, for his winter banquet...we are going to start working on that one. it's been quite a journey and i feel like a little kid waiting for christmas...i might actually make one of those paper chains for the year - one for each month!

a little bliss*

*bliss...so it's official and kinda short notice but we bought a house, packed up, unpacked, and MOVED IN! we luv our new house and our favorite part (besides the fact that it is within walking distance of my sister Jess!) the backyard! Vanny had some of her crew over this week for an afternoon of slip-n-slide! check out the video...sorry but i thought it was backyard classic :) *thanx em for taking vanny for the week, mom & dad for coming in for the weekend, sarah & tami for the extra hours you gave me to get things done kidless!

*bliss...cute cousins in matching outfits with chubby legs!

*bliss...falling asleep with Vanny on the couches after a long day of play.

*bliss...a weekend in Provo with bbf's Matt & Emily to participate in the Utah County Amazing Race. We hiked the Y, went down the Free Fall at Seven Peaks, rode tandem bikes around BYU campus at night, walked lamas, caught fish, ate a quart of ice cream in no time at all (pretty much did that one by myself), did some super fast bowling, canoed, rock climbed (wont go there), argued and yelled at each other just like they do on the show, rafted down the Provo River, biked up at Sundance, learned how to play guitars, played pool and wallyball, ate shrimp tacos from Bajios, ate crickets at the historic Lehi museum, visited a Lavender farm in Mona, got only 3 hours of sleep, shopped at a yard sale, paddle boated, ate more ice cream...just to name a few...whoever said that Utah County was boring..I now have a complete new list! We came in 6th out of 30 teams...not bad...it was such a cool event...raceallnight.com

*pre-race planning...yeah im weird.

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*that's right im cramping up on my side...give a girl a break,

can you say dehydration?!

*bliss...my girls have been giving me a run for my money (sanity) lately. i took lucy's binki away 3 days ago because it had gotten to a point where #1 it was causing family panic & tension when we would get into stores and didn't have one handy and she would go ballistic / freak-out AND #2 she has been starting to talk to me with it in her mouth, um yeah....so i gave it up...against my will. she only slept for 3 hours the first night yelling "momma, my binki" over and over...i almost cracked at 4am but made it thru. the next day she asked for it constantly and i kept telling her it was broken and finally savannah said, "can't you just get her a new one?"!!! but good news my friends, she didnt even ask for it when i put her to bed tonight. my girls really are my bliss...when life seems too hectic and im all overwhelmed...i see them going down the slip-n-slide over and over and over again...me on the side lines secretly wanting to join in and it always puts things into perspective. this picture was taken down in Grand Junction in front of the church institute building where cam & i met over 9 years ago.

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what gives you bliss?