Dr. Larsen

This month as been a big month for us.  We celebrated our 9th anniversary, Grandma and Grandpa came to Vermont, we packed, we moved across the country and to round it out, tomorrow is my 30th birthday. But of all of those things, the biggest and best day of them all was this day:

This was the reason we moved to Vermont in the first place, the reason we have so many wonderful friends, and came to love one of the most beautiful places on earth. We went so Dave could be a doctor. And now he is! I am so proud of him for all the work he did over the last 4 years. Time flew by. I always say that I am amazed at all the stuff he knows now that he didn't know 4 years ago. He was a stellar student, and yet still managed to be there for us as his family and for his friends and for our church family. I am so lucky to call him mine!

Congrats, Dr. Larsen!

My thoughts have been a swirling mass in my head. So many times over the last 2 weeks I have thought, "I need to write." But with graduation and moving and all the emotional and physical energy those things take, I found that I had little left for writing. I don't usually like to play catch up when is write because I feel the raw emotions I felt at the time are lost in retrospect. But there are too many things that I missed and I can't possibly skip them. So I will do my best over the next few weeks to look back over this crazy month with as much authenticity as I can.

Right now I am sitting in a mostly empty house that we will call home for the next little while. We pulled in last night and the kids ran around excitedly and I walked more slowly taking it all in. I am excited for the chance to make this little home our own. Change is always hard and strange. Vermont was so incredibly good to us. My one consolation is that do many people that we love have ties to Utah. Not to mention all of the family and friends that I have that live close by.  I am confident that it will be wonderful.

The sun is shining and there isn't a cloud in the sky. We have a beautiful view of the mountains and a home to fill to the brim with love and memories. I think I am gonna like it here.

quebec, quebec city - come on *

I know, you were all expecting a mother's day post. I should write something poetic about all the mothers in my life or my mother or what being a mother means to me. I may still, but not tonight. I tried to do this post a few days ago but my internet was being weird. Seriously, though, this month is slipping by like sand through my fingers. The harder I try to grasp it the faster it is going. 

Anyway....

For spring break we planned on taking the whole the week to go to New Hampshire, Maine and then up to Quebec City. But we ended up shortening our last trip to just Quebec City. We went with some of our very best friends, the Dahles. I wish I got a picture of all of us together, but somehow that didn't happen. It was an awesome trip. Good friends, good food and a great place to enjoy it all. Luckily for us, we had a french speaker among us, which made this so much better, because I get awkward when I can't understand what people are saying. We walked a lot, but the kids did great. Saturday was rainy, so we didn't do quite as much that day, but it was still awesome. On Sunday we went to mass at a super old church, which was really cool.

And now, the pictures:

on the road. Dave is wearing my sunglasses. teehee.

Skinny alley

yummy Moroccan restaurant

Cool mural (on the right) and street

Quebec city is the only walled city in North America outside of Mexico This is part of the wall

The hotel Frontenac. This is wear D-day was planned.

From another angle

playing on the cannons

Cool walking street

Katie walked or was carried the whole time.

We stopped and let the kids play at this little park for a while.

Katie filled her shoes with sand.

There was still lots of snowpiles around

Happy

The kids loved the diorama and video about Quebec City at the Musee Du Fort.

A panoramic view of the diorama

Inside the hotel du Frontenac

We got yummy pastries at this little bakery. Look in the window. :)

Cool little street with Frontenac in the background

Cool square and church.

The kids. I am pretty sure they walked on every ledge in the entire city.

The Church where we went to Mass celebrates their 350th anniversary this year. The Vatican gave them a Holy Door to commemorate. It was really cool. You could only use it to enter the church and it had its own sanctuary.

A tiny picture of Katie and Dave giving thumbs up during lunch. So cute!

So there you have it. Quebec City was awesome and was my first real international experience. I have been to Montreal and Vancouver in Canada, but they felt very American. Quebec City totally does not. It was awesome and we made some great memories. Of course the kids just wanted to swim in the hotel pool the whole time, but I think they had an all around good time. What a way to wrap up our time here in the east.


*The movie Planes has a song in it where they rap "New York, New York City, Come on." My kids changed to words and sang it over and over the whole trip.