The above pictures are from our spring break. Abby loved that black chair at Garrett's parents house. The third picture is Garrett and his friend Mark at the beach in Hilton Head. Some people sitting near us were building a huge pyramid with steps and everything, it was really cool looking. So, Mark and Garrett wanted to make something cooler. As you can see... they didn't. Oh, and while we were in Hilton Head I saw my first ever alligator! And it was alive! Mark and his wife Abby rented a condo for the week, and there was a little tiny pond right outside their building, that's where the alligator lived! There wasn't a fence or anything! And it started swimming over towards us and we were standing on the edge of the water!! I was so scared and Garrett made fun of me. I mean, it was just a little one, but still. A real live alligator! (see the pic below. It may not look threatening, but trust me, it was).
But first off, a big congratulations to Mike and Shauna!! They are expecting! Woot woot! We are so excited for them. It's so fun to see our family expanding and adding to the mix of cousins. I hope Abby will be able to be close with all her cousins, especially the ones near her age. This will be so fun!
The rest of our spring break went really well. We spent a few more days in Savannah just hanging out with Garrett's parents and his little 3-year-old brother Rylan. Garrett seems to think it's his duty to make sure Rylan experiences the whole "sibling" thing (the next youngest kid is 19, so Rylan is in some ways an only child), so Garrett makes sure to tease him and give him a hard time like any big brother would do (well, any 6-year-old or so :) ). It's kind of funny to see them play together; they are really cute. It's especially fun to see Rylan interact with Abby and talk sweetly to her. I love watching little kids with babies... they act all grown up and try to be mature like the adults, copying what we do and say to the baby. It's cute. Rylan comes up to Abby and says in a sweet high pitched voice, "Hi Sugar!! This is Uncle Rylan!"
Oh, and another funny thing that happened over break was with our friends Rob and Haley, who came to Savannah for a few days to visit us. We were talking and it turned out that Rob was born in the same hospital that Emma and I were, and that his family lived on the Air Force base in Omaha at the same time we did! They're LDS, so I figured my parents must have known his family, and sure enough, they did! My mom was all excited when I told her, and she said that she has a picture somewhere of Rob and Mike together! It's funny because Garrett and I are really good friends with Rob and Haley, but we've never made that connection until now. And, at the beginning of the school year when we first met them, it turned out that Garrett and Haley knew each other from a few years back. What a small world! We all graduated from BYU but they left Provo around the time Garrett and I got married, and we never met out there.
Hmm, what else? Our washing machine needs to be fixed. Luckily when we got it fixed a few months ago we bought a 1 year warranty, so it will be free to fix it. What a hassle, especially since there's a load of clothes sitting in there that we can't take out! It's a front loader so if we open it tons of water will come spilling out. Hopefully the Sears people can come tomorrow.
We're still not positive about our summer plans, but it looks as if Garrett will work for his Dad again, so we'll probably go down to Savannah during the week and then come back here on the weekends to take care of the house and for our Church callings (I'm in YW, he's in YM). He worked in his Dad's office last summer too (his Dad's a doctor) and that was good experience. It'll be annoying having to drive back and forth, but it'll be worth it because it will pay well, and plus he'll be able to take off all the time he needs, like for Scout camp and for the week at the beach (his parents are renting a beach house for a week in June!). So, we're excited for the summer. It's his last real "summer" too, because next year he has the boards in May (standardized testing, about 10x worse than the MCAT, in my opinion) and then he starts rotations in the hospital in June or July. So... yeah, life is moving fast. I cannot believe Garrett's first year of medical school is almost over. I can't believe he'll be a doctor in 3 years!! So exciting... then he can write prescriptions for you all, haha. He's still not sure what kind of doctor he wants to be, but usually around the 3rd year is when people decide. The rotations in the hospital help decide that. He does know, however, that he does NOT want to be an OB/GYN or work in pediatrics. I would like him to do dermatology or radiology, but those are very competetive fields, so we'll see. Garrett's uncle is a dermatologist in Reno and he works 3-4 days a week, and doesn't even own a pager. AND, Garrett just found out in his lecture yesterday that the specialty his uncle is in is the highest paid specialty in the entire medical field. Woot. I wouldn't mind that. BUT, his uncle had years and years upon years of training. Nothing comes easy.
Well, that's all I have to say for now. Emma, make sure you talk to John about my investment idea, and get back to me! (for all you who don't know what it is, it's basically that John invests some of his money in my name, and gives me the profits. And I'll give him like 10%). Yeah, I'm a genius.
