Hey y'all!

We spent the weekend of September 11th in Houston with Mckay's family.  The occasion was his Father's retirement party (he worked at NASA for 20+ years).  We flew from JFK to Houston on Thursday night and got in reallllly late; his sister Texas offered us a comfy bed at her house for the weekend.  On Friday morning, we somehow managed to get up at a decently early hour (after a 3:30 am bedtime) and Mckay was off to golf with his brother and two brothers-in-law.  

While he golfed I had a girls day!  Love those.  We went out to lunch, did a little shopping, and ended our day at a specialty chocolate shop, where I accidentally spent $15 on tiny treats...those things add up fast!  I love my sisters-in-law, they really are so fun.  After our "girls day out" Rachel (his youngest sister) and I got our hair cut, which always feels so great.  She looked like a beauty queen with her long, thick hair and I was jealous.  

Then there was the infamous surprise party for Dale that night (amazing that it was kept secret for two whole months).  11 kids and all the in-laws and grandkids that come with them in the back room of a restaurant, "SURPRISE!!!"  It was great.  We spend the evening together eating tons of food, visiting, laughing and enjoying each other's company.  After all was said and done, Dale gave a brief "thank-you" speech and talked about how his family is his greatest accomplishment.  It was so tender and so sweet, it brought tears to my eyes.  He is a great man, I'm glad Mckay had such a wonderful Father to teach him how to be a good man.  They both are just incredibly good people. 

(Dale and Penny and their 11 children, best.)

Saturday we loaded up in Mckay's brother's RV and drove to Austin for the BYU/UT game, which was a riot.  You KNOW it was my first BYU sporting event, aaaaannnnndddd I even had a special shirt for the occasion.  A bunch of his family came and we "tail-gated' (it's for real) which was so funny and weird.  Pull up in RV, take 35 minutes to park it, pull out BBQ and get the meat going, watch pre-football game stuff/other football games... legit.  Oh, and do all of that when it's 106 degrees outside.  Welcome to Texas!  I was so amused and sweaty.

We love our cute nieces and nephews.  SO MUCH.  This little one (Alyssa) was a brand new baby at our wedding.  
This time around she was crawling all over the place.  

The game was sad because BYU lost, but we had fantastic seats, so that's a plus.  It literally (LITERALLY) makes Mckay sad when I tell people I don't like sports, so I'm making an effort now to try to broaden my horizons in the athletic department.  Watch out!

The next day was Sunday and we hung out at his parent's house & chatted with family.  Mckay's Mom made him a pumpkin pie because it's his fave.  So that morning he had french toast and pumpkin pie, part of a complete breakfast.

The entire Dale Dunn clan!  Minus 5 (3 grandkids and two in-laws).  Plus Vera and Dennis- Penny's brother and his wife.

We love spending time with family, it's so fabulous.  It just puts us in such a happy place.  Wish we lived closer & could see our families more often.  I guess seeing them so infrequently, although it's not ideal, makes visits so exciting and special!

Labor Day Weekend

camping in Rhode Island

blazing camp fire (isn't it the best?)

games

s'mores

tin-foil dinners

falling in love with the instagram app

talking and laughing until all hours of the night

the whole shebang

is there anything better?

i think not

except maybe

when the next day includes

morning canoeing

lobster lunch in Mystic, CT

fresh ice cream on the river

and shopping 

before a beautiful drive back to home sweet home

Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Rexburg anymore.

How you know you're not at BYUI:

• Everyone shows up to class on the first day with their #2 pencils and their Dunkin Doughnuts coffee.
• The professor is wearing flip flops with her two-piece suit.
• She uses four-letter words when the computer won't work... and a few other times, too.
• And refers to "God" as a "she".
• There was no prayer to start class... but I always thought that was a little much.
• The building is freezing from AC & I still got eye fulls of flesh I would have rather not seen.

It was a great first week! I say that in complete honesty. And no, I am not at BYU-I anymore. But that is okay, it's preferable even. There are some splendidly nice people in my class & every professor I've met so far is a hoot. They've all smiled and said funny things and tried to make the wide-eyed, overwhelmed, 1st semester Nursing students feel comfortable and excited. (Except one, who glared at me when I saw her in the bathroom. Awkward.)

Mckay made it a great first day for me, complete with a heart-shaped love/back-to-school note taped on the door for me to find before I left for class. And when I came home that afternoon I was met by that handsome guy and pretty "happy first day of school" flowers.

I am excited to be in this nursing program, I feel so fortunate and blessed.  I am a little book worm, already trying to stay ahead in my reading and notes and flash-cards.  I am going to try to get through these next two years in the most organized and un-frenzied manner possible.  The organized part is doable for me, it's the un-frenzied part that will take some major effort.

So here I go.  It's the start of months of CLEW plans, heavy books, heavier reading, stethoscopes, gloves, gowns, brain overload, new material, new people, Greenwich hospital, drugs and dosage calculations, and I'm sure an entire plethora of other things I don't have the slightest clue about.