Our Niece, Adelyn

Last week we finally took our much-awaited trip back to Indiana. I think we crammed about everything imaginable into the 7 days we were there. Emily and Joe welcomed their first baby, Adelyn Mae, on June 11 and we finally got to see her. She is so sweet! We were able to spend a lot of time with Adelyn, Joe, and Em and took some great pictures. She just turned three weeks old and is doing so well. Jay and I had such a great trip back home. We went up to northern Indiana to stay with Andy and Joyce for a few days, went to Bloomington with Christine and stopped at Oliver Winery, met up with friends and family downtown Indy, had a cookout at my Mom's house, and after high anticipation saw the new Twilight movie, Eclipse, at a midnight showing which was amazing!! I now have a two week break before my second block of school starts so I will have time to write more about our vacation. For now, here are some pictures of little Addie! We miss her already.

Addie

Joe took this photo of Jay, Addie, and I

Fur Appointment

Before

After

ROAST

At Jason's hospital, the ortho department challenged rehab to a softball game. They named it the ROAST- Rehab and Ortho Annual Softball Tournament. They've been practicing for about a month and today was the first game. We were contemplating if we should take the dogs or not because of the heat advisory... See Below...

And we still have another 10 degrees to go! Having this heat already in June is indicative of a nice hot three or four months to come. I think a trip floating down the salt river may be in order. We ended up going early for the cookout, then I went back home to pick up the Ruffs when it cooled down so they could participate. There were over 100 people there and about 20 dogs. Believe it or not, Dakota was getting fiesty with a bull mastiff! The Rehab Rebels ended up losing 12-17. It was an entertaining game and Jay played awesome! The dogs made many friends....

I only have 12 days left of classes before my three week break. Its time to kick it into high gear and start preparing for finals week. I can't believe how fast the program has gone by so far. So excited!!! Tonight we are having chicken and noodles, mashed potatoes, and corn for dinner :).

Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day! On Saturday we had a mini babyshower for our friend Victoria who is due in just a few weeks. She ended up having the baby on Saturday night just hours after we left! They had a little girl and named her Maricela "Cela". She is so sweet.

This was earlier on Saturday at her shower

The next day! Welcoming baby Cela. I love these girls

This is definitely the month for babies, because my friend Sara is also being induced today with her little girl, Kennedy.

I have the day off from classes today and I've been enjoying every minute. I studied for a while this morning and then took Dakota and Heinz to the park for a while. I took a short video clip of them running around. They were huge dust balls by the time we left but they had so much fun. Here is the video:

4 Day Weekend!

I couldn't be happier about having an extra long weekend for Memorial Day. For the holiday we have Monday off from classes. It will be nice to have an extra day to study. On Wednesday my good friend Shannon had her baby, Brandon. I went to visit them last night and he is so sweet. So happy for them! After that I went out with my nursing friends to Applebees for drinks and appetizers, then to see Sex in the City 2! We had so much fun. The movie was pretty cheesy but I liked it. I was a little worried going to an 11pm movie because I go to bed at 9:30 every night(and I'm only 26!). My contacts got stuck to my eyes about half way through but I made it. The dogs and I slept in this morning until 11am!! Heinz' stomach was growling and I felt like a bad dog mommy but Dakota was thrilled to be in bed that long. She is so funny about our bed... she thinks its her bed for sure. Today I went to visit Jason on his lunch break and tonight we had a pizza and Red Box night. What more could you want in a Friday night. We rented Its Complicated and Sherlock Holmes. I hope everyone has a great holiday weekend!

Cheers!

TGIF

Thank goodness for the weekend. This has been a busy week with exams, lots of studying, and projects. Although the first month of nursing school was a hard adjustment, its going really well. I think one of the most difficult things is choosing a career path. Its hard to know if you will truly like what you plan on doing until you start studying it and get thrown in with both feet. I'm so glad I made the decision to get into nursing. Yesterday Jason came to eat lunch with us and meet all of my nursing friends. Now he knows who the people are that I talk about everyday. He is so great and supportive of me doing the program.

Today when Jason gets off we are going to Tempe to the big outlet mall there to do some shopping and walk around. Its just starting to get super hot again. The spring has been beautiful though. Anything under 105 is okay with me, but hotter than that is a little unbearable. Dakota thinks she is a cat and has been squeezing herself up onto the tiny windowsill in our living room trying to cool off. Its funny to see her from outside because its so narrow she can't turn her head, and her fur is all disheveled squished into the glass. I can't imagine my life without the Ruffies.

Dakota May

Honeymoon

This is our favorite picture from our honeymoon- Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, over 3 years ago in '07. Can't believe how fast time has gone by. We finally got a nice scanner so we can start bringing back pictures from the "old days" before digital cameras were around... you know, back in 2002.

The Dog House

Happy Mommas Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all Moms, Moms-to-be, and Mom's of four-legged furries. It sure has been a hot weekend here. Yesterday we went to the pool with some friends. There is nothing better than floating around on a raft relaxing on a hot summer day. This morning Jason made M&M pancakes for breakfast. He is the best pancake maker ever! Here are some pool pictures from our weekend:







Since we are so far away we couldn't celebrate Mother's Day with our Moms, but we'll make up for it on our trip back home this summer. I was so happy to be able to spend a long weekend with my Mom when she came out to visit in February. Of course it ended up raining that weekend, but we still had fun!!

Scrapblogging

I made a digital scrapbook from our awesome cruise over Thanksgiving, 2009. It was the first cruise Jason and I have ever been on, and definitely won't be the last. We went with some of our great friends, Matt and Stacy. This type of scrapbooking is so much fun (and more cost efficient) than the cutting and pasting way. I made it into a book and sent it to Stacy for her Birthday in March. On this cruise we sailed from Miami to the Bahamas..... and made it without any sea sickness. Hmmm I wonder where our next one will be sailing to. :)

Nursing School

I'm really excited to say that I started nursing school in March. I just completed my 7th week of the program. To say that its been challenging is an understatement. I'm taking a class (BIO) in addition to the nursing program, so the first month has been rough taking a total of 23 credit hours. One of my classes is done next week so I will have a little more time. Yesterday I had my first patients and it was so much fun. I had all age ranges, from 81 to 8 months old (so cute!!). It was so exciting and now I can't wait for clincals to start in July. Our first block consists of full time classes and a lab to expand our knowledge base about anything and everything medical, and our 12 hour hospital clinicals start next block. Nursing is such an awesome field. Our class and instructors are amazing! Here is a picture of our group:

I'm really looking forward to my three week break in June/July. We have already planned a trip home to Indy to visit our friends and family and see our new little Niece :).

Our 3 Year Anniversary

To celebrate our three year anniversary (March 24), we went to California for the weekend. Its so great living out here when so many fun places are in driving distance. We dropped the Ruffies off at Camp early Friday morning and started our trip to LA. We went to Disneyland and had so much fun like we always do there. The weather was great. We almost ended up not going because I was just getting over a week long "stomach bug", but luckily I felt better. One night we ate at our favorite place there, Rainforest Cafe. I can't believe we've already been married for three years, and together for almost 8!! We feel so fortunate, and find ourselves looking back at old pictures often at our past adventures and memories. I now realize its not such a bad thing to be obsessed with taking pictures and documenting things... I think I get it from my Grandma Tinkham. :)






This is California Adventure at night.














Us inside the "C"



















Paradise Pier








Here is the link to all of our pics from our weekend:

http://public.fotki.com/caskinner/our-3-year-annivers/

Balloon Volleyball

Jason had decorated today when I woke up for my 26th Birthday. Heinz LOVES the mini balloons that were blown up around the apartment. He is amazing at playing "balloon volleyball" but we only got a short clip and then he got tired.


Here is another clip of Heinz and Daddy.

Christine's Christmas Gift

This is the book I made for Christine as a Christmas gift from our vacation in November. Heres to planning the next one!! ;)

Ruffies in Sedona

Our friend Emily (from IU) was out in Scottsdale for work last week and stayed a few extra days to see us. We ended up doing a lot of hiking since it has been around 70 here every day. I can't believe we are going to gain 45-50 degrees of heat in the next 5 months...hmmm lets not think about that right now!

One of our favorite hikes is the summit trail on Squaw Peak Mountain. It leads to the highest point in Phoenix. It was the first time we have ever hiked it at sunset. This is one of those hikes that NEVER gets any easier!!

Jill, Emily and I about half way up.

Us at the top.

View of the sunset on our way down.


Over the weekend we decided to take the dogs with us to go hiking in Sedona. It happened to fall on Dakota's birthday- she turned 4 years old, already! She still looks and acts like a little pup to us. On the drive up they were SO excited.

Just getting into Sedona, eating our picnic lunch before our hike.
Emily and I.

Heinz and Dakota

The Skinner Family
Dakota and Daddy!!

We had such a great time. The dogs were wiped out for two days after coming back home. February looks to be a busy month with school for me and work for Jay. I am currently only taking classes on Tues/Thurs. and anxiously awaiting for the full time nursing program to start in March. This weekend we are ready to see the Colts win in the Superbowl! We plan to head back to Sedona at the end of the month when my Mom comes out to visit.