One BIG blog....

This is a bit late AND long AND it's just the beginning of what's been going on with the Weavers....

-Good by "Y" friends-
These are the ladies I saw almost every day of my Virginia life because they worked out at the YMCA. I'm going to miss them a lot! In fact I joined Gold's gym here and I'm already sad because it's soooo big and I know I won't ever get to meet people like this again :(


These were some of Jackson's favorite friends from the YMCA.


One last trip to the Strawberry Patch.




-The Big Gala-
We all dressed up for the big dinner for graduates where they reminisced and a few received awards. The dinner was pretty chaotic, but Jared won TWO awards!! It was actually funny because my mom and dad made sure it was okay that they leave early and wouldn't miss anything. It was a suprise for everyone, especially Jared. Way to go Jar!!!!! Hope you like your new big screen and GPS :)



-The Main Event-
This is where Jared gets to dress up like he's going to party at Hogwarts. I'm so proud of him for graduating!!! He's worked so hard the past 8 years and I've been really blessed to have such a dedicated husband. Jared is the first person in his family to finish college and he certainly went above and beyond. I didn't think we'd be as emotional as we all were, but it was a pretty nice event.


-THE BIG MOVE-
This was a really looong process. I really don't like moving. Even though I'm anxious to buy our own house, I hope we can stay in my parents rental for a while because I DREAD thinking about doing this again. At least next time we won't be leaving our whole lives behind. Thanks Gramdma Suzie for helping us and making sure we were well fed.


-Driving 2,000+ miles part 1-
I think the best thing Jared and I have ever done for our marriage was bought a GPS. We love this thing. We drove all the way across the country without ever stopping to look at a map. We got off the beaten path a few times but it was okay because the majic box would just tell us it's recalculating and we'd be right back on track. Here is what we saw when we really got off the beaten path. I have to say the Amish are really cool.



-Driving part 2-
Our second day we were able to stop in Kirtland to see some church sites and we ran into none other than my sweet cousin Megan. She's on a full time mission and was just transfered to the visitor's center a week before we drove through and was able to give us a personal tour of the town. She's doing really well and is as cute as ever.


-Driving part 2b-
We drove into Cleveland where they have an AWESOME farmers market. Too bad we were just driving through because the produce there was fantastic! It was hard for me to resist buying bags of fruits and veggies. Jared was able to try some of their brawtworst. He heard about it from Chef Simon, the newest Iron Chef. I personally like polish dogs better, but it was worth tasting.



People ask me how Tanner has to much energy....


-Driving part 3-
We were torn between trying to get into Chicago to try a restaurant our friend Joey recommended or seeing Notre Dame. We opted for Notre Dame. Except we drove around St. Mary's School thinking it was Notre Dame for a while until we started noticing how very Feminine everything was. We got a sweet picture of Jared in front of a nice Virgin Mary making a fighting Irish face though. So it wasn't a complete waste of time.


Here's take two with the fighting Irish face.


-Little troopers-
Jackson and Tanner couldn't've been better on the drive. They were soo good. Hooray! I'm sure it had all to do with the wonderful children they are and not the ice cream and marshmellows we bribed them with.


-Driving part 4-
It's pretty sad when you're driving somewhere and the biggest draw to a state is a place called the corn palace. Of course we had to see what it was about. I have to admit it WAS the best palace I've ever seen made of corn.


-Driving part 5-
Funny how somethings can be so cute and nasty all at the same time.


-Driving part 6-
The hightlight of our trip was Mt. Rushmore.

It was everything we dreamed it would be. At least in crappy dreams where you drive 5 hours out of your way to see something really cool and it's completely covered in fog.

-Driving part 6b-
To add to our fantastic morning of seeing Mount Rushmore, I got my first ticket in 9 years. The cop made me go sit in his car and shut the door while he told me what i did wrong and how he was letting me off easy by only giving me an $89.00 ticket instead of $189.00 ticket. What a sweetheart. THEN about 25 minutes later I got pulled over AGAIN and another cop tried to tell me I was speeding so I said very calmly "NO WAY!!!! I was NOT speeding, I was being SOOOO careful!!!!!" So he let me off with a written warning, whatever that means. Boo on South Dakota for having tons of fog and cops.

-Barely survived-
We took a small detour to Colorado Springs to visit Jamie and that guy that follows her around. We got into Colorado Springs late Friday night when Jamie decided the tornado weather we drove through didn't shake me up bad enough so she decided to take me up "The Incline" early early (yes I meant to put that twice) Saturday morning. It was exactly what it sounds like. A vertical Incline 2,000 feet up a mountain. I thought it would be fun until one of Jamies friends told me how a guy last year ended up in the hospital because he wasn't acclimated and he got altitude sickness. Luckily, I survived...at least until the next day when I couldn't get out of bed because my legs were experiencing rigamortis.

This is just a part of it, it kept going and going and going....

-Austin's Rock-
Jamie and Brian offered to take the kids Saturday night because it was our 5th Anniversary. We went over to see the Garden of the Gods, got a swimsuit for our cruise, and grabbed some sushi. THANKS guys for watching the little rugrats!!

-Austin's Rock part 2-
After Jared earned his stay at the Austin Inn, we stopped over at the zoo. It was fun because it was up in the mountains. I think the best part was feeding the giraffes. Tanner was pretty brave.



-The home stretch-
The last day we drove throught the beautiful Rockies, I guess John Denver was right after all.

-This is going on FOREVER!!!!-
And FINALLY, Thank you Dad for driving this huge monster all the way across the country and only wrecking it a little!! We couldn've done it without you.


Good Bye Virginia *sniff* *sniff* Hopefully it won't take me as long to post our cruise and our new house.....

FIVE YEAR ANNIVERSARARRY

Sara and I spent our five year anniversary in the place that we have spent a lot of the last five years, in the car driving. Really romantic huh! In the last five years we have driven across the country twice, and from Richmond to Palmyra, Manhattan, Niagara, Orlando, D.C., Baltimore, and all over the state of Virginia. Tanner and Jackson are not sure if they live in a house or a car seat. But our travels are not what this blog is about. I wanted to highlight some of my favorite things about my sweetheart. Please bear with me if this is cheesy or poorly written because I am not that good at communicating through writing, so here goes nothing.
Sara is the most loyal person I have ever met, she is so loyal that once you are true friends with her that friendship will never die.
She loves to travel and see new things, thus five years in a car.
She has the most infectious laugh that I know, while in the car somewhere in South Dakota she started laughing out loud and then I could not help laughing. We almost had to pull off, and probably should have, because by the time I stopped I could only see the freeway through my tears. Good thing we don't have to see any of those people in South Dakota again!!!
She is a wonderful mother to our children, I love to watch her with them they love her and she loves them. I can't count how many times she has gotten out of bed with our kids over the last four years, probably almost as much as she has been in the car!
She has been so supportive of me and my slow decision making, each time I decided to do something that will drastically change her life she has just said whatever you want to do will be good, with an added I know you can do anything that you set your mind to, even if that thing is just a pipe dream for me.
She is determined, as you can see she made it five years with me!!
As many of you know she is a wonderful listener and will alway take the time to try and understand me. Even if I am talking in circles like I often do.
She has this unconquerable faith in other people and in Her Father in heaven that is contagious.
She has taught me so much about respect for people, she truly looks on the inward parts of people and not their outward appearance.
She has also taught me to appreciate things that I may have taken for granted.
This may sound strange but she has opened up a whole new world of food to me. I ate sushi on our anniversary!!! And I liked it.
I love how she has helped me become so much more cultured than I was five years ago.
Sara and I love to chat with each other over the past five years we have tried so many nights to go to sleep early but we can't seem to get to bed because even though we have only spent a total of about six days apart (and those were hard days) we can't seem to find enough time to visit with each other during the day. I love her and I love being with her. I can't believe how lucky I am to have her in my life.

I hope this didn't come out to cheesy or seem like Sara's eulogy but I Just wanted everyone to know what she means to me.
I can't wait to see what the next five years bring.

Happy Anniversay Sara!! I love you

Coming Home

Hey all, We are leaving today and we will be back home in Utah this Friday or Saturday. Hope everyone is well and we're excited to see all of you soon!!!

The Last's

We've been busy the last couple of weeks trying to get in some last time's with our friends here in Virginia. We've still got more to come but here's what we've been up to lately...

Jackson just got done again with spring soccer. I'm not sure if this is the sport for him. What do you think (#7)?



Andy got a great deal at the Marriot, so after a long hot day touring D.C. we got to cool off in their pool. Here's Jared and Jackson, Rus and Cole, and Andy and Daxton.



Katrina and I did what both of us have wanted to do for a while and ran the monuments in D.C. I didn't want to take the camera running so we tried to get a lady to take a picture of us before we left but she got upset at us for asking her and ran away. So this is a sad attempt to take a picture of ourselves. We may not be too easy on the eyes, but considering neither of us slept all night, it was a fun run! I have to say D.C. must be one of the healthiest cities ever, there are people running all over all day and night.


The girls from the graduating class had a pajama party where we all made our favorite treats and gossiped all night. Well, there wasn't a whole lot of gossip, but I did learn a lot about all the other girls from our class!








This was a little silly for me, but we threw a B-day party for Jackson one month in advance. I did it under peer pressure, but it was really fun and Jackson had a blast. Except it's really confusing for him. It was a birthday party, but he doesn't get to be four yet. He told all the ladies at the gym today he's sixteen. It really doesn't matter to him because for some reason he gets to have 2 birthdays - and if you remember Christmas- he get's 2 Christmases. I think moving back to Utah is going to be the hardest on him, only having 1 party per event per year.




And FINALLY, The ward throws an annual good-bye BBQ for the graduating seniors. Here are most of the guys from Jared's graduating class...


And here are all of the wives. For some reason it looks like I've added 5 inches, I guess all the pizza and leftover cake from Jackson party was majic, or maybe I was standing on a hill.

Clarification

I just wanted to clarify that I ran it in 46 minutes and 33 seconds. I wish I could do it in 43 minutes. I don't know if that will ever happen in this lifetime. I'm not even sure if I can do it in 46 and 1/2 minutes again. But thanks for thinking that I actually could pull something like that off :)