Kentucky Derby

When we moved from Kentucky we knew we wanted to find ways to remember our time and connection to that wonderful state so we decided every year we would have a Kentucky Derby party. This was our first Derby party since we moved and it was SO FUN!!

The girls invited 2 friends each and we started by making stick horses... Then we raced the horses...

Then we made Derby hats...

(Notice the Cardinal... I miss those beautiful birds flying around our backyard.)

Finally we drew names of horses and sat down to eat our derby pie and watch the race. There was a prize for the girl whose horse won.

I have to admit I got a little emotional watching the race and seeing pictures of Louisville.

I feel so blessed to have spent 3 years there. Those years changed our family in a profound way. Kentucky will always have a special place in our memories and in our hearts (sniff, sniff).

Oh Happy Day!

Trevor went into work last night with 48 cans of soda pop,

5 X-Large pizzas,

and a big smile on his face.

It was his last shift at the U of L's ER... ever.

I added it up and (if you count kindergarten ;) Trevor has gone to 26 years of schooling. That is like graduating from high school then going back to kindergarten and doing it again.

I can't believe it. He did it... we did it.

Words cannot express how proud I am of Trevor.

He is an amazing, kind, honest, humble, smart (he better be after 26 years of school), loving, good man

and he is a great doctor.

Congratulations Trev!
We Love you!

It's just a little depressing

We officially closed on our house almost 2 weeks ago. We are now "renting" our home but it still hasn't hit me that it is no longer "ours".


I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with the changes we are and will be experiencing. I leave for Utah on June 3rd with the kids. Trevor's parents come out to Louisville on June 4th to help Trevor load the truck that weekend then they will start their drive to Utah on the 7th and meet us there. We will visit family for a few more days then head up together to our new home in Kennewick, Washington.


This move is hard in sooo many ways.

Physically packing up our house, d-junking, and cleaning feels like an insurmountable task. Especially when I have 2 little boys hanging onto my legs and unpacking what I just packed. They are more clingy lately and I'm sure they are sensing big changes as more and more of their items are disappearing into boxes and since their mommy is quite frazzled and impatient lately.


Emotionally, well, I'm definitely struggling. I feel sad.

I keep asking Trevor, "Why are we moving??? We are happy here and we are moving across the country to a place where we don't know anybody!" He doesn't have to say a word because I already know why... because (for what ever reason) it is where our prayers have led us. I know I have to trust in that but it will be so hard to say good-bye to Kentucky. Three years went by way too fast and I have enjoyed the most wonderful friendships here and learned so much about myself. Our move to KY has been such a blessing and I have to believe that Washington will bring more blessings to our family.

Faith, that is what it boils down to... that is what is always boils down to.

Here are some pictures of our family 3 years ago:

Our little family has grown and changed so much in Kentucky.

We will miss this place dearly.

Our Path

(warning, long journal entry)

Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths."

This has been my favorite scripture since my seminary days and I have grown to love it more and more as I have witnessed the Lord directing our paths when we "trust in him".

I remember when a prompting came 8 years ago that completely changed our path and Trevor called the Veterinary school in Oregon and told them he would no longer be attending (he was to start in a few weeks!). Then our focus became Medical School and we still can't believe how that all worked out so well. We were led to our house in West Bountiful and we have a tender place in our hearts for our neighbors and ward members there who supported us during a really stressful time in our lives (aka. Med school).

When Trevor interviewed for residencies we prayed and pleaded with the Lord that he would "direct our paths" and when Trevor came out here to interview he said to me, "It just feels like home." I thought to myself- Louisville Kentucky feels like home??!!!

You may remember how we found our house here. We could never deny the guidance we received to buy this home and that experience alone has strengthened my testimony that God lives and loves me. Throughout these 2 1/2 years I have had so many experiences when the spirit whispered in my mind- THIS is why you are here in Kentucky and THIS is why you are in THIS house. Our time here has and still is changing our lives for the good.

So when it was time for Trevor to start looking for a job we felt the importance of "Trusting in the Lord". He has always been so good to us

We had a FHE and talked to the girls about this and memorized Proverbs 3: 5-6 together then we offered a prayed and asked the Lord to guide our search for a job and a home... again please.

Trevor started applying to jobs in Idaho and Utah since we knew we wanted to be close to family but when we went out there we wanted to feel good about it but we just didn't. :( So we kept praying and Trevor kept looking. We thought about staying here in Kentucky since we love it here but we didn't feel good about it either. There were some more job openings in Utah and Idaho but nothing felt right. We knew we had to widen our search. We looked at the surrounding states and there was only one we felt good about... Washington. Trevor kept making comments about "the tri-cities area" but neither of us had been there and there weren't any job openings there until one day when one job opened in Richland and Trev immediately applied for it. He received an email back that day from the Medical Director of the Emergency Department. He was interested in talking to Trevor and we soon found out that he was LDS and has 5 kids (and Richland has a temple!)! We were so excited.

Trevor scheduled an interview there and in a few other places in WA and he flew out in the beginning of December.

He interviewed at the other hospitals in WA first and they offered him jobs but he was waiting to see how he felt about the interview in Richland (tri-cities area). Well, to make an already long post a little shorter when he got to Richland once again Heavenly Father answered our prayers and he knew it was the place for our family. The interview went great and they offered him the job.

Trevor called me on the way home from the interview. He was floating on air. I can't remember the last time he was so excited and happy. We knew it was right and we accepted the job a few days later.

Since then we still feel great about the job in Richland and we are excited but we feel so sad that we have to leave Kentucky (in June) and we feel so sad that we will still be 9 hours away from our family and friends in Utah. We never imagined that we would finish residency and then move somewhere away from family where we don't know anyone but it seems that the Lord has a different plan for our family.

We are excited for our new adventure but right now we are just enjoying our home and friends and all the wonderful things Kentucky has to offer our family. We are so very blessed.

What I love about Our Kentucky Home

It occurred to me the other day that many of my Utah friends probably think that Louisville is a little town in rolling hills Kentucky full of white fences, fields, farms, and horses everywhere.

That's what we thought before we came here.

So, I thought it would be fun to tell you a few things about Louisville... our home.

Louisville has a population of 1,244,696 in the metropolitan area. To give you an idea of how big that is Salt Lake City has a population of almost 200,000 so just times SLC by 6... it is a really big city. Louisville lies on the banks of the Ohio River and the skyline is absolutely beautiful at night as the city lights reflect over the river and huge bridges. It takes my breath away every time we drive over the bridge into downtown at night.

Of course Louisville is famous for The Kentucky Derby and Derby is a big deal around here. The whole city really comes alive during the Derby.

And if you go to Derby you MUST wear a great hat. Here is Megan's Derby hat.

We live about 15 miles from downtown in a beautiful area.

We do have a lot of horses in Kentucky but one thing Trev and I think is cool is in Louisville the horse fences are usually painted black not white.

We have grown to love the black horse fenced fields.

The beautiful Louisville Temple is only 3 miles from our home.
It is not uncommon to run into this guy at Costco or the elementary school or of course at church. He has a son out here.

Fall in Louisville is absolutely GORGEOUS. You don't have to drive up to the mountains to get spectacular views. Kentucky is thick with trees and I took the above photo when I was just running some errands one day. That is a typical road out here (very skinny with trees up to the edge of the road).

The freeways (especially I71) are so pretty. That's right, I said the FREEWAY is pretty. There are rock walls with water trickling down them and moss growing on them. There are huge trees lining the sides of the freeway and green grass (don't need sprinkling systems out here because of the humidity) that grows up to the roads and covers everything.

When we came here from Utah it was the first thing I noticed.

This is our house (before we added the new room above the garage).

We just love living here. It is home.

First Snow

Louisville got its first snow last week. It lasted about an hour. ;)

Derby Hats

Tomorrow is the Kentucky Derby and that is a BIG deal around here

(this is Kentucky you know).

It's a lot of fun since everyone gets into the spirit of Derby.

Yesterday the kids came home with paintings of horses, new facts about horses, and even shiny metals around their necks from their "derby races" at school.

Megan made a beautiful Derby hat.

She is under there somewhere.

She thought Davis needed a Derby hat too so she made him this one:

He likes it.

a little bit of snow?

It all started so innocently... a nice snow storm and about 4-6inches of fresh powder.

School was cancelled and the kids rushed outside (dressed in endless layers of snow gear) to sled with all the neighbor kids.

There was giggling, sledding, snowball fights, and lots of fun.

Then came the rain... and then came the ice.

It was BEAUTIFUL.

But, it was also treacherous and within a few hours over 600,000 homes and businesses were without power including our home. It was 12 degrees the first night but luckily we have a gas fireplace and some candles and flashlights and we were able to stay warm enough. Some friends loaned us a generator and we were able to plug in our fridge and the fan on the fireplace.

We played games by candlelight and made shadow puppets and told stories in the dark.

It was an adventure.

They said it would take the power company 7-10 days to get the power back on but we were some of the lucky ones and ours finally turned on a few hours ago after 3 long days and 2 cold nights.

We screamed and cheered and I must admit my eyes got a little damp. My kids are warm in bed and I have never been more thankful for: my toaster, and my garbage disposal, and my closet light, and my oven, and my blow dryer, and my washing machine, and my dryer, and my automatic garage door, and my dishwasher, and my computer, and my TV, and ELECTRICITY... it is a wonderful invention.

(I love this man)

Balloon Glow

My friend has been telling me about the Louisville Balloon Glow since we moved here over a year ago. Trevor worked so I probably wouldn't have braved it with 3 kids if Melissa hadn't have been here.
It was so amazing.

We got there early and the kids had a blast going down the blow-up slides and even walking into a hot air balloon.

Campbell was amazed by the balloons (he is the blur at the bottom of the picture on the right, he is a blur in most pictures... busy, busy boy).

When the sun started going down they started blowing up the balloons which was so fun to watch. We were just feet away from the big birthday cake balloon. Unfortunately it was a little windy so that balloon didn't stay up for very long.


When all of the balloons were blown up they "lit" them. It was so beautiful!

We will definitely be doing this again next year! (Hopefully Trevor will be able to come too.)

Ike winds hit Kentucky

(above pictures courtesy WHAS11 news)

Wow, we had a crazy windstorm Sunday from Hurricane Ike. Winds up to 75mph! Hundreds of thousands are without power in the area and the newest update is they may not get power for up to 2 weeks! Even most hospitals are running off of generators. Unfortunately Louisville sent over 200 power company people down to Texas to help with the Hurricane and now they are trying to get them back.

Lot's of stores are closed including some gas stations so that the stations that are open have long lines. Schools are closed and the report yesterday was that 130 roads were closed because they are blocked by trees and other debris. Power lines are down all over the place. We drove under one today and I was just praying it wouldn't fall on us.

It's crazy around here but we are some of the few lucky ones who still have power and it has been so neat to see everyone out in the neighborhood helping other neighbors clean up the mess.

These are a few pictures of the damage at our house... luckily nothing serious. Mostly just a mess of debris and a few trees and fences down. Our grill has seen better days .

It has also been a good reminder to fill any holes I have in my food storage/ emergency preparedness and I'm finding I have a lot of holes!