Thanksgiving with the Curzons

Adam and I spent Thanksgiving with my family this year. A large part of my family, including us, gathered at my Aunt's house in Clear Lake, California. It is about 2 hours away from Sacramento to the Northwest. We drove to L.A. and then took the 5 north. We left Wednesday evening because Adam ended up getting stuck at work. We figured we would just pitch a tent somewhere if we needed to sleep. It got to be about 1:30am and we decided to sleep. At that time we were driving on a little highway towards the 5 a little ways south of Fresno through a po-dunk town called Wasco. We found an Olive orchard off the highway with a clearing just off a little road. We pitched our tent there and slept until about 6am and then continued driving. When we started driving again we noticed a state prison just down the street from where we camped. :) We b0th determined that it was better we knew about it in the morning then the night before.

On our way back we stayed with my cousin's husband Peter at their apartment in L.A. Boy, that was a lot nicer then sleeping in a tent near a prison.

These pictures are of my niece Addy at Thanksgiving. She is 10 months and one of the happiest chilins' in the world. The only time she cried was when she got a glimpse of mom or dad and realized they were around, but not holding her. She loved playing with my cousin's son Logan.

Adam and I had a great time. The food my uncle Gary made was absolutely spectacular! It was so wonderful to be with my family especially since we aren't sure what opportunities we will have to come visit once we move for medical school. We had more family together during Thanksgiving then we have had in a very long time. It was great to see so many and catch up with them.

When we drove back to Arizona we took a scenic route. We drove down through Napa Valley. Napa Valley is absolutely gorgeous. It is the vineyard capital of the U.S. (at least to me). Here are a few pictures I was able to capture from the car as we were driving. It is winter so the vineyards aren't as pretty as they are in the spring or summer, but the fall colors were very pretty.
After driving through Napa Valley Adam thought it would be fun to go to Livermore where his brother Morgan is serving a mission. We weren't able to get his address to give him a gift, but we did take some fun pictures to email to him.

I couldn't figure out how to get this photo to rotate. No matter what I did to it, it would always upload the same way. But I couldn't leave it out. For those of you who are in my family: Adam and Morgan have this thing where everywhere they go they click their heals together and take a picture. So Adam wanted to click his heals and send the picture to Morgan.

Recent News: Adam got a interview invite to Ohio State. So that is three schools now that he has or is going to interview at: Ohio, UofA Phoenix and UofA Tuscan. Adam has also finished his Biochemistry class at ASU with an A, which makes him very happy. I finished up my semester at MCC with straight As, not like that was difficult. :) Anyway, Adam and I will be spending Christmas in Colorado with his family. We are very excited!

Trip to San Diego

Adam and I went to San Diego at the end of September for a wedding. Adam's old roommate Collin Burton was getting married. Adam was the best man. It was a great weekend!

On Friday we got to drive around San Diego and just explore. We saw downtown, an airplane race, Coronado Island, and of course the beach. It was gorgeous weather.

Downtown:

The San Diego Navy Base was just south of Downtown.Coronado Island:
"The Del" on Coronado Island was the location of the movie "Some Like It Hot."
The Del is beautiful! We walked around inside.
Adam and I played on the beach outside of the hotel.

Adam really liked chasing the seagulls.

Saturday was the wedding. Adam and I got to go to the sealing. It was the first one I had been to that was for someone else. It was beautiful. The hallway outside of the sealing rooms was gorgeous! The San Diego temple uses natural light so well. It really makes all of the beautiful glass and windows sparkle. Unfortunately, we forgot our camera when we went to the temple. So we only have pictures at the reception.

Old roommates: Brad, Collin and Adam

The whole weekend was a very spiritual and fun-filled weekend. The bride's and groom's families were really fun and great hosts. I went out to dinner with the bride's family while Adam, Collin and the other guys went out for a guys night before the wedding. I was really impressed with the bride's parents the Binghams. They are really good people who care so much about their family. Br. Bingham gave Adam and I a great compliment: He thought we were great individuals who made a wonderful couple. It doesn't sound like much, but if you were there you might understand why it touched me so much. The weekend had so many memorable moments.

Overdue Update

So I finally got my pictures switched over to jpeg so I can finally post them.

A lot has happened since August. As most of you know Adam and I successfully moved to Arizona thanks to so many wonderful family and friends. Here are a few pictures from our road trip.

Adam and I drove to Las Vegas to pick up the truck. Why we had to do that is a long story, but it ended up saving us money.

While we were in Vegas we tried to see the Belagio fountains. Despite waiting awhile we still didn't get to see them. So I have never seen the Belagio fountains in action.
Adam drove the moving truck throughout the entire trip. I felt bad for him because those seats were not comfortable at all.

We live in Tempe now just a few blocks east of ASU campus. The following pictures are of our apartment here in Arizona.


Adam has a lot of things going on right now. He is working at St. Joseph's Hospital as a research assistant at Barrow Neurological Institute. He really enjoys it even though he often has to work Saturdays. We were really grateful that he was offered the job. He gets paid well and is offered great medical and dental benefits, not to mention it will be great to put on his medical school applications. It is a wonderful blessing in our lives.

Adam is also working on his secondary medical school applications right now. University of Arizona-Phoenix has already offered him his first interview at the end of November. He is really excited about it. Other schools he is continuing to apply to are Harvard, Yale, Mayo, St. Louis, UPenn, Columbia, Ohio State, Pritzker, UofA, Case Western, Wake Forest, and one more I can't remember.

In addition to those things he his taking his biochemistry class at ASU and his last class (writing) independent study. To top it off he was called as the Elder's Quorum secretary a few weeks ago.

I don't have nearly as much to do as Adam, especially since I finished my independent study history class just a few weeks ago. It has been hanging over my head for months and I finally finished it. I ended up with an A- in the class. I was pretty proud of myself. Now all I am doing is finishing up classes at Mesa Community College. I will transfer all my credits back up to BYU to graduate in August '08.

I was called as a Primary teacher a couple weeks ago. I am kind of the on call substitute for now. I actually taught a class a couple Sundays ago. I substituted for the CTR 5 teacher. It was interesting. Just after we started class all the kids needed to go to the bathroom at the same time. So we went. The two boys had a hard time coming out. Not sure what they were doing, but from the hall it sure sounded like they were having fun : ) I finally got to starting the lesson just a few minutes before I was told there was 5 minutes left of class. I have no idea if the kids will remember the lesson, but at the end one of the boys said thanks and he hopes I come back to teach them again. I wouldn't mind another chance to teach longer then 8 minutes. When I am not substituting my job is to help out with a 7 year old boy named Dustin. He is the cutest kid in the world! He has developmental problems. What exactly he has they are not sure, but they know it is not autism. His mom comes into primary everyday to help him out. They want to give her a chance to go to Relief Society, and Dustin a chance to work with someone else other then his mom. So I get to be Dustin's buddy throughout primary! I think it will be a very rewarding experience.

22 Days Till Paradise

Adam and I just thought we would join the band wagon of blogs to keep people informed about our wild adventures. Wild adventures include work, sleep, work, oh and eating.

Adam and I are so excited to move to Arizona that we are counting down the days. Okay, so only I'm counting down the days, but he is just as excited. 22 days left until we move to Arizona. Adam already has a job lined up at St. Joseph Hospital in their nationally renowned neurological institute. He is very excited! He hopes to be able to work with cadavers and lab animals again. Sounds like the best job in the world to me too :) I am really excited that he will be doing something he loves!

I will be taking a break off work and doing school full-time. Horrible trade off if you ask me. I still have to do work and I don't even get paid for it :) I will be finishing my classes up at Mesa Community College and then transfer them up to BYU to graduate in either April or August of 2008, just in time before Adam goes off to medical school. The class I am most excited about is my general automotive class.

Adam took his MCAT on Friday July 13. He is really relieved to have it over, but is still stressing over his score. He won't know the results until the end of August. On the two practice tests he took earlier he got 37 (which is really good). We are hoping the he did just as good on the real thing. Adam seems to have a lot more doubt then me.

Now that Adam is done with his MCAT class he has a lot of extra time on his hands. He was thinking about starting his independent study class he needs to take. Ever since he got the old school Nintendo hooked he only seems to be interested in Super Mario World. (He is a lot better at it then me.)