NP 2013. we are talking august now people. thank you, thank you.

I'm not putting comments.
Because I feel like the pics speak for themselves.
Newport is one of the very best places and one of the trips i look forward to the most each year.
and this year proved to be one of the best year's yet. (maybe because we had two rooms at he marriot this time, maybe not). (i actually think the real reason is because of the addition of hayley... great addition/babysitter).

powell. this was june.

powell this year should be worth mentioning because powell is always one of the best trips of the year. i love riding around in the boat, the food we eat, that we camp, staying up late talking and playing my favorite games (catch phrase and mafia, duh) and spending time with the fam. oh and cait and sloth. and the helm's ward family.

it really is so fun. every year.
oh unless you get a bug the makes you throw up a couple times a day.

that was this year.

it's just not as much fun riding on a boat in the heat when you are trying not to barf over the side.
and it's so stupid when you have to crawl out of your tent in the middle of the night to throw up.
and when you cant stay up to play games or enjoy the food that tastes so good there. (ugh, ok, i ate it anyway. fully knowing what the consequences would be).
and then you get no relief or ability to hydrate yourself because... you're still  in lake powell. and it's 130 degrees. UGH.

next year will be perf. cant wait.
(everyone thought for sure i was pregs). (except cand). (and i wasnt).

btw... matthew schuller (wrecking ball) and jacquie lee (i put a spell on you) just blew my mind on the voice. omg, you guys.

san fran over memorial. thats right. 6 months ago.

The trip that happened in May, like two weeks before J left on his mission... 5 days after he graduated from high school... the kid, you guys. the best kind of egg.

this was a fun little trip. it was just us 3 and the parents.

if you know jer or have ever tried to travel with him, you would know that he is boring as crap because he READS the ENTIRE time you are in the car or at the hotel. so you either keep him extremely busy... or you join him.

I've tried both. and this trip we forced him to read with us instead of by himself. so we brought a book that we knew he'd love and (since I was already 100 pages in) we made him catch up REALLY, REALLY fast.

then I read the rest of the book out loud. and when i got sick of reading jer would read because you CANT just STOP in the middle of the book. duh.

Killing Kennedy. Great read - i'd recommend it to anyone. well, maybe not anyone. but i loved the entire thing.

it was a fun trip and fun spending time with this one since we didnt get much jer time before he left...since he was just trying to finish high school and be a senior.

MTC day. Went to Sammy's right before. Mm. He didn't eat much. And he never doesn't eat much.

our mission boys

we have three missionaries out right now and get three missionary letters every monday. i really do look forward to mondays just for this reason. i love hearing from them and about their lives right now. they are good boys. and we miss them lots. and i think we'll miss them even more after the first time my car gets stuck in the snow and the first time we have to shovel our never-ending driveway by ourselves (by we i mean zach)......

i think i'll miss missionary mondays when they are all home one day.

unless you are related to me, you dont care and you shouldnt, but if you want to read the rock boys letters, we post them for the fam on a blog: http://rockelders.blogspot.com/

Dominican Republic. The Bombay.

ohhh heyyyy. remember how it's been 6 months since i've blogged? yeah..... more has happened in these past few months than probably in the last 4 years.
but I'll just start with where i left off... and catch you up in time... hopefully....

so, we didn't totally know quite how this trip was going to come together, you see, we've never really been on a friends only trip (at least not out of the country) where we have to plan and execute everything...... on our own.....
we're babies, right?
well, i feel like it was kind of thrown together and not every detail was planned, but that kind of made it perfect.
in fact, as it turned out, we didnt need to plan out hardly anything because we literally laid on the beach, went on walks, laid by the pool and ate theentiretime.
IT WAS AWESOME. guys.

the place we decided on to stay turned out BEYOND perfect (right on the beach, way nice pool, fab security guys watching your stuff on the beach while we went on walks or to lunch, basically only 5 other people staying at the entire place - and it was big... just to name a few). we seriously lucked out.

other perfect things about the trip.
um.... we were with our besties. at this point in my life, it was so stupid how much time ali and i were spending with each other. just to give you a little insight into our life... we worked together, went to the gym together right after work, trained for a half marathon, usually, like, went shopping together or something one of the nights... i think we ewre starting to turn into each other. which is already a problem for people because they think we are sisters. even though we could not be more opposite, looks-wise. guys it was getting ridiculous. but i loved everything about it.
I know this is a serious side note... but i dont get sick of my friends. i could spend 8 hours a day with the girl and then call her on my way home from work to tell her something and then still want to hang out with the two of them that night or on a weekend. but i think this worked for us because we know each other probbbbbably even better than our husbands know us. we know each others moods and how to handle each other. which is important. but we somehow think each other is the funniest person ever in the world (it's sometimes amazing how i put sentences together. it's like i'm in second grade).
sorry, im not married to her.
hi zach.

people were seriously concerned about us when i left neutron and we had to break up for a second (during the day only). dont worry. we still communicate way more than we should in life.

oh and josh is ok too;). it was so fun having josh because he was so excited and happy to be back there. he served his mission in the DR and you could feel his love for the place. everything we did and ate was a memory for him and we were just along for the ride.

and zach thoroughly enjoyed himself as well. for some smart reason (not smart) we decided to fly into the capitol (Santo Domingo) and then RENT A CAR and DRIVE the four hours to Punta Cana. Oh and zach is the only one over 25 so the only one able to rent and drive said car. and, my crap, the driving there is insane. i literally just had to close my eyes (and then fall asleep) because i was literally freaking out. sometimes i make decisions like not getting insurance on the rental (it was as much as we paid to rent the car!) but then i get serious anxiety because of my choices. luckily my husband is a good driver (and a better one than i give him credit for) and did a very good job. Oh, also, no one in the DR knows how to get to Punta Cana, like not even the right direction. So good luck with that. It was heaven sent that we found the place before the sun went down.

Anyways... the food. i die.
it was just soooo goooood!
(except the first day in the city....... it was good, dont get me wrong... it's just that it hit us ALL at the same TIME the next morning at 6am..... guys. we had two toilets but that was not enough. luckily we all lost 10 lbs so we were our ideal weight for the rest of trip. always the upside of getting everysinglething out of your system. all at once. and i mean everything. Im so sorry for telling you that).

Anyway. by 8am we were all set and skinny and ready to go for the day!

The trip was a time for relaxing, going on walks on the beach, exploring the towns and eating yogen fruz. it really was perfect. i love hanging out with my husband. and i love spending time with josh and ali. and i cant wait to do it again. i want to do this same trip every year. the perfect amount of doing whatever we wanted when we wanted which basically meant doing nothing at the most beautiful beach for the entire week.

See you next year DR.
but really.

OH. AND we saw Drew! Zach's little bro was in the MTC in the DR. We drove over to the mtc, honestly not planning on seeing him, but he just happened to be hanging out outside after lunch RIGHT when we drove up! It was so fun to see him. He's such a cutie.

here are some pics, just to give you an idea of how great the place is: