Amy and Dereks World

First day of school

2011-08-22T13:34:00.000-07:00

So because we dont have any kids derek was a great sport this morning. Derek started his first day of grad school today. I did not cry like most mothers out there but i did get some fantastic shots of the first day. i am so proud of him!!!

first day outfit. he would not let me buy him new school clothes. i dont think that was right but oh well. he is a guy

Derek with all his book for the first semester!

i am so excited for this journey in our lives. i can not wait for him to be done already!!

Times are a changing

2011-06-22T17:57:00.000-07:00

I am so bad at updating this darn thing. Well last time i updated was November and so much has changed. so onto the news of our changing lives.

First i will start with derek. He has been applying for grad school over the years and this year he decided to widen his scope and applied to physical therapy and occupational therapy schools. I am so proud to say that derek has been accepted to the university of utah occupational therapy program. we were applying to many schools out of state, but he got in at the u of u and we could not be happier. He starts Aug 22 and it is a 2 1/2 year program and then he will be done. we can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. i am so proud of him. he has worked to hard to get into grad school and he is so happy. I asked him which one he prefers over the other (occupational or physical therapy) and he said occupational therapy so that makes it even better that he got into that school.

Next i have changed jobs. I am now working at the university of utah in their surgical intensive care unit. We get all the traumas, transplants, open heart cases and any other surgery you can think of in between. It has been a really good move for me. The education they provide is great for nurses and it will help me to reach my goal at becoming and flight nurse. they only down side is i have to work 50% days and 50% nights so i never know when i am suppose to be sleeping. Also the pay is not the best so i am working one day a week at the reg so 48 hours each weak. i have never worked so much EVER, but grad school is so expensive and derek supported me through nursing so my turn to support him through OT school.
We are so excited for the changes that have happened. we could not be in a better place at this time in our lives. well i will have to post more next time.

happy birthday!!

2010-11-05T21:26:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday babe!! Derek turns 29 today. i am so proud and thankful to have him in my life. He truly is the best thing that has happened to me. This is just a few things i love about him:

He is willing to put up with me day in and day out. He is willing to take pictures for me (if you knew Dereks family this is HUGE). There is not a day that goes by he does not make me laugh in some way. He is such a hard worker in school and work (he is currently spending time on is birthday to study for up coming tests ). He is so smart (sometimes also frustrating when it would take me hours upon hours to do something when it only takes him minutes.) He is such a good "house wife" and does most of the cleaning. He is great when it comes to house projects and will do the work himself so we don't have to pay to have it done. He is very good at the guitar. He is one of the most giving and generous guys i know. If ever someone is in need of help with anything he will be there in a flash. He is very positive person and thinks of others needs before the needs of his own. He loves me unconditionally. He makes me want to become a better person.

I don't know how i ended up with him... but i am truly blessed. I LOVE YOU DEREK!!

summer fun

2010-09-07T15:02:00.000-07:00

Next on the list of summer activities we were able to do this summer was go down to fairaview with my family. we go down at least once a summer with everyone. it is the funnest place. i grew up always going down there every summer and it is one of my favorite memories at a family. this year was no exception. we stayed in one of the cabins and have everyone under one roof. it was so much fun i can not wait to do it again soon.

Me and Derek on overlook point. it takes a min to get there on four wheelers, but it is the prettiest views!

my niece and me just chilling on the porch. she is so cute!

my brother jj going off a jump. he flies in the air :)

This video is of my family going off a jump. we all got pretty good air. i love seeing my little nephew on his dirt bike. he is getting so good.

this video is me and my niece going off the jump with my four wheeler. besides my brother we were the highest. it was so fun!

every year we take a picture of all of us on the porch. we are getting so big!

i can not wait for next year.

vernal trip

2010-09-02T16:09:00.000-07:00

I can not believe this summer has already come to an end. it went by way too quick. Derek and i had such a fun summer... i really wish it was longer. i love the heat!!!!

One of the fun things we did was go down to vernal with dereks family. it was so much fun to just relax, eat and enjoy everyones company. and one of the best parts about vernal was the place we stayed. it totally reminded me of my grandma and growing up. the house had the cushion seats on the toilet. i kept finding my self going back to the bathroom just so i could sit on it. tell me why those went out of style again?! the fridge that was made by ford. the bed we slept on. every time we moved the entire house heard it. it was so funny!! and i am the type of sleeper where i am constantly moving so i would wake up myself because of how loud it was.

we were able to go fly fishing. it was my first time and i loved it. i almost caught one but it escaped on the reeling in part. if dave and jess need a fishing couple we are so there for you.

on the last day we were there we went to the dinosaur museum.a few pictures down derek had such a great idea and had to show how evolution worked. you will notice the similarities. hehe

Derek telling me that he wants to be DNR/DNI and his personal DNF. For the non-medical people. (do not resuscitate, do not intubate, and do not foley catheter.

However i keep telling him he is going to be my little vegetable. if something ever happens to him you better believe i am doing everything. he is staying around forever. we made a deal remember!!

me being sneaky and petting the pretty animal.

The next few pictures make me laugh so much. derek is a natural in front of the camera. and i must say he does resemble them a lot.

i love love love this next picture they are both so happy and look like brothers.

and last but not least. the fight of all time......

thanks larsen family for the fun times!

Viva el Mexico

2010-06-03T10:21:00.000-07:00

Derek and i recently had the opportunity to get away for our anniversary. We have been married 5 years so i wanted to do something special. i have always wanted to go out of the country and Mexico seemed like the perfect place to do it. We ended up going to Cancun Mexico at one of their all-inclusive resorts. We really had the time of our lives!! However, Derek got sick right during the middle of our vacation and i got sick on the airplane ride home. But all in all we had so much fun and did not want to return home! The first slide show is us at the airport and then our fantastic hotel.

The next day we went to a place called Xel Ha recommended by my brother. It was so fun and relaxing. Our tour guide suggested we do something extra and go underwater with helmets and be right next to stingray. That was so amazing, there were fish all around us and then our tour guide let us "pet" the stingray. It was a very awesome experience and glad we did it. The place had so much to do we spent all day and still felt like there was more we missed out on.
Xel Ha

Our next excursion we went to Xplore. This park had so much to do and was definitely one of our favorites. This park had underground caves that you swim through and paddle your way around the water with rafts. Derek and i passed so many people with our raft (we are pros). We also got to drive around the park with amphibians. you would go under caves and through water it was so fun. then they had zip lines. i was a little scared the first time but after the initial shock it was way fun. the only down side was walking up 18 towers!!! But you will see in our next video Derek got way sick to his stomach, but i still "pulled" him around to all the different activities. i guess that is the down side about working in the ICU.... i don't think people are really sick unless they are almost about to code.

Xplore (just hit the play button)

We had planned to go to tulum but Derek was still sick and up all night so we had to cancel that tour. but the next to last day Derek was feeling better so we went on our last tour to Isla Mujeres. It was a great way to end our tours. This place was a lot closer to what i imagined Mexico to be like. Ill explain later. We had to take a boat out to the island. We had the opportunity to snorkel, and take a tour around the island on a golf cart. The water at Isla was so clear and calm. Derek and i really enjoyed the snorkeling here. the fish were not afraid of you and there were many times a school of fish just came by us. at one point our instructor pointed out a barracuda and i screamed a little. i have no idea why... oh well. unfortunately we did not have much film left in our underwater camera to get all the pictures we wanted. after snorkeling we ate and then got a guided tour around the island in golf carts. Our cart was a little run down and by far the slowest. When we were trying to climb up a hill we heard a really large popping sound, but it made it thank goodness. The island was beautiful but on our tour we drove through a medium income area, followed by a super rich area, and then and extremely poor area all very close to each other. most people on the island spoke only spanish (which is not the case in Cancun it was very Americanized.) and Derek's Spanish came in handy here. It was a very beautiful place and we highly recommend it.

Isla Mujeres

this viedo is of derek being derek enjoy

On days where we did not have something planned we just sat by the pool and beach and relaxed. i don't know why we didn't take any pictures on those days. it was a great anniversary. hope you enjoy the pictures. que disfrutan (Enjoy).

graduation

2010-05-10T13:01:00.000-07:00

Derek graduated with his bachelors degree this week! i am so proud of him. however his degree you really can not do much with. It is more like a stepping stone for other degrees. i don't understand why they are making him get a bachelors to apply to physical therapy or occupational therapy school. or why in the world is physical therapy a doctoral program. i only have my associates and i think i do a lot more "stuff" than physical therapy or occupational therapy. Derek is just as frustrated as i am but he realizes he has to jump through all the hoops. i am still very proud of him and i can not wait until we get into a program. now it is the waiting game. congrats babe!!

updates!

2010-04-10T19:30:00.000-07:00

All right so if anyone is reading this now... thank you for not giving up on our blog. i just totally failed to do this and i was reminded time after time (thanks Ashlee) that my blog needed some major updating so here it goes. Since it has been almost a year from my last blog i don't know where to start. i guess the best place would be this last December.

Usually around Christmas time Derek and i will get a tree up on Christmas eve and have no decorations on it and then take it down the next day. so this year we decided that because we were in our house we needed to have a tree up and decorate it. also i am going to point out the before and after of our front room we decorated with help from Derek's sister Aubrey (she is so good!)

Before the front room..

After the front room with all the Christmas decor.

We truly had such an amazing Christmas. we got so many great things that it would be too long of a blog to mention but it was a ton of fun this year!

Next i don't know how many of you like infomercials. But as so many of you know me and Derek absolutely love them!!! we are so addicted to them and we MUST have them. the last item we purchased was the magic bullet express. When we watched the infomercial it looked like it was going to revolutionize the way we made salads. and it did... however not how we planned. so we ended up returning it. but not before we got some true pictures of how it worked.

This is a picture of how a salad should look (i know many of you may have forgotten)

This is what the magic bullet made our salad look like. lets just say it was pureed (the cucumbers did slice nicely however)

And the clean up was not as simple as it made it look either... i think 50% of the salad remained in the bullet

Alright skipping ahead.... Derek's brother Dana got married recently to an amazing girl Holly. their wedding went really well...

however if anyone knows the Larsen's they are not ones for taking pictures. so i got some one of a kind pictures of the Larsen boys (and must i remind you it took a little convincing to even get these shots) i think that when you see them i have a knack for taking really breath taking photos!

And then Dana let me take one with him (i think he knew i would keep bugging him until he agreed)

For Christmas my parents gave me a sewing machine. i have no idea how to sew so i have been taking sewing lessons from my mom. she is such an amazing seamstress. anyway she found a pattern that said super easy apron. so she thought it would be a great starter for me to do. we quickly learned it was not easy at all. but we finished! it was fun to spend that time with my mom and dad while i sewed

the apron...

Now moving on to EASTER. Normally Derek and i dont really do anything for the holiday but spend it with family. but this year i bought us some easter outfits (yes that word is for Derek's dad). so derek's job was to get some baskets because we are way to old for the Easter bunny to want to give us some. i came home from work and i see two baskets on the table. these were not just ordinary baskets.... they were the ones that came with HATS!!! they were so much fun derek and i had to take pictures in our hats and with our baskets.

Us looking good in our Easter hats. we plan on wearing them all summer long!

Derek with his Easter basket and sailor hat. ( i love his dear in the headlight smile!!)

Him eating all the goodies

Derek showing off everything that came in the basket. yes that is a headband on his head. it came in the basket and he had to put it on.

Next was my turn to show off all the stuff that was in mine. of course mine was more girly.. dont overlook the matching necklace and bracelet

And then me showing all my goodies. i have no idea why i decide to pull a clown face.

All in all this past few months that i neglected to blog about has been so great. i have got the best husband that keeps me laughing all the time. we have so much fun together and i will keep updating you on everything you missed out on later!

What we've been up to!

2009-06-19T12:30:00.001-07:00

On memorial day we were able to spend the day with Dereks brothers and sisters. We had a lot of fun playing games, roasting marshmallows, and of course watching the boys play baseball on the wii. I think i was the "it" factor for the golf game (i think that is what they call it).... but then again who is keeping track.

Everyone around the fire pit roasting marshmallows and listening to Evans scary story that he was so excited to tell!.... however i have no idea what it was about.

I love this picture of graham and Aubrey!

I can not resist Smores!!! They are so darn good.

And of course you can not end the day with out me and derek taking a close up pictures of us! Classic Derek face.

Then my sister (Amber) talked me into getting a Lagoon season pass for the summer so i could go with her and my niece and nephew. Sydney is not afraid of roller coasters.... michael however reminds me so much of my brother justin. When he was little he would not go on any scary rides. Michael is the same way. He is tall enough to go on all the big rides... but will not. so it is nice to have someone go on all the scary rides with sydney and the slower, "safer" rides with michael.
At the beginning of the day

Amber and sydney on the white roller coaster.

Me and michael on the white roller coaster.

Michaels favorite ride. I forget what it is called but it is the one with the rafts and the water slide. Sydney and michael would try to race me down.

All of us soaked after rattle snake rapids. I am the lease wet because i was trying not to get my bag wet. But the kids and amber were soaked!! note to self... never wear anything white to Lagoon.

Four years and counting

2009-05-25T13:02:00.000-07:00

This past weekend derek and i celebrated our 4th year anniversary. i still can not believe how much time has flown by. It seems like yesterday that derek and i were still dating. so for this post i have decided to post some of the reasons why derek is so perfect for me.

1. Every morning..... no matter how much sleep i have gotten...... i wake up in the worsts mood. derek however wakes up in the best mood no matter what! this might seem like that would be a bad combination but in fact..... it will make me smile no matter what.

2. He is a very hard worker. there are days when he has had a hard, long day at school and all he wants to do when he gets home is relax. however if there are things i want to do (like shopping, going out to eat, or go to the gym) he will put a smile on his face and do them with me!

3. He can always find a way to make me laugh. i dont know how he does it... but i laugh the hardest whenever i am around him or talk with him on the phone.

4. he is always a constant example to me. either in the church, or just who he is. i admire him so much!!!!

5. and last but not least how wonderful of a husband he truly is to me!

Here are a few pictures from the past and present

This picture is one of my favorite wedding pictures.

The last few pictures are from our camping trip. it was so much fun and beautiful

blogging neglect

2009-03-05T23:31:00.001-08:00

It has been a while since i posted something last. it just seems like there has not been anything too exciting happening these days. however i forgot there was a huge change that recently happened. at work i got a promotion to be on the "heart team". it is just a fancy name saying that now i will also recover open hearts. i was very excited about it, but i think the person who was most excited about my promotion was Derek! Before he would work nights at the hospital then go straight to class until 5pm then go back to work at 7pm and then start the day all over again. he was only getting a couple of hours of sleep in a night (something i would never be able to do!!) Now he is just focusing on his schooling. he is so much happier and well slept these days.... however he still procrastinates when it comes to school. i think that will always be the case. but he does a great job at helping out around the house with cleaning and making the dinners. i am so lucky to have him. anyway here are some random pictures we took lately.

Date Night!

Dereks best efforts at not taking a picture with me

And finally agreeing to take a serious picture

Dereks Hair

2009-01-15T20:43:00.000-08:00

So derek has been growing his hair out because i wanted to see what his curly hair looks like. Before he had been really short, but because i opened my mouth and said maybe you should grow it out he did. now i am finding i need to keep my mouth closed! Last night he was experimenting with his long hair at all the different hair styles he could get. here is what we came up with! (ps derek said i could post these he was warned!)

I think these two look the best. you can see the curl the best...but of course there are a lot more choices.

The Runner up choice. The flat iron look. (he said he always wanted straight hair that would blow in the wind. well its straight i just dont think it would blow in the wind)

The rocker look.

The mad scientist look.

The best superman "S" look we could get.
Elvis

The Flat top i love pictures look.
the im so innocent look

alfalfa.

These are the choices. please let derek and me know which one you like the best. if there is a clear winner he may just go with that look:)

party time!

2009-01-15T09:30:00.000-08:00

This past week we were able to attend my nephews birthday party and charoletts dedications. It was a lot of fun and good food. michael is now 6 years old and he is so much fun. such a personality on that kid. whenever he is around derek he talks like he is one of the "guys". it is so hard to explain. i will have to record it someday. anyway here is pictures from the party that michael mostly took.

Christmas 2008

2009-01-03T07:59:00.000-08:00

So this Christmas was the most tiring Christmas ever. At work Derek and i both work the grave yard shift. It tends to throw everything off schedule. I was unlucky to work Christmas eve night (from 7pm to 7am). So when i got off work on Christmas day i had already been up for at least 12 hours. I was so tired at that point... but the party must go on.

That morning Derek picked me up from work. It was suppose to snow that night and i am the worst snow driver EVER! So my sweet husband, will put up with my second hand driving and take me to work and pick me up on snow days. he is the best guy ever!! anyway... this chritmas the only thing i asked derek to get me was a cat. however there was one small bump in the road of my dreams of owning a cat..... he is allergic to them... not to the point it will kill him.... just to the point he will get a stuffy nose and watery eyes. so the entire time he was telling me no no no. but i never gave up that he might just get me a cat. so when we got home on christmas morning he opened up the front door turned around and gave me a can of cat food and said Merry christmas. then there he was.... VELCRO. i grew up with velcro at my parents house and he is very much an outdoor cat so it is perfect because dereks allergies don't really act up around him!!! i was a little worried at first. like is he going to be ok..... can i trust him outside by himself..... what if he crosses the road? and how can i stop him from not doing it? i realized you can not teach a cat to not cross a road so i have to hope that being around 12 years he has learned to not cross the street if a car is there. as derek puts it... if he survived my parents house for as long as he did he is going to be just fine at our house. here are some pictures of him.

He is so much fun... but he definitely does what he wants when he wants.

Then after seeing my cat we headed up to my sisters house for my family's Christmas. it is always so much fun! we have strawberry crapes for breakfast and then 2-3 hours of opening presents. My family goes all out on Christmas..... here are some pictures of it.

After my family we had time for a quick nap before heading over to derek families christmas party. I am the worst waking up after naps.... so i forgot my camera for his families christmas. but we had a lot of fun over there as well. however, derek had to work that night so we left early and i slept all night long.

We are so lucky to have the best families ever! i hope everyone else had a great christmas!

blog catch up

2009-01-03T07:18:00.000-08:00

I have failed to keep our blog up to date. so here is a recap of what you missed during that time.

My sister April had a baby shower.... not a fan of showers but who really is. it was fun however because we did not do any of the games. here are some pictures from it.

The Rigdon girls

My sister april who is so tiny for being 3 weeks away from the due date.

Not too long after the shower april discovered she would have to have the baby a lot sooner than expected. April recovered so quickly and now i have a new niece, Charlotte. At the hospital her big sister would not let anyone else hold her for longer than 5 minutes. But that is what big sisters are for... protection.

She is so tiny she only weiged in at 4lbs 10 oz (or so i think). but she is so healthy and growing each day. she is now up to 7 pounds!!!

The big sister.

Derek, michael and baby charlotte.
We need to thank our photographer sydney for getting this picture.

Other than that.... derek and i have been doing more remodeling. our bedroom and front room are almost done. we just need to put picture up on the wall and some more decor items. When we are completly done i will post some before and after pictures!

Mini Vacation

2008-11-19T00:07:00.000-08:00

This past weekend Derek and i had the opportunity to go on a small vacation. We had originally planned a trip to Chile to celebrate my graduation and his birthday (he is now 27!!). But i found out my friend in California was getting married at the same time of our trip... So we canceled our trip to Chile. Some day we will end up going on that trip to Chile. In the mean time we decided to make a few pit stops along the way

The first stop was in Las vegas. It was really nice and HOT!

When we left vegas i was not looking forward to the drive to cali. i am the second worst side seat driver (next to my mom). but we ended up making in there in no time. In california we spent a day at universal studios. it was so much fun! derek and i had not been there since we were little so everything was new again! i recommend going down at this time every year because the lines we really short. the longest wait was 15 min for the simpsons!

We ended up going to the animal show and one of the trainers was miah or his stunt double. during the entire show i kept on telling derek it had to be miah (Dereks brother). this is miah in 15 years

The next day was the wedding.... lets just say my friend ended up being as my mom puts it "bridezilla". but all in all it was a really fun trip!

Greatings blog world

2008-11-10T21:07:00.000-08:00

I decided it was time that Derek and i created our own blog to keep up with family and friends. I am very new at this so the first couple of posts will be very interesting i am sure. So a little up date on what is going on.....

we bought our fist house around mid september. it is located in bountiful and we love the area and people. when i get a better picture i will post it soon!

i just graduated from nursing school in august and took my state boards in september. this is me and my momsme and my parents

and the only picture i could find of me and derek at my graduation