It's a sign.

Perhaps it stems from high school when my really cool friends and I referred to any small coincidence as "a sign", (one specific instance included driving past a boy we liked's car, hearing the theme to the dance we took him to, and declaring, "IT'S A SIGN!!" Let me reinforce how cool we were.) but sometimes I see things and think it's a sign.

Por ejemplo:

Twins!

I still think it would be great to have twins. But don't tell Philip or Sara, because they both might slap me if I said that out loud.

And then the other day:

Triplets!

Totally a sign, right? It doesn't matter that day after day, patient after patient I do get the single ones, these were obviously sent by the universe to warn me of multiples in my future. Wouldn't that be great to have a litter of children and only have to be pregnant like twice and get 6 kids out of it? Yeah, Philip wants to slap me when I say that too. Let's hope he's isn't as abusive as his thoughts if/when it actually happens. :)

Life between the trip and today...

Okay, I am finally getting all the way caught up on everything, so prepare for a lot of random groups of pictures.

We got together with some Pharmacy school friends for one last hurrah before Joe and Karen moved (still sad about that!).

Here are the happy happy graduates, that NEVER have to go to school again!

Jesse, Philip, Joe, Lee and Jill

And after two ridiculously hard tests that Philip did ridiculously well on, he's a pharmacist! And here is the cute boy in action! Every time I go visit him, I am continually impressed with how helpful and friendly and smart he is when talking to customers. Walgreens is lucky to have him.

And then of course, a MAJOR event of 2010 was Stacie's wedding! It was very much a highlight of our summer. The night before the wedding, we had her bridal shower, which was way too much fun, and this picture of all of us Mesa High girls might be my favorite picture taken this century.

Lindsee, Kim, Stacie, me, Alisse, Megan, Bekah and Kelli

The wedding was lovely, and Stacie and Jesse were so cute and so happy despite the fact that it was 742 degrees outside. The unofficial bridesmaids taking refuge in the shade for a split second.

And Kelli and I as the Co-Maids of Honor, with our semi-matching dresses that we didn't even plan!

In family news, Julia had her precious baby boy! He is so so tiny and cute, we are thrilled to have a new nephew!

Meet Joseph Henry Johnson, he is too precious.

And to add to the family excitement, Natalie had her baby too! Since I have yet to meet the precious little girl, you'll have to see pictures on their blog, here!

Baby Katie is to die for adorable!

Um, my boss gave us wicked tickets to a Diamond backs game, lucky lucky us! (That is until a cockroach crawled by my feet and I was paranoid for the rest of the night.)

Next bit of excitement, Philip got an iPad. We (or rather I) had always planned on going to Hawaii to celebrate Philip graduating, but it kind of isn't going to work out this year, so instead, I told Philip he could get an iPad for his graduation present! HE. WAS. SHOCKED. And equally thrilled when I took a picture of him getting his hands on it for the first time in the Apple store.

He loves it a lot, and though I didn't think I would, I love it just as much!

Next bit o' fun, I babysat Sara's little boys one weekend, and I kind of can't get enough of them! Please enjoy pictures of the fun we had.

And while we're on the topic of family, have I ever mentioned how amazing my sister-in-law, Nancie is? She is a phenomenal American history teacher, and was named Arizona History Teacher of the Year!

She was recognized yet again at the Mesa School Board meeting and did an excellent job with her thank you speech.

And lastly, we went to Vegas last weekend for our friend Seth's wedding. Here are Ali, Seth and Philip, the three friends from Pharmacy school at the reception.

We went and saw the Lion King, and had AMAZING tickets!

Us at the Conservatory at the Bellagio, and lucky for you, I decided not to take pictures in the Orchid house, or of each individual flower. :)

And the water show at the Bellagio was incredible, and we could have watched it for hours on end. Definitely the highlight of the trip.

Oh, and just to show how lucky we were, these were our seats! Second row, right on the aisle! I kid you not, an ELEPHANT walked right by me! It was such a great time, and perhaps this is obvious coming from me, but I got emotional more than once. It was just such a great performance!

Other than that, Vegas? Meh. Ocean's Eleven didn't quite prepare me for the drunkenness, and the smokiness, and the nakedness of everyone and everything around us. So will we be visiting again? Probably not. But now we can check it off our list of places we've been.

And now I'm completely caught up! Just in time for a wedding (Katie's tomorrow!), and fun fall festivities!

DC Day Three

On our third day in DC, we went to Mount Vernon, which is George Washington's house, and it was so pretty. All of the pictures that I have of it look like a post card or like it is a prop in the background...see?!

The cutie Ayala girls nieces: Nancie and Philip joining the Washington family:

Family!

This is the view from George's back porch, where I could have spent all day.

And the back porch itself:

Post card!

The Washingtons' tomb? Or something?

Then we went into the museum, and they had a GIANT head of Washington, and it was like the Haunted Mansion where it would follow you depending on where you moved. Awesome!

Double awesome!

Then in the afternoon, Philip and I went back into DC so that I could see the US Botanical Gardens, in which I also took too many pictures.

But look! They had orchids! A whole room of them!

And even though Philip seemed bored like 98% of the time, and was definitely taking one for the team, he found it to be interesting as well.

More orchids

Don't know and don't care, it is pretty.

And the bloomed version:

Amaryllis Lillies!

Have you ever seen a Calla Lily this color? I was in awe.

I'm glad you're not tired of orchids. :)

If this plant were an animate object (that's a thing, right?) in a cartoon or Pixar type movie, I would imagine it would be the antagonist in the story.

A bumble bee! I'm not going to lie, I was and still am a little thrilled with this picture.

More lillies!

We then crossed the street to see the amazing Bartholdi Fountain only to find that it was completely under construction, with the 30 foot statue missing and no water whatsoever. Sad day for us.

So we settled for another sweaty picture, which happened to be our last picture in DC.

The next day we only had a half a day, but we spent the morning in the Holocaust Museum which was incredible and eye-opening. And lucky for us, we had Nancie as our personal tour guide. Overall, it was such a great trip, and I think that everyone needs to see it at least once, or four times. I am so glad that we had the chance to go, and it was an even greater time to go with Philip's family.

And huzzah! We're done with this trip! Yay for the East Coast! See you again soon!