Dear Clark

5 years ago today we were married in the Salt Lake temple.

It was a perfect day and we were so happy to celebrate with family and good friends.

Were you there?

Our wedding pretty much lasted 3 weeks with receptions to follow in Boise and Durango. You took me on a fun honeymoon to San Francisco. We had so many fun adventures. 2 of our adventures make good metaphors for how our marriage has been the past 5 years...

One day of our trip we decided to rent one of these Go-Cars.

These tiny little cars are steet legal! We picked up our car right in the middle of downtown San Francisco. We naively put on our little helmets and hit the busy city streets.

We had only gone about 2 blocks before a black truck about plowed us down, apparently in our little 2 foot car we were in his blind spot. You did some fancy maneuvering and after some very tense minutes got us out of downtown and into the more touristy areas where we felt a bit safer!

Since we didn't have a rental car for our trip we decided it would be fun to drive this little Go-Car down Lombard Street, the twistiest road in America.

Each Go-Car came equipped with a built in GPS so we could just type in our destination and follow the directions. When I typed in Lombard Street the route the GPS wanted us to take was crazy long! Since we only had our car for a limited time I looked at the map and said, "there is a way faster way to get there, heck with this GPS, I'll tell you where to drive and then we'll have time to go somewhere else." I then turned off the GPS and started navigating with the map.

I found the street that leads to Lombard Street and we were on our way. What I didn't know is how steep the street was, and how the little Go-Cars pretty much have no guts to go up hills (hence the reason the GPS was taking us on the long/non hilly route to Lombard Street).

We made it about halfway up the super STEEP street and our car just stopped moving, you had the throttle pushed as far as it would go and we were at a complete standstill. I glanced behind us and saw that there was a whole line of cars stopped behind us as well.

I thought that maybe if we had less weight the car would go, so I jumped out...but nothing! You started yelling at me to push, I got us about 6 more inches and then we were stalled again. At first both of us in our state of newly wedded bliss were laughing at the situation, but at this point we realized we were in quite a pickle and it got a bit scary. We knew we had to turn the car around. With me pushing and you trying to steer, hold the throttle and push at the same time we got the car turned around, avoiding hitting a parked car on the side of the road by an inch!

The line of angry drivers behind us quickly drove by and I quickly snapped this picture of our almost turned around car.

We jumped back in our Go-Car and immediately turned the GPS back on and decided to follow the long, but oh so safe directions, to get us to Lombard Street!

We had a lot of fun experiencing Lombard Street from a tiny little car.

So how does this relate to our marriage the last 5 years?

Well, we've definitely learned that there are no shortcuts to get anywhere worth going. We've had a few uphill moments where it took both of us pushing to make it to the top. I think that when we find ourselves in a pickle we've learned how to evaluate the situation, turn around, find the better way and laugh at ourselves.

Another day of our trip we decided to rent a tandem bike and ride across the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito.

We had so much fun riding our bike along the beach. Then we went through a gorgeous park to get up to the bridge. I was overwhelmed by the beautiful trees and flowers, just loving the ride, I didn't even notice we were going up a pretty steep hill. I promise I thought I was peddling!

About half way up the hill you yelled back to me in a very winded voice that we needed to stop. So we pulled over and I noticed that you were quite out of breath, about ready toc ollapse. I thought, wow you must not be in very good shape, because I felt great! Then you pointed out that just because my feet were moving with the peddles didn't mean I was peddling. You had pretty much been peddling both of us up the hill by yourself while I enjoyed the beautiful ride! I'm still laughing about this one.

After that I put a little more effort into it and we had a wonderful day in Sausalito!

So I think this one could apply to our marriage in a lot of ways. But mostly right now I think it fits that you are working so hard in school so you can be prepared to provide for our family, allowing me to stay home with our fun little boys and just enjoy the ride!

The past 5 years have gone by really fast! I think we've both grown and learned a lot. In the past 5 years we've:

added 2 wonderful little boys to our family,

earned 2 degrees, with 2 more in the works,

had 5 jobs and 10 church callings,

visited 16 states, lived in 2 states and 3 cities,

made 1,000,000,000 (approximately) wonderful memories!

Thanks for a great 5 years and for being a better husband than I could have even imagined I was marrying on August 13, 2005. I love you!

Sneaky Camera Work

I'm hijacking Steph's blog for a minute because I just snuck into the living room and filmed this:

Even the best laid plans...

Today is the day I decided I was recovered enough from surgery to start an exercise regimen. It has been a long time since I worked out. Before I even got pregnant with Caden I resolved that I would workout throughout my pregnancy no matter how crappy I felt, unfortunately when the first day of morning sickness hit my great plan went out the window.
After lunch I got Caden down for a nap, put on my new exercise shoes and convinced Ethan that doing a FIRM workout with me would be "so much fun." We got about 20 mins. into it and Caden woke up, and before I knew it my trusty step boxes had been turned into boats.

merrily, merrily, merilly, merilly life is but a dream!

The GRANDEST Grandparents

We were so excited to have both of our parents here for a visit the past 2 weeks! Ethan was thrilled to see Papa Jonsin, Gramma Karen, Papa Peters and Grommy Tommy (not sure why he has a British accent when saying her name). It is quite a mouthful for him to mention all four of them in the same sentence (which he does all the time now). At first we thought he might be confused at having 2 grandpas and grandmas around - but nope, he just thought it was a bigger party and loves all 4 of them!

We all had such a great visit! It is hard to live so many miles away and not get to visit as frequently as we would like - so we really had to pack in the fun and take advantage of every minute while they were here! Here are a few highlights!

Bowling:

Ethan was so proud of his bowling shoes, Clark scored an almost personal record of 176, and my mom and I were thoroughly entertained by the Senior League bowling next to us - they were awesome (the lady with the hot pink capris with the black fringe around the legs was a personal favorite).

Park:

Anytime we asked Ethan what he wanted to do he said, "park peez."

Learning a new trick from Grammy Tammy.

Caden's first slide.

Does this look dangerous to you? All I can say is it is a good thing Papa Peters has cat-like reflexes!

Lots of Play Time:

Ethan tucked Grandpa in and 40 seconds later said, "time to wake up Papa Peters." No time for napping around here!

Indianola National Balloon Classic:

On Saturday night we braved the crazy traffic and drove to Indianola for the hot-air balloon festival. We got there right in time as all of the balloons started the mass ascension. It was almost whimsical to see the balloons floating over the beautiful green Iowa fields.

We loved watching this giant jack in the box take flight. It went right over our heads.

After the balloons Ethan enjoyed the kiddie play area, especially the barrel train.

After going through this inflatable train Ethan was excited to see his grandparents! Before any of us could stop him he ran back and went through the train backwards, just getting the most out of his ticket I suppose.

Dinner at the Iowa Machine Shed (twice):
Besides having good food, this restaurant is a fun experience! We took a tractor wagon ride around the parking lot, admired the old tractors and farming equipment, and enjoyed the variety of bacon paraphernalia in the gift shop (who knew you could buy bacon flavored chapstick).

Learning about tractors from the expert.

Heritage Carousel:

I'm pretty sure Ethan had more fun taking a shower and playing in the gutter run off at the edge of the carousel, it doesn't take much to please this kid.

Iowa Cubs Baseball Game:

Grandpa caught this T-shirt for Ethan (much to the dismay of the woman pictured by Ethan's feet - she really thought she had it).

It's hard to watch a baseball game when this little grinner is around.

We LOVE our parents! I think it is so much fun to see our parents love our kids and see our kids adore their grandparents.

This little boy felt like the King of World for the last 2 weeks!

Thanks so much for coming, we miss you all!

Caden's Baby Blessing

August 1, 2010 was a special day for little Caden Clark Johnson, he was given his baby blessing at church. Clark gave him a beautiful blessing. He looked so sweet and pure in his little white outfit (that was literally bursting at the seams).

The day was especially great because both sets of grandparents were able to be there, and both of his grandpas were able to help bless him.

After church we had a wonderful dinner (thanks to both grandmas) with friends and family in his honor. The cute little guy was worn out and slept through the whole thing! He didn't even get a piece of his cute caterpillar cake.

Here's our attempt at some fun family pictures. I'm wishing we would have taken a few in the morning before being out in the heat and humidity all evening.

Now everyone give your best "Ee-ee" smile!

A cute little smile for his big brother.

Caden's blessing day reminded me that our little boy is truly a child of God with a wonderful mission to fulfill throughout his life on earth. We are so blessed to have his sweet spirit in our home.