Graduation came with a storm, and ended with a storm!

We arrived home from the cruise on a Sunday and by Tuesday night we had to be ready to leave again for our 14 hr. drive to Missouri for graduation. It was a quick turnaround, especially considering that I was beginning to feel knocked out and nauseous everyday about then with morning sickness. Not to mention the fact that I felt sad to not spend every possible minute with my sweet parents who drove all the way across the country to watch our kids while we pampered ourselves at sea, and who had stayed in town to see Paul graduate. As we left for Kirksville I felt a knot of nausea in my stomach accompanied by a knot of excitement and anxiety. The drive went pretty well. We got to stop in Nauvoo for a few minutes. Eirik loved the horse statue with Joseph and Hyrum Smith riding.

The anxiety was soon explained as we drove out of Nauvoo into dark looming storm clouds. Right about then, our friends in Kirksville called to tell us that there was a tornado warning and that we had better check our route. It turned out that the tornado was heading straight down the street we were planning to take into town. We changed our route and then we drove into the craziest storm I've ever been in. I usually really get excited by storms, but I had such a foreboding feeling about this one that I started to get really freaked out. I made Paul turn around and while I insisted that we find shelter he insisted that we were fine. We were kind of yelling at each other when Eirik offered to say a prayer. He said, "Heavenly Father, please help the tornado to go away from us, and please help my parents to make a good plan." And then he went right to sleep. The radio then said that we could expect the storm to pass through Canton, the town we were headed to, right about the time we were planning to drive through before we turned around. So, once again we changed our route and kept going. After torrential rain that I thought would sweep us off the street, it dissipated and we entered an eerie green glowing light. Everything was so still.. too still. And the clouds looked like giant hands coming out of heaven. We got out for one quick picture. (This is absolutely unaltered in any way but still doesn't quite capture the eeriness of the moment.)

The stillness didn't last long, for as we drove on the rain descended and we entered a deep darkness that turned into a lightning storm like I have never seen before. For about 30 minutes we drove through fields where we had lightning flashing 360 degrees around us about every 2 seconds. Paul found this awesome classical music that was loud drums and trumpets and high intensity power music to fit the mood. I'm telling you, I thought we were going up in flames at any second. I was just holding my breath. Finally the lightning gave way and we drove in silence through the flooded streets to our destination. It wasn't until the next day that we discovered the extent of the devastation. Right through main street of Kirksville (where we would have been driving at the time of the storm) many homes were totally destroyed and 3 people were killed. It was quite the experience and I'm glad we were safe!

Sorry to write so much about the storm when the really important this is that Paul graduated from Medical School!

I love Ashley. This great pic is from her awesome camera. I also took pictures with many of my other great friends, but it was on my Dad's camera... so the wait continues to get those pictures. (hint hint.. dad....xxoo)
We got to stay the whole time with our good friends the Clarksons. They have an awesome farm 15 minutes from town. Our boys got to see the baby cows drink from bottles and we fed the chickens and ate fresh eggs. They are great people and I hope we grow up to be like them. They were great to host us the whole time! Thanks Clarksons!
Here we are at a fun graduation dinner at Napoli's.






On the long drive home we experienced the tantrum of our lives. It was absolutely remarkable. It deserves it's own blog post. I'm working on a video to post. I hope you get to see it soon!

Congratulations Paul! You are awesome and we are so proud of you!!

After 4 years of anticipation.. Duhn duhn duhn... !!

We met up with the Pace's and the Field's in Puerto Rico for the ultimate indulgent vacation package.. a week long cruise in the warm Caribbean!

It's overwhelming to try to tell about each fun packed day so I've decided to start with my

Top ten awesome moments: (and try to fill in some details later with more scrumptious photos .)


10. Justin got totally hypnotized at the hypnotist show and had us rolling on the floor laughing. He was awesome! He conducted a tremendous symphony! Very impressive!

9. My Rock star husband was the first up for Karaoke and nailed it with "Sweet Caroline"! He was a natural and, oh so charming!

8. On the wonderful island of St. Thomas at Saphire beach I swam out way way way out by myself almost to where the boats were passing and found a huge sea turtle. He was not afraid of me and we swam together for a while until he started to surface and I got to grab onto his shell and experience turtledom. It was AWESOME!

(This picture is actually Aruba, but whatever)

7. There was a little lul in the excitement. The men had gone off to do some male whatever and we were chilling in Katherine's room when someone had the idea to come up with notes to annonymously slip to other passengers. We mischeviously wrote up little messages from the management about how people had eaten too much shrimp and were being asked to please refrain or about how their nighttime activities were interupting other guests. (I'm sure Katherine will share all the details as she scrupulously took photos of all of our notes.) It was a moment of sheer giddiness. It's fun to feel 14 again. I just wish I could have seen the recipient's faces.

6. We got to roll in Paul's 29th year with an outrageously fancy steak dinner with lobster tail and all the works. (and how many of you crazies ate 2 whole steaks!! yes, more than 2 of you!)

5. In Dominica we took an hour long bus ride up through the amazing rain forest to a river where we tubed down to this beautiful lagoon where we swam and decided to climb up these roots to a small ledge and all jump off. I loved the idea and was the first one up, however in my haste I didn't realize that all my "cool" companions had removed their life vests for the photo so I look like the lame duck who is afraid to drown. (photo coming). Thanks guys.. you know how to show your love.

4. This magician comedian guy (Michael James) was shockingly irreverent and insanely funny. At the end of his show the announcer, who was this terrific MC was congratulating him and introducing more events when Michael stuck his head out under the curtain to look up her skirt unbeknown to her. Her surprise showed that it was not expected and not appreciated. After a bit of recovery she calmly said, "that was in interesting way for him to resign." It was shocking and terrible and oh so funny at the same time.

3. 30 Rock quotes became a constant thread of laughter throughout the whole trip. "You ate that whole steak!" "A dog took it, It came out of no where!"

2. For a whole week I didn't have to experience even a moment of this:

1. And the number one best thing about the cruise was that I didn't feel even a bit of morning sickness until the day we disembarked!! Yes, people that is an announcement. We planned carefully to have a baby the day before 2010 for tax reasons. (Dec 30 to be exact) ie. yes we planned to get pregnant, no, we aren't very good at math and could have probably picked a better due date with better planning.. but we are thrilled besides the puking and more than anything glad that sickness did not ruin the trip! Yeah for baby!