{i love my life}

Happy Anniversary to the man I love.

7 years strong.

Life is wonderful with my Jake.  Here are some things that we have done in the past 7 years.

*lived in 4 different apartments, all on the bottom level

*gone to Lake Powell almost every summer

*traveled on many adventures with our friends and family

*had our crazy Nolan boy

*moved out to Milwaukee to start Medical School

*had another wonderful, crazy little boy Luke

*learned what it's like to have a baby in the NICU

*took step 1 boards

*endured almost 4 winters here in Wisconsin

*made some amazing friends through all of our schooling and different wards

*become huge Packer's fans

*gone to a Packer's game

*visited Chicago many times

*took step 2 boards

*enjoyed the beautiful summers here in Milwaukee

*been to the State Fair 3 times

*had a missing husband due to interviewing for residency

*had wonderful church callings

*and getting told how beautiful i am from my husband every day

the past 7 years have been so great with lots of ups and downs but it has always been easier married to Jake.  he is the best man that i know.  especially since he has to deal with me.  i'm not the easiest person.  i'm just a little too female.

i'm so proud of you Jake for getting through medical school.  i can't wait to find out where our next adventure will begin with residency.  i love you!

{niece}

just a cute picture of my niece mckell.  she is such a sweet little girl.

{river run}

another wonderful date with the meyer clan.  we headed out to the weber river to tube down it.  it was a 6 mile stretch that took about 2 hours to go down.  it was so much fun.  the meyer's provided the tubes for us, since we don't have any, and we went for it.  joel had this gargantuan tube that was even big enough for him.  poor jake had the smallest tube and was flipping over through almost every rapid.  i had the best tube and just relaxed for the entire ride.  it was much needed.

 the mighty men tying the tubes to the car. 

 my cute friend tera.  

 this picture was taken after our adventure.  we didn't dare take the camera with us so we decided to do our posing afterward.

 this was the huge tube i was talking about.  there was no way i was going to float on that.  i would have sunk right through.

 our incredibly huge friend joel.  

and then there were the kiddos.  it was nice to leave them but fun to get them all together.  joel and tera have two little girls that are 16 months apart.  i didn't even get a picture of bryn.  but carley is the same size as nolan and is younger than luke.  i don't know if we will be able to have an arranged marriage.  she might pass both our boys up. 

the tubing was one of the highlights of the trip.  i'm so glad that our friends weren't kidding about going down the river.  at first jake and i thought they were joking but we are glad to say we loved every second of it.  thanks joel and tera.  always a good time. 

{bit of bliss}

we were lucky enough to head down to lake powell for four days.  we wanted to spend as much time as possible with the boys so we decided to drive out at 3 am monday morning.  call us crazy!!  i just slept in the back while eric and jake pounded down some redbulls.  we started the trip off a little tipsy because of lack of sleep but it was so worth it to get there right at 8 in the morning.

fabulous lake powell!!!  nothing is better.

we started off the trip with tubing wars.  now, with the rabe's these aren't any safe tubing wars.  things get extremely dangerous.  but oh so fun!

jake was trying to jump on to erin's tube.  poor girl was scared out of her mind but she was so tough.

nicole, me and taryn enjoying the tube wars.

i use to get made fun of when i was young for my legs.  they called me frog legs.  i guess they weren't so far off.  

beautiful sunset!

jake on the sky-ski

the ladies again.

i was so excited to get out on the water.  it had been two years since the last time i skied.  loved every second of it.

my favorite new toy on the water right now is the wake skate.  i loved, loved, loved it!  i need to do a lot of work to be good at it but it really is so much fun!

jake trying some tricks on the wake skate

this was all so new to us and we had a lot of fun figuring it out.

i was so glad my brother was able to come with us.  i haven't been able to see much of him since he has been up at utah state.

captain of the boat mr. douglas.  love that man.  thanks malan's for supplying all the goods.

we were able to stay in bullfrog this time.  i haven't stayed there in 5 years since the water has been so low.  it was great to be back.  our houseboat was just behind that rock in a little cove.  

my brother perfecting his jump thanks to the coaching skills of jake.

more wake skating for me.  and yes, i still plug my nose for no reason at all.  i guess it's habit.  i look ridiculous though, that's for sure.

trying to jump the wake but should have realized that i need to grab the board to carry it with me over the wake.  once again, i am a beginner.

some of the crew.

my sexy man still has it after all these years of doing nothing but studying.

the wonderful sky-ski.  the last time i rode this puppy was when i was 24 weeks pregnant with luke.  

this trip was amazing.  i really want to thank brad and ann again for taking us.  you are amazing!!  these trips are our absolute favorite and we really needed this one.  jake especially.  can't wait for the kids to get older and have the same happiness we experience at beautiful lake powell.