The past few months have been busy with Danny finishing his 3rd year of medical school (wahoo!!!), visiting some great friends who live far away, my sister Mei Li getting married, the annual Creative Arts Camp in Gunnison, and the 4th of July.

Danny is now officially a 4th year medical student. We have one more year here at the University of Utah and then we’ll be off to residency who knows where. Danny is pretty much decided on Internal Medicine. I can’t say I’m 100% happy about this decision just because of the fact that we now are not any closer to moving back to Gunnison with this field choice. Even if we don’t move back, I know I’m a true Gunnisonian at heart.

During the month of June, we were able to go down to St. George for a weekend and see our dear friends, the Bleazard’s. Danny and Brock are two peas in a pod and until they got married, were literally inseparable. They took all the same classes in high-school and college, played doubles together in tennis, and now are both in medical school. We had tons of fun just hanging out together. We are so sad we don’t get to see them more often. Mady, Brock and Megan’s little girl, and Charlie are just 1 day apart. I promise, we did not plan that!!! I think it’s so fun for Danny and Brock to see they’re kids together. Mady’s such a little talker and is so darling! We love both her and Krew so much!!! Later in the week, Brock and Megan drove up with their family and we went to the SL Children’s Museum at Gateway and then had dinner with our other great friends, Morgan and Alli. We had so much fun all together!!

The boys, together at last.


Charlie and Mady


Charlie, Mady, and Krew. It's very difficult to get a picture of all three sitting still.


The whole bunch.


On June 26th, my sister Mei Mei got married to a boy named Dave Adams. It was a very festive occasion filled with family, food, lot’s of sun, and pinwheels. ☺ Because it’s been a little while since my own wedding, and the fact that Mei lives in DC, I got a little over involved planning the wedding. Not to gloat on my obsessive personality, I will just say, I made over 400 pinwheels for the occasion. Kind of stupid. My biggest accomplishment of the wedding though, was making my first wedding cake. It was so much fun! I made a chocolate cake with chocolate mousse filling, swiss-meringue buttercream, and wrapped the entire cake in white chocolate. It probably was a little intense for a first-timer, but through a lot of research and planning, I think it turned out okay. I really do enjoy doing these things. ☺

My cake.


Mei and Dave cutting the cake. Yes, Dave has dred-locks (is that how you even spell that?).


Our little fam in the frame that Danny made for our photo booth at the weddin'. The weathered wood was hand pried off an old shack on my grandpa's farm in Gunnison.


We had our 4th annual Creative Arts Camp this year in Gunnison the week after Mei’s wedding. It was fun being in a house filled with over 50 cousins and working with them throughout the week. The camp was a success and everybody came away from it happy…I think.

The 4th of July is definitely one of my favorite holidays in Gunnison. The whole community gathers together for dinner at the park, an auction, fireworks, the flag raising ceremony, breakfast by the Lions Club, the Gunnison parade down Main Street, and the carnival in the park. Every year, because we have so many cousins, we usually head back to our house after the carnival and have our own volleyball tournament. This year though, we gathered up the older cousins and played in the Gunnison tournament. It was super fun even if we didn’t win. Charlie had a ton of fun eating snow cones and popcorn and sliding down the inflatable slide. Later that evening, we had “World Cup Soccer!!” Now that was an intense game. There is nothing like the Gunnison 4th of July. I haven’t been for 3 years! So sad. Best of all, it was fun to see old friends that I went to school with. Nothing takes the place of those people and they will always be so special to me.

Charlie loves his cousin "Buster"




Charlie is now 15 months old. He still only has 5 teeth and I won’t even mention how tall he is and how much he weighs. I’ll just say that Danny is kind of concerned. He’s still the cutest little guy EVER!! He runs everywhere and likes to crawl in small spaces like behind the couch, in between chairs, and anything else that is narrow. He kind of says a few words like, “up, hot, da-da, and fish,” but he refuses to say mama now. I don’t know when the last time was that he said it. Oh well. I’m still his favorite person. ☺ That’s just a glimpse of our summer. Hope all is well!

Charlie has just recently been introduced to the world of PBJ's. He loves them!


He also has discovered is new favorite food, EVER...popcorn. He can't get enough of it.

Charlie's 1st Birthday

Charlie turned one on April 4. We were in Gunnison for conference and Easter so it definitely brought back a lot of memories of just a year ago when I had him. I cannot believe how fast this year has gone by. I love my little man so much. He has brought so much joy into mine and Danny's life. We couldn't imagine our life without him.

For his birthday, we had an ice-cream party after conference with my side of the family. Charlie had a major freak out session when Jared(my oldest brother) had the great idea of taking it away from him. I've never heard my little guy scream or throw a fit like that. It unleashed the inner angry child in him.

We waited to have his "official" 1st birthday party till the next weekend, April 10. This made it so Danny's parents and Danny's brother Wayne and his family could come. Mei happened to be in town for a friend's wedding so all of my siblings were there except for Mika and Jordan. Six out of eight, I'll take it! Poh Poh, Aimee and Davey, and Ziggy were others from my family. We also had to invite Charlie's best friend, Ben Sorensen, and his mom and dad, Sarah and Tyler. They are such funny little boys together.

So, for the party I decided to go with a "Little Man" theme. Everybody calls Charlie "little man" because he looks and acts like one. Everything was "little." I made "little" invitations in "little" envelopes, "little" rolls with pulled pork, baby carrots, cherry tomatoes, edamame, "little" ham cups with "little" rice balls, "little" cupcakes, "little" sugar cookie lollies, and "little" lemon pies. Can you tell everything was "little." :) Now that word doesn't look right. Anyway, I think everything turned out great and very delicious. It was super fun to put together and I think Charlie enjoyed it. He got to try almost everything and he got his own "little" birthday cake. It was healthy too (no oil, a "little" sugar, applesauce, apples, molasses, whole wheat). :) Danny thinks I'm crazy.

Anyway, it was super fun and I'm glad I did it. I think everybody had a good time eating all of the "little" foods and they really enjoyed being there for Charlie. We are so grateful for such a supportive family. We love you all!

Okinawa, Japan

Although I always had the intention of doing this sooner, I finally am posting about our AMAZING trip to Okinawa, Japan. Jordan, my brother, and his family live there, so we thought it was about that time to take a vacation. Even after being in Gunnison for a month, as well as having Christmas vacation for 2 weeks, we were not ready to go back to normal life. Danny had his 4 week break, so we decided to take advantage of the situation and head over to Japan. It was honestly one of the best decisions we have ever made.

So Okinawa is definitely not "real" Japan. I understood that and am still super sad that I flew half way across the world and didn't really get to see it, especially our family farm. But...I still am very grateful that I got to go. :) It was amazing! The food was incredible, the island is absolutely gorgeous, snorkeling almost every day was awesome, I loved seeing my family so much, and did I mention that the food was AMAZING?! Oh, to eat like that every day of my life?? It would be absolute heaven! Jordan and Nats were the best hosts and their kids are the cutest kids, ever. I miss them all so much. So does Charlie. So, if you ever have a chance to go over there, DO IT!!! And eat lots of food for me!!!

The best part of the trip was being with Jordan and his family and getting to know them better. Jordan and I are 8 years apart so we've never been able to spend a whole ton of time together. I was only 10 when he left home for BYU, and by the time I got to BYU, he was in med school down in Arizona. I think we've always had a special bond though because we apparently look the most alike. We have more of the "Lew" genes. Jordan is an amazing example to me and I've always looked up to him so much. Funny, I don't think I've ever told him that. I guess I should be telling him these things. We're just kind of an awkward family. :) Anyway, Nats is equally amazing. She is hands down, one of the kindest people I know. I am so grateful to have such wonderful siblings. I love them so much! I cannot wait for them to move back to Utah so we can spend every weekend together!!!! Jordan and Nats, if you read this, I love you!!!

Here are some of the highlights from our trip: (I uploaded a bunch of pictures, so feel free to stop whenever)

Sakura (Japanese Cherry Blossom). We barely missed the Festival. So sad.


My nephew, Yuki. One of the cutest boys, ever! You should hear him speak Japanese!


Me, Charlie(asleep under the blanket), Natsume(my sister-in-law), and my niece, Aisa.



Me, Danny, and Jordan truckin' out to go snorkeling. Please don't look to close at me in that wetsuit. Not the prettiest sight.


Charlie and Aisa eating apples together. They are only 6 months apart and had so much fun together! I'm not going to lie though, Charlie was a little nervous some of the time. Ai-chan is very strong willed.


Tonkatsu with a miso sauce. Oh, so delicious! My mouth is watering at this very moment.



Charlie and Aisa at another beach.


The hunter Danny has finally come home successful!! What kind of fish did he spear???


A beautiful, but nasty, Parrot-fish!





Jordan's family on the Suspension Bridge on our hike to the Falls pictured above.




Eating spam musubi for lunch. Look at these kids. Aren't they the cutest?



We happened to be there for Jordan's 32nd Birthday. Nats and I made the delicious chocolate cake. Yes, it was very delicious.









Danny and Yuki bonding. Yuki loves to watch himself on videos.