Greatest summer of our lives.

Dave and Mandi agree that this has been one of the greatest summers of their lives!!!! Both of them had time off of school and were able to take full advantage of that time off. Here are a few of the highlights (in no particular order).

Dave traveled to Guatemala with other students from Midwestern to serve his third medical mission. He had a great experience and was able to polish up his spanish. More pictures to come later..probably.

Here is Dave hiking a volcano you can see a little lava behind him. Very Hot!

While Dave was away, Mandi was able to go to San Diego and spend some time with Liz and the Moores. It was a great trip!

Dave and Mandi were able to go home for the 4th of July. They ran a 5k, Mandi's first, and she beat both of her brothers...by a LOT...a LOT (it is the first and likely the last time she will ever do that so she is savoring it while she can)!!

Sweaty, and so happy it is over!

After the race Dave and Mandi were able to see Grandma Lu and the gang for food, fireworks and a lot of fun! They love Richfield on the 4th of July!!!

They got a Beautiful new car. Seriously the nicest thing either of them have ever driven, AND it pretty much saved Mandi's life today...long story. It is a 2005 white Toyota Camry...LOVE IT!!!

Dave had gotten tickets for Mandi to see WICKED, it was even better than she remembered from New York Dave loved it too!!

WICKED!! not a very cute picture...but you get the idea.

We got a new, beautiful neice, Elsie. We will be meeting her this weekend, so no pictures yet but they are coming!

To end the Summer Dave and Mandi were able to take their dream vacation to ITALY!! It was absolutely AMAZING!!! More details and pictures to come later...most likely.

Dave and Mandi with Rome in the background. They had always hoped to take this trip before they were blessed with children so it is a good thing they did it when they did because....

They are having a baby!!!

Due March 21st.

By far the highlight of the Summer!!

Happy Father's Day!!!

To the Dad's in my life:

My Dad Lindy is one of the most incredible people I know. He works harder than any person I have ever known. He has always made me feel loved and cared for. I couldn't ask for a greater dad. The older I get the more my love and admiration for him grows. I am eternally grateful for his love, support and example. I love you Dad Happy Father's Day.

Dad with an old Peruvian man. For Christmas Dad took the whole family to serve the people in Peru. He has always taught us the importance of service through his amazing example!

My Father-in-law Phil has always made me feel like one of his own. Our whole marriage we have lived far away from Dave's parents but they have always made a strong effort to be close to us in other ways. I am grateful for his kindness and example. I am especially grateful for the incredible father he was to Dave and the contributions he made to create the person that David is today.

Phil was serving as Mission President for the Puebla, Mexico Mission when Dave and I were married. This cutout was made so Dad could still be in the pictures. We missed having him on our special day but we are so grateful for his service and dedication to the Lord.

The Future Father of my children Dave. Anyone who knows us knows how much I love and admire my husband. And anyone who has seen David with children knows how amazing he will be as a father. David is one of the most selfless and service oriented people I have ever known. He works hard everyday to be able to provide for his future family. I am grateful for his hard work, his love, patience, kindess and dedication to the Lord.

Dave with one of the Peruvian children. Dave is currently serving his third medical mission this time in Guatemala. He is always looking for opportunities to do things for other people.

Happy Father's Day to all the Dad's out there!!!

Tag - you are it. and other stuff.

As many of you know I NEVER follow through on a tag...but there is always a first. My dearest and best friend Stacy tagged me on this one...so this one is for you Stac.
here are the rules:

1. Go to your documents/pictures

2. Go to your 6th file.

3. Go to your 6th picture.

4. Blog about it.

5. Tag 6 people to do the same.


This is a picture from our first trip to Peru in May of 2007. If I remember right this was the first village we went to. On that mission we traveled to villages off of the amazon river only accessible by boat. In the villages we set up medical, vision and dental clinics. It was a life-changing experience and we are so grateful that we had the opportunity to go, and return there again with my family the following year. The people in Peru are so beautiful and sweet. But for anyone who knows me I was especially in love with the children!

I tag:
1. Jenn Tullis
2. Brie Wheelwright
3. Mary Evans
4. Collette Goodman
5. Wendy How
6. Kristin Augustus


To appease my mother and others who have reminded us that we have not blogged in a while I will take this opportunity to do a quick catch up in pictures.

Since I last blogged Dave and I had the opportunity to go home for Thanksgiving:Kick off.

My brothers, Dave and a group of their friends played in their first annual "Turkey Bowl" Here are dad and I watching them play. We ate lots of food and had a great time with our friends and family.
About a week later Dave had his White Coat Ceremony:

He is so-o Handsome!!

Both our parents flew down for the Ceremony. We are all so proud of Dave and all his hard work. We loved having our parents in town. It was a great weekend!!

We didn't go very long without seeing family. Just a couple weeks later we returned to Utah for Christmas. It was so great being with everyone again for the holidays. I had the chance to catch up with some old friends:

My dear friends Jessica Bott and Stacy Moss Stevens (mentioned above). We have been friends for over 10 years. I absolutely love these girls and it was so good to catch up with them while we were in town!

Since everyone was in town we also took LOTS of family pictures.
Johnston Family. Taken at my parent's home. Thank you Stacy you are the best!! Isn't my mom's tree so cute! And just for clarification my nephew sitting on my sister's lap is just pulling a weird face he does not have CP.

Freestone Family. This was taken out doors, it was very cold that day and the sun shining off of the snow was very bright (thus Thomas' eyes) also, Lilly is being smushed....but considering the circumstances all of the kids were being great sports!

After the Holidays we returned back to real life. We have been so busy with work and school that January just flew by. Dave celebrated his 27th Birthday!! We ate out (Thanks mom and dad Freestone) which for us is a big treat and Dave took the night off from studying.
So now we are caught up...till next time!

California trip!!

With school and work and finals we were in some desperate need for some fun and relaxation! Which is just what we got this weekend with the Freestones in beautiful California. The first couple of days were spent in San Diego at Amy and BC's home. We were able to play and eat and enjoy time together at their home and the beautiful beach in La Jolla.Dave and Thomas....this basically sums up what they did the whole time at the beach.

The Girls...Digging away.Enjoying the Sunset


Kayaking. BC was kind enough to take us Kayaking on Saturday. The weather was perfect, the water was crystal clear. You could see Leopard sharks swimming all around us...it was AMAZING!!
BC and Kenny enjoying the Kayaking as well.

On Monday we left San Diego for the Happiest Place on Earth!!! Disneyland that is!
It was a BLAST! It was the first time for some of the kids. The weather was perfect (again). The lines were next to NOTHING! We saw Tons of great characters (including all of the princesses). They had the parks decorated for the Holidays and it was beautiful.

Jessie working super hard on that sword...She is very strong, I think if anyone was going to get it it was going to be her!

Thomas just barely made it on to the Soarin' California Ride.

The Beautiful Princesses and Adorable Prince with Aurora...Lilly got Thomas to go up to the Princesses and say "Your Prince has arrived!" It was very cute!


The Princesses...Jasmine and Jill are babes!

These girls were so much fun! Emma was SO-O brave she even did the Tower of Terror (a ride BC wont even go on!). And we so wish we had a picture of Jill on space mountain, way too much fun!!!!

Dave and Mandi in front of Bourbon Street all decorated for the holidays.
Mom and Dad Freestone in front of the beautiful castle.

It was so nice to spend time with the family and create so many happy memories...
Can't wait for the next trip!

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween to all. This year Dave decided to go as one of his professors, Dr. Nydam. He pulled it off really well and even won Best Overall Costume for his class (Mandi is so proud). The "Just for Men" beard die was kept on a little long...and still lingers today even after a good shave...but it was worth it!

Life In Arizona

We are finally feeling settled here in our new home state. And now that the weather is cooling off we are beginning to realize why people move to Arizona (we weren't too sure for a while there). A LOT has happened our first six weeks here so we'll just give a brief recap....first the good stuff:

~Dave started school at Midwestern...he is doing great and loving it...He is enjoying his classes. It is definitely a challenge with a TON of information in a very small amount of time but he is managing his time very well and Mandi is thrilled to get to have dinner together every night!

~Mandi started her new job at the surgical center...Loves it! Awesome hours, Adorable patients, and Wonderful coworkers. Plus she gets the holidays off so we'll see you all in Utah for Thanksgiving! Yay!!

~ We got our house (see pics below)!!! We absolutely love it! It was a super quick move-in with LOTS of help from great family, friends and new ward members (We LOVE our new ward!!!)! The home and neighborhood are even better than we realized before we moved in.

~Mandi's mom and dad came down for a weekend and helped get us settled, it was a HUGE help and a lot of fun having them here. Everyone has been so kind and welcoming and our home is beautiful. We feel very very blessed!!

~Both Dave and Mandi have had lots of exposure to the Arizona wildlife: coyote spottings, a gecko living in one of the bathrooms, and TONS of cute little jackrabbits all over the neighborhood...fortunately no signs of scorpions or snakes.

And the not so good stuff:

~There was no power in the new house for the first weekend (long story), of course temperatures were well above 100 degrees...needless to say at about 1:00am the night before Dave's first test we ended up outside on the grass to keep from dying of a heat stroke (He did great despite the crazy night).

~Mandi's car has broken down...3 or 4 (or more) times. The mechanic explained that it has "cancer" and we are pretty sure we can not afford the chemo. Needless to say Mandi has achieved what seemed to be the impossible for her, and learned to drive a stick shift so she can get to and from work, fortunately Dave's school is very close to our new house.

So there you have the past six weeks (more or less).
Here are some pics of our house:

The Front...taken while we were still just looking. The grass is much greener now that it is getting water and it is no longer 120 degrees.

The Dinning/Living room...still empty...probably will be for another 4 years.

The kitchen. We love our kitchen.

The Family Room.


The family looking into the kitchen.


The Guest Bedroom (a.k.a. the Cindy Suite)


Guest Bathroom (Where the gecko lives.)


In case you missed the sign, this is the laundry room.


Dave's office (a.k.a. the cave).


Master Bath


Awesome walk-in closet...we barely take up about a third.

The Master Bedroom

Crazy Summer!!!!!

Okay...okay...as many of you have pointed out it has once again been a super long time since we have made a post. We are sorry. Here is a quick recap of what we have been up to that has kept us from Blogging.

~PERU~
On June 28th (the same day Dave's parents returned from their three year mission to Mexico, don't worry we caught them on our layover in Houston) we were able to go to Peru with Mandi's family (Thanks Mandi's mom and dad!!). This was our 2nd trip to Peru. We had the chance to go last year with a group from Weber State and serve the people in the Northern Amazon Basin. This time we got to travel throughout villages in the Andes. It did not even feel like the same country as last year. The first time we were able to get by with our broken Spanish, but this year we had not prepared our Quechua (the native language of the Incas that many of the natives in the remote villages we visited still speak).
It was an absolutely amazing experience that we will never be able to express enough gratitude for. This trip once again reaffirmed for us how truly blessed we are. What made it even more amazing was to share that experience with more of the people we love!!
Some of the awesome Peru highlights:

~Two hour drives on steep, scary, dirt roads with hundreds of switchbacks.
~The Children!!!
~Brass Bands playing in your ears while you try to obtain a manual blood pressure.
~Playing soccer at 13,000 feet high
~Painting Faces
~Learning some Quechua (some is used very loosely there)
~Using the community toilets (if you can call them that)
~Free Echocardiograms (dave's ticker is lookin' good!)
~Trying to teach the children some english (Okey-Dokey)
~Broken Coccyx (stubborn Hemo!)
~Dallin, Estas Caliente? (Thank you Cammie, we will be eternally grateful!!)
~Homes with dirt floors and no running water, but a functioning TV and Stereo!!
~Listening to the flight of the Condor, again and again and again....
~Machu Picchu, Pisac, Ollantaytambo, "Sexy Womand" and all the other AMAZING Inca Ruins
~Alpacas!
~Peruvian Cuisine (Guinea Pig, Alpaca, nasty Ketchup and lots and lots of bologna sandwiches!)
~Mom calling all the Peruvian women "mamamama" and telling them to "escuchiscuchi"
~Mandi's "Spaznish" (Thank you ben) yo quiero una blanketa
~Convincing the children that Jessica was Barbie in the flesh
~Learning that 20 minutes peruvian time is really 3 hours
~Dave Winning the Pull up contest at the Ocean.
~The footless wonder climbing the steep rocky inca trails with the best of them (and showing many of them up!)
~Hours of Charades to pass the 18 hour day (Make sure Jenn is on your team!!)
~Trying to not get hit crossing the streets!

~Last, but not least...Barbie head.

Needless to say it was an amazing trip.

~The Move~

Soon after we got home from Peru we had to start saying our good-byes. Dave left his job at South Davis Hospital after 3 years of working as a Medic and Mandi left her (dream) job at Primary Children's Hospital (shout out to Same Day Surgery, Mandi loves and misses you all!!!!).

Two days after Mandi's last day at work, and the day after Dave's 30-mile trek with his brother Kenny we packed up and headed for Arizona.

So here we are. Dave has had his first week of lectures. Mandi started her new job at Phoenix Children's Surgical Center. We are living with Dave's super nice Uncle Chris and Aunt Pat while we wait for our house to close (looks like it will be the 12th, YEAH!!....To be continued on future posts). So far it has been a great experience. Of course we love and miss all you Utahns, but thanks to Dave's awesome family and our new friends, Arizona is starting to feel more like home.