California Adventure

We had a lot of fun last month in California. We first drove down from Sacramento to San Diego. We stopped at Sequoia National Forest and Six Flags Magic Mountain. We also got to see where Randy (Brad's dad) grew up. It was a lot of fun. We rode the most insane roller coaster called X2. Neither of us have ever felt so scared for our lives on a roller coaster before. After our own little mini vacation we met up with Brad's family for the reunion. We stayed at an AMAZING beach house in Oceanside. The week was so much fun, and we just enjoyed getting to be with everyone. Here are some pictures from our trip!

We tried to eat at this diner but it was closed. They used to have the best homemade ice cream.

Brad's grandparents old house.
Us inside one of the sequoias.
General Sherman.
In the forest.

Our "family" pictures from the reunion.

Davey-Poo came to visit!

This weekend our friend Dave from Moon came out to visit. Friday we got to tour temple square where we ran into Sister Florres. She served her part of her mission in NYC, and when Dave brought her over to meet us we found out she is from Brad's home stake. Small world! We also went to Ben and Amanda Castleberry's wedding reception. We are dumb and forgot to take our camera but Amanda looked absolutely gorgeous! Congratulations you guys! Saturday morning we Meghan, Dave, and us got to go to the temple together. We took Dave to some local spots like Rock Canyon, Kneaders, and BYU. That night we made some enchiladas for Dave and queso and avocado. We also did a little boxing on the Wii. Sunday Dave got to see Music in the Spoken Word. After church we got together with Sarah and Casey and had some delicious homemade cafe rio salads and played games. Monday we got to hike Stewart Falls, watch Brad and Dave going into the freezing cold water fall, have a barbeque, and go to a fun filled day at Trafalga. Unfortunately we only remembered our camera at Trafalga but here are a few pictuers from the trip. We were so happy to have Dave here. It was such a blast! We are looking forward to seeing him in October when he comes out for conference.

Megs, Dave, and Sarah waiting at the batting cages.
All of us with our ghetto little toys. Trafalga honestly has the worst little prize selection of any arcade I have ever been to.

Hawaii!

We went to Hawaii a few weeks ago for Jordan and Emily's wedding. We had a blast. Our adventure started with finding out the we were flying to the wrong island the night before we left Provo. Luckily, we could get a cheap island hopper on Hawaiian Air for just an hour and a half after we landed. We spent the first four days at the Waikoloa Resort with Jordan and Emily's families for the wedding. It was absolutely beautiful in Kona. Emily looked gorgeous of course and it was a great wedding. After Jordan and Emily left for their honeymoon we got to go to an awesome beach with Jordan's family. Here are some pictures from the first part of our trip.

Here we are after a little work out. Katie biked for an hour while Brad laid on the floor and watched the basketball game.


Here is the happy couple!
Kona temple
us at the templeAfter all the wedding stuff we flew over to Honolulu. We stayed at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. It was a lot of fun. We spent most days walking around and eating shaved ice. We even walked all the way to the Waikiki aquariam which actually was very lame. We got to see Katie's friend Eri and her husband. They took us to barbeques and showed us some of the cool local spots. Here are some pictures from our trip.

Here are Eri and Katie at one of the local spots we went to.

Eri and her husband Tee Tai (Sorry I have no idea how you spell it). We loved getting to see them, and they were so nice to take us around, feed us, and make us feel at home!
Here is spitting cave. It is such an awesome spot. People jump off the cliff and try to time it so they hit the water when the waves spit back out. If they don't, they get thrown into the rocks. It's a very dangerous spot so known of us jumped of course.. but we did get to watch the sun set there.
Here we are on our balcony. We stayed on the 24th floor! It actually was somewhat frightening to look over the edge!
Finally at the Waikiki aquarium. It took us about 50 minutes to walk there and unfortunately we were very disappointed. However, they did have some funny sea lions that made it not so bad.Next weekend we are going to El Paso and then to San Diego... We will have some new posts from the family reunion and also from the Eckerson reunion/Sharon's birthday party in April.

Brad Graduated!!!

Brad is officially graduated from BYU! He got his BA in Spanish with a minor in business management. We are so proud of him. Meghan also graduated from the same college as Brad. Rachel, Robert, and Ellie as well as both sets of parents (and Jordyn) got to come to see the graduation. We also had a party for my mom that weekend. We are just waiting to get the pictures from everyone so we can share! Here are some pictures of the graduates!

Here is Brad right before he got his diploma.. well his diploma holder really.


Here are all of the Eckerson girls (except Jo).
Everyone at graduation.
me and Brad
us with Brad's friend Marcus and his wife Ashely.
...and Brad has officially decided to attend the University of Utah for his MBA starting in August. We are excited for him!

Here is a picture of us in Hawaii with Brad's new Utah shirt!!!

Happy Easter!

This year we celebrated Easter here in Provo with Sarah, Casey, and Meghan. We started off the evening with some homemade cafe rio salads that were delicious! We then dyed Easter eggs and ate some yummy strawberry pie, except for Brad, he had hard boiled eggs. (He despises fruit). Meghan made us Easter baskets and we got to look for them like when we were little. We also tried a new game for the Wi that Sarah and Casey got. I don't remember the name exactly but we had to perform operations on patients. It was a lot harder than we thought it would be. So here are some pictures from the night. Happy Easter!

Here we are after the party.

Casey and Neville.
The girls.
Casey and Neville again.
As you can see Neville is obviously the cutest of us all so he gets the most pictures.

It's Finally Over

After a long 7 months of non-stop studying for her PHD qualifying exams, Katie has finally taken them and succeeded! She received a high pass on all four of her exams in mathematics, thermodynamics, materials science, and fluids. On top of that she score a 100% on her math and thermodynamics exams. She is the first person in BYU to receive a high pass on all four exams...woo hoo! After a long awaited phone call from her advisor at 6 PM on Wednesday we decided to celebrate. We went out to PF Changs with Sarah and Casey and then to Red Mango. Here's us at PF Changs! Naturally we couldn't all look our best in the same picture so take your pick!

Katie would like to thank everyone for all of their love and support. She thoroughly enjoyed the flowers and morning phone calls from the Kuykendalls and the chocolate covered fruit from mom and dad. Thanks to Devon for the cute video of Preston and Madison. Katie watched it every morning before each exam. And a big thanks to everyone else who kept Katie in their prayers and was rooting for her. We are forever grateful! Love you guys!

President's Day in El Paso

This weekend we went to El Paso to celebrate Brad's dad's birthday. Brad got to go Friday morning, and Katie did not show up until late Friday night because of her classes. The weekend was a ton of fun. Autumn's and Devon's families were there, and we finally got to meet Madison! She is such a cute little girl! Kerby and Mary Jo surprised everyone when they showed up Saturday morning. Brad got Katie the cutest Valentine's Day gift every. A bouquet of fruit. We don't get to have fruit at home because Brad despises it. What a sweet husband! We went out for Randy's birthday on Valentine's Day. We tried to go to Cattleman's but everyone else had had the same idea so we ended up going to Fudruckers. We gorged ourselves on tortillas and queso all weekend and it was delicious! Here are some pics from the trip. Unfortunately, when we got home Katie booted up her computer and before it finished it just died. Her computer is now essentially dead weight. We sent it off to the Dell Factory today and hope it doesn't take 3 weeks to get it back like they said! Luckily, Katie is in engineering with a bunch of really smart people and her friend was able to get her PHD files off for her before we sent it in.

Here is cute Madison.
Brad and Jake.
The girls minus Margo with Cade and Preston.
Randy's painting of the cabin for his birthday.
Katie with her Valentine's Day gift.
Yummy!!!!!

Christmas in the Burgh

This Christmas we went to Pittsburgh after finals. Brad left for El Paso on the 27th to go hunting with his dad, Uncle Bill, and some friends. Katie was supposed to stay in Pittsburgh until January 2nd to meet up with Brad at the Salt Lake airport. Unfortunately sickness went through the Eckerson household like wildfire and Katie was unable to fly on Friday. After three days, Katie finally got well enough to make it home. She is still recovering and hopefully will be well soon. We started school yesterday, and we are looking forward to hopefully a great semester. Here are some pictures from our trip to Pittsburgh. This was the first year in a long time that everyone came home for Christmas, even Grandpa, Uncle Tom, and Aunt Nancy. It was lots of fun and we look forward to seeing everyone again soon!

Here is Katie, Ellie, and Benny
Brad and Ellie
Grandpa sporting Benny's hat
Dad and Anetta
EZ!!
Brad and Grandpa
Us
Katie and Ellie
Johanna and Mom