Port Angeles, WA

So, here we are. This is where we live now and so far we are loving it! We are literally a 2 minute drive to the water and a 5 minute drive to the mountains and the Olympic National Park. There is just so much to do and I can't wait to do it all!!! We are in a rain shadow so we get less rain than Seattle and the weather is very moderate all year round. The kids and I go down and have lunch down at the park on the water at least 3 times a week and Brett often meets us there during his lunch break. I can't believe how much we get to see Brett!

Here is our house. In the first picture on the top left you can see that we have a view of the water from our front porch. Those mountains in the distance are across the water and is Victoria, BC. It is just a peek, but enough to remind me how close it is. Also, we have deer wander around our yard sometimes daily. They really don't seem to care if we are there or not and the kids get a kick out of watching them. Brett got to see a buck the other day, but I have yet to see one.

Just some pictures of some of the fun things we have done around town.

Hawaii

After we moved everything across the country we got to go to Hawaii for Amy's (Brett's sister) wedding. It was a beautiful ceremony and unfortunately I don't have any pictures of it because I was the wedding photographer and I used the groom's camera. I do have pictures of the rest of our time there. . .
Here are some pictures I took while we went to visit the Lai'e Hawaii temple.

CONGRATULATIONS JIM AND AMY!!! WE ARE SO HAPPY FOR YOU! THANKS FOR LETTING US BE A PART OF YOUR SPECIAL DAY.

This One's For The Girls

I love all of my friends in Columbus and I miss you ladies so much! I truly loved the last 4 years, as difficult as they were, and I know that it is because I had great friends. You were my support system, my outlet, my shoulder to cry on, and my sounding board during years that I was far away from family and didn't have much of a husband because he was in school. A few in particular (you know who you are) are the kind of friends that have changed my life for the better. I think that leaving and being left by great friends is one of the hardest things to do in this life.

June 7: GRADUATION DAY!

The day finally came! It was a 9 year road to get to this point and I have a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that we are done with school. It is all we have ever done. Brett becoming a dentist was always the goal from the beginning and it is what we have always been working toward. When I look back it seems like it went by in a flash and it took forever all at the same time. As many of you know, when we got married, Brett didn't have any college credits yet and I still had two years left before I could get my degree. I finished a year after Parker was born and after 2 more kids, Brett finally finished. It has been a long road, but I wouldn't have done anything differently. I have LOVED him going to THE Ohio State University and we will be BUCKEYES forever. It was almost sad to be finishing because it is the end of an era and we will be leaving some really great friends behind. This day was surreal, to say the least.

If I could do it over again, I would not have taken the kids. Luckily my mom watched them in the hall but they were like restless little monkeys the whole time. When it was over, they literally became monkeys and had a contest on who could hang there the longest.

Having fun with dad's hat. I don't know if it is called a hat or something else...anyone know?

I love the middle picture! SUCH A GREAT DAY!!!

My parents got to come up for graduation and it was so great to have them there! My dad took us out to dinner at the Buckeye Hall of Fame after the ceremony. I would like to thank my parents, Brett's parents and anyone else out there who helped make this all possible. We couldn't have done it without all of the help and support!!!

June 4: Kindergarten Concert

Parker loves to sing and we were hearing these songs for MONTHS before the concert. Parker would teach them to Cole at night when they were supposed to be sleeping so Cole also knew all of the words and actions. It was pretty cute to listen to them in their room :)

This is Parker and his best friend in his class, Aaron.

Parker is in the middle of this one because he had a part in the program. I think it is funny because he just looked at me and smiled the whole time.

May 30: Garage Sales and Rock Band

On the last weekend of May we had a garage sale with some of our great friends (the Unger's and the Wildes). We got rid of a whole lot of stuff and made about $500.00. Not bad, huh? Although, I will say that garage sales are a ton of work and we earned ever penny!

Emma loved the purse that Brooke was selling so I had to keep it because she was so cute. Brooke is my good friend who was selling stuff with me and watched the kids so I could sit out there and sell. I think she got the short end of that deal. Oh, and yes, that is a Caboodle that we used for a cash register. You know you had one.

Later that day we cleaned everything up and Brooke and left all 6 kids with the dads while we went to Goodwill to take the rest of the stuff that didn't sell. We came home to a living room covered in Cocoa Krispies, the babies stuffing their faces with the stuff and the dads playing Rock Band completely unaware of the mess that was all around them. I think they just got a box of cereal and threw it into the middle of the kids hoping they would get left alone long enough to get through a few songs. By the way, those are 3 dentists rocking out to Beastie Boys. Everytime I see Blake singing this it makes me laugh.

Annie's face in this picture is so funny. She looks like she got caught red-handed.

I AM ALIVE!!!!

So, my last post was in April. APRIL! I used to be such a good blogger, but life definitely got in the way. Things got busy and something had to go. If it makes you feel any better, I haven't been following any of your blogs either :)

Here are the highlights of what has been going on since I last posted. We packed up the house, sold off a lot of our stuff at a yard sale, Brett graduated from dental school, we moved out of Ohio to Washington, we went to Hawaii for Brett's sister's wedding, we went to a family reunion, we had a his sisters reception, we lived with Brett's parent's for 6 weeks (and did not want to upload pictures to their computer...PS...thank you again to them. I know it wasn't easy to have us crashing all over your house for so long!), we moved to Port Angeles, Brett FINALLY got licensed, we had Cole's 4th birthday and Parker's 7th, and we have started finally settling into life. I am leaving out some things, but that is the gist. With all of that going on, I just couldn't bring myself to blog even though I had a ton of stuff to post. But now, it is time to do some blogging, so I guess this is a warning to all those who follow me. You will be seeing a lot of the Startin Family over the next little while because I have a TON of catching up to do! STAY TUNED...