Seriously Behind

To say I'm a little behind would be quite the understatement. I hope I can capture adequately everything that has been going on. Just a warning - that will probably involve way too many pictures because I love them so much!

Way back for Memorial Day we went to visit some of my close friends from my mission who now live in Norfolk, VA. We stopped at Colonial Williamsburg on our way and had a blast traveling back in time.

I can't find my other pictures with Chris & Lori right now, but they took us down to Virginia Beach and around the naval base and then we enjoyed some time at the beach!

This is out of order, but just a couple of days before we left Baltimore we went to our last O's game with our good friends the Michael & Marilyn.

My sisters, Erika & Carly came for a visit and we had a great time taking them around DC & Baltimore seeing all the sites.
The SmithsoniansThe monuments

Baltimore - the Inner Harbor
The National Cathedral
My friend Betsy from work and I organized an IGTC O's Game Outing for our office. I still need to get the picture of all of us from Lisa, but it was really fun to get out of the office and have some fun together. I already miss everyone at IGTC.
The weekend before we went to Jamaica we took one last trip up to PA to visit my aunt & uncle and their family up there. We drove up to a pay pond near the Poconos and had some adventures fishing with the kids!

It was so cute to see them cast their lines and then get so excited when the fish would bite (on pretty much every cast) and then real them in and get a little freaked out! We loved it!

JAMAICA!
We finally made it to our belated honeymoon trip just a few days before we drove home at the end of June. It was pretty much blissful!

We snorkeled and swam in the warm Caribbean Sea!
Ate a ton of delicious food!
Took many romantic strolls on the beachDid some more snorkeling and snuck some paparazzi pictures in between our hours of laying out and reading on the beach!

Experienced 6 gorgeous Jamaican sunsets on the beach and pretty much wished we never had to come home! It was a great trip!THE DRIVE HOME!!
In the 3 days we had in Baltimore after we got back from Jamaica we sold/gave away all of our furniture and packed up the rest of our possessions in our little red Corolla and set out for our 7 day journey across the country.

Stop 1: Detroit!
We drove up to Detroit to visit Aaron's sister, Megan and her husband Ben. We had a blast crashing residents' parties and eating Middle Eastern food!

Eastern Market was seriously amazing. I wish they something like that here in Utah!

The Henry Ford Museum.
This is the bus that Rosa Parks refused to move on. Aaron and I are reenacting a picture taken on the bus that's on display in the museum.

Stop 2: Nauvoo!

The Joseph Smith homestead
The Nauvoo Temple! We were able to go on a session while we were there and it is such an amazing place!

Stop 3: Mission Lands: Independence & Topeka
I couldn't drive across the country without stopping to visit people I love and miss from my mission!
We were able to go to lunch with Pat & Jerry Moore - I'll have to tell their story some time it is absolutely amazing! And it was so fun too see them!

Visiting the Craft's in Independence!

Celebrating my birthday in Topeka with the Paz & Fechter's!
Thank you for making it so special!!
The Ashley's in Topeka were generous enough to let us stay at their house and we loved seeing them too! It was way too quick of a drive through, but it was so fun to see everyone we were able to!

Stop 4: Colorado
We somehow escaped Aaron's aunt and uncle's in Loveland, CO without taking any pictures, but we are so grateful they let us stay at the Hotel Roundy. :) It was so fun to get to know more of Aaron's family and we're excited to visit again this weekend for Preston's wedding!

We finally made it home and unloaded our car. It doesn't look like that much but imagine being crammed in a little Corolla with all that stuff for a week... :) It was definitely an adventure!

The end. For now at least... I'll give you all some time to recover from this monstrous post!

PS - For those of you who made it to the end of the post and are in Utah, we're hoping our life will calm down a little bit soon so we can play! I'll update more on what we've been up to since being in Utah soon!

Teaser...

Sorry I've been a total slacker on updating the blog. The last few weeks have been pretty packed and we're leaving early tomorrow morning for our cross-country drive so a full update is still going to be delayed. I wanted to leave a little teaser for our Jamaica trip though, just to get you all excited! We had a blast and more pictures and full report is to come. Yeah mon!

Lilac - the Color of Dentistry

On Friday, May 21, 2010 Aaron Preston Roundy was bestowed the degree Doctor of Dental Surgery from the Baltimore School of Dental Surgery. To honor Dr. Roundy on this great accomplishment we had a lot of family in town to celebrate. It was so fun to spend time with everyone and to be able to share this with those we love. We are all so proud of you Aaron!

Aaron's dad got to hood him and it was so fun to watch them have that moment together! (PS - the lighting at the convocation was horrible, so sorry the pics aren't the greatest)

The Dr's Roundy!
Brayden and me entertaining ourselves while we were waiting for things to get going...
I was lucky enough to swoop in and catch the last few months of dental school, but Aaron's parents are really the ones who supported him all the way through! Thank you!!
Rocking the Lilac!

The whole party crew! Thank you everyone for coming out! It was so fun to have you!!

We sort of missed the commencement processional, but don't worry we got this great picture and made it to the arena in plenty of time!

The LDS Academy of Dentists plus wives
(I would add and husband, but Michael was MIA).
Aaron giving us a tour of the state of the art facilities as the school between convocation and commencement.

The end of all the formal ceremonies... hooray for being done!It was such a great week and I am so proud of Aaron! Thank you to everyone who helped make this such a special occasion! Hooray for being done with school... FOREVER!!

Harpers Ferry & The Duffins Together Forever

To celebrate the union of Preston & Emily Duffin that took place in Boise, ID a few weeks earlier Aaron and I along with our friends Justin & Beth made our way down to Fredericksburg, VA by way of Harpers Ferry, WV. Our friend Kristen told us Harpers Ferry was a must see and it was definitely worth the detour. Its a quaint little historic town that played a role in the Civil War as the site of John Brown's Raid. Enjoy the pics!

An old-fashioned billboard!

The Catholic church on the hill - gorgeous!

Looking back toward the town and the railroad tracks.

Some geese with some cute little goslings.

Down by the river... so pretty!

Celebrating with Dr. & Mrs. Duffin at the Gauntlet Country Club in Fredericksburg. Congrats!

The lovely couple! Good luck in Ohio, Korea & Hawaii.
We'll definitely be visiting! :)

Paintballing

Here are a few pics from our paintballing adventure a few weeks ago. I have to say I was a little nervous going for the first time, but I psyched myself out so much that there was no way it could be as bad as I had imagined. It turned out really fun! I left with only one bruise, but Aaron wasn't so lucky. He had all sorts of welts... he must have been a little more daring than me...

CSA's

A couple of weeks ago I noticed a flyer in an elevator at work that featured a few pictures of vegetables, a website and the words "Community Support Agriculture." I was instantly intrigued and jotted down the website. I am now completely enthralled by this idea.

To begin let me explain a little bit more of what community supported agriculture (CSA) is. CSA is basically a bringing together of the farmer and the consumer. A consumer (for example, you) is basically given an opportunity to invest in the farm. You purchase a share of the crops up front (around March-April) and then pick up a lovely share of the harvest each week for several weeks once crops are ready.

For example, Aaron and I recently purchased a share from Tagge's Famous Fruit. After I had researched many CSA farms in Utah, specifically ones that have pick-up points in the Salt Lake Valley we decided on Tagge's. I contacted Thayne who was very helpful and excited to inform me that they were still accepting CSA customers for a couple more weeks. I then went online and paid our $275 up front. Now I am anxiously awaiting our first pick-up on July 8th and the subsequent 14 weeks when I will go to the pick-up spot conveniently located at 10600 So and 1300 East in Sandy and pick up my fresh produce at no additional cost! YUM!

I think it is such a fun idea with so many benefits for both the farmer and the consumer. Many of the farms I looked into had a desire and excitement to create relationships with their CSA customers. Some even offer canning classes and other suggestions on how to use or store extra produce. One CSA I saw had a pumpkin patch and as part of your share you can bring your family down to the farm and pick your pumpkins in October. I was also assured by some of the people I talked with that they treat their CSA's as their best customers! They want to you to invest again next year. :)

I love that this is a way to support local farmers! It helps the farmers especially during the pre-harvest period when they are pouring in a lot of money into the farm to prepare the crops for harvest, but not receiving any income. It also helps them a little bit in planning how much to plant, etc. as they have a guaranteed market.

I could just go on and on, but if you are interested a really great website I found for Utah CSAs is csautah.org. If you live elsewhere I'm sure you can google it. If you'd like my notes for a variety of farms I looked into feel free to shoot me an e-mail or leave a comment and I'd be happy to send them to you! Also, here is a link to a post about CSA's on the Hopkins CLF blog. Enjoy!

PS - We have been quite busy the last few weeks and have lots to blog about... paintballing, Harpers Ferry, Preston & Emily's wedding, family visits, Aaron's graduation (this Friday!), etc. So stay posted, one day I'll get to it all! And yes, it will be me. Aaron still refuses to actually contribute to the blog. :(