A retort to my Valentine

WOW! I certainly can’t top that last post. I can honestly say in 10 years I never new my wife loved me so much!
This is only my second post of all time, but I wanted to share a few thoughts about my wife today. Of all of her amazing attributes, there is one that I think stands out the most and that is…FUN. She is generally always happy and is up for anything with anyone at anytime. So today I wanted to highlight this one attribute that I truly adore with a top 10 list of the fun things Kristine has done for/with/to me over the last 10 years.

#10. Tour de St. George. One month before Kristine became pregnant with Josh, we got the crazy idea to ride our bikes from Salt Lake to St. George. We spent four days on the road with just the clothes on our back. We stopped in Eureka the first night, then Milford, and finally Ceder City for the last. We crashed in our Grandmother's condo for a day and a night once we completed the journey. I never ate so well. We walked funny for a few days afterwards but it was worth it. St. George usually means lots of tennis, and of course, rollerblading, but once there, we just felt like sitting down, so we went to a movie--we never do that on vacations. Anyway, it was an incredible trip, the crummy hotels we stayed at, the ma and pops cafe's in Delta and Milford, the beautiful scenery, the solitude of being alone on our bikes in the middle of nowhere listening to our cassette players. (ipods weren't around yet.) I forgot to mention neither of us actually trained for it and Kristine used her mountain bike. But we did it. I remember huddling up together from Delta to Milford, during a wind storm and it was near the sand dunes, so we hid behind an old rail road shack until it died down. We had quite a few flat tires, and going from Ceder City to St. George on the interstate was scary, but all in all, it was a blast.

#9. Rollerblading down the strip in Las Vegas. If you know Kristine, you know she loves Las Vages and if you really know Kristine, you know she still loves rollerblading despite its rapid decline in popularity 10 years ago. But not too long ago, Kristine and I found ourselves in St. George with roller blades and there was one thing on her mind…to go ride the strip…at midnight. It was before Josh, so just the two of us, cruising through crowds of people, bumping into them and saying sorry a million times(I did, just typically felt it was their fault.) Our favorite part was when a man yelled out to us “Rollerblades? People don’t use those anymore.” We’d take them off to go into stores of course, but it was a memorable night for all involved, Kristine and I, and the hundreds of people still shaking their heads after seeing us. In the purpose of full exposure, it could be said Kristine and I have had many a memorable time rollerblading in various parts of this country. From Balboa beach over to Mackinac island, from Seattle down to Phoenix, we’ve done our best to keep the roller blade in existence.

#8. Snow camping. It was a long time ago now, but when we first started dating I knew I like Kristine, but I didn’t know how much. I always thought a good tale sign would be if the girl would enjoy snow camping. So I asked her if she wanted to go sleep in a snow cave with me and my friends for New Year ’s Eve. It is obvious to me now what her answer would be, but back then I was quite surprised how excited she was to go. So we went up the North side of Big Cottonwood Canyon near Jupiter Hill and built a snow cave. I had a large wool blanket to put the sleeping bag on and as far as I remember, there weren’t any complaints overnight. We built a large fire pit, hung out, drank lots of hot chocolate and went snow shoeing in the morning. Kristine and I always talk about going again, but the kids aren’t old enough, though Josh is close. My friends told me I was lucky to have a girl willing to sleep in a cave made of snow…so since then she was dubbed, the “snow princess.”

#7. Kayaking in the Pacific Northwest archipelago. Although most people prefer the beach for a honeymoon, Kristine and I went to the San Juan Islands off Seattle. We spent our days hiking in trails, taking boats to different islands and most memorably, kayaking in the ocean. We packed some sandwiches and took off. We didn’t see any Wales unfortunately, but we had a blast and caught a few waves as well.

#6. Swimming with the Green Sea Turtles. Off the coast on Canoun, an island in the Grenadines of St. Vincent, Kristine and I took a one day boat trip and ate lunch on the deck, snorkeled around four different islands and eventually wound up swimming with the sea turtles that were 4-5ft long, no kidding! Most people on the boat were too scared to jump in, but Kristine and I were the first off the boat and they eventually had to call us in to get back on as we were having way too much fun(and they were sick of watching Josh without us). In fact, that entire day was incredible. We saw coral very few people have ever laid eyes on while snorkeling. One particular island was so remote it was simply an island with one resort on it with a dozen rooms. Only the wealthiest people in the world could go there—no, not movie stars, beyond movie stars. Our boat was forbidden to dock and we could only rest 100ft from shore. Funny thing was, that didn’t stop Kristine. She wanted to go on there. So she convinced me to swim to shore with her, act like we were part of the crowd, and walk around. I was nervous the whole time, but not her. Soon she was swinging in a hammock with Josh. We didn’t have much time to hang out, but I won’t forget it.

#5. Cross Country Skiing on her Birthday. So, every birthday since she can remember, Kristine’s dad had taken her skiing. So I helped continue the tradition since we’ve been married. 6 years ago, she was 8months pregnant with Josh and was very discouraged she couldn’t go skiing. So instead, we went cross country skiing up Millcreek with our dogs and had a blast. The dogs were crazy, Cru even got stuck in a snow drift that I had to literally search for the body, it was hilarious and we had a memorable ski day. Kristine, of course, enjoyed it like she always does and didn’t complain at all that she wasn’t up at Alta.

#4. The Break-In. I know this is mostly a lighthearted post, but one of the truly “craziest” things Kristine has ever done was quite serious. Some may know that while in Grenada, Kristine and I had a man break into our apartment in the middle of the night. The perpetrator and I got in a fight, thrashing up the house, but eventually pinning him down, Kristine(eight months pregnant with Maddie) and Josh went to safety downstairs at a neighbors apt. Anyway, a dramatic night to say the least, I was treated for multiple wounds, couldn’t see out of one eye, etc, and then had to go take a final that morning. Despite all of that, and the fact that there is a significant gang population on the island that the police warned us of that may retaliate(since I fought back and embarrassed the kid), Kristine didn’t want to back down and she spent the day helping to clean the house and we slept there that night. There wasn’t even a part of me that wanted to sleep there again, but Kristine was firm that we needed to overcome the fear immediately. So we did, and we were safe from there on out. Admittedly neither of us slept well for weeks, we nevertheless stayed in our apartment until the lease was up.

#3. ANIMALS!

Kristine loves animals. The first big surprise was when I came home from camping and we had a beagle puppy in a shoebox sitting in my house. It was hard to be mad when the puppy was so adorable. FYI, for all the guys out there, lesson learned, don't go camping by yourself. Well, one beagle spread to two. Then in Grenada I build a bird house and we had "bluie" for Josh while Cru and Saddie stayed in Utah--it was too difficult to get them to Grenada. Then In St. Vincent came "fish" for the gold fish we had(don't tell Josh but we actually had three of them.) Now in Indiana we have Tucker, our new terrier that I had the surprise Kristine with when she went to Utah without me. To be honest, I was considerably upset about Cru, but Cru soon became my best friend, I played soccer with him outside all the time and he loved to go running with me, and well, this isn't a memorial, since he passed away last year, but let's just say Kristine's guts to bring him home has led us down a path of nonstop action and fun. Anyone who thinks having pets takes away time from the kids, or are too messy, or too much work, or depreciate your house value, etc, well, just ask your kids if it's worth it(yes, I am calling out all of my siblings)

#2. Camping in the rain forest in Grenada with 6 young, sexually excited men. Kristine attended a campout high up in the rainforest of Grand Etang in Grenada. She cooked their food, help set up the tent and gather firewood and was the instigator of the hike to the waterfalls in the morning. By the way, it rained the entire night, our tents were so poor that water went straight through them despite the rain tarp. Luckily it was the Caribbean and even when raining it’s still hot. She told ghost stories at night to the boys and easily brushed away their charming though silly advances(they didn’t care she was married or even that I was there as well. The most guilty is in the yellow shirt) She was one of the first to dive into the waterfall in the

morning and got all the boys to update her on their girlfriends, girl-trouble and how to talk to women. While we were driving home, one of the boys whistled out the window to get a girl’s attention. Kristine quickly explained girls didn’t like that. (unfortunately I think that particular girl did.) By the way, how many women would absolutely love moving to Grenada for 2 years, little communication with family and no money to enjoy the perks of the Caribbean? If you didn’t go there, you may think a lot, but Kristine is one of the happy few that don’t talk about the Caribbean med school experience as something they “had to get through.” I even think some of her friends threw a party to celebrate “getting through” the Caribbean. Kristine on the other hand, can’t wait to go back and has been encouraging me to start teaching down there part time.

#1. Well, sorry to disappoint, but this one is too Hot for TV(or computer). Sorry David, I just deleted it. We all know you can cross the line with some of the things that come out of your mouth. Your wife sure does love you though!

Sorry, I just saw this picture and had to put in on. Maddie on an island she'll never see again.(mostly because it was illegal to be on there in the first place.)

I LOVE YOU TO THE MOON, KRISTINE!!!