bahamas part 2

once my family got into town we were off and running. the boys played golf and scuba dived while the girls relaxed, played in the pool and laid out on the beach. perfect i tell ya. as a family we explored hidden beaches, went on drives around the island and took a boat tour around various islands. as you can see we got a little camera happy. i couldn't help but post all of these. still want to go back! 

cliff jumping was a highlight. i love that in the pic on the left you can see spence's face as i'm jumping in. he was so proud of me (and i was of myself). i would have done it again and again if it weren't for the rocks on our way back up....ouch. my brother saved me from being smashed into a huge rock (thanks brother) and i decided once was enough!

snorkeling on our boat tour....we had a blast. while the boys went out once i hung out on the boat with the lainers. 

apparently i struggle with the jumping picture face....um yeah

dinner on the beach sounds nice until you get attacked by sand flies. yes those are real and they are horrible. you can't really see them and so you can't stop them. we had bite marks on our legs for days. // during our free time we'd go ride the golf course on the golf cart. we took lainey out with us one day. she was hilarious pointing at all the house. she loved the green and yellow one. 

oh just a little hidden cave off of nicholas cage's private island. we also saw faith hill and tim mcgraws private island. they wouldn't let us come hang out with them though...no idea why. so odd. 

yes this thing is alive....oh my gosh can you believe this star fish. puts the little guys we found to shame. 

as you can see i'm hilarious. i've got two year old humor down....peek a boo is my speciality. 

oh just us and the yummiest water in the world! 

my whole fam. how nice it was to just be all together. love them and miss them! 

like i said...our little star fishes aren't as great as the HUGE red one. we were still proud to have found them. 

one night we went exploring and found this hidden gem. it was the most beautiful cove. the water was about 4 feet deep the whole way out and so crystal clear. we waded out about a half a mile and just hung out with the family on a sand bar. if it weren't for the sand flies i would have stayed all night. 

my family. and of course alex. thats his typical picture face. i'm surprised we have any pictures of him smiling....haha! love my family so much. 

we ventured out to this little island just outside of the main city. there wasn't much there but we enjoyed the "chat and chill" and beach. 

my cute parents. thank you for giving us this incredible trip! 

one night while waiting for our food to come we spotted this little guy.....we were too scared to go in and touch it. turns out we totally could have. creepy sting rays! 

just out adventuring! 

the bug wouldn't let me take a picture of her. so i asked her to show me her rocks while we were waiting for dinner. as you can see she was pretty excited about her rock! haha love this bug. 

we were so sad to come home. it didn't help that we were coming home to a house that still needs some love, year two of med school and a work trip for me. ugh. but at least we came home rested, a little bit darker skinned and more in love!

bahamas next summer? count me in!

bahamas part 1

oh bahamas.....

i wake up every morning wanting to be back on your beautiful beaches. it's safe to say that the mr. and i throughly enjoyed our little getaway to come visit you. i still can't get over how incredible your blue waters were. i close my eyes and see the beautiful aqua color fade in and out. 

we started out the trip just the two of us. we had a few incredible days just the two of us before my family came in to join us. we spent our time laying out by the pool. exploring our little side of the island on our golf cart. kayaking across the most beautiful bay. reading way too many books. taking naps each day. eating all we could stuff in our little selves. catching up on life and each others dreams and just being together. it was so nice to have a few days with no school/work/phone/church to worry about. we just enjoyed our time together. just us. it was heaven sent. 

i think my favorite part was our meal times. we would just talk. neither of us had our phones and didn't really wear our watches. time didn't matter. no one could reach us. it was just us. we would sit looking out at the most incredible view. spence caught me up on all things that are going on in the world. i filled him in on all my work gossip and the such. we made big plans and daydreamed about our life and future family. we'd end with dessert and walk hand in hand back to our little house. 

it was one of the first times since our honeymoon that we were really able to get away and relax. it was just what we needed. we reconnected as mr. and mrs. and prepared ourselves to start school (the mr.) and jet off for more events (the mrs.). 

my family flew in on tuesday. by that time we were rested and ready for some more excitement and adventures. to spare you a picture overload today i'll post those tomorrow! 

bringing home the bacon

i'm blogging from a hotel room...again. i know what you're thinking "you just got back". i was home for just over 24 hours before i packed my bag and jumped on a plane. this time to dc. this time for work. i would much rather be jetting off to the bahamas again. but i guess someone has to bring home the bacon. 

i was going through my tons of beautiful beach pictures and felt intimidated by the amount of editing etc. so i decided to post some pictures from our utah trip that have almost been forgotten. it's about time right? honestly i have no idea where this summer went. i'm going to attempt to keep caught up on life but i've been known to say that and not do much! 

anyway....utah was great. we loved being with family. i worked a little, we played a ton. visited friends, saw most of our family and enjoyed being back "home" for a little while. i even helped put together two weddings. it took me back to the days when i longed to be a wedding planner. i'll stick with corporate events for now. 

so this one time we took the day to watch the mr.'s little sister get all graduated. i still can't get over the fact that she is so old. we hung out in the warm sun a little too long...she's just a tad bit popular. we finally got a picture with the girl of the hour! 

little sarah b. we are sure proud of you. you are such a great example to us. now go live up your freshman year. as much as people will tell you to study...don't worry about it. it all works out. just play and stay up till 2 am eating cereal with your roommates in your hall. you'll thank me later for the memories! 

 i was so excited to spend some good time with my besties. i met up with lyds and jbod for dinner and girl talk. i was supposed to be in and out in an hour. i think we were there for four hours. i love my jeru girls. that is one thing i miss most about leaving utah....not being with all my girlfriends.  

i met up with dru-b and mj as well but we were having too much fun for pictures. i'm still mad at myself for not taking pictures. ugh. next time right...i'll be back in sept. 

and of course this bug. we just can't get enough of her. i love that she knows us know and will call for us to come play. uncle spence teases her so we're not so sure she likes him much but i know she loves him ;-) they are good buds! 

so that takes us through our first part of the summer. haha! one day i'll get through my mountain load of pictures. 

i'm trying to take a new approach to life. to just enjoy and live in the moment. i still of course love pictures and love to blog....journaling duh....but i'm also enjoying this time in our life more. trying to live more simply and just enjoy. anyway thats my rambling for tonight. 

now i've got to finish name tags and seating charts for tomorrows event. good thing i have last nights episode of the bachelorette to keep me company. i heard this one is a tear jerker. gosh why so much drama des...why???

a little beach therapy

there are sometimes when life just creeps up on you. when it seems like the smallest tear will unravel everything. honestly i've come to expect these times in life. not because i live my life "cup half empty"....but because sometimes thats just life. i feel like the past couple of years have taught me that. that sometimes life just isn't fair. sometimes life just falls apart. but, in the end, i'm never broken. it takes some time, a lot of faith, but i'm able to pick the pieces back up and put myself back together again. i have found though that a little something helps put everything in perspective faster....

the beach.

now it may sound funny but there is just something about the beach that heals my heart. maybe thats why i was so dead set on living in california (and maybe still am...). thats why i'm grateful i have the beach for the week. and almost all to ourselves. 

our life hasn't fallen apart completely. but a few surprises hit us this summer. i was almost in tears as i packed my bag. i was ready to get away. i couldn't wait. we've spent the last week enjoying the sun, waves and the most glorious sand i've ever felt. there is just something about putting your feet in the sand, warm sun smiling down on your skin and listening to the waves hit the shore that puts life in perspective. it is as if heavenly father is smiling down on me...telling me "hey i made this for you. just relax and enjoy."

this trip has been the first time in years that i've been able to completely get away. just enjoy life with my mr.  and fall in love all over again. we had the first few days all to ourselves and then my family has joined us for the last half. oh boy did i miss my family. i didn't even realize how much until i saw them for the first time here. 

so if you ever feel like life is creeping up on you....take my advice and head to the beach. it does wonders for your soul. at least thats what i think.

i'll be back in a few days...when we are all nice and tan from the sun (or red...both good), beached out and sand filled. more pictures to come...much more! 

oh just a day on the lake

oh gosh time has sure flown by. we have had a super busy month. with our trip home, getting back into the swing of things in chicago, work for the mrs., research for the mr., beginning the moving process and just living up the summer we've been jam packed. i have a ton of catching up to do on this here blog. one step at a time i guess. 

i just had to post these pictures. while in utah we did a last min trip up to the lake. papa b wanted to test out the boat and so we joined in. liz came with cute mya and baby o which made it even better. too bad the water was freezing or else i would have spent the day in the water. spence did get a good round of wake boarding in. he almost froze but couldn't pass up the chance to wake board for probably the only time this year. 

i'm missing the boat big time this week. i keep looking at lake michigan and can't stop craving a good boating trip. hopefully next summer we'll be home longer so we can hit up the lake more often.

for now i'm back to work and back to real life. gosh why does time keep flying by? i can't believe it's already july...gosh! hopefully with the holiday i'll be able to catch up on blogging a bit...hopefully ;-)

swimming with the littles

we enjoyed lots of sun while in utah. cute liz invited us to come swimming with her and her kiddos. allison came along as well. we had a blast swimming with the little ones. i think mya could out swim us any day. i love spending time with the b. family.

spence had a hard time being okay with just relaxing. haha. i think he was getting the hang of it right as we left. maybe next summer he'll be better at this whole "vacation" thing. 

thanks liz for inviting us to come swim. wish we could make this a weekly thing! 

books and the bug

oh gosh i can't get enough of this little bug. our cute little niece lainey bug is getting so big. she has turned into a little chatter box that keeps us laughing. we went and hung out at ric and megs new house for a night. lainey showed us her new room and shared her toys with us. she has cute spence wrapped around her finger. at one point she brought her books out and cuddled up with us while spence read stories. she got so excited pointing at the dogs and kitties. 

i'm not going to lie....being away from our little nieces and nephew is the hardest thing about living in chicago. i want to just pack these little bugs up and take them home with us. i think lainey bug would really love living in chicago ;-) 

oh the summer wedding season

wedding season is here. as it turns out two of the mr's cousins got married while we were here. gotta love family weddings. we loved hanging out with the other cousins, favorite uncle larry (always good for a laugh) and the grandparents. i couldn't get over spencers cute grandpa and his bow tie. oh gosh! we are also trying to take advantage of time with our little nieces and nephew. we have just a short time to make them love us. as it turns out mom, allison and i decided to match. good thing we even matched the wedding colors (wannabe bridesmaids much???)

we'll see how we surviving wedding number two next week. i forgot how much work weddings are. i guess that's what 3 years will do. 

the mr. and mrs. memorial day 2013

memorial day 2013 was just perfect. it was so nice to be "home" in utah for the holiday. we started the day with the traditional barfuss family breakfast. the whole b family (about 65 in total this year) show up at the grandparents for food, fun and four square. we start the morning at grandma larue's grave. grandma larue is spencer's grandmother who died when spence's dad was young. though we've never met her we feel her love and i truly look up to her as a beautiful mother. it was nice to be back with the b. family and enjoy the morning together. we had a lot of catching up to do. a little foursquare was much needed as well. who doesn't love a good family competition. not to brag or anything but i may have even been king a couple of times...yep i'm that good (haha)

after breakfast we headed north to visit benjamin's grave and grandpa d. benjamin is spence's baby brother who died when he was just a few days old. there was such a sweet spirit while visiting benjamin. though i never got to meet him have felt his spirit with us many times. i am so grateful for him as my little brother in law and look forward to meeting him one day. 

we finished the day hanging out at the b family household, eating way to much and just enjoying being together. the night before we hung out with my family and visited my grandpa's grave. not a day goes by that i don't think about him. i miss him dearly but know he is watching out for me. again i'm so grateful for eternal families. 

there is just something about holidays that make me homesick. i was so grateful to be able to be home for memorial day. it was a busy day but so fun to hang out with all our family. now if we can make it back for every memorial day i think we'll be okay. 

playing catch up: nyc day 1

because my blog is basically our family journal i wanted to continue to post about our trip back east in may. (wow am i behind or what). after boston we all headed up to nyc. i am seriously so in love with new york. i have dreams of living there one day. my hope was to convince the mr. that he has the same dreams. sadly that didn't happen. he liked the city but didn't fall in love...oh well! we always have next time :-)

after dinner one of our first nights we found the shake shack. the line was a couple of hours long so we decided to wait...

so we ended up at serendipity. which so happened to be 1 block from where we were staying. so perfect. we ended up getting food and dessert and stayed their till about 1am. the funny thing is that we got tired before our parents. man they are such party animals. who knew?

our first morning spence and i did some central park exploring. it was hot hot hot but we still had fun. i think i changed about 5 times each day. tmi maybe?

just hanging out at rockefeller center.

of course we had to go to the intrepid. my mr. loves airplanes and big boats. this was his dream come true. i thought it was pretty cool seeing all the history.

i am a huge musical geek.  seriously though i would have seen two a day and still not be satisfied. we got tickets to memphis. i didn't know much about the show but best friend meh recommended it.

okay so seriously.....one of the best musicals i have ever seen. the music was incredible. the story line even better. the performers were fantastic. too bad it was the first musical we saw because nothing else could compare. after the show the great jazz band stayed and played music for a bit. thanks dad barfuss for breaking the rules and getting a sweet picture of us with the stage (also thanks papa heaton for the incredible seats).

my cute parents. oh boy do i love them!

spencers parentals. boy do i love them as well!

and us!

our first day was a whirlwind but so much fun. there is seriously so much to see and do in nyc. we only had 4 days! ahh.

day 2 in nyc coming up!