Our Week of Fun with Natalie

Natalie has been living up here in Oregon for the last three years going to optometry school at Pacific University. Unfortunately for us, her schooling here came to an end at the beginning of May and she moved on to her rotating internships (starting with Salt Lake City). We loved having her close by. She came over for Sunday dinner almost every week. She watched my kids countless times (one year almost every Tuesday night while I went to choir practice and Paul went to scouts!). She practiced her new skills on us. She came to hang out even when she was busy with school. We will miss her SO much.

Natalie finished her classes at the beginning of May, but she didn't need to leave right away, so she made us very happy by spending her last week in Oregon staying at our house and hanging out with us! We didn't go very many places or do anything crazy, but we had a lot of fun. I'm so glad we got to have one last week together before she started her next adventure.

Now, if I were cooler, this post would be full of awesome pictures depicting all the things we did during the week. Unfortunately, as I have mentioned multiple times before, I'm terrible at taking pictures when I should, so instead I just have a few really random ones.

We started our week with Cinco de Mayo and then a morning at the dentist. At least I took pictures of those days!

Over the rest of the week, we ate some tasty food including Regina Bunker's pancakes (of course!), half-priced "happy hour" donuts from Krispy Kreme, teriyaki meatballs (one of Natalie's favorites), mini M&M chocolate chip cookies, and homemade patty melts that I enjoyed more than anyone else.

We saved the princess over and over (that dang princess just keeps getting kidnapped! ;) ), and Natalie accomplished her goal of beating me at Dr. Mario. We watched a few hilarious episodes of Boy Meets World and a so-bad-it-became-hilarious movie.

We ran some mundane errands that were turned into fun ones simply because Natalie was there. Natalie even came to my choir practice since she won't be able to come to our concert in a couple weeks.

Natalie found out on Wednesday that week that she passed the first part of boards with flying colors. She is well on her way to officially being Dr. Natalie! It was fun to be together to celebrate. We went to Cold Stone for milkshakes. :)

At Natalie's White Coat Ceremony last year. She looks dang good in her white coat! :)

Jamie joined us on Thursday night and the three of us stayed up laughing and talking until about 3:00 in the morning. Can't remember the last time I did that! (Yes, Natalie, you have power over me. But real.)

Over the weekend, in between playing games and eating junk food, we went through Natalie's belongings and packed up her car to the brim for the long trek to Utah. Jamie, Natalie, James, and Sarah washed our cars on Saturday afternoon.

We had one last "Sunday" family dinner on Saturday night, and then they were off bright and early Sunday morning.

Sarah and James' last piggyback up the stairs for bedtime. What a fun aunt!

We'll miss you, Natalie! Good luck with your first day today!