Picture Catch-Up and Update

We enjoyed a delicious meal after Lisa's amazing 1/2 marathon. She ran in San Diego's, Finest City's Half "Marathon. Ben and Chara, Heath and I enjoyed biking around to cheer for her.







Lisa makes me so proud! She has been and inspiration and motivation to me! She was fabulous! She looks fabulous too, this was at her 9th mile and she is gracefully acknowledging our cheering and concentrating hard on giving Heath the perfect high five.











My cousin Corey was in town, I have not seen him in about 15 years! It was exciting to meet his family. And very sweet of them to take out time on their vacation and time at Disney to meet us for dinner.



My cousin Steve was also in town back in June. We caught dinner, a walk down in La Jolla and checked out Torrey Pines golf course. It was great to hang out and catch up with him!







Our great friend Lisa, like I said above, is just fabulous! This coming Tuesday she will be leaving us to go and experience the world. She is moving to Japan for a year to teach English. Again an inspiration to me!

This is us at the beach, we cut up some food, wrapped it in foil and Heath slaved over a campfire cooking it. It was delicious!



Now, Heath is showing us how this ice cream eating art is done.














One of our favorite things to do is put on dinner parties. We were talking recently about the friendship aspect of our love. And the thing that Heath said he loves about us is that we make a great team. We think the parties we put on are so much fun... we may be a bit biased but it is something we just love to do and have so much fun! Sometime we shut the door after everyone leaves and can not wipe the smiles off our faces, we just feel so blessed to have the support system that we have here! Who knew that for the 3 years here we would have made such amazing friends... and for life! We sure do have a great collection from all over the world!

Below are a random scattering of dinner parties from the past few months (anywhere from beer can chicken to sushi to peanut butter smores on the grill)

What is it they say about 3's?

Our first week back has been rough, especially on Heath!

For me, I studied everyday for 8-12 hours for a giant certification test. If I passed, I only have 2 more to take to be "No Child Left Behind" compliant and will have my official California Teaching Credential in Geoscience and Art.
Saturday I took the test, I think I did alright, I used all 5 hours.
Heath's plan during my test was to go out on a charter boat fishing...

Which brings this back to Heath and the point of this post.

#1: Thursday, Heath was going to ride his bike to work, and home...


... on the way home... thorns in the tires. (today he got his 3rd flat)


#2 Friday, Heath was going to go golfing while I studied...


... when he opened the trunk (for the first time back from vacation), he discovered that all the metal in the trunk had began to rust and ooze.


#3 Saturday, Heath was going to go fishing...


... but on the way, he got into a little fender bender... on the way home from that he was almost hit in much larger accident.


Lets just say Heath is laying low these days...
And we are shorter on cash than expected.

Last week with friends and family :(

Don't we look happy together! Rachel (little red-head sis) and I have never had a problem being silly, and now I have 3 sisters to share life with. I love this whole-brothers marry great girls thing... Now Chase take your time, I am fine with 3 sisters for now. You obviously don't appear to be ready... wait is that my husband sticking out his tongue too?


The fabulous Russ and Amy Miller... They are so cute!


Chase and Heath grilling up something yummy!


It is something special when you love to be around the brother you used to get so mad at over washing the dishes and gas money.


Smiling to only show the so often missed bottom teeth... we are so silly! The only Thill reunion I experienced was with Nana and Gramps and my super fun, super cute cousin, Zoey, who drove 3 hours to see me! There was talk of celebrating Nana's 90th birthday while I was home, but it didn't work out, so... Happy birthday Nana. I'll keep laughing..."because Nana said so!"


It is always so much fun to see Jen and Elijah. He is growing so fast. So is his little brother or sister, whom I felt playing soccer or dancing or maybe Kung Fo Fighting in Mama's tummy. Wow!

I was glad to catch up with other friends as well, I just didn't get many more pictures.

She's a Professional

So my little sis, is all big and professional now. We were privileged enough to enter into her new domain and partake in the specialties she offers, and in which some of us were in desperate need of ... uh um... Heath. Can you believe he is in the military with that crazy hair?


OK it doesn't look that long, I forgot to take a before picture, but notice the length and great curl on the top. At this stage it kinda looks like an 80's do.


Isn't he handsome?!


She's crazy...

...But fabulous at what she does!

If you are in GR and need a cut, color, updo, or wax, she really is amazing and needs clients being new and all.

BIG FISH

Heath went fishing in the middle of the night.

Heath returned at 7:30 am with this monster.

It really is a monster-it tried to attack me.

This was the yummiest monster i have ever eaten!

Fun with the Wilhoits

The Fabulous Rachel and Michael Wilhoit


Check out Heath's mad skiing skills


This is new for me... I actually got up on my first try and look, time 3 or something, I made it over the wake!

Michael and Rachel skied with us as well, I just don't have pics of them, but Rachel and I shared the great accomplishment of skiing around the lake a couple times as beginners!


That blur is Michael jumping from the where I am taking the picture. Those white things are huge trampolines.


That is Heath flying over Michael's head.

I don't have pictures from 4th of July at the lake with friends, beach day on Lake Michigan, the tour of Michael and Heath's childhood, or the many games of "Settlers of Catan." But as you can imagine the time spent together was wonderful!

Wilhoit Reunion: Great Fun, Great Family and Great Food

We couldn't have asked for a more perfect day!

The party was at Ma and Pa''s new house. They have done a lot of work to make it absolutely perfect! The house and the yard looked fabulous. Everyone brought delicious food! Pa and Heath were slaving over the hot grills, making 5 delicious beer-can chickens and more than enough hambugs and hot dogs. i love pot luck gatherings when there is tons of food to choose from.

It was so great to see everyone all together and from both sides of the family!


Heath's amazing beer can chickens... my favorite meal! Is there enough to feed this crowd?


Pa's got it covered. The double fisted flips. In fact, it appears he is juggling the dogs.


Herald and Heath relaxing after filling up


Lots of laughter from the O'Brien side!


Great time enjoyed by the Wilhoit side as well!


Aren't they sooooooooooo cute!

Dj's Wedding

Dj and Katie and his parents


Long time friends catching up


Who is having a better time?


I am not sure if my husband is winking or sleeping.

More Miller Mania Fun!

This is a lot of the Millers... we really missed those of you who couldn't make it.

Not being a part of the Miller family must be rough... the fun that follows will make you even more jealous! I must say that not only is this a "good-looking" group (as Grandpa always told us over the phone), as well as the most fun bunch in the world, they happen to also be the kindest people you will ever meet. I am proud...I can't help it.



Water balloon toss... fun and refreshing for everyone!


Chalk drawing contest... we are also artistic.


The Pink Rockers tearing up the scavenger hunt!


The kids had a blast cooling off on the slip and slide.


That is, I think, the biggest kid of all... my Heath.


Volley ball for hours, even past dark (glow in the dark ball)


Grandma even got in on the game! You go Grams!


Hoola-hoop contest... nice form Chase and Cassie!


Some card games... does anyone know why we didn't play extreme solitare?