the florida trail

goodbye, phoenix!

with bitter-sweet emotions, kev and i just said good-bye to our dear family and friends in arizona and said hello to our other dear family and friends in florida. our new little world couldn't be more different than our last. its not better or worse...just different. we are excited to be here but we will truly miss our az clan.

moving day......

the moving crew

gainesville or bust.....

pit stop in dallas to see preston and his family (sorry...no pics)

sorry alabama...we'll get you the next drive through

35 hours (not counting the few days in dallas),

a plethora of DPs, and 4 numb bum cheeks later...

hello, florida!

just in case any of you were wondering where g-town is....

rock on!

a few months ago my brother introduced me to a fairly new and upcoming band called 'the airborne toxic event' and i have since fallen for them... quite easily. they performed in scottsdale last night so kevin and i headed to the show to rock out. besides being exposed to extrememely high levels of noise resulting in a temporary threshold shift and replying to all statements and questions with "WHAT???" (even once we were home), we had a great time. kevin even asked to take my cd to work with him today. i think he's hooked.

ready to rock....

lead singer mikel jollett

the band

ready to drop...

we're just not cut out for this late night stuff anymore!
yes, 11:00 is late for us.

lots of love....

lots of love to these 2 lovely ladies...

Florida House Hunting

more appropriately, it should be titled "still hunting for our 5th and hopefully last apartment". in anticipation for our big move to Gatorville come June, Kevin and I thought it wise to fly to Florida and go look for a place to live while he attends school. Condensed version: red-eye flight, immediate 2-hour drive to Gainesville, apartment hunting in really scary, creepy places, over-night visit with old family friends, nothin' but southern hospitality, grits for breakfast, tempting offer to "go chase them gators in the pond" (seriously), not-so-funny joke of "there's tim tebow"!, almost multi-car accident due to some crazy girl looking for tim tebow, last second find of our "to be" apartment, back to tampa to see the fam (most important part).

can't have a trip to fla. without a little sushi

jenny leigh's husband, lance, pitches for the tampa yankees,

so we went to the ballpark to watch him pitch. and get some peanuts and cracker-jacks.

my neice leila was making her big acting debut as a fairy in the community production of sleeping beauty, so the fam went to support her on her opening night. no one has ever flittered and fluttered (or whatever fairies do) as well as she did that night. we arrived a little early to the show and well, we just got a little bored. kev came up with the idea for each person to take the camera and make their ugliest face. we had one shot, and one shot only. meet my very cultivated and refined family:

here's the newest little bean to the Walden pod. meet andee.

here's the big star herself...oh, and leila, too.

snow days

right about the time that az reached its maximum capacity for silver-haired, sun-basking, hazards-on-the-highway, melanoma magnets (aka snowbirds), i headed out of town to utah, just in time to catch the bountiful leftovers of a winter storm and hit the slopes with Pops. the snow was fantastic, the weather beautiful, and i was approximately 700 miles away from work, not to mention that i was able to see my mom and dad, brother and his family, aunt, grandparents and best friend from highschool. overall....great trip!

danger is our middle name!

just some ski bunnnies strikin' a pose

no that's not lipstick...i fried my lips skiing:(

he really is enjoying it....really

cute little cole!

cute little carter!

cute little kimmy!

just kidding.....i only got to see kimmy for a few hours, but it was SUPER seeing one of my best friends from highschool!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

i know...a little late, but considering we only took the tree down last sunday, and we are just now de-decking the halls, it is only fitting that christmas pictures are now making their way to the blog. besides, despite retailers' all-too-successful ways of convincing us that christmas is sooo last year and easter is just a few weeks away, christmas was only 3 weeks ago. so i guess in the end...i'm not doing too bad here! For christmas, we stayed here in az and spent a great time with kevin's family. as always, whether in az or in fl, we enjoyed a nice, mild, 70*, brown/green christmas (i personally feel that is the way to go).

every year the lds and catholic church choirs get together at the mesa temple and put on a christmas program. you can't really tell, but the lights at the temple are amazing!

me (obviously), leanne (sister-in-law), and erin (cousin) at our christmas eve dinner

kevin's youngest brother, david, works at a grocery store and had to work on christmas eve. the grocery store scheduled all of the teenage boys to work--because, you know, teenage boys don't have family to be with during christmas--so dave was not with us. at about 9:30 all of kevin's family and his aunt and uncle's family went down to the store to stage a friendly protest. we first went in and found dave at his cashier post, gathered all around and dazzled the shoppers with our best and loudest version of "we wish you a merry christmas". we then found the manager and asked if dave could leave (who could deny us after our little musical gift to the store?) our complaints and pleas fell short of the manager's heart, so we went to work. we figured if we helped out, dave would get out sooner. we collected shopping carts, bagged groceries, re-stocked shelves, stood in as bouncers to not let anyone else come in the store, cleaned the counters and floors, and kev and i even got to speak on the intercom speaker (clean up on isle 9). the managers loved it! we had everyone whistling a happy tune and we got them (and dave) out sooner. it was a blast. i'm still waiting for my paycheck.

when kevin and his brothers were younger, their dad created a "ballard boy's rap". the rap resurfaced for the christmas eve party, but with new and improved lyrics (i made it into a line!) we're true playas!

a little 'nog and cider for the nightcap!

christmas morning! kevin's family wraps EVERYTHING!!!!

i think it took 2-3 hours to unwrap it all.

thanks for the super-sized bag of double-bubble santa! i now have 4 cavities and tmj.

for new years, we travelled to grandma rosell's house in california for the infamous (you know...more than famous) new year's bash. kevin has 50 cousins on his mom's side, and while not all were there, the house was still packed and jammin'. tradition dictates that we form a conga-line, dance around the house as we sing and dance to "enjoy yourself". When the chorus hits, we all run to the living room and jump around.

tradition continues...the eggnog fizzies! similar to the gallon-challenge (but with eggnog, and you don't have to consume as much), the person who chugs the most (and keeps it down)...wins. kevin and his brother, daniel, were the 2 contestants. fortunately daniel bailed out after 4 cups because he looked like he was going to blow. kevin kept going to beat the standing record of 15 cups. we decided people could tag-team if they wanted, so kev tapped out, i jumped in and topped it off with 6 cups (total of 17 cups for the ballard team...and the new record).

eggnog fizzy winners!

tradition still continuing...go carts!

we took a trip down to balboa island to get a tasty little balboa bar. delish!

a little karaoke

NATIONAL CHAMPS!!!!

IT IS GREAT TO BE A FLORIDA GATOR!!!!!