Our little Taddy graduates...

...sort of :) Tad walked this month even though he has one semester left. Luckily a few of us were able to be there and it was good times! Officially I am the WORST at doing graduation videos. I'm always so concerned about getting a video AND pictures that I end up with a short video and blurry photos. What can you do.

Love the face.

Where's Taddo? If you look really close you can see his face looking up, sort of in the middle of the pic, but on the outside of the group. All you can see is his face, or maybe YOU can't, but I can!

Hat toss over, time to fix the bieber hair :)

The guys. 

Note the wrinkles. Wow. 

Olive garden for celebration lunch!

Really good at feeding her nose, not so good at hitting the mouth. Grammie tries to help.

Ruby was really going after those breadsticks!

Congrats Tad! Here's hoping you ACTUALLY graduate in a few months :)

Got some Paxton videos up on our blog.  http://www.thesugis.blogspot.com/

Dominican Republic

This first picture is a member family from Jacob's first area. Then it's casey's dad, me, jacob and casey. My eyes are that big because it really is that hot in there!!! At night, we had fans on us in our hostel where we were basically camping. It would normally be ideal, but at 4.5 months pregnant, it wasn't the best.

 The last day was the best as we went to the beach and went boogie boarding. The hardest part was kicking and paddling out past the waves. Casey kept saying that I needed to paddle so I could get going faster to catch the waves, but I think that he forgot about the bowling ball on my belly, which was really hard to balance on the board. I was pretty tired, but rode two good waves all the way in to shore. Here we are after two runs past the break.

After the long day at the beach, Casey sacked out in the hammock. Isn't he so cute??! It was a good time meeting all of Jacob's people and eating rice and beans. We also ate tons of great mangoes, bananas and my favorite fruit that's also found in Tonga, but not in the USA. When I saw it, I nearly jumped out of the car while it was driving down the road. I made otai out of it and was the happiest girl in the world. I'm also confident that the baby liked it too!

Cuz in castle rock the party don't stop!

Just some pics from our wonderful 36 hours together :) It took me hours to sift through all the pics and I finally narrowed it down to 71...but that seemed like a few too many to post. REALLY wish I had taken some video of the dancing action. Photos just don't do it justice. 

Throwin the weed javalin style

Using whatever we could find to combat these weeds!

Warming up to Uncle Taki.

Relaxin.

Popeye look. love it. 

Handsome guys!

Everyone gets Paxton time!

Ruby wants some lovin too!

Chic-A-fil!

Happy hour!

Taki gets pumped!

The classic caress the face move.

mom's gettin crazy.

Rump bumpin.

Just chillin with our nose strips. no big deal.

Mom near tears. "No one said this was going to hurt!"

Smores and a bonfire. Perfect night.

Sibs.

What a good lookin group!

Here we are together!!!!

For the first time in years the Sugiyama family of 8 was together in one space for one fast paced, fun packed weekend.  The miracle weekend started with dad and I planning to attend little Paxton's blessing and then Lori and Casey decided to jump in- super nice!!   When I realized that Tosh was attending a wedding in SLC the day before Lori's departure, I challenged him to cut one more day of class and join us.  He was in.  Next, I minimized the  fact that Annette was moving the day we would return by saying "you don't have to pack, and you don't have to clean"... so as dad said... I guilted her in (yeah... I am not too proud).  When Tad decided to return from South America prematurely, he didn't even have a choice... but was simply picked up at the SLC airport and swept off to Denver.  Then ... the toughest nut to crack... Tim...got encouragement from Kat, decided to make a bold move, cover his work, and hopped into a full car to drive 19 hours and complete the family.  To everyone I say "thanks for making my day"... or should I say weekend!   I will post a series of photos and segments separately but wanted to get this one on right away.  LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!!!! THANKS for all the miles driven, hospitality shown, and sacrifices made to make me the happiest mom in the world. 

Ecuador Round 1 and Peru Round 2!!!

Basically I am not really good at this whole Blogging thing and so I am just going to tell you what is up and then post a lot of pictures.  Basically I spent time in Ecuador working in their hospitals and working with kids and checking their anemia levels for a study we are performing.  It was an awesome trip.  Slightly interesting since I was the only single guy on the trip with 19 other girls. We started in Guayaquil and was there for 2 weeks, we then went to Otavalo and did some work there too, and then finished our trip in Quito.  That was when my adventure began.  I went to Montanita on the coast of Ecuador and surfed which was awesome and the water was soooooo warm.  It was amazing!  I then decided to head down to Peru and go see some of the old friends that I knew there.  I spent some time there and now I am in Huacachina Peru.  This is like the perfect Oasis.  Literally I am surrounded by Sand dunes and in the middle of the small tiny city (Town) there is a Lagoon or tropical Oasis.  Anyway that is where I am at now.  I will be traveling back to Guayaquil where I will be flying back home. For more pictures on the Ecuador trip visit this site: https://picasaweb.google.com/117360015087259637129?authkey=Gv1sRgCPmzvZ7C57OcrgE

Chillin at the park.

I'm just realizing that very soon Ruby will have to share this blog with yet another cutie baby! So...I feel like I better get some pics of her in before this becomes a 24/7 grandkid slideshow! Here she is in her birthday outfit from Grammy at the park behind the library. We go there about everyday now since we don't have a yard and when we try to play in front of our apartment Ruby enjoys walking into the street, finding cigarette butts, and trying to eat them while I make a mad dash for her screaming in horror like a crazy person. 

Bringing me a rock she found. Very focused. 

Gotta love that tutu!

Always wants to grab the camera.

 Loving her new stroller. A sweet garage sale find!

Testing out the stroller's weight limit as well as her balancing skills. Both were impressive.

Just bein' cute. She's good at that.