It's time for....

the new blog address!  it's only fitting now that i am married and we are living in omaha to get a new more appropriate blog address.  i will leave this one up, but all new posts will be at this link:  

http://parksinomaha.blogspot.com

Wedding and Such

check this out for our wedding video. more to come later!

http://pointedigital.blogspot.com/

One Week...

One week from tomorrow we are getting married!! I can hardly believe it. I want to show you all my dress, but I better not post anything until after the wedding. Here is a sneak peek from my bridals!

Did I Mention....

Brandon is an identical twin? We just got done scanning and organizing all the photo's for our wedding video. I just have to say, I hope I have a little boy as cute as these guys :) I just love my Brandon :)

Tribute to the Davis FAM!

I am pretty close with my family. I usually get to see them on a monthly basis... which will be hard to do when living in Omaha. I am going to miss my cute little nephews like crazy. For those of you who know my sister Kimber, she is great! We are 18 months apart and have always been close to each other. I love her little family. Brock has been the best brother-in-law I could ever ask for. I got to spend some time with them over the weekend and had a blast. I am starting to get a little bit sentimental knowing that I am leaving home for 4 years and possibly never coming back.

How cute is this kid? Caden is 9 months now!

The boys! Carter and Caden

The Davis FAMILY!

The Plans....

Although so many thoughts are running through my head these days, somehow everything is coming together and surprisingly I am not stressed out.... (yet).
We have managed to find an apartment in Omaha and Brandon's dad & mom volunteered to drive our stuff out there while we are on our honeymoon. I have my dress now and everything is pretty much booked and ready to go for the wedding and honeymoon. What a whirlwind. Did I mention I am depressed I will have to leave my amazing cute babies at work? I have spent 8 hours a day with them for months now and I am attached. I don't feel like I can just up and leave them. I am going to miss them like crazy.
I guess I just have to focus on the fact that in 38 days I get to marry my best friend, spend a week with him in paradise (pictured below. I am so excited) and then start a new life together in a city we know nothing about. What a crazy adventure life takes us on!

p.s. my friend melinda pointed out that i had my wedding date wrong on this page... WHOOPS. its june 24th! (not the 25th).

Wedding Video Songs?

I have to come up with 8 songs for our wedding video. I am having a hard time! Does anyone have any suggestions? A favorite song you like or one you used for your own video?
Thanks!

Life Just Got Crazier....

JULY 1st, 2008. That is when we have to be moved to Nebraska by. We just got word last week that a spot opened up and we can start the program a year earlier! This is definitely exciting, but insane at the same time because we are getting married June 24th and going on our honeymoon right after. HMMM.... This will be interesting.

Photos

I love my Brandon! He was such a good sport during our engagement photos!!! Luckily, the 2 most unphotogenic people around (if you dont believe me, i can post pictures to prove it) ended up with a few good shots, thanks to Wendy Coombs!!! NOW... I just have to decide which one to use for the announcements.... I haven't even narrowed it down yet, but here's just a random few I liked...

Life is good!

I was able to take Thursday and Friday off of this week because Brandon is on vacation. It has been sooo nice to actually see him for more than an hour here and there! His last day off is Sunday, so we have 3 more days to relax and enjoy life! (Mixed in with some wedding stuff of course.) For those with spouses that work 8-5, you dont know how lucky you are to have so much time! Brandon typically works 80-100 hours per week. Luckily, with time that will eventually get better, but not for a good chunk of years through residency.

I never really posted any pictures or comments about Hong Kong... I am a little slow. The one thing that impressed me about this place was the skyline. It's absolutely beautiful and endless. I have seen a lot of things, but this was amazing! The picture doesn't do justice and only shows a fraction of the buildings. I am putting it on my top 10 list. Here is a photo of the "gang" I was with during my trip over there. All of them were so much fun! The lady directly in from of me in black is the reason I even made it to China. She is the one who made my dad promise he would bring me on this trip. She also spoiled me rotten while I was with her. She speaks literally no English! Thanks Mrs. Dai for dubbing yourself as my Chinese mom!
In Hong Kong I was surprised to see so many white people. This city didn't seem very "Asian" to me compared to all the other places I have been. It was ruled by the British for a lot of years, which explains that and also why they drive on the wrong (left) side of the road. We were able to hit up the temple and luckily the mission presidents wife let us in, gave us a tour of the building (the non temple part), and passed out chinese books of mormon to all the crew. I love that pretty much no matter where you go in the world, there is also a place that feels so much like home! :) The last thing I would say about this city is that there are THOUSANDS of these skyscrapers/apartment buildings 100 floors high EVERYWHERE... MAN, they know how to pack the people in. One of the most densly populated cities in the world: 6,200 people in every 1 KM... which is about 1/2 a mile~ Can you believe that???

The Results Are In.....

Brandon and I will be spending 4 years in Omaha, Nebraska! We will be moving next year and he will start his radiology residency.

Residency....

YEAH! Brandon matched! Now we have to wait 3 more days to find out where...

Day #2 in China

There beautiful town of ZhouZhuang

A little side street of ZhouZhuang. Look at the lady knitting in the boat!

The main entrance into ZhouZhuang

China and Hong Kong

I had a lot of crazy experiences over in Asia last week! Here are a few photos :) These are Shanghai.

I'm Back!

In case your wondering, the communists over in China block blogspot.com... so I was unable to post anything or read anyone's while I was gone. I guess they dont want people to know whats going on in our lives! Kind of crazy. I also tried to watch Lost one night, but that was blocked also. No international viewers!!
So, I had a wonderful trip. Just got back tonight after 24 hours straight of travel. I will share just photos and give a real update later :)

~Kristin

I am Off to CHINA!!!

SO, those of you that know me understand I have a love for the Asian culture and people. I taught English in China 6 years ago and that just triggered a deeper love and I ended up serving a Chinese speaking mission in Taiwan. 3 years ago after I returned home from my mission my Dad invited me on a business trip with him to China. We found a company to partner up with and he has been doing business there ever since.

It was funny... About a month ago my Dad called me up and invited me out of the blue to a business dinner with the head lady who runs his facility over in China. It was her first time to Utah. She speaks no English and that is why my dad invited me along, to speak with this Mrs. Dai. Anyway, by the end of dinner Mrs. Dai made my dad promise that he would bring me along on the next business trip. They pinky swore on it! :)

SO, lucky me... I get to go to CHINA again!! I leave on Saturday. This will be my 3rd time. I can hardly wait!!! I am going by myself a few days earlier than everyone so I can have time to have fun, shop and sight-see a bit. (Shanghai) Another silly but exciting part of it... usually when I travel I stay in some cheap youth hostel or 2 star hotel, but I was lucky enough to have the company put me up in a 4 star! I dont think I am going to know what to do with myself...

The icing on the cake... I have never been to Hong Kong and my dad and I have been talking about going. We talked about it 3 years ago on my last trip with him. Anyway, we are working it into this trip!!! I hear its a fabulous city full of great food and shopping.

Hear I come CHINA... and HONG KONG!

this is my cute little adopted family from Taiwan taken there in October 2006! Oh, how I love them!!!

I'm Engaged!

Yup, its true... I am getting married. Brandon proposed to me on Valentines Day at Ensigns Peak in SLC! It was very romantic. We are getting married June 24th and couldn't be more excited :)

Sacramento

We ate at this Mexican Restaraunt for my birthday and it made me sick!

Me with Sweetpea and Valerie at Maggie's house
On a nice walk in Davis with Maggs and her girls
Maggie, me and Caitlyn! Sweetpea ran into the photo
In Old Sacramento with Maggs!
Me and Sweetpea with silly hats on!

For my 26th Birthday I decided to make a weekend trip up to Sacramento to visit my best friend I met my freshman year in college. My other really good friend also lives there and the 3 of us were great friends in college. Brandon also flew into Sacramento for an interview at the hospital there which is what motivated me to make this trip. It was so great to see Maggie and her 2 cute kids Sweetpea and Valeri as well as Caitlyn and her cute little girl Jocelyn. Its strange to think that not too long ago the 3 of us were single and in college together! The weather was wonderful and the sun even came out! It was a breathe of fresh air to get away from the snow for a few days.

Brad Paisley, Birthday and More!

Last Thursday I had the opportunity to go to the Brad Paisley concert with my mom and 2 sisters. Over the last few years we have made it a tradition to go to at least one country concert a year. We are also concert snobs and have to sit on the floor! (Thanks to Stubhub.com). December 2006 was the first time seeing Brad in concert and that is when I fell in love with his music!! (The real reason back then for going to his concert was that Carrie Underwood opened for him). Anyway, this time around we were really excited. My little sister Katie and I walked right up to the front of the stage when Brad came out and got to stay there the entire concert! It was a lot of fun and I probably took way to many photos. Katie and I both got high fives from Brad Paisley too! He is an amazing performer and can play the guitar like no other. :)

Frustrations

I have not been this frustrated in a very long time. Let me explain. First of all, today my family went to the MTC and dropped my little brother Ben off. I took my new camera with me and got some amazing priceless photos. As I came home later today, I tried to upload the pictures from my memory card. For some reason, it wouldnt work. I spend 2 hours on it very frustrated trying to get it to work. After that long, I decided to go upstairs and use my old laptop to upload the photos. For some reason, the computer couldnt read that any photos had been taken. It said the memory card was empty. The only option it gave me was to format the card. Not wanting to take that risk, I went back downstairs and put the card back into the camera. I "supossedly" put a lock on the pictures so they couldnt get deleted, but the disk ended up getting formatted and now ALL of my PRICELESS PHOTOS of my brother are gone, and I wont see him again for 2 years.
Lesson learned???? If you get a new memory card, FORMAT IT FIRST before taking photos :****(

A New Year

Christmas ended up being really great. It was different this year spending it between 2 families, but ended up working out really well. Christmas Eve Brandon and I slept at his parents house. His family celebrates each year with German traditions, such as lighting candles on the tree, a traditional dinner, singing songs and lots of games! The fun ended around 1:30AM just in time to get a little sleep before waking up early to drive up to Logan. Luckily, Brandon's twin and his wife were leaving the next morning so the 4 of us got up early and left. I was happy we made it in time to my parents house to open presents. The greatest part about everything was actually being able to spend time with Brandon! With his extremely busy schedule during a typical week we only get to see each other a few times for an hour here and an hour there. So, two full days was great!!! New Years he worked of course, but I was able to drive up to my parents cabin in Bear Lake and spend the night with my family. It was great because we all went skiing New Years Day!!

LAST weekend was also wonderful. Brandon and I got to go up to Logan and spend some time with my family. My little brother Ben went through the temple for the first time because next week he will be entering the MTC and leaving to serve a 2 year mission to Paraguay. We spent Friday and Saturday night at my parents house which was great!! I brought the Wii up and we ended up playing that thing for hours. ALSO, I got a new camera for my birthday!! Brandon and I picked it out at Best Buy. I am really excited about it because my old camera was 3 years old and kind of out of date. Technically, my BDAY isnt for another week, by my mom let me have it early :) Here are a few photos from it. I need to figure out how to use the red eye reduction. This camera is way more high tech than my last one, so it will take some learning. Of course my cute nephews were with us. Brandon taught Carter how to play Wii sports!