Kenzly and Kimball's last days of School at Westridge Elementary. Kimball with Mrs. Spadafora and Kenzly with Miss Rowlins. Sept. 11, 2008

Kimberly's last Book Club Meeting before moving to Arizona, Sept. 2008

Back row, left to right; Lisa Holmberg, Christy Little, Rachel Hone, Jodi Weir, Allison O'Neal, Suzette Astle, Heather Bastian, Carolyn Andrews...front row; Lesa Gustafson, Laurie Pope, Molly Hadfield, Cheryl Johnson, Amy Reese, Kimberly Whitmer (and our hostess for the evening), Sara Staker

Kierra's First Day of School at Learning Dynamics. 8-20-08

The long awaited day when Kierra could finally go to school had come. She started at Learning Dynamics with Caroline Larsen, Lindsay Little and Kate Buskirk, and would go for a short time, until we moved to Arizona to be with dad.

First Day of School at Westridge Elementary in Provo Aug. 2008

Kenzly's Birthday/Going Away Party Aug. 16, 2008

I promised Kenzly a friends party for her 9th birthday with all the friends she wanted to invite because we were moving. Not being quite the party "mom" and definitely not the creative party planner, I resorted to a large blow-up slip n' slide rented from ACE. Good thing Kent was home that weekend. We borrowed Nana and Papa's truck and used our muscles to heft this large slide into place and ready for the party. I'm not sure it even got it's proper use, but Kenzly had a great time and that was the goal. It took us almost the rest of the evening to get the slip n slide cleaned, rolled up, in the bag, back in the truck and returned to ACE. Phew!

The next day we had a family party at our house and Kenzly got to open even more presents. When the fun was dying down, Kimberly really was down as she drove Kent to the airport to work for another 2 weeks before she would see him again. (Big Sigh).

Las Vegas Andrews girls trip, Aug. 2008

It was all Matt's idea and how lucky for us! Mariel's birthday surprise was this "sisters" trip to Las Vegas to see Phantom of the Opera. It was bad timing because Kent had already started his new job (5 days previous) in Arizona and wasn't home to help with the kids and wasn't coming home until the following weekend for Kenzly's birthday. Lucky for me though, Chelsea and Collin Huntsman came from Idaho with Chantel and stayed at our house for the weekend to watch the kids.

We left from Provo late Friday afternoon and drove to St. George to pick up Kristy, then went on to Las Vegas and stayed in a Mariott Suite. The pregnant gals (me and Kelly) slept in our own room with a bathroom, Mariel and Kristy in the other and Chantel and Brandalyn slept on the pull out. Saturday we toured the Body Exhibit and then had EXPENSIVE pedicures at the Balagio Hotel. Before dinner we shopped and had barely enough time to change and get to dinner. The main event - Phantom -wasn't a dissapointment at all and afterwards we ate dinner at an expensive restaurant that was every bit beautiful as well as creative and delicious.

The next morning we headed home. Short and sweet. It was very refreshing to get away and I am so glad I got to go.

UVRMC Quality Department Summer Party at Glen Canyon in Provo.
Kimberly started working for IHC at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo May of 1990. Originally she was hired as a phlebotomist (drawing blood), which she loved. She decided to go to nursing school and went through the LPN program at UVCC and the hospital reimbursed her tuition costs. After finishing her LPN in Dec. 1990, she switched to the blood bank department, traveling to many parts of Utah drawing blood from willing donors. At the same time, she worked prn nights (5 pm to 5 am) on the floors (mostly 4th and 6th). In August of 1990, she got accepted into the RN IHC program and switched to 4th floor (ortho/neuro) dept. of which she loved! She graduated with her RN associate degree and passed the state board examinations (yeah!). From there she worked her way into critical care in 1993 and eventually ended up in the Cardiac Cath Lab right before getting married in 1997. After having Kimball, she started to doing data extraction for AMI (heart attach patients) and eventually ended up in her last department at UVRMC, Quality. It was uinique because they were all women. Her last day (sept. 2008) was a bittersweet moment. She turned her job over to Marsha Judkins, gave her a hug, turned in her badge and walked out with tears flowing. It hit her like a ton of bricks that she just quit her job of 18 years. Although she was excited to move to Arizona and happy to leave the pressure of finding time to fit her job into raising kids, it was a sad one. Not until she visited the following Spring and said goodbye to her wonderful manager (Judy) and co-worker LeNeve Hatch did she feel at peace.