Becoming American + A Life Update

Guys! These pictures make me die to go back to Treasure Island. But before I give you all the memories of this beautiful day, a little personal update about our lives is in order🏝. Because some pretty big and exciting things are happening around here.

First off, yesterday Kris became an American citizen🇺🇸!! We have been really looking forward to this for lots of reasons, but the main one is that it is the final step to fully transitioning our lives from Canada to the USA. We plan to live and work here for the foreseeable future, and this gives us the complete freedom to do that. I am probably the worst Canadian in the world – but after spending 17 years in Canada, and the past 8 in the USA, I just feel like the States is unquestionably better. It just has so much more to offer me and my family. Better housing prices, a huge variety of places to live (where in Canada can you find sandy beaches and palm trees???), more higher education opportunities, etc. I wrote more about it in my long Instagram post here. Basically I love that we were able to make this transition. I have a few Canadian friends who would love to move to the States full time and can’t, so I just feel lucky that I was born a dual citizen and was able to make that choice.

When we got home from the ceremony we listened to this song full blast. If you have been around Kris on July 4th, you will understand why. My brothers Josh & Teyvin pretend to be annoyed, but deep down I know they love being child locked into a car with this song playing so loud you think the speakers might break.

EXCITING NEWS part two. This also has to do with Kris, and is a little overdue. About a week ago Kris finished his third year of medical school! We are now a week less than a year away from graduation🎓!!!!! Guys!! Do you realize what a big deal this is?!?! I know I am overusing exclamation points from an outsiders perspective – but for anyone who has been through it – you know I am probably underusing them. This would have probably been closer to adequate: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Medical school is HARD. The amount of information they are required to memorize is, of course, reasonable for the responsibilities that lie ahead, but honestly it is just insane📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚. Every time they finish one test, another is immediately on the horizon, and sometimes (like right now) the hardest tests all overlap into the same short period of time. I am constantly blown away by Kris’ ability to pack more and more info into his mind.

And I would also like to take a moment to give a shoutout to myself 💁 and all the other med wife/mama’s. Kris stays as involved as humanly possible in our lives, but there are many days that I have felt like a single mama. Two kids can be exhausting, and on top of that I work as much as possible. I don’t even remember what it feels like to not be tired and spread thin all the time. Don’t misunderstand, I am not complaining, because I really love my life. But this definitely hasn’t been an easy road, I work HARD. Just saying. Putting Kris through medical school has been a whole family effort and I am really excited that we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

End bragging about myself 😜.

Residency will be the next step after he graduates (see all our residency location options here), and it is a whole new ball game. In many ways could be more difficult than school, but I am staying positive and praying we land the perfect job. If not, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. We are getting pretty good at crossing difficult bridges together💞.

On to a short journal about the day shown in these pictures.

The first thing we did when we woke up was head down to the pool. Kris hurt his ankle earlier! Really bad actually, it was swollen and purple and walking was hard. He never complained, but watching him limp was painful!! Especially in the airport where he insisted on carrying the suitcases and the carseats. Even when he is injured he won’t let me carry the heavy stuff. I try. It won’t happen. ANYWAYS. We decided to take it easy this morning and just relax by the pool. Beach later.

Sitting at the pool and seeing the water and hearing the waves right across the road I just couldn’t resist. Plus Kris was studying for a big exam on his phone, poolside. Zoey was happily playing by herself. They didn’t need me 😜. Abandoning my poor broken husband and Zoey for the beach seemed like the logical option. I ran to the beach with Zander in his stroller.

There is a beautiful, paved path all along the beach on Treasure Island. That is where I walked. It is kind of hard to describe what it felt like walking along the ocean early that morning. Peaceful, breathtaking, inspiring – just a few words that come to mind. It is so easy to become weighed down by the stresses in life, but when I go to the beach, that is all lifted. Zander fell asleep within minutes of the walk. All I could think was how amazing it would be to do this every morning. What a perfect way to start the day…

Later we all went to the beach and played in the sand and water till we were tired. It was the first time Zander sat in the sand and splashed in the water happily. Every other time I tried to introduce him to the beach there had been a lot of tears. But as you can see in the pictures, he enjoyed this trip! Zoey collected shells and also swam way, way out in the water with me, manning the go-pro, in search of ‘fishes’. She was slightly scared of the deep water and I was slightly nervous about sharks, but we had so much fun!

Every time I look at these pictures I feel a little bit of that amazing feeling I had walking the beach that morning and swimming later with my babies. We live in such an amazing world and the more I explore it, the more I love it.

That is all for today people! Enjoy your weekends 💖💖💖

Keep scrolling for more pictures or…

Swim Top: K&S | Bikini Bottom: K&S | Zoey’s Swim Set: SwimZip | Zanders Romper: RAGS