Lights at Temple Square

A little over a week ago we had a family outing to Temple Square to look at the lights. It was very cold, but was nice to be there a little earlier in the evening when it wasn't as crowded as it can get.

Grace and I sang 'O Come All Ye Faithful' while looking at the nativity scene and Melinda was being asked for member referrals while talking to the sister missionaries. We had a great time and Ryan refuse to wear his winter gear no matter how cold it was.

I love this time of year and am thankful for the Spirit on the temple grounds and the history of the Salt Lake temple.

It is awesome to be such a short drive to temple square and to enjoy all of the things going on there!

Merry Christmas everyone!!! ~~DC and fam~~

Lots of travel

Well, the leg is doing much better. There are days it feels like it is pretty much back to normal, that is until I try to run across the street or something. The doc says the fractures are not healing as fast as he would have thought, but there is some progress.

Anyway, with travel a few different times to the east coast (New York/New Jersey area one week and Florida the next), it is good to be home!

We will try to post more pictures and info from the trips soon. Melinda was able to come with me on the trip to New Jersey and we saw some old mission stuff. Thanks so much to my mom and dad who watched the kids and took care of them for us while we were gone.

Anyway, here is a picture from Delray Beach, FL where my co-worker and I spent 2 days. We then went on to Venice, FL to spend a couple of days.

More to come soon...we promise!

D & M in the Big Apple - Time Square

More pictures to come, but here is the attractive couple in Time Square!!! :)

Love you all! Hope all is well!

Belated Report on Travel

With everything that has been going on...we are still behind on some blogging and posting that we want to do. This is a report on my recent trip (back in late June) to Philadelphia, Hershey, Cleveland, and New York...all for work.

Well, it wasn't ALL for work. I went out a day early to spend some time with Joseph and Abby Warden, my really good friends from high school. They have a beautiful little baby girl, named Avonelle. You can see our fun Philly Cheese Steak experience above, we went to the home of the original philly cheese steak, it was good!

Here is my friend Joseph and his little girl, Avonelle:

Thanks for letting me crash at your place! We also went to the home of the Phillies and Eagles, I love the Eagles and absolutely despise the Phillies. It was weird seeing both ballparks right across the street from each other:


Go Eagles!!!


Down with the stinkin' Phillies!!!


We had a business meeting in Harrisburg, PA...so my co-worker, Nick, and I stopped by Chocolate World in Hershey, Pennsylvania...it was pretty cool.


We went to Cleveland, but I didn't take any pictures there. We then went to New York City and did a meeting in the Grand Hyatt hotel in midtown Manhattan. It was a cool place to do a meeting, you can see the big glass windows all around the room that looked right out into midtown Manhattan. We gave a good presentation.

Some of you may recognize this big arch (it is featured on many movies) near the campus of NYU, it is a pretty eclectic place...

They even have Friday night movie night there, you can see the big screen:

It was a great trip. It is hard to believe this was the last business trip I have been on. This was a couple of weeks before I broke my leg, so I have had a few other business trips covered by co-workers while I have been healing.

Happy Anniversary!!!

It's hard for me to believe it has been 8 years! It has been a rough few weeks for Melinda, having to put up with all of the stresses that have been taking place as of late with everyone breaking and getting sick, etc., etc.

Melinda is an amazing woman. I am so lucky and blessed to be married to such an amazing person, I am thankful every day for my Eternal companion.

Melinda's attributes are immense, but a few that I can think of are: compassionate, sensitive, strong, Spiritual, beautiful, caring, friendly, loving, hard-working, nurturing, funny, organized, and is developing one heck of a tennis serve!!!

I remember when we were dating, I felt like such a different person when I was around her...that has not changed, she makes me better, makes me who I am. She has the ability to get the most out of people and to make people around her feel important and special, that is a great gift she has been given and she uses it well.

This last 8 years has been amazing, so much has happened, and it has been neat to grow together through good times and trials. We have endured busy schedules, a lot of changes, 2 beautiful additions to our family and I am excited to see where the next 8 years takes us...and beyond.


Melinda, I love you! I am so thankful for you! You are the best friend and companion a person could have...thank you for the mother you are, the wife you are, but most importantly...the amazing individual that you are!!! I love you! -DC-

Trying to be like Daddy

This is a picture from Thursday morning during breakfast. It is so cute. (Side note: Ryan has started folding his arms and bowing his head for prayers. It is so cute. He sometimes will kneel down. )


Shortly after this picture was taken I was doing the dishes and Ryan climbed on a kitchen chair and fell off. I didn't think anything of it at first becuase he is always falling. Falling while standing, walking, dancing, climbing, etc. I picked him up and calmed him down. As I put him back down he started to cry again. I, of course, think it is because he loves me so much and wants more hugs. I pick him up and he bcomes more upset, but once I get him settled on my hip he stops crying. I set him back down and he is upset. I pick him up and he is more upset. I figured that maybe something was wrong. I sat him on the counter and took his shirt off and I did not see anything wrong. I call a nurse at the pediatritions office. She told me to push on his collar bone. He was not happy with that. She told me to go to either an Instacare or the E.R.


Anyway, we went to the Instacare. A nurse and I had to pin a hysterical Ryan to the table for Xrays. Not fun. (While pinning him down the nurse suggests that next time I bring my husband. Yeah, because a man with a broken leg and crutches would have been so helpful. I told her that my husband broke his leg and had surgery a week and a half ago. I think that I saw a look of pity in her eye.) The doctor then informed me that Ryan's collar bone was a greenstick break. Nothing to do exept give him motrin. Oh, and don't pick him up under his arm pit. He gets really mad at you. I learn this several times each day.


Ryan has had a lot of fun spending time with Derek.


This is a picture of Derek's leg from last Saturday. It looks better now, but still has a lot of bruising.


He went to work yesterday and stayed until two o'clock. I am glad that he is recovering so well. I would be really happy though if we did not have any more X-rays or scary trips to the Instacare for at least a few months. Grace has been a good nurse to Derek and a great playmate to Ryan. She informed me after these injuries that she is never going to get hurt. YEA!!!

The Oregon Coast -- July Cullimore Family Reunion

We went to Oregon for a family reunion. Is was so much fun. Here is a recap of our trip:

Thursday and Friday we drove with Dennis and Kathy. We picked up Brady, Elizabeth, Sophie, and Bella at the airport and then finished driving the last few hours of the trip. Everyone was sick of the van.

The first night after dinner we went to the beach. It was beautiful.

Ryan explored all sorts of rocks and plant life.

The water was freezing!!!

But that did not stop us from getting in.

The home that we stayed in was beautiful. There were eight bedrooms and five bathrooms. All the children had a bed. It had a game room and a jacuzzi. It was great!!

The next day we had pictures.

And we went to the beach after lunch.

Ryan ate a lot of sand.

He did not really get in the water because it was cold,

but he had fun digging and getting covered in sand. Grace had a lot of fun with her cousins in the water. We had a hard time getting her to leave.

There was a line to rinse all the dirt off in the shower with warm water. Yeah, it was outside and had warm water.

The kids then played in the jacuzzi to warm up from the cold beach.

After the first day of driving home, the kids had some fun decorating Grace with hair clips.

Derek sat with the two children after lunch on Monday and showed them Bob the Builder clips on his computer.

We got home around five and Derek left about ten minutes later. He sang Bob the Builder while playing softball. He says that is why he had such a good game...until he didn't (that is when he busted his leg).

It was good trip. I wish we would have had more time with the family at the beach home, but the time we did have was awesome and some great memories!

July 4th

We had a lot of fun on the fourth. It is my mother's birthday, so I always feel like everyone celebrates her birthday. We usually spend the day with my family, but they are now in AZ. It is a little hard to go there for a day. Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Derek and I spent the night of the third in Park City just to get a break. I am now super glad that we did.

We went to the Cullimore's. We had a fun dinner and then set off some fireworks with Dennis, Kathy, Grandma Clark, Mike, and Mallory. Mike is Derek's cousin. It was really good to see them!


The kids had so much fun. Ryan was little nervous about the fireworks at first,


but then warmed up.


Grace was able to light a firework or two with Derek's help.


It was a fun evening. The weather was perfect and it was good to see family.

Reminiscing of Days When I Could Walk...Trip to Michigan!

We are quite behind in our quest to blog and keep ourselves and any interested up to date. Well, as I am sitting here thinking of a recent business trip I took to Michigan back in mid-June, I am remembering how much fun it was to walk (and I emphasize the word WALK) around the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

I was able to go on the trip with my friend, Kurt, who I happen to work with...in addition to being a neighbor to him! We don't normally get to travel together because he is an account manager in the Central Region and I am the business director over the Eastern Region.

But, I was filling in for my Central Region co-worker, so that meant Kurt and I got to travel together. It was fun!

Here I am at the Big House...where the Wolverines play:

This is the University of Michigan Union Building. John F Kennedy gave a very famous speech here in October of 1960, right on the front steps of this building. It is credited with being the place that he first proposed the idea of the Peace Corps and challenged U of Michigan students to participate, it is quite a cool building:

Here I am at the front gates of the big house again. It was a great trip. The meetings and presentations went well and before we headed home we were able to hit the campus nearby, it was well worth it. It was a beautiful day and a fun college campus atmosphere.

Anyway, this is a bit of a catch up post since this wasn't even the most recent business trip I took.

My leg is continuing to heal and I am getting quite comfortable on the crutches. My Dr. appt this past week was great, he said I was healing well and is setting me up with physical therapy. I should be able to resume a semblance of my regular schedule hopefully soon. Thank you all for the calls and thoughts, etc.!!! -DC-

Break a leg!

The old saying when wishing someone good luck is..."Break a leg"! Well, I am not too fond of that saying anymore.

We will try to catch up on some blog posts here soon, we have really been lacking lately, but the latest news is that I busted my leg last Monday while playing softball. It was quite the ordeal. I was running to first base, sprinting as hard as I could to beat out a grounder, and the throw was off a little bit which forced the rather large first baseman right into my running path. It all happened so fast, we collided and our legs banged together. All of my weight was pushed forward on my left leg and you could immediately hear this big popping or snapping sound. I fell to the ground and I think I blacked out for a few seconds. I could hear people saying things like "It's broken, we need some help over here!" and "Did the bone pop through the skin?"...

Anyway, the paramedics came and immediately gave me an IV and morphine and moved me onto a stretcher. I was taken to Timpanogos Hospital where surgery was performed on my left leg later that night. The surgery lasted about 3 hours.

What they did was put a titanium rod through the busted tibia bone to connect to the other part of my tibia bone. The break in my leg was clean. I broke straight through my tibia bone and my fibula bone.

I am on the mend, it is slow and painful...but hopefully the recovery will go well and go quickly. I am on crutches and mostly am laying around elevating my leg and taking pain medication to help get me through the discomfort. They had to attach the rod in my leg with a plate and screws on each side of the rod. I go back to the doctor tomorrow for a follow up.

I spent 2 nights in the Timpanogos hospital and was overwhelmed by the calls and in person visits. Thank you all for your support during this strange time! We love you! DC