Melissa's World

Happy Halloween 2010

2010-11-08T20:47:00.004-07:00

We had our 2nd annual Halloween party this year on the day before Halloween, since the actual day fell on a Sunday. There were a bunch of trick or treaters this year and we had fun getting dressed up too. No dry ice bombs however! Here are some pics :-)
Excited party goers!!!!

Camping in true roughing it style...

2010-08-28T20:55:00.024-06:00

Last weekend I made my yearly camping trip (as much as I like to camp it seems like I only manage to pull it off about once a year). This year we did it the hard way, meaning no running water and no toilets...not even a stinky little pit toilet. The only thing that convinced me to go was that I'd been to the same camp area six years ago and I knew how beautiful the area was. We were on our way to Boulder Mountain, in Southern Utah, and we were holing up in a place called Kings Pasture. Here was my home for 3 days and two nights...

And I managed to put up my tent all by myself, no one had to help...I am a camping wiz...

Oh and I found these delightful boots, my souvenir at the True Value Hardware/gas station in Loa...

This year I was the one to cook the dutch oven dinner, my mother did mix up the food, but I cooked it just right, steak and veggies with blueberry cake ;-)...

While we waited for the food we enjoyed the fire...

And John got ready for the big hunt (the next day was the beginning of the bow hunt)...

There was a beautiful sunset, and moonrise that night...

The next morning John wasted no time and was already back to camp with this sad little guy by 9:30...

So he took us on a seven mile round trip hike with some beautiful views...

Just to get to this lake (by the way there was a mama bear and cub just passed the brush in the middle of the picture while we were there) so we could catch these...

We were very tired when it was over, and I was very sunburned...

But the next morning we got up to climb another mountain...

Find a valuable cow skull...

And witness the beauties of nature...

With a final stop by the tree my brother Greg and I had carved our names in six years before (except I had to re-carve it because we didn't cut deep enough then)...

And on the way home we saw these precious guys...

And on the drive down the mountain we stopped to take one last look at the amazing view from the top of Boulder Mountain...

A Family Reunion ~ of sorts...

2010-07-24T16:14:00.005-06:00

So when I reflect back to my teenage years I have so many sweet thoughts...I know that isn't necessarily common but for me it is true. I can attribute it all to the wonderful friends I was blessed with at the time. I suppose I should give some credit to my parents because when they decided to make their last move they recognized that their children were about to enter some of the hardest years of their life. I was smack dab in the middle of 7th grade (the worst year of anyone's life I believe) and Jason was in 6th...Greg was only in kindergarten so he had many "good" school years ahead of him. My parents got the ball rolling by checking out the various wards of their church and picked one that had a strong group of youth. Of course they were very disappointed when the ward was promptly split and we were sent off to the "new" one, but that was where the blessings began. The kids that landed in that ward were incredible people and my teenage years were rich and full of fun because of them. I won't begin to go into all of the adventures that we had together, but it is a time in my life that I will always cherish. Shortly after this splitting of the ward my soon to be bestest friend, Joy, moved in to that ward's boundaries. My life would not have been the same without her, and yet once we reached adulthood our lives diverged and we drifted away from each other. A few years ago she made the effort to track me down and to reconnect...Thank you Joy for doing so. This past week, after more years than I can even remember (somewhere between16-18) we finally got to be together in person. We connected again at Music and the Spoken Word so that we could also visit with another of our childhood friends, Ryan (he grew up to be the Associate Music Director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir). I've always wanted to attend this show so I was excited for that alone, but to catch up with my long lost friend Joy was so exciting. What we didn't know was that another of our childhood friends, Nate, and his father(who was the member of the bisopric over the youth program as we were growing up) had happened to pick the exact same performance to attend. It was a wonderful surprise. These people were part of my extended family growing up and it was a wonderful surprise family reunion.
Left to right you have me, Joy, Bro. Lytle, Ryan, Nate, and his youngest brother Seth. Sunday was a wonderful day and I'm so glad I got to see everyone. Thank you Joy for taking the time to come and hang out with me on your family vacation. I was so glad to catch up and let's not let it be another 15+ years! I love you :-)

4th of July hiking - Silver Lake

2010-07-10T19:07:00.006-06:00

Notice that I'm in none of the pictures...nobody needs to see my overheated out of shape form hoofing it up the side of a mountain ;) You can see how high we climbed in a later picture because the lake in that picture is the same lake as this one here...

Goodbye to Spring...

2010-06-05T21:04:00.011-06:00

It's been awhile since I've truly been inspired by what I see to want to photograph it, but over Memorial Weekend I was up at my brother Greg's home and there was something about the way the sunshine was shinning through the blossoms on the apple tree that just drew me outside with the camera. So I gathered up my two trusty companions, Jonsi and Magill, and set off on an adventure through the lens. At one time it really did turn into an adventure as I was determined to capture a honey bee, and after awhile one of them decided they had had enough, chasing me all the way back to the deck until he was satisfied that I was gone. Of course sneaky and determined soul that I am I headed right back to the tree (or rather a different tree because I didn't want to push my luck too much...) Some of the pictures turned out well I think, but mostly I enjoyed this last lushness of Spring knowing that in true Utah fashion it would be 100 degrees before I knew it...

Happy 90th Birthday!!!

2010-05-30T13:46:00.008-06:00

Recently my Grandpa D made it to his 90th birthday. I can't even imagine having seen all the changes that he's seen in the world, or to be so active in life as he is (I already feel broken down sometimes and I haven't even seen 40 yet!) but to me that was quite an achievement. He's had a few close calls in his health, and in fact we had to cancel his original birthday party due to the fact that he was released from the hospital that day (nothing too horrible, just a flare up of a bleeding ulcer, but scary just the same). Instead we all got together two weeks later and had a giant party. It's always fun to me to have a big family event because it gives us all time to catch up with each others lives. We also invited Grandpa to share a few words about what has been important in life and how he's used these things in his life to reach these wise years. I can't remember how many of them there were, or the order that he spoke them, but there are three that stand out in my mind (good thing Uncle Mike was recording it all). The three that I remember were Family, Exercise, and Faith. Can't wait to get a copy of the tape so that I can hear his statement again because lets face it I was too busy snapping pictures and not paying attention :) Oops!

Catching up....

2010-05-24T18:43:00.018-06:00

So the month of April was incredibly busy with trips out of town and then preparing for Grandpa's big 90th birthday bash. I ended up heading to Las Vegas for a girl trip with my mom and Leigh to celebrate my birthday. The week after that I found myself back there again to help out with my friend Nancy's kids while she and her husband were celebrating a friends birthday (apparently Vegas is the place to head for birthdays). I thought I'd post a few pictures from my birthday trip to Vegas just for fun so here you go. On the way down we stopped at the ghost town of Silver Reef so there are some shots from there too. We also got the chance to visit with my stepsister and her cute little ones...

A new quilt

2010-03-26T20:57:00.004-06:00

Ok like I said, I have a million projects going on at all times. I started cutting out fabric for this new quilt almost a year ago and yay I'm finally finished. Here's a sneak peak of all the wonderful patterns to be included...

Craft, Craft, Craft....

2010-03-14T17:31:00.011-06:00

So the people that know me well know that I have lots of different hobbies, and that I bounce from one to another, rarely finishing a project fully. Unfortunately this winter my hobby seemed to be watching TV every night, but with the warming and coming of Spring I have turned back to crafting and have actually finished a few things. Yesterday I was at Michael's Craft and picked up a few things to make a new spring wreath. Some people are intimidated by making wreath's but it's not too hard. I just grabbed some beaded garland, a few doodads, and some floral wire...

Throw in one stubborn cat that likes to be a part of everything I'm doing and I got this:

Another thing I recently made was a coupon holder. A couple of years ago I started getting the local newspaper and with that comes the bonus of coupons. I know some people hate the hassle but it's been worth it to me. On the average I save anywhere from $8-$15 a shopping trip...just last night I saved over $12 at the grocery store. I was storing my coupons in the following, but as you can see it was just not working anymore...

I went online and found this cute pattern. After pulling out my fabric scraps I created this darling item...

Now I did make some alterations such as making it a little narrower (2inches) so that it fit in my purse better, and, I'm not such a fan of Velcro (too noisy) so I added a snap and embellished with a cute button on the outside.

Finally, I recently did a little canning. I got this wonderful recipe from my sister in law's decorating blog for some jalapeno jelly. It may sound a little gross, but it's delicious...I promise. It accents Mexican food wonderfully, and it was a breeze to make. From start to pulling the jars out of the canner was probably less than an hour!

What do you do...

2010-02-24T20:14:00.009-07:00

when you look out the window and this is what you see?

Well you head to the outdoor swimming pool of course, silly! Ok maybe you wouldn't normally do that...but if you happen to be in Southern Idaho you can. This weekend we had to stop at the

and enjoy the 95-105 degree water. Sadly the water slides were closed but there was a great orange Octopus to play with :)

Mexico - Tulum

2010-02-23T20:28:00.003-07:00

The last place we visited before going home was Tulum, the fortress city on the hill. This was my second visit and it was equally as beautiful as the first time. Unfortunately we got there as the same time as a cruise ship tour, but the place is big enough that once we were inside we could get away from them. Here is a montage of some of the pictures we took.

Mexico - Aktun Chen

2010-02-18T19:14:00.028-07:00

So when I was visiting before I took a trip out to these caves and enjoyed it so much that I brought people back. There were some disappointments, mostly that before we actually got to play with the monkeys (there were only 2) and now all the animals were in cages like a real zoo but mostly it was just nice to see how successful the place had become. We took the cave tour that went through a series of limestone caves while the guide talked about various facts regarding the area. Mostly I just think it is really beautiful and enjoyed it the second time around just as much. Here are some of the fun moments...

This was the cenote that is at the end of the tour. A cenote is an underground pool of water. They shut off all of the lights and then slowly light up sections so that you can really catch the beauty of the place.

And then there were our animal friends, like this snake for instance, she gave birth th 70 live babies last year...gross I know :) We also made friends with birds and pigs and then who doesn't love a monkey?

Mexico - Fishing and Beaches

2010-02-17T21:15:00.013-07:00

So the week we were set to arrive in Mexico it was gorgeous...and the week after we left was also supposed to be gorgeous (sunny and in the 80's) but of course the week we were actually there it was showery everyday. Just the way it goes, however that Monday was nice and where John had a deep sea fishing trip planned Mom and I decided it was a great day to hit the beach at our hotel. I've included just a few pictures of our hotel, it was amazing!

While we were enjoying what sun we were going to get, John was also having great success. He made the big haul on his boat that day, landing a 60 lb grouper...and it was delicious!

Mexico - the Coba ruins

2010-02-17T20:51:00.000-07:00

Ok, I know I've been horribly delinquent in posting these pictures etc (I have been home for over a month after all) but I just haven't felt like blogging. I've been trying to exercise and be more disciplined this year, but man it eats up my time, so blogging has just fallen by the wayside. Anyway, I loved my trip to Mexico. I've stayed in Cancun about 9 years ago and things have changed a lot in the area. This time we were staying at a resort about 40 minutes south of Cancun. The resort was gorgeous and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Our first day there however was rainy, so we took the time to make a run to the local WalMart (yes they are everywhere now) to grab some groceries and figure out the lay of the area. We had rented a car, and the highway they have built there was great so traveling around the area was a breeze, I highly recommend it. When we woke up Sunday it was still overcast but warm enough so we headed out to our first stop...the Coba ruins. Now last time I was in Mexico we went to Chichen Itza, which was very impressive but hours away so I suggested this stop. These ruins were closer and it is still being excavated so it's different than visiting some of the other sites. It just blossomed right out of the jungle and made you feel very Indian Jones like while exploring. This city was huge in it's day (600-900 AD) but then was just abandoned for some unknown reason. It has the 2nd tallest Mayan pyramid, which I made it half way up but John did make it to the top. We did have to stop to do a little emergency first aid to bind up some bleeding blisters...

So very touching

2010-02-17T14:36:00.003-07:00

I just had to share this blog post as it was so touching to me. Maybe because I know the back story to several of the adoptive parents (my co-worker's sister was adopting one of the children that this story refers to) I was moved while I read, but really it just is an amazing story of one mans own experience as he helped aid the orphans of Haiti.
http://countdowntohomecoming.blogspot.com/2010/02/suffer-little-children.html

Happy 2010!

2010-01-03T17:20:00.015-07:00

I can't believe that we have actually arrived at 2010! Once upon a time that seemed so far away, and yet time just flies on by. Heck I can't believe that 2010 marks my 20 year high school reunion and I just realized it's been 15 years since I left the good old college years behind. At the same time all of those events seem like different lifetimes. Life has been good lately, or at least my attitude about it has been good I should say. So here's to a great 2010 (won't be hard as the last two years have been pretty trying!) We rang in the new year up at my brother Jason, and his wife, Melissa, place. After some fun times on the Wii, apparently I have the physical abilities of a 48 year old woman :( , and some great homemade pizza we took a trip back in time and started watching the original mini series of V. Ah fond memories of childhood up on the screen, we loved that movie when we were little, and got a great kick out of the cheezy special effects as adults. We did take a break at midnight to welcome the new year...

And, no she's not a lush, it's Martinelli's...I promise :-)

Merry Christmas to all...

2009-12-31T16:17:00.014-07:00

This year was rather quiet in my world. Both of my brother's where at their in laws for Christmas Eve and the next morning. At first I thought that might be a bit sad, but it turned out to be very relaxing. I just went and watched a movie Christmas Eve with my mom and step dad and then got to sleep in on Christmas Day as we weren't meeting until 1:00ish. It was nice to actually get ready and look nice for once. I was kind of giddy for Christmas this year, I kind of felt like was a kid again. Not sure why but it was nice to feel that kind of excitement. It may have been because I made some of the gifts this year. For my sister in law, Leigh, I made a Halloween quilt (she loves Halloween...and quilts) and for Jason & Melissa I did a scrapbook of their wedding. Here are just a few pictures from our day:

And here is a close up of the homemade gifts...

Happy Halloween...2 wks late

2009-11-17T21:07:00.003-07:00

I thought that before Thanksgiving arrived I'd get my pictures from Halloween posted. This year Halloween was on a Saturday so we had an actual party up at Greg and Leigh's house. They have the perfect house for holidays and decorating for those that know us well they know that Halloween is our favorite holiday. Maybe a bit morbid but I like it. We spent that morning putting up the final decorations and getting ready. Ok so our party wasn't really that exciting, just me, Greg, Leigh, her brother and his girlfriend, but it was fun for us. We dressed up, ate delicious food, and watched a good old 70's horror movie. A few catastrophes, one time as tricker treaters were approaching the door and Leigh was shutting off the lights so it would be spooky Greg was getting ready to put the dry ice in the punch. Without the lights he just dropped the whole chunk in and when the lights came back up we discovered it was way too much dry ice...punch was everywhere. Due to the emergency he pulled it out with his bare hands, which is none to pleasant. We also thought setting off a dry ice bomb would be a great idea (ok the boys thought that) and after the first failed attempt made quite the explosion. Heading back into the house we were joking about the cops coming by due to the noise, only to notice tail lights in front of the house a few minutes later. As Leigh went to the front door she announced that it really was the cops, only to realize a minute later that there were little heads peaking in through the front door and realizing that she'd forgotten about the strobe light in the graveyard out front that was flashing on the wall in the house. In her defense it really did look like a cop car must be parked out front. Well that pretty much sums up our adventures, silly as they were, but they were fun to us :) Here are some pictures from the night...

My trip to the Grand Canyon

2009-11-07T16:47:00.015-07:00

Ok, so I'd never been to the Grand Canyon even though it is fairly close, within a days drive, to where I live (and I've been living here for 19 years now which sounds crazy in itself). Anyway, my mom turned the big six o (60) this year and as usual wanted to head out on a trip to get away. She chose the Grand Canyon just because I haven't ever been there...isn't she sweet? :-) We drove down to Kanab and spent Friday night with her mother-in-law and then spent all day Saturday at the park. I couldn't have asked for a better autumn day. I know I've already posted these pictures on facebook but I wanted to include some here too. It was just beautiful...

On the drive down:

My first view:

WOW:

Autumn Beauty:

Haunting time

2009-10-27T20:27:00.024-06:00

So what can you build with a little styrofoam, some dried moss, spray paint, and a bunch of glue? Well watch and see..

So with a little painting
and a little building
add some glue, moss, and stone with a big enough work areaand you get your very own...<<<<<Haunted Village!

The Autumn Leaves...

2009-09-28T20:57:00.015-06:00

So with winter's first storm rapidly approaching our mountains here (now they're saying it won't even get into the 50's on Wednesday) it was the last chance to get out a view the foliage...at least in the higher altitudes. What better way to spend a Sunday afternoon than to stroll around the grounds at the Sundance ski resort? Well apparently a lot of people felt the same way as it was utter chaos in the parking lot, but it was still absolutely gorgeous!!! Despite all the people that is :-) Amazingly, with a little patience, I managed to avoid photographing any of them and managed some enjoyable pics...well at least to me they are enjoyable but hopefully you feel the same way. And if these pictures don't open big I don't know what to say...sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. When I published a minute ago only the one at the top of the page would open, although they were all input the same way. Who understands how the world of blogging actually works???

A new, old tradition...

2009-08-26T18:10:00.011-06:00

So a week or so ago we participated in a family tradition that was new to us, but apparently has been around for over 100 years. On my mom's side of the family, the Dowdle's, it has been a tradition to go and pick huckleberries every year for generations. When my Great Uncle Bob mentioned that they were heading up to Idaho for some berry picking my mom told him we were interested in coming along. He was so excited to have others who were interested in coming along. While we were picking he told us how the tradition had been around for so long, which was news to us, and it was fun to be a part of it. It was a beautiful, if chilly day, and it was so nice to be outside. For those who don't know (because I had no idea) a huckleberry looks like a blue berry but is about a third the size. Needless to say it takes a lot of picking to get enough berries to do anything with (but it's worth it because they are tasty!). We were pretty proud of our berries....

A visit from the poppa

2009-08-19T19:40:00.004-06:00

So a side benefit from Jason's wedding was that my dad came into town. The question always is what to do with him wants he's here, I'm no good at entertaining people. Because of that I impose on Greg and Leigh and we go up and stay at their house, aren't you guys lucky? We thought we may be doomed again with bad weather (it poured the whole time he was here last fall) as Saturday was rather yucky, but finally the weather pulled through for us on Sunday. It called for a nice leisurly drive through Logan canyon and a stop for a burger and raspberry shake at Bear Lake....

Mac's cave

Nice glasses!

Bear Lake...

Jason & Melissa's Wedding

2009-08-17T18:19:00.003-06:00

So the past few weeks have been incredibly busy, and it's been hard to stay caught up on the blog side of things. Because of that I thought I'd just touch on the wedding briefly and do a slide show since I've had some real difficulties lately adding pictures etc. Due to some crazy circumstances they decided to get married one day and then have the reception the next. Being in the beginning of August, in Utah, one would think that they would be pretty safe on expecting good weather. Unfortunately it didn't quite pan out that way (according to Melissa there is some family curse when it comes to wedding day weather). Anyway, the day of the wedding dawned as a hot and blustery one...ok it was just blustery, sometimes the gusts were so strong they blew us over a few steps. Since there is so much construction going on in downtown SLC there was just dirt flying. Sounds horrible huh? Well it wasn't the most pleasant experience, but overall it was a great day and I think the pictures turned out great despite the chaos in the weather. Flash forward to the next day, the day of the reception. It dawns absolutely beautiful, looks like the cold front has blown in and we'll be safe for the night. Guess again, just as we start driving un to Salt Lake big black clouds start oozing in from the west and here comes that dastardly wind. Waiting for disaster to strick we walk into the back yard and helped move a few things around so that they wouldn't blow away and waited. By the time the reception started the wind had stopped and although the sky had it's black spots no rain fell. It turned out absolutely gorgeous! Only one vase of flowers turned suicidal in the wind and took a dive bomb off their pedestal. Here are just a few of the pictures:

White Water, the final edition...

2009-08-11T19:56:00.010-06:00

So I finally got our official pictures from the rafting trip, notice all the screaming....

Wonderful Wild Wyoming Part II

2009-08-04T20:10:00.005-06:00

For some reason my blog was all screwed up and I couldn't get this part where I wanted it so here we go with the rest of the trip

On Pioneer Day we broke camp early and headed to Jackson Hole. We had a full day planned starting with a white water raft trip down the Snake River and ending with a Bar J Wrangler's show. Because the day before was sweltering while we tried to hike, the weather of course decided to rain and be cold while we rode down the river. It meant we got to wear these ultra sexy wet suits though :0 These are just some of the snap shots we took, but the good pictures are coming in the mail and I will post them when they arrive. The river was a little wild with due to all the water we'd gotten this past winter and spring, made it all the more fun...

In the thick of the action...

Wonderful Wild Wyoming

2009-08-04T18:30:00.041-06:00

So I'm a little late getting this post up, there's been a lot going on. Anyway, I wanted to post some pictures from our family vacation this year. We originally were going to go back East to Cape Cod, but, things didn't line up right and in the long run that was a good thing as everyone was too poor anyway. Instead we chose to do some camping in Wyoming. Most of the state is not all that pretty but the northwest area is beautiful. We picked the Wind Rivers mountains as our destination, and then proceeded to pick the most out of the way campground...the Green River Lakes area. It is where the Green River originates, and it's beautiful as you can see above. Because Jason and Melissa were getting married in two weeks they opted to not join us for the Pioneer Day weekend campout but the rest of us all went. We met up with Greg & Leigh in Kemerer, WY and then headed out. Of course we were dumb enough to rely on Google Maps directions to get us to our campground, and after an hour wasted stopped and asked the locals. They got us on the right, very long road. The last 20 miles into the campground is just a dirt road. Because of all of our problems getting together the sun was just starting to set when we got there. We hurried and laid out the tents and got one up before it was dark, of course the bigger, more challenging tent we put up by lantern light. Mom started making our dutch oven as soon as we pulled up and we were finally sitting down to eat chicken cordon bleu at 11:15PM! Then it was off to bed, and by that time it was absolutely freezing. I don't think I ever got completely warm even though I had two shirts and a sweat shirt on and was rolled up in a mummy sleeping bag. Our tent (Greg, Leigh, and I) woke up by 6:00 to discover that it had even frosted slightly on the stuff left in the tent. Well I wanted to find this lake so I headed out and was greeted by the beauty of the area. Here are just some of the pictures I took.

Now, despite the cold of the morning the day continued to get hotter and hotter and hotter. The guys were out on there float tubes fishing and we women tried to go for a hike but the bugs were incredible. The mosquitos didn't realize that it was daytime or something, and the flies were so annoying. I finally started to feel a bit insane and we headed back to camp, not that that was any better so eventually we all ended up in our 100 degree tents, wearing practically nothing, just to escape from the bugs. It sounds like we must of had a miserable time, but really it was fun...once the sun went down that is...

An interesting bit of trivia I never knew...

2009-07-17T20:42:00.009-06:00

So the house pictured above is my Great Aunt Susan's home here in Provo. On Sunday we had a little party there to celebrate my cousin Amanda's daughter being blessed. The interesting trivia that I learned while I was there was that scenes for the movie Footloose were shot at the home! How weird is that? I know that there are a lot of places around Utah County that the movie was filmed but what are the odds that your great aunt would end up owning the house?

The baby blessing was a lot of fun. For some reason the Stott's are terrible and keeping in touch with each other. I don't know what is wrong with us but it's just the way we are. There were so many people there that I hadn't seen in long, first and foremost my Uncle Ken and Aunt Mary. I hadn't seen them since I was in high school. It was fun to catch up with cousins, my grandpa, and aunts and uncles.

The siblings (my dad's brothers and sister)

The baby of the hour (isn't she adorable?)

And here is my cute Grandpa and his wife...

Group shot

Happy 4th of July

2009-07-06T21:25:00.028-06:00

I had a great Fourth of July this year. We kicked it off with a trip up to spend time with Greg and Leigh at there house. We headed up Thursday afternoon and then spent Friday up there and came back on the fourth to make it back in time for Grandma's b-bque. Friday John and Greg headed out bright and early to fish the day away and Mom and Leigh and I settled down for a leisurely day. We went to the local greasy spoon and had a very fattening breakfast. After some shopping and picking up dinner we headed out to the garden for some weeding. OK, I said we spent a leisurely day but that was a bit of a lie. With all the rain we've had this year some of those weeds were as high as our waist, throw in the mosquitoes and the hot sun it was anything but leisurely, but it was nice for me to get outside and do a little yard work as I never get the opportunity. I'll admit we pooped out long before my mom and headed inside, but we gave it a try. We had picked up some fireworks so that night, after dinner, we returned to the fun of childhood and setting off your own fireworks. Here are some of our pictures.

So every year we end the day with a barbeque at Grandma's house. This year the numbers were a bit sparse but it was nice because it gave me a better opportunity to visit. It was fun to hang out and I also got to teach my 89 year old Grandpa how to upload pictures off of his digital camera. Way to go Grandpa....

Just a little bragging

2009-06-28T14:51:00.003-06:00

So I haven't had much to post about lately, but I did think that I'd do a little bragging on my sister in law's behalf. As I've mentioned, we're obsessed with Suppose, the fabric store in Preston, ID. Well the last time we went up there Leigh brought this quilt that she's been working on for awhile, it's a charming VW Bus quilt and she's personalized each square with various memories of things in her life. The women that run the store were so excited and took multiple pictures of it. I just got a text from Leigh saying that they have posted it on their blog. So take a look http://supposecreatedelight.com/wordpress/?p=157 and hopefully you enjoy it as much as I do.

Rain, rain go away. Come again some other day...

2009-06-11T22:32:00.005-06:00

Or how about not coming for at least a month. Who would think that it could be so wet in Utah, but there has been some serious rain around this place lately. I actually like rain so I haven't been too bugged, and I have to admit I don't think I've ever seen it so green here before. I never thought I'd still have pansies blooming in the middle of June but they are still beautiful. Today we had some serious rainfall, and luckily it cleared just before I had to walk to my car at the end of another work day, but just before sunset another squall came in and we were blessed with this beautiful full rainbow...and if you look just to the right you can see a second one beginning to form...

Quilting...

2009-06-02T22:15:00.006-06:00

So like I said earlier, my sister in law introduced me to this cool fabric store and, well, I got a little too excited buying fabrics. Ironically, a week later she went back and bought the same quilt pattern that I had. We have both started working on the quilt and this past weekend we decided to have a little quilting party. I went up to her house and we worked on our quilts together. The part I hate most about quilting is cutting out all the pieces. I got this much done:

Believe me that is barely getting going...I have to have 42 of each of those red squares, and a total of 168 of the rectangle squares. Yikes! Sad to say that that is all I got done in two days. I did finally piece and sew my first block tonight however (even though there is much more cutting to do one needs a reward along the way):

I have to give Leigh some glory as she is far surpassing my efforts, not only is she all cut out but she has completed this many blocks:

Hopefully it won't take me 5 years to complete this quilt like it did the first one I've made :-)

Another birthday?

2009-05-02T22:24:00.025-06:00

So I've decided that my life is ruled by birthdays. It appears that that is the only time that I get out and do something. We just celebrated my Grandmother's 84th birthday with a trip out to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point a week ago, and ironically as I write this I have just barely returned from a trip up to Clarkston to celebrate both mine and my sister in law Leigh's birthday with a girls craft weekend. The weather this weekend, once again, kept us inside but that's ok because Leigh introduced us to this charming little fabric store up in Preston Idaho. I now have a lovely collection of fat quarters of some of the cutest fabric that I've ever seen. Along with that I found two quilts that I think will be so fun to make.

For Grandma's birthday we went to the gardens like I mentioned. I'm so impressed that she still has the energy to walk a 15 acre garden with only one break as she enters her mid 80's. Way to go Grandma! It was a beautiful day because it was actually warm! Granted the rain was getting ready to move in and rain for yet another weekend but is made for some really pretty pictures. Here's just a few shots from the day...

Happy Easter

2009-04-14T21:00:00.016-06:00

Ok I have to toot my own horn here for a second because it's post number 2 in less than a week! I'm pretty proud of that, especially since my life is usually pretty dull so a second blog means yeah I was doing something :) Easter for my family was celebrated on Saturday night due to Jason having to take Clay back home on Sunday. We decided to just have a small little family dinner, made our own Cafe Rio salad knock offs. As usual, down on the Stott/Swapp farm there are always new baby animals. This year there were the usual bunny rabbits but also 3 two week old lambs. Because the weather has been so horrible, and the corral full of mud, John brought the lambs up to the house so we could take turns feeding them. Have you ever had a heard of sheep wandering around your kitchen? My mom can now say she has. Here's a few pics of our day....

and then there was our little pre-teen who was so bored by our antics:

but after a bunch of chasing him around with the camera I at least got some smiles and genuine laughter :) (but man he was quick and hard to catch on film)

Happy Birthday to Me

2009-04-12T18:11:00.013-06:00

So for Greg's birthday we dragged him out to the frozen mountains, but for mine I just wanted warmth! My mom and I planned a girls weekend (or week day since we were gone Tue-Thu) and headed down to Mesquite, NV. What's in Mesquite? Well the answer is not much...but at one of the hotels they do a great week day special where you can spend a relaxing day in their Spa and a hotel stay for pretty cheap. We stayed for two nights which gave us four spa treatments to split up. I was a greedy girl and added a third just for me, but then it was my birthday :) So after a day spent getting a pedicure, facial and massage I was ready to face the demons of everyday life. Really it was like heading on some tropical vacation, but only a five hour drive away. And we couldn't have asked for better weather, I even got myself a lovely sunburn. Actually, the last day we spent there it was so hot (at least by the pool) that we had to sip pina colada's just to stay cool (alcohol free of course ;-) ).

Better late than never....

2009-03-12T21:48:00.009-06:00

So this is a post that I meant to make a month ago, but somehow the older I get the faster time seems to flow. Not sure how I feel about that but I suppose that's just the way life goes. So on Feb 3rd this year the baby of our family turned 30 (see what I mean about the flying time???) so as a family we all decided to go up to his place in Clarkston (maybe that wasn't much of a present to have your home invaded by a mass of people :) ) and spend the weekend together. One of the things that we did was go to the elk farm that is up there. They grow hay during the warm months so that they can feed all of the elk that come down to winter over in this little bowl of a valley. People had told me that it was cold in Cache county but WOW that wind is BITING! Took our breath away but it was a beautiful day. Here are just a few of the pictures from our adventure.

To prove a point

2009-02-18T19:42:00.002-07:00

So I had to add this pic just to show that the mountain was really there :)

in⋅ver⋅sion - a sludgy mess in the atmosphere

2009-01-19T15:06:00.009-07:00

So for those peole that live here in Utah you will most definitely hear the word inversion on the weather at least once every winter. Scientifically what it means, I think anyway, is that all the cold air get's trapped down in the valley and all the warm air is up in the mountains. What it means for those of us who live in it is that we're stuck in a winter smog belt, that's also very cold. What you can't see in the picture above, unless you look very carefully, is the 10,000 ft mountain right in the center. It's not simple fog, or even plain old haze, covering the mountain but trapped pollution mostly. It's air that's nasty to breathe, and if your some one who already has asthma or something similar you're screwed :) The other night I left work late and there was this film on my car window which I thought was the beginning of some good old frost so I ran the wiper blade over the window once. What scraped off the window was actually a line of black sludge. The news announced the other day that Provo had the 12th worst air quality in the entire country. Putting all of that aside, when it gets like this it also usually gets very foggy at night. Once the morning sun burns off that fog it's like waking to a fairy land of lacy trees. Ice crystals form on everything and for a brief moment that nasty sludgy air forms something beautiful. These were some pictures I took of it this morning. I guess there's a little bit of good in everything that happens if you're willing to look for it.

A New Year's snow filled day

2009-01-07T22:24:00.011-07:00

So my mom came up with this great idea for New Year's Day this year. She lives right near the mouth of Hobble Creek Canyon, and about 15 min up that road there is a place called Jolley's Ranch. Last year they opened up for winter fun and they have groomed trails for cross country skiing, a tubing hill, and lots of snow shoe trails. She thought it would be fun if we went cross country skiing as a family. Since they also rent out the equipment it was really easy. At first it was a little awkward, until we all got the rhythm of the skis down, but it was a lot of fun. Some of us fell down more than others, Clay went down more times than we could even count but then he was also the least cautious. The good part about always being the one with the camera is that I get to avoid pictures of my own disastrous experience, but I attached a video of all the spills and thrills we had. It was so much fun, and after a couple of hours out in the snow my mom had a crock pot of homemade chili and fresh rolls from the oven waiting at home to fill our hungry tummy's.

Christmas 2008

2009-01-01T18:23:00.023-07:00

So there hasn't been much going on, other than working and sleeping, so I've been kinda on a hiatus from blogging. Of course the holidays always gives the opportunity to get things going again so here's a mantage of our Christmas this year. It was fun because we all went to Mom's for Christmas, and because of the potential snow storm that was out there, we spent the night. I don't think all of us have slept under the same roof for Christmas in 10 years. It was a nice time, being together with family. Greg and Leigh even ended up staying all day on Christmas so it was a lot of fun. Probably a good thing since that threatening storm that we never saw (until Christmas night when I was driving home that is) really slammed Northern Utah. I just love when we all have the opportunity to kick back and relax together.

Grumpy Morning??

Crazy Cat Lady...

2008-11-11T08:48:00.008-07:00

So some women develop into a crazy cat lady as time goes on and they are left alone. I, on the other hand, was born a crazy cat lady. Case in point, my very first word was Tigger, our cat at the time's name. Maybe it's because we've had cats since the day I was born, but more likely it was an obsession born into me through generations of crazy cat ladies. It comes from my mother's family, and who knows how many generations it goes back but it's there. As a child I was reading technical books about cats and as soon as I owned my first place I got Mitzi, followed by Jack a year later.

Well now I've been involved with a little kitty rescue the past two months. On Labor Day I was walking around outside and found these soaking wet, freezing, little wild kittens. They were the most pathetic things I'd ever seen, so of course I started feeding them. Well after two months the neighbor started to complain because they were walking on her car so I had to catch them. They will be moving, shortly, to live at my Mom's barn but in the meantime I just had to post their pictures because they are so cute.

Birthday Adventures

2008-10-23T19:44:00.018-06:00

My mother's birthday always falls at the same time as the deer hunt, so, while her husband John goes hunting we always go for a birthday adventure. Usually we head south, to the warmth, but this year she wanted to check out Lava Hot Springs in Idaho. After two weekends of horrible weather (one even involving snow) we were blessed with the perfect Indian Summer ever! We left Friday night to go up to Greg's where we were going to be spending the night. Of course, in usual birthday adventure, we accidentally got off the freeway, got lost, found our way back, and then ended up scaring the guy tailgating us with Mom's crazy driving, but we eventually got there in one piece.

The next day, after a leisurely morning, we headed off to Idaho. We stopped in Preston for lunch at this fun little diner (it's across from the bowling alley that was filmed in Napoleon Dynamite). What made it so fun is that it's also an antique store so you're eating amongst all the old prizes.

Since this was very much a road trip we just enjoyed ourselves with stops at random pumpkin patches or a juant down a dirt road to get that perfect Autumn shot. Here's some of the places we saw...

Finally we got to our destination. It was so nice. We went to the hot springs that were at the inn rather than the public ones so that it was a bit quieter. The water was awesome! The big pool was like bathwater and they got hotter from there. How nice is it to be out in your swimsuit in October, in Idaho! It was the best afternoon ever...

The old man comes to town...

2008-10-13T21:35:00.008-06:00

Ok so I've been a very lazy blogger lately, truthfully not much has been going on, but a week ago my dad did make one of his stops in Utah. Actually, this is the first time that he has come for a significant time, more than just a weekend that is, so I figured I would post some of the pictures from our time together. We went up to Greg's house so that we could all be together. We had grand plans of all the fun outdoor Autumn type things we could do but Mother Nature had a different idea for us. Saturday morning dawned with chilly temps and a downpour of rain that lasted all day. We hung around the house for a bit but then we finally could stand it no longer and had a showery picnic in the park followed by a trip to the video store. Not very exciting but it was seriously cold! Sunday morning dawned with beautiful sunshine so we decided to go to pumpkin patch, after grabbing a quick lunch (being Sunday in Cache county there wasn't much else to do). We wanted to do some leaf peeping, however, the storm blew back in and as it was late we decided to just head for home. My ride home was more of an adventure however. As it started to rain everyone jumped into their separate vehicles. Jason had already left and Greg was making his way up the drive when I turned the key in the ignition and got...NOTHING! Making a frantic grab for the cell phone to try and stop Greg I discovered that of course I had no cell service. Luckily for Dad and I this other couple was jumping in their car at that moment and were kind enough to jump the car. (Thank goodness I had finally bought jumper cables after the dead battery incident of 2007) Well we get on our way and figure everything is ok, and since I need to get gas, pull of the road in an ugly area of Ogden and of course the car would not start again. My dad thought the battery cable connection was just corroded so after cleaning it we tried again and....still got NOTHING. Well once again we relied on the kindness of strangers and got this little teeny man driving an incredibly huge truck (seriously he couldn't even get the hood open, just had to keep shoving it upwards hoping that it would stay up with enough force behind the shove) came to our rescue. At this time my dad was just puzzling away trying to figure out what was wrong with the car, and since we didn't know we decided it was wise to turn off all other power suckers in the car. It made for a harrowing last few miles when the sun had finally set and we were running without lights. Of course the next day when we had Jason come over to help the thing started up just fine and ran the best it had run all year. It wasn't worth taking in, and that evening I got a small blessing in the fact that my neighbor that I park next to had his father there fixing his car and the man had a tool that he used to test both my battery and my alternator and gave them a clean bill of health. Thank goodness for kind souls! Oh and the cause of all the problems turned out to be a loose ground cable on the battery so all the stall outs and poor idling that my car has been doing were all related to that. I'm pleased to announce that the car is doing great! Anyway, here are some pictures from my weekend vacation.

Vacationing....at home?

2008-09-10T20:25:00.005-06:00

So last week I took the week of work to do a little vacationing. Years ago I swore I would never take a week off unless I was headed some where fun like Hawaii, Mexico, or back East. Well I've finally come to a point in my life where, for many different reasons, I have no one that can travel with me so due to desperation I was forced to take my week vacation at home. Maybe it's old age setting in or something but, truth be told, it didn't sound as dull or depressing as it used to to be stuck at home. It was so nice to stay up till 2 AM reading a favorite book and then sleep till after 10 the next morning. When I saw the YW pres. that I serve with out for a morning walk I didn't think my usual "man, I hate you" well because I was out for a morning stroll, too, instead driving in to work. (I don't REALLY mean that I hate her :) ) It was fun to have no schedule! Anyway, it gave me some time to catch up on the millions of little projects I always have going on. I took the opportunity to do some scrapbooking (my first time doing digital scrapbooking) and got two of my chairs painted from white to black, and FINALLY finished the quilt that I started something like 5 years ago. (People that know me well know that I'm the queen of starting a project and then getting diverted by something new and never finishing). So here is some of the fruits of my vacation labors....

Canning Part II....back to Clarkston

2008-08-27T20:40:00.015-06:00

So I've been feeling so domestic lately and when I was up visiting Greg & Leigh there was an announcement in their ward that they were going to be canning green beans together the next weekend. Well Leigh asked if I'd be interested in coming back and doing that with her, and since I was having such a fun time up there I was glad to. I drove up Friday evening, through the beastly Davis County commute, and got there in time for some chat and dinner. We should have been of to bed bright and early since the bean picking was beginning at 7 AM but we were stupid and stayed up far too late. I at least made it up at 7:00, got dressed, but when Leigh chose to sleep in...well I jumped back in bed. (Ok in her defense her alarm didn't go off :-) ) We made it over to the farm at around 9:00 and luckily for us it was quite a chilly morning, I say this because I've never seen so many beans in my life! We picked only about a 10 foot span and had about 5 gallons. Then we headed back to the canning station. I felt like I'd stepped back in time about 100 + years and that I should be wearing my bonnet. It was just so picturesque and everyone was just pitching in and doing the work all together. Here we were set up next to this little creek, under the trees with some propane stoves going just canning away. While we were busy snapping beans and getting them ready the farms owner started boiling up corn she'd just picked and someone else had made chicken salad we put on homemade rolls, and of course there was homemade currant jelly with homemade bread and even homemade juice! It was all so communal, and dare I say....just what I pictured it must have been like with the early saints. It was kind of strange to us cynical modern city folk, but at the same time so peaceful and we had a great time. Here are just some of the pictures we took. (I'm sure that the good ole country folk thought we were nuts taking all our pictures but what can I say....we're geeks!)

And here is our finished product, 36 pints of beans.

It is such a beautiful area, and it's just so nice to get away from the craziness of life. I may soon be a convert to country life ;)

Greg & Leigh

2008-08-21T20:44:00.014-06:00

Greg and Leigh recently bought their first home. Now that she has finished up her master's program up at Utah State and is working for the school district up there and Greg is getting ready to start the nursing program at Utah State they decided to buy a home in Clarkston, UT. Last weekend Mom and John & I went up to visit. The house is a darling Victorian style built in 1910, but all redone by the previous owners. It also was on a lot that is 1.25 acres and has a garden, orchard, and tons of flowers. I'm so excited for them, although a bit jealous because its totally my style of house too :) It was my first trip to Cache County and I admit I loved it. It was so quiet, and very pretty with the farm land all around framed by the mountains ringing the valley. Clarkston is just a teeny blink of an eye type of town (only about 500 people) but of course being Utah there are two wards. Crazy! Here are just a few pictures of the place...

One of the things we did while we were up there was head up to Idaho to find the graves of my Great Great Grandpa & Grandma. My mother originally thought they were buried in the Preston cemetery so we went there first. After much wandering, and many many mosquito bites later, she remembered that they had actually lived in Franklin, ID. I did have a bit of luck in Preston though because there was an owl living in the graveyard (to bad it wasn't night for the truly creepy cemetery experience right down to a hooting owl). I was glad that at the last minute I'd thrown my super telephoto lens in the bag as he was high up in this tree:

Eventually we lucked out at the Franklin Cemetery because they had a directory of the graves and we quickly were able to find who we were looking for. Looking at the pictures I realized that my great great grandmother's name has been wrong all this time in my ancestor file so now I was able to correct it from Janet to Jenett :)

The World of Canning

2008-08-15T21:02:00.011-06:00

So I decided to enter the world of canning, well I've been meaning to for years now but I just have never gotten around to it. My Grandma has a pickle recipe that I just love, as do many of us in the family, and I've always wanted to give it a try. Well this year I finally remembered in time to pick up the ingredients. After a week of trying to track down pickling cucumbers and fresh dill I was ready to give it a whirl. The first step involved setting the cucumbers to soak in a nasty salt water solution that left crusty salt wherever it happened to slosh out of the container.

Then came the fun of loading up the jars. My mom gave me the bright idea of running the jars through the dishwasher first. Not only does it sterilize but by leaving them in there until I needed them it kept them hot.

After wedging as many cucumbers into a jar that I could, and pouring in the stinky brine (that was also full of salt that crusted all over my counter tops) it was time to do the "canning". It did lead to a very humid smelly atmosphere in my house but I think that it worked.

All of my jars sealed, and with just a few minor mishaps such as running out of vinegar and fresh dill weed on the last 5 or so jars (improvising hopefully worked) or pouring boiling water down my leg when I removed the lid to the caner on the last load, I now have 20 quarts of beautiful pickles. The only downside......I don't know how they taste for at least another 6 months :(
Even though it was a lot of work I have to say it was more fun than I expected. The whole process took about 24 hours from the beginning of the soak till the last wipe of the counter top but I actually enjoyed it. Maybe I'll have to try something else soon...

The Big Reveal

2008-07-26T16:43:00.012-06:00

So finally I've got my house put back together! There was a two week interval there where I was waiting for the flooring guy to come back and finish putting on the quarter round and the trasition strips in the doorway but finally it's all done. I'm so happy with how things turned out. Here are a few pictures of the finished product. There is still a little left to do, like purchasing some baseboards for the bathrooms or painting the chairs for the kitchen table so that they will match, but that just may take awhile as I'm a bit tired of the home improvement for the moment.

A Weekend at the Cabin

2008-07-19T14:14:00.028-06:00

I'm always behind on my posts, but then I guess that's how I feel about my life too :). a little behind of what's going on. Last weekend my mom decided we needed some family time so she and John, Jason and Clay, and I went up to the cabin for Saturday and Sunday. It was so nice to get out of the heat of the valleys and up into the mountains. When we got up to the cabin it was only 70 degrees! Since it was the opening weekend for stream fishing that was the intent of the men on the trip. We women were on the search for fields of wild flowers. Both of us were moderately successful, but still we never found any flowers as pretty as the ones I'd seen at camp the week before (which was strange since we were in the same mountain area). After lunch the guys went off to fish and Mom and I drove along skyline drive. Here are some pictures of our adventures:

Beautiful Sanpete County down below....

Yup that's a lot of snow in July. The road got pretty sketchy about here and we almost turned around but I'm glad we didn't....

A successful days work. The guys came home home with 9 trout. The next day we had a big breakfast and then went off to Gooseberry to do a bit more fishing and then headed home.

Someone's up to mischief here :)

And there's always a little room for a few more flowers...

I got to take my own souvenier from the trip that I didn't even know about until I was getting in the bath Sunday night and caught a glimpse of it in the mirror. Here's a picture of my crazy bite and keep in mind at the time this picture was taken it was already a week old. Yikes! (that's my side by the way, not an arm or something, it was a big bite!)

A Tribute to the Notes

2008-07-16T18:33:00.013-06:00

So, for any of you that have been to our family cabin you know that my Grandma has a tendency to write notes about everything. When we were up there this past weekend I decided to take pictures of all those notes so that I'll always remember them. I get a kick out of some of them, especially all the rules. My favorite is to pick out the new "rules" that exsist because of something that happened while I was up in the cabin (knowing the history behind the rule always makes me smile) but I'm not telling which one's I caused ;). So here is a montage of the notes, the more you look around up there the more notes you find...

Somehow in this one I don't think the ants are paying attention to the poison by the looks of that pile of sawdust :)

And there you have it. Sadly that wasn't even all of the notes that I found (because I'm convinced there are still some notes hidden away where no one has even found them).

And once again....

2008-07-07T20:37:00.012-06:00

It's Girls Camp time! So for those of you who know me, the last three years I was the Girls Camp director for my ward. Well here were are at the fourth camp and yeah I wasn't in charge! Now that I'm in the YW presidency I got to go up and just have fun, no worries. It was soooooo nice to do that, to not be stressed. We were originally supposed to go the first week of June, but this year was so slow starting that there was up to 5 feet of snow still on the ground so they cancelled on us. Time was found to squeeze us in during the 4th of July week, but we were only up there for three days. I enjoyed Wednesday with the girls and we had fun hiking and doing crafts. It was beautiful and so relaxing. Here are a few pictures of my time at Mia Shalom:

Remodel blues...

2008-06-23T13:53:00.008-06:00

Ever since I bought my first place here I had wanted to get some new flooring and now I have finally bit the bullet and done so. Well I guess I should say that I'm in the middle of it right now. I decided to have laminate wood put down through all of the main living areas (much easier to clean up when you have pets) and then tile in the bathrooms. The thing is, to save some money I decided I'd do some of the tear out work myself. Now that I'm finished I think I would just spend the money and have someone else do the work. Here's some pictures of how it went:

Ok to be fair I didn't demo the bathrooms but the rest of it was exhausting enough! After moving all of the furniture, ripping up the carpet, pulling out the tack strips, and finishing it off by pulling up all the particle board in the kitchen I was exhausted. I guess I should have asked for more help :). When I finally get the house put back together I'll show it off....

Happy birthday Chloe..

2008-06-06T22:07:00.009-06:00

Well, as usual, I am posting about two weeks behind what is going on in my life (there is just never enough to time to do everything I have to do and everything I want to do) but Memorial Day weekend marked my friend Nancy's daughters first birthday. It seemed like a good time to head to California and take part in the festivities. It was pretty chaotic that morning, trying to get the flowers planted outside, get everything picked up (only to find out after we got back from the bakery that they had spelled Chloe's name wrong on the cake), and get prepared for the guest but in the end it all worked out great and I think that fun was had by all. There were a lot of people, a lot of food, and a lot of chaos but isn't that what a party is for? Here are just a few pictures of the festivities.

The next day we had to spend in recovery mode, having a nice barbeque and then heading off to the drive in to see Indiana Jones (a sad disappointment after comparing it to my fond memories of the first three movies). For Memorial Day we took a trip up to the top of Mt. Diablo. It's funny how the mountain isn't that tall by Utah standards (only 3,550 ft) you can see really far on a clear day due to the fact that you start out at sea level. We unfortunately had a hazy day (thanks to the fires burning to the south and some good ole San Francisco fog) but you could see some of the bridges and the 360 degree view was still impressive. The road up (and down) wound around so much that I think Jarrod was the only one that wasn't about to throw up by the time we reached the bottom! I don't often get car sick but man that was a tough one. Once again I didn't car so much what I was doing, it was just nice to get away and to visit with old friends.

Time for a little R & R

2008-05-12T15:58:00.006-06:00

Due to the fickle nature of Spring this year, and it's inablitity to stick around, I decided it was time to head for a little rest and relaxation in the sun. My friend Carrie and I took the last week of April, with her ending of the school semester and my work load easing up, as an opportunity to do a little pampering. We headed down to Mesquite, NV for some warmth and relaxation at the spa. I loved it! The weather was perfect and I spent the whole first day just sitting out at the pool listening to my I-pod, reading a book, and just enjoying being out in the fresh air. It was so nice to be warm and to see the sun...I could have done that all day (well actually I pretty much did). The next day we both had spa appointments. I'd never done a spa thing before, but now I am all for it. I'd signed up for a facial and then a body scrub, massage and it was so soothing. Really it was just nice to spend four hours in the quiet and to come out feeling all jello like from the pampering. Truth be told, I wanted to move in and live at the Oasis rather than come back to real life...but Carrie made me return anyway. Well it was fun while it lasted! ;)

And what trip isn't made better by a fun pedicure? My friend Ali turned me on to this lady down in Spanish Fork who will hand paint your toes for just $10. So cute aren't they?

Happy 83rd and 88th!

2008-05-01T19:18:00.005-06:00

With Grandma and Grandpa's birthdays being only 2 weeks apart it gives us an opportunity to really celebrate. This year we did it with a trip to the Olive Garden for those who could make it. I feel so fortunate to be able to have had such a close relationship with my grandparents. We were talking at work the other day about family and counting off how many great and regular grandparents we had memories of. I was happy to know that out of eight great grandparents I have memories of six of them, some all the way up to past college graduation. I've only lost one grandparent so far in my life....makes me feel very fortunate. Anyway, it was fun to get together as a family and get caught up on everyone's busy lives.

Ode to the digital darkroom...

2008-04-26T21:39:00.004-06:00

So I just had to add this note about how grateful I am for digital! As I was uploading the pictures I put in my last post I noticed something terrible. Ever since I got my new camera a year ago I've developed this bad habit of not holding it straight. Well that's not a good thing when you're taking pictures that involve a horizon. And today I just discovered a way to fix that with one of the programs I have for picture enhancement. Just thought I'd share since I'm so happy about it. Here's an example :)

As you can see there is a bit of a slanting problem with picture number one. If the world was really on an angle like that wouldn't that suck. Makes me really happy to have solved my dilema since almost every picture I took at this location looked like picture one.

Getting Away

2008-04-26T20:34:00.022-06:00

It seems lately that all my life is either taken up by work, or if I'm not there then it is my calling. The last month and a half has been really exhausting, to say the very least, but I did manage to get away for a little fun the first weekend of April. In search of warmer weather my mom and I headed down to Moab for my birthday. It was nice to get outside and get a little exercise (or really a lot since I've been such a slug this past year). Actually we hiked about seven miles in the two days we were down there. Needless to say when I rolled out of bed that Sunday morning I could barely walk (good thing it was conference and I just had to sit on my couch and watch ). The first day we were there we headed off to Arches NP and hiked up to Delicate Arch. I'd done the hike once before with my friend Nancy, but my mom never had. It's kind of exhausting just because you are going at a steady climb the whole time. That rock we were climbing there was a beast :)

The next day we didn't really want to go back to the park (we had been there back in October as well) so we decided to explore up the Colorado River. At the visitors center we found a little brochure of hikes and decided that the Negro Bill Canyon sounded fun.

I really enjoyed the hike. It wasn't too tough, which was nice after the day before, and it gave me lots of things to take pictures of. The trail ended at a natural bridge, the sixth largest in the country I think. All along the way we were following a pretty little creek, and it got nice and roasty hot so I could take off the sweatshirt and get some color. Spring had already come down there and all the trees were leafing out.

You can see the bridge here at the end of the canyon. When you got down under it it was nice and cool and there were a lot of trees, even poison ivy.

We decided to make one last stop on the way home and run out to Dead Horse Point. I say stop of but really it was a 60 mile round trip detour that was completely in the wrong direction but it was so worth it. In fact for me it was the best part of the trip. I've never been to the Grand Canyon or anything, but I think the views would be equally impressive as the view off the point.

Yeah!!!

2008-03-22T16:43:00.008-06:00

It's finally here! Springtime.... and what does one do with the first weekend of spring? Well they go out and feed the ducks of course! My friend Carrie and I decided to take her niece out for the day and enjoyed ourselves feeding ducks and playing in the park. It was so nice to be out in the sunshine. It seemed like it was such a long time coming this year. I can hardly wait for it to be warmer and for the leaves and flowers. Normally Autumn is my favorite season, but this year I've never been more excited to see the Spring. Here are just a few pictures from our outing. Isn't she a doll?

President Hinckley

2008-02-03T17:04:00.000-07:00

I have to admit that the passing of Pres. Hinckley has hit me harder than I expected it would. Even though I am old enough to remember prior prophets, for some reason I felt more emotionally attached to this one. In an effort to convey how I felt about such an incredible person whom I will dearly miss hearing speak, I decided to make my own video (I know there are millions of others who have done likewise) to help convey my feelings. I hope you enjoy...

"You are good. But it is not enough just to be good. You must be good for something. You must contribute good to the world. The world must be a better place for your presence. And the good that is in you must be spread to others..." ~ President Gordon B. Hinckley

Winter doldrums...

2008-01-26T15:29:00.000-07:00

So here we are, headed into the last week of the first month of 2008. I've been bad about keeping up on this I know, but truly not much is going on. I think the time for winter is past and it sure would be nice to see a bit of grass outside :). I can't believe how much snow we've had this year (or at least the fact that it has never melted) and I must admit it would be nice to get outside for a bit. Not being a winter sports guru I'm getting tired of always being inside. Since there isn't much going on I thought I'd show off the last creative project I did (and actually finished since there are a lot of unfinished creative projects floating around my house). This year I decided to make a surprise scrapbook for my friend Nancy of her baby's life up to Christmas. Just for fun I thought I'd post some of the pages...and that way I don't keep rambling on here.

Merry Christmas!

2008-01-03T17:56:00.000-07:00

Well...Christmas...what to say. This year I wasn't all that excited about the holiday. It's just not the same when you're a grown up without children. The excitement just isn't there like it is when you're young. Truth be told I was feeling a bit homesick for my youth this season. Therefore, I wasn't really looking forward to the holiday. I must admit that I really enjoyed the holiday none the less. It was predicted that a big snow storm was going to blow in so I decided I'd rather spend the night at my mom's than deal with slick roads late at night. Great idea, except the storm blew in just as I was loading up the car with presents. Oh if I'd only loaded the car when I first got home that afternoon like I thought I should, but no I decided to take a shower, blow dry my hair really nice, and then take four trips out to the car during a blizzard. Needless to say I was a bit damp by the time I got on the road. I also felt bad leaving the cats at home with no one to feed them for more than a day so I brought them along. Nothing like driving through a blizzard with a cat howling in fear in the back seat. We did nothing very special that night since it was just me, Jason, my mom, and John. We did our traditional gorge on sweets and movie watching. By around 1:30 am I was ready to turn in, shut off my light, crawled in bed and proceeded to try and sleep-except my boy cat (big baby that he is) sat outside my door and howled. After two hours of trying to ignore him I let him in and got no sleep because he was crawling all over me and pretty much wanted to sleep on my face. Finally, at 6:45 am he settled down and I got to doze off until the rest of the family got up around 9:00. Despite the sleep deprivation it was really fun to sleep over (just not with cats!). I loved lounging in PJ's and not eating breakfast until 11:00. We didn't even open presents until 1:00 that afternoon. Actually, we opened presents 3 times that day. First, with the four of us, later when Greg & Leigh and then Grandma & Grandpa, and finally when all of the step brothers came. It made for a very festive and jolly day. So, what I found is that there is something about spending the night that makes Christmas more Christmasy and makes it feel like the good ole' days.

Temple Square

2007-12-17T22:29:00.000-07:00

This weekend we took the young women up to see the lights and tour around the square. After a stop for greasy pizza we were on the hunt for a parking space in downtown SLC (not such an easy feat at Christmas now that the two malls have been torn down). Finally we found success at the Salt Palace and meandered our way over to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. We were meeting up with the rest of the group, including the young men and the bishopric, who had all been unfortunately (at least for them) waiting for us for quite a while. They had much quicker success with the whole parking situation and since none of us were smart enough to exchange cell numbers we had been listed as MIA. Finally we were reunited and just in time to make the 3:00 showing of the Joseph Smith movie. I believe that this was my third time seeing the movie, and it has always been quite moving but was even more poignant for me this time. In the last week I've been bitten by the genealogy bug again and have spent endless hours searching the Internet for any personal history of a relative of mine. I've only been able to find one, for Martha Payne Jones (married to Daniel Stillwell Thomas) however it was a very moving account. They were living in Far West at the time the saints were driven out and her story of that time was emotional to read. To watch these events unfold in the movie struck me even deeper than before because I was envisioning what my own family had experienced. My great, great great grandfather was born just a few days after the family crossed the river and is listed as being born "in the woods". It was fun to watch the girls experience the message of the movie as well. It turned out that none of them had seen it before. Since it wasn't dark enough for the lights to be on we decided to take a tour of the Beehive house. I always enjoy going through historical homes, and it was doubly fun to see how excited some of the girls got about walking through rooms that Brigham Young had actually walked through and seeing the furniture and clothing they had worn. After an hour of walking through the lights we all split up and headed home. Getting out of downtown was easier said than done. The traffic was a nightmare with a concert starting at the Conference Center and the normal holiday bustle, not to mention all the police activity. We were headed down State St. and when we noticed all the police cars our Young Women's president jokingly said it must be a bomb. Well not five minutes later the bomb squad van turns left right in front of us. After we got past that area we were still on the search for hot chocolate, a lot harder than you think to find but I have now made a mental note that there is a 7-Eleven on the corner of 8 S and West Temple. It felt good to get out of all that mess!

Outside my window

2007-12-02T11:50:00.000-07:00

Cruel I know....

2007-12-01T22:14:00.000-07:00

but who can resist, well probably a lot of people but I've had this sick habit of dressing up every new kitten I've ever gotten. These guys should feel lucky because it hadn't happened to them before. Of course I don't have doll clothes lying around any longer which is what all my other kittens fell victim to. Merry Christmas! In some ways I can't believe December is already here, and in others it feels like this has been the longest year ever. Around here we rang in the 1st of December the way it should be done, with the first snow of the season (well there was that first snow back in the beginning of Oct. but it melted as soon as the sun touched it). It was really quite beautiful this morning. It was the kind of snow that reminds me of childhood back East, the really wet and clingy kind. All the trees still look lacy with the snow stuck to them. It didn't make for very fun driving but made for the perfect excuse to take a day to curl up on the couch and watch movies. That's the reason I like winter, sometimes it just forces you to sit back and relax. Well I receicved another first today as well, as in the first cold of the season, and since I'm having a difficult time breathing at the moment I'll just wrap this up with a a wish of Happy Holidays to everyone.

Happy Turkey Day!

2007-11-23T21:35:00.000-07:00

What better way to spend Thanksgiving than with family, and in the case of this year almost all the family. As I was trying to fall asleep last night I decided to count how many people there were at Mike and Eve's yesterday. I came up with 36! I think that's a new record. The meal was fantastic, and hooray, for the first time we didn't run out of mashed potatoes. Kudos for all those who put the meal together. It was great to see so many of the family and get caught up on their lives. Unfortunately I had movie tickets and couldn't stay as long as I would have liked (especially since the movie theater was insane!). Well until next year here are some pictures to enjoy...not that great but there were a lot of people there.

Pumpkin Carving

2007-11-15T21:09:00.000-07:00

I was just doing a little editing and came across our Halloween fun for the year so I thought I'd post the pictures. We took Clay to see "The Nightmare Before Christmas" in 3-D to get into the spirit and then spent the rest of the night making our masterpieces. Now I'm not sure why the boys look stoned in the picture because I promise all we were drinking was Diet Coke :) And this year we had fun dressing up at work...or maybe I should say we threw on some witches hats just as an excuse to wear jeans for the day (but they were darn cute hats). Halloween is still one of my favorite holidays but yeah next week is Thanksgiving. Then I can officially listen to Christmas music...

A Ghostly Encounter

2007-11-14T19:11:00.000-07:00

So it may be a bit late to be talking about October since it seems that Christmas is already here, but whom am I to stick with convention. My mom and I took a very fun trip back East and spent a week traveling through Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and back to our own back yard of Connecticut. Actually I was fulfilling a dream of visiting Salem, MA to see the old witch trial sites. It was so much fun, and so interesting since some of the original structures from 1692 are still there. We went through John Hathorne's (the infamous hanging judge) home. He was the one to sign most of the death warrants for the accused witches. We also visited the Rebecca Nurse farm. She was one of the first to be accused and her actual farm is still there. I could give a complete travel log here, but I will spare everyone the boredom of my ramblings and end with this. Our most exciting experience however was the Haunted Footsteps tour that we took. It takes place after dark and your guide takes you around the city center filling the evening with stories of murders, ghosts, and of course facts about the witch craze. Some of the stuff she told us was educational, some rather gory, and some just plain spooky. We were also invited to take any pictures we felt like along the way to see if we could capture a spectral presence. Now for those that know me well know that that is right up my alley. My mom can testify to what a ghost freak I am. Ever since I saw the movie Poltergeist I've been fascinated by the idea of ghosts and at that time ran to the library and checked out any non-fiction book I could on the subject...I was 11 at the time. My mom literally did think I was nuts! But, excitement, I was successful in my first ever ghost hunt! At the first place we stopped I was snapping some shots while the lady told us the story of the grisly murder that had taken place in the home of Captain Joseph White. When we got back to the hotel I was flipping through the pictures I was ecstatic to see some interesting things. It was a cold misty/rainy night so there were a lot of rain drops in the pictures but the one I'm posting seemed very spooky. I'm totally hooked now!

And in close up:

I know I'm probably silly but it was a thrill for me :)

Here are a few more pictures from the trip....

New Hampshire:

And finally the rolling hills of Connecticut: