Utah...

I have a ton of pictures to post from Utah...in September, so I might as well get started. (I probably should have gotten started a month ago, but...)

Here are some pictures from my Dad's birthday party.

The Man of the Hour...

Adrian and Linn

Danny and Jen

Brent (with his "Why are you taking my picture" face) and Mom

and..Sarah showing off her jack-o-lantern smile

Sadly, those are all the pictures I took when we were with my family. I don't know why I'm so bad at taking pictures when we're doing stuff. I enjoy the stuff we do. So, my goal for next time is to TAKE MORE PICTURES!

Brent and I drove to Utah so that we could bring some stuff back with us. We figured that we hadn't driven in over 4 years, so it wouldn't be too bad. I hate driving. I think we'll just ship stuff back from now on.

But, we did a lot of fun things with my family. Ate a lot of good food. Put together a great computer. Enjoyed each others company. And just had a great old time.

Plus, my mom and I found my new favorite store - Rod Works. It's AWESOME! If you are ever near a Rod Works, go in and think of me because I love that place!

My Beee-utiful Cake

I told you how I'm taking a cake decorating class with Marcela. Well, here is my very first cake that I ever decorated. Ever...
I know! I must be an idiot savant or something!

This week ... cupcakes!

:)

Hey, I Really Am Capable

Do you know what I've done this week? Well, I'll tell you...

1) I've been "acting co-Relief Society President." It's kind of crazy, but I can do it.

2) I went and talked to a family in our ward about the funeral of their son. It was scary and kind of hard, but I did ok. Turns out I am a grown up. Who knew!

3) We were asked to make the programs for the funeral. So today, I made a program for a funeral. I actually made two different kinds. So they can choose, but I'm pretty proud of both of them.

4) I started decorating a cake. Yep, Marcela and I are taking a cake decorating class and last night we started really decorating cakes. I still don't love how it's frosted, but it looks kind of cute. When I get done with it, I'll post a picture. (I even fell asleep last night planning what it's going to look like. I know, I'm weird.)

5) I slogged through a TON of mud to find pumpkins with Brent, Brad, Court and the kids. (Kyle and Chloe got stuck in some mud and all we heard was, "Help" in this little voice. And Aaron found a tiny pumpkin and says, "Ally (that's what he calls me), I love my little pumpkin." Then he plants a big old kiss on it. Too cute. But that's another post. I promise. I really am going to post some stuff. Sometime.) I was looking at the pumpkins Brent and I chose and decided that they kind of look like us. Mine is short and round and Brent's is taller and skinnier. (Is that how you would spell that? It doesn't look right.) If I think about it, I'll post a picture.

6) And, to look forward to...I have a Stake Meeting tonight, a funeral tomorrow, and (to REALLY look forward to) a pumpkin walk with Ryan, Marcela, Reyes, and Camila on Saturday night.

Wooo...makes me tired. I know it's nothing like what Julie does every single week, but it's more than I do ... but I'm doing it.

Now off to have lunch. Hmmm....pbj or cheese sandwich? I don't know.

When Did I Become a Grown Up

Have you ever just sat back and thought, "When, exactly, did I become a grown up? Where has the time gone?" I remember being younger, I remember not having any responsibilities or worries, I just don't remember where that time went.

I'm getting ready to go to a family's house with our Bishop to talk to them about the funeral for their son.

(You may be thinking that this is a Relief Society president's job. Well, it is. Except when your Relief Society president is in the hospital. So, that leaves me.)

When did I become a grown up?

Who thought this was something I could do?

Eeek...

And He's Back

A little smelly, a lot tired, and really glad to be home.

(Truth be told, I'm really glad he's home too! Smelly and all.)

:)

And He's Off

Well, here I sit. With the other screen open so I can check every once in a while to see where Brent's plane is. (The last check was somewhere over Alaska.) But, instead of Japan, Brent is off to Guam, via Japan, this time around.

He will only be in Guam for a night, then he'll be in places unknown - to me at least - on an aircraft carrier. Then they're going to drop him off in Bangkok, where he'll spend one night - hey, that sounds like a song. :)

So, I was thinking...hmmm...I know where Guam is - in the western Pacific Ocean, just in case you didn't know. I know that Guam is a US Territory. I also know that Guam has these super yucky brown snakes that Hawaii is trying desperately to keep off of their islands. But, other than that, I don't know anything about Guam.

Once again, the internet is where I go when I want to find things out. Here's what I found out...
-Guam was discovered in 1521 by Magellan
-The US got Guam from Spain in 1898 as part of the treaty after the Spanish-American War (which I might have to look up after this because I don't remember that war)
-It is the largest island in Micronesia
-It was captured by the Japanese soon after the bombing of Pearl Harbor - quick, what day? - and was held by the Japanese for 2-1/2 years.
-The people of Guam were treated pretty badly by the Japanese during that 2-1/2 years, but ironically now the biggest industry is tourists - primarily from Japan.

and the last bit of interesting information I found is:
-The governor of Guam just announced this year that he is changing the name of the island to Guahan. So far, it's pretty much just him calling it Guahan, but who knows what will happen in the future.

So, it's just me and Daisy here at home. She's good company. She doesn't talk much. She doesn't seem to mind if I stay in my jammies all day. She is almost always happy to see me. (She is, after all a cat, not a dog. Sometimes she's put out that I dared to leave without consulting her.) And she likes it when the house is messy because there are more places to hide. A perfect companion!

Now I must learn something interesting about Bangkok - other than there's a big chess game there.

I Guess this Means He Won

Do you remember how I drove for 13 hours all by myself? I do. It was not the funnest thing I ever did.

Do you remember how proud I was of myself? I do. Remember, it wasn't the most fun thing I ever did.

Well, I don't know if it was his competitive streak coming out, the fact that he really wanted to see Daisy, or that he wanted to sleep in his very own bed, but Brent drove for 13 hours in one day to get home. In one day.

I drove for a grand total of 60 minutes. Granted, it was coming into Pendleton, OR which is one of those horrible drop offs and I'm not used to driving Brent's tall truck so it was SUPER scary, but still. One hour.

But, we did get home safe and sound. It was great to have Saturday to relax and get back into life.

It was great to see everyone, but I am so glad to be home.

Next stop...Georgia! Woho! (And, we are sooooo not driving to Georgia. That would be like cruel and inhuman punishment.)

I Did It!

T-H-I-R-T-E-E-N hours of driving

About 860 miles.

All by myself.

I never want to do it again.

But we're here.

Woho!

Ashley's Amazing Journey

Well, Brent's here too!

I did it..I drove for 8 hours - about 530 miles - all by myself. And we didn't even crash.

We are over half way there.

Happy Day!!

Must sleep now.....zzzzz....zzzz....zzz

Well...He Seems Like He's Still Smart

Our super fun morning is over and Brent is home from getting his wisdom teeth out. The surgery went well. They kept saying that he was the best patient, so calm and easy going. That's Brent for you!

While he was coming around, the doctor kept saying, "Well, when you're our age, it's harder than when you're 17." When did we get to be older than 17? I'm not sure.

But, this is how they explained it to me. When you're a teenager, it's like taking the wisdom teeth out of clay. When you're in your twenties, it's like wood. And then your thirties are like concrete. Eek. They had to remove some of the bone to get one of them out. Eek. So, we're in for a fun month.

(On a completely different note - part of that month is going to be spent on an aircraft carrier.)

So, I know you're on pins and needles to see a video or pictures from today. Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you...

He wasn't really funny coming around. He did ask me if the tooth fairy would come now. And how he got there. Oh, and he kept getting hiccups, but that's not too unusual for him.

He did remind me a bit of his grandpa though - he just couldn't keep his eyes open. Even when we were walking in the house.

But, he's awake enough to threaten me with a horrible death if I take a picture. It's not that bad yet, but it might be interesting this weekend.

:)

Will He Still Be Smart?

When I got home from camp, Brent and I were talking and he sort of nonchalantly said, "I think I broke a tooth, but no worries, it's just a wisdom tooth."

After much discussion, and me finding out that it's been hurting for two weeks - he didn't want to add to my pre-camp stress, but I'm still not sure how I feel about this - Brent made an appointment to get it looked at.

Yep, it was broken.

And, yep, it was a wisdom tooth.

So, off to the oral surgeon we go where they say that that one for sure needs to come out, but so do the rest, which are still impacted. Awesome.

On Monday, Brent is getting all his wisdom teeth out. Then on Thursday we're heading off for a trip to Utah. Busy week.

This brings to mind some questions...

Will Brent still be as smart as he currently is without his wisdom teeth? I got mine out in high school and it's just been downhill since then.

Why are they called wisdom teeth? Is it because they come in when we're older and therefore wiser? Is it because we should be smart enough to get them out? Is it because we should be smart enough to leave them in?

Why didn't Brent get his out in high school? (I asked him this - he said it was because they never bothered him, until now. He's a late bloomer.)

So, whatever you're doing early in the morning on Monday, I bet it won't be as fun as what we're doing...that is...Brent's doing. I just have to take care of him which shouldn't be too bad. I hope he's funny as he comes out of the anesthesia. What if he starts to sing? What will he sing? Should I video tape it and put it on YouTube? All things I will have answered soon.

:)

Grandma and the Aunties

Holy Cow! It's been a long time coming...I'm sure that you've been hoping and hoping and hoping that I would blog. Checking back at least once a day. And when you saw that it was the same, nearly bursting into tears. I know. My blogs are that cool.

But, I must warn you. This blog is going to have A LOT of pictures. In fact, I'm going to tell about the L* Family Girl's Weekend in pictures.

Well, first off. What is the L* Family Girl's Weekend you ask? Well, it is a time for all the girls in Brent's family who are over the age of 18 to get together and have fun. (Only 5 more years until you can come, Em!) This year they asked me to be in charge, so I brought everyone up here and we went to San Juan Island. Well, almost everyone. Sorry you couldn't make it Jen. We missed you.

And now, to the pictures, in no real order...
Look at those lovely ladies. Well, and Jackson. Our other rule is that if the baby is still nursing, they can come along. I know, that's pretty nice of us.
And there is the rental house that we stayed in. (The one with all the windows.) The windows would have been great if it hadn't been for the fact that we were having an uncharacteristically hot weekend. When I opened the door to the home, it was liking opening an oven. 104 degrees. EEEK! But it did cool down finally. I only melted a little bit.
Just a pretty beach that Julie and I went to see. Unfortunately the tide was in so no one else ventured out. But just to prove we were there...
A scrunch picture! My favorite.

These next few pictures are from the American Camp. There was a war nearly fought between the British and the Americans over the San Juan Islands. The death of a pig almost brought the countries to blows. If you would like to learn a bit more about it, go here.
That's Mt Baker in the background, one of our many volcanoes.
Here's Jess and Jackson.
Here are most of the girls who went on this girls weekend. Not me...I don't climb. And not Mom...she was taking the picture.
Silly Marcela
The four of us - Mom is again taking the picture - hiked out to see what we could see from the top of the bluff. Surprisingly a lot...
I kept saying that we were "Grandma and the Aunties". Not all of us are moms and only one of us is a grandma, but we're all aunties. So here are the Aunties.
Another view from the top of the bluff. You really could see forever, but you couldn't get to the beach very fast if there was an invasion.
Cute Jackson was a little bit small for the umbrella stroller, but we made it work.
This is a cross section of a huge tree. The white sign points to when the Pig War was going on. It's kind of amazing how long trees live. Kind of sad that it's now cut down, but cool to look at.
Another view from the bluff. Don't the clouds look cool?

And now for British Camp...


British camp was much closer to the water, but down a HUGE hill. So we had to rest in the shade before heading back up.
The formal garden was just beautiful!
At the top of that dead tree is an osprey nest. Isn't that a crazy place to put a nest?
And how to do you get to an island? A ferry. I do believe in ferries, I do, I do. (Hee hee) It's so hard to describe to someone who has never seen a ferry how big they are. But they are big enough to drive a bunch of cars on. And it was nice hanging out in the front of the boat with Katie. She toughed it out the whole time. Others visited, but they always got cold and left. I finally cooled down a little. It was great! The ferry ride home was quite a bit different - completely foggy. It was almost scary - I'm glad I wasn't driving the ferry!




We stayed in a lavender field. Katie felt she needed to frolic...

I just want to tell you that I have found where I'm going to retire. Not to the island, but to this specific part. Lime Kiln. It is the only state park in the country dedicated to whale watching.

From where I was sitting, the deep water was only about 25 feet away. Awesome! So the orcas could come right up to the shore. Wouldn't that be cool? However, no orcas while we were there. They have hydrophones in the water and we couldn't even hear any, but I'm sure as soon as I turned my back, there they were...

We did see a harbor seal:

And a couple of deer:

At first it was kind of cool seeing deer, then we kept seeing more and more and more. Then it wasn't as cool, they were more like dogs. "Oh look, another deer. Ho hum!"



I told them they would have to tell me to leave, so they eventually did. However, if you ever lose me, you could probably find me there, watching for whales. Me and my dream camp chair. Just watching for whales. Maybe with an umbrella to keep the sun and rain off. Just watching for whales.

Wait...where was I? Oh yeah, the girl's weekend.
Notice how I'm taking the picture, and letting them put their feet in the water. It's cold water around these parts! Even in July! They thought just because the beach was called South Beach that it would be warm. Silly them...


Here's Camila and Jackson. They were born 2 weeks apart. They liked to talk to each other.
I love, love, love this picture of Camila! You can't see it in the picture, but her hair is the prettiest red!
This is how she normally sucks her thumb.
And this is how Jackson sucks his thumb, well, fingers. Funny how different, but still the same end result.

Isn't Friday Harbor pretty?

Julie took this picture for Brent. He needs a shirt that says this.

In order to cart all these lovely people around, I rented a 12 passenger van. I think I might buy one now -
NOT! It wasn't too bad to drive, but I so love my little car!

But we did have plenty of room.

And so concludes the Girl's Weekend remembered in pictures. I'm glad that everyone got to experience a little bit of my neck of the woods. It was a great time! Even if I'm never renting from Budget Rentals again. Ever. Grr...I don't even want to think about it.

:)

Seriously??

We hadn't even hit 70 degrees for 10 months. (Yep, TEN months.) It was great!

Yesterday was 90 degrees.

Today will be hotter.

Awesome.

Who ordered summer? I know it wasn't me!

I Just Have to Say...

Brad ran a half marathon on Saturday in under 2 hours. I just think that's amazing. So, I wanted to congratulate him and all those others who ran!

Way to go!

The Weather System

I guess the theme for our household lately is "Go big or go home."

We don't just adopt a cat, we adopt a cat with a broken leg.

I don't just accept one calling, I accept three. (One of which I've been released from - no more Ward Bulletin - Woho!)

Brent doesn't just make a scratching post, he makes a scratching event.

And...we don't just have a little rain gauge, we get a weather system.

It is AWESOME! It measures the wind, rain, temperature, wind direction, barometric pressure, phases of the moon and it even told me it was the summer solstice yesterday. AWESOME!

Here are some of my favorite features:
1) I love to see the barometer. Is it going up? (Hardly ever this spring) Is it going down? What's going on with the barometric pressure?
2) It measures how much rain there has been in the last 15 minutes. It turns out that even when it's POURING, you don't get as much rain as you think you did.
3) It tells you the high and low temperature over the last 24 hours. This is perfect for my gardening mind. You see, I put wall-o-waters around my tomatoes. Tomatoes don't grow well until the nighttime temperature is consistently above 50 degrees. So now I can track it for sure, in my backyard. (It has yet to get consistently about 50 degrees at night. Maybe this week. We're off to a pretty good start. Since Saturday it's been at least 50 degrees 4 out of the last 5 nights.)
4) It tells you how fast the wind is blowing. Don't ask me why that's exciting, it just is. I hate the HUGE wind storms we have in the winter, but now I'll be able to say exactly how fast the wind was blowing.

Basically, this proves it...I'm a weather nerd. So, if you ever want to know anything about the weather in my backyard, just ask. Chances are I'll know all about it.

The Infamous Scratching Post

Do you remember in February how Brent tried to cut off his thumb while making a scratching post for Daisy? I do. If you don't, go here. Let's not talk about it anymore. It was yucky. And he still has a cool divot in his thumb. If you ever see him, ask him about it. It's kind of gross.

Anyway, he finally finished the said scratching post. And, since it's Brent, it turned into more than just a scratching post. He had to make it a scratching event!
Daisy loves her scratching post. Just this week she's figured out that it's a good place to sit and stare out the window. So, 9 times out of 10, if she's not with me, she's in that bed. It's kind of cute.

Why would Brent make her a scratching post? Well, she was scratching our furniture a bit and with all her surgeries it was hard to keep her nails trimmed. We went to buy one but they were anywhere from $75 to $100. Which was way more than either of us wanted to spend. So, he decided to make it himself using mostly wood that we had lying around.

He'll tell you that he made it to save money and not because he likes Daisy in the least. But I'll just smile knowingly and nod and let him believe that.

I was asked the other day is all of Daisy's hair had grown back in from her leg ordeal.
Yep. She has all her hair and looks pretty normal. When my mom was here she said that she couldn't even tell that anything had happened to her. I can but probably just because I know what to look at.

So, all are happy with the scratching event that was once to be just a scratching post. One thing checked off the honey do list...about a million to go! :)