Utah in Pictures Part Deux

Here's some more pictures from our Utah trip...

This is the new Oquirrh Mountain Temple. It's kind of fun to be able to go to two new temples in less time than it takes us to get to our temple here. Wait...

This is another work project the boys did for their mom while we were in Utah. Unfortunately, they actually broke the previous faucet while trying to fix it, but this new one looks so nice!

I really like the aquarium function on my camera. I think this picture turned out rather well!We gave Brent's mom the funniest cup...it's a hula girl complete with a coconut bra and grass skirt. It was pretty cute!

Finally, looking at the camera! Too cute. You both look so famous! Reyes is such a Washington baby. Whenever she would go outside, she would start to whine a little saying that it was too bright. Then she would shut her eyes. This normally resulted in her running into something - which was kind of funny. We just don't get too much bright sun up here!

This was taken at the aquarium. I think it turned out kind of neat. I did cut Brent out of the picture. He was looking at me with this surprised face. It wasn't as cute as this part.

Reyes fell in love with Grandma's stuffed camel (or cameo - is that how you spell it - in Spanish) that she has to represent Julie while Julie's in Kuwait. (They started this tradition when Ryan and Jess were on their missions. That way, they could be "at" family functions, even if it was just a stuffed animal.) So, Reyes was really excited to see real camels at the zoo. I can't remember which kid it was but one of them said, "Hey, these ones have two humps!" The stuffed camel is a dromedary and these are bactrian. Pretty observant.

Marcela being super brave putting her head actually in the lion's mouth. Hmm...guess we did see lions at the zoo...they just weren't the kinds that move around.

Here's Jayson at the Luau trying to suck a pina colada through a tiny "fun" straw. They were cute straws, but they were not easy to get the stuff through!

Ok, that's enough today. This is going to take forever. Blogger is being kind of weird about putting the pictures in and since that's the whole point of the post, I'm going to go get ready for church. Stupid blogger!

What Once Was Lost...

Is Now Found.

In a prodigal son-esk moment, the marigolds that were lost have now returned. I was at the church yesterday making copies for the bulletin when I walked past the kitchen. I have a tendency to look in open doors whenever I pass them, and as I glanced in the kitchen, I saw the wayward marigolds sitting on the counter. There was a sign under them saying, "Free."

I am kind of confused by this turn of events. Why would someone take them from the under the tree...when there were still cars in the parking lot...and put them in the kitchen with a sign that said "free". I wouldn't do that. Would you?

I'm sure they were just trying to be helpful. I'm glad that I found the flowers though so I didn't mess up my very first job as the new Relief Society counselor, but...it still just confuses me.

On another note, the Leadership Overnighter was super fun. And, hopefully, this week will be quieter. The place where camp is this year is really pretty. It looks like a rainforest. I think we'll have fun!

Happy Sunday everyone!

Ok, that was funny!

Last night I had my very first Relief Society presidency meeting. What I learned from that meeting is that there are a lot of people I don't know in our ward. So, I'm excited to get to know them. But...here's the funny thing that happened.

On Wednesday night, we had an Enrichment Meeting where we planted marigolds in pots. The point, I was told later, was to take them to people who might need a little pick me up. So, Thursday afternoon, the Relief Society president called me and asked me to find out if we had any extra marigolds and we could take them to people when we go visit them. I found the extra ones and took them to the church. Since it was 91 degrees (YUCK!), I didn't want to leave them in my car, so I just put them under a nice shady tree.

When I came out of the meeting, I looked over to the tree and the marigolds weren't there. I thought maybe I was looking at the wrong tree, but there were no marigolds under ANY of the trees. That's right, someone took the marigolds!

Way to go with my first official act as a relief society counselor. I just had to laugh.

Now, I'm switching my hats and going to the YW Leadership Overnighter for camp. Ahhh...YW's...where I know what I'm doing! It will be fun!

Have a good weekend!

Utah in Pictures

I have a bunch of pictures that I want to post from our Utah trip, so I'm just going to post them. They are in alphabetical order, so...

Enjoy!

Jessica let me use her really nice camera. I now have camera-envy. Thanks Jess! (This is at Brent's mom's Hawaiian Luau birthday party)

Cute little Jayson. He is the sweetest little thing. And I'm loving his curly hair. He's going to look like a little lamb!
Here are Rylee and me at Hogle Zoo. I have to say...I was kind of disappointed in the zoo. I used to work there when I was a teenager and it has changed a lot. But...not always for the best. There didn't seem to be that many animals. I didn't even see any lions. What zoo doesn't have lions? I guess I got too used to San Diego Zoo.
Me, Jayson and Tayler. Jayson is pointing at the elephants. He really liked those elephants. It was really fun to hang around with these guys at the zoo. We just don't get to see enough of them. Tay and I really bonded. We decided while I was there that we would pretend my name was Ashley Tayler because her name is Tayler Ashley. Kind of silly, but cute.
Good old Brent. This is at the Luau...you could probably tell that by the Hawaiian shirt and lei, but...
One of the good improvements at Hogle zoo was a carousel. Unfortunately, they had to take out he hippo house to build the carousel. That hippo house has a lot of memories for me. The biggest one was when my mom almost dropped me in the pool with the hippos. That couldn't have ended well.

Thanks, Marcela, for taking this picture. Reyes is the one with her back to the camera. She is not a camera fan. You can hold up the camera, call her name, she'll look at you, then when she sees the camera, she'll turn away. Good thing the back of her head is cute because that's pretty much all I could get. Tay is waving.

Hi Jess!

And, finally Rylee. She told me that she wanted a zebra for a pet. That would be fun. I want to come over and play with your pet zebra!The whole kid crew at the zoo. One of the improvements they've made to the zoo since I have been there is the entrance. It is very pretty. They still don't have lions or polar bears, but it looks nice when you walk in.


I finally get a picture with Reyes looking at the camera and she has her tongue out. Great.This is the new Draper Temple that just opened in, well, Draper. It's right up against the mountains. The day we were there, the wind was coming out of the canyon and it was COLD.


Thanks, Mom and Dad, for taking me on a temple tour! Here's little Eli. He just turned 1. He got this baseball game for his birthday. It's pretty amazing how he knows what to do with it. He just loves it.


He also has that great bandaid on his forehead to cover the 7 stitches he got while they were in Utah. He fell. Poor little guy. That's a lot of stitches for such a small head!


This is one of the reasons we came to Utah...other than to see all our great family. Brent's mom sent him an email saying, "Now, you're suppose to get hot water out of the hot water heater every time you turn on the hot water, right?" That being true, Brent soon realized that the hot water heater needed some replacing. Brent and Ryan got it in and working. Good job guys!

I just love this picture. I call it "I can do that." Isn't it cute how the littler kids look to the bigger kids and do what they do? I know this picture is kind of dark, but it's too cute. It's from the new aquarium in...I think...Sandy. It's called the Living Planet Aquarium. It's kind of small, but good for little kids. I think this is a cute picture because Reyes kept looking from her stuffed Nemo to the real one saying, "I love Nemo."


Oh, that reminds me of another Reyes story. When we were getting ready to go to the zoo, I was talking to her about the animals we would see there. I said, "Reyes, are we going to see tigers?" She would say, "Yeah...they love me" while doing this little dance. Then I would ask, "Are we going to see elephants?" To which she would say, "Yeah, they love me." This went on and on until I got to "Are we going to see crocodiles?" And she replied, "Yeah..." they she looked down and said, "They don't love me." What a cutie!


All the fun people at the zoo. Once again, the back of Reyes' head is very pretty.
Ok, that's a lot of pictures and I'm only about 1/3 of the way through. I guess I'm going to leave those for another post.

My busy week is almost over. Hooray! Have a good one!

The REAL News of the Day

Ok Court, I guess you're right...I do need to tell the REAL news of the day.

Ok, I'm ready...this is a bit scary.

I got a new calling yesterday. I am now the second counselor in the Relief Society presidency. Yep, that's right...Relief Society! That's where the grown ups go! Am I a grown up now? I don't think so.

I don't know why this calling has me all a dither. I'm trying to be cool and collected, but inside I'm freaking out just a little bit. It might help a little once I figure out what exactly the second counselor in Relief Society does. Then my planning and list making skills can come into play and I can start figuring out life.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. Here's the crazy part. I have only been in Relief Society for about 1 year since Brent and I got married. The rest of the time has been spent in Primary or Young Women's. So...this should be interesting.

I have a super busy week this week...that hopefully won't get any worse. But I am going to be gone every night except tonight. I hope this isn't indicative of what my weeks are going to be like from now on.

Oh, and I had to speak yesterday. It was a stressful week.

If any of you have any advice, I am TOTALLY open to suggestions. I know that there is training on lds.org and I'm definitely going to do that. But...I need help!

Truthfully, amid all my freaking out, I am REALLY excited about this call. I'm excited to learn something new. I'm excited to get to know new people. I'm just excited.

So, there is the REAL news of the day.

And, thanks for all the sweet things you said about my last post. It wasn't intended to elicit so much praise, but I'll remember that the next time I'm feeling down.

:)

I Give Up

I have to admit something. I am not cute, funny AND witty. I may be cute some of the times. And I do crack myself up every once in a while. And I might just even pull something witty out of my hat when the need arises. But I am not cute, funny AND witty. I look at some other blogs that are cute, funny and witty, and I think, "Golly, I wish MY blog was cute, funny AND witty." So, I think and I ponder and I try and I come up with a semi-ok cute, funny and witty blog. The pressure is just too much!

This is to announce that I am no longer trying to be cute, funny AND witty. I am giving you a disclaimer for my blog...

DISCLAIMER: The author of this blog is not cute, funny AND witty. If you find something written herein that is cute, funny OR witty, it was a complete accident and you should not hope for it to be repeated. Thank you for reading my blog.

I hope this doesn't cause any of you to vow to never look at my blog again. I do enjoy your comments. And, if you ever do get a chuckle out of my life, then just count yourselves lucky.

Ahhhhh...I feel so much better. I bet I will even be able to catch up on all the Utah happenings now. :)

Update / Update

My mom had her gallbladder surgery yesterday and is doing well. The surgery took about twice as long as they thought it would - much like mine - so it was a little stressful. She is home and on pain meds right now so really fun to talk to.

Thank you for all your prayers and well wishes!

Wow-wii

We've had a Wii for about a year now and it can be a lot of fun. What I like about it is the interactiveness....you aren't just sitting there. So, when Wii Fit came out, I thought that I would buy it for some different exercise than my daily walks, but then I found out that your Mii could be fat. Not wanting a big round dot Mii, I opted out of the Wii Fit.

Now they have Wii Active. No fat little Mii's here. I got it on Saturday - thanks for the encouragement Court - and did my first workout this morning. I don't know if I'll be able to move for the rest of the day. It was REALLY hard and I was on easy! It did feel good and there were some fun things you did like basketball and tennis - the inline skating was not quite as fun, but...

Oh, and we went to see the new Star Trek this weekend. I hate recommending movies because then if you don't like them, I feel bad, but this movie was AWESOME! Definitely worth the watch even if you aren't a Trekie (how would you spell that?).

Have a great day! I think it's time to get up before my muscles really freeze up!

Update

Thanks for all the prayers and well wishes for my mom. She is out of the hospital today. She is going to have her gallbladder removed on Wednesday, so then she should start really feeling better.

I guess the reason she was in the hospital overnight was because a tube that goes from her pancreas to her intestines got plugged by an escaped gallstone so the enzymes were basically digesting her pancreas - and a little bit her liver. So, the take home lesson is...if you think you have gallstones, go to the doctor before you start digesting yourself!

So, if you don't mind, keep up the prayers for her to have a speedy recovery once she has the surgery.

Happy Memorial Day!

Kind of Scary

I just got a call from my Dad telling me that my Mom is in the hospital. She's been having problems with her gallbladder and last night she had a bad enough episode that she had to go to the emergency room. Apparently she has "a lot" of gallstones and one might have gotten loose and gone into her pancreas - which isn't super good. They need to do surgery, but with it being a holiday weekend, she might not be able to have it until tomorrow.

I had my gallbladder removed about six years ago so I know the pain she's having, but then again, they never put me on morphine.

Could you please keep her in your prayers?

Thanks!

Much Anticipated

Just wanted to let you all know that Brent has updated his blog. Since he does it so seldom, I thought I'd say something. Not that I update my so often anymore...my yard (and all the weeds) has been calling my name lately.

:)

Why Was That So Stressful?

As you know, I am married to the BIGGEST NCAA March Madness fan. There are many times I lament about being a basketball widow. But, truthfully, he loves it so much that I don't mind sharing him with the basketball once a year.

He has been talking about 2010 for years now because it was going to be his big year! The first and second round games are in Spokane and the third and fourth round games are in Salt Lake. It's a two-fer! Literally, I've been hearing about this for years.

So, the tickets go on sale (they're a lottery sort of thing) and we get the email from both Spokane and Salt Lake with similar themes. "Thanks for trying, but you didn't win the lotto." Sorry Brent. He was really sad about not getting his much anticipated two-fer.

Then, he gets home from Japan and I'm checking my email (while he's "not sleeping" on the couch - he was sleeping but he didn't want to be so every time I said something, he would shout, "I'm not sleeping!"), and I get an email about Spokane that says, "We didn't sell as many tickets as we thought we were going to, so if you still want some, log on on Monday." Then the next email is from Salt Lake saying the same thing. Woho!

I dutifully got on the computer this morning at 10am Mountain Time and waited patiently for the tickets to be purchased. It was really stressful being the one in charge of Brent's fun for 2010. Luckily, I did get the tickets he wanted and now I just have to wait for 10am Pacific time to see if I can make next year a two-fer for him.

My question is, why was it so stressful for me? Do you think Brent's at work stressing about it? I'm pretty sure he's forgotten all about it since he didn't remind me this morning. I'm just a silly person I guess.

So, anyone want to go to Spokane - provided I get tickets?

***Update****
It's a two-fer!

Nothing is as Constant as Change

Proving once again that anything Brent's work says is just a suggestion...

Brent will be home tomorrow morning! Hooray!

I talked to him this morning and he sounded tired and happy to be coming home. He did say that it's been a great experience.

I'm super excited to have him coming home. Let's just hope that this isn't a suggestion too!

:)

Let's Go Back in Time

Let's all go back in time to about a month ago when my Mom and Grandma came to the beautiful northwest to visit.

Most of our visit was spent in Victoria, British Columbia. We got to stay in the Empress Hotel. If you have three people in one room, it makes it somewhat affordable.

The room was really pretty with a kind size bed and a sofa bed. Our view was great too. But, the whole hotel did smell somewhat like an old lady's house. That's Victoria Harbor. We could watch the sea planes come in, along with all the beautiful boats. (Floating vessels?)

Then, we were off to Butchart Gardens, which, as I've said before, is my Mecca. I love it there. I hadn't ever been there this early in the season, and while it was a little chilly (especially for the visiting family), it was still beautiful. Since I am the plant lady, you have to at least look at some of the pictures...

These flowers were on top of a garbage can. That just goes to show you how great this place really is!

And, just to prove that we really were there...

Another highlight of our Canadian experience was Afternoon Tea at the Empress. Before the gasps begin, I had a nice little pineapple-orange herbal tea. It was quite refreshing. You got little finger sandwiches, scones, and desserts. They weren't even English-type desserts, since they had sugar in them.

Ok, truthfully, some of the finger sandwiches and desserts were kind of yucky, but there was enough there that you could just ignore those and eat the rest. The scones were great and I especially liked the carrot and ginger finger sandwiches. Yum!

What a good looking group of tea-goers!

On the Empress grounds, there were these beautiful cherry trees that were completely in bloom. It was an awesome sight. So, of course I had to take a bunch of pictures.

Aren't they beautiful?

Once we got home from Canada, Brent made us some yummy homemade pizzas, then we spent the next day in Seattle before putting Mom and Grandma back on a plane. It was fun to have them here. We just need to talk them into coming a little later in the year next time. It really does warm up for about1-1/2 weeks in the summer!

Happy Mother's Day yesterday to all you child-full people. And happy Sunday to all you child-less.

Sorry if this is a weird post...I'm just feeling a bit off today. Haven't you ever had a day like that?

:)

Home Again, Home Again

Hello All! I'm home. I'm so happy. My flight was quite bumpy and the last about 5 minutes, I had to chant, "Don't throw up, we're almost on the ground. Don't throw up, we're almost on the ground." But, I didn't throw up and we are now on the ground.

As I was waiting for the airporter (that's the bus you take from the airport to our town...it's about a 1 hour drive), I overheard two people talking. The one guy asked the other guy where he was coming from. The other guy said, "Yokosuka, Japan...it's about an hour south of Tokyo." Hey, that's where Brent was up until he got on the floating vessel. (I've been told it's technically a boat.) I thought that was funny.

I found my house much as I left it, except for this...

That is suppose to be my front lawn. Crap...guess I know what I'm doing tomorrow!

And...happy birthday to Court!

:)

WAL-MART!

I have to give a little bit of background for this story. It just makes me laugh. My mom works for Smith's in Utah. (Smith's and Fred Meyer are owned by the same company.) So, Smith's is in direct competition with Wal-mart for most things. Because of this...my mom HATES Wal-mart! She hated it when we were in Hawaii and the only place to shop was Wal-mart.

So, we go to lunch today with my cousin Jennifer and her 4-year-old daughter, Sarah. Jennifer also works at Smith's. After lunch, Jen says, "Do you guys want to go shopping?" To which Sarah starts jumping around and say, "Yeah, yeah, yeah!" I really have never seen anyone that excited to go shopping. When Jen asked where Sarah wanted to go shopping she cried, "WAL-MART!" I just had to laugh. Everyone was so amazed that she a) knew what Wal-mart was, and b) wanted to go shopping there since she hadn't ever been.

We split the difference and went to Target. Kids are so funny!

Update

Well, just to keep you informed, here is what I know.

Japan is like on the other side of the world! I mean, I always knew that, but now that someone I love is there and I have to wait for his phone call "in the morning," it just seems farther away.

I spoke to Brent this afternoon (2:30p in Utah...5:30a the next day in Japan) and he was off to the boat...ship?...whatever. He will not be able to email or anything while he's out so this is really good practice for me for when he goes backpacking. :)

And, Julie, I reminded him to take a lot of pictures and also that he has a blog to put them on, so I'm interested to see what he brings back.

I have one and a 1/2 more days here in Utah. I'm having fun, but looking forward to my bed. Why can't you just pack your bed with you?

:)

Just in Case

Just in case any of you are worriers like me, and let's face it, no one is as big of a worrier as I am...Brent made it to Japan safe and sound. Even with the Swine Flu. First Mad Cow Disease and now the Swine Flu. What does he have against barnyard animals? (Apparently Japan is really scared of the swine flu coming their way, so they take your temperature before you even get off the plane and if you have a fever, they put you in quarantine for ten days. Now that I think about it, what does Japan have against barnyard animals?)

Now we just have to keep our collective fingers crossed that he will be able to get Internet access while on the boat...or ship....or whatever you call it.

I'm having a great time here in Utah. The rain has followed me down, so it makes me feel right at home.

Have a great day!

Happy Easter

I found this on the lds.org website and had to share it. It reminded me what Easter is really all about. So, get out your tissues - if you are like me - and enjoy!

FINALLY!

It's been forever since we've been back from Portland, but since I kind of use this as a journal, I'm going to talk about our fun time.

Just an aside...I'm sitting hear listen to basketball (tonight is the final NCAA game), and the roofers pounding away up there. It's not a very relaxing night. I am looking forward to being done with basketball (sorry Brent) and the roof. Woho!

Portland can pretty much be summed up with ...

shopping ....

basketball ....

shopping ....

good food ....

shopping ....

Wicked ....

shopping ....

Yep, that pretty much sums it up. Court and I had a lot of fun shopping and shopping and shopping. We shopped until we plain old dropped on Thursday. Court found some cute clothes and shoes. At first all I could find were ties for Brent, but then I found some super cute shirts, so it wasn't a shut-out. I like being able to shop with someone who doesn't say, "I don't care" .... "Yeah, it's ok" ... "Whatever" ... you get the idea.

Friday was a trip to the Portland Temple.

It's a pretty temple. I couldn't figure out why it didn't look the way I remembered it, until I realize that when we were there the last time, there were leaves on the trees. That really makes a difference. There were A LOT of brides all over the place. I didn't understand why, but Court and Brad, who were celebrating their anniversary that day, reminded me that it was Spring Break. Oh yeah...that's why.

Too cute! Court found that shirt and coat on our fun shopping day. Don't you like her hair curly? I do, but I could be a little curly-hair-biased.

I got this shirt on our shopping day. Good times!
And just to show that we were all there at the same time, the obligatory scrunch picture. Good thing Court's so much taller than me.

Then, it was time to feel a little Wicked. I was so excited that we could get tickets. We just happened to be there when it was there as well. Pretty exciting.

Here we are ready to go. Brent's tie is new and so is my scarf. I got two compliments from strangers on my scarf, so that makes me think it's a keeper.

We haven't been to a musical for a long time so I was exciting. I've heard nothing but good things about Wicked and, believe me, it did NOT disappoint. The music is even better now that I know what the story is all about. Too great!

Once we were done with Wicked, we were all a little hungry, so we went to happy hour at the restaurant in the hotel. That was the first time I've ever been in a bar and also the first time that I was carded. It was an interesting experience. Especially when we started the day out in the temple. They didn't seem to mind that all we ordered were sodas. The food was actually really good. The company wasn't that bad either.

I kept trying to decide if I should mention that not all of us were carded. I don't think I'll embarrass him by saying who it was, but it gave us a good laugh. Sorry. :) I'm just glad that my white hair had just been dyed, or else it would have been two people.

Saturday was more shopping, an amazingly wonderful carmel apple (can you really call it a carmel apple when there is more chocolate than carmel?), a movie (He's Just Not That Into You - not bad), and a long drive home.

We had a lot of fun. I know Brent really loves going to basketball, and has fun with the company. And I enjoyed having time to be with Court and just do what we wanted to do. It was kind of weird not having the kids around. I like it both ways ... it's nice having a friend like that.

Ok, that's about it. The roofers seem to be packing up for the night. The basketball game seems to be a blow out - we'll see. Have a great night!