Oregon Vacation and School

I think it's safe to say that I have been slacking off for a few months on updating our blog. It's interesting that even though I often have time to type it out I just don't know what to type. Since the last time that I updated we have been doing A LOT of stuff. One of which includes going to Oregon to visit with my parents. It was so nice going home and as Brittany mentioned in her blog "walking around on the soft carpet." We had so much fun driving Jason around and showing him places that he didn't get a chance to see when we were in Oregon for our wedding. We got to go to Mill Creek Falls and Crater Lake, which are beautiful and it was so hot and exhausting after we got home from our trip that I think everyone passed out on the couch for awhile. On August 1 we had scheduled to go on a jet boat trip down the Rogue River and it was so awesome. Jason looked so happy sitting there on the boat, he always had a smile on his face with the wind blowing hard and the captain doing donuts in the water, we all had a blast!

We were sad when we had to leave on Sunday but we had to get back to work. Thanks for the fun times Mom and Dad!

Mill Creek Falls

Crater Lake, I have more pictures but for some reason blogger won't let me move things around

At the dinner on our Jetboat Excursion, ignore the shiny faces please, it was hot

Jason's excited to get back on the boat after dinner

I really don't know why we posed like that, I think we have about 4 or 5 pictures in other spots where we all had one leg up.

One of the jetboats, it fit about 50 people on each one.

We had great birthdays in the month of August, with Jason's being on the 9th and mine being on the 11th we decided to have family over to celebrate with cake and ice cream and a fun game of Jeopardy on the computer. I really think that Jeopardy was the highlight of the evening, just ask Brittany, Clay, Eden, Daniel and Kali. We also had a long game of Life on the computer but I think that Clay and Tiff had more fun with that than anyone else. We also celebrated our birthdays by signing up for free birthday meals. We went to Red Robin for our birthdays and they told us that they haven't had it happen very often when there are two people from the same family who turn those in. I think we went to Coldstone Creamery a few days later for the free ice cream.

Other than that we have been working and Jason started school so that has been taking up a lot of his time. He is taking an English class, Communications, two Computer classes, and a Political Science class. So far he is really enjoying his classes...ok, maybe not enjoying the English, but he's interested in Political Science and his Computers class, when he is on his way home he calls me up and tells me all about it. We found a system that seems to be working for him for typing up papers, he'll start talking and I'll type up what he says and then together we paste everything in order and grammatically correct (kind of, I'm not the best in grammar either).

Two weeks ago we dog sat for my boss Christine's two dogs while she was away in Vegas getting married, it was fun but it was rather time consuming. We'd stay the night at their house with the dogs and then we'd leave together in the mornings, Jason for school and I'd leave for work, and then we'd go back to Christine's for lunch together and then I'd go back to work and Jason would go back to our house to get change for work. And then we would meet back at our house for dinner and then drive separate cars over to Christine's to start all over again. It was fun though, we decided that we really want a dog but that we aren't quite ready for one...and only one.

I don't think that we have a whole lot of stuff planned for Labor Day since Jason has to work most of it but we have been starting to look at apartments again. Our lease for the apartment that we are living in now is up at the end of October so we're trying to see if we can find something that has two bedrooms, washer and dryer hook-ups and is cheaper than what we are paying now. It's not easy to find after everyone moved back here to start school but hopefully we will come across something, if not we'll probably be staying here for a little bit longer.

Also, I hope that everyone caught the amazing BYU game yesterday, it was simply amazing. Almost like the "Answered Prayer" video with John Beck and Johnny Harline. I like to think we have turned Jason into a BYU football fan, he kept screaming at the TV last night when something bad happened and would jump up and do a victory dance when something went right, it was great! I hope that everyone has a fantastic Labor day and I'll try and update more often.

4th of July

I've always enjoyed the 4th of July, sitting around and watching fireworks from atop a high place, being able to feel the big boom as they explode...it totally adds to the experience. I remember when we were younger pieces of paper with gun powder with strings coming off each end. It was always fun getting the "Booby Traps", which were thin round connecting the strings to my brothers door; however, after I did that I would find them connected to my door everyday even to the point that I was afraid to open doors and hear that snap as Iflung the door open and ran for cover. The "Snap-its" were a lot of fun too, we use to throw them at other people or at their feet so that it would make them dance, we'd snap them in our fingers, and our foreheads. I think my cousin Amanda got one thrown in her ear one year, but luckily it didn't ruin her hearing (I don't remember if it was me or not who threw it in her ear but since I have bad aim, it probably was, Sorry Amanda).







On the 3rd of July we woke up early to try and get to IHOP for breakfast...ok it wasn't early, it was more like 11am by the time we got there...only to discover that it was completely packed. We decided maybe we should try to get up early on Saturday and try to make it by 9 or so. Since IHOP was packed and neither of us are a fan of Denny's, we went to get donuts intead and they did fill us up. The rest of the day consisted of playing Worms (Remember that game? It's a lot fun) on the PS3 and waiting for Jason to get home from work around 9:30pm. I did do more than that while Jason was gone but I don't remember what we did anymore. I had heard from someone in our ward that the Rio Tinto Soccer Stadium was going to launch off fireworks after the soccer game and since it is only about a mile away from us I figured it might be nice to see it. I was worried that they had already started launching fireworks by the time Jason was driving down the freeway but he assured me that he hadn't seen any fireworks yet so they may have already finished or the game hadn't even ended yet. I hurried up and made dinner (french bread sandwiches and peanut butter twix bars...yep we were eating good) and ran outside to meet Jason in the car. We took off to the Rio Tinto Stadium trying to find the perfect spot to park the car and eat dinner and be able to see the fireworks going off and we found it, in a roller skating rink parking lot that we didn't even know existed. I think parked in 4 different places just to make sure that we didn't have any trees or anything in our way but the spot we found was in a clearing of trees and we could still see the lights from the Stadium. We had our picnic dinner and watched as other people drove into the parking lot only to discover that we had already taken the best spot and they quickly took off to find another spot to park. With mosquitos being rather abundant this year we decided to stay in the car and watch the fireworks from there...which was a great idea but we missed out on the music being played in the Stadium so we opened the windows to listed to it and we let the mosquitos in anyway. When the fireworks started we were able to lay our seats all the way back and watch and feel them as they exploded. It will be something that we will defintitly have to do again next year.







On the 4th of July we did get up early enough to beat the morning rush to IHOP but we still had a 20 minute wait. I bet you can guess what I had? Jason is a little more open to trying new things. Last year for the 4th we went to Sugar House Park and watched the fireworks that were launched from the school there but we had to deal with a lot of traffic after that and decided we didn't want to do that this year. Jason had to work on Saturday until about 6:30 and since he works across the street from Sugar House Park he didn't want to come home and pick me up and then travel back to there so we figured we'd drive around a little before 10pm and find the best ones to watch. So we decided that since we had seen fireworks the night before we'll just go to the store and buy "John Adams" and watch that until 10 minutes till 10:00 and then we'll head out to Draper to see if we could catch all of them. When we went to the Draper temple for Daniel's wedding we were high enough up that we could see all of the Salt Lake Valley and figured that would be the best place to go. We found a spot on the side of the road where other people had pulled off and parked. We decided to get out of the car this time and stand by the hood of the car. We could see about 15 different firework shows going off at the same time, the only thing was that we were missing the loud booms that were coming from these various places. The good thing was that we didn't have to sit and wait in traffic trying to get back to the apartment, it was clear the entire way back.





On Sunday we had made plans with Brittany, Clay, and Maeli to have a BBQ down at their place in Provo so we finally got to see their new place. For dinner we had steaks, bakes potatos, corn on the cob, spicy chicken and Jason wanted me to make a cake with whipped cream frosting and then sprinkle chopped up pieces of Peanut Butter Twix and Reese's Peanut Butter cups on the top. We also got to show Brittany and Clay the movie 3:10 to Yuma that we just got edited and I think they liked it. However, while they were watching the movie we spent most of our time playing with Maeli. Overall, it was a great 4th of July weekend and hope to spend next year with more family and friends...


Here is a shot of one of the fireworks shows going on pretty close to where we were. This was the only picture I took because after that we were attacked by mosquitos - not as lucky this time.



Here is a video of Maeli and Jason playing around.

Date Night, We Should Do It More Often

It's always hard to start out writing especially since I'm not 100% sure what to write about. Also, I don't know about anyone else but it seems like the busier I get the lazier I get. It had been a slow moving month until last weekend when Jason's family came out for his brother Daniel's wedding. On Thursday we went to the airport and picked up Robert, we had to wait an hour or so until his bag finally came around on the baggage claim. On Friday was the ceremony at the Draper Temple, this was our first time sitting through a temple sealing other than our own. It was a beautiful ceremony but we had to chuckle a few times since the officiator couldn't quite get Kalianne's name correct. Oh well, it's the spirit of it all isn't it? We stood around outside so that we could see Kali and Daniel come out of the temple all dressed up. I don't know if you have seen the houses around there or not but they are MASSIVE, and the view of Salt Lake valley is pretty impressive there as well. Once we took a few pictures of the happy couple we went home to change before heading out to dinner at Fuddruckers. Jason and Robert were thinking of doing the 1 pound challenge but both wimped out at the last minute. Fuddruckers is a hamburger joint that serves great milkshakes and hamburgers...however, I'm not a huge fan of the fries. The pound challenge consists of a pound of hamburger, a pound of fries and a milkshake. If you can eat ALL of it yourself they will give your meal to you for free, give you a t-shirt and take your picture to put on the wall. To be honest, I'm glad that neither of them went with it because then they would have been waddling like a penguin out of there. On Saturday they had a ring ceremony followed by a light lunch and a toast 'n roast. As soon as we got to the ring ceremony it was pouring down rain, it wouldn't stop. The ring ceremony was beautiful but Kali's dress was soaked and muddy around the bottom while standing close to the edge of the tent. It was so cold during this rain storm that after the toast n' roast we went home and changed our clothes into something warmer. During the reception the skies had cleared up quite a bit and everything went wonderfully.



On Monday we took Jason's parents and grandparents through the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House. It was absolutely gorgeous and surprisingly enough I didn't think about getting a picture of the Angel Moroni and his charred arm and trumpet. There isn't really much to describe but it was beautifully decorated and there were a few interesting decorations in the windows and Jason was able to see for the first and only time the brides dressing room. It was a lot different then the Medford temple that's for sure. There were individual dressing rooms that were a little larger than a regular bathroom stall and then you would go into a larger room where the wall was lined with vanities and full length mirrors. Once walking through they give you cookies and bottled water at the end of it so that was definately an added bonus.



On Wednesday night both Jason and I had the evening off so we decided to go play some miniature golf. We started off on one course and got to hole 2 and found out that the people in front of us took a while to finish a hole. Then there was a family behind us whose son would come and stand on the green next to me while I tried to make my first putt, it was a little awkward. And it was then that we realized the family in front of the family in front of us were taking quite a long time to get through a hole so we got as far as hole 9 and decided to jump to the other course. This one was actually more fun because it gave you a spinning wheel and then it would say things like "crane-shot" "blind shot" and a bunch of others I don't remember right now, anyway, you would have to do whatever it said on that hole. We started making up our own rules eventually like having races and doing it hockey style. We'd set both of our balls on the starter pad and then count to three and then we would have to dribble up to the hole and shoot...It was a fun night.

Our Uninivted Guest

Last night we had a very uninvited guest enter our home and he ended up terrorizing us for about half an hour. It was getting really warm in our apartment so I opened up the balcony door hoping to get some air circulating through but I hadn't planned on him coming in. This is our univited guest:
Isn't he huge?! OK, so he doesn't look that massive in the picture but that's because I took it from about 10 feet away, there was no way that I was going to get closer. When I saw it fly in I was thinking that it was a huge fly but Jason got up to look at it closer and decided he better not get that close. He just happened to land in between the pictures that I took in Europe so we couldn't exactly get to him that easily. One thing that we will definately have to purchase is a fly swatter just in case he decides to tell his friends where to go. Jason, armed with a kitchen towel in one hand and a cup in the other, walked close to him but because of the precarious position that he was in as soon as he went to cup him he could still fly out and then we would have an angry bee or hornet on our hands. I tried to brave and went to go grab one of the pictures off the wall I tried hiding somewhat so that he couldn't see me. I moved the picture frame just a little bit and then looked at Jason who was watching the hornet very closely making sure that he didn't move closer to me, luckily it didn't move. I took the picture down and realized just how close I was to him at this moment and took off running towards the bedroom. I learned that move from Jordan when we were at home in Medford in the backyard if he found a wasps nest he'd make sure that the kitchen sliding glass door was open and then he would go to the side of the house and throw a rock or something at the nest and then he would take off running for the door often leaving me running behind him. Jason being the brave person that he was wanted to fold up the kitchen towel and then capture the hornet in that but decided maybe that wasn't such a good idea. I came out of the bedroom and was going to move another picture so that he could have a better shot with the cup and while we were discussing what our next move was going to be the hornet disappeared. We both ducked where we were and made sure we weren't being attacked and took off for the bedroom.

The hornet didn't make it too far, he ended up landing on the lamp that we have about 4 feet from the door. Jason was thinking that he was attracted to the lights so he shut them all off but then we couldn't see where the hornet was so I tried to be brave and approach the balcony door to hide behind, I was waiting for him to get far enough away from the light that I could switch on the balcony light that we have out there. He walked all over the wall, ceiling, window, and door but he never got over the molding on the door for some reason. Every now and then he looked like he was about to make his move and fly outside but he just landed back on the window or something. We sat there for about fifteen minutes watching this bee walk all over the walls and Jason was starting to get restless just sitting there. Right when he was going to make his move the cup the hornet flew outside and we quickly closed the door so that he wouldn't come back. Now if we had a fly swatter there probably would have been a completely different result, we would have either had a very angry or very smashed bee/hornet on our hands. We decided that we'll go out and by a fly swatter or by a screen for the balcony to prevent the bee/hornet from ever coming back, we'll see how that goes.

Soccer fun!

To be perfectly honest the past couple of weeks we haven't done a whole lot. We are just trying to enjoy the time that we have to spend with one another. I've been getting Jason caught up on some of my favorite TV shows, i.e. "Psych" and "Lost". Psych he had already seen a few episodes but with Lost we are just in season 1 and episode 21 and I think he is loving it, he does watch quite a few episodes while I'm gone at work. Also, good news, Jason has applied to start classes at Salt Lake Community College and we just signed up for financial aid the other day so hopefully it all works out.

Last night we actually went out to see a Salt Lake Real soccer game. This was Jason's first soccer game so we wanted it to be a good experience...however, Real lost so I hope it didn't ruin it too much for him. We invited Eden to come along with us since she is a big soccer fan so we bought our tickets online and then we took off to Smith's grocery store to find some snacks. There was no way that we were going to pay $4 for a bottle of water that you can purchase at the store for .49 cents. We also grabbed some swedish fish, caramels, and gummy worms. On our way home I remembered that they usually check through your bag when you go through the front gates so we were a little hesitant with bringing everything in. We went back to house to meet up with Eden and I started thinking what we would do if they prevented us from taking our snacks in. Jason was sick earlier this week and had finished off a bag of cough drops and so earlier yesterday morning I went out to grab some more...keep reading, there is a point to this random piece of trivia. We took all of the cough drops out of the bags and started filling the bags up with the candy. We couldn't make it too full because then they would definately be able to tell that there weren't any cough drops in there.

We had to wait in a long line to pick up our tickets and then we looked at the other line to get in which was much longer and Jason found an opening where no one was waiting so we showed them our tickets and they let us through...they didn't even check my purse, but they checked Eden's so it's probably a good thing that we decided to leave our water bottles at home. We got in and found our section and sat down in "our" seats. We actually had good seats and there was a cement block behind us that blocked the sun so there was no worries about getting a sunburn. Right before half time and group came over to us and asked us if we were in our proper seats we told them yes and then we realized we were in the wrong section...That was embarrassing. Oh well, I doubt that we will see them again.
That is Jason's finger in the picture, he wanted it to look like he was scratching Eden's head. I guess that's all that we have for now. Talk to you all later.

I hope this isn't too morbid...

I know that this might sound strange but I have always had an interest in walking through cemeteries. When dad and I would go on our walks while living in Medford sometimes he would take me to the oldest cemetery there and we'd just walk around and read the headstones. I'm not really sure why I like doing this because it does sound creepy, but I think I like the history, just thinking of the kind of life that these people lived. It's really interesting when you actually know the story behind some of the people that are buried there. This past Sunday Jason took me to the Salt Lake Cemetery, which is huge we walked for about 2 miles and still didn't see everything. In this cemetery is where a lot of the pioneers and prophets have been buried over the years. Most of the prophets graves are marked by obelisks, so they stand out and naturally draw you to them. We saw one very large one and walked towards it, it was in remembrance of Hyrum Smith who was actually laid to rest in Nauvoo. We saw the graves of John Taylor, Willford Woodruff, Joseph Fielding Smith, Joseph F. Smith, Heber J. Grant, David O. McKay, and Gordon B. Hinckley. Like I said we didn't get a chance to walk around the whole thing because our feet were aching and it was getting really warm, but we do plan on going back when it's nice outside again and trying to find some of the other noteable people in lds history.

The picture below came our dark but this is Heber J. Grants:

I thought that it was interesting to see so that's why I'm posting them. This past week we've just been working and trying to spend time with one another. It's been hard when Jason's schedule is working the night shift and I work the days so sometimes we just see each other for 2 hours before its time to go to bed and start all over again. I know that many of you did that when you were in your early married stages but wow, it's hard stuff. We are so excited to see Kevin, Nicole, Noah, and Abbie Mae this week and hopefully the weather will be nice enough where we will get to play wiffle ball again. I'll let you know who wins! Love you all,

What a Fantastic Year!!

It has officially been one year since I moved to Utah on March 31st 2008. It’s amazing how fast the time goes, however; it didn’t always feel like that. I decided that I am going to take a cue from my dad and give a year in review starting in March.

March 2008- Quit my job at the Medford Medical Clinic after working there for 3 years, told everyone I was moving to Utah to follow an idea of getting my master’s degree in curatorial studies. I was released as Relief Society President in my singles ward after two and a half years, that was a little hard but it was good for me. March 30th my parents helped me pack up my Nissan Sentra as much as possible, but I had to leave behind several favorite items. March 31st took off for Utah on my own drove straight through but had to stop a few times on the Salt Flats because I kept on getting tired. Finally arrived at Eden’s sisters house.

April 2008 – Moved into our new house, met the other three roommates and got to unpack the entire car by myself and lug it all down stairs, this I will tell you was not fun. Bought several items to make my bedroom look like home, i.e. bookcases dvd case, dresser, computer desk. General Conference morning I was the only one home so I had to go out and buy rabbit ears to watch it on the tv downstairs. Brittany and Clay moved to Utah too so I had family close by. Had a few job interviews but none that worked out.

May 2008 – Received my stimulus check so I bought a new bed and a new laptop computer. Definitely overspent that check but I had more left in savings to make up for it. My bedroom flooded, I backed into Eden’s car and finally, after 25 years of searching I found my better half at a stake FHE activity no less. He asked me out for that Friday night but I had plans to go camping with Brittany, Clay and Eden so he told me he’d call next week when he knew his schedule. I kept my phone close to me that whole camping trip and nothing. Finally on Monday afternoon he called and we had our first date. He was (and is) absolutely wonderful!!

June 2008 – Jason took me to Lagoon and to the zoo, we started officially dating and seeing each other ever day. He met members of my family and at the end of the month he took me down to California to meet his family. I didn’t do anything with the job search.

July 2008 - Met up with Kevin, Nicole, and Noah and played a few games of waffle ball they met Jason…seemed to like him. Since Jason and my birthday are so close together we went down to the DMV together to see if we could get our drivers licenses renewed. We got there 15 minutes to 7am and ended up being there until about 11:00am. Don’t worry though, we passed that test with flying colors and are now officially Utards.

August 2008- Went wedding ring shopping, did a lot of reading, watched a lot of softball/baseball games. Jason met my parents and asked them for permission to marry me…they said yes! Then the next day Dad had a seizure, my phone kept on going off every 30 minutes around 6:30 but it was on silent so I couldn’t hear it. Finally woke up and listened to my messages. Called Jason up so he could take me down there since I don’t think I was fit to drive. Dad was ok after a little bit. The next day Jason proposed!!!

September 2008- Went looking for apartments everywhere and narrowing it down to 2 that we really liked. Took Brittany, Clay, and Jason to see my favorite LDS band Colors, it was amazing. Decided that I needed to start making money to pay for the wedding so I went into a temp agency and walked away with a job at their office.

October 2008- Had our engagement pictures taken by Daniel, they turned out really well. Mom and Dad came out for General Conference; it was great to see them again. Finally went through a haunted house/maze thing.

November 2008- Packed up all of my stuff and moved into the new apartment with the help of Jason and Daniel. Had the flu for a few days and then took off to Oregon for the wedding. Went through the temple for my own endowments and then was sealed for time and all eternity to my best friend the very next day. Went to San Francisco for the honeymoon got lost quite a few times but that was ok, at least we were lost together.

December 2008- Jason moved his stuff into the apartment and we tried to make it feel more like home. Went to Temple Square to look at the lights, froze to death while walking around but it was beautiful. Met up with Brittany and Clay quite a bit to celebrate the holidays.

January 2009 – Mom came out to help Brittany with Maeli. Jason and I injured ourselves quite a bit but luckily none of it required stitches. Watched a lot of TV shows trying to get caught up.

February 2009- Had my first real Valentines day, it was awesome! Had free pancakes as IHOP and was introduced to the gelato place in West Jordan. Went to the temple again with Brittany and Clay.

March 2009 – Went down to California for Grandma Daggett’s birthday, hung out with family and played on the Wii. Found out that Jason and I can be really competitive when we want to be. Went to the South Jordan Temple by ourselves this time and had a good experience. Still trying to decide where to live, what to do, and when to do it.

So that’s my year in review and looking at it this way everything happened so fast but I’m glad it did. It was an amazing year and a lot of stuff happened that really made my year an adventure. With the trials that came I don’t think I would trade that for anything because the blessings that came afterwards made it all worth it. Love you guys.