Nate and Sarah - Our Adventures

The BEST Christmas present we could have ever asked for

2011-12-18T01:55:00.000-07:00

December 7th is a special day for us. No, not because of Pearl Harbor (although that is an important event too). Officially our family grew from two to three on December 7th at 11:18am. And here she is...Meritt Ellie Conder 6lbs. 7oz. and 18 1/2 inches long. Yes, she is a little thing. Once we left the hospital, she was down to 6lbs.

Our precious daughter. I don't think either one of us knew how easily we could completely love this little girl

Her birth was a planned cesarean and Nate did an amazing job. He was in the room with me the entire time, and saw the whole thing. This nice thing about this type of birth is that I wasn't in any pain, and didn't have to do much, so I remember everything. She cried right away, which was an amazing sound. I didn't get to hold her until I was in recovery, but Nate brought her over to me so I could see the little angel.

We spent the next 5 days in the hospital recovering and using all the help from the wonderful nurses and hospital staff while we were there. I have to say Huntington Memorial is a great hospital. Through this entire pregnancy and delivery I had the best doctors and nurses take care of me and our daughter.

We made it home on December 11th and have been working to adjust to our new schedule. Little Meritt has her days and nights mixed, so she sleeps great during the day and pretty bad at night. Hopefully,this will work itself out.

Nate has been such a HUGE help through it all. He actually gets up with her at night and lets me sleep, then I get up with her in the mornings and let him sleep. He is an amazing dad and has fallen so naturally and comfortably into the role. I am so proud of him. It's amazing how she already has him wrapped around her little finger.

First bath at home. She hates the soap, but loves the warm water rinse

She loves cuddling with her daddy

Yes, the BEST Christmas present

Some other pictures...

I look like I've already been given some medication, but I think I was just a little sleepy...and nervous.

Nate ready to go

Daddy and daughter

First family picture. We will take a better one now that we are home

So cute, but I hope this isn't going to be a habit.

My parents cleaned our apartment while I was in the hospital, and left this for us

and this!

Now we are just adjusting to being parents and not sleeping much. I'm really lucky because Nate gets to stay home with us until January 9th, when he starts his new EMT job. It will be interesting to see what happens then...and how I handle her alone for part of the day. Stay tuned for more...

Third Trimester - 4 weeks and counting

2011-11-13T18:25:00.001-07:00

My, how time has flown by, especially during this last trimester. We have been busy getting everything ready for the baby and keeping up with our regularly scheduled lives. Mostly work for both of us, but it is certainly enough to keep us busy. I am just over 35 weeks today, and can hardly believe that in just 4 weeks we will have a daughter.

Here are some pictures to document my progress:

Yes, this little girl is definitely growing. We'll make sure to take more pictures in the last few weeks to see just how things change in the last month.

Highlights from the third trimester weeks 28-40 (I know we're not quite there yet, but if I waited until then to update, this post would not get done for quite a long time):

Nate's family came to town for his birthday and a family vacation. They rented a house in Anaheim, where we all stayed for 3-4 days.We went to Disneyland, an Angel's game, dinner for Nate's birthday and just had a great time! Disneyland was low-key for me, since there were only a few rides that I could go on.
I've continued to be monitored on a very frequent basis. Starting at 28 weeks, the doctor had me come in a least twice each week for non-stress testing. I get hooked up to a monitor that tracks the heartbeat and another that tracks contractions. So far, everything has been mostly normal. Once in a while, she is sleepy and they have to wake her up a bit to see that her heart rate accelerates the way that it should.
Starting at about 32 weeks, the doctor added a weekly ultrasound to the mix. Prior to this, I had been going in every two weeks for ultrasounds. My fluid levels are still low, and the baby is a little small for the gestational age, so the doctor just wants to make sure she stays on top of things.
The last 2 weeks or so, sleeping has been rough. I am up about every 2-3 hours either going to the bathroom, or changing position or both. My back hurts just about every night and I frequently wake up in pain. It seems like there aren't enough pillows in this house to sleep comfortably. I am wishing that we DID get that Lazy-Boy that Nate wanted to rock the baby in. Maybe next time.
As of Thursday, the baby is still breech. The doctor has scheduled a cesarean delivery for December 7. Appropriate for our first child. Definitely a day that will live in infamy.
Bought a car seat and stroller (after a TON of research and stress). We also made sure to have the Highway Patrol install the car seat and show us the right way to do it. It's a great, FREE service, especially since you hear such awful statistics about car seats installed incorrectly.
I had my baby shower in Fresno on October 29th. Cynthia and Andrea put it on for me. It was perfect! I had such a great time. Here are a couple of pictures of the day:

Nate and I went on our last little get-a-way before the baby comes. Because I am 35 weeks, we decided that it was best to stay close to home (within an hour of the hospital) so we opted for a short weekend at Disneyland. Given that at 28 weeks, there was a little that I could do, at 35 weeks it seemed to be even less. That didn't stop us from having a great time. We watched the HOLIDAY fireworks (Awesome! And Disney even made it snow!!) and Fantasmic on Friday night. We also went and had a great steak dinner (porkchops for me) at Stubricks in Fullerton. I was most excited that the park was decorated for Christmas, since all the advertising said November 14-Jan 8. There is nothing better than Disneyland at Christmas time! On Saturday we came back and watched a couple of shows (Aladdin and the Tikki Room) Nate rode the roller coaster, we both went on the Ferris wheel, took a few pictures and made it to dinner in time to see the end of the Utah UCLA game. We also caught the UFC fight, but that lasted all of about 40 seconds, so it wasn't very interesting. Here are the pictures from the day:

Waiting for Muppets 3D

Baby girl's first trip to Disneyland! :-)

We tried to give our lists to Santa, but he was in a hurry!

On the GIANT Ferris wheel. I can ride the Tower of Terror all day and not be afraid of getting hurt, but the Ferris wheel scares me some.

California Screamin' from the Ferris wheel.

It started raining a little, but since I am 8 months pregnant I could just barely zip my rain jacket. Nate suggested we try switching to see if his was any bigger. It was, but I couldn't let him walk around the park like this!

So, I stuck with wearing my own coat. It DID zip, it was just a little tight.

First family picture at Disneyland...and the proof that baby girl has been there once already. She should be good until she's like 7 or 8 I think.

Giant tree in Disneyland. I LOVE this picture. I am not sure what Nate did, but the tree lit against the night sky is just beautiful.

Now we are just waiting for December 7th. It's going to be odd going to bed on the 6th just like normal, but then on the 7th we have a baby.

There are a few other things to look forward to. We are staying home for Thanksgiving this year, and I am going to cook my first Thanksgiving dinner. It will be just the two of us, but I am excited for the meal. I won't cook a turkey, but I think we will roast a chicken instead. Then, all the other normal food: mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, stuffing, cranberry sauce, rolls, and cucumbers and vinegar. Of course, what meal would be complete without my pumpkin pie?? I'm also going to make an Oreo Cheesecake. It will be great!

We also have the ward Christmas Party on December 3rd. I think I am going to make cupcakes for this one. Thanks to Andrea's sister Kara, I learned that the frosting recipe on the back of the C&H powdered sugar box is AMAZING! I may even take some to work.

I have 2 more baby showers to look forward to. On Friday the 18th, work is putting something together, which is surprising since I haven't been there that long. Plus, I don't really like being the center of attention so it will be a little hard. Then, that same night Connie Jorgensen and Nicole McIntyre are putting on a shower with the Relief Society sisters. Honestly, I hadn't expected so much love through all of this, but I sure am grateful for it!

Babies, money and moving

2011-10-13T16:18:00.001-06:00

First, I have to say that I NEVER realized that kids were so expensive BEFORE they are born. So far, we have an entire room full of new furniture, a stroller, car seat, some clothes for the baby, more maternity clothes for me, a few boxes of diapers and wipes and a bassinet. Luckily, a LOT of this came by way of gift from my family and Nate's. Thank goodness, because what seems like all of our money is going out to the various doctors that I see and tests that I have to have done. Another blessing through this whole pregnancy is the timing. Baby girl will be here in December, which means that we are just in time to get the tax deduction for 2011. PLUS, we have reached all of the out-of-pocket maximums on our insurance now, so the delivery will be paid 100% by insurance. I've done my research on the cost to have a baby. A normal, non-complicated delivery can be $6,000+. Add in any complications, like say a C-section, and this number just keeps getting bigger.

Don't get me wrong, Nate and I are very excited and extremely grateful for this baby. I know that there are so many people out there that desperately want kids and can't get pregnant. Or, people that know they can't get pregnant, but can't afford the alternatives of in-vitro or adoption. I am convinced that Heavenly Father has a special plan for each of these couples and no doubt blessings will come.

My point in writing all of this, is that I just don't understand how it is all going to work out for us. I can't even begin to fathom how much money we will spend once our daughter is born...and then adding 2-3 children to this in the future.

So, how does all of this relate to moving? Well, aside from a healthy child, we want nothing more than to be out of California permanently. Neither Nate nor I like living here. Southern California is too crowded, and the people that live here are rude for the most part. It's not a safe place for kids to grow up in. There is not easy access to camping, hiking, fishing, hunting...all the things that we love to do and want our kids to grow up with. Yes, I know that we CAN do all of those things here, but it's not that easy. You have to drive for hours in awful traffic to get anywhere with the type of outdoor recreation that we enjoy. We want to live in a place that is close to the mountains (and by close, I mean 20 minute drive max). A place where we feel safe letting our children play outside, and safe sending them to school. A place where Nate can work in a career that he loves, instead of a job that he does just to provide for our family. A place where we can afford a house and perhaps some property. We want animals. Hunting dogs at the very least, but we'd like some chickens and maybe a cow too. A place where people are friendly to their neighbors, and the word "gator" doesn't mean an amphibian that lives in a swamp. A place where "usta could" is a normal phrase and hunt isn't a four letter word. I know, this probably sounds crazy to most of you, but this is where our heart and soul belongs. We were never meant to live in the "city".

Now to the dilemma. I have a really good job here that isn't exactly transferable to Utah or Colorado (our top two choices to move). I am teaching too, which is good experience, but to move for just a teaching job would mean taking a HUGE pay cut. Money isn't the most important thing, (not even close) but we do need it to survive. Nate is starting to work as an EMT, which is a little more transferable than my job, but if any of you have moved across state lines, finding a job is not easy. We can't just pack up and move without the prospect of at least one job. So how in the heck do we ever get out of here?!

I suppose the real answer lies in faith. Faith that Heavenly Father is aware of us and knows what we need. Faith that He will never leave us, regardless of our circumstances. Faith that a path will be made known to us, as long as we continue to do our part. Faith that as we follow the Spirit, we will be led in the direction that is best for us, even if we don't think so at the time. This is the hardest lesson I have to learn in mortality.

Week in review...

2011-09-27T17:38:00.000-06:00

And yes, I know that it is only Tuesday. I'm actually not going to post anything about my week here and now. It would throw some people under the bus and as much as I want to do that at times, I know that's not my job. But it does bring me to my purpose for writing this. So many times I read friends blogs and they start something like this "10 things that made me happy this week"...is it wrong to post about the million things that make me sad, or upset or depressed? I know, that's not what people want to read about, but that's life. It's not all puppies and sunshine. I guess that I just have to suffer through this alone, because it's not polite or nice to share in a public forum.

Second Trimester fun!

2011-09-11T23:22:00.001-06:00

Today I am a little over 26 weeks, and almost to the end of my second trimester. I thought it was time to give a little update on baby girl Conder. I suppose that is the first update. On June 29th we found out that we are having a girl. We wanted to know before we left for Utah for the 4th of July so we could tell Nate's parents. Every subsequent ultrasound I ALWAYS ask if it's still a girl. Not that I think the gender will spontaneously change, but that the tech read it wrong or our boy is being modest. As of Wednesday, it is still a girl.

At this point I should tell you that Nate was SO excited for a girl. I honestly didn't care. I just wanted a healthy baby, which so far, so good.

Here are a couple pictures so far. I think we'll take them every four weeks until I get a little further along.

Highlights from the second trimester:

- Food started to taste better (which is evident by the weight I have gained) and the morning sickness subsided. I have more energy and feel really good for the most part.

- As soon as we knew it was a girl, we had a name picked out. No arguments or disagreements. It just fit. We are still trying to narrow down the middle name. Not to worry though, we'll get it done by the time she arrives. As for the name we've picked, we're not telling anyone until she's born.

- We had some genetic screening done, and found out that we screened positive for a neural tube defect. The one good thing that the State of California does is provide a free ultrasound and amniocentesis when a woman screens positive. Thankfully, the ultrasound showed nothing serious and we declined the amnio. The risk just wasn't worth it to us. Since then, the doctor has kept a close eye on me and the baby. I go in for ultrasounds every two weeks.

- My amniotic fluid was a bit low (actually still is) so the doctor told me I couldn't exercise at all. Kind of a bummer because I finally started feeling up to it. Better to have a safe pregnancy and healthy baby.

- We felt the baby move for the first time around 18 weeks. I'll always remember the look on Nate's face. Since then, he frequently talks to her, which I think is really cute. Now that she is a bit bigger, she moves much more often (or at least I feel her more often). She especially likes to jump right on my bladder. It's great fun. She is a bit stubborn too (probably gets that from me). When I can tell that she's being active and then put my hand on my tummy to feel, she stops. Oh, but she'll start moving again as soon as I move my hand.

- We were able to travel some, and took a cruise to Alaska (post about this to come later). It was our last chance for this kind of vacation for the next several years.

- My parents purchased the nursery furniture and we spent a little over a week putting it all together.

I have since hung curtains, but don't have a picture with them up. We both love to just sit in the room. For some reason it's very peaceful and relaxing.

- I have had to buy even bigger maternity clothes. It's a little sad, but everyone that I talk to says I look great. Not sure if that's the truth or if they're just trying to make me feel better. It's just really hard to have lost 70 lbs over the past 4 years and now feel like it's all just coming back on. I try to focus on the fact that in a few short months we will have a baby, but it's still sort of hard to believe.

- I finished the registries at Babies R Us and Target. Once we knew it was a girl, I added all the cute clothes.

- I seem to not be able to resist the impulse to buy cute outfits for the baby when we go to Target. I ordered a bunch of stuff online on clearance too. I've got to get this under control so she's not spoiled.

- I started to sleep on my side. Not because I wanted to, but sleeping on my stomach isn't possible, and seeping on my back tends to be a little uncomfortable. This means that I am switching from side to side at least 3-4 times per night. Thank goodness for the Snoogle. It's an AMAZING pillow that makes sleeping possible.

I think that about covers this trimester. I can't believe that it's almost over. I've got a little less than 14 weeks to go, and I know that it is going to fly by.

I'll try to update this a little more often as I start to get bigger by the day. I'm just excited to meet this little girl, but at the same time very scared of the labor process. I'm sure that's all very natural to feel. Thank goodness I have such a wonderful and supportive husband. For lots of reasons (and not just the obvious ones) I couldn't have done or continue to do this without him. I Love you Nate!

4th of July - We LOVE Richfield

2011-09-09T16:12:00.003-06:00

I am way behind in these posts, so I need to start to catch up before I fall behind again once school starts. Nate and I have made a commitment to be in Richfield every Fourth and this year was no exception. We love the small town celebration, plus it was Nate's 10 year class reunion. It's been over a month, so alot of the details are fuzzy. Heading out, we knew that we wanted to go to Capitol Reef (we had a magnet to get), go to Salina Creek for some camping and fishing, visit the Manti temple and of course go to all the BBQ's, fireworks shows and the parade. In between we also had very specific places that we HAD to eat (Wingers, Taco Time and Sun Glow cafe...yes, pickle pie IS good!)

The one thing that I wasn't prepared for were the monsoons. I love the thunder and lightning, but the rain messed up our camping plans. We did manage to get up to Salina Creek for some fishing, but we never made it all the way up to the property. That was a little sad. We wanted some video of the property to take home to watch whenever we missed it.

Here is a video compilation from our fishing that really shows the rain

Aside from fishing, and food, we planned lots of time with friends and family...and some time at the shooting range (Nate needed to sight-in his .3006) and amazing fireworks. We came home accomplished on all accounts.

Here is a video of the fireworks we set off in front of Nate's parents house. This year Utah removed all restrictions on fireworks (well, technically I think that the only restriction was that they couldn't reach over 150 feet in the air). It was pretty impressive and a LOT of fun. I think in all we had 3 nights of fireworks, with a BBQ each night before the show. I'm sure I gained 5 lbs while we were there.

The last thing to share is just a couple of photos of family, friends and some of the things we did while there. Sadly, we didn't take nearly as many pictures as we should have. I've got a couple months to get better at that before the baby comes.

Emmy on the Dynamite Cheer float in the 4th of July parade. Yes, the parade is one of my favorite things about the 4th of July in Richfield.

Addi enjoying the slide at the park. I think that she was supposed to go down twice, but she was a little fuzzy on that rule. It was great to see her having so much fun! Yep, another thing we miss about being in Utah, or at least closer than we are now.

Our new nephew, Grayson with Grandpa Conder. Brandon and Brynn sure have set the bar high when it comes to kids. What a cutie Grayson is!

I LOVE fishing!! I think this was the first fish of the day, and I caught it on the first cast. Of course Nate told me where to cast, but still I did the work. This smile hardly does it justice. I get SO excited every time I land a fish.

First trip to Manti. We didn't stay long, but it was a beautiful drive. The Temple is so picturesque too. Absolutely beautiful!

The landscape that we love and miss so much! It may not look like much to anyone else, but the wide open spaces, red rock, green trees, blue sky, white clouds and clean air is a sight for sore eyes. We miss this!!

This post is a bit late, so I am sure that I have forgotten a lot of the details. I just know that we love Utah, we love visiting Richfield and we love our family and friends. We very eagerly and anxiously look forward to the day that we get to move back.

How we found out

2011-06-13T16:42:00.000-06:00

The beginning:

Nate and I decided that after we hiked the Grand Canyon we would settle down a bit and start trying to have our first child. The dates are important here. We hiked the Grand Canyon March 6-10, 2011. After taking birth control on and off for 5 years, I officially stopped on February 23, 2011. After the Grand Canyon, I thought I ended up with a bladder infection. For a couple of weeks I was in and out of the doctors for tests and x-rays. Well, it was finally determined that I had a cyst, which would need to be removed. Out patient surgery was scheduled for April 13th at 2pm. I showed up the day of surgery, starving because I had to fast since midnight. They put me in a room and got me all ready to go in. IV was started and the nurse verified all medications. I didn't know it then, but they run a pregnancy test on every women prior to any surgery. I was no exception. I was talking to the nurse, when another nurse, or possibly some type of nurse assistant, came in to run the test. I provided the urine sample (in a cup) and she provided the stick. As she was testing it, she leans over to the other nurse to get her attention. She points to the test and whispers something. I was pretty oblivious at this point. The nurse who was verifing medication asked me if my husband and I were trying to get pregnant. I said yes, but confirmed that I wasn't. I had taken a home pregnancy test just a few days before and it was negative. She looked at me and simply said, yes you are. The moment was surreal. I didn't believe it at first, but quickly started crying. I asked for a blood test, just to make sure. In the meantime, they brought Nate in the room and I told him the good news. I don't remember much of his reaction, except that he was happy and bent down to hug me (I was still on the hospital bed, IV in arm). Obviously the surgery was cancelled and surprisingly, the cyst just went away all on it's own. I was 5 weeks on April 13th. That means that a mereTWO weeks after I stopped taking birth control, I was pregnant. My doctor warned me that this could happen, but I didn't really believe her. I thought for sure that we would have to try for a few months at least, six months to a year worst case. God had other plans, which we are both so greatful for!

Highlights of the first trimester:

- I felt pretty good the first couple weeks after I found out. I would say about week 7, I started feeling nauseated and exhausted all day long. This lasted until about week 14, and even then it's not completely gone, just better. As a result, I worked from home a lot! Thankfully, the Bank was cool with the situation.

- I threw up twice. I actually wanted to throw up more and lose some weight before I put a bunch back on. The two times that I did throw up were not pleasant, but actually quite painful.

- I ate a LOT of crackers in the first few weeks. I couldn't handle much else and it seemed to help the nausea. Later on, crackers changed to protien. I wanted meat all the time, but nothing greasy.

- We ate at Denny's about week 8. I highly doubt that I will eat there again. I ordered some kind of omlet, but everything was SO greasy that it all just made me sick.

- Raw vegetables were certainly not appealing, but V8 juice was.

- Most of the time I couldn't cook because the smells made me sick. I'll never understand this one, because the end result was always yummy!

- I started drinking and actually craving milk. Up to this point, I only used milk for cereal or occasionally had a glass of chocolate milk.

- Fruits still appealed to me. Especially peaches, with or without cream. So tasty!

- I ate fast food more often than I should have, but when you can't cook there aren't many other options.

- I gained 10 lbs almost immediately. This was the hardest part for me. The four years prior to getting pregnant I worked VERY hard to lose and keep off about 70 lbs. Now it feels like it is all just coming back on. Everyone tells me that I'll get back to where I was, and I think I will too. I just don't want to be one of those pregnant women that looks fat.

- At week 7 we heard the heart beat for the very first time. It was amazing! We heard it again at week 10 and week 12 we had an ultrasound for Downs Syndrome Screening and the baby looked like a baby.

- All the families were excited for the news. My parents are stoked to be first-time grandparents, and Nate's will be adding their third grandchild.

- Round ligament pain. No one EVER mentions this, until you actually have them and ask someone that was previously pregnant. They'll confirm that it's normal and can be incredibly painful.

- I have to pee all the time. I used to sleep through the night, now I am up at least twice each night. I guess that is to get you used to waking up in the middle of the night.

One trimester down, two to go. Stay tuned.

And baby makes three...

2011-06-07T17:38:00.000-06:00

So...I'm sure you've guessed...Nate and I are expecting our first child in December. December 15 to be exact. This was the third ultrasound, but the first time he or she looks like an actual baby. I'm 12 weeks and 5 days today. We're both really excited. I wish I had a video camera on Nate during the ultrasound. He was SO excited and marveled at the fact that we created a new life. (Well, we both were and did). It's going to be an exciting 6 months, which I will try to blog about. I have to say, I am slightly hesitant only because I know so many people that want children but haven't been able to yet. I certainly wouldn't want my excitement to make anyone else feel bad. But, on the other hand this is our journal - I have to record it somewhere.

Family pictures

2011-04-30T20:49:00.002-06:00

Thanks to Aaron Rogers we had a blast taking these family pictures. It's probably the last time for a while that we will all be together. Adam leaves for North Dakota in a month. I can't believe my baby brother is all grown up. Anyway, on to the pictures...

Grand Canyon - March 6-10, 2011

2011-04-30T15:46:00.000-06:00

This post is a bit overdue, but things have been slightly crazy here lately for a couple of different reasons that I'm not going to talk about. Anyway, Nate and I went on one of the most spectacular trips by far. We hiked about 40 miles over 5 days in the Grand Canyon. Our goal was to hike rim to rim to rim, but we were foiled by some rain and snow closer to the North rim, so we couldn't go much beyond Cottonwood Camp Ground.

I'm not a good story teller, so in keeping with tradition of past posts, I'll just get right to the pictures.

Our first view into the canyon from the South Kaibab trail head.

Clean, energized and ready to go. Probably won't be the same story when we hike out.

Snow on the South rim as we descend nearly 5,000 feet down to the Colorado River.

We have to hike down THAT?! Yeah, we may be young numerically, but our knees seemed as though they were 70 years old or more.

Our camera simply does not do justice to the colors in the canyon. Red rock, green grass...it was amazing!

Just a couple miles in and feeling pretty good.

They say that over 250 people have to be rescued from the canyon each year. There are a few telephones, but very few and FAR between, so it's best to plan ahead and not have to get rescued.

Black Bridge over the Colorado. Have I mentioned that I have a fear of heights?? Not sure how this is going to go over.

Cool tunnel that you have to cross through to get to the bridge. The camera flash lights it up, but it was pitch black inside. A little creepy.

That's me holding on for dear life. It's a long drop into the river from here.

Shot of the Colorado from the bridge. I've said it a few times, but it is really an amazing place!

Nate is much more cool, calm and collected crossing the bridge.

Our new tent. Works pretty well...especially compared to the Wal-Mart special we used before...in a snow storm no less.

Pack of mules carrying down stuff for Phantom Ranch...or the lazy people that want to experience the canyon and not do any of the real work.

Leaving Bright Angel Camp after the first night and heading for Cottonwood Camp Ground.

There were a series of much more manageable bridges through Bright Angel Canyon. I couldn't pick a favorite part of the hike because it is all just simply beautiful, but this was pretty amazing through the canyon. Always close to a flowing river, shade from the high canyon walls and solitude. Who could ask for anything more?

Oh, did I mention rain? It was a good excuse to use the new Cabela's raincoat that Nate's parents gave me for my birthday. Not a drop of water permeated the jacket. Cabela's and Nate's parents rock!

Watch for falling rocks.

Coming out of Bright Angel Canyon.

Stopping for lunch and trying to figure out how much farther we have to go.

Crazy agave plant. This picture makes it look smaller than it really was.

Almost to Cottonwood, although we didn't know it. Cool stream crossing and little water fall. Nate had the camera most of the time, so most of the pictures are of me hiking.

Buildings can only mean one thing...Cottonwood!!

It was a COLD night!

Ice that formed on our tent overnight.

Ribbon Falls just a little ways from the main trail back to Bright Angel.

And we're back at Bright Angel. The campsites were really nice. Tables and locking boxes to keep rodents out of our food, plus poles for our packs so the squirrels can't get in.

And there is the pole. Take that little ground squirrels and other rodents that want to chew my Osprey pack.

Last picture on the Colorado River bank. It doesn't look like it, but it is really wide.

The second bridge to the Bright Angel Trail. Much scarier bridge. You can see through to the bottom of the river.

He's like Atlas, and he's my husband!

Hiking out the Bright Angel Trail. Completely different scenery than the South Kaibab.

One of many, many lizards on the trail. Nate was fascinated.

You can just barely make it out, but this is looking down at the trail we just came up. I had never been so sore and tired in my life!

On our way to Indian Gardens and our last night in the canyon.

Four days without a shower, don't judge!

We LOVE the poles for the packs. It kinda spoils us for every other hike we will go on in the future.

Last day. Four miles and several thousand feet to hike out. We can do this!

More trail, more switch backs.

Love the color contrast.

Pictographs. Really old and really cool.

Gaiters on - check. Shoe chains on - check. Bring on the snow and sludge.

About half way up. The color is washed out, but what we saw was amazing!

More snow. So weird to have come from the bottom of the canyon where it was shorts and tee-shirt, to snowy and coldie.

5 days later, we make it out safe and sound, but a little tired and worn out. We are smiling here because we know what waits for us in Flagstaff. Bacon cheeseburger and a chocolate shake. YUMMY!!

We lived in Utah and NEVER saw an elk crossing sign. Of course, we had to take a picture. Although we never saw any elk.

Last sunset in Arizona driving back to Los Angeles.

So, there are some more pictures and a lot of video that are still on our video camera. One day I may get around to figuring out how to get it off and post it, but for now this is an accomplishment. Since the hike we've not really done much, but at the same time we've done A LOT! There will be more posts to come about the next adventures.

Eight months in pictures

2011-03-19T13:16:00.000-06:00

We moved to Los Angeles in July of 2010, and I have fallen off the blog universe ever since. What can I say about living in LA...it's not Utah that's for sure. There are about a billion people in this city and they all seem to be on the freeway at the same time. It seems like most people are rude and in a hurry. Supposedly, we can get anything in SoCal, but you have to drive an hour+ to get there...and if you are looking for anything related to a gun, good luck! We had to get the holster for Nate's handgun in Phoenix. On the upside, We are close to Disneyland and have season passes. We love our ward, and the few friends that we have here. Instead of a long narrative, I'll give you the picture book version of our life over the past eight months.

AUGUST:

Mormon Night with the Dodgers.

SEPTEMBER:

Hike to Henninger Flats. Who would ever think that some place like this is so close to the city!

Ribbon cutting ceremony at Outdoor Outlet. Nate started working here in August and is now an Assistant Manager.

OCTOBER and NOVEMBER:

Blake Griffin is a STUD! (Not in looks, but in skills)

Floor seats at the Clippers game! Literally...our feet were on the court. What a night!

Victory at the Battle of the Pump Game! And the trophy stays at FCC!

My little brother. I can see the resemblance.

Mom and Adam's birthday. I can't believe my little brother is 20! And he is leaving for college in North Dakota in a couple months.

My puppy, who isn't really a puppy weighing in at 110 lbs. Sweet Shelby

Baby Roxie

Life in LA. This is my building at night, and some other shots of downtown. Don't let the daytime shot fool you, that was a VERY light traffic day!

What a good uncle! Helping his niece with her princess shoes.

Utah for Thanksgiving, and we decided to give our niece her Christmas present early. I'm so glad we did! It was so much fun seeing her so excited! She is such a doll and one of the things we miss the most about living in Utah.

DECEMBER:

Disneyland at Christmas time.My favorite time of the year. We went with Mom and Dad Conder while they were here.

We actually celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve, so we could drive to Fresno and surprise my parents. It was the FIRST time my dad has ever had all of his kids on Christmas.

LOVE my new down coat! (Not part of the $40 game)

Our first Christmas tree and our first Christmas together in our home. Last year we moved from California to Utah right before Christmas. This year, we started a new tradition. We went to Wal-Mart each with $40 cash. We were supposed to get as many gifts as we could. You can see our spoils. It was really fun! And very much like 007 in the store.

Christmas morning...the sky looked like it was on fire!

Christmas in Fresno!

Adam and Monique

Mark, who hates being in pictures, so he rarely shows his face.

Mom and Dad

Horrible picture, but I DID get an awesome rolling pin with $300 on it

2011:

Valentine's Day. Flowers and chocolate covered strawberries

In other news that I don't have pictures for, Nate went back to school in January. I think about 3 weeks after he finished his bachelor's degree. Over the course of 2 months, Nate completed an EMT program and passed with one of the highest grades in the class. Last week (after our Grand Canyon hike, which will be featured in the next post) he took the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians exam and passed with flying colors. He is now officially qualified to work as an EMT anywhere in the country. He just has to get the background check done for LA County then he can start work. In the meantime he is working at Outdoor Outlet and loves it. No sales pressure and he gets to help people with something that he genuinely cares about and has real experiential knowledge of.

As for me, well, I am working at the bank still (of course) and I am also teaching at Pasadena City College. Accounting 1A one night each week. I love it! It is a TON of work and I have realized that teachers are woefully underpaid, but the experience is invaluable! I just hope that I can continue teaching in the future semesters.

Well, that's the last eight months in a nutshell.

Finally, a resolution!

2010-11-09T10:29:00.000-07:00

I didn't blog about this when it happened, but in July of 2009 my dad was in a horrific motorcycle accident. A semi-truck turned left against a red light right in front of my dad. He couldn't avoid the collision. He struck the left side (as you are looking at the truck) of the grill, rebounded 12 feet from the collision and landed on the pavement. His entire left side of his body was crushed. Broken femur, ankle, knee, wrist, jaw...it was terrible. But, he is alive and there is no brain or spinal injury to speak of. He still has a couple surgeries to go (knee and hip replacement) and he'll never work again, but, like I said...he is alive.

With all of this, there was a court case in the midst. The truck that hit my dad was a Land o' Lakes milk truck. There was a law suit filed in August 2009, finally settled in November 2010. Right after the accident, I contacted a motorcycle accident attorney to take his case. We both knew that it would be BIG. They did all their homework and research. Experts, doctors etc...all provided opinions. Land o' Lakes offered $600,000 the first go around to settle. My dad's past medical bills alone were nearly $300,000. Trial attorneys were brought in and the case continued. The offer was upped to $2.5 million. Through the process, one of the defense (Land o' Lakes) witnesses had the nerve to say how lucky my dad was that he struck the "soft spot" of the truck. Funny...I didn't know that a semi-truck had a soft spot! The defense also hired a private investigator to follow and video tape my dad. It's amazing what lengths a company would go to simply to avoid making restitution for their mistake. Which, they admitted FULL responsibility for the accident. Well, after more than a week in court, my dad walks away with $6.5 million. He doesn't get all of that. The lawyers have to be paid...but he'll be taken care of for the rest of his life, with the right investing of course.

Here is an article that was published about the case:

Land O'Lakes to Pay $6.45 Million for Injuries From 2009 Auto Accident
by Jason W. Armstrong

Daily Journal
A Kings County Superior Court jury late Tuesday awarded a 55-year-old former prison guard $6.45 million for debilitating injuries he suffered when his motorcycle plowed into a truck making an illegal turn.

"Panish Shea & Boyle partner Kevin Boyle said his firm rejected Land O'Lakes' offer to settle for $2.5 million before trial. "

The panel's award to Robert Crenshaw against the truck's owner, Minn.-based dairy giant Land O'Lakes Inc., marked the largest civil judgement ever in the central California county, according to attorneys involved in the case.

The county's previous record verdict was $1.6 million earlier this year.

"This verdict will allow Mr. Crenshaw to live out the rest of his life with dignity," said Brian Panish, name partner with Los Angeles' Panish Shea & Boyle, who represented the plaintiff. "The jury did a great job of recognizing the seriousness of his injuries."

Land O'Lakes' lawyer, Lawrence E. DeWitt of Fresno's Petrie, Dorfmeier & Morris, did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

The accident at the heart of the case occurred on July 20, 2009, when Crenshaw slammed head-on into a truck as it turned against a red light at Kansas Ave. and State Route 43 in an unincorporated area near Hanford. Crenshaw's motorcycle landed across his left leg when he hit the ground, and he suffered dozens of broken bones and fractures across his body.

He had to quit his 16-year job as a guard at nearby Corcoran State Prison, and doctors said he would never be able to return back to that line of work, according to court papers.

Crenshaw sued Land O'Lakes and the truck driver, Bradley R. Smith, for negligence in Aug. 2009, seeking compensation for past and future medical expenses, loss of earnings, past and future pain and suffering damages and the cost of his destroyed motorcycle and other property.

Land O'Lakes and Smith ultimately admitted liability in the case, according to the company's filings, so the sole question before jurors was how much in damages to award. Panish ended up dismissing Smith from the case and pursuing damages solely against Land O'Lakes.

Panish Shea & Boyle partner Kevin Boyle said his firm rejected Land O'Lakes' offer to settle for $2.5 million before trial. Of the $6.45 million the jury awarded Crenshaw after the seven-day trial before Judge Thomas DeSantos, the panel awarded $1.35 million for future medical costs, $329,000 for past medical expenses, $1.3 million for future earnings loss, and $111,000 for past earnings loss.

The verdict also comprised $2.5 million for future pain and suffering, $750,000 for past pain and suffering, $87,000 for loss of Crenshaw's ability to operate his household, and $5,000 for property loss.

Boyle said jurors seemed to be swayed by Crenshaw's testimony, as well as video of Crenshaw the defense shot in its investigation into the plaintiff's injury claims.

"We played it as part of the plaintiff's case," Boyle said. "It demonstrated how disabled he really was."

I testified in the trial and was able to listen to a couple days of proceedings. It was pretty emotional. But, it's over now and we can all rest a little easier knowing that they'll be ok.

One year down...

2010-10-13T16:04:00.000-06:00

This post is only slightly overdue. Nate and I celebrated our one year anniversary (August 22) National Treasure style. What does that mean, you ask? We went to Washington D.C., and Philadelphia. We saw the sights, took pictures and just had a great time. We had to add our own flavor too though, so we made side trips to Gettysburg and Shenandoah National Park. It was an amazing trip, to say the least. Here is a summary of events with pictures:

August 19th, day one: We flew out of LAX at 7:35am. For any of you that have ever flown out of LAX, it is a MADHOUSE at any hour. We were up this morning at about 3:00am to be ready to leave the house by about 4:30am. This may seem really early, but traffic is also something else to expect in LA at any hour. We also had to leave early to get to the parking lot and allow enough time for the shuttle to get us to the airport. Needless to say we made it on the flight. We got to DC about 5:30pm that night and were exhausted. We checked into our room, got some dinner and went to bed. The adventures were starting bright and early the next morning.

We had a pretty sweet room. This was at the Country Inn and Suites in Virginia. I ALWAYS book on Priceline and manage to get pretty nice rooms for a fraction of the price.

Nate cooking dinner the first night. We were on a tight budget, so most of our meals were store bought and cooked in the hotel room, and lunches were sandwiches that we made ourselves. It saves a TON of money.

The "suite" part of the room. A little couch that we never sat on.

August 20th, day two: For those of you that may not know me very well, I am a planner. I had our detailed itinerary worked out before we even left. I like having a schedule, and I think it is the most efficient way to ensure that you get to see everything that you want to see. Day one, my main goal was to get to the Washington Monument to get tickets to go up to the top. I think everything in DC is free (well, on Capitol Mall) as long as you get there first. We were up early. Around 6am. We took the metro everywhere, which was another aspect of my planning. The upside: we got tickets. After this, we made the trek from the Washington Monument to Lincoln Memorial. This was a favorite of Nate's. He said that it was a spiritual experience. (I'm probably getting that wrong...so maybe he'll log in and clarify/update this) We walked through some of the monuments on our way back to the Capitol. The common ones: Vietnam Memorial, Korean War Memorial, World War II Memorial. Next, the Capitol Building for our tour. Come to find out, they are VERY strict with food in the Capitol. Some security guard claimed they have problems with rats. Well, this just didn't work with our brown bag lunch program. We got tip from yet another security guard that we could go to our congressman's office and they would hold our bag while we made the tour. It's an election year...they'll do anything. So we found the office of A congressman that happened to be Republican. It turns out he wasn't our representative, but they held the bag anyway. We toured the Capitol, and saw all the stuff Dan Brown mentions in his book The Lost Symbol. His books may be entirely fiction, but he does his research on the settings. After this tour, we walked back down Capitol Mall to the Washington Monument for our 7:30pm trip to the top. This was a highlight of mine. The views are incredible, and we saw a pretty amazing sunset. Plus, inside the elevator shaft there are a number of plaques that states contributed to the monument as a tribute to our Nation's first President. New York, though, was a little confused. I'll post the picture below.

Washington Monument at sunset. I think Nate was more interested in the sun set than me in the picture.

The classic pose with the top of Washington Monument. I know it looks like it is growing out of Nate's head...but I liked my hair in this picture, so it's included. This was in the morning right after we got our tickets.

The text to the Gettysburg Address. It is on the wall in the Lincoln Memorial.

Nate and Honest Abe. The statute is HUGE!!

A very small portion of the Vietnam Memorial. It's very sobering to see, that's for sure.

One of many duck pictures. These guys hang out all day in the pool between the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial. I think Nate could have watched them all day!

And geese...in the same pond.

Apotheosis of Washington. This is what is painted inside the dome to the Capitol Building.

Each state has donated two statues that are placed somewhere inside the Capitol. This is one of Utah's (obviously) It's Brigham Young for my non-LDS readers.

Another classic, "we're on vacation and take pictures of ourselves" pose. On the tour of the Capitol.

Fun fact: the POW MIA flag is an official flag for the US, meaning government buildings will display it. I thought that was meaningful. Since finding this out and paying attention, I've noticed that the LA City Hall also has a POW MIA flag on display.

Us, outside the Capitol. There was no one around when we asked someone to take our picture, then this retarded couple had to come and sit right in the middle of it. This may make an appearance on our Christmas card.

Full Washington Monument.

Us, waiting for our appointed time to go to the top.

August 21st, day three: Another day spent in the Capitol. We went to the National Zoo, a handful of Smithsonian Museums, Ford Theater, and ate lunch at Hard Rock Cafe. It may not sound like a lot, but to see more than one Smithsonian in a day is impressive. Those museums are GIGANTIC! The only disappointing fact: there was NOTHING in Air and Space about the Tuskegee Airmen. What a tragic oversight! I'm not sure what Nate's highlight was, but mine was definitely Ford Theater. It looks exactly the same as it did the night that Lincoln was shot and the interpretive presentation about the tragedy was quite good. I felt like I understood a lot more about the who, what, where, when and why. The zoo was pretty cool too. It was free, so that's a huge bonus. I'll just let the pictures tell the rest...

The Natural History Museum

Panda! My favorite at the zoo

Meerkat, and despite what the show says, I didn't see any of these guys fall asleep standing up.

Momma and baby gorilla. They were pretty interesting to watch. There was a dad too, but baby always stayed right by mom.

Poor guy...cleaning up tortoise poop. Nate was impressed with this one, the tortoise that is. He had never seen anything in that species quite that big.

Really long escalator to get out of the Metro station at the Zoo stop.

Us at Ford Theater.

Presidential suite set up just the same as the night Lincoln was shot. The yellow door on the right is the door John Wilkes Booth used to get into the box, shot Lincoln, then escaped by jumping from the balcony.

Outside Ford Theater. Obviously.

August 22, day four: Today we drove from Washington D.C. to Gettysburg. I had been here once before, but it was even more amazing with Nate. We bought the audio car tour. You play a CD and it tells you about the battle as you drive from spot to spot. The battle grounds are pretty big, or at least they seemed that way. My favorite spot, hands down, was the marker of the Battle at Little Round Top. This was a turning point in the Civil War. The Union Army successfully held off the attacking Confederates with bayonets (they ran out of ammunition) Had the Confederates triumphed in this situation, the left flank of the Union line would have crumbled and most likely completely changed the outcome of the Civil War. It was a very sobering time to be on such ground. So many Americans sacrificed everything they had for what they believed to be right. It is a quality that is missing from many citizens today. Here are the pictures from the day:

Pennsylvania Monument. One of the largest on the grounds.

I don't remember the name of this monument, but that is a dog laying on the bottom. The story goes that she was like a mascot/protector for a particular unit (of course I don't remember which one) After a horrible day of fighting, many of her comrades were dead or dying and she stuck by their side. Somehow he survived the war, but died shortly after. I wish I remembered the details better than I do...it made me cry when I heard it the first time, that's for sure.

I think this was a monument for South Carolina. I can't be completely sure, but I do know that it was a Confederate state. Maybe this is the Robert E. Lee statue...

Our highlight. It was hallowed ground.

Monument to the 20th Maine. If you're not familiar with the story watch Gettysburg. Jeff Daniels does a phenomenal job portraying Col. Joshua Chamberlain.

Same monument, better shot.

This was on the battle grounds....but not related to the war. I just thought it was amazing that Nate was able to get SO close to a hawk. He's a good picture taker too!

Crazy bug on our windshield (I'm on the inside of the car, for the record)

The black spot is a cannon ball hole from the battle. The house still stands today. Pretty amazing.

August 23rd, day five: Today we were in the historic city of Brotherly Love...yep...Philadelphia. We only planned on one day here, so we definitely didn't see as much as we would have liked. We did get tickets to Independence Hall (free tour), so we were able to see where the signing of the Declaration of Independence took place. I think I forgot to mention this above, but we went to the National Archives Museum days before and saw the actual Declaration, so this made it complete. We saw the Liberty Bell, and the house where the Declaration was drafted. We ate cheese steak, and walked a ton. Here are the picture highlights:

Independence Hall

Nate in the signing room.

Upstairs in Independence Hall. I think this is where they held banquets and such.

Stairway to the tower where the Liberty Bell used to hang.

The famous Bell.

August 24th, day six: Today we headed back to DC to see Arlington National Cemetery and the rest of the Smithsonian's that we missed the first time around. Nate and I both really enjoyed the cemetery. It's another one of those sobering experiences. We saw the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, JFK's eternal flame, and the Robert E. Lee House. Given that we were just at Gettysburg, this was a particularly interesting tour.

I have more pictures, but for some reason the blog is being stupid and won't let me upload them. I really hate technology sometimes.

August 25th, day seven: Today we visited Shenandoah National Park. I don't think that there are words to properly describe how beautiful and green the park is. We met with a ranger and decided on a 8 mile hike called Devil's Staircase. It was interesting for a number of reasons. First, we didn't know it, but there was a cemetery on the trail. It actually kind of freaked me out. The other fact we found out from the ranger is that there are 2-3 black bears for every square mile of park. That's a LOT...but he also reassured us that there haven't been any maulings or such reported since colonial days. Well, that's all fine and good to know...but easy to forget when you see a black bear on the trail...which we did! At this point, I would have rather been back at the cemetery. What we saw was only a cub, and it crossed the trail about 50 feet in front of us. But, where there is a cub, there is a mother. We stood frozen for a while not knowing really what to do. Well, we knew what not to do. Don't ever get between a mother and her cub. We waited and watched and didn't see the mother cross, so we assumed she went before. We took it slow and made sure to make lots of noise so we didn't accidentally startle the bears. Needless to say, I was in a hurry to finish the hike and get the heck out. While it's still a very beautiful place, I don't like bears, especially that close. The other thing to know about the east coast is that it can rain at the drop of a hat, and it did. Towards the end of the hike, it started pouring and we had to put on our rain jackets. Thank goodness I have a husband that is ALWAYS prepared. We have pictures of all of this, of course (well, not the bear) but again...blogger is retarded and won't upload them. Maybe someday I'll be able to edit this and include them.

August 26th, day eight. Travel day back to California, or so we thought. We got stuck in the plane on the tarmac for at least an hour...which made us miss our connection in Charlotte. To top things off, it wasn't a mechanical issue. We were waiting on a new route due to bad weather. The airline does nothing to compensate. They will book you on another flight, but we had to pay out of pocket for a hotel. We were on a budget to begin with, this was definitely a wrench in the works. That said, we did eventually make it home and had a great vacation! Wonderful memories were made and we just had a ton of fun together (as we usually do) Until our next adventure...

Hike through hell...and back

2010-10-04T13:19:00.002-06:00

The last National Park on our list, Capitol Reef. Like I mentioned before, Nate and I set a goal, and for Utah at least, we have accomplished it. But this hike was just one big disaster from beginning to end. Sit down, kick your feet up and I'll tell you the story. **I wrote this way back in June before we moved, needed to get the pictures before I could post.**

Our plan was to hike the Hall's Creek Narrows trail. It was one of the only hikes where there was a guaranteed water source in June, which is important for a three day hike if you don't want your pack weight to be 24 lbs.of water alone (one gallon per person per day). The hike was 22 miles round trip. Totally do-able over three days. We started Friday morning. It takes about an hour and a half to get to the Visitor's Center from Richfield. We got our backcountry permit and started down the 50 miles of washboardy dirt road to the trail head. We made it about 15 miles when this happend:

We (and I use that term loosely) would try to get the car jacked up to take the tire off, and because of the instability of the dirt road the car would roll off the jack. Once that issue was solved with a well placed rock, we noticed a funny looking lug nut on the tire that our tools wouldn't work for. We had NO idea what the issue was and we were prepared to hike back to the main road, 15 miles away. You see, this dirt road that we were on isn't that well traveled. When we first got the flat, a ranger drove by and asked if we needed help. At that point, we thought it's just a flat. Pretty much a one person job. The Ranger said they only travel this road once or twice a week. This was before we found out about the lug nut. Thankfully, we didn't have to wait too long (maybe 30-45 minutes) for another car to drive by. We thought they would just give us a ride out to where we could get cell phone service and we'd use our roadside service. That didn't happen because, thankfully, the guy knew what the problem was. It was a locking lug nut, and we had the "key" in our glove box. You learn something new every day. Nate got the tire changed and at this point, we decided to go back to Richfield to have it fixed instead of continue on that road (an additional 35 miles) without a spare. Here is his handiwork:

Day Two: We weren't easily dissuaded from the hike. We got our tire fixed...well, 4 brand new tires to the tune of $650, but we were on our way again. This time we made it to the trail head.

This is the view down the trail from the top (looking Southwest). What looks like a road is really a river bed. The trail pretty much goes along that (if you can find it) Nothing here was very well marked.

This is the other side (looking North). I'm not too sure what is out that way, but it looks pretty.

Our classic self portrait. This is before we started, so we still look happy.

Now, as I said the trail isn't very well marked after you hike 800 feet down into the canyon. We always try to plan meticulously for our trips. Food, water, shelter, clothes, compass, topographical map, etc...most are essential, but in this case the topographical map was worthless. The terrain is all the same. Hiking down a river bed with cliffs on both sides. We had no idea where we were in relation to the trail map most of the time. It was supposed to be just 8 miles to the Narrows, which we thought we could do easily in one day, camp at the mouth of the Narrows, hike through the slot canyon day two and hike out day three. It didn't work that way. We hiked for what felt like hours and hours with no change in scenery. So we finally found a place to set up camp and get out of the bugs. Yes, bugs. Gnats and biting flies. They were TERRIBLE!!!

Here are some of the pictures from the first day:

Leopard spotted lizard. The first of many.

This lizard scuttled out of a bush when Nate stopped to...uhhh...relieve himself. I think the lizard was hoping it was water, because he ran over so quick that Nate about jumped back. We laughed about this for a while.

You may not be able to tell, but it is HOT!

Working hard.

These balance-type rocks are all over in Utah. It makes you wonder what on earth keeps them that way. Well, gravity, but still....

Hiking through the river bed. It may not look bad, but it was rocky and in places muddy and just a pain.

Finally, a place to stop for the night.

The first (and only) night we spent here was SO hot. We left the rain fly off and slept with our tent door open. The moon was nearly full too, so we had a night light which was way too bright...all night long. At least the bugs were kept out, and eventually went away as the sun went down.

The next day we decided to head out to the Narrows. It was another LONG hike...or at least felt like it. We seemed to hike and hike and nothing changed. We almost decided to just turn around at one point because we didn't really think that there was anything out there. Thank goodness we didn't. Paradise eventually came.

The beginning of the narrows. It gets better, but we were SO happy to have finally made it!

Parts of it definitely qualify for slot canyon status.

That little blue spot is me. It gives the picture perspective.

Yep, water; and the only way to get through was to get wet. We didn't really mind because it was SO hot!

My turn.

Filtering water from a little pool. If it looks silty, that's because it is. Our filter had to work double-time.

This was in a giant amphitheater like area carved out by the river who knows how long ago. It was impressive, to say the least.

After we left the narrows, our goal was to get back to our tent, break camp and get the heck out of Dodge. While the narrows were amazing, cool and bug-free, we only had day packs so we couldn't stay. I'll post a couple of videos at the end that show more of the "whole picture". As for our hike out, we found pieces of the trail that cut out big curves in the river bed. They aren't marked at all where they cross the river, so it was easy to lose it. We both think that the park needs to send a backcountry ranger out there to do a little work, especially if they want to preserve the cryptobiotic soil.

I would say that the hike out was uneventful, but miles and miles through sand just can't be that way. I got blisters from all the sand and crappy shoes (they are going to DI as soon as I get replacements), I accidentally kicked a piece of broken cactus and got some spines in the leg, and I was bit by an ant. That may not sound bad, but it was so painful. I couldn't even walk on my leg right after...and I'll admit I cried. It wasn't the last time on this trip that I did that.

Like I said before the topographical map was horrible. All the landscape looked the same. We had no idea how far we had to go, all we knew was that there was a rock cairn on the river bed where the trail started heading back up the cliff. Let me tell you, we were so excited when we saw that cairn. It wasn't a minute before that I said I couldn't go any farther. It was too hot, the sun was beating down on us with no hope for shade and I only had one liter of water left. At this point though, I felt a little bit renewed. I had a stronger determination to make it to the top. It was just over a mile from that point, but we had to climb up 800 feet. It doesn't sound that bad, but in that heat, under the relentless sun we were in for trouble.

Nate is so strong. He is such a good hiker and outdoorsman, that I just couldn't keep up. I was hoping to get out of this blog with my dignity, but based on what I am about to say it's just not possible. I cried when the ant bit me, and I cried as we climbed the hill. This wasn't a soft sob...I was in distress. I was overheated and literally felt like I couldn't take another step. There was no shade and stopping just prolonged our reunion with the car. Finally, we came to a spot with a large boulder that provided some shade. I collapsed and had a break down. This entire time the bugs were out in full force. The combination of the bugs, sun, depleting water, little food (when it's hot like that food just isn't appealing) caused a severe breakdown for me. We sat for probably an hour or longer to recuperate. Thank goodness for Nate's WFR training. He knew the signs of heat exhaustion and tried to get me cooled down and some sugar and salt in me. I was nauseated, but what little I could eat helped a lot. Once the sun went down things changed drastically. I was still tired, but I found enough strength to get out. Both of us spent alot of time praying on this hike. Heavenly Father definitely cares about us and sends help when we need it. He also blessed us with one of the richest sunsets ever for our troubles. Here are the last few pictures:

The camera, of course, does not do justice to the colors in the sky! We, however; were just as tired, if not more so than we look.

I did forget one picture...the one of the baby rattlesnake that scuttled along the path in front of me. I've held up this blog for months for pictures. You'll just have to take my word on this one.

...and we're back...

2010-10-01T17:58:00.000-06:00

So, I know that I haven't been that great at posting...but really, it's not my fault. We don't have the Internet at home and breaks at work are few and far between. We are, indeed, alive and well living in Southern California. We have been here for just about three months now, and we're still adjusting. Life is a much different pace here.

I work in downtown Los Angeles, while Nate has an awesome job at The Outdoor Outlet in Alhambra. He loves his job, and I am at odds with mine. I ride the bus to work every day, which is about an hour each way. Do the math...that turns an 8 hour day into a 10 hour day...and that's if I ONLY work 8 hours. I've put in some night and weekend time here. It's a great experience, and is going to take my career to the next level (although, I'm not entirely sure what that is) I do know that it is never boring, I am always learning new things and I get MUCH more client interaction, which makes the job more fun and a bit more stressful.

I know most people probably turn their noses up at public transportation, and normally I would too. There are weird, smelly people on the bus and it puts you in close proximity to an unknown number of infectious diseases. It is just the ONLY cost-effective and sanity preserving method for me to get to and from work. I get to decompress on the ride (well, on the days when I'm not suffering from motion sickness) and listen to my iPod. I literally could not handle driving in LA traffic EVERYDAY, and Nate appreciates that I come home is a pleasant mood.

We absolutely LOVE where we live. It is a small complex, which is nice. Plus, we have 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a huge living room/dining room area for $1,195/month. For this area, that's a steal. We live walking distance to my bus stop, our gym, grocery store, library, post office and a ton of restaurants and a couple of movie theaters. The owner and manager of the complex are both in our Ward, which is nice. This is the first time I've felt like I won't be taken advantage of with deposits and repairs. Speaking of repairs, the maintenance staff is really nice and quick to respond to issues. The complex has gated parking, and secured entrance.

We are members of a great ward...a lot of whom live in our building. We haven't missed a Sunday (except when we went to Fresno...but we went to a ward there, so I don't count that as missing) and we even go to the social events.

I mentioned that Nate has an awesome job...he really does, and he loves it! He is practically the assistant manager at the store, has a great boss and gets to work with camping, backpacking, hiking and climbing gear all day. He's an expert at products and has the scientific knowledge to back it up. I just mean that he can explain to a customer the pros and cons of synthetic versus down sleeping bags, the importance of layering, the appropriate material to use, essentials for wilderness survival. He's so stinkin' smart about this stuff and because he is genuinely interested in helping customers, he's not one of those douchey salesmen.

Since we have been here, two major anniversaries have come and gone, and one more is on the way. Our one-year wedding anniversary, which was spent on the East coast. Pictures and a post to come. It was a great trip! The second was my 5-year anniversary at the bank. That was more recent. Yesterday, in fact. I can't believe that the time has just come and gone. I still feel like a newbie and that I have SO much to learn. I suppose if I ever stop feeling that way, I'm not progressing anymore. The last, but certainly not least, anniversary is that of my high school graduation. My 10 year reunion is in November. I remember thinking ahead to this day around the time I graduated...and my life is not anything like I pictured it. It's BETTER! I look better, I have an amazing husband, successful career and a great future ahead of me. While I'm nervous to go, I couldn't be more excited about who I've become and the direction that my life is heading.

That's about all that I have to report right now. We're just plugging away until the holidays, when we'll head back to Utah for Thanksgiving, then Christmas here in California with my family. Good times ahead, that's for sure!

Bump in the road

2010-07-05T15:39:00.001-06:00

Nate and I are moving. I think that my one faithful reader knows that. We won't have Internet for a while, if ever, in our new apartment. LA is horribly expensive and all non-essentials are cut. I'll be on once in a while at work on a break, or maybe at the local library. I have a post ready to go with pictures and narrative from our Capitol Reef trip...I just forgot to put a couple of pictures on (and quite frankly, they are the best ones we have) so I'll wait to finish it in Cali.

Fourth of July here was a blast! Richfield really knows how to celebrate independence right! Plus, Nate and I went fishing up at Salina Creek and I caught and landed 3, he got 2...but at least half a dozen others were either let go because they were too small or a few that were HUGE, but managed to wrangle off the line. It was a blast though. I definitely have the "fever". Unfortunately no pictures. Our camera battery was dead and at the moment I have no idea where the charger is.

We'll catch you later in Cali.

Angel's Landing - SUCCESS!!

2010-06-30T12:12:00.001-06:00

Nate and I have set a goal to see every National Park in the US, but not only see, but to either backpack in or do a major hike. In Utah there are five National Parks (Zion, Bryce, Arches, Canyonlands and Capitol Reef) If you are an avid reader of our blog, you know that we have been to three of the five. Last week this changed.

I suppose this story needs a little background info. Last year (April, I think) we went to Zion and attempted Angel's Landing. This is, hands down, the SCARIEST hike I have ever attempted, and because of the heights factor I wasn't able to finish it. It's one of those things where if you lose your footing and fall, you leave the park in a body bag, not an ambulance. Well, this year I was determined to make it to the top. I've known a few people that have done it and honestly, if they can do it I could do it. And do it I did! The hike is short. 5 miles round trip, but it is literally straight up and straight back down. There are two sets of intense switchbacks before you get to the really hard part. Plus, we started this hike at the hottest time of day, when there was no shade to be found. We had food and plenty of water...and met a nice lady at the top who gave us an orange and an apple. Nate said that years from now he will say that I only ever had one affair...and that was with an orange on the top of Angel's Landing. I'll let the pictures tell the rest...

Here is one section of switchbacks. The first. Try this in 90+ degrees. It was rough.

Nate admiring the canyon. This is what little shade we could find on the way up.

Nate says that water cuts the rock like this. I just think it looks cool, and it was out of the sun.

A little more shade at lunch. This is right before the second set of switchbacks. I had to stop to eat. One packet of oatmeal with a little milk for breakfast 5 hours before this...I used it all up and then some. Thank goodness for lunchables!

A view from the saddle. It is a LONG way down.

Don't get too close to the edge!

Me, looking at where the trail leads. At the time I had no idea how I was going to make it. I just knew that if Bubba and Miranda could do it, I could do it.

The trail goes right up and over the rock behind me. This was the scariest thing I have ever done. Thank goodness for Nate singing "Praise to the Man" and "The Iron Rod", which I quite literally held to as tight as I could.

See I told you it was scary. Steep, very steep and the trail practically drops off on either side.

My favorite picture from the top. We were lucky enough to come across two guys up here that were willing to take our picture if we took theirs. Fair trade.

He's always gotta find the highest and scariest place to stand for a picture.

I didn't dare to go so high.

All in all, I am way proud of what I accomplished that day. In case I didn't mention, I have an almost paralyzing fear of heights, so it's a pretty big deal for me to make it to the top. Next time we'll stay low to the ground and hike The Narrows.

Family Fun

2010-06-29T20:24:00.001-06:00

So, my family FINALLY made it out to Utah for a visit...and just in time too. Here are some of the pictures from their trip:

My mom and dad on the tram at Zion.

Mark never seemed to like having his picture taken, and in fact did EVERYTHING he could to avoid it.

Group shot at Zion. They loved it...but how could you not?! It is SO beautiful.

Classic Monique! Love it.

This was on the short hike to the Temple of Sinewava (the mouth of the narrows)

Me and my brothers. Man how time flies!

Mark being silly.

It was a LONG day!

Deer in National Parks have no fear. I think I was maybe 10 feet away when I took this.

Not sure why, but I am fascinated with lizards. Wait until I post the pictures from Capitol Reef!

Adam and Monique's first trip to Vegas. We stopped at Caesar's Palace to get a close up view of the action.

Well, those are all the pictures that I took. My mom has a ton more, but like I said, she has them...not me. I sure hope they had a good time despite all the crazy weather.

Since I mentioned it, I might as well tell the story. We planned to take them all to Salina Creek. We made good on that promise, but the weather did not cooperate. It rained ALL night the first night. The next morning we ate breakfast in a hail storm. It cleared up a little in the afternoon....just long enough to shoot the bows. Then there was a storm warning. Snow. IN JUNE!! Yep, we broke camp quick and got off the mountain. Too bad DWR won't give refunds on fishing licenses. We shelled out $50+ for four out of state permits that never got used. Oh well.

The rest of the week was uneventful compared to that day. My mom, dad and Mark stayed a couple days longer than Adam and Monique. They both had to get back for school. We celebrated Mark's birthday with some cake, ice cream and pizza (not in that order) and a little swimming at the Cedar City pool. All I have to say is that the slide is FUN and Mark does amazingly smooth back flips! We also saw Robin Hood while they were here. It is an AWESOME movie! We took my parents up to Cedar Breaks, which they loved and Mark even got the chance to fish. To top that off...he caught his first fish! Nate caught one too. I got skunked, but it was worth it to see Mark excited at catching his first, and then grossed out when I taught him how to clean it. Really...if his sister can do it, he can do it. And he did!

I'm just so glad that they were all able to come out, see our house and finally understand why I love it here so much! My mom even said she would move here. They all seemed to have a great time. Success in my book!

Memorial Day FUN!!

2010-06-02T12:46:00.002-06:00

As most people do to celebrate the holiday, we went out into nature, to enjoy the country that our armed forces have fought so bravely to defend.

We started on Boulder Mountain. Nate's brother, Brandon, reserved a group campsite for Friday and Saturday night. Nate, Brandon and his dad went wild turkey hunting Saturday and Sunday. Unfortunately there wasn't a bird in site. Saturday evening we all went out to look for birds. It was certainly an adventure. We saw TONS of deer and a few elk (one pretty good sized bull) but no turkeys. They are odd creatures. Everyone knows that they are one of the stupidest animals...but I'd say that these turkeys are smarter than average. This was the end of a month long OTC hunt, which means anyone 12 and over with a hunting license can buy a permit, the turkeys weren't responding to calls or even really out in the open. Smart. After seeing a few friends taken out with a shotgun they went on the lamb.

As for the car camping on Boulder...well, I like the Conder family style. We had dutch over pot roast with potatoes and carrots, and scones for dinner. Pancakes, sausage, bacon, fresh fruit and OJ for breakfast. TASTY! There were s'more fixings (of course) and great company. I really couldn't have married into a better family.

Saturday afternoon Nate and I went fishing. I did a little research, and by that I mean I went to a Visitor's Info station and talked to a very old man about good places to fish. He sent us to the Freemont River and Bicknell Bottoms (which is actually just a different part of the Freemont). We had a great time! I got skunked, but Nate caught one of the biggest fish he has ever caught.

These pictures don't do the fish justice...but it was very exciting! I was fishing on the other side of the river bank and down a little ways when all of a sudden I hear a really loud "take it, take it....AH...DANG IT!!" Followed just a minute later by a really loud "WOOOOOOHOOOOOO!!" Keep in mind that this "river" really is no more than a glorified creek, so to find a fish that big in there is something to talk about. Of course, I convinced Nate to "kiss" his prize winning fish.

Sunday morning we packed up and the rest of the family headed to their respective homes, while Nate and I made the trek to Bryce Canyon. I have to preface this by saying that I LOVE Southern Utah. The scenery is unmatched...but Bryce's backcountry doesn't quite match up to the front country. Don't get me wrong...I had an amazing time. I absolutely love backpacking and being that close to nature. Here are a few pictures to document our trip:

This is on top of an area called Hells Backbone in the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. This picture is just about 30 feet off the side of the road. It's like that on both sides. Way scary to drive. I was white knuckled the whole time.

This is a shot into the canyon from the top of Hell's Backbone.

You can kinda see what I am talking about with the drop off on both sides of the road. Look closely...

We made it safe to Bryce and to our trail head for the Yovimpa Pass to Rainbow Point loop. Nearly 10 miles of TOUGH hiking...after we hiked about 10 miles up and down stream fishing the Freemont.

The top of the hike above Yovimpa Pass. Our trail leads down into those trees.

This is my favorite picture. My favorite person to be with, doing my favorite thing in an amazing part of the country. What an incredible view!!

Another great view from the top. Thank goodness for Nate's tripod.

Classic Bryce

This is the picture that we took right before we lost the trail. There are SO many social and possibly game trails on the mountain that some parts are hard to know the right way to go.

This is the spring that we were supposed to filter water from, but we didn't need any extra. Everyone that we talked to said it tastes gross, so naturally I wanted to try it. I've always thought that filtered mountain water tastes better than most tap water.

Sunsets in the mountains are BEAUTIFUL...and this picture just doesn't do it justice.

Our campsite. I should have taken a better picture, but by the time I remembered we had already broke camp.

Bryce Canyon backcountry is bear country. Apparently they have black bears, so we have to hang all of our food. Not the type of camping we like to do, but we survived.

See..I told you we made it to the morning. For some, our tent may seem kinda small, but with our pads and packs in there it is just perfect for two. Plus you really can't carry anything much bigger when you backpack.

A horny toad that Nate caught. I couldn't even touch it. I was surprised though that it sat so still...and it didn't even pee. I took a couple pictures of it on the ground before he picked it up and never once did it try to bail.

This was a HUGE tree that had fallen down. There are some more pictures later...but I have never seen so many felled trees and most over the trail.

Crossing a dry creek bed. Definitely flash floods through this area made the creek bed so deep and wide.

I've seen timber ants before, but I guess I never really thought about what they do. Here's a picture of their handiwork.

I was trying to get the background with the red cliffs in the picture. I'm not a very good self-photographer.

Nate does a much better job.

The reason we like what we do SO much! There is time to just sit and relax and contemplate this great planet we live on and the wonderful creation that God provided for our use.

A break for lunch. Tortillas (because they pack better than bread) and tuna. Nate decided to have a little fun with the extra tortilla. "I had him for dinner with fava beans and a nice Chianti"

Words can't describe, and pictures hardly do this justice.

Yes, there is still snow on the ground in Utah. Who would guess that this is Memorial Day?!

Yet another snow bank.

Trees on the trail. This is just one of probably 20 that we had to climb over. It's tricky when the trees fall and the other side of the trail is a cliff.

Yes we had a great time and can't wait for our next adventure.

I did get horrible blisters on the bottom of both pinky toes, which made the hiking hard...but Nate got to put his WFR skills to use (thankfully it was just blisters and not ICP or volume shock...or something that would require epinephrine) Despite that pain, I would do it all over again in a heartbeat, and in fact we are. Capitol Reef is scheduled for the end of June, with Angel's Landing at Zion sometime before that.

We count ourselves VERY lucky to see as much as we have and to experience nature the way that we do. I just wish more people had the desire and ability to see the National Parks. They were created for a wise purpose for all to enjoy, so get out there and do it!

California...knows how to party

2010-05-26T12:59:00.005-06:00

Not that we did any of that while we were there...it was such a busy, but successful weekend. Here's what went down:

We flew into Fresno Thursday and stayed with my family. My brother Adam, his girlfriend Monique, my other brother Mark all live with my mom and dad...plus Shelby (100 lb. Great Dane/Pitbull beast) Roxie (feather weight Australian Shepherd/Border Collie) and Charmin (old - read 16 years - Australian Shepherd/Queensland Heeler) Oh...and there is Ziggy, a little Chinese Water Dragon. Needless to say, it's a FULL house.

We had to get up EARLY Friday to drive down to LA and look at a few apartments. It doesn't sound too bad, but by the end of the day we were totally wasted. We did find an apartment in Alhambra. Two bedroom, two bathroom, new carpet, new paint, third floor in an LDS owned and managed building. It's walking distance to LA Fitness, grocery stores, movie theater, restaurants. It'll be home for the next couple of years.

About 7:30pm that night we drove to San Luis Obispo (a little over halfway to the wedding we were going to in Carmel on Saturday) It was a late night, crappy room and kind of long drive. We made it though! I picked San Luis partly because it was cheaper to get a hotel room than say, Santa Barbara...but I also wanted Nate to see Bubble Gum Alley. I have personally contributed at least a dozen pieces of gum to the wall over the years.

He's not ACTUALLY licking the wall...but yes, the entire alley is covered in chewed gum.

I don't really like this picture of me...but it's the only one that we got together.

And Nate making his contribution to the wall. Totally gross, but you gotta do it at least once in your lifetime.

From here, we drove up the California coast over Highway 1. Some of you may have done this before. I will never do it again. Up to about San Simeon it's fine. We actually stopped to see the Elephant Seals. After that, it gets ugly. I was driving and I got car sick. It is a beautiful drive...I didn't know that the California coastline could have such beautiful water. If I didn't know where I was, based on the color of the ocean I would have guessed somewhere tropical.

Nate on the viewpoint with the Elephant Seals below. They are protected, so you can't actually go down on the beach, plus I am pretty sure that they would attack if you did...and there are hundreds!

See, told you there are A LOT! This is just a fraction of the beach.

Us. The wind was blowing SO hard and it was freezing!

California Coast somewhere near Big Sur. I had no idea that the water could ever look like this in California.

Apparently this was a scary bridge. I don't think I even realized I was driving over it. Pretty though...and again, if I saw this picture I would NEVER guess California.

We made it to Carmel in time for a little nap. It's no secret that I get car sick, but when we finally got there, all I could do was close my eyes and try to sleep. I don't think this has ever happened when I was driving. That's a road that I won't take again.

The wedding was beautiful. My friend from Bank of America, Meliza Pastor (Now Meliza Keller) married Mike Keller. They both worked at the bank, although I only knew her from work. Such a cute couple! The ceremony was at Stewart's Cove in Carmel and the reception at Carmel Mission Inn. Normally I don't like weddings. I'm not really sure why. I just don't. I try not to go to most. But this one was different. Meliza has been such a good friend, and she and Mike are so happy together! Hopefully I'll start to have a new outlook on weddings though. All of my family (except the younger brothers) and friends are married now, so I probably won't get to test this out for a while.

We were going to stay in Salinas that night, but to save money we just decided to drive all the way back to Fresno. Poor Nate. I slept almost the whole way home. I didn't mean too, I was just exhausted from the drive and everything that morning. He did great though. Home safe and sound.

The next day my mom had planned a dinner so I could visit with my grandmas and a couple friends. I really do love my family. I stay busy in Cedar, but it was so great to see them. My mom, dad and siblings are coming out here June 9th and I am way excited for that.

Cynthia and Jason came over too...even though it was there anniversary weekend, they came and had dinner with us. Such amazing friends! It was so great to see them! I really forgot how much I miss them. We talked and got all caught up. Even though I am not really looking forward to living in California again, it will be so nice to be closer to friends.

Monday I went into the old B of A office and visited with a couple people there, ran an errand for work (so it was an official work day) and met up with Janice for a bit. It had been too long since I had seen her, and I forgot how totally amazing she is!

We flew back to Vegas that night, and drove the 2.5 hours to Cedar. What a trip! I need a vacation now!

Thankfully, we are heading to Boulder Mountain and Bryce Canyon this weekend. I can't wait to be out in nature, use my new pack and see some more amazing country. Stay tuned for pictures from our next adventure.

Here are a couple videos from the trip too. Sorry about all the background noise. It was super windy that day.

Feeding the birds

Nate and the seals

More seals

Wilderness First Responder

2010-05-13T10:11:00.002-06:00

Here's a little bit about what Nate has been up to the last nine days in Bryce Canyon. I honestly don't understand most of it and since he is a certified WFR now, I don't have to. So,this class is nine days in Bryce Canyon. 8am-6pm every day, some days longer. They learn just about everything they can about how to treat injuries from simple to severe. There were simulations where they all got to act like they were hurt (fake blood and all) and they all had the chance to be the rescuer. He camped in a group campsite with the rest of the class, ate dehydrated food nearly the entire time, and from what I can tell had a lot of fun. I'll let the pictures tell the rest...

A little snow on the tent...there is more to come.

A view of the warm bathrooms (the only place with actual heat) from the tent. It's a LONG walk in the cold.

Walker (save the Texas Ranger jokes) in an improvised backboard. I just thought the way he was tied in there was pretty cool.

Walker (again) after a lightning strike. It's fake blood, but it still grosses me out.

Traction splint for a femur fracture. Yep, there is a real person in there. Femur fracture is fake.

Deer!! They know all the safe places to go.

I went up one night. Luckily I did, because with the snow that came later in the week Nate would have frozen without the Alaskan Guide bag I brought.

A view down into the canyon at sunset. I hiked in there the next day.

And that's a little bit about WFR. I'm really proud of Nate (he got a 92% on his final exam) and definitely know I'm in good hands when we go backpacking. Speaking of, our next trip is the end of the month at Bryce Canyon, so stay tuned for pictures from that.

A couple more pictures...

2010-05-07T13:20:00.000-06:00

Nate's brother, Brandon, emailed me a few of the pictures that his dad took...and since we are just such a good looking family I thought you all might want to see.

From L to R:

Addison, Brynn, Brandon, Sarah, Nate, Billie, Craig

Proud parents!

Yes, it really did happen...and we are all so very proud of him!

Graduation!!

2010-05-06T10:17:00.001-06:00

Nate graduated with his bachelor degree in Outdoor Recreation in Parks and Tourism on May 1st! I am so very proud of him!! Not that I want to talk about the past, but ten years ago I'm not sure anyone was convinced this day would happen. He dropped out of high school at 17, moved out of the house and started down a dangerous path. Now he is a college graduate with the possibility of going on for a master degree at some point. I tried looking up some information on high school dropout rates, and specifically those that eventually get a college degree. I couldn't find anything, but it would be worth knowing. And not only did he graduate, he finished his last semester with nearly a 4.0 (SUU uses +/- grades, so just one A- prevents a 4.0. It's stupid, but what can you do) All A's and just one A-. I couldn't be more proud of him! Here are some pictures to document the day. I don't have the group pictures that his parents took, but hopefully soon...

Nate with the fancy cover for his diploma...it will never get used, but it looks nice in the picture :-)

In front of a statue that explains the founding of the school. Which leads one to ask: why are they the Thunderbirds and not the Sorrels?

I'm not sure who the old guy is, but there are bagpipers in the background. I didn't get to see the march into the Centrum Area, but it sounded pretty cool. Bagpipes, choir and a bunch of people lining the path.

A view of the crowd. There were 1,800 graduates this semester and on the University convocation, they all march across campus to the Centrum Arena for the ceremony.

A self-portrait. We were all waiting inside the arena...and the picture may not show it, but it was FREEZING that day.

Well, those are all the pictures that I have so far. His parents took much better ones and hopefully I'll get copies of those soon to put up here. I am just SO, SO proud of my husband and everything that he has accomplished!

Day one, and I am already bored

2010-05-04T10:26:00.000-06:00

Well, Nate's gone for EIGHT days. He's up at Bryce Canyon for the week taking his Wilderness First Responder course, which I need to complain about a little...

He is required to take this course as part of his degree. He paid tuition for a full-time student this semester, but this course isn't covered. We paid another $460 for the class, then had to go buy food for 8 days, fire wood, and two sets of clothes that he can have cut off. I can understand having to buy food and what not. They are camping the entire time...but I really think that the school should pay for the course. His tuition should cover all the requirements to get his degree.

Ok, I'm done complaining about that. Now for the separation. This just takes me back to summer before we were married and he was working at the Boy Scout Camp. I think I saw him one day a week. It was tough...but somehow this is even harder now that we are married. He does have cell phone service up there, so I can at least talk to him in the evenings. It may sound silly to some of you, but I get really sad when we're apart. It makes me focus on the importance of the temple (which is a good thing) and us getting there ASAP. I just can't imagine not being with him forever.

On top of all that, I am a little worried about my job, and my mom may have to put down one of her dogs. Charmin was my Christmas present when I was 12 (I think) So, yeah...she is really old. It just sucks having these rough times and Nate so far away. The bright side is that I may be able to go up on Friday night and see him. The class is from 8am to 6pm everyday, so if I did go up it would just be for one night. We'll see how this week goes.

Teppanyaki-asaurus

2010-04-26T20:32:00.004-06:00

So, if I haven't mentioned it....Nate is graduating this Saturday. If he were to proof-read this entry he would quickly correct me and say that he is "walking" on Saturday. He will still have two classes to finish after the ceremony. Wilderness First Responder (wilderness paramedic type thing), which is 8 days up in Bryce Canyon and then a Wildlife Ecology class through BYU distance learning. Anyway, regardless of his semantics...I am SO proud of him.

To celebrate a little early, and just the two of us, we went to The Ninja Steakhouse and Sushi for a little teppanyaki fun. Nate had never been and he starts looking at the menu and says to me..."I know this is Japanese food, but can't I just get some orange chicken and spring rolls??" I just laughed. I ordered for both of us. The dinner special for two. Soup, salad, fried rice, veggies, filet mignon, chicken and shrimp, and if that's not enough, there was ice cream for dessert. There was SO much food, but the show was totally worth it. When it was all said and done, he said that it was skateboarding for the kitchen. Our cook did some pretty awesome tricks, and quite frankly I am surprised that he had all of his fingers in place. He even threw a piece of shrimp (or chicken) to each person at the table to catch in his/her mouth. We went 7 for 7. What can I say...we have hidden talents.

It was a great night. I even got to brag him up a bit to the family we shared the table with. That's one of my favorite things to do. Come Saturday...maybe more realistically Sunday, I'll post the graduation pictures up here. Well, I guess that's all for now. Back to work...

School's out for summer....

2010-04-16T19:44:00.000-06:00

School's out forever! (well almost) Nate is working so hard on getting through these last two weeks of school. Papers, projects, reading and finals. He is just so excited to be done, and there is finally light at the end of that tunnel.

Nothing much is new with me. I work, I watch a little TV (well, whatever DVD's we have) That's about it right now.

We're excited about the Ducks Unlimited dinner in Richfield next weekend. And hopefully soon we'll be going to Canyonlands and Bryce Canyon to try out Nate's new backpack.

Life is definitely slower out here in Utah, and I love it!

Pictures, pictures and MORE pictures!!!

2010-04-06T19:56:00.002-06:00

As promised...here are the pictures of our adventures

Our room in Kanab, UT. Did I mention that it was a FREE King Suite!!

Us on the set of One Little Indian (James Garner and Jodie Foster Disney Movie) As it turns out LOTS of movies have been filmed in and around Kanab.

Nate giving me his best gunslinger

The arsenal we shot in Richfield. Nate was doing some soundscape research for a class. I just had a little fun

Yeah, I'm learning. Hopefully one day I'll graduate to a bigger gun, and there will be a deer through the scope!

ARCHES

Arches National Park - Balance Rock...yes, for you Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade fans,this IS in the opening credits.

So handsome...even with food in his mouth. And another shot from Indiana Jones...this is also in the beginning where the scouts ride their horses to, right before a young Indiana steals the Cross of Coronado.

Me at the same arch. It's actually called Double Arch.

Landscape Arch. It's on the Devil's Garden hike.

Remnants of Wall Arch. It collapsed in the summer of 2008.

Yep...this is on the Devil's Garden Trail. Pretty crazy...or so I thought until we went to Canyonlands. See pictures later in post.

Amazing views!

Double O Arch. It's kinda hard to see, but there are two arches, one on top of the other.

Again...amazing views! These pictures hardly do this country justice!

Dinner time. Yummy elk tin foil dinners...but we have to eat quick. The bad weather is rolling in.

Told you so. This is what we woke up to...

And yes, we slept in the tent the whole night (well...after the thunder and lightning passed)

CANYONLANDS

The beginning of one of the most AMAZING hikes ever!

And they said there wouldn't be any water!? Just don't count on it during the summer.

If you look hard, you can see our tent. This was the most amazing camp site...except the darn mice!

Cryptobiotic soil. It's what makes the desert grow. One foot print damages the soil for something like 100 years.

Close up of our camp site. You can't tell, but it's raining a bit.

BEST dinner!

Nate cooking the BEST dinner! What an amazing husband!

Swampy, marsh lands at the bottom of the canyons

View from somewhere in the middle of the canyon.What a difference!

Classic Nate pose

How in the world do you get out of the canyon?? Yep, up and over! This is on the way up

Another on the way up. Sometimes the trail is REALLY hard to see. Thank goodness for great cairns.

From the top looking down. You can see three guys following us up. What a hike!

At the top of the junction between Big Springs Canyon and Squaw Canyon. Have I mentioned that I am afraid of heights?! This was a HUGE accomplishment!

After this point, our camera battery died so there aren't any more pictures of the hike out. It was simply amazing and I can't wait to go back!

Remainder of spring break

2010-03-31T09:53:00.001-06:00

After paying our dues in the snow, rain and mud, we headed to Mesquite, NV for a little R&R. Nate's parents have a time share at the Casablanca and they reserve it every year during spring break. Because we planned our backpacking trip first, by the time we got to Mesquite everyone else had gone home. It was sad that we didn't get to see Addi, but we had a great time just relaxing together. Some time was spent at the pool, in the sun; a little on the golf course (yes this was the beginning of my new hobby - more to come on that) and of course we just kicked back and watched some movies. The weather was nearly perfect, sun-shining and in the high 70's. After our vacation from our vacation, we headed to LA partly for a work event and partly to start scouting a place to live. Nate's cousin (well...grandma's niece actually) met us and gave us the grand tour. She has been in real estate in Southern California for years and graciously offered to help us find a good place to live. She knows all the ins and outs of the neighborhoods, where you want to live and places to avoid. It was a very productive weekend. My only complaint is that I was SO close to Disneyland and didn't get to go. Oh well, we'll have plenty of time for that once we live there.

Monday was a recruiting event at USC, which I normally love. I speak at Beta Alpha Psi meetings. I was a member at Fresno State during my undergrad, and I know just how bright these kids are. The presentation went ok. There were some technical issues, and I had to cut out a little early to get to the airport and get on our flight home. I felt bad about that. I really like interacting with the students after the meeting. Weird though...I posted my email address and not one thank you email came my way. Definitely not the way Fresno State does BAP.

Anyway, so Nate and I are making our way back to the car rental place to turn it in and get to the airport. One wrong turn and we end up lost in Crenshaw at night. I was scared to death! We had no idea where we were, we couldn't stop to ask for directions...I was scared just sitting at stop lights. It took a bit to get the navigation going and once we did it seemed like forever until we got to some place familiar. Although, through this whole process I realized that the car rental place is actually in Inglewood. Another city you don't want to be in at night.

The next "fun" part of our trip home was the drive from Vegas to Cedar City. First, our plane out of LA was delayed about an hour, which put us into Vegas around 11:30pm. It is about a 2 1/2 hour drive to Cedar PLUS we lose an hour on the way. I promised Nate that I would have an energy drink and stay awake with him...yeah, that didn't happen. Since I slept through most of the drive, I'll let you read it from his perspective.

"Driving home tonight from Vegas, we left around 1am (Utah time) and were doing fine, except for the wind. It was blowing pretty hard in Vegas. Through the gorge between Mesquite and St. George one gust of wind blew so hard it penetrated the seal on the window! From the gorge through St. George and up the Black Ridge the wind continued to blow so hard that it would come through the seal on the door at the top. I checked all the windows and they were all up completely, but it still sounded like they were partially down. The wind was just blowing us all over the road. Then, when we got to the Black Ridge it began to rain. Then snow. By the time we got to the top and were looking at New Harmony, I couldn't see the road lines and had to use the delineator posts to tell if I was still on the road. Ya gotta love the warp speed or Star Tours feeling of driving in the snow. Man, I HATE that! It is so straining on your eyes to drive at night in the snow. But despite all that, I'd rather live in Utah than California. We got home at 4:00am. If I would have known the weather was going to be like this, I would have taken Sarah's advice and gotten a hotel room in Vegas. I was glad she slept all the way home pretty much. I'm glad I can take care of her and get her home safe! I prayed multiple times the whole way home and thanked Heavenly Father for getting us there safe."

Man...I'm glad I slept. I would have just made the whole situation worse. Nate's a good driver, and pray-er. I do have to say one thing though...next time listen to me and get a room ;-)

What a week!

2010-03-29T23:16:00.006-06:00

We have spent the last 10-11 days out and about. From Spring break in Arches and Canyonlands National Parks to Mesquite, NV to LA and back to Cedar City. I have no idea of where to start...I guess I'll just type out the journal entry that Nate wrote when we got home. It's a good one.

"For our Spring break in 2010 Sarah and I went backpacking in Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. to say that it's amazing country is insufficient, by far, in describing the beauty, power and spirit felt at these places. Before we went, we checked the weather, of course. But the day before my mom mentioned that it could snow. We set our minds to adjusting our trip only if necessary, but that we would do everything according to plan. Saturday we hiked Devils Garden. We set up our tent in a nearby campground. We finished the hike and headed back to camp to cook our tin foil dinners (potatoes, carrots and elk shoulder steak) Boy they were good! On our way back from the hike we noticed the dark clods gathering...very dark. We ate and fortunately the weather cooperated for that. But as soon as we were finished the wind started to blow like crazy. We went to bed, but the wind was blowing so hard that the tent pole on my side was bending in and nearly touching me. Then the lightning and thunder came! Some of the flashes were so bright that the light hurt our eyes! It was kind of sporadic in proximity to us. But then...an incredibly bright flash (we both had to close our eyes) followed immediately by a massively loud boom. To give you an idea of how loud and close this was, the concussion from thunder set off our car alarm. It was too close! After some discussion (and prayer) we decided to seek refuge in the Xterra. Oh yeah...up to this point, we thought that the sounds of droplets hitting the tent were rain. But upon unzipping the door of the tent we saw large, fluffy, wet flakes of snow blowing heavily in the wind. Until that point in my life (28 years) I had never witnessed lightning and thunder accompanying snow.

We got comfortable in the car (we were there about 30-45 minutes or so) I turned to Sarah and said "That was a good dinner babe!" She just laughed. I said..."what?" She responded with, "We’re sitting in the car waiting out a lightning storm while it's snowing and you're thinking about how good dinner was?" Half smiling. After the lightning subsided and traveled farther away, we went back to the tent. The snow was piled up on the sides and top...it was still snowing hard. We got all snuggled into our sleeping bags and fell asleep.

When we woke the next morning, we were sleeping in puddles, literally. Actually, the puddles developed while we were in the car waiting out the storm because I remember going to the tent after the lightning died down and having no choice but to slurp the water from the bottom of the tent and spit it outside (we had nothing to sop up the water with and I thought it was foolish to sleep in the puddles) Of course, more developed through the night.

Anyway, we woke to plenty of snow, which made for great pictures. (I'll post some later) As we headed through Arches the snow turned to rain. We continued to Canyonlands.
We went to the south end (the Needles District...go watch Broken Arrow) We intended to hike to the Confluence overlook, which is where the Colorado and Green River meet. We decided to alter our route after talking with one of the back country rangers. We hiked into Big Springs Canyon, and between the hike in and the loop around we hiked about 7.5 miles. Keep in mind that we are each carrying about 30% of our body weight in our packs. It was amazing country with rich-colored rock and spectacular views. (again, pictures to come) There were also marshy wetlands amongst much of the canyon bottoms; along with a unique feeling of mystery and magic (maybe even a little creativity) emanating from the canyons. We ran the camera battery out taking so many pictures. Eventually the trail we were hiking led to a large amphitheater! The cairns (stacks of rocks to mark the trail) led us straight up the canyon walls, which were steep enough to make me unsure of my footing. Both Sarah and I carried about 30% of our body weight in our packs, making the slippery climb even more difficult. At some spots I helped Sarah from above or below and I forced her to let me carry her pack at one point, amidst her protest. She has a terrible fear of heights, but she conquered that fear this day as she scrambled up and down the colorful sandstone. I was, and am, so proud of her. Once we passed the difficult part we stopped for a tasty, and very spicy lunch...a little too much ground red pepper in the MRE. After that we had a great conversation about growing up and learning from mistakes and trying to understand why we made them as we hiked the last few miles to the Xterra. We decided we had done and seen plenty, so we saved the Confluence hike for our next trip."

Needless to say it was an amazing trip! The few things that Nate left off...we got back to Moab and decided to get some real home cooking. If you are ever in the area find Milt's. Hands down the best cheeseburger and strawberry shake I have had, and the service was top notch too! Since Nate did all of the driving up to this point, naturally I offered to drive home. I was doing great until it got dark. We were in deer country. I was so paranoid that I was going to hit a deer, that I would overcorrect and try to miss it, and we would go tumbling off a cliff. It didn't happen, but it was a nail-biter all the way home.

New furniture...and a tiny complaint!

2010-03-09T11:43:00.001-07:00

Finally the day is here...we bought a brand new bedroom set (bed frame/headboard/footboard, dresser, two nightstands and mattress). They are delivering it today between 1:30-3:30pm. A two hour window is so much better than cable..."we'll be there between 8:00am and 10:pm eastern standard time, but only if the groundhog doesn't see it's shadow on the first Friday of the month during the full moon" Anyway, I can't wait. I will post pictures.
So, I have this HSA card to pay for medical expenses. It is funded by my employer and pretty cool...when it works. I have been fighting with the company since the beginning of January to get this stupid card to work. It still doesn't. I have a couple of doctors that are getting pretty mad at me because I owe them money. Theoretically, this card should give me access to $900...it hasn't yet. Normally I wouldn't complain, but financially things are a little tight until payday.

Normally I am a pretty good planner and I never spend money that I don't have. Technically, I still haven't done that. The furniture that we bought...well, we used some of my bonus from work and some of our tax refund. The only problem with that is that I noticed yesterday that the CPA put the WRONG ACCOUNT number for the direct deposit. I was so pissed!! I called my bank and the only option now is to wait for a paper check. Normally I wouldn't care...but like I said money is a little tight. I planned on the refund being in my account by March 5th (March 10th at the latest) which WOULD have been the case if the account number weren't wrong. Oh well...I guess that is life. A quick lesson for anyone trying to figure out an account number from the bottom of a voided check: the bank routing number is always first; second, match the check number from the upper right hand corner to the check number at the bottom; the remaining numbers are your account number. Really, it's NOT rocket science.

Four things

2010-03-04T11:51:00.002-07:00

Because I really thought this was interesting on a friend's (Ashlee Green) blog...and I know that you all are just dying to know...I will try to make this "our" list, but some things will decidely be just mine.

4 shows i like to watch:

1. Friends
2. Veronica Mars
3. Greek
4. SurvivorMan

4 things i am passionate about:
1. Learning anything and everything
2. Traveling
3. Being outdoors
4. Fishing

4 words or phrases i say often:
1. Totally (I'm from Cali...what can I say?!)
2. Usta could (I live in Utah now...)
3. I love you
4. Ridiculous

4 things i have learned from the past:
1. Not every guy is a cheating bastard (sorry for the bold language)
2. Once you graduate, no one asks about your GPA...at least not in my field.
3. Family really is Forever
4. I wish I would have tried harder in school...paid more attention and soaked up all the "free" education that I was exposed to.

4 places i would love to go:
1. All over Europe
2. South America (mostly Brazil)
3. Austrailia
4. All the National Parks in the US.

4 things i did yesterday:
1. Watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
2. Went to a health food store to buy aloe vera juice
3. worked
4. Watched the pilot episode of Greek

4 things i am looking forward to:
1. Getting a 2 hour massage treatment in Mesquite, NV for my birthday
2. Seeing Brian Regan
3. Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation dinner...I really want to win a gun
4. Going to LA to look for places to live

4 things i love about winter
1. hot chocolate
2. watching the snow through the window from a warm house
3. playing in the snow
4. cuddling up with my husband and watching movies

4 things on my wish list:
1. a 1/2-3/4 cwt total weight princess cut, channel set band to add to my wedding ring.
2. new bedroom furniture. We actually ordered it already...I'm just waiting not so patiently for it to come in.
3. my own .22. I HAVE to get hunter safety out of the way, and I would love to have my own gun to do it with. Plus...I have never owned a gun.
4. More place settings for our Noritake set

More to come on February activities, Valentines, my birthday and such.

Books, Roses and Birthdays

2010-02-25T10:37:00.000-07:00

So, I didn't think that I would update again until I was ready to put up some pictures. I guess I just had to get a few things off my chest.

First, if you have not heard of or read Freakonomics by Steven Levitt, find it and read it. I am probably a little more interested in it than most people simply because I have a background in economics and I love the spin that he puts on it. If you're easily offended, skip the chapter on crime.

Second, that which we call a rose. By any other name would smell as sweet. But take a minute to think about Sarah Conder. If you are of the right generation I am sure that you got at least a brief flash of Linda Hamilton and the governator. I had actually debated on whether or not to introduce myself as Elizabeth in Utah. I didn't. I guess it's just one of those names where people will always snicker and think they are the first to make the connection.

Last, tomorrow is my birthday. I have mixed feelings about that. I'll be 28, which to some of you is quite young and to others you can't even imagine being that old. I am excited to go to Mesquite for the weekend. I just wish I could celebrate, get the presents and not have to get any older. Harrison Ford figured out the secret in 1989, now why can't I??

Kanab, UT...huh?

2010-02-22T10:42:00.001-07:00

Yeah, that's what I said when I first heard of this little town. And when I say little, I really mean little. Cedar City (population 27,000) is a metropolis compared to Kanab. There a two interesting things about this town though. #1 - TONS of movies have been filmed in and around Southern Utah and specifically the red rock areas around Kanab. Broken Arrow, Planet of the Apes (both of them), The Outlaw Josie Wales, Point Break, The Flintstones, Maverick, The Lone Ranger (and that's just in Kanab...there a ton more in the surrounding areas)

The second (and probably best) thing in Kanab is the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. I don't even know how to properly explain how awesome this place is. It is the largest no-kill animal sanctuary in the US. They have between 1,800-2,000 animals on any given day...and it's not just dogs and cats. They have rabbits, pigs, horses, goats, donkeys, birds, wild animals (squirrels, hawks, eagles, bats...) the wild animals get rehabilitaed and released back into nature. No case is too bad for them to take. They firmly believe that any animal can live a full life, whether at the sanctuary or in an adopted forever family. They adopt about 75% of the animals that they take in. the rest are well taken care of for their entire life. http://www.bestfriends.org/ I want to take all of them home! They even have 22 pit bulls that were take from Michael Vick's dog fighting rings. It's just such a heart-breaking story. I want to love all of them!

Here's the part of the site dedicated to the Vicktory dogs! Makes me cry every time.
http://network.bestfriends.org/groups/pitbullspecialfeature/news/archive/2009/08/19/pittie-city-meet-some-of-the-rescued-dogs-at-best-friends.aspx

Now, you may be asking...why in the world would we go to Kanab. After all it is about a 2 hour drive to this little, tiny po-dunk town. Well, Nate is taking a Guest Service class and as part of their semester project they are working with local hotels to improve the quality of service. Nate picked Kanab because he has wanted me to see that part of Utah for a while. I have pictures but they hardly do the landscape justice. Anyway, the manager of the hotel gave us a free night in a King Suite to "mystery shop" the hotel. To see what the service is really like and to gather information on what they do well, and what needs improvement. It's a hard job, but someone had to do it! ;-)

Valentines Day...wait no Valentines WEEK!

2010-02-17T10:42:00.001-07:00

I thought that this was so cute that it deserved its own post. Our first Valentines Day as husband and wife, and the first one spent in the same state. What could be better than one day of love?? A whole week! That's right, Nate gave me a week of Valentines. Everyday for the week before the BIG day, he surprised me with a new card and a flower, balloons, or candy. In the end, I ended up with 11 cards, 6 roses, a few daisies, 1 tulip and 3 mini heart boxes of chocolate. He was so cute about it too...He would hide some of the cards. There was one in my book that I found before we went to bed, one in the drawer with the pots and pans that I found while I was cooking him dinner and dessert on Sunda, one in the dryer that I almost missed when I was putting the wet clothes in, one in my scriptures that I found in Sunday school...and the rest were special delevered to the front porch. These are the balloons that he gave me on day 3 or 4, I can't remember for sure, but a total surprise.

This picture is from Sunday afternoon. When we were leaving for Church, Nate said he forgot something in the house, so he gave me the keys and asked that I start the car. I didn't think anything of it...until we got home and this is what he had set up. There was another card waiting for me. The block letters on the ground were a gift from his mother, that I just absolutely love (no pun intended)

This is before the ballons, but after all the flowers. I did ask Nate what he was planning to do next year, because this set the bar pretty high...but I was just teasing. He knows that I'm not the type of girl that expects this stuff...I just REALLY appreciate it when I get it.

My spoils at the end of the week...minus a couple of roses that came to an unfortunate end.

This was my gift to Nate. Kinda cheesy, but he seemed to like it. It was so much harder than I thought to put together. I had to go to 3 different stores just to find all the candy...and I'm not very creative, so I struggled with decorating it. All in all, I think it turned out decent.

And for the activities of the weekend. We bought a new bedroom set, complete with headboard/footboard, mattress, dresser, two night stands and a chest of drawers. Hopefully it should be here in a week or so. They had to special order it, but then made us pay half down, after touting their lay-away program to help young married couples. No interest, as little as $5 down and you can take the pieces as you pay for them. I guess that only applies to instock merchandise. Oh well...we are still excited to get it. I will post pictures of our new room when it all comes in and is put together.

We also went to the Parade of Homes in St. George on Saturday. It was a lot of fun. I had no idea what to expect, but there were some really awesome and reasonable homes. There was one that I fell in love with, that if we were staying here, I would consider. 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, hardwood floors in the kitchen. Just really awesome and totally affordable. Maybe someday. We also saw a monstronsity. 11,000 square feet, 5 bedrooms, 8 bathrooms, home theater with 15 reclining chairs (it was seriously better than most theaters I've been to) The master bedroom suite is bigger than most normal homes at 2,100 square feet. The closet was half the size of our house. It was crazy to see...but it left us both with a bad feeling. Who in the world needs all that??! After that house (which was the first one we went to) we stuck to the more reasonable. It took all day to see 12 homes, but we made it and got our tickets in for the drawing for a free TV or vacation. My fingers are crossed, but I'm not holding my breath. After that, it was off to try and find a place for dinner. We decided to go out that night since Valentines Day was on a Sunday. We tried Outback, hour wait, we called around to a few other places that were all totally booked. We settled on Cracker Barrel, which was pretty good. It's real southern-style cooking, so I'm sure it's super healthy and all. ;-) At the end of the day, I have to say that it was a great one!

Sunday, real Valentines Day...I got more cards (of course) and I gave Nate his...but I also made him lasagna, french bread, salad and his favorite chocolate dessert. I absolutely love cooking and trying new recipes. The lasagna turned out decent. The only complaint is that I didn't have the right sized pan so there wasn't much meat in the meat layers. I'll double the recipe next time and I think that will be perfect. Of course we will have to feed an army with it.

I suppose that I should include Monday on here too, since it was a holiday. We definitely enjoyed having the day off together. We decided to go volunteer at the animal shelter (I'll post more about this later) and then to the shooting range. Nate is teaching me to shoot a rifle so I can pass hunter safety. I'm not that good. I have some problems seeing the lines on the target and aiming, but he says that for having only shot a gun 3-4 times in my whole life I am doing great. I have fun at least, and I think it's important to learn to safely handle guns.

And that's it for our week. I'll post more pictures about the rest of the month later.

Utah adventures

2010-02-04T16:15:00.000-07:00

Well, here we are at the end of our first month in Utah. For the majority of the month I have been sick (flu to bronchitis to pneumonia) Finally I am starting to feel a bit better. Some pictures on here are mostly for my family back in Cali...so they can see where we live and whatnot. The rest is a story of us...

Kitchen...obviously

It looks much bigger than it really is. There is only ONE drawer that wasn't even big enough to hold our silverware...that is how SMALL the kitchen is.

Another living room shot

Master Bedroom

We're mostly satisifed with where we live. We didn't have much time to look around and doing all this online was SO much harder than we thought. Personally, I think our rent is too high for such a small place that is pretty far on the north end of town...and once we got here I saw TONS of rentals that looked nice, were cheaper, and a lot closer to town. Oh well. It's only six months and it is a comfortable home.

So...our adventures. We'll start with New Year's Eve. We made it to midnight, and what do you think Nate did...

Yep...he shoveled the drive.

And then a picture of us after his hard work. What an exciting New Year's Eve. We did drink some sparkling grape juice and watched The Last of the Dogmen.

A week or so later we deicided to try out our new snow shoes. Much harder than I thought, but still so much fun (even though my face may not show it)!

I got tired

Later in the month we got a pretty decent storm over a couple of nights...it left a good 4-5 inches on our front lawn, which, when Nate added all the snow he shoveled from our driveway, the sidewalk and the neighbors drive way there was a enough to build a snow cave. And so he did. It seemed to take forever, but he was proud. Even more so when he slept in it. I can't sleep in the bed alone, plus I was still getting over being sick, so I slept on the couch. He made it until about 4:30am when he had to go to the bathroom and didn't want to crawl back in...but he knew that he COULD have survived the night if he wanted to.

This picture was posed. The pictures from the night he slept in it were too dark.

So proud of his creation! The night of destruction...but I have to admit, he built a GREAT snow cave because it's tough enough to stand on

Nate is in there sleeping...it's just that really dark picture I was talking about.

Nate also decided that we needed to make s'mores in the backyard with the portable fire pit that Brandon, Brynn and Addi gave us for Christmas. I certainly wasn't going to argue. Graham cracker, choloate and marshmallow?! What could be better!! It was a bit cold...but way fun and yummy too!

He's totally stoked for the yummy-ness that is about to be consumed.

Step one: Roast the Mallow

Getting it all started.

We also went to St. George to celebrate Brynn's birthday and went back later that week to have dinner with Brandon, Brynn and Addi. They were down there for a week for Guard stuff. It was so much fun. I was still pretty sick and in pain...but I figured that I would rather be in pain with people that I love and make me laugh and happy, than be in pain at home on the couch. It was a good time. We had dinner at Brick Oven and then tried to see the Refelctions of Christ exhibit at the St. George visitor's center. Too bad we were two days too late. We still had a great time there. We watched a video on the plan of salvation and the eternal nature of families, and listened to the recording at the Christus statue. Addi was so cute. She saw the statue and said "He nakey" We tried not to laugh, but to no avail.

So, aside from me being sick and constant trips to the ER, doctor and pharmacy (which I have no pictures of, thank goodness) that's a month in our life in Utah.

The BIG day...

2009-12-10T19:55:00.000-07:00

No, not our wedding...although I know I still need to post those pictures. All in good time. The day I am talking about is the day that we leave California. Exactly 8 days from today we will be packing up all of our wordly possessions and making the drive from Fresno, CA to Cedar City, UT. I never thought I would do it...move to Utah that is, but the day is coming and I'm excited. I'm sad to leave my family, of course. This will be my first Christmas away from home. It's just time for a change...and that means Christmas in Richfield. The Fourth of July was a blast, so I can't imagine Christmas being anything less. After the move, I will commit to updating this more often. Having the internet at home will help with that. Consider this my New Year's Resolution!

Halloween fun!

2009-10-28T15:28:00.000-06:00

So, I don't have great pictures of our pumpkins to put up, but I do have a story to tell... Monday morning I wake up, not thrilled with the idea of going to work. I get ready anyway. As I'm in the kitchen fixing breakfast I realize that we have 3 pumpkins on the porch waiting to be carved. I thought about the week and scheduling and realize that today is the ONLY day Nate and I can carve pumpkins together, so I take the day off (I love my job) I had a selfish motive in there too...I had a meltdown at work and wasn't thrilled about having to see or deal with my approval officer. That's for another story though. So I go back into bed for a minute and tell Nate that I'm staying home. But I'm awake, showered, make-up and hair done. I can't just lie in bed. I tell Nate to keep sleeping and that I'll wake him in a bit. I put on Stomp the Yard and cleaned pumpkins. Now, I guess it's important to tell you that I had already decided to make a pumpkin pie from this whole process. Having never done it before, and not armed with very good instructions I started out on my cooking adventure. Now some might think that what I am about to say is pretty stupid and that any person should know what part of a pumpkin to cook...I didn't. I thought it was the fleshy part between all the seeds. Turns out, that's not right...and after getting all ready to use that part in a pie (and let me tell you, it is a royal pain trying to separate the stringy stuff from the seeds) I figured out that I was a bit mistaken. Turns out you just scrape the inside of the pumpkin until you get a few cups. Boil that and you're in business. Anyway, it was a learning experience...but I made everything down to the crust from scratch...even homemade whipped cream. Nate seemed to really like and I was pleased with myself. The crust got a little burnt, but nothing that wasn't edible. All great cooks start somewhere making mistakes and burning pies, right?? Nate eventually woke up and we relaxed a bit, and then became pumpkin carving fools. I only managed to do one, and it's not very good. I lack patience in that area. Nate, on the other hand, was meticulous. His lines are perfect and pumpkins are amazing. We actually DO have pictures of them lit up, I just don't have an internet connection at home, which makes keeping this blog updated a bit of a challenge. It's going to be my New Year resolution. We had some other errands to run that day, and the best part...we were able to do it all together! Splendid day, really. It ended with my first attempt to get back into dancing. I wanted to take Michael's (my old dance teacher's) hip-hop class. Unfortunately, his class was being taught by a sub. It was ok. Not really my style. Last night though, I went to Michael's other hip-hop class and it was a blast.

Birthday!

2009-09-24T10:15:00.000-06:00

Today is Nate's 27th birthday...finally we are both old together! First, I am really bad with surprises. I did manage to buy him a new leather wallet mostly because he needed it. His old one had a Velcro latch, was dingy and had who knows what kind of undesirable things in it over the years. I did a really good job keeping it a secret until last night. We were at Bed, Bath and Beyond using some of our gift cards when at the checkout register he sees this weird wallet/money clip gadget and has an "ah-ha" moment. I knew right away what he realized, but I tried to lie my way out of it. I'm not so good at that. Once we get home, I asked him if he would want his birthday present tonight. He said that he was afraid that if it really was a wallet his reaction wouldn't be crowd worthy and reminded me that a couple of our friends are coming over for ice cream cake tomorrow night. I walked away...he probably thought I was upset. I just went into the bedroom to get the wallet that I managed to keep hidden for over a week and just gave it to him. It's a Fossil so it came in a cool metal box. I didn't bother to wrap it. I did help him get rid of some of the junk in his other wallet and throw the old one away. I think he liked it...I know, I know...it's nothing fun like a knife or chainsaw, but it's something nice like a book. I forgot to mention...aside from needing the wallet the reason I had to buy it was because my original present, a signed copy of Season 3 of Survivorman...well, I let that surprise out of the bag the day I ordered it. We've had it now for a about a month. I gave it to him the day it was delivered. I know, I'm terrible. I'll learn to keep things quiet one day. Since I know that Nate won't read this, I suppose that I can reveal the one surprise I have halfway managed to keep hidden. For about a month now, he has been going on about ice cream cake. I told him that we had SO much cake left over from the wedding that we would just have leftovers. Now, I'm not really that mean. I DID order a strawberry ice cream cake from Cold Stone with a graham cracker crust and red velvet cake. I think he'll like it. I hope so at least. In other news, I am still working on getting the wedding pictures up here. It takes forever to put them up one by one so I am contemplating flickr or something. Since we don't have the internet, it's a bit challenging. I'll come up with a solution so just keep checking back.

We're married!!

2009-09-03T13:07:00.000-06:00

We've been Mr. and Mrs. for just about a week and a half. We spent the first week in Jamaica and had an amazing time, thanks to the wonderful present that his parents gave us. Now we're back in Fresno trying to adjust to normal life. Vacations (especially honeymoons) really do spoil us. We'll have some pictures up soon of the wedding and honeymoon, so stay tuned.

4th of July

2009-08-03T16:49:00.001-06:00

I made the biggest mistake EVER...I didn't take a single picture on the 4th of July. My first experience in Richfield on the 4th and not a single picture to speak of. We had a blast to say the least! The parade was way fun, the fireworks were amazing, we got to see Addi (Brandon and Brynn were there too and we love them, but Addison is just SO cute)...just good times all around. I told Nate that I wouldn't mind making it an annual event. The next trip to Richfield is in just under three weeks, and that is THE day. We'll make sure to take pictures then...and of the subsequent honeymoon in Jamaica.

2009-06-17T12:06:00.000-06:00

Since I posted the pictures I ought to tell the story of how he asked me to be his wife. I'm not sure where to start. Nate moved out to California around the time of my graduation because he was going to start work up at a scout camp close to Fresno. One weekend before he started work I suggested that we go look at rings here, not knowing that he bought my ring before he ever left Utah and had it in his bag the whole time. When I say he is a trooper, I really mean it. We looked at rings that night for over an hour and he played it off perfectly. Fast forward a day or so. We made plans to go to a park for lunch. He had driven me to work, so instead of eating out we decided to have some sandwiches and fruit in a park. Well, he comes to get me around noon and passes the turn to the park. We end up at the Fresno Temple. We had a nice little lunch and walked around the grounds. For a sweet treat, he brought cracker jacks...now, normally I'm pretty smart. Today was not one of those days. I started talking about the last time I had cracker jacks, which ended up in a conversation about the 7th inning stretch and the song. Well, he handed me the box to open and inside was the best prize EVER. Yep, he put the ring in the cracker jack box. I pulled it out, he took it from me, got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I told him that I wouldn't cry, but how could I not?! It was absolutely perfect.

2009-06-17T11:52:00.000-06:00

Just thought that I would share some of our engagement pictures. We wanted them taken in places that really show who we are and what we like to do...and our photographer is fabulous!

Yosemite...one of our favorite places!

To be published in the Reaper! He really is AMAZING!

Just one kissing picture...promise.

I think that I was tired of smiling...but Nate is a trooper!

This is my favorite style of picture...I'm so glad our photographer suggested this location!

Well, that's just a sample of the probably 800+ pictures that were taken. Now I can't wait for the wedding portraits. We'll take some in Utah, but once we get back to California we're gonna head to the beach and finish the wedding pictures there!

A day that will never be forgotten

2009-05-28T16:43:00.000-06:00

Day 320 he DID ask me what I was doing for the rest of his life...and I said yes. While this isn't where our story begins, May 27th made it all official. I thought that I would subvert the dominant paradigm longer than 24 hours, but I suppose I am weak willed when it comes to following the internet craze. I can't promise that I will be the best blogger, but I can promise that this will be the story of us.