Spring Creek

A couple of weeks ago we had the missionaries over for dinner. We were talking about all the cool stuff do do in Southern Utah and we asked them if they ever get a chance to see any of the sights in the area while they are here. They told us that the only time they can go anywhere is when they go with members.  Well, me being the eager-to-spontaneously-invite-people-to-do-stuff person that I am, mentioned that we were thinking about going hiking on  President's Day, and would they like to join us?  They said they'd like to so we made it happen.  We were a tiny bit worried about the weather since the wind was supposed to pick up by the afternoon and it was supposed to be in the 40s.  We ended up going anyway and it wasn't too bad.  And considering it was a day in the middle of February we really have nothing to complain about.

Sittin with Elder Gordy and Elder Miller

Elise was a climbing rockstar.  She is usually slower and not as adventurous but today she was unstoppable!

This was amazing.

We all had a really great time and we were glad that we had been able to share some of the awesome Southern Utah scenery with the Elders.  One is from Montana and the other, Missouri.  I think it will be something that they will write home about and always remember as a fun thing they were able to do on their mission.

More aprons

I have been making SO many aprons!  I made a bunch for family members for Christmas, some for teacher gifts and some for other people.  I think I made 11 for Christmas.  And I have a big project of 35 more to do.  Well, actually I only have 29 more to do because I have made 6.

Carol asked me if I would help make aprons for the gift bags that they give to moms who have kids with cancer.  Every year they have a retreat for the moms and they give them gift bags with stuff for them.  The theme for 2015 is Christmas and Carol suggested giving them an apron for baking.  So I'm working on a bunch. I have them all cut out and folded together with all the pieces.  It's been a fun and worthwhile project.

Back to School

Ever since Emilia was about a year old I started to think that the career path I picked was the wrong one.  Actually, I think it started just after I graduated. I felt like the Recreational Therapy path I picked wasn't really going to get me anywhere.  There weren't a lot of jobs in it and the jobs that were available (nursing homes and the Utah State Hospital) didn't pay that well.  After I got my Bachelor's degree I thought a lot about whether I should go get a Master's or continue to pursue my career.  Since Kent had a lot more school left and I didn't really have a plan I just decided to work and support us.  So for the last 14ish years I have pretty much wished I would have just gone to nursing school.  At BYU I feared nursing school because I saw two of my sisters go through it.  And BYU has a reputation for having torturous chemistry classes.  The other thing that was a real stumbling block to me at the time was the fact that I didn't have a car.  There were lots of clinicals in Salt Lake and the area all around Provo.  Looking back, I don't feel like these were great reasons but at the time they were what I saw as obstacles.  It's easy to say that those weren't good reasons now, because I wish I would have had the guts just to make it happen.  All these years it was pretty much impossible to do it.  I had even more reasons.  And the main reason was my desire to be a mom; which is a great reason.  But I always wished I could make it happen, I always felt like I wasted my freedom, youth and resources by doing something that was a "waste of time."  And I felt stuck.

Now I have a measure of freedom again.  All my kids are in school.  I have more time during the day.  I still wish I had done it when I was younger, but wishing isn't going to change anything so I need to just stop regretting and just do it now.  This means forking out a LOT more money this time around. Tuition is more expensive.  And I will be doing a lot of the prereqs one by one, which costs more than being a full time student.   AND it is a lot harder to get academic scholarships when you already have a degree.  AND I have a lot more to balance, with family and kids etc.   But I want it.  I missed the boat the first time and I am making a choice not to miss it the second time around.  And it will be hard.   And some days I will hate it.  But I want to do it, and I'm going to.  Thanks Kent for supporting this.  I'm excited for this new journey I'm starting.  I'm going to pay for my first online class today.  Bon Voyage.

Nassau (Bahamas Part 4)

Our second port day was in Nassau.  I had been there before and didn't love the experience so we didn't plan to spend too much time there.  The weather was gorgeous which is more than we can say for the actual island.  At least near the port.  We had been warned by our cruise director that there had been a lot of crime in Nassau lately and to be very careful there.  The city was run down and scary looking.  We did walk about a mile to the Queen's staircase where I remembered going with Kent.  The scenery was beautiful there and we went up the stairs to the street shops that were at the top of the hill.  We haggled for some souvenirs ("Hey lovely lady, you interested in dat hat?") and then headed back to the ship.  I spent the rest of the day chillin on the ship and enjoying the beautiful scenery and blue water in Nassau.

Posing by the Queen's staircase

Of course I had to take pictures of birds for Emilia (rock pigeons).

Fun onThe Boat - (Bahamas Part 3)

Leaving Nassau 

Miami skyline at sunset

Selfie

Suzanne with a special 'do

The towel duck-billed dinosaur

Beach Day (Bahamas Part 2)

Our first port of the trip was Freeport.  It was a  nice little island that was clean and scenic.  We had planned a beach day and rode a taxi bus out to a nice public beach.

Maybe Kathy is tall enough to drink

Senor Frog

One of the highlights of the whole trip was spending the day at Junkanoo beach

Beautiful beach on a beautiful day

Getting all snorkeled up with Amy

While we were at the beach there were 2 girls that spent probably half an hour taking pictures of each other jumping.  Kathy and I made fun of them after they left by taking pix of ourselves jumping.  We didn't get a great one of me.

Gotta do the legs on the beach picture.

I found several conch shells while scuba diving.  When I was sitting on the beach one of them started moving.  It ended up having a hermit crab inside.  I gave one shell to a kid there and  also put one in my bag.  I thought that they were empty.  It turns out that the one in my bag ended up also having a crab in it. I wondered if the one I gave to the kid had one inside too. It probably did.  They were all found together; a little hermit crab family.  We broke up their happy family.  Sorry little hermit crabs!

There was a whole bunch of different kinds of coral that we saw while snorkeling.  We saw several big huge brain corals like the one in the picture.  We saw other kinds of coral, a sea star, fish and a bunch of different kinds of anemones.  And BARNACLES!  So cool.  Because I was fascinated and curious I touched pretty much everything (except the barnacles and sea urchins. yow.).  There were some cool fuzzy anemones that retracted when I touched them.  After I got home Ian was reading a book about coral and it said that it can sting you and poison you.  Yeah.  I guess I was lucky I didn't get poisoned.  I did however, get a scratch on my arm, foot and hand on some type of coral (probably brain coral).  It scabbed over and then suddenly a week later it got really swollen and itchy.  That was weird.  It finally healed and I didn't die, so that was good.

I didn't take this picture but I wanted to add a picture of brain coral. It was super cool and we saw lots of it.  Some of it had other coral, anemones, and barnacles growing on it.

BAHAMAS! Part 1. (Fun at Dinner)

 Let me tell you a story about my Brother Brian.  In 2009 my parents took all their children and spouses on a cruise.  At dinner one night, when the cruise photographer came by and was taking pix of everyone, Brian stuck a piece of spinach or parsley or something in his teeth and closed his lips until the photographer snapped the picture.  The next day this was the photo that was displayed.  We still laugh about this story and it has definitely gone down in family history.

On the Bahamas cruise of 2015 we decided to re-create the scene.  And then from there it grew into doing a funny picture every night at dinner. (I am still missing some of the pictures that were take by the other girls!)  Yeah we were making idiots out our ourselves, but everyone else was drunk so they probably didn't care.  Or they just thought that we were too.

The parsley

The lemon 

Napkins on the head.  Amy was a good sport to go along with all our sisterly weirdness.

Looking way too normal here.

Had to get a pic of some of the food.  It looked amazing but disappointingly, most of it wasn't that good.  

Weekend trip to Las Vegas (from NOVEMBER!)

The sequence of this actually works out ok since the post just before this (or after if you are actually on the physical blog) is about Ian's birthday, which was also in November.

Let me explain why I am posting November news now:  I had a little mishap with my blog printing and ended up printing more of my blog than I wanted to. I normally print just a year at a time but this last time I printed it into a book I ended up printing almost, but not quite 2 years.  So all the stuff from the end of last year was in the book and should not have been.  So now I don't want to put posts in between other posts that have already been printed because I want them to be printed in the next book.  So things are just going to be sort of random til I get caught up.

So, back in November I arranged a trip with Kent to Vegas for our anniversary. I posted a quick thing about it and the Blue Man Group, which we went to see.  Kent had a bunch of pix on his phone that I didn't have for awhile so they never got posted.  So here they are.

Freaky eyeball balloon from Blue Man Group show

The Hoover Dam was really cool.  We had planned to take our family there several years ago and went to Las Vegas and took our kids to Circus Circus to play in their fun dome.  That night Ian developed croup and we ended up leaving the hotel super early in the morning and just going home.  We plan to take our kids here sometime in the near future.  Just a side note:  My grandpa Nelson spent time during the Great Depression helping on the Hoover Dam project.  I don't think he did construction on the Hoover Dam but he worked in one of the mess halls, feeding the workers.  I am not 100% sure on this but I think this is where he lost his pinky finger.  I will have to check up on that to make sure.

Very Belated Birthday

 Ian's birthday is in November.  When his birthday came around we did the usual family celebratory things, and were going to maybe NOT have a friend party...  The weekend after Ian's birthday Kent and I went on our anniversary trip to Las Vegas.  Shortly after that it was Thanksgiving, then the Christmas season.  The party kept coming up ("MOM, when am I going to have my BIRTHDAY PARTY?")  Then I went on my cruise (see, I have been BUSY!  And to actually plan something in far enough advance to get invitations out even FARTHER in advance, well, it just didn't happen.)  So, before I left on my cruise I set a date for the party.  In January.  Two months late. (I'm sure someone else has done this right? If I would have waited about 10 more months I would have not been late anymore.)  Anyway, we got the party planned, invited the friends and had the best belated birthday party ever.

It was quite a different party than we have ever had. A lot of the time we do pizza.  Ian wanted sub sandwiches.  Usually we do cake or cheesecake.  Ian wanted root beer freezes.  So that's what we did.  We even put a candle in the straw of his freeze.  The party was a success and most of all, it actually happened.  Now we don't have to worry about parties for a few more months.

Candle in the straw

Party guests:  Ellie, Ian, Tanner, Justin, Mallory, Adele, Cody

New Year's Eve 2014

We didn't have huge plans on New Year's Eve but we decided to have each person pick an activity to do until midnight.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of us playing Mario Kart, and of me repeatedly falling off cliffs in that stupid game.  That was Elise's choice of activity.  And because it was her choice she got to choose the levels.  So of course she picked all the "fun" (read : SUPER HARD, Mom is gonna DIE)  levels.  And so, I spent the entire time being lapped 10 times and falling off the cliff 100 times.  I have to say that I am a really good driver, and I CANNOT for the life of me play that game successfully.  And because of this, I find it tedious and annoying.