Everything's Bigger in Texas

We were so excited to visit my little brother Matt and his family over fall break. Once again it was somewhat a last minute trip. (we're starting to get really good at these.) We found some awesome deals on flights and just couldn't resist seeing what Texas was all about. We had a wonderful time seeing the sights and spending time with family.  Matt and Annie showed us all of the highlights of the big town of Houston and were wonderful hosts. Both Stephen and I agreed that our favorite was just hanging out with the kids and relaxing.  Although we had a wonderful time we learned some great things about the big city of Houston.

•   It's the 4th largest city in the U.S.  (But you wouldn't realize it....there's so much land down there, it's really spread out unlike NYC) We went to a really fun park in the center of town and enjoyed walking around, having a picnic, taking a train ride and seeing the ducks.

• We learned pretty quickly that everything is bigger in Texas. Our first morning there we went to a natural preserve where we could see alligators in the wild. Unfortunately we didn't see too many alligators, but we saw plenty of other gigantic wildlife which would include mostly huge spiders, ants and snakes. The longhorn cattle was also pretty awesome to see just a bunch of them grazing in a field as you'd drive by. (I really felt like we were in the deep in the heart of Texas when we saw those.) We wanted to see an armadillo while there, but never got the chance. :)  
• We loved cheering on our niece Kayla in her soccer games. With Matt being the team's coach, we were able to go to both her practice and game that week. We loved seeing her get so excited and run after the ball. I loved watching the mass of 4 year olds running with the ball and kicking it in every direction. It was especially great to see them get so excited even when they made a score in the wrong goal. 

• They definitely know how to do BBQ. Matt took us to their favorite BBQ place in town and it was simply delicious. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. :) I was amazed at all the wild animals hanging on the wall...especially the wild boar. 

• "Houston" was the first word that Neil Armstrong spoke when he landed on the moon. We were able to visit the NASA space center. We just happened upon seeing the "Saturn V" space shuttle on our way to some other sights. It was really a neat sight to see and I couldn't believe how big everything was. They actually had to build the building around the space shuttle. It was fun to see the actual space center and how huge the complex is.

•  The Gulf of Mexico can be a beautiful sight. We were able to visit the Kemah Boardwalk, right off of the shore and saw lots of fishing and sailing boats in the ocean. It was really a wonderful sight. It's a fun little place with rides and shopping. Matt was telling us how hard this place was hit with hurricane Ike a few years back. With boats being carried a few miles from the shore.  It's incredible how much it's been rebuilt. Kayla and I enjoyed eating a messy funnel cake while Stephen and Matt took a ride on the daring roller coaster.

Texas has beautiful weather... at least this time of year. We had amazing weather in the 80's with low humidity. Yeah, we know that it wasn't their usual fall temperature or humidity. But we enjoyed every minute of it, with it being in the 60's on here in Utah. 

Freeky Friday Night

So just for the record...Tarantulas live in Utah.....right close to our house. Stephen and I decided to go for a little fall hike up to the "G" in Pleasant Grove. It was a warm fall Friday afternoon a few weeks ago and we headed up the mountain. We had just started out on the trail, when I came so close to stepping on this!

I couldn't believe it! I jumped and screamed. Then when Stephen saw it he jumped and screamed. After we realized what it was, we were very fascinated by how gigantic this wild spider was. Yes, I hate spiders and little ones I can step on and kill. But how would you get rid of this huge thing? It was roughly the size of a doughnut. I shudder at the very thought.

End of Summer Happenings

I feel like it's been forever since I've had time to sit down at my computer for more than a minute or two. So we'll attempt to update our blog...We'll see how it goes.  Both Stephen and I have gone non-stop the past 3 or 4 weeks.

A Last Minute Trip

With a week left before I started back to school, Stephen got on his spontaneous kick again and we decided to do a last minute road trip to Michigan. One of my cousins asked "who goes on a last minute trip to Michigan?" Answer: We do. Stephen's recovery from his surgery was faster than expected and he felt up to it.  So we packed out bags, were in the car in less than 5 hours and headed out on the 29 hour drive to Midland. It was great little get-a-way and we loved spending time with family we don't see but once a year or so. To sum it all up in a few short sentences.

• We had the most surprised looks I've ever seen on his family's face (that's right we decided it would be more fun not to tell them we were coming!) 
• We got to see our new niece Eva and new nephew Austin for the first time.
• I went fishing with all the boys in the family. We caught some big ones....and have the pictures to prove it. :)

That's right...there's our big one!

• Spent a day kayaking on the Chippewa river and saw hundreds of turtles. We spent most of our time trying to catch them and letting them crawl around in our kayaks.

• Relaxed, laughed and played lots of games with the family. Nothing beats a competitive game of Dominoes.
• Went to the local zoo and saw lots of animals

Just couldn't resist posting this lovely shot!

• Stephen was able to rebuild his old glider airplane and we took it on a test run. It was fun to see him get so excited. 

• Realized that road trips aren't so bad...especially if you get to stop and see the sights along the way. 

Made a quick stop at Lake Michigan on our way home and got our feet wet.

Camping with the Holden's

Roasting some marshmallow :)

We decided to do a 2nd annual camping trip with the Holden's that are out here in Utah. It was so much fun. We roped in Stephen's cousin, her husband and 1-year boy to come along this year. We had a great time setting up tents in the dark, sitting around the fire cooking tinfoil dinners,  roasting marshmallows and making smores, being creative with no bathrooms for miles around and sleeping on a deflated air mattress all night long. It doesn't get any better than that! 

James and Erin warming up by the fire!

Cheering on the Cougars
BYU had it's first football game of the season and we were able to go. Well....I'll be honest with it being Stephen's last year, we caved and got season tickets. So we'll be cheering the cougars on all season long. Waaahoooo.  It was a great game and were able to have my parents come down and go with us. It was such a blast!

Back to the Grind
Although it's towards the end of September, I still have to convince myself that summer is over. Stephen's started back into his second year in the MBA program. We're hoping that this year isn't so intense as the first (at least that's what we've been told.) He's already on the hunt for full time jobs. He has been applying to jobs like crazy. We've both decided that looking for a job is almost 6 credit class in and of itself. He's loving the MBA and we are so grateful for this opportunity. He is like a sponge and just soaking up all the info from his classes. We won't know what to do with ourselves when he graduates this spring.
I also started back into the school mode. It's been a good year so far. I have a lot more kids this year in my class, which means I have more aides.  I think that the large number of kiddos is going to be my biggest challenge this year. (which is saying a lot for special ed. I don't have any big behavior challenges or crazy parents....at least as of yet...) I love everyone of them and they are such a fun group of kids.  I'm really enjoy the year so far. It's crazy to think we've been back at it for over a month.

It's comming...

Yep, here is proof that we've tried a little garden for the 2nd year and haven't killed a single plant! (we're one up on last year!) I think each year we're learning a little bit more. We've already started harvesting some cucumbers and zucchini....I can't wait for the bushes of tomatoes to turn red! Yummmmmm!

The Past Two Weeks

We haven't really gotten out of our house very much the past few weeks and for good reason.  If you've stopped by to visit... you might have found Stephen doing some fancy stunts.

If you can't tell from the picture, there are two big black walking casts on his feet. About 2 weeks ago Stephen had surgery on both of his feet. Yes, we did both at the same time.  Stephen's always had problems with his feet his whole life and was incredible tired of feeling like "an old man" (as he would put it) after being on them.

Back in June I decided to make an appointment for  another foot doctor just to get a second, third or fourth opinion. Well sure enough, this doctor confirmed his condition 'Tarsal Coalition' but then remarked that it can be corrected through a surgery. This was the first doctor to ever mention it being something that can be fixed. This really got Stephen excited. Within a few weeks we found out that our insurance would pay 100% and so we canceled our plans to spend time with family in Michigan and scheduled this.

We were first told that it could be up to 2-4 weeks before he could start walking again and were prepared for the worst. But after a few follow-up appointments, the doctor has been very optimistic. It was a rough first few days with incredible amounts of pain and some pretty strong meds.  With having both feet done it's posed for some creative thinking of how to do things (ie. go to the bathroom, get in and out of the wheelchair, get up and down the stairs, get dressed, shower etc......) We've also realized that our house is not wheelchair friendly. Stephen's been pretty optimistic about it all and patient with me helping him do all of those things. It's kept us busy the past few weeks and poor Stephen's watched as many movies and played as many computer games as he can possibly handle.

So after only two weeks the doctor took stitches out and wants Stephen to walk around as much as the pain will allow. He also wants him to try not to wear the walking casts either. We'll see if we can get his swollen feet with 3 inch incisions on each foot, into some type of shoe.  We haven't tried that yet...

We are sure grateful for the good news and speedy recovery! What a blessing with school starting in less than a month.

A Reason to Party

I'm taking the liberty to write about this, because our blog has pretty much become our family journal since we've been married. So here it goes...

My dad is actually retiring! It's been a long process the last few years, but he finally made it. Well, we couldn't let this momentous time go unrecognized. So we decided to plan a little family party! It was a lot of fun to just do the planning. Since he's a banker we did everything around $$$ and even had his face printed up on some pretend money. It looked so real a few of the younger grandkids thought it was better than real money. We spent the whole day in SL in their main office where my dad's worked for the past 30 years! We ended up doing everything on the 21st floor. It was great and such an amazing view of the city.  The day started by walking across the street to temple square and we took some family pictures...since the whole gang was in town. Then the party started! He took the grandkids on a tour of the whole bank, we played some a bunch of different games (including BINGO which is a tradition at the annual bankers convention we've been to many times in Sun Valley) as well as some hilarious "minute-to-win-it" games. All in all we had a splendid day together and am so thankful for a hard working dad throughout my life. He's a wonderful  example to me!

Independence Day Celebrations

Each year I look forward to the 4th of July and all that this holiday brings. This year we did things a little different with my parents on vacation in Europe. Usually we all head home and celebrate in Kaysville, but this year all of my family came down this way to join in the festivities. We had my little brother Matt and his family visiting from Texas and kicked off the weekend with a big family BBQ.  Then it's becoming tradition to run a 5K in the morning. So this year we tackled the Freedom Run in Provo. I'm so proud of my 9 year old nephew, who ran his second race this year. It's so fun to see him get excited for the race. The race was great and we got to see all the hot air balloons rise over our heads as we ran the parade route. Then we found the rest of the family and watched the amazing Provo parade (this was a first for me and Stephen and I would have to say that it's quite a step up from the little parade in Kaysville.) Then we spent the next two days swimming, eating yummy food, watching movies, fireworks, and having more BBQ's with friends and family etc. It was a constant party for a good 72 hours. We had a great time and loved having everyone come down our way.

Playing in the Pool

Watching the fireworks on a chilly 4th of July

Stephen and I enjoying the parade!

Me and my "little" brother :)

Relaxing with uncle Stephen

Our Spontaneous Date Night

One thing that is very different about Stephen and I is that one of us is very much a planner and the other is totally spontaneous. I won't mention who is who, but let's just say that we've learned over the few short years that we've been married that there needs to be a balance of both of these in our lives. So sometimes and somehow we seem to find a balance between these two. Last weekend we decided we needed to be totally spontaneous. We've talked about doing this for a while, so maybe it was somewhat planned....anyways, here was our adventure!

1. We hopped into the car around 4:00pm not knowing if we'd have time to do it all but headed out anyways.
2. Made a quick stop at Wal-mart for a few supplies (ie. graham crackers, marshmallows, chocolate and a little gas can)
3. Headed up to my parents cabin.
4. We got there and packed up the 4-wheelers with all of our goods.

5. Filled them with gas and took off onto about an 18 mile trip to the Uinta National Forest.
6. Found a spot to build a fire overlooking an amazing meadow and felt like the only ones out there.

7. Went looking for wood and built a fire. (yes...Stephen had his doubts, but I built that fire all by myself!)

8. Ate a little PB&J for dinner.
9. Roasted some delicious marshmallows and snacked on smores till we were full.

10. Couldn't take in enough of the scenery, but decided we needed to pack up and go.

11. Heading back to the cabin we were stopped by the DNR and feared for our lives :)
12. After the long trip back to the cabin, we realized there was a small family of great horned owls hanging out on the deck of our cabin. We parked the 4-wheelers and watched them. Never have I seen such big and beautiful birds....and four of them at the same time, just hanging out. It was incredible.

13. Got back home in time to get some real food (aka hamburgers and shakes)
14. Climbed out onto our roof and watched the big fireworks from around the valley, under a blanket we kept warm as we ate our real dinner.
15. Realized it was 4 years ago, underneath the fireworks that Stephen held my hand for the first time and we started dating more seriously. Wow!!! How incredibly fast time has flown and what a wonderful ending to such a spontaneous night!

Cabin Time

We absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE spending time up at my parents cabin. It has become our little home away from home. And we'll find any excuse to go up and play, which is nice because it's only an hour away.  My brother Ryan and his family were visiting from New Jersey and their trip wouldn't be complete without a few days up there. Stephen and I couldn't spend the entire time there because of work, but we were able to go up for a few days. It's always so fun to get away and relax. It's great when we're up there with family because it pretty much turns out to be. All the grandkids spend every waking moment outside, building forts, exploring, playing games, catching squirrels and getting filthy dirty in the process. While the adults spend time relaxing, chatting, eating and laughing. Oh and we can't forget the usual not showering for the day until about noon or so. Also, we must believe in the saying "where there's good food there's fun" there's always tons of food and I swear it seems like almost half of it is treats (donuts, ice cream, homemade goodies etc) It's all apart of spending time up there. Here's a few snapshots of this last time with Ryan's family.

New Eyes

I've been out of school now for three whole weeks and it has been wonderful. I feel like I'm just as busy as when school is in. I'm just busy in a different way with everything that gets put on hold the last 9 months of the year. It's kind of my catch-up time, with cleaning my house, errands, exercising, projects, yard work etc. Well, this year I was talked into doing doing ESY, which is a summer program for special ed kids. It's nice because it's only about 10 hours a week and it pays really well. So I thought I'd give it a try. We started our first week this week and boy my eyes were opened. We were paired with another teacher and given 3 aides for our 12 kids. Which seems like a lot of adults, but we needed everyone of them. We've been given K-1st graders with Autism. I feel like my eyes have really been opened to a whole new world in my profession. A lot of these kiddos are non-verbal or if they have language they just repeat words/phrases it has no meaning. They're in diapers, about 3 of them are runners, one who bites (himself and those around him), and others do the whole rocking/self-stemming thing. I'll be honest, the first day was a disaster. Neither me or the other teacher has worked with this ability level with autism. But each day has gotten better. We even had one boy cry for only 2 hours instead of 3. Progress right!?! Well, it made me indeed grateful for my own group of kids that I work with throughout the school year. Sometimes I complain to Stephen a lot about them. But I have gained a great perspective and respect for my profession. : )

Our new neighbors

So we've heard a lot of loud squawking out our window the past few weeks. A really loud and annoying sort of bird. I tried to ignore it, but the other day we finally found out what was making that noise. We live right next to a big field that lies between us and state street.  From our upstairs windows, we were were able to see over the fence and down into the massive weeds that cover the field. Stephen was able to capture some good pictures and was pretty excited. I'm surprised Stephen's never seen a real pheasant before!(expecially with his knowledge and expertise of birds) I couldn't believe that such a beautiful bird, could be so loud. They have nested with some females...so we might have a whole family sometime soon.

We Should Have Brought our Snowshoes!!!

So one of the things that both Stephen and I are passionate about is hiking, especially this time of year when the weather is getting warmer. This summer we've already been on a few hikes. But this last weekend tops them all. We've done a bunch of short mile hikes up to waterfalls close by our house and other local hikes. One of our goals this summer is to hike up to the top of Mt. Timpanogos, which is a peak that is around 11,700 ft. We've roped in some family to come and join us in July and are way excited for this adventure. Well this last weekend, we thought it would be fun to just start on the trail and see how far we could go. The weather ended up holding out on us and turining out to be great, so we hopped in the car and headed for the mountains. We started on the hike having a great time, but it was definately cold and windy! (probably somewhere in the low 40's) There were a few snow patches along the trail that we'd climb through, but about a mile and a half up the trail, we ran into the biggest snow patch I'd ever come in contact with. It was so big that we couldn't keep going and lost the trail. We did decide to have some fun with it though and slide down the 100 ft patch of snow. We were sad we weren't able to go farther, but ended up have a great time.

 

Here's Stephen making his way down the snowfield on the back side of Timp

Yeah, I'm trying not to fall on my face as we slide down. :)

This Old Man...

So for about the past 2 1/2 months Stephen has been rubbing in the fact that I was in my 30's and he was still only 29 and soooo much younger than me. Well, last week we celebrate the big THREE -OH and boy was it good!!! Stephen isn't much for big parties and such. So we headed up to my parents and went to lunch with my two sisters. With Stephen's request, we went to the best burger place around...Red Robin. After we stuffed ourselves with burgers and fries, we headed back to my parents for a little cake and celebrations. That night, we had some friend and more family over to our place for ice cream sundaes. And the next day had his cousins, who live close by come over for a Sunday BBQ. All in all we did lots of celebrating, with lots of family and with lots of yummy food. In Stephen's words..."It can't get much better than this!"

 Happy Birthday Stephen!