Adventures Back East

Hello All. I'm sure you have all enjoyed Chris' adventures in blogging while Lil and I have been away. Contrary to what I know you have all feared, I came home to find that the house was still standing and the power was still on and things were in decent shape. He even changed our sheets, which is very important to me, but not very important to him. When I came in the door I was surprised to find flowers, a sweet card, and best of all---he had refinished our old coffee table and replaced the knobs to surprise me.
Lily and I had a great time in Boston, then Maine, then Vermont...but it proved to be a little long to be away from Chris. The occasion for the trip was my little sister Lindsey's graduation from college in Maine. My sister Rachel, aunts, cousins, etc. went early to enjoy each other and a few days in Boston before driving up to Maine for the graduation, after which my two sisters and I drove with my Dad and step-mom Tammy to their home in Vermont for a week. I had a blast spending time with loved ones that I see so rarely these days. While in Vermont, Lily came down with a scary high fever of 104+ that wouldn't break with tylenol, motrin, and cold baths so we had a few rough days and a 2 a.m. trip to the emergency room. She had no symtoms aside from the fever and her blood work, etc. all came back normal, so all in all, after chest x-rays, urine and blood cultures, etc. it was just a really expensive way of finding out that she must have had some viral or bacterial infection. It all cleared up and she had no signs of fever shortly after coming home from the ER. While we were there we visited the Joseph Smith memorial and went to church right near his birthplace on Sunday. I was extremely grateful to be able to have the mission president there give Lily a blessing and I credit the blessing for her speedy recovery.
We missed Chris and he missed us and we are glad to be back home. I have told Chris that he now has a readership that he can't let down and so hopefully he will contintue to entertain you on the blog...actually I might make him start his own blog so you don't worry about sorting the fact from the fiction...

 

Driggs and Jackson Hole

 

 

 

 

Over Memorial Day weekend we drove up to Driggs and Jackson Hole to spend time with my dad and that side of the family. It was our first time road-tripping with a baby in tow and it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. The highlights of our trip included: Stopping for a quick "hello" with the Budges in Pocatello, me nursing Lily in the backseat while driving on the freeway...yikes!, the view of the Grand Teton from our condo, my dad playing the guitar, good talks and reminiscing with family, ice cream with the Becks in Victor, a big rainstorm, followed by a beautiful rainbow, shopping and lunch in Jackson.

Maine

I spent last weekend visiting my sister Lindsey, who goes to Bowdoin College in Maine, and also surprising my Dad who went to visit Lindsey but had no idea I would be there. Maine was the most beautiful place I have ever seen in the fall.

Me and Linds on the gorgeous Bowdoin campus

More of Bowdoin-I must mention that the place reminded me of Hogwarts for several reasons:
*The campus is full of really old castle-like buildings and cathedrals
*The studetents are all affiliated with social houses with names like Howell House and Quinby House
*The students eat every meal together in a large dining hall
*While walking through their student union building I saw a sign that read "Quidditch Tryouts"-no kidding. Apparently they hold a quidditch tournament every year. They run around on brooms while other kids try to knock them down while searching for a penny "the golden snitch" in the grass
*The kids there all have rosy cheeks and wear lots of scarves-one guy in particular was wearing a thick, long black and white striped scarf with a Bowdoin insignia

Breakfast at the Bruswick Diner

Walking in "The Quad"

Dinner with me, Tammy, Lindsey, her boyfriend Ben, and my Dad

Lake Powell

Last week I got to spend three days basking in sunny Lake Powell, courtesy of our friends, the Becks. Unfortunately Chris refused to miss school, but I didn't want to miss my one opportunity to actually wear a bathing suit and get some sun this summer. My doctor said "no waterskiing" but I found plenty of other things to do. It was a fabulous trip! Thanks Ashley and Clay!!

Chicago

We spent last weekend with my cousin Kat and her husband Mark in Chicago and Nauvoo. It was so much fun!

Downtown Chicago was awesome! We met up with Mark and Kat and they watched Ruby for us while we went into the Chicago Museum of Art, which is free on Thursdays and Fridays during the summer! How cool is that? Then we walked around and Chris pointed out all the buildings featured in Batman: The Dark Knight.

A favorite painting by Seurat. It was awesome to see it up close...and for free!

A crazy bicycle brigade came charging down the street, stopping all traffic. It was nuts!

We got to see Frank Lloyd Wright's home and studio. Chris is fascinated by all things Frank Lloyd Wright.

Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House

Nauvoo

Us in front of the beautiful Nauvoo temple. It seemed sort of funny to take pictures in front of the temple with our dog--but all dogs go to heaven, right?

Walking around outside the pageant...I was a little nervous that someone was going to tell us we couldn't bring Ruby, but alas...all were welcome. Lots of people wanted to come pet her. Look at the smile on that dog's face!

Chris, me, Kat at the pageant. The Nauvoo Pageant was awesome! The stage is set so that you can see the temple in the background. As the pageant was ending, it had gotten completely dark and then while the cast was singing some beautiful hymn I can't remember the temple lights up on cue...aah it was cool.

Some flooded out little town in Iowa that we drove through to get to Nauvoo. It was very sad to see abandoned houses, wrecked beyond repair.

Our cute doggy, posing for the camera again.

Off to Orange Beach!!

I am ecstatic to be getting out of town for a real beach vacation!!

...And also heartbroken to be leaving behind my bookworm of a husband. He can't miss so much as a single class, let alone a solid week of school, but when my dad invited us to Orange Beach, AL for a week's vacation I jumped at the chance!! I don't know the first thing about Alabama, or about the Gulf Coast for that matter...but I heard the words "white sandy beach" and immediately began arranging to get time off from work.

With that being said, I'm not exactly sure that Chris would know what to do with himself for a solid week of slow paced/lounging/sleeping in/shopping/eating too much/loose itinerary-type of vacationing.

...he prefers the type of vacation where you spend your days rising at 6 am to engage in some sort of death-defying, physically exerting activity, barely break for lunch, and then resume said activity until daylight expires-great fun, great fun, don't get me wrong...but I believe that sometimes, you can return from such a vacation, NEEDING another vacation.

I plan on taking this opportunity to be utterly unproductive and lazy.

Anyway...BON VOYAGE!

Recent Happenings

Ruby is now an "obedient dog"...usually
Biking Bear Claw Poppy in St. George
Dinner at the Cheesecake FactoryMy mile high Chinese Chicken Salad...oops sideways

Happiness

*A weekend getaway on the horizon…for real this time…St. George here I come
*Taking a day off!
*Easter candy…I want to live on Cadbury mini eggs
*Wearing flip flops (perhaps a bit prematurely, but still doable)
*Watching Ruby play with “cousins” Hannah and Hank
*The rejuvenating effects of sunlight and longer days

Atlanta Trip

On the 26th we flew to Atlanta, GA to spend time with my dad. We spent four days hanging out, going to movies, renting movies, and basically just relaxing. I failed to take any family pictures while we were there. I did get pictures of the amazing Georgia Aquarium we visited. I highly recommend it to anyone who visits the Atlanta area. The first picture is a whaleshark (I think, well either way it's some sort of whale or shark.)
A stinging nettle
A jellyfish

More Europe pics...

Pretty little vineyards were all over the place in Ravello, Italy
Boat ride to the island of Capri
A plaster-of-paris mold of a body found at Pompeii
The Colluseum, Rome
We trekked all our gear on foot to church one morning to find the building empty-it was Stake Conference.

Canyoning

In Interlaken we went canyoning. It's basically sliding down natural waterfalls and jumping off cliffs into pools of water. It was such a rush!! Here we are suiting up.

Interlaken, Switzerland

Chris bungee jumped out of this tram-a 450 ft drop. I valiantly stayed behind to take pictures.

Amalfi Coast

My Dad got married this summer on the Amalfi Coast in Italy-we got to tag along. It was the most beautiful place in the world. Here are some highlights. (photo 1-Chris and Sarah; 2-Infinity Pool; 3-The sisters: Rachel, Sarah & Lindsey; 4-my dad jamming on the drums).

So I've started a blog...

Hello all! I've decided to jump on the bandwagon and start a blog. Chris and I have been married a little more than a year...it's been a blast and a ton has happened-he's back in school, I stopped teaching and got a new job, we moved to Draper, became parents (well dog parents... that counts I think)...to name a few things. This is us on our Italy/Switzerland trip we took this past summer.