We're Alive!!!

So I know many of you have been wondering if we're alive, and yes, we are! A few reasons for no blogging 1) the internet is down at our place 2) we were striving to survive the last few weeks of school, and 3) I've started reading Harry Potter! I've been looking forward to reading Harry Potter 1-7 continuously for about 6 months now. Of course I had to wait until I was graduated otherwise it just wouldn't happen, and now I'm graduated! Well, not really. I'm done with school but I won't be "graduated" till Spring. WooHoo! I finished Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone yesterday and started Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets today... what a wonderful life!

Much has happened, and many pictures have been taken, and I do plan to post about significant events in the last couple months, but until then, here's a sneak peak: I ran my first 5K on Thanksgiving (which was really 5 MILES!!!), we were stranded in Deer Lodge, Montana, Marc turned the big 2 5, and we went to an ugly sweater Christmas party...

HAVE A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! (Perhaps I'll post again before then, but no promises!)

Wickedly Spooktacular Halloween!

Well, I'm well aware that Halloween was a mere 12 days ago, better late than never! I spend just about every waking moment trying to unbury myself from the pressures this semester so frequently provides! From Resveratrol to Celiac Disease, and High Fructose Corn Syrup to South Korea, well, let's just say this is my life in a nut shell!

Halloween...we had an awesome Halloween full of good food, good friends, cool costumes, and fun family! We attended some pretty sweet parties as well as hosted one of our own at none other than the MORTUARY! Marc and Richard lead tours through the scariest place on earth, the MAUSALEUM! It's where people are in caskets out of ground...thanks to our awesome neighbors and best buds Rich and Rach for planning it in such short time!

I don't know why some of the pictures are sideways...all the costumes were so creative I had to post pics of all of 'em! Enjoy! Rich and Rach are missing in action...check out their blog linked Rich and Rach for their awesome polygamist pics...:)

Tayte=Prom King, Jodi=Prom Queen
Rory=dog, he took off his costume before i got a pic, Lori=looked awesome...?

Charles=Flower, Heather=pregnant Bumblebee

Chelsea=Pepper, Steve=Salt

Ethan=Devil, Tausha=Witch

Kati, Makenzie=Old woman, Mike=Old man

Scott=Tree, Megan=Tree Hugger, Alexis=Witch, Eric=Devil

Gordon=Big Bad Wolf, Jessica=Little Red Riding Hood, Shelly=mechanic

Quinn=Joker, Kristy=Ranger

Pumpkins we carved: WSU W and Snowman

Marc=Buddy Elf, Abby=Minnie, Me=Jovi Elf

I love that my mom dressed up! Kayla and Josh=Shrek and Fiona (they made their costumes!)

Wyatt=Donkey, Jeffrey=Ninja, Jaxon=Fireman, Ryker=Fireman's dalmation,Garret=Superman, Lauren=Tinkerbell, Jayne=Witch, Isaac=Dragon

Jaren and Linsey as Ronald and Wendy

The Wonderful World of Disney!

Well, as you know, we just went to DISNEYLAND and had the most magical time ever to be had! We left early saturday morning and came home wednesday evening. Saturday we just struggled to manage our way from the airport to the hotel...what an adventure! Saturday night we had a girls night out (thanks to my wonderful mother in law:)and went to the all amazing WICKED musical! It was so awesome! I've been lucky enough to have seen it twice now, and I could see it a million times more! Sunday we went to the beach. I'm always amazed at the beautiful waves... then Monday brings us to CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE!!! This was my first time here, and it was so fun! Some classic favorite rides/moments: tower of terror, soarin' over california, toy story mania, california screamin', and of course the pixar parade. When California Adventure closed we headed over to Disneyland to catch the magical parade. I loved the parade! Tuesday we spent most of our day at Disneyland. Cherished moments include: matterhorn, space mountain, indiana jones, splash mountain, pirates of the carribean, big thunder, jungle cruise, getting free mickey mouse hats, and Toon Town (so cool!) where we met Mickey. Our niece Abby just turned 4 and she was so fun, I’m excited to take our little ones one day! Wednesday we celebrated my brother in law Kody's birthday (Happy Birthday Kody!) with a makeshift cake and candles, then we headed for the airport and flew home. I can't wait to go back, I love Disneyland so much more now that I'm older! Enjoy some pics below of our magical moments at Disneyland! (Alyssa, notice I didn’t do a slideshow... just for you:)

Who's been in my car?

So, I started a really awesome internship at HAFB in the Fitness center working with the director, exercise physiologist, and dietician. One day last week as I was leaving, I got into my car and thought, "that's strange, I didn't notice those dirty work gloves in here before", next thought, "I thought I left my bookbag on the passenger seat floor", not thinking twice about it I continue putting my things in the car, sit down at the wheel, and my next thought is, "holy crap! I'm in someone elses car!" Hahaha! I gather my belongings and quickly exit the car feeling like a thief and praying the owner of this car doesn't see me! Sure enough, my identical looking car was parked a few stalls away. I had to laugh when I realized that the car I got in also didn't have locked doors, and I thought, hmm, they probably don't care if someone wants to steal their 1993 bright blue Pontiac Grand Am either! Ha!

I have been feeling extra blessed and happy lately for a few reasons. One, I'm going to Disneyland! (notice the countdown?) I am very, very, excited to go! We are going with Marc's family for Abby's 4th birthday. I have two friends, Holly and Alyssa, who love Disneyland SO MUCH they both own season passes, yes, season passes, and yes they live in UTAH! Another reason I've been feeling blessed is because I am back in school! I love school, really, and I'm really excited to graduate December 12th! Also, as I mentioned earlier, I started a really awesome internship at HAFB. I've been wanting to work at HAFB in their wellness center and this is such a great opportunity for me. I'll be able to learn a lot about my career through this experience and so far it is everything I dreamed it would be and better! Let's all pray it turns into a job when I graduate! :) Here's a shout out to my sister in law Kati, Happy Birthday! Love ya!

Red Castle

To celebrate our last weekend of summer we went backpacking to Red Castle in the Uintah Mountains with just me, Marc and my Dad. It was beautiful! We left Wednesday night, slept at the trail head and started hiking early Thursday morning. Dad hadn't been to Red Castle for 18 years and thought he would remember it better, well some things have changed in the last 18 years! We followed the trail till it split and then the trail soon diminished. We could see our destination - Red Castle Mountain - so we bush whacked through the meadow, forest, and swamp until we finally reached the lake, 11 hours later! I was so sore and tired by this point. I've done quite a bit of backpacking and my pack was much too heavy. We took lots of breaks towards the end of the day. We even stopped on the trail, laid out our sleeping pads, and took a nice 30 minute nap while Marc fished in a frog pond nearby. Needless to say, he didn't catch any fish in the frog pond :) The lake we camped next to was beautiful! We were at the tree line elevation so all the trees around us were really stunted. We fished Thursday night and Friday morning. Friday we caught a good number of fish. Most of them were tiger trout, which I'd never seen before, really pretty with the tiger stripes. They were sure good eatin' too for lunch! We packed up Friday and started hiking out at 2:00. We got back to the truck around 8:30. Oh yeah, we found the trail and learned that it doesn't split where it used to. The trail is a really good one, which was helpful because of the distance. We drove home Friday night and were in bed shortly after midnight.

Slippin' on the Slides

Above: Jill, Sara, and Marc Below: Abby
We went to the Roy Aquatic Center with Marc's family and had so much fun! Marc, Jill, and Sara are so goofy when they get together, they're like little kids! All three of them try to skip as far as they can on the water off the big slide. I'm not very brave, I always get nervous to sit up when I go down the slide, so I just lay down and scream, but I love it! Here are some pics and action photos of their mad skills! Well, the video actually did work when I tried to post it, but it's a sweet one of Marc going down the big slide and skipping all the way to the rope! All the little kids (and big kids) watching think it's pretty cool too as they cheer for him:)

Happy Birthday Harry Potter!!!

Here is a shout out to one of the greatest wizards to ever live! I love Harry Potter! I dream of the day to be a witch and go to Hogwarts... I was so happy to celebrate his birthday at work with Holly, Alyssa, and Jill. Lime Ricky Sherbet and Ginger Ale...this one's for you Harry!

24th of July

Happy Pioneer Day! We had a very interesting, and wonderful, 24th of July this year. Being on call all day at the mortuary was much more eventful than expected! Marc picked up 3 bodies, one of which was at the U of U hospital where he had to trek through SLC during the marathon and parade, crazy! That pick up alone took nearly 3 hours! Kayla, Josh, and Wyatt came over for dinner that night and we enjoyed yummy lettuce wraps and scrupmtious (sp?) shrimp! We made our way out back for a firework frenzy of fun! Kayla is so good to hang out with us when we are house bound, love ya sis!

Annyong-hi kashipshio Trevor!

Trevor is back home in Korea now after visiting for a few weeks. It was so great to be together will all the family while he was here! We went to Yellowstone and had a blast! We stayed in a really nice cabin, thanks to Kayla and Josh for taking the lead in planning:) Marc and I rode with Jen, Dave, Lauren, and Garrett. I was so impressed with how well Lauren and Garrett traveled, they were wonderful! It was really fun to ride with them, we listened to "oldies" music which is really just Jen and Dave's era, ha! We left thursday and went fishing that night at a kiddie pond. Most of the kids didn't last long with the whole fishing thing, they ended up exploring and adventuring. But Lauren stuck with it and caught the only fish! Way to go! Friday we went to Yellowstone where we saw the amazing Old Faithful, Lower Falls, lots of bison and elk, and of course lots of pavement and trees. Saturday we went to Big Springs where the start of the Snake River is. There are huge fish there that are fun to feed. Then we went to Mesa Falls~beautiful! Saturday we headed home and watched the Weber State Fireworks. All in all it was a wonderful family vacation! It was so great to enjoy time laughing together while we played cards, the wii, and reminiscing! I love my family! Thanks for coming out to visit Trevor! We miss you already!

Fireworks, Baseball, and Soggy Sandwiches

Me, Holly, Alyssa, Sara, Jill, and Tanica
The four amigos at the mortuary!
Josh, Kayla, Trevor, Marc, Wyatt, Me
Take me out to the ball game! We went to a Raptors baseball game with our family and friends, and they won! It was a pretty exciting game. My brother and sister in law both caught baseballs from foul balls and my brother gave his to me and marc. The game was tied going in to the bottom of the ninth inning. The first batter stands up to the plate as marc says to me "He's going to hit a homerun and win the game." And sure enough, the first batter hits a homerun to win the game! WooHoo! It was awesome! Our friend Richard was in a contest on the field to put on a frozen t-shirt and he won too! Way to go Richard!

Boys playing ball
Isaac taking a swing!
Pop! Pop! Popcorn!
Firework show!

Grandma, Jayne, and Lauren
Trevor, Jeffrey, and Jaxon playing pass
Talkin' Ladies

Happy 4th of July! What a great holiday! I am so proud to be an American! We were house bound the 4th of July answering the phones because we were on call at the mortuary so I wasn't expecting too much excitement on the 4th, but I was sure wrong. My wonderful family decided to bring the party to our house! We had a picnic and played all afternoon. I love my family so much! They are the best! Trevor is here visiting from Korea for a few weeks and we are so glad he's here! I made red and blue mother goose popcorn for the first time and it was a big hit, mmm! mmm! mmm! That night we did our own fireworks with the best neighbors in the world, Rich and Rach, and other friends Jeremy and Amanda.

Now for the soggy sandwich story... so, here I am, about to leave the house to get my haircut by one of my best friends Jessica when I remember I need to put a load of laundry in the washing machine downstairs on my way out. I had made me a delicious pb and j sandwich to eat on the go and I was fumbling with holding my sandwich and the laundry basket. So, I put my sandwich on top of the clothes in the laundry basket, problem solved. Once my laundry is started washing in the dryer it's time to leave, but where did I put my sandwich? You guessed it! IN THE WASHING MACHINE!!! I hastily opened the washer, rumaged through my wet clothes searching for my soggy pb and j sandwich. Luckily I found it and luckily it wasn't in a million pieces yet! Whew! I can be a real spaz sometimes!

Merry Christmas Jessica!

Gordon and Jessica with her Merry Christmas Birthday cake
Action photo of us eating sushi...yummy!

Me, Jess, and Shelli
Marc, me, Jessica, Gordon, Shelli, and Tim

For my friend Jessica's birthday we went to a sushi restaurant on 25th st. in Ogden called Tona. When we sat at the table we noticed the "birthday" cake Jess's husband Gordon got for her. It said "Merry Christmas Jessica"...? The only wrapping paper Gordon had was christmas print so he decided to stick with the christmas theme for her birthday. The best part is when he went to the bakery to have the cake made. He proceeds to tell the story...Gordon walks to the bakery counter and tells the cake lady, "I need a cake that says 'Merry Christmas Jessica'." The cake lady says okay, walks away, then turns around and says, "Did you say 'Merry Christmas?". Gordon says, "Ya, I have a handicap sister and she's convinced that today is Christmas, so my family decided to go along with it and celebrate." (At this point in the story I'm laughing hysterically...almost in tears...) The cake lady then praises Gordon by telling him how sweet he is. If she only knew! He is such a rascal! You may think Gordon was with a friend or something, but no, he is completely alone through the whole joke, laughing inside all the while! Anyway, here's a shout out to Jessica, Happy Birthday, hope it was a great one! Thanks for inviting us to celebrate with you! By the way, the sushi was amazing! I'm over my fear of raw fish! Well, at least when it's in sushi...

Campout!

Marc couldn't wait quite long enough for breakfast to be ready...

What a Beauty! I could frame this for money!
That's my man!

Grotto's Trail~ice cold water...yes, we all jumped in!

Richard soothing us with his campfire melodies...
Last weekend we went camping with some of our friends to Payson Lakes and we had a blast! We spent the majority of our time fishing, hiking, eating, and sitting around the campfire. It was a wonderful and much needed vacation, I love camping!