SLC Trip and Christmas (just a little late!)

Confession.. I have been a HORRIBLE blogger this past month (if you haven't figured it out). I lost my camera cord so I have to upload pics to Dustin's computer which is always at Monster Sak and I just don't feel that blogs with pictures are very exciting. So I am going to back track a little because one, I use this blog to help me remember when we did things and two, because I promised my cousin I would post these pictures (and they are so fun I really want to). So rewind back to Christmas time and here we go...
Back in December we spent a day in Salt Lake City. We didn't think we were going to make it because Utah county was a BLIZZARD! There was so much snow. On the freeway, the carpool lane was just a big pile of snow, no one could even use it. Once we got over the point of the mountain it started raining... weird! Anyways, we first met up with my parents and sister and saw 'Christmas Carol' at the Hale Center Theater. It was really good. Then we headed to downtown Salt Lake where we met up with my Cuz and her hubby. We met at Gateway then went over to Temple square to watch the Joseph Smith Movie in the Legacy Theater. (If you haven't seen it yet you really should go, it's amazing!) We rode Trax over there and had to run from the Trax stop to the Joseph Smith Building and we made it
with only about 1 minute to spare. After the movie we walked around Temple Square to see the lights. They were beautiful as always. My favorite was the nativity in the middle of the reflecting pond. It was gorgeous! Then we rode trax back to the Gateway and ate dinner at Z'Tejas, one of our favorite restaurants. The food was great and so was the company! Scott and Marie are heading down to Arizona to go to grad school. We have loved having them close enough to get together often. Good luck with school guys and we'll see ya soon!

We went up to Kaysville on Christmas Eve and had a delicious meal with my family and Grandpa. We opened presents and played some games. Dustin and I were very excited about our present, another year of season tickets with my parents to Hale Center Theater in Salt Lake City. We got these last year and it was so much fun! If you've never been to Hale Center up in SLC you should definitely go.

Christmas morning we slept in then opened presents just me and Dustin. We got some movies to add to our collection and Heelez (those tennis shoes that have the skates in the heels). Dustin had said a few times that he thought those would be fun and I found them for adults. It was hillarious watching him try to figure out how to use them. Also, since we've been married and Dustin's worn his wedding band, he couldn't wear his CTR ring. I always thought it would be a neat Christmas gift to get it sized for his other finger so he could still wear it. I figured out a tricky way to get it just the right size. He was pretty excited about it. I was boring for Christmas this year. I honestly couldn't think of anything I really needed or wanted but was sick of all of my clothes so I got money to go shopping! I got some shirts, jewelry, scarves and a new purse. (And we didn't take any pictures, oops!)

Christmas evening Dustin's parents flew in and we had dinner with them. We also starting watching Lost from the beginning again so that we could remember everything that happened for when the season starts this week. We were very excited about our gift from my in-laws. They took all their 6 six kids and their spouses on a cruise to Mexico. We just got back on Saturday and it was an absolute BLAST!!! Stay turned for pictures to come from that.

Out of the Mouth of 6 and 96 Year Olds!

When I left my house this morning I had NO idea what was in store for me. I got to school to find out that we couldn't go on our field trip to the Seville, an old folks home because of the snow. Then the principal called us down to tell us that the girl we wanted to hire wasn't working out and we had to interview 2 more ladies during school today. When my kids got there at 8 am they were walking in and one little girl noticed that she had matching boots as a little boy in our class. She got so excited and said ...
Now we can get married when we're older because we are have twinner boots!
She was dead serious. I couldn't help but laugh at that. If only it were that easy. Wear matching boots and there is your soul mate! haha
We helped another teacher move classrooms, 6 year olds LOVE to help. Then they watched Mickey's Christmas Carol while the teachers interviewed for the new spot. (We did find someone who will start Jan 5th and my class will be down to 21! Heaven!) By some miracle, I called the District and they said that they could send a bus last minute to take us to the Seville. So we jumped on and headed over. At the Seville there were about 20 cute people that came to watch. They were so funny! They kept shouting out things between songs. "That was just delightful!" "I know that song". "They are so beautiful". My favorite was when I went over to lead my kids in their group speaking part. I knelt down in front of them and said one, two, ... then I felt a tap on my shoulder. In a voice loud enough for everyone to hear, this cute little old lady says "Tell them they sing like angels." It was so adorable and so funny at the same time! When we finished some of them came up to talk to us. "That was so d*@! good!" "That sounded better than any Disney movie I ever saw." "Those kids were perfect."
To end the day we had our Christmas Party. Six parents came in to run the stations. Everything was going great, all the kids were having a great time when all of the sudden someone yells "There is pooh on the carpet!" I walked over calmly thinking it was animal pooh from someone's shoe but after consulting with a mom helper we decided it was human poop! ONE OF MY STUDENTS POOHED ON MY NEW CARPET!!! And of course once someone said something about it, all the rest of my class had to run over to have a look! We found the culprit who just didn't want to miss out on any of the fun and the janitor cleaned it up because that is SO not in my contract! After the janitor left, I Lysol sprayed down my rug and clorox wiped just about everything in my room!
Welcome to my life as a first grade teacher!

Weird

So I was just thinking... Today is the first day since we started dating that Dustin and I haven't talked. Not one word to each other. No, we are not in a fight, Dustin has been on an airplane all day on his way to Brazil with his Dad. It's a business trip and Dustin is the translator. Once he gets there phone calls are SUPER expensive so we are going to communicate through e-mail while he's gone... no talking until Wednesday night at midnight. It's just weird!

Happy Thanksgiving

So Thanksgiving this year was a little different. Because of everybody's schedules we ended up having nothing on the actual Thanksgiving day. We decided that we would just go out then spend a nice relaxing day together. We went to Mimi's (one our our favorite restaurants) because they were open on Thanksgiving. Well after waiting for an hour and fifteen minutes we got sat. The food was REALLY good though. We got a salad, then all the works... turkey, mashed potatoes, yams, veggies, stuffing, and cranberry sauce (it was the best cranberry sauce ever, close to Kneaders). Then to top it all off we got desert! It was so much food. It fed us lunch and dinner that night. Then we came home, watched The Santa Clause and took a nice nap. It was a very relaxing night.

At 4 am we took Dustin's van over to the University Mall and parked it so he could get some good advertising. Did you know that every year they bring Santa Clause in on a helicopter?!? While we were out we drove around and looked at all the crazy people that were lined up already waiting. Best buy won with the longest line but parking lots were FULL everywhere. Then we went home to sleep, not shop. Dustin had a crazy busy day at Monster Sak and I went out shopping at a normal time. (I'm not anti-black friday, I was just tired).

My cousins Heidi, Annie and Sarah called me because they had come up to Provo to go shopping. We went to Cafe Rio for lunch. It was so fun to catch up with them! Thanks again for calling me.
On Saturday Dustin was busy again at Monster Sak and the crafty bug hit me again so... I bought some fabric at Joanns and sewed a skirt! It turned out pretty good I thought considering I just cut the pattern off one of my other skirts. It was a lot of fun! (the only pic is on my phone and I can't figure out how to upload it).

Sunday we had our family Thanksgiving dinner which felt like a Christmas dinner. We had ham and lots of yummy sides. After dinner we made Gingerbread Houses. It was really fun but we just used graham crackers and frosting and they all ended up falling over except for Bekah's by the time we left. It was really funny! We caught some pic's before they fell.


Hope you had a great Thanksgiving too!

Jason's Deli

Dustin and I ate at Jason's Deli over by the University Mall tonight. It was pretty good food, sandwiches, salad bar, etc. but I just had to blog about it because they had a meal called the Caren something. I don't even remember what it was but my mouth dropped to the floor because only once before have I ever seen my name spelled the way I do ANYWHERE! It was pretty cool!
(Thanksgiving Pic's coming soon)

Twilight

This weekend my mom and sister came down and we went and saw Twilight. I have to admit that my expectations were pretty low because the preview looked cheap and I knew it couldn't be better than the book. It was fun to get all caught up in it again though. Well... the previews started and I got VERY excited! It was AMAZING!!! I don't want to talk it up to much for those of you haven't seen it yet but it is better than the previews and I'm ready to go again!

Before we went to the movie we went to University Mall to go dress shopping for my little sister. She is going to her first dance! It was so fun to look at fancy dresses again, it seems like it's been forever since I was in her shoes. We saw the Twilight kiosk and stopped to look at the shirts. There were these three ladies looking that had shirts on and I was trying to read them. Then I felt weird staring at these people so I told them I was reading their shirts. I told them we were going to the movie and they said that they were to... for the THIRD time! These were the CRAZIEST ladies. They made shirts, had a Team Stephanie necklace and a charm bracelet with all the pictures from the cast. They said they made posters and sent them to Stephanie when the 12 chapters of Edward's perspective were leaked to show support. They went to Forks, the city where the story takes place on Stephanie Meyer day. (I didn't even know there was a Stephanie Meyer day). These ladies were fanatical! The craziest part was that they had printed out pictures of all the cast, laminated them and put them on popsicle sticks. When I asked them why, they said so that they could always have the cast with them! CRAZY!!! I wish I would have taken a picture of them just so you could see all the craziness. It's crazy what a vampire love story can do to some women!

Merry Christmas!? Happy Holidays!

That's right... this year we have been a little overly excited for Christmas. We had a talk a few weeks ago about when we were going to put up the tree and we decided the weekend before Thanksgiving, that way it was a little early but not insanely early. Well, last Sunday we were hanging out at home and we decided that we didn't want to wait. So... our Christmas tree has been up for a week now! I LOVE it! We leave the lights on all the time and it just make our living room so much happier. It also has a few Christmas presents already (I'm trying not to procrastinate this year). After the Christmas tree was up and decorated, we make cinnamon sticky buns and watched Home Alone, Dustin's all time favorite Christmas movie. We figured that if we watched it this early, we would be able to fit it in one more time this year. It was so nice and cozy, all that was missing was a fireplace and the snow! Ha ha! I LOVE Christmas!
P.S. Don't worry, we are still going to celebrate Thanksgiving, and we are really excited about it, we just feel that Christmas can be celebrated for longer than a month!
Happy Holidays!

Happy Halloween (a little late)

I used to not like Halloween as a kid. I HATE being scared. Scary movies, masks, haunted houses ... count me out. I did always like dressing up and going trick or treating (what kid doesn't). Since I've been teaching first grade, Halloween is quite the big deal. The kids get excited about it about a month before the big day. The past two years I have been a witch and I decided to change it up this year. Not only that but I got bit by the crafty bug and decided that I would sew my own tinkerbell costume. It was SO much fun and I think it turned out alright. I was SO excited to get all dressed up this year, I woke up 30 minutes early and couldn't fall back asleet, which if you know me is hard to believe! Here are my adorable first graders! They had some really fun costumes. My favorites are the robot and the strawberry. I was tinkerbell (couldn't find any white wings so they are pink). I had a close up of my costume but my computer's hard drive totally crashed and they are trying to fix it right now. Keep your fingers crossed that they can retrive some of the stuff.

Go Cougars!

This past weekend was a lot of fun. Saturday we went to the BYU vs. UNLV game. Dustin's been wanting to go to one all season and we finally got tickets. The weather was perfect, we had great seats and our Cougs didn't let us down. The night before the game we went to Macey's and found some BYU hoodies so we could show our school pride. You can sort of see them in the first picture.

Our New Looks!

What do ya think?
Ha ha! Give it a try... dailymakeover.com

Great New Website

Dustin and I were getting ready to read scriptures and we went to lds.org to pull up the scriptures but got side tracked to this new website that the church has put out. We looked around and read President Hinckley's talk about the Savior. It was really really good. This website has tons of good talks testimonies from prophets and apostles. I'm excited to explore it more! Here's the link... jesuschrist.lds.org

UPDATE!

Well it's about time for an update. I have just had a total block on what to write about. Life around here has been pretty 'blah' for the past week or so. Dustin and I both caught a nasty little bug that came in with the cold weather. It knocked both of us down for about a week. We have watched lots of movies and taken lots of long naps. It's been nice to spend so much time together even if we didn't feel 100%.

This last Wednesday all the girls got together and made Halloween care packages for all of Dustin's family that was affected by the hurricane. There were socks and books for the kids, pencils and school supplies, vitamins and common cold medicine, stuffed animals and TONS of candy! People brought over bags of candy and we dumped it all in one giant pile to mix it up. It was CRAZY!!! The pile probably stood almost a foot high in the middle and was about three feet in diameter. The air around it smelled so sweet and my little niece Lexi thought she had died and gone to heaven. Ha ha. She helped me fill a couple of bags but then she started grabbing handfuls of the pixi sticks. It was pretty funny. The families down there have been kind of stopped as far as progress goes. The insurance adjusters are dragging their feet and they can't fix anything until they come assess the damage. Luckily for our family they have other places to stay.

Fall break, UEA weekend was yesterday and today. I just love holidays from school! All day yesterday I was thinking that today was Sunday and my weekend was half over but it's only Friday! That's the best feeling. We are going to see Into the Woods at the Hale Center Theater in Salt Lake tonight and I'm really excited. I haven't seen this play since I was in Elementary School and I really liked it then.

Totally Free!

So there is this website that is giving away 24 purses within 24 hours. All you have to is go to handbagplanet.com and give them your e-mail address. It's on October 15th and there are some cute bags!

Finally! Good TV Again!

Well, it's Tuesday Night which means "Halo Night" around our house. Dustin's parents bought all the boys x-box 360's for Christmas and they get together every Tuesday night at our house to play Halo for a few hours. (Don't worry... I tell them all what big nerds they are all the time) haha. Usually some of the girls will get together and watch a chick flick or scrapbook or do something girly but that didn't work tonight. So while I lay here, thinking about falling asleep, watching 6 grown men play video games I thought I would blog!

So we just got cable last week. It's been pretty exciting. We didn't have TV the first year we were married, just movies. Then we got basic cable (basic channels and Discovery). Then we bought an antenna but when we moved it didn't work so now we have crazy cable. We have movies on demand and like 100 channels and it can be a BIG waste of time. As Dustin said in his last post, he's been obsessed with CNN and I've been watching Gilmore Girls again. There are a few shows that we just can't live without which is why we got cable just in time for all the season premier's. Here are our top 5 favorite shows...

Number 5 - Dancing with the Stars You've just gotta love it!

Number 4 - The Bachelor I know it's kind of cheezy but we just love the drama and trying to convince the bachelor who to choose (although they have NEVER picked the ones we wanted)

Number 3 - Survivor This show really makes Dustin want to see if he's man enough to rough it in the wilderness. Me...no way! I'll just watch!

Number 2 - Lost This is where me and Dustin will definitely differ on number one and number two placements. If this were Dustin writing, Lost would be number one. Lost is just so crazy because it has all these crazy twists that you NEVER would expect. You should watch if you haven't tried it out yet!

And ... Drumroll please ... Number 1 - Grey's Anatomy!!! My teacher friend Amber totally got me hooked on this show when she let me borrow the first two seasons a few years ago. I just love this show! I'm kind of bummed that Amber isn't teaching this year because we would always pow-wow the day after an episode and now I have no one to talk to. I'm so excited for this season because Derek and Meredith might get back together! But after the last episode I just hope Christina didn't talk her out of it! ha ha. I'm telling you, you've got to watch it! It's got all the drama of a soap opera but better acting and it's funny too! I can't believe that I have to wait two weeks for the next episode. Oh yeah, and there is a spin off Private Practice that took Addison to California. It's pretty good and it's kind of like double dose Grey's Anatomy!

So that's that! Our favorite T.V. shows. What are yours?

fall...appropriate

What better word for what's happening these days...fall. Fall apart, fall out, fall down, fall in, fall with just about any preposition behind it. You fall-owing me? A trip up Provo Canyon to see the leaves changing colors today was a healthy reminder of the good side of this season, but the world's getting kinda crazy out there lately. Sorry - I know everybody likes to read about little vacations, baby diapers, and heart felt hubby/wifey testimonials, but I (Dustin) feel like singing a different song on this one. I gotta blame it on an overdose of AM radio and the CNN channel this past week. I think I'm learning a little bit more about politics though.

McCain isn't an ideal candidate for our next president, and his running mate is almost enough reason for a staunch republican to vote for a democrat. However, Obama frightens me...I'm not sure America is ready for his radical game plan. I'm amazed by three things: 1)politicians who are more concerned about securing their seat in office than fulfilling their present responsibilities in the public positions they hold. 2)the fragility of our economy because of oil dependence and out of control debt. 3)the battle that rages between democrats and republicans on Washington hill. I'll spare you the details, because you probably stopped reading after I said there would be no fluffy stuff on this post. I'll just say that life could very possibly be drastically different in the next few years. It would be interesting to see what happens if the dollar melts and our entire income/credit system gets turned upside down. I'm not preaching doomsday or anything, but I'll be very surprised if the economy stabilizes anytime soon. Can't say that I'm really super afraid...many of us need a good taste of what 97% of the world's population lives like on a daily basis. I mean that not having credit cards, pantries full of food, steady jobs, or thousands of dollars in the bank to get by on wouldn't necessarily be the end of the world. If smiley Levi Vasquez in Peru can feed his 9 kids every day where the average wage is less than $150 a month, maybe we could learn a little humility by experiencing the same financial environment.

I just got back from Texas where I helped clean up some of hurricane Ike's aftermath. Talk about a mess! Flood waters pack a nasty punch. It's incredible how much devastation comes with 5 feet of water in a home. Not to mention the critters that move into your house when you're not there anymore. In one day, we killed 4 poisonous snakes inside my uncle Tater's house. The following day, my cousin brought over the alligator they had found in their daughter's closet while cleaning out the 2 feet of mud throughout the house. I never really understood how bad of a situation it is when your house floods. All furniture, pictures, sheetrock, electrical wiring, cabinets, insulation, paperwork, and myriad other things that get wet become garbage. The houses had to be gutted down to the studs and dried out to battle mold and mildew. To think that we almost moved down to Bridge City a few months ago makes me kinda glad that it didn't work out. = ) There's still a buttload of work to be done down there, so go help if you get a chance. Ike might be viewed as a reminder that in 24 hours time our comfort, riches, and even a roof to sleep under can be wiped out.

It's all good though! Reggae music is cool. Mustaches are not..a menos que estes en Mexico!

Family, Sleepovers and Hurricaine Ike

Where do I even start. Dustin is from Southeast Texas, down by Beaumont and Galveston... right where the Hurricaine went. Most all of his extended family is from Bridge City, a city that was on the news because of the flooding. We kept getting small updates because there wasn't power for a while but finally figured out that every single house in Bridge City had water damage. Two sets of Grandparents, Uncles, Aunts, cousins and their families, most of Dustin's family except his parents live there in Bridge City. Anyways, Dustin went down to help get things cleaned up down there and because of teaching, I couldn't leave. It sounds like he's had quite the adventure but I'll let him tell all about that, and we'll post pictures. I am really glad that he could go help out his family but I must admit that I am very excited to see him tomorrow night. It's been a long 6 days with no Dustin but I have managed to have some fun.

Over the weekend I went up to Kaysville for a bridal shower. I had planned on spending the night but ended up staying 2! (I really don't like going home to an empty house, especially when it's dark outside.) While I was up there I got to hang out with my cuz Marie and her adorable little girl Dani. They used to live in Lehi but recently moved to get ready for Grad school. We sure miss having them close! Dani was talking a lot and knows quite a few animal sounds, soooo cute! I also got to see my other cuz Heidi for about an hour. She's teaching first grade too so we swapped stories about our crazy kiddos. Growing up I had the perfect situation... my mom had three sisters and each of them have a girl within one years difference from me. That meant I always had someone to play with and when we were all together it was SO much fun! We were missing our other cuz who had to go in for surgery quickly for her gall bladder. I got to go to church with my grandpa. After church we went and sat on his porch swing and just talked. I used to do that when I was a kid and we'd drink root beer floats. Although we didn't have those, it was nice to spend some time with him. He's the best Grandpa!

The rest of the Kaysville trip was spent with my parents. It was so nice to just chill at home with them. My mom was running around helping with my cousin's wedding stuff and it was humbling watching how much she gives to all those around her. Thanks for being such a great example of service mom. I got to help her while she sewed some of the dreses and it really made me want to re-learn how to sew. Also, we canned peaches and I got to bring some home. Yummy! I'm excited to eat them. Then Monday morning at 6 AM I left Kaysville to go to work. The other two nights I've spent over at Dani and Matt's house. I've been able to play with my super cute niece and nephew the past two days which has been amazingly fun! It's been nice to have people to talk to also, instead of just going home to an empty house. This is a random pic of me and Jax at Jamba Juice. He went to town on that smoothie! He sort of looks drunk on the thing. haha Isn't he so stinkin' cute!

So, thanks to everyone who kept me company this week while Dustin's been gone. It has been a lot of fun!

The Mayan

So... Anybody ever been to the Mayan? What a cool restaurant. Dustin and I went this past weekend and we got the best seat in the house, front and center right by the big pool. It was called the 'wet zone' but luckily we didn't get wet. The divers were awesome, the atmosphere was incredible but the food... well the food... it was just plain DISGUSTING!!! We have both been there a handful of times with family, friends, together, etc. and they have never had good food. We were excited when we showed up this time because they had changed the entrance and the menu was different, but still, no good food. You would think that such a nice, cool, expensive restaurant like that would have at least average food. Pretty sure that the cooks don't know what seasonings are, or they refuse to use them. Maybe you've had a better experience than we have...
P.S. Our waitress's name was NOT Jenifer but that's the only Mayan restaurant logo that came up!

TAG scattegories...

{it's harder than it looks}

Use the first letter of your name to answer the following. They have to be real places, things, names...nothing made up! try to use different answers if the person who tagged you had the same first initial. You can't use your name for the boy/girl name question.

what is your name? Caren
4 letter word: came
pro sports team: Cardinals
celebrity/band: Cake
vehicle: convertible
tv show: Care Bears
city: Cedar City
boy name: Carson
girl name: Callie
occupation: chef
something you wear: clothes
something you throw away: cans
food: Chocolate Chip Cookies
something found in a bathroom: comb
reason for being late: car crash
something you shout: come back

I tag: Rachel, Amber, Shalantie, Katie, Heidi, & Annie
(only do it if you want)

Rain

I just have to say after this weekends rain storms that I LOVE it when it rains hard, especially when I can stay snuggled up in bed! But despite my love for rain, I'm still not ready for summer to be over. :( The weather has been perfect these last few days, not blazing hot, not cold but just perfect!

Boondocks Date

At the beginning of the summer we bought these discount combo passes to Boondocks (that big place just past the point of the mountain with the waterfalls, slick track and the volcano with real fire). We thought it would be a fun date to go up and play around. But summer came and went and we never made it. So Wednesday we had planned on going after I got done with school. Well, after a long, tiring, frustrating day at school, I came home ready to postpone our Boondocks trip one more time and just get in my pj's and be lazy. Well, I got home and found these... 2 dozen long stemed roses!!! I about started to cry because they were so beautiful and it had just been one of those days. Then Dustin said "Well are you ready to go?" He had just cheered me up in a matter of minutes and made my not so great day awesome already! So I changed quick and we were off. For those of you who haven't been to Boondocks... you should go. We had an absolute blast! First we got to do the bumber boats and we were the only ones out there. So we were just following each other around, squirting each other. Dustin's sprayer shot really high but mine was squirting right at him. Ha ha I was laughing so hard I could hardly breathe. Then we went over to the slick track race cars. We raced and raced and raced and raced for like 25 minutes. They just let us keep on going and going and finally we just pulled over to the side and asked them if we could come in. They said because there was no one there they were just letting people go as long as they wanted. Then we played a game of miniture golf. It was a really cool course with ponds and fountains and the course goes right through that big volcano looking thing. I was so proud of myself because I got 2 holes in one!!! (which has never happened before) And, because I tied with Dustin (who has been golfing a TON this summer)! Then we decided we were hungry but we didn't want burgers and fries so we drove over to Harmon's Grocery store (the nicest grocery store we've ever been in!) They had this carvers restaurant where we got tri-tip sirloin with two sides and a roll and it was only like 7 bucks. They had this nice eating area on the second floor that overlooked the whole store. And to make it better... out the big window we had a perfect view of the new Draper temple. It was delicious! We ate then went back and played lazer tag (where Dustin was the top scorer for the game), played one more game of mini golf (on the other course) and used our forty tokens in the arcade. Then to top it all off we went back to Harmon's because they had a Gelato bar with italian ice cream, it was SO yummy! I got peaches with honey and sweet cream and Dustin got chocolate, strawberry and bananna. The funniest 10 year old boy came and sat with us while we were eating our ice cream and kept us laughing all through dessert!
What started out as not the greatest day ended up being one of the funnest days we've had in a while. When I went back to teach on Thursday I felt like I had had a whole weekend. It was great. So Dustin... Thanks for being the greatest and making me so happy! I love you!

Pics from New York Trip

Well here are the long awaited pictures from our New York Trip (and other random pics)! Sorry it's taken me forever to put them up, life is just crazy busy! It's funny, ever since I started blogging when something funny happens or we go do something I always think "That would be great to blog about!" But then I don't have time, or I can't find my camera cord or whatever so here we go...
This is us right after we got off the Maid of the Mist (a boat that takes to right in the middle of horse shoe falls! We would have been SOAKED if we didn't have these ponchos). Way cool pic!
This was our first time renting a car and it was a sweet one. A brand new Eclipse... My dream car all through high school! An older Senior Missionary Man took this pic of us with the Palmyra Temple and he was so proud of himself! He said that was the perfect picture! It was cute how excited he got (and it did turn out great! This was part of the padgent. It was an amazing spiritual experience and very well done. It was stories from the Book of Mormon and when Christ came to visit the Americas it was incredible! Then at the end there was a little section about Jospeh Smith and how he translated the plates for us to have. As you are watching and the narrator is talking about the Book of Mormon, the testament of Christ's visit here he says that Christ will come again to us and then Christ appears again! It was AMAZING! A feeling I will never forget.
While at the Hill Cummorah Visitors Center I ran into my friend Autum Saxon who is serving a mission in Palmyra! It was fun to spend a few minutes talking before she was off to lead anohter group through the sites. This was the Smith Cabin and this is the room where the Angel Moroni first appeared to Jospeh Smith. This is the Grandin Printing Press where the first Book of Mormons were printed. It was amazing to see all the work that went into making a book back in the day. So different from now. This was at the Peter Whitmer farm where the Church was organized. This is a picture in the Sacred Grove. The night we got to Palmarya I was so excited to be in the place where the Church was restored. It had been a long day of traveling and it was around 7 PM so we were just going to go to the hotel but before we did, I just wanted to SEE the sacred grove. The anticipation was so great just thinking about what happened there. We had a really hard time finding it becuase it is SO green out there and there were trees everywhere. We thought we would be able to see the temple spire or something but it was hidden in the trees too. We finally did find it. We went back to walk through on Sunday Morning. It was so quite and peaceful and beautiful. We found a little bench and read Joseph Smith History. Earlier that week when we went to the visitors center, the missionaries were talking about the first vision and asked us what our favorite part about the first vision was. My favorite part is that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ called him by name. They know each of us individually, by name and by circumstance. They know what is best for us, they know what we are feeling, and they know best how to comfort us if we will only turn to them. This week long vacation really stregnthened my testimony of so many things but mostly of how amazingly individual the gospel is. We are a part of a universal church that can still be exactly what you or I need on any given day. This church is constantly challenging us to be a little better and overcome the world to live to a higher standard with the help of a loving Heavenly Father who knows us. And it all started with a fourteen year old boy with a sincere question. I am so grateful to be a part of this church! All in all it was a great vacation that we will remember for the rest of our lives. Thanks mom and dad for making it possible for us to go!

It's Over Already?

I seriously can't believe it! It's like I blinked my eyes and summer is over, just like that! Sorry I've been really bad about posting (Thanks babe for the update on here!) I've been trying to enjoy every minute of summer before it's gone and tomorrow morning at 8 AM it is officially OVER! :( It has been a super fun summer filled with lots of fun and relaxin' and I promise that I will post pictures soon from our NY vacation along with everything else that's on my camera. Maybe I'll try one of those slide show things if I can figure it out...

Saludos!

Caren asked me to update the blog this time...so, since she's asleep already, I figured this would be a great time to get away with posting something secret that would embarrass her. You ready for this? I'll write it in portuguese, so she can't figure it out (and I know everybody else out there is fluent in the celestial language). Voce e macaco. Okay, now that that's out of the way, how bout an update: We just went and watched the new Batman movie in Orem tonight. We were the only 2 people in this huge, old-school theater, which was pretty neat. Caren wanted to make out the whole time, but I noticed the movie control guy up there looking down at us. ha Her parents don't read this do they? Sweet movie...definitely be watching it again when it comes out on dvd. Other recent events: we went to the Hill Cumorah Pageant in Palmyra, NY a couple of weeks ago; we moved for the 5th time since we got married 2.5 years ago (with move number 6 just around the corner!); we went camping and four wheeling at the little saharra sand dunes; and we attended a Swedish crawfish boil. New York was awesome except for the trip home (30 hours in airports trying to sleep with no pillow and an airline blanket on the floor wasn't much fun). Camping out with Zach, Amber, Matt, & Dani = good times. Those power quads were a blast, and the dunes were unreal. Moving was miserable...we've still got weeks of remodeling to do at our new place too. I do like not having a bunch of barren house that we're paying for though, which is natural when you move from a 5 bedroom place to a 2 bedroom place. The Swedish crawfish were interesting. Imagine these gigantic, beautifully prepared crawfish by the buttloads that make your mouth water at the sight of them. But, you peel them as quickly as your fidgety fingers allow and pop the succulent tails into your mouth one after another hoping for the cajun flavor you long for on a weekly basis only to cringe from the disappointing taste of DILL. Unless you drowned the tails in cocktail sauce and Louisiana crawfish seasoning, the taste was enough to ruin your appetite forever. Steer clear of the Ikea all-you-can-eat crawfish buffet. By the way, I'm sorry you have to listen to this "Say It Again" song on here...that was all Caren. Please support my request to remove it from the list. = ) And, for your entertainment, Caren is talking in her sleep - no idea what she's actually talking about, but she's saying it like she means it. Welp, I'm tired, and I 've got an early round of golf coming up in the morning. Maybe you'll get to read this before the boss starts editing. Tchau!

4th of July (a little late!)

I just love the 4th of July! Parades, BBQ's, carnivals, seeing family and my favorite... FIREWORKS!!! It's just such a fun day to realize how blessed we are to live here, and to celebrate just that. This year we had a cram packed day of fun. It all started at 9am when we went to the Provo parade. We had parked Dustin's van at Provo High the night before so we went to check on it first and it wasn't where we had left it. Turns out that parking lot is where half the floats took off from and so they picked up his van and just moved it (nice of the towing company huh!) Some of the floats were already gone and there were tons of open parking spots so we just parked there (really close to the parade!)
We watched for about an hour then took off to go to Bekah's birthday party. We had a picnic lunch, opened presents and ate cake. She had the COOLEST cake ever as you can see from the pics. It was a flag cake and instead of candles we used sparklers. It looked SO cool when they were all lit but when they burnt out, the cake was all black. Oops! So we didn't really eat cake, we just looked at it! Ha ha! These are the pillowcases I made her for her birthday! Then we came back to Provo and positioned the Monster Sak van where it could get some good advertising, then headed home to catch a quick power nap. 4 o'clock rolled around and we went out to Springville for Dustin's family BBQ. While we were all eating we heard a knock on the door and Mom and Pop Robison came walking through the door. SURPRISE!!! We had no idea they were coming. Then we went over to the park and played water baseball where all the bases are little blow-up pools and you have to slide into home on a slip and slide. It was really fun. (I was too busy playing and getting soaking wet that I didn't get any pics but just know... it was really fun!)

That night everyone came over to our house to watch the stadium of fire from our roof. We lined that whole roof top.


While we were waiting for the fireworks this field at the bottom of our hill caught on fire. It was pretty crazy looking. When the fireworks started we didn't know what to watch. Some people went down to check it out and the cops told them to get away because something was about to blow up! Luckily the firefighters got everything put out and no houses were burnt. Then we went inside to have cake and icecream for Roxanne's birthday. After everyone left we went down to pick up the Monster Sak van and got stuck in Hannah Montana traffic. Somehow Dustin ended up home in about 15 minutes but the way I was turned, after dropping him off, it took me about an hour to get home! Crazy! It was a long, crazy fun day and we both slept really good that night. Happy 4th of July!