June 2009

So here's what up...everything below the dotted line I wrote quite a while ago (except for some of the stuff that goes with the last two collages) and I won't edit it. I didn't know at the time that I wrote this that I was writing about the last trip I'd ever take with my Dad, or the last time I'd even see him. (The collage of 06/10/09 below has pictures from 06/12/09 which is the last time I ever saw my Dad.) I was really close to posting this when I found out that my Dad died! I'll post more on that another time. I just wish I could have got this posted so he could've seen it before he died. He would have liked to see all of the pictures and hear about how much fun we had with him. I'm just so glad we got to take this last trip together. We had such a nice time.

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05/31/09-06/05/09 Jared and I invited my Dad to go on a trip with us to Yellowstone! I thought we were pretty much going to see Ol' Faithful and a few deer, but I saw so many things that were unlike anything I'd seen before or even imagined. I didn't realize that 1/2 of the worlds geothermal features are in Yellowstone! The park is over 2 million acres, and is covered in geysers, waterfalls and colorful hot springs. Be sure to click on the pictures to enlarge them.

-Day 1 in the park-
*Old Faithful*Bald Eagle's nest*Elk* Huge herds of Bison*Bison on the road and swimming across the river*Continental Divide*Tons of hot springs, boiling mud pits, and hiking*

-Day 2 in the park-
*Waterfalls*Yellowstone Grand Canyon*More hiking*Mammoth Hot Springs*Bacteria Mats*
Look at how colorful the canyons are! (Bottom middle)


-Day 3 in the park-
*Geysers*Bacteria Mats*Waterfalls


Besides the park we played a ton of games, watched movies, hot tubed, and made lots of yummy food. Jared had a great idea of bringing our slow cooker, so we'd throw something in before we went out and when we were done exploring we had Potato Soup or a Pot Roast waiting for us! We stayed in West Yellowstone at the WorldMark resort and it was soooo nice! We took the scenic route on the way home so we could pass by the Grand Teton Mountains. We had a really good time. I'm so glad we got to go and that my Dad got to come with us!

06/06/09 Aaron, Jamie, and Nathan came to visit! (Jared's brother) We had fun chatting, playing games and we watched a movie. It was really nice to see them!

06/10/09 We got the cutest little invitation in the mail that my nephew Jackson made to invite us to his piano recital. He played several songs and he did so well! We're so proud of him. Also in the collage below are pictures from our last game night before dad went back to WA. = ( I love the bunny ears Jackson put on Ryan and Ashley. = )

06/20/09 Periodically Christine, Allie, VeNicia, and I get together for a girl's day/night. Allie and I carpooled to VeNicia's house. We stopped and picked out some way cute fabric on the way. We all brought really yummy food to eat. (Avacado bean dip, oriental salad, artichoke dip, 7 layer dip, etc etc. Mmmm!) VeNicia worked on some stuff for girls camp and got a few things done around the house, and the rest of us made trash bags for our cars, and these really cute purses/bags. Christine 1st sewed her bag into what looked like a huge tank top! We had a lot of fun, but there was a good amount of seam ripping that night. They turned out really cute though. I LOVE my bag! Sometimes I just like to stare at it.

06/25/09 For my sister RaNae's birthday the rest of us sister's flew her out from Indiana so she could spend it with us! We had so much fun! We went to Marie Calenders for pie, we had a game nights/bbqs with the rest of the fam, and the night before her birthday....

06/29-30/09 .... us 4 sisters went to a cabin up little cottonwood canyon for a slumber party! We made really yummy food, and then just talked and talked. We did manicures, we took a personality test and went over out results. And the next day we went to Park City. We ate at Main Street Pizza and Noodle, and went to the outlets. I got a couple cute shirts. Then we met up with RaNae and JaNel's mom, Carole, and RaNae's daughter, Kaley, at Olive Garden for RaNae's birthday dinner. She probably wouldn't want me announcing this to the world...but she turned 51! Can you believe it!?! She's the one in the blue/green shirt blowing out the candle. She doesn't even dye her hair! She makes 51 look very doable.

May 2009

04/30/09 began the trip of little sleep. VeNicia, Christine (our old roommate) and I drove down to San Diego for our old roommate, Melissa's wedding! We left after VeNicia got off work on a Thursday and didn't get in until about 3am on Fri! We were up early to pick up our friend (and another old roommate) Erica from the airport and then headed to Disneyland! Erica was a good friend and decided to stay behind and help Melissa get ready for the big day, so it was VeNicia, Christine and I. We went on all of the good rides (all the ones with the little symbol that means 'don't ride this if you have heart problems'). Space Mountain was by far my favorite. We had so much fun!

05/02/09 We didn't leave Disneyland until pretty late, and then we had a long drive to our hotel. Then we were up really early again and headed to the beautiful San Diego temple for Melissa and Jeremy to be sealed. The ceremony we beautiful and so was the reception. It was a really fun trip! It was nice to spend so much time with some of the ol' roomies!

05/08/09 I didn't have time to unpack before VeNicia and I were off again on another road trip! This time we had our sister JaNel along, too! We headed down to stay with my brother Brett so we could attend his graduation from UNLV. Brett and Nancy took us all out to breakfast, and just outside El Durado was a fun little outdoor art market. It reminded me a little of the Saturday Market in Portland. It was there that I found the perfect metal gift for our 7 year brass anniversary. K, I doubt it's brass, but the guy didn't know what kind of metal it was so we'll call it brass. It's got colorful metallic flowers. It's just what I was imagining for our porch! I love how it sparkles in the sun!

My camera died right before the graduation ceremony so I don't have a ton of pictures of that. But here's one I got with my cell phone. (VeNicia add that to the list of pictures I need from you!)

Brett Aurich - Information Systems Management
Congratulations!

We had a party afterwards with yummy food and then a bunch of us went bowling at Sunset Station. Rita, JaNel, VeNicia and I wore our cute socks Nicia got us. = ) It was a fun night. Lots of goofin around, and high fives, even though only one person on our team even broke 100! (Nice work Neesh!) Then we stayed up and watched 7lbs. The beginning was boring then it was interesting but way too sad. We had a fabulous breakfast before we headed out the next day. It was a fun trip, I'm glad we got to go!

05/14/09 I got these pretty flowers from Jared (yellow) and my Dad (pink) for Mother's Day! I think it's nice that Dad sends me flowers when he wants to send them to my Mom. We miss her so much.

05/16/09 We had a fun BBQ with our friends before Sam and Lori Burkman moved away. Our friends have the cutest kids! It was nice to spend time with everyone. Good luck in WA!

05/27/09 My Dad came to town again to go on a trip with us (more on that in my June post). He got here just in time to go to my niece Sarah's high school graduation! She's the little red dot at the top right of the collage below. (Don't forget you can click on the pictures to enlarge them) I wish we could hung around later to get some better pictures and go to her party after, but the ceremony didn't start until pretty late, and it was all the way up in Ogden. I'm glad we got to go for what we did though! We're proud of you, Sarah! Also, I got to meet my great-niece Lily there, she's such a cutie!

Well that sums up all of the main events from May. Besides the above was swimming with friends, tennis, I played my flute in church, worked, and did a TON of accounting homework.

April 2009

04/11/09 Our friends, Adam and Wendy, invited us to go to the BYU Alumni Ball with them. We ate dinner at our house (lettuce wraps…mmm) and then went to the ball. It was in the new Hinckley Building. It’s a beautiful building. The hors d'oeuvres were really good. There was dancing and singing and other entertainment. We ran into some old friends there and chatted with them. I really liked Wendy’s dress. I wore my red/black dress with the beads that I found when I was wedding dress shopping over 7 years ago! (I get easily sidetracked when I’m shopping “Wedding dress, wedding dress, ooh! Prom dress! Wait I won’t have any more proms…oh well it’s cute.”) Anywho, it was a really fun night!

04/18/09 My sister VeNicia’s birthday was on the 18^th, but she prefers to have a birthday month instead of day. = ) She, JaNel, and I went to Main Street Pizza & Noodle in Park City and then to the outlets one day. On her actual birthday we met up with Paul and JaNel and VeNicia at Mazza’s. It’s a middle eastern restraint in Salt Lake. It’s really nice. I gave VeNicia her present I’d been working non-stop on since I got the idea, which was only a couple of days before her birthday. I contacted a bunch of her friends and family through email and facebook and had them write a note to VeNicia, saying what they admired about her etc. I got back over 25 notes, and I made them into a book. The notes were all so nice, they were perfect! Many of them made me cry and they weren’t even to me! Anywho, she seemed to really like it. After dinner we went to SpeedStreet and raced go-carts! It was so much fun! (Thanks for sharing your gift certificates, Neesh, even though it was YOUR birthday! = )

Yet another VeNicia b-day event. = ) Jk, I enjoyed all the excuses to get together!
Happy Birthday Month Neeshy!!! = )

April was Lindsay and Michael's last month here. In case you wondered why you never saw us it's because we were hanging out with them! We played a lot of tennis. I loved it! (Sometimes Lindz would just watch when she was feeling sick....because she's pregnant!!!) We miss our tennis partners! (We've had to buy two more rackets just to get other people to play with us!)

Below are pictures of our Last Red Robin Supper (you see a typical meal of Nachos -sub guac for avocado- and Cajun Clucks), Lindsay's good-bye party with a few of our Red Robin friends, and pictures outside the Hibberts apartment. We just finished playing some tennis, they were getting ready to move and needed to get rid of some of their food so I went over to pick it up. There was a ton!! We're still trying to finish it all! (Thanks again guys!) The bottom middle picture was just after that. It's the last time I saw the Hibberts. I started crying right about after that picture. I really miss them a lot. Can you guys move back now?

Towards the end of April I wrapped up my winter school semester at BYU. Apparently I over-studied because I got 97% on my Physical Science final!!! I was so excited! And I think I already told the story of finagling an A out of my Anthropology class.

04/27/09 Happy 7th Anniversary to us!! We played some tennis with Michael (Lindz had to work). Jared made me a fabulous dinner....loaded mashed potatoes & really yummy steaks using an Applebees marinade. We went to the mall and ate my favorite dessert at Red Robin (the Mudd Pie), and said hi to Lindz. Then, like we do every anniversary, we took our picture in the booth at the mall that "draws" you (see middle below). Then we shopped a little, but couldn't find anything copper, brass, or wool we wanted. (That's the traditional 7th year gift. We later ended up getting this really cool metal flower art piece for our doorstep. I love it!) Then we went to Ozz and shot some pool. It was a lot of fun spending the day with Jared. I really am so lucky to have such a wonderful husband!

March 2009

The parts in quotes are just experts from my journal. I bet you wondered how I could remember all these details from so long ago! (By the way you can click on the pictures below to enlarge them, and then you'll have to click your browser's 'back' button to get back here.)

03/04/09 This was our last night hanging out before Lindsey and Jeff moved. "We met up with the Erkelens, Jensens, and Madduxs to eat at Wingers. We ate a lot of yummy food and took some pictures. I'm going to miss the Erkelens. = ( The girls went back to the Erkelen's and had craft time. I helped Wendy with a scrapbook page. We mostly just talked for hours. Heather gave Lindsey the book she put together of the pictures and letters we gave her. Lindsey gave us some cookies and cds she made us. = ) I really like Lindsey. I really will miss her. We talked until pretty late, it was a fun night."

03/07/09 "I drive to Mi Ranchito in American Fork and met up with Allison, Christine, and VeNicia for a girl's night! We ate really yummy food and just chatted and got caught up. It was a lot of fun. We talked about going to Melissa's Wedding. We got our movie tickets and chilled at Target while we waited for it to start. We all tried on the same ugly dresses and took a picture (see below), planning on sending it to Melissa with a note that said 'We found our bridesmaids dresses!!'...we're not even bridesmaids! = ) (We had a long laugh about that.) We went back to the theatre and watched Twilight! It was my second time. There's some cheesy parts, but I still like it. We all chatted in the car a bit before we went our separate ways. It was a lot of fun! We need to do it more often."

03/14/09 Thanks to the Jensens we had passes to go back to Soldier's Hollow again! I love that place! "We got our passes and headed up to the slopes. Jared and I sledded down a few times before Nicia and Steve Guinn (visiting from our hometown) met up with us. It was so much fun. We raced and went down together. We had some yummy hot chocolate. I like spending time doing fun things with Jared. He's so cute!"

03/15/09 We went to a combined birthday party for our friend Mike and his son Gavin. It was fun. We had yummy fajitas and a really good chocolate mousse and brownie layered dessert. (Which I need to get the recipe for!) I loved the cake Allie made for Gavin! It's a little dump truck. Isn't it cute?

03/21/09 We went to my brother Barry and his wife Rita's house. (AKA: Yummy food place!) We got to meet my nephew Jason's new wife Hannah. She's really cute! They make a cute couple. We played some games and had a great time!

03/25/09 Story time! "Then Lindz called me. We talked on my way back to my car after I turned in my Anthropology paper. I'd left my keys in the car so I called Jared to come unlock it for me & called Lindz back while I waited for him. While I was waiting I put my heavy backpack on the trunk or the roof or something. Jared unlocked it for me (My hero! = ) I got a little ways up the street (I was talkin to Lindz this whole time about her trip to Moab and work etc) When a lady pulled up next to me honking. I rolled down my window down and she yelled "backpack!" I shut my phone (hanging up on Lindz) and tossed it aside, and pulled a "U"y. After driving back several blocks I saw my backpack in the middle of the road! Ahh!! It looked fine, but I didn't want to just stop in the middle of 900 E. So I pulled into the ROTC lot, but by the time I got out of my car I hear "crunch, crunch". = ( It had been hit 2 or 3 times! I was like "Nooooo!!" (Actually I said a different word, but we'll keep this family friendly.) So I'm jumping in and out of the road trying to gather my stuff that's being scattered and blown all down the street, dodging cars, trying to divert traffic! It was crazy!! I was surprised to find my Palm, Mp3 player, and iClicker all in working condition, when my powder compact was shattered into little pieces. When I inspected the contents that didn't spill out of my pack later I found my binder and Phy-Sci book were pretty thrashed. Lucky! Crazy! Anywho. I was a little shaky from running head on into traffic, but I'm so glad it didn't cause an accident or anything! I went home. I ate lunch." And I'll spare you the rest of the mundane stuff that also makes it into my journal. You'd think it'd just be a gimme that I get up and eat and get ready for the day EVERY day and I wouldn't have to include it in there day after day after day.

03/28/09 Jared's brother Jason got married up in Logan! His wife's name is Sarah. She's a lot of fun. They sure seem to like each other! We had a lot Jared's family at our house before and after the wedding. During the wedding activities we all stayed at a house that Jared's parents rented up in Logan. It turned out being way cheaper than getting hotels for all those people. I think the website they found it through was homeawayfromhome or something like that. You can rent places all over the world! Anywho, it was so nice to see his family. We don't get to as often as we'd like because so many of them are so far away! But we had a lot of fun with them. We played a lot of games, went to a park, ate a Tuccanos! and just got caught up.

And that's March. Stay turned for another exciting episode of "a month in a nutshell - from a while ago - by VoNique"

Remember February?

A couple posts ago I started with "So apparently I find time to Blog about, what, once a month?..." If only!! Then I wouldn't have like 6 months worth of stuff you catch up on!! Where does the time go? Well, my goal is to get all caught up by the time school starts again. Se be prepared to do some serious reading in the next month or so!!!

I don't have a lot to write about for February. Mostly because 98% of my pictures were deleted that month! That was sucky.

02/04/09 At the beginning of February my Dad went back to WA. And my picture of his last day here was among the deleted. = ( Jared, and my sister's VeNicia and JaNel, and I ate dinner with him at Marie Calendars before he had to catch his flight. It was nice to have him here for so long though. The last couple of holiday seasons my dad has come before Thanksgiving and then left sometime after new years! This time we tricked him into staying until February! Mu hahahahaha!

February kept us busy. All of "our shows" that we follow all start in January (Lost, Idol and The Office). Jared was involved in intramural soccer again. He's a really good keeper. I was really busy between school and work. I was doing both part time, but I still felt insanely busy. I have no idea how people can do both work and school full time. Crazy people. Maybe if I didn't "have" to get an A I could take more than 2 or 3 classes at a time! Yes, I'm one of THOSE people. I ended up getting an A in Physical Science, but I had to negotiate my A- in Anthropology to an A. (They totally false-advertised how they were going to be grading attendance!) I didn't realize they could change your grade after they already posted them. Good to know.

02/05/09 My brother Barry called me to find someone to use his Jazz tickets for them. Jared couldn't go, so I gave them to Lindsay and Michael. They were going to take Ryan, but he couldn't go. So I did! It was way fun and the Jazz kicked the Mavericks' booty.

02/14/09 The night before Valentine's Day I had to work, and when I got home really late there were a dozen huge red roses on the table for me and the sweetest note to go with them. For V-day we did a fondue party over at our friend's house (Candace and Jared Lish). We brought a cheese fondue with potatoes, carrots, broccoli, red peppers, bread, artichokes, and asparagus to dip in it. And for the dessert the Lishes did a chocolate fondue with apples, coffee cake, bananas, brownie, angle food cake, strawberries, and tons of other yummy stuff to dip! I was sooo hungry and it was De-Lish! (As C. Lish likes to say.) Then we chilled and watched Spanglish. Good times.

02/22/09 The Hibberts carpooled with us up to the VanDenBerghe's for Elise's birthday party. They were nice enough to let me interview them for my anthropology class on the way. Some of Paul's family was there at the beginning. We ate yummy food and played some games. During Cranium I had to sculpt the Statue of Liberty and Ryan actually got it! It was awesome! VeNicia came just in time for her favorite game...Balderdash.

At the end of the month the weather started getting nice enough for tennis, so we played a few times. Lindz and I would get people together to play during the day when we didn't have to work until night. It was way fun.

Jan 2009 - Soldier's Hollow & Misc

I'm back so soon! Am I going to fast for you? Cause I only have 4 comments on my last post. And one of them's mine! = )

01/03/09 - We had our official combined birthday party at Soldier's Hollow up in Midway, UT. They have these long sledding lanes that you tube down. We got a big group together and had a blast! Thanks to everyone that came! (Especially thanks to the Jensens for the sweet hook-ups!) If you've never been there you really need to go sometime. They've got great hot chocolate too.

So I'm lucky to have the pictures of that that I do because I lost several weeks worth of pictures when my something electronical malfunctioned. I still don't know if it was the card, or the reader, the camera, or the computer. But it was really sad. = ( I only lost a few from the sledding day though.

January was when I started school again, and I was also called to be the 1st Counselor in our Relief Society Presidency. So things started getting quite a bit busier for me. (Hence, the 1/3 of a year with no blogging!)

I'm back! Dec 2008 all summed up!

Hi. I'm VoNique Myers. I'm new here.

So after 4 months of no posts the dilemma is: catch up? or just go from here? And I'm doing the impossible! So if you can remember all the way back to 2008 this is was I was doing...

(If this gets way too long feel free to read it in segments. Who knows you may have 4 months to finish it!)

12/02/08 I started working at Red Robin as a server. It's definitely not my dream job, but it goes well around my school schedule, I usually make pretty good tips, and it's a lot of fun working with my niece, Lindsay. Oh--did I tell you I went back to school? I can't remember. Well I did. It's free 'cause Jared works there, so I figured might as well, even though I'm not sure what I'm doing with it yet.

12/09/08 Over the course of a craft day with Allie, and multiple craft nights with LindsEy/Wendy/Heather, and then another craft day with LindsAy, I finally finished my NOEL mod-podge letters. (I think I like Lindsay's better though. Aren't they cute!?)

12/11/08 Jared's soccer team won the coveted intramural soccer t-shirt-trophies! Jared's the best goaly I've ever seen! (I don't really get out much, but other people have said he's really good, too.)

12/16/08 For one of our many birthday celebrations Jared and I went with the Hibberts to Tuccano's for dinner. I LOVE that place. Then they ditched us and Jared and I went and saw Twilight for the 1st time. I know it was a little cheesy, but I really liked it. (I heard today that the same Edward won't be in the next one! I'm not sure what I think about that. I would have been fine w/ someone else from the beginning, but now I'm all used to him.)

12/21/08 Happy 31st birthday to Jared! We didn't really make plans ahead of time for his actual b-day 'cause we were doing a combined party later (see the future January post to come), but we ended up playing one of our favorite games (Ticket to Ride) with the Lishes and Hibberts. Good times. I can't remember now who won, but it was probably me. (We got that game for each other for our Christmas present. We couldn't help but open it early. Actually it never got wrapped, but whatever.)

Like I mentioned 4 months ago, my Dad came into town around Thanksgiving time. He was able to stay through the holidays and left the beginning of February. It was so nice to have him here, especially during the holiday festivities. One of my Dad's many talents is poetry. He once wrote a rhyming children's story called Marvin the Mouse and the clock. He even drew some cute illustrations to go along with it. While he was in town my sister JaNel & her husband Paul helped him publish it for the family! We got them back around Christmas. I thought it was such a great idea, I'm so glad they did that! Now I'll have a story to read to my kids that their very own grandpa wrote. (Now all I need is the kids!)

Here's my Dad reading it to some of the grand kids, and signing all the copies.

We went to my sister VeNicia's Christmas symphony concert. None of my pictures really turned out = ( They sounded really good. We also went to my nephew Jackson's first piano recital. He did so well!

The Holidays & More:

We were able to spend both Christmas & New Years Eve at my sister JaNel's house in Bountiful. We had slumber parties both times. A lot of other family came too. It's always good to see everyone. We had lots of yummy food including home-made soft pretzels and as always there was lots of fun games.

This is what happens when you let Ryan hold your camera:

Below is some of us playing games while ringing in the new year. And then Jared's usual New Year's celebration position.

Until next time!

November '08 summed up

So apparently I find time to Blog about, what, once a month? And then I have a bazillion things to write about and then nobody wants to read it because it's so flippin long. So I'll try to sum up. Here's the rest of November:

11/19/08 I finished reading "The Host". I liked it, but I think liked Twilight better. So those endangered species of Twilight-haters out there might like it better. I definitely thought it was interesting and worth reading though.

Jared finished his bowling season. I was fun watching his games. He did so well. Thanks for visiting once Lindz! I still want a re-match on Canadian Speed. I mean...we were watching the bowling match the WHOLE time...what?

11/22/08 Jared's brother Rob, his wife Karen, and their family came to visit. It's always good to see them and their cute girls.

11/23/08 Our friends from Albania and Kosovo invited us over for dinner. It was a lot of fun and the food was outstanding! Especially this spinach pie made with Filo bread. Mmmm. I ate way too much.

11/26/08 My dad's in town! Yay! We met him and VeNicia and JaNel & her fam at the Hoggle Zoo. They had a free Zoo day. Most of the animals were hiding or sleeping, but one tiger apparently didn't get the 'free zoo day, don't be interesting' memo. (See the short video below. It was crazy! --Sorry about the quality.) It was cold, but fun. They were putting up a lot of the lights etc for their "Zoo Lights". Then we went to eat at TGI Fridays. Yum.

11/27/08 Thanksgiving!! We played tennis with the Hibberts (my niece & her husband). Some of us were more excited to be playing in the cold than others. So some of us played better than others. And some of us smoked the other team! But I won't mention any names. Then we carpooled up to my sister JaNel's house. My Dad was there, my sister VeNicia, my brother Barry, and his wife Rita. JaNel's kids made the cutest little place mats and Oreo turkeys. There was so much good food. I ate way too much, and didn't regret one bite. We played games and my niece Kaley made a cameo. It was so nice to spend time with everyone. Then some of us stayed and watched 'Music and Lyrics'. (It was funny because we had all of our stuff gathered, and our jackets on, saying our goodbyes and then some one said "Wanna watcha movie?" And we all said yes and took our coats off and headed downstairs.) That music video intro cracks me up.

11/08/08 Last Home BYU Game

11/03/08 Happy 98th Birthday Grandma Aurich!

11/1/08 Cedar City

A few weeks ago we went down to Cedar City to visit Jared's brother Rob & his family. We got to go Trick or Treating with their cute girls, go to Morgan's soccer game, and attend Rachel's baptism and birthday party. Jared's sister Sara was there from Maryland! It was a lot of fun! PS Sorry for the crappy picture layout, but I think I'm too lazy to fix it.

Look at what my Dad sent me on my Mom's birthday. What's that so thoughtful? I love you, Dad!

10/25/08 Pix & Football

My niece, Lindsay, has a friend that's looking into becoming a photographer and is trying to build his portfolio. So Lindz asked VeNicia and I if we wanted to take some pix with her. VeNicia had a lot of stuff to do and had a headache and bla bla bla.....Anywho I'll have to photoshop her in when I get a minute. = ) We had fun though!

Then we went back to Lindsay's place and I borrowed some blue clothes and we headed to the BYU vs. UNLV game. It was close, but BYU pulled ahead at the end for the win. Jared was working the game, but got to come and visit us!

10/24/08 Black-Attack

Our friends Adam and Sheri Blacker are in town from Ohio for an internship. To celebrate Adam's birthday we all went to a tumbling gym. It was a lot of fun. The guys were doing all sorts of cool flips from the trampoline into the foam pit. I on the other hand am a bit of a weenie. I'd jump in, but no flips for me. That red blow up thing (see below) was really cool though! The guys rolled us around in it. We got going so fast! Then we went back to the McGrews for cake and more fun!

Isn't Jared so cool? (That's him in the white.)

Bowling and Pumpkins

Jared's on in an intramural bowling league again. They bowl every Wednesday night @ 9:00pm. I'll usually go watch if I don't have anything else going on. He's doing so well! And he looks so cute doing it too. See for yourself:

10/20/08 We carved our pumpkin with some friends at a church activity.

Wendy thinking she's going to win.....and Jared really winning = )

~Happy Birthday, Mom~
I miss you more every day

Pennsylvania 10/01/08-10/07/08

We went back to Pennsylvania for Jared's sister's wedding! It's always fun going back east to visit with Jared's family. Especially for such a happy occasion! Best wishes to Steve and Laura!

While we were in the area we went with some of the family to see the Gettysburg sites.

One of the Natural Wonders of the World is in Virginia. We took a day trip out to see The Natural Bridge. It's a geological formation where a creek has carved out a gorge in the limestone, forming a 215 ft high by 90 ft wide arch! There's an actual highway that crosses the naturally made bridge. Thousands of visitors have come to see it over the years. Many carved their names into the limestone. The rumors has it that the initials G.W that we saw there was actually done by George Washington before he became president. I also saw a carving with the year 1855 next to it! (Those little dots at the bottom of the picture above are people!)

Big "thank you"s to Jared's sister Beth and her husband Cardell for letting us crash at their house during our stay in PA, to Jared's parents for your hospitality and for keeping us well fed, Jared's brother Chris for getting us to and from the airport it one peice, to everyone that came with us on our day trips, and to Laura and Steve for getting married so we could come and visit! = ) We love spending time with all of you!

(Flying in to Utah)

Also to be mentioned...

9/19/08 Big thanks to the Lish's for the fun time up the canyon. The cobbler was deLISH, and thanks for letting Jared win Ticket to Ride. Some how when Jared wins it's easy to pretend I won.

9/29/08 And thanks to the Erkelens for the fun boating night. It was nice to relax on the water and watch Jeff tear it up wake surfing!

9/15/08-9/27/08

I know, I know. I'm way over due. I'll do my best to update you of the last month with out making you read for an hour.

On 9/15/08 I started a new job. It was at Novacoast who is a partner company of Novell's and in that same plaza. I say "was" because I didn't like it and quit on 09/30/08! I should have never taken the job to begin with. It was less money than I wanted, doing work I didn't want to do, and it just felt like a big step backwards for me. (I'll update you on what I'm doing now a little further down.)

9/22/08 My niece Lindsay and her husband, Michael, are back from Alaska. We had a European dinner night with them and nephew Ryan & Ashley, and VeNicia. Lindz served a mission in Poland, and has a Polish cookbook. That's what inspired the whole idea. Jared had his heart set on making Borscht. So that's what we made. I guess it was good for what it was, but I didn't like what it was. Beet soup. Ew.

Lindsay makes it look good though, doesn't she?

We ate yummy home made Perogies, a Greek salad, and yummy Italian dipping bread. Mmmm! We moved to the Hibberts for bunt cake, and to play Rock Band. Always a good time.

FYI: if you take funny pictures of yourself with my camera while I'm not looking, they'll most likely end up on my blog for the whole world to see. (That's right. The whole world follows my blog.)

9/27/08 VeNicia, Lindsey, and Jenn joined me for a craft day at my house! = ) (Thanks again for coming!) Jenn and I worked on these cute fabric pumpkins. Lindsey worked a little creative scrapbook she's putting together. And busy VeNicia graded school papers. (I tricked her in to starting a pumpkin before she left though. Muhahahaha!) It always takes me several times longer to do a project than I think it's going to. I spent all day on the little pumpkin, and finished the rest later. It was nice spending time with everyone, we had a lot of fun!

Who needs work anyway?

Well, in case you haven't heard I was laid off. = ( It's mostly lame because I actually kinda liked my job. Most of the people there were great. I worked at Rocky Mountain Composites for just over 3 years. I started as the secretary, moved into Accounts Payable, and then was promoted last year to a Purchasing Agent. They said the decision was a purely financial one, and hope to hire some of us back on in the future once they get some more money coming in. I think there were about 20 of us. Pretty lame.

I've been looking for a new job for almost 2 weeks now. Not fun. It's a lot of work, and no one's paying me to do it. I just haven't found what I'm looking for. There's a couple I might consider if I just can't find what I want.

What I think I want:
*Full-time (or close) 8-5? *Position: Purchasing Agent, Financial Clerk/Bookkeeper, Office Manager, or Administrative Assistant *Not too far from my house (closer the better) *M-F only *Good pay (the closer to $14-15/hour the better, but it's looking like I might need to take a pay cut) *Flexible atmosphere (I had a job once where I had to ask to go to the bathroom...not cool.) *Not so crappy and/or stressful that I just want to go home and cry everyday (had one of those, too.) *Allowed to wear jeans would be a plus

What are some jobs that you've had that you liked? Let me know if you hear of anything that's even close!

Picture Thief

Here's some pictures that I stole from my sister-in-law's blog from when Jared's family was in town:

Canoeing

08/23/08- I wanted to do something fun with my Dad while he was in town. (He left today = ( .) So on Saturday we went canoeing on the Provo River! It was a lot of fun. We paddled out to Utah Lake and headed back….well some of us paddled back. (I’ll leave out the part about my Dad’s hip bugging him and picking him up with the car.) Anywho, it was great weather for it. It wasn’t too hot on the water with the canopy of trees overhead. It was really pretty. I think we’re going to try and go again before summer’s over, so let me know if you’re interested!

Sis + Dad Night

08/20/08-Once a month we get together for sister’s night. (Minus RaNae, she lives in Indiana.) This month we had a featured guest…Dad! We met at Gardiner’s Village and ate at the restaurant there and then looked around the cute shops. We went back to VeNicia’s house, played some Rummy, and ate the yummy fudge VeNicia bought. It was a lot of fun! The End.

BYU

BYU—Once Jared turned 30 (last December) I became eligible for free tuition at BYU! I didn’t want to cut back my work schedule, but felt like free tuition shouldn't be passed up. So at the end of April (spring term) I took a Career Exploration class, and I just finished my summer class (Excel - Sys100). Even just one class and working full time makes me feel so busy! I’m not sure how long I can keep this up! I don’t know how people do both full-time. They’re crazy! In the Fall I signed up to take Economics, but I heard the teacher wasn’t that great so I think I might take a World Religions class instead. (It will complete my Global and Cultural requirement.)

I think I’d feel different about school if there was something I wanted to do when I grow that requires it, but I like where I work and would be fine staying there until whenever we have kids.

Anywho, if you happen to actually be reading this boring blog, and also went to BYU, let me know if there’s any general requirement classes that you took that you’d recommend.

FaMania

Normally all I have to do is look back through the pictures I've taken to decide what to post about, but I've been slackin in the photo department. But I'll post anyway...

Three of Jared's brothers and their families were in town for a few day to a week and a half (depending on the brother). We had fun eating yummy food, playing games, watching some Olympics (the opening ceremonies were pretty cool, and Michael Phelps is amazing!), and playing with our cute nieces and nephew.

Also while they were in town our friends Jake and Elisa were around for a few days. They were in Alaska for the summer and had a couple days here before they moved to Alabama for school. We had a BBQ with them and the Brandts (or "the Train's" for those of you that still think that's their last name). The food was great (especially Jenn's homemade cream puffs...mmm), we played some games, and had a fun time with them.

It's been a lot of fun; just a little crazy with everything happening at the same time! My Dad came in to town before all of Jared's family left, and he's still here! It's been nice being able to see him so much. We spent some time with him at a few of my sibling's houses and we had a nice dinner at Ottavio's with him, and games at my place.

Just this last weekend (08/16/08) my brother Brett and his family came up from Vegas to visit. He and his daughter, Emily, met us and VeNicia at Raging Waters in SLC. It's a water park similar to Seven Peaks. We had a great time on the slides and in the wave pool. Then Dad met up with us at Iggy's for dinner.

Then Sunday (08/17/08) we had a big dinner with them at my brother Barry's house. The food was amazing as always. We watched all of the humming birds in their back yard and just relaxed, chatted, and then watched "Nim's Island". I thought it was cute. It's always nice to spend time with family!

Oh yeah, somewhere in there I had my final for my Excel class. I got 100%! Yay! You're probably thinking "What Excel class?". I'll tell you about it another time...

The dentist can be good

My dentist office had a customer appreciation day. They rented out the Scera Pool for a couple of hours last Saturday and said we could go for free and invite whoever we wanted to! All of you no-shows totally missed out! The weather was really nice. They had lots of yummy food for free (muffins, fruit, snow cones, cotton candy). All you can eat cotton candy? Sounds like a good way to round up business for a dentist. In more ways than one. Anywho, thanks for coming McGrews. We had a great time! (I actually went some where with out taking pictures so maybe next time.)

On a side note, can I just say that Jared is so cool? Jared used to be on the diving team in high school and they had a diving board at the pool. Jared can do the coolest dives! I should take a video next time. I swear he could be in the Olympics! Everyone around was like "Wow!" Especially me = )

Will Miss the Garcia's!

07/26/08 My old roommate, Erica, and her husband invited a bunch of their friends to Timpanogus Park last Saturday for a going away party. They're moving to New Mexico = ( They have the cutest little girls. They made us yummy Carnitas and we played some Boccie Ball. It was a lot of fun. We'll miss you guys!

4th of July and Beyond (Continued)

Anywho, as I was saying...after the beach we headed back to my Dad's in Vancouver, WA. Jared and I and my niece, Marlana, stayed the rest of the week there. The first couple days there I was still sick and wasn't able to help my dad as much as I wanted to. I wanted to make him meals and do yard work and help clean the house, etc. But the first day there I didn't even get dressed. Jared was so sweet and completely made up for my sick-slackin. He helped prune a bunch of bushes, and mowed the lawn, and made some food for my dad to have after we left. I'm so lucky! Every girl needs a Jared! We did a lot of fun stuff with Dad while we were there too.

I heard the Columbia River Gorge is the most concentrated area of waterfalls in the US. I've always loved hiking up to the top of them, or even just seeing them when we drive by. Dad took us on the drive that my Mom liked to take so often. We drove up highway 14 to Stevenson and stopped for ice cream.

We crossed over the Bridge of the Gods into Oregon. We stopped by a couple different waterfalls. The biggest one was Multnomah Falls. We hiked up to the bridge and took lots of pictures.

Then we drove along the old scenic highway on the way home. We passed more waterfalls, and stopped at the Vista House up at Crown Point. There's a great view of the gorge from there.

I met up with some of my old Jr High/High School friends, Margi, Ashleigh, Alisha, and Brodi. We went to breakfast and then to a park to let their kids play. It was so good to see them! It's been a really long time.

We played a lot of games with my Dad while we were there. We made him some good food. He loves orange glazed salmon so I found a recipe on Allrecipes.com. I love that site. We also made some potato soup (another favorite of his). He loved it! We ate all of our meals outside on the deck. The weather was perfect all day everyday!

On our last day there we went to the Zoo. My brother Brett and his sons came too. The Portland Zoo makes Utah's look like a pet shop. It's so beautiful and has many realistic habitats for the animals.

When we were trying to take this group picture, a humming bird kept getting in the way. So I decided to get a picture of it!

We spent a lot of time looking at the yard, and watching the birds and squirrels. My dad has a couple regulars that will come and eat right out of his hand!

I wish I could see my Dad more often. We had a really nice trip. It was so hard to say goodbye!

4th of July and Beyond!

We had a nice trip a couple weeks ago from 07/02/08-07/12/08. We had a family reunion on the Oregon Coast (Lincoln City area), and then spent some time with my Dad in Vancouver, WA. All of my brothers and sisters and families were invited to the reunion. Not all of them could come but there were still about 35 of us! We rented 3 beach houses, and had a really good time together. It was nice just to relax but we did a lot of fun things too.

We made some cool stuff in the sand:

I got up early one day to check out the cool tide pools. Some of us went for walks on the beach. We went to the outlet mall there and I got a couple cute things. We played some horseshoes on the beach, and flew some kites. One of the coolest parts was watching all of the fireworks. The scenery was beautiful, the fireworks were great, and I got to do it all with the people I love the most!

Me & my sisters

A bunch of us went to the Tilamook Cheese Factory. (Sorry Ryan and Ashley = ) We took the tour but most of the machines were down for the holiday weekend. But we still got squeaky cheese samples (there were other kinds too, but who cares about those when you can have squeaky cheese!) and yummy ice cream. I really like their gift shop there. I'd say that 90% of the bracelets I own have come from that gift shop! I'm serious. They're so cute and so cheap! It was really crowded there, but it was still fun just to spend time with family.

My niece-in-law, Ashley, had all kinds of ideas of things to do. A huge group of us went with them on a hike. We hiked through the forest out to a suspension bridge, and then hiked down to the waterfall. It was beautiful!

(We all looked like that when we were done)

We took turns cooking. Making fajitas for 35 people is quite the task! I think they turned out pretty good though. We played some games while we were there, like Ticket to Ride, Settlers, and Rummy. On check out day I weaseled out of having to clean up by getting really sick. I was pukin out of both ends for like 2 1/2 days! That wasn't more than you wanted to know was it? My stomach hurt so bad! I just felt like yuck. My camera battery died when we took our big group shot of (almost) everyone. = ( I'll have to get one from someone else and add it later. (If you're reading this and have one, please send it to me!) Here's some of the group pix I was able to get before it died:

After we checked out a bunch of us (I keep saying that because if I actually named names this already long post would be about 3 times longer!) went to see the Spruce Goose (Howard Hughes historical wooden plane). It's in an air museum in McMinnville. It's huge! It only flew for a few seconds, but it had a big impact on the aviation industry.

K, this is a lot longer than I thought it'd be. I think I'll stop there and do the rest in another post. Let me first just say that I love my family so much. There's so many of us that we don't get to see everyone as much as we'd like, and sometimes it can be hard to keep in touch. But they all mean the world to me. I'm glad so many were able to make it to the beach. It just wish everyone could have come!

Last Weekend

06/20/08 On Friday we went to the Thanksgiving Point Gardens with Wendy, Adam, and VeNicia. It was really pretty. They say it covers about 50 acres!

06/21/08 On Saturday we went to the Veteran's Memorial Pool in Provo. It's only $3 to get in! We went with the McGrew's, Mike's tutee from the Big Brother program, VeNicia, her friend Jed & his brother TJ. The weather was so nice! Jared and I mostly just laid out in the shallow part of the kiddie pool. I think I could do that every day. Poor Jared has to work outside in the heat all day and the last thing he feels like doing with his spare time is hanging out in the sun all day! Then we went back to the McGrew's for a yummy BBQ.

06/22/08 We celebrated my brother Barry's birthday. Any time we eat with them you have to roll me home! They make the best food! And lots of it! We watched "Jumper". It was pretty good, but I thought it had a few holes in the plot.