True Customer Service

After searching for quite a while, I finally found fabric I liked to make some crib bedding (I couldn't quite convince Nate that this one was manly enough). I drew multiple pictures trying to decide how I wanted everything to look, and calculated how much of each fabric I would need. One fabric was particularly hard to find when I searched online (when I saw it in the store, it was part of a collection but they didn't have this particular fabric in stock). I finally found a website that had it, then panicked momentarily when I went to order it and found out they only had 1/2 yard in stock, until I found this website, seasidequiltingsupplies. The fabric was even cheaper than the first place I had found it, and after placing my order last night, I got this email today:

"Dear Rebecca,
Your order will fit nicely in a flat rate envelope, so your order total was $[ ] instead of the $[2.72 more] quoted on the website. We appreciate the chance to serve you so very much and look forward to next time.
kindly,"

I'm impressed. I know it's not a lot of money, but isn't that nice of them?

ps - I know I just made a short story REALLY long. It just feels like it has been a long process to find what I was looking for, so this was a happy little bonus at the end :)

Thanksgiving

We spent a fabulous 4 days in Ashland with my family for Thanksgiving. We had planned to leave Tuesday morning and make the drive that day, but decided just a couple days before to leave Monday after work and drive partway. My mom was pretty surprised when we showed up at the door about 5 hours earlier than expected. Breaking up the trip involved staying at a less-than-stellar Days Inn in Elko, but hey, it was cheap, and it did make the trip better.

Although we didn't do anything super exciting / eventful, it was great to hang out, relax, and spend time with the family. Some of the highlights of the trip:

Several Hours of Turkey Bowl and a couple of tennis matches

Watching the babies play together....and at one point, tackle each other

A walk in Lithia Park

Delicious food! Turkey, Mashed potatoes & gravy, stuffing, cooked veggies and a veggie tray, mom's homemade rolls, jello, and I'm sure other things. And of course, several different yummy pies! And that was just thanksgiving day...

Searching the ads to get our lists ready for a marathon 9 hours of shopping on Friday - we were exhausted by the end, but got some great deals!

Playing the Wii

Going to the Ashland Festival of Lights parade downtown where they turn on the Christmas lights on all the buildings

It was a great trip and went by way too fast!

Pursuit of Craftiness, Part II

After the original "pursuit of craftiness" project (see that post here), I was hoping to take on some more ambitious ventures in the future, and now - 6 months later - finally finished a few of them. My list of future projects has grown much longer, and much more ambitious, now that we're having a baby. Realistically, I realize I won't be able to do them all (the biggest ones are making his crib bedding, repainting a couple of pieces of furniture, and re-upholstering the rocking chair), but I still wrote them on my to-do list (although all that really does is make me stress about it - it doesn't actually mean I'll get around to doing them). Anyway - back in September I went to our ward's "Super Saturday" (for those of you who are not LDS or don't live in Utah, it's basically a big day of crafting for the women at church - you sign up & pay for various projects that you want to do, then the people in charge bring all the materials & supplies and you spend the day working on them).

I was a little ambitious in the number of projects I signed up for, so I didn't finish them all that day and it took me until the past week to get them done. Here are two of them - the third I'm not going to post because it doesn't fit where I had planned to hang it, and I haven't decided if I'm going to keep it or gift it. Don't look too closely or you'll see where I messed up. And really, I can't take too much credit for them - I spent quite a bit of time on them, but wasn't at all involved in the design phase :)

Next step: Get over my indecisiveness, which leads to a fear of putting holes in the walls, and actually hang the clock up (so it doesn't linger like all other decorations in our house - propped up against the wall where I think I want to hang them). Soon to come (hopefully!): Part III.

The Loot

Yesterday Ivory Homes had one of their model sales, where they sell furniture and decorations that they're no longer using in the model homes. We went to the last one last September and found some great deals on furniture, so when I was pretty excited when I heard they were having another one (click here to see our success from last year). Nate was in charge of a scouting activity, so I was put in charge of making the decisions at the sale. Nate signed me up to help with the sale, which meant I got to go early and scout out one item and a few accessories I wanted. Last year, we were still living in our tiny apartment so it was hard to know what decorations, etc. we would want, and I have since realized how expensive all that stuff is! I was a little nervous about making the decisions without Nate there, especially since the #1 item on our list was a crib, but overall felt like I did ok. I don't have any buyer's remorse (except maybe a couple of the picture frames I bought that I might not end up using), but have a little of the opposite - un-buyer's remorse? Mostly things that I couldn't decide on and didn't get, and then later wished I had (but they were sold by the time I went back to get them). I worked at the cash register during the sale, which added to the non-buyer's remorse - I would see people coming out with things and think "I wish I had seen that!" or coming out with the things I had debated about and think "I should have just bought it". I guess that's the result of being frugal and indecisive. The main successes were:

A Crib! (notice the penguin. Nate wanted to put something in the crib to represent the baby). I maybe wouldn't have picked it if I'd been buying it new, but it's very similar to the one I had been eyeing, it's sturdy, and it was only $25!! We're pretty excited about it. It's in good shape - I may be tempted to repaint it because of a few scratches, but my list of things to do before the baby comes is getting longer and longer, so we'll see if that happens. The assembly took a little more effort than anticipated, but it has a sticker with the model # so we were able to find instructions online and figure it out. Most of it was fine except for the part with the sliding rail (whoever assembled it the first time had screwed the sliding part on upside down).

A "console table" (I think that's what they're called). I've been looking for one of these for a while - the back of our couch faces the kitchen / dining room, so I wanted something to put behind it. I may end up painting it black, but that's probably an after-the-baby-is-born project. The white looks good for now. Notice Nate trying to get in the picture...

Crib bedding. I know what you're thinking, "aren't they having a boy?", but I didn't like any of the boy crib bedding they had, and I just couldn't pass up this girl set for only $10. The fabric seems like it's really high quality, and I just thought it was cute (I realize that the pillows are pretty impractical and that I won't actually use them in the crib, but they are still pretty). That's what Nate gets for sending me on my own and telling me he trusts my judgment :) [Note: just to clarify, I re-read this and realized I didn't point out that I'm NOT planning to use this for our boy, I'm planning to use it down the road for a girl. Hopefully I didn't jinx myself...]

Some cool French pictures. I haven't decided yet where I'm going to hang them, but I'm a sucker for almost anything French, and I loved that the handwriting on the blackboard is exactly what you would see in a little French store.

All that, plus a flower pot, several pictures in frames (including a really big one to hang above the fireplace once I switch out the picture), and a few other small decoration things...grand total with the furniture of $105. That's what I call a bargain.

A Little Update

Since I haven't written in a while, I figured I would update you on what we've been up to. Some of this is old news, but oh well. Here are some highlights of the past few weeks:

* My work had a retreat up at Sundance for all the partners and managers. We had a meeting all afternoon, then the spouses came up for a fancy dinner and we watched a movie in the screening room at Sundance. I was thinking it would be some fancy or unique theater, but it was really just a small theater. It was fun though - most people left before the movie and they had tons of candy and popcorn and drinks, so we got to pick whatever we wanted. Sundance was really pretty too, although most of the pretty colorful leaves in the canyon had turned brown by then.

* Ryan Shupe Concert - this was another work event (it seems like I've had lots of these lately! It seems to happen a lot in the fall because it's recruiting season for the accounting firms). Ernst & Young sponsors a Ryan Shupe concert on BYU campus every fall, so Nate and I went down to represent EY. It was entertaining, as usual, although after the third time of seeing the same concert, I'll admit it gets a little old. My brother Dave is in the accounting program now, so we got to hang out with him during the concert.

* We visited the Packer Pumpkin Patch (aka Nate's parents' garden) on the Monday before Thanksgiving for FHE. The nieces and nephew came dressed up in their cute Halloween costumes, and we had fun watching them picking out their pumpkins.

* Nate's brother left on his mission on October 29th. He will be serving in Carlsbad, California, speaking Mandarin Chinese. He took Chinese a little bit in high school, so hopefully that will give him a little bit of a head start. We went with the family to take him to the MTC. It was pretty similar to our experience taking my sister 5 months earlier - lots of pictures, lots of excitement and ancitipation, and lots of tears. He will be in the MTC until towards the end of January, so he has a while, but seems to be doing well and learning the language.

* Yet another recruiting event - we went with my work and our recruits to the season opener Jazz game. They beat...the other team...I'm drawing a blank on who it was...in a close game, so it was fun to watch, even though we were in a room at the very top of the arena.

* Last weekend, Nate had a campout with the boy scouts - his new calling in our ward. They went up to a cabin in Midway and the boys slept in tents outside while the leaders got to sleep in beds in the campout - pretty smart! He had fun staying up late with the scouts and getting to know them a little better. It was the first time I've stayed at our house alone since we've been married - I'm usually the one to travel and leave him alone :) I rented a chick flick to watch Friday night, and told myself all the random noises I was hearing were just the house settling (I'm sure they were, but it seemed especially loud when I was home by myself). When he got back, we went down to the BYU game against San Diego State. For once, we actually had decent weather for a BYU game - the ones we've been to have almost all been in the middle of a rainstorm or on a sweltering hot day. Thanks for the tickets Dave!

* We had Nate's former mission companion and his wife and little girl over for dinner after the BYU game. Their daughter was really cute and gave us a good name idea for our baby when she told us she had named her doll Lemuel.

* This week was pretty crazy - it felt like I wasn't home at all. The most fun was a birthday dinner for Nate's brother with Nate's family and sister-in-law's family. Unfortunately, his brother recognized the back of Nate's head through the window when they were walking up to the restaurant, so it spoiled the surprise. I guess I'll have to give him a less distinctive haircut next time.

* Pregnancy Update - I'm now 28 weeks, or a little over 6 months for those of you who don't count in weeks :) Although it's not very flattering, I've had several requests for an updated profile picture, so here you go. No mocking though.

Time Out for Women

Last weekend was a much-enjoyed break and chance to hang out with my family. I flew solo to Portland to go to "Time Out for Women" - it's basically a traveling conference Deseret Book does like the women's conference they do at BYU, but just for a weekend. I stayed at my sister Jessica's house, and my parents came up from Ashland, my sister-in-law Stacey and niece Kallie from San Jose, and my aunt Karen from Washington. We spent plenty of time shopping (for me it was mostly for maternity clothes - I was much more successful this time), playing with the kids, relaxing, and enjoying the speakers at the conference.

Playing with Kallie

I think one of my favorite messages (or at least one that I remember the best) was from Mary Ellen Edmunds. She talked about becoming a peacemaker, and about how often our natural reaction is not the peacemaker reaction, but how we can be better peacemakers by controlling our reactions to what happens to us. She gave hilarious examples - the one I liked best was her example of what her natural reaction was when someone cuts her off or something on the freeway - she wishes she had a little button in her car that would send spikes into their tires, then pull them back so it doesn't leave any evidence. Anyway, for the most part it was an entertaining and motivating conference.

With our matching "Time Out for Women" Bags

I was even spoiled with my mom's homemade lasagna on my birthday on Saturday, and marionberry pie courtesy of my sister Jessica. Yum! Thanks for a great weekend!

Landon giving me my 28 bday kisses

That was on top of the great dinner and dessert we had with Nate's family last week. Nate originally thought he was off the hook for my birthday since I would be in Portland for it, but fortunately I was able to convince him otherwise and he gave me a gift before I left, and surprised me with another one when I got back. He seemed to feel the need to be creative with his "wrapping" since we were out of wrapping paper. He gave me a jewelry set before I left, and disguised it by wrapping it in Morris fashion inside several layers of boxes, with miscellaneous items in each box (i.e. some of my shoes in the biggest one, some of the baby clothes we have in the next one, etc.).

And...the wrapping job when I came home (I was a little disappointed when I took off the "wrapping paper" and saw the centerpiece pitcher that's always on the table - I thought maybe he hadn't actually gotten me anything):



Thanks for the presents Nate, and for letting me leave you for the weekend!

Shaq Attack

A couple of weeks ago, a guy who works for the marketing / advertising agency that Nate's work uses said they had tickets to the Jazz game, so Nate and I went with him and his wife. It was fun to meet them - and for Nate to get to know him better outside of work. It was interesting for me to be the "client" - usually at work it's the opposite for me.

The Jazz played against the Phoenix Suns, so we got to see Shaq (and Steve Nash, but to be honest, I didn't know who he was until Nate told me). I had kind of known this before, but Shaq is huge! We just had Nate's blackberry with us, so the pictures aren't great, but here are our shots.

The jazz lost, but one of the highlights of the game (at least for me) was when we saw Nate's friend, who lives in Boston, walk in partway through the game and sit down in the section next to us. He got a really confused look on his face when Nate sent him a text message that just said "Go Jazz", so Nate decided to have a little more fun and took a picture of his friend with his phone, and sent it to him. It was pretty funny to watch his reaction when he got the email with the picture of himself - he looked confused for a minute, then smiled and started looking around trying to find us.

The Results Are In...It's a ....

Boy!! You're all wrong! (except the 5 of you who voted for a boy). The radiologist didn't seem to have much doubt. We are very excited about the little guy, and happy to know it's a boy so we can start planning! Everything else on the ultrasound looked good too - she showed us the spine, the heart, the kidneys, the stomach, the femur, the two halves of the brain, and a bunch of other stuff I probably didn't catch :) Everything looked normal - and actually a little bigger than normal. Based on how big the baby is, my due date would be a little more than 2 weeks earlier than my current due date. We'll see what the doctor says at my next appointment, and if he moves the due date. If not, I just have a big baby, which wouldn't be totally surprising considering my family's history! Any name suggestions? We have some we like, but none really jumping out at us yet.

And for anyone who wants one, here's a little update on my belly. This was just over a week ago. FYI, I don't wear the same clothes all the time - I just try and wear the same ones for the pictures so it's easier to see the changes.

Visit from the Malans & General Conference

Last week, my brother-in-law Shane came to Utah to do some recruiting for his company at BYU, and instead of flying out, he drove and brought the whole family. They stayed with Shane's family for a lot of the week they were here, but we were lucky enough to have them stay with us for a couple of days. I played hooky from work (since it is hard to find chances to use my vacation days and they are accumulating) on Wednesday and Thursday, which was great. Jessica and I (and Landon and Davis) went down to BYU campus on Wednesday, then on Thursday we drove up Provo Canyon and met a couple of our friends and their kids. The canyon was beautiful with all the leaves changing! It was fun to catch up and see how much their kids have grown.

We spent most of the weekend watching / listening to General Conference. We watched both Saturday sessions at home, then Nate went to the Priesthood Session with his dad and brothers, while I went up to Ogden and hung out with Jessica. We went shopping while Shane's mom watched her kids. It was so fun to spend a few days with them! Portland is too far away - I wish we lived closer to each other.

On Sunday, we were able to go up to the Conference Center for the Sunday afternoon session. We got up there pretty early, so we had the chance to walk around temple square for a while before the session started. Considering the view out our back window when we woke up that morning (see pic at left), we thought it would be cold and rainy, but it was actually great weather outside. General conference was great, as always - it's always especially meaningful to be there in person with the prophet and the apostles.

Stay tuned for the results of the ultrasound today!

Boy or Girl??

The past week hasn't really been too exciting. I did have a dr.'s appointment last week and everything seems to be normal. I set up my ultrasound appointment where we will (hopefully) be able to tell what we're having. See the poll on the right hand side to cast your vote! I have been feeling the baby moving quite a bit lately - maybe we have a little gymnast coming? Nate even got to feel it kicking this weekend, so that was exciting.

We don't have much else to report. Nate spent most of the weekend studying for the GMAT, so I worked on getting our house clean (somewhat successfully) and shopping for maternity clothes (not so successful). I went to the General Relief Society Meeting broadcast on Saturday night, which was awesome - as always. I usually come away from those meetings with a better realization of my "divine nature" and eternal potential, and a greater desire and motivation to live up to that potential. It always inspires me to want to be a better person. We went and saw Kung Fu Panda at the dollar theater afterwards, which was pretty entertaining. I even stayed awake for the whole movie, which hasn't happened much lately.

Nate takes the GMAT tomorrow morning, so as my former roommate Darcy would say, send him good vibes!

Parenting Practice

This weekend was quite the adventure. Nate's cousin asked us a few weeks ago if we would be willing to watch their kids for the weekend while they went out of town on a 3-4 day cruise. We decided we would do it, and we agreed with each other that we could use our half of the money on whatever we wanted (i.e. Nate will probably get a ski helmet and ski passes, and asked if I would use mine towards clothes but I told him that doesn't count because those are currently a "need" - I have to get them anyway to accomodate my growing belly :). We got there Friday night, and came home Sunday night. They have 4 kids - ranging from 6 years to 9 months old. Overall we felt like it went well with only a few minor mishaps. Who knew a trip to McDonald's could result in so much stress and so many tears (tears from the kids, not us)? We had fun playing with the kids - they definitely have a lot of energy and kept us on our toes, but they were good for us. Unfortunately, I came down with a cold earlier in the week, so that and being pregnant made it a little harder for me to keep up with them. Nate was good to keep playing with them and keep them entertained while I rested a couple times. It was good parenting practice though - we're just glad that kids come one at a time! (the first one at least - we'll see about the rest).

For those of you who have asked, I was somewhat sick for the first trimester, but the past few weeks have gradually gotten much better (except for the cold!). I had some morning sickness, but really feel lucky compared to how bad I know it could be. I'm now at 18 weeks (4 months for those of you who aren't pregnant and don't count in weeks :) and we should find out what we're having in about two weeks. We'll be sure to keep you posted!

Not-So-Green Thumb

Our half-hearted attempt at a garden this year was to plant some tomatoes in a pot on our front porch. Nate's parents were kind enough to lend us the pot, but I think they are probably pretty disappointed in our lack of gardening ability :)

We planted 3 tomato plants (probably too many for the pot), and tried to keep them watered in the hot summer. Here is the fruit (yes, tomatoes are a fruit) of our labors:

Yep, 3 little tomatoes all from the same plant. I'm pretty sure the little picture when we bought the plants showed a very large tomato. Their flavor almost made up for the lack of size - they tasted a lot better than tomatoes from the store. We'll see if we decide it's worth an attempt next year...

Wakeboarding, a Race, and New Car

Continuing my tradition as-of-late of not posting very often, I have a bit of catching up to do. Last weekend, Jake and Stacey were still in town from their Labor Day trip, so on Friday night Stacey's family was kind enough to let Nate & I, and David, go boating with them. Nate was pretty excited - he has been saying all summer that he misses waterskiing/wakeboarding and that we need to find some friends who have a boat. I didn't get in the water (we went after work and were racing the sunset, so I didn't want to test everyone's patience by taking up their precious time while I made failed attempts at getting up), but it was fun to be out on the lake. The mountains were beautiful with the sunset. Unfortunately, I pulled out my camera too late to get one of Nate actually doing anything in the water, but here's one of Nate after his adventures, and one of my brother Dave that's a little more exciting.

On Saturday morning, I participated in a women's only 5K up in Salt Lake with a few people from work. When I first signed up, I hadn't been exercising very much and thought it would be good motivation. When it came to the day of the race, I still hadn't been exercising very much :) I was planning to walk most of it and try to run a mile, but the slight morning sickness that seemed to get worse when I was walking and not as noticeable when I ran kept me going and I ran probably 2 miles of it.

Since we were already up in Salt Lake, Nate and I went car shopping the rest of the morning and most of the afternoon. We had been looking for probably 4 months, and to make a long story short, we finally found one! A couple of incidents / mishaps during the week had put a little more urgency on our search, so it was a relief to have it taken care of. Unfortunately, we haven't taken any pictures of it yet, but it's a 2003 White Toyota Corolla. It's in great shape, we got a good deal on it, and we're excited about the gas mileage! Anyone interested in a 1994 Infiniti G20?

This past weekend wasn't quite as adventurous, but was still fun. On Friday night, we went to a birthday get-together/party for one of Nate's friends, then I spent most of Saturday at our ward's "Super Saturday"(for those of you not from Utah, it's basically a day of crafting). I worked on three projects, none of which ended up finished and all of which are currently sitting in our garage. Hopefully I can finish them soon - the plan is to attempt to cover the bare walls in our house. Nate studied for the GMAT and cleaned while I was gone, and pretended to study (but really listened to the BYU football game) while I worked on the talk I gave in church on Sunday. The highlight of the evening was a trip up to Draper for Nate's former roommate's wedding reception. I'm finally to the point where I don't get nostalgic / a little sad that my own is over when I go to a wedding reception :) (don't worry, it has been a while since I did, but the first few months I did feel that way when I went to a reception). It was fun to catch up with Nate's old roommates.

Something's Different

Profile pictures of my increasingly protruding belly.

It can only mean one thing.To be continued through February 24, 2009.

No-Labor Day

We enjoyed a nice 3-day (for Nate) and 4-day (for me) Labor day weekend without work. As it did with Memorial Day, the predicted storms put a damper on what we could do, but they at least held off until Sunday / Monday. On Friday, I got to hang out with my niece Kallie all day. My sister-in-law Stacey was in town to help at Swiss Days, so I took care of Kallie. She was really good for her "favorite aunt." I took her up to Swiss Days and met Nate's sister Anna up there. For all of you non-Utahns, Swiss Days (at least the part I went to) is a big craft fair up in Midway. I had fun looking at all the different booths, and getting decorating ideas for our house.

The highlights of Saturday were lunch at Rodizio (thanks Heidi & Cory!) and going down to the BYU football game (also thanks to Heidi and Cory). It was way too hot at the game until the sun went down, but it was fun to watch the game. The game was up and down and ended up good in the end. The 3rd quarter was a bit frustrating to watch. Here's a picture of us at the game (by the way, Nate isn't usually a collar-sticking-up kind of guy - he did it to protect his neck from a sunburn at the game :)

Monday was pretty stormy, but fortunately it cleared up in time for a fun BBQ with Nate's family. We stopped at Cabela's on the way up, which I had never been to before and didn't realize what a big deal it was. There were tons of people there, and we walked through the aquarium, and checked out the stuffed (as in taxidermy) animals. Overall, it was a good weekend - we didn't do anything too exciting, but enjoyed not having to work and just being able to relax.

Bees & Fireworks

We haven't had too many picture-taking-worthy events since we got back from Oregon, so there hasn't been much to post about. Last weekend, we decided to go to a Salt Lake Bees game. I first got the idea on the 24th of July when we missed all the fireworks and heard they had them at the Bees game that night. I saw they were doing them again on the 22nd, so we decided to go. We weren't too excited about paying the $4.50 per ticket transaction fee, so Nate checked the classifieds and got us a good deal - cheaper than the cheap tickets we were going to get, and they were behind home plate not too far up. The game was fun, although I can't really say it was exciting - the Bees lost 11-2 (I think - I lost track at some point). We went to Cafe Rio before the game, so it was nice to just sit and enjoy the game after eating way too much food! The fireworks after the game were actually pretty good. They were by no means as good as the ones in Boston on the 4th, but we weren't expecting much so they beat our expectations pretty easily.

Saturday was a little less exciting - Nate studied for the GMAT all morning while I tried to clean the house. Other than a trip to the gym and the swimming pool in the afternoon, the highlight of the day was a trip to Home Depot that night. We looked for shelves for our garage and a couple other things - all we ended up with was materials to make a clothes rod and another shelf for our laundry room, but we got a couple other good ideas. Apparently Home Depot was a popular destination, because we ran into some friends who live down the street from us and another couple from the ward, and my sister Jessica went with her family that night (cute pictures of my nephews riding around here).

By the way, does anyone know why the Bees changed their name from the Buzz to the Bees? I'm surprised they moved away from the Utah "zz" theme (Jazz, Starzz, etc.). They should at least be the Beezz.

With 12 Hours in the Car, You Get Creative

On our drive back from Oregon, somewhere between Lakeview and Winnemucca, while my brother Dave was in the back seat, Nate and I started seeing these appear on our armrest. Only on a 12-hour drive through the middle of nowhere would someone have time to make pretzel carvings.

Slacking

I've been a slacking blogger lately, so there is quite a bit of catching up to do. We'll have to just hit the highlights of the last little while.

*Jake & Stacey (my brother and sister-in-law) moved back to my old stomping-grounds - San Jose. We were so sad to see them go! It was fun having them (and Kallie) close and being able to hang out, have Sunday dinners, etc. Hopefully I can find some important work trainings to go to in San Jose ;)

* A couple of visits to see Nate's grandparents & some extended family while they were staying at their cabin up by Brighton. It is beautiful up there - I love the green trees and mountains. We even got to see a giant moose on our drive home. He was about 20 yards off the road and seemed oblivious to the 15-20 people who had stopped on the side of the road to watch him.

*My family (Parents and Jessica & her kids) came to Utah for the annual Morris Family Reunion. We didn't have a ton of time with them, but it was fun to catch up with the extended family at the reunion, and hang our with the immediate family. On Sunday, we drove up American Fork canyon and had a picnic dinner at whatever lake/reservoir is up there - it's so pretty! We walked around the reservoir after we had eaten (and Landon had found some bugs :)

Other than that, the most exciting thing lately was our trip to Oregon for the annual Morris Family Coast Trip. We couldn't take a lot of time off work, so Nate and Dave and I left from work a little early on Thursday (the 7th) and got to my parents' house at about 3am Oregon time. We slept for a few hours then drove over to Harris Beach in Brookings. We stopped at a fun park in Brookings for lunch, then checked in at the campground and got our tents all set up before heading down to the beach. We spent the rest of Friday, Saturday, and drove back Sunday after going to church in the morning. Some highlights of the trip were playing the "stick game" on Friday (you put a stick in the sand as close to the water as you can, and the next person has to go get it and move it out further), a skunk sighting at our campsite (fortunately, we all moved away before it could spray), hanging out and playing games around the campfire, yummy food, getting numb in the freezing cold water, playing horseshoes, and playing with the nephews and niece. I was pretty proud of myself this year - it was the first time in a couple years I haven't been knocked over by a wave at some point and gotten way more wet (and cold and sandy) than planned.

Watching the sunset, and the whole family @ the sunset

Playing the stick game, & the boys playing football

Jessica & I in the water, and - obviously - Nate & I

The sunset at the Oregon coast - it may not always be warm there, but it sure is beautiful!!

We drove back to Ashland on Sunday afternoon, then left Monday morning for the lovely 12-hour drive back to Utah. It was a lot of driving for the short trip, but well worth it in my opinion. There's nothing quite like going home.

4th of July in Boston, Part II

On Saturday morning, day 2 in Boston, our major activity was walking the "Freedom Trail" in Boston. The Freedom Trail is a red (mostly brick) path that goes through downtown Boston and takes you to a bunch of historical sights. It starts at the Boston Common and finishes at the Bunker Hill monument. One of the early stops was a cemetary (I can't remember the name) where 3 signers of the Declaration of Independence are buried (the one at left is Paul Revere).




This one is Nate by the USS Constitution, aka "Old Ironsides". I can't remember all the details about it, but it was instrumental in a war...or two...or it (I guess the people on it) fought in some wars.

It was fun walking the trail on the day after the 4th of July because there were a lot of people out and we saw multiple bands like this one performing. We stopped at Faneuil Hall, which used to be kind of a town hall place and now just has gift shops inside, and there were tons of street performers outside who were pretty entertaining. We took a break from our walk and stopped to eat lunch at Quincy Market, which is basically a REALLY long hallway lined with little food places on both sides. It's pretty crazy, especially on a Saturday after a holiday - the hall down the middle is just crammed with people. You would think with so many options it would be easy to find something good, but I went all the way down and had to come all the way back before I could find (aka decide on) something that looked good.

I think the part of the trail that stood out to me most was Paul Revere's Midnight Ride. We saw his house, where he started the famous ride (see pic below), and the Old North Church (tall steeple behind Nate) where the lanterns were lit for "one if by land, two if by sea" (how the British were coming. He didn't actually light the lanterns himself - the caretaker did). At first I was thinking that it was a really short ride to have received so much attention / prominence in history, since we had just walked the distance in less than 1/2 hour, and he was on a horse. But that just showed how lacking my remembrance of American History is (for those of you who, like me, haven't had a history class in 10 years or so, he continued on to Lexington and I think Concord to warn the colonists out there).
















The other highlight of the trail for me was the last stop, Bunker Hill. You have to walk up the hill, then at the top is a monument with 294 winding / steep steps to climb up. There were some pretty neat views from the top, although my legs felt like Jell-o once we got back to the bottom (grr!!! does anyone else get frustrated working with pictures and text and the random spacing and formatting issues they create in blogger???). Here is a picture of little (relatively) Nate and the big monument.

We finished off the day by going to Fig's - a little pizza place on the street I took a picture of below - for dinner, stopping at Harvard Square for some yummy ice cream, and swimming in the pool at our hotel. I'm pretty sure Nate watched a movie or two, but I was exhausted and fell asleep.