Cousins

Jar and I got to watch his little cousins again this week. They are so much fun! We took them to swimming lessons and Flips (kids gymnastics) & tennis for Morgan. Jarad & Burke played Lego Star Wars on the Wii for a while and Morgan & I colored many pages in her WALL-E coloring book. We also ate lunch at Pace's again! It was super funny on the drive home from lunch...Morgan told us that next time we take care of them we should come to our house instead of theirs. And then Burke added in his two cents and said that we should move into their house and their mom & dad should move into our house and switch places! We got a good laugh from that and the many other funny things they say! Fun times! :)


Jarad & Burke


Ash & Morgan

I'm a Princess

Free-spirited and wise. You have a strong passionate spirit that touches and changes all who know you. The wisdom and common sense that you have is really what guides you through life. Even so, you also have a very playful side that loves adventure and excitement.

What the???! I don't even like Pocohantas! Oh well...at least the description sounds about right!

Nemo Moment

Meet Piper...our beta! We had another beta previously but he died around Christmas and we finally decided it was time for another pet. Jarad & I hit up PetsMart and purchase a male beta and brought him home. I prepared his water and Jar did the honors of putting him in his new home.

However, there was an almost tragedy! As Jar was trying to siphon out the yucky water from the cup he was in at the store before dumping him into his nice, clean water, Piper had a Nemo moment. All pipes lead to the ocean! The little guy dove head first into the drain! I was in the other room and heard, "OH NO!" and came running. I saw Jar looking scared/sad in the sink's direction and said, "you didn't?!"


Jar & his sad face.

Luckily, Jar is a quick thinking and started to clear out the miscellaneous items under the sink and got a bucket under the pipe and proceeded to take the sink pipe apart to search for our little fishy!

Under the sink...

Much to my surprise and our luck, the little guy was chilling in the u-shaped pipe still since we hadn't ran the water down that side of the sink. Jar rescued the fish and safely placed him in his nice new home, to which we also added some bamboo for his entertainment. And hopefully he doesn't contract some weird bacteria from the pipe-adventure!


So, since this beta has such a love of pipes and almost met his fate in one, we decided to name him Piper.

Pioneer Day Partying

Jarad & I decided to really celebrate this 24th of July! We awoke early in the AM and headed out to watch the Days of '47 Pioneer Day Parade. After walking quite a ways from our car to the parade route, we planted our camping chairs down and the parade began (nice timing eh?).

We love parades.

We saw the motorcycle cops do some cool tricks and even saw the prophet, Pres. Monson pass by.

WHOA! Don't try this at home!


He is so cute!

Jarad had never been to the Pioneer Day Parade and I hadn't been in a few years so it was enjoyable for the first hour or so...but as it got pretty toasty our parade enthusiasm wained...however, I hadn't seen the UTAH UTE'S float yet. :( We'd seen about every other school but not our alma mater. I convinced Jar to stay a bit longer, and finally it came and we hooted and hollered and flashed our quasi-gang sign hand U's as if we were at a football game or something!

I am a Utah Wo-Man Sir! GO UTES!

Not long after we started the trek back to our car and then home to rest up.

That night went down to Liberty Park with our friends Cole & Maura to see...you guessed it...FIREWORKS! What would a holiday be without fireworks? Nothing to me! I love fireworks!!! And Liberty did not disappoint! We had a great spot on the grass and the show was spectacular!


Jar & I, and Cole & Maura


So pretty! And Jar & I both love that boom that rings in your ears for a while even after the show is over!

In all seriousness though, I am grateful for the pioneers who came to this valley and who trekked across the country. I don't know that I could have had the strength they had to endure everything they did. Happy Pioneer Day!!!

Project Kitchen

Seeing as we will be living in our apartment for a while longer, I decided to do some reorganizing and re-beautifying while I have some spare time this summer. I also enlisted Jarad to assist me in this task.

First, we did a little bit of rearranging our counters, hung a magnetic knife strip to get our knife block off the counters and finally broke out our toaster oven we got as a Christmas gift!

Second, the drawers...we searched for some drawer organizers to just slip into our drawers but found nothing that would fit our odd sized drawers. So, we decided to make our own!

Third, our cabinets have a large space between them above our sink (I don't know who designed that, but it looked funny!) and we previously just hung a piece of art in the space to make it look better. But after seeing some of our neighbors apartments that had a shelf there, we decided to put on of those in too!

So, one trip to home depot, some white paint (Thanks Maura!) and some cutting to size, because our walls and cabinet weren't exactly mounted straight, (Thanks Glenn's!)and our projects were complete! I don't have before pictures but here are some after pictures!


Dividers for our drawers! I love organization!


more drawer dividers...


The shelf! I also added some vases & fake grass as well as our newest family member! (read the next post to hear about him!)

Tradition!

Long ago, my "girls," a group of us that met while in college many years ago and have remained tight-knit sisters/friends ever since, started a tradition. When one of us gets married, the others get together and make a quilt for the soon-to-be or newly married girl without her knowing anything about it. Normally, we use her wedding colors or if previously specified, her requested color(s). The first couple of quilts were done by wedding days...however, with some girls moving away and the business of life, we are currently running on an approximately two year delay! But, we still do it and that's what counts! Tradition is tradition, even if it is a few years late!

So, tonight we presented our friends Christina & Thayne (married May 2006) with their wedding quilt and had a fun potluck dinner.

Here are some photo's of the quilting process and the finished product!


Wein & Mel making measurements for the quilt.


Mel & Sarah sewing away!


Chrissy & Thayne and their quilt!


The Girls- Me, Mel, Chrissy & Tarina (we love you Sarah, Steph, Ger & E-beth!!)

Youth Conference Extravaganza!

This past weekend was Youth Conference for our ward. Being in the Young Women's presidency, I was very involved and also had volunteered Jarad (thanks babe!) to be involved as well. After all the planning and prep, it was fun to see the weekend come and go off successfully!

Friday, we met at the church early to start our spiritual day of youth conference. We went to the Salt Lake Temple, the Ogden Temple and the Jordan River Temple do to baptisms for the dead. It was such a cool experience to see the youth getting baptized and just enjoying the spirit of the temples.

That evening, our ward had a Summer Luau at the park complete with roasted pigs (head and all) and island dancers! After the Luau, all of the girls and leaders, me included, headed to Josie's (YW president) house for a sleepover!! We played games, ate tons of junk food, giggled till our sides hurt and watched Penelope (super cute movie by the way). After getting a few hours of sleep, we got up and had a camp certification clinic for a few hours in the morning. Then we all went home to rest for a few hours, then met back up and headed to Murray park.

Murray park was a blast! The boys set up a huge slip & slide down a very steep hill and we enjoyed that for hours! We also had some water balloons and Jarad got hit int he stomach and now has a welt! I hadn't been on a slip & slide since my childhood but it was just as fun as I remember!!!

Sunday we concluded youth conference with a testimony meeting at the Bishop's house. It was good to hear the youth talk about the gospel and their friendships with each other. Youth conference was a big success I would say! And here are some fun photo's from the weekend.


The Crew outside the Jordan River Temple


Emily, Amelia & Melissa at the sleepover.


Kelli- mmmmm...more popcorn!


Me & Jarad getting ready for the slip & slide.


Jarad enjoying the ride.


Some of the girls & I (I'm in the white tank) slippin' & a slidin'

Wedding Bliss

Today our friends Peter & Michelle got married!!! Peter was Jarad's roommate before we got married and so we've known them for quite a while. Peter & Michelle actually started dating just after Jarad & I but they took the longer road to the temple I guess! We are so happy for them and are really glad they shared their day with us. We were able to attend their sealing in the Salt Lake Temple. I love going to other's sealings because it reminds me of when Jar & I were sealed and how lucky I am to have him forever! We also went to their luncheon and reception. It was at Gardner Villiage in W. Jordan and it was very nice. We are also sad though, because they are moving to Arizona right after thier honeymoon, so Peter can attend medical school down there. We'll miss them! But it was fun to see them so happy and enjoying their special day. Congratulations Peter & Michelle!


Peter & Michelle coming out of the Temple- they're married!!


Peter & Michelle and Me & Jarad at the reception!


Our feet...dressed for the wedding... Jar's idea!

Parents for a Day

It was backwards week at FLIPS...


Yummy Pace's...home of the famous popsicles!


Morgan & Me at Pace's
(sorry Burke, we'll have to get a picture of you next time!)


Morgan taking my picture...

Jarad and I watched his little cousin's, Burke (5) and Morgan (3)this past Monday for a day while his Aunt Amy was out of town. We totally felt like parents, it was really fun! We played Wii in the morning, then took Burke to a birthday party. When we dropped him off, the Mom asked Jarad, "Can I help you?" because she didn't know who he was. It was cute though, because Jarad told Burke all the things our parents use to tell us. Be nice and polite and listen to so-and-so's Mom!

After dropping Burke at the party, Morgan had to be taken to FLIPS. It's like kid gymnastics! And so cute! Jarad's first words were, "We have to put our kids in gymnastics!" as he flashed back to his gymnastic days as a child! We watched Morgan do her thing and she was so cute! Then after FLIPS was through, we went to Pace's to get lunch and slushee's!

We returned to Amy's house and a few minutes later, Burke was dropped off and told us all about his birthday party. Then we watched some shows, Jarad & Burke had a light saber fight, and Morgan & I played pets! We had a fun time playing with the kids. We even took them to McDonald's for dinner and so they could play on the play set. Just as we got home from McD's Amy got home from her trip, so we chatted with her for a while before heading home. We were spent! Kids are a lot of work but we had a blast being parents for a day!

Long Beach...then home!

After the not so beach-like pismo experience, we decided to hit up Long Beach on Thursday on our way to the airport. We left David & Mel's a bit early so we could have a few hours on the beach before flying home. One stop at Walmart for beach towels and we were headed south! Although it was only about 10am by the time we hit LA, there was already traffic!


Reason #947 not to live in LA!


But we did end up passing Flo-dub's street!

We found the beach pretty easily and I couldn't wait to get out of the car and down to the beach!

Now that's more like it!
Lucky for us, the weather cooperated wonderfully and we really enjoyed Long Beach.


Nothin' like a little sand between your toes!


We walked on the path down the beach, then laid out a bit, played in the water, wrote messages in the sand and even found some shells to bring home.

Seriously miss living by the ocean...being land-locked is no good!


But not as much as I love Jar!


The one thing other than playing with the little ones I wanted to do was go to the beach...and I got to go twice!! Thanks Long Beach for a great day!


Well, I guess it's time to go home. Jar's heading into the Long Beach airport- which is very small by the way.


Time to go home...what a great trip!
(yes we are a bit red!)

Pismo Beach

More like Pitiful beach! Just kidding...the beach itself was cool, but the weather was not cooperating! After a long drive, complicated by an over-heating car (poor David & Mel!!) we arrived at Pismo Beach only to find tons of fog, a light mist and very chilly temps! But, we made the best of it and still had alot of fun. We bundled up in our jackets and blankets and made our way onto the beach. Audrey didn't seem to care about the weather and wanted to get in the water ASAP! So she and I played in the water and then the sand. We even ended up burying her up to her neck! She just kept saying, "More sand, more dirt!" After washing up, we went to dinner at cute little place right on the beach. Thanks David & Mel for taking us to the beach!


Here is a shot of Pismo being pitiful!


Jar ran around the beach taking pictures. I shot this one of Audrey and then realized he was shooting in the background. If you wanna see some cool beach photo's go to his photo blog.


Audrey & I playing in the water. She was so brave and kept going further out!


The rest of the gang just hanging out on the sand.


After a particularly big wave, Audrey was a little bit more apprehensive about the water and kept running back to me and clinging onto my leg.


Mel & the kids sittin' on the beach.


Audrey just loved being buried by sand!


Me & Jar