Scout Cave

For FHE tonight we decided to go to Scout Cave (Gila trail near Snow Canyon State Park south entrance) and do a short hike. Here are pictures:

In the middle of the picture is the little hole called "Scout Cave"

Here's what it looks like when entering it

Here is the view looking out over the edge (St. George in the background)

closer up

Emily's Wedding

This weekend Jesse & I drove up to Idaho Falls because Emily was getting married. It was a long drive, but it was worth it. Emily was one of my best friends in high school, and we still keep in contact. She got married in the Idaho Falls temple on March 22 and we were invited to attend. It was a beautiful ceremony. Why would you ever want something different?

Emily (in the middle) at her bridal shower the night before with her sister-in-law Marie (on the left) and her mom Trudy (on the right).
Susan and I at the shower - we went together :)

Jesse and I also went to lunch afterwards with Susan and Ashley (2 more of my good high school friends) at Chili's. It was good to get to know their husbands a little better. The reception was held at The Rose Shop in Idaho Falls, which was beautiful - Emily looked stunning! Emily and her new husband, Christian, look really cute together. He seems to make her really happy. I'm really happy for her!

Since the drive is so long... Jesse and I tried listening to a book on tape to see if it would help pass the time. We listened to "The Last Juror" by John Grisham and both decided we didn't really like his style of writing. But it did help the time pass by more quickly. Hopefully I can find something better for the next car trip and maybe the time in the car will fly by.

We wanted to join Grandpa Bird and Zelpha for Easter Sunday church meetings, but we arrived at his house in Pocatello... they weren't home so we drove around looking for an LDS church building nearby, but all we found were 4 other churches. All within a mile of his house! We looked for 20 minutes but still couldn't find it so we just kept driving south. Terrel let us know later that we had passed by the church on our way to Grandpa Bird's house. Oh well - this summer we can join him! Happy Easter everyone!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I know.. not the most exciting holiday, but I thought I'd wish everyone a Happy St. Patrick's Day anyway. Jesse always remembers that it is tradition to wear green and purposely avoids wearing it... I think he likes getting pinched. We had a very Irish dinner tonight... corned beef & cabbage (yum!) which Jesse admitted to liking as well. Hope you all are wearing green today!

2nd Year Anniversary

Jesse and I went to Vegas on Monday for our 2nd year anniversary. It was pretty fun - we had lunch at In 'n' Out Burger (yum!), shopped a little at Fashion Show Mall & Forum Shops, walked a LOT, and then saw Phantom of the Opera at the Venetian. The show was amazing - we actually got upgraded to the front row! Since we went on a Monday night, it wasn't very full so they probably upgraded most people. We stayed the night at the Monte Carlo hotel and came back Tuesday and went for a hike out in Kayenta. We had a good time - it was nice to be able to drag Jesse away from his computer for a few hours.. :)

We stopped to watch the fountains at Bellagio...

Here we are watching the Roman statues "come to life" at Forum Shops.

Me in front of a cool statue at Forum Shops

They don't allow cameras into the theater... so here's my picture of Phantom.

The next morning right before we left for home

Out on our hike at Kayenta
King of the Rock :)Thank you Jesse for a wonderful 2 years! You mean the world to me. I love you!

It's been a while...

So I've been pretty busy with school lately, but here's what's been happening lately:

Trip up to Provo (Feb 10-11) - I went up to Provo to visit Rachel and also go to the Utah State Nursing Convention held at UVSC/UVU. I had a good time with Rachel, but the morning of the convention I didn't feel very well so I didn't end up going. At least it wasn't expensive to register.

Cable is canceled! (Feb. 13) - I finally talked Jesse into canceling cable... I think it is such a waste of time. Jesse and I spend more time with each other and I seem to have more patience with him. It is definitely an adjustment, but a very good one. We still rent movies (and TV series sometimes) so we are not deprived of anything (except commercials). For our wedding, some of Jesse's relatives gave us this book that is homemade, and in it I read how the best thing for a new marriage is not to have TV. You will get to know each other faster and better and learn to spend time in other ways than just watching TV together. I wish we could have canceled it after our "free" preview over a year ago, but it's not too late.

Valentine's Day - I actually had a clinical rotation at the hospital for school and then worked the rest of the day... but the Saturday before (when I arrived back to St. George from my trip to Provo) Jesse had cleaned the whole house, made me dinner, and had a little pot of flowers for me. :) What a sweetheart. He even had a couple pieces of key lime cheesecake from Basila's - a restaurant I always try to get him to take me to. I love you, Jesse!

Work - I worked my last day of the front desk for the Spa on the 28th of Feb... I am still hiking for the Spa when I am not in school. The weather is warming back up so it will be a lot more pleasant to hike. I LOVE warm weather! This week it is supposed to be in the mid-70's! I expected to start working at an assisted living place (The Ted Warthen Center) the following week but there are a few delays with starting the place. They haven't officially opened yet. It isn't your typical rest home - there are maximum 16 residents that can pretty much take care of themselves. They need help cooking and cleaning and taking the right pills at the right times. They can all get around by themselves, but maybe their vision is poor so they can no longer drive and none of their family lives nearby. I'm excited to work there - they are just waiting on the final "ok" paperwork to go through. It will be nice to have a break from work, though.

Nate & Audrey's Wedding (March 1st) - Beautiful wedding! They make such a cute couple. They are moving down to St. George in a few weeks after Audrey finishes school up north. The weather was perfect and it was nice to see everybody. Jesse told me it was the first time all 10 of Terrel's children were in the temple at the same time. Wow. That is amazing.

School - BUSY! This probably explains my lack of blogging. This week, however, is Spring Break. A needed break from hectic school life. I have finished my hospital clinical rotations (8 6-hour shifts, total) but still have a lot left to do for the semester. My last test score was a 93%! That is the best I've done in a while... I am still loving it and still working hard!

Games - We've been playing games with a lot of people lately, and it has been fun. I love to play games. A new one that we learned is called Bang! and it is really fun! We've also played Mofia, Settler's of Catan, Pirate's Dice (informally known as "the dice game"), Mancala, chess, and Jesse played Lord of the Rings Risk last night. He played with Nathan, Matt, and McKay and was pretty excited this morning when he announced his victory to me. (I went to bed before they finished at 2am).

New Computer - Jesse is awaiting his new computer for work... He seems pretty excited and seems a bit impatient it is not here yet. He showed a picture of it to me, and since I am not a fanatic about computers, I think it looks the exact same as his current one (a MAC). He is still working as hard as ever and doing an excellent job. Florin has been in town for the past few months (he's a fellow programmer from Romania) and so Jesse has been getting a lot accomplished with him.

Hope you enjoyed the update!