Zion National Park

Jesse and I went to Zion on Saturday and hiked Angel's Landing. They say it is a "very strenuous hike - don't go if you are afraid of heights" which I now understand very well. Not only is it steep almost the entire way, there are parts you need to hold onto chains in case you slip. There are sheer cliffs to both sides in some parts!! Since hiking for the spa, I have become more accustomed to heights... but Angel's Landing is far more scary than any hike I am used to! But it was beautiful!!! I would definitely recommend this hike to anyone that doesn't have a big fear of heights (you could do it if you have a small fear like me).

Jesse was a little tired
and fell asleep on the way...

A couple from France took our picture near the top

Here we are at the top!
We packed a lunch to eat and
this is where we enjoyed it.

Amazing views everywhere you look (view from top)

Jesse

Shopping Trip to Vegas

Labor Day was a pretty fun day.. bike ride in the morning and then a few of us went to Las Vegas to get some shopping in. (Jesse hates shopping, so it's fun to get shopping in with people that like it!)  I went with Lindsay, Audrey, and Cody.  We picked up Becky from the airport, so she was with us for dinner and a little bit of the shopping.

Cody holding some clothes for Lindsay

We went to an outlet mall (they had True Religion, Banana Republic... and others) where I found some good deals.  Then we went to Fashion Show Place mall - they call it that because a fashion show literally comes out of the floors on some days (I haven't seen it yet, but it sounds cool).  (They had Forever 21... but by this time we were all tired and thirsty, so we left after this one store.) Then we went to the mall that is kitty-corner from the airport and went to H&M.  After we picked up Becky from the airport, we went to Forum Shops and ate at The Cheesecake Factory - yum!... My first experience at a Cheesecake Factory was completely different... and on our way out we stopped at Express.  

Becky & Lindsay in front of Express

Overall it was really fun and I got some really cute clothes, but it was also a long day and we didn't get back til almost 2am.  Thanks guys for shopping with me! You all have really good taste - thanks for the help.  :)

Here we are... ready to go home!

Labor Day Bike Ride

I took Berlyn on The Loop this morning - fun ride. She is much more brave than me! I need to work on getting over my fears in time for my mountain biking class that starts in October (yes, I said mountain biking class - pretty sweet, huh?)

Me & Berlyn - the trailhead behind us and to the left

I backed up and started over a couple times... but I made it down!

Berlyn scoping out the hill...

She made it look too easy!

Thanks, Ber. I had a good time!

Bag Tag

Lindsay tagged me. Show your purse and its contents... here it is.

small white purse from Kohls

No matter how big your purse, you fill it up. Here are its contents:

4 chapstick/lip gloss (if you know me, this won't surprise you), receipt, cards (library, health ins., Hollywood, etc), DSC parking pass that I'm supposed to have on my car, house key, both sets of car keys (found them!), Tylenol, gum, fizzy candy, wallet, Crystal Light 'on the go', change, Mexican money, flattened penny from Tillamook cheese factory (if you want to get me a souvenier... I will love one of these! Or foreign money - I collect both. Dorky, I know.), and earring posts.

Wow that was a lot of stuff in such a small bag. I should never get a big bag or I will fill it up completely! I now tag Angela, Bekah, Becca, Jackie.

Spinach Salad with Peaches & Pecans

I love finding recipes that are easy, simple, and delicious! Here's a couple I found on allrecipes.com. Since peaches are in season... it will taste even better.

Spinach Salad with Peaches & Pecans

(click on link to see recipe on allrecipes.com - by the way... I'm user mdawne2 and submitted the picture they have on the site for this recipe... :) )

INGREDIENTS:

• 3/4 cup pecans
• 2 ripe peaches
• 4 cups baby spinach, rinsed and dried
• 1/4 cup poppyseed salad dressing (recipe I used is below, or you can just buy one)
  

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Arrange pecans on a single layer on a baking sheet and roast in preheated oven for 7-10 minutes, until they just begin to darken. Remove from oven and set aside. (I didn't do this step because it is too hot in St. George to heat up my oven/house for just this...)
   
2. Peel peaches (if desired) and slice into bite-sized segments. Combine peaches, spinach and pecans in a large bowl. Toss with dressing until evenly coated, adding a little additional dressing, if necessary. (I drizzled it on top instead.)

Poppyseed Dressing
(click on link to see recipe on allrecipes.com)

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup fat-free creamy salad dressing (ie: Fat Free Miracle Whip TM)
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/8 cup distilled white vinegar
• 1 tablespoon poppy seeds

DIRECTIONS

1. In a small bowl, whisk together salad dressing, milk, white sugar, vinegar, and poppy seeds. Chill until ready to use.

Camera Phone Pictures

These pictures are from my phone, so they aren't very good quality. I thought I would share them anyway.

This is opening day of Stephenie Meyer's Breaking Dawn
at Barnes & Noble on Sat, Aug 2

These 4 pictures are at Blue Lake Park in Portland, Oregon.

Hannah

Hailey

Veronica (I need to learn how to take pictures...)

David

Desert Tortoise

School started this past Tuesday, and all the Health Sciences moved over to the building behind the new hospital. Since there is a big patch of desert right behind the new building (Taylor Building), I wasn't too surprised to see some desert wildlife hiding out under one of the cars. This desert tortoise is the biggest one I have seen in St. George - about the size of a basketball (in circumference)!!! I guess he just wanted a little shade!

Trip to Portland, Oregon

At the beginning of August, my whole family (2 sisters, 1 brother, parents, brother- & sister-in-law, 3 nieces, 2 nephews - total of 12 plus Jesse & me) went on a family vacation/reunion to Portland, Oregon. Both my parents grew up there, so we also got to see some extended family (grandma, uncle, aunt, cousins).

We arrived on Saturday, August 2nd, and left the next Thursday. We went to dinner the first night and later played a game of Uno (and encountered a jolly drunk guy).

The next day we went to church... but our GPS system steered us in circles.. so we were pretty late. When we got there, they were speaking Tongan... Then we went to Blue Lake Park where my dad's side of the family was having the annual family reunion. We enjoyed potluck, visited with family we didn't really know (but were really nice and fun to talk to), played on the playground with the children, and went paddle boating. Our first paddle boat was broken, so I got a pretty good workout (Angela, Rachel, and I recruited Jesse from shore to help us back to the dock). Jackie & I exchanged it and took Hannah, Hailey, and Veronica, who never wanted to get off. I told Hailey we needed more money if we wanted to go, and I didn't have any more money. Hailey said, "I'll ask Jesse for more money so we can go on the boat." Smart girl. She even remembered to ask Jesse when we got back to the picnic area, but it didn't work out for her. After the park we went to Dick & Connie's house. My dad grew up with Connie, and they have stayed in touch. They had a really nice barbeque meal there, and we visited and played. While we were finishing eating, Hannah was playing with one of the cork hot pads and broke it. When I told her we needed to go tell Connie, Hannah said, "I don't want to. I want to take a nap." I thought it was kinda funny.

Monday, we went to the Oregon Zoo which was pretty cool. Some of the most interesting animals we saw were a bald eagle, a polar bear (who stood up and dove into the pool), and some cougars. We went swimming at the hotel pool when we got back, and enjoyed some relaxation time. We went downtown Portland that night and rode the Max train and did some shopping.

Me, Jesse, and Hailey taking a break at the zoo

Hannah, Rachel, and cousin Angela

Riding the Max - cousin Patience, Veronica, Hannah, me, and Hailey

Tuesday we drove to the Oregon coastline. On the way, sort of, we stopped at the Tillamook Cheese Factory. It is pretty tourist-y, but we were able to watch the machines and workers at work, sample some yummy cheese, and enjoy some tasty mountain huckleberry ice cream. The coast at Cannon Beach was beautiful of course, a little hazy, though. We built sandcastles & did some metal detecting while we were there. Water and air temp was pretty chilly at the beach, even though Portland was in the 90's that day. For lunch I got fish n' chips and homemade rootbeer - fish is definitely better when you're by the water and it is fresh. We got back pretty late, but I still enjoyed a little reading/relaxing time by the pool.

Heading to the beach

David tasting the homemade rootbeer

I made Patience and Hannah into mermaids...

Wednesday we hiked Multnomah Falls. One thing about Oregon is that there are tons of tall trees and everything is GREEN. We stopped at some factory outlet stores on the way back, and that evening we went to my Uncle Keith's house for a barbeque dinner. It was good to visit with everybody.

3 sisters: Angela, Rachel, & me

Keeping the kids entertained at the outlet stores... (Jesse: Mindy, do you have 2 quarters? I want them to like me.)

A lot of my family drove... and there was a lot of distance to cover. Here is Patience and Hannah sharing some music in the car.

At Uncle Keith's house - Tom & Jesse always start up interesting conversations...

Uncle Keith at the BBQ

Aunt Leslie & Angela
Grandma, Dad, Jeff & David

Thank you, Mom & Dad for planning a great trip! We had a good time and it was really good to see you and everyone!

Click HERE to see post/pictures on Jackie's blog
Click HERE to see post/pictures on Angela's blog

Goodbye TWC

So some policies changed at work at The Ted Warthen Center... which included me working Sundays... To make a short story shorter, my last day is this coming Tuesday. I am relieved, but sad at the same time. I will miss the residents there and my coworkers. It was a good experience, but time to move on.

Stephenie Meyer

So yes, like a lot of other women (and guys... and younger girls) I have read Stephenie Meyer's series Twilight. The last one came out last Friday night/Saturday morning at midnight (Breaking Dawn - pictured at left), which I waited for an hour to get the 4th of four.

I've also read The Host by Stephenie Meyer... all were good and I would definitely recommend all 5 books. Cody introduced the first book to me when I was still working the front desk at the spa... but I didn't finish reading the book for awhile. Thanks Cody... :)

FaceSaerch

So I came across THIS ARTICLE... which kinda creeped me out. It is mostly about safety of names and pictures online.

So... I took all last names (I think) off my blog.

The article explains what FaceSaerch is and how the system of searching out a name will give you a picture of that person. I thought, "Oh please... this won't show any pictures of me." Here is a picture of my search:

As you can see... I come up in the first 4 pictures... all from my blog! Something to think about, anyway.

Quick Visit to Idaho Falls

After the reunion... we headed up to Idaho Falls. We wanted to see Angela's week old baby boy. My dad, Jesse, and I took Angela's older 2 kids, Hannah & Hailey, on a walk to Tautphaus Park. It is only 5 short blocks away.. but quite a ways when you are only 4 or 2 years old. They have a new play yard that we played on, and a fountain we cooled off on our way back. Pretty fun!

Family Reunion at Lava Hot Springs, Idaho

Since Jesse's dad, Terrel, grew up in Idaho, he decided to hold a family reunion close to my hometown of Idaho Falls. We spent the week at Lava Hot Springs, and then joined my parents 1 1/2 hours away for a day before we made the drive back home. I took a bunch of pictures... and I wanted to post a lot of them (because I like pictures!) so that is why they may seem jumbled together...
There were a total of over 70 people that showed up to the reunion. That included over 40 from Terrel's family... tons of children. We soaked in the hot springs, we floated the Portneuf River in inner tubes, we listened to stories from Terrel and his brothers and sisters, we went on a bike ride one morning, we played ultimate Frisbee, we played card games, we listened to a retired BYU professor talk to us about some of the Bird Welsch ancestors, we went on a hayride and went up to a barbeque, we bought old-fashioned candy and huckleberry shakes, we talked with Grandpa Bird and he told us stories... Overall we had a really good time!

If you want to go to my Flickr account and see all the pictures, click HERE!

Janet & Sabrina Jared & Debbie, Jordan & Megan
Freeman & Cole in battle















Jesse and me





Cohen, Carly, & Elyza

Logan, Nate & Audrey

Hayride...
Terrel telling a story of Grandpa Bird's

Listening to stories and finishing lunch in the Lava Community Center

Ben & Jesse... never can get them to think of anything ...

What in the world?? What is McKay wearing???

Freeman fell asleep on the hayride...

Michael-Anne, Marissa, and Janelle