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!

SNOW in St. George!

So it was snowing today... and since I was at school I got a picture with a couple of my classmates - Jenn (left) & Amy (right). I haven't seen snow in St. George in a while... maybe even since our wedding... :) We are in front of the Udvar Hazy building and you can see the institute building in the background.

and a close-up..

Trip to Brian Head

Yesterday, since it was a holiday, Natalie took her kids up to go snowboarding for the day. She invited McKay and I to go with them, as well as Berlyn's friend, Sydney. So all together it was Natalie, her kids Berlyn, Dryden, and Elle, McKay, Sydney and me. I was the only one to go skiing (I have never been snowboarding and didn't feel like learning that day). It was really fun - I hadn't gone skiing in over 2 years. Brian Head Resort (a little over an hour north of St. George, UT) was pretty nice, but I have definitely seen better snow. Maybe I'm spoiled with northern Utah's snow or Idaho's snow... but I thought it was VERY icy there. It was fun, anyway. It got pretty cold after about 2pm so we quit a little earlier than we had planned.
I thought this was pretty interesting - I wore my heart rate monitor while skiing, and during the 4 1/2 hours of skiing I burned 2,000 calories! Crazy!

Here is Elle and McKay - Elle surprised me with how good she is! She's so young but so good!

Here I am (in blue) with Berlyn on the ski lift

Here are Dryden (left) and McKay (right) on the lift in front of us.

Can't wait 'til next time - I can go with Jesse!

Liar's Dice

If you have seen Pirates of the Caribbean 3 you may remember this game. My parents learned it from some of their friends from Idaho, and they taught the game to Jesse and me over the holidays. There is a scene where the pirates are at a table playing a game with dice, and the game is called "Pirate's Dice" or "Liar's Dice." I found the rules somewhere online, but you can also buy the game from Walmart or just dice from the dollar store works too. We played at Matt & Lindsay's place (and Cody was also there) last night and it was a lot of fun. :) Ella and Kash are CUTE!

Each player gets dealt 5 dice, numbered 1-6. Ones are wild and therefore count as every number.
Each round, everyone rolls their dice secretly, and the starting player makes a bid.
Play proceeds clockwise. When it comes to you, you may either raise the bid or challenge the previous bid. Note that you are not bidding on just your dice, but ALL the dice in play.
To raise the bid you must increase the number of dice on the track, or keep the same number of dice but increase the value of the face being bid on. Example: the previous player says seven 4's. You can say seven 5's, seven 6's eight of something (or nine, ten etc. of something), but not seven 2's or 3's (because that would be going down).
If instead of raising, you challenge, all players reveal their dice, and whoever is wrong loses one die. Remember that ones are wild, so will be counted as any number.
Exception (we didn't play with this exception, but it sounds interesting): if the bidder was spot-on, then everyone loses a dice except the person who was right, i.e. the bidder.
Play then begins again with the person who won that challenge.
The winner is the last man standing.

(I have modified these rules to the way that we play... so if they don't make sense, then find the rules somewhere online and play your own way, or, better yet... invite Jesse and me over to come play with you!)

Mitt Romney takes Michigan!

I've never been into politics much, but I am excited this year because I watch the news (Jesse always has it on in the background). I have been semi-following the presidential primaries. I am especially excited that Mitt Romney is doing so well! He has "2 Gold & 2 Silver" now. Go Mitt!

Happy Birthday, Jesse!

Jesse's birthday was yesterday (4th of January) and those of us in town got to celebrate (with McKay, of course - his birthday is on the 1st) at Olive Garden. It was fun to get together with everyone and we had a good time. We wish you were here, Adam! (Adam's birthday is coming up on the 8th.)

On our Way Home

Of course we stopped at Grandpa's house on the way back - he is so fun to talk to - just full of advice and stories. Since Pocatello isn't far from Idaho Falls (about an hour drive) we have tried to stop by every time we go up north.
Congratulations, Olivia! Sorry we weren't able to make it to your baptism, but you have made an excellent choice in getting baptized! We love you!

Here is a picture of Jesse with Grandpa.I tried to get some video of him - he was holding my hand during part of the video, so sorry for how dark it is and not a very good picture. I hope you enjoy! We love you, Grandpa!

White Christmas in Idaho

Our trip to Idaho was nice - I love to see family especially since I live so far away now. My whole family was there - Jeff, his wife, Jackie, and their 2 kids Veronica (3) and David (9 months); Angela, her husband, Tom, and their 2 kids Hannah (3) and Hailey (22 months); Jesse and myself; my younger sister, Rachel and my parents. It was nice to see everyone there. We didn't get a family picture, however... you'll have to talk to my dad about that one (he was in charge of organizing it). The drive down was clear the whole way, and since it snowed every day we were there our drive back included some ice and snow - thankfully we arrived with no accident. I was nervous letting Jesse drive in the snow while we were there because he grew up in St. George... where it snows once a year. I have probably told Jesse this 10 times, but I just felt more comfortable driving - "I took driver's ed in the snow!" Anyway, here are some pictures I got from the trip and you can go to Jeff & Jackie's website and Tom & Angela's website to see more. Just click on these links and they will bring you to their websites.

This is Jesse and my niece, Hannah. She's 3 years old and knows how to pull up an internet webpage of Dora and print from it. That is pretty smart!

Here is my dad and Rachel working on one of many puzzles this holiday break.

Here I am trying out some holiday candy from my stocking (Angela in the background..).

Angela posing. :)

Jesse with my niece, Hailey. Something kind of sad, but funny that Hailey does, is when she is really mad or frustrated, she will get down on her hands and knees and then bang her head on the ground. It's afterwards when she cries that is the sad part.

Here is Tom. This is the living room - where we have most of our conversations over the holidays.

Here is David (Veronica, Jeff, & Jackie in the background). He's already a BYU fan.One family tradition is having these mini-oranges around all the time during the holidays. (Yum!)Cute smile from Veronica. My brother and his family stayed the night at our place on their way from Los Angeles to Idaho Falls. I made smoothies for them in the morning and Veronica wouldn't try it. But after her parents bribed her, she said "If I drink this smoothie, I get a piece of bacon, a BIG piece!" She takes after her dad in that she is a meat eater.

Here is a cute video of playing some games:

Here is my dad playing Nintendo Wii Bowling - this is the 2nd time I have ever beat him at bowling. :)

Another family tradition - going bowling. Here are Jesse, Jackie, and Jeff waiting their turn. I got my 2nd best - 143!My dad's seat is always behind the computer monitor. Here he is laughing as Tom helps Hailey bowl.

Here is Angela and Hailey. Jesse bowling - go Jesse!
We had a good time up in Idaho, thank you Mom & Dad!

You can also go to Jeff & Jackie's website and Tom & Angela's website to see more. Just click on these links and they will bring you to their websites.

Cold Weather Ahead

So Jesse and I leave for Idaho tomorrow... and this is supposed to be our weather (compared to St. George - what we are used to). How did I manage growing up in such a cold place? Both my dad and Jesse know I don't like to be cold and that I am almost always cold. At least we get to spend the holidays away from school and work (sort of...) and with family. :) Idaho, here we come!
The 27th for example... high of 21 degrees in Idaho... and high of 38 degrees in St. George - both are cold but I prefer the 38!

Jesse is Mighty

When Jesse is feeling a little depressed, his favorite thing to do is to visit THIS SITE. He gets pretty happy when he views it... (as you can see in the picture).

Christmas Tree

For the first time ever I got to go cut down my own Christmas tree! Well, I guess I cut into it about an inch and Jesse finished it off. The day after Thanksgiving we headed up to Pine Valley and hiked around a bit to find the perfect tree. Once we had it cut down, Jesse hauled it up to our car and we wrapped it up in a tarp and stuffed it into the car. Yes, we stuffed into the back of our Subaru with hardly any damage done to the tree. It was fun and maybe even a tradition I think we should do every year! :) We'll see if it happens, I guess.Yeah, it is short and fat but we love it... at least I love it.

Birthday Weekend

So it was my birthday yesterday and my parents (Craig & Mary) came to visit for the weekend. It was pretty fun - we went to Zion Nat'l Park and hiked Emerald Pools. It was raining on and off all weekend - you can see snow in some of the mountains in the pictures of Zion. They also came to church with Jesse and me and helped me out in the nursery. After church we had a nice dinner at the Bird's house and then watched the Christmas message from the 1st Presidency. My mom also helped me finish decorating our Christmas tree.

My mom and I - Time to open presents!

Me and my mom in the backseat on the drive to Zion... Jesse decided to take us on a tour to Colorado City because he took an unnecessary turn... it made for a long drive, but wasn't too bad.

Zion is so beautiful! This is only the 2nd time I've been since living in St. George. You can see some snow in these mountains.

Here I tried getting a picture of the leaves - some leaves were bright pink.

Here's all 4 of us
Jesse, me, my mom, my dad

Because of all the rain, there were multiple waterfalls. This picture shows 2 of them. (One is in the distance to the right of the crooked tree.) Once we reached the middle emerald pool we decided to head back. All the rain had made so much water that we had to get logs and make ourselves a bridge to cross over the water!

Here is my mom with a bunch of pink-leafed trees. They were really pretty!

Here is yet another waterfall. This one was probably the tallest we saw - you can't see where it ends, but it is almost twice as long as you can tell.

I've been Tagged

When you are tagged I guess you give 7 interesting facts about yourself. I now tag Angela, Jackie, and Ashley. Here they are:

1. Although I am from Idaho, I hate being cold and I have definitely acclimatized to St. George's weather. The weather in Idaho is too cold for me! I love being warm. I even love the heat in St. George.

2. I have 21 nieces and nephews - 4 (+ one on the way!) on my side and 17 on Jesse's side. I even know all their names. I love big families and I am glad I married into one!

3. These are a few random things I can do / have done: ride a unicycle, juggle, play piano, play guitar, sang in choir, I was on a swim team, I ran track and cross-country, I played softball in high school, I recently took up road-biking, I took a year of violin, I played soccer and T-ball and slow pitch when I was younger.

4. I love to garden and can't wait until I have my own to grow tomatoes and other yummy things!

5. I've only been outside of the country once, and that was to Canada this last summer. I would LOVE to visit Europe and Mexico and Australia one day! I love foreign accents and I collect foreign money. :)

6. I love to learn about the body and how it works and how to be healthier. Science has been my favorite subject since I took Trigonometry in high school. :) There is a lot to learn as a nursing student and I hope I can keep up with it all!

7. I love my family and my in-laws - I am so blessed to have them all in my life. I love my wonderful husband Jesse and I am so grateful for the way he treats me. Sure he is busy, but he always finds time for me. I love being married to him and I am so happy I married my best friend. I love the gospel and I love my Savior. I am so blessed with the knowledge of the Atonement and that I can return to live with Him one day. I am surrounded with wonderful people in my life and I want you all to know that I love you all! Thank you for everything you do for me and the time you put in to be my friend. Happy Holidays!

I love the people; Mom&Dad; Presidential Candidates 2008

Not a whole lot has been going on here... just work and school for me and work for Jesse. I had shingles (dormant chicken pox virus becomes active - a small rash) but it is practically healed and I am no longer contagious. They say you get it from stress... and it is pretty uncommon for someone under the age 50 to get it... well I guess school has been pretty tough lately. I started clinicals a couple weeks ago, and I am enjoying them. While I have been going through school sometimes I wonder why I am subjecting myself to this... but at clinicals I have learned why I want to become a nurse - it is because I love the people. It is very rewarding to help someone in a needy situation. I have had discussions with some people that think poorly of the medical field because the doctors and nurses dehumanize their clients (or patients) - which I know happens. Yet I still want to become a nurse. The patients I have come in contact with so far are not just patients to me - they are people that need my help. I have learned a lot about service and love the past few weeks, and I know that throughout my career as a nurse I have much more to learn.
My mom called on Sunday to tell me they might come down to St. George for the weekend of my birthday! (11/30 - 12/3) This will be their first time since our wedding, so they haven't had a chance to do anything St. George specific. Ideas, anyone?

So Jesse has joined the "RON PAUL REVOLUTION" and I am sticking with good ol'

MITT ROMNEY

at this point. Jesse was with me at the beginning, but he started watching movies on UTube that Ron Paul supporters have made. They are pretty much foo-foo with Ron Paul saying a few words from a t.v. show or interview. Sure, Jesse has a good point about Ron Paul's views on politics. But I just don't think our country is ready for him. What do you think?

Ron Paul