Final Days of Summer

This is, sadly, my last week of carefree summer days. I start work again next Monday. I think I have a pretty nice set up for this next year though. I'll be working 3 1/2 days with the School District, working at only one Elementary School (as opposed to two like last year). Then I'll work a 1/2 day at a private clinic seeing only a few kiddos. Leaving Fridays to myself. A four day work week sounds pretty nice to me.

We spent a night over at the coast a couple nights ago. We headed over after Dan finished work and was there in time for dinner with some of Dan's family and a nice sunset on the beach. Dan and his dad had a fun time playing Frisbee and I had fun playing with my camera. Here are a few shots from that evening.

We spent the rest of the evening playing with babies and watching a movie. Dan left the next morning for work with his dad and I stayed for the day with Dan's mom and sister.

Although it's sad to see summer end, we have made the most of it, making it easier to see it go. I've been able to check a few things off my list that I wanted to accomplish this summer including exploring Oregon, starting hobbies, and spending time with friends and family. Check, check, and check. There's always more you want to accomplish but I'll be satisfied with what has been done.


I'm looking forward to continuing with the list now that I'll have a day a week of 'me' time during the school year. Whether that will be filled with 'me' type of activities or get crowded with other things, we'll have to see. I'll do my best to protect my day. I feel okay about being a little selfish with that time. Eventually (hopefully), kids will come and we'll have more than enough on our plate. As for now, I'm going to take advantage of this time to do the things I want to do. There are talents to improve, books to read, church callings to magnify, and life to enjoy.


We are very blessed to have this time in our marriage as well. Like pretty much every couple, we've had to go through some tough things, especially this last year. Since McMinnville isn't exactly the most happening place for those without kids, we've had plenty of time for uninterrupted communication, putting us more and more on the same page in life. Fortunately, my husband loves to talk and has a gift for communication. I think this is the one quality, second to his good heart, that I appreciate most in him. This quality gives me more confidence in our future together than anything else.
And so, time goes on and I anticipate wonderful things to come.

Ella & the Utah Trip

This last week Dan and I went our separate ways, Dan to Scout Camp (he's the Scout Master in our ward) and I to Utah. I'm so glad I took the opportunity to get away. I was able to keep myself entertained while Dan was gone instead of hanging around the house wishing he were home.

The main reason for going was to see my new little niece Ella Mae. She was born about a month ago. She's such a precious little baby. I got a little too attached to her. I've been working on some pictures I took of her and my heart hurts looking at them. I miss her so much I want to cry! How could you not miss a face like this...

My sister Julie's kids are SO cute with their new little sister, especially the oldest McKenna who now finally has a little sister.

I loved spending time with the rest of the kids. Eli and I played a lot of hide-and-go-seek and the rest of us had a great time playing steamroller on the bed. We also had a fun day out at Isaac's soccer game. It was quite the sight to see Julie totting around her 5 children. She's a champ.
I also spent a couple of days with my sister Laurie and her cute family. She just let us know that she's expecting her 4th. I'm so excited for her. I wish I would have broke out my camera more while I was at her house. I can't believe I didn't take any pictures of her sweet kids. I did get some pics from the harvest of her extraordinary garden. It's her first attempt at a garden, not too bad for the first. My sisters are always great for conversation. All I want to do when I go there is sit around, talk, and play with kids. Therefore, this trip was ideal.

I spent another day with my sister CarolLynn down in Spanish Fork. I got to see her beautiful home and adorable cat Kiki. Kiki likes to chase around the laser from a laser pointer. We had way too much fun with that. We also had a chance to sit and chat over dinner. CarolLynn is great to talk with, especially when it comes to Gospel topics. I learn so much from her.

While in Provo, I stopped to see Dan's sister Allison. She's going to have a baby in a few weeks. It was great to talk to her and see her SO pregnant. She's doing a great job of taking good care of that baby already. I can't wait to meet him. I also spent some time visiting my cousin MaryClaire and my Uncle Stuart and Aunt Helen. I loved going through my Aunt and Uncle's High School year books and pictures. They're working on their personal histories. I love hearing about when they were my age. They are so good to me. I always feel so loved when their around. I'm grateful for any time I get with them.

Last, but not least, I spent the end of my trip with Audrey. We saw the movie 'Becoming Jane' on Friday night (highly recommended!), ate at a great restaurant (Trio), and talked. Then on Saturday we went up to Park City and went on the Alpine Coaster. Audrey's roommate had some free tickets so we got to go twice! Fun stuff. Audrey took some pics with her camera so I'll have to post those later. We spent the rest of our time together shopping at the outlets and getting me to the airport. I love any time spent with Aud.

It was good to get back home to Dan. After dinner at his parents last night, we borrowed the A&E, 5 hour version of Pride & Prejudice and ended up watching the whole thing. We finished it up at about 2:30am. I'd never seen it before and I loved it. I also love that Dan is just as into it as I am, maybe even more. I have to thank his mom and three sisters for that one. He's so dang cute. I'm just recently discovering the Jane Austen world. I fought it all growing up, didn't want to be THAT girly. But now I can appreciate it. Gotta love Elizabeth Bennett.

Summer Schedule

Although it can be rough at times working in the schools, the schedule more than makes up for it. Since about June 16th I have been working a total of 3 hours a week (private speech therapy for a few kiddos) and doing whatever I want for the rest of the time. I have absolutely loved my time off this summer. Unfortunately, Dan is busiest in his job during the summer. However, we have managed to take off for long weekends several times.
Other than those trips, I have been home enjoying my house and starting new projects and hobbies. As I have mentioned earlier, I have started playing more with photography. I finish up a community photography class tomorrow night which has been helpful. I also dug out my mom's old sewing machine she gave me for my wedding. It's the one she used for many years. I think it is from the 1960's, but works like a charm. I have hemmed curtains & jeans, made baby gifts, and sewed a cute ribbon on the strap of my camera. I think it's a good start.
My camera strap
Baby gifts - hooded towels

I also decided I wanted to make picture frames. Dan built a work bench in our garage and showed me how to use the chop saw. We bought a router but haven't taken it out of the box yet. We also gathered a bunch of scrap wood from some of the houses being built in the neighborhood. Frame making is a project in process at this point. We were really excited about it for a few days but then it kinda fizzled. I'm still interested in doing it but it might be a while before we get some production going.

Blogging has also been a fun hobby this summer (obviously). I have been copying my postings onto word documents so I can keep them as my journal. I hope to print them off and get them in a book sometime in the near future. I love having pictures along with my writings. I'm such a visual person though, pictures always help.

I've also enjoyed all the opportunities to play sports. Since February, Dan and I have played basketball with a group in the mornings at the middle school. We did that 2-3 times a week until school finished. After a month without bball we found another group who also played 3 times a week at the High School. We are having so much fun even though the High School group is a much tougher crowd. They are all giants and yes, I am the only girl. They are nice to let me play. They even make me feel like one of the boys and stuff me any chance they get. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right?

I've also been playing tennis with my sister-in-law 2 times a week. She played in High School and we are a perfect match. Nothing like a great match up. Then, last week we started ward softball. I don't think we have too many games, but it's definitely a blast.

Dan and I also got into Yoga a little at the beginning of the summer. Dan makes me laugh because he LOVES it. After every class he raves about how great Yoga is for your body and why. Unfortunately, they only have middle of the day or end of the day classes which don't fit our schedule very well. We get to a class whenever we can.

As long as I can get my exercise without having to get on a treadmill or go running, I'm happy.

Besides reading, movies, and family activities, that pretty much sums up my down time this summer. Although I feel like I could do this forever, I know in the next couple of weeks I'll be ready for the school year to start. This kind of schedule is only wonderful if you have to earn it! We still have a few fun things planned before the summer ends of which I'll be posting, of course. So, stay tuned!

Date Night

Last night Dan and I had a great date night. After work, we ate Enchiladas (that I made, I know, I cooked) then rode our bikes to the movie theater. The movie theater is on the other side of town so it was a bit of an adventure. We were able to stay on side streets almost the whole way. The only busy road was across a bridge. We were freaked out. I was behind Dan, a waste high barrier with a HUGE drop off to a river on the right side and traffic on the left with only about 4 feet in between. I was gripping onto my handlebars so tight and concentrating on the back of Dan's bike. At one point a huge semi went past and I couldn't help but let out a long scream. What a rush!

It took about a 1/2 hour to get there but we made it. We watched 'Bourne Ultimatum' and loved it, great movie. After the movie we casually made our way back through town, making a few stops on the way. I went into a McDonald's and grabbed a large cup, then we made our way to a great blackberry patch we saw on the way to the movie. Dan filled his belly and I filled my cup (I prefer them on my cereal in the morning). We then walked our bikes across the bridge:) and rode through some cute neighborhoods in town admiring the homes. The weather couldn't have been more perfect. It cools off just enough at night. Heavenly.

Once we got close to home, we saw some friends of ours in their front yard with their kids. We stopped and talked with them for a while. Great family. Their little 4 year old girl and her cousin went crazy for the cup of blackberries. By the time they were finished the cup was practically empty and their hands and face were covered. Priceless.

We got home and Dan went straight for Harry Potter. He is nearing the end and is having a hard time putting it down. Since I had a stationary subject, I experimented with different settings on my camera.

Looks Pretty intense!

Then, of course, we both fell asleep on the couches until about 1:30am when we dragged ourselves up to bed. Great night, love my hubby!

Twilight

After hearing all the raving recommendations of the series 'Twilight', I decided I'd better see what all the fuss was about. I finished the first book today and I'm sorry, but it did not live up to the hype for me. I should have figured though. I'm really not one for silly, teenage romance or vampires for that matter.

Teenagers in love make me want to roll my eyes. I'm too practical about love. Of course the "in love" experience is wonderful and you have to have it. But seriously, a match that doesn't make any sense, lets say like a teenage human girl and a 100+ old vampire that thirsts for her blood, just doesn't capture me.

Actually, I'm not into any of the 'fantasy' type books or movies. Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, etc. just don't do it for me. Now give me a book or movie based on a true story and I'm all about it. Give me a love story about two mature individuals who are best friends having a real love and respect for each other AND have that irresistible attraction, now that's romantic. That's what's makes my heart skip a beat.

I know, I'm no fun. Isn't it great that we're all different!

Best or Worst, I can't decide.

A couple weekends ago, Dan and I decided to be adventurous and went backpacking in the Jefferson Wilderness here in Oregon. I really can't decide whether it was a complete disaster, or whether I had a good time. As time passes I keep thinking it was a fun trip but I do recall several instances during the weekend telling myself "I am miserable, I'm never doing this again!"

Let me explain.

First day: drove 2 1/2 hours to Mt. Jefferson, fun. Began walking through gorgeous forest, fun. Great conversation with my hubby, fun. Realized there had been a couple different forest fires over the last few years, started hiking through charred forest, no shade, ugly, not so fun. Still, our spirits were high, so we kept positive. We ran out of water but, based on our map, we knew there was going to be a lake coming up. The lake wasn't there, so, we had to start up the switchbacks without water. With Dan's 40 pound pack and my 25 pound pack (we brought WAY too much stuff), we were hurtin by the time we got up to the Pacific Coast Trail. At one point we just sat in the middle of the trail and Dan fell asleep for 15 minutes. FINALLY, after quite a few prayers, we found our destination and it was SPECTACULAR. We had water to drink and a gorgeous lake to set up camp.

We had a great evening. We set up camp, ate dinner (mac & cheese never tasted so good), and chatted by the lake with a yummy cup of hot chocolate.

After a semi-restful night, we woke up, at breakfast, and headed out. Saying farewell to our beautiful campgrounds.

Day 2: Started hiking - fun, absolutely GORGEOUS. A few hours into the hike we realized we were 1 1/2 miles off course, backtracked, not so fun. Hit black forests for a while, really not fun. Hiked and hiked and hiked. I finally broke and told Dan we need to cut the hike down because I was not having fun and wanted to be done hiking. We took out our map and decided on a different route taking us closer to our truck so we didn't have to hike so much the next day. However, it wasn't going to shorten the current days hike. After several miles the scenery started getting much better. We were delighted when we saw a series of rivers and bridges we needed to cross. We spent some time enjoying the water and some time without our packs.

Once we energized our batteries, we headed off again. The remainder of the hike was beautiful but I was SO tired, my body hurt, my hips were bruised from the pack, and my feet had never ached so bad.

By the time we reached the lake, we had hiked 12 miles (9 miles uphill the day before). I collapsed, thankful to be done. Much to my disappointment, however, we realized there wasn't anyplace to camp around the lake. It was more of a swamp on the edges than a lake. We were 2 miles from our truck and decided it would be less hiking if we just drove to another lake to camp. I was SO disappointed. After such a long, hard day I was hoping for a camp site like the day before. By the time we got to the car tears of exhaustion started flowing. I climbed into the truck and didn't move a muscle, I'm not sure they still worked at that point.

As we were driving down the mountain and deciding where to go next, I commented that we should just find a hotel. Judging from my present state of utter exhaustion, Dan decided that wasn't such a bad idea. We drove to a neighboring town called "Sisters" and found the only available hotel. It happened to be this super nice resort. I practically crawled into the room while Dan took care of all the details. I had enough energy to shower and climb into the plush king size bed.
The rest of the night Dan took great care of me (even though he had suffered about 7 massive blister himself during the hike, what a champ). He gave me an hour worth of foot massages, ordered pizza, and let me lay motionless on the bed all night. We were thrilled to see a 6 hour 'Scrubs' marathon on T.V. followed by 'Legally Blond', very fun.

Dan looked so cute in his robe ordering the pizza but I was WAY too tired to get up from the bed and grab my camera. So, the next morning I asked him if we could reenact the scenario while I took a pictures. What a sport.

The next morning we woke up, ate the lovely continental breakfast, lounged around til 12pm, packed up, and headed out. On the way home we stopped and ate burgers, fries, and shakes (pack it on after we hiked it off).

We enjoyed a nice drive home filled with conversation deciding whether the trip was a blast or a complete disaster......maybe you can help us decide;)