Road Trips with Trees!!!

I apologize for the lack of pictures at the moment and I would like to warn you this is rather long, so if you are in a hurry feel free to skip to the last paragraph where I will sum up. :)

Last weekend we took a fun trip to the Northwest. After working a half day Thursday we were off to see my family in Eugene. It was noon, almost on the dot, when we left Nates work in Orem. So, Nate, Teddy and I made our way with the goal of making it to Eugene by 1-ish that next morning. That gave us 13 hours to make a trip that Google Maps says should take 13 hours and 42 min. Considering we had a puppy and a pregnant lady, I was well aware how ambitious (and totally law abiding) of a goal that was.

Considering there was a rather nasty accident just south of Salt Lake and that cut I-15 down by 2 lanes, I believe we made pretty good time. Until Boise... We were trying to be cheap and decided to fill up at Costco. I had the exit, but we got kinda distracted by what all was at that exit, so we didn't see Costco and ended up driving around for like 20 min before we finally found it. Really, it was ok. No big deal. It was towards the end of rush hour anyways and we figured we just didn't have to sit in as much traffic. Right? Right... Little did we know that a few miles up the road there was construction AND a VERY nasty accident. (I really hope everyone survived that!) So, it took us FOREVER to get out of Boise. Anyways, after that we did pretty well again. I have lots of stories about our lots of stops and evil cops that like to hang out in Easter Oregon (we didn't get a ticket or anything), but I won't bother you with them now. When we finally got to Portland (around midnight) we were rather low on gas so we stopped at a conveniently off the interstate Chevron. All I have to say is that I was actually grateful for Oregons stupid "You're too dumb to pump your own gas" laws. We pull up to the pump, the guy starts pumping our gas, does an EXCELLENT job cleaning our bug covered windshield, hands us our receipt, and walks away. We then try to turn on the car. Didn't happen... Try again. Didn't happen... CRAP!! We are WAY too tired to mess with this! Well, here comes our handy-dandy Chevron worker to the rescue carrying a battery charger. After a few attempts the car starts!! Wahoo!! We decided we were not turning the car off again until we got home! We made it to Eugene at a time which I do not remember because I was way too tired. I just know it was after 2. It might have been 3.

Friday was spent in Eugene hanging out with my family (minus my Scotland visiting sister). It was really nice to see them even though we didn't get to stay very long. While we were there Nate and Daddy replaced our dead as a doornail battery, Mama, Chelsie, and I went shopping, then the whole family attempted to go to their ward bbq (we were 20 min late and missed it due to rushed bbq-ness because of double booking with the local singles ward). We then went back home and chilled for the night. It really was fun to be home for a day.

Saturday we got up semi-early and drove up to Washing to go to a friend of Nate's, Nick's, wedding. Before the wedding we had a chance to go see Grandma Talbert, which was nice. After visiting for a bit, we went and got ready for the wedding, went to the wedding, and enjoyed. The wedding was outside at a golf course with a beautiful view of Mt. Rainer. (I will post pictures as soon as I get them off the camera). After the wedding we chilled at Nate's house and visited there. It was also nice to see them for a bit and not be rushing to the next leg of our trip.

Sunday we got back in the car and drove home only we went through the center of Washington, Yakima, way. It was fun to have a change of scenery for a bit and I am happy to say that they drive home was much faster (due to more strategic bathroom stops) and much less eventful. We did stop to see Grandma and Grandpa Dixon on the way home. You can't drive by Grandma and Grandpa TWICE and not say hi once!!! We didn't stay very long, and I would have loved to, but we did have to work Monday morning and our goal was to make it home before Monday. We made our goal and made it home at 12, on the dot.

You might ask how Teddy did being in the car this much, seeing so many people, and meeting so many new dogs (Purdy at my parents, the dogs across the street, and Lady at Nate's house)... he did very well! He slept most of the way there, up to Washington, and back and made friends just fine. (Except Purdy. Teddy wanted to play with her, but she didn't want to play with him.)

****HERE BEGINNETH THE SUM UP****

It was a quick trip, but it was nice to get out of Utah, have a change of scenery, see both of our families, and go to Nick's wedding. Thanks Nick for giving us the excuse to get out of town! It was a lot of driving in 4 days, especially for a pregnant lady and a puppy, but it was totally worth it! We saw things outside of Utah, trees, family, a wedding, old friends, evil cops, then Utah again. Good times! Perhaps someday I shall post a few of the few pictures we took of this trip.

What an amazing Husband I have!

I am sitting here, enjoying a not frantic evening because I the most amazing husband of all time! This morning ran out the door (after deciding that getting up on time was overrated and I could be a little later for work than I had planned) thinking "When I get home I need to do laundry, clean the kitchen, make sure I start the dishwasher, get some stuff out of the attic, put up some already folded laundry, clean out the cars, clean the bathroom, and wash the dog (among other things). Should I take the time to get any of this started now or just put it off til after work? After work it is!" Well, I should probably explain that today is Wednesday, which means that I go into work at the normal time but Nate doesn't have to be at work til 11. This happens every Monday and Wednesday in a normal week and I'm usually pretty jealous that he doesn't have to wake up to the alarm and can kinda take it easy in the morning. I should know him better than to think he'll just sit and take it easy when there is stuff to be done, but I am not a morning person and I don't think very clearly until at least 9 (I'm making progress! I used to not even be able to function til at least 10). So, when I think he can "take it easy" here is what he really did this morning. He cleaned the kitchen, started the dishwasher, took care of all of the previously folded laundry, gathered everything that needed to be washed, cleaned the bathrooms, got the stuff I needed out of the attic, made the bed, and took out the trash. He also cleaned out the car that I didn't have. The biggest thing remaining on my list is finishing up some laundry (and really, how hard is a half a load of laundry) and washing the dog! He's amazing! That's all I have to say.

Okay, maybe not all I have to say. I have a quick update on the baby! We had another ultrasound this past week and everything looks good! I like ultrasounds! I think they said he is in the 63 percentile for length/weight his "age". Yeah for healthy, growing babies!

Ultrasound #1!

We finally went in for our 1st ultrasound (3 weeks ago now, but we'll not talk about how slow I am)!! The ultrasound lady said that everything looks good and that we have a healthy and super active little baby on our hands! Because of the way our little one was laying we get to have another ultrasound when we go back for the 24 week appointment, so in just over a week. I'm excited to see how much our little one has changed!

And now for the news I am sure everyone has been waiting for!!! We're having a...




drum roll please...




BOY!!! We're pretty excited!

Hey Look Mims!

Emily recently gave me a very cute vase that she made in her pottery class last semester. Upon receiving this vase I had to promise that I would put flowers in it, which I had every intention to do as soon as there were flowers to be put anywhere. Well, today I saw a plethora of some very pretty flowers at a friends house. I just had to pick some and come straight home and put them in the cute vase that Emily made. I love that there are flowers in the house now and that I have a cute vase to put them in!

Thanks Mims!

Welcome Home Cami!

Last month Cami came home from serving 18 months in the Tampa Florida Mission. Since she just happened to be so close to Disney World we just had to go pick her up! It was a fun trip! It was a lot of fun to spend time with Nate's family. AND as an added bonus we (1) got out of Utah with excellent timing seeing as how we missed the last big snow storm o' the season, (2) got to go to Disney World, (3) went to the beach, (4) ate at Brusters, and (5) got to totally warm up for the first time in about 9 months! What more could you ask for!?! Here are a few of the many pictures from our trip.

The big kid that I married.

We went to a Biergarten at Epcot. It was pretty yummy and lots of fun. We sat biergarten style (with people you don't know), had some dang good German food, and watched an Umpa band with all sorts of mad skills.

We were probably the only adults in the place that didn't order alcohol, but we tried the kid version! Don't worry. It's just apple juice and Perrier.

If I look evil in this picture it's because I was SO tired and the sun was in my eyes, so keeping them open and not watering was nigh impossible. I did love the flower festival that was going on at Epcot. There were floating flowers, Disney characters made out of flowers, hanging flowers. Flowers everywhere! I love flowers!

Our last day whole day in Florida we got some key lime pie, of which I do not have a picture, but Mmmm! That's all I have to say. We also spent a couple hours at Clearwater Beach. I love the beach!

Do you have any landscaping ideas?

Since we moved in to our new home in August I have been anxiously awaiting the day when we could make our back yard pretty. The inside of the townhome is all cute (despite my lack of decorating so far) but the outside is in some serious need of veggies and flowers. I want to make it all cute, useful, and family friendly but am not quite sure what the best plan of attack is. We have some pretty good ideas so far, but I am still looking for landscaping ideas for small spaces. It is a townhome back yard, so it's really not very big, but there is enough space to do something with. Does anyone know of any websites or books or anything with good ideas for small spaces?

Big Huge Slacker!

I have been one big, huge, fatty slacker. Lots of exiting stuff has been going on, but I have done almost zero blogging for myself this year. I haven't exactly been feeling up to snuff, because. . . wait for it. . . we are going to have a BABY!!!!!! Our little one will be joining us around October 6th. We are really excited and getting more excited all the time. So, now that I'm feeling 1000% better, I plan to resume the blogging. There's lots to catch up on and lots coming up, so here's to an exciting summer ahead!