Things that grow out of the soil...

christmastime

2011-12-27T09:57:00.000-08:00

(here's one unrelated to christmas, but it's good for you to meet ular, william's new pet snake. ular means snake in indonesian. this picture also shows w's good friend, eli.)

we had a very nice christmas. the kiddos got out of school last wednesday, and then i started working 1/2 days. we haven't had any snow to speak of so there wasn't any crazy snow fun, but that made driving around a whole lot easier.

on christmas eve, we made a tres leches cake (actually two) to have for dessert at my mom's christmas eve mexican dinner. it was a nice mexican meal with enchiladas, homemade salsa and guacamole and other delicious items. we had a good time with my mom and the families of my three brothers who live close by. we acted out the nativity in traditional family garb (brian was the narrator, william the angel, and sierra was mary), opened some presents, and then enjoyed the tres leches and mexican hot chocolate we made. oh my, tres leches is good! we then went home to get the escuincles into bed (so sugar plums could dance in their heads). brian and i had wrapped all of the presents the night before so i only had to prepare the stockings before bed.

b falling asleep before the nativity.

baby leah as the baby jesus.

william as the angel.

the wise men arriving!

one of the tres leches cakes. we sprinkled pommegranate seeds on top too.

on sunday, we opted to open gifts after our 9am church. so we woke up pretty leisurely and then went to 1.25 hours of church. they actually rang the bells at the church once church let out, which was a nice touch. opening the presents went well--no one threw a fit, and we all got some nice gifts.

me with my cuckoo for pawpaws shirt from brian. isn't that perfect?

me and william. i'm hefting one of my new 10 pound weights.

william in his new BYU coat from my mom.

b with midnight in paris--my gift to him.

after presents, b and i had apple and brie sandwiches for lunch and the kiddos had grilled sandwiches (made on our new christmas griddle). later that day, there were naps and playing with toys, etc. for dinner, we had left over christmas eve food, which was just as good the second time around. we also had sparkling apple cider--a fun touch on may part. my mom had dinner with us. we even had some good downtime--so we could actually talk--which was great.

all-in-all christmas was very nice!

when monday morning rolled around, though, the festivities were over, and i boxed up all of our christmas stuff. it's nice to have more room in our house again. a tree and christmas decorations do take up some room. now that christmas is over, it's on to the worst time of the year--winter without the fun of christmas. there is still new years, but that's not a favorite holiday of ours (it's just never as much fun as it seems like it should be). we'll just have to be patient until spring comes and then memorial day--brian's favorite holiday of the year! we have some fun plans for this summer, which will give us something to look forward to during the cold times ahead.

thanksgiving

2011-11-25T15:00:00.000-08:00

on wednesday, i went out with the kids to do some last-minute thanksgiving shopping and to do some errands. while we were at the grocery store, william decided he wanted to use some of his money to play that mechanical claw game they have at every grocery store across america. i told him it was a bad idea, a waste of money, that they're engineered to always make you lose, etc. but he wouldn't listen. he wanted to use his money to give it a try. on his first try, he went for a seemingly easy-to-grab stuffed animal, but (obviously) the claws didn't come up with it. then sierra had to have a turn. i told her certainly this was a waste of her money. she could barely see up over the hand-device into the bin of stuffed animals. but again, my warnings were to no avail. she had to give it a try. she went for it, and again the claw came up with nothing. then william tried it again, and this time he actually got a stuffed rabbit. i couldn't believe it! he then tried again and came up with a jester's hat (with light-up balls at the ends). i was shocked! seeing william come up with so much booty, sierra had to try again. and little sierra, who could hardly see what she was doing, came up with the biggest stuffed animal in the bin. all on her own! i was at a complete loss for words. i've never seen people win at that game--let alone kids. so for $3, william won 2 prizes. and for $2, sierra won 1 prize. not bad. it turns out this time (this one time), my motherly advice wasn't any good.

on thanksgiving...we decided to do it on our own at home, which in many ways was quite nice. brian and i cooked for a couple hours in the morning while listening to several of our old records. it's amazing how much good music helps you feel happy. it was a lot of fun. once the cooking part was done, we each made a thanksgiving day shirt. the pictures show our creations.

william likes turkey but not mushrooms.

b's mommy dearest, daddy merest shirt.

my cute as a button mushroom shirt.

sierra's turkey day shirt. the little girl in the picture is her.

we had a lovely meal, which included turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, wild rice stuffing, baked brie, fresh pineapple and pomegranate seeds, rolls, b's cranberry sauce, and (for desert) blueberry cheesecake with lemon curd. it was so good!

after dinner, we played some pingpong, watched yellowstone cubs (an old disney movie) and flash the teenage otter (another old disney movie that i took a nap during), and we read a little.

today, friday, w, s, and i cleaned the house and then set up the christmas decorations. it's a little early still, but today was a good day to do it (ie, there was lots of free time). so the house looks nice and festive, and i only broke 1 old glass ornament in the process.

brian's great success!

2011-11-02T13:33:00.000-07:00

brian got his book officially under contract awhile ago. the university of virginia press will publish his dissertation-cum-book in early 2013. we're so proud, relieved, and happy about this! my mom took us to a great mexican restaurant awhile ago to help us celebrate. doesn't m-o-l-e always spell c-e-l-e-b-r-a-t-i-o-n!

a happy occasion

2011-11-02T13:22:00.000-07:00

brian had his birthday a couple weeks ago. i love celebrating his birthday. it was on a sunday, which limits the festivities some, but since I firmly believe that birthdays can (and really should be) celebrated for more than one day, the festivities lasted all weekend.

on saturday night, brian and i went out to a new singaporean restaurant. the food was interesting and related to indonesian food, which was fun.

on sunday, b got his presents. i got him a couple new cds (the new jayhawks and wilco cds), and i picked up a few things for him while i was in berlin/amsterdam. then, for his special birthday treat, we had a baked brie. how nice is that!

it was so fun to celebrate brian. he's the best person i know (no offense to anyone else).

a new temple for us

2011-10-04T11:24:00.000-07:00

we were excited to hear at conference that we'd be receiving a new temple here. i know it sounds excessive, but you all know there are a lot of mormons here!

it's also good to know that the old tabernacle will be salvaged. it was so sad when so much of it was destroyed last year in the fire.

here is a picture of w just a couple weeks before the fire. they used to have live actor nativity performances there before christmas. that's when this one was taken. then, a picture of us in front of the building after the fire. i just watched jane eyre, and the burnt building reminds me now of the gothically romantic home that burns down at the end of the story.

berlin & amsterdam

2011-10-02T12:15:00.000-07:00

ok, so this is a pretty strange post. most of the segments come from my emails to brian, but some i wrote up today. i don't want to go through and edit things--so there are typos as well. forgive me. also, this is really long. forgive me again.

Sunday, September 18 I arrived in Berlin this morning at 9:30am Berlin time (which is 1:30am your time). I slept a little on the flight from SLC to Atlanta, and then a little on the short flight from Amsterdam to Berlin. But the long 8 or so hour flight from Atlanta to Amsterdam, I didn’t sleep. This is the first long flight I’ve taken though where I got up and moved around during the flight several times. B, I also watched Midnight in Paris that new Woody Allen movie we’ve heard so much about. It was fun, and it would be fun to watch it with you since we both love the Moveable Feast era of Paris.

When I got to Berlin, I caught a taxi to my hotel. My taxi driver was nice—about my age. His English was good, but not perfect. He mentioned that Angela Merkel (the Chancellor of Germany) was a “he”. When I told him that I felt ridiculous because I had always thought Angela Merkel was a woman, he said that she was. Ah, the importance of pronouns!
My hotel room wasn’t ready when I got to the hotel, so I dropped off my bags and then took the subway down to the Berlin Jewish Museum. It was an interesting museum. They had artifacts and stories of German Jewish people who had suffered, and often died, in the holocaust and the build up to the holocaust. Almost ½ the Jews in Germany left the country prior to Germany invading Poland in 1939. By the end of the holocaust, 6 million Jewish people were killed—200,000 of them were German. The museum also chronicled the history of the Jewish people: their diaspora, customs, writings, etc. I especially liked learning about a woman named Gliekl who wrote her personal history, starting in 1691 (she spent almost 20 years writing it). It’s the first Jewish personal narrative by a woman. She had 14 children—12 of which survived—and co-ran the money changing/precious gems trading business she and her husband operated. Then, when her husband died, she ran the entire business on her own. I also learned that the pomegranate is an important fruit to the Jewish people. They eat a pomegranate on their new years to indicate that they want the new year to be sweet and provide them with as many blessings as the pomegranate has seeds. That makes me like pomegranates even more.

i saw this view of a big globe above skyline and thought it was humorous. of course, "die" in german just means "the."

After the museum, I walked along Friedrichstrasse and made my way to remaining standing Berlin Wall. It’s been a rainy day today, which seemed like an appropriate way to see Berlin and focus on things like the holocaust, the Berlin Wall, WWII, etc. It was really neat to see the wall and be reminded of how recently it was that there was East and West Germany. I was 9 when the wall officially came down! After walking along the wall, I walked in a passageway slightly underground that outlined the rise and fall of Hitler, the Nazis, and the impact that had on the German people/culture and the world.

Interesting, Hitler was a national of Austria. I knew that, but he became the leader of Germany, which he could only do once he “became” a German national. I couldn’t follow exactly how they did that, but it seemed pretty under the table. He apparently got some interim position which gave him German citizenship, and then almost immediately he became the leader of the country. I saw a picture there of Hitler riding in a parade procession down the side street that I walked along to get to the Berlin Wall. I found that a bit unnerving.

I then walked back to Friedrichstrasse and saw Check Point Charlie, which I have to say wasn’t as neat or as imposing of a presence as I thought it would be. It was smack dab in the middle of traffic on Friedrichstrasse. But it’s the same building it was back in the day, which was neat to see.

I then returned back to my hotel. I felt pretty disoriented regarding time. It was cloudy, rainy, and a bit dark out. I had been out walking/exploring for a long time. I didn’t have a watch or cell phone that worked. And I was tired. I got into my hotel room to find out it was only 3:30 though! Ha, I thought it might have been 5:30. I took a 2-hour nap and then got up to get some dinner. The funny thing was, when I got up, I felt pretty confused. I kept feeling like I needed to talk to someone or meet up with someone, but clearly I didn’t need to. I guess I must have dreamt something along those lines.

I toyed with the idea of going to that neat German, cozy restaurant again for those great meatballs, but I forgot my umbrella and that was further away than I wanted to walk without an umbrella. So I went to an Asian fusion-type place close to the hotel. The food wasn’t great, but it hit the spot. I then ran over to the Indian place I went to last time and ordered that mamey ice cream I’ve thought about ever since I didn’t order it before. I got the ice cream to go, which the guy who helped me seemed to think was a bit strange, but I just wanted to get back to my warm, cozy hotel room. The ice cream came in a ceramic bowl with a lid, and he gave me a metal spoon since they didn’t have any plastic ones. He was a nice guy. I ran across the Spree River back to my hotel and put on my pj pants and ate my ice cream in bed while reading Murder on the Orient Express. The murder in the book hasn’t happened yet, but it’s about to.

Oh, I also wanted to let you know that I saw a magpie today. That was fun. I didn’t realize they were over here too, and I always consider it a good omen to see a magpie.

Monday, September 19 After my meetings were over, Nancy and I took a taxi back to the hotel. I changed out of my meeting attire and got into more comfortable clothes. We walked along Friedrichstrasse to a favorite shoe place of ours (I didn’t get anything) and then up to H&M where I did get a pair of skinny jeans for 9.95 euros, which is a little less than $15. They’re pretty skinny, but they’re remarkably comfortable. Nancy said I’m like a true European with such skinny jeans. We’ll see how many people confuse me for a French or German woman when I get back home. Actually, my taxi driver yesterday thought I was from France, which I thought was a funny guess, but maybe he doesn’t know a good accent-less American accent when he hears one.

After shopping, we went to find a place to eat. We settled on a French place along the Spree River. It was really nice. I don’t usually gush about a place, but the food was really good. We had a couple starters (which ironically are called entrees in French)—a toasted goat cheese square on top of cooked tomatoes and arugula and a foie gras with cheese and raspberries. I loved the goat cheese one, and the foie gras was interesting. It was my first time eating it, and I think interesting is the best word. Not bad, not great, but unique. For dinner we had chateau brion (I’m not sure how it’s spelled), which is a very fancy steak with French fries. Apparently, it’s common to have a fancy main with French fries on the side. The steak was good. Then I had a crème brule for desert. It was all nice. I’m sitting on my bed now feeling not overly full, but satisfied and very tired.

I’ve figured out how to take the underground and overground trains to my client’s office—so that’s how I’m going to get there tomorrow. I hear that the pope is coming here on Thursday. I guess that’s causing a little bit of a ruckus here, but I’m not sure how busy that may make Berlin.

Tuesday, September 20Guten! That means hello. I’ve also learned that platz means place, mitte means middle. I also know that I also know that you pronounce the name of the river Spree as “shpree.” Oh man I’m really becoming good at this.
Today I used the underground and over overground trains to get to my client’s office. I did just fine until I got off the underground going in the wrong direction and then asked a very nice man how to get to the location of the office, and he told me the exact opposite direction to go. I ended up spending about 30 minutes getting to a place I could have easily gotten to in 10 tops. I was pretty hot and sweaty by the time I made it to the office (I was walking quickly and carrying my laptop and purse). But I cooled off quickly when they opened the windows in the room we were meeting in. It was an upper level room with huge windows. It felt so good.

I meet with Oliver and Jana today and taught them how to do configuration work on their sites. It was a long day of mostly me talking, which is at best tiring for me and a little dull for those listening, but the time passed quickly and I think I kept their interest pretty well. I have a fairly flat, uninflected voice, but I tried to compensate for that by adding a touch of inflection here and there. I notice it, but I wonder if anyone else does. Either way, the training went well.

For lunch, they took me out to a small German-food restaurant in the Pottsdammer Platz area. It was a nice day so we ate outside. When we arrived, Jana asked me if I trusted her to order me a typical Southern German dish. I said yes, of course. She then asked if I liked ham.

The dish was called something ensalat. It was long strips of shredded ham with long strips of shredded cheese (a type of Swiss cheese) with some sliced onions on top and pickles on the side to garnish. It was nice. I wouldn’t say the most exciting dish ever, but tasty. Jana was a big fan of the dish, and it was fun to try something new and that she liked so much. On the way back to the office, I told her that if we ever made it back to Charlottesville at the same time, I’d take her to a Mexican restaurant (she doesn’t know Spanish) and order her a dish. I didn’t tell her the dish, but in my mind I imagined huitlecoche. I always like getting that when I can. Before I get the dish, though, I better ask her if she’ll trust me to order her something good and if she likes funguses.

At the end of the day, I chatted with Jana’s boss, Christian. We talked about German work policies. He told me how companies of a certain size are given the opportunity to create a company council that works full time to ensure that company worker’s needs are met. So, for a company like my client’s company, they could have a company council of about 5 people. Those 5 people no longer work doing their original jobs at the company but instead work full time to be on this council. And someone like Christian comes up with job descriptions for his employees, and then those job descriptions are reviewed by the council and the company’s higher ups. They agree on salaries for certain categories of workers based on these job descriptions. Christian said that these councils sometimes cause a lot of problems within companies. The people on the council can stay for 2-4 year terms, and the company still has to pay them while they don’t actually do the job they were hired to do. Some people take this very seriously and some cause a lot of friction within the company and become very unpopular among the employees. In many ways it’s a job killer, Christian said. But, you’ll be happy to know, this isn’t mandated by the government. It’s something that can be done, and people here have a constitutional right to have this council, but it’s not required if no one in the company wants one. It was an interesting discussion. He also told me about how difficult (nearly impossible) it is to fire someone here or to sue someone. Yesterday, he told us the most horrible story at lunch. He told us how his grandfather had gone in for a routine procedure, and the hospital gave him the wrong medication. It was previously documented that it was the wrong medication. Because of this he had a stroke. Because of other blatant medical errors he fell out of his hospital bed twice, each time breaking his leg and a rib or something. Anyway, it would seem like the most clear-cut case of suing a hospital/doctors and winning. He said that eventually, after many expert witnesses, they won the case, but then the hospital refused to pay them. They just wouldn’t pay. And, if you can imagine, there’s actually little that can be done to get your money. It was infuriating to hear. Jana said several times that it’s one thing to win here, and an entirely different matter to get your payment.

After working all day in the office, I successfully made it back to my hotel and then went out for my beloved meatballs and home fries. They were very tasty. I also had a baked cambert cheese with cranberries. Honestly, I loved the taste of the crannies—so tart. It makes me wish for Green Pond. I took my book with me and read by the dim light of the fading day and a candle at my table. My book (“Murder on the Orient Express”) has gotten to the point where the guy has died and we’re discovering details and clues. It’s quite a fun read. I also enjoyed taking in the ambiance of the restaurant. It’s the same place I went to last time with the rustic charm of old wagons hanging from the ceiling, mismatched wooden chairs and tables, candles light in front of mirrors to reflect the light. It’s a fun restaurant, and I very much enjoyed it again this time.

After dinner, I walked back to Friedrichstrasse and back to my hotel. I’m going to read some more from my book and then head in to bed. I wanted to work some tonight, but I can’t get a good internet connection. I think what I’ll do is just plan on staying at the office tomorrow after I’m done being their teacher.

Wednesday, September 21 / Thursday, September 22 i stayed late at the office as you know. what you don't know is that right after i finished writing to you last night, i found that i was alone on the second floor of the office building, and i was locked in. there was no way to get out, and there was no one around as far as i could tell (my only way of knowing if people were around is if i stood by a glass door that led to the stairway (which i was locked from entering). i found a phone and could call people internally, but i couldn't figure out how to call out of the building.

anyway, long story short, finally two friendly woman came down the stairwell and talked to the hausman and figured out how to get a key so that i could get out. i was locked in the building for about an hour, which isn't all that long, but it felt long at times. Especially when I thought I might have to spend the night there.

christian, jana's boss, just came into the conference room where we'll be working today and felt very embarassed that this happened. i told him not to worry about it. it is humorous--especially since i didn't have to spend the night in the building.

once i got home, i was so tired, i didn't want to get anything to eat, and i read for awhile but fell asleep reading.

Thursday, September 22 last night i went out to the pergamon museum--berlin's museum of ancient history/art. it was neat. i'll share more with you later. it was about a 15 minute walk from my hotel, which was great. then i went back to that frenchy restuarant and had a relatively small dinner. a goat cheese/veggie tart. that was about 10 euros. then two bottles of still water (since you can't have tap water) and those were a total of 7 euros. they were really small bottles! i couldn't believe it. the water almost doubled the cost of my meal. it's strange eating alone, but i brought my trusty book and my journal, which made eating alone not quite so weird.

relief sculpture at the pergamon.

i finished my book last night. you'll be surprised to know that the reason why the case was so difficult to crack (on the orient express) was because all of the passengers were in on it. they all took part in the murder. and then, since the circumstances could justify this, the detective who cracked the case decided that they could all be let off the hook since the man they killed was such a bad guy. it was interesting. i'll be leading the book club discussion on this book in october.

Friday, September 23 After I finished training Jana and Oliver, Jana and I took the train to the “village” she lives in. It’s a pretty short train ride out of Berlin. It was good to have a chance to talk with Jana and see the countryside.

Jana’s husband and baby met us at the train station and took us home. They have a fancy’ish yellow sporty car. I knew that Rene (Jana’s husband) was into cars, but not only is he into them, but he likes driving them very, very quickly. I was a little nervous driving with him through the narrow, small-town streets, but he got us home safely. He was going over 100 km/hr at times, which was fast given the roads we were on.

I hung out with Jana, Yannick, and Rene for awhile. Rene doesn’t speak a lot of English, but is nice. Jana and I went on a lovely walk through her neighborhood and the fields flanking her neighborhood. It was beautiful. The houses were lovely, and the fields and trees were nice. The weather was great too. It just felt so peacefully invigorating.

A few of the things that Rene did know in English were names of conservative politicians (Sarah Palin, Rick Perry, etc), and he knew the term tea party. He was not a fan of either these people or movements, which was humorous and suited me just fine.

Jana made a traditional German meal of bratwursts, sourkrout, and mashed potatoes. It was tasty (I have to say, I do prefer currywursts to just regular bratwursts, but they’re good). I have to say, as well, that I ate a lot of meat while I was in Germany.

It was nice to go see Jana’s house (it had a very European sensibility to it) and experience something besides the city. Rene took me back to the train station and helped me get on the 10:30pm train to Berlin. It was delayed, which meant I didn’t get back to my hotel until almost an hour later. But I slept well that night.

Saturday, September 24 On Saturday I slept in a little bit and then had a nice breakfast (as usual) at the hotel. Man, they know how to feed a person. I then packed up and checked out my hotel. My plane to Amsterdam didn’t leave until 5:30pm so I took the morning and afternoon to see more of Berlin.

me with the river spree in the background.

I happened upon an outdoor market (right in front of the Pergamon) and enjoyed perusing the stalls (art, antiques, books, records, etc). I do enjoy markets, and I particularly liked the antiques. I picked up a few things.

I then made my way to the Berlin Dome, their big, Catholic cathedral. I always enjoy seeing cathedrals and this one was impressive. Any old building in Berlin is impressive since so much of the city was destroyed during the war. There was a wedding going on so the bells were ringing. Unfortunately, though, I didn’t get to go inside.

I got a closer look at the TV Tower (a Berlin landmark) and found a statue of Marx and Engels. It was sort of funny seeing the statue of the two of them since when I found it there was a nice-looking young couple having a friend take big, smiling-faced pictures of them in front of it. I just wasn’t sure if big smiles were the appropriate way to stand with the two of them.

Then I meandered around a bit. I found a neat shot that sold Turkish lamps (intricately carved metal lamps), and I wanted to get one, but they were pretty expensive and I don’t think I could have fit them in my luggage. But they were neat to look at. Then I went to another outdoor market. Honestly, I can’t remember much about that one now, but I enjoyed it. The weather was beautiful, and it was nice to be out and about.

I got myself a mango ice cream while I was out (it was actually warm enough to warrant ice cream), and it was so good. It tasted very mango-y, which I like!

Eventually, I made it to the airport and caught my plane to Amsterdam. I got there without any problems and then took the train to the Centraal Station. From there, since it wasn’t dark yet, I opted to walk to my hostel. If I were to do it again, I’d get a taxi, but it worked out ok. I was just very hot and sweaty by the time I made it there.

Hostel living is not the ideal. It was quite a change from the lovely hotel I was in in Berlin, but it worked. Jana had given me an apple and pear—so I ate those for dinner. I also slept on the most uncomfortable bed (maybe not the worst of my life, but one of the worst). I didn’t sleep well on my little bed, and it didn’t help that I slept with my purse, backpack, and laptop on the bed with me. I didn’t have a good way of keeping them locked up and secure—so I decided that having them on the bed with me was the best option. Brother was I glad when morning arrived!

Saturday, September 24 / Sunday, September 25 i like getting out and seeing things, but it's not as fun when i'm doing it alone. i also don't get much of a chance to talk here. i guess i should be more outgoing, but i do talk to some people. it's just a quieter day than i'm used to. although, the funny thing is, i hear a lot of talking, but it's almost always in another languauge. and it sort of seems like background noise. anyway, all of this to say i miss you!

but i am having a good time. i got in to amsterdam without any problems last night and then walked to my hostel. if i had to do it again, i'd get a taxi, but so it goes. it didn't take too long, but it's still sort of heavy to pull and carry luggage so far. anyway, i'm going to get a taxi to the train station going home. it will cost a little extra, but i'm willing to pay that.

the hostel i stayed in was, unbeknownst to me, a christian hostel. i heard them doing a group discussion of the parable of the prodical son. i didn't feel like going out for dinner so i just ate an apple and pear that jana gave me the night before.

i shared a room there with three other woman. i was on a top bunk. And it was a long night. it was really uncomfortable. i knew when i left berlin i'd be leaving luxury behind me, but i didn't realize how far behind it would be. i didn't sleep well. i was rolling around the whole night. i did sleep some, but not much. finally, morning came, and i had my free breakfast of pancakes and left to go to the ann frank huis. i met a nice canadian couple in line. they were nice to chat with.

the ann frank huis was a neat thing to see. it was a bit crowded, but i actually got to walk through the secret annex they lived in for so long. it was neat and sad, of course. i got a book about the historical significance of the frank family, ann's diary, how that fits in with the larger historical context, etc. i'll need to read through it first, but i thought that could be a good thing to read with william. and then a younger daughter once she gets a little older maybe.

the ann frank huis

i then walked to see the dutch royal palace. it was smack dab in the middle of a shopping area, which i think took a little away from it, but it was impressively large. i also went inside an old church that was doing an exhibit of fashion something or other. i couldn't figure out why it was putting on this exhibit. it seemed strange given the environment, but the church was neat.

i then walked to the floating flower market. you might be imagining the floating market of indonesia, but this one's a little different. there's a bunch of house boat/barges type things all connected on one of the cannals. there were a lot of tulips for sale (and other flowers as well), and i was tempted to buy some bright blue tulips (they were the ones that caught my fancy), but i'd have to declare them in customs, and i'm sure i could buy some in the us. but that could be neat to have. i love it when our tulips bloom.

they had other flowers at the floating market as well.

i then walked around some--sort of looking for some rembrandt place--and noticed some wayang puppets (excuse my spelling). the puppets were decoration for a restuarant. i noticed some indonesian-looking people in there eating so i decided to give it a try. i had a sort-of rijstafel for one (like what i had in berlin in april). it was good and filling. i had telor (the egg), a chicken satay, and rendong among other items that i don't know the names of.

the wayangs that enticed me into the restaurant.

feeling satisfied I left the restaurant. i didn't find the rembrandt place, but i did find an old mid 18th century row house museum i had thought of going to. it had a lot of interesting pieces of furniture and paintings. it was sort of like walking through a place like monticello, except without the guide. one interesting thing i saw was that most of the old portrait painting had two faces painted in the top right corner of the painting (a man and a woman in profile if i remember correctly). they were small, but noticeable. and it was always the same black man and black woman. i wasn't sure what that meant, but it struck me.

after that i meandered back to my hotel and got officially checked in. this morning they offered to get me into a room quickly, if i didn't care about having my own bathroom. But I did care about having my own bathroom. once i got back in the late afternoon i lied down for awhile (i was tired and my back hurt). i think the back issue stems from that bad bad bed at the hostel. then i went out to a grocery store for some water and a banana. i tried to get some small red berries as well (in dutch, the name started with an "r"), but they weren't on sale like i thought they were. so i didn't get them.

Monday, September 26 today was a good day. Thankfully, my body has kept pace with my schedule. by that i mean my feet haven't bothered me too much or my back (from the less-than-ideal bed i had the other night). this morning i got up and showered and then had my free breakfast at the hotel. the breakfast seemed pretty normal, except for the chocolate sprinkles (like the kind you put on cakes) that came to me in a small bowl. i couldn't figure out exactly how they expected me to eat them. i ate a spoon full (and thought that they did taste pretty good), but that was it. i guess maybe people put them on top of the jam on their bread?

after that i walked on over to an outdoor market closeby. i found you a nice birthday present and enjoyed looking at the antiques especially. i then headed over to the van gogh museum. you know i'm a fan of van gogh, and so this was a really fun museum. when i get back i'll have to tell you about all of the new (or maybe previously known but forgotten) facts i learned about him. the art was great, and the write ups they provided were informative--even for a person who already knows a bit about the man.

this is a copy of only a couple of pictures ever taken of van gogh. he's the dark figure in the foreground with his back to us. sorry, i forgot to rotate the picture!

i then headed over to another outdoor market--one that emily recommended. it was interesting to look around, but there weren't any antiques, and i have to admit that i find antiques more interesting. i did, however, find a place that sold little dutch pancakes that were so good. I actually went back for a second helping of them—that’s how good they were.

at this point it started to rain, but not hard--more of a sprinkle. i made it back to my hotel walking along prinsengracht straat, which has a cannal the entire way. there's a big church close to my hotel--so i can't always tell when i'm getting close. and i like how it tells me the time by its chimes on the hour. i should travel with a watch next time. But the chimes sure have been helpful.

i got back to my hotel and got my umbrella. then headed off to padi, the indonesian restaurant that emily recommended. i got the rijstaffel for one. i took my journal and wrote in it while i waited. although no one else was in the restaurant--so i didn't have to wait too long. the food was good. i got two chicken satays and scooped out all of the peanut sauce. none went to waste. they played oldies american music, which seemed a bit odd, but familiar. All of the songs seemed to be about longing for your true love, which made me miss B.

now i'm back at the hotel. it's only 7:15, but i'm tired and it will be dark by 8. if i pack tonight, i'll have time tomorrow morning to do a little more walking around. i think i'll probably walk myself to the train station. i keep waffling on this point, but i think i'll do that. that will save probably 10-15 euros, and i want to go for a walk anyway.

PS—I did walk to the train station the next day. It was tiring, but a good workout.

i saw this sign in amsterdam. i thought it was interesting that bell biv devo was still performing together, and performing in amsterdam nonetheless.

i saw this on the side of an amsterdam fish vendor. i thought it was funny.

a riff on the famous van gogh painting on the side of a place that sold french fries in amsterdam.

old amsterdam

2011-09-26T10:24:00.000-07:00

well this is my last night in amsterdam. i don't have much time to write (i'll have to get caught up later), but it's been an interesting week and a half. berlin was really nice. my work meetings and training went well, and i got to see, eat, and do some cool things there.

and amsterdam has been cool. today i went to the van gogh museum, which was great. i've loved his art for a long time, and it was so nice to go see so many of his paintings and to read the write-ups they had about him. i know a fair bit about him, but the written descriptions of him and his pieces were still very illuminating. i also had some indonesian food, a rijstaffel actually, at padi (thank, emily) tonight. it's strange being alone at times, but you figure out good strategies like taking a book or your journal along with you. that makes sitting in a restaurant by yourself not so lonely.

i'll write more later, but wanted to post something--albeit brief--before i left. tomorrow morning, i'll go for another walk around the neighborhood and then walk myself to the train stration to get to the airport. i don't fly out until 1:30 so that gives me a little more time tomorrow in beautiful old amsterdam.

finally, a note about this painting...van gogh painted several sunflower still lifes and hung them up in the room that he prepared for gauguin in vincent's house in france. he did this to make his friend, gauguin, feel more at home and comfortable. isn't that lovely? to think of a friend doing that to make you feel more comfortable in his home. cathy, kudos to you for having this picture in your home!

going away

2011-09-12T11:18:00.000-07:00

this weekend i'll be going off to berlin again. i'm not very excited about the long flight again, but i am excited to travel again. i'll have 1.5 days to myself in berlin, plus 5 work days there. this time around i'd like to go to the checkpoint charlie place, the jewish museum (i can't remember the exact name), and a new market area that's supposed to have quirky things.

on my way back home, i'm going to stop for a few days in amsterdam to poke around. i found a place to stay (two actually) for three nights for $200. i think that's good for a major european city! especially given that i don't like sharing a room with 5-20 women in a hostel too much. i have my eyes on several museums there, walking along the cannals, going to some markets, eating good indonesian food, etc. i'm looking forward to hanging out and relaxing for a few days there. the only thing that would make it better is if brian could be there with me.

then along came sierra

2011-06-14T11:43:00.000-07:00

we officially worked out the details to have sierra, a nearly 5-year-old girl, move in with us at the end of the month. we've been meeting with her and spending time with her for the past couple months. nothing is clear yet about whether we would be able to ultimately adopt her, but it seems that things are moving in that direction. nothing happens too quickly, though. so even if we are able to adopt her, that wouldn't happen until about a year from now.

we are excited to have her join our family--even if it's not for forever. the picture shows the room we've set up for her. it used to be our office/storage room. i can't post any pictures of sierra, but trust me that she's very cute, and she has a wonderful smile!

a dutch oven experience

2011-06-14T11:37:00.000-07:00

we had our first dutch oven cooking experience last weekend. we opted to go with something easy...just a little peach cobbler. actually it turned out to be a whole lot of peach cobbler (i think we tripled the batch), but we wanted to have enough. it turned out really well, and was very tasty. this weekend, we're going to try our hand at teriyaki chicken. i'm excited about that one!

escalante memorial day weekend take 3

2011-06-02T13:57:00.000-07:00

Friday
We left town around 4 and headed south. The drive seemed quicker than I remembered it being, but it also might have helped that we stopped in Torrey for dinner. We found an affordable burger place, which isn’t easy to find around those parts. They even had 99 cent ice cream cones. So, after eating our burgers and fries, we each had an ice cream cone. Then we each had a second ice cream cone!
We found out about a cowboy poetry event going on in town, but it wasn’t really happening by the time we moseyed over there. We opted to keep going on down the road.

We stayed the night at our trusty off-the-side-of-the-road place right inside Escalante. We pulled in after dark and got things set up in the dark, which is trickier, but not too difficult. The stars were bright and beautiful. We got to bed around 10:30.

Saturday
We woke up around 6:30 and got things packed up. W ran up the nearby slick rock mountain for awhile while we got the tent put away. He’s quite a mountain goat. We drove in to Escalante town to enjoy the community flag-raising ceremony, but mostly the Sons of the Pioneers pancake breakfast. The flag raising was actually pretty interesting. Apparently, when the pioneers first settled Escalante they didn’t have a US flag, but they wanted to celebrate the 4th of July properly. They were at a loss until one of them decided they could raise an Indian blanket as their flag.
The pancake breakfast was good (although there were a lot of people there this year—so no seconds). We chatted with some of the locals for awhile, including the couple who let us stay in their basement two years ago.

Once breakfast was over, we drove over through the monument again with the hope we’d be able to (finally) score a campsite at the Calf Creek Campground. Shortly before we arrived, B felt positive we’d get a site…and he was right. We’ve never been able to get a site there, and it’s such a beautiful campground. We happily set up our tent and then headed out again.

This time, it was time for fishing. B had figured out a fairly unmarked shortcut down to Boulder Creek. We heard there was good trout fishing down there, but were a bit nervous about the shortcut. The alternative was hiking 6.5 miles along sandy trails to arrive at Boulder Creek. So we parked alongside the highway and just started off. On the way, we did see some cairns, but we set up others to help us get back. The hike was a little tricky since a lot of it was on slick rock, but it was only about a mile and surprisingly easy. I can’t believe anyone hikes the 6.5 miles to get to where we went when this was so easy.

The spot was nice: the creek running through sandstone rock walls with trees and shrubbery alongside the creek. B and W had good fishing luck pretty much from the beginning; I, on the other hand, did not. We fished for probably 2 hours before I had any luck. I really enjoy fishing, but I really enjoy it when I’m catching something. When everyone is catching fish, and I’m not, it’s not as fun. But, on our way back, I found a spot with some big rocks in the creek. I positioned myself on the rocks and cast. Not surprisingly, I didn’t have a bite. Then I decided to walk out in to the creek and fish from there into a turbulent pool. I did that, and almost immediately caught three fish—and two of them were pretty big! Oh it felt good, and the water felt amazing—not too cold, just calming and fresh.

the tadpoles that b and w caught in one of the bathtubs (see above picture).

So were able to head back with 8 fish, and with all of us having caught enough to feel good. We went back to the campsite and had a lovely fish fry (we cooked the fish in foil actually). And the fish were good. We also decided to but some bananas in foil and cook them, and that was delicious too. We put nutella on top of the cooked bananas.

That night, we drove back in to Escalante the town to attend their annual community play. This one was about the Hole in the Rock—how it came to pass and the group who made it down that crazy passageway. The play was not done especially well, and the sound system often didn’t work, but that’s all part of the charm of their plays. We had a good time and enjoyed the community spirit of it all. One of our favorite lines from the play was “Stick-i-titoody, that’s our duty!”If you can imagine, too, they sang a song with that as the main line in it. So good.

Sunday
We got up and went to an hour of church in Escalante town, and then drove off to see the other part of the monument (the whole part past Escalante town). It was good to explore that area, and good to realize that we always go to the best parts of the monument. We drove all the way to Bryce NP, but opted not to go in since we didn’t have much time and it was $25. We did see some amazing red stone hoodoos though. We opted, instead, to go to Kodachrome State Park and do some poking around there. We went into a couple box canyons, hiked around some, William looked for lizards to catch, etc. We also walked out to an arch—Shakespeare Arch, and I’m still not sure why it’s called that. It did make me wonder.

On our way back to the campsite, B and W looked for rocks while I regained vision in my eyes (the sand blowing in the air can do a number on your vision), and then I took a nap or a rest. I didn’t sleep so much as have a nice relaxing rest. B and W found a geocaching box on their adventures, which they thought was cool.

That evening W ran around the campground (he loved doing that). We also went for a late evening walk and found ourselves surrounded by bats. They were swirling all around us, which was a little disconcerting, but also pretty cool. W also found a scorpion and caught his first lizard of the trip. Oh boy was he excited about the lizard. After spending hours trying to catch them, it was nice to finally have his efforts pay off.

Monday
W and B got up and fished around in Calf Creek. I got up shortly thereafter (after my hips couldn’t handle the hard ground anymore) and took down the tent and looked at birds. Oh the Calf Creek Campground is so nice. It’s wonderful to just sit and observe the natural environment there—the rocks, the creek, the birds, etc.

Once the fishing was over, we headed out to hike the Upper Calf Creek Falls trail. It started off very unassuming—parking along the side of the road at an unmarked trail head, slick rock with shrubbery growing in the cracks at the beginning of the trail, but it was a great hike. The falls were amazing—so lush and surprising in the middle of that desert environment. Then above the falls were two pools of water. The second one was so inviting that W and B decided to get in. Of course the water wasn’t warm and the air wasn’t all that warm either, but they got in. Once B got his full body in, he wanted to make sure I took a quick picture of him. He was quite insistent that I be quick!

We stayed alongside the pool for awhile—B drying off, me feeling warm and dry, and W running after lizards. On the hike back, W caught his second lizard—this one bigger than the first one. We carried it back to the trail head and said sayonara to it and the monument.

It’s always sad to finish a vacation, but it was a good time. There are always so many unexpected surprises when we go down there, and this year was no exception. Case in point, on the way home we stopped in Torrey to go to a rock shop for William (and maybe grab some lunch), only to find out that the power was out and basically nothing was open. So we couldn’t get the rattlesnake menu item we’d seen on our way down, and we couldn’t get W any arrowheads. We’ll have to try again next year.

10 great years!

2011-05-31T08:58:00.000-07:00

b and i just celebrated our 10-year anniversary. to celebrate, we wanted to go up into a nearby canyon again to go hiking and fishing, but that wasn't in the cards (the water levels here are so high). so we opted to go on a di tour and then eat out at the pie in slc. brian ate there years ago, but it was my first time. it was really good pizza. we had a great time together.

we are very lucky. we are so happy together, love spending time together, and are best friends. thankfully, we met each other nearly 12 years ago...brian walking on to campus for class and me walking on to campus for breakfast. thanks to those few minutes we talked, walking to campus, brian and i got together. of course, we needed to re-meet at the punk-band show and then at the college dance and then go to the hogi yogi together...but we did. oh yes, we did!

so much

2011-05-13T19:22:00.000-07:00

It’s been a long time so this may very well be a long blog post. A few final thoughts on Berlin, Berliner smoothies are nothing special (think juice), German chocolate is good, H&M styles now are not my style (sort-of bad 80s style), and it’s a very long flight from Berlin to SLC. It was good to get back home by the end of that flight.

The week I got back was pretty jam packed. We had a baby shower for B’s sister Whitney who is having a baby soon. B’s parents were in town for Whitney’s graduation—there were a lot of graduation festivities. There was lots of good time to talk to B’s parents. We also got to see our good friend Katy, who we haven’t seen for nearly 3 years. We got to hang out a few times and meet her daughter. It felt like old times, which was wonderful. I loved those old times. One thing I remember about that week is thinking “I’ve had Indian food the past three Fridays in a row.” That’s a delicious thought, but I do need to buckle down again. So much has centered around food lately!

The week after that is a blank to me. I think I was mostly trying to catch up on things.

The following week, I took quite a bit of time off because we had a little girl stay with us for the week. We are looking at having another child move in with us. If things progress, we’ll post an update. But it was a good week. She is a fun girl, and she and W got along famously. We went up to Logan on Saturday. We hit the zoo, the cheese factory, the DI, a surprisingly fun Cinco de Mayo festival, and a great drive in the canyon. We actually made our way all the way up to Bear Lake. It was my first time to the Caribbean of the Mountain West. It was different than I expected (I imagined a very green Oregon-type lake), but it was so blue.

b with some shaggy inkcap mushrooms we found at the cinco de mayo festival. we picked some and then spread the remains around our yard later that day.

Mother’s Day was Sunday. I still find MD a little strange, I have to admit. It was nice though. I got some treats at church, we picked some redbud blossoms, and ate enchiladas (with redbud blossoms on top!). A very good day.

Then, Wednesday was my birthday (see what I mean by it’s been a busy few weeks?). I turned 30. Brian and I went on a run in the morning, which was so nice. It was great to go out with B, and the air was just so invigorating. It was so fresh, and the mountains looked beautiful. After the run, I did some work, but then went out and did some birthday shopping. In the afternoon, I got to talk to my sisters, my good friend Liz, and my sister-in-law Whitney. Then we went out for Japanese food for dinner, which was nice. Then cards and presents. Brian got me the perfect present: a long-lost Thoreau text recently published called “Wild Fruits.” And then B’s card was perfect. I’ve always known it’s great to be with a literary, creative-writer guy. Brian read me a poem he wrote about a week after we met. He’s such a good thinker and writer. Then we closed the bday celebrations with blackberry brownies and chocolate ice cream.

Next week will be good too…our 10 year anniversary is on Tuesday. We’re going to try our hand at hiking-fishing again. It seems like the weather should be good; hopefully, the fishing will be too. Oh I’m lucky. W asked B the other day who his best friend is, and B said “Norma.” How nice is that? I'm seriously so blessed.

london berlin, but mostly berlin

2011-04-14T15:35:00.000-07:00

i am in berlin right now. really, i should be going to bed (it's 12:36am) since i have an imporant demo with some clients tomorrow, but for now i don't feel too sleepy. and how often will i have a chance to blog whilst in germany?

last saturday i left to fly to london. it was a long trip via jfk, but thankfully i had a good book to read. i was reading "the year of magical thinking" by joan didion. and i watched two movies while flying over the atlantic.

i'll write more about the london part of things later, but right now i will focus on berlin since i'm here and i should get to bed soon.

i got to berlin on wednesday morning. my first order of business (since i didn't have any actual business i needed to attend to) was to figure out the underground and ride it to schloss charlottenberg. it's a royal residence within the city. of course, now it's a museum/site to visit. it was great. i really enjoyed walking through it and seeing the rooms. the rococo-ness of a lot of it was pretty overwhelming, but neat. i saw some original fete galante paintings by people like watteau that i studied as a stundent. i also saw the original david of napolean on his horse. it was cool. and the gardens in the back are quite striking.

walking through the schloss neighborhood was neat too. there were lots of nice buildings to look at.

then i went to new national gallery, which is a modern art museum. the current exhibit is called "modern times" (after the charlie chaplin film), and it was good. i had to go through it rather quickly, but i always enjoy modern art. they had some really great pieces. i again saw some i studied as a student (nole, picasso, etc). i liked the klee ones they had and there were some propagandistic-seeming russian ones that were interesting.

after leaving the museum i headed back to the underground station, but saw a sign that said brandenberg tor this way. i figured tor meant gate and walked over to see the brandenburg gate. it isn't as big as i imagined it would be (although it's certainly not tiny), but it is beautiful. even in the rain the statue on top is extremely bright.

i meandered a bit through the holocaust memorial on way way back to the underground. after getting a bit confused on the underground i got off and took a cab to the indonesian restaurant i wanted to go to. it was nice there. i spoke to a nice man who sounded american, but was a norwegian who had gone to college in the us and now lived in germany. he seemed self conscious of his english, but i would have guessed he was american. the food was good. i had satay, gado strips, and beef rendang (it was a combo platter). it also came with fried duck, but i have to say i didn't enjoy that--too greasy. then i had sweet black rice with coconut and banana for dessert. the rice was a little crunchy, but good. it had a good flavor. i've always wanted to eat black rice--so this was a good excuse to do so.

after that, i came to the hotel and went to bed.

today was filled with client meetings--from 9-6. there is a nato meeting here now, which means that traffic is bad (they've closed a lot of roads off). that forced the taxi to take a more scenic route--so i got to see lots more of berlin than i would have otherwise (thanks, nato). afterwards, a german colleague of mine and i went out to eat a really nice rustic german restaurant. there were old wooden tables with old carts and wagons hanging up from the ceiling and little candles at everyone's tables. it was so charming and cozy inside. we had a nice german meal--all of my colleague's choosing. i got to have some good soups, meat balls, fried potatos, and a pork with mushrooms dish. it was all really good. if i would have had any room i would have gotten a dessert, but there was no room.

we walked back to the hotel and enjoyed a nice view of the river. i don't know which river, but a river. it's been cold here, but it's still nice to be out and about.

ok, now i need to go off to bed.

student of the week

2011-03-01T14:49:00.000-08:00

w was chosen as student of the week for his school class. he was chosen because of his good behavior and friendly and kind attitude. we're proud of him!

he chose 11 pictures to take in to hang on a board in the classroom. a lot of them involve animals: cutthroat trout, red-eared sliders, deer, lizards, and tropical fish. can you tell he likes animals? also he brought in some of his favorite things: two arrowheads, a shark's tooth, and the book of mormon (one of his favorite books). what a good kid.

a much awaited pawpaw post

2011-02-27T15:59:00.000-08:00

brian had the good idea awhile ago that we could try our hand at growing pawpaws here. it seems it could work. with lots of hope, we're going to order 4 pawpaw trees. we're going to get the following varieties: sunflower, wells, ksu atwood, and the susquehanna.

we'll make a post once we have them (of course), but in the meantime keep us in mind when you cross your fingers. we'll need all the finger-crossing we can get.

...also, we have an idea that maybe we'll try growing a pomegranate tree too! it seems that we could just move it inside when it starts getting too cold outside. but how cool would it be to have our own pomegranates! and then a 5-6' pomegranate tree inside during the winter. life would be almost too sweet if we could have our own supply of pawpaws and pomegranates.

a week in review

2011-02-27T15:40:00.000-08:00

on president's day, w and i went sledding at a nearby park. then all three of us took a drive to a part of utah we've never been to. it was an interesting drive-adventure. we saw a pronghorn antelope, desert scenes that when you covered the mountains flanking your view looked like summer, some very small towns, a neat small-town cemetary, a look at iosepa (that included some potshards and no l&l bbqs), a first-time visit to tooele, some interesting views of the great salt lake, a drive through a native-american reservation called skull valley, and a walk in thigh-deep snow (that part of the drive didn't seem very summer like).

on tuesday, we went to w's blue and gold banquet. w earned his wolf award, and i got pinned.

on friday and saturday we watched two more installments in the disney davy crockett movie archive. william likes the movies a lot, but i have to admit that b and i are both pretty big dc fans too. up to this point, i think davy goes to congress is my favorite episode. the guy who plays him is such a cool-hand...he doesn't play dc as a tough-guy, burly mountainman. at first that surprised me, but now it just seems right. also, he looks a lot like jimmy stewart. so davy going to congress seems a little like mr smith goes to washington.

on saturday, i took willy sledding again. this time is was a bit colder, but he had a good time. he also built a snowman. if it needs to snow in the valley in february (which, really, it does need to), then at least you can enjoy the snow. at times the snow on saturday was a bit crazy. i went for a run in the midst of the crazy-heavy snowfall, and i could hardly see. but, the run ended at the di, which made it all worth it.

davy crocket & neighborhood hiking

2011-02-19T14:41:00.000-08:00

davy crocket is willy's new big thing. we've watched a few of the 1950s disney show/movies. it's obvious why he likes it (it seems to be made entirely for young boys to enjoy). one thing i like is imagining my parents as kids watching these episodes on the weekly disney show that used to air back then. i'm sure my parents watched some of these episodes, if not all of them. also, the previews shown along with the davy crocket episodes are great. we watched one last night of the 1953 disney christmas special, which was themed around a mexican christmas idea.

w is also in to walking around the neighborhood with his new boy scout pack on. he loads it up with things and then goes over to a friend's house or walks up to the mountainside. he loves that new pack. i wonder if he'll like it as much once it gets put to some real use...say going on long hikes in the high uintas!

in my opinion...

2011-02-19T14:26:00.000-08:00

in-n-out burger is one of the most unimpressive dining experienes i've ever had. all you ever hear about in-n-out burger is how great it is (especially from californians) and all you see around here are the long lines of people waiting to get their not-so-fast fast food.

we went to the local in-n-out burger for william's birthday. i wouldn't say i had high, high hopes for the meal, but i did have expectations. but the experience was plenty lackluster.

1. it took awhile for our food to get to us. although i do have to admit that we didn't have to wait in line long, and the guy who took our order was nice.

2. there weren't any places to sit. we couldn't all three sit at a table together.

3. you had to order many of what i consider normal hamburger items separately (the pickles for instance). that's not a big deal, but if you don't know that you'd end up with a sad burger.

4. the hamburger was fine, but not great. i didn't think it tasted special at all.

5. and the fries! the fries were tiny and had very little flavor. of course, you always eat fries with ketchup, but they didn't taste good. i think just about every kind of fries i've had before in my life have tasted better than those fries.

so, as wyclef would say "don't believe the hype" about in-n-out. i really can't see why it's so popular. the only thing i can think of is that for those who grew up in california, it's a nostalgia thing (like how adults look back fondly on favorite childhood foods: mac n' cheese or something like that). and for those who didn't grow up in cali, i have no idea.

william's birthday

2011-02-19T14:14:00.001-08:00

we celebrated william's 9th birthday recently. it's hard to believe he's 9 now! it was a weekend full of festivities. below is the run-down of events.

we had a friend party at the bowling alley. william likes to bowl, and it was a good time...although a little crazy with 7 boys. they were also ansey to play the arcade games right next to the lanes. i'm not a big fan of arcade games, but we gave each kid a little money to play. then we served pizza, pop, and cinnamon rolls. honestly, the cinnamon rolls were good (what beats homemade cinnamon rolls?). william also opened presents and cards. all-in-all, it was a good party.

we also had a family get-together. it was a nice low-key time. we ate dinner (lassagna) and dessert (brownies) and sat around and chatted. william and two of his cousins played. it was really nice.

then on the actual day, we went out to in-n-out burger and opened presents. some of william's biggest presents were a nice lego set (from grandma and grandpa roberts), money (from grandma leslie), an old-timey boy scout hiking backpack, and a 4' long stuffed tiger.

below are some pictures of the fun.

sundance

2011-02-04T07:59:00.001-08:00

on monday, i got a call from a friend who invited me to go up to sundance to see the best documentary of the festival. i was so excited. i mean, how fun to go up to see a sundance movie at sundance, and to see one that's great. on top of that, it's one i had heard about and wanted to see.

the movie was called "how to die in oregon." it is a documentary about the physician-assisted suicide law in oregon. it showed up the lives of people who work to support this law and several individuals who decided to use the law to die. it was a sad, real, and moving movie. to say you enjoy a movie like this doesn't feel right. but it was a good movie, well done.

one of the most difficult parts for me was watching one of the main women in the movie get sick and progressively get worse from her liver cancer. the end result was going to be liver failure, which was what my dad dealt with. it was difficult to watch her go through many of the same issues my dad went through.

but, even despite my crying during the movie, i am very glad i got to go. watching the movie reminded me of how hard it is to deal with the death of a loved one. but it also made me aware of how strong people are who do. it made me so proud to think of my mom and how gracefully she's dealt with the loss of my dad.

it was cold up there when the movie was over, but the roads were clear, and it was nice to be in the mountains/canyon. we don't really go up into the mountains much in the winter. so it was very good to see them again, up-close. maybe winter won't last forever.

indonesian-french-spanish

2011-01-04T10:35:00.001-08:00

last night we had fhe. for the lesson/activity we talked about missionary work. i drafted up some mission assignment letters, and then we each got to select (with eyes closed) a place to be called to. i came up with about 10 different locations that the three of us selected from.

william got called to chile, spanish speaking.
brian got called to the netherlands, indonesian speaking.
i got called to morocco, french speaking.

wouldn't those be exciting places to serve in! i chose english-, spanish-, french-, and indonesian-speaking locations since those are the languages we have the book of mormon in. we also each read 1 nephi 3:7 in each of these languages. reading it in french was the hardest. french pronunciation is not my forte.

christmastime

2010-12-27T15:14:00.001-08:00

we've had a good, eventful christmas week. on the monday before christmas we got quite a bit of snow. and then on tuesday we got even more. i don't know how much but at least 1.5 feet. that meant a lot of snow shoveling and not a lot of running. but it also meant that we lost some of our trees!

i was out shoveling snow when i heard the crack. the cedar tree in front of our house broke in half. and before the heavy snow had melted, we had a major branch on our big plum tree break and a few cedar branches in our backyard break too.

we still need to get all of this taken care of (ie get rid of the broken tree in our front yard), but it doesn't seem very pressing yet.

on wednesday, we went as a family to go bowling. we did bumper bowling this time, and our scores were naturally a bit inflated. but it still felt good to get over 100. and i did get a non-bumper strike. then we went and saw secretariat, which was a fine movie. and, of course, we topped off the day with a little trip to the di.

on friday, christmas eve, we went up to my mom's house for dinner. we had an italian themed dinner. we made homemade pizza, which i was quite proud of actually, and there was other good food. after the meal, we each got a part and acted out the nativity. below are some pictures of that. brian and i were joseph and mary, and willy was the angel.

after the nativity, we opened some presents...

then we ended the evening by each talking to my oldest sister and her family via skype and a piece of carrot cake (left over from the sealing party in july!).

saturday morning, i kept thinking that willy would wake us up early, but b and i actually got up before william did. we started the presents festivities around 8 am.

willy's favorite presents were the big lego set from my mom, the air hockey table from b's parents, and the complete 2nd season of bonanza on dvd.

the other pictures show some of my and b's favorite presents.

later that day we went on a drive to explore good arrowhead fields. it was really foggy out, and william was dressed in his best bonanza outfit.

it's been a good christmas!

thanksgiving weekend

2010-11-29T15:57:00.000-08:00

we had a good thanksgiving weekend. because we didn't have internet access on wednesday, i had three work days off, which was very nice. brian worked a bit, but he made some good headway on things that have to get done. below is the rundown of the weekend.

tuesday night it was predicted that we would have a big, bad winter storm. it never materialized, but william and i did have wednesday off.

thursday we drove up to my mom's house and had thanksgiving up there with mom, kyle, amy, jackson, whitney, matt, and matt (w and m's friend). the food was great. i love turkey and all the trimmings, but mostly turkey is my favorite. william decided he liked turkey too. he wanted a whole leg to himself, and he at the whole leg. it was so filling that that (and a little jello) was all he had for dinner.

friday, william and i did a little shopping. i even toyed with the idea of getting a real tree, but when push came to shove, i opted to use our fake tree. i also finally splurged and got us our first tree topper and the big old-fashioned christmas lights that i like so much. neither of those are really splurges, but it was exciting to finally have them.

saturday, we went out to eat with my mom and kyle and amy to the purple turtle. given our love of turtles, we have wanted to eat there for a long time. we all enjoyed a good burger. then the three of us went to a couple di's. later that night we decorated our tree with whitney and matt.

on saturday night/sunday morning we got our first big snow storm of the season. i got to shovel, which was a good workout.

halloween

2010-10-30T18:46:00.001-07:00

today has been a fun day. brian came home early and we headed up to the mountains to enjoy a nice walk along a river. it was a bit chilly, but pretty soon we all had our coats off. brian didn't want to carry his--so he stuffed his inside his mock turtleneck shirt. willy liked that idea and copied him.

we then went bowling. brian had an excellent showing with a score of 145 (he had several strikes and spares), i had a good showing for me with a score of 89 (i had one strike a couple spares), and w did a good job. it's hard to bowl without the bumpers, but that's what william chose. the bowling alley had a halloween motif and they were playing really good music. too bad it wasn't dance-bowling.

then we went to the thrift store and found some good treasures--some good books and a funky little end table. next, we came home and i made, if not a halloweeny meal at least a festive meal. i made green eggs and yellow, red, green, and blue biscuits. i wanted the biscuits to be orange (like little pumpkins), but that didn't work. so they were sort-of tye-dyed looking.

william then got dressed up in his knight costume to go out trick-or-treating with b.

b and w are still out trick-or-treating. hopefully they'll be back soon since i still need to go to the grocery store tonight. tomorrow i'm going to try my hand at a pumpkin bread pudding with a marscapone topping. it sounds great to me--hopefully it turns out as good as i imagine it will.

ps--w and i started watching the charlie brown halloween movie on hulu today. for any who haven't seen it lately, i'd recommend it. it had been a long time for me, but the dialogue is great. fun for kids and funny for adults too.

the falltime

2010-10-26T19:25:00.000-07:00

brian with some of his birthday presents.

so, we celebrated brian's birthday awhile ago. it was a good birthday. he opened presents and cards, we went out to our favorite mexican place for burritos (and my mom had her first chile relleno), and then my mom stayed home with william so we could go out to fork fest. it may be difficult to guess what that is, so i'll just say: a concert with lots of local bands playing. it was very akin to the sego fest we enjoyed so much a few years ago. we luckily found out about it the night before and then everything fell into place so we could go for a few hours. the music was good, and we got to dance. and then on top of that it was a beautiful (birthday) night. we weren't even in jackets. ah, so nice!

since then things have been going at a break-neck speed it seems like. we've had a lot going in, in addition to just having a lot going on at work. things have been extra busy for both me and b at work. but i can see a light at the end of the tunnel. i will get to take off time at thanksgiving and christmas, and that will be nice.

as a final parting note tonight, we had our first snow down here in the valley. it was just a light sprinking of snow. nothing stuck, but it was fun to see a little coming down. of course by the time january rolls around i'll be tired of winter, but for now it seems fun.

things are happening

2010-10-15T12:41:00.000-07:00

it's been a long time since i've posted anything--so i'll try to hit some of our recent highlights.

awhile ago brian and i went out to a new neveria (mexican ice cream shop) and had the most delicious ice cream i've had in a long time. they have the best flavors, and it's all made right there in the shop. brian had mamey (yes, zapote) and rose petal, and i had mamey and coconut. the place is called la michoacana. if you're a local reading this, we'd highly recommend it.

william got to go to his first byu football game last weekend. they actually won, which i guess is quite a feat this year. he had a good time, of course. while he was there (he got invited to attend with a friend), brian and i discovered a new hawaiian foodery that had super good kailuah pork (it's called pounders and is close to la michoacana)and went out for a very filling shrimp dinner. lest you think we're gluttons, we just had a sample of the pork.

brian's birthday is tomorrow. we don't know exactly what all we'll be doing, but it seems like it will involve presents, cards, mexican food, and figs and cheese for dessert. i love birthdays, and i love celebrating brian's birthday--so i'm excited about tomorrow.

i just found out that i will get to go to london and berlin this spring for work. my boss gave approval for that a few days ago. of course that's a long way off and it is a work trip (not just pure pleasure), but i am excited. it's been a long time since i've dusted off my passport.

william received his halloween costume from his grandma roberts in the mail this week. he is going to be a knight. the costume is fun, and he's really excited about it. i was a little worried about halloween being on sunday this year, but it turns out that kids in our neighborhood at least just go out on saturday. so, halloween is saved! funny, by the next time halloween is on sunday, willy will be a teenager.

my younger brother kyle and his wife just had their first baby. his middle name is lanny (named after my dad). i had a call with my german client jana the day he was born, and told her his name. i explained that lanny is quite a strange name so that she wouldn't be confused by the name. she responded by saying it's not weird at all--she's heard of lenny kravitz. i thought that was pretty funny.

that's all i can think of right now. i'll try to post some pictures soon, which i know are more fun than just words.

another quick note

2010-09-23T13:24:00.000-07:00

i'm excited that community and the office are coming back tonight. it's been a long wait, but i'm sure it'll be worth it.

a trip to the mountains

2010-09-23T13:06:00.001-07:00

last weekend we had the chance to go up into the canyon to attend a weekend-long retreat at a lodge. we weren't sure what exactly would happen, but as soon as we saw the beautiful fall colors on the trees on our drive up, we realized it couldn't be all bad to get away for a few days.

the trees were beautiful, the air was crisper (which felt good), and we got to do some fun activites. personally, my favorite, was going for a saturday morning run on the mountain road. my throat was burning and i kept fluxuating between cold and too warm, but the scenery was beautiful. it felt really good to be out without a lot of people around. it was peaceful and envigorating.

william most enjoyed hanging out by the river. he spotted some red-breasted nuthatches (a bird i've never even seen before), several trout, a bat, and several squirrels. william also really loved an old west playground at the lodge. it was pretty cool with lots of little buildings that reflected the wild west theme.

i'm not really sure what brian most enjoyed. he did find a juneberry tree, but it had the more unsavory berries on it (some have delicious berries, some don't). he also got to get a little extra sleep and read from his book about a guy walking around in borneo. so, he was able to relax, and that's never a bad thing.

w in front of the lodge.

me and w in the dining hall.

the haps

2010-09-02T11:05:00.000-07:00

over the past couple weeks, we've had a chance to do some fun things. below is the recap.

a few saturdays ago, b and i woke up and decided to go hiking in rock canyon. that turned into going all the way up to squaw peak. that wasn't the original plan--so we weren't super prepared--but we did have some food and water. and there's a lovely, beautiful spring along the way where we drank lots and lots of good mountain water. it's a pretty strenuous hike, but the view from the top is great.

w at the top

another one from the top.

on the way back down, we found some juneberries (aka saskatoons and serviceberries). we all enjoyed eating some, although brian enjoyed them the most. i started getting too thirsty.

b and the berries.

on the 24th of august, william started school again. he's now in 2nd grade. on the first day, we took him to the creamery so he could have a special donut breakfast.

me and william before heading out. notice w's grey t-shirt. he likes wearing plain grey shirts because b often wears plain grey shirts. he likes looking like this dad!

w and b at the creamery.

recently, we decided it was time to say good-bye to the garter snake that w caught awhile ago. he caught it because he thought leche would eat it, but leche didn't eat it. they actually seemed to become friends.

w just moments before he let the garter snake go.

last weekend we went up to the high uintas to explore some new lakes. we ended up getting in a pretty good hike still (about 7 miles i think), although it was a lot flatter than other parts of the uintas. brian had pretty good luck fishing (he caught 7 trout), but william and i never had a bite. it doesn't make a lot of sense, but so it goes with fishing. on the outing we saw some neat animals (including a frog, several deer, some nice birds, etc), and we also found out that if you turn hiking into a game of hide and seek, it can be more fun for an 8-year-old kid.

b and w with the best fish of the day: a fine cutthroat.

a nice nature shot.

last sunday we noticed that our peach tree's peaches were ripe! we each picked 4 peaches, and then came in to eat them. they were really good. it's so exciting to have our own fruit tree!

hawaii pictures

2010-08-24T09:40:00.000-07:00

waimea bay--our favorite beach.

us at hanauma bay after we snorkeled there.

a rainbow at the valley of the temples.

me at shark's cove after we snorkeled there the first time.

another view of the ko'olau mountains.

brian and the buddah at the byodo-in temple.

outside the house brian lived in with his family from the time he was about 3-7.

looking tough with the "fruit" brian just knocked off a tree on our hike. it turned out it wasn't fruit at all, but a big seed with hawaiian paintbrushes inside.

b jumping off rock at waimea bay.

b at ka'aena point on the far nw side of the island.

me on the moke island after we kayaked there.

a sleeping sea turtle.

the sea turtle up close.

me swimming with the big sea turtle.

another one with me and that big ol' sea turtle.

kayaking to the moke islands.

fish.

good tropical fish picture.

me next to one of my favorite trees there.

b getting the last of the poi out of the poi bag.

b at the pali lookout.

hawaii

2010-08-24T09:17:00.000-07:00

me with some of the beautiful fruit at a chinatown market.

brian and i really enjoyed our trip to hawaii. we've been back now for almost two weeks--so it's certainly time to write it up.

we got into honolulu after dark so it wasn't easy to get a good feel for how the island looked at first, but you could feel how it feels. we were definitely in a tropical, humid place again. that night we spent the night in the cheapest waikiki hotel we could find and had our one and only night of bed rest on the trip. the next morning we got up pretty early and walked the couple blocks to the beach and had our first ocean swim. it felt good and wasn't crowded since it was about 8am. we even caught a few small waves. that morning we had our first taste of o'ahu birds too. we saw several kinds just on our walk to the beach.

after checking out, we went over to chinatown in honolulu (our first of several trips there) and enjoyed walking through the district, seeing the leis and fruit for sale, and smelling the good-smelling foods and the not-so-good-smelling foods. i bought a black kukui nut necklace and we found a great in-door eating area with lots of asian-food vendors. i settled on a malaysian nasi-goreng. we had really wanted to get indonesian food while we were there, but the one indo restaurant had closed shortly before we arrived. anyway, the nasi goreng was basically indonesian food. we also bought a fair bit of fruit: a dragonfruit, chigos, and rambutans. (the dragonfruit is interesting looking, but doesn't have the best taste. the chigos though are a cross between a zapote and a pear, and we our favorite new fruit. after we came back, b found out that the chigos are actually related to the zapotes.) it was a really fun stop into chinatown.

after that, we drove up the eastern side of the island to get to our campground. along the way, i got to see the ko'olaus for the first time (the eastern mountain range on the island). they absolutely beautiful. we also found a grocery store and bought some poi. we stopped at a beach park and mixed up our poi with milk, sugar, and poi. it was good to have again--it had been a long time since our last taste of poi. shortly thereafter we got settled into our campsite and then went swimming at the beach right next to the campground.

the next day we wanted to ease ourselves back into the swing of snorkeling things, so we drove down to hanauma bay. we knew it would be crowded so we got there pretty early. the bay was beautiful--especially from the view up top (you walk down to the bay)--but it's sort-of funny to pay to snorkel there when there is better snorekeling (for free) on the island. but, it did help us reaccquaint ourselves with our gear and things. there were also a lot of fish and, of course, we saw our first sea turtle, which was really exciting.

at this point, i'm not very good at remembering what we did which days. i could go back to my journal, but i think i'll just hit the highlights.

so, hanauma bay wasn't our favorite snorkeling spot, shark's cove was. it was great there. we went there many times, and it never let us down. we always saw a lot of fish, we saw three sea turtles there (including one massive turtle that was at least three feet long), we saw several sting rays, and we saw an octopus. we also discovered that we can be in deep water and not freak out. i liked the feeling of being calm while the water was deep and we were (sort-of) far out.

the next best snorkeling spot was waimea bay. snoreking there we saw a school of tuna, a school of squid, several eels, and lots of fish. waimea bay was also our favorite beach. it was beautiful--the setting, the blue water, the white church tower behind it, the big rocks jutting out into the water (that brian actually jumped from), and soft sand. it had it all.

we kayaked out to a few islands off the shore from kailuah beach park. i've never kayaked before, so that was quite an experience. it was cool being so far out into the ocean. on the islands we saw the shearwaters nesting and could explore a bit in a place that felt more unchartered.

we enjoyed exploring the island. we saw most of the island. we drove all along the eastern shoreline up to the end of the road and then through the middle to the western side and all around honolulu. the eastern side is the prettiest, but the western side was interesting too. that's where we had been warned about snorkeling. there are entire shantytowns of homeless along the beach on the western shoreline. it really is amazing how they have taken control of beach parks and some prime land. it's sad in some ways, but kind-of cool in others. a lot of the island is filled with tourists or people who have a fair bit of money. it's a fact of life that there's a flip-side to that, and maybe it can remind people that we need to care for the poor better. it was also comforting to me and b to see these people group together to form communities. it would be nice not to feel or be alone.

while on the west side of the island we also (finally) found a road-side fruit stand with good prices. we bought 4 mangos and 2 guavas. they were a good deal and so delicious. brian said several times he wished we had bought more. the mangos were bright orange inside and so fresh in a way that i've never tasted in a mainland store-bought mango.

we went for a hike in the ko'olaus and enjoyed the scenery. we also liked feeling like we were in lost tramping through the jungle.

we went to a few thrift stores and found some good stuff. our best find was a chinese sand pot, which we had never heard of before, but is a type of ceramic cooking dish that's used by the chinese sometimes. it's a cool piece with metal wire adorning the sides.

we enjoyed trying new foods there. one of my favorites was pani popo (a roll covered in coconut pudding), and we both really enjoyed kailua pork with poi. in fact, we made our own kailua pork (a la the oven) after we got home. it's really good, and actually really easy to make. i'd recommend giving it a whirl sometime.

we went to the byodo-in temple nestled against the ko'olaus. it is a beautiful buddhist temple that's a recreation of an old temple in japan. that was one of my favorite non-beach stops. it was such a peaceful place, and you can't overstate how beautiful the cloud-covered ko'olaus are. oh my!

we went to the pali lookout. a place along the old pali highway that overlooks the mountains and the ocean. we walked along the old road and followed it to the place where brian remembered climbing up to a waterfall. the waterfall was still there, and it was a nice chance to be away from people and in the natural environment. along the walk down the road we also saw a hawaiian centipede.

we went to all of the old places where brian lived in hawaii as a kid. we found his old townhouse in kailuah, and even his old school and the safeway his family used to shop at. it was neat to go around his townhouse neighborhood because he told me about things he remembered (many of them stories i've already heard), but showing me the actual place where such and such happened. that was fun. we also happened upon the faculty housing that he and his family first lived in when they moved to hawaii. while there, we also walked around the univ of hawaii campus some. he found the place where he and his dad once caught crawdads. and there were actually still crawdads there.

we did some good birding while we were there. brian had found a place in kailua we could go and we saw all of the main endangered birds on o'ahu. we saw the moorhen, the hawaiian coot, hawaiian stilt, black-crowned night heron, and the hawaiian duck. we also saw lots of other birds around the island. we were quite proud of our bird sitings. it helped that we had a birds of hawaii book. the only birds we didn't see that would have been cool were some of the creepers.

ok, i think that's it for now--other than the pictures.

brian seeing how close he could get to a swan at the byodo-in temple.

at the beach.

about to order nasi goreng at the food court in chinatown.

the ko'olau mountains.

the byodo-in temple.

the moorhen.

4 goals in 1 game = 1 win!

2010-08-18T08:46:00.000-07:00

william had his first soccer game (for the new season) last night, and he scored 4 of his team's 5 points! and, beyond that, he finally knows how it feels to win a game. his team didn't win any games last season.

unfortunately, i missed the game (i'm attending some education week classes), but i assume i'll see him score some more goals and win some more games. hopefully this will be the beginning of a beautiful relationship with the great game of soccer.

yellowstone

2010-08-16T13:56:00.000-07:00

it's been awhile ago now, but last month we went to yellowstone with all of brian's family except his youngest brother. brian and i hadn't been to the park since 2002, and william had never been. so it was really exciting to go. we saw lots of great animals and had some good adventures.

the highlights for me were hiking the 5.5 miles down the canyon to the yellowstone river and then the river rafting excursion on the last day. being down at the yellowstone river though was, by far, my favorite thing. the river is amazing: powerful, clear, beautiful, and hypnotic. i've never seen a river that i've wanted to just wade into more than that one. it could put you into a trance looking into its depths. but, of course, you wouldn't want to go into it. at a minimum you'd be hurt badly. but you could die in that river--it's so strong. while we were down there, we fished. i thought that would be fun, it i didn't think it would so great. but, i was wrong. it was such a unique fishing experience, and we were catching a lot of those native cutthroat trouts. we couldn't keep them, but even the catch and release was fun. it was a new experience to pull in so many big fish out such a strong current.

then there were other fun parts: seeing old faithful blow, seeing the old faithful inn, swimming in the firehole river, and seeing some new geysers.

below are some pictures of our trip.

us at a beautiful waterfall in idaho.

w fishing in yellowstone lake.

w and naomi with their arrowheads.

a field of bison.

me and w with the yellowstone river behind us.

w next to a geyser.

b with one of his fine cutthroats.

me with one of my fine trouts!

b fishing the river.

roland and the river.

me and brian on our way down to the yellowstone river.

the sealing

2010-07-18T14:02:00.001-07:00

the sealing was yesterday. we went up to the mt timpanogos temple since the provo is closed right now. my family (my mom, all four of my brothers and most of their spouses, my aunt and uncle, and a cousin) who live nearby came, as well as brian's parents and his sister and her husband, and then a few friends came too. the sealing was great and really special. our sealer was really neat--he had been sealed to his family when he was a kid too.

after the sealing, we went outside and took a few pictures before we all retreated to our cars and headed to cooler places. it was around 100 degrees. we (me, b, and w, and b's parents and his sister and her husband) went to an all-you-can-eat salad bar dinner on our way home. once home, we got ready for the post-sealing party at a park near our house. the party was a good time--we got to see a lot of friends. i completely over-estimated the amount of food we'd need, but thankfully my mom has some freezer space and we have company in town to help us eat it!

2010-07-14T09:05:00.000-07:00

here are the rest of the pictures of our high uintas adventure.

w holding the fresh water shrimp we found.

w with one of the many trout he caught.

w and b fishing at the third, and most remote, lake we went to.

the picture that proves i was there.

w walking through one of the many rock piles.

view of the upper lake.

the view from our tent.

brian getting one of our fish-fires ready.

the high uintas is the place for me and the place for you

2010-07-11T18:57:00.000-07:00

on thursday morning, we got up early to go up to the high uintas. it's not too far of a drive, so we started on the hike around 7:30am. brian and i were carrying the big hiking backpacks that his parents gave us a few years ago. we weighed them the night before, and they were only about 22 pounds, but that started to feel pretty heavy pretty quickly. the hike up is 4.5 miles and is fairly steep at times. it took us 4 hours.

about 3 hours or so into the hike, i started not feeling very well. my stomach was feeling off. by the time we were almost to the lake, my stomach had gotten really bad, and i found a convenient place to quickly take off my pack, run to a nearby log, and throw up. i felt a bit better at that point, but not much better. when we got to the lake, i stationed myself on the ground by the side of the lake while b and w fished. i tried to sleep it off for about 1.5 hours. when i got up to move to the shade i had to find another convenient place to throw up. but after resting again on the ground for another hour or two, i was pretty much back to normal. our self-diagnosis is that i had altitude sickness. we were in the 9,000 feet range by the time we made it to the lake--so that seems like the most likely culprit. thankfully it didn't last the whole trip.

while i was resting by the side of the lake, b and w fished on two lakes. between the two of them, they caught enough fish for brian to tin-foil cook them for our dinner (me and brian--william doesn't like eating fish too much). note: by this time my sickness had subsided so i could enjoy eating the delicious trout they had caught.

later that evening, brian scaled the nearby mountain ridge to see what was on the other side. he knew there should be some lakes, and he was right. it was a rough-going hike, but it sounded like a lot of fun. he found a crushed balloon on the ridge (one we imagine someone let go of who knows where and made its way to the high uintas), and he saw piles of snow twice his height. i'm sure it was a beautiful view from there too.

that night we pitched the tent and set up our food/good-smelling stuff so a bear couldn't reach it. we were on our own at the alpine lakes, which was very nice. the ground that night was hard and a bit sloped, but we all slept pretty well. and there was no rain and there were no bear encounters--two very good things.

on friday morning we got up early to try our hand at fishing the upper and lower lakes. we didn't have a whole lot of luck, but b did catch a few good ones. we then cooked those up (a nice brunch for me and b) and then set off on a hike to find another alpine lake. brian had seen where it was on google earth. we set off without the benefit of a trail, which was most of the fun of this hike. it was a challenging hike with a lot of rock scrambling, but brian took us straight to the lake. it was a beautiful alpine lake with lots and lots of trout. we were catching fish on nearly every cast. there was also a really amazing view from the edge of the lake. ah, the high unitas.

after being at that lake, and seeing a deer pound down the rocky mountain escarpment, we headed back to our original lakes and set off back on the 4.5 mile hike back to the car. the hike back was considerably faster and easier, although by the end, all of our feet and shoulders and backs hurt pretty bad. but it was all worth it. even the altitude sickness. it was such high adventure--carrying the packs, backcountry camping, catching a lot of trout, rock scrambling, blazing trails, etc. our camera is out of battery power, so i'll post more pictures later. but below are a few other highlights.

w caught the biggest fish on the first day. b caught the biggest fish on the second day.

we got to see several pikas while were there. this was w's first time to see those cute, little animals.

the high uintas were even more beautiful than i had remembered from last summer. constantly i was blown away by how amazing the scenery was. one thing that was neat about going up earlier in the season that was that there were a lot of wild flowers in bloom. one down side to going up earlier in the season was that there were a lot more mosquitos.

catching up part 4 -- leche

2010-06-27T21:52:00.000-07:00

a couple saturdays ago, brian and i were talking right after waking up, and he mentioned that he had found some really pretty milk snakes for sale nearby. he thought one of these snakes would be a good pet for w. he showed me the pictures--knowing i like pretty milk snakes--and i said that that sounded fine. well, by the end of the day we had purchased leche.

i like snakes fine, but i've never desired to have one as a pet. in fact, i don't particularly even like pets much. i like animals in nature, but not really at home. but i have to say, leche is the perfect pet. he isn't always under foot (in fact he never is), he only needs to be fed (at most) once a week, cleaning the "cage" isn't difficult and doesn't have to be done more than once or twice a week, and he's so pretty. the only downside is that he is a bit smelly, but it's not that strong.

i have to agree with b: a snake is a great pet to have around.

catching up part 3 -- parental leave

2010-06-27T21:45:00.000-07:00

my parental leave has now officially started--so i am off work for 2 months. there were some last-minute issues to work out with my hr department, but it all worked out in the end. so for the next two months i am truly a stay-at-home mom.

it's still been a bit crazy during the past few days, but it's so nice not to have to think of work and being there to spend time with william and do everything else i need to do. it was really starting to wear me out. i don't know how people do it all.

we are now planning our summer trips: a trip to cali (san jose/gilroy/monetery area) and a trip to yellowstone. i am also working on a few other projects--so between that, swimming lessons, water balloons, legos, grocery shopping, reading more, going to duck ponds, playing with friends, fixing the car, running, ect...i still feel like there's plenty to keep me busy!

catching up part 2 -- william's baptism

2010-06-27T21:34:00.001-07:00

w got baptized a few weeks ago. as you can imagine, it was an exciting day. the service was nice. brian baptized him, whitney played the piano, the three of us and some cousins sang "army of helaman" (william chose that song because i sang at my own baptism), don and ron were the witnesses, all of the family men (brian, don, ross, kyle, matt, duane, ron) joined the circle, and i gave the closing prayer.

we didn't have the biggest group of family and friends at the stake baptism, but there were a lot of people who came to witness the special event. to those who came, thanks! afterwards, we had people over to our house for snacks, chatting, and playing around.

it was really neat to see brian perform william's baptism and to give him a blessing. he did a really good job. it would be sad to not have a husband/father who could do those things.

we are proud of w for making this great choice and for being such a good boy and son.

catching up part 1 -- escalante

2010-06-27T21:15:00.000-07:00

we made our way down to escalante again this year. it's a pretty amazing place--rugged, beautiful, remote, hot. i can't imagine how scorching it would be down there in the middle of the summer.

this year there was no rain, which meant we got to hike more. we actually made it to some very narrow slot canyons, like we had wanted to last year. we caught some fish this time and found a fair bit of petrified wood (outside the monument of course). like last year, we went to the sons of the pioneer breakfast in town and the community play at the high school.

william really liked the slot canyons, the lizards, and the fishing.

each night we backcountry camped at a place along a roadside (which isn't too backcountry, but there were no facilities). we were usually setting up our tent around 11 or 12 at night. there were a few close calls with some cows walking across the roads, but we had no major problems this time. no crazy rainstorms and no almost getting stuck in the middle of nowhere. although last year that was part of the fun.

snow

2010-05-24T08:08:00.000-07:00

it's snowing today. it started as rain last night, then sleet this morning, and now it's full-on snow. it's coming down hard and sticking to everything. i'd guess we have an accumulation of about an inch already. maybe we'll be able to make a snowman for fhe tonight.

tomorrow it's supposed to be sunny and 71.

hummingbirds

2010-05-18T08:24:00.001-07:00

w and b gave me a hummingbird feeder for mother's day. it took us awhile, but we got it set up last week. this morning, though, was the first time that we've actually seen a hummingbird at the feeder--and boy this hummingbird really likes our feeder. it's a black-chinned hummingbird.

i caught a picture of it at the feeder. i love hummingbirds--so it's so fun to finally have a feeder and see them (or at least one very hungry black-chinned bird) all the time!

9 years and 1 day

2010-05-18T08:03:00.000-07:00

yesterday was our 9th anniversary. much has changed since may of 2001, but many things are still the same too. brian and i are still best friends and love being together.

to commemorate our love we went out to a nearby canyon and hiked up in it to do some high-adventure trout fishing and hiking. it was a lot of fun. the weather was beautiful, the canyon was beautiful, and the trout we caught were beautiful too. we caught 8 fish and then cooked them up over a fire. then we hiked/fished some more. once we had 8 more we cooked those up over another fire and ate them.

eating 8 trout each sounds like a lot, but these aren't huge fish. honestly, it was just a nice, light lunch.

the high-adventure part of the fishing expedition was a lot of fun. we both ended the hike dirty (from sliding, falling, ect) with a lot of scratches, a little sunburnt, and wet.

two other cool things were (1st) brian found a wild morel that we ate with our fish. we looked around for more, but could only find the one today. second, we saw a male and female western tanager. if you don't know what they look like, look them up. they're beautiful--especially the male.

the morel brian found. we cooked this up with the second batch of fish--very delicious.

the scenery.

the adoption

2010-05-13T10:46:00.000-07:00

yesterday was the big adoption day. we all woke up early and enjoyed a "special" breakfast of nutella on toast and then drove up to the court house. i figured we'd have to wait awhile there, and we did. william did a good job of waiting though. my mom and brother kyle came too.

the actual court proceeding was pretty easy and quick. brian and i both got to answer a few questions, and there were a few other testimonies, but that was it. it was all over very quickly. at the end, the judge welcomed william up to her seat. she gave him a present, let him sign his name on the official document, and let him bang her gavel. he loved it all. then, of course, we took quite a few pictures.

then there was paper work that needed to be sorted out. the paper work stuff is the un-fun part of all of this, but eventually it will be over with. eventually as in probably a few months from now.

once we were done at the court house we went and bought william a bike. the plan was to go out for lunch after he rode his bike around for awhile. but after realizing that all of his friends were at school (and wouldn't be out for 4 more hours), william came into the house and asked if he could go to school. we couldn't say no--so we took him to school.

later that afternoon, he rode his bike around a lot more and showed it off to many people. then we took him out for all you can eat shrimp with one of his good friends.

all-in-all it was a great day. william is a great kid, and brian and i are very lucky that he is our son.

going to cville

2010-04-28T08:54:00.000-07:00

so i'm going out to charlottesville in a little while, and i'm looking forward to it. it's been almost 2 years since we left--so it definitely feels like it's time to go back even if it is for work.

i'm planning on bringing my running stuff so i can get out on my own in the morning before i need to go to conferences/meetings. i always love running in the mornings, ans since it's supposed to be in the 80s (even around 90 one day) while i'm out there, an early morning run is about the only time i'd want to go out anyway.

one thing i'm looking forward to seeing while i'm there are the dogwoods. i love the dogwoods out there. they have become one of my favorite trees and seem to really represent the things i love about virginia. i love how scraggly and wild they often are.

oh virginia.

a goal!

2010-04-21T07:33:00.000-07:00

william scored a goal at his game last night! oh man was it exciting. brian and i jumped off our chairs and whooped and hollered. perhaps luckily for w, he didn't notice our goofy display of parental pride. this is william's first goal ever (in a game) and his team's first goal of the season. his team still lost 4-1, but it was the best game (his team looked the best) by far. so maybe w's team will win a game before the end of the season...maybe.

a good outing

2010-04-15T13:32:00.000-07:00

our trip down to capitol reef np last weekend was great—short, but great. it was so nice to get away for awhile. we saw lots of animals, neat plants, and the super cool redrock mountains that the park is known for. below are some pictures and some of the highlights.

here's a pic of brian at the arch we hiked to on saturday. how lovely to be in a t-shirt in early april.

this is the one lizard we actually caught. there were a lot of them around, but they're super fast. william liked to ask about everyone we saw on the trails if they had seen any lizards. and if so, if they'd caught them and/or how big they were. he was proud to tell people that his dad had seen one yea big. and yea was about a foot long.

we went just outside the park to look for cool rocks. two of our best finds were a really cool conglamerate crystal rock and a smokey the bear magnet. it was a lot of fun to look for rocks. even though the ocean wasn't around, it sure felt a lot like looking for shark's teeth in nc with b's family.

the cool type of gnarly trees they have down there. we love how wild and rugged the wood is. it makes you realize how tough it really would be to survive down there in the hot months.

this shows the mountains behind the fruita area, which is right by the campground. some early mormon settlers came down here and decided it would be a great place to grow some fruit. surprisingly it seems to have worked (you can see the trees are still here), but it's pretty wild to think of seeing this place and deciding to develop some orchards. as our next door neighbor in the campground said those early mormons were very optimistic.

this shows the heart-shaped opening we saw on our sunday hike. w's fingers represent me, b, and w.

other highlights of the trip (in no particular order):

seeing the bison (outside the park), the shaggy deer (inside the park), the yellow-bellied marmot (on the scenic drive inside the park)

trying our hand at fishing (with no success)

lying in the grass and looking at the stars saturday night. b thought we saw a satelite

w getting an arrow head at a shop outside the park

going to church on sunday and attending a different ward

cooking smores in our feeble fire saturday night

capitol, capitol

2010-04-05T08:35:00.000-07:00

this week is william's spring break. it's difficult to really go anywhere since brian is still in the midst of teaching, but we have decided to take a quick trip down to capitol reef. brian and i went about 20 feet inside the park last spring when we went down to escalante, but will now get to see more of it. we'll only be down there a few days (or really more like 1.5 days), but that's ok. it's not very far away, it's a new place to explore, and it will get us out of town and camping and hiking. that's never a bad thing.

easter, conference, birding, and smoothies

2010-04-05T08:26:00.001-07:00

we had a nice easter weekend. we did a little plastic-egg hide-and-seek in the yard on saturday morning (william ended up finding the sneakiest spot to hide an egg). and then we dyed eggs. brian and i have never dyed eggs together--so it was fun to try it out together and with william. my favorite egg was the one i did of the high uintas (mountains, alpine lake, the three of us fishing, hawks, a pika, our tent...). that's the first time i've ever hard-boiled eggs, and i have a little bit of learning to do on that front. but the dying was fun.

on sunday, we got up early because b scored us some general conference tickets. we got up to the conference center without any problems (even though we got a few inches of snow saturday night) and enjoyed conference. brian and i both really liked pres uchdorf's and pres monson's talks. and it was cool to take william there--it's very exciting to be in the same room/place as the prophet.

after the second session of conference on sunday, we went for a walk around campus and saw some birds. the neatest one we spotted (or william spotted) was a junco. william also caught a turtle. it's exciting that william likes birding so much. he wants to go out again today after i finish working.

then, to cap off the night, we went over to brian's sister's apartment for smoothies. a very good way to finish up a fine easter weekend.

soccer and adoption

2010-03-24T08:58:00.000-07:00

william had his first soccer game yesterday. brian and i had to attend an adoption class, but william's auntie and uncle were very generous and took him. i've attached a picture, which really shows more of the loomy shadows of whitney and matt (aka auntie and uncle) and the beautiful and high mountains. but the little dot in the white shirt is w. his team lost (0-1), but he had fun. i'm looking forward to seeing his next game.

we also just recently scheduled the adoption. it will be on wednesday, may 12! so, the day after my birthday, which seems like a good day. now may is even more full: my birthday, the adoption, our anniversary, and mother's day (which i'll now be able to celebrate as an honoree rather than just the one honoring others). may will be a good month!

so many turtles!

2010-03-22T08:38:00.000-07:00

brian, william, william's friend, and i went to a pond nearby on saturday. the idea was that we would see if there were any turtles out. and, if there were any, we'd try to catch one. well, to william and his friend's delight, brian not only caught one, two, or even three red-eared sliders...he caught four! oh boy were the boys excited about that. william has hardly stopped talking about turtles since then.

brian and william went back on sunday afternoon, and william caught two turtles himself. if there's time, we'll go back tonight. we figure that they won't be very easy to catch once it really warms up. so we've got to get in as much turtle-catching as we can.

a new fruit

2010-03-01T14:18:00.001-08:00

well it's a new fruit for me and william. brian thought it would be fun to buy a pummelo the other day--so we got a big, bright yellow one. they're so pretty. i honestly liked to just look at it on the counter.

yesterday we decided to try it. b used to eat pummelos almost everyday when he lived in indonesia. apparently they can be a variety of colors on the inside. so we were all excited to see what color it would be. it took awhile to peel and get the white stuff off, but finally we saw the inside. it was a neat yellow/orange/pink color on the inside. and it had a delightful flavor. they're much sweeter than grapefruits.

i always love trying a new food, especially a new fruit.

yellow-billed cuckoo

2010-02-22T08:08:00.000-08:00

i just remembered that i had a dream last night of a yellow-billed cuckoo. in my dream i didn't have a great look at the bird (i didn't have binoculars), but it was very clear it was the yellow-billed cuckoo. so exciting even in a dream.

brian and i saw this bird once when we were out birding in charlottesville. we were walking around a natural area and just happened to get lucky. they're supposed to like catepillar nests, and there are tons of those in virginia in the springtime, but we've only ever seen the one yellow-billed cuckoo--in real life that is.

if you're interested in this bird, there's a great audobon painting of two yellow-billed cuckoos in a paw paw tree. that picture is actually sitting on my office desk. it's great.

william's 8th birthday

2010-02-10T11:09:00.000-08:00

monday was william's 8th birthday. to celebrate we had a big family birthday party on sunday. we had 26 people in our house, which qualifies as big for us. it went really well. he decided to have the theme be gilligan's island so we had a pin the coconut/fish/starfish on the wall game and all of the kids got cute white sailor hats.

then on monday we had a bowling party with some of william's neighborhood friends. that was a good time. all of the kids wanted it to bumper bowl except william--so there were no bumpers. they all had a good time. after that the three of us went to wendy's for dinner (w's choice) and then opened presents and had a little cake and ice cream. by the end of the day we were all tired! but it was a lot of fun.

thanks to all who helped it be such a fun birthday. william got a lot of nice presents and really enjoyed the parties and everything.

wise stewardship

2010-02-01T13:24:00.000-08:00

at church yesterday we had a combined third-hour meeting for men/women and even the teenage boys and girls to learn about wise stewardship of the earth. yes, you heard me correctly: we had a presentation on how important it is to "tread lightly" on the earth. it was so great. and the presenter, a man who studies environmental-cultural issues at byu, was wonderful. he was able to explain how taking care of the environment is a spirtitual imperative and gave us a good list of issues we could all realistically work on. one of the suggestions--to walk to church--is something i think we'll try. probably not every sunday, but now that we have church at 11am, it's not so difficult to do it.

lost and found

2010-01-31T16:50:00.000-08:00

ok, so i just posted on the fantastic mr. fox, but i'm on a roll. this is a very exciting week for us. as i'm sure you all know, lost comes back on this tuesday. we love (LOVE) lost. it's been so long since the last season ended, but we did watch the last two episodes of last season. then, of course, we'll get caught up by watching the "catch up" episode that's on right before the first new episode.

i'm really sad that this is the final season. i'm one of those people who could have watched lost for several more seasons, but i suppose i'm one of the few who feels this way.

anyway, if you haven't watched the first 5 seasons of lost yet, you still have about 48 hours. if you take off work/school and don't sleep, eat, go the bathroom, or do anything other than sit in front of the tv or computer, you could still watch enough to get ready for season 6. it's no small task, but lost is worth it.

it's fantastic

2010-01-31T16:43:00.000-08:00

the three of us just saw the fantastic mr. fox, and it was so great. we went in to it not knowing anything about the movie or the book, and it was such a pleasant surprise how good it was. we loved the old-fashioned animation, the cool music (they played heroes and villians and then the "love" song from the animated robin hood movie--to just name a few cool selections), the interesting characters, the feeling of "when on earth is this supposed to be taking place," and the witty dialoge. i don't often see a movie that i feel like i could just gush about or want to own, but this is definitely one of them. if you haven't seen it, i'd highly recommend it.

community

2010-01-19T09:13:00.000-08:00

b and i have really been enjoying community since it first came on the air in the fall. i feel as if no one watches this show though. or at least that not many people do. brian has asked some of his classes about it, and he does have some students watching it. but i have yet to talk to someone who watches it. it's so funny though. i've even listened to it online while working, and it's almost just as good to just listen to it.

so, anyone out there who's into it?

mr. ben

2010-01-14T06:29:00.000-08:00

two nights ago i was lying in my bed completely asleep and had a dream that i was hanging out with my good buddy ben folds. in the dream i knew that was pretty cool, but it also seemed quite normal. i don't really know why i dreamed about him (i hadn't been listening to his music right before i went to bed or anything), but he seemed as cool as i've always imagined he would be.

3 years

2009-12-17T09:25:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was the third anniversary of my dad's death. Fortunately and unfortunately it's getting easier. It seems normal now. But the middle of December can't come around without me thinking about what was happening in 2006. On December 13 (Wednesday), I flew out to Utah. On December 16 (Saturday), he passed away quite peacefully around 3:45pm. Of course, I remember a lot that happened in between too. But, as time passes I don't remember as vividly as I used to. I know that's natural, but it's so strange that something that was so impressed in my mind could begin to fade. I'm glad I wrote a very detailed account of everything in my journal.

So, this December 16 I happened to be in the town where he's buried. I drove by the gravesite. It was lucky that I just happened to be up there (and, in fact, the cemetary was exactly on my way).

One of the neat things about having my dad pass away right before Christmas is that it makes me think of Christmas, the birth of Jesus, in a more holistic way. I can no longer just think of his birth--I think of his life, death, and resurrection. I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day has always been one of my favorite Christmas songs, but it is extremely poignant to me now. It's beautiful, and really gets what Christmas is all about.

it's snowing

2009-12-07T12:55:00.000-08:00

we had our first big snowfall of the season. it started saturday night, and it's still going. it's been snowing all day today. it's pretty, and the mountains look great. the two down sides are driving in it and shoveling it. but at least shoveling is good exercise. so it is really is winter now.

you might think i mean a canadian town

2009-12-02T10:11:00.000-08:00

b is working on a new hootenany. we're going out to tennessee soon--so it seems like the perfect time to add a new hootenany to the roberts family annals. brian is the one who's writing it and developing the tune. so he gets all of the credit. but william and i are helping him by practicing it a lot. and william even inspired the first verse of the song by buying some horses for $2 at a grocery store. i don't want to give too much away, but here's part of the chorus.

saskatoon
you might think i mean a canadian town
saskatoon
you might think i'm being a comedian clown

it's great. and, btw, so are saskatoons (ie juneberries), especially the virginia variety.

thanks giving

2009-11-23T12:46:00.000-08:00

a friend made a post recently of things she's thankful for, and i thought that seemed like a good idea. particularly given the season and all. so, in no particular order, here are some things that i'm thankful for on november 23, 2009.

a job
brian
good health (for me and b)
having a good conversation
that i can run
a new son (especially when he sings the gilligan's island theme song (and sings "gilligan...the skipper or two...the millionaire..."))
beautiful mountains
my mom (and the rest of my family)
things that remind me of my dad
my in-laws
the new yorker
npr
the di
friends
thanksgiving
reading good books
watching good tv shows and movies
lost (i only have to wait another month or so--i can't remember if it starts in january or february)
dancing
oregon
virginia
fresh fruit
going to tn for christmas

season 3 is over

2009-11-11T10:30:00.000-08:00

i'm a fan of mad men. it's not a feel-good show, and you can't really like the characters or what they do most of the time, but it's really interesting and well done. the characters might not be people i'd want to hang out with, but they are interesting. i feel like watching this show gives me a glimpse into what it was like to live in the 60s. of course, not everyone lived like these people. but the show shows how smoking was so common, how people didn't wear seat belts, babies weren't in car seats, women drank while they were pregnant, ect, ect.

the third season was good. i've enjoyed watching it. now i just have to wait until next august for the fourth season. that's a long wait.

it's been a good week

2009-11-09T12:33:00.001-08:00

well, we are about at the end of our first week with william in our house. things have gone really very well. william is such a cheerful, helpful, smart boy that he makes it easy to love him and have him around.

on friday we went out for mexican food, and he had some chicken tacos. b and i had good burritos with spicy salsa. i always love a good burrito and hot salsa. then we went on the gallery stroll in downtown. we came across some interesting paintings and singers/bands. there was also a fun magician and even a used clothing sale. it was a fun evening. and william was a real trooper. he enjoyed it all too.

on saturday evening we went over to my aunt and uncle's house for dinner. william met a lot of people and wasn't shy at all. he even walked right up to my uncle and gave him a big hug. it was a good time. i got to see my grandma who i haven't seen for a few years.

on sunday, the weather was nice so we drove up into the canyon. we had a good time walking around the woods and on some trails. it was chilly, but surprisingly warm for november. and it's still going to be nice for a few more days. it might snow at the end of the week, but that's ok. mid november seems like a fine time for a little snow.

big changes

2009-11-03T12:16:00.000-08:00

this will be our last blog post before brian and i become parents--foster parents that is. but parents nonetheless if you have a child living with you full time. the goal is that this will turn into an adoption 6-8 months down the road. so, big changes.

the boy who is moving in with us, william, is 7 and in the 1st grade. for now i will be driving him over to the current elementary school he's been going to, which is about 2 miles away. but, after a few months or so, we'll transition him over into the elementary school that's just a block or two over (ie he can walk).

we have been spending time with william off-and-on since june. so this has been a slow transition, but that has worked out well for us. i, especially, needed time to make sure i could make this work. sometimes things come slowly to me.

anyway, after about 8.5 years of marriage, b and i will finally have a little (although not so little) kiddo in the house. so life goes.

we can't post pictures of him online, so don't expect to see any pictures of him on our blog. that's a bummer, but it's a reasonable rule (law?) that the state has set up. if you want to see a picture of him, you can email one of us and we'll send you one.

first dusting of snow

2009-10-27T17:33:00.000-07:00

we had our first snow down in the valley today. it was such a small amount it didn't create an accumulation, but it was fun to see some snow again. we're supposed to get more tonight and tomorrow. so maybe there will be a little accumulation. only time will tell.

pobrecito

2009-10-16T13:20:00.000-07:00

today is brian's birthday, which is exciting (i love birthdays). but, unfortunately, he's got a really bad cold. so bad he cancelled his classes today and is currently in a benadryl-induced slumber. the up side is that he didn't have to work on his birthday. the down side is pretty obvious.

so i don't know exactly what we'll do today to celebrate, but we're planning on going out for dinner tomorrow. and i have a few birthday tricks up my sleeve.

on another note, i love that brian's birthday is in october. i think we're pretty blessed to have been born in two of the best months of the year: october for brian and may for me. every time i step outside now i'm blown away by how gorgeous the trees in the valley and on the mountains are. i don't think i've ever seen the mountains here look better. and to top that off, we found 5 mushrooms (of the edible variety) in our yard. we were worried we might have over-harvested our yard--so you can only imagine how excited we are. and, b just found out that he got one of his articles accepted in a journal. i consider all these things birthday miracles!

happy birthday, b.

this is to show off the bright red virginia creeper that's climbing up our cedar trees in the back of our house. they look redder in real life.

a little blurry, but here's two of our mushrooms. they change so quickly. the blackish one is past its eating prime, but the other is perfectly edible.

again this doesn't really do the mountains justice, but this gives you a feel for how they look. i think the wet summer and winter is really bringing out the colors. the mountains are just amazing with fall colors--oranges, yellows, reds. it's so beautiful.

no offense to chicago

2009-10-02T10:05:00.001-07:00

i'm very happy to hear that the 2016 olympics will be in rio de janeiro. it's about time for south america to host the olympics. the us has hosted it so many time (so many times just in my 28-year lifetime). and, finally, i'm glad that having the obamas and oprah lobby for chicago didn't sway the committee's vote. it's fine to lobby for your country/city (and, honestly, it's expected), but a country/city should not win because high-profile people want it to be there.

yea for rio!

national parks

2009-09-29T06:58:00.000-07:00

b and i have been watching the new ken burns documentary "national parks: america's best idea" and are really enjoying it. as expected, it's very informative and engaging. below are a few surprising things we've learned or just things we've found interesting.

there is a national park called something like general grant national park in california. who knew?

crater lake was one of the first national parks.

the grand canyon was originally designated a national monument.

teddy roosevelt was a good taxidermist. and he was a funny guy. i've always heard he was a character, but some of the funniest parts so far have been when during the roosevelt parts.

john muir was a super cool guy. too bad he died in 1914--he would have been such an interesting man to know.

yellowstone was originally known as the "wonderland."

there's so much more--but that's all i can think of right now. if you haven't been watching this, i'd strongly recommend it. i think you can watch it for free on pbs.org (to get caught up). or you can just start watching it on pbs this evening.

the show

2009-09-24T08:56:00.000-07:00

so brian and i went up to the built to spill show last weekend--and it was an interesting time. the opening bands were nothing special. some of their stuff was ok, and one of the bands had a pretty rocking lady drummer, but the sound seemed a bit off (ie the music was too loud and the vocals were too soft). thankfully they fixed the sound system for b2s.

it was really exciting when b2s finally came out. doug looked like doug, and that guy with the huge beard still had the huge beard. the first things that surprised me about b2s, or really doug, were that doug's head bobbles in a very strange way when he sings and that doug is not very personable.

so, first his head. his head was jerkily bobbling around as soon as he started singing the first song (liar). it seemed like it might be difficult to sing like that, but he pulled it off. as the show progressed, though, his head movements became a little less extreme and jerky. i guess maybe he just has to warm up his head.

and second his unpersonability. this surprised me, but i guess maybe it shouldn't have. doug was very into the music, but not so into the crowd (even though i thought we were a good crowd--lots of yelling and clapping). after each song he would give a canned "thanks." brian and i both agreed that if we didn't like b2s so much we probably would have found his performance personae disconcerting, but you can't not like them. the music's too good. to doug's credit, though, i did see him smile a few times, and he did say "thank you" a couple times instead of just his standard, lilting "thanks."

the important thing was that the music was great. they, and especially doug, are so good. we got in some good dancing. i particularly liked "strange," "going against your mind," and "big dipper," and i noticed that they played a lot of songs from their "keep it like a secret" album. i wonder if that's their favorite album...

after the show ended, i went up to the front and thanked one of the guys for coming to slc and for putting on a great show. he then gave me the play list. how cool is that? all-in-all, it was a great night.

first day of fall

2009-09-22T12:52:00.000-07:00

i woke up this morning to a cold house. it was at 66 degrees, then it went down to 65, and finally it got down to 64. at that point i turned on the heater. so i guess it is indeed no longer summer.

the office

2009-09-17T08:41:00.001-07:00

b and i are so excited that the office is finally back on. i listened to a bit on the radio awhile ago, and a tv critic was commenting on how the office went downhill over the past season. i guess i'm just a die-hard fan because i thought it was great. i think of it as pure entertainment, and i'm looking forward to being purely entertained tonight! and anyway, this picture reminds me that i need to go for a run today...and that i should find some way to support rabies prevention education research.

a rocky mountain labor-free weekend

2009-09-08T12:06:00.001-07:00

brian and i had a good long weekend. below is a quick run-down of the highlights.

we made it up to the swiss days festival, which was interesting to go to but not too swissy. it could have had any name/theme and seemed about as swiss as the festival actually was. that was a bit disappointing, but i guess not too surprising.

on saturday we decided to go up to the high uintas to do some exploring. while driving/walking around, we spotted three different female mooses. and one, as you can see from the pic below, was pretty close. we also did a little fishing--b caught one fine trout.

on sunday we took an afternoon drive up to sundance and then on through the american fork canyon road. it was easy to see why robert redford was so taken by the sundance area. it is really beautiful up there. it's amazing how the mountains can look so different. we see the front of these mountains all the time, but the back side is completely different--so striking. it also seems like we might have found a good place to go leaf-viewing once the trees start changing.

on monday we got up early and went back up the high uintas to do a 7-mile'ish roundtrip hike to a couple mountain-top lakes. we did some great fishing (i caught the fattest fish i've ever caught); found thimbleberries, raspberries, and blueberries along the trail/by the lakes; and had a nice, relaxing time up there. we caught several trout and cooked them up at a firepit close to the lake. then did some more fishing and brought those fish down with us. the hiking part was a bit rough (it's a really tiring hike), but we're feeling better today. below shows some of the highlights.

this is a pic of a pika that poked its head out of the rocks a few times while i was sitting by the side of the lake. it was only about 3 feet away from me. isn't it cute?

this is a view of the upper lake.

this shows me with the fat fish i caught. b is holding it beside my head as i'm taking the picture, which is why it's a bit wonky.

this is the proud picture of brian with the big trout he caught in a tiny pool at the upper lake.

hittin' the hemingway (books and movies)

2009-09-03T12:22:00.000-07:00

i'm taking an english class this semester on hemingway with an emphasis on his works put into film. so i'll be reading several novels, short stories, ect and then watching film adaptations of those. i'm auditing the class, which means i get to do what i want/show up when i want with no deleterious repercussions(ie a bad grade). but i think it will be fun and interesting--so i plan on staying on top of the reading and attending the class as much as possible.

i-yi-yiii

2009-09-01T19:36:00.000-07:00

we just bought tickets to see our favorite band, built to spill, play in slc. this is a very, very good day in the roberts home. and we only have to wait til the 19th. and they're coming out with a new album on october 6!

a good siting

2009-08-27T07:38:00.001-07:00

last night b and i went up to a mountain overlook of the valley and watched the sunset. on the drive down, we happened to see two wild turkeys up on the hillside! i always love a wild turkey siting (it's fun to hear them too, but we were too far away this time). how fun would it be to go turkey hunting, hm? i had a friend in virginia who would go out turkey hunting with a bow. can you imagine how cool it would be to get one with an arrow and then bring it home to eat for thanksgiving or christmas. ah, a fantasy of mine...living off the turkey fat of the land.

heart of gold

2009-08-14T14:53:00.000-07:00

i was just reminded today of how much i love (love, love, love) johnny cash's version of heart of gold. i was flipping through my itunes library and came across it. it's a song that i could listen to over and over again. and actually i usually do when i have it queued up. i love how gravelly his voice is in it. it just seems to match the sense of longing found in the words.

if you haven't listened to it for awhile, find it on youtube or something. if you've never listened to it...all i can say is that you're in for a treat.

a fun family time

2009-08-11T14:24:00.001-07:00

b's parents came in town last week, and we had a good time with them. we went on several hikes, there was lots of good fishing, we had some good food, and--of course-- there were some good chats. below is a quick recap of our week.

on wednesday we went up to the high uintas on a 9-mile hike. it was a difficult hike (we were all very tired and sore afterwards), but it was really beautiful up there. it was exciting to finally get up there too, and to discover that it really isn't that far away from us. we hiked up to an alpine lake and spent several hours there. b, roland, and i did some fishing there and caught our limit--24 trout (can you imagine). that was basically a dream-come-true for brian and roland. we cooked up some of the fish in a fire we made. and then, since i forgot silverware, we ate the fish with our bare hands (unfortunately there are no pictures of that--our hands were way too grimy at the time). we hiked up about 2500 feet to the lake and then back down again. we got rained on some on the last little bit, and that felt good.

me with the biggest fish i caught up there.

one of the bag fulls of trout. yum!

b sitting by the fire as the fish were cooking.

a view of the lake that was so good to us.

then later in the week we went to a more local park. b and roland caught a few fish. we had a nice picnic up there and went on a little hike.

me and whitney by the cool, cool river.

on saturday we drove up to logan, and roland took us around to each of the houses he lived in while growing up there. one is no longer there, but the other two were, and we actually got tours of those homes. he also took us around to some of the schools he attended and other key sites. we drove up into logan canyon and went on a nice little hike. of course, it was beautiful again. there really isn't an ugly canyon here. we made it up to a limestone cavern overlooking the canyon.

we all agree that the family looks pretty dog-gone cool in this picture.

we found a spring along the trail, and b and roland stopped to get a drink.

at the caverns, b climbed up a rock wall to get to a high-up ledge.

whitney in a limestone crevice.

roland casually sitting outside logan high school whilst the lhs grizzly bear is looming in the background.

roland next to the pigeon coop at his second home in logan. the family that bought the house back in 1964 still live there.

a very oregon weekend

2009-07-28T14:46:00.000-07:00

so i went to oregon for the weekend to see my friends, my hometown, and go to my 10-year hs reunion. i got to portland thursday evening and then drove down with my two good hs friends courtney and laurel. it was fun driving down--especially once we got off i-5. i forgot how beautiful it is around the loon lake area. then, of course, it got foggy/cloudy when we got to winchester (ie we got within about 30 minutes of north bend). that was how it always was--so i was glad that hadn't changed.

we were staying at laurel's mom's house, which has a great view of the bay (and i took advantage of that many times). we got there friday afternoon and met up with some other friends (liz and her mark and jessica) and we all piled into jessica's car and i got to see the house i grew up in. i have to admit that i was unpleasantly surprised. the house (and neighborhood for that matter) looked shabby and not in great repair. they had also cut down most of the trees around the house. you could also see that they must park a truck in the front yard (ie there were tire tracks). the only good thing i could see was they had extended out the backyard by cutting back the blackberry bushes that were always so unruly. but even that's sad since who doesn't want to have blackberries just out your back door?

here are the pictures of my house. many might not care about these...but i know at least my family will.

you'll see here all of the trees that were cut down. from memory, i'm guessing that they cut down at least 7 trees. i just can't imagine why you'd want to cut them down.

ironically, the two trees they decided not to cut down were these two shore pines that are now enormous. personally, i don't think they look very good.

this shows how windy and cold it is. it's easy to forget that it can honestly be so cool somewhere during the summer.

so friday night we had a delicious quiche that laurel's mom, kate, cooked for us. she's such a great cook! and then we went to a reunion opening social at a bar in town. walking into the bar was the only time i was nervous during all of the reunion craziness. it was all very sudden and weird to see people. but i got over that pretty quickly. it was a bit weird at times, but overall i had a good time. the funniest thing, to me, was that a number of people said they didn't/hadn't recognized me. but i guess glasses and short red hair may do that.

this is our group prior to the bar outing.

saturday we went out to a bbq and then to my favorite beach. it was cloudy, foggy, cool, windy--basically just the way you'd expect it to be and want it to be.

me and my friends courtney and laurel at sunset beach. i got my feet in the water, and (on accident) got my pants wet too when a little sneaker wave got me.

this is the little river that flows into the ocean. when b was here with me before we got married, he was shocked at how freezing the water was. after getting used to the cold mountain rivers here in utah, it didn't feel so cold...although still way to cold to do much than just look at it.

that night we went to the "main event" at the local casino. and it really was a lot of fun. next door to our room was the neighboring town's 1999 hs reunion event going on. they had hired a dj--so when the dividers were removed between the two 99 reunion events, me and my friends went over and danced to their dj's tunes (but only when they were good. there really was no reason to dance to the two john cougar mellancamp songs he played.) and then we their dj was done we played several songs from courtney's ipod. and when that happened, we actually got quite a few of the nb'ers out on the dance floor dancing. it was great. i haven't danced like that in a long time.

after the casino thing ended, we went over to a new dance club in coos bay. it was not very impressive and the music (other than mj's billie jean) wasn't good, but it was fun to dance a bit more. then we went to a local diner that stays open 24 hours (perhaps the only that does now). it was a fun night, but i didn't get to bed until about 5am--sunday am that is. so it was a very short morning since i had decided to attend the first hour of church so i could see my old ward and some people. church started at 9--so i got 3 hours of rest (note i didn't say sleep). it was good to go see the church building and some people. the ward has changed a lot, and i didn't recognize a lot of people, but it was interesting.

on sunday, court, laurel and i drove back up to portland. then on monday laurel and i went to a crazy goodwill where you buy clothes by the pound. we got a huge bag full of stuff for only $14. then we met up with court at an indonesian place in the city. with the last of my oregon time, court and i hung out at powell's. it was too hot to try to do anything outside.

so, all-in-all it was a great time. there were some weird moments, but i expected that (especially given that i was attending a hs reunion). it was good to see nearly everybody. i reconnected with people i knew well and people i didn't know too well back in the day. north bend was still very much the same in many ways, but there were definite changes as well. the biggest change, for me, was my house. i want to go back there when i have more time, and i want to take brian with me so that he can get more familiar with the area and people. hopefully it won't take 7.5 years before that happens!

going home

2009-07-23T09:36:00.000-07:00

so, after nearly 7.5 years, i'm finally going back to oregon. the last time i went back home i was in college and on break for the slc olympic games. it was february, and (as you'd probably guess), it was cool and rainy.

i've missed oregon a lot over the past years. i'm glad that my parents left since north bend would have been a difficult place for them to retire in, but it's still sad that no one is still there to make me go back for visits.

but it's the big day! the picture above is an iconic picture of the southern oregon coast where i'm from. isn't it beautiful. i can't wait to see the beach, the trees (yes, fir trees!), see how my town has changed, see my friends, see my old house, go to church at the old chapel (well not the really old chapel, but the one that i went to during most of my childhood), seeing my hs, ect...the only sad part is that the world's best doughnut place closed down a few years ago. they had the best maple bars. ever.

i'll post some pics when i get back! yea!

the departed

2009-07-15T15:26:00.000-07:00

b and i watched this scorcese movie that came out a few years ago. it was really intense with a great story and strong characters. i've been thinking about it a lot today. if you find it on tv sometime, i'd recommend it as long as you don't mind intensity, violence, death, blood, weirdly dubbed over swear words, ect.

and btw it has some great boston accents. last night everything i said seemed to come out in a badly-rendered boston accent.

a good burrito is a beautiful thing

2009-07-11T10:30:00.000-07:00

last week brian and i were going out to get thai food, but noticed there was a new mexican place next door to the thai place we had been planning on frequenting. we wandered in just to see what they had and, after trying a free sample of their coconut horchata (which, btw, was better than you would even expect it to be), decided to give their burritos a try. and, oh, they were good. really good. and if you know me, you know i love a good burrito. after living in charlottesville, i thought they weren't difficult to come by. but then we moved to provo, and i realized that that was just not true.

but, now there is a great burrito place here in town. it makes me feel better to know that they're here--just a 5-minute drive away. it makes utah feel more like home.

a good 4th of july weekend

2009-07-08T12:49:00.000-07:00

i had last friday off so b and i decided to get out of town and do some serious birding. we got up early and drove up to the bear river migratory bird refuge. although it's summer (and not peak migration time) we saw a total of 38 different kinds of birds (out of about 62 summer residents). and 21 of those 38 were new birds! below is the list of new ones.

eared grebe
double crested cormorant
northern pintail
northern shoveler
blue-winged teal
ruddy duck
snowy egret
black-crowned night heron
white-faced ibis
sandhill crane
american avocet
snowy plover
long-billed curlew
common snipe
wilson's phalarope
western sandpiper
california gull
franklin's gull
bank swallow
marsh wren

an american avocet feigning an injury--probably to keep us away from the nest.

this one was my favorite: the black-crowned night heron. when i first saw it through my binoculars, i was blown away. it's red eyes are intense.

the ruddy duck was fun. we both had this in our top three favorite birds of the day. it's blue beak is cool.

after we were done birding, we went into logan. we had a good time there doing sundry things including going to the dairy and getting root beer- and mango-flavored milk, cheese curds, and creamed raspberry honey. that was quite a lunch.

we also went to logan zoo and saw b's grandparents house. it's quite different than it used to be. we finished our logan-time by going up into the canyon. we found a beautiful spot that we'll have to go back to to do some swimming/bbq'ing.

on saturday, the 4th, we went on a hike/fishing trip up in a nearby canyon. and b caught 7 fish although we only brought 2 home. and 1 of them was a cutthroat...if you can imagine. here's b with his proud, proud cutthroat.

on sunday, we went up into another canyon (three in one weekend) and happened across a giant puffball. unfortunately it was too far along (ie past its prime) to eat, but b spread it around the lawn so that (fingers crossed) we'll have a yard menagerie of giant puff balls! (btw, a puffball is an edible mushroom.)

bad luck / good luck

2009-07-01T07:52:00.001-07:00

we went out to try our luck at fishing last night and discovered that we didn't have too much of it. brian did catch a fish, but it was too small. i had two bites and saw a trout following my lure, but no dice. it was pretty disappointing.

before heading back home empty-handed, we thought we'd go check our old fishing spot. we didn't see any fish there, but we did spot a lot of american redstarts. it may be surprising to our gentle readers that we've never seen one (given that they're pretty much all over the us), but it was our first time. as you can see it's a good-looking bird.

so, at least we had some good luck last night...

matlock

2009-06-30T16:00:00.000-07:00

i watched an episode of matlock today. i used to watch matlock all the time as a kid, but i actually saw an episode today that i've never seen before. it was pretty wild--it involved a cult, brainwashing, a son saying his father killed his guru, ect, ect. it was cool.

hens & chicks

2009-06-25T10:41:00.000-07:00

since moving to a desert, we've become big fans of succulents. one of our favorites is the beautiful hens and chicks (shown above). a few weeks ago we tried planting a few "blossoms" in our park strip, which if you've seen it is in need of some help. they didn't seem to be thriving, but they were doing ok. then one evening i happened to be going out to get the mail and saw a little neighborhood girl picking them out of the ground. and that was the downfall of our hens and chicks.

at some point i'd like to get some more and maybe grow them in a pot like the picture. in the meantime i bought a small pot of succulents from the local farmer's market. they stay in the house and are doing well. and b gave me a potted succulent plant for my birthday that we planted in the yard awhile ago. we planted it far away from the park strip--so it should survive as well (fingers crossed).

a passage to india

2009-06-15T09:46:00.000-07:00

brian and i watched the 1984 movie a passage to india (based on the novel of the same name by e.m. forster). it was a really interesting and engaging movie. i haven't read the book, but i can vouch for the movie. if you haven't seen it, i'd strongly recommend it.

a walk in the barrio

2009-06-12T12:20:00.000-07:00

brian and i went on a walk last night through our neighborhood, and we made it to some new areas. we discovered a byu horticulture place/garden (it was official with a sign and a gate and everything). interestingly, though, there was nothing really there other than a field of grass and some bleachers (to watch something?). we did see some nice quail though, and maybe that's why byu holds onto it. quail need a place to roam too.

we also found this crazy tree that has really big and unusual-shaped leaves with long seed-pod things hanging off of it and the most beautiful flowers. they looked liked orchids. i brought some that had blown off home to enjoy.

we also came across a nice cherry tree with ripe cherries. so we ate those on the way out and on the way back.

and it started raining on us when we started heading back. it rained pretty good, but it was a plesant summer rain: not too cold or heavy. we walked as leisurely on the way back in the rain as we had before it started raining. and then to top off a nice walk through the neighborhood, a huge rainbow came out. it was perfectly formed with both ends appearing in vivid color. it seems like such a long time since i've seen a rainbow.

go south, that is what we'll do, go south where the sky is blue (sometimes)

2009-05-27T20:38:00.000-07:00

brian and i headed down south over memorial day weekend to memorialize our 8th anniversary and to just get away for awhile. we decided to go to escalante national monument after brian heard a colleague mention going there. it was difficult to find out information about the monument online--so when we drove down there on friday we weren't really sure what we were getting ourselves into.

we got to go through areas of the state we've never seen before, which was fun. driving through dixie national forest was interesting. the landscape was beautiful with lots of pines and really tall aspens. but it was also very, very high up. so climbing the mountain, we sometimes found ourselves going as fast as 25 mph. but, if you can imagine we did still manage to pass some motor homes at that speed.

this is a view from the top of the dixie national forest.

we made it to escalante friday evening and headed out onto a clay dirt/gravel road. our goal was to go several miles in and then camp off the side of the road and then get up on saturday and drive the rest of the way to some cool slot canyons and hikes. we made it 20 miles out onto this road and decided to stop so we could set up our tent, eat, ect before dark. we did all of that and enjoyed feeling like we were out in the middle of nowhere (no one or human-made thing was visible from where we were). our only company was a jack rabbit and cows. cows just seem to be all over escalante, and if you don't see them you know that they have been around because there are just tons and tons of cow pies. i've never seen so much cow poop. but a lot of it was old, so we just kicked some out of the way to set down our tent.

that night we settled into our tent and did some reading up on the monument. then, probably around 9:30 it started to rain. and it proceeded to rain all night long. there were a few times when we thought it was going to stop, but then it just started up again. neither one of us slept well (we couldn't remember falling asleep at all), but thankfully for us we didn't feel too wet. in the morning we discovered there was a puddle at the foot of the tent and that our pillows, sleeping bags, blankets, ect were really very wet. all of that wouldn't have been too bad except we had driven out 20 miles on a mostly clay dirt road that, when wet, is extremely difficult (sometimes impossible) to drive on in a 2-wheel drive car like ours. so we carried all of our wet stuff quickly to the car (trying to avoid stepping on cactuses and cow pies) and threw it in the car. we both had visions of being stuck out there and/or having to pay for a tow truck. but, somehow, we made it out. every time we drove through a big puddle or went up a hill we were really worried, but we made it back the full 20 miles. honestly that seemed like a miracle.

we made it into town around 8:15 and went to the gas station to find out what we could do on a wet, rainy day when going anywhere that required 4-wheel drive was out the question. while we were there, i noticed a sign advertising a sons of the utah pioneers memorial day breakfast at the local park at 8:30 am. it just happened to be 8:30 am so b and i went over to the park and ate an eggs, ham, pancake, and hot chocolate breakfast with a bunch of escalante locals. while we were there, we ended up eating with one of the town's most prominent citizens and a former berkley paleontologist. the berkley guy told us about how he bought this crazy house that had originally been a pioneer home and grainery that was then subsumed in a updated, expanded home that comprised the original home and grainery and the "new" sections of the home. he took us on a tour of the house, which was indeed crazy. some of the rooms were half finished, had doors that didn't fit, had dirt floors, had slanted ceilings, had huge, old stoves that didn't work, or showers that weren't hooked up to a waterline, and bathrooms that were meant to be walked through to reach another room. it was wild, and there was so much junk it. but a lot of cool old furniture and stuff. eventually he wants to turn it into a museum. we wished him luck on that project.

it turned out that we were in escalante during it's heritage festival so we went to the high school to attend a presentation on escalante architecture (there's lots of neat old homes, barns, ect there). and they were also selling arts and crafts there. brian even got to help set up chairs. while we were there, an extremely nice couple found out that we were in a bad way (since our tent was soaking wet and none of the hotels had vacancies) and offered to let us spend the night at their house. they were an older couple and were so generous. it seemed like something that would happen in a different time. but escalante just seemed like the sort of place in which something like that would still happen.

it cleared up that afternoon, so brian and i went to the petrified forest state park.

a view from a high up ledge. it gave me a bit of vertigo being close to that edge.

brian birding.

a nice piece of petrified wood.

that's my hand. it's supposed to look like i'm getting a splinter.

after we looked around the petrified forest we went birding. we saw some super cool birds including, but not limied to the black headed grosbeak (a new one for us), the yellow breated chat (another new one for us), the bullock's oriole, and the western tanager.

that night we went to the escalante heritage festival community play. it was written by a man in escalante and told the history (or part of it) of the town and some of its humorous episodes. it had always been a dream of brian's that he would just wind up in a small town and happen upon a community theater production. and boy did brian's dreams come true. now it's his dream that he'll come to a small town and happen upon a community theater production and not fall asleep during it.

saturday night we stayed at the very, very kind couple's home. and it was such a luxurious sleep after not getting any sleep the night before. the next morning we got up and went to church and said good bye to our new-found escalante friends. during the rest of the day, we did some more exploring and hiking around the monument. we saw some new birds, walked around in some amazing places, met some interesting people, and got rained on some more. the pictures below show some of the highlights.

this shows the sky when the storm clouds were brewing. it rained every day we were there. apparently it hardly ever rains there in may like this. the locals were really glad to have the rain--so it made it seem ok that we couldn't make it out to the slot canyons we had wanted to hike through.

this was a view as we were nearing canyonlands national park. the piles of clay/sand were amazing. i couldn't believe the colors. some of it even looks purple.

this is me on top of a sand rock peak we climbed up. you could see a valley on either side of the top.

this is me in a small slot canyon we saw.

brian was so happy when we made it just barely into capitol reef national park. it turns out that the paved road that took us to the park turned into an unpaved road as soon as you hit the park. we had thought we might drive back home through capitol reef until we saw that it was unpaved.

this is b in a slot canyon that we just happened upon on our own while we were out hiking around.

sunday night we decided we'd sleep in the car. our tent was still wet, the hotels were still full, and it seemed like too much to stay with that nice couple for a second night. so we ate our canned chili in the car and then tried to stretch out as best as possible in the front two seats of our geo prizm. as you can probably imagine it was another long night. we didn't sleep well again, but at least we weren't wet, and it was nice to "wake up" in the morning to see the sun coming up over the rock mountains.

monday morning we went on a hike to a waterfall. the hike was so delightful. the scenery was beautiful (it was in a red rock canyon along a creek) and we even saw some old fremont people graineries and pictoraphs (they're over 800 years old). we saw some new birds again, and the waterfall area was refreshing and picturesque. below are some pictures of the hike.

the blossoming cactus pictures. i loved all the varieties.

the pictographs--see the three people holding hands.

as soon as we finished the hike it started raining again. so, fittingly, we left escalante in the rain. driving through the mountains in the dixie national forest we ran into some snow and hail, but it soon cleared up and it was sunny the rest of the way home.

we had such a good time over the weekend. nothing really turned out the way we had planned, but that was part of the fun. we're definitely planning on going back sometime when we can make it to the slot canyons we wanted to see. there's an arts festival there in september--so maybe that's when we'll go back...

8 is great

2009-05-20T19:46:00.000-07:00

brian and i celebrated our 8th anniversary last sunday. after church we went over to hobble creek canyon to do some exploring and went on the most amazing hike. we walked along the creek as it came down the canyon. the water was cool (literally) with lots of rushing and little waterfalls. and, if you can imagine, we saw three new birds. we're experienced enough birders that it's not very often that we see so many new birds on a single outing. below are some pictures of the birds we saw--our favorite was the white-winged crossbill.

the plumbeous vireo.

this gray headed junco is a bit more puffed up and mean looking than the one we saw, but you get the idea.

just check out that crossed bill.

whilst we were in the canyon we also found a yellow-bellied racer (also known as the mormon racer). the poor snake was dead, but it was still a good sighting. thankfully we had gone to the library the day before and checked out a handy book called "snakes of utah" so we could accurately identify it. we also saw several little chipmunks.

when we came back home we enjoyed a nice dinner together and then had fresh cut mango and tembleque for dessert--mango and coconut are a winning combination. we also sat out on our back/side yard swing. it was one of the first truly pleasant nights we've had so far. and there will be so many more to come this summer.

it was such a nice day. thank goodness brian and i both went to see a three punk band show at rick's college back on a nice september evening in 1999.

some pictures

2009-05-12T14:57:00.000-07:00

below are some pictures of mother's day weekend and my birthday.

me and the feijoa i tried over the weekend. it's a new fruit for us. it had an interesting and unique flavor and texture.

mom with her mother's day cards.

me and b at the river. we walked along the river up the canyon and saw some birds and felt some cold, cold water.

brian with the gopher snake we found on the trail. this was brian's first sighting of a gopher snake--and mine too.

brian all wet from the water flowing behind him. he really enjoyed feeling the power of the water as it was flowing down the dam-like thing.

me and mom with all the birthday mole!

me with my birthday red hair that i thought looked good with one of my favorite dresses. then, of course, i had to put on my new glasses (i think of them fondly as my elton john glasses).

birthday ketchup

2009-05-11T12:11:00.000-07:00

so today is my 28th birthday, but first i'll start with the ketchup.

we had a fine weekend filled with good finds at the thrift store, picking of redbud blossoms (yes, they are edible. and yes they do grow here in utah.), hanging out with family (which included grilled salmon!), celebrating mother's day with my mom, dying my newly shorn hair red, and finding mushrooms in our yard (yes, those are edible too). we also got to celebrate from a distance david's phd graduation. yea, david!

so back to today. i love celebrating birthdays and am a firm believer that they don't need to be confined to just one day. in fact, may is really kind of a big celebratory month since it's my birthday and our anniversary. so far, to celebrate today i've worked a 1/2 day (instead of a full day) and went on a long run. when brian comes home soon we're going to go up into the canyon to walk along the provo river. the goal will be to be outside and enjoy the beautiful sunny weather and see birds. it will be easy to enjoy the weather...but i just hope beyond hope we'll see some birds. then tonight we're going out for mexican food with my mom. there's a place in slc that's supposed to have good mole. so i'm willing to go and judge whether or not it is good!

so turning 28 (and maybe because my hs reunion is this summer) makes me think of what was going on 10 years ago when i turned 18. without going back and looking at a journal, here is what i remember.

mom made me strawberry/whip cream waffles for breakfast.

i didn't have to go to school until like 10am or so since i no longer had to attend calculus class (i wasn't taking the ap exam).

for some reason i felt kind of bad that morning, but it turned out i wasn't sick.

during lunch i ate in the hallway with my friends and they gave me presents.

that evening there was a home track meet. i ran the 1500 and probably the 4x400 relay. i don't remember anything about the relay, but the 1500 was the fastest i ever ran that length. i ran a 5:14, which i was proud of. there's a pretty scary picture of me to commemorate how "good" i felt after finishing the race.

that night for dinner we grilled chicken and steak, had homemade rolls, potatoes, jello, corn on the cob, and kool-aid. of course, all of that was my choice (obviously there did need to be two types of meat). then we had cake and ice cream.

i don't remember how warm it was (probably not very warm), but i do remember it wasn't raining. and that was always a birthday miracle living on the oregon coast.

so that unclear picture is me, my dad, and my brother kyle enjoying my very meaty 18th birthday dinner.

a very graduation weekend

2009-04-27T09:17:00.000-07:00

we had a good weekend, filled with graduation festivities. below are the highlights of our unrestrained celebrations.

this is brian, whitney, and roland before the big university-wide event. that was brian's first time in the full phd regalia. note: regalia is a fun word to say.

whitney with her "fake" diploma. this is at the college of humanities graduation event on friday.

brian, roland, and whitney up in american fork canyon. it was a pretty nice day--not super cold, not hot, and definitely beautiful.

we were all pretty tired by the time we were out hiking around. we had gotten up early for graduation and had a big lunch. here you can see brian and roland taking a little break to restore their energy for the rest of the hike.

after resting for awhile, we found some old pine sap nodules on the pine trees. roland and brian turned that old sap into gum.

whitney decided to try a piece of gum, but couldn't handle it for very long. thankfully i've had it before and knew it wasn't too tasty. whitney learned the hard way.

brian thought it was funny. poor whitney.

friday night we had a weenie roast in our fire pit. thankfully we finished right before it started raining hard. but the rain didn't stop roland and brian from going out in our front yard to get night crawlers. we have a good supply of them in our yard, which will be perfect for our summer fishing needs.

and speaking of fishing, brian and roland and whitney went fishing saturday morning. they brought home two fine brown trouts that we ate for brunch. they were so good.

papas and razzies

2009-04-23T05:07:00.000-07:00

brian's dad came out yesterday and packed away some raspberry stalks for us to grow in our yard. he had them all neatly wrapped in plastic with some good old tennessee dirt in one of his suitcases.

the raspberry plant is one that he, roland, moved from his parent's place in logan to tennessee. and now it's coming back home to its original utah soil. hopefully it will give us some good raspberries.

plus our tulips finally came up! still most of them haven't opened, but finally, finally. nearly everyone's flowers have been blooming for weeks now. (you can also see our flowering quince hanging above the tulips. the quince fruits from flowering quinces aren't too tasty, but the blossoms are beautiful.)

ceramics stuff

2009-04-19T21:07:00.001-07:00

well the semester is now over for me and ceramics. it wasn't until the end that i really started getting better at the wheel, which is too bad, but it was fun. below are some pics of my favorite pieces. the scale of size is not too big since i never got the knack for throwing big pieces, but large bowls are so overrated.

we also went over to my mom's to celebrate her 65th birthday. as our contribution to the bbq we brought falafels. we found a good falafel recipe in a vegetarian magazine awhile ago. if you're in a food rut, you might consider making these delectible little goodies. they're pretty quick and easy, and they're so good with a tangy yogurt sauce on top.

yard update

2009-04-10T07:40:00.000-07:00

so we are happy to announce that we bought a red haven peach tree yesterday and planted it in our yard. red havens are supposed to give really tasty peaches, so keep your fingers crossed that that's true.

as we were out yesterday evening planting the new tree, i took some pictures of other spots in the yard so you can see how it's coming back to life. definitely a good thing to consider with easter coming up this weekend.

here's brian watering the new red haven peach tree.

our forsythia (i didn't take the time to look up that spelling) in our side yard...you can also see our "garden box," which is in pretty poor shape.

this is an old plum tree (one that was here when we moved in) that is starting to blossom.

our burgundy plum tree seems to be doing well. it has several blossoms on the verge of opening up.

and finally, this is our flowering quince tree. i think this one will be really pretty once more of the blossoms are open. past the quince tree, you can see some "green things" starting to come out of the ground. my thinking is that these are bulbs, perhaps tulips, but there are still no flowers. it's all a bit mysterious since everyone else's flowers seem to be up and blooming already. so maybe they're just nice green leaves? we also have a nice supply of green onions growing there. does anyone have any really good green onion recipes?

april is the cruelest month

2009-03-30T11:31:00.000-07:00

or, in our case, march is the cruelest. we finished our taxes this weekend. i can't believe people do this every year. this was my first time taking the driver's seat, and i have to admit that it wasn't too fun. of course, this year we had two state tax returns to do plus the federal, but still. i can't believe there are people who actually do this (or perhaps even enjoy doing this) for a living.

we passed our homestudy!

2009-03-25T08:09:00.000-07:00

the story of our process to adopt continues...

we found out about a week ago that our background checks came through successfully. that took about three months, which is about as long as we expected. they told us it would take awhile, and it did. but we came back clean. but what else would you expect?

then we had our homestudy done yesterday. i fully expected that we wouldn't pass the first time around since i didn't know exactly what they would be expecting, and surely there would be something that would be wrong. but it was so easy and laid back. we even found out that we could house up to 7 kids in our house. of course, i don't see that happening, but it's good to know we bought a house that will work and we don't have to feel limited by it in terms of how many kids we can adopt.

so our licensor told us that we'll be fully certified by next week (we'll get certificates in the mail or something like that). after that we'll have our family resource consultant come meet with us. then...we'll be free to start seriously looking at particular kids to adopt. or, we could go the foster care route. but once we're certified we'll be able to find out all the details on kids we're interested in.

so it seems like brian and i might actually have kids at some point. and if we get older kids, like we're thinking of getting, we actually might have older kids than some of you who had kids years ago!