Luckily Got Lucky

3 posts in 1 day...

noreply@blogger.com (Darwin and Kiara) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:07:00 +0000

...is that bad? Make sure you scroll down and check out all three!

This one's about San Francisco!!!

One of the 1st things we saw when we got off the plane was this horse in the airport. It looks like it's made of driftwood, but it's actually metal. Pretty cool.

The view from our hotel room--foggy, yes. But you can see the ocean!

The 1st night we attended a reception where our school received a certificate of accreditation for our Certified Family Life Education program. Yay us!
Kristen, Janice, Ron, Me, Alisa, Caryl, Kristalyn, and Roger (a.k.a. Santa Claus)

After doing some volunteering Thursday morning and taking a nap, we got on a couple of tour buses and made our way to San Francisco. This awesome building was there waiting to welcome us! :)

Santa taking a picture of us...he really was a blast to have with us. Thanks for coming, Roger!!

The crew:
Lindsay, Hillary, Me, Janice, Santa
Carson, Kristen, Caryl, Ron

Our evening pretty much took place at Pier 39

Fun sour dough creations

Digging in and feasting on our sour dough

You should have seen all the boats!

Ron sharing our precious sour dough with the seagulls!!
(More of this story to come below)

Janice finally found her boyfriend in San Francisco!

Alcatraz
Someday D and I will go to San Fran and take a tour. It's one of our dreams.

The Golden Gate Bridge

I promise there is a reason a took a picture of this seagull. Here's the rest of the "feeding sour dough to the seagulls" story...
Ron had just given me a chunk of some yummy chocolate sour dough bread with chocolate chips and raisins. I was holding it in my hand and trying to take a picture at the same time, so the bread was up by my head. All of a sudden, my bread was gone! This ginormous seagull (it really was a huge seagull! This picture doesn't do it justice) flew in right over my head and snatched it right out of my hand, then swallowed the entire thing whole! So, if you look at it's neck, you can see the bulge, which is actually my chunk of chocolate sour dough bread. Janice said the look on my face was priceless. Man! I wish we had gotten it on video!
Moral of the story: Don't hold a chunk of scrumptious bread up by your head and expect to hang onto it while you're by the ocean. A seagull will come and steal it!

Tons of sea lions at Pier 39

These random toilets on the street cracked me up. I had to get a picture!

Street performers singing "Red Wine." Love that song!

We ate dinner at Joe's Crab Shack, although we really ended up there because our whole group of girls had to use the restroom. Seriously! You cannot easily find a public restroom in San Francisco! We really had to search! But it ended up being a good find because we had great food (most of us anyway) and some fun dancing with the waitresses.
(*Note: I do realize that I just posted a picture of public toilets out on the street, but none of us would have actually used them...they were pretty gross on the inside!)

Friday was filled with Conferencing at the NCFR for most of our group. I spent the day (and most of the trip, actually) sleeping in the hotel room because I got sick the day after we got there, and was miserable!! I still tried to enjoy myself as much as I could, and I had great people with me who took wonderful care of me while I was away from my hubby. Then Saturday evening our group went back to San Francisco in our mini-bus we rented. We did some driving around the Golden Gate Park, and saw some amazing houses and beautiful streets. We drove down Lombard street in our 12 passenger van, and drove across the Golden Gate Bridge a couple of times. It really was a blast! (Despite being sick and feeling miserable.)

Unfortunately you can't tell from the picture how steep this road really was.
This is an amazing view of San Fran from Twin Peaks. There is a street close by named "Deming." I seriously wanted to stop and get a picture....maybe next time.

Janice & I weren't feeling too great after our delicious dinner, probably from eating too much, but that didn't stop us from going to Ghirardelli Square where we got some scrumptious chocolate!

The next morning, Sunday, we flew back to SLC. Despite not getting out of the trip what I expected or hoped for, I still had a good time. Out of our 4-day conference, I was only able to attend one 45 minute session, and even had to leave early because I was coughing so much! I was sick enough the first couple of days we thought I might have swine flu because I had a lot of the symptoms, but never got a fever. Being sick pretty much forced me to change my plans, but that's why we try to be flexible! Luckily Ron was the only other person who was sick, but he wasn't nearly as bad as I was. Thank goodness!

Thanks, Ron, for allowing us the opportunity to attend a conference and get the experience! Thanks to everyone who came and made the trip a blast! It's so great to be back home with my sweetheart though!

What Are You Thankful For?

noreply@blogger.com (Darwin and Kiara) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:04:00 +0000

Our own lists to come...

A Little Irreverent Christmas/Mental Health Humor

noreply@blogger.com (Darwin and Kiara) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:40:00 +0000

Schizophrenia:

Do You Hear What I Hear?

Multiple Personality Disorder:

We Three Queens Disoriented Are

Amnesia:

I Don't Know if I'll be Home for Christmas

Narcissistic:

Hark the Herald Angels Sing About Me

Manic:

Deck the Halls and Walls and House and Lawn and Streets and Stores and Office and Town and Cars and Buses and Trucks and Trees and Fire Hydrants and...

Paranoid:

Santa Claus is Coming to Get Me

Borderline Personality Disorder:

Thoughts of Roasting on an Open Fire

Full Personality Disorder:

You Better Watch Out, I'm Gonna Cry, I'm Gonna Pout, Maybe I'll tell You Why

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder:

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells...

Agoraphobia:

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day But Wouldn't Leave My House

Senile Dementia:

Walking in a Winter Wonderland Miles From My House in My Slippers and Robe

Oppositional Defiant Disorder:

I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus So I Burned Down the House

Social Anxiety Disorder:

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas while I Sit Here and Hyperventilate

The next Van Gogh...seriously!

noreply@blogger.com (Darwin and Kiara) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:49:00 +0000

I posted this on my private blog, but I'm still so proud of it that I have to post it here too to share with everyone...

I have to tell you first of all how proud I am of my drawing. Not only does it actually look like a moose, but I DREW IT IN THE DARK!! I couldn't see a thing, so I'm honestly quite impressed with myself for how well I did. I don't even want to attempt to draw it again though, because I know I can't draw that well with my eyes open! Talk about kicking Pictionary butt!! Woot! Woot!

*Art by K.D., November 4, 2009*

P.S. I drew this picture as an object lesson in Institute to go along with D&C 111, talking about being led in the dark. And, my picture was actually one of the better ones!

Michael McLean and the Adoption Conference

noreply@blogger.com (Darwin and Kiara) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 01:26:00 +0000

The Adoption Conference went outstandingly well! I think that no matter what event you put on, there are always a few bumps, but I think everything was awesome. All of my anal efforts in organizing the volunteers paid off and things went very smoothly. I honestly had a blast during the conference, despite a few slight moments of stress. I even volunteered to help out again next year if they decide to do it again and if I'm available. I hope everyone who attended got something out of it...I know I did. (And, it was so great to see you, Tricia!) I was able to be a moderator for one of the sessions--a panel discussion of social workers that was extremely informative, and I had a blast doing it. But the biggest highlight of the day for me was being able to meet Michael McLean in person, and he even gave me a hug (and the pictures prove it)! :) He's such a genuine person and really cares about people and their stories. That's one of the things I love about the field I'm going into...I've learned and become more aware that every person has a story, and it's learning those stories that makes me want to make a difference. Anyway, here are a couple of pictures from the day, and a video I took of Michael performing his highlight song, "From God's Arms to My Arms to Yours." Sorry it's a bad recording and a little shaky, but I hope you enjoy it anyway!

Janice and Me
(She's my partner-in-crime at school...we have a blast together)

A couple of our volunteers at the sales table...selling Michael's book/cd combo

See the half hug? I told you!! ;)

Yeah--that's us with Michael McLean...Suh-weet!

Michael telling us awesome adoption stories in between playing and singing songs for us

Our Awesome Halloween

noreply@blogger.com (Darwin and Kiara) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 21:18:00 +0000

We must have been busy this year because we didn't get to do all of the fun things we usually do for Halloween. We usually carve pumpkins every weekend, we usually go to a pumpkin patch, we usually take the time to watch our Halloween movies, we usually go to a Halloween party, etc. You get the picture. Despite not being able to do all of the usual, fun Halloween things that we love, it was still awesome. D carved his first and only pumpkin the first weekend in October--it's his favorite keep-me-awake activity while we watch General Conference. I absolutely loved the pumpkin he carved though! It's an adorable mummy couple looking at each other...I don't know how well you can tell what it is in the picture:
D baked the seeds and made our scrumptious Halloween mix that we've enjoyed snacking on all month. Our good friends Courtney and Wayne had us over for dinner and we decorated some fun Halloween cookies, but didn't get any pictures of them. Then D dressed up for school on Thursday and his students and the other faculty members absolutely loved his costume! He had a blast with it too, and totally played the part of Jack Sparrow.

He was trying to get a picture, and I jumped in to join him :)

Then, yesterday, the weather was absolutely beautiful for Halloween!! We went to our ward trunk-or-treat, and several people came and told D he had the best costume there. Everyone loved that he played the part, and a member of our bishopric actually thanked us for our entertainment in Sacrament meeting today. Haha. People in the ward who weren't there last night, or missed coming by our car kept asking us throughout church what we did to entertain everyone. I just said I had nothing to do with it...it was all D. :) I seriously have the best husband ever. I'm glad he's such a people-person and everyone tends to like him. The rest of the pictures are from the trunk-or-treat:

Jack Sparrow handing out candy

Believe it or not, several of the kids were afraid of him and wouldn't take candy from him, so that's when I would take over and put candy in their bags. Poor kids...they didn't know what they were missing out on.
These adorable grape bundles belong to a couple of our friends.

These boys loved D's costume so much they were throwing candy to him! It really was hilarious to watch...I couldn't resist getting a picture of them!
Some of our friends dressed up as characters from one of our all-time favorite movies. We loved their costumes!
We tried to be a little creative with my costume since we didn't have time or money to get one for me to match D's, so I dressed up as Jack Sparrow's love: "the black pearl." Cheesy, I know, but it was fun anyway :)
Our favorite picture

Then, last night we only had about 4 or 5 trick-or-treaters after the trunk-or-treat, we got an unexpected but welcome phone call from an old family friend--it was great to talk to you for a minute, Bill!! And finally, we had our friends Jaime-Lyn and Buckley over for dinner and to play some Wii. It was super fun as usual. Halloween was pretty laid back, but very enjoyable.

Happy Halloween, everyone!

My husband rocks!!

noreply@blogger.com (Darwin and Kiara) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:47:00 +0000

This is how he went to school today....

Love you, babe!
(More Halloween pics to come)

And, they're off!!

noreply@blogger.com (Darwin and Kiara) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 02:35:00 +0000

Remember these guys....?
Well, you won't be seeing them around in any of our pictures for a while (who knows how long, really). They've up and left us and MOVED TO AUSTRALIA!!! Honestly?! Why not American Fork or even Brigham City, or St. George? Maybe even Florida, or California? I could handle them being out of the state, maybe....But out of the country? And half way across the world for that matter!! *Sigh*

We're definitely going to miss them. In fact, we miss them already!! Luckily we just downloaded Skype so we can see and talk to them over the internet. The problem will probably be the time difference. They're pretty much 16ish hours ahead of us time-wise, so it may be a challenge to line up times so we can chat. We'll see how it goes. Anyway, here are some pics of them leaving us....

J left first, on September 25th, to get things ready for T & R to follow

J's farewell crew

More of the crew

The boys

Then, T & R left today. T's mom and brother went with them to help with the travel & visit Aussieland for a few days before coming back.

R and her cousin

Me and R
(We had to bribe her with using my chap-stick in order to get this picture of us. She's a chap-stick maniac thanks to me. Sorry T!)

R & some more of her cousins

Last sight of them, and Mike showing off his cute pink luggage ;)

Have a safe flight, you guys!! We love you!! Come back to us as soon as you can!

P.S. If any of you faithful readers feel compelled to donate to the "D & K Australian Vacation Fund," we'll gladly accept donations of any amount :)

T'was a blustery morning!!

noreply@blogger.com (Darwin and Kiara) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:35:00 +0000

This is no joke. This morning just as I was leaving my house heading towards the freeway on my way to school, I was completely startled when I saw something HUGE coming towards my car. A tumbleweed that was at least half the size of my car was headed straight towards me!! The thing was ginormous!!!! No kidding! I think it missed my car by only about 3 inches. It didn't help that it was still pitch black outside, so I didn't see it until it was about 5 feet away. The wind was blowing so hard the tumbleweed was coming fast! Thank goodness for those close encounters that don't actually become encounters :) I swear...this only happens in Utah!!

Have a great day!!

2009 Conference on Adoption

noreply@blogger.com (Darwin and Kiara) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:06:00 +0000

I've been privileged to sit on the planning committee at UVU for the 2009 Conference on Adoption. It's going to be AWESOME!!! Seriously. It's a yearly conference, but we're hosting it this year.

I'm positing this because it's a free conference open to the public, and will be held on November 2nd from 9am-4pm in the Student Center on UVU Campus. I know several of you who read my blog are social workers, or you have adopted children for yourselves, or you have been involved with adoption in some way, so this conference would be great for you to attend! (Every one else is invited too, no worries.) Here's the most exciting part about the conference...are you ready? Michael McLean is the keynote!! Woot! Woot! And...of course Michael McLean can't come talk about adoption without singing his amazing song "From God's Arms, to My Arms, to Yours." You have no idea how excited I am for that! (Also, as a little side note, if you do decide to attend, make sure you bring some cash or your check book because he's going to be selling CDs and stuff too.)

If you're interested in attending, click on this link for more information. At that link you can print the program and pre-register for the conference as well. You can also ask me if you have any questions...I know quite a bit about this conference, so I should be able to answer your questions. I hope some of you are able to come attend! I'll be there all day starting at 7:30, so let me know if you're going to come, and make sure you come say hi to me!!

He's a genius!

noreply@blogger.com (Darwin and Kiara) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:50:00 +0000

I just want to say how proud I am of my genius husband. About a month ago he had to take a couple of Praxis tests for his teaching job, and we just found out that he scored in the top 15% of everyone who has ever taken it! Great job, babe! I'm so proud of you!! Not only that though, he is also in the top 10% of his Masters program, he has a 4.0 gpa for his entire program so far. Woot! Woot! Keep up the hard work, my love. You rock!

P.S. For those of you who don't get the picture of Sid the Sloth being put up with this post, Sid claims "I'm a genius" in the movie Ice Age. If you haven't seen it, repent and sin no more ;)

Monster Mash, anyone?

noreply@blogger.com (Darwin and Kiara) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:15:00 +0000

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Truly blessed!!

noreply@blogger.com (Darwin and Kiara) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 20:25:00 +0000

Despite my crazy, busy schedule it seems like things are really going my way, and I can't help but smile and be happy. First off, I have a wonderful life, with the most amazing husband in the world who loves me more than life itself. What more could you ask for after that, right? I honestly don't know what I've done to deserve the incredible life, husband, family, in-laws, and friends that I have been blessed with, but Heavenly Father continues to pour down blessings upon me, and I thank Him every day for it because I know how truly blessed I am!

Today was one of the neatest days of my life, and definitely one to remember!! You ready for this?! Today I got to shake the hand of not one, not TWO, but THREE Apostles of God. Honestly. I even have a witness! ;)

Today was the inauguration of UVU's new President, Matthew S. Holland, son of Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, an Apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. As my friend, Janice, and I were standing by our seats waiting for all of the "important people" to walk in and take their seats, I was spotted by Jack R. Christiansen, an amazing member of the Church, previous president of the Orem Institute, and newly made VP of Student Engagement on campus. He is such a great man, and such an amazing example to D and I, and the many, many others who have been privileged to know him. Shortly after Jack walked by and shook my hand, a tall man came walking down the isle in an extremely bright pick graduation gown. That tall man was none other than President Henry B. Eyring of the 1st Presidency. Janice and I looked at each other, smiled our beautiful smiles at President Eyring, and he took the time to smile back and shake both of our hands. That totally made our day, and we would have been satisfied with that, honestly. :) The inauguration was amazing, and we were both glad we decided to skip our classes today to attend this once-in-a-lifetime-opportunity. Following the inauguration, we wanted to see if we could find Elder Holland to shake his hand and thank him for his amazing talk he just gave in General Conference this past weekend. As we were walking toward the front where he was standing with his wife and grandchildren, I spotted Elder Neil L. Anderson, the most recently called Apostle. His wife shook Janice and my hands first, and then we were able to shake the hand of our second Apostle of the day :) This was almost too much for us to handle. Just kidding. We finally made our way up to where Elder Jeffrey R. Holland was standing and greeting everyone who wanted to talk to him. He was seriously so genuine and so happy. He asked me how I was doing, and when I replied, "I'm great, thank you," he responded back after looking in my eyes, "Yes, you are great, aren't you?" It was seriously one of the most amazing things I have ever experienced. To be able to look into the eyes of a true Apostle of God, and have him tell you "you're great" gave me a feeling I can't describe. I even got close enough to see that he has amazingly crystal blue eyes, and on top of being privileged to shake his hand and speak with him, he also gave me a half-hug as he talked to us for a second and said he's totally okay with adopting Wolverine Green over the BYU Blue he's been used to. Haha. He told Janice and I that were completely justified in skipping our classes for this wonderful event when we told him we missed class to attend. What an amazing day. It's not very often anyone has the privilege of shaking the hand of one Apostle, let alone be in the same room as them. Being able to shake the hands of three living and true Apostles of God is surely a day and an event to remember.

We are extremely excited to have Matthew Holland as our new UVU President, and he has been doing amazing things on campus already. He is super funny and so down to earth. It has been a privilege to meet him in person as well. Welcome to UVU President Holland!!

P.S. Last week I won one of these little beauties at school....
All I did was dress up for the career fair, put my name in the drawing, and finally won something!! But not just something...an iPod! Yeah, it's just 1GB, and only an iPod shuffle, but since we're slow on the technology updates, and we didn't have an iPod yet, this is a good start for us. I swear I never win anything! Maybe my luck is changing ;)

"No time to say 'hello', goodbye!!"

noreply@blogger.com (Darwin and Kiara) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:31:00 +0000

That is totally how I feel most days right now. D and I have just been running from one thing to the next, and taking one day at a time. School is going well, but is keeping me crazy busy and I'm already counting down the weeks until the end of the semester (11 weeks left of classes, and 12 until the end of the semester). I have SO much going on between now and then that it seems so stinkin' far away, but I am trying to enjoy the moment and savor this time in my life. I am super excited to finally graduate next April, but I can guarantee that I'll miss school when I'm no longer here. UVU is currently my second home. In fact, I'll be here longer than at my own house today (14 hours on campus today)! And then I'll be spending half of my Saturday here again too. Whoo! Bring it on, baby!!

I have come to REALLY LOVE check marks!! It's so nice to be able to cross a "to-do" off my list, and to put a slash through every day that goes by. Don't get me wrong, I really do love having the opportunity to be so involved on campus this semester, but I'm also really looking foward to not having so much on my plate. Right now my life pretty much consists of being at school all day, going home and working on homework, making dinner, spending a few minutes of "down-time" with D, and then we're off to bed and ready to do it again the next day. It's hard enough to find time to get everything done that I need to, let alone make my visiting teaching appointments and prepare our Sunday school lessons. Who ever decided that 24 hours in a day would be enough? When somebody figures that out, would you let me know?

P.S. I substituted a class for one of my professors yesterday and I'll be doing it again today and tomorrow...I have officially decided I could NEVER be a teacher. Honey and Pappy J, you are my heros. Thanks for having the patience to teach other people's kids. I don't even have the patience to teach/instruct college students!

San Francisco....here I come!!

noreply@blogger.com (Darwin and Kiara) — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 16:18:00 +0000

Along with 3 other students and a couple of the professors and their spouses, I've been invited to attend the 71st NCFR (National Council on Family Relations) Annual Conference in San Francisco in November! I feel so privileged to go because I'll be one of the first students to major in Family Studies at UVU because the program is brand-spankin'-new this fall. The university is doing everything they can to boost this new program, and I'm so stoked about it!

I'm really excited to go and be part of this conference, but I'm totally bummed that D doesn't get to come with me. We were originally trying to work it out so he could come too, but we're poor students, so thus is life. I'll be gone for 5 whole days, but I think we'll survive ;) This will be the first time I leave him to go on a trip planned for me...usually it's him who leaves on trips while I stay home. This will really be an awesome experience for me, and I'm so glad to have this opportunity!

Happy Birthday, Bean!

noreply@blogger.com (Darwin and Kiara) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 21:49:00 +0000

Today is Bean's 20th birthday! Happiest Birthday, Little Sister!
P.S. For those of you who know her and care, she's having a baby girl in January!

Yellowstone/Teton Anniversary Trip

noreply@blogger.com (Darwin and Kiara) — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 18:35:00 +0000

For our anniversary trip this year we went to Yellowstone and Teton national parks. I absolutely love it up there. It's so beautiful, and I love being on road trips with my sweet husband. He's such a blast, I love to hang out with him!

Sunday: We drove up to my G-ma's house after church to sleep so we could leave early the next morning to drive into Yellowstone. I've been going to my grandma's house several times a year since I was little, but we got lost twice on the way up there...I guess I'm not used to going up in the dark, but thanks to my dad for being able to talk me back to where I needed to be, we made it to Grandma's safely and still in pretty good time :)

Monday: We hit some of our favorite spots in Yellowstone, like Old Faithful. We set up camp, and then headed up to Mammoth Hot Springs. Part of the road was closed, so we couldn't get to Mammoth from West Yellowstone. Instead, we had to go all the way around the bottom loop, and then all the way around the northern loop to get there. It was totally fun though...we stopped at other places along the way too. Neither one of us had been to Mammoth Hot Springs before, but my grandfather used to work there, so it was fun to go and see his old stomping grounds. On our way back to camp we stopped at Norris Geyser Basin, but decided we'll need to go back there again because it was getting dark at that point so we didn't get to see all that we wanted to.

I found these sweet moose hats at one of the gift shops by Old Faithful. And you know how much I love moose!

Driving out to Mammoth Hot Springs we saw these cool rocks. (D says: " This is a basaltic lava flow that is now showing columnar jointing. As a bed of lava cools, it contracts and breaks in near hexagonal columns. I just had to stop and get a picture.")
(D says: "You can see the lava flow and the columnar jointing from across the valley. It's apparent thickness is about 20-25 feet thick. We can see that Yellowstone was and still is a very volcanic place.")Us at Old Faithful

A petrified redwood tree. (D says: "Petrification here has occurred when a ton of ash has been blown out of a volcano and covers the tree before it can decompose. In this case, the tree was still standing when buried. Then little minerals filled in and replace the organic material of the tree making a rock that looks like a tree.")

Watch out for buffalo on the roads...a common sight in some parts of Yellowstone

This was not zoomed in...he really was that close to our car!
Mammoth Hot Springs

Norris Geyser Basin

If you click to enlarge the picture, you can see the stars :)

Tuesday: We woke up after sleeping so well in our new cozy sleeping bags! The temp. was about 30 degrees, but we were warm all night long and both of us slept really well. D made us a delicious breakfast of bacon, eggs, and hot chocolate. Once we got all of our stuff packed back into our car, we did a little bit more touring around Yellowstone before driving down to the Tetons.

Our campsite

This elk was huge!! Traffic wasn't moving very fast because everyone was trying to get pictures of him. We weren't exactly sure what they were looking at, so I jumped out of the car and snapped a couple of pictures before running back to the car, and catching up with D before traffic started moving again. Smooth moves :)

This was the view from Inspiration Point in Yellowstone. You can see the lower falls of the Yellowstone river at the top of the picture.

After going to Inspiration Point, we hiked down to the lower falls.

There were about 328 stairs we had to climb down and then back up!

We couldn't believe how close those people were standing to a buffalo. They can charge you pretty quickly! Brave souls.

Teton National Park
After we were done in Yellowstone, we drove down to Teton National Park. This is the view of Jackson Lake with the Tetons in the background.

The sun was in my eyes...what can I say?
This landscape was formed from glaciers passing through the area, so of course we had to take a picture ;) (D says: "The curved line of trees on the left in the picture probably runs along a terminal moraine or end of a glacier where it plows the soil as it grows. Then it melts, shrinks, and exposes the curved moraine. The little lake and the depression to the left of it are called kettles. This is where chunks of glaciers have broken off and made the depression on the ground.")

Beautiful Tetons

We brought all of our food with us, so we had to make a fire each night to make our dinner. While we were at Teton, D got a bit too close to the fire and singed his arm hair! It was a close one!

This mama and baby moose were hanging out about 100 yards away from where we were cooking our dinner. It TOTALLY made my vacation. We had been looking for moose or bears since we got there, and finally saw some moose. We never saw any bears though.

Wednesday: Was the last day of our vacation. We tried to get up a little bit early so we could hike to the Tetons Inspiration Point before driving the 7-ish hours back home and not get home too late. I was glad we decided to do the hike. It was totally fun!

Our cozy little over-priced cabin we stayed in at Teton. We thought it would be fun and cozy for our anniversary trip, but turned out to be not-so-romantic because there was a gap between our room and the room next to us...big enough that we could see into the next room! So much for romance! ;)

We didn't see any bears on our hike up to Inspiration Point by Jenny Lake (about a 6 mile round-trip hike), but we did see some other fierce animals! ;)
This part of the trail was a bit nerve-racking, so we had to take a picture of it.
The chipmunks were relentless and there were tons of them! This one sat in this position for about a minute until D took the picture, then he finally moved. The little poser!
This little guy is called a pika. They're related to rabbits, but they have teeny little ears. On our hike back we saw one dragging a small tree branch up the trail!
On our hike back down we stopped at Hidden Falls. It was our last stop before heading home. The whole area is beautiful! We had a wonderful time together!

We got home Wednesday night, and D went back to work on Thursday to get ready for students to return this coming Wednesday. I also start school again this coming Wednesday, so it's time to get our noses back to the grindstone. So long sweet summer!

(P.S. D & I both got 4.0 gpa's again for summer semester! Yay us!!)

Watch closely....

noreply@blogger.com (Darwin and Kiara) — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 20:59:00 +0000

...and you just might recognize someone ;) But listen to the message too, of course!

Click here or here for more MormonMessages videos.

4 years ago today...

noreply@blogger.com (Darwin and Kiara) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 15:27:00 +0000

But the best is still yet to come!!

Happy Anniversary, Babe! I Love You!!

B's Wedding

noreply@blogger.com (Darwin and Kiara) — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 21:26:00 +0000

My good friend, Barbara, got married on Saturday. Yay!! D and I got to go up to Huntsville to enjoy a nice dinner with Barb and her new husband, Matt, and some family and friends the night before. On Saturday morning, D & I went to the sealing at the Bountiful Temple, and then back up to Huntsville for the reception later that day. The temple was beautiful. The bride was beautiful. Huntsville was beautiful. D & I decided we want to live there :)

For those of you who are interested (esp. Mom & Omie), here are some pictures:

Matt & Barb
(her colors were the same as mine)

B's cute nephew

B's brother

Kristie & me - she did the catering, and it was absolutely delicious!!! It was great to see you, Kristie!

The beautiful Bountiful, UT temple where we were also married

B's niece and nephew

Chillin' all by my lonesome

Matt's family

Us :)

Official bouquet holder so B could eat :)

Congratulations, B! We're soo happy for you! We like Matt tons, but we love you more!! Thanks for letting us share your special day with you!

As a side note: Friday night when we were in Huntsville for the dinner, some people decided it would be fun to try out the rope swing. B's friend, Alison, who was visiting from NY did it first. You just have to watch the video. Then we saw one of the kids who lives there show us how it's really done. Wow. That's all I have to say!

Twas a lovely day for a hike...

noreply@blogger.com (Darwin and Kiara) — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 03:37:00 +0000

...so we went hiking. How I'm going to miss summer vacation!!! *Sigh*

Pioneer Day Weekend at Sky Ranch

noreply@blogger.com (Darwin and Kiara) — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 22:15:00 +0000

To avoid the long and complicated explanation of the connections I'll just say we were invited by the McSweeney's to spend Pioneer Day weekend in Hurricane, UT at this "cozy little shack" in a neighborhood called Sky Ranch. It's termed an "Airport Community" because there is a runway in the middle of the neighborhood and people can just fly their personal airplanes in and taxi them up to their own houses! Yeah, what a life, huh? We always love staying with the McSweeney family and we always have a blast with them. Thanks again for the invite, you guys! We love you all!!

I'll just narrate the pictures as we go. Get ready for LOTS of pictures of our FUN!!

On our way down, we drove past a field that had 3 dirt devils in it...it was pretty cool. Sorry the picture isn't better.

We were SOOOO glad we weren't headed north on I-15...a semi had exploded and traffic was at a dead stop for at least 3 miles!! It was amazing!!
(You can see the smoldering semi trailer on the right hand side of the picture.)

This was the first time we noticed the 80 mph speed limit on portions of the drive!! Yay!!

We spent TONS of time swimming!!
(I love how J is trying to give me a high-five...I'm obviously preoccupied! ;)

These next few pictures pretty much speak for themselves, but I had to post all of them so you could get the feel of what happened :)
1st: Look at the smile on T's face, and the protest on R's face

2nd: R's not really sure what to think...

3rd: She's probably a little scared they won't catch her

4th: She never went under the water, but look at J making sure she didn't :)

5th: Totally upset her parents put her through that torture! Haha...we can't wait to torture our kids ;)

Again, these next few pictures pretty much speak for themselves...

The BIG OUCH of the weekend!
We had some fun riding on the 4-wheelers...more pictures to follow.

This is J & T showing Santa what they want for this upcoming Christmas :)

J took me for a ride on it too...pretty sweet bike!

We had the hottest pool boy around!

Cool night shot of the pool

Friday night we had some fun with sparklers and fireworks

Awesome night shot D got from the front yard

Beautiful southern Utah scenery
(On our way to Zion National Park)

There were TONS of squirrels all over the place at Zion's!

Cool shot D took
R learning how to hitchhike early on in life
R was supposed to be the one taking a nap...
The 4 of us took the 4 wheelers out after we got back from Zion's on Saturday
The looks on both of our faces is priceless!
T started it...and the boys had to finish it.
*Note* this picture was taken just before D was thrown from his 4 wheeler!
Notice the dirt on his nose and in his teeth...lovely!
Yes. It was VERY dusty!! :)
Then D & I went shooting with a few of the McSweeney's
D tied for 2nd place, I got last place :)
Me looking totally clueless as to what I'm supposed to do with the gun...because I am totally clueless!!
Sarah & Paul
It looks like they caught doing something they weren't supposed to, but they were just having fun!
And finally...some pictures of the "cozy little shack"
This is the runway you can see from the back yard
The back yard from the runway
A closer shot of the back yard and pool
The hangar
And the front of the house...although this picture doesn't really do it justice.

Thanks again McSweeney family for a fun vacation weekend! We love you guys and can't wait for the next one!!

Idaho Trip

noreply@blogger.com (Darwin and Kiara) — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 22:56:00 +0000

On the 17th, D & I had the opportunity to go up to Idaho for the weekend with my dad, my sisters, the kids, and Mikey. My Aunt and Uncle got a mission call to the Tallahassee, Florida mission office and their farewell was that weekend. We always have such fun at Grandma Koon's house, and it's always so nice to see family we haven't seen in a while. Congratulations, Uncle Bruce and Aunt Sheryl! We're so happy for you guys and are so glad to have such great examples in the family!

Liam enjoyed his snacks in the car ride up

We played with the kitties

Visited with D's Grandma Jennings on her birthday, the 18th
Elk Farm
Hannah getting ready to play in the slough (pronounced slew) at Granny Great's house
D had a blast playing around in the water
Who says he can't run on water?
Old school water skiing ;)
All of the fun in the water made him hungry so he caught himself some minnow sushi
...and then a crawdad
Dad always has fun up at Grandma K's too :)
D and Miss Hannah
Shannon and Liam
We snacked on these yummy white cherries. They were soo sweet and soo delicious!!
A few of my many cousins. It was so great to see you guys!
We played with swords
D got Liam to sleep by bouncing with him on the trampoline. It was so sweet :)
The missionaries and Grandma K
Us with Grandma K
The fam!

Nature's Way of Feeding Mosquitoes

noreply@blogger.com (Darwin and Kiara) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:07:00 +0000

Well, sorry for the delay folks, but I (Dar) think I've found some time to tell about the two camp outs that I just went on. Several weeks ago I went with the scouts in our previous ward in Orem (Cherry Hill 3rd Ward, we miss you guys!) on a canoe trip down the green river. The second trip was with the scouts in our current ward on a backpacking trip up in the Wind River Range in Wyoming.

Green River

On the Green River, there are many exciting places to put in (meaning get on the river). On our trip we started in Green River, Utah and headed down through Labyrinth Canyon until we hit Mineral Bottom 68 miles later where we got out. The river was flowing high and fast since it was early summer and we had been receiving plenty of rain. Our first stop on the river was Crystal Geyser, a cold water geyser that is right along the bank of the river. It was originally a location where oil was being drilled. A pocket of groundwater fills the cavity with CO2 dissolving into the water. It erupts much like a soda can shaken up when too much CO2 saturates the water.

Crystal Geyser

A little too close when it started erupting again

This shot reminded me of Super Mario Brothers:
A mushroom coming out of a pipe

Just a shot of the pretty travertine deposits from the geyser

It was a few miles after this stop that we had an accident. We came upon some rapids, that are usually pretty minor, but with the river being higher, the rapids were also higher than I anticipated. Me, being one of these crazy fun types, I steered us to go straight into them. After we hit the first rapid, I thought, "Oh crud, bit of more than I can chew." Our canoe happened to be extra tipsy with 40 gallons of water in it, and as soon as we hit the second rapid, we lost our balance and tipped over. My first shock was I thought all of our gear was going to sink to the bottom of the river. Surprisingly almost everything floated. In fact, the only thing lost was my fleece pullover. The water jugs floated (though we lost the water inside), our bags floated, a tent, my camel pack which had my camera, and other minor gear. The other scouts scrambled to gather it up, while one of the canoes pulled us over to shore. I was struggling to keep the canoe upright to bail out water as fast as I could with a small bucket. I knew the canoe wouldn't sink since they are made to float, even when capsized. What a tremendous rush. Another loss was Brother Mullins camera that he had in his pocket when we tipped. It wouldn't turn on. His wife told him before the trip that if anything happened to the camera, he would have to buy her a new one much nicer. Well, I guess she gets a new camera! I beat myself up over it though, blaming the whole incident on me because I steered us toward the rapids.

After we got back on the river and several miles later, we stopped at our first campsite. Just before arrival, a storm blew through and started pouring rain and freezing wind. We huddled under a tarp for a while until it blew over. It started clearing up and then we got to have some fun playing in the mud, going on some hikes, and games in the tents when it started to rain some more.

Stuck in the mud

I made myself some mud claws like Sabertooth on X-Men. It was a very fine clay-like deposit.

I gave a little lesson on erosion for the boys and they dove right in, making miniature canyons.

Some of the canyons that were made

A view of our camp and the river from the hill top

The next day was excellent weather. We pushed about 40 miles that day which was quite an accomplishment for the boys. We saw some wild life, floated along as a group tied together, and had a couple of swims. Lunch was at a place called Trin Alcove or Three Canyon. The mosquitoes really came out for lunch as well, but it's a beautiful place to stop. The scenery is excellent, and if you follow the little tributary up the right fork canyon, you can see some hanging gardens, a place where plants are growing from horizontal cracks in the rock where water is seeping through the sandstone. While we were there we saw a baby fawn that we totally walked right past without seeing it on the way up. Another thing at lunch that was hilarious, was that one person dared a scout to eat a cicada. He said he wouldn't eat it, but would put it in his mouth. So he did, and then it started to walk to the back of his mouth that made him start gagging. We were laughing so hard. I don't have the video of it now, but I'll see if I can get it and post it on here later. By the end of the day, when trying to find a camp, the mosquitoes had gotten vicious. Every stop on the river was a mosquito farm. Just trying to get spray on resulted in 20 mosquitoes landing on you before you got your spray out. As the night waned on, frogs started to croak their melody, however, the sound that came from these frogs sounded more like a baby screaming or crying. It was pretty freaky to go by the river and listen.

Me taking a swim in the Green (brown) River

The baby fawn we walked right past without seeing

This is a Great Blue Heron. We would see these all the time along the river but they usually flew off before you could get a decent shot at one. This time I got lucky.

Greg's mosquito bites. God put them on Earth to test our patience.

Boys will be boys

Overall it was an amazing trip. This is the third time I've done this run, and it stays absolutely beautiful. It even changes as the river deposits and washes away sandbars. I hope you all get a chance, at least once in your life to take a canoe trip down the Green River.

Wind River Range

The Wind River Range is in Wyoming, approximately in the west central part of the state, southeast of the Teton Valley and Yellowstone. It was a backpacking trip, so unlike the Green River trip, we had to carry all of our gear on our backs instead of in a canoe. A much different experience. We got up early and headed out. Along the drive, one of the scouts fell asleep and the scout masters thought it would be fun to play a little joke on him. On the count of 3 we would all scream as the driver slammed on the breaks. I thought this kids eyes were going to pop out of his head. It was pretty funny, but I thought the scout was going to start crying because he kept rubbing his eyes. He was a good sport about it. On the flip side, a downer to our drive was that we hit an antelope on the way up the mountains. We went right over it. It's probably fortunate that it died rather than live and suffer, but it is always sad when something like that happens. The landscape was absolutely gorgeous. It's probably the scenery that keeps people going, because it take a little while for the body to adjust to an extra 50 lbs on their back as well as depleted oxygen in the air. We started hiking at about 9000 ft and almost got as high as 11,000 ft in elevation. The difference in oxygen is astounding to the point you can feel it. Simple hills will put you out of breath quickly. Utah Valley sits at about 4500 ft in elevation. That change in altitude makes a 3.5% drop in oxygen by volume or about 17% drop in oxygen overall. Huff puff! Well, at any rate, we hiked over 7 miles to our first camp by Hobbs Lake. Even at the beginning of July there were many patches of snow lying around so the lake was essentially snow melt. We set up camp and hit the hay right after dinner. That night I realized how much more I miss K than I used to on trips. I would have short spurts of anxiety because I would rather be with her than in the middle of nowhere without her.

The gang: 2 scouts, 2 leaders, and the tag along

A beautiful vista

The next day the boys went fishing. The fishing wasn't the greatest, but one scout caught a couple that we had for lunch and dinner, and boy was I surprised at how good it tasted! I had plenty of time to enjoy the scenery and to catch up on some homework as well. While doing my labs, a little chipmunk nearly climbed up my back. After an afternoon nap, more fishing was to be done, but no luck. I sat high above the lake on a rocky outcrop soaking in God's creations. The sun was setting and I could see the wind move ripples across the lake. That night we had an excellent fireside and we stayed up chatting until about 2:30 by the fire. In the morning one of the leaders and scouts thought they would take a dive into the lake to wash up a bit. No, thank you! I washed my face earlier that morning and my hands were frozen. Kudos to them. We decided to hike to another lake, Polecreek Lake, 5 miles away to see if the fishing was any better, but again, no luck. The hike was long, exhausting, and we went through a lot of snow, getting our boots wet and muddy, but the view was worth it. The following morning, I got up early as we planned to so we could hike out early. I spent about an hour enjoying the view sipping my hot chocolate while the others continued to sleep. Watching the sun coming up over the lake was beautiful, just one of those had to be there moments.

Mark unhooking his fish

Hobbs Lake

Two loony birds jumping in ice cold lake water

Just as fast as they went in, they got out

Eric's reactionZac's reaction. He said, "Aaaaaaaaaah." But I think he meant to say, "Holy gizards, that's a cold lake"Some of the snow patches we hiked throughMore beautiful sceneryReflection on Polecreek Lake in the morningThe sun shining through a spider webWe decided to blitz the hike out and only stop once every hour for a break. The 9 mile hike out seemed to go by fast the first 5 miles, then dragged on the last 4. I had 3 things repeat over and over in my head while I was hiking. A quote from Meet the Robinsons, "Keep moving forward," a quote from Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Gimli says while running all day, "Keep breathing," and the song "One Step at a Time" by Jordan Sparks. Alas we made it back to the truck, feet and shoulders aching, but the burger and milkshake waiting for us back in Pinedale was wonderful!

This spot is called Photographers Point as you can clearly see why. Unfortunately you can't see the panoramic view which is breath taking.

If you look carefully, you can see salt deposit lines on my back where I had sweated profusely and then it dried out

Of course I have to do a science demonstration where ever I go! :o)

It's nights like this...

noreply@blogger.com (Darwin and Kiara) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:22:00 +0000

...that I want to remember.

I love nights when we've had a great day and then keep on playing. On Saturday, J & T took us to the Scottish festival in Payson. We've never been to it before, but it was pretty fun. They had bag pipe competitions, and some keg throwing competitions, along with other fun Scottish things.

I think this guy can twirl his kilt better than I can twirl a skirt! ;)

After the Scottish festival and visiting T's grandma, we went and borrowed some Wii games, picked up some delicious food from Bajio and then came home to play. We played some Wii, ate our yummy food, had a balloon fight and then went to J & T's to look at the moon through the telescope.

The McSweeney's all ganged up on me!

R loves balloons!

When we first got the telescope out, it was too cloudy to really see anything but we knew the sky would be clearing up so we got out a couple of blankets and layed on the grass, made shapes in the clouds, played the celebrity name game, and asked D to tell us about the stars. He pointed out a bunch of constellations for us and told us about the brightest stars we could see. (I love having a smart husband who can teach me new things all the time, and always amaze me with his incredible memory! I love you, D!) We searched the sky for sattelites, and we saw 3 shooting stars! We also got to see Jupiter and her four biggest moons through the telescope, but D couldn't get a good picture of it :( It was super cool to see the sky through the telescope again. It always makes me appreciate God's creations and realize that despite how small and insignificant we might think we are, He still knows us each by name.