Art City Days

This past week was Art City Days in Springville, as well as Darwin's 10 year high school reunion. We had the opportunity to have his best friend, Bard Hancock, and his family stay with us while he came up to attend the reunion also. Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of the reunion, but we had a blast anyway! Darwin almost won an award for knowing the most languages (English, Portuguese, & learning to speak Whale) but the guy who did win said that he speaks English, Spanish & the language of Love. Soo close! Bard & Kerri won an award for having the most kids (4) but tied with 2 other couples as well. It was fun for Darwin to catch up with some old friends and for me to see some of his friends from high school that I know too. We tried to take advantage of having Bard & Kerri up for the weekend and staying with us because they live down in St. George, UT and & don't get to see them very much. I must have been preoccupied with other things because I didn't get very many pictures of anything this weekend. We still had a blast, and it was great to have you stay with us, Hancocks! You're more than welcome to come stay with us again the next time you come up!

Bard & Kerri getting the geese to come after them for bread

Darwin was soo close to having a goose eat out of his hand...then a car came & ruined it!

So, we went to feed the ducks, but these HUGE fish in the water kept eating the bread instead :)

Steadfast & Immovable; Mosiah 5:15

Darwin and I had the opportunity this week to attend a pioneer trek with our stake. We had an absolute blast once you get past the sore feet and legs from the walking, and the sore forearms from pulling the handcarts. It really was an incredible experience for us to be a part of, and hopefully it changed some of the youth's lives. Below are a few of our favorite pictures:

Beautiful Sunrise

Amazing Sunset the same night

3 of Darwin's Teachers: Forrest, Greg, & Jess - Great boys!

Me helping our Bishop & some of the Stake leaders push our handcart through knee deep muddy water. Soo fun! Bishop & I had a blast! (Dar is taking the picture, otherwise he was helping too.)

Darwin portraying one the the 4 Sweetwater River Rescuers. Great job, Dar! He got to carry me across first, so we didn't get a picture of that.

This really was a great experience for us, and like I said, we had a great time. We both got sun burned, we died of heat throughout the day, and nearly froze to death at night :) Our Stake did a wonderful job in putting the whole thing together and there really is too much to say about the trip than can be written in our blog. They fed us so well that I gained 2 pounds within our three day trek, and it will absolutely be a memory not soon forgotten. A few "Remember When's" of the trip:

Favorite Quote of the Trek:

President Olsen, 2nd Counselor in the Stake Presidency, Trail Boss of the Trek, and member of our ward, was sitting with his wife during a fireside one night. Another Brother from our ward, Brother Fletcher was going around taking pictures of the events:
Pres. Olsen asks Bro. Fletcher, "What are you doing?"
Bro. Fletcher responds, "Taking pictures."
Pres. Olsen, "But we don't want the Indians to see us!"
(Really a had-to-be-there kind of a quote, especially if you know Pres. Olsen....hilarious! Dar & I laughed for a good 5 minutes, while we were supposed to be reverently listening to the fireside. Oops!)

Favorite Song of the Trek: To the tune of "The Handcart Song"
"For some must push and some must trudge and we go marching through the sludge...."

1st year down....

As of this afternoon at 2:30, Darwin has successfully completed his first year of teaching. And not just his first year of teaching, but his first year of teaching JUNIOR HIGH!! This year he has had a taste of teaching 7th, 8th, and 9th graders, and although I can't say he's enjoyed every minute of it, he has enjoyed most of it, and come out on top of the heap of the other new teachers from this year. Darwin's administration absolutely adores him, as well as his students, and we all feel that he has done VERY well for his first year. Of course there were ups and downs, and several hills to climb and conquer, but he did it! I'm sure if you ask him, he'd be more than happy to tell you about some of his incredible learning experiences he was able to gain this year. There have been funny moments to the point he was almost rolling on the floor laughing at/with his students, and then there were moments when he wanted to strangle some of the students (not really) and maybe even some of the faculty. Either way, this has been another small step in the trail of life that Darwin has approached and successfully defeated. One of the assistant principals told us today that he thinks Darwin has done phenomenal this year when compared to some other teachers in their first year of teaching. Congratulations, Darling! I'm soo proud of you!

Happy JUNE!!!

I have to say that June is absolutely my favorite month of the year!! It's probably because my birthday is this month (the 27th), as well as Darwin's (the 24th). June is just such a happy month, you can't help but enjoy the sunshine and an occasional water activity outside to cool down. June, to me, is also kind of the official start of summer because it's when school gets out (I was done in April, but Darwin finishes on Thursday, so summer really gets to start for us this week!! Yay!). Our summer is going to be completely crazy this year...you wanna see our schedule? Either way, here it is:

June 9, 10, 11: Darwin and I will be on a pioneer trek with our stake
June 13, 14: Darwin's 10 year high school reunion activities
June 16-20: Darwin will be in Park City all week for a conference for school
June 23-28: Darwin will be gone again for a basin and range field trip with BYU--and he's going to miss both of our birthdays :(
July 4: Independence Day Activities---we can't wait for the Hot Air Balloon Fest!!
July 8-29: We'll be in New York for 3 full weeks!! Yay!! Watch out NY....here come the Demings!!
July 30, 31 & Aug 1: Dar has a 3-day field trip in between 2 of our other trips
Aug 2-14: We go to Oregon with Dar's family for a crab fishing trip/vacation. Yay!
Aug 19: Dar has to be back at school
Aug 27: Fall semester starts for me

All in all, Darwin will be home for only about 3 1/2 total weeks of his entire summer! We definitely didn't intend for our summer to get this crazy, but we're totally looking forward to our fabulous Summer 2008 adventures!

Tag! You're it!

A. Post the rules.
B. Answer all the questions about yourself.
C. After you are done, tag 5 people.

1. What were you doing 10 years ago? 10 years ago?! This is really going to make me seem super young. Haha. 10 years ago I was getting ready to graduate from Primary into Young Womens, and I was getting ready to move from elementary school to junior high. 10 years ago, Darwin was graduating from High School and getting ready to attend his first year of college :)

2. Five things on your to-do list today: I honestly wish I had 5 better things on my to do list...my life is a little boring right now. 1) Drop a load off at DI 2) Go make our car loan payment 3) Think of something to make for dinner tonight, and then make it 4) E-mail my potential new boss to see if he's made a decision yet 5) Watch "So You Think You Can Dance"

3. 5 snacks you enjoy: 1) French bread dipped in olive oil, definitely my #1 2) Popcorn 3) Pizza...does that count as a snack? 4) Apples in peanut butter 5) Pico de gallo (chunky salsa) & tortilla chips (I should share my recipe--it's soo yummy!)

4. What would you do you you suddenly became a millionnaire? First I'd pay off our car & student loans, buy a house, and put the rest in savings. Oh yeah! And buy a new wardrobe :)

5. 3 bad habits: 1) I bite my nails 2) I honk at people if they sit at a light, just after it's turned green, longer than I think they should. Especially on a turn arrow. 3) I eat too much sugar

6. 5 places I have lived: 1) Layton, UT 2) Millbrook, NY 3) Springville, UT 4) Provo, UT 5) Orem, UT (where I currently live)

7. 5 jobs I've had: 1) Babysitter 2) Mowing lawns over the summers while I was in high school 3) Deckhand/Lifeguard at Lagoon-A-Beach for 2 summers 4) Receptionist at a law firm 5) Secretary at a law firm (I'm impressed I dug up 5!!)

8. 5 things people don't know about me: 1) I'm obsessive compulsive about number patterns 2) I'm somewhat terrified to have kids 3) I lived in chronic pain for 2 years (some of you know that already) 4) I barely graduated from high school because of my chronic pain 5) Darwin and I got engaged after a week of "hanging out". We hadn't even gone on an official date yet :)

Okay, now for the tags:
Jennie Olsen
Jenny Martin
Cristin
Carolyn
Marci

We're going to grad school!!

Darwin & I are super stoked because we just got the acceptance letter in the mail yesterday! Darwin was just accepted to graduate school at Mississippi State University for his masters degree emphasis in Teaching in Geoscience. Yay! He'll begin classes in the fall, and will continue teaching junior high full time as well. No worries for those of you who might be nervous that we're moving to Mississippi....we'll be staying right where we are. Phew! We're fortunate enough that Darwin is able to do his masters degree online, which is also the reason he'll be able to continue teaching full time while working on his own education. Another stepping stone to our life's journey is well on its way. Life is so wonderful right now...what more could we ask for?

Congratulations, Courtney & Wayne!!

Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend the sealing of a very good friend of mine, Courtney Ruttenbur, to her sweetheart, Wayne Bulsiewicz (I actually spelled his last name right without looking!). While I was at the temple waiting for Courtney & Wayne to come out, I saw another friend from high school come out of the temple...turns out she got married as well. Small world! I was completely honored to be at Courtney's wedding and I am so proud of her for her amazing example to her friends, but most especially to her family. Unfortunately, for as warm as the weather was at the beginning of this week, it was REALLY cold yesterday, but I shouldn't complain because at least I had a jacket...Courtney was just in her wedding dress (and we were all extremely relieved it didn't rain at the reception because it was outside at the Gallivan Center in SLC)! Courtney was absolutely the most beautiful bride at the Salt Lake Temple yesterday, and her dress was gorgeous! I am so glad I was able to spend their special day with them, and for Darwin to be able to come up and spend a few hours with us, helping to set up for the reception and then being able to celebrate their marriage with all the fun things that happen at wedding receptions :). The day was wonderful, and despite Satan's attempts to make it so they wouldn't get married, I'm so glad everything worked out. Courtney & Wayne, you two are such a perfect couple, and we are so proud to be your friends! Congratulations!

Disneyland Memorabilia

About this time last year Darwin & I were in Disneyland with our good friends, Jared & Tracee McSweeney. We had such a wonderful time, despite Tracee being 7 months pregnant, she was a great sport and I completely admire her strength. It would take forever and a day for me to talk about our entire trip, but mostly for myself I wanted to remember our fantastic vacation to California. Kind of off the subject, Darwin & I have a goal to visit all other 49 states (seeing we live in 1 of the 50 :) and 2 foreign countries in our lifetime together--and our Disneyland trip last May was our first time to California together. We will be able to cross a few more states off our list this summer as we travel from coast to coast; visiting New York in July, then traveling out to Oregon in August. We'll keep you updated on our summer adventures!

So mean

Sweet shades

Liam's reaction...he hated them!

Priceless!!

I had to add another post, related, but separate to the one just below. Being at Build-A-Bear, the clothes and accessories were just Liam’s size! The poor kid. He’s going to hate us when he’s big enough to appreciate the humiliation. At least we didn’t dress him in the princess outfits! Liam, I apologize in advance, sort of :)

Fun day at Build-A-Bear-Workshop

Omie wanted to take the girls to do something fun while she was here, so we took an extremely fun trip to Build-A-Bear-Workshop at the Gateway mall. We had a blast and it was great to see the girls so excited about it.

Giving the bears a little stuffin'

Making sure the bears (and bunny) have lots of love in their hearts

Gotta make sure they're nice & clean before they go home!!

The finished products, minus 2 of them.

And at the end of the day, you can never forget the little things!

Thanks for such a wonderful day out with the girls, Omie! I'm sure this an event they will always look back on and remember the great time they had, then they won't be able to help but smile.

May Showers

Because my nephew, Liam, came early we ended up having a be-lated shower for my sister, Shannon, while my Omie (a.k.a. grandma, my mom's mom) is here visiting from New York. It was great because my grandma from Idaho was able to come down for the shower as well. It was so nice to have both of my grandma's together at the same time with all of us. The shower went well, and was the first one I was pretty much in charge of. We had a great time. Below are some photos from the event :)

My sister, Shannon, & my mom

My nieces, Amaia, Hannah, & Jaisy

Omie, me & G-ma Koon

My younger sister, Bri w/ our g-ma's

My older sister, Shannon w/ our g-ma's

Thanks to everyone that came!! I'm sure Shannon is very appreciative of all the gifts she was given. We all know how expensive babies can be, and every little bit of outside help is definitely beneficial!!

Fingers Crossed

It really is amazing how things in life fall into place sometimes, isn't it? For example, me and Darwin meeting, getting engaged so quickly without knowing each other and amazingly have things work out perfectly. Well, something happened today that seems like it's another one of those things that just happens to fall into place...a cute friend from our ward called me this afternoon and said, "I have a random question: are you doing anything for work, and if not, do you want something?" Well, I am currently not working and I wasn't going to look for anything over the summer because Darwin and I have the opportunity to party for a good amount of the summer (Yay!) and I figured no one would want to hire me and then have me ask for 5 weeks of the summer off :) Either way, she said she works for a dentist who needs a new receptionist (which is right down my alley) and that he'd work with my insanely crazy schedule, so I have an interview set up for tomorrow morning! Wish me luck!!

"Now I know my ZYX's"

I have to tell you that I have accomplished the task of memorizing the alphabet backwards. I'm sure most of you are wondering why I would even do such a thing, or why it's even important. Here's the thing...Darwin learned it backwards before he went on his mission, and I've heard him recite it several times with great speed, so I was determined to learn it backwards as well. I started learning it by going over it in my head while laying down trying to go to sleep, and it worked (plus it's much more fun than counting sheep)!! I was reciting it to Darwin last night to prove to him I had learned it backwards, and because I was tired while doing so, I kept accidentally saying "XYZPDQ," which for those who don't know what that abbreviation means: examine your zipper pretty darn quick. He just kept laughing at me, but I really do have the alphabet memorized backwards now :) I can't say it as fast as Darwin can, but at least I can do it!! Yay! If you want proof for yourself, you'll just have to ask me!