Brother From Another Mother

Since everyone has done this baby making thing, I decided Mark and I should do it too. Not the real thing, but the picture thing. Anyways, I think the first baby is actually Dave and Natalie's. See!



For this next picture, I think that Russ and Nat actually have our baby... HOW WE GOT A WHITE BABY IS BEYOND ME.....


This is our white boy baby.... Our options were mix it up OR black baby and white. No comment.

Charly

Meet Charly. I know I was supposed to post this back in the day (around September) but we have been really busy.

Words to describe Charly:
1. paper shredder
2. popsicle stick shredder
3. lysol sniffer
4. speed racer
5. stuffed animal "de-stuffing" machine
6. cuddle bunny
7. potentially calm puppy at night
8. traveling poop express (WILL BLOG LATER)
9. Livvy's rag doll
10. Emma's rag doll
11. random sound maker
12. Chloe's "hot potatoe"

Charly is so much fun! You would think dogs are just smelly and gross.... yes they have their moments, but it is all on how you take care of them. See I dont like smelly dogs..... I dont like dog slobber. Charly, is very well groomed (thank you very much!). She is not your typical pomeranian. She has spunk. I think she thinks she is human...

Here are some photos of Charly:

She loves to inspect our household chemicals-- making sure they are safe.


Play mode.



"Wet Willy" mode.



Oh my cute dog!

Like "father" like "dog"

I honestly think that Charly is a great blessing to me and Mark. It sounds so STUPID.... How could a dog POSSIBLY bless someone's life? Well, if you haven't noticed... last year was slightly difficult- in more than 10 ways. This year (2009) hasn't lacked on the difficult side by any means.. Charly has been our smile maker. She has such personality. When I was working, I would come home and Charly would get so excited to see me. Mark doesn't even get that excited! JK. She gets that way when Mark gets home too. When we are frustrated, she will get into snuggle mode, and if you give her a little attention, she will go straight into play mode. After you start playing with her, you forget what was bothering you. We love Charly SO much!

Jackson Hole

In August we went up to Jackson with some of our family. Here we are with the Tetons in the background.



Look! Rocks! Who doesn't love rocks?



Here we are in front of a beautiful and stinky hot pot.



How cool is Livvy? Do we have a future rapper in the making?



Another cutie



And here we are in front of Old Faithful.

Looks dangerous doesn't it? Don't worry, it's not lava.

The trail to the falls was closed, but we still got this pretty picture from the outlook.

The bison were crossing the road which provided a lot of entertainment. Mostly from all the agry drivers honking at them to get out of the way.

Some wedding reception

We went to a reception at the Alpine Art Center and got bored so we started taking pictures with the statues.

Here we are with a statue of President Hinckley.

Don't ask me what I'm doing. Indian rain dance?

Can you guess which one is the statue?

That's one big cat.

Discovery Park

We volunteered to babysit for Dave and Nat for their anniversary. I think Annie told me it was cause we needed practice. Natalie warned us that we didn't really know what we were getting ourselves into, but fortunately no children or animals were harmed that night. After popsicles and some mac & cheese, we took the kids to Discovery Park to play.

Sara posing as usual and Livvy planning her jump off the "bull".

I think they're supposed to be driving something here.

Here are your little worker bees Natalie. Maybe you can use this against them later when they don't want to do their chores.

River Rafting!

Annie and I have been scolded over and over again for our slacking on the blog and finally I have been shamed into submission. I'll start with the Payette river rafting trip in July.

Like most of our vacations so far, this one didn't start off so well. If you've been reading this blog from the beginning, you probably know that Annie is quite allergic to mosquitos. Ok so that's an understatement. She swells up like a pregnant hippo on steroids. Of course she just had to get bit in the eye on the first night of the trip. As you can see it's swollen completely shut and that's just from one bite. She's an amazing trooper and went down the river with just one good eye. If this keeps up I'm going to start bringing a patch on our vacations.



For our first run at the river we were lucky enough to get the duckie. Kristina wanted to join us so we gave it a go with 3 people. We actually did pretty well through the first big rapid. We stayed pretty straight and just got tipped because 3rd person sunk the back end too low in the water (not calling anyone fat here!) It was a fun experiment and I highly recommend it. Here is Kristina being our propeller.

Here's the whole crew after our second run on the big raft. Despite the moquito distaster and other bumps, it was a great trip!

Major Suck-age

Okay. I sincerely apologize for being the suck-i-est blogger known to man. School just started and I am getting the hang of things online... yadda yadda yadda. Lately, we got a dog... her name is Charly.. it's short for Charlemagne. She is a four month old, brown and blue eyed Pomeranian. She IS OUT OF CONTROL! We are currently potty training and, (let's keep this short) things get a little stressful. Anyways, overall life is good/busy/fun!

Um, I am trying to think of something else to blog..... hmm.... got nothin'. I will blog something later!

Bon appetite!!

A Few Things

Suds in the Bucket

Last Thursday, my friend Alecia and I decided we needed to wash our cars. Turns out, we washed not just ours, but my parents cars and Mark's car! It was quite the car wash. We had a water fight and it was overall just a blast! Here are some lovely pics.

Grateful

My mom was, I guess you could say, going blind. She had really bad cateracts in her right eye, and beginning signs of it in her left eye. Well, she really didnt like the whole idea of going "blind"... she went to the doctor and he told her she needed surgery. I took her to the hospital and here are some pics of her hospital stay:

In this pic, my mom was out if it! For this eye surgery, you can interact with the doctor and stay awake, but apparently my mom couldnt resist "helping" the doctors. Meaning, she was a little out of it and she kept trying to use her hands to open her eyes. She kept reaching for her eyes and so the doctor finally couldnt handle it anymore so they sedated her. Note: my mom is sensitive to drugs. My mom was asking me what time it was every 1-2 minutes for about 30 mins. Then she kept saying how she was hungry and wanted to drive home. She was lifting her hand and wiggling her fingers.... It was pretty funny.

It is amazing what they can do! She had the pirate eye on for a day and then it was off and she is good as new. She has to put drops in like crazy, but it is tons better than the alternative. She has told me many a time that she is extremely grateful to be able to see clearly.

Cascade Springs

Cascade Springs is such a pretty place. Me, Mark, and Alecia planned a hike, but then we decided to go on a "hike-walk". Okay, Okay, it was a walk... who am I kidding. It was a very pretty walk that was definately worth it. While we were there, Alecia heard a buzzing sound... and we got closer and it was a RATTLE... Me and Alecia both darted out of there like a bullet from a gun (okay not that fast), and MARK, was like, "Cool! Its a rattlesnake!" Then he got closer because he wanted to see it. Then it started rattling more and more so he thought it might be a bad idea to get too close...... Mark=Danger.

The scenery was beautiful!

Leash with her "quick, smile for the camera" smile.

Me and Sparky (awe)

Me and Leash

I'm Singin' in the....... Shower?

So lately, Mark has had this new thing that he does in the morning; HE SINGS IN THE SHOWER! For the past few mornings, Mark has come up with the MOST random songs to sing. They are as follows:

1. A random song that I forgot about.... (sorry)

2. "Barbie Girl" by: Aqua

3. "At the Car Wash" by: I forgot

4. "I Feel like a Woman" by: Shania Twain

5. "Lonely" by: Akon

It is hilarious... But not only does he sing, he does the whole act! He dances with his towel too! Wow Mark might kill be for blogging this. Oh well.

6 Months

After 6 months, we finally met our bishop for the very first time! He was as shocked as we were. Yesterday at church, we went to sacrament meeting and after, the bishop decided to go out into the lobby area and shake the hands of all the members as they go to class. He looked at me and Mark and asked, "Are you two new in the ward?" and I said, "No, we have been here for about 6 months now." He looked at me so blankly. And we were on our way. He didn't get our names.....

Ya know, we have had our home teachers come once, (well, one home teacher and his wife) during our 6 months of marriage. I have listed myself as a visiting teacher more than once, because I would like to know the people in the ward, and I still have no calling. I feel like I am living amongst dead people. I wonder how it will be in a year.

Bonaire

A Lesson In Murphy's Law
Mark and I enjoyed our trip for the most part, but it was a little bumpy all-in-all. Mark had been anxiously waiting for this scuba trip for over a year now, and he got it for such a good price! The package included food discounts, scuba diving, resort, airfare, car rental, and pretty much anything. I was pretty excited myself. I mean, I was a little nervous (NOT going to lie) but ya know, it's Bonaire! When in the world am I ever going to go to Bonaire? So, we get all ready and we think we are all set to go on June 28th just like the ticket/itinerary said..... there was a catch..... the itinerary said June 27th.... at 11:57 p.m. and the ticket said June 28th at 12:04 a.m. or something along those lines. You get the idea. Anyways, so we got the times and dates a little mixed up.... and we thought we would go at 12:00 p.m. on June 28th. OOPS! We missed our flight! Well... we were pretty darn lucky to find another flight into Bonaire the same week. There are only one or two flights a week.

So instead of paying around $3,800 total for our trip we had to pay additional expenses for a one way tickets for the two of us. Great! So that took us to $5,900. Now, this takes us to the wonderful topic of our flight.....

Dallas, Texas

The layover in Texas.... Let me tell you a little something about layovers over 12 hours.... The airlines don't let you stay in the airport. So they force you to stay in a hotel or on the street outside of the airport, or on a very uncomfortable cot. Luckily, we got to stay in a hotel... (because I was not about to stay awake and keep watch of my luggage for 13-14 hours~!) Seriously.... give me a break. So for a discounted price we went to a hotel. It was $50. Not bad...... There were huge ants on the floor though...... not my favorite... they freaked me out.... at least I had a bed to sleep on....

This airport had really cool stuff inside though... Probably my favorite aiport so far. They had tons of food... too much BBQ, but they had THE MOST COMFORTABLE SEATS IN THE WAITING TERMINALS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is a maze thing in the middle of the airport. I dont really know why it was there.... maybe to keep people like me and Mark occupied.

Puerto Rico

Three words: THEIR FOOD SUCKS!

The bread on that thing really did feel like I was biting into foam.

Finally Bonaire

Bonaire- When we got there, we wanted to go on a night dive, so we got ready and we realized we didn't have any weights! Kerstin told us we had to go to the dive shop in the morning to get our weights. So we didnt dive that night. Ha ha instead.... that night we got to know the mosqitos of Bonaire. This photo was taken at around 3:00 a.m.

Over the entire trip I was bitten 46 times. Cool eh? I didnt really think so... but if you think so... good for you. I officially cut you off FOR LIFE.

In the morning, we got up extra early so we could get as many dives in to not waste any more time than we had already wasted.... So we went and they decided that they didnt have enough people for the video so they postponed the orientation for 2:00 p.m. So no diving until after that.... Wow... No comment. 2:00 came around and there was ONE more person. WOW ONE MORE! Okay, so after they left the room, we figured out it was a promo gimmic to buy stuff in the shop, we fast forwarded the video some so we could get our stupid weights. For crying out loud! We didn't fly all the way to Bonaire to buy ugly hand painted rocks! My lands people!

After an hour of that nonsense we finally get ready and go diving. We didnt see very much other than some eels and some fish. Mark went night diving with Scott and didn't see very much at all.

Wednesday we went on a Boat dive and I threw up in my regulator. Mark was about ten feet away from me and we were going down and all of a sudden I started to cough like crazy. I felt dizzy and nauseated and I just threw up. I had to keep breathing because I didnt want my lungs to explode so I blew the throw up that was in my sinuses out of my nose while I was flushing it out of my regulator. Then I would breathe and keep doing the same thing until it was cleaned out. I was so dizzy down there. We probably should have surfaced, but we didnt. I lost so much air doing that. I washed my regulator out like crazy when we got to our condo. So much for breakfast.

My eye was still pretty swollen too. Wow, vomit and impaired vision.



Oh all your meals there you have birds all around you, there are gulls and pigeons.



This gull was eyeing my food. If you leave your table for one second, the gulls will come and eat all your food.

Oh- Ha ha I cant forget to mention this waiter! When we see you all next, Mark will have to reenact how this poor guy talked! I really think he had the hardest puberty ever. Seriously though, when Mark does it you will pee your britches! I cant do it as well as he does. The first time he came up to us I about died. I was trying not to smile. But it took me so off guard. I had never heard anything like it in my life! His voice cracks like there is not tomorrow. It was like a 20 year old was stuck in a 13 year olds body. But the voice cracking was to an extreme. Sad story. I feel for him I tell ya......

And anytime you ask not to get capers, you get no onions, you ask for apple pie, you get a giant blob of something that is not apple pie, you ask for creme brulee, you get a piping hot blob of creme with hot jam on top. At least the steak, tuna and grouper was good.

Mark's Steak....



MY STEAK..... Now THAT is what I am talking about!

Sorry I look A little lumpy- it's literally all the mosqito bites. They went for my face.

Thursday, we wasted most of our day trying to figure out if we were going to come home or not. We tried to see if we could use the front desk's phone to call Delta, but they said, "NO WAY JOSE" and said we had to use our room's phone which would have cost us $2.50 to dial out and then $2 for each minute. RETARDED. Then we tried to use our phones, but they wouldnt work. Then Josh had "Skype" which is pretty much a phone on the internet that is 70 cents a minute. Hallelujah! So we emailed out travel agent and they said they tried absolutely everything and we had to buy another ticket home. We thought it was the end of the world. Mark said (and I quote) "This is the trip from HELL!" Ha ha I agreed. Then we called Delta to see if there was ANYTHING else we could do, and there was..... STUPID travel piece of junk. Didnt know what they were talking about. We only had to pay $15 per person to re-ticket. We were so relieved. Things were starting to turn around!

So half of our day was eaten up. From then on we decided we were going to go on some shore dives and just try to enjoy what time we had left. So we went to the other side of the island. OH MY LANTA! I have never seen such beauty! Kerstin said something about how she didnt know how Atheists could scuba dive and not believe in God. Well, I totally agree. There is a God I tell you. I am not going to bear my testimony right now because I have too many other things to say right now.... maybe later.... but THERE IS A GOD.... BELIEVE ME.

Okay, I will hurry now, because this blog is GINORMA! BAGANGA!

When we were touring the island on the last 24 hours, we stopped at this VooDoo lady's house. We thought it was this art shop. Guess again people! We go in and she is sitting on her porch painting something. Her door was open so we could see in her home. At the time we didnt know it was her home and so Kerstin asks, "Is it inside too?" and she says, "No, that is my home." I looked inside, and I noticed her living room and dining room. In her dining room she had life sized dummies (all different and unique in their own way) all around the table except one chair, which I am assuming was her spot. Then in her living room, she had a tea set, and there was a spot, for her, (I am assuming) and they all are positioned to be social. Maybe she is lonely.... so I thought. But the placed smelled funny, like she was burning something really weird. No comment. She said, "Welcome to Yanny's Garden." Okay? Thanks?.... The cool part was that she had live flammingo's and turtles and tortoises, and hermit crabs in a cage (who cages their crabs?) Also, she had nativity scenes everywhere and this one had baby Jesus with a halloween mask on like he was satanic. I didnt take a picture because I was partially offended and I didnt know if it was sacreligious. Oh well. But anyways, she had bones hanging everywhere, and it was just creepy, and after we all had this really bad feeling and wanted to leave, so we left pronto.

We know one thing is for dang sure- she can't spell.



Here are some flammingo's in her yard.

And here is an idea of what the inside and outside people look like. CREEPY.

We went to the salt mines, slave huts (tiny, they look like little dog houses). Makes you think how fortunate you really are.

This is the doorway to get into the slave hut. That is how small these things are!

Here is some scenery...

The sea urchin we saved.



Here is some VooDoo from one side of the island. It is literally all over this one side of the island. Maybe that one lady owns it......

And anyways, the trip was very unique. We had a "different kind of fun. At least we were together and we didnt rip each other's heads off. Right?

This is Mark now. I just have to add that on our way home just before takeoff the power on the plane went down twice. The pilot told us that it was the AC unit overloading the power, that it had been repaired, and the plane was in perfect working order. Still not very comforting just before starting a 5 hour flight over the ocean. Then, in Atlanta, Delta put the wrong plane up to the terminal! They didn't notice till they had started boarding. They had to unboard the plane and got all the passenger seating mixed up on reboarding.