We had a great time in California! We got to spend some time with our families, go to the beach on a gorgeous day, play baseball, get in a family fight (safe or out is THAT big of a deal apparently), shop, got our Christmas tree, ate a delicious Thanksgiving feast, saw our friends including our friend Treigh who just got home from his mission, snuggled in the tiny bed we get to sleep on, did my mom and sister's hair, celebrated Aunt Wendy's birthday, got lots of See's candy from Grandma Geneva, and ate lots of delicious meals!
Now enjoy this little song I wrote about our trip home, sung (loosly) to the tune of 12 Days of Christmas.
On the way home to Utah, these crappy things happened to us... 1 terrible snow storm 2 hotel reservations made when we were about to give up 3 hours to travel from St George to Cedar 4 extra hours driving 5 bathroom/clean off the windshield stops 6 times I wanted to cry 7 cars flipped over 8 times we talked about stopping 9 cars off the road in a 1 mile stretch 10 was the time we finally got home 11 billion times I said, "Please be careful!" 12 hours to get home!
I love my school! I am really enjoying it. I love the way they teach us and that we already to so much hands on...Still on doll heads thank goodness, but doing it nonetheless! I love my friends there! We have so many fun people in our class and I have two great friends that I get along especially well with, Kirsten and Chanel. We have a lot of fun! :)
P.S. On Tuesdays we can wear non black clothes if we donate two dollars to charity. Sometimes I crack and donate because I can't take the black anymore. My hair looks so long in the second picture! Wow!
P.S.S. I swear I do my hair without braided bangs most the time. I'm just trying to grow them out and sometimes it is just easier to braid them.
Last night was date night! We have been way better lately at staying home to cook now that I am home at night, so date night was a big deal! We went to Outback and had sooo much food! We ate a flavored lemonade, Blooming Onion, a blue cheese wedge salad, some brown bread, ribs, steak, shrimp, and potatoes! It was such a fun treat! When we were waiting to be seated, we went shopping next door and Jordan bought me Elf! I LOVE Elf!! I couldn't sleep this morning so I'm up watching it before he wakes up...he doesn't agree with Christmas so early! And I don't with most things...but Elf is the exception! :) We have a fun day planned! Lincoln's 1st birthday party, BYU football, and BYU basketball (if I'm not too burnt out on sports!). Should be fun! :)
So I had this long post al typed out last night and as I was about to publish it, there was a knock at my door. I thought that was odd at 8:30 at night, but answered it. They said they were with a advertising company and they wanted to clean the carpet in one room of every house. Jordan spilled some root beer on our carpet a few weeks ago so I said okay. TWO HOURS later... they super vaccummed 3 couch cusions, under the couch, our ceiling, our binds, the floor two stairs, one matress and shampood our front rooom carpet all to try to sell a Kirby vaccumm. Ummm... I'm sorry we don't have three thousand dollars for a vaccumm! They stayed until 10:30! So anyway, I forgot to hit submit and lost my post! These are my first two haircuts! The first is a square one length and the other is a front and side view of a triangular graduation. I am loving school and learning a lot!
We are leaving Tuesday around noon or one to go home for Thanksgiving! I am so excited to... -be with family -see HP -play games that we don't normally play because you need more than two people -eat yummy food -enjoy the warmer weather -watch Elf -get red TOMS ;)
Note to self:When someone says they won't make you buy anything, it means they won't force you, but they will sure try!
Please wait to see HP with Jordan and me next week. (By family I mean all of you.) Partly because we are too cheap to pay for movies and partly because it would be a party. Please and thank you. K love you. M and J
Our friend Chelsy, who took our pictures just a couple weeks ago, is doing a really cool fundraiser. For the entire month of December all proceeds from photo sessions go to an amazing non-profit organization, the Guatemala Embrace Effort guatemalaembraceeffot.org PLUS add her on Facebook (ChelsyAnn Photography) and get 50% off of your session! Space is limited, so book your session soon!
The pictures she did for us are so great! I love them and I seriously suggest you take her up on this!
We are running late for church just like normal but we can not find a place to park. The lot was full and the streets surrounding the building were full but we drove around and found a spot. It is always hard to find a spot but today was especially bad. We peek in the chapel to find a spot and it is packed. Jordan made a joke about how maybe we had a general authority speaking. We are looking in the overflow to find a seat when it hits me... we were asked to speak...at this kid's mission farewell! I told Jordan and he just says, "Well, let's do it." So we go sit on the stand and remember our topic, gratitude. The other guy is going first so we are just preparing and trying to come up with scriptures as fast as possible. I was red and sweating like crazy but then I calmed down and I was freezing cold and clammy. Awesome. He ends up only leaving us like 20 minutes and both of us still have to talk and the Stake President wanted to say a few words and there was a song planned between us too that they ended up canceling. My talk was probably just five minutes long but that is really a the time we had. Jordan is such a great speaker he gave an awesome talk still. (He keeps making fun of my talk! You know it was bad then because he is so sweet to me!) Then while Jordan was talking, my sickness kicks in and I CANNOT stop coughing. I almost have in under control when this little lady on the front row offers me a cough drop so we had an awkward pass off there but I didn't care anymore. Is anything awkward at that point?? When the counselor in the bishopric was announcing the program, he said something about "a look on your face when you see you are speaking". In relief society, a few women said things like, "You are so nice to give a talk they never told you about." I didn't say anything. If that's what they got out of what he said, I'm fine with that! Oh, man. What a day. I'm glad that is over. This is like my worst fear!
I love school! I have some good friends already...cute little young 19 yr old single (well both have boyfriends, but they aren't married)! I am learning so much and I am really enjoying it! I go from 9am-4:30pm (which is really nice because Jordan gets out of school/work at wither 3 or 5). We get an hour break for lunch which is nice because I have plenty of time to go home if I want to. We have to wear allllll black except for shoes and accessories which is old already because let's face it, black is not my color! I only had a few black items so I bought a few more and basically wear the same things over... but when we all only wear black, I don't notice when others wear the same thing so they probably don't notice me. One day we went out to lunch and this guy came up to us and said, "Who died?" It made me laugh!
I got my hair done at school on Tuesday night and it took FIVE HOURS!! It looks really good but really?? It is blonde with some dark copper woven in. Then Wednesday I woke up with a sore throat and headache out of no where! I kept getting sicker and I ony made it through a couple hours of school today. I'll save you the gross details but I have painful yellow spots on the back of my throat and not cough or congestion leading me to believe it's strep. If I am still this sick tomorrow, I will get it checked out for sure.
Our friend Chelsy Hulet took pictures of us before the haunted corn maze. They turned out so good!! Check more out herechelsyannphoto.blogspot.com. Would ya look at that?... I made a link! I am so blogger smart... haha.
We went to a scary corn maze with our friends Brent and Chelsy (who we floated down the river with a few months ago). I have never been to any kind of haunted house before because I get scared just watching CSI or any action movie! So it was really scary and fun and then this guy started running after me with a chain saw!!! I just took off running and he kept running with me and I ran straight into a wall of dried corn stalks! It knocked me over so I'm just huddled on the ground...crying! The scary guy runs over and asks if I'm okay and I said yes. After I got up he started after me again!! I just hid behind Jordan after that!! In the car they told me that the chain saw didn't have blades!! I wish I knew that!!
I will now start beauty school on Monday with a black eye...it's getting nice and swollen. I fought the corn....and the corn won.
Scene: The cocobean cupcake cafe. Jordan: (dancing) Is it awkward I like this song? Me: Welllll, who sings- Jordan: (cuts me off) Katy Perry. (looks embarrassed) Me: I laugh for ten minutes.
I was at work Wednesday night and my best friend from high school, Julie, said she had the weekend off so she decided that day she wanted to go to California! She invited me to go with her! At first I wasn't going to go but the more I thought about it, I didn't know when I'd be able to go again! So I called my mom and made sure it'd be okay if I came and I packed in 10 minutes after work and we left! We didn't tell my dad I was coming so we went to his work and surprised him! It was so fun he was so happy and shocked! It was a fun weekend! It went by super fast though!! We had a baby shower for my cousin-in-law Kira and (unborn) baby Jordan (girl) at my house so we did a lot of stuff for that! It was so fun to see family there!
McCall is coming to visit again this weekend! We have a fun trip planned! We are going to Lagoon on Friday to for their Halloween adventures! Saturday we have the BYU football game and then we are going to Jump on It, a giant trampline place later. If anyone wants to join us or wants to be added in our itinerary, just let me know! We can make time for you! :) I'm so nice.
My last day working at Lowe's is October 27th and I am so excited to be done there! I have enjoyed my job there but the 35 minute drive, working Sundays, and limited hours are getting old! I have some exciting news! I am starting hair school at Paul Mitchell on November 1st so I am looking for a part time job after school gets out at 4:30 Monday through Friday! I am very excited about my career decision and I am so excited/nervous to start school! It's something I never thought about doing at all until a few months ago...now I'm sure that's what I want to do and it feels so right for us! Jordan is going to graduate in Economics in April and he is currently applying to jobs like crazy for after graduation. He will work for a while and then continue onto business school or to law school. I love this time in our life! We have nothing but good things going for us now, and we have so much to look forward to! We are so blessed!
Our house has been quite busy! My sisters both came to visit us during conference, Caitlin from home in California and McCall from school in Idaho! I am so glad they were able to come! We watched General Conference, took naps, ate sooo much food, went shopping, went to the nickle arcade, went to the movies, got shakes...twice! I really felt so sick after all the food we ate! I hope they come back soon!
McCall with all a bunch of tickets!
Shakes, round one at Malt Shoppe
Shakes round two at Sammy's
This weekend we had my mother-in-law, Pamela and her parents, Neil and Geneva at our house! I love that we have only lived here for a few weeks and we have had three batches of overnight guests. I guess four if you count when Jordan's cousin, Andrew, stayed with us one night too! With Pam, Neil and Geneva, we went to the BYU football game against San Diego State (my sister, Caitlin's alma mater) and finally BYU won! Usually we blow out SDSU but they have a good team this year and we have a young team so it was close! We had seats super close to the field on the North endzone! It was awesome! After we went to the Old Spaghetti Factory, which is one of my favs! Thank you for dinner Neil and Geneva!! It was another very fun weekend! I think McCall may come down in two weeks too! :) Life is great!
They are in New York and such for a church history trip! I realize that they live states away so it should not really matter because I normally can't see them, but I talk to my mom every single day. Sometimes two or three (or six) times a day! I am jealous now because she is off seeing all these cool sights...so she has better things to do than talk to me. Don't get me wrong, I'd ignore me too if roles were switched! Wish I were there! Love you mom and dad! Have fun!
Sunday night, we had some friends from back home, Brent and Steven, and their wives, Chelsy and Ali, over for games and dessert! We play Balderdash and Jordan made coconut cream and dutch apple pie! It was really fun to meet Ali for the first time and get to know Chelsy better! We will have to have them over again soon! We are thinking about throwing a huge Halloween party with all our Upland friends... our only dilemma is our entertaining area is not too big so we aren't sure yet, but it's be fun. We had my cousin Jimmy and his wife Kira over for games and pie last week...sensing a trend??
A few weeks ago, we got a present from my in-laws from Jay and Avery's trip to Harry Potter World. I knew we had to go to a special place to show off our amazing present. It needed to be somewhere that the people would accept us and recognize the greatness. Where showing our gifts would also be a gift to the people around us. After much begging, Utah State Fair! Jordan is such a good sport! Thank you for taking me to the fair!
We are proud to be the newest members of Costco! I have wanted a card for a while because I work right next to Costco so I think it is convenient to put up food from there. I like a lot of their prepared food and would rather eat that for dinner at work (or for Jordan when I’m at work) than fast food. We got some great essentials on our first shopping trip! I love Costco! This is Jordan's reaction when I asked if we could but that palet of Ferrero Rocher...my favorite candy!
A couple weeks ago, Jordan lost his car key, my spare, and his house key. We were still moving in at the time and figured as we moved boxes and cleaned up, they’d show up. Still no luck, so he has a key on its way from eBay! A week after that, Jordan lost his cell phone. It is kind of funny because we don’t really use our cell phones to talk too much, but he happened to loose it when I went up to Idaho with my parents to take McCall to school. He thinks he drove away with his phone on top of the car or something so he ordered a phone off eBay! It’s great he’s back in the 21st century! Hopefully he can hold onto everything for a little bit now!
I left my husband for two nights to take my baby sister up to school at BYU Idaho. It was fun to spend time with McCall and my parents! I was also able to meet up with my roommates, Beth, Kayla and her husband Beau. It was so fun to see my girls!! There has been a lot of construction on campus so it was fun to see some of the finished buildings! McCall had cute roommates that she seems to really like and I think she will do great there! I am glad I was able to take her up to school! Love you, Call! I don't know why I look so dumb and they look so good, but hey, love you two!
When we first moved in, we slept on mattresses in the basement because a)that’s where the mattresses were already and we did not have our bed yet b)it’s so much cooler down there. It was fun until I started finding spiders daily! I do not like spiders! I found a couple pretty big ones but Jordan always saved me! One day we are getting ready to go out so I put on a sun dress and look in the mirror and see a tag or sticker on my dress. As I flicked it off, I look at the object flying towards my bed…a GIANT spider laying a SAC OF EGGS! Good thing Jordan was right there again to carfully grab him her and the sac and dispose of them! After that we fogger the basement with bug bombs and haven’t seen a live bug since…just lots of carcasses!
A few days after we moved in, we had some friends over for a couples night! Jordan grilled some steaks and asparagus. He is such a stud! It was so good! I made mashed potatoes, Jordan and Cherstin (friends from our old Provo ward) made a good fresh salad, and Andrew and Clarissa (Jordan’s cousin and hid girlfriend) brought yummy blueberry muffins for dessert. After we played some games and talked. It was a lot of fun to have people over to our house!
We live five houses away from some train tracks. I have never live close to train tracks and never had any real experience with trains like riding or putting pennies on the tracks. I still don’t know if I like being so close to the almost constant stream of trains. I think the sound is fun when I’m up and just waiting for Jordan to come home or something. I am not such a fan of the train when it wakes me up at night and in the morning! But we will be smashing pennies soon!
About a month ago, we went to a Salt Lake Bees game! The Bees are a AAA team (the Quakes are A so the Bees are way better…the last level before the majors) for the LA Angels so it was really fun! We got scalper tickets for five bucks for two! They should have been like twelve a piece so we were happy! It was really fun to guess how fast they were pitching because they had a pitcher through a couple 102s! It was super fun!
After our trip, we came home to our new house! We are really enjoying it so far. There are three bedrooms and two bathrooms upstairs, our kitchen and living room are on the main floor, an unfinished family room on the floor below that, and there are two bedrooms and a bathroom in the basement. It's so big that I keep losing Jordan! We are having fun moving in (slowly but surely) and decorating. We have an awesome walk in pantry, walk in closet in our room, and lots of extra room! We are having fun!
On our way back from the lake, we stopped in St George for Jordan's cousin, Clark's, mission farewell. Almost all of Jordan's extended family was there so we had a great time with them! They are so nice to me and make me feel so comfortable! We went to the Tuacahn theater to see Tarzan! It was really great!! We also played lots of games, went swimming, had a pizza party, and a farewell luncheon. Clark gave a great talk and we are so excited to him to leave on his mission to Brazil! Jordan's uncle Ryan is in the play called Crazy for You! :)
After Jordan's finals, packing our whole apartment, and moving boxes into our new house, we drove down to Vegas and met my family there for a fun week at the lake! What a welcome break! We stayed at a hotel in Henderson and drove to the lake everyday. We wake boarded, skied, and wake surfed! One night we went to the strip and Jordan ate steak tartar or something like that... completely uncooked steak! I had my favorite steak I've ever had! We also met my friends Sydney and Julia (and Julia's husband Shane) for dinner one night! It was so fun to see them and catch up on each other! I had so much fun seeing my family all week...I get homesick! Thanks mom and dad for the great trip!
We have been packing and moving to a cute house in Springville! After we finish moving and cleaning our apartment, we are headed to Lake Mead with my family! I'll give updates when we get back!
We bought some tire inter tubes and went for a float down the Provo River. These are the tubes...they filled up the whole car! They wouldn't fit in the Focus! Brent and Chelsy invited us to go with them and it was a blast! The water was pretty cold but not too bad once you got used to it. It was a great way to enjoy nature and stay cool this summer!
We went to see Shrek at the dollar theater. I thought it was okay and Jordan hated it! haha. We got this shirt for Jordan a couple weeks ago at Macy's for $10! I think it's adorable! Great deal!
Nie Nie is my second cousin. Darling and her grandfather are siblings. She was in a terrible plane crash almost two years ago. I think she is so great! In school last year, I had to write a paper on a hero I had and talk about the complexity of their life (ie: a mother of a disabled child. This child is her greatest joy but also her greatest hardship). I did my paper on how Stephanie found her joy in life as a mother pre-crash, but her crash left her unable to be the mother she wanted to be, but she found joy in being alive...basically. So I sent her some emails and she was so kind as to let me interview her for this paper. I don't mean to brag but my teacher wanted to publish it in the next version of the school's text book, no big deal. Okay, it was pretty cool. So anyway, when I met Stephanie yesterday, I told her who I was and she totally remembered me! (Or acted like she did and played it off fabulously) She asked how I was and asked about the family. She is such a sweetheart! I was almost to nervous to talk to her, but Jordan encouraged me and I'm so glad I did. Sorry, this paper is super long...
June 2009
A Mother’s Re-Invention
Stephanie Nielson, her husband and her husband’s flight instructor were flying home, from St. John’s, Arizona to Mesa, Arizona. The newspaper described the accident. Shortly, after taking off from the airport, the plane’s engine stalled and the C-177 Cardinal Cessna augured into the ground. The flight instructor, Doug Kinneard, died of his injuries the next day. Stephanie and her husband, Christian were critically burned.
Stephanie is a Latter-day Saint, as I am, but we had never met. She is my great-uncle’s grand-daughter making her my second cousin. I found out about Stephanie’s website on blogspot. I visited her blog: www.nieniedialogues.blogspot.com. It is her personal website that allowed her to make regular entries about her life. I began to learn about her life and her family, though the two were really not separate.
As I went to Stephanie’s blog, I discovered that her writings were very popular and that her blog had had over 1,000 visits each day before the accident. She was widely known in the blogging community as she wrote upbeat notes about marriage, decorating, entertaining, and parenting.
She was known as Nie Nie on her blog. This blog helped me begin to know Stephanie. Most of her entries were about her young children. There was Claire Elizabeth (7 ½ ), Jane Bronwyn (6), Oliver Christian (4) and Nicholas Jones (2 ½ ). Stephanie had written, “I am fortunate to have two of each (sex). Each child brings a different forte to our family. Each one has a very unique life with different ideas.”
Stephanie explained how she thought that each of her children symbolized a different color, and together, their colors blend into a rainbow to, “use these colors and lights to make a very peaceful, active, and very blissful home. I am so lucky I was given these children.”
Her love for parenting, for her husband and for life was inspiring to many readers. You could see this in their comments on her posts. They felt inspired, and I felt inspired. When I interviewed her and asked what her favorite thing was in being a mother, she responded simply, “being needed.” Her greatest joy was inhelping her children to blossom. She wrote that she loved being able to stay at home with her children, so that she could be the best possible mother she could, in today’s world.
These four children have a wonderful and caring mother, who teaches them crucial lessons through everyday activities. On one particular afternoon, Stephanie and the children wrote anonymous notes of wisdoms on strips of paper. They then drove around town and left the notes in secret hiding places, where a passerby would later discover the insight. The notes said things such as, “God loves you,” or, “someone loves you,” or, “Rainbows love you.” Her children had continued on their journey of learning to be kind to others. The importance of kindness and love was inculcated into the children through innumerable other acts of family kindness.
Often, the Nielson family had a get together with their extended family. These fortunate children have gotten to know their extended family very well, much better than I have, and they know the important role that family plays in one’s life.They have learned this lesson through opportunities to be close to their family. Stephanie had given her children these valuable teaching examples by being the kind of person they can look up to.
Now, it has come back to her. Stephanie remembers the plane crash that left 80% of her body burned, and she says, “I remember, as our plane violently crashed to the ground, I tucked my head down on my knees and prayed. Then I was not alone. I felt rather calm in a … troubled moment that seemed to last forever. The plane spun and whistled downward and in my heart I saw my children. I saw them as they laughed. I saw them smiling. It was calming that in such a terrible moment, I had a reminder of the peace of my family. I was not alone then. And I am certainly not alone now!”
The plane crashed into a pile of wood that was lying near several houses. Stephanie went on to explain how she was saved by her husband. She says, “…he saved my life; he opened the airplane door, which was on fire, and he cleared a path for me even though he had a broken back. It was heroic and knightly. He was motivated by love. He found his way to safety and looked back only to realize that I was not following.” Stephanie says that they yelled for one another and soon after, she was able to find her way out of the flames and wreckage.
Her husband, Christian, awoke from a coma about a month after the crash in the Arizona Burn Center. Stephanie was able to awake from her coma about a month after Christian. She said that her family relied heavily upon their faith in the Gospel of Jesus the Christ, just to make their way through their difficult times.
Stephanie has recovered. Not completely, but she has improved so much. She still has trouble with her hands because the tendons were burnt. She can’t cook. She can’t do Jane’s or Claire’s hair yet. She can’t button Nicholas’ or Ollie’s shirts for Church. Stephanie has faith that at some point in the future, after her next operation—and there have been so many and will be so many more—that she will be able to use her hands again. For now, though, she does what she can to be the wife and mother she intends.
At first, her children had difficulty in trying to understand how badly their parents had been hurt in the accident. They had a particularly hard time understanding why their mother could not do all that she had done before. The second oldest child, Jane, was the most deeply troubled. After about five months in the hospital, Stephanie received a visit from Jane, who was then 5 years old. She had come to see her “new” mother for the first time. Jane was not prepared for the change, and she would not look at her mother again for two more months. “These were the hardest days of my life,” Stephanie told me.
Moms don’t want to scare their children. Moms don’t like seeing their children hurt and confused. At least moms like Stephanie don’t. But her children, as she says, “…stepped up since the accident. They are very therapeutic and engaging for me. I need their love and their need of me, to help me heal. I just hope I can make them feel as safe and secure as they do for me!”
As her children understand more and more of what happened, they still have their struggles. They wonder why their mother was hurt. They don’t understand what made the plane crash. One evening, just before bedtime, Stephanie says that she called her two daughters into her room and they jumped into bed with her. Stephanie explained to her two girls how sorry she was that the plane had crashed and she began to cry.
As Claire stroked Stephanie’s hair in a gentle manner, Jane squeezed her arms around her mother. No words were exchanged, just silent tears flowed between them. After some time, Stephanie had her girls and her make a “pinkie promise,” that Stephanie would never let anything upset their happy family again. Stephanie says that the girls smiled. Some would say that they smiled with the relief of little children, but I prefer to believe that they smiled for more. Their mom was back to being mom.Stephanie then told her daughters that their Father in Heaven loved them and she explained that He has “big plans” for their family, so they should not worry about the future.Stephanie then said that Jane looked at her and asked, “Is that why the airplane fell out of the sky? Did He do that?”
Stephanie says that she was confused by the question because she had not yet found the answer to it for herself. She says that she only found the answer when she told her daughter that people fix planes and make mistakes, but Heavenly Father makes miracles. He saved their lives and that was part of the beginning of the big plan for their family. Their family is in the middle of that plan now, and it will get easier. It has to get easier.
Stephanie and Christian continue to heal. There are still challenges. There are still tender and precious moments. The two of them have matching flesh colored gloves on their hands during the day, and wear clear plastic face-masks to bed every night. Stephanie has been able to gain some weight and is now up to 113 pounds. Her hair is growing back in swatches. What had once been beautiful and pure skin now is traced with pink and sometimes angry scars. Her naturally freckled face is concealed by transplanted skin. But she still has sparkling green eyes and they remind her of who she is, was, and will be in the future—even if the scars on her skin never disappear.
She is also my hero, but mostly, she is a hero to her children. She says that sometimes she regrets what she lost in the fire, but she also says she doesn’t feel that way as often now that she is back home with her family. She expects there will come that day when she will dimly recall when she struggled to do the simple things. She appreciates the simplest motherly tasks more now than she ever imagined before the plane fell out of the sky. She tells me, and she writes in her blog, that the longing for what she lost has been numbed by the delight she feels, when she is with her children and they approach her again—without fear of the changes to her appearance.
I just met my ultimate hero! Stephanie Nelson! (nieniedialogues.blogspot.com) I loved her before I met her, but she is so sweet, I love her even more now! Whole story to come later... and retold many many times I'm sure! What a great day! So glad I curled my hair. :)
We broke the world record for largest water balloon fight! We got completely soaked but it was pretty hot so it was nice! We also scored so sweet tee shirts and free lunch after! Totally worth it! We didn't get any pics all wet or in our t shirts, but it was super fun! Check out the full story here...
We went to the nickle arcade and Jordan loved this game where you hunt animals with this awesome orange gun.
He won 100 tickets on Deal or No Deal. Pretty fun, but I am terrible at it! We used our tickets to buy this cool umbrella hat! :) Little red white and blue boy! haha.
In honor of Pioneer Day, we decided to dress drab today. Browns and white. And we decided to walk to breakfast this morning...only the place we were going was closed for the holiday! And I got a blister between my toes from my sandals. So I took them off to walk home...and burnt the bottoms of the my feet. We just kept singing "the pioneer children sang as they walked and walked and walked..." But eventually we got breakfast and had a fun morning! I
Last weekend we hiked to the Y on the mountain! We woke up and started a little late so it was getting pretty hot and it was super steep! But it was fun and we did it! The white behind us is the Y. Jordan scaled across the Y! I stayed put! It was a fun day!
This is when Jordan came home for Easter I think and Zach opened his call! I was looking through pictures and was thinking "Who is that small child hugging Jordan" Oh, ya, me, his wife! haha. Hahaha... Oh man! This picture needs a frame! All of Jordan's favorite women... Or at least we like to think so!
Our honeymoon in Cancun was so fun! Our camera was breaking slowly and some one the pictures are great, some are pretty funky looking, and a lot just didn't turn out at all! Oh well! Breakfast in Playa del Carmen our first morning there. We had so much fun trying to figure our the street systems and language and customs all week. It was great!We just walked down the street after breakfast to the beach. The water here was so so clear! It was beautiful!I like him! I know, I bet your are all glad this picture turned out! :) This one is not a camera malfunction, it was just so humid, the camera fogged up! We are in the jungle right outside our resort, which was AMAZING! Thanks Geneva!
Still foggy! haha.. In the rental car! We loved driving ourselves everywhere! Jordan was a pro on the sometimes scary tiny streets! And the AC was heaven!! We went to Talum ruins and these guys were waiting at the entrance for people to take pictures with them. One takes your camera to take the picture...and you get your camera back for five dollars! Oh brother! The pictures turned out at least!! Jordan and our Mormon tour guide! We had a fun hot HOT tour of the ruins!Jordan barely fit through some of the walkways!This is the only decent picture we got of ruins! I guess we will just have to go back for more pictures!
We went swimming down there right after the tour! The water felt so good!This is on our way back to the resort after swimming in Talum. We took a ferry out to Cozumel, then this is on our snorkeling boat! Our boat was sooo slow! But more time on the cool ocean, I guess! :) We rented a scooter on Cozumel after snorkeling and we drove around the entire island! It was so fun! Along a lot of the drive, we were right next to the beach!
That's all the pictures that turned out! We had so much fun! Thanks Jay and Geneva!
