Monday, May 25, 2009

Randomness

We had so many fun little random things go on the last couple of months, but I've been too busy to post on them. So here's the whirlwind update! (Not really in any particular order)


Nate baked his first creation! Smores Brownies. he saw the recipe, decided it sounded good, and made it one night when I wasn't home!

And he was SO proud.

We were able to attend the Draper Utah Temple open house. It was a wonderful experience to be in the temple with my family.I had my first go at stuffed peppers, and I do believe they were a hit! Presentation is the funnest part.
We've spent plenty of weekends with my nephew Trayson. He's our best little buddy.

These were the last two tarts we bought in France, and man, were they divine! A tart and a cream puff of course. Very french. We spent conference weekend in SLC with Nate's family and had a Fuller family Friday O Fun. Nate and Maren in the Planetarium predicting the weather.

For Maren's birthday, Nate decided to take her to the Utah State University Art Museum. (The girl loves art, and is very talented.) This was our favorite display. If you gave the shoes a quarter, they play a song. Highly recommend checkign this one out!

We had our first Frontrunner (the train that goes from North Ogden to SLC) experience. I was super excited to sit on the top, cause it's a double decker. Turns out it's really not that exciting. But convenient!

We attended our annual Jazz game. Nate REALLY loves the Jazz, and we are usually able to go to one live game a season. It's always a good time. Thanks, Stace, for tickets and making my husband so happy!

We had a really fun party in Pleasant Grove for Nate's nephew, Sammy. He turned 2.

The Fuller family watched the 3D Under the Sea movie at the planetarium in SLC. Also a definite recommendation. We loved it, even though it's only about 40 minutes long. :)
And of course it wouldn't be spring without the tortorous Baby Animal days in Cache Valley. I sure hope that chick survived Trayson's turn.My mom and I were in charge of all my nieces and nephews. What a day, what a day. I swear never to return. We're pretty positive the bunny on the end is actually a cat, but don't tell Trayson that.

This is my youngest nephew, Landry. And he's pretty much happy no matter what's going on around him. Thank goodness for Landry.Grandma couldn't handle the reptile house. She made me take the kids to see the snakes. (No one tell her two of her four grandkids held a snake, and loved it!)Here we are on our wagon ride. You can't see Grandma holding her face together behind Trayson's head, but that's how we all remember Grandma for that entire day. It's a very long story, but it's pretty much the main reason I vow to never attend baby animal days again. Watching my mother fall to her death has scarred me for life and I will forever associate it with baby animal days.We all ended up surviving, my mom barely.

So that's our random life for the last couple of months! Nate finished all of his classes and is now working on finishing his research. He plans to defend his thesis at the end of the summer. I'm just working working working. Right now is the busiest time of year for us, and I'm dying trying to keep it all together! So if anyone has any pull with people that travel at the University, I'd really appreciate you to tell them to not travel until August, please. It would really make my life a lot more enjoyable. We are loving the beautiful weather, working in the garden, and enjoying exercising outside. And we've LOVED this three day holiday weekend!

Monday, May 18, 2009

To the ends of the earth...

Nate has been offered a job in Ridgecrest CA so this weekend we took a quick trip out there for him to show me the place and see if its somewhere I could live. He flew out in December for the interview, but I'd never been. Here's a little taste...
If you think it looks like you're driving into the end of the earth, you pretty much are. Ridgecrest is a small valley of 25,000 people next to Death Valley in the Mojave Desert. You can drive an hour in any direction and not hit anything. It is completely isolated. So why would anyone ever want to go there, you wonder? Well, it's pretty much Nate's dream job, that's why. There is a large military base in Ridgecrest (the whole purpose of the town, basically). Nate's job would be in weapons prototyping. So he would be blowing stuff up and figuring out how to make it blow up better. Pretty cool, I know. But it is still in the middle of the desert.

In the VERY short period of time we were there, we did manage to pretty much see every inch of the city. We found the Mormonsand caught the end of a lovely desert sunsetThere are palm trees everywhere, and Nate says he would be so excited to plant a plam tree in our front yard.When we arrived friday afternoon it was 99 degrees, and when we left saturday around 1pm it was already 102. And it's only the middle of may!!! This is definitely one of the major drawbacks for the both of us, but right now, this is the only job that has been offered to us, so we'll see what happens. Nate is finishing his research now and plans to defend his thesis at the end of the summer. From there, we'll go wherever the jobs take us! We've had a lot of other random activities we've participated in over the last couple of months, but I just haven't had time to post about them. All those that knew we went to Cali for the weekend, wanted to see pics so hopefully I'll get those other random activities late this week. Hooray for summertime!