Moab Trip!

To celebrate the end of Winter Semester we decided to go camping. The original plan was to go to Utah Lake and shot with some friends but after they could not make it we decided we'd do something big and went to Moab instead. Apparently we picked the wrong weekend to go to Moab because one it was National Park Week which meant the park was free (and booked) and there was a classic car show going on. The place was a mad house, almost all the camping grounds were completely full and there had to around fifteen different camping/RV grounds.

In addition to the craziness of it all, it was our first time taking Daniel camping. He LOVED it. (He must be our son.) He loved looking at the campfire and when I would try to cover his eyes from the campfire smoke he would get mad and stick his face right in it. He liked snuggling up with Andrew and I in the sleeping bags and at point ended up sprawled everywhere with Andrew and I on the edges.......

Saturday we got up early and went into Arches National Park to climb to Delicate Arch. It isn't a super long hike, just three miles but there is one nasty part where its straight up a rock face. I did not handle that well. My legs since being pregnant have not done so well, I haven't the faintest idea what's wrong with them...but it was worth all the pain because the arch was beautiful. Daniel fell asleep the last 100 feet of the hike to the arch and missed the whole thing. Alyssa was the only one who actually walked up to the arch, it was too close to the edge for my taste.

But the trip was worth it, lots of fun exploring all the rocks, and getting Daniel to experience new things. The best thing was no one walked away sun burnt! Now I could move the next morning but I felt like such a good parent for not burning my child!

The campsite, they pack you in like sardines. 

The camp fire master. 

She's smiling, early in the morning!

Little Hill all ready to go!

Alyssa at Balanced Rock.

Looking back at all the other hikers.

The Delicate Arch mini-kit! 

The last bend before reaching the arch.

If you look in the middle of the arch, Alyssa's there with her arms in the air. 

We made it!

I have no idea what the name of this rock is but I liked how it looked. 

We're done! 

Blast from the Past

Ashley, Christmas of 1989

Daniel, March 2012

My mother sent me these pictures the other day and it was creepy how alike Daniel and I are. Andrew couldn't believe it either. When Daniel was first born everyone kept stating how much he looked like his daddy and now he looks a lot like me. I honestly think its the hair. He has more hair than I did at his age!

We got the blanket!

Daniel got his blanket!  It has now become his new playtime blanket. Thanks Chuggs! It really is a beautiful gift.

Photo of the Day

I couldn't have had Daniel posed this even if I tried. We were trying to wake Andrew up....I turned my head for a minute and when I turned back, this is what stunt Daniel pulled. I just started laughing. The great part is Andrew had no idea what was going on.

A Pick Me Up

Last week Andrew was at a competition for all construction management majors and came home sick with a nasty cold he caught from his teammates. On Tuesday he had a temperature of a 102. He was out of it, his head hurt, his nose was super runny, he did not want to eat in fear of hurting his throat. I was not much help because I was trying to cram research in for a paper that was due in my extremely difficult professional research class. So while I was all day in the Family History Library he was trying to not to die at his parent's home. Some Valentine's day. Daniel had the best of it, he had his grandparents loving on him all day, he was in heaven.

Wednesday was not any better for Andrew, he felt worse than he had all week. So Daniel came to school with me, to keep away from Andrew's nasty germs. Alyssa watched Daniel for two of my classes, and I had to take him to my third. Thank heavens for professors who do not care about kids in class. We ran home once school was done to make sure Andrew was not dying which if you ask him he'd say yes he was.

Combine Andrew being sick, having to have Daniel be away from him, a huge test, the paper from the class of doom, Andrew not sleeping, which made me not sleep, throw in an argument on Valentine's Day, and its been one messed up week. So today at lunch when Andrew asked if we could get ice cream, I quickly agreed. While he was munching on his chocolate chip cookie dough and me with pralines and caramel I relaxed for the first time week from all the tension. There's nothing like a bit of ice cream therapy.

To top it all off I go my professional research and found out I got a B on my paper! I was dancing around in my head. Getting a B on an assignment is miracle in the class, it is unheard of to get an A. Trust me that B was all blood, sweat, and tears. I was on cloud nine from pure gratitude that all of my work paid off.

I love the little pick me ups in life.

The Many Faces of Daniel

 

 

                          

Daniel will not smile for the camera. It does not matter how hard you try, he will not do it. Instead we get a myriad of different faces. Oh well, we will keep trying. 

Roots Tech 2012

One of the many advantages of being a BYU student is getting into LDS and BYU conferences for a discounted price. Well this year because money was a bit tight, I volunteered with BYU Conferences and Workshops at rootstech so I could go for free. In the mornings I would work registration and in the afternoon I could go to all the classes I wanted. The conference was from Thursday February 2 -Saturday February 4th at the Salt Palace downtown SLC. I love rootstech! Being a family history student, its all the cutting edge advances in software for family historians,   social networking, seeing the best of the best, and chances to learn so much beyond the scope of BYU, work, and personal research. 

 The "playground". We, being the registration people, would take turns and go play games here during the slow times. There was ping pong, fuseball, kinect, pool, and video games. 

 The FamilySearch station. They had a mini library built has well with lots of staff to help people.

 The internet cafe. You could do whatever you wanted on these computers, I saw lots of people blogging about the conference.

 Registration! This is were we worked and it was freezing! We were sitting right next to the windows and a door was open somewhere, and we were right under the air vents. We kept trying to move around to keep warm.

Karen's and my desk. We were in charge of H-O. All in all the conference had close to 4,500 people in attendance with people from 24 countries. People of all ages and walks of life were there, it was amazing to help them learn so much.