Camping August 15th-17th

Above-Wade fishing away
Below- Our beautiful view

Mike on his self made raft



day 2 camping. Yeah not my finest moment- give me a break I was really sick

My cute sister

For the first time ever I went on a true backpacking trip! Rachel and Mike (my sister and her hubby) and Wade and I went up into the Uninta's and backpacked. We hiked to a really pretty lake spot and spent 2 nights camping. I was sick the entire time! I have been sick for the last 2 weeks. For the family reunion I had strep throat then it morphed into a nasty sinus infection/cold. It was miserable.. I have gone through 4 boxes of Puffs. We arrived Friday night and set up camp. We had noodles and s'mores for dinner and hit the sack. Saturday morning the boys made a great "sunrise breakfast" with potato flakes,bacon, powdered cheese and butter and some other spices... it was really good. The boys Fished all day while Rachel and I pumped water, read Harry potter and napped. Rachel and I began to pump the water and with every pump it would take in about 1/8 of a cup and only yield 3 drops. We pumped for a good 3 hours and only yielded about 2 liters of water. The boys were a little disappointed with how much water we pumped b/c they thought it was going to be a lot more. Later that day the boys went to go pump some more and they noticed it was only trickling water. They realized that the filter was full and that it needed to be cleaned. So yeah we would have had at least 4 times as much water if we would have known to clean the filter. Mike felt really bad for being disappointed in us. It was funny. Friday night we had a "backpackers feast" dinner it was kind of like a thanksgiving dinner that you just add water to. We left Sunday morning. As we arrived at the car we noticed a little yellow paper on our windshield. Apparently we had parked in a no parking zone for 2 days. 125 dollars and a few fine words from Wade later we were off back to SLC. Over all it was a great trip. Wade is still working on what he is going to write in a letter to send along with our $125 check.=)

Wades Birthday July 25th

This year Wade and I celebrated his birthday with a movie and dinner. We went to see the The Dark Night-awesome then Wade requested for me to make him a special birthday dinner.
We started out with an oil and balsamic dipping sauce for bread then a colorful green salad.
For the main dish I made him a take on the Cordonbleu pasta at Firehouse in Logan.
I took 3 kinds of cheese, fontina, asiago and piave, heavy cream and butter to make an alfredo sauce. I took large riggitoni pasta, grilled chicken, bacon and covered it in the alfredo sauce. Then I baked it and served it in hallowed out french bread. We topped it off with ice cream cake.




Wade LOVES ice cream cakes from Basin Robbins
I just always like it to look like a little boys cake
Last year was space themed this year it was Iron Man

family reunion

The family reunion 2008 was a blast!!!!
Of course I say that because I put it together but... hehe. I love getting together with Family! Everyone arrived between August 6th and 7th. Thursday everyone got together for breakfast. Then we were off to the park to play for a bit before going to the Hoogle Zoo. Thursday night we had a group birthday party for all out July-September birthdays ( Wade, Gentry,Rob, Maleia, Jon, Melissa, rob and mel's anniversary Me, Grandma's anniversary, Dave, Janee and Adrianne) Yep there was a lot to celebrate. Friday we had family pictures then the girls had a craft and the boys went swimming with the kiddos. Friday night we had a big Robert and Tess (my Dads side of the family) BBQ and got to visit with cousins we had not seen in a while. Saturday half the kids went to Firth Idaho to Gentry's baptism and half went to the Olympic park in Park City Utah. Mom.Dad and Grandma left on Sunday. It went really fast but was wonderful!

Home Makeover our Style

So For a long time my family (kids all 7 of us) wanted to makeover my Mom and Dads house. We knew they would never do it on their own. My parents are sweet, kind, hardworking and honest people. They provide service to so many people and have thought all of us kids to do the same. This last June 19th 20th and 21st we decided to start the makeover. All of us kids contributed in someway. Grandma and Aunt Nancy and Jenny brought food everyday for us. We are so grateful for the Help they gave. Thank you everyone who helped make this dream come true! Here are the pictures let me know what you think.

this picture was just too cute to not put up.. Thank you Garret

Living room

What we did: New carpet, paint, base boards, new light fixtures, new vent covers, replaced the air conditioning tubing and new decor

Before

After (well almost finished)

Taking out the carpet

After

The Kitchen/laundry room

What we did: Tore out the old linoleum, dish washer, range, microwave, vent, light panels and fixtures and laid tile (Rob and Mike-great job guys) painted new range over the range microwave, dish washer base bored and light fixtures.

Before

After (Mom hasn't given us all the "true after" pictures yet but you get the idea)

Downstairs bathroom

what we did: Mom took down the wallpaper and got the walls textured. new paint, base bored and accessories

before After

Mom and Dads room..

What we did: new paint and arrangement and accessories.

We don't have great before pictures

Master bath

New removed the carpet, and vanity.New flooring and accessories. and mom is going to paint. more pictures to come......

Before after

The DR 2

These are more pictures from our journey.. these ones are going to be more in Santo Domingo (Wades Mission) rather than at the resort in Punta Cana

This bathroom made me really sad. It was really hard for me to digest that people really have to live in conditions so much more poor then I had experienced.

The DR May 2008

I have finally gone out of the Continental US!!!!! Wade and I went back to his mission in the Dominican Republic. It was crazy! It was wonderful to see the demographics there. I was shocked to see the poverty and the crazy driving!!! I really loved it and cant wait to go back. Here are some pictures from our travels... 1) Wade Miguel and I at church on sunday 2) Pictures from the resort wade relaxing 3 and 4) beautiful beach we had all to our self!

5) Altos De Chavrone (spelling??) amazing!!!

I guess we should start with the story of us. I Well Wade and I met at Utah State University in Logan Utah Fall 2004. Wade lived in the same apartment complex as I did and we quickly became friends. Wade and his roommate Blake became my home teachers. That semester I had vowed to not date and focus on my schooling. As well as focusing on school I tried to make Wade and my best friend Ronelle date. I just though he was the nicest guy and my best friend deserved someone like that. When I went home for Christmas I found myself thinking about him and talking to my mom about him. We got back to school and of course I told my best friends about it. They told him. Much to my surprise he thought about me too and liked me since we met. We began hanging out around the end of January or early February. We were engaged on August 14th 2005 and then married on December 30th 2005 in the Oakland Temple.