A lifetime of adventure with the person of my dreams

The Holidays

2012-01-03T18:36:00.001-08:00

So, it has once again been over a month since I have posted. But, at least it hasn’t been more than 2 months.
So, to catch you up on what’s been happening in our life…here it is, in chronological order.
My niece Halle was going to be baptized over the Thanksgiving holiday, so the whole Cornell fam went out to Colorado for Thanksgiving for 2 reasons: 1 so we could be there for Halle’s baptism, and 2 so we could all escape cooking and enjoy my sister Tara’s DELICIOUS homemade food. She did not disappoint. She made 7 homemade pie, all from scratch, including the crust, mashed potatoes, turkey, homemade rolls, stuffing (also from scratch…none of that stove top for us…), and sweet potatoes. It was quite a feast. It was such a beautiful day that we even ate outside.After dinner we were so stuffed we could hardly move. We just relaxed, played games and enjoyed being together. Dan entertained the kids, as he always does…The kids love playing with him, and well, can you blame them? I mean who doesn’t like to get thrown around on a giant air mattress? That last picture is my favorite. Josh is such a snuggle bug…and he loves Dan, so if there is ever a movie on, in this case, Cars 2, you can find him snuggled up somewhere close. He is such a sweetie pie…and has given Danny the nickname, “hot dog”. We aren’t really sure why…
The next day (Friday) all the girls went to see the Nutcracker in Boulder. It was a really fun thing to do, and it was my first time seeing it. The boys went to Dave & Busters, and had a blast.Saturday was the big day. Baptism day! Halle looked beautiful in her dress, and my sisters & I sang “Daughter of a King” with Halle. It was such a special day. My sister went all out and had a huge luncheon after, and all of their neighbors and Halle’s friends came. I wish I had photos, but sadly I don’t. She made giant cookie suckers, chocolate/carmel dipped pretzels, taffy, dum dum sucker trees, and chex mix. It was really cute.Sadly, later that day we all had to go home, but it was nice to know that it would only be a month before we would see each other again, which brings us now to Christmas. Every year Dan’s family has a Christmas party. This year was no different. We had a wonderful dinner, a nativity with many of the nieces and nephews and the annual cousin gift exchange. This is probably my favorite part. All the little kids get so excited to see what they got and what every one else got. It turns into mild chaos. We try to set boundaries, but they never hold up. It gets too chaotic to even take photos, so there aren’t many, sadly.
We spent Christmas Eve with my family. We had a great fondue dinner, and then stuck with the annual tradition of watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Then we did a little nativity with my 4 nieces and nephews, which was very short, and turned into a “sword” fight with the sashes from the shepherd robes. It was pretty hilarious. We tortured Chloe by making her wear a santa hat. She wasn’t too happy.On Christmas day we went over early in the morning to see what treasures Santa brought. The magic of Christmas is much more fun with little ones, so I was happy we got to go over. Everyone was spoiled, of course, and it was so nice to spend the rest of the day with family.It was wonderful to have some time off work to be able to spend with family, and each other. It was so nice to sleep in, and not have to worry about work, and having places to go. We didn’t do too much on our days off, but that’s how we wanted it. Just relaxing.
For New Year’s Eve we hung out with the fam and played some wild games. Then, we watched the ball drop at 10…eastern time, and all the oldies/party poopers went to bed while us cool peeps hung out until to ring in the real New Year. 2012 will be a great year…mostly because it will be the year that I will stop being pregnant. Hooray!!We hope the holidays were wonderful for all of you. And, for the record, we are down to single digit weeks. Only 8 to go…hopefully less. At my last appointment he said, “Oh you are really running out of space in there, I don’t know if you’ll make it 2 more months…” He better be right, because I am really getting my hopes up!

What we’ve been up to lately

2011-11-16T20:28:00.001-08:00

Projects, projects, and more projects. I’ve been neglecting the blogging aspect of everything cause we have been so busy. Our apartment is pretty small, and we don’t have a closet or anywhere to put baby girl’s things,(we barley have space for her…) so we had this old TV/computer cabinet that we were using as storage for some other things, so we did a crazy de-junking, and decided to refurbish it into a closet for the baby. It turned out really cute. Dan engineered the whole project, but he let me help a lot, and even taught me how to use a table saw, circular saw, router and various other tools. It was really fun to be together and learn new things. Dan is so handy, and I love having him around to help me create stuff. Here is the before and afters of the cabinet…I mean, closet. :)
Then we went to Ikea and got these little boxes for the drawers. It turned out really cute, and I’m really happy with it. There still isn’t much in there, but that’s what baby showers are for, right?
Next up was the pantry. As I said, our apartment is really small. Our pantry is only partially a pantry. Mostly, we use it for storage, and it was getting a bit cramped and looking really unorganized, so while we were at Ikea getting the boxes for the closet, we found these really cool storage bins that can mount to the wall. We have a blank space between our fridge and our front door, and these bins would fit perfectly, and would take care of the pantry/storage issue. Here’s the pantry, before and after.

The storage bins were pretty plain at first, but with some wall vinyl we decorated them right up and they look pretty nice now. Also, they held everything we needed them to from the pantry, and there is still some space in them. They don’t look that big, but they can hold a lot. Here are pictures before they were on the wall, and then after. Turned out cute, and saved SO much space. I was so happy with this find.
Next, Dan had a birthday!! He turned 27 on October 19. He didn’t want to have a party, since we were going to be throwing our annual Halloween party a few days later, so we went out to dinner at Texas Road House. He didn’t even want a cake, and I felt like the worst wife ever for not making him one. Instead, he wanted a birthday muffin, so we got muffins and he blew the candle out after we came home from dinner. He’s really great, and I’m glad we were able to celebrate it together. It was nice to just have a quiet night alone with each other. After dinner, we headed over to Kohls cause he wanted to see if they had some dress clothes for work. Turns out they were having a KILLER sale, and we got 5 really nice shirts for 20 bukaroos. Love it.
Next up was our annual Halloween party. This year, we decided to try a Murder Mystery Dinner. It turned out SO fun, and everyone came in some pretty awesome costumes. It was hilarious! Dan plans this party every year, and so he planned a fantastic 3 course fondue dinner. (Of course I helped him carry it out…but he did do most of the work) It was so fun to play the game as we were eating. It was such a different experience from our other parties, and I think we’ll try it again.
2 times a year, my mom busts out the baking skills and makes about 7 dozen sugar cookies. Then all the kids come over to frost & decorate them. We do it for Valentines day, and Halloween. Then every kid takes about 2 dozen cookies home, and we eat them until we are literally sick. But I love this tradition. It doesn’t seem like Halloween until we’ve done it.
And last, but not least, I am trying to become crafty. I’m not great at it, but I’m learning. I sewed these two quilts for our baby, and I’m not gunna lie, I’m pretty proud of myself for them. They turned out really cute, and they are so cozy. She will look so cute all wrapped up in them. It was fun to make something for her, and made this whole experience feel a little more real. Any crafters out there, I wanna take lessons!! I have a few ideas for her room, but I still don’t really have it all thought out yet. I am struggling in that department.
And, in between all of this, we took a continuing education class on how to use our camera better. We took it from UVU and it was so helpful to learn about all the different functions and how to take better pictures. It was fun to learn more, and to get out of the house and be together.

Also, in one week I will be in the 3rd and final trimester. I never thought I would make it to Thanksgiving, but it’s almost here, and then there’s Christmas, New Year’s, and one long month, and then she’ll be here!! I cannot wait to be done being pregnant. I am not really ready to have the baby yet, but I am SO ready to be done being pregnant. And that concludes what we’ve been up to lately. Leave me some comments, peeps. I like hearing from you!

And the verdict is?…….

2011-10-06T16:04:00.001-07:00

And we are SO excited.

It’s been a while.

2011-09-24T14:49:00.001-07:00

Hello friends. It has once again been a while since I have posted, and I apologize. I mean, you’d think I’d have all the time in the world what with coming home from work and laying on the couch and puking all night long, but when you do that you don’t really get out of your house so…you don’t really have things to post about. It’s rather pathetic actually. Pregnancy is definitely not for the faint hearted. You gotta be a REAL woman to go through this.

Recap: We went to Bear Lake back in August for the annual Schofield Family Reunion. As always, it was full of brothers, kids, chaos, food, beach, boat, jet skis, sand, and fun. There are about a million photos, but I am feeling a little lazy and didn’t want to sort through them all, so here are just a few.

In other news, perhaps the biggest news, Dan and I celebrated our 5th WEDDING ANNIVERSARY! Can you believe it? 5 years. That’s a long time, and I can honestly say I am happier now (with the exception of being pregnant) than I was when we got married, and call it cliché, but I’m pretty sure we love each other more too. We kind of counted our Bali trip as our celebration, but we did celebrate a little too. The Schofield reunion was the same weekend of our anniversary at Bear Lake, so we went up there for that and took off a day early to celebrate how great we are in Park City.
Sadly we did not take any super cool photos/hardly any photos. We spent the first part of the day at Bear Lake riding the jet skis and soaking up the sun. Then we headed to Park City, ate dinner at Buona Vita, an amazing little Italian place. It really was good, probably the best Italian we’ve had since we were in Italy.

That’s pretty much it folks. Pretty pathetic, I know, but next time I post, I will show you a picture of my new hair style. I cut off my long locks, and you’ll have to wait until next time to see it. So tune in again soon. I promise it won’t be as long this time.

You’ll want to read this. Trust me

2011-08-23T19:49:00.001-07:00

So you may be wondering what happened to me. It seems as though I have fallen off the planet, and in many ways, I have. I have been pretty sick as of late because of this little word on this little stick.And this is our reaction….

This little baby will be joining our family sometime around February 26th. I am almost out of the 1st trimester…and hopefully I’ll start feeling better once that happens. Puking all day every day really isn’t fun. And I have to eat ALL the time. Ugh. I hate eating. Tips or advice is gladly welcomed.

Yeah, we used Chloe to tell our parents. It was so funny when they finally caught on to what was going on. I loved it.

Not gunna lie, I think our baby is going to be pretty stinkin cute, I mean, look at the gene pool it’s working with. :)

The 4th of July

2011-07-11T19:50:00.001-07:00

This year for the 4th we decided to head to Carson City, Nevada. You may be wondering why we would choose Carson City over many other cities, and here is the reason: Dan’s brother & sister in law and 4 kiddos live there, and we have not yet been to see their new house. Matt (Dan’s brother) just graduated from dental school and bought a practice there. The other main attraction is Lake Tahoe. Literally 20 minutes from their door to the beach. The drive there was pretty boring scenery wise, but obviously, the company was great. We left on Friday after work and got there around 11. So, the next morning is really when the festivities began. We headed to an old western town called Virginia City. We saw cool things like this:

The next day we headed up to see the Calaveras Big Trees right across the Nevada/California border. They are not in the Redwood forest, but they are sequoia redwood trees. It was amazing. The trees were HUGE. I couldn’t believe how tall & wide they were. Pretty amazing stuff.

The next day was July 4th. We decided to go to the lake with the other thousands of people who come from miles away to see it. It was simply breath taking. The water was so cold, but surprisingly refreshing once you took the plunge and immersed your whole body. But when we got out, it took a minute for us to stop shivering and feel warm again. If you’ve never been to Lake Tahoe, I would strongly recommend it. It is so beautiful. The water is crystal clear and I’ve never seen anything like it. See for yourself…

And to finish the trip, we watched fireworks from right above the lake. They put on a pretty good show, they had smiley face fireworks, heart shaped ones, and of course the regulars. We had a really fun time. It’s always nice to get away from home and see new places…even if it is in Nevada.

Memorial Day and Moving Day

2011-06-19T16:28:00.001-07:00

Well, we are all moved in. Whew. We moved on June 4. It was supposed to be June 11th, but we got a call on Friday the 3rd saying that the place was ready if we wanted to move in, and we did, so we stayed up all night Friday and packed all our stuff. We had a whole wall full of boxes, I wish I would have taken a picture, but alas, it wasn’t really on my mind. About 6 of our nephews were there helping us carry boxes in from the truck to the house and that made unloading really pretty quick. We got all moved in thanks to my crazy “have to get everything unpacked” attitude. We had EVERYTHING out of boxes by about 12 on Sunday afternoon, and it only took us that long because around 2:30 am on Sunday morning, Dan said that he actually couldn’t see straight anymore and HAD to go to bed right then. So I, very unwillingly, obliged and we finished up the last couple boxes on Sunday afternoon. But, we are all moved in and it is so nice to be done. I hate moving. It’s a real big pain…glad it’s over.

Moving makes Chloe really tired. We found her curled up in this laundry basket with our bed spread while we were unpacking. Too cute.

And then we found her with this. She snuck it out of one of the boxes and turned it into her new chew toy.

I know it’s kinda late, but for Memorial Day we went on a hike up Bells Canyon to see a waterfall. It was a pretty intense hike, like straight up the mountain, but it was fun to get out and be with family. My sister, brother-in-law & nephew joined us. Chloe was pretty tired, but she loved all the rock climbing she got to do.

Also, Dan is getting ready for his “Survival Camp Out” this weekend. He is going to go to the Uintah's with only a pistol, pocket knife & 50 feet of rope. No I am not excited about it, but he’s been planning it for about a year. He’s going with a friend, and then another friend is coming to film them and is going to put a movie together of the crazy time. So….keep him in your prayers, cause I’m a little worried that he is actually going to die.

In Loving Memory…

2011-05-23T20:39:00.001-07:00

This last weekend we had the opportunity to go to Oregon for Dan’s grandpa’s funeral. Not really the reason we wanted to go on a trip, but it was nice to see family. We made the journey with 6 of Dan’s siblings, so needless to say the car was packed, and we all got real comfortable with each other. It was a long drive, but I’ll admit, it was pretty fun. There are some really podunky towns on the way, which made potty breaks really fun. We set a new record. We got pulled over 3 times and got off without a ticket every time. We had some sweet talkers with us. Here are just a couple pics from the journey.

CD Burger Shoppe: Peter found this place on trip advisor.com, and we drove around looking for it for about 15 minutes. When we saw it we were all a little hesitant, but we trusted the site, and it was worth it. It was REALLY good, plus, it’s mine & Dan’s initials. :)Dan practically sliced his finger off on a Mexican Coke. He was trying to open the bottle with the seat belt because we obviously didn’t have a bottle opener. The whole top popped off and seriously gashed the whole top of his finger. We couldn’t get it to stop bleeding for about 7 hours. We also didn’t have any bandages in the car so we got real creative and wrapped a pad around it until we got to the wonderful town, or should I say gas station of Denio. We bought a tiny first aide kit, and the gas station owner gave us what she called “a midget rubber” Needless to say, that was the joke of the trip. He looks pretty happy but he was in a lot of pain.

And now I am handing the computer over to Dan.
My Grandpa, Rolen William Rosecrans lived in Gold Hill, Oregon on the same street his entire life. He passed from this life Thursday, May 12, 2011, at his home. He spent the early years of his life helping his mother struggle through the great depression. He attended Gold Hill High School, where he met the love of his life, Edro June Davis. They were married on July 13, 1945, when he was home on leave from World War II.
The morning of his funeral Carlie and I went jogging with my sister. On our way back to the hotel we had to cross a bridge strewn with American flags. I stopped and asked the man putting up the flags why he was putting them up, and he told me that a local veteran had died and they wanted to honor his sacrifice. That veteran was my Grandpa. I have always been proud of him and the sacrifice he made during that time, and the countless others that he has since made on behalf me and my family. The last time I saw him I was struggling with a major decision in my life. I felt lost and worried, and I asked him for a blessing. In that blessing he told me that the Lord had a path for me and that everything would work out as long as I trusted in Him. I have heard that many times before, but when it came from him I really knew that it would happen. He had the ability to connect with people on a personal level. He was able to understand their struggles and trials and really be there for them. I think this attitude stems from his love of family. He first met my Grandma Red when he was in seventh grade. I recently learned of a school chair that was found in Patrick Elementary school in Gold Hill only a few years ago. Carved into that chair some 70 years ago are the words, “Rolen loves Edro.” He spent his life loving just one person, he took care of her, and in the final years of her life he stayed by her side and nursed her the best that he could. He protected her, served her, and unconditionally loved her. This adoration has helped me to try and do the same for my wife. His example has helped me see why he worked so hard for the ones he loved. He wanted to make sure they understood that he would sacrifice anything for them. There is so much in my life that I owe to his example. He was strong, brave, humble and honest. His was a life that should be honored and revered for the way he lived. He never complained, he never gave up, and whatever he was asked to do, he did it. He went through life believing that no matter what you do, if you work hard and are honest then you can achieve anything. One summer when I was in high school, I went to Oregon for a few weeks. While there Grandpa told me we needed to go take care of the cemetery because a large tree was beginning to damage some graves there. After we got the tree down he began to chop it into pieces and we were to load them into the bed of his truck. After an hour of hauling I was exhausted. I had helped with most of the regular sized branches, but there were some that I thought needed two people to carry. When he was done, I was standing waiting to carry them with him and he just quietly grabbed them and carried them over to the bed of the truck. He did not boast in his strength, he just did it. I was amazed that a man his age could carry so much. I did not think it was possible. Even in his old age he was the strongest man I have ever met. He was buried in the spot where that tree once stood. *Dan’s work sent the most beautiful flower arrangment. It was so sweet. On Thursday May 12, he was finally able to be with Grandma again. He knew that his time had finally come and that he no longer had to fight. He no longer had to worry about the farm, or worry about those around him, he can now rest. His funeral ended with the playing of Taps by the US Navy and my family was presented with a flag in his honor. For our family his was an ending of an era, we will miss you Grandpa, we love you.

Law Day run & Random

2011-05-15T13:15:00.001-07:00

We had a nice weekend. On Friday we went out to dinner, and came home and spent some time outside in the sunshine. I was having a little bit of an emotional breakdown, not wanting to leave our little house and huge yard, which we have put so much time into fixing up. But it was good to spend some time outside, enjoying the nice weather, since winter has been taking place for about a year now. Chloe was loving being outside playing fetch with Dan, and running and jumping around.

*Notice: we are making the same face…and it wasn’t even planned. :)

I think we found a place in AF to live, but we are really sad to leave our house. It really feels like home to us now.

On Saturday we participated in our 1st real race. Every year The Utah Bar Association puts on a 5K called The Law Day Run. The money earned is used to provide free or discounted legal services for people in Utah who can’t afford it. Danny’s dad’s firm sponsored us and we had a blast. Danny insisted that he bring Chloe to participate and so he stayed behind with her, sometimes having to carry her because she would get too tired. 5 kilometers is pretty far for those tiny little legs. He and Chloe finished right around 35 minutes, and I came in around 25 minutes. I’m really glad we did it. It was hard, a lot uphill, but knowing that every hill I went up I would eventually get to go down made it bearable.

The runners, Dan, Chloe, Me, Tony (Dan's Dad)

Now if we could only have a continuous weekend. I totally have the Sunday blues.

Homeless

2011-05-08T20:19:00.000-07:00

So a couple days ago we got a letter in the mail from our landlords. They let us know that although they had told us just 2 weeks earlier that they would be renewing our lease for 2 more years, they had changed their minds and we needed to vacate the premises by May 31st. Apparently, they are planning on tearing the place down to expand the motion picture studio behind us. So, we are on the verge of being homeless, and are looking for a place to live. I am pretty distraught about it. We have fixed up our house pretty cute, it's comfortable, we love our ward, and we are happy where we are. We have looked a little bit for other places to rent, but after being in a house, we really don't want to go back to apartment living, plus rent is SO expensive, and we are getting a great deal where we're at. If anyone knows of good, reasonably priced places to rent, PLEASE share. We only have a couple more weeks, and if we can't find anything, we'll be going back to my parents....not that it's a bad thing, but you know...we wanna be on our own. UGH. The joys of renting.

Happy Easter!

2011-04-24T19:49:00.001-07:00

Happy Easter! Before I go get all sappy on you, I wanted to share some cheesy photos. I am not really into the whole commercialism of Easter, but we did get some chocolate bunnies and a bag of candy & eggs (thanks to my cute mom) to celebrate the holiday.

We went to stake conference and listened to Danny’s sister give the most beautiful talk on the Atonement. She did a fantastic job and brought tears to my eyes on more than one occasion. Elder Worthin from the 70 was also there. He also gave an amazing talk on the Savior. It was so nice to be in that meeting really focusing on the Savior especially today when we celebrate His resurrection. I just want to share some thoughts about the Savior that have really touched my life.

The prophet Joseph Smith said: “And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives! For we saw him, even on the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the Only Begotten of the Father.”

In his talk “None Were with Him” Elder Holland so eloquently said:
Brothers and sisters, one of the great consolations of this Easter season is that because Jesus walked such a long, lonely path utterly alone, we do not have to do so. His solitary journey brought great company for our little version of that path—the merciful care of our Father in Heaven, the unfailing companionship of this Beloved Son, the consummate gift of the Holy Ghost, angels in heaven, family members on both sides of the veil, prophets and apostles, teachers, leaders, friends. All of these and more have been given as companions for our mortal journey because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the Restoration of His gospel. Trumpeted from the summit of Calvary is the truth that we will never be left alone nor unaided, even if sometimes we may feel that we are. Truly the Redeemer of us all said: “I will not leave you comfortless: [My Father and] I will come to you [and abide with you].”

My other plea at Easter time is that these scenes of Christ’s lonely sacrifice, laced with moments of denial and abandonment and, at least once, outright betrayal, must never be reenacted by us. He has walked alone once. Now, may I ask that never again will He have to confront sin without our aid and assistance, that never again will He find only unresponsive onlookers when He sees you and me along His Via Dolorosa in our present day. As we approach this holy week—Passover Thursday with its Paschal Lamb, atoning Friday with its cross, Resurrection Sunday with its empty tomb—may we declare ourselves to be more fully disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, not in word only and not only in the flush of comfortable times but in deed and in courage and in faith, including when the path is lonely and when our cross is difficult to bear. This Easter week and always, may we stand by Jesus Christ “at all times and in all things, and in all places that [we] may be in, even until death,”for surely that is how He stood by us when it was unto death and when He had to stand entirely and utterly alone. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
[Click here to read his whole talk]

And President Monson said: “My beloved brothers and sisters, in our hour of deepest sorrow, we can receive profound peace from the words of the angel that first Easter morning: “He is not here: for he is risen.”
[Click here to read his whole talk]

How grateful I am for the gospel in my life and for the knowledge that the Savior IS risen. What a beautiful blessing and comfort in our life!

And...We're BACK

2011-04-07T01:33:00.000-07:00

To the land of the free, home of the brave. It always surprises me how nice it is to come back to America even after the most amazing of experiences abroad. There is just no place quite like it. We had an amazing time in Bali though. We saw some stuff we’ve never seen before, did things we’ve never done before, and went to a place we had never been to before. It was so fun to just be able to spend some time together, no work, no phone, no internet, no TV, no anything to distract us.

The weather in Bali was amazing – about 80-85 every day. We only had one day of overcast, and it wasn’t our beach day, so it was perfect. We arrived late, and when we got to our hotel, to our surprise it looked NOTHING like the pictures on the internet. There were lizards in the room, AND in the bed. The bathroom was quite possibly carrying diseases, and our air conditioner didn’t work. I know that sounds totally spoiled, but when you are going from snowy cold weather, to HOT & humid, it was quite a shock. We could barely breathe it was so muggy in our room. But we had been traveling for about 20 hours, and were exhausted, so we showered in our shoes, put towels down on the bed (luckily we had brought our own) and crashed. We both vowed we would find another hotel in the morning, and we did. We just went walking around down the boardwalk of the beach, and found a really nice hotel right on the beach. The price was fairly comparable to what we were already paying for the crap hole so we booked it, and we were SOO glad we did. It was totally worth the little bit extra that we paid. We were right on the beach, and the grounds were BEAUTIFUL.

Our first day was our beach/relax/get used to the time difference day. We just spent it walking around the city, window shopping, looking for a hotel, booking all of our other activities, at the beach, and at the pool. It was so nice. We ate dinner right on the beach, watching the sunset over the ocean. It was such a relaxing day and a great way to start off the vacation.

We hired a driver for the next day, because the roads are absolutely INSANE. There are no stop signs, or traffic lights, they drive on the opposite side of the road, and there is a lot of traffic. We didn’t want to mess with it, and with getting lost, so we just hired someone to take us everywhere we wanted to go. It was very nice. We went to a little town called Ubud where we saw the Mandala Wisata Wenara Wana Monkey Sanctuary. It was so cool. We were the only two people there, so we got a lot of attention from the guides and from the monkeys. They climbed on us, and we held them, and fed them. It was so much fun. They would just grab your clothes and climb up your body and sit on your hand, or on your shoulder. The sanctuary is located in the middle of a forest. Some of the trees they said are 500 + years old. There is also a sacred Hindu temple there where they hold ceremonies that kind of worship the monkeys. The type of Hinduism they practice in Bali is different from many other places; it combines Animism, Ancestral worship, Buddhism, and Hinduism. We didn’t see the ceremony, but the guides told us about it.

Next we were off to ride the elephants. It was a little pricier than we expected, but we thought it was worth it, because when else are we ever going to have the option to ride an elephant? Our elephants name was Donny. He was 7 years old, and the biggest, tallest elephant at the park. We got to ride him together which was fun. We went for about a half hour on a little trek through the jungle.

We went to see the rice terraces & volcano after that. The rice terraces are pretty much everywhere, but there were a few really big ones that we wanted to see. They were amazing. The people obviously don’t have tools like we do here, and they pretty much create these with a shovel, and their hands. It is truly amazing.

The next day we went on a little sail boat with 2 other couples over to Lembongan Island. It was really fun. The other couples were quite friendly, one from London, one form Australia, and we had a good time getting to know each other as well as each other’s cultures and differences. Once we got to the island, we got to snorkel, which was beautiful, go on a ride in a glass bottom boat, kayak, ride the banana boat, play on the beach and at the resort’s infinity pool, which overlooks the ocean. They caught a fish on the way to the island, and that is what we ate for lunch. Fresh sea food is so much better than the stuff we get here.
The next day we went white water river rafting down the Ayung River. We saw some class 2 & 3 rapids, and got to go over a 12 foot drop. It was so much fun, and probably the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen. The river goes right through the most amazing tropical jungle. The water is warm, unlike our rivers here, and there are waterfalls, and flowers, and rice terraces, and birds, and monkeys all throughout. There are also a few people who live along the riverbank. They live virtually in the middle of nowhere, with very few neighbors. It was really cool to see their water systems and their little huts right along the river. Amazing how and where some people live. We were on the river for about 3 hours, and then we had lunch. The little “restaurant” we ate at wasn’t really a restaurant, but we’ll call it that for ease, was right in the middle of this most beautiful jungle. There were rice fields surrounding us, and it was so green. We ate rice and fish, and chicken. It was so good, and the scenery made it even better.

Our last day in Bali was sad. We didn’t want to leave this paradise place, and as all last days do, it went by way too fast. We wanted a little more beach time, and had seen and did most of the stuff we wanted to already, and it was a PERFECT day. So we spent some time at our beach soaking up the sun, playing in the surf, and trying to fend off the hawkers that were trying to sell us everything you can imagine. We read and slept, and played, and read, and slept, and played. About 3:00 we decided to do one last thing. We wanted to see the famous “water temple” called Tanah Lot. Tanah Lot means "Land [sic: in the] Sea" in the Balinese language. The temple sits on a large offshore rock which has been shaped continuously over the years by the ocean tide.

Tanah Lot is claimed to be the work of the 15th century priest Nirartha. During his travels along the south coast he saw the rock-island's beautiful setting and rested there. Some fishermen saw him, and bought him gifts. Nirartha then spent the night on the little island. Later he spoke to the fishermen and told them to build a shrine on the rock for he felt it to be a holy place to worship the Balinese sea gods. The Tanah Lot temple was built and has been a part of Balinese mythology for centuries. The temple is one of seven sea temples around the Balinese coast. Each of the sea temples were established within eyesight of the next to form a chain along the south-western coast. (Thanks Wikipedia)
We didn’t want to get a taxi, because how boring would that be? But we didn’t want to get a car, because of the aforementioned issues, so we hired some guys to take us on their scooters. It was about an hour ride (if we took a taxi, it probably would have been 2) but totally worth it. We were dodging in and out of traffic, bouncing up and down on the bumpy roads and fearing for our lives some of the time. The temple was beautiful and the scenery was amazing. We saw it at low tide, so we could walk around and explore a bit. We were planning to stay for sunset, but it got really overcast once we got there and started to rain a little. Needless to say, there wasn’t much sunset to see, so we headed back home, which was an adventure as by that time it had started to pour. Our drivers and Dan donned their ponchos, (Dan’s driver happened to have an extra, don’t worry, he did offer it to me, and I refused being the adventurous romantic that I am, and wanted to get soaked in a Balinese rain storm on the back of a scooter) and we drove home. It was a lot of fun.

We came back late, went for a swim, and as we had already checked out of our hotel, showered off at the pool shower in our swim suits. Dan was embarrassed, but I thought it was funny. He kept telling me to hurry but I shushed him and kept doing my thing. Our flight didn’t leave til 2 AM, so we got to the airport around midnight to be safe, and it’s a good thing we did. We got through security and everything and were going through customs and found out that you have to pay a small fee in cash to exit the country. Well, we didn’t know that, and only brought cash and a credit card. We made sure to use all of our cash, because we didn’t want to bring any of their money home with us, and we were quite literally freaking out because they REFUSED to let us through without paying them the 20 bucks it was. We called the international hotline for our credit card to see if we could get a pin to withdraw cash at an ATM, and they said it would take 5-7 days. We asked the airport people what we could do and they told us to go to a store and have them run our credit card and then give us the cash. So, I stayed with the luggage and Dan went to get some money. He had to leave the airport, went to 5 stores, and 8 hotels, and no one would help him. So he said a little prayer asking for help and walked by a bar. He got the impression to go in, so he did. He asked the owner if she could please run his card for the amount and then give him the cash. At first she said no, but he begged and pleaded and filled her in on the situation, and she said, “fine, if you buy me and these 4 girls a round of drinks I will do that for you.” So he did, and we made it on the plane in the nick of time.

And now here we are, back at home, to our normal, boring, tedious life…but hey, at least we live in America and at least we have a home to come home to. Now, we are eagerly awaiting our next vacation to a place that we are still determining.

Let the countdown begin

2011-03-21T18:40:00.000-07:00

The countdown to what you might be wondering? The countdown until our VACATION!! Now, where are we going on this vacation? Go ahead, guess...come on, GUESS!! OK, I'll just tell you. We are going to Bali, Indonesia!!

In 6 days we will be boarding a plane in Salt Lake, arriving in San Fran, and from there heading on over to the beautiful Bali. We are SOOO excited. We will be there for 7 days. Some of our tentative activities include riding elephants, feeding monkeys, river rafting, beaching it up, and just relaxing together. I seriously can hardly wait.

On another note, this last weekend we went tubing at soldier hollow. We got these half off coupons from groupon, (thanks, ash) and so the whole thing only cost 20 bucks. We had so much fun. The snow was kinda melting and pretty much only had snow where the tube run was, but when we all hooked together we could still fly down the hill.

His Love

2011-03-06T12:58:00.000-08:00

Lately I have been feeling frustrated. Frustrated that life doesn’t always go my way, frustrated that I feel like I am trying to do what’s right and failing. Frustrated that I feel I am not receiving answers to my prayers. Frustrated that I can’t do or be everything. But as I look back, I realize that I have had a very spiritual 6 months. I have witnessed the Lord’s hand in my life. I have felt the spirit touch my heart and lift me up when I couldn’t stand on my own. I have received answers, though they may not be to the questions I am pondering now. Answers to prayers pleading assistance and assurance have come.
Often times I do not understand why we are required to go through some trials. I know we need to learn and grow in ways that the Lord sees fit, but sometimes some things still don’t click. I know the lord has a plan for me – but sometimes I feel like He is obstructing the path as much as He is clearing it. However this week I have felt such a strong spirit. I have truly been blessed, and although I have not received the exact answers I am looking for, I have truly been comforted and at peace amidst my questions.
A lot of times I get caught up in the little things. I get caught in the trap of “someday I’ll have more time to…” fill in the blank with any of the following: actually study my scriptures, pray with more intent, serve others, be a better visiting teacher, sign up for things in the relief society, really focus on making the sabbath day holy, etc. Every time I think any of these things I am reminded of a phrase President Monson said long ago in conference when I was a teenager. He said, “Never put off for tomorrow what you can do today.” Those words have always stayed with me, though often times I do not heed the counsel. Yet I am still blessed.
Recently I have felt an abundance of my Savior’s love. Although I may not understand why or how I am supposed to go through these trials, I know that through it all I can turn to Him, and place those burdens on His shoulders, and He WILL share the load with me. I am grateful to know that I am not required to be perfect. My Savior has and will bridge the gap between who I am now and who I want to be if I can turn to Him. Words cannot adequately express the gratitude I have for the knowledge and blessing of this gospel. I am so grateful for the comfort I have received throughout my life, and especially recently. I have truly learned to rely on these words, “I never said it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it.”
This Song, His Love, by Jake Rau , is a beautiful tribute to the Savior. Just wanted to share it with you.

A few of our FaVoRiTeS

2011-03-05T18:20:00.000-08:00

K friends – here are a few of our favorite things as of late.
{Favorite} Regarded with particular affection, esteem, or preference; as, a favorite walk; a favorite child.

TV show

Seriously, if you haven’t seen this show, you gotta watch it. It has all elements – drama, love, comedy, emotion, questions, and overcoming trials. I teared up a few times, laughed a lot, and sat captivated mostly. Dan got me hooked, but it really is a good show for any type of person.

Thing to do
TRAVEL

Time of Day

{as is it when we get off work}

Treat

No one can go wrong with a good popsicle.Ok, this one is mostly Dan’s favorite, but I do enjoy it on occasion. Dan would like to get bulk candy every minute of the day

Healthy Snack These are my new favorite. Super easy to make. Just dump spinach, water, and frozen fruit (or fresh) into a blender and bada bing, green shake. Lately I have been adding raw oatmeal, it adds a new dimension and it’s G double O D, good.

Thing to buy: Uh, duh. I have always had a soft spot for shoes. I get teased regularly about it, but I’m over it. I know what I love, and I’m not ashamed. My dad used to call me Imelda Marcos. I guess she was the wife of the president of the Philippines, and had over 3000 pairs of shoes. Now, I have no where close to that many, but one day when I’m really rich, I wouldn’t mind it. Sadly, these are only about half of the shoes I own.

New obsession:
Power Pump at Golds Gym. Seriously – best AND hardest class I’ve ever taken…and I’m in love with it.

T Shirt Do you even have to ask? So comfy, so cute. Not to mention they are our best friend’s company. You should check ‘em out. You won’t be disappointed. They are currently working on new designs. http://www.damagedgoodsco.com/

New thing Got this little gem for Christmas on a SUPER black Friday special. Have been having so much fun with it. I wanna take a class. Does anyone know of any/want to do one with me?

Way to read No more holding the book open, no more having to make sure your hands are moist enough to turn the pages. It’s super nice, and it has digital ink, so it doesn’t hurt your eyes. Plus, it’s the best thing for traveling. It can hold 3500 books, so you never have to worry about finishing your book with 10 hours left to go on your flight with nothing else to read because you couldn’t pack one more thing. It’s AMAZING.

Book(s) For just a single book, I would definitely have to say Left To Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza. It’s about the holocost in Rwanda. After going to Africa, this hit me pretty hard. Not to mention it is SO inspirational. I would highly recommend it. For a series there’s no competition. The Harry Potter series is by far the best. It never gets old. When I was reading them I was relating everything to what was happening in the book. Just ask my friends and coworkers. They got sick of my raving pretty fast.

Quote
Carlie:

From the book Left to Tell {…I came to learn that God never shows us something we aren’t ready to understand. Instead, He lets us see what we need to see, when we need to see it. He’ll wait until our eyes and hearts are open to Him, and then when we’re ready, He will plant our feet on the path that’s best for us, but it’s up to us to do the walking…}
Dan
{I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.} -Nelson Mandela

Valentine's Day Scare

2011-02-15T20:36:00.000-08:00

We had a great Valentine’s Day weekend, that is, until the actual day arrived. Dan booked us a night in “the city” as I like to call it. We went up on Friday to Salt Lake and stayed at the Hotel Monaco. It was really nice. We had a really fun time. We went shopping at the gateway, went to dinner at Z Tejas, ran into some out of town friends, and just had a nice day together. Then, on Saturday we went to the temple. Neither Dan nor I have ever been to the Salt Lake temple before, so it was cool to finally do that.
We stayed on floor 9 in room 909, and 9 happens to be my favorite number so I had to documentOn Sunday we went to my mom and dad’s house to eat dinner and frost the traditional heart shaped sugar cookies. We do this twice a year, once close to Halloween, with pumpkin shaped sugar cookies, and then once near Valentine’s Day with heart shaped cookies. We have done this for almost as long as I can remember. My mom always makes about 10 dozen cookies and we all go home with way more cookies than we can eat, but they are delicious!! Then the big day finally arrived. I had a big fancy 3 course fondue dinner planned for us. Around 5 Dan called me (on his way home) and said he really wasn’t feeling well. I thought that he was just kinda sick, and to be honest, I was a little annoyed. It was Valentine’s Day after all. Then he called again and said he REALLY wasn’t feeling well and that he was freezing cold and wanted me to get a hot bath going for him. So I did. He came home, with flowers, and got straight in the tub. We were of course out of medicine so I went to the store to get some. When I came home, I found Dan under about 20 blankets curled into the tightest ball imaginable. I immediately took his temperature to find that he was running a fever of 104.6 degrees and rising. I took him to the instacare near Utah Valley Hospital, the instacare sent us to the ER and that is where we spent our Valentine’s Night. Talk about romantic. I was pretty worried for a while because the Drs thought that he might have meningitis. But after doing some blood tests they decided it is probably just a really bad case of good ol’ influenza. So I was up with him ever y 2 hours alternating between Tylenol and IBUProphen . It was a pretty long night. Today we have been able to keep his fever down, but he is still not doing well. Poor guy. Overall, I’d say it’s a good thing we had a good weekend, because it was quite possibly the WORST and scariest Valentine’s Day Ever. Hopefully my guy gets better real soon! :(

Carlie Time

2011-01-23T13:20:00.001-08:00

So, this weekend Dan had a little sleepover with a few of his nephews. They have been asking him to do this for a few months now, and finally, Friday worked out for all their schedules. Let me make this as clear to you as it was made to me: BOYS ONLY. NO GIRLS ALLOWED, except of course, Chloe. She gets the best of both worlds. Now, I can't say I was too distraught to not be invited to this little slumber party of Nintendo, "boy movies" and junk food because it left me with an evening ALL TO MY SELF – some quality "Carlie Time" if you will. Since Dan stopped working Saturdays, "my time" has diminished greatly, which I am not totally sad to lose, but it was nice to have an afternoon to myself, to do whatever I wanted, to clean the house the way I like it clean, to paint my toe nails, to go to lunch with the girls, to stay in bed all morning and read or surf the net. I rather enjoy spending time now and again with myself, so needless to say I was quite excited to have this night.
I started my night by relaxing in the sun, that is, since there is no sun right now, and especially not at 5:30, at Beaches tanning salon. I love doing this. Now, don't go and get all, "but it gives you cancer" on me. I am fully aware of the risks, and frankly, I don't care. It makes me feel warm and happy. I can take a nap and actually feel like I am in the warm sun on the beach somewhere. It's worth it to me (right now at least). After getting all warm, I went and got my nails done. Apparently, nail salons now offer what is called shellac nails. They are not acrylic, but they last for 2-3 weeks before chipping off. They use UV light and this special type of polish to make it work. And, they only cost 15 bucks. A decent deal if you ask me. Then, I headed to the gym…because I love it. Plus, what a great way to see if these nails can really hold up…and they do. I was there for a while, because I could be. No one was rushing me, and I didn't have to worry about being late for work. I ran 5 miles, did some weights, and stretched out. Felt nice and sore by the time I left. Then I came home and hopped right into a nice hot bubble bath. While I was there, I thought I would work on one of my resolutions for this year, and did some continuing education for my CHES certification. After about an hour, I decided that my skin was probably going to fall off any second so I got out and turned on the sappiest of chick flicks: The Notebook. After it was over, I went to bed, and wait for it….wait for it….slept right smack dab in the middle, all sprawled out and everything. Talk about heaven. It was quite an enjoyable night, and I am fondly looking forward to the next nephew sleepover.

L is for the way you Look at me

2011-01-15T21:17:00.001-08:00

Call me crazy all you want, but don't you dare tell me you didn't smile and laugh a little when you looked at these pictures. I am always smiling and laughing at our Chloe girl. She adds such spice to our life.

best of...

2011-01-15T12:16:00.000-08:00

Here are our 10 best pictures of 2010. In no particular order of course.

Hoenwerfen, Austria Los Angeles, CA

Cusco, Peru

Fussen, Germany

Salt Lake City, Utah

Rome, Italy

Provo, Utah Kutna Hora, Prague

Orem, Ut

The last picture of 2010 happens to be mine and Danny's favorite. It's just classic. He looks drunk and i'm looking at him like he's stupid. (Probably because he just said something totally ridiculous) Typical. Story of our lives. :)

Holidays

2011-01-01T22:07:00.000-08:00

Well, it's all over now. The holidays have come and gone, and I hope yours were as wonderful as mine. We had a great time spending time with family, friends, and each other. It was great to have some time off work, and to see some family we don't get to see much. My sister, her husband and kiddos came out from Colorado to spend Christmas with us. We had our annual "sibling sleepover" on Christmas Eve, complete with a Wii bowling and boxing tournament. Loved it. Halle and Josh sang away in a manger, and we did our first nativity. Our family is finally getting enough grandkids to do that, and it was really fun. Blake loves to give Chloe kisses, and Jack is learning to smile for the camera.We spent New Year's Eve with Von, Ash, Jeff, and Kat, and as always, it was a PARTY! We had a "futuristic" themed party, and all came dressed in what we imagined will be the future of clothes. I got a rockin sequin dress, Dan put on some weird clothes and eyeliner (which I hope isn't in store for the future) Ash was sporting an awesome pink wig complete with sequin shorts, Von had some crazy cool art work on his face, Kat came in a David Bowie meets Michael Jackson red spandex suit, which was awesome, and Jeff came prepared for the Apocalypse. He even proved to us that he was ready by eating raw steak. It was pretty gross. Jumping for joy for 2011 to comeAt midnight we went outside and shook up some coke and watched them explode
Here is my top ten list of things that happened in 2010 - in no particular order. I can't believe another year has come and gone.

1. 2 week European Dream Vacation
2. Dan's new job
3. Peru
4. Being married for 4 years
5. California - 4th of July
6. Bought a new car (after 3 years)
7. Lion King at Capitol Theater
8. Being successful at my resolution from last year
9. Having a year free of migraines (thanks to my magic NAET specialist)
10. Finally decided to move on with our life, and have plans to build a house

Here's to 2010...welcome 2011!!

Mo Tab and stuff

2010-12-22T18:03:00.001-08:00

We were so lucky this year and we got tickets to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's Christmas concert with guest star...DAVID ARCHULETTA! It was so good. And, I have to admit...David Archuletta is pretty cute. He's just so endearing and genuine. He did a great job, as did the choir. We had a really fun time. with my parents, dan's parents, and my sister and brother in law. Afterwards, we walked around temple square. The lights are beautiful, and the temple is exquisite. It really got me in the spirit of Christmas.

Monday was the annual Schofield family Christmas party. It was, as usual, full of food, laughter, singing, and of course, KIDS! Dan has 20 nieces and nephews, and only 4 were not in attendance. (we missed you Matt & Dano) It was a blast as usual. We had a cute little program complete with nativity. Watching the kids open their presents was so cute. The little girls all got pjs and pillow pets...which were a huge hit, and the little boys all got BB guns. They were ecstatic!

After the party, for some reason, the boys always have a contest to see who can touch the fan in the family room. It always starts with some one trying to convince Dan's brother Peter to try. He is probably the worst jumper of the bunch, (no offense, pete) which is why they always want him to do it. Then they all take turns running from the hall into the family room to see if they can touch the fan. It is absolutely hilarious. Sadly, my camera is not super great. So i couldn't capture everyone in the air...and some people not at all. But here is the majority...

Dan & Jake

Peter & Tom

Brad & Josh

And, yesterday, we woke up to this winter wonderland outside. I'm pretty excited to have snow for Christmas. It's just not the same without it. We got about a foot. Sadly, it was rainy today, so it is sort of mushy now.

PS) Christmas is just around the corner...today is Christmas Eve, Eve, Eve. Haha, remember when you used to do that in elementary school? ...ok, who am I kidding? I still do it. (obviously)_

Tis the season

2010-12-13T19:38:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it's already December 13th. Christmas is in 12 days. WHAT? When did this happen? I am almost ready for Christmas, which is good, but why does it always sneak up on me? I remember being a kid and Christmas couldn't come soon enough. December dragged on an on, and it seemed to last for months. Now, it's exactly the opposite. Why does that happen when we get older?

Well, here's what we've been up to since we talked last. We went to Carl Bloch's exibit "The Master's Hand" with my parents, sister, brother-in-law and nephew. It was really cool. The exibit was at BYU, and was really interesting. Here are a few of my favorites of his work. Also, Jack should probably be in a Cold Stone commercial.

The sucker was supposed to keep him quiet, but only lasted for 3 minutes.

We went to A Christmas Carol at Hale Center Theatre. They did a really good job and I was impressed. Definitely a good reminder of the true meaning of Christmas.

We rocked out at Trans Siberian Orchestra at Energy Solutions Arena. It was pretty cool. They sure do know how to rock out to Christmas tunes. They put on a great show. We had a fun time.

Also, just an FYI, you will be getting a holiday card from us this year, just not before Christmas. Because it was so sneaky this year, I totally forgot about them until about 5 min ago. So, you'll get a new year's car. :) Yay. But I still want to wish you a very Merry Christmas!!

Thanks for the comments on the last post. Chloe felt really loved. Keep 'em comin!!

*leave me your address so i can send a card your way.

Birthday Girl

2010-12-04T19:39:00.000-08:00

So today I woke up and Danny said, "Car, do you know what today is?" I thought for a minute and couldn't think of anything special, so I hesitantly said, "um, Saturday?" And he said, "yes, but it's also Chloe's birthday!" I can't believe it almost slipped my mind! Our little puppy is 2 years old today! And to celebrate, we got her a new toy - without stuffing so she can't rip it apart and drag it accross the house. She loves it!!

There you have it, I am officially "one of those people" I just blogged about my dog. What have I become? :)

PS) Don't forget to comment, i've been lacking in those lately and it makes me feel lonely. :)

T-giving

2010-11-27T19:59:00.000-08:00

I have officially decided that Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. Only a 3 day work week, tons of food, family, free time, and a chance to reflect on what I am truly grateful for. I have loved the break from the craziness of life and have enjoyed spending some quality time with my guy. Sadly, we did not take many pictures this weekend, but here's how it went down:

This month at work the me and the girls hosted a food drive. I had recently been made aware of a family with 2 kids who were barley surviving on only their food storage. The mom had recently lost her job and money was tight. We decided that we would anonymously donate the food to this family. Not only did we manage to get a ton of food, but we were also able to gather a whole Thanksgiving Feast for them. We dropped the food off on Wednesday, right in time for Thanksgiving.

We ate Thanksgiving dinner at Dan's house, with 5 of his sibling and all their kids. It was quite a crowd. We went around the table and all said something we were thankful for. Some of my favorites were: pirate ships, food, cousins and snow. We ate tons of food and, of course, pie. We practically lived in our bed. There wasn't a single morning when we got up before 10. It was sooo nice.

We semi black Friday shopped. No we did not get up at 3 am, or go crazy, but we have been wanting an SLR camera for quite some time now and found a steal of a deal on one, so we went to the store on black Friday...at around noon and got it for ourselves for Christmas.

We saw Tangled. Ok guys, seriously. Cutest movie I've seen since Enchanted. Loved it. Will definitely be purchasing it when it comes out. It was great, and Dan agreed.

Did NOT watch B.Y.ZOO lose to the U...but heard all about it from an enraged husband. Blah, football's boring. Instead my sister and I went shopping. Found a great buy one get one shoe sale....because I NEED shoes. Ha. The more truly amazing part? I only bought one pair, and liked about 5. I'm making progress. Shoes are my one true vice.

Overall, great weekend. Sad to be going back to life in a couple days We should have at least one of these weekends every month, just for sanity's sake.

Far too long

2010-11-04T16:59:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends! It has been far, far too long since I have posted. I attribute it to having not one, but two broken computers, and no way of posting with out having it be a pain. Our main computer's screen broke, and our other small netbook got a virus. Yeah, that's our fault for not installing proper anti viral software. Oops. So I finally got around to hooking up the big computer (which is ancient and soooooo slow) up to our TV screen so that I can actually see what I am doing, and that is how I am posting now.

WARNING: THIS COULD BE THE LONGEST POST IN HISTORY!

We celebrated our 4th, yes 4th wedding anniversary on August 19th. I can't believe it has been so long already. Dan surprised me with tickets to The Lion King at Capital Theater and dinner at The Melting Pot. It was amazing! We had such a fun night.

We got some family pictures taken for Danny's family. I'm not posting the whole family because it is going to be a gift to his parents (they already know, since they had to be there) but they don't know which picture we are giving them, and they haven't seen them yet. I think they turned out pretty cute. Thanks Meg!
October was a fun filled month. We were busy as bees and I can't believe it's November already! Dan started his new job in Salt Lake. He absolutely loves it there. The drive is a bit long and tedious what with all the construction, but it's worth it. He got a bus pass so we won't be wasting so much money in gas and that is actually quite nice.

We got a new car. After 31/2 years of being a one car family and carpooling everywhere, we finally decided that with Dan commuting to SLC every day it was probably about time for us to purchase a new car. We got a 2004 Honda Pilot, and we LOVE it!!

On Dan's FIRST Saturday off we went to Cascade Springs up Provo Canyon. It was lovely. the leaves were changing and it was a beautiful day. It was so nice to be able to spend some time together. We haven't had a day off together (besides Sunday) since we've been married. We are most excited about this aspect of his new job.

We are masters with our tripod!!!

We went up to Park City with Dan's parents for a night out. They wanted to take Dan out for a special birthday dinner. He turned 26 on October 19th. I can't believe how OLD he is! He is officially mid-LATE 20s now. We went to this little southwestern place that I can't remember the name of at the moment. It was really good and pretty fancy. Dan got ribs, and I got this chicken nacho meal. Yum.
I threw Dan a party for his birthday. Nothing big, but I am a birthday girl, and I think that everyone deserves to be spoiled and celebrated on their birthday. I made a cake, and cupcakes. The cupcakes turned out much cuter than the cake. I am no baker as you can tell.We carved pumpkins with our very best friends. I was pretty proud of my pumpkin this year. I actually did a good job. I have never been impressed with ANY pumpkin I have carved until now. I found a template on line and I was pleasantly surprised with the results. Danny decided to gut every one's pumpkins and harvest the seeds, so he didn't carve one. We STILL have pumpkin seeds. He's practically obsessed with them.It SNOWED!!!!!
We threw our annual Halloween Party the week before Halloween. It was a blast. This party is Danny's baby. He loves planning for it, making the food, and decorating - so I just sit back and let him have at it! He baked all day on Saturday in preparation. He make pumpkin tarts, candied nuts, homemade butter beer (the Hogwarts recipe), cookies, and of course, pumpkin seeds. He was Voldemort, and I was Bellatrix. His costume turned out better than mine. :)

Von & Ash
Jeff & Katt
Neal & Sarah
Beau & Leslie
Mark & MichelleI got my mole removed. After 22 long years with this thing on my face, I decided it was time for it to go. I am so excited to have it gone...but until it is healed, I have a bandade on my face.Well world, I think that just about concludes our month. Hopefully I'll be able to fix one or both of the computers so I'll be able to say in touch better....but until then, at least you know we're not dead!!

Finally

2010-09-12T19:59:00.000-07:00

After almost 2 years of rejection, something good has FIANLLY happened in our life!! Dan got a very prestigious job at....

We couldn't be more excited. He had 4 interviews, and a language test, but FINALLY got the offer. He starts October 11.

Here's the run down: They wanted someone who had graduated in the last year...which he did. They wanted someone who spoke German...which he does. They wanted someone with a language/English background...which is what his degree was in. He is pretty much perfect for the job. He will be working in the E compliance department as an analyst monitoring all of the communication going into and out of the company.

He is still planning on Law School, and Goldman Sachs has a tuition reimbursement program for people going to school...so if he gets in this year he could keep the job and get school paid for!!

PS...the LSAT is October 9th...hopefully 3rd time's the charm!

In Loving Memory.....

2010-08-27T22:36:00.000-07:00

My grandmother, Geneve Taft Smith Cornell Deuel Henderson passed away on Sunday August 22, exactly one week shy of her 89th birthday. My grandma Nene as we all called her was a truly remarkable woman. There are not enough words to adequately describe her. She had such a wonderful way of reaching people, of loving them, and of making them feel that they were the most important person in the world. Everyone that knew her would say that they were her favorite friend, daughter, son, grandchild, etc. The love of her life died almost 30 years ago. I wish I could have been a witness to their reunion. She talked a lot about him before she died, it was obvious that she missed him, and was excited to be with him again. It had been far too long.

She was always very invovled with her community, politics, and history. She was awarded many things including Freedom Foundation Award, Valley Forge Honor Certificate for the Spirit of America Speaks in 1974, George Washington Honor Medal Administration Award in 1990, Valley Forge Teachers Medal in 1990, Daughters of American Revolution Award of Excellence for Outstanding Teacher of American History in Utah in 1988, awarded Who's Who in American Teachers 1990 and 1992, awarded Who's Who Among Outstanding Americans in 1995. She was fondly known as Mrs. Columbus and was President of the Republican Women's organization in Utah County just to name a few.

She was a brilliant individual. She compiled many books full of the stories of her life, and the lives of her 10 children. She also compiled a book of quotes, and thoughts. This is one such thought I found and thought fit perfectly with who she was.

(Paraphrased) I am the foundation of all wisdom and buisness, I am the fount of all prosperity. I am the parent of genius. I have laid the groundwork for every fortune. I must be loved before I can bestow my greatest blessing and achieve my greatest ends. Loved, I make life purposeful and fruitful. I can do more to advance a youth than his own parents, be they ever so rich. Fools hate me, wise men love me and I am represented in every loaf of bread and every train and newspaper. I am the mother of democracy. Who am I? What am I? I am work! (B.C. Forbes)

Grandma and 9 of her 10 kids

The whole Cornell Clan (minus Charles)

I had the very sweet experience of spending many hours with her during the last week of her life. The memories that were made will be forever in my heart. Never once, in all of her pain did she utter a sour phrase, or an unkind word. She always greeted everyone with love and genuine happiness. I have never heard her speak badly of another. She was a remarkable woman. Beautiful, strong, smart, stubborn, kind, loving, gracious, compassionate and sweet. She always knew how to make me feel like a million bucks. In fact, my brother said, "now who's going to make me feel special for doing absolutely nothing?" Any time I left her house, my self esteem was always a million times higher. She just had a way about her that made everyone feel loved. She left behind a great legacy. 10 children, 41 grandchildren, 64 great grandchildren, and so far, 2 great-great grandchildren.

Most of the 64 grandchildren

The Ralph Cornell Family Us with Grandma on her wedding day (Getting married to Francis at age 83) I will ever be grateful for her unconditional love, for her example, and for the person she is. She has had such a profound effect on my life, and I am so grateful that she was my grandma. Greatful that I was able to feel her love, and grateful that I have some of her in me. The most I can hope for is that I will someday be 1/10 of the person she was. I am so sad to see her go, but so grateful that I was able to have her in my life for so many years.As she quoted in one of our last visits, "time flies on wings of lightning, and we cannot call it back..." The world has lost one of its most valuable citizens, and she will ever be missed. I love you grandma Nene, you will forever be in my heart.

In our own backyard

2010-07-26T20:09:00.000-07:00

This Pioneer Day, Dan had the day off!! It was a wonderful day. First of all, he let me sleep in, and by the time I woke up he had the kitchen cleaned, the floors mopped, the rugs washed and the family room cleaned. Ahhhh....what a wonderful feeling. We decided that since we don't usually get to do a lot of hiking due to him never being home on Saturdays, that we would take advantage of the beauty in our own backyard...so we headed to Provo Canyon.

We did the Steward Falls hike, which was great. We took Chloe along with us, and she absolutely loved it. The hike was really good. Not too hard, not too easy, and lots of shade made it not too hot. MMM HMM. The trail was pretty dusty, and this is what our feet looked like by the time we got to the falls.

Dan and his baby. Seriously. He treats her like she is a baby. Sometimes I have to remind him that she is a dog.

Ok: Story time. Dan can't stand to not do everything when we go somewhere. He needed to run through these freezing cold falls, and he needed to take Chloe with him. He just did. He couldn't stand not doing it. So this is the process: Waiting to go through...Realizing Chloe is shocked from the cold and stopping to pick her up and carry her through...Grabbing her and making a run for it because it is breathtakingly cold...Poor, wet, rat looking Chloe....

Ok, my story. I didn't want to run through the falls because they were cold, and I was feeling great just playing in the water and feeling the mist. But of course, Dan likes a challenge and he dares me to do it. DARES me. Well, obviously I can't resist that. So I made a run for it.

It was a beautiful day. We had tons of fun hiking and being able to enjoy the great outdoors. We are lucky to live in such a beautiful place, with such great canyons and trails available to us so close. Love it. And of course we ended the day with the traditional bbq with great friends, and fireworks. A perfect end to a perfect day.

Our little garden

2010-07-18T15:52:00.000-07:00

What started out as our little garden has turned into our HUGE garden!! I love it. All of our gardens (fruit, veggie, and flower) have been doing so well. Since we got back from Europe, they have exploded. It has been fun watching them start out as tiny seeds and get so big. I have to admit, I didn't think we would be successful gardeners, espeically starting all from seed, but I am proud of us. We haven't been as committed as we could have been, but nevertheless, we have succeeded. Even our raspberries and blackberries have fruit on them!!

The Full GardenTomatoesPeppers CarrotsPeasZucchiniBeansStrawberriesOur very 1st strawberry-not that greatBut look what they have become!!RaspberriesOur first zucchini (it was delicious)Even our carrots are getting bigger...and we have apricots!!Some of our flowers
Aren't you proud of us?

CaLiFoRnIa~4th of July

2010-07-10T15:31:00.000-07:00

Well, Danny and I both thought that we haven't been traveling enough, and we needed another vacation. Mostly, I needed the BEACH!! This has been a sad summer for me. The last two summers, we lived in an apartment with a pool at which I could lounge around on Saturdays while D man is working. This summer I have nothing. No rays of sunshine to brighten my lonely Saturdays, unless I want to roast in my front yard, full of dead weeds, which I don't. So, I proposed that we make the 9 hour drive to LA for a fun filled weekend at Knottsberry Farm and Venice Beach. We took our good friends Von and Ash with us, along with their 3 adorable kiddos. They did amazing in the car, and the whole vaca, and it was tons of fun to have them with us.

Our Room

It was quite a quick trip, but well worth it. We took Friday off and drove to Cali. We got there at around 6, checked into our hotel and headed down to Downtown Disney. It is the Exit of Disney Land, and is totally free. They have tons of restaurants and shops, and street performers. We ate at the House of Blues, which was practically freezing.

Cash and Danny

Saturday we went to Knottsberry Farm. It was SO much fun. There was hardley anybody there, so we walked on to almost every ride. I think our longest wait was about 10 minutes. It was amazing. We ate at Joe's Crab Shack, which was delicious. MMMMM Fresh sea food!

This rollercoaster goes 0-80 mph in 2 seconds. AHHHH!

Sunday was a wonderful day. We spent it at Venice Beach. It was tons of fun to see all the performers, shops, and let's be honest, people. The beach was crowded, but not too bad. We got a good spot not too far from the shore. The waves were really big, and the water was cold, but once you got used to it, it wasn't so bad. The sun felt AMAZING. We were planning to stay on the beach and watch fireworks from the boardwalk, but it got really cold and windy all of a sudden so we decided to head back to Downtown Disney and watch the Disney Land fireworks, which did not disapoint.

This guy did a front flip over 10 people. It was crazy!

Sawyer and his Winnie the Pooh Sunglasses. He chose them himself.

This guy and this picture alone made the trip worth while. We wanted to take a picture with him for 2 reasons: #1-he's HUGE #2= he was wearing a very festive 4th of July swimsuit. Classic. Ash asked if we could take our picture with him because he looked so festive. He asked where we were from. We said, "Utah" and he said, "Well, welcome to LA" Hilarious.

All in all it was a really fun trip. We are glad that Von and Ash came with us. It made the drive a little better (and way more entertaining) for all of us. VIVA CALIFORNIA!!

PS) When we came home, we found some fun critters waiting for us. I think this bird flew into our house when we got home, but I don't know for sure...

EWWW!! BLACK WIDOW

Our Last Stop: Germany

2010-06-06T19:12:00.000-07:00

We took a train from Austria to Germany. We stopped in Munich for about an hour to drop off our luggage and check into our hotel and then were off to Fussen, where we saw Neuschwanstein Castle, the castle that the Disney Castle is modeled after. It was built by Mad King Ludwig in the 1800s. It is built high up in the mountains and has a great view of the city. King Ludwig built approximately 5 castles, all of which he paid for out of his own pocket, causing his family to become almost bankrupt. 174 days after he completed Neuschwanstein, he was arrested and removed from kingship under the charge of being mentally inept. However, before he could be tried, his body was mysteriously found in a lake. No one really knows what happened to him, even still. The castle was opened to the public immediately after his death because people were accusing parliament of murdering him. They thought that one room in the castle would prove Ludwig’s craziness. That room was an imitation cave. For some reason he built a fake cave in the castle with concrete walls and ceilings to look like boulders and stalagmites. I don’t really know if it helped parliaments cause, the guide didn’t mention that part. The castle was beautiful and the tour was interesting. Afterwards, we went on a little hike to get a better view of the castle, and it was worth it. Day two we spent in Munich. We walked to Oktoberfest grounds, saw the city, went to the city center, and did some shopping. The Munich City Center is famous for its cuckoo clock. It’s the biggest one in the world. We also went to a church where the devil set foot. As the legend goes, the devil came into the church and the priest told him that he wasn’t allowed to come any farther. The devil got mad and stomped his foot, and being the devil and all, it was so hot that it melted the tile. Did you know that the devil wears shoes? Our last day in Europe was spent at the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial. It was so sad, but very informational. After the camp, we went to the city center again. Bayern Munchen had a game that night and they were having their pre-game party. There was beer, music, chanting, singing, yelling and lots of Lederhosen. It was so much fun to see. There were so many people there, all singing and chanting that I couldn’t help but smile. Danny found a couple of steins on the ground that he just had to have, so we took them, washed them and brought them home.

Translation: Work will make you free

Many people still give flowers and wreaths as a memorial and out of respect

Even though we got to see so many amazing things the very best thing about our vacation was getting to spend 2 weeks with the person I love. We didn’t have to think about work. We didn’t have to worry about cell phones or email, we just got to be together. It was so great to have that time together. I would do it all over again in a heart beat.

Austria and a taste of Germany

2010-05-27T19:24:00.000-07:00

We found an amazing deal on a bus ride from Prague to Nurnberg, so we took it. We spent the half day at The Nazi Party Rally Gounds Museum learning about WWII. It was a really cool museum. We saw the Congress Hall, Zepplin Field, and watched a couple short documentaries about Hitler and the War. It was very interesting to see and learn more about. Afterwards, we went to the city and had lebkuchen which is sort of like a gingerbread cake that they are famous for. It was absolutely delicious. It was a fun day. After spending the day in Nurnberg, we headed down to Austria, which is about an hour and a half away by train. You may be wondering why we didn’t just stay in Germany, since we were going to come back, well the reason was because our flight left out of Munich, so it was just easier to finish the trip there.

Translation: Hitler: Our last hope

Zepplin Field

This is where Hitler used to preach from. Danny wanted me to heil, I wanted to live.

And this is for all you nursing mothers out there. Yes, the water is coming from her nipples.Our first day in Austria was really fun. We went to a little town called Werfen, home of the famous Hohenwerfen Castle. We hiked up a large Alp Mountain to get there, which was beautiful. The castle was really cool. It is about 600 years old and has been used for a myriad of purposes. It was used as a castle, a prison, and a Nazi Police training center. The little town that it is in is famous for bird training, so we were able to see a falcon, eagle, and owl show while we were there. It was very cool.

These are some of the birds we saw in the bird show

Danny was misbehaving, so I put him in the stocks.

View of the city from the bell tower

After the castle, we went to Salzburg, home of The Sound of Music. There we saw some beautiful gardens, the city center, and some fountains called Trick Fountains. The person who designed these fountains was a bit crazy. He designed a whole city block with hidden “fountains.” He then would invite guests over and trick them with them. When they would be sitting or walking, he would turn on the water and get them all wet. Every room had sprayers in it hidden very well. We went with a group of students from Italy, and they were loving getting wet. Our guide was nice enough to take us in separate groups so we all didn’t have to get drenched.

This is a little city built out of wood, and has over 200 figurines, of which 75 move

This is the Salzburg CastleOur last day in Austria was spent in a little city called Hallstatt. It is a very old Austrian city, dating back to before Christ. Obviously it has been renovated since, and is a beautiful city. It is built right around a big lake, with the houses going right to the waters edge. We rode a tram up to the top of the mountain, and then hiked down. It was absolutely beautiful. I also had my first and last leberkase, translation: liver cheese. Yes, liver cheese, do I need to expound upon why it will be my last? Danny absolutely loves the stuff, but I could not force myself to do the same. I gave it a fair try though, 3 bites. Danny wasn’t very sad that he had to finish my share. I couldn’t get the taste out for the rest of the day. It reminded me of bacon bits in that aspect. It was a very relaxing day, we walked a lot, as usual, but the city and the lake were well worth it.

The Leberkase We were sad to leave Austria, but happy to be moving on to Germany, our next stop.

Prague

2010-05-15T12:54:00.001-07:00

We took a small jumper flight from Rome to Prague, and after just a couple short hours, we arrived in Bohemia. It was beautiful. We arrived a little later on in the afternoon, and by the time we found our hotel, there was only enough time to eat, see one cathedral and explore the city a bit.

Prague is a beautiful city. All the buildings are different colors and all the streets are cobblestone. There are so many cathedrals it seems impossible to count. We only were able to spend two days here, but they were both packed with sight seeing. On day one, we saw basically the entire city. We walked a lot, but it was nothing new. Some of the sites included: National Museum, Prague Opera House, Wenceslas Square, Klementinum Tower, Astronomical Tower, Charles Bridge, Nicholas Church, Prague Castle, and finished off at the Petrin Tower, which is a replica of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. While at the Astronomical Tower, we were able to walk up to a view point allowing us to see the entire city. It was very cool to be up above all the buildings. There is definitely good reason that it is the 6^th most visited city in Europe.

Wenceslas Square

Klemintinum Tower

Nicholas Church

Astronomical Clock

View from Astronomical tower

Prague Castle

Charles Bridge

Petrin Tower

View from the hike to Petrin Tower

Day two was not quite so eventful. We didn’t realize that we would be able to see so many sights on the first day! We went to a little town called Kutna Hora which is about an hour and a half outside of Prague. I rode my very first train to this city, which has always been one of my dreams. The main reason we went to this city was because there is a little church there called Kostnice that is completely decorated with real human bones. After the Hussite War, and the plague, which obviously killed many people, this little church was expanding its cemetery. In doing so, they found many bones and the priest who was presiding at the time thought it would be respectful to those who died to use their bones as decoration for the church. He built 4 huge pyramids out of long bones, such as the femurs, humorous, tibias, ulnas and radius, (thank you human anatomy) with some skulls mixed in and topped them with a golden crown. None of the bones in these pyramids are stuck together. They are all just stacked in a way that they won’t fall down. The “chandelier” actually has every single type bone found in the human body. There was a very eerie feel to the church, which I am sure you can understand…due to all the bones. It was really interesting, and definitely not something you see every day.

Me, before my 1st train ride

The bone pyramids. Couldn't get the whole thing cause they were too big.

My nose looks like roudolph, it was a bit chilly that day.

This chandelier contains every single type of bone found in the human body

He even made a coat of arms. Notice the bird in the right corner. It is eating the skull. Weird.

We spent the rest of the day walking around the little city, which is also beautiful. The streets are just lined with beautiful colorful buildings, and small shops. It was a very relaxing and informative day, and one that we will not soon be forgetting. And this concludes our journey in Prague. Our next stop? Nurnberg, Germany and then on to Austria.

European Dream

2010-05-13T20:14:00.000-07:00

Surprise! We just got back from a 2 week vacation to Europe! It was an amazing vacation, and so great to actually be able to spend some time with each other. Our adventure included visiting: Rome, Prague, Southern Germany and Austria. We managed to travel by practically every single type of transportation: car, air, train, bus, metro, boat, tram and of course…FOOT! We walked and walked and walked. I bet on average we walked approximately 10 miles per day. I thought that my feet would fall off on more than one occasion, my calves and legs have never been more sore, but it was well worth it. I will do this post in 4 sections - one for each country that we traipsed across.

Our first stop: Roma

We had only a vague idea of where our “hotel” was. We were going to be staying in what we thought was a quaint little bed and breakfast. We couldn’t have been more wrong. Danny confirmed with the reservation center about when we would be arriving on multiple occasions, so we didn’t think we would have a problem. We wandered the streets of Rome with all our luggage for about an hour looking for the right street, and the right name. We thought we had finally found it when we saw a little place with the same name, so we rang the bell and went in. It turns out that the place we booked through has three different locations all with the same name. We had to go to a little internet café to find the phone number. When we called the man to ask for directions, we found out that he doesn’t actually live in Rome, but a few hours away and that the place that we are renting is actually his apartment. We were totally bummed out because we had our days planned out meticulously since we were only going to be there for a few days. We didn’t want to lose any time, so we hauled our luggage a few blocks to the train station and left it there in a little holding place. We then made our way to…THE COLOSSEUM! However, on our way there we found a gigantic cathedral called Saint Marry Maggiore.

We walked around the Colosseum for a couple hours before we had to go meet the guy at our “hotel.” Luckily he was there this time, but when we went in, a very overpowering smell came upon us. It smelled like an old folks home, to the max. I had to hold my breath. We got everything settled and headed to our room which was just down a tiny hallway. Our room didn’t stink which was good. We changed, got cleaned up a bit and headed back to the Colosseum. We did a tour of the inside and then walked around the city a bit afterwards. The night ended by eating real Italian Spaghetti and Lasagna and stopping for Gelato on the way back.
Day two was crazy…a lot of sights and even more walking! Here’s the breakdown of the day. We first went to Vatican City which was pretty cool. We started off at St. Peter’s Basilica, which is HUGE! We then made out way to the Vatican Museums.

The Vatican Museam tour ended with Michael Angelo’s Sistine Chapel. It was awesome, beautiful, big, and simply amazing. We weren’t supposed to take pictures, but I managed to sneak this one. Don’t worry, it was without the flash so it won’t damage the paintings!

Vatican City was almost an all day thing, but we did manage to make it to the Borghese Gallery Museum after much walking, getting lost, and a lot of foot pain. It couldn’t have been a more beautiful place to get lost though. It was just a gigantic green park with flowers, and huge trees. Day three was really cool. We saw Trevi Fountain, The Spanish Steps, The Pantheon, Capitoline Hill, The Roman Forum, and The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Surprisingly, we didn’t get lost one time on this day, which was great for my feet. (Pictures are in order of the aforementioned list)

Our next stop? Prague….so stay tuned.

Home Improvements

2010-04-18T20:49:00.000-07:00

Well, it's that time of year. Spring is here...FINALLY!! We are once again trying to improve the little shack we live in. It's hard to have such a big yard with so much potential, with out trying to make use of it. You see, when we moved in last August, our yard looked much like this, only the weeds/grass was about 3 feet tall and there were stumps everywhere! (This image courtesy of google images)Dan really surprised me when I came home from Peru. He had removed the 9 or more stumps in our yard, cleaned up a lot of dead trees AND...built us a garden. Not just any garden, but a big, wonderful garden. He wants to make our own salsa this year, and I just want fresh fruits and veggies. SO, here is the breakdown. We planted peas, carrots, cucumbers, zucchini, onions, tomatos, squash, cilantro, peppers, beans, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and golden raspberries. It's going to be amazing!

Dan built this drip system so that we don't have to worry about forgetting to water the garden. This little beauty will do it all for us. Isn't he handy?

This is our "fruit garden" The other is our "vegetable garden"

We also converted the pile of dirt and weeds in the front of our house into a flower garden. We got a smorgesboard of flowers. I don't remember many of the names of them, just ones I thought looked pretty.
BEFORE:

AFTER:

Chloe loved helping me plant the flowers. She also thouroughly enjoyed eating every single weed I pulled out!!

Our next project: removing the remaining stumps and getting real grass everywhere accross the yard. Wish us luck, it's a lot of ground to cover! Literally

The last 2 days...

2010-03-26T20:04:00.000-07:00

The title of this post could be taken in two different ways. Way #1, I am posting pictures of the last two days, or way #2, I am very sad to be leaving such a beautiful place in just 2 more days. If you thought of way #1, your right, and if you thought of way #2, you are also right.

The last two days have been amazing. We have been touring around Cusco, seeing all that there is to see, with the exception of Machu Picchu. But with the photos you are about to encounter, you will understand my phrase..."WHO NEEDS MACHU PICCHU?" Although it would have been amazing to see, I am quite contented with the sights and ruins that we did see. Everything was beautiful, and the weather was unbeatable. Seriously. We couldn't have asked for better. We made quite a few stops. We visited Qorikancha, which is an ancient Inkan temple that the Spanish built over. It still has remnents of Inkan walls and rooms. It was very interesting, but our tour guide got a little long winded and I got distracted.Then we visited Saqsayhuaman, which is pronounced much like "sexy woman" The natives, and tourists all call it that because the rocks have many angles and curves. We smiled each time our guide said it, which was close to 1000.

These are sliding rocks. A few of us climbed to the top and then slid down.

Each stop had a bit of hiking to do. So we only did these two on the first day, but it was a lot to see. Saqsayhuaman had a couple parts to it so that took us a good 3 or 4 hours to see. When we arrived to our hotel, the power was out. They said it had been out since 6 am. We didn't know what to do as it was only 7 pm, and there was no power, no water, no anything. All we had was one tiny candle in our room. So we went and combined in Lynley and Kristi's rooms and partied it up until the power finally came back on about an hour later. Today we went to the Inkan ruins at Pisac, which was very cool. You can still see rooms and fountains that are original. It was quite a hike to get to, but well worth it. It was really cool to see. Then we made our way to Ollantaytambo. Here we saw the Inkan god, Wiraqocha, carved into the mountain side. The Inkans thought that if they carved his face into the wall he would watch over them and protect them.

Yes, we did climb all these stairs...and a whole lot more too!!

The sights we saw were amazing. I loved every minute of it. There are so many beautiful things to see and do. The hiking is incredible, once you learn how to breathe at 13,000 feet. Your heart starts beating quite fast, especially going up hill. But it is totally worth it. All I can think to say is Beautiful.And this kiss is for Dan, the best man in the world! Love you babe!

Conference

2010-03-24T21:07:00.000-07:00

Today was the last day at the conference. We presented our material, and I think we did very well. It was a bit intimidating to present in English when the people only spoke Spanish. I was always wondering if the translation was coming across how I wanted it too. In the last 2 days we presented 3 times. Our topics were, Illiteracy, HIV/AIDS, and Social Change. I think they all really applied to what the people were going through, as they all seemed quite interested.After the conference, we hit up the market across the street for a little shopping. It was fun. Hard because I can only make out about 1/4 of what they are saying to me, but so far so good. We all went out tonight as a group to celebrate my birthday, and another girl's birthday. It was really fun. We went to this place called "The Inka Wall" it actually had part of the real Inkan wall from way back when. It was pretty cool. They had traditional music and dancing which was fun. They even sang to me!!
Then, they invited a few people from our group to go up and dance with them, and I naturally got chosen. It was fun, but I have to admit that I felt like a fool. I was just trying to mimik the one I was dancing with, but I am sure did not do a great job at it.Tomorrow we are going sight seeing. It should be very cool, and then the next day will be the Sacred Valley. I think it should be very neat. I am excited.

Casa Cunca

2010-03-23T19:03:00.000-07:00

Hola! You will have to forgive me not posting yesterday. I had, shall we say, some major intestional issues. Hope the problem is all cleared up now, but I am still not feeling quite right. Ugh. Hate being ill on trips. So I have a bit to fill you in on. Yesterday we went out to a little village called Casa Cunca, which means house with a neck. Wierd I know. We went there to help them paint their school as well help repair a green house. Apparently this little village grows over 200 types of potatoes. Yeah, I didn't know there were that many types of potatoes either. Their poor village is located at approximately 12,800 feet up, and with all the flooding that has been happening, their little mud houses are starting to be washed away. They told us that if they have one more flood their houses will wash right off the mountain.

This little truck is what got us up the last part of the hill.
Our bus was too big to go over a steep curve in the road,

and by luck this little truck pulled up right as we needed it to.
We all piled in the back and up we went.

The drive to the village was absolutely georgeous. I have never seen such beautiful scenery. Everything was so green. The road that we were driving on very rarely has cars on it, as the people of the village do not own any sort of transportation. They walk the 3ish hours to the nearest city if they need anything. In face, many of the children walk to school 2 hours in the morning, and then 3 hours to get home, every single day.
The kids were a little bit apprehensive of us when we first arrived. They didn't quite know what to do with a bunch of white people. I don't know if they have ever seen "our kind" before. We brought some toys with us, some balls, jumpropes, bubbles, and candy. They loved candy. After a bit they warmed up to us a little, but their little brows were always a little bit furrowed.

His beautiful little face just captivated me. Precious.

It was nice to be able to get out and work with the people. I was very grateful to be able to serve and play and love on the little ones. Towards the end of the day, when the older kids got out of school, we played a little game of soccer, which is always fun. Of course the kids are amazing, and could beat every single one of us. It was a lot of fun and over all a very nice day. It is always so humbling to see the circumstances that these people live in on a day to day basis. I am always amazed at the happiness and joy they can find in the simplicity, yet hardships of their lives. What an awesome thing to live in such a beautiful place, so untouched by the outside world.

Hellooooo Peru!

2010-03-21T16:32:00.000-07:00

Well, we made it to our destination...Cusco, Peru. It was absoulutely beautiful today. Warm weather, blue skys, and a slightly cool breeze. Perfect. We flew out of Lima at 10 ish and arrived here at about 11ish.

Cusco is at quite a high altitude, it is 12,000 feet in the main areas and goes up from there. Because of this, in order to acclimatize, they recommend that you take it easy, don't walk fast, and drink cocoa tea. It is basically hot water with cocoa leaves in it. Yes, the very same leaves that they make cocaine out of. It is really disgusting. I literally had to choke it down, and almost didn't make it. It basically tastes like you are drinking old, dead, and slightly rotting leaves. YUCK.

Finally! All the nasty tea is gone.

We took a little walk today to the plaza. There was an amazing and beautiful cathedral. Apparently when the Spainish came and invaded Peru, they wanted to destroy the most sacred thing to them, their religion. So in almost every land space the Peruvians considered sacred, they put up a cathedral. Stupid Spanish. But I do have to say that they did make some beautiful buildings.

The city is beautiful. I am glad we had a day to rest and acclimitize. The streets are all made of cobble stone, with tiny mosaic like pathways down the middle of them. They are very unique and beautiful.

Tomorrow we are doing one of our humanitarian days. I am anxious to see what it will bring. The people here are very friendly, and the clothes are beautiful. At the plaza, there are people selling paintings, pictures, postcards, jewelry etc. One little boy, who claimed his name was Tom Cruise came up to me and was asking me to buy a postcard from him. I didn't want one, and he of course just kept following me around. We went to eat, and he waited for me outside the restaurant. He just kept following me, begging me to buy his postcard. Finally, just to get him off my back I offered him one American dollar as my final best offer - something I learned that worked well in Africa. He said that his postcards were worth much more than that and wouldn't take it. He said that I had promised to buy one once I was done eating, which was, of course, a lie. He told me I was a bad person and not very nice, and then he turned and walked away. It made me feel a little bad, but what can I do? I can't just hand out money because I feel bad. On the way home, we saw these two beautiful people. They said we could take a picture with them for free...which is rare. We ended up paying them though, and they were very happy. Beautiful.

Goodbye America

2010-03-20T21:10:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been quite a day. We began this journey at approximately 3:18 am. Our flight left Las Vegas at 6:00 am, so we had to be up and at 'em bright and early. Ok, so it wasn't really bright, but you get the picture. We got to the airport before the gate was even open, so we had to stand around waiting for them to get everything going for a few minutes. We finally got to our gate and it was time to board. We flew out of gate D19. Had time to take 2 pictures.

After one small heart attack that we got on the wrong plane (I thought we were flying into JFK) everything went great (with the exception of a lot of turbulence) on the flight to Newark, New Jersey. We thought our layover was about an hour and a half, but once again, we were wrong. It was only 45 minutes, and our flight landed late. So we had about 30 minutes to find our gate, get our passports checked in and get on the plane. It turned out fine, and we made it.
However, I had planned to only carry on. My duffel fit just fine on the flight to EWR, but apparently it just wasn't happening from EWR to Lima. I don't know why. As we were on the little walk way to the plane, some guy thought that he needed to check everyone's bags. Ugh. I tried to sneak past him to no avail. He caught me and asked if I would like to check my bag. I told him no, to which he replied, but the overhead bins are already full, and this is a small plane. I told him that the last plane was small and my bag fit just fine, but he insisted, without knowing what size of plane I had previously come from, that this one was smaller and there was just no room for it. UGH!
I got on the plane, found my seat and looked around. The plane was exactly the same size as the previous plane, and every single overhead bin from the front of the plane to the middle of the plane had room for at least one bag, and the one right next to where I was sitting looked like this:

Apparently, this means it's too full for one more bag to possibly fit. I was a little perturbed, but after venting about it to Anne Marie for a few minutes, I vowed to let it go. :)
Anyway, we landed in Lima about 45 minutes later than we were supposed to, made our way to baggage claim, and my bag was already there waiting for me so I couldn't be too mad. We got through customs in a breeze, and about 20 minutes after we landed, we made it safely to our hotel, which was approximately 20 yards from the airport. Nice.
Tomorrow we are flying to Cusco where the conference is. I am excited and a little nervous to present. Ok, a lot nervous. It will be a great experience. I am a little bummed, as there is still a lot of damage on the rail road tracks and we may not be able to do Machu Picchu after all. Oh well. I have to keep telling myself that I utimately came for the expereince of presenting at an International Public Health conference, and Machu Picchu would just be a huge bonus. There are still some amazing things to see, and it will give me a reason to come back, with Danny!!

After being up for nearly 24 hours, I think it is time to say goodnight. It was too dark when we got here to take a real photo of what Peru looks like, so this plant in our hotel will have to suffice for now. :)

Thanks dad, for letting me borrow your camera. Already I can tell it is going to take way better pictures than mine would have! Stay posted. I will keep you updated! Much love, peace out.

Date Night

2010-02-28T20:19:00.001-08:00

So, a couple weekends ago Dan and I decided to go out on the amazing, and huge town of Provo. There is always an adventure to be had in "zoo" town! The last time we went out on a date in Provo we went to The Malt Shoppe, and in typical BYU fashion, there was a triple date going on. The daters chose the booth next to ours, and thought it pertinent to pray over their hamburgers and fries. Yes, pray. Oh, and I am not talking about the close your eyes for a couple seconds, I am talking full folding their arms, bowing their heads and mumbling their prayer aloud. We were lauging histerically - quietly of course. Based on this experience, you can imagine how excited we were to go once again to Provo for our date night.

We started the date out at Outback Steak House, thanks to a gift certificate from some great friends. Friday nights at restaurants, as you all know, can be very hecktic. Especailly here in the Provo/Orem area, where they refuse to take reservations. So we went and got our name on the list and decided to hit up this cute little bakery called The Sweet Tooth Fairy. They sell gourmet cookies, cupcakes, brownies, cake balls, suckers, etc. We choose 3 cupcakes and 3 cookies. There were so many choices, we couldn't just chose 2!

We then headed back to the restaurant where we had some great steak. We also had the wonderful privelage of sitting next to some very serious "anti BYUers." They believed in yelling insead of talking, and weren't afraid to express their opinions about how "lame" BYU is. We all know the type. We loved it, and hated it.

After dinner, we decided to go out for some good old fashioned bowling. We had no idea the bowling in "zoo" town is quite popular, and apparently, the thing to do on a Friday night. We arrived at Fat Cats Alley only to find that the wait was approximately 3 hours, but we could definately get our name on the list. We obviously didn't want to wait 3 hours, so we left to find another bowling alley around - which wasn't hard to do, as there are a lot of bowling alleys around. We decided on Miracle Bowl. Well, once again we were dismayed as we found out that the wait there was also a couple hours. Never would I have ever thought that I needed to make a reservation to go bowling.

We decided to forgo the bowling idea, and decided to go shopping instead. But, by that time the mall was already closed, so we stopped by the Kohl's by our house. Sadly, there were no awesome finds. So we decided to do the typical -- get a Redbox, and snuggle on the couch. AKA, Danny watches the movie and I fall asleep. It really is probably my favorite thing to do, but for obvious reasons, Danny hates it. We go through a ritual, he frequently asks if I am awake, to which I nod my head, which he takes as a "YES." I just do it so he won't wake me up. I really am alseep. Then he has to deal with helping me get to bed, getting me into pjs and brushing my teeth. He usually does get a laugh or two out of the funny half-alseep comments I make, so it can't be that bad.

Ah date nights. My ideas are getting sparce, so I am up for any fun ideas any of you have. As you can tell, I NEED HELP!!!!

On another note, a couple weeks ago I got BANGS! What's the verdict?

Peru Bound...

2010-02-14T21:00:00.000-08:00

Ok friends, it's official! I am going to Peru. On Thursday, February 11, Lynley, the professor I went to Africa with invited Anne Marie and I to speak with her about the research we completed in Africa at a conference in Cusco, Peru.

Since we have been back from Africa, we have been working on publishing our findings. We really would like to present at a conference, and usually the rules are that if you want to present, you have to do it preceding publication. (Crazy, I know) We could present at any health conference, but when this opportunity came up, we couldn't let it pass. So, we are off to Peru. I don't have all the details yet, but as far as I understand, we will be presenting on our findings of HIV/AIDS, how to prevent, change lifestyles, and provide information regarding myths associated with HIV/AIDS. We will also be speaking on health literacy, and just general preventative care practices. I am so excited. We leave March 20, and will be gone for 8 days. (I get to spend my 22 birthday in Peru).

We will be speaking for 2 days, and when we are not speaking, we will be providing humanitarian aid for the people. I am so happy to be able to help. Ever since coming back from Africa, my heart has been aching for something more I can do. Recently, there has been some major flooding, so we will be helping build, paint and clean up the damage. It will be a wonderful experience.

The last two days of the trip will be spent in a small village at the base of Machu Picchu. If the flood damage is taken care of, we will be able to hike Machu Picchu as well as the larger mountain next to it, though at this moment, it's name escapes my mind. Our flight leaves quite late on Sunday the 28th, so we will spend the last day touring around Lima, Peru's capital, shopping and seeing the sights. I feel so blessed to have yet another opportunity to serve and further my experience in the health field. I have been given some great opportunities to serve others, as well as gain an education and understanding of what the world is really like outside my protected, safe bubble. The Lord works in mysterious ways in my life. He seems to place opportunities in my lap and say, this would be great for you, take it or leave it. I hope I will always be able to take those opportunites and make them the greatest they can be. Life is crazy, and there isn't room for "should haves" "would haves" "might have beens" and "if onlys" I feel so blessed to be in a place in my life where these words don't apply, and even more blessed to have a husband who supports me in every decision and opportunity I get. He is truly the best man in the world!!

Cross country skiing

2010-01-16T08:41:00.000-08:00

For the last few months now, Dan and I have been hanging out with the young men and young women. Dan got called to be the young men's secretary, and I got called to be the mia maid advisor. We are having a blast. Last week was our youth conference and we went up to Aspen Grove to go either cross country skiing or snowshoeing. Dan and I chose cross country skiing and had a blast! Niether of us had ever been any kind of skiing before and so needless to say it was an adventure.

Right at the beginning, there was a pretty decent sized hill. I was pretty nervous to go down, but I did it, and I only fell one time!

We skiied for about 2 hours and covered a distance of approximately 2 1/2 miles.

This is the view of the resort we stayed at. There were about 5 or 6 cabins and then a lodge which was pracitcally a hotel.

A new year means new resolutions!

2010-01-02T15:47:00.000-08:00

Happy 2010!!! Well, it's that time of year. Time to make some new resolutions. I love this time of year because it is a fresh start. It doesn't matter what happened last year, or what you did or didn't accomplish, it is time to start fresh, no mistakes....yet. You can look back at the last year, remember the highlights, forget the lowlights, and look towards a new year and new adventures. So, my main resolution this year is to start working out on a regular basis, the only problem is that I feel stuck. I know I won't stick with it if I have to wake up early, and by the time I get home from work, I am too tired. Anyone have any motivational suggestions?

I want to do a quick recap of the best times of 2009 in no particular order:
1: Dan and I both graduated!! YAY!
2: The LSAT is officially OVER!
3: Africa
4: Getting Chloe
5: Chloe graduated obedience school
6: Moving to south Orem and fixing up our little house
7: Passing the CHES Exam
8: Playing soccer for the first time since the surgery
9: Hawaii and river rafting
10: And of course...being married to the greatest guy ever!!!

Here's to 2009, welcome 2010!

Gotta love fixer-upers!

2009-08-22T19:25:00.000-07:00

While I was in Africa, Danny was left with the wonderful task of moving. Fun task, especially by your self. What a great guy! Well, the first apartment that we were going to move into, fell through after he had moved most of our stuff in. So, poor guy, he was left to find us a new place, and move us all over again. After much strife and help from my brother's girlfriend, Megan, he found us a place in south Orem, in a very old house. It is really good sized, but needed some serious repairs. We painted, fixed holes in the walls, cleaned up the yard as best we could, and sanded the wood floors. These pictures don't even do justice to what the house looked like when I first saw it.

Notice the painted bow on the closet door....cut eh? I know you all wish you could have baby blue toliet, sink, and tub. It is so in style!

With many thanks to Dan, I now proudly present our significantly improved apartment!

Not much I could really do about the blue bathroom, but the rest of the house looks pretty good. And poor Dan, after spending 4 hours trying to repair the outlet for the dryer and repiping the drain for the washer, we both thought that it would be the last of the repairs that we would have to do for this great fixer-uper, however, we were wrong. As I went to do the laundry today, the washer worked just fine, but the dryer quit working after about 15 minutes. Gotta love it!

Well, we have no drying racks, so we had to make do with what we do have, and this is how it turned out.

Ahhh, the joys of renting.................

Oh, and for all of you who still want to see picts of the orphanage, I just posted them! Yay!

3 years

2009-08-21T19:09:00.000-07:00

Well, as you could probably tell, I am home from Africa. I am so grateful to be back in the States!

Our thrid anniversary!!!!

On Wednesday, August 19, Dan and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary. Since this summer has been full of so many vacations, and a whole 5 weeks off of work, I couldn't take more time off work to go somewhere fun. It was a bummer, but we had a great time any way. We celebrated at Tucanos, a Brazillian restaurant. We loved all the meat that came endlessly, until we were about ready to burst! I can't believe we have been married for 3 years already, but it has been a wonderful adventure, and I wouldn't trade it for the world!

Orphanage

2009-07-30T15:23:00.000-07:00

Today was a beautiful day. One of the guys in our group knows a family that is adopting a couple little kids from an orphanage not too far from Accra, so a few of us went there today to see all the little ones. They were so cute. As soon as we arrived, the kids ran up to the van and started singing, "Welcome, welcome...." it was so cute. We were greeted with about 50 kids hugging us as we stepped off the bus. They were all ages. A few still in diapers and not walking, a few toddlers, a few kids, and a few teenagers. They were all so excited to see us and to hold our hands and play with us.
Sarah and I had our nails painted, and one of the little girls saw them and wanted to have hers done so badly. Luckily, Sarah had brought with her a bag of nail polish that she was planning on giving to the orphanage. The kids were freaking out. We painted ALL of their finger nails, and toe nails, no matter what gender they were. Even the 16 year old boys wanted their finger nails painted. It was hilarious. At any given time, I would have at least 10 kids around me putting their hands in my face for me to start painting. When all the hands were painted, they kept saying, "my leg, my leg" and pointed to their toe nails. So we started painting those as well. They would stick their cute little dirty feet on my lap and I would paint away, and they would gasp and giggle at the color. It was so fun.
After nail painting, we pulled out the face paints and painted all the kids hands, faces, and whatever else they wanted. They were LOVING it! Then we played with sidewalk chalk, and jump ropes, and soccer balls. They all wanted to be touching us, sitting on us, hugging us, anything to feel our love. It was precious. So sad though. The little ones were so tiny, and you could tell just by looking at them that they are malnourished and lonely. I am so glad thatI got the opportunity to go though. The kids loved having us there, and I could tell that they needed some affection and love. It was heartbreaking to know that most of these kids will never be adopted, and that they will end up on the street in a few years. I wanted to take all of them home with me. I wish there was more I could do, but I know that love can leap mountains. I am just glad that I could do something.

Field Day

2009-07-29T12:30:00.001-07:00

Pictures won't post today...:( So sad. I will get them up as soon as I can.

Today was our last day in school. It was so sad, but we all planned a bunch of games for the kids, kind of like a field day. It was absolute chaos. We had a few different stations: water balloon toss, jump rope, relay races, soccer, drawing a mural, and dancing. There was about 600 ish kids there. It was a mess. There was no order to the madness which made it worse. Jordyn and I were in charge of the water balloon toss, and it was really good for about 3 minutes. Once we started passing out the balloon it turned into one huge mess. I was throwing kids away from the buckets right and left and yelling, "NO, NO, NO! Stop!" It was crazy. Finally, we just gave up and decided to let them have at it until they were gone. So, needless to say, balloon toss lasted for a total of about 10 minutes. At least they loved it!
After that, I went to join another group, but couldn't find one that needed help, so I just started playing with a soccer ball. Soon enough, there were kids everywhere and we were playing a little game of soccer with eachother. It was so much fun. The kids were loving just being out and playing with us. I was constantly being crowded with little ones grabbing my hands, my arms, my waist, anything. It was so cute. I loved it.
After we had finished our portion of field day, they had a little performance for us. They brought out beautiful African dresses that they had made for each of us, and dancd and drummed and chanted as only they can do. It was amazing. Even the kindergarteners performed a little dance. It was too cute. They performed for us for about an hour and then it was time to say our goodbye's. It was so sad, and my heart was full of emotion as I was saying goodbye. I wanted to say, "See you later" but I know that I will not see them later. I know that that will probably be the last time I will ever see them again. They were so sweet, and all of them gave me a hug goodbye. They all asked when we would come back, and it was so hard to tell them that we wouldn't be back. It seemed to me that they also got a little emotional once they realized that we wouldn't be back to see them, that this was the last time they would ever see us. It was a bit rough, but hopefully something we taught them will stick and they will be able to grow and become something some day.
We also finished up with the girl guides and boy scouts today. They are such a bright bunch of kids that we finished up all the AIDS lessons on Monday, so today we just taught some general health classes. The kids are so great. They loved the lessons we taught, and it was so fun to teach them. After we were donetheir leader came up to Lynley and said that next time we should coordinate better so that we can train them to be teachers of the AIDS lessons like she had taught him. She kinda took a step back and was wondering what he was taking about and then he told her that 5 years ago when she came she trained him how to be a peer educator in the community about AIDS and HIV. It was so cool to hear, because he has taught this group of girls and boys so well. When she complimented him on it, he said, "thank you, I have had to work very hard to get to where I am." It was a great inspiration to all of us, because it just goes to show how far one person can go. These kids will be able to teach and influence many people, just because of this one man. It gave me hope.
I can't believe that I am so close to coming home. All the rest of our days here are free days and I know they will fly by, and soon enough I will be back in America. Looking forward to seeing all of you!

Monkey Sanctuary

2009-07-27T13:35:00.000-07:00

Hey! Sorry I haven’t been able to post for a few days; the internet here has been down for a while, so I am resorting to internet café. Wahoo! Well, this last weekend we went up to the Volta region to a little village called the Monkey Sanctuary. It was so cool. The monkeys were jumping around from tree to tree right in front of us. We got to feed the monkeys and they loved it. But I have to admit, so did I! Look how excited I am in this picture...ok, it's not all excitment, I am was pretty nervous too! They would come right up to us and take the banana out of our hands, peel it and eat it all in about 5 seconds. After we saw and fed the monkeys, we went on a very beautiful hike to one of the tallest waterfalls in Ghana, called Wli Waterfall. It was one of the tallest I have ever seen. It was beautiful. The hike was through the rainforest, and we saw beautiful plants and even some pineapple growing along the side of the trail. The water was so warm beneath the falls that we all got in and swam. It was a little creepy though, the entire wall next to and behind the waterfall was lined with bats. Right before we left, we all screamed as loud as we could to see if we could make the bats fly around. We could only make them stir and flap their wings a little, but the native who was with us grabed an old fallen down tree and started beating it on a rock to make a really loud bang, and it worked! The bats started flying everywhere, it was pretty cool, and the waterfall was wonderful! We stayed the night there with the villagers, sleeping under mosquito nets. It was a very interesting experience. Most of the kids were running around in next to nothing, just dirty and cute. It was a true African experience. For our entertainment, all the villagers got together and prepared a little show for us. The village story teller told us a few stories that were passed down from generation to generation. There is only allowed to be one story teller at a time and the story teller that told our stories had been the teller for about 30 years. He was blind and had to have a translator for us to understand the stories. It was very cool.

I love this picture. She has her underwear on backwards, and is wearing flip flops that are about 3 sizes too big. Too cute.

Then, they brought out the drums and started giving us some true African entertainment. The lit a little fire right in the middle of the circle and drummed. Little kids got up and did a little song and dance around the fire, and then when they were done, others got up and danced around in a circle. It was exactly how you imagine Africa, with the drums, the dancing, the singing and the tribal chanting. It was such a cool experience. Once I can get the video to post, I will most definitely do it so you all can hear!

The next morning we were supposed to get up and go on a hike up a really tall mountain, one of the tallest in Ghana, but it started pouring rain. I am talking torrential down pour. I was all decked out in my poncho ready to go, but Lynley said that we would all probably slip right off the mountain if we tried. Too bad. I was so lucky to find the poncho. It was just in the luggage that I borrowed from my mom and dad. Thanks guys; at least it kept me dry walking from my room to the bus. Most everyone else was completely soaked once they got to the bus.

Today we were back in the schools, thank heavens! It was so good to see the kids again, and the kids were so excited to see us too. They greeted us with the usual, “Good morning madams” and we loved it. Our lessons went great today. We taught on storms and on light and energy. The storms lead right into my lesson on light and energy. After we taught them a little about light, we let them make bracelets with solar beads that change color when you get into the sun. Thanks to my great friend Becky, I was able to get 1000 beads and each of the kids was able to make a full bracelet of solar beads. They absolutely LOVED it! After we made all the bracelets, we took them outside to test them out. Even though it was a cloudy day, the beads changed colors and the kids were so excited to see them changing. They kept coming up to me saying, “Look Carlie, they are changing. Look at all the colors!” It was so sweet. Today we also taught our AIDS lessons. We went to a little school called The Happy Kids School. We were teaching a group of boy scouts and girl guides. Most of them were pretty young, but they knew so much and understood so much about AIDS. They were so smart. They gave great input and asked a ton of questions. When I taught my lesson on how HIV relates to women, they were all very attentive. In this lesson, we talk about rape and how to say no. They were all interested in what we had to say, and I saw one little girl taking notes, and in her notes it said, “Women should be treated with respect. It is ok to say no to sex.” I was so excited to see them so eager to learn. It was so great to work with these younger kids because they are the future. They are the ones who are going to change the future of Africa. If we can reach these kids, we have accomplished something great. I was so excited to see their enthusiasm in learning. I almost teared up at that moment, because she has so much potential to change her culture.
I can’t believe that this is my last week here. It has flown by so fast. I am looking forward to coming home, but at the same time am torn. There is still so much that I want to see, and want to learn, and want to teach the kids. I will miss them so much when we leave. Hope all is going well with all of you! I miss you all and love you!

View Points

2009-07-22T13:52:00.000-07:00

Wow. It has been a very emotionally draining week. Although so far, this week has been our slowest week since we haven't been in the schools due to their final exams, it has proved to be a time full of thought. I guess all I have been seeing and feeling hasn't had the chance to present itself until I have had time to sit and process. I am going to forewarn all of you readers, this post will be a very emotional one, not one about adventures, but one about the true nitty gritty of my time here in Ghana.

It has been a long day. So much to think about. We started out the day today by watching a movie about human trafficking called, "The day my god died." The movie forced me to think about all the terrible things happening around me. It was about girls in India and Thailand specifically, but it pointed out that this happens all over the world, especially in Africa and Asia. These girls are tricked, druged, and kidnapped and then sold into prostitution without any rights to their own life, or their own bodies. Many of these girls are between ages 7 and 15. What would it be like to have your childhood ripped from your hands, have your innocence stolen from you at age 7? Even at age 80 - that is not fair.I have been stretched to great lengths emotionally on this trip. It is one thing to read about all the poverty in the world, or to hear about it in the news, to read about child labor, and forced prostitution. Being at a distance, reading only words is completely different than being right in the middle of it all. To walk through the streets littered with garbage and raw sewage, to breathe the air full of toxins and carbon monoxide, to see the vendors on the streets trying to support themselves while barley making a dollar a day. To see the children with dirty faces and clothes that come to you and beg for money while knowing that this is probably an example of child bonded labor in front of my eyes, and knowing that if I give them my money it will go straight to the person forcing them to be in the streets begging, while I can do absolutely nothing.

To see the look on most women's faces, the fear and anguish I can only imagine and pray to never really understand. To hold the hand of an orphan who in a few years will be out on the streets, trying to sell, or begging for money - perhaps in prostitution themselves. To see the smile of a child when they understand something you are trying to teach them. To see the light in a young girl's eyes when you tell her she's worth everything - when you tell her she has a voice and deserves to be heard. When you tell her she has a right to say no. To see a rescued prostitute learn new skills and show a glimmer of hope at becoming something, and learn more about using those skills instead of her body to earn money.

But amid all these terrible things, I think the thing that hurts the most is seeing the little tiny children and babies, and knowing that when they grow up, they won't have big dreams of becoming a fire fighter or a doctor, they can't have those kind of dreams because they are not plausible. They can only dream of making enough money to make it to the next day without starving, to make enough to provide for their families. Making any extra would be a miracle. It is completely heart wrenching. That alone is enough to make me shed a thousand tears each and every day for the rest of my life.

Mole

2009-07-20T14:21:00.000-07:00

This weekend we went to Mole (pronounced Moe – Lay) National Park. It was really cool. We left on Friday morning at about 6 am and didn’t arrive until about 9 pm. It was a LONG bus ride. The park is way up north, almost to the top of the country. It was beautiful. When we arrived and were all heading to our rooms, 2 of the girls found 3 warthogs right outside their door blocking the way in. We were all a little bit scared, so we went and got someone to help us. He came with a handful of rocks and just started throwing the rocks at the warthogs until they ran away. It was fun to see right as we arrived.

The next morning we went on a walking safari. We left for the safari on Saturday morning at about 7 am. We walked through a small village and saw our first elephants! There were about three of them just eating the grass right outside the village. Nobody in the village seemed to really care about the elephants, but they all followed us around. It was so fun to see them. We went on a 2 hour hike through the jungle and saw many antelope, warthogs, some more elephants and baboons. It was so cool. The jungle was beautiful.
After we were done with our hike, we had breakfast and were greeted by a little monkey who wanted to share with us. He just jumped up right on our table, took some drinks of our juice, and tried to snatch some food. It was startling when it first happened, but it was really cool to see. Something that will probably never happen again! After breakfast, we headed out to a small remote village to learn a little bit more about the culture and how they live. We were greeted by a large group of children who could hear the bus coming. When I stepped off the bus, I was immediately swarmed by small children who were grabbing my hands and wanting to hold on to me. One little girl looked up at me and said, “You are my best friend.” Our guide along with the kids lead us into the village where we began our tour. It was really cool. The kids were holding onto us the whole time and we walked through the little mud hut village. We went to a couple of huts and saw the people making a variety of different things including: Shea butter, spinning cotton into thread, and the medicine man. It was really cool to see how they live, and I was amazed to see all the different abilities they are capable of in order to survive. The village was sad. There were flies everywhere and the kids just dealt with it. They were filthy from head to toe and many had sores on their heads, probably from the flies practically living there. It was really sad to see, but also really eye opening to see how they survive. The kids asked us for everything. They wanted us to give them our clothes, our cameras, and anything else we had on. I felt selfish saying no, but that is what we were told to do.
After we left the village, we went on another walking safari. We didn’t really see any more animals on the 2nd one, but it was nice to just walk around and enjoy the beauty of the jungle. When we got back we were heading to our rooms to get changed so we could swim and cool down, and there was an elephant right in front of my door! It was crazy. We just stood there and watched it until it had eaten pretty much our whole bush and then it left. It was really cool to see it so close to us.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing by the pool and playing games. We left early again on Sunday morning to return but made a stop to hike a waterfall. The water fall was beautiful. It was a very short walk, but it was totally worth it. We did, however, have to hike down 152 stairs. The way down wasn’t bad, but the way up was a little bit tiresome! After that, we headed back on our 14 hour journey to Accra. It was a really fun weekend, and a lot of bus riding!

A day of classes

2009-07-16T14:55:00.000-07:00

Another busy day here in Africa. We started out by going to the school. Today, our lesson was on oral hygiene. It didn’t last as long as we wanted it to, but it was still good. The kids were really engaged and interested in what we were talking about which makes all the difference. I brought model with me from work and we showed the kids the proper way to brush and floss, and then we gave them all a toothbrush and a thing of floss. They were so excited to receive it, and almost each child said, “God bless you” after we gave it to them. It was so sweet. After our short lesson, we needed some time fillers, so we taught them some more songs. Luckily, Anne Marie just went to girls camp with here dad a few weeks before we got here, and she remembered the “Rigabamboo” song with all the actions. The kids absolutely LOVED it. They pretty much love any song we sing that has hand actions. We also taught them “Do as I’m doing” and it was also a hit because we got to jump, hop on one foot, wave our hands in the air along with a myriad of other things as we were singing depending on who the leader was.

After we were all sung out, we headed out to play games with the kids. They love when we play with them. They have lots of games, and we play almost all of them by standing in a circle and clapping. Their games are really a lot of fun, and almost all of them have a song that goes with them. I hope to remember them and teach them to my kids someday. They are so much fun. I had my hair curly today, and the kids loved it. They kept touching it, and a few of them said, "Next time you come, bring your hair like that, I love it, it is beautiful" These kids really know how to boost your self esteem!

Hate to be biased, but these two boys are my favorite. They are so cute and always want to participate. The top one is named Isaac, and the bottom is Richard

This is me playing "There's a fire on the mountain" It is kind of like our "Duck, duck, goose"

After we got home, we headed out to Manya Krobo to do our AIDS classes. We are working with the women this week and it has been a really eye opening experience. We ask a question that says, “Is what a woman has to say just as important as what a man has to say?” and almost every single one of them said “No” It breaks my heart to know that these women here are so bright and so intelligent and yet they have no opportunity to show it because they are viewed as second class. One of the lessons that I teach is how HIV and AIDS relate to women. We talk about rape, and how it’s not ok at any time in life for a man to force a woman to have sex, and when we say it they are all shocked. They kept asking, “not even if they are married?” or “What if they are engaged?” When we told them that if they do not want to have sex, they don’t have to, and if someone forces them it is rape and they can report it. It is a really hard lesson to teach, but I think one of the most rewarding. I feel like I am giving them a voice, or at least one small chance to make a change in the way things are.

This is Manya Krobo. It is a very poor town.

There was a pastor there today who was helping us out and acting a little bit as a translator, and when we said that it’s not ok for a husband to force a wife to have sex, he looked at me and said, “Are we taking about in America, or here in Africa, because in Africa if a woman reports to the police that her husband forced her to have sex they won’t do anything about it because it is his right.” I was appalled. He didn’t agree with much of what we said, and so I just hope that as he was translating, he didn’t taint what I said. He also told us that we were wrong when we said that men and women are equal, he said, “in everything except sex, men and women are not equal, men are greater” I wanted to punch him in the face for being such an arrogant chauvinistic pig. Keeping the women how they are is not going to help their country get out of poverty or make any progress. It is only when we all work together as equals that w can make any real progression. It was a very frustrating lesson, and just made me very grateful that I live in America. I would probably be dead if I lived here because I would be out picketing for women’s rights. It is a hard life they live here and every day I gain a stronger respect for what the women of this country have to deal with.

PS) We are heading out on another weekend excursion and won't be back till late Sunday, so this will be my last post until then! We are going on a safari, so pray that I don't get eaten!!

Drivers License?

2009-07-16T14:09:00.000-07:00

Here is the video for "Once there was a snowman" The kids love to sing it!

We had another good day in class today. Anne Marie had the lesson today. We trade off every other day doing what we thought of and then we just help each other out. We taught Sign Language today, and the kids absolutely LOVED it! We didn’t teach them anything really in depth, but Anne Marie brought a poster of the alphabet. We practiced it a couple of times and then went through the class and practiced signing each of the kid’s names. They were loving it. After every couple of names, we would teach them a phrase such as “My name is …” or “How are you” They thought it was so cool. We could probably have done it for days and they would have still loved it. Then we went through and sang the alphabet song while doing the signs. They loved our version of the song. They sang theirs for us before we sang ours, and it was so cute. After every couple letters they would sing a phrase about Jesus. It was really cute.

The rest of the day was free. We went to the temple again. It is the last week that it will be open while we are here because they are closing it for cleaning. We were trying to hit a session, but we got lost on the way. Surprise, surprise. Our taxi driver had no idea where we were trying to go, and sometimes it is very hard to explain because they speak with such thick accents. When we finally made it, the session had already started, and there wasn’t another one for 2 hours, so we all did baptisms. I felt so bad for the lone man in our group. Each of us girls did about 10 names, and there were 10 girls there. So total, he had to baptize us about 100 times. I bet his arms were tired! Back of the taxi - don't mind my hideousness in this picture! :)

Then, we all headed out to eat, and surprise again, more problems with the taxi. We were just driving along, when all of a sudden traffic got really slow. I guess the cops just do random checks sometimes, and so he pulled us over and came to our driver and asked for his license. Our driver started arguing with the cop and after a minute he looked at us and said, “You get out of the car, your driver is being arrested, and the car is being impounded.” We were like, “Well, okay then,” and we got out of the car. I felt bad for the driver, but I guess it is his fault for driving illegally, probably with a stolen car. Most of the drivers here hot wire the cars to get them started, so I am sure most of them are either stolen, or illegal. It was pretty funny and just a little bit scary.
And, that was my day in Ghana. It is always an adventure, and each day I learn something new.

School Days

2009-07-14T15:13:00.000-07:00

Today was a great day. We started out by going to the schools and teaching in our classes. Today I taught my lesson on the human heart. I was a little bit apprehensive because of the whole volcano thing, but it actually went really well. They were SO interested in what we were teaching them, and they were all participating. It was such a relief that they caught on and were actually excited to learn about it. We taught them how the heart pumps, about the veins and arteries and then how blood travels through your heart. Then, we had them all take their pulse and we listed them all on the board and calculated how many beats per minute their hearts were beating. They loved that! Then I had them run in place for 30ish seconds and had them take their heart rate right after they were done. They loved to get out of their chairs and move around. It was so fun to see them engaged and learning. It gave me hope for my future lessons!

Both of these pictures are of the kids who are in our 4th grade class. They are so cute!

The kids LOVE to sing. They love to sing for us, and they love to have us sing with them. It is so cute. So, Anne Marie and I decided that it would be fun to teach them a couple of primary songs. So, we taught them “Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree” and “Once there was a snowman”. Before we taught them the snowman song, we had to teach them what a snowman was. It was funny. They absolutely loved learning the songs and caught on so fast. It was awesome. They sing popcorn like this: “Pop pop popping on the apricot tree” instead of “popcorn popping on the apricot tree”.

Then they taught us how to sing one of their songs, and they loved that we learned and sang it for them with out them singing. It was so sweet. It is so fun to sing with them because they all have actions and clapping and they sing so loud. It is so fun. Even all their games have songs that go with them. They love when we will play with them and try to learn their songs. They think it is hilarious and spend most of the time laughing at the way we say things, or when we don’t know how to play. It is super cute. I hope they stay interested in what we are teaching. It just makes things so much easier!

We also taught our AIDS class again today. This time we were working with girls. It seemed to me that they caught on so much faster. They seemed to understand what we were saying, and also they just had a stronger knowledge of the disease. I was so glad that they had the understanding that they did, but I almost wish it would have been opposite. Since almost all of the girls we interviewed also believed that boyfriends and husbands had the right to sex even if the girlfriend or wife didn't want it, their knowledge of the disease doesn't really do much for them. However, if the men had a stronger knowledge of it, they have more power to change and actually make a difference in the rates of AIDS, especially because it is so much easier for women to transmit AIDS to women than it is for women to transmit it to men. It is just good that at least they understand about it. They were a very bright group, it is just so sad to see how much they lack self esteem. They are all beautiful, smart, intelligent women, and yet, they have almost no say about what goes on in their lives. It is very sad, and would be a very hard life to live.

First Weekend Excursion

2009-07-11T11:20:00.000-07:00

Wow! What a weekend we had! It was our first weekend away from Accra, and it was packed with amazing things to do! We traveled by bus for about 4 hours to Cape Cost to go on a Canopy Walk through the rain forest, to see a crocodile reserve, and to visit the Elmina Slave Castles. The Canopy walk was our first stop. It was beautiful! We walked through the rain forest across about 8 bridges hanging in mid air, high above the trees. It was raining the whole time, which just added to the ambience. It was absolutely unbelievable. I loved it. The forest was so green, and the trees were amazing. The bridges were made clear back in the late 1800s or early 1900s by 2 Canadians, and 6 Ghanaians. I don't know how they did it, but somehow they managed to get clear up in the trees to build these amazing bridges. It was so cool to be above the trees, or most of them, and to be looking down from a hanging bridge. It was a little unnerving at first, but it was really cool.

Everywhere we go, people want to have their pictures taken with us. We are practically celebrities!

The view from one of the bridges - AMAZING!

The sign says: You Survived The Walk Way Hand Over Your Badge Here...

After we were all soaking wet, we headed over to the crocodile reserve. It was so cool, but mostly scary. There was a pond, and the whole pond was full of crocodiles. The people working there lured out the crocodiles with raw chicken, and they fed it to them right in front of us. I was standing probably 3 feet from the croc. CRAZY!
Then on to our next adventure - the Elmina Slave Castle. It was so sad. The whole town was there for some kind of fishing festival. As soon as we entered the castel, a distinct dark feeling came over me. It was so sad. As I was walking through the crowd to get to the castle, I even felt a little guilty, being white, and feeling like I was some how to blame for the slavery that took place.

This is where they would put people who misbehaved. They were left in here until they died.

The castle was amazing, so much history is there - so many lives lost, so many untold stories. Slavery is such a sad thing. I wondered as I was walking through how it all started. What gave somebody the idea that they were better than these people, just because of the color of their skin? Why does that constitute that they had "the right" to take away their freedoms and treat them so inhumanely? I wonder what the world would be like today if slavery had never existed. Would racism still exist? Just some thoughts I had today.

These are the balls that they would chain the women to if they resisted rape

The prisons and dungeons we walked through were awful, no light and usually just one tiny window for ventilation. 12 million slaves were kept at this one castle. Only 4 million made it to their destination alive. I can't even begin to imagine the fear, but I did get a good feel for how awful it must have felt being there. The spirit there is still so wrong - so dark. It is very sad and very eye opening. If the female slaves resisted rape, they were forced to stand in the courtyard with ball and chain with no food or water for days, sometimes even till they died. I can't imagine how horrifying that would be.

We then made it to our hotel; a quaint little resort right on the beach. It is one of the nicest resorts in Ghana, and would equate to about a 2 star hotel in America. President Obama is staying there tomorrow night, and the secret service was there scouting it out making sure everything was ok. It was actually pretty cool. They all had huge German Shepherds with them. They were pretty normal, a little weird, but what do you expect from secret service? One of them actually told us that the reason they were there was because of Obama, of course in less words, as I am sure he was not actually allowed to say that. It was pretty cool - probably a once in a life time experience - how ironic that it happens to be in Africa. I guess it just goes to show just how small the world really is.

Anne Marie and I on the beach swings

And before I go, I just wanted to say to all of you, but especially to Dan:

AND

The Spicy Love Condom

2009-07-10T00:16:00.000-07:00

Well, it has been a week since I have left. It feels much longer, but at the same time much shorter than that. We have been able to see a lot of cool things, and we have already had a lot of experiences. We taught our AIDS class today, it was interesting. It is really hard to communicate our messages to them. They don’t understand what we are trying to teach them, and why it is important to protect yourself. There was one really comical moment in today’s discussion. We were teaching about how it is important to use a condom and how to tell if the condom is still good, and all the facts. Well, this one man decided to be very personal, and very informative. So, he goes on to tell us about how one time when he was having sex he put the condom on and then after it was over they couldn’t find the condom. WOW! Talk about too much information, but oh no, it gets better! He then goes on to tell us about all the different kinds of condoms, and their names. He was telling us that there is one called “rough rider” and my personal favorite, “the spicy love condom” OH MY!!!! We were all trying not to laugh and trying to be polite, but it was pretty hard.
When we were leaving, they all wanted to get their pictures with us again, and they all asked for our contact information. It was hard, but thank goodness for fake email addresses!! We are going to the Slave Castles in Cape Cost, so I won't be able to post for a couple of days. It will be very hard, but also very interesting. It will be a very fun weekend. I am really excited!

Free day

2009-07-09T04:15:00.000-07:00

Well, it is my 6th day in Ghana. For once, I don’t feel like I have a huge story to tell. It was a pretty average day. We woke up and went to teach at the school. The kids are so sweet. They love to look at us, touch our arms and our hair, and then giggle. They are fascinated with the way we look. They love to impress us. Today I thought it would be fun to show them vinegar and baking soda volcanoes. So, I got some play dough, vinegar, baking soda, and some pill bottles to put the stuff in. We taught the kids about the scientific method. They didn’t really get it.
The kids here are so afraid of disappointing you that if you ask them a question, such as, “Do you know what a volcano is?” They say, “Yes” even if they have never heard of it before. When they said yes, we were asking them what it looks like and why, you know, just going through the process of the scientific method. Why does a volcano erupt? It erupts because the rocks in the earth get so hot…yada, yada, yada. And so on through the rest of the scientific method. We conducted the experiment thinking that the kids would LOVE it. We did it, and it erupted and was fizzling down the side of the play dough volcano, and they were just staring at it. They could not get the concept of why it was bubbling out like that.
It was very frustrating. I think they really liked it, but I think that they were just so perplexed by the idea, never having heard of anything like that before that they didn’t know what on earth to think. I felt sad. So we tried to lighten the mood by playing button, button, who’s got the button? It was a hit. We made a little song and clapped a rhythm, and the kids LOVED it. So, no to the volcanoes, and a huge YES to button, button, who’s got the button? It was very cute. It was hard to try to teach them something that we thought they would love, and just have them looking at us with those big brown eyes, having completely blank, confused looks on their faces.

As we were leaving the school, this little boy was sleeping outside one of the classrooms. So cute.

The rest of the day was our free day. A group of us went to the temple. Me and 2 other girls did a session, and the rest of the girls did baptisms. It was so amazing to go to the temple. The city is so loud with the constant lull of honking horns, people yelling, and bartering on the streets that the quiet of the temple almost seemed like a miracle. It was instant. As soon as we walked in the doors, it was silent and the spirit overtook us. The session was good. Very quiet and small. Only 4 other women, and also 4 men. They only do sessions here every 2 hours, and only 1 session is going on at a time. Not a lot of people go to the temple, but I am so glad they have one here so that I was able to go. It was wonderful.

It seems inappropriate to post these pictures underneath the temple, but it's life.

Normal things we see on the way home or to school, or anywhere really. It is a sad life they live.

This weekend we are going to the slave castles in Cape Cost. Apparently President Obama is going to be there too. We think he is staying in the same hotel as we are, because after we booked our rooms, they called back and had to have the exact number of people staying, and all of our full names. Hopefully we will see him. It would be really awesome, seeing our president in Africa…who woulda thunk? (hehe) Anyway, sorry this post is so boring. We didn’t do too much today. I miss you all. I would love to hear from you guys! Hope all is going well with all of you.