Nature Walk

I've been meaning to write about our trip to Zion since Saturday and I have a little free time before the piano students congregate so I'll do it now. Last week we decided that on Saturday we'd take a visit to Zion. When Brandon and I went with the first graders on their field trip we only got to do half the River Walk. We decided it would be fun for the family to go do the whole thing. We had such a good time. The weather was perfect. Not too hot and not too cold. It was nice too that most everybody else was doing the Emerald Pool hike so it wasn't too crowded either. We had a good time and are planning on going back the first weekend in June to do some more hiking. Here's a few pictures of our great time!

For some reason, the squirels aren't afraid of people.
Derek was actually able to touch one until it tried to
bite his hand off.

Now we have a car payment.

For a while now we've suffered in the car category. We had older cars (10 and 13 respectively) but we didn't mind because we didn't have a car payment. It was only recently that we thought of getting a new car and that was only because we'd been having tragic problems with our cars. Last Thursday the truck broke down. This wasn't a little break down either, this was a $1300 break down. Derek was driving and the poor thing started smoking and shaking. So we took it to Dave's Automotive (who I highly recommend, they're awesome) and the verdict was that the air conditioning compressor blew up. So with the truck down, we had the van left. That same day the van started giving me whiplash when it was shifting. It seemed like a transmission problem, one that we most likely couldn't and didn't want to afford. So, we decided it was time to have a car payment again.

I've never had a new car before or a newer car either. When I turned 16 I drove my dad's mustard colored truck. Until a certain someone crashed into me while I was going in reverse to pick up a friend who will not be named at this time. Since I totaled their truck, my parents decided to give me the ultimate humiliation, a car my friends and I named "The Green Beast". This car was huge! We could fit about 8 people in there and it was pretty fun to drive too. One day the transmission went out and the beast was no more. After that my parents bought me a car my friends and I named "The Egg". Mostly because it looked like.... an egg. I loved that car. I have some really fond memories that go along with that car. After school, before play practice, my best friend and I would sit out in the car with the stereo turned all the way up, listening and singing along to REM and The Cranberries. I still can't listen to that music without going back to that time. Holy cow, I got sidetracked! So, I had the egg until I got married and then it also died. Wow, I don't have really good luck with cars. After that I had a light blue Nissan Sentra. We traded that in and got the truck and I drove the two door Saturn. I thought I was cool having a sports car...until the kids came along and then I hated it. That's when we got the van. I figured that we'd have more than 2 kids and the van would last forever. I guess I was wrong. So since we needed something reliable we decided to get a new car.

My ultimate dream car would have to be the 2009 Dodge Voyager. It has compartments in the seats, a cooler in the floor, and a computer in the dash. You could live in there! But, it's not really practical in the mile per gallon type of way. When we went looking we decided we would get a car. We only have two kids and we wanted something that got really good gas mileage, since they want an arm and two legs and your first-born child for gas. So on Saturday we headed over to Washington Auto Sales (who I also recommend, very honest) to look at a few cars. LaVon (who I love) showed us a few cars and then said, "or I have a car in the back that I just got off the truck today". We walked around back and I fell in love. It was a 2007 Hyundai Elantra. We took it for a drive and I was definitely smitten. The blinkers worked and the passenger side door opened without getting stuck and there was a sunroof (which Kendal says makes it much better than the van) and an aux output so I could plug my ipod in. Holy cow! Who thinks of amazing things like that? We decided that that was the car for us. We told him that that was the one we wanted and on Monday we picked it up. I couldn't be happier. I'm not thrilled about having a car payment but I feel safer knowing I can get from point a to point b without any worries. And, the gas mileage is great! We put in 5 gallons and went 187 miles. That's approximately 35.5 miles per gallon! I'm amazed that's even possible. Here's the newest car I've ever had in my life!

What? I can plug my ipod in here and the music
comes out through the speakers? How ingenious!

A sunroof? What's that?
Oh, it's for you to stick your head through?
I completely understand now.

Mothers Day

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mothers Day. I know I did. Ever since I've known Derek he has been unable to keep secrets. Every holiday is a struggle for him to keep what he's gotten for people a secret. Christmas is especially hard. More presents = bigger struggle. So for Mothers Day he showed me what he'd bought me the day he bought it. He had taken the kids shopping for me and they picked out new Sunday clothes. I always love to get new church clothes because I love to look nice for church. It's really the only day of the week I dress up because every other day is a t-shirt and jeans or shorts. So they picked out some really cute clothes from Urban Wear. Luckily he showed me what they were because when I tried them on they didn't fit. It was really flattering that he thought I was that skinny. How sweet of him. He probably did that just to boost my self esteem. But that was only half my present. When he gave me the clothes, he said that wasn't all he was doing. He said that I was really going to love the other present he had for me. He said, "it's something you asked for a long time ago and you're really going to love it." For the life of me I couldn't remember what it was so I figured I'd let him surprise me. Saturday night I was laying in bed and he walked in with a notebook. He said here's the rest of your present. I opened it up and there was a list of 101 things he loves about me. Then I remembered a conversation we had had months ago. We were talking about past boyfriends (a lovely topic, I know) and he had asked what the best present I had been given by a boyfriend was. I told him I had a boyfriend that had given me a list of 100 things he loved about me. I told him I would love it if he would do that for me. But, instead of doing the 100 things he had done 101 things. It's really the best present I've ever gotten from someone in my life. As I read through it I just cried because it was so thoughtful and loving. But that's him. He is always so thoughtful, loving and kind. I couldn't ask for a better husband. I'm sure lucky to have him. I think this will be the Mother's Day I remember year after year.

Girlie Shoes

Yesterday Derek took the kids shopping for Mother's Day. The story goes that they went into a shoe store (because Derek can't resist shoes) and Kendal fell in love with a pair of shoes. She is just like Derek, she knows that you can never have enough shoes or princess dresses or crowns or wands. So she saw these shoes and they were on sale so Derek said he HAD to buy them for her. When she got home she put them on and she hasn't taken them off. When we went in to cover her up (she's a restless sleeper) we found this:

We thought she had taken them off before she fell asleep. But I guess not.

And yes, that is a princess dress because my daughter is a pretty, pretty princess who wears pink Converse All Stars!

Field Trip!

Today Brandon had his field trip to Zion. We had a great time! On the way up I taught all the kids one of the songs I had learned as a kid. On the way back I was regretting it. There is a limit to how many times a song can be sung and we reached it. Oh well, they had a good time. Brandon and I had a good time together. It was nice to spend time with just him. He's such a good kid and is so fun to be with.

Zion was beautiful today. The weather was just right, not too hot and not too cold. Being up there made me realize how much I miss going up there. It's been awhile since I've been and I don't think Kendal has ever been up there. So I think we'll be getting a pass so we can spend some time outdoors. I knew we needed more outdoor time when Brandon saw a river and said, "Wow! A river! How cool!"

Here's a few pictures from the trip.

Brandon and his field trip buddy. Each kid had a buddy so no one would get lost.
Yeah! No one did!

Brandon having a great time!

We miss you!

You know who you are.

It's lonely without you.

You're really too far.

Jackson, Dubies, and Murf: Kendal's mom misses you lots and lots and can't wait till you come walking in the door (without knocking of course).

No high kicks?

Last night was our ward's first game of futsal. "What is futsal?" you may ask. Well, it's soccer played in a gym...with a very slick floor...that makes it impossible to aim the ball...at all! It's just like soccer except there are no high kicks (not the Rockette kind) or pushing, shoving, being mean or even looking mean (you're in a church, you have to be nice). So, it's really just kicking a ball around in a gym while trying to stay upright and making said ball go into the goal when all it really wants to do is slide all over the floor. One of the ladies on our team said she wanted to bring in a bulldozer and level the floor out so we could have a little traction. It was horrible.

But it was fun and we actually won 3-2. We won against one of the meanest, best teams in the stake. When I say mean, I really genuinely mean it. When one of them ran into me, she said, "I'm sorry for running into you. Well, actually I'm not. I'm sort of sorry-ish." So, they're not really sorry, just a little "sorry-ish". What does that mean exactly? I wasn't sure, so to get even, I scored three goals on them, with a little help from my friends. 'Cause you can't really get by without a little help from your friends.

One of favorite parts was when I was taking the ball down to the goal and one of the defenders (guards the goal) decided to kick it...at my uterus. Now we've found the reason as to why I can't have more kids, too many soccer balls to the uterus. She felt really, really bad though. Not just the sorry-ish, really, really sorry. I'm fine, I'll live. Although I do have a big bruise on my ribs and a jammed finger and I feel like somebody ran over ME with a bulldozer (I'm completely out of shape). But we won and that makes it all worth it!