Jeep Safari & Easter Weekend

Well it finally came...the much anticipated jeep safari weekend. James' and I had so much fun. We took our friends James and Karen and their dog peanut. I think they had a good time...I hope so. Well Friday night was the big raffle. We didn't stay for very long at cause we were very tired. Then Super Saturday came..OH YEAH!!!! Or so I thought. It was all going well until about a mile of so into the actual trail when our Jeep over heated. We had to turn around and go back. Nathan and I were really mad at the trail guides husband cause he didn't even give us a chance to think and try and figure out ways to solve the problem and figure out a way to make it work. He kept demanding that we made a decision. Well we ended up going back. That night James went over to Nathan and Shelly's house and Nathan and him fixed that Jeep....Well actual James fixed it and Nathan watched. James wanted to learn. Nathans really good about helping you learn. Anyway so they got it fixed and....we became sinners. :") Sunday morning we got ready to go back out. Karen wasn't feeling well and said she wanted to stay at my mom's. So we met Nathan and Shelly and Nathans brother Scott in Blanding and went on a trail called Hotel Rock. I've done this trail before and had a lot of fun. So I was really looking forward to it again. well when we got to the head of the trail again the Jeep overheated. I was really hoping that it wasn't going to be a repeat of Gold Bar Rim....the trail we went on Saturday. But we realized that there were some bubbles in the line and as soon as they got worked out of the system we would be fine. Nathan fiddled and then we were off. It was so much fun. I drove the first half up to the actual hotel rock where there are some Indian ruins. We were hiking up the rock to go look at them when my sister found some Indian pottery. She dusted it off and handed it to James to look at. (my James) Next thing Shelly knew James put it in his mouth and tried to chew it. :D He thought she had handed him some chocolate. She said she was laughing so hard. When she finally told him what it was she said he got a funny look on his face and spit it out. Well James had mentioned to me that he wanted to try driving. So he drove on the way back from hotel rock. We got to this one obstacle and Nathan told James to straddle the rock unless he wanted to get air then to put his tire in the crack of the rock. Well James didn't understand and before we knew it our right back tire was in the air. :) which was fine....until Nathan told James to back up then the Jeep started to tip and before we knew it the side of out Jeep was resting on the side of the rock. :) At first it was really kinda scary... then it was just neat. Well before we completed the full trail James let me drive the rest of the trail. Right as we got off the trail and on the dirt road heading back to Nathan and Shelly's truck and trailer. The Jeep died...Again. A fuse went out. So we had to go and get another before we could get it started again. It took some time and we were 2 hours later getting home for the Easter dinner... but it was worth it....That was so much fun. :) I cant wait till we can save up enough money to go and do it again. :) Oh here are some pictures....

This is us airing down and getting ready.

This is Gold Bar Rim before we overheated

This is on the Hotel Rock Trail

This is me driving

This is him tipping.....eek :)

Hotel Rock :)

This was on our way home from the raffle. We drove by Wilsons Arch on our way to Monticello and saw the full moon perfectly through the arch. This was the only good picture we got. It was so beautiful.

Soldiers

My sister-in-law Nikki just posted on her blog about the troops and had a link to a website. I went to it and watched the video there and really liked it. I watched a few others and really like this one too. Please watch this and hers on her blog. It's under Wardell family.
http://shock.military.com/Shock/videos.do?displayContent=164278&page=1

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!!!!!!!!! I feel bad for this holiday...cause it only seems to be important to three types of people...The Irish, kids, and people who are looking for another excuse to go get drunk. You might be able to add the people who wear green cause they know if they don't someone somewhere is going to pinch them....which a lot of the times is why I wear green. :) But I realized I don't really know a lot about why people celebrated St. Patrick's Day. So I decided to do some research to find out the history behind the holiday and here is what I found.....
St. Patrick is believed to have driven the snakes from Ireland. Once a pagan himself, St. Patrick is one of Christianity's most widely known figures.
The Snake
It has long been recounted that, during his mission in Ireland, St. Patrick once stood on a hilltop (which is now called Croagh Patrick), and with only a wooden staff by his side, banished all the snakes from Ireland.
In fact, the island nation was never home to any snakes. The "banishing of the snakes" was really a metaphor for the eradication of pagan ideology from Ireland and the triumph of Christianity. Within two hundred years of Patrick's arrival, Ireland was completely Christianized.

The modern secular holiday is based on the original Christian saint's feast day also thought to be the date of the saint's death. In 1737, Irish immigrants to the United States began observing the holiday publicly in Boston and held the first St. Patrick's Day Parade in New York City in 1766.
Today, the tradition continues with people from all walks and heritages by wearing green, eating Irish food, and attending parades. St. Patrick's Day is bursting with folklore; from the shamrock to the leprechaun and to pinching those that are not wearing green.

I also found a really interesting video at www.history.com/minisites/stpatricksday/ it's only a little over 3 minutes long. I thought it was pretty neat.

Puppy Haircut!

Last weekend my friend Karen called and asked me if I could cut her dogs hair. So her and her husband came out to our house and brought their wii. So the boys played games while Karen and I cute peanuts hair. As Peanuts going through this ordeal Rosko woul occasinally come up to us to watch what we were doing. Well when Peanut was done he came up to use and Karen grabbed him and I started to cut his hair too. Well I forgot that Peanuts hair is a lot thicker than Rosko's. So on peanuts hair we were using the sheers without an attatchment and I continued to cut Rosko's the same way. It wasnt until Karens husband said something that I noticed just how short it was. Well it didnt take us long to cut Rosko's hair and by the time we got done we were all laughing so hard. He looked like a Chinese crested.

This is a chinese crested....... and this.................is Rosko. :) cute huh.

And in case you were wondering.....Yes he always carries that bone around. :p

see... always has that bone.

Eclipse review

Well I thought it would be fun to post on the side the book I last read and then a little review here. My goal is to pick up another book once I have finished another...i hope it works. :) Well I have to say I was a little cautious when I first started this series. I had quite a few people tell me I had to read it and how good it was. I dont know why I do it but as soon as people start talking about something excesively and I can see that there's a trend there -like Harry Potter- then I tend to shy away from it. I guess its just my silly stubborness and my whole wanting to be different then the norm. Butthe same thing happened with Harry Potter. I didnt like it cause it was a trend. But then I read them and became a HUGE fan. Well anyway back to the point. This series was so much fun to read. Eclipse was so far my favorite. The 4th book comes out in Aug and they are doing a twilight movie ( which I hope turns out better then Eragon) and that comes out in Sept. When I was reading it I had friends who kept asking me where I was at and then start talking about it non stop. The receptionist at our Chiropracter (Amy) was so excited to talk to me about it she was almost bursting every time I saw her. She kept telling me to read faster so that we could talk about them. :p If you havent read this series I highly recommend them. Stephenie Meyer is an awesome author. Her style of writing is VERY descriptive in everything sight, sound,smell, touch, emotions/feelings. Everything. It's great.

Goal

Well now that basically all of the family knows on James' side and probably mine too. I thought I might just mention it on here too. James and I have been talking quite a bit about families and expecially with all the new baby's and one's to come. I asked him when he wanted to start having our family and he said soon and I asked soon as in 5 years, 2 years...what? He said sooner then that and I asked if it could be this year and he thought about it and said yes but closer to the end of this year. So we decided to make a goal that in November we are going to try to start our family. :) I am way excited and way scared. When we told James' family mom sat us down and gave us some great advice. I am way excited and in a way I hope it might come sooner. :) But I think we're going to stick to November.

2008 Jeep Safari

Jeep Safari is only 2 weeks away. YEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so excited. we're taking our friends James and Karen with us this year. James is from Canada and has never seen any other part of Utah beside Salt Lake. So James and I are excited to introduce him to it.

These are pictures of other people on past Jeep Safari's. I don't have any on this computer of our Jeep or of my sisters...But I will. :) March 21st we are leaving and on the 22nd is super Saturday...OH YEAH! We could make it last year so I am really looking forward to this year. We will be going on the gold bar rim trail..which I have never been on so I am really excited. This is James' (my James) first Jeep Safari. Him and I have been wheelin' but jeep safari is different. We have to get a new CB antenna cause someone decided they wanted ours so they cut it off our jeep....which is stupid cause now it cant be used again.

Shelly isn't going to be able to go with us. Which I'm kinda sad about cause it's always fun to have Shelly along. She helps ease the tension and makes me feel so good about my wheeling capabilities. But she just had the twins and needs to take care of them. that's why I'm only "kinda" sad. Oh another exciting thing is that James said he might want to try his hand at driving. It's such a different experience when your the driver. Being a passenger is just as exciting and fun but there's a different adrenaline rush when your driving. Maybe it's also that way because I'm a girl and not to many girls do the actual driving. Plus the whole sexist thing of girls are only suppose to go to stuff like this so there guys can impress them, and they (the girl) can look pretty for them. Ha yeah right! Anyway i know I have posting weird stuff today but I am just really, really, REALLY excited and wanted to share. :)

Scary Times

It's amazing how things happen and people always say its a "sign of the time" but yet don't really realize just exactly what that means. Well lately I've been hearing about all the things going on in the world and it wasn't till I received an e-mail from my friend that I realized just how true that statement was....I mean I always knew it was true from the churches side with all the temples being built and more missions opening up. But I guess I was always blocking out the bad thing that are happening in the world...which isn't always a bad thing. But it hit me with this e-mail. It was talking about how people are now giving drugs to kids in the form of candy.Not only in High Schools and Junior Highs but in Elementary schools too. I couldn't believe it. It's really a "bitter sweet" time in the world right now. The church is moving forward like never before...but at the same time the world is getting so scary that sometimes I'm afraid to even step out of my door (not literally of course but you know what I mean) If you would like the e-mail just let me know and I'll send it to you. (Also my sister works at a detention center for juveniles and she sent an add on to this e-mail) I don't mean this to be a depressing e-mail..just informative and sharing my thoughts.

Resolution update

Well It's been 3 months since I made my resolution so I figured if I did a follow up every three months then I'll be able to work better at them. :) Well one of my resolutions was to drink more water and juices and get active in something. Well I drink at the minimum 25 oz of water a day now I usually get about 50 Oz's a day but sometimes I only get 25 Oz's. As far as being active. Instead of the elevator I take the stairs whenever possible and James and I got a gym membership and go at least twice a week if not more. I mostly do laps in the pool but I'm thinking about seeing what else the gym has. If we don't get to the gym then sometimes we just go for a walk or I still occasionally go to pink class. :) My next one was being more organized. I am really trying to work on this one. I cleaned up out storage space under the stairs and got all out holiday stuff organized down there and I was able to get out laundry room cleaned up a little but there is still a lot to go on this one. We don't have that safe yet either. :p my next one was I wanted to grow closer to our Heavenly Father through scripture study and church attendance. also get more involved in church activities. Well I think I've done pretty well with this one. We had a hard time in Feb. but I think overall we're doing a good job. My last ones are my Mary Kay ones which I'm not doing very good at at all. I really need to work on those. Well so I think as far as resolutions go I think it's going well. I'm just proud that I have kept them and are still trying to work on them. :) I know this was probably boring so I'm sorry.

Record Keeping and FHE

James and I try and have family home evening every Monday. To help us out my mom made us this cute family home evening bag with lessons already prepared. It has helped us out a lot. Well last nights lesson was on record keeping. It brought to mind my journal sitting in a drawer in my desk and almost a year behind.....oops. In our lesson it talked about how people have kept records such as journals. I thought of President Woodruffs good example. He wrote in his journal everyday and said he couldn't sleep unless he wrote in it. What a great example. James said that if people didn't keep records we probably wouldn't have the scriptures. It's so true. The Lord commanded people like Moses, John, Nephi and many others to keep the record of their people or their doings. Through those prophets we now have the scriptures to help us today through the experiences they had so long ago. James also said that it's important for us to write in our journals cause they may become (in a sense) like Scripture. Someday our great grand kids might want to know what they're great grandparents were like and if we aren't there to tell them....(if we could remember half our memories. :p) then how could they learn. It helped me to realize just how important writing in our journals is. James said another form of our journal is this blog. He said the only bad thing is if we cant get access to it....knock on wood. So I think I am going to print our posts out and put them in a journal. It's a start anyway. :p