The February Blah's

I know why February is the shortest month of the year - it has to be the most depressing month of all the other months. Think about it

January - We're still reveling in all the festivities and new gadgets from Christmas and New Year.
March - Well besides the fact that it is my birthday month the temperature is getting warmer, we switch over to daylight savings time (HOORAY - ONLY 37 DAYS TILL THE SWITCH), glimmer of hope that spring is on its way and I can start planning my garden.
April - Yet even warmer temperatures, flowers are popping up and I can start early plantings
May - Summer is just around the corner and the garden should be planted
June, July, August - SUMMER IS HERE - need I say more
September, October - FALL - I love fall, the colors, smells and sounds. It's still warm with a slight crispness in the air
November - Thanksgiving
December - Christmas

Really what is there in February - besides being the hardest month to spell, dirty snow and cold temperatures?

And please don't say Valentine's Day. That is just some made up "holiday" for us to buy cards, candy, flowers, jewelry etc. I don't need a "holiday" for my man to tell me how much he loves me and how much I mean to him. We express this to each other every single day. He is lucky to find someone like me because we both feel this way about this supposed "holiday".

So if not Valentine's Day then maybe I could look forward to President's Day right? Wrong - if I actually had the day off from work then that would be something to look forward to but for now it is just another day.

So right now the best thing about February is that it is the shortest month of the year but somehow I have a feeling that it is going to feel like the longest. So looking on the bright side of things as I try to do - ONLY 24 MORE DAYS TO GO!!!

Wii Adults Just Want to Have Fun Too!!

Last weekend we had some friends over for a Wii night. We had a great time directing marbles through different courses, canoeing, archery, lumberjacking and dancing the night away with Just Dance 2. Once we starting dancing we had to open the windows – you can’t help but get into it. What a fun night!

Jon & John are really getting into it

I love how everyone is doing something different

Gotta love it!

A New Year's Celebration

To kick off the New Year we went shooting and snow wheeling. I really like to go shooting even if I can’t hit the target even 25% of the time, but the times that I do actually hit it I get so excited (if I could I would jump up and down, but probably not the best thing to do with a gun in your hand). It was a nice day, but with the snow on the ground eventually my feet started to get cold.

Setting up the target

Jon getting ready to put a dent in that target

Jon's dad shooting his hand gun

After we had our fill of the guns we got in the cars to play in the snow. It was fun because we just kind of went wherever. Jon would get going so fast and then we would start to slide and it had me laughing so hard I was in tears. What a great way to spend a day off.

We made it up the icy hill

Jon's dad

Jon and Zach climbing up the icy hill

Zach playing in the mud

Festive Yard Art

I know, I know Christmas is over but I just had to show off what Jon made for me. Before Thanksgiving I came home with a magazine clipping of some Christmas yard art that I just loved (except for the price). I thought we (meaning Jon) could make these and Jon agreed. So I served as the creative director and Jon did all the work (however I did make the templates). I got to do all the fun stuff like decide on paint and buying the trinkets for the embellishments. Jon made the three items shown for me, a stocking and Christmas tree for his parents, and a stocking, Christmas tree and two presents for a friend. With the help of his dad he got these all done the first week of December. This was much less expensive than buying them online and I love how they turned out.

Jon spray painted the metal from my templates

Jon welding away - this is why I didn't do the work

Jon finishing up the painting
This one was a beast to paint because of the stripes I wanted
He is even multitasking - notice the phone to his ear

Aren't these just perfect?

Christmas Lights at Temple Square

Christmas came so quickly this year and December was just flying by that I didn't think Jon and I would be able to see the lights at Temple Square but we did. The Saturday before Christmas we actually had a free night so we headed up to Salt Lake to enjoy the lights. On the ride up Jon and I were debating whether or not to ride Trax. We hate finding parking in Salt Lake, but the Trax trains are always packed this time of year. Going up on the trains isn't too bad, it's the ride back that I dread. We decided to drive into Salt Lake and the parking situation wasn't that terrible (probably because everyone rode Trax - bet they hated their ride back).

Being out in the crisp air was a nice break from all the hours spent indoors. The rain even stopped by the time we made it up to Temple Square. The lights at Temple Square are always exquisite. After having wrapped my miniature cherry tree in lights I have a new respect for those who put up Christmas lights. I loved the luminaries they had (sadly I didn't get a picture) but some of those bags were so ornate. I also loved all the different nativity scenes.

I love that they put this over the pool, it always draws a crowd.

I love how the cascading water is all lit up
and the Christmas lights just enhance it

After strolling around Temple Square for awhile we decided to go over to the Gallivan Plaza; 30+ years in Utah and I don't think I have ever been to the ice rink. Wow there was a lot of people skating on that little rink. It was fun to watch everyone, especially the little kids basically walking with their skates on and holding to the side for dear life. We did get to see a dad slip on the ice and drag his tween-aged daughter down with him - that was kind of funny, mostly because the dad was just a little drunk.



Since we were already at the Gallivan Plaza and it was almost 10pm we headed over the KUTV studio to check out the news. The studio was smaller than I had expected, come to think of it so was the news anchor that night. I didn't expect him to be so short. All in all it was a great night.

Labor Day

Labor Day Weekend was spent in St. George at my parent’s condo. We left Friday night and got to St. George around 10:00pm. Jon had to pick up a trailer for work so by the time we got it all hitched we didn’t get to the condo till about 10:30pm.


Saturday we planned to go to Sand Hollow to scuba dive. We really wanted to find the van that was sunk about two years ago. We have seen the plane that was sunk and this dive we were on a mission to find the van since we couldn’t find it back in June while we were there. We picked up our tanks and my regulator from Dixie Divers as well as directions on where to find the van and headed out to the lake. We couldn’t have asked for a better day. It was nice and hot and that means that the water was warm and not murky. We got all our equipment together and started to swim out towards a buoy which would help us find the van. We descended and started swimming around trying to find the illusive van. We swam around for a bit and we didn’t see anything so we gave up and just started exploring. We eventually found a piece of rope and started to follow it. This rope took us right to the van. We swam around and admired the van and then we stood on top of the van for our safety stop and then ascended to the surface. We wanted to get to the surface so we could see exactly where the van was so we could find it in the future. The van wasn’t too far away from the plane so we descended again and searched for the plane. The plane is in deeper water than the van and as we were going deeper there was a thermocline and it was too cold for us so we decided to head back to shore and have lunch.




When we got out of the water several other divers had showed up and asked us if we knew where the van and plane were located. We talked to them for a while and then had lunch and rested for a bit before our second dive. We decided that for our second dive we would just swim around and explore. We found a couple of hoops to swim through and I got to watch a fish chase Jon around. This fish would follow Jon and if Jon stopped the fish stopped and wherever Jon would go that fish would follow. Jon had no idea until we surfaced but I sure had a good time watching. We had an awesome dive experience. Sand Hollow is always fun to dive. It really has become a destination dive spot in Utah because of all the things they have put in the lake to do and see.

After cleaning up our gear and dropping off our rental equipment we headed back to the condo. My parents were coming down on Saturday to spend the whole week and when we got back they were already there. It was decided that Jon and I would clean up and then we would go to the Chinese buffet that my parents like. We got there at just the right time. We were mostly done with our meal when a couple of tour buses arrived. Boy was that place busy. After dinner we went over to Walmart to get food for Sunday and Monday. That night we sat in the hot tub and it felt nice.

Sunday my parents went to church (we didn’t go as we didn’t bring any church clothes). After my parents got back we took a drive to the site of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. It was a nice drive and on the way back we went and drove through Pine Valley.




When we got back to the condo we ate lunch then my parents and I played a card game while Jon took a nap. After the game my mom and I went for a walk. We ate dinner and then after dinner we watched “The Power of One”.

Monday Jon and I got up and packed. We wanted to get home early as there were some things we needed to do at home. It was a great weekend and we had a really nice time with my parents.

Peach Time

It’s peach time again. This year I received help from Jon. It sure made the canning process a whole lot faster. Peaches are by far my least favorite thing to can, mostly because of the whole syrup thing. This year I tried a new recipe where you just dump the sugar in the jar, add some tap water and then process the jars. This was so much easier and I will be making it this way from here on out.