General update...

Summer is officially over in our house. Dave is back to teaching in full force now. He is beginning his fifth year of teaching! It is hard to believe that we've been in Utah that long. Time sure does fly quickly! He seems to be enjoying his classes while they are smaller in size, but with time they will grow. He starts his final year of his masters program at BYU next week!!!

I started a new job a few weeks ago. I'm still working from home doing Medical Transcription, but I'm working for a different company now. Things are going really well! My last job was barely able to provide me part-time work so the switch was needed badly. There seems to be plenty of full-time work for me with this new company.

We are working with another adoption agency now and hoping we'll find our baby much quicker! We have our adoption profile on Parent Profiles and while Dave was in Alaska we got an email from the Adoption Center of Choice in Orem. They have some birth moms wanting to place babies, but not enough adoptive couples internally so they've had to search elsewhere and found us on Parent Profiles. We've been busy getting registered with them and getting a bigger better profile done to meet their requirements. I think they've already shown our profile to three birth moms and it has only been about two weeks. We are keeping our fingers crossed! The only downside to going through this new agency is that the adoption will cost much more than if we were to get a baby through LDS Family Services, but what can you do?

The title page of our new profile
(it's about 12 pages long all scrapbooked, ugh!)

The Last Frontier Finale

Well, the work was just that, but as mentioned there was some fun. It all started out with going to Red Robin to celebrate Aidan's 2nd birthday. When Tonya had the staff come sing to him, he wasn't quite sure if he wanted to cry or what. It was humorous nonetheless, especially when all over he decided it was a good time to finish eating the noodles that were in his mouth.


Of course this was also the first time we had to just relax with the nieces and nephews. They were all so fun to be around and goof off with when the opportunity presented itself. Emery in her joy of having the windows for her bedroom finished, created a celebration for Zach and myself. Deservedly so since the windows were gorgeous after the trim was completed. Zach has beat me to posting the video for this, but mine is the full movie, while his is the director's cut with no deleted scenes.



And of course we did see some (but not too much) wildlife while there.
Even though the fox came so close to Zach, his cool calm composure kept him safe (the fox that is).
This moose watched us tee off on our first round of 18 holes. I am sure if moose could laugh, it probably did. He was polite though and showed proper golf etiquette while we swung the clubs. Golf is a lot of fun. I birdied a par 3 and played 2 full rounds while there (one at 5:30 a.m and the other finishing up around 10ish p.m.). It was all fun even though, I would never make it on any tour of any kind.
Teeing off on a hole. It was ugly and disappointing. Maybe it was because Zach was videotaping this shot (or I just suck).
Man oh man was this embarrassing. Missed a 2 footer. Went right over the hole, or to the side or something like that.

We also drove down to see the Portage glacier down the Seward Highway. What a beautiful drive that is. The scenery is fabulous and very picturesque. The glaciers down that way were a lovely blue color and just massive chunks.
This picture doesn't quite do it the justice it deserves. Of course, the clouds were low on this day, so the top wasn't really visible. It was still a magnificent view for me.

There was so much to see and so much fun that was had, that it seems like there wasn't enough time to squeeze in all the work and fun we did. Thank heavens for 17 hours of sunlight in the days. Of course the 5:30 thing to go play basketball after staying up until midnight and being out of shape despite losing weight. I thought I was going to die! Maybe I will have to give up the ol' ball playin' after all these years and stick to golf.

Thanks Dan and Tonya for housing and feeding us and showing us around. You took great care of me while there and I had a blast. Harrison, Emery, Jack, and Aidan, you were awesome and are such great kids. Thanks for being so kind and thoughtful and fun to listen to and be around.

The Last Frontier

Well, thanks to some wonderful people, I was able to travel to Alaska. The trip was both business and pleasure and I made sure to accomplish both while there. Thanks especially to my dear wife, usually the author on this blog, for letting me leave her home for a week. I am sure she enjoyed not having to babysit me! She is so wonderful.
While there, Zach and I helped our other brother Dan work on his house to finish a few projects that needed to be done, but just wasn't enough time for with his busy schedule. Zach and I and occasionally Dan, when he had a spare moment, put insulation in his crawl space as well as a vapor barrier, trimmed out a window to seal it up, did some plumbing, fixed a drawer in a vanity, tore down some cupboards, and put in a new kitchen sink for Dan's wife Tonya. Not being sexist there, but she is the one that wanted it more than anyone. We also made sure Dan has plenty of tools to do just about any job he would ever want imagined for him to do (Tonya, that is for you! Good luck Dan).No, I don't have a hangover and yes, I was being productive

Zach, doing what it is he did.

Proof that we also utilized Dan and the kids for the projects.

Me being safe. Notice the goggles, very protective.

If you look just right, you can see where the cabinets used to be. No more though!

Spent many hours down in that hole. Had some good times down in there working with my brother (sometimes brothers, niece and nephews).

This is the vanity that needed some good repair. Probably the cleanest job we did all week.

That was the project aspect of the trip. More to come on the good times in the days to follow. There is just too much stuff for this one post. Trying to keep it simple and unburdensome for all to read. Keep checking back for more.

Pioneer & Birthday

Sorry this is a week late! I knew Dave never should've promised his family a post with pictures coming soon. I think he jinxed us! We've had a "broken" computer all week and finally had to reinstall Windows in order for it to work properly. I've started a new job and their software and our wireless card didn't like each other, but it took us an entire week to figure that one out! Not something that us or their IT guy even imagined would be the problem, go figure! So, here is what happened in our lives last weekend...

July 24th is a state holiday in Utah (Pioneer Day) so we decided to celebrate it in our own small way. We spent about $2 on fireworks and put on a nice little show in our backyard.

Dave trying to write "hello" with a sparkler

My sparkler creation

After our 24th of July celebration on Friday, we spent the rest of the weekend in the mountains. We hadn't been camping yet in Utah this summer so we thought it would be nice to get away. We both enjoy camping a lot and enjoy the peace and quiet of the mountains. We also celebrated Dave's birthday (7/26).

We bought Buddy a sweater so he won't freeze on our camping adventures! Missy has a pink one too, but she doesn't need it as much as he needs his.

Dave cooking me breakfast on his birthday! I'm a mean wife, I know!

Happy 31st birthday Dave!


Make a wish!

Dave took this picture and sent it to all of his family. He was so proud of his pre-fire creation. I figured he would want it on here as well!

We had the best birthday dinner, steak and potatoes! This is a little oven contraption that we used to bake the potatoes in. They turned out perfect! The steak was the best steak we've had in a long time as well. It was a GREAT meal!

Dave texting while building his fire

The camper. Isn't it such a pretty camping spot?

Missy's favorite spot while camping, under the camp chairs

Buddy in his favorite spot

Doesn't it look like Dave's head is on fire?

A man and his fire!