No Place Like Home For the Holidays

Wow! We sure did get a TON of things crammed in in that short week that we had down in California. I'll take you through it day by day:

Day 1: We left on a Tuesday, AFTER Clayton got off of work. Well, it's a good thing we only had to go a couple hours to Grandma's house. The drive was fine, not bad weather, not bad company ;o) and since Clayton had gotten off a little bit early, not that late either. Once we got to Grandma's, it was straight to bed though.

Day 2: We woke up and spent the morning with Grandma, just chit chatting. After an hour or more, it was time for use to head out. This time, it wasn't not bad weather. It rained the WHOLE drive from Cedar City to Escondido. Clayton did all the driving, and I felt very safe the whole time (he does a good job hiding when he's scared of the roads). The drive was long, of course, but it went by pretty fast. Again, there was good company, a good book, and good music to break it up. When we got to Escondido, we unloaded and visited with Mom (she was the only one home) for about an hour, and then she and Dad had somewhere to run off to. After Mom and Dad left, Clayton and I headed over to Kim's. It was Santa Time!!! Clayton and I helped the boys with a craft they were working on while Kim made dinner for the neighbor (we went to In-N-Out). When Kim was done with dinner and the boys were done with their craft, we piled in the car and headed to Santa's House. Because it had been rainy, the line wasn't that bad. We got a picture with Santa, and got to walk through his decorated house, then we enjoyed cookies and hot chocolate outside. Man, I LOVE Santa's House! On the way home, we stopped at Grandma Kerby's. Uncle Bryce and Aunt Melanie were there and so we visited with them for a while. Poor Clayton was EXHAUSTED and didn't know anyone, so I'm sure that last part wasn't the most fun for him, but he's a trouper and he made it through :o)

Day 3: Disneyland!!!! We got up early and drove to Anaheim, bought our tickets, and we there in line, ready for it to open. When the park first opened, we raced in and were able to make it onto Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Splash Mountain, and the Winnie the Pooh ride, all without any lines. Then we raced to the other side of the park to ride the Matterhorn. There was a 30 minute wait there (which is good for the Matterhorn) so we stood in line, proud of what we'd already accomplished in the 20 minutes since Disneyland had opened. The Matternhorn, though, was just the start of our waiting. From then on out, there wasn't a line that was less then 35 minutes, and there were crowds EVERYWHERE. Whatever part of the park we were walking to, it seemed like we were always walking against the crowd, like it was some kind of mass exodus from where we were headed, but then when we got to where we were going, it was crowded as all get out. We were able to get a lot of rides in, but it wasn't quite what I'm used to (no crowds, and the chance to go on all the rides I want). We missed Nemo, and Space Mountain, but hit most of the other big ones. Dad warned us a little too late about going to the new Toy Story ride at California Adventure, so we waited an hour to ride that one (okay, I think it was really 45 minutes, but that line lasted forever). We stayed for the fire works and snow. We saw some people lining up along Main Street, so we asked some workers what they were lined up for. They told us that the fireworks started at 8:00. It was 6:30 or something like that, so we decided to hit up at least one more ride before finding a spot. We searched for a ride that wasn't an hour wait, and the only one we found was Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. We road that and Clayton looked at his watch and said the fireworks were just about to start. We went out into the road next to the Walt and Mickey Statue in front of the castle and waited. Turned out that Clayton had forgotten to account for the fact that his watch was still on Utah time, so we were there an hour early. That was not fun. Where we were smelled like horse urine and people were pushy! The worst was when they had announced that it would start in 10 minutes, then when 10 minutes had passed, they said it would be delayed. Luckily, it wasn't delayed very long. The whole reason I wanted to go to Disneyland in December was so I could see the snow. We weren't in the best place for that, so as soon as it started snowing, we booked it out of there and headed for Indiana Jones. There was hardly any sort of wait because so many people were still in the snow. I think we hit up one or two more rides after Indie, but we were both hurting, and a little sick, so there was no way we were going to make it 'til closing. We peaced out of there and vowed never to return during a holiday or summer vacation, because we do not do crowds so well. Day 4: Christmas Eve. Clayton and I slept in as much as the family would let us, then we were up and getting things ready. The girls (Mom, Kim, Dana, Joy, and I) went and got pedicures in Poway, while Dad and Clayton ran some errands and Dad made Clayton fix his computer. After pedicures, it was time to start thinking about dinner. Joy and I were in charge of making pies, so we went to the store and got the stuff. Joy forgot something and went back to go get it, while I started in on the pies. Obviously Joy didn't know how long pies actually take, because I was done with all 3 pie crusts and had cooled them by time she got back, and we only had an hour to be back in Poway for dinner. Joy abandoned the pie idea and went for brownies while I finished up the pies. That was fine by me, because I was pretty darn proud of the way they turned out, and it was the first time I had made pies by myself (and if Joy had helped me, I wouldn't have been able to say I had done them by myself). We didn't quite make the 1 hour deadline, so we were late for dinner, but not by too much. Man, Grandma's house was packed. There was LOTS of family there. It was nice, the first time we'd all been together (except poor Eric who couldn't make it). Dinner was tasty, the company was delightful, but poor Clay-dough didn't feel so hot. We took off a little bit earlier then everyone else because Clayton was sicky-poo, but again, he was my little trouper, and wasn't going to leave if I didn't want to. What a man :o)

Day 5: Christmas! Last year, when it was just me at home, Dad made me get up at 6:00 am, but we couldn't open presents til Kim and Ben and the boys showed up around 10:00 am. So this year I was expecting the same, except now I wouldn't be home alone, because Clay-bear was with me. Dad let us sleep til 6:30 am, but then Mom and Dad had us open our presents. Sweet. We got lots of games, plus I got an apron and a picture printer. Clayton got a power drill, so he's good :o) I was sad when Mom and Dad opened up their sign, because the paper had stuck to it (even though it had 2 full weeks to dry before I wrapped it). The same happened with Dana and Josh's "Hansen" sign, every single letter had paper stuck to it. What a bummer :o ( After opening presents, we made breakfast and the Garcia's plus Joy came and ate with us. We waited for Dana and Josh so we could open the rest of the presents. It was a fabulous morning. Once everyone left, it was time to test out the new games and watch the new movies, and go to bed early.

Day 6: We went to church, seeing as it was Sunday, and even though it was the day after Christmas, Mom's ward had their Christmas sacrament program. It was fun to see my old ward again. It's obviously done some changing, but there are alot of the same people. After church we had family dinner and had a craft and game night. The crafty parts were making robots and fruit snacks with the boys. The games where: the ever so inappropriate "Things" and "Scategories." The best part of "Things" was that even though Roman was not playing the game and off doing his own little "Make a Bug" craft, he was obviously still listening. When the line was "Things you shouldn't do on your honeymoon" Roman said "Jump off the boat." A-dorable!!! I miss Sunday family days.

Day 7: Dad has a membership to the Zoo and Wild Animal Park, and along with his pass, he had some free guest passes, so Monday we went to the Zoo. Kim and Ben and the boys were going to meet us there because they weren't awake in time, and Mom was going to meet us there because she had taken Joy to the airport that morning. Well, Dad, Clayton, and I got there and headed down to check out some of the park before the others got there. Clayton got to see an Okapi for real, instead of all the pictures I show him. To be honest, he wasn't that impressed (but when we went again later in the day, Roman and Aaron were thoroughly impressed because it's there favorite animal too). Kim, Ben, the boys, and Mom made it, and we went to the Sea Lion show, and walked all over the park, hitting up most every animal. I had a BLAST (animals are so cute). Clayton had fun too, but he wasn't as eager to show it as I was. Around 3:00 we headed out of the park and headed to Old Town for lunch/dinner. After dinner we headed to the Mormon Battalion Center. The center got a major over haul a year ago and Kim and Dad had heard great things about it, and so they really wanted to go as long as we were already down there. It was freaking fantastic. I'm not going to lie that the old Mormon Battalion history tour was super boring. But this one's not boring at all. It's presented really well, you move from room to room (not just standing and watching a video in one room) and they even have free souvenirs at the end (a photo making you an honorary member of the battalion, and you get to pan for gold and keep it- fools gold). After all of that excitement, the day still wasn't over. Roman had a date at the mall with Dana. We went shopping to get some good deals at Bath and Body Works. I wasn't so interested in that because I'm a cheap skate and only bought one thing of soap and one thing of lotion that were both 75% off. But, after we left B&B Works, I spotted a sale on boots. Mmmmm. I love boots. I already have a brown pair and a black pair, but both of them are high heel boots, so I can't really wear them to school, so I've been keeping my eye out for a pair of flat boots. Yes! I found them. The are grey velvet, with ties and the scrunched look. And... the best part... they are $100 boots that I got for $35. Kim got some boots too because she's never had real boots before. I think she's pretty excited about hers. Dana, Mom, and Roman didn't wait in the boot store, so we met up with them at Halmark. Once we were done there, it was for sure time to go home. Oh, after a quick stop at Dana's to check out their new house, since I am the only one who hadn't seen it yet. It's cute, and they've made some very nice improvements to it. Good luck to them finishing it all up though :o)

Day 8: This was a busy busy last day (not that all the other days hadn't been busy busy). It was full of all different sorts of activities, not just one big one. We started out our day by taking Mom out to breakfast (Dad was invited but declined). It was sweet, because we ended up getting 3 breakfasts for the price of 1. We had a coupon for a buy a breakfast, get one for free, so that knocked that meal off the ticket, plus, Mom got an omelet and the chef had left the paper on the cheese, so when we told the waited about it, he knocked that meal off the check too. That was an enjoyable breakfast: our waiter was very lively and entertaining, it was good food, and it was nice to sit back and chat and visit with Mom. After breakfast Clayton and I went to see the new Chronicles of Narnia movie. We had gotten movie passes in our stockings, but Utah doesn't have Regal Cinemas, so we had to use them there (plus, it was about time we did something Clayton really likes). After the movie, we did laundry and headed out to San Diego. We went to the docks and did the Maritime Museum tour. That's where you get to walk around on old sailing ships and submarines. Clayton thoroughly enjoyed that and so it made it all the better for me. After the museum, we headed to BJ's Restaurant where Grandma and Granddad Kerby, Mom, Kim, Dana, and Josh were meeting us for dinner. Mmmmmm.... their pizza is delectable. After dinner we went to the temple to do a session as a family. Grandma kept saying how nice it was to go to the temple as a family and thanking me for inviting her and Granddad. I guess no one had caught onto the fact that every time I come to California, I get the family together for a temple trip, so I told them all. Hey, it's a standing appointment every time I come down. Now they've got it ;o) By time we got home, it was 10:00 pm and we still had laundry and packing to do before we could finally pass out in bed.

Day 9: Okay, so when I type it out day by day, the vacation was longer than a week, but we only had a week in California is what I meant when I said it earlier. We woke up at 4:30 am and were packed and on the road by 4:50 am. It was insanely early considering we'd gotten hardly any rest all week and had been going hard all day of the break, but it sure was a good idea to leave that early. There was a HUGE storm expected to hit Utah around 3 pm, and so we were really trying to beat the clock on this drive home. No two day drive, we were knocking it all out in one go. This drive was not as quick passing as the trip down. But I don't know why I'm complaining, Clayton was the one doing all the driving. We made two quick stops on the way home. One was in Mesquite where we said a quick hello to Clayton's parents who had gone down to their trailer for New Years. Stop number two was an oober short stop off to say hi to Grandma. We had time for Clayton to fix her computer, use the bathroom, then take off. Weather wise, it was actually a pretty good drive most of the way. When we were about 35 minutes away from home, however, that's when the storm hit. The roads got really slick really fast, and the pace of the cars slowed. It took us an hour and a half to two hours to make it home instead of the 30-35 minutes, but we made it safely, and that was the biggest deal.

Ah, there's no place like San Diego for the holidays. Busy, busy, busy. But fun, fun, fun and full of family.

Weekend with the Boys

Before leaving for California, Clayton and I decided to have a sleepover with Gage and Gavin. The last day of school before break, Friday, Clayton brought the boys with him when he came home from work. We played some Rock Band, ate some pizza, and watched a movie. That was about all that we had time for that night.

Saturday, Clayton had ski patrol, so it was just the boys and me. They woke me up around 7:00 am, or so. It wasn't too bad, but it wasn't what I wanted ;o) We had plans to go to the Aquarium that day, but it didn't open until noon, so we had some time to kill (another reason I wanted them to sleep in). I let them watch a little t.v. while I showered and got ready, but I didn't want them watching t.v. all day, so I had to come up with something else to do. I asked them what they had gotten their parents for Christmas and Gavin said that their mom bought something for their dad that they'll put their name on. I told them that didn't count and that we were going to go find some kind of craft for them to do. We went to Wal Mart and picked out an O-B-R-A-Y in wooden letters, and some paint. The boys were so excited to do the craft and kept saying how much fun painting was.

Well, by the time we were done with our 2 coats of paint, it was time for lunch, and then time for the Aquarium. The first time past the Aquarium, we missed it, it wasn't as big as I would have thought it would be. But after circling around the block we found it :o) It really wasn't the biggest thing ever, but it sure was fun! We started off by looking at water life in Utah, then we went and watched a Rain Forest "show" where after wards you had the opportunity to touch a Hiss Cockroach and a Boa. I opted out of touching the cockroach. Gavin and I petted the snake, but little Gagie backed far away from the thing. After the "show" we saw jelly fish, an octopus, sea horses (regular sized ones, tiny ones, and large ones), touched stingrays, saw a turtle and some sharks. Then we moved to a separate exhibit where we saw penguins, poison dart frogs, more snakes, piranhas and a crocodile. Then we were all done. It was great, it just didn't last that long.

After the Aquarium we played more Rock Band, and Gage didn't even fail out once! (Which is impressive because no one actually ever lets him play his own, he's usually just the helper.) Then it was time for some games and some dinner. Once dinner was over, Clayton came home and we headed off to Salt Lake to check out a way decked out house. I thought it was a whole neighborhood, but it turned out to just be one house. But it was a cool house. This guy had done SO much. He had a whole light show going on, and it was timed to music. It was insane. So was the traffic. Luckily we got the heads up to park at a church and walk the block. Good thing. We were in and out in like 15-20 minutes, where as there was a line of cars, that I'm sure would take an hour to get to the house. Because it had turned out to be only one house, on our drive home, we turned down random neighborhoods that looked to be well lit by Christmas lights. That really got me excited for Christmas. By time we got home, the kids were knocked out!

Sunday we woke up and made french toast and ate a nice family breakfast. Then Uncle Clayton took over the kid watch while I got ready for church. Sacrament meeting was interesting with kids, they were really well behaved, but it was harder to keep Clayton focused :o) Well, at least all 3 of the boys were quiet. After church we headed up to Hooper for the Fowers' Christmas Party, and our duty of boy tending was over. Jessica and Matt asked us if we were ready for kids now that we'd had the boys over and I informed then that we certainly weren't starting off with a 7 and 9 year old right off the bat, we wanted to enjoy the baby stage first.

Firsts

Wow, it's been a while since I last updated, and there have been lots of fun things to write about, but they will all fit under the "Firsts" category.

First Ticket:
Just about everyone has already heard this story, I freaking ranted about it to anyone that would listen. But, for those 2 people that haven't hear it... here it is. So here I was, trying to be a good teacher, staying late on a Friday night to try to get everything ready for the next week. Then after school, I was being a good teacher and a good friend by running school errands for me and 2 other teachers. Do I even need to tell you how long of a day it had already been? This year I've got a couple students who are not my personal favorites and they make the weeks LONG. So it's been a full, busy week at school, I've staid late, I've run errands, I'm driving home at like 7:00pm, but then I've got a 30 minute commute (wait, longer than that because of stupid Utah construction). I finally make it to my exit, I'm tired as can be, Clayton's beaten me home, so he's started dinner, I can't wait to just relax, I'm 15 feet away from my driveway, and... flashing lights.

On the road I'm on, there is no shoulder. It's a two lane road, one lane for each direction, where am I supposed to pull over? After driving a couple feet, I just decide to pull into that 3 inch "shoulder" and see what the cop says. The cop walks to the window, asks for my stuff, and I ask him if we should just pull into my complex because I live right there and there's no shoulder. He says that we're fine where we are and then informs me that that was a stop sign right there. "I know, I stopped" "No you didn't" "I did, I did" "A stop is completely stopped for 2 seconds. 1 one thousand, 2 one thousand." I didn't agree, but I really had nothing to say to that. He goes back to his car, I want to cry, but hold it in, he comes back, and tells me that my license says that I live in Hooper (he said it in a demeaning tone, too - I can make fun of Hooper, but Hells Bells if he's going to, rudy) Remember how I had just told him I live in Sandy? He lectured me on the time deadline I had to get that done and then walks back to his car. I would swear up and down that he was back there for 30 minutes. I was doing everything I could not to let the tears fall. I was breathing deeply, looking out the window at whatever the crap I could look at, oh, and I was getting mad at him taking so DANG long when all I wanted was to get home.

He finally comes back, tells me that he watched me go through 2 stop signs, but that he'll make one a warning, give me another warning about the change of address, but that he's giving me a ticket for the second stop sign. Had me sign something and then asks if I had any questions. Yes I had questions, I didn't know what the freak to do with a ticket, I'd never gotten one before. He told me to call the number after a week and they'd tell me what to do and how to take care of it.

I came in the door bawling and poor Clayton didn't know at all what to do. I finally got the story out and then I spent the rest of the night rotating between being super pissed, and super sad/depressed. And it's not like it was over then, I had to have the ticket hanging over my head for a week. Lame!!

Well, the week went by, but I couldn't take care of it right away because they close at 4 (when I get off work) and they're in Sandy and I work in Orem. A couple times I got off a little early, but freaking traffic slowed me down and I missed it. Thanksgiving Break I was finally able to go in and talk to the court commissioner. Yeah, turns out that on the ticket that the cop turned in, he wrote that I stopped for 1/2 a second, but it wasn't a complete stop because it wasn't 2 seconds. Well, I had been looking everywhere for a definition of 2 seconds, but I hadn't found it. Yeah, neither could the court commissioner, and neither could any body in the office that she went and asked. So... after all of that hastel and waiting, and anger, and crying, the ticket was dropped. Good, because I would have been beyond ticked if I would have had to pay $130 for something I was innocent of.

First Snowboarding Day:
We went up to Hooper for Thanksgiving and decided to just stay the night so that we could go up to the Powder Mountain after Clayton got off work the next day. As long as we were staying the night, Jessica really needed a midnight, Black Friday shopping buddy, so Clayton and I went to Wal Mart around 10:30, 11:00 pm. Yeah, can I tell you how much fun that was NOT? We were all spread out, Clayton was at movies, Jessica was at the game station, and I was in toys. There were 2 different toys I had to grab (both of which there were extras of when we went to the Sandy Wal Mart a week later). Luckily there was a nice lady over by one of the toys I needed and we worked out a deal. She would grab me a Littlest Pet Shop if I would grab her an Operation Buzz Lightyear, which was next to the second toy I needed. Yeah for stranger team work, especially since where I was sent, there was NOBODY there, so I didn't have to fight or struggle with anyone. Although my blood still raced when I heard a fight going on a couple pallets down from me when midnight rolled around. I had to walk passed it to get back to the lady, and security was all over it. Kind of funny, kind of "what the crap guys, you're fighting over a toy, grow up."

Anyway, this section isn't "First trip to Wal Mart" it's about snowboarding. So, Friday, Clayton went to work and I did school work, and wrapped a couple presents, and was seriously bored while waiting for him to be done. Then, when he got off work we went up. Well, I can say that I am better then last year in at least one way (and probably only one way)... I can get up by myself. Like, after I fall hard on my posterior, I can stand back up on my own. Clayton says that I'm doing well, but Clayton is full of it. I still am terrified to actually use the right stance, so I'm still cheating when I go down the mountain. And I still can't get off the ski lift without Clayton holding me up. Yeah, it's going to be a long season. Good thing Clayton is patient.

First Day Snowboarding by Myself:
So Friday's run was a test run to see if I would be able to handle a day of snowboarding by myself. Saturday Clayton had to work, but he was working on setting up barriers and stuff on closed lifts. Obviously I couldn't come with, so I would have to either wait at home (not ours, Don and Jan's) or snowboard alone. I opted out of the first option, and dared to board alone. Here's what I know after going alone. The lifties (the people operating the lift) are really nice, and when there's not that many people on the mountain, they recognize you. I had some nice conversations with some of them. They knew I wasn't that great, that I was alone because my husband was on ski patrol, and that I wasn't having as much fun as I should have been having. Thing number two that I learned, was how to get off the ski lift without falling. Not going to lie, I had one total blow out of a run, and a couple other small spills, but I did end up getting the hang of it. Not because Clayton had every told me the right way to do it, but because one time I watched how the guy ahead of me got off. Thank goodness for that guy :o) I still cheated my way down the mountain, of course, I wasn't going to try anything on my own, and have to have ski patrol rescue me and then call Clayton over from the next mountain. I did have fun though, but I've learned not to go alone any more.

First Anniversary:
Clayton and I have only been married 6 months, but we were married exactly 6 months from the day that we met. So, December 5th was our 1 year anniversary of the day we met. The 5th was a Sunday, so on the 4th, we decided to recreate our first date. He had to work, of course, so we decided that he would drive to work, and I would take trax up to Salt Lake (where we had our first date), and he would meet me there. Well, I ended up not taking trax, because as I was driving to the station, I got pulled over. This polictress was a lot nicer, and she pulled me over because it didn't show that Clayton's truck had insurance. It did, I showed her the proof of insurance, and I was on my way. Except due to the delay, I missed trax and would have had to wait 20 minutes. Forget it, I just drove up :o)

We met at Cafe Rio for dinner, then walked around temple square looking at the lights. Holy Moly was it crowded. We could barely walk around without getting trampled. But we made it, and we had small talk, and it then we took separate cars home. I sent him to the store to go by sparkling cider, which I had forgotten to pick up when I had gone grocery shopping. It worked out though because it gave me time to go home, light the candles, and draw up a nice warm bubble bath... that was not something we did on the first date, but it's been a year now, so it's okay ;o) It was a fabulous first anniversary.

First Time Down a Black Diamond:
Yeah, another snowboarding story, but... 'tis the season. No, I didn't magically get super great at snowboarding so that I was skilled enough to get down the most challenging slope on the mountain, it was just a pretty empty day on the slopes, so I wouldn't get in any one's way, and I, of course, cheated my way down. But, now I can say that I've gone down a Black Diamond. That day, Clayton was patrolling the lift "Sun Down" which is the only one we've boarded so far, so I was not all that thrilled to be going, but he showed me that there were more then just the 2 slopes I'd been doing, so it turned out to be more fun after all. So that day, I actually went down 2 Black Diamond runs, and ended up doing all the runs on that mountain.

Alright, out of firsts for now. Sorry there aren't pictures, but both Clayton and I are terrible at taking pictures. Maybe next time?

The New Place

Okay, now that we FINALLY got the pictures back, we could fill the empty frames we hung, which means that I could take pictures of the apartment and show all of you where we are. Okay, I'll post them, but let me just explain that the pictures don't do it justice. The apartment is a lot nicer than the pictures make it look.

Although, I'm trying to find the 800 sq ft. that are supposed to be in this place, and realizing we would have died in one that was only 650 sq ft. I told Clayton that there must be a reason that we're in this place instead of any other because for some reason he fell in love with it without even seeing it, and so when I went to look at it, I wasn't looking too hard for negatives in it. Once we started moving in, I realized there wasn't that much storage space. The pantry is out in the open, which makes us look red neck in my opinion, but that's where it's got to go since we got the washer and dryer :o)

Okay, here's what the apartment's like. The washer and dryer are in the kitchen. Well, in a closet off of the kitchen I guess, technically. There's not a pantry, and the cupboards aren't quite enough to hold all of our stuff, so it's a good thing we have a wheelie cart to put our microwave on and use as extra storage. Good thing about getting lots of kitchen stuff for the wedding: We have a lot of cool kitchen gadgets. Bad thing about getting lots of kitchen stuff for the wedding: Hard to find places for it all.

Then there's the dining room. There's not too much of one of those. We push the table against the wall when it's just the two of us, and when we have people over, we pull it out and rotate the chairs. It's actually not bad. I do like the way it works out better than I had thought it would. And in the dining room/walkway area, it's unfortunate that Clayton has to park his bike there, but he does promise to find another place to put that soon. (We'll see, he promised that over a week ago.)

The living room also hosts the office, which is just our computer desk. It fits nicely in, and follows the counsel to place the computer in an open area. An accidental benefit to the lack of space is that we obey the prophet-nothing wrong with that :o) The rest of the living room houses a leather rocking chair, and our couch (which is really a large love seat, but it more than works). When we first moved in we brought the love sac. By time we set that up and the tv, there was no in between space, and when you sat on the love sac, you were right up on the tv. So I made sure Clayton wasn't super attached to the sac and switched it out for the couch. Now our living room is perfectly situated. There is enough space between the couch and the tv set up. Ew. About the tv. We have 4 remotes just to watch the dang tv. That's not what I'm used to, but I'm working on it :o)

Next we move to the hallway. We put some cute decorations up in the hallway, and it ends in a linen closet. At first I thought the linen closet was huge, and then, again, I started putting stuff in it and I soon realized it wasn't as big as we needed it.

The hallway leads to the bathroom and the bedroom. Again, no storage in the bathroom, not even a medicine cabinet, but you'll see later how I solved that problem. My favorite part about the bathroom is the candle that I made that perfectly matches the shower curtain. It's a clear vase with a dark brown toole ribbon tied around it, with teal marbles at the bottom and a tan candle.

The bedroom is last. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. We've got another tv in the bedroom that sits on top of a book case filled with college books from Clayton and I. Then there's a large book case that I filled up all by myself, that surprised me, I didn't know I had that many books :o) The last bead spread that we had on matched the room better, but we just washed the sheets and changed the look. We do fit into the bedroom pretty well, I only have a couple boxes still out of place, so they're permanently on the floor, at least for now. I love the drawer by my bed. It's full of scrap booking stuff. When I basically filled it, I was way excited. I didn't think I had that much of that either :o) My favorite part of the bedroom is the shelf above the bed. We used the wedding vases and engagement pictures to decorate that. It looks fantastic (if I do say so myself).

Last of all is our half bedroom- oh, I mean closet. If we stay here a while and do decide to have a little on, then I think the closet will just become the nursery. I know, in the picture, it looks like the closet is an absolute disaster. I promise, it's not. If you look closely, I have my hair stuff on top of my dresser, and the first aid stuff is in my bottom drawer, that's how I solved the no space in the bathroom solution.

Alright, beside the outside storage area, that's our apartment. But, like I said, the pictures don't do it justice, so you'll have to come visit it sometime if you want to get a real feel for it.

House Hunting

I lived and worked in Orem, Clayton lived in Hooper and worked in Clearfield. Now I live in Hooper and work in Orem. Yeah, that can't last, that's a 1 1/2 commute. Eeeh!!!

That's why for the past month and a half we've been looking online for places to rent that are more of a half way- me working in Orem and Clayton stayin in Clearfield. Internet searching is pretty tricky though. Some places look really nice online, and then you go and they're not all that fantastic. Or, like one we found in Salt Lake, the place is great, but it's in a shady shady part of town.

I've never actually had to find the places I've lived at. When I lived with my parents, I obviously didn't get a say in those houses, and when I went off to college, I called my family while I was taking the SATs and they signed me up for housing there. When I moved out of the doorms I always had roommates that had strong opinions on where to move, so I followed. It kind of happened a little bit that way with the place we're moving into now. (Yeah, we found a place if you didn't catch on with that last comment.) Autumn's uncle lives at this place and so he kind of introduced us to the place, well, actually Autumn really introduced it to us, I still don't know who the uncle is :o)

I'm excited for it. First of all, it's an 800 sq. foot one bedroom apartment, which is pretty big for a one bedroom (well, at least in our price range, I'm sure they come larger). And, we get some sweet discounts because Clay-dough's a student, I'm a teacher, and we're signing a 12 month lease. It's a cute little place too. The kitchen opens up into the living room/dining room, the walk-in closet is the size of a small room, we have a little balconly, and the facility has volley ball courts, and a pool and jacuzi, a weight room, and I'm sure it has more, but we'll find out more about it when we move in.

That's the only down side, we can't move in until mid August, when my timeline was more along the lines of already being moved in by today. Oh well, it's way closer to my school than we were originally thinking, and Clayton's going to take the train to work which saves gas money and miles on his car. So it's all working out-- like it always eventually does ;o) Hunt comlete!

It's Almost All the Way Official

Holy gracious. Men get off easy, they get to keep their names. I think that when you get married, they should hand the wife a list right away of all the things she has to change. This sure has been a hastel for me. Maybe I'm just clueless and everyone else already knew, but there's a ton to do. I first had to change my social, that way I could change my license, that way I could change the name my car was registered under. I also had to change my name at the district office and put Clayton on my insurance (oh, that's a whole other fiasco on it's own). I've been put onto Clayton's bank account (who misspelled my name on my cards, so they have to send me new ones) and I'll close mine out at the end of the summer, because my summer checks are already lined up to go into my current account. My loans and car payments I'm not changing because I figure as long as they get paid, they don't care what the name on the check is.

So there are basically only two things left for me to change. I need to close out my bank account so I stop signing Brooke Kerby everywhere, and I need to change my temple recommend so they stop welcoming to the temple as Sister Kerby. I think that's funny. They should just change the name for you right there, as long as we're at the temple already, and they know I'm worthy, they should have just filled in my last name. Oh well. It's almost all the way official now :o)

Floating the River

Last weekend was July 24th, which is Pioneer Day. If you live in Utah or certain areas of Colorado, you probably know what that is... not many other people do. But, because we're in Utah, it's a state holiday and so people get that day off of work. This is also the weekend that the Fowers float down the Snake River in Wyoming. Apparently they've been doing this annual family trip for quite some time now. And now that I'm a Fowers, I got to come too.

Unfortunately not the whole clan was there. Jeff, Autumn, Cory, Angie, Mark, Stephanie, and corresponding families couldn't make it down, so it was Jessica, Matt, their boys, Jan, Don, Clayton, and me. So not the typical trip, but we still had fun.

Clayton's favorite missionary companion came in to town on Friday, and we went out to dinner with him and the Hernden's. It was kind of funny that Brad chose to go out to an Italian restaurant with the Hernden's there because I'm sure they're going to be getting plenty of that, seeing as they were leaving for Italy on Monday. After dinner we went to Farr's and got some ice cream, then went back to visit at the Hernden's. Clayton kept trying to get me to leave because we had to drive all the way to Wyoming that night, but his friend was quite entertaining, and it was going to be a while since we saw the Hernden's again. Eventually we got out of there and made the drive up.

It was one in the morning before we finally got up there. Thank goodness we had sent the tent and mattress up with Jessica so that when we got there, everything was ready for us. There were even mints on our pillows :o) And not just little ones either, Jessica left huge peppermint patties on our bed :o) I laughed. We crawled into bed and I noticed our heads were lower than our feet. I suggested that we turn ourselves around, but Clayton insisted it was fine. Well, I can sleep on pretty much anything, so although I did wake up a bit, I was able to get sleep. Clayton, on the other hand, was cold, uncomfortable, felt the blood rushing to his head, and therefore couldn't get to sleep until 3 am, and then only slept until 5 am. I won't even bother to say "I told you so."

Saturday we woke up, got our suits on, and went over to Matt's parent trailer for breakfast. It took us a while to get everyone ready to go rafting, but eventually we were heading down the road. It turns out that we didn't even float with many people from our family. With all of the sibling cancellations, we had to call in reinforcements to float with us. The first trip down we floated with Matt's brother and sister-in-law, one of Don's friends, and his son and daughter-in-law (JD and Cami).

The rafting trip started off a little slow, not a whole lot of rapids, not the swiftest pace, but the group was fun, so the ride was enjoyable. Don kept making sure I was having fun. Every time we went over anything, he'd ask me how I liked it :o) Don's been doing this trip so long, he knows every inch of the river (at least the part we go down) and acted as the perfect guide. I was nervous too, because I'd heard plenty of horror stories about people's experiences going down the river for the first time with him. The biggest rapids we came to are called the Big Kahuna, or something, and we hit those ones pretty well. Clayton was our navigator, he sat on the front of the raft (like he was riding a bull) and told Don how to enter the rapids. He had a pretty strong grip, because Big Kahuna would have knocked me off for sure. Luckily he just fell backward, more into the boat.

After we finished up the first run, we met up with the Jan and Jessica who drove the trucks to the get out point. We had lunch, and then changed groups. It was still Clayton, Don, Don's friend, JD, and me, but we swapped out Jeff and his wife for another Clayton and Don's friend's wife. (Yeah, is it that obvious that I forgot their names? Oops.) This float was much more calm. We went down slower, didn't get into any water fights with other rafts, and even the rapids seemed more calm. The calmer rapids meant we stayed drier, which was nice because I was FREEZING when we finished the first one, but it was less adventurous. Don't worry about the lack of adventure for too long, however, because at one of the places along the river, people like to climb the cliff and jump. Yeah, we pulled off there and JD and I jumped off. JD went first, and I apparently went too soon after he did, because they didn't have the rope ready in time to throw out to me. I hadn't even thought about needing a rope to pull me in after I jumped. Good thing there was another group there with a better rope than ours. They reeled me in. Just one jump for the two of us, and we were back on the river. We didn't hit Big Kahuna as well the second time, but it was still fun. Oh, and at the end, I rode up front like the hood ornament. Yeah, I really have no idea how Clayton stayed on through all the rapids. We went through a small one and my booty went inside the boat, I couldn't keep it on top.

After rafting we took the raft back, went and got cleaned up, then drove to Jackson for dinner and a show at Bar J's. It's also a Fowers family tradition to go there. I have to admit that I was disappointed in the food, but Clayton promises me that it gets better, because his didn't taste that great that night either, but it usually does. The show was pretty good. It's guys performing old western songs. I knew some of them thanks to Dad and Granddad :o) But there were some new ones too. They were performing live, so you got a good sense of their personality, and they threw in some humor too. I'm not going to lie, there were some times they just got annoying, but all in all, it wasn't that bad. And I know I would have enjoyed it better if I didn't have such a pounding head ache and such a bad stomach ache.

Sunday we woke up early, not sure what time church started, then after we were all ready, we found out it wasn't until 11. Lame. Once we got back from church, we packed it all up and came home.

There were still more things Clayton wanted to do while we were up there, but with the short amount of time we had, we just couldn't do it all. But it's okay, we'll be up there again :o)

A Little Explanation

So, my friend Laura, who's not opinionated at all (giggle, giggle :o) asked me if Clayton and I had started a blog yet. Because, "what kind of young, married, Mormon couple are you without one?" She even went as far as to look up available blog names for us. And, since, I'm not the type of person to stand against the crowd and be my own kind of person, or have my own original ideas, I fell into suit. So now Clayton and I are the typical young Mormon couple because we now have a bog. Go us!

An explanation to the title: Wonderful Journey is the title of a song, our song in fact. Cutie pants (that would be Clayton) played it for me one day beaming from ear to ear, explaining that he had found a song that described us. I listened to it, mocked it, then agreed it was our song :o)

I think that's all the explanation that's need for now. I mean, I'm hoping that it goes without saying that this blog will be about the things that Clayton and I do on our Wonderful Journey together after getting married. That does go without saying, right?