Disneyland!

We had so much fun in Disneyland. There was way too many people and I don't think we would ever go again at that time again. Even though there was a lot of people it was still magical. The highlights were when they made it snow at night, seeing all the characters, eating churros and ice cream, and getting to be like a kid again (okay, having a real reason to get to act like a kid again).

Here are a few pictures in random order because I couldn't get them to move.



Woody


Train Ride in Frontier Land



Tower Of Terror. Really fun ride really creapy workers!

It's A Small World

Newest Princess: Princess Tiana

Mr. Incredible & Mrs. Amazing

Monsters Inc.

Pluto and Mickey

Disneyland Main Street

Goofy

Toy Story Army Men

Sleeping Beauty's Castle

Life the size of a bug.

Spoiled

It has been a very long wait but finally our couches came. After we bought our house we knew we wanted new couches. We decided to wait until a show so that we could get the most for our money. So in September we found the couches we wanted and ordered them. After being told many delivery dates over the next three months they finally shipped.

They came in really big boxes! I was so nervous the whole way home that they were going to tip over. Since we ordered them in September I had forgotten exactly what color they were. I was afraid they were going to be too light. I was so excited when we opened the box and they were dark. I love them.

It is so nice to come home to real couches. Now people can come over and not have to sit on the floor.

Salt Lake

Alan and I went to Salt Lake for work last week. As I lay in bed the first night I had a strong feeling of going home. Not home in St. George, but to our house in Salt Lake. I really missed our house. What I missed the most was the sound of the door opening and closing. For anyone that had been to our house they would know the sound I am talking about. Our door had blinds over the window and each time the door opened and closed it made a distinct noise. It was a heavy door and as it closed it banged a little louder than most doors as if it was slammed shut even when closed softly. As I talked to Alan about this I figured out what I missed the most were the things that went in and out of the door. I missed what it meant hearing the door open and close.

I miss Oso coming in and out of the house. Oso was such a good dog. He was so calm, loving, and good with children. I miss him searching for your hand to pet him, and I miss the way he slept by the fireplace.

I miss the sound of the door opening as Alan brought in dinner in the Dutch oven. Tim, Lindsey, Dan, Tony and their families would come over and we would make something new in the Dutch oven. I miss having everyone over for Dutch oven parties.

I miss the joy of K and B throwing the door open with excitement to go camping, or rock climbing. Cooking breakfast in the mornings together and riding bikes outside in the driveway. I miss all the funny things B would say, and all the games K would make up for us to play. The last time the door closed behind them was one of the hardest days of my life, but I am thankful for all the times that they were able to come in and out of that door.

I miss our neighbors and how we changed the gate in our fence to be closer to the house so that they could come over easier. The first time they knocked on our door and we realized we had already met and had something in common.

I loved hearing the door open as Alan came home from work on his lunch breaks. There are few things better than taking a nap in the middle of the day together snuggled up on the couch.

I even miss the sound of the door opening as people brought stuff over to store in our basement and garage.

There are many more memories of people and things that entered our door in Salt Lake. I am so grateful for those memories. As I look back on the 2 years that we lived in Salt Lake, and all the people that came in and out of our house for just a minute or to stay for months I long to experience those memories again. It makes me even more excited for our house here in St. George and all of the memories that will be made here in our home.

Cupcakes & The Lying Media

For our work party I made these bats and mummies.




How the Media Lies!

Last week I was feeling a little under the weather. I had a runny nose, and a mild fever. People at school kept saying "I hope you don't have H1N1." I knew I did not have it because I did not have flu like symptoms. I had cold symptoms. I took a few half days at school then Thursday night I had a high temperature and I could not get it to break. Friday, I kept getting worse, and since we now have insurance and baby Carter was coming up for the weekend I wanted to find out if I was contagious.

When we got to the Dr. Office the receptionist made me wear a mask. I felt like they had just stamped LEAPER across my forehead. I only had a cold and I probably wasn't even contagious.

As the dr. was doing her checks I asked the only question I came to get answered. This is how it went...

Mariah: "Am I contagious?"
Dr. "Yes! Very!"
Mariah: in a sad tone "Oh"
Dr. "You have H1N1."
Mariah: "No. No, I don't. I haven't thrown up; I don't feel nauseous and no diarrhea. I just have a cold."
Dr. "That is the normal flu. H1N1 is the Influenza and it is a respiratory virus. Cough, chills, congestion, and a fever."

I had tried so hard not to get H1N1. Even going to Mexico for 2 weeks, I didn't get it. But going to school did. Oh well, it will be a time to just sit and relax right? Ya, that’s what I was hoping for. But it isn't that at all. You sit here all day miserable, with a long list of things you would rather be doing. Even doing the dishes would be more fun than this.

Alan has been amazing, making me food, getting me drinks, going to the store, and playing wii all day with me. Sweet Ben and Brina even brought me over chicken noodle soup. Well, brought it to Alan in the driveway. No one is allowed to come within 6 feet of me.

This has been a huge lesson learned though. When the Dr. was telling me all about it and what to do, it was pretty much no big deal. She said take a fever reducer if you want, but the fever is good because it is killing the virus. Here is a prescription for cough medicine, but don't really take it unless you can't sleep at night. It is better for your body to cough and break it up anyway.

No big scare like the media has made it out to be. I am not going to die and there is a very little possibility of dieing from it. I can't believe the media lies!

Hunting vs. Getting

Hunting =

Riding the four-wheeler all over the mountain only to end up hiking...hiking... and more hiking only to find 16 doe.

Getting=

Driving in the truck seeing a buck (at least 50 feet off the road because it is illegal to shoot any closer).

I was not at all happy to find out that the 9 day hunt did not include the Las Sal Mountains on opening day or the next 5 days after that. This was my first hunt having a license and I was really bummed to find out I had to hunt on the Blues. The worst part was that on Friday while gathering cows I jumped a 6 point buck.

We gathered cows on Friday and Saturday and decided that since we spent all that money on 5 tags we might as well go hunt on Monday even though it had to be on the Blues. We started really early before the sun came up so we could be in the hunting approved area when the sun came up. We first just drove around and scouted out an area. My dad has to haul water to Island in the Sky so he knew there was a lot of deer down by News Paper Rock. We drove the area but only found a few doe and a lot of hunters. So we were forced to move on. None of us were very familiar with the area so all we could do was find a place that "looked" good and go for it. We stopped at Monticello Lake and jumped on the four-wheelers. Creighton drove me with my gun and Logan and Alan took the other one.

It wasn't too long before Creighton and I found some deer. We slowly snuck up on them but could not see any bucks with the 6 doe. We thought we moved them up the ridge so we circled around and went to comb the ridge. We saw nothing and as we got back on the four-wheeler we saw a butt staring at us 20 yards away. It was a sight to see, us crawling on our hands and knees trying to see if they were doe or bucks.

After only finding doe we decided to ride to another spot. We rode around but did not find anything and returned to the previous area that we actually saw deer. We walked and walked but only found doe. Later that afternoon, Logan and Alan came and we walked another ridge with them. On our way out we saw a bunch of deer and decided to follow them. We moved them all over that area, and other hunters were even telling us where they were going from the top of a hill. Still no bucks, only doe.

We found my dad back in the truck sleeping and decided to go drive the News Paper Rock area one more time before it got dark. We were on our way back out when suddenly appeared two doe. The boys all got out to see what they were when MY buck walked out from behind the tree. If you hear my dad tell the story he will say that I took forever to shoot. But it really wasn’t that long. I think the whole canyon heard that I just got my first deer. Not by the sound of the gun, but by the screams of joy from me.

It was a very exciting day and I am so glad that we went.

WARNING there is a little blood in the picture.

He was only a little 2x3 but I was sure glad to get anything.

The fun part of hunting is the getting part. The not so fun part is the “making of the white packages.” There was so much meat that for the next couple days I didn’t want any meat. Not because I felt bad for killing a deer, but because after handling, cutting, packaging that much meat you just don’t want to see meat again for a while. I could never be a butcher.

This only a very small amount of white packages!

Mexico Part 2

Tulca is a very large city but one of Alan’s cousins lives there so we stopped for the night. We went to dinner on taco street and had some Al Pastor. Ummm Al Pastor is my absolute favorite. Alan’s cousin has three young children. It made me laugh because they kept talking to me not understanding that I did not know what they were saying. The next day we headed to some ruins outside of Tulca. These ruins were beautiful. They hadn’t done as much to fix the buildings up as they have at other cites so it was cool to see the buildings in more of their real form.

We then left to the city to return our car and just take Alan’s cousin’s car the rest of the trip. We ended that night in Cernavaca. We have been to Cernavaca before so we just slept there and headed to Acapulco. We arrived in Acapulco around 1:00. We decided to stop at the store and get bread and drinks before checked in to the motel. When Jessie and James went to Acapulco for their honeymoon I told them to do the same. I guess I didn’t explain it as well as I should because they were completely surprised when they went to the bread store. Going and getting bread is really going and getting a little piece of heaven. You walk into the store and get your large pizza like pan and tongs. Then you go up and down the isles piling it high with all kinds of sweet breads, plain rolls, rolls with cheese in them, rolls with ham and cheese, soft breads, hard breads, bread with chocolate, cream, fruit, sugar, nuts. All kinds of delicious treats. (I don’t advise the doughnuts, cakes, or brownie… they are always dry and yucky). You take your overflowing tray to the checkout stand. They add it all up and the grand total is never over $5 dollars. It is the best.

We checked into the hotel and for the next two days we just played at the beach, swam in the pool, and ate. Life does not get much better than this.

9/04/09 HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALAN!!
Normally it would be sad to leave Acapulco but this time is was not because we were heading to Taxco. Taxco is a silver mining town where they still mine the silver. It is a city built on a hill with cobble stone streets. Of all Mexico, Acapulco and Taxco are my favorite. There is just something about the cobble stone roads and lots of jewelry that makes me smile. I love eating on the balconies around the center and watching people. It is almost enchanting.

From Taxco we went back to Mexico City.

Our last experience with a wedding in Mexico taught us a lot and we were determined to be smarter about the Quinceanera. We checked into our motel around 2 and then headed down for a large meal. Then we headed back to the motel for a nap. We showered and got ready then ate again. I was not about to go hungry this time. Around 6 O’clock our ride came and picked us up and took us to the church for the ceremony. The Ceremony was supposed to take around 20 minutes but took and hour. The Ceremony was extremely boring to those that understood the language but to me that could not understand a thing it was beyond boring. I was so glad once it was over. From the ceremony we went to the party. The party was elaborately decorated and so were the people. The fifteen year old boys all had suits, and all the girls had on fancy party dresses. The party finally started at 9:30 with Xareni dancing with her dad. Then for the next hour she danced 4 choreographed dances with professional male dancers by her side. At 10:30 they started to serve dinner. It was only a 4 course meal this time starting with soup and ending with cake and ice cream. While dinner was served a string quartet played what the announcer called “romantic music.” After dinner the dancing started. I love parties in Mexico with dancing. Even the 80 year old grandmas and grandpas dance the night away. Finally at 2:00 we called a taxi and went back to the motel. While in the taxi a car rear ended us. But the Mexican way is to look at the damage then just drive off, and so we did.

The next morning (almost afternoon) when we woke up, Alan and I went to the Zoo. The Zoo is free and if there was a Mexican PETA the whole place would be shut down. Thankfully there is not and we got to see a lot of animals and a lot closer up than here in the States. Then we went to Coaycan, (a park in Mexico City) where they have the best quesadillas. We meet up with more of Alan’s relatives… a lot more. This means a lot of kisses on the cheek, and me just stand there and smiling. Not much else to do when there are a bunch of people you have never met before speaking a language you don’t understand. It is a lot of fun though meeting family from another country. They are so nice and accommodating. Later that night we went to see some friend's shop and ended up getting cought in a huge rain storm instead. I wish it would rain like that here in Utah.

Monday was our last real day in Mexico. We just wanted to do our same ole same ole in Mexico City, which consists of riding on the metro (without catching the swine flu), shopping, and walking the streets by the center.
While we were walking we came across this protest. The people are really mad at their government for giving Obama such luxuries when he came to visit a couple of weeks ago. They want the government to spend money on the people starving in Mexico, not on foreign leaders.
This was a great way to end our trip to Mexico. We had a blast while we were here but we are finally ready to be home and eat real American food. Oh and drink water, good old water and ice, from the tap.

Mexico Part 1

Leaving for Mexico was not as easy this time as it has been in the past. Now that Alan and I work for Adams & Co/ Krumpet’s, we live our jobs more than we used to. It is different working for a company that you really like and enjoy. Before when we would leave for vacation we would just leave and forget everything else behind. But just leaving our jobs behind this time was not as easy. Alan in fact still works while we are here in Mexico. He has his phone and makes and receives phone calls and emails all day long. It amazes me how much technology has changed and developed that we are able to send emails from anywhere in the world. As hard has it has been to leave for Mexico now that we are here I am loving it.

We left for Las Vegas on Thursday, and flew into Dallas Thursday night. The flight was supposed to be 3 hours with a 1 hour layover. There was a storm so we got stuck in a holding pattern in the sky for an extra hour. Luckily everyone was behind schedule and we were able to make our next flight from Dallas to Mexico City. On our flight from Dallas we saw an amazing lightning storm from the plane. It was beautiful to watch the sky light up without ever seeing the lighting bolts.

Finally we made it to Mexico. There is just something about being in Mexico that excites me. It is truly a different world. We went straight to our motel room and slept a few hours. On Friday morning we went to the Mexico City Temple. Anyone that knows me knows that I get a little teary eyed more than normal people do. The temple was beautiful and it was absolutely amazing how the spirit in the temple is the same all over the world and no matter what language the ceremony are preformed in it is all true and the same. Going to the temple made the trip worth it all.

After the temple we got our rent-a-car and headed to our first stop Tula. Tula was meant to be a short stop where we were going to buy some leather. We never found the leather market but we did find some ruins instead. I love going to the ruins and seeing how people lived and worshipped so many years ago. It always fascinates me how there is little bits and pieces from our beliefs just distorted.

Next we went to Queretaro. (Don’t ask me to say the name of this town. For the life of me I can’t say it.) This is where most of Rosa’s family that still lives in Mexico lives. I was able to meet Alan’s Grandfather and uncle for the first time. We meet in the center of town ate on the patio then went and explored the town.

In Mexico the center or Zocolo is the best place to be. Everyone comes and just sits, eats, and shops. There is always beautiful architecture and a few grand cathedrals, all in a few block ratios.

We spent the night in Queretaro then moved on to San Miguel De Allende in the morning. Because it was a Friday the center was buzzing with people, and venders selling everything from balloons to bracelets. Mariachi bands filled the air with music and the smell of corn on the cob smothered in mayonnaise and cheese completed the ambiance of being in a small town of Mexico. We had churros and hot chocolate and just enjoyed being surrounded by culture. We spent the night a block from the center in an old rundown hotel, with an amazing view of the city.

Dolores Hidalgo was our next stop. This was a very short stop but we still had time to buy some handmade pottery and ice cream. Dolores Hidalgo is known for having homemade ice cream vendors in the four corners of the center. After trying 20 different flavors of ice cream including sausage and Alan trying shrimp I settled on “Beso De Angel”.

Guanajuato is a favorite of Rosa and she wanted to spend as much time there as possible. So we quickly left and drove to the Motel in Guanajuato. In Guanajuato the streets are so narrow that we left the car and took the bus to the center of town. We walked up and down the streets until our feet gave out. It was a beautiful city full of color and buildings built hundreds of years ago. There is a street that the buildings are so close that they say people on opposite balconies could kiss. The street was adequately named “Callejon Del Beso.”





After Guanajuato we started our 3 hour drive to Tlelpujahua. This town is known for it’s hand blown Christmas ornaments. Not many people know this but it is not Christmas time and it was hard to find any of the ornaments. After some “Mexican directions” (Mexican directions take a simple direction like “walk two blocks then head north 3 blocks, turn left then at the next block turn right, half way down this block there is a black door that is the factory. No their directions are oh “just up that street, you will see it.”) If you are ever in Mexico and need directions ask someone then a block or two later ask again, keep doing this until you are at your destination. You will never find it by asking only one person. We finally found the factory which is no bigger than my house. It was really cool to see them painting and making the ornaments. Interestingly we found out that they are the suppliers for some of Wal Mart’s ornaments.

We then went to El Oro. Oro means gold. This is an old mining town, it was a busy town but the mine has been shut down many years ago. There wasn’t much to see so we drove around for a minute then headed to Tulca.

From El Oro to Tulca it was only supposed to take an hour to an hour and a half but I missed a turn and took us down a yellow road. On the Map we were only supposed to take red roads with yellow line in it or solid red roads. Yellow roads take much longer and are not safe in Mexico. I did not realize until we were half way down it that we were on a yellow road and it seemed faster to continue on the road than turn back. We safely made it but not without a lot of speed bumps and massive potholes in the road. Hours later we found the red road and quickly made it to Tulca.