Farewell to Watson

Late last night, Watson, our sweet little dog, was hit and killed by a car. I guess we feel it was a good time for him to go. He was slowing down and he died quickly. Our little three-legged wonder dog was loved by so many people and even though we didn't always give him the attention he deserved, he was faithful and patient with us.
We buried him early this morning in Green Canyon. During our little service, Eric said that Watson taught him that you are never too old to change -- we never thought Watson would be good around kids, but he ended up being great with our kids and with the other kids who would sometimes pull or pick him up too much.
Elia said that she liked taking Watson on walks.
I still feel I should have given him more attention and though it is too late now, I have been awakened to a new drive to not live my life with regrets. I don't want to neglect things now and regret later that I didn't do them.

The top of the world... almost

Today Eric and I got up at 4:30 and left for an all-day, 11 mile hike across the top of the Wellsville Mountains. At its highest point, it is 9, 372 feet. We started at 5,400 feet. The Wellsvilles are the steepest mountain range in the world because, even though they aren't super tall, their base is relatively small.

We started hiking just before 6:00 and got to the ridge about 8:00. From there we spent about 4 hours traversing the top ridgeline before heading down for a grueling decent. We arrived at the other end of the trail at 2:45 p.m. The view wasn't spectacular (as you'll see in the video), but it was pretty impressive to see both sides of the mountain range from the top. The mountain really just drops off on both sides.

We had to bushwack through extremely thick plants that were overgrown over a lot of the trail, dodge stinging nettle, and go across narrow switchbacks to get to the top, but it was worth it! We had a great time just talking and hiking. We found that hiking poles are invaluable tools!

Even though my feet are so sore I can barely walk and Eric got scratched and dirty...we loved going. It isn't every day that you can spend 8 hours with your honey among God's creations.

(We finished up our date "day" by watching Batman the Dark Knight with some friends). Thanks have to go to Ken and Nancy who watched the kids all during our hike. I'm sure we won't get a day like this in a long time!

Three Families in Five Days

Well, as always, it's been a busy, but fun two weeks.... again. I keep thinking everyone is going to get tired of seeing all the fun we're having while we are unemployed, but that is life. You can't have a job and all this free time too! :) It won't last for long though, we just found out we are moving to Houston. We don't know exactly when, but it will probably be soon. We'll post more as we know more.
For now, here are pictures of this week's travels. We went a week ago to spend the night at Eric's cousin Cyndee's house to help her with her four boys while she went to an all-day training meeting. Now I know what it would be like to have six kids! Kind of crazy, but totally fun!
On Friday we went to our old stomping grounds of Vernal, UT (you know dinosaur land). We stayed with our friends the Bush family (Matthew, Lauren and Dax). On Saturday we went up to Steinaker lake to go canoeing and kayaking. We also ran into some neighbors of theirs who had a really nice boat and took us out on the lake. Matthew and Eric are riding "Big Mabel" in the background:What luck! We ate too much sugar and got too much sun, but we had a super time.
On Monday we went to Salt Lake on our way back to visit Eric's sister Karen. They took us up the canyon to this beautiful lake and waterfall then back for a great BBQ and smore roasting in their back yard.
Now we are finally back home! It was great to see everyone, but it is so nice to just be home and not feel like you have to do anything... well, for the most part. What will be even nicer is having a home of our own!

Wildflowers and Fireworks

Well, it is finally July. We've been in Logan just over a month now. The weather has been great.
Eric's brother and his family came for a visit from Montana. Elia loved hanging out with her two girl cousins (ages 12 and 10). They were giving her attention like the big sisters she's always wanted but will never have. One of the nights they were here we had a big family get together at the park. It was like a family reunion! Eric's parents, sister and her family, cousin and family, other cousin and family, aunt and uncle, great uncle and grandma were all there. We acted like kids and played tag on the playground. All of the adults were hurting the next day. Are we getting old?
Eric is still doing interviews and Jen just found out that she's going to start working more for the local photographer we mentioned earlier. She'll be taking family and child portraits. She is really excited! She's also been doing a few family and child portraits on her own. She's trying to get through some wedding pictures she took to get those up too. You can see them on the photography blog: www.pettyphotography.blogspot.com
In other news, we've sure been enjoying the beautiful outdoors here. Eric went camping with Elia, his cousin Dave and Dave's two kids (Jen stayed home with Ethan and watched a chick-flick with Dave's wife Paula):Happy Independence Day! We first celebrated on Monday, June 30th. Eric's cousin Cyndee put together a party. We presented on the Declaration of Independence. Let me know if you want the quiz we gave. Other people did musical numbers. We had a great time! Way to go Cyndee! On July 3rd, we watched the Logan fireworks from the roof of Eric's parent's house. We actually put Elia to bed at 7:30 then woke her up at 10:00 for the fireworks. I took over 100 pictures, but here are just a couple:
We've also been going on hikes and bike rides. On average, we do one or the other every other morning. Here are some pictures from our hike to the Windcaves up Logan Canyon:
Elia does so well at hiking. She complains a little bit going up, but we recharge her with M&M's at our stopping points. We don't take the backpack because we think she would want to ride too much. Instead, we give her short piggy back rides to give her a break. She loves going though. She went the 3-hour round trip hike almost all by herself. We gave her maybe 4-5 2-minute piggy back rides. I got a little obsessed with taking pictures of flowers on our hike, so here are a just a couple of my favorites:
We couldn't leave "little e" out of the post. Here is a picture of how we found him one morning... Yep, he had managed to take off his PJ bottoms, diaper and everything but one arm of his top. Needless to say, we don't put him in two-piece PJ's anymore:
Here are some pictures from around beautiful Cache Valley:

Canoes, Bugs and Death beds

Where do I start.... It has been a crazy two weeks.... to say the least. Last Tuesday and Wednesday, Eric had a sore throat and didn't feel like doing anything but sleeping. On Thursday Eric left with his friend Matthew on a three day canoe trip:
They had 11 canoes (with two people in each one) and had a blast. They ate like they were at a luxury resort (e.g. stuffed french toast, steak, paprika chicken and dutch oven potatoes, etc.) and had a blast navigating through rapids on the Snake River. I was totally jealous!
On Friday night, while Eric was still away, I developed a sore throat and didn't want to do anything. It hit hard on Saturday and I was basically a lump on the couch while Nancy took the kids the whole day (Eric didn't return until late Saturday night). I didn't feel any better on Sunday. In fact, I don't remember EVER feeling so awful. I couldn't eat, I couldn't drink, I couldn't even swallow my own spit it hurt so bad! I slept for 1 hour on Saturday night (I scrapbooked the rest of the time). My throat just hurt so bad. On Monday I got into the doctor and found out I had "textbook" strep throat. I got a shot and started the recovery process. I felt better on Tuesday (though I had hoped I could drink on Monday) and today I ate my first solid food! Hooray! These are some of the things I have a renewed sense of gratitude for after having strep:
- Breathing (my throat felt so closed I couldn't breathe very well)
- A big tall glass of water. I would get a mouthful of water and just let it sit in my mouth before I had to spit it out because I couldn't swallow it. I was so thirsty by the end!
- Food. I really was hungry, but I couldn't eat anything. I lost 5 pounds in 3 days but it was probably all of my hard-earned muscle mass and the easy-go water weight.
- My husband and in-laws. They helped so much with the kids, I don't know what I would have done without them.
- Sleep. It was a rough couple of nights, and I had Eric sleep in the other room so I wouldn't keep him up.
I'm just glad the worst is over. Thank goodness for medicine.
I'm glad I got better when I did. I had schedule for a group of neighbors from church to go to the bug lab at USU. The kids (and adults) had a blast! Here are some highlights:
Now those are SOME grasshoppers:
The trip went very well, for there being so many children. Everyone had at least two kids and some even had three. Our guide let me hold a display case of butterflies for the picture.
After the kids looked at the bugs, the lady giving the tour took out a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach. Elia was first... and last to hold it. She loved it so much she wanted to hold it again! She laughed and said it tickled as it crawled up her arm. Later she told us the cockroach was her favorite part of the trip. That's our girl! I guess wearing all those dresses everyday haven't affected her too much :)
Well, sayonara (I didn't know how that was spelled until today) until next time!

The first two weeks in Logan -- Nothin' but fun!

Well, it's been two weeks since I last posted, which is right about the time when we moved here. It seems like we've been here for a long time even though it's only been two weeks! It still feels like we're on vacation. We've still been applying for jobs, but we've been doing a lot with family and friends. To make up for my lack of pictures the last two weeks I am putting a lot this time... but I won't write much (well comparatively:)). See, there are trade-offs for everything. In non-photo news, Eric had two interviews last week, so we'll see what comes of those.
Elia is also in swimming class which so far has been mixed as far as results go. The other kids in her class are 7 and 8-year-olds and she got a little frustrated because the teacher doesn't know quite how to work with her and tailoring the exercises for her because she can't go as far as the other kids... We'll talk with him on Monday and just see if he can just relax with her a little. We wanted to challenge her, not make her hate swimming :)
Also, I went to a two day photography seminar with the photographer I've been helping. Eric was so good to watch the kids all day long and the information was really interesting and helpful. It was also nice to just trade information with the other photographers there.
Here are our photo highlights from the past two weeks:
Hiking up Logan Canyon:
Visiting the local nature center. It is hard to tell, but this was the turtle tank. They also had animal bones, a snake, a tarantula and other fun kid activities:
We went to the temple with Eric's cousin's family. Elia loves hanging out with their four-year-old Emily.Is this the face of a girl who loves cotton candy? We bought some at the local artists' fair:They had a children's art area set up where the kids could do painting. Elia LOVED it and I am considering getting painting equipment for her birthday:Eric's 10 year class reunion was this weekend. Of the people there, Eric had visited the most countries. They also arranged for discount tickets to the Jensen Historical farm. Elia loved feeding willow to the goats and burro:Got her very own pony ride:
We all pet this very tame turkey! Yes, a turkey! It was so cool. It just stood there and closed its eyes while you pet it.
I just like this picture of Ethan. He is still just crawling everywhere and his teeth total is still at four:

I wanted to tell one more quick story. We were putting Elia to bed today and sometimes she holds on to Eric's neck tightly and won't let go. He got away and she wanted to give him another hug. He said, "Will you let go?" Her reply was, "Don't say that" (While smiling the whole time). It was so funny to see her honesty and logic.... and you guessed it, Eric had to fight to get away again!

Moving out and in

Well, sorry there are no pictures this time, but I wanted to do a quick post. Arizona is no longer our home sweet home (and just in time for rising temperatures). We have moved our job searching post to Logan, Utah so we can be near family until Eric gets a job and we move somewhere far away. Our move was fairly uneventful. We had lots of great help from friends in Arizona, especially with the kids while we were packing. We packed two boxes on Tuesday and the rest on Wednesday and Thursday. We had about 12 people show up to help us load up the truck! It was great. We now know one of two things: a) we have a lot of great friends or b) a lot of people are anxious to see us move out. We think it is more of (a)! In any case, we really appreciate all the help. We got most of the truck packed in 1 hour! The rest of the house (all those little odds an ends that end up in the "miscellaneous" boxes are a pain! We definitely did not have a place for everything and have everything in its place. I actually labeled one of my boxes "A place for everything". We fit our entire household into one small basement room at Eric's grandmother's house (minus our furniture which went in her basement family room which hardly ever gets used).
Then, after passing our inspection in the morning (which was a miracle considering they turned the water off at 9:00, so we had no water to clean with and we had to send Eric to the store to get Clorox wipes) we took off for St. George. Speaking of saints, the kids were angelic the whole way! They happily played with toys and slept. We had a movie ready for a back-up for Elia, but didn't even use it. On Saturday, after staying Friday night at my sister's house in St. George, we left for the drive for Logan. About 1 hour into our trip we decided to get gasoline. About one minute before we stopped at the station, Ethan started crying. I thought he had hit himself or that Elia had taken a toy. I opened the back door to get him out and he was COVERED (and that is not an understatement) with puke. I guess feeding him a whole banana and half a muffin and yogurt (blueberry to be exact) was a little too much for him because it ALL came up. So, I bathed the poor child in the restroom bathroom sink, which luckily was a very nice and clean facility, (while a female trucker commented that she wished she could do the same), washed out his car seat and straps and dried him with paper towels. We then continued on to Logan with no incidences. We had a bunch of help moving our stuff out of the truck in Logan on Saturday night and pretty much collapsed from the entire ordeal.
Today we went to church after digging through boxes to find our clothes and had a nice family dinner. It is nice to see everyone, and while we hope we aren't here too long, it is nice to be around family. Elia has fallen right back in with her cousins and has a great time with them. We start life again tomorrow back to job searching and.... well, whatever else we fill the 16 hours of the day with. More to come when life is more interesting!!!