When Julie Came to Visit!

*This post is from about a month ago. Now that I have the pictures, I can post it!*

These past few days we have had cute Julie here to visit us!! It was awesome not only because we got to see her, but also because it gave us an excuse to do some fun things we've been wanting to do all summer!

First of all, for those of you who don't know, Julie is my 17-year old sister (number 4), and she is about to start her senior year of high school.

Anyway, when she first came in (Monday), her flight was delayed 7 hours, and so instead of her being able to take the bus straight from the airport to go see Nicole (number 3, age 19) at BYU-I, we had to go pick her up at the airport where they had characteristically lost our luggage (Southwest is better than Delta), and finally we got her (without her luggage). We didn't do much that night because Dahl was super busy, and the next day she was off to Idaho.

Fast Forward to Thursday- Julie wasn't back yet, but it was still eventful, as Dahl and I doubled with Jacob and Heather (his brother, my sister), and it was super fun!! We went to Thai Mango, which is AMAZING btw, Comedy Sportz, Spoon it Up for frozen yogurt which I also love, and then back to our apartment to watch I am Number 4. A good time was had by all :)

Now fast forward to Friday- Julie came back!! We all went to dinner at the Cannon Center (thanks Heather!) and then to the Redwood Drive In to watch Transformers 3 and Super 8. Personally, I did not appreciate Transformers 3, and fell asleep in the middle, just like I did with the second one. It is far too long and drawn out, and the scenes all act like they're interconnected but it's so random and weird and I just don't like it except for the parts with the parents, which are pretty funny. I really liked Super 8, however, and I thought it was really cute. Anything JJ Abrams does is awesome, with very few exceptions. It was super fun to go, because we got to hang out with David and Amy and Lori and Brent as well as Lindsay and a boy from her high school. I think drive in movies are *AWESOME*, so it was a definite success.

Us at the Drive in!!

The next day, we went to Lagoon (And by we I mean Heather, Jacob, Julie, Savana, Stan (her boy), Dahl, and I)! The day got off to a late start because the discount tickets we were supposed to get weren't actually valid, and the Costco tickets we bought had some complications, but we finally got on our way, and it was a blast!! Our favorite ride was Rattlesnake Rapids- everyone got in a huge inner-tube and we floated down this river. It's really fun because there are waterfalls that spray you and when you jostle the tube you get splashed as well, so the main goal of everyone on the ride is to try to avoid getting wet. This causes a lot of running around the tube, pushing and shoving. Even with all that work, everyone ended up fairly soaked (Stan and I especially). It's super fun how when you get married your whole family expands and becomes even more fun!

Lagoon!


Stan and Sav

Haha notice Heather's face between mine and Dahl's... cute huh??

Sunday we went to Heather's ward (and our old ward), and then worked on our moth infestation problem (don't even get me started...). Then we went to Dahl's house, and hung out with his family. We ate dinner at Janelle’s, went on a walk, and jumped on the tramp!! We decided to jump in a Snuggy for 2 that Dahl and I got (one at a time though) and a bunch of sleeping bags, which was super fun and slippery! Then we played a leisurely game of tossing the volleball around on the tramp which quickly turned into a violent game of dodgeball where everyone was it! Then, we went inside and watched the Love Bug, which is a Connor favorite (we watched it as kids and thought it was soo funny). Dahl and Jacob got over their initial hatred and became #1 and #2 fans!

Monday Dahl, Jacob, Heather, Winnie, Julie, and I went to Pizza Pie Cafe, which was as delicious as it was fattening, and then Kellen took Winnie's place and we went bullfrog fishing!! It was super fun, and we were so glad he was so nice to bring us and teach us how/ do all the work for us :)

I kissed my frog...

And He turned into a Prince!!

Jacob and his froggy

Me!

Heather was very afraid.

She warmed up quickly!

Julie!


Sisters :)

I Saved a Duckling Today!!

To give you some perspective, I originally wrote this post May 10 this year. And that wasn't even the day it happened; it was a few days later. I never got the pictures from this event up until yesterday (this was because of a combination of busy-ness, forgetfulness, and the fact that Dahl gave his mom his phone with the pictures on it before we posted them), so I never posted this blog until now. That's actually why I haven't been posting any blogs. I know I can edit them later to add the pictures but it just bugs me that people will go to look at my blog and it will have no photos when there are a ton of perfectly good ones that could go along with it that they will never see because they will never look at that entry again. Anyway, here's the original entry:

Today Dahl and I saved a ducklings life! This is how it happened:

We went to the gym right after work, and we decided that instead of going on the treadmill at the end of our workout like usual (we usually do elliptical, weights, treadmill), we would rather go on a walk outside. Dahl drove us to Raintree, where there's a trail that we love and used to walk on all the time. As we were walking, suddenly I saw something.

"Dahl, is that a duckling?!" I asked. It was!! All by itself, chirping for its mother very terrified-ly. We tried to catch it but were unsuccessful, so we kept walking. We came back to where we were a little while later, and it was still there, calling desperately for its mommy duck.

I started to get kind of worried for it (we have no idea if its a boy or girl, but I'll assume it's a boy from now on). He was all alone, there were no mommy ducks in the vicinity (we had walked all over the area), and it was cold and windy. It also looked like it may rain later, and the river was rushing rapidly, armed with twice the amount of water it usually had. The duckling definitely could not swim in it.

So, we decided to rescue him. We knew his chances of survival were slim to none, plus he was the cutest thing I had ever seen. Dahl finally managed to catch him:

Is that not the most adorable thing ever???

I was seriously in love with him. Dahl carried him back to the car, and I carried him as we drove down to the duck pond. We figured there would be a lot of ducks there, ducks that aren't as afraid of humans, and someone would take Ducky (we named him- Land Before Time, anyone?) in.

When we first arrived, we couldn't find a family that had ducklings his age. I was worried about putting him with one that had bigger ducklings, but just as I was about to reluctantly place him there (it was the only other mother duck we saw), Dahl found one with ducklings just Ducky's size! I placed him on the ground, and he instantly ran to the mother who promptly decided it was time for a swim. He followed the mother in the line with the other ducklings, and looked perfectly at home! They swam around for a bit, and he was such a perfect size we couldn't even tell which was him. I was so glad we could find him a new home with a nice family :)

Self- Improvement Summer

This summer is going something like this:

I work every day 8-4 at ancestry.com.

Dahl goes to school full time (taking 8.5 credits this semester=17 normal credits!).

We go to the gym every day after I get off of work till around 5:30- 6:30, depending on how soon we actually get there, etc.

We thought Dahl's schedule would be a lot easier than it actually is; we envisioned a summer where we would go to work/ school, Dahl would do his homework and have it all done before 4, come pick me up, take me to the gym, and then we would have the whole rest of the night to do whatever our little hearts desired. False. He still stays up late doing homework. At first I was dismayed. I work all day, go to the gym, and naturally want to just play and have fun afterwards. I didn't know what I would do, or how I would spend my time.

The first night this happened, I wanted to watch Dancing with the Stars. (This was the first and only time I have watched it this season, so I am not a hardcore fan or anything, I just didn't have anything else to do and they were doing an Instant Dance thing which I thought was cool and entertaining.) Dahl was unable to concentrate when I was doing that, so he had to move to the bedroom to do his homework.

This made me sad, because I wasn't with him anymore, and annoyed that there really wasn't anything I could do with him when he was doing his homework. When we were still in school, I would use the time to get ridiculously ahead in my classes, but now I have no classes to get ahead in. I toyed with the idea of reading a book, but I already read at work when I have breaks, and I didn't want to read all summer. Besides, I was running out of books.

So, that got me thinking. I have a lot of time this summer. What if I used it for self-improvement? It would be a self-improvement summer! The idea is still so fun to me; I have extra time, so I can use it to get better at things I've always wanted to do, but never had the time to do.

These are some things I have decided to do:

1. Learn to cook. I am a decent cook, and generally everything I try turns out alright. The thing is, I hardly ever cook. And Dahl's mom and sister are good at cooking. And my mom is good at cooking. So, I feel like to be a good wife and someday mom, I should practice cooking. This means that every week I am going to try at least one new recipe, and I cook most days of the week. This will help with our calorie counting and our budgeting as well. So, it will make for a cheaper, healthier summer. One thing I made that I was particularly proud of was a salmon with mayo and dill dish with wild rice and corn on the cob. It was so yummy :) I felt very domestic!

2. Lose weight. This goes for both Dahl and I, and so we are counting calories and hitting the gym pretty hard. Fun :)

3. Sew a T-Shirt dress. Ever since I saw this blog last summer, I have wanted so badly to make one of these adorable dresses. They are so cute, and they are modest as well, so I feel like it would be a fun and good investment of my time.

4. Be a consistent tithing-payer, temple-goer, and scripture-reader. Self- explanatory.

I'm sure I will think of more, but this is my basic list. This way, we can both be learning all summer long :)

PS- I thought this was funny :)