Cambria's (my) birthday

Well I promised Josh I would write in here about my birthday... so I am finally doing that :) I know, I am a little slow. So the night of my birthday we were not able to do much because I had to study for a test to be able to apply for nursing school. But Josh was very kind and gave me my birthday gifts. My first gift I got was a the Les Miserables CD and tickets to the high school version of the play. I was very excited about that because he had never seen Les Mis, and I am a big fan. The second gift he got me was a book that he made me of some of my bridals and our engagement pictures. That was very creative of him, and I was very surprised. My parents bought us a beautiful book of our wedding pictures, that I love, it is also nice to have some pictures of the engagements and bridals too.

The next night we went to a new Indian restaurant for dinner, and wow was it good!!! we plan on going back their soon. On Saturday we went pheasant hunting with my dad, my father-in-law and Josh and me, we enjoyed our time together. My parents took us out to dinner, and it is always fun to spend time with them, I am so grateful for my wonderful parents.

The following week Sharlyn made dinner for us, some yummy pork chops and vegetables. That week I received cards from Nathan and Sharlyn, Tyler and Mindy, and Seth. They all make me feel so loved, I don't know what I would do without my family. I know they are all always there for me. I was also grateful for all the birthday wishes I got on texts and facebook, thank you everyone. I think I enjoyed my birthday because I was busy all day with work and studying, and because of all the love everyone was sending my way. I know that might sound weird, but sometimes I think I am happiest when I can serve others, and I get to do that in my job.

So it is a little late, I have to wake up for work in the morning... working a full time job Monday to Friday seems to wear me out; but I love my job. Maybe I will write in here again in May :) if Josh keeps reminding me to do so. What a magnificent husband I have.

Moab Spring Break 2010

We left for Moab on thursday of spring break. We went another couple from the ward with us, Stuart and Maria Zuniga. They drove separate since they had to come home a day early. It wasn't too long of a drive down at about four hours total. When we got there, we got our tents set up. Our tent was one of our wedding gifts from my parents. It's supposed to be a five man tent and it was way huge for us. We were able to fit a lot of things from our car in it during the day so the Zunigas could fit in our car. That night all we did was drive through town and then took a short hike in Arches National Park to see all the stars. There were tons! We eventually couldn't find where the trail was supposed to go, so we turned around and came home. It wasn't too cold that night so we made dinner and then played some card games in our tent for a while and ate some cookies.

The next day we went back to Arches to go on a few hikes. It was a whole different experience in the day than it was the night before. Mountains were everywhere! And we started spotting arches in the distance all around us. Our first hike was to what they say is probably the longest arch in the world. There was a sign that talked about how a huge boulder fell from the under side of the arch while some hikers were there. Nobody was hurt, but a guy got a picture of the boulder breaking away from it. I believe that was in the early 90's. That was a very cold hike, with wind coming through some of the canyons we were walking through.

Our next hike was a longer 3 mile hike up to see the Delicate Arch. It was such an amazing place. Right before we rounded the bend to where the arch was, Stuart and I climbed a small incline to our right up to where there was an archway in the rock. I got up there first, not knowing what I would see. I was shocked as I immediately saw the delicate arch perched between a canyon and a huge bowl in the rock. I had never imagined what that would look like. It was beautiful. I was pretty tired because my foot had been bothering me all day, and Cambria pushed me up the hill for a little while on the hike. It was cold at times, but way worth the pain.

We had a really nice camera that we are going to buy from Angie, and I took a lot of pictures. We decided that it was too cold to stay at the campsite till bedtime so we went to the local library and played Settlers of Catan. Then we found a pizza hut and ate there while playing some card games on the table. We went home, took showers at the campsite building, then went to bed. Stuart thought it wasn't camping if we had showers. I guess I agree, but it was so warm and felt way good.

Saturday morning, Stuart and Maria left for home after we looked at a few shops in Moab. Cambria and I walked to the finish line of a half marathon that was going on in town to look around. There was nothing much to do there so we decided to go to Slick Rock. We didn't have any bikes or anything so we looked around at the other bikers then headed up the mountain. It got pretty hard to get up the dirt road at the muddy parts, but my car made it pretty well. I got quite a bit of red mud on my car, which made it look like it's supposed to be a 4-wheel drive. Once we came down from the mountain we went and checked out a Hostel that was in town for future reference. It was way disgusting and we decided that camping anywhere would be way better than staying there.

Well, at that point we had traveled North to Arches and South to Slick Rock, so we decided to go on a drive up the Colorado river canyon to the East. We saw a lot of campsites up there. The whole road was paved so it was a pretty quick drive compared to the Slick Rock mountain trail. It was pretty nice. There was a little place to fill our water bottles in a spring, so we stopped on the way out and did that too. Cambria had read that there was a bird refuge to the West of Moab so we headed out West. We Ended up covering every direction of the compass that we could possibly go from Moab without a Jeep.

We couldn't find the refuge, so we just kept driving and driving following the river along Kane Springs Road. Eventually we went through a couple of streams and the road got pretty rough. There were some really narrow switch backs too that dropped a few hundred feet really fast and went through some narrow canyons. We came out in a very large valley. There was a sign that said it was some sort of state trust land. We decided to turn around before we got too far up a mountain to keep the car in somewhat of descent shape. I really enjoyed driving around with my wife. Just having the time alone reminded me of our honeymoon. After we got back into town we bought Cambria a blanket at the local ALCO, which is kind of like a Wal-Mart. She used it inside her sleeping bag since she was cold the night before and slept horribly. I ended up freezing that night and slept horribly so she drove home in the morning.

Saturday night we also went out to eat at the only Chinese food place in Moab. It ended up being pretty good although I was skeptical at first. Chinese is Cambria's favorite food and she really enjoyed it as well. None of the employees could understand much English, so you know it's somewhat authentic. On our way back to the campsite we saw a restaurant perched on a cliff so we decided to check it out. The road up to it was filled with pot holes, and was very long. We just got a desert and looked out over the city since we had already eaten dinner. We read on the back of the menu that it used to be a house that belonged to a guy who struck it rich off of natural Uranium in the 50's. He built himself a huge house on the mountain with Utah's biggest swimming pool (which was now gone, but we think we saw where it was, now filled in with dirt and grass.)

When we got back to camp we got all our stuff ready to leave the next morning except for the sleeping bags, pads, and the tent. Sunday morning we quickly folded them up and left for home so we could get back in time for church at 1:00. I poured us some cereal and we ate breakfast in the car on the way home. Last night I was actually able to fall asleep next to my wife in a warm bed, with no sleeping bags between us. We were both warm and fell right asleep. It was a wonderful vacation. Next time we want to rent some 4-wheelers for the trip, and take some bikes along.

Spring break day 2

Holy cow yesterday was crazy. I spent all day running around and calling all sorts of people for everything from roof inspection and gutter repairs to medical insurance and electrical work. I got a lot of things done that I have been needing to do. School has just been too busy to get anything else done. So now I am about to go to work for the only time this week. I wish I didn't work this morning because there is still so much to do before we go to Moab. I am so excited to go though.

After work today we are going on a double date with one of Cambria's friends she used to work with named Valerie. We're going to see the new Tim Burton movie, Alice in Wonderland. It is in 3D but I don't know if we will be going to it in 3D. I have still never seen a 3D movie, and would like to see it like that. So, it's another busy day. Cambria is at work right now. She is so amazing and such a hard worker.

Spring Break!

Spring break starts today. It was very nice to sleep in for a while. Sleeping in used to be that till around 11:00 for me when I was in high school, now it is till 9:00 and I don't have to wake up at 7:00 for classes. I have a lot planned for today, and hope to get most of it done. I may be overloading myself on the first day of break. This weekend we are going to Moab with some friends from the ward. They are Stuart and Maria Zuniga. I home teach them. When we decided that we were going to go to Moab, their names came to mind of someone we could have along. We're camping, and taking the dutch oven, and hiking. It is going to be a way good time. We'll be leaving thursday morning and we'll be back just in time to get ready for church Sunday morning.

Right now I am waiting around at home for some inspector to come look at the roof for someone who is selling their condo. I am the roof guy, and the only one who has a key to get up there, so I get to wait here till he comes before I can go finish my days plans. I am driving my dad's truck because I am going to go pick up Angie and Rob's old grill to put out on our deck. I love driving the truck. It is so huge. Cambria asked me if I have a little man complex when I told her that. At 6 feet tall, I'm pretty sure it's not a little man complex. If i were 4' 6" then maybe she would be onto something. In that case, I don't know if she would have ever dated me since she would have been so much taller than I would have been. She would have turned me down because I was so much younger and so much shorter. Boy am I glad I'm tall.

School will never end!

It feels like school is dragging on and on. Spring break will be so refreshing. I actually didn't have any homework today, and it was so nice. I got the house straightened up, and had a little "me" time. Right now I am just finishing up cleaning up some things on the computer before I go to bed. It was nice to see that Cambria had written in here too.

So yesterday, we went out to eat with Emilee and a boy that Cambria met at the bank. Cambria had told him that he should go on a date with Emilee, so he came with us to eat. He was a really cool guy. He's a returned missionary that wen to Alaska. It was a really nice night. I enjoyed spending some time with Emilee, especially since she has felt kind of down about her boyfriend leaving on a mission and there isn't much I can do to help her feel better. Cambria is so considerate of others. She thinks about Emilee and how she is doing probably more than I do. She is a very caring and loving wife. It's comforting to know that she cares about my family too.

Well, it's off to bed. I have chemistry to do all day tomorrow. Not fun, but oh well.