St George

A few weekends ago, in an attempt to escape the snow in SLC, we headed south for a few days. (I don't know about anyone else, but I am NOT ready for snow yet.) We had a lot of fun hiking, swimming, watching football and just hanging out. Eli and I made it successfully through "the crack." Here are a few pics of a fun weekend.

moving on...

This post is a little late, but I decided to "retire" from nursing...for now. I've been a labor and delivery nurse for 7 years and now it is time to stay home full-time with the kiddos. Nursing has been a huge part of my life, so I will definitely miss it. Being a labor and delivery nurse has been part of "who I am" for a long time, so it is wierd that I'm no longer doing that.

Some of the things I WILL miss:
-the awesome people I work with
-taking care of family and friends
-feeling like I actually helped someone and made a difference for them
-being a part of the miracle of childbirth on a regular basis (without actually being the one giving birth!)

A few things I will NOT miss:
-insanely busy shifts (that had become the norm) when you never even sit down, let alone eat anything the entire shift
-call shifts
-working all night and then trying to be a good mom the next day
-getting yelled at by pregnant women

One of the best things about my job was being able to work with my Dad and sister.

This dorky picture is me turning in my badge after my last shift.

All is safely gathered in

All in a day's work for my mom...

It's no wonder I think of myself as a failure of a homemaker:)

Dinosaur Park

My Dad loves dinosaurs. I mean, he really loves them. You should see his dinosaur collection, it is quite impressive. When I was in high school, our basketball team went to a camp at CEU every summer. My Dad would offer to drive us down because there was a dinosaur museum in Price. He would drop us off and then go over to the dinosaur museum by himself. He is doing his best to pass this passion on to his grandsons. So a couple of weeks ago we went on an outing with Grandma and Grandpa to the Dinosaur Park in Ogden. I'm not sure who was more excited, Grandpa or Eli. Eli LOVED it. Grandpa was so proud.

Summit Triathlon

I use triathlon in the loosest sense of the word. Let's say it was more of a triathlon-like experience. A couple of weekends ago my brother, sister and I were planning on doing the Alta Canyon sprint triathlon. But we sort of forgot to sign up until a few days before. And of course, it was full. Lesson learned. So we looked online and found a mini triathlon up in Kamas the same day. We stayed at the cabin friday night and did the race saturday morning. This was my first triathlon experience and I had such a blast! I might be converted...It was way more fun than just running the whole time. The distances were embarassingly short, so it was easy. Which was good since I didn't exactly train. But hey, baby steps. Maybe next I will do an actual sprint distance and maybe I'll actually sign up on time.

First Day

Eli's first day of school was this week. He is so excited for another year of preschool. When I picked him up the second day he said, "Mom, I didn't know school was this fun!" Oh, I wish I had a tape recorder so I could play that for him in a few years when he changes his mind about how fun school is.



This is Eli and his friend Zach walking into preschool on their first day.

Dandelion Wine

In the final days of summer I appropriately finished reading Dandelion Wine, by Ray Bradbury. Stated simply, it's a book about summer. Here is an excerpt from the first chapter:

"It was a quiet morning, the town covered over with darkness and at ease in bed. Summer gathered in the weather, the wind had the proper touch, the breathing of the world was long and warm and slow. You had only to rise, lean from your window, and know that this indeed was the first real time of freedom and living, this was the first morning of summer."

I would suggest reading this book next May or June, as soon as you feel summer in the air. Or better yet, read it in the dead of winter when you are longing for a little bit of summer.

Twelve year old Douglas Spaulding is the main character in this story of a small town summer in 1928. One of my favorite parts of the book happens at the start of the summer when Douglas becomes really conscious of the fact that he is alive. He had never really thought about it before and the realization fills him with pure joy. Later in the book he has to come to terms with the understanding that he also must die. It's a book about summer, but it's also a book about life.