Research on Capitol Hill

Last Wednesday my senior project group participated in Research on Capitol Hill. We spent the morning at the Salt Lake Capitol sharing our research with the local senators and representatives. My mom drove up from St. George for the event and Ryan came down from Logan. After the presentations were over I went to lunch with my mom and Ryan. It was fun to get out of Logan and take a day off from school.

MLK Weekend

For MLK weekend we went to Victor, Idaho.  Our friend is a nanny for people who own a cabin there and they let us stay there for the weekend.  The cabin was beautiful! It was probably the nicest home I have ever stayed in.  

On Saturday we went snow boarding.  It was my first time and I fell alot but I think I will really enjoy it once I get better.  It was nice to be outside and be away from the inversion.

The rest of the days we just relaxed, watched movies, played games and built a snow man.  It was such an enjoyable weekend.  We had a blast.  Thanks Andrew and Jena for inviting us!

News

Ryan had his interview with NAVAIR last week.  He flew out to California on Wednesday and was gone until Friday.  The interview went really well and we was offered a job.  Now we just have to wait for news to come back on his grad school applications before we decide.  While he was in California I went down to the in-law's.  I had tons of fun and really enjoyed the opportunity to get to know them better.  I definitely married into a great family. 

Yesterday Ryan and I started our last first day of school (Well unless he attends grad school).  It is weird to think that come May we will have finished our bachelor's degrees.  I'm not too thrilled about my classes this semester.  I'm just trying to finished the last few courses that I need for my major and minor.  Luckily I only have 14 credits this semester which is my smallest semester ever.  Ryan finds his classes this semester really interesting and he even gets to take fun class (fly fishing) which he hasn't gotten to do since his freshman year.

For some more exciting news, Ryan was accepted into the Electrical Engineering graduate program at University of Wisconsin-Madison today.  He won't find out about financial aide until March or April, but at least all of our hard work preparing essays for the applications paid off!

Baptism

When we got back from the Grand Canyon my cousin Drew was getting baptized.  My brother had the opportunity to baptize him.  My siblings and I sang My Baptism with Drew's siblings.   Drew was so cute and when we bore his testimony he even teared up a little bit. It was such a great experience.  After the baptism we had a little get together at my Grandma's house and we had a lot of fun.  We played Wii and talked with family.

Grand Canyon Trip

My family likes to take a Christmas trip every year.  This year we decided to stay a little closer since my dad was starting a new job in Indiana on January 3rd so we went to the Grand Canyon.  We left on Sunday (Dec 26th) and drove to Flagstaff were we spent the night.  On the way down we had quite the karaoke session using water bottles as microphones. The next morning we headed to the Grand Canyon.  When we got there everyone (except my dad) was under the impression that it would be warm there (around 50 F) but it wasn't.  It was maybe 40 in the sun and we were all freezing.  The trails going into the canyon were also like 4 inches of mud so we just walked the trail rim to all the overlooks.  The view is beautiful and we had a great time. 

We spent the night in Flagstaff again. We had a delicious dinner at this place called the New Jersey Pizza Company.  After dinner we went to the Flagstaff observatory and looked at Orion's belt through their big telescope.  The next morning we headed back to St. George. We stopped at the Glenn Canyon dam to stretch our legs and take some pictures.

 

It was a great trip!

Christmas

We left Logan on the 22nd and spent the night at Ryan's parent's home in Springville.  We had a delicious prime rib for dinner and exchanged gifts.  His parents got us sleeping bags that can zipped together which I thought was cool. The next morning we headed down to my home in St. George.  On Christmas Eve we had dinner at my grandma's home.

Usually on Christmas morning at my home we have to wait until 9:00 to open presents.  However, we can open our stocking whenever we like.  This was news to Ryan who is usually the person that wakes everyone else up early to open presents.  So not only was this his first Christmas waiting to open gifts but, it was his first Christmas without snow.  He survived but he definitely prefers to wake up at the crack of dawn and not waste any of Christmas sleeping! While we opened presents we always have homemade cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate.  Ryan got golf clubs, a blu ray player, and some clothes.  I got a new desk and office chair, clothes, shoes, and stuff to fix my piano bench so that my books don't fall out the bottom.  Obviously Ryan couldn't bring my new desk and chair to St. George so he borrowed a Polly Pocket toy from his house that had a girl sitting in a chair at a desk.  Everyone got a laugh out of that.  Later that day some extended family came over and we had a buffet and watch basketball.  After everyone was sufficiently full was played this present game.  Everyone sat in a circles and one at a time someone rolled the dice.  If they got doubles they would put on a scarf, hat, and gloves and begin unwrapping the present.  If someone else got doubles they would take the clothing from the other person and start unwrapping.  The person that unwrapped the prize money won.  If was really fun and everyone got into it.  Christmas was great!

Early Christmas

So as many of you know I drive a very classy 1999 Alero.  It is full of charm and character.  Although this year I have finally parted with it because WE GOT A NEW CAR!!! (Well new to us).  It happened quite quickly.  Randomly one night Ryan was looking at cars listed through ksl.  He found this very sleek 2007 Chevy Malibu for a great price.  We talked about it and decided to buy it.  We went to Nephi to pick it up a few weeks ago and I couldn't be happier with it.  I wanted to take a picture of it before I created this post but all the Christmas driving made it quite dirty and it is too cold to wash it. So for now I've just posted one I found online. It is the same color as the one we have.