Happy Anniversary

BJ and I celebrated our third anniversary this weekend. Our anniversary was actually yesterday, but BJ surprised me with an overnight trip to Midway, UT on Friday. We stayed in a very cute bed and breakfast called Johnson Mill B&B, and BJ took me out to dinner at the Snake Creek Grill, which had very good food. I loved it all! I will post pictures of the place we stayed. On Saturday we headed up to Park City. It rained in the morning, but by afternoon the sky cleared and it was warm. We walked around downtown and saw a Mustang car show, and looked at the little shops on Main Street. We drove around some, admiring the scenery, and headed to the factory stores to do some shopping. We had dinner at Sweet Tomatoes in SLC- one of our favorite restaurants. I loved the fact that BJ planned all of this as a surprise for me- I knew we were doing something, but I had no idea what! We really enjoyed being together and getting out of the valley.
My family drove to Utah and arrived Sunday night (bringing Marissa back to BYU) and we saw them on Monday. We took my parents out for lunch at Tucanos, and watched a movie with my siblings. Then they went to visit some family in Salt Lake, and BJ had to go to work. BJ and I went and saw the Nancy Drew movie at the dollar theater. Did you read Nancy Drew when you were a kid? I loved that series. I think I liked the older ones best. It was a series that started several decades ago, and I think more mysteries are still being published- Of course, Nancy never ages. We thought the movie was very funny, and enjoyed it. Not exactly what I pictured, but good nonetheless- very family friendly, although the movie, like the books, has that element of (clean) suspense and danger.
I have been reading a lot lately. I recently read O Pioneers (Willa Cather, great book, sad though), the Alvin Maker series (Orson Scott Card- I liked most of the books, but had a few mixed feelings), Eclipse (not exactly "substance", but some light reading is nice sometimes), Harry Potter (of course- who didn't? By the way, I loved the ending. I am such a sucker for happy endings. I knew she wouldn't let us down.), Pope Joan (wow. I learned a lot and I can't imagine a time when women were treated this way- a story of courage, but also a very sad-to-me book.), Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom, good story, clever, a lot of wisdom, sad without really being sad- you feel good at the end.), The Scarlet Pimpernel (Baroness Orczy- can I just say, this is one of my favorite books of all time- so clever, so suspenseful, and satisfying for even the most romantic at heart. Also clean, which is important, at least to me...) and a few other books that will probably never make my top 10. or 50.

Check back soon... the pictures are coming.

Starry Starry Night

So, Dad and I tried to take pictures of the meteor shower last night while Rochelle stayed wrapped up in a blanket in my parent's convertible, watching the stars go by. While we were out there Rochelle saw two shooting starts, my dad saw one, and I saw none. It was fun though. It has been something I have long wanted to do-- to take pictures of the night sky. Now I have done it! ;-) I still need to take pictures of the moon sometime too. That will be its own challenge. I haven't seen my dad's pictures yet. I don't know if he caught any falling stars, but I caught two. I didn't see a one, buy my pictures caught two. Well, one and a half really. And they were both quite small. Also an airplane or two are in there. You can tell the airplanes because they have little dots evenly spaced along the line they draw through the picture. So here are my pictures, and in them are my one and a half shooting stars. See if you can find them. (You may need to download them to get a very good view of them.) And for all of you photographers out there, I used the following settings on these photos: ISO 200, F4, 30".

Starry Starry Night

Catch Up

We have had a good couple of weeks. About two weeks ago, we attended BJ's work party up in Provo Canyon, went home, went straight to sleep (early in the evening) and got up at 4am to drive to Oregon to see my family. The drive went well; we read the last Harry Potter book and listened to books on CD to keep awake. It was actually pretty enjoyable. We got to Oregon with plenty of time to spare and enjoyed the weekend with my family. Monday morning we got up early and drove out to the Sisters Wilderness (The Sisters are a group of mountains in Oregon) and we put our backpacks on and hiked up to Moraine Lake on the South Sister. We stayed two nights. There were LOTS of mosquitoes and mosquito bites, despite the best efforts of repellents, badges, and other mosquito deterrents. We were all quite sore too. Part of our group hiked to the summit of the mountain (the 3rd highest in the state) on the second day, and on the third day we hiked down the mountain. What nice things showers are! We all couldn't wait to get home and get clean.
During our week in Oregon, we went to see the Body Worlds III exhibit at OMSI. Wow. It was really interesting and amazing. They exhibited bodies preserved in a new way (called plastination)- they won't decay or anything- they become fairly sturdy, while preserving very closely the way things actually look. It sounds a little morbid, but I felt that it was very tastefully and respectfully done. By walking through the exhibit (which took us several hours, much more than the 90 minutes they estimated) it was possible to see and learn about every system of the body. I don't know where it will be exhibited next, but it's worth seeing.
On Saturday night, we helped my siblings throw a country western party/ dance. We used fun decorations and props, set up a chuck wagon, hitchin' post, and dance floor. We set up hay bales in the grass, and had everyone dress up. BJ and I taught a partner circle dance and some line dances, we had a watermelon eating contest, and costume judging. There were some pretty good ones.

Country Dance Party

The next morning BJ and I drove home and finally got in pretty late. We miss everyone, but it is good to be home. Since being home, I have been trying to get things put away and back to normal, and I have also been trying to finish interviews for the research I am working on so that we can start analyzing data soon. (If any of you have aspirations toward being interviewed and having your ideas about public health benefit society, let me know! lol) I will mainly be working on that this week. The idea is that we will have all the data analyzed in a couple of months, and the professor I work for and I will be going to the American Public Health Association conference in Washington D.C. to present our research, and hopefully be published. We know we have been accepted to present at the public health conference, and I have my ticket already, but there is a lot of work to be done before that.
Other than that, there's not a ton going on, but we will sure keep you posted.

We are home from our trip

And really it is Rochelle's turn to blog, and so I'll let her tell you about our trip, but let me just say, that we had fun, and I am once again without facial hair. I believe I can hear my mom cheering from North Carolina. Rochelle's family is always a blast to be around. I am as they call me "a brother from another mother". We really are family. Rochelle and I are so blessed to have families that adopt our other halves so readily. We are at home in both Utah and Oregon. Rochelle gets to experience what it feels like to be the youngest child in my family and I get to experience what it feels like to be the oldest child. Although, I dare say that neither of us get the full experience, it is certainly fun to walk a mile in each others shoes. And here's my non sequitur: I don't know whether I liked how I looked better or worse after shaving.