Two down

well summer semester was fast and furious. I took a seven week chemistry class with a lab. what was i thinking! With help from my family i survived. My sweet sister in law Michelle made dinner for my family once a week (while i usually took a test.) this meant my kids got to play with cousins and have fun at least once a week. It is almost time for fall semester to start and for summer to be over. Jocelyn starts first grade this week. she is a little nervous to be at school for a full day now. she will do fine. she loves to learn new things. Ethan will be coming up to campus with me while i go to classes starting next week.

we just got back from a whirlwind vacation/family reunions. we had a Hunting family reunion based out of Bedford, Wyoming where my brother James and his family lives. we got there around one in the morning Friday and left for Yellowstone around nine and drove all around that area getting back to Bedford around one in the morning again Saturday. We got to see old faithful and some prismatic geysers which were really pretty and colorful. we drove around and saw some amazing canyons and waterfalls. we got rained on and roadblocked by bison(buffalo), we saw bald eagles and elk, and enjoyed beautiful scenery. overall it was a good day, busy but enjoyable. Saturday it rained all day so we hung out at my brothers house, which was just fine with all the kids because they were having fun playing with all the cousins anyway. some of the guys were able to sneak away and go shooting in the afternoon when most of the rain stopped. that night Brian got to paddle a canoe while Mark (in-law) and his son Jordan fly fished. Brian tried to fish too, but paddling became sort of a priority for him because no one else was doing it. :) the next day the few who were left went to church with James and family, we were all a bit red eyed and worn out. after church some of us went geocacheing. we found there of them and ending up in a canyon close by so we went on a little hike with the kids. the girls loved the wild flowers and insisted that microphones were growing in the wild. (there were some petalless flowers that looked like microphones) They stopped and pulled the flowers down and sang in them. Monday Brian, Ethan, Daniel(brother) and I got in a canoe and went down a section of the salt river close to James' house. it was fun. i was nervous, it took me a while to get used to the feel of the canoe and to know that it wasn't going to tip and spill my son in the river. we really only had one close call when the current pushed us up against the bank where overgrown bushes poked out. we lost an oar, but were able to get it back . Ethan had fun helping to paddle with the extra oar. It really is a majestic and gorgeous forest landscape. Ethan and i got out and Brian and Daniel continued down the next section of river, which they said was more adventurous. Then we packed up and headed to St. Charles canyon by bear lake in Idaho. the Keith and Lynette Carter reunion was underway. we got there around three in the afternoon and set up camp, had dinner, and went to bed. Tuesday morning we ate pancakes and headed into Logan because Brian had an appointment for work. we went to my siblings apartment and showered, did laundry, and stocked up on needed groceries while Brian was at his meeting. Then we headed back to the campground. we got there just in time to clean up the left over spaghetti dinner and sit around the fire. Wednesday we made it to the Lake to play for a while. Ethan liked shoveling in the sand and wading in the water. Jocelyn is part fish i think. that night the rest of Brian's family (okay crystal and her family, Keith and his family, and Mom and Dad) got there. Jocelyn had been counting down the days to get to see all of them. Excitement was in the air and hugs were everywhere. Thursday we went to the beach again and sang around the fire at night. I think those are my favorite things about camping there. During the night some of the cousins and uncles stayed up and played computer games, when a micro burst came through and blew a tree down almost on top of them. I just remember hearing people yell, "TREE!!". The family puts up a big tarp to cover the picnic tables, which helped the tree to the ground slowly. Luckily they all escaped unharmed (okay, there were a few bruises but no cuts or bleeding) the next morning they put the tarp back up and the kids played on the fallen tree until the camp host cut it into firewood with his chain saw. We hung around the campground on Friday. All of the children played in the trees, adults checked on them every so often, but it was mostly a do what you want as long as no one gets hurt kind of camping trip. During the night it rained and rained. It must have been a soothing rhythm because my children slept great! Saturday we packed up while Brian's mom ran a daycare in her trailer with all her grandkids. then we drove home through Logan, stopping at Aggie ice cream to get a treat. half of the cousins passing through while we were there. We got home and reality settled in...Summer is over. School starts too soon. we unpacked a little and cleaned up and put kids to bed. the next day was Sunday and we all had responsibilities again.

survived semester #1

Well spring semester is over and summer starts in one week. I got A's in both classes. hopefully it's a sign of things to come. :) I ordered books for summer and registered for fall, looks like we are serious about this school thing now. no turning back.

hawaii

well we went to hawaii. we went to the Kona island. It was lots of fun. we save lava desserts and lush rain forest, volcano craters and lava spilling into the ocean steaming with the waves. we saw sea turtles sunning on the beaches, and went snorkling by captin cook monument. it was really pretty. all of the different colors of fish, and they were so bright , purple, yellow, and orange accents. we even saw a few eels, but they were bashful and turned around we they saw people. we went horse back riding, my horse would have rather been grazing, but humored me most of the time, until i wanted him to walk through really deep mud, then he pretty much rode me into the bushes until i fell off. :) we played in the waves one day at hapuna beach. the waves were taller than brian and i just floated on them. the salt water is different but also fun. there were so many pretty waterfalls around the island besides the big ones advertised for visitors. the different colored sand beaches were fun to see too. the sand is made from the waves wearing down the lava rocks so some beaches had black sand some had green sand some were pebbles, some was actually normal looking sand. we hiked down to one beach on the north of the island that was at the end of a road. really the road ended and then there was a hiking trail down to the beach. it was really amazing. we drove around the outside of the island and through the middle of the island on "saddle" road. i'd say we had quite the adventure. it was fun and exhausting, sounds about right, i even layed by the beach for a little while. apple bananas and papayas are very good there, and the purple sweet potatos were so yummy. one restaraunt made mashed purple sweet potatos with coconut milk--so good(jackierays restaruant- his car is amazingly cool). i even tasted some of brian's hawaiin sword fish. it was good. i had homemade icecream banana storm flavor that was banana ice cream with oreos in it, yum. we ate at huli sue's she does good bbq. we had breakfast at our hotel one morning it was my favorite. with the granola and all the toppings and purple sweet potato hashbrowns, who could ask for more? i mean really. :) it was very clean and people were very nice there. we went to the mauna loa macadamia nut factory. the factory was closed but we looked in the windows and toured the gift shop. (costco in hawaii has bigger bags of chocolate coconut macadamias from mauna loa for a better price :) we bought some of our soviners from walmart and one wooden turtle carving at at farmers market. it was made in indonesia, but it looks cool. people(tourists) write words on the black lava fields with white rocks. some are cool but others not so much. it is basically grafitti, but kinda fun looking. it rained everyday, but seemed to stop for us when we got out of the car. there is wet and dry side of the island. rain varies from 10 inches to over 200 inches in various parts of the island. drastic landscape changes. somewhere over the rainbow was a popular song there. we saw the kona temple in the dark there is a wall made of lava rocks on one side of the grounds(south side i think) it is next to a chapel. it was hidden back in a neighborhood. we could see it from the main road but it took us a while to find the round about way to weave in there. guess we should have looked for an address first. :) Yes it was a fun trip, i am gald we went, even if i missed a week of school including a test and had a different on the day after we got back and i didn't get to see my kids for 12 days, and caught myself admiring other peoples kids while we were there. it was a good trip

weber state university

i started school again. i am going to weber three days a week. right now is just prereqs for nursing program. hopefully i will make it that far. so far so good. hope i can keep it up.