Monday, October 17, 2011

We'll keep a-rockin'

So, we're bad.

We haven't written in literally forever, and we apologize. So is the life of a coupl'a college students. We've realized that our semester really isn't that interesting, so we'll talk about cooler things.

We's a rockin band. Daniel and I enjoy playing music together, and lets just face it, we're talented.


We're playing this show at the So Ho Smart Bar in Pocatello, ID.


Here's a couple of shots from Mavis' gig at Sammy's! I got to play because their bassist was out of town. Lucky me! (Daniel says lucky Mavis) We love singing together and harmonizing.


Today after church, I got to get out my violin and he played some duets with me on his guitar. It was the first time we've ever done that sort of thing, and let me just say, it was super fun. He's incredible. Not only could he play a song to save his life, he could play several songs to save his life!

We want to keep music running strong in our family, whether it be piano, violin or the bagpipes. We have big ambitions for this future home we're making, and we sure are excited!

Life is good. Peace --

The Watkins

Sunday, September 18, 2011

To Utah and Back - without a scratch!

Yes, we are a little late in posting this. We have been a little busy these past couple of weeks. School started last Monday for BYU-I, and Daniel and I are both taking a big load - Daniel with 18 credits, and myself with 17. We're also both working part time at our respective jobs. I'm still working with the Faculty Technology Center on campus, and I'm a Teaching Assistant/tutor for Anatomy and Physiology. Daniel is also a Teaching Assistant both for a mathematics class and an American Foundation class. He is also teaching guitar lessons to a bunch of lucky youngsters, and works at Pizza Hut.

So anyway, aside from our business, life is great! Our last celebration of summer before school started was to spend a week down in Utah. It was a blast!


The first place we stopped at was my brother's house in Lehi. Carlin and Ashley and their little boy Liam (and another mystery child on the way!!), the best little family in the world. We got to hang out with them for a little while, and that was so fun! Here is Liam:


On Monday (the next day), we spent the day in Salt Lake City (I kept calling it Seattle the entire trip. How embarrassing...). We went to the Joseph Smith Memorial building, the Church History Museum of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and ended our day by going to a really unique bookstore. I forgot what it was called, but Daniel knows. Maybe he'll pop on here and edit this post. (It was the Golden Braid). We ended the day by going to Fruit Heights to have dinner with a couple missionary from Daniel's LDS mission to Berlin, Germany. That was so much fun! Here is a picture we took in the Church History Museum. It is of the Angel Moroni that was on top of a chapel in DC. An identical statue is seen on all of the LDS Temples around the world.


We stayed Monday night at Daniel's Grandma's house, Grandma Watkins. We played Michigan Rummy with his cousin Jaymie as well! It was so fun! Tuesday, I wanted to go shopping really bad, so we went to the "Provo Towne Centre" mall. Stupid modern day old english. We called it the Provo Townee Centree mall. Yes, we're dorks. Anyway, we hung out with Daniel's cousin Ryan, and his friend whose name we forgot, and we all went to Bridal Viel Falls. So pretty!


Wednesday, we had lunch with our cousin Kyle and his new fiancee Jayna at Applebees. They will be married on 11/11/11, how exciting! They are so cute together. We also visited Daniel's sister Becky who is currently going to Brigham Young University in Provo. She seems to like it a lot! We had dinner with his aunt Jenny and Becky in Payson, which was to die for! That night we stayed at Daniel's uncle Clayton's house in Highland.

Thursday was THE day! It was so fun! We climbed Mt. Timanogos! It was a round trip of nearly 19 miles that took 9.5 hours, but wow it was beautiful! Lots of bubbling streams, tall trees, and wildflowers out the wazoo! When we got to the top, it was so windy and cold that we didn't stay there for too long. But it was worth it. My camera died in the middle of the hike, was was so stupid, but we at least have a few.


The peak on the right is the one we climbed. It doesn't look that steep, but holy cow, looks can be deceiving.

Friday, we went to Aunt Sherrie's house and visited Grandma Jensen. That was so fun, she told us a lot of really interesting stories. We played games with other family members and hit the hay. By then we were so excited to go back to Rexburg the next day (imagine!), but we had a couple more things to do.

On Saturday, we finally went to the Bodies exhibit in Idaho Falls! It was incredible! Photograhy wasn't allowed, so no pictures, but it was so fun. We loved seeing the cardiovascular system, and I really liked the kidney and the baby part. It was interesting to see how much of the Chinese (they were mostly Chinese bodies) smoked! The lungs were so black. If you have a change to go see it, DO! It is totally worth it! After that, we went back down to Pocatello to play a show at this small cafe downtown. Even though we were so tired, it was so fun!

Daniel and I got to play together just on the fly! I love playing music with him.


My other band is Death By Cabbage, and we played right after. That lead singer and guitarist? He's my brother. Rocking runs in the family.


Well that was our trip! Sorry to put it in a long long blog! But what a way to end summer! It was such a blast.

Til next time, where I will expand on our rock 'n' roll little family of ours!

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Ladies and Gentlemen, in theaters coming near you!

The thing that swims, bikes, and runs!

Daniel participated in his first triathlon today, and it was very exciting. He swam 1/2 mile, biked for 15 miles, and ran a 5k which is 3.1 miles, and did it all in about 1 hour and 43 minutes. That's my superman!

We aim to someday be a family with a wall covered in race numbers. I am determined to do a marathon someday, so I want to be able to at least one 5k, 10k and a half marathon before I get to my marathon. I've already signed up for my first 5k on September 10th! Daniel will be doing more events like this (he's trying to convince me to do a triathlon next year - ha!) and will be doing more bike races. We want to involve our future kids in these kinds of things so they can stay active, at least until they decide it's lame. What a fun future we have in store for us!

He finished it though, and with energy to spare! Now he has a full day of work to do, both at Man's Image and Pizza Hut. And he needs to write his talk for church tomorrow at some point.

A very exciting day in the Watkins home!

The Watkins

Friday, August 12, 2011

Yellowstone!


Well, we just got back from Yellowstone.

It was a blast! We are happy to report that nobody got attacked by bears or fell in geysers! We got to see so many different things, like...
Mammoth Hot Springs,

Artist Paint Pots,

a few geysers here and there,

and a beautiful trail we hiked through. The hike was incredible! It was a really fun when we realized that we hiked INTO a thunder storm, had some nice weather in between, then hiked OUT OF a different thunder storm. We felt hardcore. But over all, it was super fun!


We were accompanied by Anastasia and Andrew England, the lovely couple down the street, and that was super fun!

When Daniel and I got home, we talked about how each of us learned something about ourselves about that trip, one of which being the revelations that we really dislike tourism/tourists. Some people can be so careless and stupid, and its often quite frustrating for us. We learned some other things as well, because this was the first time all four of us had ever gone camping without a leader of some sort. It was all very exciting!

Getting back home, we go headfirst back into the world. Needless to say, we can't wait for our next adventure.

The Watkins