Escape to Oregon

New Year's resolution number one: post more often on our blog.

Last semester was so busy; we meant to post more often, but it just didn't happen. In the end, we both survived finals and escaped to Oregon. 13 hour drive, but we stopped halfway at my sister's place in Boise and stayed up late talking to her and her boyfriend. Dan (the boyfriend) showed us his awesome new Traktor turntable, and demoed some seamless mixing and some nice control on the effects and equalizer. He's been teaching Amy a bit, too. Also, their two birds sing along whenever there is music playing.


The next morning we drove the rest of the way to Portland. Freaky weather: it's supposed to be mid-winter in Idaho, and there was no snow on the roads at all. At least the pass through the Blue Mountains had a little bit of snow, but for the most part the world around us was brown and dry as sawdust. Those fields in the picture really should have snow on them.

We got to spend a wonderful week with Suzanne's parents.
Her mom is a chemist, and working for a company that makes rechargeable batteries for electric cars, and her dad manages an apartment complex. We got to make a huge pile of desserts, put them on paper plates and bring them around to his tenants. I made peanut butter balls: very simple recipe, just peanut butter, oats, dry milk, and maple syrup. Then, just because I could, I dipped them in chocolate.

We went and met up with Suzanne's high school friends at Powell's Bookstore in Portland. I want to live there! So many books, so many subjects, and so many trendy cookbooks.

That's Helena on the left, Suzanne in the middle, and Leslie completing the Suzannewich.

I wanted to just stay there forever and read all sorts of interesting books, but we only had paid for an hour of parking, so we had to tear ourselves away.

Among other things, such as a walk through the very shady Chinatown area, we went to the famous Voodoo Doughnuts. They have some pretty crazy things there, like Captain Crunch on top of donuts, and Oreos mashed up with caramel. Good doughnuts (although secretly I'm not sure what separates them from all the other equally good doughnuts I've had).



Suzanne's big brother Carlin, his wife Ashley, and their excruciatingly cute two year old Liam came down from Washington for part of the week. Liam sings along to the "Threw It On The Ground" video, by the way. Very funny. We went down to Corvallis for Carlin's friend's reception (that's where Liam got the cupcake) and Suzanne and I spent the day at Grassroots Bookstore, American Dream Pizza, and New Morning Bakery. And, we got to see Leslie and Helena again. We visited Helena's cow. Suzanne likes cows a lot. If you were wondering.

At Grassroots, we found some books we really want to read:

In Defense of Food, a book about why eating is a good thing today, and contains the magnificent line, "Eat food. Not too much. And mostly plants."

Anything by Billy Collins. He writes about everyday things in a very not-everyday way.

Department of Mad Scientists Ever heard of DARPA? My metal-gear-solid-playing friends have. It's an agency designed to keep America on the cutting edge, and they have studied some crazy things. Like inventing the internet.

Burst Discusses the patterns in everything we do. I read a few chapters, and it's very insightful.

I love nonfiction books. Fiction is nice too. Moving on....

We spent Christmas Eve at Suzanne's Grandma and Grandpa Simmons' house. Lots of food, lots of talk, lots of football (Seahawks almost beat the 49er's! But then they didn't, in the end. Sad.) And, lots of relatives. I'm getting better at remembering the names of Suzanne's extended family, but it is still difficult. They have a tradition of assigning a "Santa" to hand out all the gifts. Guess who got to be Santa... yep, the dude in the Santa hat right there. So I had to try and hand gifts to the right people. I kept forgetting who Rachel was (one of the cousins) and I gave Andre one of Andrea's presents. Now he probably thinks I can't spell. I thought it was really fun though. And I felt cool when I remembered people's names.


Christmas day was nice. We opened presents in the morning. Liam was obsessed with his new car, and Suzanne's dad got a tablet PC. Suzanne got me everything I wanted - a Dylan T-shirt, a Jackson Browne CD, a German novel and a Bill Bryson book. I know Christmas isn't just about getting, but I think that items like these show how well Suzanne knows me. She also got me something that I've wanted for a long time: a harmonica holder and a G harmonica, so I can play guitar and harmonica at the same time. I got her a few kitchen things she'd wanted, and an iPod armband, Led Zeppelin "Coda" and Flaming Lips "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots." The most exciting thing there was that Suzanne's parents got her a sewing machine. She's been wanting one for so long. Now she can finally finish her apron!

Also, two days before, I played the game Ticket to Ride for the first time and loved it. And, surprise surprise, Carlin and Ashley got us the German map edition of Ticket to Ride! Very exciting.

We went to church as a family, and the program was mostly music, with a few talks in between, then had a nice day relaxing at home (well, at home-away-from-home.)

We drove home Monday morning, and it was very nice using the Magellan GPS that Suzanne's dad got for me. Those things can tell you whether there is a gas station near enough for you to fill up -- very nice if you don't want to die in the middle of the Idaho desert.

At home, we got to have a delayed Christmas with my family. Amy and Becky both came home for the week, which was really nice. We also exchanged gifts, and it was evident that a lot of thought went into what my family got for us. I was really happy to see my siblings reactions to the things we found for them. Benjamin loved the hat we found at DI. We found one for Elijah, too, that fits him perfectly. It was so nice to be able to relax with family. I'm so glad that the semester ends before Christmas, so I don't have to feel like I'm wasting homework time when I am with my family.

We didn't get a whole-family picture like I was hoping, but we at least got one with Amy. Smiles all around. Christmas was wonderful. Too many good things to write about in one blog post.

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!