Fish Findings

Saturday Stephen and I went to the Living Planet Aquarium down in Sandy. I wasn't sure what to expect other than a few tropical fish, but they actually had some really neat creatures in three differently themed exhibits. First, we went to the classroom where they had a half hour show called "Superheros" that was obviously for children because it was a bit cheesy. It was fun because they showed us some animals that lived in the rain forest from snakes and scorpions to colorful parrots that could talk.  They talked about their super strengths as well as their weaknesses which was really interesting to learn about. One thing I didn't know was that if a tarantula falls just a few feet it'll die, and that an emperor scorpion's sting isn't any worse than a bee sting; its the little guys you have to worry about.

After that we started in the Discover Utah exhibit where they featured animals native to Utah. They had lots of fish like trout and razorbacks, bull frogs and toads, and salamanders. Then we went to the Ocean Explorer exhibit (which was the coolest) where we saw sharks, a sea turtle, an octopus, stingrays, seahorses, jellyfish, and colorful tropical fish. They even had a touch pool where you could pet the stingrays, starfish and other animals. Lastly, we went to the Journey to South America exhibit where we saw a huge 10 foot anaconda, caimen, turtles, piranhas, electric eels, poison dart frogs, and penguins (they weren't part of that exhibit). It was a fun afternoon and worth the drive! Most of these pictures are from the ocean exhibit because it was our favorite.

Northern Lobster. I actually thought this guy was a fake until I saw it move! It's at least three times the size of a normal lobster that you would eat. His claws alone are half as big as his body!

 This guy was right by the bull frog pond. I have always wanted to catch a bull frog in the wild. I've actually never seen a bull frog so that was pretty cool. I've had a thing for frogs since I was little.

 Stephen got to pet the stingrays! They are slimy little things; some of them even tried to jump out of the water against the sides of the pool.

 Sea Urchin

Seahorses

 I think this is a blue butterfly fish or its closely related.

I found Nemo!

Moon Jellyfish. These were really cool to watch because they change color like fiber optics.

Same jellyfish

Gentoo Penguins

Taking a ride on the Amazon River (the women who took this didn't quite get the background, haha)

 Piranhas

Playing Catch Up

Alright, since Stephen and I got married I need to give a little background information to catch us all up on where we are today. We are currently living in Salt Lake City while Stephen finishes his internship with the IRS. He is working towards becoming an agent doing criminal justice, but he can't complete that until he graduates from school this July. It has been a long process for Stephen to get this job, and we are so grateful and feel so blessed to be where we are today. He will graduate with his bachelors degree in accounting and I will also be graduating with my bachelors degree in landscape design this upcoming July from BYU-Idaho. Like so many others, we cannot wait to finally be done with school because we can't bare to go another semester, but what's four more months right?

The only bad thing about this year is that we have to move every four months for the next year because of school and Stephen's job, but I am looking forward to this year because it will definitely bring some big changes which is always good. When we got married I already knew that we would end up living in SLC, which is where Stephen's family is from, and I did not want to live there because it was a big change from where I grew up in Twin Falls. I thought Salt Lake was way too big a city to live in, but now that I am here and away from tiny old Rexburg for a while, I love it! My biggest fear was having to drive in traffic; I hate driving let alone in a lot of traffic, but it really isn't all that bad once you get used to it. On the plus side we are near family and there is endless shopping! Every store I would want to shop is right here in town, as well as mountains where we can go camping and hiking.  

Spring Time Flowers

So I just finished putting together this craft I started back in November at my Mother-in-law's when we were visiting for Thanksgiving. The boys were playing madden and watching videos while Pat and I started making these gerbera daisies. They were the first thing I saw on the table when we came in the door the evening before with our luggage, and I thought to myself "Pat must have made those." First of all my Mother-in-law is an expert scrapbooker, card maker, and anything else you can imagine she can make out of paper. She's a Stamp it Up member and her office is stacked from floor to ceiling with papers, stamps, jewels, brads, di-cuts, and all sorts of different gadgets used for scrap booking. She even used to teach classes every week. She's very creative and was very willing to help me make a few of these flowers with her.

It took me over three hours to finish these seven flowers with her help and we were tired by the time I finished. I was surprised that I even finished because I have absolutely no patience for crafts like this. I can't sit for hours on end tediously and meticulously piecing things together. I love working on crafts as long as they are easy and don't take much time. I just bought the pail and marbles to put them in so I can show them off to house guests. Thanks Pat!

My love story

Wow, I should have started this whole blogging thing a long time ago! I have to start from the beginning and I'll try to keep it short. My husband I met over two years ago at BYU-Idaho in our economics class. I sat next to him in the front row all semester. If anyone knows me at all they know that I don't do economics, business, or politics, but Stephen is really smart so I made him my "study buddy". I put that quotations because really, I just made him do my homework for me. I was pretty mean to him looking back, but I just wanted to see how he would react--I was testing him, if you will. I started dating someone  soon after the semester started, but Stephen helped me with my homework regardless every day. I had no interest in him whatsoever, but for some reason I kept doing my homework with him. Stephen lived across the parking lot from me so both our roommates tried to hang out a few times, but it turned out to be really awkward for some reason, so we stopped. I would only call him or meet him in the library if I needed help with my homework. With all the time we spent together I really got to know what kind of a person Stephen was and I was amazed because even though he knew I was dating someone, and I would never hang out with him outside of doing school work, he still helped me faithfully every week. He never complained or gave me some excuse not to help me. our personalities were so much alike and we had quite a bit in common, but I still wasn't interested....or so I would tell myself.

Towards the end of the semester I broke up with my boyfriend. Two weeks later Stephen and I had out first date the weekend after Halloween. We started dating two days later and were engaged seven weeks after that. We were married in the Logan, UT temple and have lived together happily to this day.