Jessica Wegner

2011 Recap

2012-01-11T20:49:00.001-08:00

Recap of the year 2011 in the lives of Jeff and Jessica Wegner:

March 1: Engaged!!

April 2011: Celebrated one year of dating at Baby Animal Days

May 6: When our story began...

May 2011: Honeymoon in Park City/Jackson Hole

June 4: Best friend Julane and Ryan married in the Bountiful Temple

June: Grand Cayman vacation with the Wegners

June: Wolf Creek vacation with the Raus (plus my 21st birthday!)

July: Redd reunion and Mesa Verde trip

August 7: Jeff turned 25! And caught a fish :)

August: 2nd annual Willard Peak Meteor Shower campout!

October: New York trip and Jeff's cousin's wedding!

November 4: New nephew born! Luke Hardison Rau

November: Best friend/old roomie Jenni got married!

November: Thanksgiving with the Wegners in Colorado

December: One of my high school best friends, Jess Boy left for Russia to serve the Lord for a year and a half!

December 25: First married Christmas together :)

2011 was a pretty good year. I mean it's not like I got married or something... ;) We have a lot to look forward to this new year. A lot of big things will be happening and big changes coming our way! Can't wait!

A Warm Wegner New Years

2012-01-04T19:58:00.001-08:00

Shortly after Christmas Day we headed out to California to spend time with all of Jeff's family for New Years! It was a wonderful, yet busy, busy vacation. I very much enjoyed the short sleeve, chaco, and even shorts weather!

Spent sometime on the beach!

Visited the San Diego Zoo!

And....

SEAWORLD!! I had forgotten how much I really love SeaWorld :)

Cute little Brielle and her Oma (Grandma)

Jeff and Hannah really seemed to enjoy this Elmo ride. Probably equally as much as Parker and Brielle :)

Hannah pretending to be a polar bear in the polar bear caves

Isn't this picture kinda' creepy...?? At first she didn't seem to even notice that there were tons of sharks swimming behind the glass. She was just having fun climbing on the sign of course.

Can't go to Cali and not get plenty of beach time in!

My husband is good enough to humor me and risk his dry body and clothes so I could get a cool splashing water picture

We had such a great time and it was so fun to spend more time with Jeff's family (I also got to meet his aunt, uncle and cousins for the first time)! However, it sure was nice to get back home to our own beds after a couple weeks of busy family time and traveling. And you better believe that I was as lazy as I could be for those few days left of Christmas break. I had to take advantage of the time because now it is right back into school, buuut.... It's my LAST semester! Yay! (sorry I know I talk about it a lot ha ha)

A Rau Christmas

2012-01-03T12:55:00.000-08:00

Yes it's kinda late... but Merry Christmas to you all!

Christmas day proved to be a very busy one beginning at 8:00 am and not ending until 3:00 am :) A day filled with lots of presents, family, food, and lots of laughs!

We started the day off with presents of course!

Strangely enough, Matt has loved drinking lemon juice since he was a little boy.

One of the clocks in my mom's kitchen fell off the shelf and shattered just a couple weeks before Christmas, so we got her a new one!

It was our first married Christmas and it was SO fun! We mostly loved doing each others stockings ha ha.

The racquetball men

After presents and sacrament meeting, we stopped at Grandma's on our way down to Mapleton. We watched her open all of her presents, and this little dog had us laughing forever! It's called a Chuckle Buddy and it would roll around on the floor while laughing. Grandma just loved it and thought it was so cute! I think we had a little too much fun at Grandma's place ha ha.

Half of us who were at Grandma's

We finally made our way down to the Mapleton siblings where we opened more presents at Mike and Maridee's house then went next door to Katie and Danny's to eat a big meal, dessert, then games of course - can't have a Rau get-together without games :)

Grandma Rau and the newest addition, baby Luke!

I thought this was so adorable! Jeff was just laying on the floor then Brynlee randomly ran over and laid down next to him ha. She is so stinkin' cute!

Two tired boys after a long Christmas day

What. A. Week.

2011-12-16T13:34:00.000-08:00

What a busy, busy week...

Sunday:

Went to one of my high school best friends farewell. Jess Boy (as we call her) is heading off to St. Petersburg, Russia to serve the Lord for 18 months!! I am so excited for her! She's going to be an amazing missionary!

Monday:

Took two of three finals with free lunch in between at work. Monday night was consumed by hours upon hours of studying for my stats examine the next day.

Tuesday:

Work and last final - Psychological statistics, which I aced :) Fall Semester officially over!! (only one more to go!!). Hung out with my high school girls one last time before Jess leaves. Texas Roadhouse for dinner... which unfortunately resulted in me spending at least an hour kneeling at the toilet base... haven't been that close to puking in years!

(I stole this from Melissa, but we are missing Julane here...)

Wednesday:

First official day of freedom! Slept in, car shopped a little, and applied for my first credit card!

Thursday:

Went to work for an hour, then off to the dentist to fill the last of my cavities.... I know dentists are great and all, but I sure do hate going. Rest of the day was spent writing wedding thank you cards, and watching psych with a numb/sore face.

Friday:

Back to the dentist... this time to get my last two wisdom teeth out. Luckily they practically fell out of my mouth! It was a lot less traumatic experience then getting cavities filled ha. And now here I am. However the fun doesn't stop there... tonight we're heading down to Woods Cross to help my mom baby sit my two nieces this weekend! Then tomorrow night we're going to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir thing with Jeff's sister and husband, and then Sunday we've got our family Christmas party!

It's been so nice to not have school and homework! It's weird though to go from being super busy to bored. I sure am excited to have this three week long break though! And a bonus that it's Christmas time :)

Also, more good news... I am not for certain, but I'm feeling a 4.0 coming on!!! Ah yeah! My first of my college career :) Well, let's hope.

The End is Near... Oh So Near.

2011-12-05T20:32:00.000-08:00

Last. Week. Of. This. Semester....!!! YAY! I can hardly control my excitement! Nearly one semester down, only ONE more to go! I can't believe that I am near the end of my school career... I have always been in school.... it is going to be very, very weird to not have it anymore.

The more it begins to sink in, the more excited I get, but also the more I realize how much I'm going to miss school... and my campus job, and the people I work with :( This Fall semester has been my busiest for sure, however it hasn't been crazy because I've been so on top of everything lately. I've kicked procrastination out the window, which I accredit to being married :)

It's weird though because literally my life has been go to school in the morning (go to classes and work in between), come home around 4/4:30, eat a snack, do homework for hours, make dinner, clean up after dinner, maybe some more homework, then bed. So this week has been weird since my semester is winding down, I haven't really had hours of homework to do (hence the reason I am blogging right now :).... which has resulted in boredom and a lot of wasted time ha ha. It's funny how that works - I am very productive when I have tons to do, but when I have nothing to do productivity is gone.

Thanksgiving Break!

2011-12-05T20:05:00.001-08:00

It was a Wegner Thanksgiving this year so we flew out to Colorado Springs to Jeff's sister's house, and then his mom, dad, and sister met us out there. It was such a nice break from school and life, and my sis-in-law's adorable little Brielle kept us highly entertained.

Ya know, one thing I love about being married is that now I not only have one awesome family, but TWO! And since it was the time of Thanksgiving I was (and have been) feeling very grateful for both families.

Anyway, our little vacation was mostly relaxing, and very much full of TONS of delicious food. Other than some good old Black Friday shopping and Turkey dinner, we went to the Garden of the Gods.

Had some cool rock formations

We flew in Saturday early evening and finished off our break at my parents house. We were lucky enough to see all of my family as well when we went down to Mapleton to see Mike and Maridee's new baby Luke!

Taya just cracks me up... and she is the cutest big sister out there. "Baby Lukey" or "Baby Brudder" is what she calls him.

It was fun to watch her interact with him. Whenever he would cry, she would say "Baby Lukey needs me."

Mmmm... someday :)

I Believe.

2011-11-11T20:27:00.000-08:00

What a great start to the season!

Beating BYU 69 - 62 :)

Just got home from the game - my ears are ringing, my hands are hurting, and my throat is sore.

Great game!

I LOVE my Aggies!!!

11/11/11

2011-11-11T14:46:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday to the BEST Mom in the world!!

I am so grateful for my mom and her constant example of amazing faith, selfless love, willingness to serve, honesty, support, and optimism! She is incredible. I don't know how she does it and I hope that someday I can live up to be just as good of a mom to my children. Thank you Mom for all that you have done for me and continue to do.

Love you MOM!

Also happy Veteran's Day! I am grateful for all those who risk their lives for the safety and freedom of this wonderful country, especially my relatives and friends who have served and continue to serve!

Who Knew?

2011-11-08T16:38:00.000-08:00

Things I've discovered since being married...

1) The reality of my sleeping habits. Turns out I'm the problem. Apparently I kick Jeff out of bed quite frequently... and I always thought I was a perfect sleeper!

2) That I'm actually not that great of a cook and that NOTHING tastes nearly as good as when my Mom cooks it.

3) That the concept of "Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise" is actually a truthful saying (well not so sure about the "wealthy" part yet). It's amazing what actually getting enough sleep every night will do for you! So far it's done wonders for me :)

4) That getting married would solve my procrastination and time management problems. I am such a better student being married! Having to balance between school, homework, work, and being a wife has forced me to manage my time better. Therefore, goodbye procrastination!

*Who knew marriage would kick a lot of my bad habits?! Man if someone would've told me that before I would've gotten married long ago! Ha ha ;)

NEW YORK!!

2011-10-20T19:28:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago we we flew out to New York for Jeff's cousin's wedding! I had never been to New York City so I was VERY excited!

We had the bright idea to take a Red-Eye flight Thursday night so we wouldn't have to pay for a hotel.... yes it saved us money, but I'm not so sure if it was worth just an hour and a half of sleep.

We arrived at 5:30 am New York time... (3:30 our time), and then took the subway into the city. First time riding the Subway! And it was hot and smelly.

First Impression of New York City: "This place is madness. I've got to get out of here!" Talk about being overwhelmed! Yes, so I didn't enjoy my first hour or so in the city, which was mostly due to being sleep deprived, but also because the first place we went was the World Trade Center, which is pretty darn close to Wall Street... and as most of you know, Wall Street is kind of chaotic right now.

One of the new World Trade Center buildings!

Time Square!

(by this time we had met up with Jeff's family and I was beginning to actually enjoy and love the city)

Craig, Hannah, and Jana

More Time Square

Mmm, Someday....

Hello Donald Trump

Central Park!! One of my favorite parts!

Jeff and his hero Balto :)

The Wegners!

Supporting the home team: St. Louis Cardinals! (who in fact just won the world series)

Beatles

The World Trade Center Memorial

It's a really beautiful memorial. Very touching.

All day Saturday was spent at the wedding. It was so fun to meet Jeff's cousins and aunts and uncles (luckily he doesn't have nearly as many as I do, so I think I got names down pretty good). It was fun to reminisce about our own wedding not too long ago, especially since we got to dance to our song once again! I was so excited when it started playing ha ha. We had a great time, and ate way too much food, but we're so happy for Heather and Jamie and wish the best to them in their new life together!

Crazy Coincidence

2011-10-13T19:18:00.000-07:00

I was having a serious craving for Olive Garden yesterday, so I convinced Jeff that we needed to go.

Coincidence #1: We were seated at the exact same table that we sat at on our very, very first date (we're talking pre-dating days, so this was not our second first date, aka the truck rolling one ha). It brought back a flood of wonderful memories from that night and from our dating days.

As we continued reminiscing we realized that that very first date to Olive Garden was TWO years ago! It's so crazy to me that it was that long ago.

Coincidence #2: We then realized that it was probably Exactly two years ago! I tried so hard to remember the actual day we went... but we're pretty sure it was in the beginning of October!

It was perfect. I think I was inspired. Actually I was. When I was watching a show on Hulu, commercials for Olive Garden kept coming on ha ha. Pretty sure it was meant to be :)

The funny thing about that first date was that I actually shot Jeff down after dinner that night... he was having a good time so he asked if I wanted to do anything else and i'm pretty sure I pulled the "I think I was going to do something with my roommates" excuse ha ha. He gave up on me that night :) Pretty sure I am never going to live that down.

Peach Days & Derbys!

2011-09-15T20:33:00.001-07:00

Brigham City had their yearly Peach Days celebration this last weekend. We love Peach Days and I've gone every year since I've lived in Logan. My old roommate's family has a peach cobbler stand that we get cobbler from and it's SO yummy!

There were some pretty sweet old cars at the car show!

The typical fruit stand thing... (it's supposed to be a truck)

We were torn between going to the USU game and the All Truck Demolition Derby Saturday night.... the Derby won!

During the second heat one of the trucks got pinned up parallel to the dirt wall and another truck came at full speed and rammed them, resulting in the pinned truck flipping over the wall and landing on the roof. Every one was excited at first until we realized that the driver was stuck upside down.... after the "jaws of life" and like 45 minutes later the driver was freed and taken to the hospital in the ambulance. I was worried that he was seriously injured, but he was waving his arm on his way out so I think that meant he was ok ha ha. Exciting but scary!

Pretty much make the number one on my top demolition derby list. Following the previous excitement, we had a couple exploding cars as well...

and the top the night off (and end it abruptly)... rain started to pour and the lights shut off! Ha ha! What an exciting night!

We sat in the rain for a bit hoping that the lights would come back on, but we eventually gave up and left. Super fun night though!

*Speaking of Trucks.... ours has been quite expensive lately.... just days before registration expired we got a rock chip that spread over 6 inches within an hour or so. We didn't even have a chance to fix it, thus resulting in us having to fork out the money for a new windshield. Now only weeks after that incident, I got a text from Jeff yesterday saying that the truck won't turn right... hmm, yeah sounds like a problem.

Anyway long story short, our front right shock broke, bending some steering rod or something. We sucked it up and forked out the money, but phew! We sure hope that's it for awhile.

Such is the Life of a Pilot's Wife

2011-09-09T15:12:00.000-07:00

So I've been without my other half these past two days. He's been up in Yellowstone working a little second job. He's explained it to me a few times, but I still don't know exactly what they do and what for... all I know is that they fly around an area and take thermal pictures of the ground. What I do know though is that it is a great source of some extra bonus money which is always nice :)

So he's been up in Yellowstone the past couple days and should be coming home soon, and I have missed him terribly. It's our first time being away from each other since being married. Despite it being not so fun, it is good practice for the many years to come. As a pilot's wife, having my husband gone for days at a time will be the norm. Of course every career has its up and downs, but on the flip-side... He will also be home for days at a time! What's great though is that you can be thousand of miles away from someone and still see them and talk to them via facetime and skype! Sure does make it easier.

Hurry up 5 o'clock! I miss my Man!

PS... YAY for Fridays!!!

Labour Day Weekend

2011-09-07T18:55:00.000-07:00

On Friday night we flew down to Provo with a flight student and his wife! He was in need of hours and long-distance trips and they wanted to visit family, so I hopped along for the ride! We spent a couple hours hanging out with my bro Chris. After yummy burgers and pie shakes, and some brief moments at a free concert, it was time to head back to the airport.

It was a fun little Friday night adventure. I love to go flying with Jeff, especially during this time of year everything is so pretty from up above, Cache Valley in particular!

Provo airport

On Saturday we did our usually exploring/off-roading favorite activity in the afternoon, and found a new trail that we loved! It was quite pretty.

Monday morning we woke up and decided... "hmm... let's go climb a mountain!"

Soooo we did!! :)

You wouldn't believe how many wildflowers there still are up there!

They were beautiful!

Finally reached the peak of Mt. Naomi! (in Logan Canyon)

Surrounded by a beautiful view, snow, and surprisingly... cows! ha ha

View of Cache Valley

See all the little wildflowers?! They were even at full bloom at the very top of the mountain! So colorful.

One week down....

2011-09-05T15:54:00.000-07:00

Well I've made it through the first week of school.... and it is definitely going to be a very busy semester. But the good news is only two more semesters to go!! Yay! I usually enjoy the classes that I have to take for this major, but ....Social Policy? ...and Psychological Statistics....? Not so much. It will be good though.

Aside from classes, the first week of school is always the greatest. They've got things going on all day everyday. The best part is.... FREE STUFF! :) Free snow cone, free pens, free candy, free bags, free root beer float, free chick-fill-a sandwich, free hotdog, and best of all, Free Aggie Ice Cream TWO days in a row! Totally awesome. In addition to free stuff they had activities going every night. We only made it to the movie on Old Main Hill, which is always fun to go. They showed Thor on a big screen.

While I'm on the topic of my Aggies... football is looking good this year.. a.k.a. our new Freshman QB is looking good this year! We were kind of depressed after losing that game to Auburn on Saturday, but we played well and I think it'll be a good year for the Aggies!

Love my Aggies :)

Work and Play

2011-08-26T11:55:00.000-07:00

Last saturday all my family got together at my parents house for our monthly family night and to work on my mom's dining table chairs. Last year for my mom's birthday while some of us were away in california the rest of my siblings secretly re-did my mom's kitchen including a new beautiful kitchen table and chairs. They unfortunately weren't able to finish stripping, sanding, and staining all the chairs so that was half of the purpose of this Saturday get-together.

As usual I ended up playing with the girls. I thought it would be a good idea to entertain the girls with bubbles outside... and it did ha. They loved it! But we all ended up with bubbles all over ourselves ha ha.

I had to put both of these pictures up because i thought Taya was so funny!

Brynlee got so excited about the bubbles! It was pretty cute.

Lexie was really good at making these huge bubbles

Matt was a good helper too

While we were playing hard, the boys were working hard in the back yard.

Taya just cracks me up! She loved these "pum-pums" :)

Shooting Stars

2011-08-24T16:14:00.000-07:00

We had a busy, yet lots of fun few days a couple weekends ago. Friday night we went camping with a small group of friends up Willard Peak. That was the weekend of the meteor shower so we slept out under the stars! It was perfect minus the full moon making it difficult to see lots of shooting stars.

Our perfectly located camp spot

The wildflowers were incredible!

Our little group

View of Eden area

View of Mantua and Cache Valley

Saturday morning we woke up and drove down to WX to got to Lagoon with my parents and Matt for my dad's work lagoon day. It was super cheap so we couldn't pass up the opportunity. It turned out to be an extremely busy and HOT day, but still fun. Jeff hadn't been there in years and it'd been awhile for me too.

Birthday Weekend

2011-08-11T13:50:00.000-07:00

Jeff turned 25 this last Sunday, so we had fun celebrating all weekend!

Saturday morning we went fishing at Mantua reservoir!

I caught a fish... just a baby ha ha.

Jeff caught one too! A little better.... ha ha

After fishing we came home and ate some yummy lunch and then went on our favorite type of adventure... Off-Roading! :)

There is this trail up Logan canyon that we LOVE and last time we went up there (a few weeks ago) there was still mud and SNOW blocking the road so we had to turn around.... This time we got farther, however the we eventually ran into a "road closed" sign due to some bad road damage.

It was SO beautiful up there! The wild flowers were incredible! I made a comment to Jeff about how we'd never been up there during the Spring, and he said "Well... actually it's summer" ha ha.

Presents!

Watching the Sunset on a roof

And finally Ice Cream... Cake...? Ha ha!

The "Wagners"

2011-08-04T19:57:00.000-07:00

This last Sunday during sacrament meeting we were introduced as the "Wagners." Jeff smiled, and then whispered to me, "Get used to it." :) So I get to go from a name like Rau that everyone seems to struggle with, to Wegner where no one can seem to see that there is an "E" ha ha.

I just now (3 months later...) began the whole name changing process... ha ha. On Monday we went into the DMV to get my new license. I got my picture, smile was good, and everything was going ok. Until... I had to sign my name. After finishing the Jessica part I realized that I had to sign Wegner instead of Rau... ha. Most of the space was already taken up and I got flustered and kind of just scribbled it out... ha.

This is how it turned out....

Kinda' embarrassing... ha. But that is definitely "Wagner"! Ha ha Oooops! :)

For my last bit of news: Thursday was my last day at my practicum... it is Bitter-sweet. It's so nice to now be done with it and have a few weeks of a summer, but I am going to miss those little kiddos! It was a great experience for me and I learned a lot, and those children were adorable! But it is nice to be done. My other online class is pretty much done as well. I've just got a test next week and that's it for my summer semester! Wahoo!

Weekend O' Fun

2011-08-04T19:54:00.000-07:00

This last weekend's Adventures left us worn out and sore on Sunday. It was very busy but fun-filled!

Friday Night: Preston Rodeo

We went with my Rodeo buddy and her husband Ryan. Julane was the first one to introduce me to rodeos, and I quickly fell in love with them. I think almost every single rodeo i've been to has been with Julane. Ha!

*We have known each other since 6th grade (or around there...), and have been best friends for Years! Ryan and her got married almost exactly a month after us! It has been so fun to be experiencing the same life stages together.* Sorry, brief side note....

Saturday Morning: Floating the Oneida River!

We had tons of fun floating down the Oneida Narrows saturday morning with a huge group of people. It was tons of fun!

Saturday Night: Rock Climbing

This is Jeff's nervous face... he is afraid of heights... (yes, it is ironic due to the fact that he flies planes thousands of feet above ground).

Jeff's coaches: Cory - One of Jeff's really good friends/old roommate who just got home from his mission, & Staci - One of my best friends/old roomie! We did a little rock climbing double date.

I felt bad because he was literally only about 5 feet off the ground and I was thinking "Come on Jeff, you're not even high!" But... it turns out heights get to me a as well... ha ha.

Harnessed up and ready to go! Don't be deceived by my happy faced... I was terrified before I even started.

Don't be deceived by this happy face either. I'm embarrassed to admit that I had my fare share of threatenings to quit, and we won't even talk about how long I was up there.... ha.

But the important thing is......

....that I Conquered that wall!! (Like an hour later.... he he)

Don't think that I hated every minute of this climb... it was challenging for me, but I decided that I actually really liked it (once I was back on the ground) :) It felt good to make it the top, especially when it was so hard for me.

Cute little Staci... Love this girl!

And then pretty much the two of them (Cory and Stace) seriously showed us wussies up by flying up this "beginner" wall in minutes ha ha. And did it hard core style. But seriously... Cory literally Jumped up this wall. It was neat.

What a Fun weekend! Thanks Cory, Staci, Darrell, Ryan, and Julane and everyone else who contributed to our fun-ness :) Looking forward to this weekend... It's Jeff's birthday on Sunday and I'm probably WAY more excited for it than he is! ha ha!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

2011-07-24T15:17:00.000-07:00

Phew!! This has been one crazy busy summer, between Vacations, Weddings, Honeymoon, Camping trips, Reunion, Holidays, Work, Internship, and SCHOOL.... I'm pooped!

I have been staying very busy working at my on-campus job, as well as doing my practicum at a daycare, plus taking a couple online classes. Jeff has been pretty busy flying this summer as well. I can't wait until my classes and internship are done in a of couple weeks. Then I get a couple weeks off... ha. Then right back into it. I just keep telling myself that I'm almost there... the end is near!

It's been busy, busy, but so fun! Plus, I LOVE being married :)

Camping & Canoeing

2011-07-24T15:07:00.000-07:00

We went on our first little camping trip as a married couple the second week in July. It actually was originally supposed to be a big group of people, but... everyone bailed. SO just me and Jeff went! We just went up Smithfield canyon and camped for the night. It was fun to use all of our new camping gear.

We woke up early in the morning so we could go canoeing on a triple date with some good friends. We had too much fun!

Rau Wolf Creek Vacation

2011-07-24T14:46:00.000-07:00

So the week after we got back from the Wegner family vacation, we had my family's vacation up at Wolf Creek (end of June - yes... I'm behind). We were only able to go for the weekend since we had just taken off a week's worth of work, but it happened to also be my birthday weekend :) The big 21!

Cool man-made waterfall in Ogden canyon

My little birthday drive up a little ways on this cool dirt road that goes from Eden to Avon (Cache Valley). It was GORGEOUS with all the dense fields of wild flowers!

Birthday presents: Strawberry freezer jam, and temple bag. Love it!

Unfortunately Mike and Maridee couldn't make it up there that weekend, but everyone else was there. We swam in the pool a little, ate lots of food, and played tons and tons of games of course. That's just what us Rau's do :)

Cayman Islands Adventure

2011-07-10T14:01:00.000-07:00

In the middle of June we went on vacation with the Wegner family to the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean. Mmm... it was heaven :) Minus the heat and humidity... BUT I actually didn't mind it that much because.. well, we were on an island in the Caribbean.

Here's a bunch of pics from our adventures. It was a great vacation and we had so much fun spending time with Jeff's family! Thanks Mom and Dad Wegner for an awesome trip!! PS... Sorry so many pics, it was hard to narrow them down.

Adventure #1: String Ray City... way cool!

Yes I am kissing that WILD string ray :) Which means 7 years of good luck! Ha ha.

Now "hugging" it...

Jeff "hugging" it... we got to feed them too!

Adventure #2: Turtle Farm!

We saw TONS and TONS of turtles (at all different stages of life)...

Plus one crocodile

Adventure #3: Queen Elizabeths Botanic Gardens

The Blue Iguana is only found on Cayman Islands and they are currently trying to get the population up enough to take them off the endangered species list.

Minutes after joking about this sign, we found...........

This monster under our car ha ha!

He didn't like us chasing him from his cool shady spot as you can see from this pic.

Adventure #4: Kayaking through Bioluminescence!

The Kayaking crew

Lots of snorkeling

Grandpa and Parker

Cute little Brielle and Parker!

Adventure #5: Deep sea Fishing!!

This was on my bucket list and I was way way excited for it! Unfortunately I was expecting a little bit bigger of a boat and we ended up going on the first not-so-great weather day, which resulted in HUGE waves... which then resulted in quite a few near puking moments for myself...

Nick cutting out the Tuna gills to take home for research

Captain Herman! And me with my first deep sea catch. A Tuna!

Jeff's catch... half a tuna! Ha ha

Captain Herman was the best! He came to our hotel afterwards and cooked up our Tuna fish for us. It was SO good! I'm not a huge fish eater but this was way good! And Jeff despises even the smell of tuna... and even HE ate it!

The view from our balcony. So beautiful there... I miss it already.

Memorial Day

2011-06-25T11:44:00.000-07:00

Memorial Day.... was forever ago... but I'm still playing catch up! We had a fun day with my parents and Matt who came up to visit us! Unfortunately it was a mostly rainy day, however we were able to catch a few hours of moderate sunshine to do some fun activities.

We went to Logan's cute little Willow Park Zoo! I love this zoo :) As you can kind of see, it's mostly make up of birds and ducks... however they still have some cool animals there too!

Cute baby geese!

Feeding the crazy huge fish and ducks in the pond

Our final activity for the day was one that we've been waiting a while to do. We all gave my dad a flight with Pilot Jeff for his birthday present! This was the main reason for them coming up to Logan, so we were really worried that we weren't going to be able to do it with all the rain, but we got lucky!

The two back-seaters... both a little nervous :)

The two cute pilots! My dad pretty much flew the entire time! Go Dad!!

While they were all up in the air I got to enjoy this beautiful view of a rainbow and the Logan temple! A perfect end to a wonderful day.

Honeymooners

2011-06-24T17:16:00.001-07:00

We decided to do a local honeymoon which was the best decision ever! It was the perfect little vacation (much needed too) and we had lots of fun. We went to Park City for the first three nights and then drove up to Jackson Hole, WY for three more nights. Here's some pics of our adventures!

First road trip as Mr. and Mrs. Wegner :) I of course, had to get myself some aviators so that I could officially be a pilot's wife.

We Saw......

Lots of SNOW!

A couple of small ghost towns!

The amazingly breath taking Tetons!

Attractive men.... oh wait, that's MY attractive man :)

And finally... lots and lots of Wildlife....

All we wanted to see was a bear... sadly this is the closest thing we got.

We LOVE to explore, especially when it comes to dirt trails. Hmm... that's ironic ha ha. Since after all it was off-roading that brought us together :) Side note. Anyway, we had a map of Jackson and Teton National park and I'm pretty sure we explored every single possible off road possible, I'm not even kidding ha ha. See what I mean? It was the Perfect little vacation for us!

May 6, 2011 :)

2011-06-24T16:24:00.001-07:00

Get ready for a blog post overload... I'm super behind!

We've already been married for close to two months! It's crazy how fast it goes by. So we don't have our wedding day pictures yet from our photographer, but I promise to post some of those once we do.

Our wedding day turned out to be a beautiful day. Temple grounds were breath taking, our sealing was wonderful, luncheon was delicious, and the reception was perfect. It was so fun to be surrounded by so many family and friends, and to feel of their love and support for us. Everything went perfectly all day, despite the fact that we lost our truck in the parking garage... Twice. The second of which took us at least twenty minutes to find it. Also apparently Jeff wanted to go on our Honeymoon early because he ended up on 2-15 headed towards the airport ha ha. This all resulted in us being about a half hour late to pictures.... it's all part of the adventure right?! Ha ha. The whole day was go-go-go, yet surprisingly very fun and low stress level.

I know it's cheesy, but I can honestly say that it was the BEST day of my life, to date. I've never been happier :) And I'm so grateful for a temple marriage. All my life I've heard everyone say this and how much it blesses their lives and their family, and now I finally understand. I can't imagine it any other way. It's a huge blessing, and I'm so excited to be able to spend the rest of my life, and Forever with my Best Friend!

SO Far Behind...

2011-05-19T12:18:00.000-07:00

I will update my blog someday soon... I promise! Now that I actually have time to blog, we don't have internet :( But getting it soon hopefully!

Wedding/Honeymoon posts to be coming soon!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

2011-04-14T16:22:00.001-07:00

**I've been meaning to update my blog but life has been so CRAZY! I'll tell ya what... it may not have been the brightest idea to try to plan a wedding while working and trying to get through my so far busiest semester... but oh well. All I can say is that the end is near and that we're down to 3 weeks left! :) YAY! It's great because the countdown is not only to our wedding, but to the end of the semester and the coming of SUMMER! So close.**

This last weekend was awfully productive. I had my first Bridal Shower thanks to my Aunt Becky and dear cousin Jen. It was fun! Presents, chatting, food, chatting... you know how those things go. Jeff even came because we had a meeting with our videographer in Sandy just before, so he got to meet some more family members. Sorry no pictures... everyone seemed to forget their cameras.

Following the shower we then had a meeting with the Photographer. Ten minutes after he left the florist showed up! Ha ha. It was a busy but productive weekend, and I'm beginning to feel better a.k.a less stressed about everything. Just gotta get through this next week and then after Thursday (when my last huge project is due) I can Breathe!

Well... I think that's all I have to say right now. I'll be posting some of our engagement pics soon!

One YEAR!

2011-04-14T16:14:00.000-07:00

April 10, 2010 = The Best Worst Date Ever :)

The date that started it all...

We celebrated our one year anniversary by going back to Baby Animal Days! Unfortunately it decided to snow all weekend so it was much smaller this year. However, despite the snow and mud I told Jeff the we HAVE to go because it's a very significant event to our relationship. I can't believe it's been one year!

One Year Ago: Wagon Ride

This Year: Wagon Ride

One Year Ago: Baby Bears

This Year: Baby Bears! SO cute!

One Year Ago: Baby Turtles

This Year: Baby Turtles

One Year Ago: Baby Chicks

This Year: Baby Chicks!

And of course we can't forget how that date one year ago ended....

Ha ha. It's amazing to me that this is what brought us together :)

50 Days!

2011-03-17T17:02:00.000-07:00

Yup that's a count down to that special day coming up quite quickly in May :) Only 50 days away... yikes! The other night me and Jeff realized that it was only a month and a half away and we couldn't believe how close it is! It's funny because three and even two months seemed so far away, yet here we are at one and a half... and it'll be here in no time. (Which also means the end of the semester... Yay!)

I am SO excited to get married. I really just want it to be that day. I don't want to plan a wedding. I know it should be fun (and it is), but I think I'm a bit crazy to be attempting to plan a wedding during the end of this semester... especially since I'll be taking my two finals on Thursday, the day before we get married. Ha ha! Yup I'm crazy... but it's all coming together. My mom is the greatest. She's doing pretty much all the work... Thanks Mom!! I really do appreciate her so much!

I got my dress coming, engagements taken, videographer chosen, colors figured out... almost ha ha, and announcements to be figured out soon. Yes things are coming together!

*Engagement pictures to be posted soon!*

P.S. In my Preschool Methods and Curriculum class today my teacher told us about this website notjustcute.com. It's a great resource for preschool teachers and moms. It has a lot of good tips and advice, tons of creative ideas for activities, and other resources and articles to read. One of her recent posts was about time-outs and coaching your children. I thought it was pretty interesting.

Spring Break

2011-03-10T17:45:00.000-08:00

First of all, you can't even imagine the amounts of mold I just pulled out of our fridge. I almost gagged a few times... It was full. Now it's literally half that... ew. I'll tell ya what, I am SO excited to have my own fridge someday for just mine and Jeff's food.

Spring Break has been great so far! And that sunshine today was heavenly. This week has been pretty relaxing for the most part. It's mostly been consumed by planning and planning and planning a wedding... however we were able to escape down to Provo/Mapleton area last night. We got to hang out with my cousin Nate and my old roommate Staci. It was fun to see both of them! Then we went and hung out with Katie, Danny, and Chris for a bit (talked a little more wedding talk) and then slept the night at Mike and Maridee's next door. Their new house is so cute!

This morning we got to hang out with the girls - Katie, Maridee, Lexie, Taya and Brynlee! It was so fun! I have the cutest nieces ever :) Taya is usually pretty shy when we come around but she eventually warmed up to us. Then at some point Jeff became a scary monster so we would catch him and tie him up with our jump rope. That game turned into one where we would hide in Katie's room and then go tip toe through the hallway looking for Monster Jeff. Once we found him he would jump out and scare us. This was of course followed by Lex screaming as we ran back into Katie's room and shut the door. This went on and on and on.... and on ha ha. It was hilarious!

It was so fun to see all those Mapleton guys down there, since they're so far away from us... but thanks Holley's and Rau's for letting us come play and sleep at your house!

Dress Shopping!

2011-03-09T09:06:00.000-08:00

I appreciated my sister and sister-in-law who came up to go wedding dress shopping with me on Monday! It ended up being quite the party with me, my mom, two sisters and three little ones. It was so fun to try on all those beautiful wedding dresses. My mom was no help because she loved every single one I tried on ha ha.

My little three year old niece Lexie was the biggest little helper! She was in heaven. Lately she's been obsessed with my sister's wedding video so she was pretty excited to watch me try on so many princess dresses. :) She was pretty hilarious too. She had to come into the dressing room with me and she would just sit and watch as the lady helping laced me up in the back. Then she would bundle up the train in her arms and carry it out for me! It was so funny! The best one was when I tried on a dress without a train... ha ha she still had to carry the back of the dress out for me. She would tell me that every dress was "cute" or that I looked "cute" ha. She also thought that the slip and corset I was wearing was "cute".... so who knows, Lexie liked it, maybe I should just wear that to the wedding :)

I wish I could remember all the hilarious things she said... she keeps us entertained. I feel bad because my sisters got stuck driving home in the snow storm... sorry! But thanks so much for coming up and I think I found a dress!

The Moment You've All Been Waiting For........ :)

2011-03-06T16:01:00.000-08:00

We're ENGAGED!!!!!!! :)

March 1st Jeff took me flying during the sunset...

Beautiful snow-covered Cache Valley!

View of Logan from up above Logan Canyon!

I love USU's campus!

Sunsets are so much better from the sky :)

And finally, after two hours, the help of our two good friends Jenni and Darrell, and 14 cans of red spray paint.... He proposed!!! :)

The Ring! I love it.

I love this boy!

And I can't wait to spend the rest of forever with my Best Friend!!

Taya's Birthday Party

2011-03-05T12:14:00.000-08:00

So these are kind of late... but here are some pictures from Taya's 2nd Birthday Party a few weeks ago.

Lex always has the funniest faces in pictures...

Brynlee loves the plastic

Love this one!

These little stinkers don't like to cooperate for pictures

Grandpa and Lex

Gotta' Love Love :)

2011-02-15T15:14:00.000-08:00

First of all... what do I love?!.... This WARM weather!!

Currently it's 56 degrees outside! Hello sunshine! However, sadly tomorrow on the forecast is rain... and then snow... I'm hoping the weather man is wrong.

You know what else I love...? My man :) Sorry i'll try to keep the cheesiness down to a minimum. I hope everyone had a great Valentine's day. Mine was Wonderful. I was quite impressed with Jeff.

He gave me flowers :) Yah ignore the wilting rose... I don't know what it is but whenever he buys me flowers they start to die within like two days. I blame it on my apartment and the lack of light.

So we went out to dinner at Olive Garden (one of the three nice restaurants in Logan ha ha). Dinner was yummy and we witnessed a couple get engaged - it was kind of random and actually a bit weird... ha. I know of like a billion couples that got engaged last night. Ok maybe not that many ha ha.

To plan our night Jeff had a bunch of ideas and had me choose between them, only I didn't know what I was choosing. He gave me options such as hot or cold? Light or dark? Childish or child like? And then I got to choose. I thought it was clever and it made it so fun and exciting! The anticipation was killing me all day!

For our first activity we went to Aggy's Sports Grill where they have a fire pit outside and we roasted marshmallows. Ha ha! Not sure if that's legal or not :) But it was so fun!

For our next activity we finger painted portraits of each other! That was the childish choice and it was perfect, I loved it!

As you can see they are exact replicas of ourselves. I was actually quite impressed with mine ha ha. Don't you think it looks just like him?? Well... minus the ears... ha :)

We ended the night listening to songs that made us think of each other. It was cute!

Mmm... I love that boy :)

Hardware Ranch

2011-02-08T15:22:00.001-08:00

Sorry we haven't been doing anything exciting enough to blog about lately due to me being sick for about a week and a half now, and both of us being busy with school and work. However despite all that we did find sometime last Saturday to venture up Blacksmith Fork Canyon to Hardware Ranch.

Hardware Ranch is a little refuge area for the elk to come and get food in the winter months

We doubled with my friend Julane and her man Ryan

You ride on a sleigh pulled by these beauties throughout the refuge area so you can see the elk up close!

See all the elk in the background? I know it doesn't look like many but they usually get about 500 elk there. That day was actually a smaller group (300) due to the lack of snow and warmer weather.

St. Louis

2011-01-04T13:47:00.000-08:00

Christmas in St. Louis was wonderful! We had tons of fun! I really enjoyed getting to know Jeff's family. They were a lot of fun and made me feel very welcomed and comfortable. Here's the highlights of what we did:

St. Louis:

The Gateway Arch

City of St. Louis

The great Mississippi River and Illinois

At the very top of the arch - 630 ft. high!

The Dred Scott Court house, where the Dred Scott case took place.

St. Louis Zoo:

Despite the fact that half the animals were gone due to it being winter, it was still a lot of fun. The animals that were left were all very active and entertaining (my favorite was the monkey house).

Camel - seriously foaming at the mouth... gross.

Deep in thought... (sorry it's blurry)

Inside the Penguin house (Jeff loves penguins)

Butterfly House:

Jeff and his little sister Hannah inside the Butterfly House

The "owl" butterfly

Felt like I was back in Hawaii with all the beautiful tropical flowers and serious humidity

Nauvoo/Carthage Day Trip:

Frozen Mississippi

Nauvoo temple. I have always really loved this temple.

I went to Nauvoo with my family many years ago (before temple was built) and I've always wanted to go back there someday. It was only a three hour drive from where we were at in St. Louis so me, Jeff, his dad and younger sister took a little day trip. We went to Carthage Jail first. Standing in that room was the first time I had really felt the spirit as a little girl, so it was really awesome to go back and feel how strong that spirit is again. Also, due to the winter time, both Carthage and Nauvoo were almost completely dead, so it was nice to not have crowds and pretty much have the entire place to ourselves.

It was cool to go back to Nauvoo as well, and see the temple now standing there. Due to the lack of time we were only able to visit a few a the houses and buildings, but we made sure to stop by all the ones with free souvenirs of course.

My favorite part of the trip however was going and doing baptisms in the Nauvoo temple. This was a dream come true for me! It was a neat experience and that temple is just so beautiful inside! All the workers were super friendly and talkative too :) They told us that the Nauvoo temple's baptismal font is the biggest of all the temples. That's because they used the measurements from when the temple was first built. And the reason why they made it so big back then was because they were trying to get so much work done that they would often have three baptisms going on inside the font. Pretty interesting huh?

Hello Christmas Break

2010-12-15T13:05:00.000-08:00

My christmas break has now officially began, and I am welcoming it with open arms!

This year I'll be celebrating my Christmas in St. Louis, Missouri with Jeff and his family. I'm pretty excited for this little vacation and for the opportunity to really get to know his family better. I do feel bad that I'm ditching my family for Christmas though... Sorry Mom! But we've got lots of fun things planned and I can't wait!

We are actually hanging out in the airport right now waiting for our flight in a couple hours. We both fly out today and then i'm coming back on the 28th. Yes that is almost 2 weeks! I'm a little bit nervous... but mostly excited! :)

Graduation Photo Shoot

2010-12-14T13:16:00.001-08:00

We had a lot of fun doing this graduation photo shoot for my friend. Thanks Steph for the practice and Congrats on Graduating!

Family, Fun, and.... FOOD!

2010-11-29T16:21:00.000-08:00

Happy Snowy Thanksgiving!

I had a wonderfully busy break hanging out with my family and stuffing myself with food. We had a full house and, as always, were very entertained by the little ones.

Lexie helped me make these cute little turkeys. Her "help" consisted of sucking all the color off the jelly beans and hiding them under her plate, and licking all the filling of the oreo's. Ha ha she was a great help!

Black Friday shopping consisted of Walmart at Midnight, which was total madness! I loved it! I get a kick out of black friday shopping. It's so fun and crazy. Katie and I waited up until 2:30 to go to Kohl's but once we got there and saw the line we bagged that idea and just went to bed.

P.S. I came back to Logan to find at least a foot of snow! When I walked out the door this morning everything looked so beautiful covered in snow!

P.S.S Only 2 more weeks until Finals!!!!! Oh YEAH!

Baby, It's Cold Outside...

2010-11-29T16:11:00.001-08:00

And it's a Winter Wonderland!!

This is a picture of the "worst Blizzard of the century" that hit us on Tuesday. Really not as bad as I was expecting. This is a view from Jeff's apartment in Logan.

And of course we had to play in the freshly fallen 8 or so inches of snow!!

Ha ha :)

Practicing My Domesticality

2010-10-18T17:08:00.000-07:00

First time making homemade wheat bread... And it was a success!

It was kind of time consuming, but the amazingly yummy result is definitely worth it! Yum!

Most of you are probably thinking that I've fallen off the face of the Planet....

2010-10-14T15:07:00.000-07:00

....Well I have.

I just realized that it's been over two months since I've updated my blog... Sorry to those who actually read it and care about what's going on in my life. I will try to do better, but now that I'm back in school and working i've just been a busy busy girl. Life has been really good though! I am enjoying my classes this semester, I love where I'm living, and I think that I have the best job ever. But best of all I'm in love with my best friend :). (I apologize for the cheesiness)

Here are some of the highlights of my life the past couple months:

I finally got to go to the Oregon coast and loved it!

Witnessed first hand the domination of the Aggies over BYU for the first time in 17 years :)

Experienced my very first car accident, which sadly resulted in the death of the deeply loved Geo which I was so attached too.... :(

Bought my first very own fishing pole! It's orange.

Finally after 2 1/2 years of living in Logan, "Cleaned the Sink" at Angie's

Lots of hiking and enjoying the beautiful fall colors

But mostly what my life has consisted of is school, work, school, homework, and playing with my man.

Life is Good :)

Boating and Camping

2010-08-13T14:52:00.000-07:00

Last week ended up being pretty busy and eventful for me! Here's what I did:

Wednesday I went boating with a big group of friends at Willard Bay

Thursday morning I went camping with the Young Single Adults from my home stake up in a tiny town north of Preston, Idaho.

Someone knew this guy who owns a ton of land and he let us come up and camp on his property for a few days. He had horses so we got to do a lot of horseback riding!! I LOVED it so so much! I felt like I was on a farm. We got to round them up, and saddle and bridle them. We also learned/observed one of the horses get horse-shoed. That was pretty cool! And... I finally galloped on a horse for the first time! I've always been a little nervous but I did it and it was awesome!

Friday we drove out to this private lake and played on the beach/boated. We had a tiny boat so only a few people could go out at a time. We did a lot of tubing which was way fun, and I also got to do some wake-boarding again! It was fun with this little boat because it had a lot of power.

Friday night brought lots of excitement. We got hit by a big storm! It was extremely windy, and rainy. There we were in this wide open field surrounded by lightening while clinging to metal poles trying to hold down our two big canopies! It was so windy that my tent blew away.... ha ha yes it BLEW away!

I had been up riding horses when the storm hit and someone pointed out to me that my tent was gone... ha ha. I thought he was just teasing me but when I realized it really was gone I ran down to camp. It blew at least 300 yards away and ripped a huge hole in the top (keep in mind this was one our wards 6-man big spring bar tents)! Miraculously every single item of ours stayed inside the tent. Which really is a miracle because all of our bags were wide open and things were strewn everywhere! They just had to shove it all together and throw it in the truck before it started pouring.

I thought it was pretty hilarious that our tent blew away ha ha. That night we slept in the back of our leaders car, which was super uncomfortable. The good news was, was that we didn't have to take down our tent in the morning, or even clean it out for the next people to use it ha! That's all we heard about at church that Sunday. The young men teased us a lot because we "ruined" their tent that they were going to be using that next Monday. Ha ha oops! It was some pretty intense wind I'll tell ya what. Wasn't our fault! :) It sure was a pretty big adventure.

San Francisco Baby!

2010-08-02T12:42:00.001-07:00

So I flew out to Sacramento, CA a couple weekends ago to visit two of my good friends, Jake and Matt, who have been living there for the summer selling pest control. It was a bit of a hassle to actually get out there and once I had gotten there I wasn't sure if I was going to make it back ha ha. I have free flying benefits thanks to my Dad, but you have to fly stand by, which does make it more difficult to actually get on a plane.

Long story short, basically on the way there my plane was supposed to leave at 10:00 pm Friday night, but instead left around 2:15 am... So after a 4 hour delay... I finally arrived in Sacramento at 3 in the morning California time!

We got a few hours of sleep then headed out to San Francisco to hang out for the day! I think San Fran is the coolest city ever! I LOVED it! The beautiful victorian style houses lined up along the streets! It is just a beautiful city! I wouldn't want to live there though... driving around was a bit crazy. And it's extremely expensive ha.

Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge!!!

Jake with the crazy geese

At the beach! It's too bad it was so cold, windy and cloudy that day.

Lombard Street! The most crooked street in the world I guess.

Driving down Lombard street

Such a COOL city! I wish I would've gotten a better picture of the streets but I hate taking pictures from the car and I'm not very good at it either.

Telegraph Hill

A view of Lombard Street

The Bay Bridge (we never drove across this one)

Jake, myself, and Matt at Fisherman's Warf

It ended up being a really fun trip and a good little adventure for myself! Short... but still good!

Redd Family Reunion 2010

2010-07-29T11:46:00.000-07:00

We had our Redd Family Reunion the weekend of July 9th to the 11th. Yes I know I'm kind of behind... This year we had it up in the Sandy area, which was different but still lots of fun as usual. Friday we got together at a park where there was a pool. We had dinner with homemade root beer and chatted with family members.

Saturday morning a group of us did an early hike in the mountains behind the University of Utah. We hiked up to the "Rock Furniture." It was a nice hike and the view of Salt Lake was beautiful! We also got to relax in some surprisingly pretty comfy rock furniture which made the hike all worth it.

Saturday afternoon was spent at Liberty park where numerous activities were enjoyed such as slack lining, koob game...? (not sure if that is the right name or not, but I definitely know it was not "cube" ha ha), playing in the water, eating food of course, more chatting, feeding the seagulls, etc.

Next we migrated to Aunt Becky's church Bowery where we ate dinner, played in the bouncy house, candy cannon, and were entertained by a hilarious game of "Minute to Win It" put together by Katie and Maridee. They did a great job and it was so entertaining to watch! However, sadly my camera died about half way through it so I unfortunately wasn't able to capture the best events.

Sunday we all met at the Lee's house for dinner and dessert (Grandpa's chocolate) and then those who needed to travel headed home.

"Rock Furniture"

Grandpa's Ties

Candy Cannon!

Empty Nesters

2010-07-27T13:14:00.000-07:00

Well we released little Juniper back into the wild Sunday morning. She was definitely ready to go, and had been acting more like a wild bird that last couple days we had her.

It was a good little adventure we had raising that bird, and I even got quite attached those last few days that I was taking care of her at my house, but it is nice to have her gone. We took her outside Sunday morning and she sat on Jeff's finger for a few minutes, then just flew away. It was a melancholy moment... Our little girl left the nest and was venturing out on her own :( Ha ha!

Sorry I don't have the pictures to share...

Not So Little Anymore

2010-07-23T22:37:00.000-07:00

Our little Juniper is not so much of a baby anymore! We've had her for about 2 1/2 weeks now and she has grown so much! She's flying now too!! Oh and we found out that it's most likely a girl due to her duller coolers and different tail feathers.

She takes a lot of time and commitment... she wakes up at 6 every morning and then has to be fed every hour... This little experience has showed me that I'm definitely not ready to be a mother yet ha ha!

Usually Jeff has her most of the time and I mostly just bird sit while he's at work, but he's been busy flying and this weekend he went up to an air show in Idaho so I've been taking care of her since Thursday morning. Phew... she is a lot of work!

I brought her home with me for a few days and she was miserable the entire car ride. I hate to make her go through that again...

She is such a funny little bird. She is extremely social and hates to be left alone. She loves to sit on top of your head or shoulder, and she hates to be in her cage. You can see in the pictures how much longer her wings have gotten! We've also added millworms to her diet... yuck! Why does she have to eat gross disgusting bugs?! But she just loves them.

He he :) I feel bad because the bird bombarded my dad, and of course my first concern was to capture the moment, so I made him wait while I grabbed my camera. Ha ha Sorry Dad! I love this picture because the bird is peaking up behind his head looking a bit guilty.

My dad rigged up this little golf club perch for her in my room, which she loves. She has successfully left her pleasant little surprises on almost everything in my room... my bed, my carpet, my bookshelf, the wall a few times, my shirt, my dad's forehead ha, and the footnotes of Alma chapter 37. She's only partially potty trained.

The good news is, is that she is really close to being released back into the wild! She is the cutest little thing and I've gotten pretty attached, but it will be nice to have her go. She's flying pretty good for small confined spaces and she will eat the worms on her own. Also, the progress made today is that instead of sitting and waiting to get fed she now flys to the food. That is a good sign! She's kind of crazy actually... she pretty much attacks you when she's hungry ha ha.

The real test will be if she will catch and eat live crickets... but after that she should be ready to be set free, which I'm guessing will be sometime early next week if not this weekend! I'll keep you all posted :)

Baby Juniper

2010-07-16T13:42:00.000-07:00

This is Juniper. The baby swallow that we rescued a couple weeks ago after falling out of his nest. The other three babies had already died and the mother had not returned for quite sometime. We brought him home and have been raising him until he is ready to fly away.

When we first got him he was kind of ugly... ha ha. But now he is looking more like a bird and so much cuter!

We started out feeding him mashed up cat food.

However.... now he's moved on too:

Ewww! Crickets.... ugh.

Live Your Life

2010-07-02T10:57:00.000-07:00

I found a couple quotes the other day that I really liked:

"Live with Intention.

Walk to the Edge.

Listen Hard.

Practice Wellness.

Play with Abandon.

Laugh.

Choose with No Regret.

Appreciate your Friends.

Continue to Learn.

Do what you Love.

Live as if this is all there is."

- Mary Anne Radmacher

"Go confidently in the Direction of your dreams. Live the Life you've Imagined."

- Henry David Thoreau

The Big Two Oh

2010-06-29T11:03:00.000-07:00

My last day as a teenager I spent in St. George hiking in Zions. Perfect way to finish up those teen years. It was my first time going to Zions and I loved it! We just did a short and easy 3 mile hike called Emerald Pools. Sorry I didn't get any pics.

In celebration of me entering my 20th year we spent the day boating at Willard Bay.

Perfect weather. Perfect water. Perfect day.

Most Priceless Photo of the Day Award goes to....

Congrats Darrell :)

Spontaneous trip to St. George...?? YES!

2010-06-25T10:20:00.000-07:00

I had a conversation with my brother Chris Monday night that went something like this:

Me: "Chris I'm bored. Let's go on an adventure."

Chris: "Ok. Let's go to St. George."

Me: "....... OK!"

What could be better than a spontaneous trip to St. George...??

So here I am, kickin' it in St. G! Chris has a friend who lives down here so we drove down Tuesday night and we're leaving sometime later today. I have been riding horses, playing in the river, kayaking/playing at the lake, night hiking, etc.

Pretty much all I did yesterday was entertain little girls ha ha! Chris' friend has 4 little sisters here and they are my new best friends - Emily, Sarah, Summer, and Terrah - the cutest girls ever! :) The littlest one is 5 and she is adorable. They were entertaining me all day yesterday while the boys played some game on their computers.

We ended the night with and endless game of hide and seek! It's been in the hundreds here which is why I live in Logan ha. Too hot for me to live in, but it has been nice for a couple days. It's been a good week full of vacationing, but I'm definitely ready to go back.

Fathers Day

2010-06-21T13:32:00.000-07:00

We had a good Father's Day here in the Rau home. Everyone was able to come, which was a lot of fun, as usual.

My Mom got a couple princess dresses from a garage sell and brought them out for the girls. They loved them! They were so adorable!

Cute little Brynlee Boo :)

Look at that double chin, and those chunky cheeks!

I drove the Geo down from Logan on Sunday. Taya's pajama shirt had gotten lost and when Mike was outside looking for it on the ground and around the cars he noticed that the left front tire of the Geo is coming apart! Ah! I knew the tires were pretty bad but I had NO clue I was driving on a tire like that. Talk about scary! I can't believe I even made it home without a blowout... Thank goodness they lost Taya's shirt or else I would've left for Logan not knowing about the tire and... yah you get the idea. Bad news bears.

Lagoon

2010-06-11T15:31:00.000-07:00

I went to Lagoon on Wednesday. It was the first time since I was like 16. It was pretty fun. I can't handle the rides though like I used too... Which is a total bummer because I LOVE roller coasters. However now they make me nauseous.

Funny story: So everyone wanted to ride the Rattle Snake Rapids (one in which you get wet). We had already ridden it once and I was all dry again, so I chose to sit and wait while they all rode it. A half hour later we were eating dinner outside and suddenly it starts dumping rain on us! Ha ha so that's what I get. I ended up soaking wet anyway.

One of our favorite rides is the newest roller coaster Wicked. It's pretty fun! We rode it about 4 or 5 times. And it was perfect because there was no one at the park that day so the lines were super short! We also really enjoyed the bumper cars for some reason. I don't know why but they made me super happy ha ha.

Memorial Day

2010-06-02T11:16:00.000-07:00

My Memorial Day Weekend was pretty eventful and fun filled...

Went to the Planetarium

Had a little sleepover with my little brother in our tent trailer

Woke up at 6 am and ran my first ever 5K! AND got free breakfast for it

Went to the Willow Park Zoo

Drove up Providence Canyon and hiked to a waterfall

Yup, it was a pretty good weekend :)

Dear Rain:

2010-05-29T12:08:00.000-07:00

Rain, rain please go away! Don't come back another day...

I love you but you are ruining all of my plans!

But seriously.... Please stop.

Love, Jessica

Logan News

2010-05-17T12:13:00.000-07:00

So we had a bit of excitement here in Logan a few days ago... Friday night my friend and I had been in Ogden hanging out with a group of people from my old ward. When we got back into Logan we were shocked to see tons of flashing lights coming from our street. We got closer to see multiple fire trucks, police cars, and other flashing vehicles not only covering our street but in the parking lot of OUR apartment complex!! Come to find out there had been a fire in the attic! By time we got there the fire had been out for a little bit. We had to be escorted into our apartment by a fireman to grab a few things (in the dark... the power was off) and then go find somewhere else to sleep for the night. By Saturday morning we were allowed to come back, but the two apartments on the very end were very damaged... they have a large whole in their roof now...

It's so crazy! They said that it was an electrical fire that started because of the bathroom fan. Here's a link to ksl with the story... http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=10788791. The apartments where the fire was are just four apartments down from mine! I can't even imagine... the poor guys who's apartments burned are now homeless and a lot of their stuff is ruined... It's sad, but they all have really good attitudes about the whole situation.

So anyway, that's the latest excitement in my life!

Best Worst Date Ever :)

2010-04-20T21:36:00.000-07:00

A couple weekends ago I went on "The Best Worst Date Ever"... Me and my friend Jeff went to Baby Animal Days out at the American West Heritage Center. It was the cutest place ever! I love animals, especially baby ones :)

Wagon Ride

Baby Cows

"Snuggling" with baby chicks

We were having so much FUN!!

Until.................

We were just off-roading up Hyde Park Canyon and then this happened.... ha. Yah kinda ruined the fun....

It was quite the experience ha ha. But all is good now! :)

A Mexican Spring Break

2010-04-13T18:08:00.000-07:00

¡Beinvenidos A Mexico!

So here I am again... Posting weeks later... But anyway, this year I pretty much had the best spring break EVER! Yup that's right, I went to Mexico with a big group of people :) And despite all the warnings and what not we had no problems at all and were perfectly safe.

We drove down to Ensenada and stayed in a beach house for a week. It was perfect. Like seriously. We had the most beautiful beach in Ensenada and pretty much had it all to ourselves. The weather was perfect and the scenery was beautiful.

Best Spring Break EVER :)

La Bufadora!

Mmmmm.... Tacos... we ate at a taco stand at least ONCE everyday! I miss those tacos...

This is a back shot of the house. I never got a picture of the front.

A shot of the house. It was so open and cute and fun! I loved that house!

Yup that was our backyard for a week :D

A dream come true :) We got to ride horses on the beach! Perfect :)

I kid you not the waves were glowing turquoise! It was the MOST amazing thing I have ever seen in my life!! Oh I wish I could describe it, but really you have to see it to believe it! Come to find out (thanks to my smart brother) it was some bio-luminescent bacteria in the water...? But the sand was just glowing with tiny little speckles of blue and.... ah it was just incredible!!

One day we went to the harbor where all the cruise ships port and ate some delicious fish and shrimp tacos, then got a little half hour boat ride in the harbor on this rink-a-dink wooden boat! Ha ha it was perfect!

On our last day in Ensenada half of us decided to go rent 4-wheelers and drive around the city. It was probably one of my favorite activities that we did that week! We drove around some sand dunes on the beach for awhile and then went off into the foothills. It was beautiful and so much fun!

Here's the whole gang. All 12 of us.

And to finish off my fantastic Spring Break I got to go to Mapleton to see my brand new baby niece Brynlee Kathlyn Holley! She is So dang cute and tiny! She was born while I was in Mexico so it was fun to be able to see her and hold her before I had to head back up to Logan.

Tijuana!!

2010-01-19T20:54:00.000-08:00

WoW! Sorry I have been TERRIBLE at blogging this year! I went on a service trip to Tijuana the day after Christmas for a week to build houses with a group from Utah State, and I'm finally getting pictures posted... sheesh. I'll do better I promise. Anyway here's some pictures. It was hard to choose just a few :). But I must say that this trip was the BEST experience I've had to date. SO worth the money (which was actually realistically priced). I'm for sure planning on going next year as well. The foundation was went with is called Charity Anywhere and they do tons of trips all year long. Most of them are dental or medical trips to Ecuador. They do a few Tijuana/Construction trips as well as some to orphanages. The director of the foundation, Gordon Carter is a way cool guy and has a great story of how he got this program started. It's an incredible opportunity and I'm so Glad that I got to go. It was truly a humbling experience and definitely eye-opening for me. It made me so grateful for EVERY little thing that I have. Especially things that I never really thought of being grateful for - things i've taken for granted all my life. Ok now here's some pictures:

This is the sign we saw seconds before crossing the boarder...... ha. "No USA Return" Ha ha

This picture (and the next few ones) were taken in what our director called "The Valley of the Shadow of Death." It is a really poor area and it was incredible to see all the houses (more like shacks) covering the hillsides, some of them looking very unstable.

They split us up into groups to work on different projects. The group I was in got to tear down a house and basically build them a new one. It was amazing.

This is my roommate Jenni. Her and my other roommate Jessica came too. Here Jenni is standing in the house before we tore half of it down. The ceilings were very low and the walls were thrown together with pretty much whatever they could find (cardboard, wood, over doors, etc.)

Demolition... Step one: Tear down the very unstable roof. Seriously I'm so surprised no one fell through!

Originally the plan was to tear down half of the house and leave the other half, but due to complications we ended up tearing down another section leaving only about 1/4 of the originally house standing.

I was shocked at how seriously dirty it was there. There was a bit ditch behind their house where everyone dumped their trash!

Demolition step two: Tear down the walls!

Ha ha I love this picture! Pedro, the father of the family who lived in this house, plays in a little band (which is how he makes his living) so he brought out all of his instruments which are a snare drum, accordion, and a guitar, and made each of us play them! ha ha so here's a picture of our little band during lunch break.

His favorite song to play for us was that one that goes "Ay Ay Ay Ay"... ha something like that...?

One of my favorite parts of this trip was all the adorable little kids who would come over and watch us. I would try to talk to them which was hard with the language barrier, and I can't remember much spanish, but it was fun to try to communicate.

Andrea. She was so cute!

We American's attempted to play soccer with the little boys... it was kind of fun at first, but then it turned into dodge ball. Or in other words "try to hit the American's with the ball and watch them run!" ha ha they were kind of punk little boys, but it was fun for a little while.

These girls were SO cute! They lived across the street and would constantly be peeking their heads out the door watching us. We would look at them, smile and wave and they would just giggle and get shy.

Me and Jenni built a little roof for a room in the back of the house that pretty much was just a storage room. I was felt pretty proud of ourselves!

Roomies on the streets of Tijuana.

We all became pro hammerers by the end of the week!

I love this picture! We were taking a lunch break. I loved the food surprisingly! It was amazingly delicious! I was worried about that before we left, because I don't like spicy foods and have never been a fan of Mexican food... but this real Mexican food was amazing! I loved that everyday for lunch we had burritos made with whatever meat was left over from dinner the night before ha ha. It was great!

Chaco! This was the sad, scraggly, flea ridden pet of the family we built the house for. He was so sad looking, but so cute.

This was a pretty cool thing that happened! One day after we had the walls up and were working on the roof, a news station stopped by and filmed us and interviewed some people!

Yum! Street tacos

Here's when we decided we needed to tear down more of the house. So more demolition! Wahoo! Oh PS Mexico has the biggest spiders I have EVER seen and I thought I was gonna die! Uhh... it gives me the willies just thinking about it...

This is their twelve year old son Adam. He was sooo cute and sweet! He was a very smart boy and was very willing to help us out in any way he could. Literally he was right there if you needed anything... he would jump on any opportunity to help out. It was so sweet.

Yay for showers!

Jenni and I painted pretty much the entire house! I've always wanted to paint a house.

That's the roof that me and Jenni assembled.

Ignore the ridiculously big, puffy, and frizzy hair as well as the no make up...

Chillin' on the beach in Mexico! New Years day! What a great way to start out the new year! The water was freezing and it was windy... but still great!

Finished product.

I stayed an extra day with a group of people from the group. We hung out at the beach in San Diego, which was much colder than the beach in Mexico. We went to this place called Sunset Cliffs too which was way gorgeous!

Christmas Fiesta-ing!

2010-01-11T09:15:00.001-08:00

Fiesta #1:

Our apartment's cute little Christmas Tree

All the roommates during our "Roommate's only Christmas Extravaganza Party"

Back: Staci, Haley, Cherokee. Front: Jenni, Jess, Me.

Gingerbread house making... aka shack.

Glow stick swords from Santa (aka Me and Staci) = BEST glow stick dance party Ever + hours of fun!

After we partied ourselves out, we had a giant sleepover in our living room and fell asleep to a Christmas movie.

Fiesta #2:

Me and my girls back home... Jess Boy, Julane, and Melissa

We exchanged gifts and then took TONS of photos (don't worry I will spare you all) of us in our new Thing one, Thing two footie pajamas! Melissa gave them to us :D

Gotta love it :)

Side Note: Tijuana Pictures to be coming soon!