3 Down

July 28th, 2007 was the start of our little family...three years later we are still going strong. Dan's mom said that is "baby years", but to me it feels like we have been together forever because it's hard for me to remember my life without Dan in it. To celebrate the big 3 we took Mon-Wed off work. We had planned on spending Monday at 7Peaks, but because Jessie had her baby, I spent most of the day over there...and then it rained. Tuesday we headed to Park City and spent the night. We slept at the Best Western, and got free tickets to the Alpine Slide and the Alpine Coaster. We also went and saw Inception...all the hype is definitely worth it. It was so good, and really thought provoking! Kinda funny story-- I am really paranoid about getting good seats at movies; seriously we always show up at least 30 minutes early because I am convinced that's what everyone else will do, and that we will end up sitting on the front row. Honestly, most the time we are early for no reason. Such was the case this time. We were the only ones in the theater for about 15 minutes..hence the crazy pictures below :). Later that night, we ate at Ruby Tuesday. It was INSANELY Delicious. It's my new favorite place. Hmm...just thinking about the lobster makes me salivate. Even my burps tasted good all night long :)

Wednesday we spent the day out of the lake fishing. Later that night we ate at Tucanoes (we were able to really splurge on dinner because we had a $100 visa gift card). Once again yummy, yummy. I definitely over ate...but it's so easy to do when you are constantly brought pieces of tender, juicy meat.

We didn't go far, but it was so nice to have a break from work, and life in general! I love Daniel so very much, and can't wait to spend more of life's adventures together.

I don't know anybody who can pull a better fishy face :)

silly willy

Cheeser

After dinner at Ruby Tuesday

After dinner at Tucanoes. I know it's just another one of us sitting, but I love them all!

I'm an Aunt!

My younger sister Jessie had her baby yesterday morning!!!

I know most of you don't know her, so won't have much interest in this post, but I want to remember this day lol!

So...details... He was five days early, but still weighed over 8 lbs!! She named him William Scott, and he is adorable!!! My aunt Beci is a mid wife in Texas, and came out to deliver the baby. Beci estimated that if he would have been on time he would have weighed about 10 lbs--lucky for her he came early! I don't remember how long is was...( I know, I know, I'm horrible, but I have never had a baby of my own, so I don't pay attention to those details lol.) ...but I do know he is long! He barely fit into a preemie outfit. I can't get enough of him...which is perfect because I get my baby fix, but don't have to deal with the crying all night :) She decided to have a natural birth (how she did it I will never know lol). She had it in a birthing pool. Beci said she did great, and was only in labor for a total of five hours (I guess first time deliveries average about 12 hours...yikes.) She only pushed for about 20 minutes before little William decided to come out. I am so proud of her! The only minor complication was that she hemorrhaged, so she will be taking it easy these next few weeks. After talking to Jessie and Beci about her labor and delivery I realized there is a lot about the whole process I knew nothing about... What is really important in the end is that my sister has a heathly, adorable baby boy, and she is doing well too!

I love babies yawning, it's so cute!

Jessie and her baby boy

William in the preemie outfit I was talking about, you can tell from the sleeves it was small on him.

He slept the entire afternoon that I was there...Jessie said as soon as I left he got fussy...guess he just loves me :)

Chubby cheeks

Lots of dark hair

I sewed this blanket for him by hand because my sewing machine was broken.

Proud aunty :)

Fishing at Scofield

Friday night we closed shop early to head down to Scofield with Dan's family, Grandma and Grandpa Jensen, and two cousins Josh and Quinton. On our way down we got a call from Grandpa saying he needed more rainbow powerbait, so we stopped at Wal-Mart--they were cleaned out! We stopped at big five--they were also cleaned out. We stopped at Cal Ranch, and luckily they had a few cans left! By the time we got to camp everybody except Grandma was already out of the lake so we didn't get to fish Friday night. We helped prepare dinner, which was delicious! We had hot dogs, hamburgers, baked beans, corn on the cob, watermelon, chips and dip... and much more. After dinner we chatted, ate smore's, and played cards. Bed time came and of course there were a bunch of drunks yelling and being obnoxious all night. It wasn't the best night's sleep...

We woke up bright and early Saturday morning and spent about five hours out on the lake. I was catching fish left and right for about the first two hours. It was very exciting! But after that I caught nothing. That's pretty much how it went for all of us. Around noon we decided to switch from bate to spinners and were able to catch a few more. There were also a bunch of fish that would follow the spinner in all the way to the boat but not get hooked. I tried getting them with the net just for fun, but they were too fast. We let all of them go because I am not a huge trout fan, and it's just a lot easier that way. Grandpa Jensen has a big boat, and Dan, Brent, and his dad recently bought a small fishing boat so everybody was able to be out on a boat fishing! Dan, Brent, Bridgette and I had the small boat all to ourselves Saturday! Being in a boat instead of on shore is much more fun!

Lots of waiting patiently, and lots of catches to make it all worth the wait!

I am looking forward to more fishing excursions this summer!

Stewart Falls

Tonight Dan, Brent, Bridgette, and I hiked to Stewart Falls. I had never been, so I didn't know what to expect. It's up in Sundance, so you take the ski lifts up to the very top then follow a trail that leads you to the waterfalls. It was a leisurely and beautiful trail! At times I thought I was going to need a machete to chop through the foliage! Some places were so thick and overgrown that you couldn't see the trail. We saw lots of wild life--plenty of chip monks, squirrels, and a deer. We also witnessed two squirrels flirting or playing...they may have even been mating for all I know. It was pretty funny. Once they realized they had an audience they got all bashful and hid in the bushes.

Once we got to the waterfall we had a pretty scary moment. Some little kid decided to climb up this steep ledge above the water fall and just kept going and going. He was just free climbing up the mountain, and couldn't have been more than 8 years old. He was the stupidest kid I have ever seen! He wouldn't listen to any of us yelling for him to come back down. He got so high that he disapeared from sight for what seemed like forever. We climbed up the other side of the waterfall to try and see him. We also were yelling across the waterfall trying to see if he was okay. Some other people who were also there sent a young man up after him to help him get down. Finally he reappeared, but he started climbing down the mountain through the middle of the waterfall, we kept yelling for him to stop and go down another way because it was slippery and very mossy. He was just bawling, and I probably would have felt bad for him if he hadn't been such an idiot in the first place. He was able to get down safely, but it was a miracle. He was hiking with his grandpa and I thought that poor old man was going to die of a heart attack. My heart was racing the entire time for that stupid kid that I almost had a heart attack. I thought about recording the entire thing but seriously thought he was going to die, and I didn't want footage of that! It was a pretty effective form of birth control for me :) I officially never want a little boy lol! I guess I am so upset because he was literally so close to dying. Sheeeeesh...okay I am over it.

The gang

Dan and Brent putting their water bottles in the water fall to get them cold

Peace

The Cheever's

The Jensen's

Fun Filled 4th of July Weekend

I always look forward to the 4th for two main reasons:

1-watching fireworks is something Dan and I really enjoy! We have been lucky enough to go to the stadium of fire for the past three years, but weren't able to score free tickets this year :( Instead we decided to haul our guest-bed twin mattress out the front window and on to the roof (It wasn't technically our roof, but the roof of one of the storage sheds just outside our windows...I was so afraid it was going to break and we would fall through to our death, but it was actually pretty sturdy) to watch the Pleasant Grove Fireworks. It ended up being quite a show because we were able to see most of the fireworks going on in North Utah County...including Lindon, Lehi, Pleasant Grove, and Thanksgiving Point. We couldn't see the Stadium fireworks, or any others south of Orem because of big buildings in our way. Nevertheless, PG put on a great show. It lasted for at least 40 minutes. I keep thinking, "Here's the grand finale...no, this is definitely the grand finale...it's gotta be the finale..." but it just kept going and going! Yuki was even mesmerized by them.

2- All the yummy food and BBQ's! This year was the exception to a BBQ, but certainly not to good food. I made pork chops, mashed potatoes and gravy, and some yummy summer squash/zuchinni. It was delicious, and looked really good too, but we ate it before I thought about taking a picture.

Another big event this 4th of July weekend:

Cheyenne's baptism!!! She looked so pretty, and very happy on her special day. I got asked to lead the music. Grandma Jensen and Bridgette gave some great talks that were very simplified for Cheyenne, but I felt like they were just perfect for me to hear too! We took some family pictures, and pictures of Chey outside the church, but I don't have any copies yet...

After-wards the family went to eat lunch at Dalton's in Payson. It was yummy as always! We spent the afternoon hanging around and visiting. Later that day Dan, Brent, Jake, Lorin and I went to a spot Dan had found to "bash" their remote control trucks...I know, I know...my husband is a 12 year old boy again :) Ha ha, actually these monster trucks are the real deal. They are gas powered, really fast, and really fun to watch them wreck. I recorded a lot of footage of them "bashing" it up--you can check it out on facebook if you like. Luckily, Dan's truck escaped undamaged, even though he rolled down 30 foot cliffs all day.

Baby Shower

Yesterday I threw a baby shower for my sister Jessie with the Malan side of the family and some of her friends. I spent the day cooking, cleaning, and preparing, but it was definitely worth the effort to see Jessie so happy and blessed with all the fun stuff she got! She got hooked up! She got so many cute outfits, some bottles, a bottle cleaner, diapers, some baby shampoo and soap, burping clothes, a nice blanket, a rubber ducky, a boppie, a car seat, and a travel bed. We played a few games including "name the baby animal" and the one where you guess how big Jessie's stomach is with yarn--what's a baby shower without the cheesy games :). It was a lot of fun visiting with everyone who came, and we had some yummy food(if I do say so myself lol). Jessie also got a lot of good advice about being a mom.

P.S. I couldn't find my camera anywhere, so these pics were taken with my phone camera--better than nothing!

Opening Gifts:

Cute denim shorts!

One of my favorites with the little tiger on the bum!

My cousin Paige, my aunt Laurie, and my grandma Malan

Judy and her daughter, some friends of Jessie

My mom and Jessie

Jessie with all her gifts!

Her cute prego belly!

~Thanks to everyone who came and made this day special for her~

Payson Canyon = Good Times

Dan and I spent the weekend in nature. We had a bonfire with our friends Casey and Kristi--which included roasting weenies, and lots of smores! Ace was so cute! It was the first time Kristi gave him chocolate, and he loved it (duh)! He ate it all night! He was also quite the cuddle bug with me. When I woke up the next morning I had chocolate all over my hoodie...it took me a minute to remember that it wasn't from me!

We also spent the night camping up Payson Canyon at Maple Bench. The weather was perfect! But I forgot our pillows, so it made for an uncomfortable sleep! On top of that, any time there was a noise outside our tent, I would reach over to Dan and ask, "did you hear that??" certain it was a bear. It must have gone and eaten someone else though because our camp wasn't bothered.

My boy scout getting the fire started

We woke up early enough Saturday morning to get out to Maple lake while the fish were still biting. We caught a few fish, and had a lot of fun! At first I was getting pretty bored and discouraged after sitting on the lake for a whole five minutes without catching anything, but soon enough I felt my line start to tighten, and my pole start to wiggle. I quickly jerked and started to real in but got caught in a bunch of moss on the way in. I thought for sure the fish had gotten away because it wasn't fighting any more, but sure enough the little guy was still on my line, along with 10 lbs of moss! After that we had a few more catches and a lot more snags (well at least I did). Fishing is not really my thing because I hate the waiting time...I am so not good at just chilling and relaxing...but the few catches in between made it exciting and worth it! The last cast of the day didn't end so well-- as I bull-whipped my line across the lake! I ended up loosing my hook, line, and sinker. Oh well. It was a good time to end the trip anyway!

No...this wasn't the first time I have caught a fish. My wacky facial expression is due to the fact that the little guy kept wiggling around and getting his yucky fish water all over me!

Dan is not afraid to grab the fish with his bare hands!

We love each other :)