Sunday, July 1, 2012

Blessings and Birthdays

First off, I have to say that Brad and I have been so blessed. Brad made it into the nursing program here at BYU-Idaho which is a huge relief. The school only accepts 10 students to the alternate track for the nursing program (alternate meaning you have more credits than just a freshman) and from how soon we found out about him getting accepted, we are pretty sure it didn't take long for the school to decide that they wanted him. Big weight lifted off. He feels like this is the direction he needed to go and despite him getting his application in late, he made it. I will soon be a nursing school widow and can't wait for him to finish so that we might actually get to see each other once in a while. 
Over the memorial weekend break, we were blessed to get to go to Utah and stay with Erin and Trevor (my cousins) and meet Allen and Cait's little girl Asia. We spent lots of time playing with Benji (Allen and Cait's oldest) and LOVED spending time with those loved ones in Utah. Wish we could have stayed longer. We went to Hogal zoo and instead of taking pictures of the cute little ones and family (the whole reason we even went) we just got pictures of the cute little zoo animals. This might say something about Brad and I but I will let you fill in the blank. 

 Brad and I got the opportunity to go to the Jordan River Temple. So fantastic. We want to collect pictures of all of the temples we go to and make a book out of it.

Now mind you, we got to the zoo like three days before the opening of the polar bear exhibit so we didn't get to see some of the animals because everything was closed down.
 We had limited batteries for our pictures so we had to ration out which animals got to have permanent residence in our memories and hearts. The other animals should have thought about being cooler before they got to the zoo so that we would want to remember them as well.
 Cute little guy peeking out of his little blanket.
 Brad and I's idea of the perfect home. Lots of open space, fresh air and a stimulating environment.
 This cute little girl was just a few years old. She also did a little performance for us by standing on her head. I didn't know elephants could do that. Nerd alert: I guess this is a natural playing position (head stands) so one day the workers saw her balancing act and they thought it was pretty cool so they started throwing anything an elephant might find tasty at her so that she had positive reinforcements. Now she can do it on command. I wonder if when she is big if she will be able to. That's a lot of weight on one noggin.  
 Thumbs up for baby elephants!

 Look at those feathers!! So pretty

 A sloth. I think sloths are so funny and cute. I want one. Just one. He can sleep in the corner of our bedroom and he can ride in my backpack when I go to class.
 I wouldn't mind having one of these as well.

 Monkey see, monkey do ;)
 So for Brad's birthday, I wanted to get him a tent. So I spent several weeks trying to figure out what he would want in a tent, I have no clue when it comes to these types of things, and then I went to Walmart on the day of his birthday and agonized over tents for like an hour. Of course no one was around to tell me what a good tent might be so I finally figured that this one was the cheapest and had the cutest trim. I like bright green. So I got it and turns out it was exactly what Brad was thinking he might want for us for our first tent. We then set it up in the spare room and spend a couple of nights "camping". We turned off all of the lights at night and had to walk around with our flashlight. Let me tell you going to the bathroom in the dark is a little more concerning than it is with the lights on. I had to check the shower to make sure no one was taking advantage of our darkened state.

 Brad is a little excited.
 Then, somehow, all of these cheesy little bugs came to our house and had cute little love notes for Brad. I guess they were all love bugs.
 Can't really see it but all of the little colored things on the walls were our bugs.
 Smore's over the stove and some of Brad's favorite chips. I am a good wife.
 Camping trip complete with a camp fire.
 Now, we had hot dogs which are a little more "campie" but both of us like pizza more so we went with that instead.
The day after our little camping trip. So much fun. We also watched a movie because we figured that there was a little spot in our tent for a power cord to come through. If there is a spot for power cords, then obviously there is room for a TV. 
I am so proud of Brad and love him to death (and beyond) and I am so lucky I get to spend the rest of forever with him.