Sunny with a chance of Isolated Thunderstorms

I mentioned these storms a few posts ago but now I have some pictures!

I love rain/thunder storms! I love to see the clouds roll in and the wind pick up and then BANG! the thunder and lightning. Mark and I love to sit on the balcony and feel the temperature drop and watch the storm. For the first few weeks of June we had some amazing storms. Never mind that there was tornado watch every day for like a week. Things seemed to have calmed down a bit and the days are getting in the upper 80's or low 90's. I feel so bad for my poor family out in California where it has been over 105 the last few days. Gross! People have said that July is the hottest month in Colorado and I am hoping that the storms continue instead. It has made walking around the park a lot easier in the morning and the storms are so fun to see since we really never had weather like that at home. Even when we lived in Utah we never got storms like the ones we have seen out here. Its funny though because when there is a tornado watch there is just something about the weather being so unstable that you have this pull to stand on the balcony or look out the window. I always thought that the one Natural Disaster I really didn't want to deal with was tornadoes. They are just so fast and unpredictable, they could carry your whole house away! Last May a town right next to Greeley called Windsor was hit by a tornado. We had already decided to move here and my Dad kindly informed me that Weld County (which is the county Greeley is in) gets the most tornadoes in all of Colorado. In its defense it is also like the biggest county in Colorado. So far so good though, just three more weeks!

On the drive back from Colorado Springs, it was nice and sunny and then it got super dark.



Some hail on the balcony, not huge but good sized.

I have always been into checking the weather before I get ready for the day. Every day here it says mostly sunny with a chance of isolated thunderstorms. Here on the radio whenever the announce the weather they always say: "Today will be sunny with a chance of Isolated thunderstorms, like every other day." In a way it sort of makes a good life motto. Things are nice but watch out something could sneak up on you. I have often found myself thinking "Oh, things have been going really well lately, I wonder what trial is going to come up." But then I try to remind myself that I really should just be enjoying the blessings that I do have not worrying about what could happen. I am grateful that life is "mostly sunny with a chance of isolated thunderstorms." It's so great to know that I am a daughter of God and am always watched over.

Wind Cave National Park

At the "Natural Entrance" to the Wind Cave

After our excursion to Mount Rushmore we drove a few miles down the road to Wind Cave National Park. It is about an hour South of Mount Rushmore and so cool. It is the 4th largest cave in the world (according to the Rangers and I have no reason to doubt them) and the most complex known cave in the world. Who knew there was such fun stuff in South Dakota? After consulting with Rangers we decided to take an hour and a half tour of the Wind Cave. I wasn't sure if this was an okay thing to do being 23 weeks pregnant but again why doubt the Rangers? So off we went to explore!

This cave was first explored by a 16 year old boy named Alvin and this hole is the natural entrance into the cave its really quite small. His Dad was in charge of a mining company in the area and near by the cave they hadn't found any minerals to mine so it was pretty much left alone. The Native Americans of course knew where it was but they didn't feel the need to explore it so that left Alvin. He was the first real explorer of the cave and left extensive journals from 1891-1893 detailing the cave. I can't imagine being 16 and feeling confident enough to crawl through a hole into a very dark unknown but they might have been lacking for entertainment back then in South Dakota.

Mark sticking his head through the cave entrance. He might have fit with his shoulders turned sideways, its debatable and I am not sure what would have happened to him had he really tried and fallen in. It was kind of fun though because the cave "breathes" on certain days when the pressure is different from outside so all the cool cave air comes out, like an air conditioner. The cave itself is 53 degrees every day, all year.

Walking down into the cave (through a different entrance).

About 123 miles of the cave has been explored. That is only 5% of the cave's size so pretty much anywhere you walk in this area you are walking on top of the cave. Its like Egypt when you are out in the desert who knows what you are walking above.

What makes this cave so different from other caves in the world is this fancy stuff here. It is called Box Work and the Wind Cave has the best example of Box Work in the world. (We sure know how to pick the best caves don't we?) It looks like spiderwebs. I have not been in a ton of caves myself just a couple up in Rexburg (which were way scarier than this probably because we didn't have a guide and it wasn't a National Park.) but I am used to seeing the stalagmites that look like icicles. This stuff could be seen throughout the cave and it was fun to look up and then see these really cool formations. Our Ranger was very nice and our tour was great. I am glad we were able to go.

Should you ever be in South Dakota we totally recommend taking a tour of the caves. There are quite a few in the area and the tours vary in length.

Mount Rushmore is Marvelous!

Mount Rushmore!

"It is believed that Borglum created the monument not just as a tribute to the four men depicted on it, but also to the high ideals they each brought to America and represented within themselves. They were chosen because they "commemorate the founding, growth, preservation, and development to the United States."

(Mount Rushmore facts)

At the Grand Terrace

For as long as I can remember I have wanted to visit Mt. Rushmore. In 2003 I was able to go on a Mormon-American History tour through BYU Idaho where we toured tons of American and Church History sites. It was such a great trip but Mt. Rushmore was like the one spot that didn't make it onto the itinerary. So as Mark and I were trying to figure out any trips we could make this summer that were less then an easy days drive; low and behold Mt Rushmore was only 5 1/2 hours away! We figure that we will never live this close to Mt. Rushmore again so it was definitely the place to go.
The drive through South Dakota was way prettier than I thought it would be so that was a plus too. Once we got there we went on a ski lift ride to get a far away view of Mt Rushmore. I had never actually ridden a ski lift and did well until it was time to get off, they aren't kidding when they say move quickly to the right! So after our view we went over to Mount Rushmore and took a walk through history. We went ahead and got an audio tour which was nice because we got to learn a lot of the side stories. Its hard to describe what we felt when we first saw Mt Rushmore: inspired, fascinated, amazed? Its just so interesting that they decided to carve these presidents faces on a mountain. The location itself was quite a big deal since it is in the Black Hills and they are quite scared to Native Americans. (Just another example of how they got ripped off but we won't go into that.)
We were both really impressed with the layout of the memorial. You walk through a really nice entrance way to the Hall of Flags, (pictured later) and after enjoying the view you can go on a walk called the Presidential Trail which takes you right near the base of the memorial. It was fun to listen to the stories about the Presidents, Teddy Roosevelt just barely made it on there. He was the most controversial one but the designer was good friends with him so why not? The other three were pretty much a given. In fact the sculptor/designer admired Lincoln so much that he named his son Lincoln.
* For Lydia, the trail is all wood planked but it has quite a few steps so it would be hard to take with a stroller. (I am not sure if you would even need one for Jackie anyway but just thought I would give you a heads up.) It is not too long or too hard a walk and its really pretty because it was designed to let people appreciate the natural setting.

Here are some quick facts about Mt Rushmore:
1. Carving began in 1927 and was finished in 1941
2. Gutzon Borglum was the sculptor and he was 60 years old when work began
3. The president's noses are 20 feet long, their mouths 18 feet wide, and their eyes are 11 feet across.
4. Each President's head is as tall as a six-story building
5. The carvings are scaled to men who would stand 465 feet tall.
6. There were no deaths during the construction just minor injuries

Hall of Flags
Each state flag is represented to show the unity of the United States.

Mark's profile and George Washington's Profile

As we were driving up I told Mark there had to be one of these things, we found it!

*For Lydia, this was at the top of the tramway/ski lift (which is down the road from the main parking lot off a street called Cemetery) is 8 dollars for adults and 4.50 (we think) for kids and they also have an alpine slide that you can ride down. It looked fun but being pregnant I didn't think I should try it. You can look it up online if you type in Mt Rushmore tram way.

Some friends told us about these three tunnels that you can drive through and when you look back they are framing Mt. Rushmore. It was fun and really scenic.
*For Lydia they are just down the road from the main parking area, you turn onto Highway 16A toward Custer State Park, the road is called Iron Mountain Road.

That gray/white looking shape is Mt. Rushmore it looks cooler if you click on it to enlarge it.

We really enjoyed our trip out there and totally recommend it. We love history! We camped one night and the next day explored some caves at Wind Cave National Park which will be my next post.

*Lydia, to get into the memorial you pay 10 dollars for parking. There are no other entrance fees and the audio tour was 5 dollars. The parking pass is good for the whole year so if you should feel like making a long drive again hold onto the pass! (We thought that was a little bit silly but I guess they need to get some money somehow and its great for South Dakota natives.)

Wide Open Spaces...

I am pretty sure that the Dixie Chicks are from Texas but I couldn't help thinking of that song as we drove through South Dakota on our way to Mount Rushmore. Mark and I were trying to think of where we had been that looked the same as South Dakota and couldn't quite place it. Maybe because we haven't ever driven through Texas. Its not quite the same as Wyoming but close, prettier. In fact I was really surprised at how pretty it is. I think we went at the perfect time of year. It was fun to see the clouds take shape and see all the flowers.

As we drove down the road we came across a couple of buffalo herds or if you prefer Bison herds. We couldn't figure out why they were called Buffalo during the days of the Old West and why they are Bison now? As they would say in Egypt "Same Same?"

We also came across some donkeys. Please note two things about this picture.

1. How the car is parked, yes parked in the middle of the road
2. The license plate on this car and the type of car.

It's a Mercedes from New York. Can we say City folk? We certainly don't mind people stopping to look at the animals, we do it ourselves but maybe they could pull over to the side of the road not park in the middle so other people could get by and not cause accidents. We were right behind the car and after a few minutes there were like 3 cars behind us. They stopped right at a turn too so it was a little nerve wracking to drive around them on the left into the other lane and onto the gravel shoulder that sloped down to get around them. It wasn't a huge deal just silly. We couldn't quite figure out what they were feeding the donkeys either it seriously looked like dried seaweed! Like the sheets you can buy at the store. Anywho, we enjoyed our drive through South Dakota and really enjoyed the rest of our trip which I will write about soon.

They were quite friendly apparently they are fed by drivers often.

I love what you do for me...

TOYOTA!

Anyone else remember that commercial?

July 2008

Last July when we got back from Egypt we needed to buy a car. We had done lots of looking online while in Egypt and were pretty set on some sort of Toyota sedan. We got home to California and that weekend we started looking. We ended up going car shopping on the grossest day of the summer. There had been all kinds of out of control wild fires that week and it was super hot so we were pretty much the only people out car shopping so we got a pretty decent deal and our lungs were already used to breathing in disgusting air from Cairo so no big deal... We ended up buying a 2007 Toyota Corolla which has worked out perfectly for us.
When we bought the car we had to register it in California before we could drive it out to Colorado so since we had just paid a large amount of money for California plates we decided to hold off registering the car here. Yes, slightly against the law but I find it very annoying that once you move somewhere you are expected to register your car to that state when your current registration is still perfectly valid. We also didn't want to rush to register the car here in case we did not get a job here because we would just register it to whatever state we ended up in. Well, yesterday we did it, we turned in our California plates (paid another large amount of money) and are that much closer to becoming Coloradan's!

What is sort of funny is that a guy who lives on the floor above us has the exact same car as us color and style, only like a year or two older. (If I just turned around and took a picture you would see a duplicate of our car.) We used to feel so cool with our California pates and now we are just another one of the masses. The lady who registered our car was really nice though and let me pick out the plates we got and therefore we got 116 since 16 is my favorite number. For the first time in my life I have my license plate number memorized. (I always worry about being the person who left their lights on and was paged over the intercom but I wouldn't know it was mine since I didn't know the number.) While Mark and I were dating he had to register his car in Idaho (such a deal it was only like 60 dollars!) so I got him a license plate cover that said "Idaho plates, California driver". But since we are planning on staying here a good while we will just have to let go of that little California part of us although it is still such a great place.

What we've been up to

Life has been going pretty smoothly for us here in Greeley. We have had a few tornado warnings but fortunately none have touched down. Its funny because when there is a big storm I love to sit on the balcony and listen to the thunder and watch the lightning but that is pretty much the worse thing to do when there is a tornado warning; its right up there with standing by the window and looking out. Its strange, it seems like every day around 3:00 big storm clouds roll into Greeley. Last night the thunder/rain storm was so loud it woke both Mark and I up at 3:00 am and Mark went to go check for a tornado warning. I don't actually know if tornadoes can touch down at that time but I am glad Mark was willing to go check.
Besides watching storms we did go to Denver last Friday and actually did some of the things that are fun to do in Denver. We haven't really taken the time to go and see the sites around here so we are working on that. Mark needed to talk to CDE (Colorado Department of Education) about his Colorado teaching license so we drove down and decided to make a day of it. While we didn't mind going and doing some fun things in Denver it is absolutely ridiculous how unhelpful CDE is on the phone. Its like they are going for an award for being the most unhelpful. Each time we would call we would be on hold for at least 20 minutes and then they would transfer us to the "correct" person who never answered their phone and Mark would leave messages and never have them returned. While we were in Colorado Springs last week we stopped in his new district office to ask about his license and the lady said that even she doesn't get calls back very often and suggested we go down in person. So we went down and Mark explained the situation and the woman took his papers, went to an office down the hall came back not 2 minutes later and said, "Your license should get to you in 2-3 weeks." That is what we got for driving down there and coming in person. She almost acknowledged that they had made a mistake and should have issued the proper license back in January when Mark applied for it but not quite. We are crossing our fingers that it shows up before we move at the end of July.

So after that silliness, we decided to take a tour of the State Capitol since it is right across the street from CDE. It was really fun and there was actually a quilt show going on so there were quilts displayed all over. They were beautiful People are so talented. We got to climb up into that dome which had a great view of Denver and we saw the Senate and House of Representatives voting rooms. It was nice with just a little bit of history for us.

The Colorado State Capitol

Quilts on display all over.

View from the Dome, the building is the US Mint where we originally wanted to go but when I looked online for tours they are booked until August! I had no idea it was such a popular place.

Inside the Dome.

After the Capitol we went over to the Denver Aquarium which was nice but would be way more fun with like a 3 year old or so. But it was fun to see the exhibits and it reminded of us the fun we had snorkeling.

Mark outside the Aquarium



Aprillee and Fish tank

BIG fish!



BIG Sting ray!
It was cool to see the lungs (gills?) going in and out.



Shark tank!
There were lots more in there, but this one looked like it wanted its picture taken.

This is outside the Aquarium restaurant. I liked all the glass fish they had hung up.

This week we are heading over to South Dakota to see Mount Rushmore. It is only a 5 1/2 hour drive from here and we figure we will never live this close to Mount Rushmore again so we are heading up and camping one night. I am really excited to go. Its just one of those places you would like to see but its so isolated that you don't think you will see it. Its also a lot shorter drive then heading home to California. We will save that for Christmas when we have a little baby to share!

Mr. Spencer

Mr. Spencer at his new school.

Wouldn't you love to walk into your 6th grade Ancient Civ. class and see this guy was your teacher? I know I would! Yesterday Mark and I drove down to Colorado Springs to check out his school, pick up his teacher manuals and look at housing options. It was an incredibly long day and visiting his school was for sure the highlight.
We left Greeley at 7:45 am and made our way down to the "Springs" (stopping off at at the temple for a bit, always nice) and then got to Mark's school around 11:00. We went into the office and Mark got a box full of his teacher supplies and then we went on a little tour of the school with the assistant principal and got to see one of the 6th grade classrooms. It was not his classroom but it was nice to see what was inside it. The school isn't very old and has really good test scores which is a definite plus! It is just nice to know that he will be working in a school that is performing well not under-performing.
As far as housing options go I did not take any pictures because the three properties we looked at we do not want to live in, so I didn't see the point. We looked at a few townhouses and then a couple of apartment complexes. I never realized how great our current apartment is until looking at these. They were not really bad, it just turns out that we have a really great place. We were with a Realtor and he took us to this one house that he said "was really rough and would need some work" it was so incredibly disgusting!! I could not believe that people leave property like that. I mean they couldn't even take out the trash before they left so of course it smelled awful! I walked in the door and was ready to leave! I can't even begin to describe the grossness. It had an upper level then a basement and as I walked around I felt like I was going to fall through the upper level and land in a rats nest infested with cockroaches. NASTY!! We will most likely be renting an apartment for the first 6 months. Buying a home is very tempting because we are first time home buyers so we would get that tax credit but we have a super low price range so I think we will forget the tax credit even exists, settle in down there, have the baby and if Mark likes his job look next January or so. We have a busy enough fall ahead of us so I am not so sure we need to add the stress of buying a home. My dad is a Realtor in California and he said that buying a home was not easy, it is a lot like marriage " You keep your eyes wide open before you get married (buy a house) and then half shut after." (Elder Faust) To me getting married was infinitely easier then even looking into buying a home. But then again I did marry Mark!
So after an exhausting day (we got back to Greeley around 9:00 pm) we still do not know where we will be living (we did get some good ideas and I know we will be back down there in 2 weeks for Mark to sign his contract so we can do some more research online) but Mark's school looks great and he is way excited. Oh and another plus for his school, they are on a modified year round schedule so they begin August 04th and go 9 weeks and then have a 2 week break, well guess when his first break is? October 12-26th! And why is this important because Jared is due October 16th!! Such a deal! We will just keep hoping that Jared keeps being so cooperative.

Finally

21 and 1/2 weeks!

Last night as Mark and I were laying in bed reading I felt something inside of me! I didn't think too much of it until I felt the same sort of movement again soon after. I said to Mark, "I think I just felt Jared!" I put my hand back on my lower tummy to see if I felt anything again and a few minutes later it happened again! So I got really excited and had Mark move his hand over and after a few minutes he felt it too! It was so fun!
When I had my ultrasound I was informed that I have an anterior placenta so it is in the front so there is a big cushion between Jared and I. I had read that most people feel their baby move anywhere from 16 weeks (second pregnancy people) to 20 weeks. Since I was informed of the placenta position and I had really no idea what to expect I wasn't expecting to feel anything for awhile. Well, I was just laying down reading again and I felt the same movement! It's so cool!!! It's so fun to know that he is in there doing something. I hope he is comfortable. It felt like he was just kicking against me. I love all these things that make Jared seem more real.
As you can see in this picture I do not necessarily look pregnant but I look more like I have just gained weight. Oh well. As you can see on the counter we are 21 1/2 weeks. It's nice to know we are half way done and everything has gone really well. I for sure feel more tired after doing things like walking around the park but other than that I feel great. Jared has been treating me well and I am so thankful! Tomorrow we head down to Colorado Springs to check out Mark's school and housing options. Should be fun.

Life is Good

This is my new hat that I got today, more about it later in this super long post!

Mark and I have been feeling incredibly blessed the past few days. For as long as I can remember (at least since this January) I have been talking about how much I was looking forward to the end of May. By the end of May we would know if we were moving, if we were having a boy or girl, if Mark had a full time job, etc. all of which are really big important things. Especially for me as I am real big into planning. And now, as of yesterday at 3:30 we know all these things. Yesterday Mark got a phone call from Skyview Middle School in Colorado Springs and was offered a job to teach 6th grade Ancient Civilizations. (I think our time in Egypt will pay off some for this job.) We are so excited that he has a job and that it is in Colorado Springs. We have been perfectly content here in Greeley but I remember my first impressions of Greeley and just being sort of disappointed because it was not at all how I pictured Colorado. Where were the mountains?? Why did I feel like I was in Wyoming? Colorado Springs on the other hand is gorgeous! You are so close to the mountains and by moving there we will only be 50 minutes away from the temple in Denver which is way better then the hour and 20 minutes we are now. (Still a huge improvement from Cairo but we set a goal to live within an hour of one so this meets that.)
Besides the huge relief that it is to have a full time job, the school district we are moving too is a really strong district. Now if Mark really likes it then we know that our kids will be going to really good schools and Mark will be working in a much better district then Greeley. Mark did really enjoy his long term sub job here and would love to be teaching high school but I think he will enjoy his job situation more in Colorado Springs. I also think his students will love him. We are just really excited and super relieved! Mark has his new teachers orientation July 27th so we will be moving down there around July 25th or so, which works out great because our lease is up August 01. I love seeing how the Lord's plan works out. I don't love the waiting but the end results are always reassuring.
In other good news, I got a call from the woman here in charge of Insurance benefits (for Greeley School District) and she now has the paperwork needed to get me switched onto COBRA, which means that I get the same insurance coverage as I have had only we pay the premium instead of the school district since I will not be working for them. It is a relief to have all of that in order for October. It is too bad that I will have to get another doctor but I will at least have all of my last trimester to get to know them. (Colorado Spring is just over 2 hours away from Greeley so too far to drive up here that often for appointments and it sounds a little risky for when Jared is ready to come)
In the least of the good news I got my haircut Saturday and am less than thrilled with the results. Its not an awful cut just not what I expected. But, for the past month or so I have been looking for a hat and I found one today so that works out well! It is just what I wanted nice and ismple. I also switched my part from the center to the side and that helps the haircut some. The funny thing is that on the hat there is the logo, Life is Good (I don't know if it is all over the U.S. or what but here in Colorado, especially up in Estes Park in the mountains, every other store carries products by that company) which I think is very fitting for us. I put a picture of my hair mostly because Susanna requested it and the hat because I looked in so many stores and the logo fits the post!

It would have been better if I was not wearing a hooded sweatshirt but we are having an awesome rainy day so I was happy for the chance to wear a sweatshirt again. Its only like 51 degrees here today and it rained all morning. So nice!

Oh and one more thing that shows life is so good, we had gotten a few chips in our windshield this past winter and on Thursday we got one more but this one started cracking across the drivers side so we needed to take it in. Well, we went to our insurance company and got it fixed today for no cost to us! When we moved here we switched our policy around a bit since we were no longer in California. We actually upgraded our policy and added gravel protection and still paid less then what we had to pay in California. We are so glad that we added that to out policy!

So this was a lot of news so it may be awhile before I post again. I guess I could have broken it up...thanks for reading!

Our New Favorite Desert

Last week we had some friends over for a BBQ and they brought the best summer desert. Its so simple too! They brought a yogurt pie in a graham cracker crust. All it takes is yogurt, cool whip and your pie crust.

1 6-8 oz serving of yogurt (one small Yoplait container) Any flavor
3/4 of an 8 oz container of cool whip
Graham Cracker Crust

You simply mix the yogurt and softened cool whip together and then spoon it over the graham cracker crust smooth it out and freeze until solid. It's so light and cool and if you use the fat free cool whip and light flavors of yogurt it is way better for you than other deserts. Most of you have probably thought of this but I have never liked yogurt so I never really tried to do anything with it. I am really hoping that I can try out all kinds of new recipes this summer. I have always wanted to just spend hours going through cookbooks and marking things I would like to try and this summer looks like a perfect opportunity.