It's in the small victories

I feel like today
that small victories were made.

I chose to read a Dale Carnegie book instead of turn on the TV

I chose to have oatmeal for lunch. And actually stuck to the serving sizes.
(Who really only eats that much? news to me.)

And spent my whole evening with family frosting cookies instead of being wrapped up in my own things.

Picture credit

A small but victorious day.

Ohh Mexico!!

Mexico was a blast! We did alot of great things and did alot of relaxing.

We went with Kaulins parents and Andee and Steve. We stayed at the Grand Mayan in the Riviera Maya. It was a blast!

We took a day to boat over to Cozumel and rent scooters to tour the island.

It was great to get a tour from the stake president in Cancun who runs a tour company Laminate Destination Services. (LDS). It was great to see the Mayan religion from an LDS standpoint.

We first went to Coba. The pyramid is larger than the one in Chitchen Itza and you are still allowed to climb it. Kaulin, Steve and Richard ran on up while us gals took pictures of them. :)

We also got to see Tulum. This place is worth going to!

Some of the best snorkeling we've ever done was in Yakul. It was a lagoon by the ocean, but doesn't get any waves. So it was clear and calm. No swallowing sea water and the fish aren't afraid to have you get pretty close. It was a blast.

Riviera Maya, WOOHOO

This vacation has been in the planning for a LONG time. We were set to go in May, but the swine flu was scarey then. Not so much anymore.... So we are going for it! :D Mexico here we come. It's nice to get away when it feels cold here.

Things I'm looking forward to most:
Sitting on the beach thinking about nothing...
Going to see Tulum
Swimming in a Cenote
Having people yell out "Honeymooners special!" as we walk down the street
Scooters in Cozumel
Hanging out with Kaulins parents and Andee and Steve

New Wedding Blog

Middle Aisle

I've started a new wedding blog for Southern Utah to feature all the unique and trendy weddings

and vendors. Make sure you check it out. :)

Southern Utah Junior Miss

This weekend was Junior Miss! We has adorable girls, a great Emcee Jan Broberg and judges who couldn't have been better. All the girls were so equally good that we had 5 ties that had to be broken! We have 4 girls going to state in March.

The girls waiting for deliberation.

Me and Jealin

I'm thankful for great husbands and brothers watching the ticket and flower sales.

The first year doing this was def. rough learning the ropes. But I'm so pumped for next year.

November 6th 2010 Hurriccane High School! Mark your calendars! :D

Last Days on our Adventure

When we first got into the redwoods at the Avenue of the Giants, it was dusk. Try driving through the trees as the sun is going down.. IT WAS DARK! I was a little freaked out. There is something about being in the redwoods at night that is mysterious. Plus, we had been driving 9 hours that day and we didn't have a hotel scheduled. 

We pulled up to this bed and breakfast, Fort Myers. Luckily they had an opening and it happened to be the only "hotel" in all of the redwoods. HOORAH! The breakfast we awesome, the hostess was eccentric and they welcomed little B-stain with open arms. It felt like it could have been better!

This shows how shallow there roots are, but how big around these trees are!

We drove through the tree. (Of course, we had too!)

And took a little hike through the forest before heading over to San Francisco.

By the mid day, we made it to San Francisco. If you follow the 101 all the way down, you drive right over the golden gate bridge. Be ready at the end to pay a $7 toll. We weren't ready for that. I beat everyone behind our car hated us! hehe. Thank goodness of GPS's or we would have been lost in this city! So many one way roads, impatient people and steep hills.

We slept the night in a hotel in a yucky little town. I was nervous to leave anything in the car and little B kept growling at things outside as we were trying to go to bed. After our not so good sleep, we drove the last day home. Bentley was all tuckered out. Driving non-stop the last 3 days is something i never want to do again! But I'd drop anything to drive down the 101 again! It was amazing.

Day 6: Depoe Bay, Sea Lion Caves and 8 hours of driving down the 101

We are behind so we have to make up alot of time driving.

This is Depoe Bay from outside our motel room window. Last night we ate at Gracies Sea Hags. SUCH GOOD SEA FOOD! I tried osters for the first time. Not so good. But the clam chowder, and kaulins staple fish and chips. I had the sea food pasta with crab, shrimp & prawns. It was amazing.

There are supposed to be 12 grey whales that always live in the bay. This is as close as we got to one though. They cleaned out the river 2 days ago that drain into the bay so they were MIA the last couple of days.

So we went to the SeaLion caves so we could as least see a few wild animals. Kaulin took this picture right as B-Man went to yawn. It looks like he is a hand puphet I carry around with me to keep me company. He looks really creepy!!

On the drive down the 101 we ran into herds of elk.

Lots and Lots of Elk!!!

Day 5: Portland

We have been so lucky this trip because the sun has shown the entire time! No drops of rain once!

We spent the whole first half of the day in Portland with Beau and Kim. They went out of their way to make sure we got a great time in town and ate in the right places. First thing in the morning (After they made us a killer breakfast) we went to the Multnomah Falls outside of Portland.

Kaulin, Julie, B-Man, Beau and Kim

So, Beau and Kim warned us it is a bit of a hike to the top. When we got there, I under estimated how tall this thing actually is. IT KILLED ME. I got so dizzy hiking up, but i tried to be cool and tried to press on until i had to stop because i thought i was going to fall over i was so light headed. It was over a mile straight up hill. But so worth it. :)

(View from the top down at the parking lot the picture above was taken from)

We have the hardest time getting around with this little lady  killer in the blue polo here. (and the guy in the green polo, but people don't stop what they are doing to pet Kaulin). Little Beanie is quite the little show stopper.  Probably doesn't help that i make him wear little clothes. haha.

We've now made it to Depot Bay just in time to find a hotel, dinner and an internet connection. Bentley B has been great in the car this far. He has his favorite places he perches or just sleeps on our laps. It has been super easy to travel. Plus he's learned that if he just stays in his bag he gets to go inside. Dinner was so nice tonight because he came inside, but just stayed in his bag and slept. No one knew he was there and it was nice to not have to worry about him being cold in the car.

Day 4: Long Beach, Astoria, Cannon Beach: Indian Beach, Portland

We stayed in Long Beach, WA for the night at the Trend West. 2bd full kitchen for us! hehe. Long beach was super small and quiet. There signs say they have the longest beach in the world. I believe it. Although no on gets into their beach or really hangs out on the sand because the wind is so strong there! We took a walk down the board walk and check out a grey whale skeleton they have on the beach.

Then back to more driving. From long beach we went over the longest bridge I have EVER been on that crossed the Columbia River from Washington to Astoria, OR. Astoria is adorable. They are cute little homes all built up on the side of a hill. This is a place I would have really liked to stay in long.

We crusied on down to Cannon Beach and stopped into Ecola State Park and check out Indian Beach.

Indian Beach

Our drive through Ecola State Park. Kalynn told me its like faries would jump out and touch you. She was so right! :) It looked alot like Olympic National Park with the tall green trees, winding roads and moss dripping from everywhere.

After checking out Cannon Beach we drove a few hours to Portland to stay with Kaulins Cousin Beau and his wife Kim. They were so great to us! They took work off just to show us around town. That night we ate at The Grilled Cheese Grill. Yup, you eat outta a bus. They serve only different kinda of Grilled cheese and tomato soup. I'm glad we had the pro's to show us the ropes on what to order. Who would have thought brown sugar on a grilled cheese would be good?

Day 3: Port Angles, Olympic National Park, La Push

The PCH has been beautiful to drive down. Sometimes you are right on the ocean, and other times you are in the middle of a green forest.

We stopped into Olympic National ark. It is beautiful covered in green trees and moss covered trees. It is considered the only rain forrest in the US.

Kaulin and Bizzle on an overlook in Olympic.

From Olympic we went out of our way about 40 minutes to La Push. IT IS BEAUTIFUL! It is on a reservation and is just a small fishing area. But the beaches are gorgeous. And yes everything in this area of Washington seem to want a piece of the Twilight mania. This town had alot of references to Jacob and wolves.

Just down the road was Forks. We weren't about to waste our time with a Twilight tour, so we used their bathrooms in a grocery store and went on our way. Forks is a small town right on the 101. Everything was "Twilight Headquarters" according to businesses signs.

We stopped to get gas and a run on for the little b-stain on the beach and found this cool beach with all these tree trunks.  It also has a ton of crab shells! I had no idea crabs lost their shells.

Day 2

So little Bentley and I dressed up this morning and waited for Kaulin to hopefully bring back a car.

And he brought us back this!! A Lexus SC430 convertiable with 20 inch chrome rims.

I love it! It is probably the prettiest car we have owned.

First thing we did was head over to Seattle for The Underground Tour.

 
 
 
 
 
 

In down town Seattle there are under ground walkways. After Seattles big fire in 1888, they needed to rebuild the town but needed to raise it so the tide would stop washing everything out. Well the businesses owners didn't wanna stick around and wait for the city to build up the land, so they built there businesses anyway. The city still went with the original plan and built up these tall retaining walls around each block and filled it up with dirt. They had to use ladders to get to the first floor of businesses. Eventually they got covered up because ppl kept dying falling off now they are abandoned walk ways.

 

 

Then to Pikes Market Place where they throw the fish.

We had lunch and had to get some shrimp, fish and chips!

Then off to Lake Washington Ship Canal and Hiram M. Chittenden Locks to see where the fish swim up the ladders and a nice walk in the gardens.

Tonight we are in Port Angeles staying on the Harbor. We had a great crab dinner and are now relaxing.