Thursday, August 21, 2008

Cruisin' to Alaska

(by Jeff)

My clerkship at the Utah Supreme Court ends this month. Aubree and I decided we should take a vacation between the end of my clerkship and when I start working for my law firm. We figure that with me starting a demanding job and a baby coming in five months, it was now or never. We debated a few ideas about where to go on vacation, but we ultimately decided to take a cruise to Alaska. We are so excited! We went on a cruise (to the Caribbean) for our honeymoon, and ever since then, we have wanted to go again. And since we both enjoy the mountains more than the beach, we figured that an Alaskan cruise would be a lot of fun.

The cruise leaves from Seattle. We are actually going to go up a day early so that we can spend some time with our good friends John and Emily Burnette in Seattle. We usually only get to see the Burnettes once a year, so we are excited that we can squeeze in a visit with them. After that, we board the boat and head to Alaska. Here's a preview of where we are going and the activities we have planned:

Juneau, Alaska: we are going to Mendenhall Glacier and then to a salmon bake in the forest

Skagway, Alaska: we are going up into the mountains in the evening to watch the bears come down to the river and feed on the spawning salmon

Ketchikan, Alaska: we haven't decided for sure, but most likely we are going to Totem Bight State Park where they have a large collection of totem poles

Tracy Arm Fjord, Alaska: we will be cruising through the fjord to view glaciers

Victoria, British Columbia, Canada: we are going to Butchart Gardens, one of Aubree's favorite places in the world

We can't wait to go!

Weekend at Johnson Mountain Ranch

(by Jeff)

Last weekend, we visited my sister Ginger, her husband Jared, and my niece Katelyn. Jared and Ginger own a ranch in central Utah. We love going down and visiting them on the ranch. There's thousands of acres where we can enjoy hiking, horseback riding, riding four-wheelers, etc.

Katelyn's birthday is this Saturday, so we took along an early birthday present for her. She loves Dora the Explorer, so we bought her a Dora gift that included a Dora outfit, maracas, and a Dora video that Katelyn can dance along to. We figured Katelyn would love it because it combines four of her most favorite things: Dora the Explorer, playing dress-up, dancing, and making noise. It was--as expected--a hit with Katelyn. I think she watched the video three times in the twenty-four hours after we gave it to her.

Katelyn with her newly opened present


Katelyn in her Dora outfit


The ranch


Scenery from a hike on the ranch--like a small version of Bryce Canyon

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Waterfall pictures

(by Jeff)

A few weeks ago, I posted about our trip to my grandparents' cabin. I mentioned that we hiked to some beautiful waterfalls, but that Aubree and I had forgotten to take our camera, so we didn't have any pictures to post. My sister Wendy had her camera, and she sent me the pictures that she took. Here are some of them.



Thursday, August 7, 2008

Happy Birthday, it's a ....

(By Aubree)

Happy birthday Jeff! I just want you to know you are just the greatest person in the world. You are so kind, patient, ambitious, smart, funny, understanding, loving, gentle, hard working, and so many other things - I don't have enough room to fit everything on here. I am so glad that you put up with me, because I don't know anyone else that would. You are my soul mate and so perfect for me. I admire and love you so much. You have accomplished so much in your 28 years. You served an honorable mission in Spain, you received your bachelor's degree and Law degree by the time you were 26. You have completed a year clerkship for the Utah Supreme Court, and are about to start a successful career as an attorney. Among those things, you always magnify your church callings like I've never seen anyone else do, and are always willing to help anyone in need. You are the best husband, friend, son, son-in-law, brother, brother-in-law, uncle, grandson and will be the best dad in the world. I hope this will be your best birthday ever.

To everyone else, we went to the doctor's office today. I am almost 17 weeks, and they told me last time they hoped to find out the sex of the baby this visit. The doctor looked for about 5 seconds and the baby wouldn't move it's legs, so he couldn't really tell what it was but guessed that it was a girl. It was a half-hearted guess, so we're not making any big purchases or anything. We will most likely find out for sure on September 3rd because I have a thorough ultrasound at the hospital that checks everything about the baby.

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Surprise!

(by Aubree)



This is what I woke up to this morning. The new Stephanie Meyer book, flowers, and a sweet little note. It was a beautiful sight! My wonderful husband went through a lot for this suprise too. So this is what happened. Last night I was exhausted, but we started a movie and I couldn't finish it, so I went to bed. Jeff said he didn't feel like sleeping, which isn't abnormal--a lot of times he will stay up on the weekend when I'm too tired to. A couple of hours later, he woke me up and told me he was hungry and he was going to get something to eat. I thought nothing of it, so I didn't suspect anything about what he had previously planned and where he was really going.

Earlier in the day, Jeff had read that the new "Twilight" book "Breaking Dawn" was coming out at midnight, and knowing what a fan I am, he decided he would stay up and go buy it for me after I fell asleep. He called the book store earlier to see how late they were staying open, and they told him they were having a party starting at 12:00 midnight where there would be people that would dress up and celebrate the new book coming out, and they thought they would be open until about 1:30. Jeff decided he would leave at 1:00 am so he could miss the party and hopefully most of the crowd. Well, when he got there, there of course was a huge line, and he felt a little awkward being a full grown man waiting in line with a bunch of teenage girls dressed up like vampires. Not too long after he got there, he decided that he would just go back home, order the book online, and get me flowers with a note telling me that the book was on its way.

So he went to Smith's just down the road from our house (by the way--the book store he went to was in Bountiful about 10 miles away, and there was a big accident that he ran into on the way that slowed him down) to get me some flowers, and lo and behold, there was a shopping cart full of "Breaking Dawn" books right as he walked in the door. So he was able to buy a book without having to stand in line (and still decided to buy me the flowers anyway). By the time he got home, it was past 2:00 in the morning.

To my precious husband: you are so sweet, and I love you so much. Thank you for going through so much to suprise me. It means more than you know.