To the women in my life

I just wanted to take a second and tell all the wonderful women in my life how much they mean to me. I love you all, whether you are pictured of not. You are wonderful examples to me. You have shown me love I often did not deserve. You are friends and mothers and sisters in the truest sense. Thank you for being a part of my life! Happy Mother's Day!

I'm in love!

Ever since track in college (which could have been a much more enjoyable experience), I've kind of been exercise-averse. I've noticed that my not so good fitness habits are finally starting to catch up with me. So spur of the moment, Michael and I bought an infomercial exercise DVD set. Silly, I know. But I am SO in love! I have finally found something that I don't get bored with or have bad flashbacks to days running 300 meter repeats for time. It's called Turbo Jam. I really don't like things like yoga or pilates. They just aren't fun and exciting enough to keep me going. I like aerobics, but some aerobics DVDs and instructors are a little cheesy and over the top and the music is lame. The instructor of these videos is perky and the music would be a little crazy to listen to for whenever, but they both work really well for me. I'm only a few days in, so I can't really talk about results, but I can tell it's something I'm a lot more likely to stick with. Sorry for the weird post, but I just had to announce my exciting new find. :)

An exciting first day

We had a fun first day here in Idaho. A lot of it just consisted of getting things set up and settled in - not so fun. But after Jessica refused to take a nap (we don't have her crib set up yet, so she can just hop right out of the pack-n-play) we decided to go and get some zoo passes. The zoo here in IF is definitely not the caliber of the San Diego Zoo. But it's still fun. And an annual pass is pretty cheap and will get you into a bunch of other zoos around the country. Michael stayed home to get some more done while Jessica and I went. It's only about 1 1/2 miles away, so I think I'll just walk or run with the jog stroller next time. Pretty nice. Jessica had a blast.




Jessica with the otters. If you ask her about otters, she'll say, "They're swimming in the water!" These were very cooperative otters that liked to show off when people were around.











Jessica is smaller than a lion. Wild!












She wasn't so sure about the petting zoo at first, but pretty soon I was having to chase after her, rather than her clinging to me.













Ahhh... the lion drinking fountain. This was one of her favorite parts.













Jessica LOVED the peacocks! Like in a lot of zoos, they were just roaming around. She was able to be pretty close a couple of times. She's just saying "hi" here.







It was a fun afternoon. The plan was that it would keep her busy enough that she would forget about her nap and then maybe go to bed at a reasonable time in this new time zone. But instead, we left her alone for a few minutes after we got home and this is what we found:


Poor thing. She is not a "sleep anywhere" kind of a kid. Every now and then she'll fall asleep in the car, but I have NEVER seen her do something like this. She must have been really worn out. So instead of going to bed around 8:00, she wasn't asleep until well after 9:00. Oh well.

Heading to the Gem State

With of course the "Gem State" being, as referenced in Napoleon Dynamite, the great state of Idaho. All in all, the drive wasn't too terrible and Jessica did much better than expected while traversing the 1,051 miles to get here. I think jumping on the trampoline with grandma in Vegas and BYU bookstore fudge made it tolerable.

Well it all started on Saturday when Michael finished his last final (Ethical Lawyering/Professional Responsibility). By noon we were packing everything into a storage unit close to our SD apartment. Thanks to Michael's parents and brother, it was done quickly and by 3pm we were off to LA to spend the weekend with them. On Monday morning, Michael and Jessica washed the car because it getting pretty filthy. Even though we hit almost every insect between California and Idaho with our windshield, it was still good to get it washed before leaving. Jessica just couldn't resist the urge to "help" daddy clean and continually found more places for him to clean a little better.

On Monday night, once we were in Vegas, the Hales took us to Michael's favorite place in town, Lone Star Steakhouse. They have amazing hot wings, steaks, and baked sweet potatoes with butter and cinnamon-sugar (which is really more like a desert). Then we were off to the Winders where Jessica got to bounce on the trampoline with her grandma and later with the cousins. By 10pm when we were still trying to get her to go to sleep, she would beg to go "jumping" in between her sobs. Needless to say, she had a blast.

Emma, thanks for helping Jessica!

On Tuesday morning we were back on the road and got to Provo just in time for lunch. We got Jessica a sandwich, but all she wanted was her Strawberry Nirvana Jamba Juice.

We were also able to have a quick visit with Landes, my former boss when I worked at BYU. It was just fun to walk around campus, see guys try to pick up on girls, and see the new Alumni Building. We went to the track to let Jessica do some laps before strapping her in her chair for the last 4 hour drive, but the mens team was practicing so we didn't get any pictures of our future All-American getting her early start at the Clarence F. Robison track. Next time.


Now we're here. It might be cold and windy with snow still on the hills just outside the city, but gas is 50 cents cheaper than San Diego so that's some consolation. Even so, Michael's decided to ride his bike to work and back in order to save some money, the environment, and get a little more muscle. He starts work tomorrow so we've spent the day getting settled and buying a summer zoo pass, which has Jessica ecstatic! She loves those animals. We're just excited to be here and plan on having an amazing summer.

Saying Goodbye to San Diego, Part (I don't even know anymore)

I finally made it down to Balboa Park (Laura and Jessica have been a few times) this last Friday. It was a nice distraction from the exhilarating study of evidence. Jessica loved trying to jump into every fountain, and there were many, so we kept in shape by running after her the whole time. Nonetheless, it was a fun time.

Here we are in front of the Balboa Park Church...


the famous gardens...


And Jessica trying to jump in the water.

I'll also throw in a few random pictures from the last few days:

There just ain't no mountain high enough

Jessica's favorite aspect of my birthday.

Well, that should do it for now. It's time to head off and take my evidence final.

Goodbye Internet - I'll miss you!

Today is our last day of Internet before the move. I'm actually very sad about it. I'll probably get more done, but at the same time I'm not sure how I'll do without email and all. So if you want to get in touch with me (Laura), give me a call. Michael will still have Internet at school and will be in charge of updating the blog if he ever has time between his three finals this week.

Happy Birthday My Love!!

April 24, 1981 - Mr. Wonderful was born. I just wanted to wish Michael a happy birthday. I love you babe. You truly treat me like a queen and I feel blessed beyond words to be yours. OK, enough of the cheesiness. Sorry you have to be caught up in all this finals junk, but hopefully I can make this a very happy birthday for you anyways. I love you! P.S. Do you like the cake? :) OK, I didn't actually make this cake. But the picture was too funny not to post.

Saying Goodbye to San Diego, Part V

I guess this isn't really a "true" "Saying Goodbye to San Diego" post since the whole family didn't go, but Laura and Jessica loved their trip to the San Diego Zoo today (thanks Kim) while I worked on finishing my exciting Idaho Water Law research paper due tomorrow. Laura would be the best one to write about the fun adventures, but she's in bed with the flu and I needed a break from Idaho's procedural aspects of administering water delivery calls by senior appropriators against junior groundwater pumping irrigators (don't tell me you didn't just get shivers).

Since I don't know the full stories behind the pictures. I'll post the pictures now and when Laura's feeling better she can insert the descriptions and funny stories later. Enjoy.
It's Laura now. Luckily I don't think I had the flu, but man did I feel sick. I guess I just needed some sleep. Poor Michael having to deal with me and Jessica during finals. He's so good to us.

But yes, the zoo was super fun. The first thing Jessica said this morning was, "Animals again?" If we're back in San Diego next year we will definitely have to invest in a year zoo pass.

Jessica with some "monkeys" - i.e. the chimpanzees.

Outside of the gorillas were these cool statues. What can I say, Jessica's a loving little girl.
I think she named this bad boy "Peterson"


Telling the flamingos to shush
Well, kind of. Actually we showed her some ducks in there that were sleeping. "Shhhh, quiet!"


The elephants were really big and really noisy (oh, did I mention smelly). But Jessica just loved them and wasn't at all scared or intimidated.


The giraffes were one of her favorite. She's still talking about them.


And I just had to include this post-zoo pic too. I came home to work on the paper just as Jessica woke up from her nap and Laura decided she needed a nap. I was busy ignoring Jessica while writing until I hear her nervous whimper. Despite our best effort to pack in such a way as to deter this activity, she'd found just enough footholds to get to the top, but not to get down. I took this right before grabbing her and doing a little more reorganizing. I think she learned a little something from the monkeys today.