I almost forgot about funny faces...

Jen and the girls put on a great show of funny faces. Here are a few of my favorites.

A couple of more pics....

I thought that maybe I should add a better picture of Gretchen and Justin, even though I do LOVE the goofy one I last posted. It was such a beautiful wedding that I should do better justice to it.

Also, I wanted to add a few pics of my nieces and brother and sister-in-law on Thanksgiving... just for fun. I love them all soooo much!

Quick Catch Up...

Since I last posted anything a few holidays have passed on by without anything... I am just too busy these days. However, I thought I would post a few pics from the past few months. I had a great Halloween and Thanksgiving and lots of fun. I hope everyone else is doing great too!

I attended the BEST Halloween party ever! It was a great time. Here is a small group shot. The games were very fun, except when I was stuck in the middle in the Sign game... I never did catch someone in the middle of a pass. I am just not that quick...

I had a fabulous Thanksgiving with my brother and sister-in-law and all the darling girls. So fun!!!

Liz and I got to help Mark in a very, very small way make his masterpiece gingerbread house by using a VERY HOT glue gun to add the rocks on the small wall supports. That was a blast--of course I burned my finger a million times, but I will have you know that I did not swear once!

I had a great birthday this year, I got to go to Gretchen and Justin's wedding. I love weddings--they are so fun and happy and this one was awesome! I am so happy for both of them.

Canning at the Preston Cannery

We went canning chicken a couple of weeks ago. It was a long day, but fun.

Belated Labor Day Pictures

Here are a few pictures from our fun Labor Day weekend to Lake Powell.

So You Think You Can Dance Tour

A group of us went to the So You Think You Can Dance tour last night at the E Center. They performed most of the really great numbers from the season. Even though we had seen all the dances before, there was something very cool about seeing them all performed together like that. It was also neat that three of the dancers were from Salt Lake City.

Weekend Poetry Mystery Party!

I am headed to a mystery party this weekend, so I will post on Monday if I figure it out. My character is Sherry Yujest...
Age: 23
Profession: Commedienne
I am a comedienne and an amateur poet. Born 23 years ago in a large city several hundred miles away. I am an only child and always thought that my parents were Carrie and Harry Yujest, but recently that’s changed.
Harry Yujest died when I was a teenager. About a year and a half ago, Carrie Yujest became terminally ill. She called me in and revealed that I had been adopted as an infant. Carrie knew nothing about my real mother. She told me, though, that I was always loved. After all, I was “chosen” from among the other children available for adoption.
A few weeks later, Carrie Yujest died and I hired a private investigator, Ida Nonit, to try to find out more about my birth parents.
That’s why I came to town about a year and a half ago. Ida had tracked my birth mother down and I decided to move here, to the town where my birth mother lives.

Hmmmmmm..... what do you want to bet that my secret birth mother is at the party too.... I went to one of these last year and I figured out the mystery... so wish me luck on this one!
P.S. I thought it would be funnier if my name was Shirly Yujest!

Lake Powell Labor Day

Over Labor Day weekend, Liz, Alayna, and Jennifer and I went to Lake Powell. It was a fun sisters weekend. We sunned ourselves and went swimming in the coves at Wahweap, took an amazing 5.5 hour float trip down Glen Canyon starting just south of the Dam and getting out at Lee's Ferry (part of the river we went on is shown in the Horseshoe Bend photo), walked out to the Horseshoe Bend overlook (AMAZING), and took the Dam tour. It was great. Alayna took lots of pictures and as soon as I get them, I will post them. However, until then, I will post just the few I took with my lame cell phone camera and one of Horseshoe Bend I got off the net. So, it was fun to look up and see all the people at the lookout. It was a gorgeous trip. If you haven't been down there, I highly recommend it. Soooooo fun!!!!

Interesting and Heartbreaking Movie

I was at my friend Marianne's house this weekend and we watched the documentary about drugs in Utah-particularly within the Mormon church. It was very interesting-especially since I attended a funeral a few weeks ago for the brother of some dear friend's of mine where it was a drug-related death. It was just so sad. Drugs can really destroy people and it affects everyone in the family. This movie is a must see for everyone who has children or just wants to understand this Utah problem more or wants to understand better what many of those we know have gone through. It was very well done and very eye opening. I just keep thinking about it. I feel so very bad for those who get caught up in this addiction and I feel so bad for their families. It is just so tragic.

Swedish/International Open House

My mission companion has been back to Sweden many times. Somtimes to run marathons, sometimes to visit relatives, and sometimes for dress fittings. It was her dream to get the regional dress of her relatives, the Delsbo Drakt. This past May, she ran the Stockholm marathon and had her last fitting, so now it was time to throw a big party--and that is what she did. So, she invited 300 of her closest friends, had a feast in her yard with live accordian music, and had a grand time at a reception for her dress. Here are a few pictures.

Quick Update...

Ok, I have been doing stuff, just not blogging. Oh well, sometimes it is hard to keep up with everything. I will do a quick summary of the past few weeks.

1. Went to 7 Brides for 7 Brothers with a friend. It was pretty good.
2. Attended the Cache County Fair and bought a delicious fresh limeaid and a necklace--oh and the funnel cake we all shared was pretty tasty.
3. Attended a funeral of a dear friend's brother--it was super sad since it was a suicide and he was only 26 or so.
4. Went to my pool lots and got a little burned.
5. Found some long lost friends and mission companions on Facebook.
6. Actually did my visiting teaching at the BEGINNING of the month this time (usually it is at the end, or not at all)
7. Read an awesome book called The Hiding Place, very sad but very inspiring.

24th of July Festivities and Great Weekend!

I didn't really have any fun plans for the 24th, but then my friend Marianne came to the rescue. She came over with her darling children and we went to the parade, ate a scrumptious soup and salad lunch at the Olive Garden, and then to Willow Park and met up with Liz, Alayna, Jennifer and her beautiful girls, and Liz's parents. It was a blast! The kids went rock climbing and Alayna, Liz, Aubrey and Brinnan bought little frogs for pets. They are very cute.
We topped the day off with some fun swimming in the pool. Of course we had to push the large floating pool pad filled with 5 drunk (and still drinking) 20 year old boys away from us, which was annoying, but it was still very fun. It is too bad I didn't take any pictures of that floating pool thing...







On Saturday, I went to Salt Lake to have a fun day with my friends from down there. It was really fun. We watched some movies and shows on TV and had lots of fun and interesting conversation. We also had a delicious lunch of 9 types of cheeses, peaches, apples, grapes, maitake and chantrelle mushrooms, honey, and french bread. So yummmmmmmmy!!!! I do think that it is one of my favorite meals ever--especially the maitake mushrooms. They are fab!
Here are a few cheeses that we had. The first is Brie.

This is a caramel type cheese from Norway made from goats milk. No proper Norwegian can live without it. They will even pack it with them on vacation.

This is a soft cheese from France with layers of walnuts.

These are my favorite mushrooms of all time. If you love mushrooms, find some and saute them up for a real treat.

Klunker Stikes Again and FHE

Soooooo..... the car story continues. I got my car back on Monday, but as I drove it home, I couldn't help but notice that it was still broken---this time a new problem brought on by the original fix--the anti-lock break that was fixed is now catching and grinding and makes an awful noise and jerk everytime I stop. Very lame. Oh well.... back to the mechanic.

Monday night was fun. We went to Family Home Evening up in Tony Grove and it was gorgeous! We did get eaten alive by mosquitos, but the lake and the wild flowers were sooooo beautiful! I love going up there. I think that it is time to do the hike to Mt. Naomi or White Pine Lake-those are two of my favorite hikes in Logan.
An interesting thing happened at FHE. I was sitting in my nice little camp chair and this girl that I swear I had never seen before says to me, "Daela, didn't I take some classes with you at USU in Technical Writing?" I didn't recognize her at all, so I asked her what her name was. She told me she was Rose and that we were good friends at school. After talking to her all night, I slowly started to remember her and I even remembered one of her school projects. It was really fun to get re-connected with someone from the past. She has been living in Texas for the past 11 years and works for IBM. She was the major technical writing success story from our department. It was just kind of fun.

Klunker Ruins Fun Weekend Plans

Sooooooo, I have this 11 year old car that has been doing GREAT most of it's life. It definitely has served me well. But, since the car theme lately has been repairs, repairs, repairs for many of my friends, I too have been feeling the hit. I have had my car in for repairs at least 3 times in the last 3 weeks. This last one is a lame one though. I took the car in on Wednesday and the mechanic ordered the parts. I told him that I really needed the car no later than Friday afternoon since I was headed up to Star Valley and Jackson Hole this weekend for some camping and white water rafting. Well, he called me up today to let me know that he had ordered the wrong parts and now he has to order new parts and there is no way he can get it finished until tomorrow sometime at the earliest. Sooooooo sad!!!! I was really looking forward to this weekend with the awesome Reeder's. We always have so much fun. I am more than a little bummed about this. Oh well.... maybe it is time to get a NEW and MORE RELIABLE car. I love my car, but this just isn't fair. I guess after 170,000 miles it is ok that it breaks down now and again.... but three times in three weeks? Give me a BREAK!!!

Lake Swimming and Ketchup Potato Chips

The 4th of July weekend was great! We went up to visit my sister-in-law in Republic, Washington. Since Republic is not that far from the Canadian border, we also slipped on up to Grand Forks for some awesome lake swimming (ok, wading) in Christina Lake and a few ketchup potato chips! :) In addition, I had to pick up a large bottle of black currant pomegranite juice! We also realized that the 14 hour drive and near death experience on the road (we almost hit a deer on the way up and ended up swerving 4 times before sliding into the ditch) was totally worth it when we stopped in Grand Forks for some authentic Russian food. We had Borsch, Vareniky, Pelmeni, and my favorite-Goloubtsy (stuffed cabbage rolls).

Over our few days in Republic, we did some more lake swimming in Curlew lake (I actually did swim this time--even though it was much colder), watched a fun fireworks show over the lake while sitting on the dock, and made sea creatures for Shelby's birthday cake. She turned 10 while we were up there. It is so fun to see the girls grow up so fast. It was a lot of fun.

Russian food is pretty common in Grand Forks because Russians founded the small town.

Lake Christina is one of the warmest lakes in British Columbia since it has a thermal area underneath the lake. However, I didn't find it too warm this trip. I didn't even get in all the way and swim. It is quite nice in August though.


Ketchup potato chips are quite the Canadian treat. If you haven't had a chance to try them, find a Canadian import store online. They are kind of like a salt and vinegar or dill chip, but more of a ketchup taste. Yummy!!!

My sister-in-law lives by this lake in Washington. It is great for swimming or pretty much any type of boating.

The town of Republic is the nearest town to Tammy's house. It is a cute little mining town in the mountains. It takes Tam about 15 or 20 minutes to get in to town.

Shelby's birthday cake with lovely sea creatures. All the kids participated (even some of the bigger kids in their 30s and 40s--proving that making sea creatures is fun for all ages!)