It was a pretty typical week with lots going on. Derek has been SO BUSY these past few weeks with work and mowing lawns and side jobs and just life in general that he has been on a tight schedule. He is supposed to be on summer break, but it seems he has just gotten busier. We took a break one evening though and had some friends over. A good friend of ours from high school, Krista (shout out to Krista if she sees this ever) was in town with her husband and we see them once every year if we are lucky and probably even longer than that at times. We wanted to get together with them and spend some time with them so we had a little get together at our house. Jens and Vonae Swensen and Pace and Amanda Clark also came (because we just can't party without them, their definitely some of our favorite party friends) and we had a lot of fun. We played card games and laughed and made the best (and I seriously mean BEST) Homemade Oreo Ice Cream Dessert that has ever come into this wonderful world of ours. It was a hit. And we had lots of fun and lots of laughs.
Friday evening was our big Ward Campout at Yankee Meadows. We went up Friday evening and had a big yummy dutch oven dinner. Some people went home but most people stayed the night and we had a blast. We told jokes over the campfire and really enjoyed talking to everyone. Here are a few pictures from our trip (another quick shout out to Vonae for taking these pictures and sending them to me).
Waiting in line for food.
Everyone loved our big tent...so did we. Thanks Dave and Jeanne for lending it to us.
Cleaning up to head home
Derek climbing a tree...I'm not sure why or what brought it on.
We came home Saturday morning so that I could get back and do some projects and get me ready to go to Logan for the week.
For those of you who don't know I am in a 3 year program of getting my masters through Utah State in Special Education for Early Childhood Education. I have one year done and two more to go. Part of the requirement for the 3 year program is that once a year (during the summer) there is a week long class/orientation/workshop that you have to go to and you get credit for it. So thats what I did. I got a really fancy 2013 Ford Taurus from the school district that was brand spankin' new and I drove it up to Logan on Sunday night so I could spend the week at this workshop. I stayed with some friends up there (Cassie for a few nights and then Cicely and McCabe the other nights...by the way here is another shout out to all of them for being awesome hosts and letting me sleep on their couch and floor.)
The classes were pretty intense and they were REALLY LONG DAYS! We had to be there at 8 AM and stay til 4 PM. Some of you may be thinking, hey that's nothing big thats what I work everyday. Well I thought that too. But then I realized that when I work I'm busy doing stuff and running around and time flies. Well, in this class it was all lectures all day non stop. We had short bathroom breaks and a lunch break but that was about it. It was so hard to stay awake in a hot room just sitting there for 8 hours listening to the same people lecture. However, I did learn a lot and it was very beneficial to me. I finished the class and got my credit and now I'm officially starting my second year into the program (which I hear is a lot more demanding than the first year, which is nerve wracking because I thought the first year was pretty intense).
The week was going by especially slow because Derek wasn't able to come with me so we were apart from each other for 4 whole days! Which is the most we have been apart since we started dating. But on Thursday he was able to come up (and catch a ride with my cousin Kelli...shout out to Kelli for bringing up Derek with you) and be with me til Saturday when we headed home. Here is a picture of Kelli. We all love her. She's a favorite in our family and should be a favorite in your family as well.
I was pretty sad that I wasn't smart enough to take more pictures of our trip but I did take a few. These are a few things we were able to do:
*Go to Gausner Cheese (its like the Disneyland of cheese...thats how Derek likes to explain it) and eat yummy ice cream, yummy cheese samples, and yummy flavored milk. This is Derek with the squeeky cheese we bought. So good.
*Go to dinner at Firehouse Pizza with some of our great friends up there (Brian C., Kelli, Cic and McCabe, Bryan and Celeste, and Derek and I) the pizza there is so amazing! I ate there twice in the short week that I was in Logan because it was so dang good. I highly recommend it if you are headed up to Logan anytime soon. We got the Creamy Artichoke chicken and Bacon Pizza with salads. (I'm salivating just thinking of it)!
*Go to the Logan Zoo... I bet some of you didn't even know they had a zoo. But they do and it was fun going. Here are a few pictures from that that I was smart enough to take some pictures of.
Cic and McCabe in the back seat on our way to the zoo. :)
Entering the zoo.
The albino porcupine that was at the zoo (that was a big highlight). We also saw monkeys, a wallaby, elk, lots of birds, lots of turtles, ducks, bobcats, a raccoon, peacocks, etc.
Derek and I in front of the duck pond.
You can pay 10 cents and get a handful of duck food. Here Kelli and Derek are feeding the ducks. I love this picture. So posed.
We were able to spend a lot of fun times with great friends. I got a credit for a class. We got to ride a fun fancy car to Logan. And it was a great trip.
But wait, I'm not done. Friday night we traveled down to Syracuse and met up with Derek's cousin Max so that we could go on a double date with him and Kelli and Derek and I (we set them up). We all had a lot of fun and it was the hardest I had laughed for a long time. There was a lot of funny things said and great memories. We had time to pull a prank on Derek's other cousin Dan (Max's younger brother) and I don't think I will ever forget that. We also had a great meal at Chili's. After the date we traveled to SLC and stayed the night with my Uncle John and Aunt Jean. They live in an apartment building that is right above the Conference Center and its a pretty sweet view. We had fun visiting with them and spending that time with them even though it was short.
We were so glad to be home and we were both exhausted. We slept in this morning as long as we wanted and it felt so great. It's been awhile since either of us were able to do that. That was a quick recap of the past couple weeks in the Payne family.
A few other quick happenings in the life of us:
*We both finished the registration process of Fall semester this week by paying our tuition for USU and SUU fall semester :( talk about a punch to the bank account. Tuition prices are ridiculous. It was about $4500 dollars for the both of us, but I'm glad we got that taken care of... in a sad way.
*I go back to school tomorrow. My contract days don't start til next week but there are some RTI and IEP days that our school has to do before contract days start and they last all week this week. I can't believe the summer has flown by so fast and its already time to go back to school!
*I got to go school shopping and got some fun new clothes for school to start. It was nice to get some cute new clothes. I feel like its been awhile. It just makes a girls day to get new clothes.
*Derek finished a big project for my brother that he was working on. He did a brochure for the Desert Hills High School. It turned out great. I have a cool husband that is really talented.
*Our garden is hopeless. We have kind of given up on our garden that we were so looking forward to. All the plants were doing really well and they all grew to a certain point and then just died so quickly there wasn't anything we could even do. There are some good looking onions out there but that's about it.
You forgot one important thing...seeing us! It was fun to see you. Too bad it was so brief.
ReplyDeleteOh and Derek climbed that tree because he is Brian's brother...they just do that. :)