Happy Fourth of July, Maui!!!!

WOW...what an amazing couple of days. After a wonderful week with family, Robert and I arrived in Maui for our honeymoon late in the evening on Thursday the 2nd. We spent the day on the 3rd regrouping, visiting a farmers market, walking the beautiful sand beach in front of our hotel and going to a luau. The morning of the fourth we took the Pride of Maui from Ma'alaea Bay, out to Molokini Crater to snorkel. We were able to explore the amazing tropical reef of the crater and see incredible see life. While the crater was extremely crowded it was well worth the elbows to see this beautiful protected ecosystem. Top side is a state protected bird sanctuary as well. I couldn't help but wonder if the massive amount of people were really appreciating the experience and chance of a life time. While we were only able to snorkel for about an hour we were able to mark a good portion of tropical fish off the guide books list of tropical fish species. The Pride of Maui then took us to mile marker 14 off the south side of Maui to snorkel as well. Unfortunately do to wind Turtle Town, a green sea turtle sanctuary/breed area was too murky for snorkeling.....however, Robert spotted the first green sea turtle of the day and was able to get an amazing picture. The turtle was so interested in him it came within feet of him. I am so excited to be able to say I have seen and swam along side green sea turtles in the wild!!!! We finished the fourth with a wonderful evening in Lahaina, walking the streets and watching their small fireworks display out over the water at sun set. Robert and I have seen fireworks in a lot of different places but this one was by far the most amazing....the picture below says it all......

Ornate Butterfly Fish and a Moorish
Idol

Unable to identify this one from our book

Spotted Puffer

Green Sea Turtle....AMAZING

What a beautiful evening......

Happy Fourth

The Offical Groomal Pictures Are In.....We Have Been Published.....and The Wedding Was AMAZING...

Oh my Gosh...We can't get enough of our groomals.....Angie and Keith did such a WONDERFUL Job and we couldn't have asked for more beautiful, jaw dropping pictures......The turned out so great we have been published on the Utah Bride Blog... Check it Out http://www.utahbrideblog.com/?p=1708

I also want to thank Cynthia and Stephanie with Enizio and Audrey from Studio Stems...

Bridals....A Beautiful Disaster

Well after months of planning and weeks of anticipation our bridal canoe photos up American Fork Canyon were a huge curplunk....Literally. After weeks of afternoon, early evening, showers and even mornings of wet rain, Robert and I have been beginning to wonder if we are back in Washington. The nice thing about Utah...If you don't like the weather wait five min and it will change.....where did that rule come in to play to day I still am wondering at midnight. We started down to Tibble Fork Res. just in time for me to sit down and get pushed off into beautiful green scenery and mountains to be hit with the worst rain storm ever...It was blowing sideways......We eventually moved to our vehicles where Cynthia from Enizio Salon re-adjusted my hair and touched up my make up....we waited....and waited and still the rain came. So unfortunate we had to abandon the whole canoe and American Fork Canyon and head for better weather else where just to get some pictures in. We stopped in a field between Alpine and Traverse Mountain to find a lovely old Pick up and wonderful scenery....even a rainbow......I can't wait to get their originals form Angie and Keith, with Sweet Memory Gardens. I am excited that Cynthia was on site....kept me looking wonderful and left her camera in my car!!!!!!! These are a few I pulled form her camera.......So awesome

The only canoe picture we got :( !!!

My mom thought up this pose and I think it turned out adorable....

'With attitude is even better

Wish my top wasn't all bunched up funny....maybe a different angle will help

Love this picture...shows the back of my dress well....

Keith and Angie getting some close ups

Striking a pose and hoping this picture turns out awesome....

The family.....

My wonderful hair that Cynthia did...

Beautiful flowers from Studio Stems...

This picture of just me is AMAZING.....

Wonderful eye lashes.....like having spiders on my eyes (Kellie Pickler) thanks Steph...(Enizio Salon Makeup Artist!!)

And the OH MY GOD picture.....Can't wait for the real ones there going to be da bomb dot com!!!

The Month of May....how fast it went by....

Wow.....I can't believe that May is over and the first week of June has passed us by in a jiffy. So much has been packed into the last six weeks I don't even no where to begin. The end of April Robert got the front part of his tattoo filled in. This piece has been in the process for some three years now and while it still isn't finished it looks wonderful all filled in. He still has another sitting of four hours or so to have it all filled in and gone over one more time. April ended with my bridal shower at the Dodo, which Margaret and Erin work hard at getting together and it turned out wonderful. We has lunch and played a couple of games.....the weather was beautiful. Afterwards we had a BBQ the first of the summer. Robert cooked up some of the pig meet and we had a great time with friends.

Robert's tattoo filled in in front.

Robert, Kyle, Shawn and Chris at the BBQ

Robert and me!

The first of May was filled with warm weather. Unfortunately non of which we were able to enjoy since I was painstakingly studying for my last week of finals at the U. I am so excited to be done with school and have my B.S. in Biology accomplished after 7 years!!!! The weekend after finals I took off work to have a graduation party and get ready to leave for mouse trapping and hanta virus research with the Dearing Lab at the U. However, the morning of the grad. party Robert and I ran to Eyemasters in Sugar House to get our annual eye exams and contacts ordered. Since it was such a beautiful day and the boys had been couped up all week with me in finals we loaded them up in the truck for a ride. While in Eyemasters for 40min tops, we had someone call animal control on us for having dogs in our vehicle and at the same time some lady hit our new truck and left with out notifying us or authorities. So while I was dealing with the cops on the hit and run and a huge dent in our brand new truck, animal control was writing me a warning for animal cruelty for leaving the dogs in the car....mind you with all 5 windows rolled down and it only being 58 degrees out.......I was livid......and not to mention if they had actually written me a ticket I'm sure I wouldn't haven been able to go to vet school......The animal control believed our dogs were in distress because Widgeon was panting....hahaha the dog pants even when its 2 below out.....he was just F..ing excited...The cops couldn't believe I was getting even a warning......So that pretty much ruined our day and at the same time the animal control pretty much told me I was horrible mom the day before mothers day.....And I have the most spoiled dogs of them all. We are now teaching Widgeon not to pant on command

House with tree in bloom and yard finally finished.......

Truck with nice big dent in side

Monday morning I packed my stuff and headed out for a week of mouse trapping and hanta virus research. In the morning before I left a drake mallard landed in out pond out back. We have never had any big birds drop by for a bath and hang around for 30min like this guy did. While heading out of town I left Robert get the dogs registered and pay my no Rabies tag on dog ticket to animal control. He also spent the day paying a speeding ticket and taking care of insurance issues on our truck while I headed for the desert.

The week of mouse trapping was very interesting and educational. We trapped 6 different sites around the Tintic Mountain area and Little Sahara Recreation Area. We caught several types of animals including a chipmunk, vole, deer mice, pocket mice, and pinon mice. The pinons were my favorite with huge ears and adorable little noses with little black eyes.... I even got to microchip a few mice.

Drake mallard in pond out back......dogs about went through our glass back door after him!!

Getting ready to process animals in my respirator

Pat (a grad student) and me microchiping a deer mouse

Pinon mouse after ear tagging

Pinon mouse upon release

Deer mouse

Baby wood rat...type of pack rat

Sunset over Tintic Mountains

Upon getting home my focus was turned from school to prepping for the wedding and getting house projects done. Fist off I made an appointment at Enizios Salon in Highland/Alpine area for a trial hair up do for bridals. I also had my makeup done and Cynthia and Stephanie were wonderful. Robert and I then started focusing on figuring out were we wanted our bridals taken and visited several locations that were options. We went to Wheeler Farm in Salt Lake, Red Butte Gardens up by the U, American Fork Canyon, and Big Cottonwood Canyon. After several trips up American Fork we have decided to have pictures taken there tomorrow and can't wait to see how they come out.

Front of hair

Back of hair

Robert at Wheeler Farm

Pig Kisses

Cow nose

American Fork Canyon

Wisteria at Red Butte

Robert and me Red Butte

During all of this we were hit head on with serious plumbing disaster in our house. A week and 1/2 ago our toilet stopped working and stuff started backing up into our shower....we also had the bees wax ring blow out under the toilet and the water leaking all over the bathroom and under the house. After trying hard for two days to get things fix on our own we called a plumber who came out and roto-rootered our system. He wasn't convinced at the time that he had solved the problem completely. He had found a 'hard' spot in our system. He said he was unsure of how long the fix would last.....a week , two months, five years......but at any rate it was fixed before Roberts brother Brant flew in from Washington and the boys headed to Flaming Gorge on a guided fishing trip for his bachelor party. The boys had a wonderful trip, caught lots of fish and are already planning the next one. However, Widgeon was very up set he couldn't go since he spent the day before the boys left helping dad fix the boat and waiting on a boat ride....

Drake enjoying the sunshine and protecting the thrown....

Widgeon ready to go with the boys.....but doesn't understand why mom keeps telling him he has to stay home with her.....poor Widgy so heart broken

Robert catching Kokanee

First fish of the day on the guided trip

Robert's brother Brant hangin in the boat.

This week I headed back to Enizios to have my hair cut and died before pictures and the wedding.....I came home early from work the same day to get some other house projects done just have our plumbing back up again.....I was near tears and so was Robert.....We were with out a toilet, shower, or washer......again and facing the fact that we might have to dig up our front yard just 3 weeks before all of our guest form out of town set foot in our home most have not seen.......After having the roto-rooter guy come out again this time he hit mud and confirmed we had a busted sewage line......Robert then took the day of work Friday to start digging up the line and getting it fixed.....Lucky we had our neighbor Jeff who spent all Thursday evening and all day Friday helping us dig.......While now it is fixed....we have a huge muddy mess, our lawn is ruined and we still have all those other projects that need to be finished.....Thank God for good neighbors, good friends and nice plumbers......oh and did I mention a wonderful soon the be husband.....

My new hair........yes this is inside Petsmart bathroom before changing for work....

Thought this picture was awesome I took after getting home.....

Robert digging up the line with the Kubota

Yes the break was under out lovely semi new deck......we had to cut out support beams to get to it....

Our neighbor Jeff learning how to runt he Kubota and filling the hole back in.

Poor boys couped up in the house......

Well that pretty much sums up the last six weeks. I got an e-mail from a family friend this week that asked if we were on a zen like journey towards the wedding day....I replied saying so far I am still waiting on the zen part.....it has definitely been a journey though.....but at least the crapper is working and we are still speaking to each other......Regardless we are both getting extremely excited and can't wait for the big day!!!!!!!

Widgeon in the back yard smelling the flowers