In a previous life, Jason and I hopped on planes for free and traveled the world. Unfortunately, our little weekend jaunts and explorations have been taken over by school, work and more school. While some people have enjoyed summer BBQs or camping trips, we have spent six days a week, 4-6 hours a day at my grandparent’s house doing homework. We barely had time to fit in tasks such as grocery shopping. I shouldn’t say barely because some weeks we didn’t even have an hour to go to the store. In all fairness, we got to spend a ton of time with my grandparents and we loved every minute of it.


Jason had a wild and crazy workload this summer, including an internship (yes, we paid for Jason to work) and a really full school schedule. To graduate in December, Jason had to take an online math class this summer. I’ve never seen anyone work as hard as he did on this class. It took an insane amount of dedication to complete it. Thankfully we live by my incredible math genius grandpa (seriously, a complete genius) who was so kind to tutor Jason through the class. He has tutored a few of my cousins and Grandpa’s Math Camp, as we now call it, was officially up and running over the summer. Here are some photos of math camp:



If you want to know what we did this summer? Well, this is pretty much where we sat all summer long...just doing homework.


So moral of the story is Jason graduates in December and that is all that matters. Come December, we are going to hit the road running and not look back!

As a side note, I feel like we should also apologize to our friends that we have neglected over the summer. As of tomorrow, math camp is no more and we will see you again soon.

Two more of baby E.

And she is insanely beautiful. Elise Marie, a tiny 5 lb 9 oz, has officially stolen my heart.

I had the most delicious meal tonight. It might possibly be the most amazing food St. George has to offer. The restaurant is a semi-new Indian restaurant in town that we have recently discovered. It is so good (and cheap!) that I literally cannot stop thinking about it.

I knew I had to blog about this place as we were driving home tonight smelling the food we had just purchased. Once I finished eating, I was even more determined that word must get out! I am begging all of you St. George-ians to go out and try this amazing food. I highly recommend the chicken curry. Mmmm... Seriously, if this place leaves town like that amazing Brazilian restaurant (Bolofa's) that went out of business a while back, I am going to completely lose all faith in the people of this town. All faith, gone just like that.

Now for the embarrassing part. The flake that I am has completely forgotten the name of the restaurant so here are my best directions. It's in the strip mall on River Road where Old Navy and Big 5 are located. It's in the same plaza as Cold Stone and it's right smack in the middle of Durangos and Samuri 21. I know you know where I am talking about!


Disclaimer: As opposed to contrary belief, this advertisement was not paid for by the yummy Indian restaurant. Although I would happily accept payment in the form of free food...

Any time I have a day off of work, I instantly begin planning a trip and trying to find a place to go. It's important to make use of that one day off, right? After searching for a place to go that was both cheap and had open flights, we ended up...camping...in Pine Valley...about 30 minutes from our house. Needless to say, flights over Memorial Day weekend were busy and we couldn't catch a flight to anywhere within our budget. Sure we could have hopped on over to Hawaii, Mexico, or even Tokyo but the hotels just weren't in our price range. I'm not bitter, I swear...

Even though I was dreaming of a far away destination all weekend, we actually had a great time camping. I love being outside and it was nice to actually be in the cool mountains for a change. Pine Valley is just beautiful and it felt good to get away and find a little peace and quiet. We went fishing and Jason almost caught a fish, so that was almost exciting.


Jason is nice and does the whole worm on a hook thing for me.


This is our tent and campsite. I don't know why I am pointing out the obvious here.


Life down by the river


Freaky deaky Jason. He really is a nice guy, I promise.

So lately, Jason and I have confirmed to two things about ourselves. We really love big cities and we absolutely love the mountains. Currently, we live in a small town in the desert. Hmm...

One of my favorite places in Southern Utah is Zions. I absolutely love it there and can't get over the complete beauty of it. Springdale, which is the town just outside of Zions, is fantastic. It's this quaint little town that feels like it's worlds away from Utah. There are always people from every inch of the globe and I love it.

So we went up on Saturday to get away from all of the stresses of life and become one with nature. We hiked Hidden Canyon, which was one of the shorter hikes, but quite beautiful.






You have to look carefully but Jason is surrounded by sheer drop offs. It's awesome.

I am so incredibly proud of Jason right now! He made the Dean's List this semester at SUU!!! I know he gets shy about me sharing this with the whole world but, well, I don't really care. He has worked extremely hard to get here and it's been quite a journey as many of you know.

While I am on the topic, I will give everyone a little update. Jason has two more semesters of school left and then he will graduate this December. He is doing an internship this summer with the court system working with their juvenile probation department. He is really excited and hopefully this will give him some good law enforcement experience. After he graduates he is going to apply like crazy to as many federal agencies as possible and go from there! Life is so up in the air and I absolutely love it!

Anyway, I just though this was something worthy of sharing with the world. Great job Jason!

I love this guy. Seriously, it's borderline obsession. I was looking through pictures and was laughing at Jason's ever-changing facial hair, along with his crazy funny expressions. So I figured I would let everyone enjoy my adorable husband almost as much as I do. I can't believe I got so lucky and married someone who is pretty much straight up amazing.




The second pic is a classic "perv" stache. Or cop from the 80's. It's a toss up really.



Oh the handlebars. This style has come and gone many times...



Cowboy Jason, which is by far my favorite version. Mmmm...



We've got Jason with a fro and truck driver meets physics nerd Jason.



This first picture is one of many facial hair experiments. Interesting.



Not sure where to go with this one. Girly Jason, maybe?

I think we may be moving up in life. I’m not positive, but I think we are moving in the right direction. We finally moved out of our old apartment, “the box”. If you haven’t seen the apartment, you can’t fully appreciate it. Regardless, we found a great deal down the street so we jumped on it. I swore the next time I moved it would be OUT of Utah, but apparently that hasn’t happened yet. Next time...

While we may be moving up in the world (i.e. we actually have a hallway now!), we are still White Trash at heart. Here are two things we put on top of our car to move into our new apartment.

1. A chair from DI. We didn’t have enough room in the car for the chair so Jason (he’s like a mini MacGyver, I swear) came up with the idea of putting the chair in the ski racks. We felt so cool driving down the road.



2. A Siesta Sac (Kmart version of lovesac). While this is way too oversized for the top of our car anyway, that’s not the best part. Jason did some curbing work at a house and they had a really dirty, nasty Siesta Sac sitting in the dirt. Since we sold our couch for tuition money way back when, we figured it would be fun to have two matching Siesta Sacs (we already have one). So we went back to the house later and asked if we could have it. They were happy to get rid of it so we strapped it to the top of the car and went on our way. Well, the parents were happy to get rid of it. Their two kids were screaming at us while we were driving away. And oh yah, apparently it was so dirty that DI wouldn’t take it and that’s why it was sitting in the dirt.



I’m starting to wonder, are we destined to be White Trash forever? I thought it was just because we are poor but I’m really starting to question ourselves. Oh well, at least we get some good laughs out of it!

So, we went to Egypt over Spring Break and had such a great time! We got a chance to spend time with my dad and also see some amazing things. It was fun to take Jason back to some areas I remembered from when I lived there.

We started off the trip by spending a day in New York. I love that city. Seriously, it's amazing. We stayed in the Financial District, which was really quiet on Sunday morning. So we enjoyed just wandering around and being in New York.

After a LONG plane ride (Jason in first class, Heather in coach...Yes, I am a good wife), we arrived in Cairo.






I don't think many people will care about this but I was pretty excited. This is the new Airbus 380 at JFK!!



Cairo from the air.


Dinner at Barry's, at the Pyramids. The food was yummy!


Heather and dad.


And yes Egyptians like Obama too!





Walking around the pyramids, trying not to get scammed.





Our camel ride. You may not know but camels have gas. Jason is an expert on this.



Jason's brother happened to be there as well.











Coptic Cairo








Medieval Cairo





Inside a Mosque



And that's a toilet.


Apparently you CAN bubble wrap anything!


Who said scooters weren't built for families of three.


That's talent


Us with our tour guide, Samir.


Nothing like Papa Johns, and a felucca boat ride on the Nile





Be sure to notice the man brushing his teeth in the nile, he is on the back of the three boats
tied together.


The sunsets were absolutely amazing

5 years ago today, I absolutely, without a doubt made the best decision of my life. And thus began my obsession with Jason…





And 5 years later, I still adore every last ounce of him.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. St. George is beautiful. Southern Utah is beautiful. I can’t believe I live in such a beautiful place. Last weekend we took advantage of the spring weather and hiked Snow Canyon. I love that Snow Canyon is just a few minutes away. While it isn’t quite Zion National Park, it’s still breathtaking. I literally cannot wait for warmer weather so that we can go hiking all the time! Now don’t get too worried. I still think Utah is one seriously crazy place, but it sure is pretty.

I think Jason deserves some sort of award. After a small amount of begging, he took me to Paris over Valentine’s Day. Forget the flowers and chocolates; I got the Eiffel Tower and French pastries!

They started a new Delta flight direct from Salt Lake City to Paris so of course we had to test it out. Can I just wander off topic for a moment and say how amazing direct flights are!! There is something wonderful about flying up to Salt Lake and just hopping on a flight and arriving in Paris 10 hours later. WOW! Next direct flight to test out? Salt Lake to Tokyo, June 2009!

Ok, back to Paris. We left on a Friday afternoon, arrived Saturday morning and then left Paris Monday morning. It was a fantastic weekend trip filled with beautiful scenery and amazing food. We were too cheap (or poor) to actually sit down and eat in a restaurant so we ended up eating crepes from street vendors, fresh baguettes and cheese from the market and LOTS of pain au chocolat (English translation: chocolate croissant) from pastry shops.










What?!




No, it's not a drive through McDonald's, it's a walk through McDonalds.

I ran my very first half marathon! It was such an amazing experience and I am so excited about my new accomplishment! My wonderfully supportive mom came out for the weekend just to cheer me on (and take part in the 5k as well). Jason and my mom trekked around to make sure they could cheer me on throughout the race. I got an extra burst of adrenaline every time I saw them and I just loved it. It was so fun and I can’t wait to do another one! Hopefully I will get to run the Denver half with my sister in October for her third time around…

And a special thanks to my friend Luke who supported me throughout the race and ran with me the entire time. He kept me running at the very end when I wanted to just collapse!

To play blog catch-up!

In a desperate attempt to survive, I am asking if anyone out there who reads our blog is in the know about ANY part-time jobs available in the area. Jason has been franticly searching for a job for quite some time now and has had no luck. Not even a teensy tiny bit of luck! So if anyone knows of anything, please let me know and we will, I don't know, bake you something. We would buy you a lavish gift but we are much too poor for that!

Jason and I had a weird experience last week. We actually DROVE somewhere as opposed to FLY somewhere. We finally bought a car (yes, we lived for 1 month without a car) and had to pick it up in Denver. I was strangely excited for the long drive from Denver to St. George. I love to fly around the world, I really do...but the whole standby thing can be so exhausting it was nice to change it up a bit. Now, I am still not too keen on driving places but maybe I can settle for a once every few years 10-hour road trip.

Moving on - we had such a fun time together. We danced and sang to Backstreet Boys, ate a whole lot of "road trip" food, and jointly realized that we want to move to the Colorado mountains and never leave.

I did the best I could taking a picture at 75 mph but this is a place called "No Name". I love it! It sounds like someone about as creative as me named the town.

I know my posts have been lacking lately. For those of you who know about my job also know how CRAZY the month of October is. It has been wild and insane and I'm so happy it's over. In one week I traveled to San Francisco, Fresno, Denver and Chicago. I sure do love traveling but I hate traveling for work! All I get to see is the airport and the hotel room, plus I have to leave Jason which I just hate.