Zion---The Subway

May 19, 2012- Zion National Park- The Subway

Doing the Subway was on my list of things to do before I die. I've seen pictures of it and I've heard a lot about it. I assumed that because I had heard so much about it was essentially not hard. I wouldn't go as far as deeming it "easy" but I didn't think it would be too difficult. For the first half it really wasn't difficult. In fact when we finally arrived to the part known as "The Subway" I thought, "I'd do this again next week!" After walking the next half, wading through river, and tripping over rocks I decided that I think I really would do it again, but not for a couple of more years. 

Seeing the Subway was GORGEOUS. If you have a chance to do it, don't even hesitate!

This is how the trip started off. It was REALLY cold by the way.

I love this picture.
Katie, Richard, Matt, Lauren, & Duke

This is as belly photo as I get. Here I am at... er... 27 weeks?

This is all of us after we have suited up. We're all in wet suits
except for Matt who's wearing a dry suit. (Almost a better option.)
We did Das Boot first, which is a canyon that leads into the Subway.
The water in Das Boot was FREEZING. Needless to say I was grateful for long sleeves and water proof
socks and gloves. I was comfortable. :)

Katie and Richard--I think they look like spies.

The pools in this area were GORGEOUS. We thought this one looked like a "hot tub". So here we are "hot tubbing".
(**Disclosure: The water was not even hot. Comfortable but not hot.)

It was so BEAUTIFUL!
I often find the most beautiful places on earth are the ones that are the most difficult to get to.

  

"The Subway"

So we did this the weekend before Memorial Day weekend. We had a lot of fun with Katie, Richard, Duke, & Lauren and would do a trip like this with them AGAIN. Duke & Lauren were also the ones that came with us on that Labor Day Trip that took us 2 nights in the wilderness (unplanned 2 nights). I'm surprised they still want to come with us. :) 

It was FUN! I did have a hard time being pregnant and I think a lot of it stemmed from paranoia. A few weeks before I met a climbing instructor who told me that his wife, as a midwife, told her patients to not do any climbing or canyoneering after 24 weeks. I'm not really sure specifically why, but that scared me enough where I almost didn't go. Lucky enough, it went fine. Yes I was really slow and yes I was really tired really quickly, but I did it. The satisfaction of doing it and seeing the Subway with my own eyes outweighs the pain. 

Stay tuned for more catch up stories. The next post will be about what we did on Memorial Day Weekend. 

Long Time

Honestly I can't believe it's been since the beginning of April that I posted last. I feel like I was pretty good at consistently posting too. We've done a lot of fun things. Some of you may be wondering what being pregnant is like for me too. In short, it's been pretty good, in fact almost easy--- too easy. It's beginning to make me feel uncomfortable, like something horrible should be happening to balance out all this good fortune.

In any case, expect a few posts of "updates".

The first one I can think of is...

GRADUATION!

May 4, 2012.
(Here's a little disclosure... I did walk at graduation and invited my parents and Matt's parents and my aunts, but really I didn't finish until last Thursday.)

My Mom made this sign and at graduation was waving it
ferociously and yelling my name. It was pretty much as cool as it
sounds. ;)

I finished school and I got my Masters. After two years of working full time and going to class at night, it's done. It would be a lie if I didn't tell you I felt some type of pride from the experience. Now let's see what I'll do with it, because getting paid a lot more money isn't one of those things. Getting paid "a lot" seems almost like an oxymoron---I am a teacher after all. 

A few of the ladies that I have studied with. 

Actually, next year I'll be working SUPER part time. When I say SUPER I mean 10 hours a week. (That's not even half time!) I'll also be teaching Reading to 7th and 8th graders at my school. I am a little concerned on the classroom management dynamic, because they are 7th and 8th GRADERS not 7 and 8 YEAR olds. To my second graders I say something like, "Oh I love that Suzy is folding her arms and looking at me" and then ALL my kid sit up straight with their arms folded dying to hear to me praise them for their efforts of looking straight up at me. Try saying that to a 12 year old, "Man I really love the choices you are making. Thanks for coming to class on time!"

We'll have to see.

Happy Easter!

On Friday morning we got a knock on a door and I saw a delivery truck pull away. On our porch were two tiny boxes from my Mom and inside were these two cute easter baskets! I got the baby lamb and Matt got the bunny. *cute*

I did tell you that my mom has recently gotten into sending us gifts for every holiday. With this fun package we each got the same note except it was modified for our specific gender. Thanks Mom!









Friday afternoon we headed up to Idaho where we were planning on spending Easter with Matt's family. Friday we spent the afternoon hanging out with Matt's brother, sister-in-law, and sister in Pocatello and then we headed off to Burley. Saturday morning started off with an Easter egg hunt.

I have to say that Easter is always cooler with the Hickenloopers. Can you find the eggs hidden in this picture??

How about this one:

My niece was so cute! She kept referring to the eggs as "snack". We'd point to one egg, that was labled with her name, and she'd say, "Snack... snack... snack..." If you've ever seen Finding Nemo, think of the seagulls that always say "mine, mine, mine..." and if you substitute that for "snack, snack, snack" and you have capture this Easter moment.

She was so stinkin' cute with her little Easter basket.

I hope everyone had enough chocolate and candy to carry them through the weekend plus some.... I know I had my yearly quota of chocolate on Saturday. :)

Happy Easter!

Donuts!

A couple of weeks ago I saw someone post a link, on Facebook, about some Pintrest baked donuts. I love donuts and baked donuts seemed to be the solution. :)

It's actually because of the link about baked donuts that made me want to look into Pintrest a little more. I'm not an official member yet but I am certainly a Pinterest moocher. I'm sure that one day when I decide to be an official Pintrest member I won't have those annoying banners on every window that says: "Login now! Not a member?! Click here!"

The first attempt:
1. I started making donuts and then realized I needed a donut pan. As a result I made a bunch of cake balls that didn't taste very good and took me, no joke, 3-4 hours to make.

2. Last week I bought a donut pan from Gygi's. I love Gygi's! We even had a gift card that was floating around from our wedding so I pretty much got it for "free". Great day. Great day. Matt convinced me to get a 'mini' donut pan--- because it's cuter, but I think one day I'd like an upgrade or even better a giant cupcake pan! It makes a cake in the shape of a cupcake.

It was Muriel's birthday and I thought I would make her some funfetti donuts. It's my favorite cake! I found a recipe online where converted a cake mix into a donut mix.

Notice how they're brown? Well, when they're fresh out of the oven they're pretty soft but after they cool they turned into something with a hard shell and hallow inside. I'm not sure how that's possible but sadly it's true.

However I felt that putting powdered sugar all over them made them more presentable and possibly more desirable, even if they were a little hollow on the inside.

3. I made some today!

These turned out a lot nicer and I used a completely different recipe.

Coated in brown sugar, cinnamon, and white sugar. These are not PERFECT but they're pretty darn tasty! I'm stil out to try more recipes. I'm in search for something just as good as Hostess. One day... one day... I'll figure it out.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Popcorn shaped clover. :)

I have to say that my mom is excellent at celebrating all holidays with her kids, even though we don't live at home anymore. :)

For Valentine's Day & Christmas she sent us chocolate covered strawberries. For Halloween she sent us a card and chocolates. She does something similar for Thanksgiving too. I mean who gets presents for Thanksgiving? This year for St. Patrick's Day we got a bin with an assortment of popcorn flavors. It was delicious. The only regret that Matt & I had  was the fact we had to share it with Aline. (She wasn't even home when we got it--- but we knew it was the right thing to do.)

It came in a festive green tin filled with goodies!

I know it's almost April but... HAPPY ST. PATTY'S DAY!

Fetus

In case you haven't heard... we're having a baby! We're excited but at the same time it seems all unreal.

When we tell people, everyone wants to know a few things. So, I'll just answer the questions you might have already formulated in your head the moment you read the first line.

1. Baby is currently due on August 12th
2. As of today I am 18 weeks.
3. We're having a boy.
4. No I have not been really sick.

I haven't had any of your typical pregnancy symptoms. Well, I have but if I didn't know I was pregnant I could easily ride it off as just gas, shortness of breath, and exhaustion. I mean what normal person doesn't go through those things?

On Thursday we went to the doctor and found out that we're having a little boy. Both Matt & I felt pretty confident that it was a girl. When we saw the little boy parts on the ultra sound screen we did feel disappointed but in the words of Matt, "I don't care that it's a boy. I'm just sad that I was wrong."

I was so sure it was a girl that I had a list of girl names that we could potentially use, and to be honest, I really liked those names. I almost bought some really cute bows that I saw on sale and I have been thinking of what type of cute lacy onesies I might make over the summer. I really love it when little girls have the lace on the bum. Now I think I'm going to make onesies with ties on them and suspenders, which are cute as well-- I just REALLY love lace on the bum. Im trying to think of a manly way to do it now, maybe just stripes and no lace?

They gave us a DVD of the ultra sound. I really wanted to find a way to get it off of the DVD but it took too much effort so I thought I would record my computer with a camera. There is no sound on this clip except the sound of the computer. It's kind of annoying so if you want to press mute and watch it, it may just be better for you. ;)

Here we see him sucking in fluid and either a: coughing, b: burping, or c: having the hiccups. I believe it could be some form of regurgitation. Can a fetus regurgitate??

New York

This is obviously VERY late. 

Since Boston and New York City are "so close" we figured that we would visit the big city after spending time in Boston. We have a friend who lives in New York that we hadn't seen in a long time so we figured it would be a great idea. Let me tell you... best choice every. 

Here is a picture of our friends.

Susan, Fionna, & Dustin

I did take this picture and I am not going to lie, this is a photo that belongs on their next Christmas card. We loved staying with them and their cute daughter Fionna. At this point I feel like if my children don't come out like Fionna I will send them right back where they came from. :)

Matt & I knew Dustin in college and when we found out he lived there we thought it would be fun to take a trip from Boston to New York. Dustin was probably the BEST guide to New York. I dont think I could have paid anyone to do what he did. We would say something like, "Dustin we really want to see site A." Dustin would then say: "Okay we can do that but let's also see Site B, C, and D. Oh wait.... Site E is right nex to site C so we can see that site too!" Dustin also shared with stories of specific sites. I feel like I had the most complete tour of New York City in 3 days because of Dustin.

I actually dedicate this video to Dustin because I saw a lot of what Jay Z is dancing in because Dustin took me there. No joke as I watch this video I say: "WOW! I've been there!" I feel like my connection and relationship with Jay Z is better just because I went to New York and I saw this video.

                                        

Also another part of New York that I LOVED was....

Ellis Island

Time Square-- So many lights!

Statue of Liberty 

While site seeing I asked Dustin, "Hey, does New York City have it's own Arc de Triomphe?"
Dustin: "Yeah it's close by let's go see it." I may never go to France but at least I can say I've posed next to
the Arc de Triomphe. There is also a grand piano sitting in front of it in an open court yard for anyone to play.
How cool is that?

If you watch the Jay Z video you'll see a big bull made out of metal. Apparently
everyone wanted to get a picture with it and there was a HUGE line. I saw it, waved, and kept walking.
We found this rat across the street from it. No one was standing in line to get a picture. So I thought I'd
take advantage of the moment. I love this picture mostly because Matt usually doesn't pose but here he did. :)

Fionna--- I really hope my kids are like her.