What have I been up to??

My, my, my. I can't believe it's been 8 months since I posted anything. Whoops. My bad.

It's been a really great 8 months. Let me see if I can sum up what's happened...

February: Katee and David (Joe's sister and her husband) came to visit for a weekend with their three boys. We took them to the Jump Yard, a big trampoline place here in town and they loved it! Afterward there was a lot of sickness in our household: first Astrid was sick and then I got it. I missed a lot of work that month.

The Jump Yard!
[EDIT: Sorry, it looks like the video won't work. I may try something else later...]

March: More sickness. Astrid and I took turns. But the snow started melting so we started going for walks down the block. Astrid was just starting to get good at walking at this point. One on set of Joe's days off we went to the temple and left Astrid with Aunty Katee. I think that was the longest I'd ever been away from her at that point. My parents also came for a visit at the end of the month! Dad could only stay a couple days and mom stayed for 5.

Joe clearing the ice from our spot. Yay! 

April: On April 2nd, the quintet I had been playing with since September played our one and only concert. We played Mozart's Quintett in A (KV 581 if you want to look it up) and we didn't do too bad except for the second movement. Thankfully we had a good start and a good end, so hopefully the mess in the middle wasn't the only thing people remembered. Playing with that group was a fun experience though and it was great to have a reason to play my violin for a bit. April was also the month when I started checking out the playgrounds with Astrid. She loved this.

We went for a lot of walks in April

May: My youngest brother, Keanu, came home from his mission! Me and Astrid flew down to Lethbridge and it was awesome. What is usually a 9-10 hour trip turned into a 3 hour trip! Including the lay-over in Calgary! It was weird to get to town with half the day still left to go. Joe joined us a couple days later when his days off started.

The plane we took from Calgary to Lethbridge. So tiny! 

June: I received a new calling in June to be the Primary President for my ward. If you don't know what that means, it means that I am in charge of all the children between the ages of 18 months and 12 years old. Along with 2 counsellors and a secretary we make sure all the classes have teachers as well as prepare lessons to teach with all the children together. It's a lot more work than I imagined, but hopefully once we find our rhythm things will be a piece of cake.

Astrid experienced her first thunderstorms in June and she loved it! 
[EDIT: Sorry, this video's not working either. Just know it's super cute!]

July: We drove out to Cherry Grove for the first week of July to reconnect with Joe's hometown and old friends. It was a great trip! We hope to go back every other year for Pioneer Days because apparently it's quite the shindig. When we got home from Cherry Grove, I was given the opportunity to teach a Water Rehabilitation class once a week in a small town 30 minutes from GP. I was nervous going into the first class, but it was a lot of fun working with the people who came out, so every class since then has been a piece of cake!

I busted out my good camera for the first time since November for our trip to Cherry Grove and this was the first picture I took: Astrid in front of the hotel we stayed at in Barrhead. 

August: This has been the month of visits for us. I forgot to mention, at the end of July my mom and sister came up to visit for 5 days. Then, Joe's mom came to visit for the first week of August. This was great because she and Astrid have never spent any one-on-one time together. She lives with Joe's sister, so whenever we see her, Astrid's cousins are always around and so Astrid usually runs off with them. So it was great that she could come see us on her own because she and Astrid were really able to bond. My water class ended for the summer, but it went well enough that they want to run the class again in the fall! I'm excited to do another session and I look forward to see where this will go from here.

Astrid and Ninnin at the dino museum. Best buds! 

Ew.

I think I just drank sour milk.

I made a protein shake after morning training and I mixed milk and water with my powder, so I couldn't really tell at first. But now I've got a funny taste in my mouth and my stomach doesn't feel too good. Blah.

Anyway, that's not what this post is supposed to be about. I wanted to tell you about my trip to Utah! Since I mentioned it in my post about my summer, I should let you know how it went. And show you some photos. 

This is Johnny's first picture on the blog! I am married to a hunk :D

We shot stuff! We spent a weekend in Logan with Selina and her man and this was one of the things we did with them. It was pretty fun. The last time I shot a gun was 4 years ago, so I enjoyed myself quite a bit. 

We visited Temple Square. This was taken on top of the Conference Center. It's a sand blasted mural which we thought was pretty cool. If you ever visit Salt Lake, you must visit Temple Square and learn a thing or two about us crazy Mormons. 

We ate the most AMAZING cupcakes ever! Down in Provo there's a magical bake shop called the Sweet Tooth Fairy where they make your sweet dreams come true. We also may have brought a dozen cupcakes back up to Canada with us the day we left. Om nom nom! 

We visited the Hogle Zoo. It was fun to walk around and look at all the animals. My favourites were definitely the elephants and the rhinos. Johnny looooved the gorillas. (Naturally. He's practically a gorilla himself).

And we played with my little cousins. We stayed at my Aunt's place once we left Logan and the kids absolutely loved Johnny. Whenever we were there, he'd hardly have a second to himself. I've always told him that if we have a little girl, she would have him wrapped around her little finger but Johnny's always said he'd be able to resist...

 But after spending a week with THIS little cutie, he's discovered that he is an absolute sucker for girls with big, brown adorable eyes. And if our babies get my genes, they're gonna be just like her! (Except a little lighter maybe...)

And that's our trip in a nutshell! We had a blast and I loved seeing my family and exploring the Utah valley with Johnny. We will most certainly go down again in the future. 

Aaaand, We're Back!

Did you miss me?

I hope you didn't. I hope you were all so busy having wonderful summer adventures that you didn't miss me at all. Or, if you live in the southern hemisphere, I hope you were having equally wonderful winter adventures to distract from the lack of me in your blog-life. 

I had a great summer. And I feel all ready to go for school this semester (not really. I've still been making last minute changes to my schedule).

Here's what my summer contained:

• One week in Utah. Complete with time spent with my best friend, Selina as well as a small branch of my brown family. 
• A new job. I work for a wonderful lady named Jo and I can't wait to tell you more about her. 
• One week spent in northern Alberta getting to know my newest nephew.
• A generous helping of the Settlers of Catan. A LOT of Catan. 
• One season of club rugby. It was great going out to practices and games and meeting some new faces. 
• A weekend in Whitefish. Helping my friend Becks photograph a wedding. 
• One week at Kootenay. Camping with the family in the best place on earth! 
• One wedding anniversary celebrated more than a week late. I'll explain why later, but I'm sure those of you who know our situation already know why. 

What did you do this summer? I hope you had a good one!