Little Miss Lazy

I have been doing some serious slacking on the posting lately. I have no excuse. I have just been extremely lazy. It may or may not have something to do with all the books that I have been reading in the last couple weeks. But I'm back now with a little update on what we've been up to the last little while.

While Corey was gone on his trip to Alaska, Raylee and I went to my moms house to stay so we wouldn't be lonely in our new house. It was lots of fun. We did some shopping, went hiking, and, to my credit, I did try to get some work in (although I didn't get in nearly as much as I was supposed to).

At the end of the week Raylee and I hitched a ride with my mom and dad and went to Island Park to our yearly Bird family reunion. I always have lots of fun at the reunion and this year was no exception. It is always fun to see all my cousins and catch up with everyone. We floated down one of the rivers one day. I went down twice. Raylee went with me the first time and after screaming for the first five minutes she slept the rest of the way. Then the second time down turned into quite the adventure when we helped rescue some old ladies and their grandkids who had fallen out of their canoes. Some of the other cousins helped get them in the rafts while we went to try to save their canoe which was quickly sinking quite a ways down the river. They ended up going with us the rest of the way down, and it was kind of fun to perform our little rescue mission.

*Sorry for the lack of pictures, but Corey had the camera in Alaska

A week or so after the family reunion my Grandma Whipple came down from Oregon to visit for a whole week. We usually only get to see my grandma a couple days a year so this visit was extra special.

On Sunday night we had a barbeque where we got to try out some of the fish Corey caught.

On Monday we went to Salt Lake and went to Discovery Gateway (thanks grandma!). Raylee had lots of fun there. I was worried that there wouldn't really be anything for her to do, but there was an area that was made for kids three and under and Raylee had a blast playing with her cousins Ashlyn, Hailey, Mickell, and Tanner.

On Wednesday my Grandma came up to see our new house and then we went to Al's house for a yummy dinner of pizza.

On Thursday we celebrated my brother Jared's b-day by going to Park City where we had access to an amazing 2.9 million dollar condo (thanks Emily and Dave for hooking us up!) which was MEGA nice. We went swimming, watched a movie, played games, had cake, and Jared opened presents. It was TONS of fun!

On Saturday we went down to my moms to say goodbye to my grandma before she had to leave. It was definitely an amazing and fun filled week!

Last week we celebrated my b-day. I am officially a quarter of a century now. I totally milked my birthday for all it was worth, making Corey do all sorts of things he would normally decline to do with me. We started the day by going swimming in the Roy pool, then after that we went shopping and out to dinner and then back home to watch the Olympics. It was lots of fun (I feel like I'm saying this a lot in this post!) so thanks Corey for making the day special!

The End. Hopefully I will be better on keeping up since we've got a couple of busy weeks coming up.

Wild Alaska!!

Well this is the first post that I have done myself. Cherice is always trying to get me to do it, but I always tell her she is doing a great job. I just took a vacation to Alaska and Cherice told me that this one was all mine.......So here we go!! Alaska is the type of vacation that I have always wanted to go on! So me, my dad, my brother Jeff, and my Brother-in-law Daniel all went up there for a week of fun. We flew into Anchorage and stayed most of the nights with Daniels brother and family. They live in Anchorage and was kind enough to let us stay with them. The time we spent in Anchorage we did a lot of site seeing and touristy stuff. We also took 3 days and 2 nights away from Anchorage and drove down south to do some fishing. We first went to Homer Alaska and went out in the ocean to fish for Halibut. We then drove to a city called Soldatna Alaska and fished for King Salmon on the Kenai River. I was so amazed at the fun we had in both places, and we came away with lots of fish to bring home. (Daniel was the big winner with the biggest Halibut and King salmon caught. His King Salmon was the biggest one caught the whole time our guide had worked on that river. "55 Pounds" WOW)
We also went golfing one day in the rain, drove up towards Denali National Park, and ate lots of good food! We didn't see a lot of animals due to it raining the whole time we were there, but we did see a few moose and lots of whales! It sure was a fun trip and I can't wait to do it all again!!!!

This is the 4 of us standing in front of Thunder-Bird Falls. You can't see the falls in this picture but it was really cool. I didn't think my dad was going to make the mile hike up to the falls overlook because his knees were hurting him, but he did great and it was well worth it.
This is the 4 of us standing outside the Anchorage Harley Davidson. They had a chrome Bear outside of the store and we just had to get some pictures. (Look at Jeff -- He was on his phone the whole trip.. Ha Ha)
Just some cool scenery out in the Wild Alaska!!
I just couldnt pass up the chance to kiss a moose....With a little tongue!!

. Homer Alaska was a really cool place, and we had a blast while we were there. We were just glad that it stopped raining long enough to let us get out on the ocean to do some halibut fishing.
This is me holding Up a couple of the Halibut I caught. We each got to keep 2 of them, but I probably caught 8 or 10 in total. They are like pulling up a wet rug, which after 8 hours of doing it I was beat!!
This is my dad holding up a few of the halibut he caught. He was just glad that our boat had some nice couches in the cabin for the 2 hour trip out in the ocean and 2 hours back. We all took some good naps going out and back in!!
This is Daniels big catch!! This King Salmon was 55 pounds and won the biggest fish of the day. I was definitely jealous of him and his trophy fish!!
Jeff didnt do so shabby himself!! This is a fish that weighed 35 pounds, which is above average for King Salmon. (The average is around 30 pounds.) It was so much fun bringing these big fish in!!

Next time we go we need to order a little less rain!!!!!!

Home Sweet Home

We are finally here!

The awful part, aka the big move, is over and everything is finally unpacked. You never realize how much junk you have until you have to move it. Thankfully we had TONS of amazing help from both my family and Corey's, and we definitely couldn't have done it without them. Our couches came last Friday, and our house is looking more like a home all the time and I finally feel like we are getting settled in.

I absolutely love my house. I love all the space we have. I love (for the most part) that Raylee has more room to explore in. I love having more cabinet space, so I don't have to store stuff on the floor. I love having a pantry. I love coming back from grocery shopping, and not having to carry all the groceries up three flights of stairs. I love having a garage, and I know I will love it even more in the winter when I don't have to scrape the car windows. I love that we have a yard, even if it is just dirt right now. Most of all I love having my walk in closet, where I can actually see what close I own.

Seriously, can you feel the love??

*Unlocking our house for the first time after getting the keys!*

I've been tagged

Sorry it took so long Linsay. I was excited you tagged me cause I think it's a great way to get some information down that I otherwise wouldn't have mentioned, but with the move I am just barely getting a second to do it.


10 years ago...1998
I was 14, about to turn 15. It was the summer between 7th and 8th grade and a time I don’t like to think about much. I don’t remember anything in particular happening this summer. I probably just spent my days reading on the porch and hanging out with friends.

5 years ago...2003
I had just returned from my first year at Utah State (and what a year it was!) where I had met Corey and a whole bunch of new friends. I had gotten a job at a day care taking care of 14 two year olds for the summer and on the weekends Corey would come down from Tremonton to visit me. Corey was also lucky enough to go to the cabin for the first time that summer.

5 months ago...February
We had started looking for houses again in January and decided to build and so on February 8th we signed all the papers to begin the process. Raylee also turned 6 months old and got to start solid foods (yum!).

5 things on my to do list tomorrow...
1. Wait for our new couches to come (Wahoo! We have been couchless for a couple of weeks now and have had to watch TV white-trash style, sitting on camp chairs. Not very comfortable.
2. Work my dreaded 5 hours.
3. Play with my baby girl
4. Go to the quilted bear to get some baby legs for Raylee ‘cause having all this room to crawl in is eating up her poor little knees. I saw them their awhile ago and hope they still have them.
5. Make dinner. Any suggestions?

5 things I would do if I was suddenly a billionaire...
1. Quit my job
2. Get completely out of debt
3. Give money to family and charities
4. Go on a major shopping spree
5. Travel, travel, and travel some more.

5 bad habits...
1. Procrastinating. I work best under pressure. In college I actually tried to start a paper a week before it was due and worked for a couple of hours and got no where. So, I put it of until the night before it was due and did it in an hour.
2. Stubbornness. Corey says I am the most stubborn person he knows, but I have to say he is definitely right up there with me.
3. Not eating my green stuff. Corey will not eat any vegetables and so I usually don’t end up making them as much as I should.
4. Cleaning, or the lack of. I am definitely not the worlds best house keeper, but I have made a vow to keep up with it in this house.
5. Eating out. I love eating, but hate cooking so whenever I can convince Corey to go out to eat, we do it. I have made a vow to cut back to just once a week. We will see how I do!

5 places I've lived...
1. Taylorsville
2. South Jordan
3. Logan
4. Brigham City
5. West Haven

5 things people don't know about me...
1. I love musicals. Not just the current musicals like Moulin Rouge, and Chicago, but the old school ones with Doris Day or Gene Kelley. My favorites are Calamity Jane, Singing in the Rain, and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, but the list could go on and on. Lame, I know but there’s just something about everyone magically breaking out in song and dance.
2. My nicknames include but are not limited to: Weez, Weezer, Cheese, Cheeser, Bean, and Reece.
3. I love naps. There is NOTHING like a good nap. I don’t get to take them anymore since I have to use Raylee’s nap to get as much work in as I can, but on the rare occasion that I do get to take one I am in heaven!
4. I am NOT a morning person. I hate waking up early, and when I do I need some time to myself before I deal with those abnormally cheerful morning people (that’s you Corey!). I do not hear alarms. They can be on full blast right next to my ear and chances are good I won’t hear them. In high school my dad would have to come to room every morning and wake me up, and in college my roomie would have to yell my name in order to get me up.
5. I love to read. Most people know that about me, but I can’t think of anything else. I am a sucker for a good romance novel (the clean kind) or a historical fiction. The library has always been one of my favorite places to go.

I tag Alison, Josi, Julie, Sarah, and anyone else who wants to. I won't be offended if you don't want to participate.

A Week in HEAVEN

A couple times a year my family goes on vacation to the family cabin in High Valley, Idaho. It is my absolute favorite place in the world, and no matter how many other different places I go, there is nothing that beats a trip to the cabin. It is a vacation in every sense of the word, total relaxation. It is nice to go somewhere for a week where you don't have any plans and can just do whatever you want.

I look forward to this time for months and am never disappointed with the time spent there. I was also lucky enough to marry someone who loves the cabin almost as much as me (I say almost because I am sure that no one can love it as much as I do!). Corey got to go up to the cabin with my family before we were married and now he teases me that the cabin is the reason he decided to pop the question. I have to say I can't blame him!

Our trip started last Wednesday; we were going to Caravan up with my parents and my sister Alison and her family. My fam called when they were about five minutes away and so we headed down and got in the car and headed out. We ended up being about ten minutes behind my family and just figured we would catch up to them eventually. After about 40 minutes on the road we heard a loud noise from the car, and pulled over to see what the problem was. We got out of the car and saw that a tire had blown. Since we were so close to home, Corey decided to change the tire, drive home and switch vehicles and it was back on the road again!

We got to the cabin at about 1:00 in the morning, and just the first breath I took after getting out of the car was worth all the trouble getting there. It is the best smell ever!

Since this is my first post about the cabin, I must put a picture of the cabin in all its glory and one of Leo's lake which is just a short walk away. It is incredibly beautiful there and these pictures don't do it justice.

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The thing that Corey looks forward to at the cabin is fishing, and lots of it. Leo's lake usually has some pretty good fishing if we go after they stock it, but we also usually make a trip to Tripod lake which is about 15 minutes away. Between Corey and Baylen (they were the only ones that got a license) they caught about 30 fish there. Every time we have gone there we have seen the same eagle, and it is always so exciting, but this time we actually saw it fly down and catch a fish out of the water right in front of us which was AMAZING!

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On Saturday my Uncle Randy and Aunt Caroline came up to visit and all the guys got to help fix the dock. Corey and Baylen just got waders since they've decided to take up fly fishing, and so they got to go into the yucky water (it is full of gunk and leeches and who knows what else. Definitely not a lake for swimming) to hook the end of the dock in.

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Our vacation is always full of lots of ATV rides. There is usually always someone out on a ride and we always come back caked with dirt.


This is an amazing view from one of our rides. We are DIRTY, DIRTY in this pic. You always know it's been a good trip when you come back with some battle wounds.
Raylee and Ashlyn both had their first ride on the ATV's this trip. Raylee was not a big fan.
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Although Leo's lake is not a lake for swimming it is a great lake for boating. We have a paddle boat and a canoe which is always lots of fun.

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And you can't have a trip to the cabin without lots of campfires. This time we tried smores with strawberry marshmallows and they were delicious.

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Raylee had her first ride on the tire swing and absolutely loved it. She kept giggling the whole time.

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It was really hot and so we blew up the raft and filled it with water and turned on the sprinkler and the kids had a water party to help keep cool. I forgot to bring Raylee’s swimsuit so she just wore a onsie and a regular diaper which was HUGE by the time she was done swimming.
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We also went on a Sunday walk over to the huge rock and so of course they wanted to climb it.

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One of the best parts of the trip was that we got to spend lots of time with the fam.

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The wildflowers were absolutely gorgeous this time, and so of course I had to get a picture of Raylee in them! This was the best picture from my attempt to be a photographer.

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And last but not least is the picture of Raylee and our little fam next to the bear. My sister started this tradition with her kids because its fun to look back at these pictures and see how much they've grown and so of course I had to copy.

I am already counting down the days until the next time!

Preparing for Departure

The fun has officially begun. As most people know I HATE packing, with a passion. Any kind of packing. When we go on a vacation, I always wait til the last minute to start packing and when staying somewhere most people will unpack their clothes and hang them up or put them in drawers. Not me. The less packing and unpacking the better. When we get back from a trip I usually just leave the bag on the floor and take things out of the bag as I need them, this way I avoid the unpacking (yes, I realize I probably shouldn't admit this).

As our moving date has been moving closer and closer I have been having mixed feelings. So EXCITED to be getting my own house, to have more storage, to actually have a yard, and to have a fresh start. But... I have been DREADING the packing. Knowing how much stuff I have to pack and go through is absolutely depressing, but there is no way to get around it like I manage to with unpacking from a trip.

The closing date on our house is July 9th, and we are going on vacation next week, so I wanted to get a jump start on the packing so I won't have as much to do when we get back. The last couple of days we have been packing things up a little each night and it really hasn't been to bad. It is a good thing no one really comes to visit us because OUR HOUSE IS A DISASTER ZONE right now and it is depressing to know that it is only going to get worse. I will be so glad when this move is over!

But on a happier note, Raylee has been in seventh heaven with all these boxes to climb on an play with.

And here are some random cute pictures of Raylee from the past couple of days

A Costly Mistake

Yesterday afternoon, I was hard at work on the computer, which was sitting on the arm of the chair as it always is, and Raylee was playing on the floor. She crawled over to the chair and started crying, so I leaned down to pick her up, and somehow the computer fell off the chair. I went to pick up the computer, hoping and praying that nothing was wrong, and about died when I saw what had happened. There was a big crack in the LCD screen (or something like that) that looked like a spider. It wasn't a crack in the actual screen which I thought was good, but it turns out this is much worse.

I made the dreaded call to Corey, and he was pretty nice about it since it had been an accident. He was still pretty upset since this really couldn't have happened at a worse time, since we are about to move into a house and all our extra money has to go to that, and he said that this is one of the most expensive things to fix on a computer.

Corey called into Dell today to find out how much it would cost and the amount is a whopping 498 buckaroonies! It still works, and so for now all my work will be done while looking through a spider, and I guess we'll fork over the mula when we can't see anymore.

As dumb as this sounds, I am secretly hoping that it will somehow fix itself, and it does look a little better today, but I am thinking it isn't likely. Sigh.

Story Time

Ever since Raylee was a little baby I have been reading stories to her. I love spending this time with her doing something that I love. Sometimes she will just sit and stare at me as I read, and other times she will look at the pictures, and lately she just tries to grab the book and turn the pages herself. Whenever I put her on the floor to play, I always put a book on the floor with her and the last few days she has been picking up the book and then she will start talking like she is reading the story. It's kind of funny to watch and it's good to know that something I have been doing is getting through to her.

After reading a story there is always room for a yummy snack of cardboard!

A Welcome Relief

A little while ago Corey was writing in Raylee's baby book (yep, that's right. Corey writes in Raylee's baby book every month, and does a great job, too! I'm a lucky girl!) that she had started scooting and that we were SURE she would be crawling by next month.

So here we are two months later, and Raylee FINALLY started crawling a week ago. At first she was really slow, and still ended up scooting half the time, but she has gotten so much better now .

Most of the time she uses her new skills to crawl over to something so she can pull herself up and stand (she has now become a pro in that area!) and at first she would only crawl over to where I was and just look up at me and cry until I picked her up. Now she actually entertains herself and will stay on the floor for up to two hours!

It is a welcome relief and a dream come true! I know the day will come when I will wish she couldn't crawl, but for now I am going to enjoy every minute!

Honk! HONK!

Watch out everyone, there is a new driver on the road!