Lake Powell 2010

A couple weeks ago we got the chance to go to Lake Powell with my uncle Scott and his family on their house boat. Here's what you need to know about Lake Powell:

THIS IS MY FAVORITE VACATION, EVER!

We used to go every year, but we haven't been so lucky the past like 4 years!! :( So this year was especially exciting.

Here is the list of this year's crew:
Eric & me
Grandma & Grandpa Horrocks
Mom
Jen & Jeff + EZRA :)
Uncle Scott & Aunt Michelle + Their Kids

• Charlie - 3 years old (but looks like he's about 5)
• Grace - actually is 5 years old (& looks age appropriate)
• Abbigail - 7 years old (but is about as tall as a 5 year old)
• Emily - 11 (looks age appropriate)

Emily & Grandpa

Here is a list of what we did:
wakeboarding
skiing
surfing (Even got Grandpa to try it! He was a natural.)
tubing
fishing
ATE LOTS OF GOOD FOOD (thanks aunt Michelle!)
read books
slept under the stars
jet skied
harassed children
jumped off rocks
and of course we did some swimming

So my little cousins ended up being the most fun things ever! Eric spent most of the days setting fishing lines for the kids. Lake Powell has mostly Carp :/ so I wasn't too thrilled BUT they ended up catching a lot of Catfish, Bluegill, and even a Bass!

This is a picture of Eric with "his" bass:
He made me take the picture at this angle so the fish would look bigger...
Truth be told though, it was actually these two gremlins that caught the fish, and this is a better representation of it's size:
Grace & Abby (plus fish, which still looks quite sizable)
They were always so excited when there was a fish on... I was mostly grossed out.

One day there was a wicked wind storm so we hung out mostly inside. This is Gracie and I watching Chicken Little - it was really a good movie (as far as kid movies go)... can I admit that here?

This is Eric and Charlie getting ready for a little nap together

This is Abby after a REALLY fun dunking session (for her anyway. "dunking session" = me getting dunked by both Abby & Grace, simultaneously. I soon put on a life-jacket cuz I'm not sure they fully grasp the concept of what happens when you drown). Look at this face:
She is so stinkin' cute!

Grace kept calling Eric her "buddy:"
"Have you seen my buddy?"
and later started referring to herself as "Ariel" from The Little Mermaid so her and Eric would go together. She really liked Eric:
but maybe not quite as much as Charlie did. Charlie refused to get in the water the whole week. He said the water "reeked." hahaha!
He wouldn't even get in with his mom,
BUT ON THE LAST DAY HE DECIDED IT WOULD BE OK TO GET IN WITH ERIC!
Charlie's thoughts:
"No Mom, I do not trust you with my life... but this guy I just met a few days ago with all that scruff... he looks like the embodiment of safety; never mind he was just the only one to jump off that cliff into the water."


This is a fair representation of about how much he enjoyed Jen & my company:

The whole trip was seriously SO MUCH FUN! I want to go back again this summer. I can't even explain how much I love Lake Powell (or how much Eric LOVES to endure looking at me for a whole week without any make-up).

The only sad part occurred when Eric, Jeff & I were "exploring" (Jeff's word) on jet skis and Eric and I may have had a collision WITH EACH OTHER! He T-boned me (Ok, some fault MAY have resided with me, but only like 90%)! Old White didn't fair so well, but Trusty Red pulled through the accident without a scratch. It's ok though, Scott didn't murder us & I think I may have just enabled the final retirement of an ailing machine. However, we are more than willing to provide adequate restitution (be it disposal fees or repair work).

DISCLAIMER: Most remaining pictures in this post taken by little Gracie

(surprisingly, however, most turned out pretty well).

EZRA TIME :)
Ez had LOTS of fun at Lake Powell. He got a nice rocking motion 24/7 & someone was ALWAYS willing to hold him...
even Eric!
my two faves in 1 picture!

Ez with his Great-Grandpa & Grandma. :)
Ez with his Grandma... she's pretty nice, but since she's skinnier than me I can't help but hold some animosity towards her... even if she did birth, cloth, feed, etc, me for the past 23 years.

Lastly, I just want to mention I have the BEST GRANDPA in the whole world. Honestly. I'd be willing to bet large sums that there has never been another one quite as great at this one right here.

NEGLECT

My poor blog has been feeling awfully neglected lately. Eric and I have just been using her as a means to see if anyone else has updated their blogs. Isn't that selfish? It's ok Buela (that's the blog's name now), I'll start paying a little more attention to you now... maybe... although if the past is any indication of the future, don't hold your breath Buela.

At first I thought about capturing all the events from the past 4 months in detail in an attempt to justify my long absence from the blogging world, but then I was realized A) no one really cares what I did 4 months ago (or even my current activities if we're being honest) & B) it wouldn't be the whole truth...

... so here is a consolidation of all events transpiring February til June:

1. We went to Las Vegas with my family + grandparents. I'd never been to Vegas but I knew that everyone at BYU LOVES taking trips there and justifies frequent excursions due to it's "close" proximity (close being 5 hours... yeah, I don't get it either). Well, it was still a pretty good time, but I think Vegas loses a little of it's appeal when you can't drink, smoke, gamble, or even look at all those little handouts they give you on every corner of those wholesome young ladies. ;)

my cute/fave grandparents

a disgusting pic of me being a total bad a** and playing the slots... I'm pretty sure I lost a dollar there...

2. Breanna Steven/Baker (http://bsquaredlove.blogspot.com/) got married and I got to be a bridesmaid and go home for the wedding! It was so fun/beautiful and I can't wait to get outta Utah & back to CA!

I guess none of us are too familiar with how cameras work... or maybe we just all thought we had a "good side" we wanted to work for this picture.

3. We celebrated our FIRST anniversary! We went to the Grand America in SLC for a couple nights and just hung out together. It was so nice to get a little break from school. I'm still really happy I married Eric and I am so lucky to have him. It is so great to live with my best friend and have someone that continues to make me laugh every day with his ridiculous antics.

Another free picture slideshow by Smilebox

Please ignore the fruitiness of this video and the opening scene of bugs... Blogger wouldn't let me upload the video normal...

4. I graduated! I officially have my Masters of Accountancy degree. My job doesn't start until October so I'm having a wonderful relaxing summer and studying for the CPA exam (which makes me want to die sometimes... it's pretty discouraging when you're taking an exam with a LESS THAN 50% pass rate).

5. John (Eric's counsin) & Gracie got married!! We went to their wedding in Visalia, CA. Eric was the best man. :) It was really cold that day so I'm wearing a jacket in all their photos (I'm sure they love that, I'd show you a pic of my atrocious outfit but I didn't have my camera that day) or maybe I wore the jacket cuz I'm just really white trash so I have no idea what's appropriate at a wedding. I think the next wedding I attend I'll wear my tapered Cherokee-brand jeans from K-Mart? You know, from the 80's? Black? That's cute, right? I just hope those butt pockets still sit really high so my bum looks extra long. :)

This is John & Gracie... aren't they just the cutest?

6. Finished off CA with a stop in Campbell to see my brother Jason, his wife Gin, and son Oliver. We also stopped to see Mom in Newcastle. We're obsessed with Oliver. As you can tell, the feeling is mutual (don't mind those disgruntled looks on his face):

7. Traveled to Boise to see Eric's family and did a little fishing. The only proof I have of this is on Aubrey's blog: http://thehappymills.blogspot.com/2010/05/fishing-trip-to-brownlee-reservoir.html I made HUGE strides on this outing. I even helped unhook the fish towards the end. Addi, Ruger, and Lincoln were there too and we LOVE seeing them so it was basically the best fishing trip EVER!

8. My family has been out here (in Utah) a ton... including Oliver. He actually liked me on this visit:

It's a lot easier to make him love you when you feed him s'mores first... when his mom isn't looking.

And then you chase him around on the trampoline even though it's like 100 degrees outside and you're sweating bullets.

And then your husband plays whatever game Ollie wants at exactly the moment he wants (although in this particular photograph they both look equally bored with each other).

Now, all of that stuff was all fine & good and could almost justify Buela's neglect... but the real reason I haven't been getting ANYTHING done (i.e. studying/blogging/housekeeping/shopping/etc) is this guy:

Ezra Jason Lee

Born March 19, 2010

My sister had her first little baby and I basically can't function without him. It's really pathetic. I'm constantly making up excuses to go see Jen basically EVERY DAY,

ME:

"No Eric, I HAVE to go up to Jen's today because I think I left my... umm... nail polish there."

ERIC:

"Didn't you just paint your nails yesterday?"

ME:

"What? I can't hear you... I have to leave immediately... I'll call you later!"

Me feeding Ez at the hospital after he was born.

I'm sure Jen loved that I was there before the delivery, immediately after, and then haven't left her side since. "Oh what? You need to shower/have 20 minutes alone/Ez could use some time to himself too? I don't get it. I'll just wait here for Ez to wake up... and here's your towel, but I think you might have missed a little section between your bum cheeks... here, I'll get it, hold still."

Eric LOVES Ez... mostly when he's asleep though...

Great-Grandpa & Ez... They're buddies.

Mom & Ez... he loves his mom so much... he always smiles the second she comes into view. He's too young for candy so I'm at a loss on how to win him over completely.

Ez and me on the boat at Utah Lake... He actually quite enjoyed himself. I was trying to find a water sport for him to enjoy... can you imagine how little his wakeboard would be?!

Anyway, that is why I am currently SO BUSY! I guess I haven't seen Ez since Sunday though so maybe I'm having a break through. My dependency is starting to dwindle; however, I have been experiencing a lot of hot/cold episodes, nausea, shaking, and can't stop thinking about my next fix... I mean, my next babysitting assignment...

Is this normal?

Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

So a few days ago I finally understood just how much poor Alexander had to endure:

Initially, I didn't realize it was going to be a “BAD DAY.” When I woke up I was so proud of myself for getting up early to work-out with my good friend Denise

AND I had even left early for school to ensure I wouldn’t miss my quiz!

It seemed like life was on the up & up...

As I was trolling for a parking spot, I made an ILLEGAL LEFT TURN. Right as I was pulling into my lane, a cop came around the corner and spotted my blatant disregard for the law. Sorry Papa Teichert… I’m sure this confession is making you see me in a whole new light:

Well, he let me off the hook as far as a ticket goes, but after I told him I HAD to make that left turn so I wouldn’t be late, he made it his duty to ensure my tardiness just to make sure I learned my lesson. He inquired of my California license while driving an Idaho registered car in Utah, and asked me all about school. I was about to ask him if he just wanted to have a seat in my passenger side so we could really get into things (i.e. his family, hopes, dreams, etc) when he finally handed me my documents and told me to have a "good day"…. I'm sure he actually cursed me with that wish of good fortune!

I thought my luck had changed as I drove up to the parking lot and saw a GOLDEN parking spot right next to the business building. I was quite pleased with myself because I was sure I could still make it to class in time. That officer wouldn't get his way after-all. As I was pulling into the spot, a stupid boy STOLE my spot! Just came around the corner and zoomed right in. I was speechless... WHO DOES THAT?! After I finally found a new spot (10 mins later) and finished keying his car, I knew I was late.

I got to class just as the quiz was being collected and secured myself a 3 out of 10 by shear luck on the multiple choice. Thanks officer. :(

In my next class, the teacher berated me for my lack of intrigue in the subject and called me out on the fact I had neglected to do the reading. Listen here professor: “No one else did the reading, either!” After my public humiliation I proceeded to my next class where someone stomped on my foot and I had this conversation with Mike via G-chat, which made me recall some early morning disappointments I had overlooked:

Michelle

I think i'm going to go home and read that book about Alexander's "terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day"

Michael

hahahahahhhahhahah

did you not get a prize in ur cereal?

Michelle

NO! In fact, i ate raisen bran and I only had TWO raisens in my whole bowl

Michael

what!?!?!?!

wow

u r having a bad day

Michelle

and when denise and I were working out this morning she wasn't as encouraging as usual

she just kept telling me this was "boot camp" and to get into it and use my legs

Michael

lololololol

This really sealed the deal… this was THE WORST DAY EVER! It had started the moment I woke up.

To put the icing on the cake, I had practically drank my weight in caffeinated beverages in an attempt to stay alert during my classes & many disappointments. Needless to say, I had to make a trip to the restroom about every 20 minutes. Now, usually sneaking out of class for a walk through the school hallways is a highly anticipated high-point in my day where I can finally relax. This semester though, it is a whole ‘nother ball game. See, unfortunately 3 of my 4 classes are held on either the “old-side” of the business building, or the “new-side” on the 1^st floor. If you’re unfamiliar with the Marriott school, here’s the problem:

1. Bathrooms on the old-side were purchased & installed approximately 100 B.C. before the average person had attained a height of 5 feet. As such, the toilets are about a foot off the ground. This makes "the hover" increasingly more difficult as you have to recruit ALL your legs muscles to keep afloat. Alternatively, if you do choose to sit, you feel like a giant and/or obese person trying to use a pre-schooler’s facilities.

2. New-side bathrooms are nice and ergonomically designed for normal sized humans. The problem lies in that the 1^st floor facilities are used by about a million people every hour so they tend to NOT be the MOST cleanly as the day progresses.

Ultimately, the decision comes down to-

Do I want to be Buddy the Elf…. Or Typhoid Mary?

Btw, officer, I have continued to turn left illegally. I have just been so looking forward to our little chats, I keep a special eye out for you every time I do so. ;)

My Babe's Birthday

Every January 6th we have a true reason to celebrate. In fact this year it took us two straight days to show Michelle how much she means to us and how happy we are that she was born. For her birthday we went to a steak house and ate all the meat we could and then went to a funny play called "The Importance of Being Ernest."
The party started once we got to Jen and Jeff's house. We all got to feel a little like Michelle does everyday as we decorated and wore our little princess crowns. You can see all the fun we had by visiting their blog, Jen made an amazing video that really captured the moments:

http://jeffandjenlee.blogspot.com/2010/01/princess-birthday.html

Thanks Jen for making such a fun party.

Past 4 Months

I have been having a hard time deciding if I should make one REALLY long post or like 15 medium sized posts to recap the past 4 months. Ultimately I decided on one big post. This way my followers (all 3 of you) can just print it out and read it as a novel in your spare time.

You're welcome.

To start the school year off right, Emma, Eric, and I went to the Timpanogos Caves.
I remember Eric was in a hurry to get to the BYU Football game that night, so we basically RAN the whole way to the top. Let me illustrate that it is like 1.5 miles straight uphill. This picture illustrates how far up we had to go, and we were already like halfway down when we took this:Emma and I thought we were going to die. Nonetheless, it was AMAZING inside!

Our next big event was Eric's 25th birthday! Eric was especially excited for the festivities to begin that afternoon.
He had been out hunting the night before so he hadn't slept much... but once he saw all we had in store for him, he really livened up!
These are the FABULOUS cakes I baked him. In case you can't make out exactly what they are due to a blurry photo or poor resolution on your screen (because I know they looked perfect so it could not be any fault of my own), one was a football and the other was the football field. The sad part was I had intended to make it the Boise State field, but I had already, absentmindedly, made the "grass" before I recalled it should have been blue. No worries though, BYU is cool too. :)

While I'm sure he was really disappointed, he quickly recovered when he started opening all his loot!

new jacket

new tieAnd yes I'm aware I should never wear that hat. I'll go ahead and put that in my 72 hour kit. Only upon severe circumstances will that ghastly scene see the light of day. Oh, and let the record state that I'm sure I probably won "Pin-the-Tale-on-Whatever-Animal-Pinup-Jen-had-Chosen-From-the-Dollar-Store" that night, as I usually do.
There will be NO further investigation.

I guess October held no significance because we have no documentation of events, so it's on to THANKSGIVING! We went to the Teichert's for the weekend and ate dinner at Grandma & Grandpa Ball's.
Luckily, we did NOT have to eat the pheasant Eric so graciously shot for us. We left that as a "donation" to Eric's parent's food supply. :)
We did have a Thanksgiving miracle all our own this year... both Addi & Ruger (our niece and nephew) decided to acknowledge our existence, and a BEAUTIFUL friendship sprouted. In fact, Addi even pretended to be Eric's baby... in utero.
When we got back, Eric and I went to the Jazz vs. Magic game. The tickets were $3.25 each, so you can imagine how close to the action they were. When we had finally traveled all the way UP to our seats, got our nose bleeds under control, and got our oxygen tanks flowing... it was a GREAT game.
I can't remember the details, but I vaguely recall being down and then coming back to win. Although that could be a pure figment of my imagination. We could have lost. In fact, I'm not even sure who "we" is. I may have been rooting for the Magic... is there a way I can just block Eric from being able to read this?

Anyway, on to CHRISTMAS! It's the most wonderful time of the year! I love Christmas!!
We purchased this classy tree from Target... right off the shelf. It was the last one, had no box, and had been the display tree throughout the holiday season. We got it 30% off and it was in IMMACULATE shape when it left the store. Upon its arrival to our home though, it took a turn for the worst. In a joint mistake in which neither of us is to blame no matter who may, or may not, have been in control of the tree at the time, one of the legs of the stand may have snapped off. We couldn't return it because we had purchased it "as is," so we just had to improvise. We tried super-gluing the leg back on to the tree, but unfortunately we just ended up gluing the leg to the carpet, and the tree continued to crash to the floor. Ultimately we decided to strategically root it to the ground by positioning presents and other devices around the base to keep it steady. It was really white-trash, I mean... thrifty. "Yes Eric, I am gifting you that case of Costco brand toilet paper this year... just don't use too many rolls from one side of the package until it's time to take the tree down... I just don't want you to use it all at once... :/"
Here's some shots from our little Christmas before we went on the road to see family. Eric got me this picture of Christ. I'd been wanting one for awhile, and it is really beautiful so I was ecstatic!

This is Eric with his new tool set:
and his new sunglasses that he needed for obvious reasons...
His old ones had been struggling for some time:

Sorry the filming is so bad... I was trying to drive during the taping. Probably not the brightest thing I've ever done.

We only got to spend a few hours with the Teichert's for Christmas. :( We wish we would have gone to Boise for awhile, but you know how that hindsight is always 20/20. This is us in our stunning, matching pajama pants from Eric's mom paired with our flossy Miller's Honey shirts from dad.
We went to Blackfoot to stay with my grandparents and then the rest of my family met up here. Here's some pictures from Christmas day:
Jen in her new coat she can wear this winter while prego & loving life. My new hat! I better get to wearing that before the cold subsides... but it's kinda pointless to get dressed up when you haven't left the house in 4 days due to self-inflicted food poisoning (excellent weight loss technique btw).

Eric got his tent he wanted from my parents:
Eric's mom got us a camping stove so we got it out and pretended to be camping in the living room for about 5 minutes... then the wood floor started to make it not so fun. I'm excited to get some use out of our new goods... as long as there is a bathroom in the vicinity.

We got to spend some time with Oliver. Eric and him really bonded. This is Eric being such a good uncle:
and this is me being SUCH a good aunt and Ollie reciprocating the love:

Right before we had to leave, Grandpa turned 84! We got together with all the family and had a PARTY (it was really wild) for the little guy. Here he is with some of his new accessories.
On the way home, A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!!! We had the luxury of spotting the Bronco's trailer! I had to persuade Eric to not actually follow the trailer because we had responsibilities back home, but it sure got him excited for that Fiesta Bowl!! Btw, what a game right? Incredible.
Anyway, now we're back in Utah, with my LAST semester of school EVER underway, and with this food poisoning I've been to about 2 classes in the past week (but I'm still not sure it was worth it... I really wanted to die for awhile there).

Anyway, it's been a great few months and we know that we're so lucky and blessed to live such wonderful lives with great opportunities. We've especially noticed that this past week while I have been nursing an upset stomach while so many people in Haiti are suffering so much more. Our problems in life are so insignificant, and we thank God for that. We love our family and friends, and we're grateful for the Gospel and this great country we are so lucky to live in.