Check Point

My little genius of a husband has pulled out that giant marker and checked off one of the biggest things on most peoples bucket lists. College graduation. Yay for him! Even though he gets to start right back at it in August it's still nice to have that bachelors degree under your belt. Plus a change of scenery will be nice. It's sandy for a few months to save up and travel, then on to Salt Lake City. Oh how I've missed you Salt Lake!



Good Morning Graduate!





Derek is the goof turning his head inconspicuously









Better Late than Never

Dear, sweet Shara has made a wonderful little sneek peak video of our wedding. We should of done one sooner but the footage was being very difficult. So we did what we could with what we have. It's so nice to have such a talented sister.

Tis the Season??

The answer to the above question is... No!

Someone needs to write a letter to mother nature and tell her that it is April and we need lots of green grass and sunshine.

As bitter as I may sound, there actually was a lot of good that came out of this weekend blizzard. The camera obsession has fortunately not subsided, and I went crazy with picture taking. I just could not put the thing down, even though I still have no idea what I'm doing. There is definitely a lot of trial and error going on. Luckily I had a great canvas to work with.

These were all taken at Derek's house in Sandy.

Click, Click, Click, Click Camera!

We had just got home from watching the King's Speech at Thanksgiving Point last night, and Derek hands me a small present. He says, "Don't get excited its nothing big, I got it for free anyway." So I open it, and it's a memory card for a camera. I look at him slightly confused and say, "Thanks" He goes on to explain that this one holds much more pictures and can handle a higher resolution picture. Still wondering why he felt the need to wrap this and claim it be a gift for me, I again say, "Cool, Thanks." Then as we walk into the bedroom he places another gift on the bed and smiles. Even more confused now, I open this one. It's a super cool, safari looking bag/tote, thing. I possibly should have caught on by now considering all the blabbing I have been doing about wanting a good camera, and learning photography. But I was still clueless.
Finally, Derek puts one more present on the bed. At this point I'm done with the cautious, confused looks and I've moved onto excited and jumping around, cause lets face it... Presents are great! Especially without a special occasion. So I open this one, and it's a brand new, fancy, Nikon camera. It's Beautiful!! And I have no clue how to use it.

Justification for the large expenditure: Derek and I just received that wonderful thing called tax returns. We planned on using it toward our Europe trip this summer, but since taking great pictures in Europe is definitely a priority, he thought it would work the same. I agreed. Also my birthday is in June, and Derek said he planned on getting it for my birthday but decided it would be better for me to learn how to use it before Europe. I agreed again. Justified!

Did I mention how excited I am and how much I love Derek Donald Jensen?? So excited that I read through the entire manual today. I don't think I've ever done that, with anything! Oh, and so much that I could eat his face like a delicious brownie fudge sunday!

In Remembrance

It's a hard time when you realize that all of your childhood pets are no longer beside you. I guess I'm just at that age, but it's still hard to deal with the fact that they just don't live as long as we do. The thing I keep telling myself, and my dad, is that it was their time. And it really was. All three of these family members certainly lived long happy lives.

This song puts everything into perspective

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhGdlNcup5Q

Charity Smith is our most recent loss. She was my dad's partner in life, and second favorite daughter. We got her about ten years ago, from this neighborhood that found her wounded on the side of the road. She had been hit by a car and broke her leg, so the entire neighborhood pithced in to fix it. Hence the name Charity. She went through her stages of chewing on extension cords and barking all hours of the night, but the truth is... we couldn't have asked for a better addition to the family.

Coco was my first baby. My dad took me to the animal shelter on my twelfth birthday, and let me pick out a pet. I chose Coco because she was so beautiful. I know, I was kind of a weird kid. Who doesn't pick a kitten? She was a bit of a chicken at first but when we were alone she was always out doing something annoying. She used to sit directly on top of my pictures while I was scrap booking, even though the rest of the room was wide open. And at night she would sleep right on my head no matter how many times I would push her to the foot of the bed. My mom took care of her the last few years while I was in Utah. She loved my mom! The second my mom would sit on the couch, Coco was right on her chest staring at her. I miss her cute face.

Kira was the Jensen family kitty. They got her and her brother Mojo as kittens when Derek was about 11. Mojo was involved in a tragic accident but Kira quickly became part of the family. She was a very petite cat, (I think Coco could of eaten her) but she rocked at hunting birds and mice. The funniest thing about her was that she drooled just like a dog. Derek would hold her like a baby and she would rub her face on his ear. It was the cutest thing, except that Derek was kind of allergic, and would break out. Everyone loved sleeping with her cause she was such a good cuddler, but I was a little paranoid after this one incident. She was sleeping right next to me one night and she just bit my nose. Of course, I wake up and she is right in my face just staring at me. Never been more creeped out by an animal. Pretty funny. We'll just say she was dreaming.

Hare Krishna

Derek and I have been trying to go to this for a couple years now and something just always got in the way. But not this time!

It's called the Holi- Festival of Colors, and they do it every year at the Lotus Temple in Spanish Fork. The Temple is amazing, makes me want to visit India so bad. We had lots of yummy indian food and mango drinks. You can enter the temple, after taking off your shoes, and listen to the band sing the Hare Krishna Mantra. The best part is the burning of the witch and the throwing of the colors. We didn't have chalk to throw this time cause they ran out but it was still awesome.

On our way in people were just throwing chalk in our faces. Derek got it first and of course I had to make fun of him, which is what I'm doing here. About two seconds later I heard someone say "Get that girl!" and I got mine.

We met up with a friend of mine from work, Paris, and her family. This is her little girl throwing chalk on Derek's face...

And this is her adding green to our collection of colors.

Burning of the witch,which is a long standing tradition in India started by the story of Holika and Prahlad. It is celebrated to mark the burning of the evil Holika and to honor Radha and Krishna.

Everyone throws their chalk at the same time and it creates this beautiful cloud of colors.

Next year we will get our own chalk, and Derek will look much worse than this.

Together Again

This being the first time that all of us have been together for a holiday in over 9 years, I find it worthy of a blog entry, regardless of the fact that it is about three months after the fact.

Christmas, this past year, was one of the most extraordinary. Usually I have to choose whether to spend Thanksgiving or Christmas with my family, but this time I got to come down for both. Even better than this, is the fact that I got to bring my husband with me, who has never spent the holidays with my family. The best part about all of this is that the entire family came up to my mom's house this year. Usually Jess will spend most of the time at her dad's house, and I end up missing her but this time she came, and brought her hubby.

The most exciting thing about this Christmas was that my brother Noah, who I have not spent time with in a really long time, came up for the whole day. We all walked around Idywild and hung out at my mom's house eating homemade chili.

Another special addition to this holiday season was my little nephew, Tyler. He was here last year but much more fun and active this time.

Derek being there made everything so much more special for me. He got to meet Noah, and spend time with Tyler and Jess. It almost felt like somehow adding Derek to the family made everything else come together. But im sure it was just the timing, and im being super cheesy.

These three are so cute together. It's adorable!

Men and their chili.

Bear is such a big softy. He likes playing with Tyler more then anyone.