Spring Break!

Last week Fred and I had spring break and we decided to travel out to Colorado Springs to visit Jeremy, Amanda, baby John-Michael, Derrek, and mom (who had gone out a week earlier to help out with the baby).

Angelynn got off work for that whole week and drove out with us. We drove her new car (we like to call her Sophie) because Sophie was nice and spacious. It was a nice drive out to Colorado.

We got to Jeremy's house at about 8 p.m. and when we got there Klondike and the rest of the family were excited to see us. We watched Klondike and Jerry (Derrek's cat) "play" with each other. Those 2 are so funny to watch. Klondike really wants to play with Jerry, but she knows if she gets too close, then Jerry will swipe at her.

When we were done watching the pets, we met John-Michael.
HE IS THE CUTEST BABY! He is also a very good baby.

Aunt Amberly loves her nephew!

Uncle Fred has not had much experience with holding such tiny babies, so aunt Amberly had to teach him.

Aunt Angelynn's turn to hold John-Michael

Jeremy and Derrek were doing a major plumbing operation because there were some clogged pipes. The water had to be turned off for 2 days while they fixed the pipes.

This picture shows the fixed pipes. I have some very handy brothers!

We did a hike close to Jeremy and Amanda's house on Monday.

On Tuesday Amanda and John-Michael left for Kansas because her grandma wasn't doing so well and she wanted grandma to see John-Michael before she passed away. Amanda's grandma was able to see John-Michael before she passed away; it was good that Amanda drove to Kansas to be with her family at this time, she needed to be there. Even if it meant we couldn't see John-Michael for the rest of our spring break.

The rest of the week we did fun things around Colorado Springs.

We sampled the 9 natural springs, which tasted like baking soda. YUCK!

Then we went to Garden of the Gods.

We hiked to pulpit rock, which we also like to call 'puppet' rock.

Don't we look like puppets???

We went to Focus on the Family and got some yummy icecream at Whit's End.

Ang and I both got a raspberry ripple.

We hiked to some partially frozen waterfalls. There were even some ice climbers climbing up the waterfall! It was cool to watch!

Since most of my family was together, we celebrated my 21st birthday. My mom gave me 21 presents!

Most of my presents were from Hawaii.

We also visited the Olympic training center. Yes, Olympians really do train here!

We also took a tour of Jeremy's work and on the last day in Colorado Springs we hiked the cog railway.

It was so much fun, but we didn't have enough time to make it to the top :(
We will just have to come back!

We spent our last night at our Uncle Mark's house in Denver...

(Notice Sophia in the driveway)
... and in the morning we visited our cousins and ate breakfast with them before we made the long drive back home to Utah.

It was a great trip! I love my family so much! We make so many wonderful memories together!

New haircut and other adventures...

On Saturday, I got a haircut! Nothing too fancy, I just got a trim to get rid of split ends and some layers. Can you see them?

Also on Saturday, I went to a gigantic book sale. I heard about a place that was selling children's books for $1. I thought this was a great opportunity to get some books for my future classroom. This book sale had tons of books. It had cookbooks, craft books, fiction, non fiction, pretty much every genre of book. I looked a little at the other books, but the children's books were the ones I was interested in; and boy, did I find some good deals on these books.
I got some pop up books and some classic books like Corduroy, Curious George, If you give a mouse a muffin, Amelia Bedelia, There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly (that is the big book) and some interactive science books.

On Sunday I had an orchestra recital! I am in a community orchestra, which doubles as a credit towards my fine arts emphasis, which has a good mix of non-music major students as well as older people from the community who want to keep up on their instruments. It is so much fun! I love being in an orchestra again! I never thought I would play violin at such a prestigious level! Even though some of the music is a little difficult for me, it is good for me to keep up practicing on violin and it doesn't hurt to be challenged!

Crochet Pillow

So, you know that yarn Ang and I bought during the sister retreat? This is what I made with the yarn! I know, I got it done fast! This is my first crochet pillow. I have sewn many pillows, but I never have crocheted any. Except, I don't want to snuggle with it too much because I want to put it in the fair so I want it to stay nice and fluffy.

Ok, for all you crafty crocheters out there, here is how I made the pillow:

Supplies:

• 12x12 pillow form
• 2 skeins angel yarn from Joann fabrics
• size J crochet hook
• large safety pins~6

Pattern:
row 1: ch 36, sc in 2nd loop from hook, sc across. ch 1, turn.
row 2: sc across, ch 1 turn.
row 3-?: alternate doing sc and tc (triple crochet) across rows, always ch 1 before turning. Continue with this pattern until you have crocheted a square. (fold corners together to be able to tell if you have made a square)

For the back: If you have enough yarn, you can to the same pattern as for the front, or you can just do dc (double crochet) all the way. I started the back the same as the front except changed to dc (ch 36, dc in 2nd lp from hook). Do dc all the way until you have made a square.

Putting it together: Put the front and back squares on the pillow form and pin it with safety pins. Sc all the way around the pillow connecting the front and back panels.

Ta-da! Your pillow is all finished! Now it's time for a nap! :)