Hello.

This weekend my niece Justine came down from Salt Lake and visited me a bit. She is a very cute girl with an awesome smile so I put her in front of my camera. She is a natural model. I love how they turned out. Isn't she cute?

This weekend we took a couple hikes, went to the dog park, and took a drive to the mountains which, as it turns out, are closed for winter. Not cool. We had all the cameras and film ready and everything and we got all the way to Pine Valley mountain and the gate was closed. We still had fun though, and drove around to pick out our favorite cabin.

Hope you all had a good weekend too!

Happy Weekend

This weekend has been so lovely. We got to just be lazy and happy together. We started out on Friday with a really good show at a local gallery/venue. Cody almost convinced me to just sit at home and be the anti-social hermits that we are. But I am so glad we went. We saw old friends and listened to such great music. I forget how much I like small, intimate shows where you don't have to fight people just to stay standing. You can just relax and get lost in the bands little world of music. I don't know how those musicians go up there and do that. Singing the words they wrote for all to hear. Sitting on a stage in a dark room where everyone can just stare at you and scrutinize your looks and talent, or just ignore you and talk over your music. It has got to take serious courage.
After the show we went bowling. We got home at midnight-ish which is pretty much unheard of as Cody's usual bedtime is 8:30. (He gets up at 1am to go to work every day and doesn't get home til 6:30 at night.) So I was lucky to get this much out of him.
Yesterday we slept in til noon and pretty much didn't leave the couch all day. We just watched movies and Dexter season 5. (thanks Elisa!)
Today was so nice. I can't believe it's so warm in the middle of January. We took Lulu on a walk, came home and there were a thousand birds outside our house making so much noise. It makes me get spring fever, but of coarse that is silly since our springs last a week and then it's on to feeling like you're on fire. Anyway, I wanted to listen to the birds so we got out the hammock and a blanket and listened to them til dark. It was a good day.

By the way. Vast amounts of geese have been flying over this area for a week or so. From early morning to evening. They are flying west-ish in the middle of January. I don't remember them doing this last year. Does anyone know if this is normal? Is it part of this M-Night-Shyamalan-style, birds-and-fish-dying-for-unknown-reasons phenomenon?
Yep. Tiny bits of snow are still on the ground from the STG snow storm, and geese are flying strangely. The end is near!

I had Cody take some pictures of my new hair and it turned into this silly photo shoot. Oh yeah, and Cody cut all his hair off and shaved his beard so here are pictures of him!

Ghost Towns and Mine Shafts

My second parents (Craig and Jeanie) whom I met when I was in Young Women's took Cody and I to some Mine Shafts a few months ago. They are CRAZY and actually go into closed off abandoned mine shafts and poke around. This sounded nuts to me (which it IS) but we went anyway. I didn't even know this but there are hundreds of them all around us in Utah and Nevada. We went to some called the Jack Rabbit Mines.
We went to one where you walk waaay back into the mountain and then come into this HUGE room with loooong latters going every which way and bats on the ceiling. There was a shoot that went so far down, our flashlights couldn't see that far so Craig just grabbed a small boulder and threw it down. The noise of it falling just went on and on. There was a latter next to the shoot that went down with it. It was so creepy how far it went down (of coarse Craig and Jeanie went down it on their next trip without us, they are crazy. they found repelling equipment at the bottom) The mines were so creepy and I thought we were going to die the whole time but I am now hooked.

On our way we stopped at a couple abandoned buildings that used to be a hotel/general store in at an old train stop. I took lots of pictures for you to see!

Outside of the Hotel

Inside the general store area the ceiling had caved in.

A creepy hallway under the creepy cave in that led to some reeally creepy dark stairs that went down to a creepy basement which we did go into. It was creepy down there!

Upstairs in the hallway next to the freaky caved in room.

Here is a piece of a door by a window. There were just pieces of things everywhere. Drawers, beds, shutters. It was so cool to see things that were used 140 years ago just abandoned.

Someone propped some old box springs against the front window to prevent intruders. (teehee)

Shelves in the general store.

A bedroom.

Here is the building next door. We don't know what it used to be but there were hooks all over the ceiling.

After the mines they took us to these "ovens" where they used to bake pottery? Something like that.

Man, I want to go again!

Snow Day

Ok I know this was days and days ago, sorry. But it SNOWED in STG which is just complete madness. Surely THIS is a sign that the world is coming to its end. Here is my documentation of the event.

Christmas with The Blacks

Christmas Morn'

So very excited!

Cody did very good this year. As you can see, he made me a four poster bed out of solid rustic cherry to match last years present. It is absolutely gorgeous. It is massive and I don't know how we are ever going to fit it in our future apt when we have to move away. I mean, the room we have now is a decent size and this bed makes it look tiny. I run into it all the time. But I looove it! I close the curtains sometimes and it feels magical.

Family Wall

I recently (2 months ago) made a family photo wall by our kitchen. I just love how it turned out!

First Things First

Hello little blog. I have been neglecting you. I just now uploaded my pictures from my camera that have been in there since October. I have catching up to do so I apologize for the major picture overload I am about to subject you to.

First of all.


Meet Reagan.


She is the newest member of our family. We got her from the shelter in October. She is a tortoise shell and about 2 to 4 years old. She caught my attention because she has thumbs, so it looks like she's wearing mittens. We named her Reagan because it was October and we wanted something creepy. Reagan was the name of the little girl in The Exorcist.
Reagan is a very strange cat. As I typed that, she fell off the couch and got stuck behind it. I don't really know how to describe how she is strange. She just is. If she were a "Friend" she would be Phoebe. She loves to cuddle. She gets in the weirdest positions while cuddling. She will fall asleep with her head in my hand or on my chin. Lulu has lost weight since Reagan joined us because they run and play together hardcore. Lulu has battle scars but she still eggs Reagan on to play.
And that's my new daughter. I am keeping her inside at all times so she does not disappear like Olive. Although she has escaped several times. And when Reagan goes, she is gone. She just books it. Which is why she was a stray cat I'm thinking.