Spring Time Photos

Here are a bunch of pictures of Owen and a couple of Bryce and I. We're keeping busy with school, work, plans for moving (we have found a house to live in next year, so we're much happier than we were a couple of days ago), The Secret Garden, and chasing Owen around. He's getting extremely mobile and will probably start walking any day now. He just cut his third tooth today, so hopefully he won't be too grouchy for a little while. Our lives are busy, but very happy. We'll keep you updated as our lives progess. . . .

Spring Break

. . . So life has kept us very busy, so first a quick update. Bryce is right in the middle of The Secret Garden and that pretty much takes up all of his time. I am working and trying to keep up with Owen. Owen is very curious and is always on the move. We are going to be going to Utah for the summer. Bryce is going to be working for the Utah Festival Opera in Logan again this year and we will be staying in Brigham City with my Grandma & Grandpa Christensen. We are looking forward to a summer full of family, friends, and fun.

So now for the present, or nearly present. Last week was Spring Break. To give ourselves a bit of a break from the daily grind we took a trip with our friends, Bobby, Steven, and Christine, to a resort on the banks of Grand Lake in Oklahoma. We had a nice, relaxing visit, since it is still the off-season there, and we got to see a few sights. The neatest place we went was called Har-Ber Village. It is sort of an outdoor museum of the people and lifestyle of the midwest from frontier days until the mid 1900's. They had over 100 cabins and buildings built as replicas from original frontier housing materals. The buildings were filled to capacity with everything imaginable. They had a jail, a post office, a court room, a church, doctor's offices, dentist offices, cabins, nicer homes, etc. They had artifacts such as furniture, clothing, toys, tools, musical instruments, and the list goes on. Everything was in imaculate condition and it was amazing to see so many neat items in one place. I wish that I could have gone back in time and met the people that the artifacts belonged to, because I'm sure that each and every item has a story behind it. So, if you every happen to be near Grove, OK, take an afternoon and be amazed by history.

Back at the resort we spent our time soaking in the hot tub, playing games, fixing delicious meals, and trying to teach Owen how to walk (he's still not very interested, and because of the energy needed to keep up with him now, I'm okay with him taking a bit longer to learn). Although walking was unsucessful, we did teach him how to go up and down the stairs in the hallway without falling. After three beautiful days of peace and relaxation, we had to head back home to Carbondale. So here we are, refreshed, happy, and ready to face what ever life has in store for us with our heads held high and a spring in our step.

Digging Out

. . . So after about 24 hours of icy rain & slush we finally got a nice little snow storm. All of the schools are closed and we spent a nice little time shoveling the driveway. When Owen woke up from his morning nap we all bundled up again and played in the snow for a while. Owen made a snow angel and Bryce made a little snowman. We then took turns pulling each other (we took turns holding Owen) on a sled our neighbors lent us. It's been a beautiful day!

Owen's New Toy

Since Owen is getting much more mobile and has plenty of energy to burn, we aquired a new toy for him. It is a bouncing toy that he can jump up and down in and that has toys that he can play with and chew on. It is a life saver for me because I can put him in and he'll play happily while I clean a room, do dishes, or fix dinner. I also don't have to worry about him crawling and getting into things that he shouldn't because he remains stationary. Here are a couple of pictures of him playing happily with his jumper toy.

Since I wrote last . . .

Okay, so the last time I posted anything was before our wonderful Christmas Adventure. . . We got to take a trip home to Utah for a nice long Christmas Break. We left Carbondale on Dec. 14th and headed west across Missouri then northwest to Nebraska, then west across Nebraska and Wyoming until we arrived in Utah about 48 hours later (with many stops, including two nights in Columbia, MO & Laramie, WY). We were very blessed to miss most of the bad weather and made the trip just fine.

We spent the first portion of our vacation visting our friends and family in Northern Utah. We got to spend most of our time in Kaysville with Bryce's family - his Mom & Dad, his sister StacyAnn, and his brothers Craig & Garrett. We even got to meet Craig's fiance, Lindsey.

We also had the opportunity to spend some time in Brigham City visiting with my Grandma & Grandpa Christensen. We also had the opportunity to visit with many of our other friends, who I would list, but I know that I'd forget someone, so I'd rather not try.

After Christmas we headed South to Blanding to visit with my family. It was the first time I had been home since we moved and it surprized me how little has changed. My sibling have grown, some work has been done on the house, but all in all, not much really changed. Anyway, back to my narrative. In Blanding I helped throw a baby shower for Danny's wife, Aleena, and had a blast doing so. We got to rest a lot (mostly to recover from colds that all three of us caught), but we did make it over to Norwood, CO to visit some of my Dad's family. We got to see my Great Grandma Jane (Owen's great-great-grandmother) and got to visit with her for a while.

Throughout our entire visit it was so much watching our siblings interact with Owen. He got a long with everyone (after an initial adjustment period), but he seemed to have the most fun with Garrett and Benny, our 16 year old brothers. I'm not sure why this was the case, but it was sure fun to watch.

After we visited with my family we headed home again. Neither of us had ever taken the southern route to Illinois, and since Denver was once again threatened with bad weather, we went south. We stopped by the four corners monument - so we could say that we've been there - then we headed out accross New Mexico, spending the first night on the road in Santa Fe in a quaint little place downtown. The next day we pushed on accross the rest of New Mexico, the tip of Texas, accross Oklahoma, and stopped for the night near the boarder of Oklahoma and Missouri. We drove the final stretch the third day and arrived home safe and sound. We were blessed with good weather, Owen slept nearly the whole way, and when we arrived home all was well.