Monday, July 21, 2008

Seeing Grams

During the Vail trip, I had to go down to Denver to see my Dad because he couldn't make it up.  I also got to spend a day with Grams :)  
How I love this wonderful example in my life.  She is so amazing, and I hope to one day be just like her.  I took pictures of her home because I didn't want to forget.  
This is her hall of photos, all sorts from throughout the years.  She's always had this, and I love how we keep adding to it. 

 Outside

 3 generations

 Grams showing us her cap gun and what she looks like when she shoots at the magpies from her window when they are at her bird feeder

Inside

Bahamas!!!!!

So, we are back, and that was the most AMAZING trip ever!! Here is a brief lowdown of what we did, because there was just so much that everyone would get bored and this entry would be huge. First we got to Nassau, and stayed at a resort there. I did get to fulfill my dream of swimming with dolphins the second day we were at Nassau! It was a blast. I was in the "Trainer for a Day" program, so I got to do all sorts of behind the scenes things like tour the lab, help prepare fish, see the brand new baby dolphin, and of course swim with them. Nathan got to watch and record the swimming part, but he got to go to have a massage while I was behind scenes. This wasn't the place we stayed at in Nassau, it was a little too expensive, but it was fun being there.

This is me with Jill, the bottlenose dolphin at Dolphin Cay Atlantis on Nassau.

Some of the Atlantis resort, that middle part is a suit that rents out for $25,000 a night! Won't be staying there soon:) But it is really a beautiful resort.


This is the view from our room at the Wyndham Resort, it was gorgeous. We stayed there the first two nights/three days.

Then we went by ferry to Eleuthera, a more rural island that is not very wide at all (2miles), but 100 miles long. It is where the British royal family has a beach home, though that was so full of security that we didn't see it at all. Our house that we rented was right on it's own private beach, and we rented a car from the caretaker of the house so that we could go explore different parts each day. We found a few favorite beaches, including Club Med Beach, Ten Bay Beach, and Twin Cove Beach besides our own beach. Each offered something different, above is a picture of me resting after getting sea sick from snorkeling(my motion sickness is triggered very easily apparently) at Ten Bay. This beach had more conch shells than you could shake a stick at, and clear, shallow water for a long ways out.


We had to go to da fish fry of course, where we had fresh Grouper fish and conch fritters, which are the little shellfish found in conch shells made into balls battered and fried, my favorite.


Nathan loved looking to see who was at beaches down the way from ours. He would check it out through the telescope, and we could see the few people around. It was the off season though in the Bahamas, so even "popular" beaches never had people. It was a perfect retreat for the two of us.


We opened a coconut! Though this one was going bad a little bit, and it wasn't as good to eat, but it was still neat to open it.


This is the right half of our beach, it goes up to the rocks that were impassable because they were "razor sharp". The part that juts out from the mainland is Twin Cove, where we took the glass bottomed kayak to one day. This was the beach that Nathan liked to see if there were people on with the telescope. We couldn't see many fish from the kayak, which was probably a good thing, because this area had more fish than any other, and even on the very last day of snorkeling we saw a 7' shark only about ten feet in front of us only 20yards off shore!! Let's just say I've never swam so fast in my entire life to get back to shore, and luckily it was on the very last day too.

This is Nathan snorkeling just off our shore, and I'm taking the picture from our porch. Just gorgeous water, and tons of fish! That is about how far we where when we saw the shark. There were also beautiful parrot fish, angelfish, and lots of others that I don't know the names too. I was really scared of snorkeling as I'm afraid of fish touching me, and really afraid of sharks. I would always hold Nathan's hand, and finally when I was feeling confident and let go of his hand was when we saw it.

This was our favorite beach, Club Med. We came back here four of our days. The sand was hard so we loved playing frisbee here as well. The water was really clear too. Nathan had a school of fish follow him in the water when he was snorkeling here one day. We also saw a 5' shark here when we were on shore. It was catching waves, so we followed for awhile, until it caught a wave and came up into water that was just under my knee, and his fins and everything was out of the water. I screamed, but I just scared him as much as he scared me. It was still a neat experience, and they aren't the dangerous kind around here. They are more interested in eating the abundant fish, and the water is clear so they wouldn't bite thinking you were a fish. Anyway, check out that sand and the sky! We loved that beach!


On another day a Club Med. These were our "beach friends". These dogs had collars, so we are sure they lived close, but they were there everyday, and they liked just walking along the beach with us, and we liked watching them play and chase crabs. They really knew what it meant to relax in the Bahamas, so we followed cue.
On our last night, all dressed up going out to dinner. This was the car that we rented. We think that it was a condemed car from Japan because of the Japanese bumpersticker on it, and it was British so the stearing was on the right side, and we had to drive on the left side of the street. Pretty interesting. We were just grateful that this car started each time, it had obvioulsly seen better days!
Greetings from the Bahamas! I think this picture will be our Christmas Card picture this year. Check out that sunset! This was at Governor's Harbor, on Eluethera, on our last night there. Governor's Harbor was the town that we stayed at, though on a private house on the beach on the Atlantic side. This was on the Caribbean side, which was calmer, but also more salty.
Conch fritters on our last night on Eluethera at the Buccanear Club. They were huge, and soooo good. I love those things!

Nathan utilizing the outside shower. He loved it and never used the inside one. This obviously shows just how private this place was.

All in all the best vacation ever, and we'll try to do it again as soon as we have enough Delta miles again. Thanks to my wonderful husband putting so much research and planning into our best, and much needed trip!


Vail Reunion

Thanks to my Grandma Kitty (my mom's mom), who has a timeshare in Vail, Colorado, there has been a family reunion now for a few summers. It is neat because it is for two weeks, so you come when you can, enjoy dinners together, and view the beauty of the surrounding mountains. I've been going now for as long as I can remember, so this year I still wanted a few days in Vail. Nathan could not be there this year, so I went and enjoyed time with my mama, saw my dad in Denver since he had to work, and also both of my uncle's, Dana and Kyle, my aunt Carol, my cousin Tim, and again my Great Aunt Carol. We had great grilled dinners, mom and I went on a bike ride, enjoyed the art galleries in town, and breathed in the fresh mountain air. I came back yesterday since Nathan and I were leaving today for vacation, but it was THE best visit I had ever had with that part of my family. Thank you everyone for making it a huge success!

Great Aunt Carol and I at the condo


Love this family :)

Family at the back of the condo, Uncle Dana, Tim, Uncle Kyle, Aunt Carol, Mama, Me:)

Cooking time!


Dana and Carol

 GAC with her niece and nephews

Raising Caterpillers

My dad sent us some caterpillars to raise for fun from the ones that he is currently raising. He is a very good amateur entomologist. So the four polyphemus moth caterpillars that he sent have now successfully made cocoons. This has been neat because we used to do this every summer when I lived at home in Colorado. It was fun to see how fast they grew, and the changes that they went through. Now I can't wait to see when they will hatch!

Kendra holding one caterpillar who is eating oak leaves.

In the caterpillar stage, but getting pretty big


This one is spinning its cocoon in the soft side terrarium (aka a plastic bag with lots of air in side).


A successful cocoon!

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Visit with Great Aunt Carol Berridge:)

This last week we had a great time with our Great Aunt Carol Berridge, who is from Killeen, TX. When we lived in Arlington, she was our only family in the state, and so visiting her often was a privilege for us. She is awesome, and so after her time in Salt Lake she stayed with us for a few days. We had so much fun making dinners, going on walks, watching the sunset from Rock Canyon Park, and making memories. We also took her to BYU's campus, where she enjoyed the Museum of Art, and all the beautiful flowers. I must agree that it is one of the most beautifully kept campuses. Here we all are outside the MOA:
Thank you for coming to stay with us GAC! We love you:)

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

4th of July!

I love the 4th of July! And this year it was on Friday, so we got a 3 day weekend, and we went to the farm and actually got to stay more than a day, we stayed all 3!! We got there on Thursday evening, and talked with Grandma and Grandpa Haworth. Jason and Nicole came up with us as well. Then on the 4th we went to a parade with just Grandma and Grandpa, and got to collect the candy that was thrown. At the Parade with Grandma and Grandpa:)


Nathan and I at the parade, that is one good looking couple isn't it?

Grandpa Haworth and Kendra chillin' at the parade, wearing our ReD, WhItE, and BlUe

We love small town America, seriously, enough that we want to end up there someday. We of course had to do fireworks of our own that night too!Nathan lighting a light anywhere match on his zipper!

Then we took a beautiful bike ride up there, and found our dream house on 11 acres for sale, we'll just have to wait a few more years:) Then after lunch we went on fourwheelers and saw Mike, Misty, and Tate Porter, and we got them to come to dinner, and then to the fireworks. I love fireworks, and AMERICA!!!

The next day we went with Mike, Misty, and Tate, Nathan's other cousin Dave Porter, his wife Kris, and their kids Jackson and Emma, and Uncle Doug and Aunt Debbie Porter on an awesome fourwheel ride up into the national forest.
Getting ready for the ride, safety first with our helmets

We packed a lunch, and had a great time! It was a six hour ride, and so dusty, but we've also decided that it is worth it to do things like that with our kids when we have them. The kids Tate and Jackson were only 4, and Emma is 20months! I love how they brought the kids along, definatly what we want.

This is when I was driving, thanks to Nathan for the pictures:)
Where we stopped for lunch, absolutely gorgeous in this field.

Nathan and Tate at lunch in the hammock we found, they are best buds.

It was a pretty dusty trip as you can see from our really dirty faces, but it was just as fun as it was dirty, so in other words it was really fun!

Going through a creek on the ride

Mike and Misty at the top of the mountain we got to, Debbie is in the background.

That night we had a BBQ and Doug and Debbie's, and had a great game of Porter Volleyball. Pretty intense! Thanks for having us! We then did some shooting again, and the first skeet that was thrown for me I hit! I didn't hit as many as I'd like, but I'm getting better.
I guess this is my "don't mess with me" face.

Then the next day we went to church with Grandma, Grandpa, Mike, Misty, and Tate. Tate is a cuddle monster, and loves to cuddle, so I had a great buddy during sacrament, he's sooooo cute! I got to help Grandpa feed the horses and cows this weekend, and I was bucking hay and everything. So much fun, I love that sort of stuff!! Jason and Nicole had allergies, and Nathan had just run out of medicine, so I was the only one who went to help, and I loved having that time Grandpa. We had a fantastic meal with grilled steaks afterwards. Thanks guys for an awesome weekend!
Nathan, Kendra, Nicole, Jason, Grandma Haworth, and Grandpa Haworth

Visit with Kira:)

Last summer our nephew's Tanner and Tyler got to spend a few days with us, so this year it was our niece's turn, Kira. We had lots of fun with her. We stayed up late, watched movies, went shopping, made cookies, and even went to the water park with her.

Kirstin and Kira making cookies

Kendra and Kira at the pool

The three of us at the pool

It turns out she also looks a lot like us, and having Kirstin living here too, it was like having two sisters here! Everyone who met her thought she was my little sister, and she is so fun, and is growing up by the month! It is amazing how fast kids grow up.