Soda, Pop, Carbonation, Caffeine...

SODA

(call it what you will...I call it Soda)

I was talking to this lady at work about drinking water. I have to say that ice water is the love of my life as far as drinks go. I love it. I will admit, every now and again I'll have a vanilla diet coke. I hate juices. But I just absolutely love ice water. My co-worker was talking about how she doesn't drink enough water. Then we started talking about people who drink 48 ounces of soda a day. SICK. 

It's killing America. Statistics show that soda is the leading cause of obesity in 45% of obese people. Okay, that's not true...I made that up, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were true. I mean, do you know how much sugar is in soda?? In a 20 oz bottle of soda there are 17 teaspoons of sugar - no joke. Drinking one 12 oz Coke (10 tsp of sugar) a day for a year results in the consumption of 32 pounds of sugar. Drinking one Coke a day, instead of an equivalent amount of tap water, for a full year would cause you to gain 18 pounds. In addition, a real statistic shows that Americans spend nearly 66 billion dollars on carbonated beverages, such as soda, a year. WOW.

Why not cut back on some soda? - you'll lose weight and you'll gain money!

A trip to Casper!

I know, one would not think of Casper, WY as much of a vacation spot...but it really is a great place. We stayed at the Howard Hotel for free...I mean, you can't beat that price! Josh and I even had a king size bed all to ourselves and Benjamin had his own room as well. I know, you're so excited to hear about our trip...so here are some pictures to tell our story.

Benjamin sleeping on the way to Casper...can you tell he's excited?

Here's Benjamin even more excited to JUST. GET. OUT. OF. THE. CAR!!!!! Six hours in a car is a killer for a 2 1/2 year old!

Josh - the man, the myth, the legend! Look at that concnetration!

Benjamin enjoying a snickers from Pa Howard! Go figure.

Yolanda the Honda...before her bath. She was pretty dirty...she's also got a chipped windshield. Don't worry, we replaced it last month. URG!

My dad had pneumonia while we were there, but he still took time to come down and spend time with us. Benjamin asked for him every morning! Benjamin liked to watch sports with Pa.

Benjamin could have stayed here all day. It was freezing cold...but he wanted to be outside. Go figure.

Josh and I got to go on a date to a nice Italian restaurant in Casper. DELISH!

Cheesey!

What a stud!

Another reason to love Wyoming. While we paid $3.05 to $3.09 in UT, we paid much less on our trip. Nice!

We went to the Tate Geological Museum. There's an old mining cart out in front of the building if you look closely and Benjamin kept calling it Mater.

Benjamin enjoying the museum on his dad's shoulders.

Josh, the mammoth!

Benjamin the lil' Mammoth!

Terra the mamma mammoth! There was a mammoth at the museum that had been uncovered in WY - it was huge. It took them 4 years to uncover it and put it all together.

Josh and I on another date to South Sea - fabulous Chinese food!

Yay for yummy Asian noodles...they make such fun pictures!

This is a 1,000 piece puzzle that Josh and I started on Friday and finished on Sunday night. My mom helped out too.

Benjamin worn out from playing with Nana and Pa all weekend. He had fun!

Our new addition! Me and my mom LOVE to shop! So here is what we got on our shopping spree while in Casper - our new entry table. Thank goodness for nice tax returns and good sales, right??

 It was fun to go back and visit and see how much it's changed and stayed the same. Family is very important to me and Josh, so we take the opportunity to visit or be visited whenever we can! We can't wait for more visits and visiting!

Weekend(s) Fun!

We have fun!

Josh and I may be married with a two year old, but we have a lot of fun...no matter what! The first weekend in February we went out to our former Bishop's cabin, who was released the weekend prior. It was us, the Hyltons, the Howes, and the McMurdies. Sadly, I only took two pictures. We ate, played games, stayed up LATE, ate more, played outside in the snow, ate more, and played more games, and went home. Bishop Wilcock's cabin is in Bear Lake West. They took their rhino out and pulled some of us up to the top of the hill on sleds. Then we would sled down the hill...Josh said he was going about 20 mph. I wish I had pictures, but the sledding sounded like a lot of fun! Benjamin and I did not try going down...we only got pulled up.

Matching McMurdies. This picture says it all.

Benjamin helping Heidi with the puzzle. Don't let him fool you, he threw a lot of pieces on the FLOOR...not much help. And yes, Heidi, you look smokin' hot for only four hours of sleep!

Fast forward to this past weekend...

Not technically the weekend...but this is me and Jammin having a photo session. He's such a sweetheart!

He decided he wanted to get in on this action. He kept saying "cheese" whenever he would "take" a picture

Cheese mom, cheese!

Trying to admire his photo work...too bad the batteries were dead. And this is when I decided it was time for another hair cut! Benjamin's hair is just so fine that it looks better short!

The actual weekend!!! Friday night Josh and I went and watched Viewers Like You (Mike Hylton's band) at the Logan Art House and we also watched The Antics - they're an improv comedy act. It was fun...but we didn't get home until almost 1 a.m. and then stayed up talking to the girl who baby sat, until 2 a.m. What does this have to do with this delicious picture? Well, Benjamin, thankfully, slept IN the next morning (9 a.m.) so his parents could(8 a.m.)! I was so refreshed for the day that I made some buttermilk syrup (SOOOO good), cut up some fresh strawberries and got out our freshly whipped, whip cream. Benjamin got mini chocolate chips on his. When Benjamin finally woke up...we had a very happy breakfast.

SEE!!! Happy, boy! I am just glad I snapped this picture at the right time. Surprisingly enough...he ate ALL of his strawberries, but left almost all of the chocolate chips.

The highlight of the day - our NEW kitchen table. I really wanted to surprise Josh, but it didn't exactly work out. So I left the receipt on the kitchen counter for him to see before he left for work. Benjamin and I had gone and purchased it on Friday afternoon and it was being delivered on Saturday! We already had the perfect matching chairs, but we bought the bench and the table. We LOVE it!

When the delivery guys came in with boxes and then just left...I was a little shocked. But I started working. Benjamin helped me put the table together - he was quite helpful as he snapped Styrofoam in half and threw it. He aided in the mess making - I'm sure that was his plan. We had a lot of fun. I love my Benjamin!

Before we got the table and basically right after breakfast, Benjamin got a haircut. Then we went on a walk. When we got back from the walk Benjamin wanted to stay outside because it was so beautiful. So we did. Then he started walking to our backyard...or mud pit, if you will. If Benjamin would have know how dirty he was about to get, he would NOT have embarked upon his journey to the mud. He ended up falling and got mud all over his hand and then started FREAKING out because he was dirty. Then his fearless mother had to go save him. My nice running shoes, now have stains from the mud. But they still work, phew!

Here is Benjamin after his mother had to strip him in order to put his clothes in the washing machine. This is the "I never want to get that dirty again" face! Yes, I have a little boy who doesn't like dirty hands. Oh dear!

After the hair cut, bath, mud, putting a table together, mom putting the bench together, a nap, and mom's shower...Benjamin played in the bathroom while I did my hair. His favorite past time - looking at himself in the mirror. He's starting to sound very high maintenance...doesn't like dirty hands, likes to look in the mirror. Oh well.

Didn't snap the shot fast enough - this had so much more potential!

This one...he looks SOOOO much like my nephew Lincoln. It kind of scared me when I looked at it because of the resemblance.

Another thing that Benjamin loves to do - read. Here he is reading all by himself. You didn't know he already knew how to read did you? It's true...sort of. He reads...just not what's in the book and you really can't understand what he's saying. Usually it's something about a train crashing.

 I know, right? We are fun. Seriously, Josh and I laugh more now that we have a child - and we laughed A LOT before we had Benjamin. So don't let anyone ever tell you that people with children have no fun. SO not true. You do have to be a little more creative, but it's worth it.

Good news - we are going to close on our house this week. Can you believe it? Neither can we, so don't hold your breath....just in case we don't.

Best Buds!

Did you think we were dead? No worries, we're alive and well. We may have been dead to the blogging world for a while, but I will try to be a little more consistent.

We're still working on owning our home - yeah, sore subject. The builders let us move in because of their mistake, now they have made some other mistakes and it's caused our loan to be postponed. We pray that this is the month.

At any rate, we've been having A LOT of fun in our new HOME! We had Christmas there this year with just the three of us. That was great. We've also been having fun buying new things for our home and figuring out what we like and what we don't like. It's really quite interesting to see what Josh has opinion's on with regards to decorating. He has quite sophisticated taste, I must say. He also has some expensive taste as well....however, that is also a combination of the two of us.

This last month was Benjamin's best friend's birthday - Russton. Thanks for having a birthday, Russton. Here are some fun pictures of last weekend's activities!

Russton sharing his birthday treat with his buddy at the Beehive Grill.

Two very happy boys!

Russton's birthday party at High Point Gymnastics. I don't think Benjamin ever stopped for that whole hour. It was so fun!

More in the foam pit - the boys loved it in there!

Another one of Benjamin's favorite activities - chasing dad with this thing...whatever it is.

Running...go figure!

Benjamin had to try everything there - even the balance beam. He didn't last long on there, his favorite things were the trampoline and anything else he could run and jump on! We will have to go there again.

So far, that's what we've been up to. We have a very busy next couple of months, but it will be fun. This weekend (today, actually) we're going to our old Bishop's cabin in Bear Lake. He was just released last Sunday, and we're glad we're still friends with them. We're also going to go to Casper! We haven't been in 7 months. We might be going to Boise and then we're having a lot of family and friends visit as well. It's going to be a fun year!

All moved in...and a trip to the ER

True story, we moved into our new home the weekend before Thanksgiving. We moved to Hyrum, UT - 15 minutes South of Logan. Sorry I don't have pictures of the house, but I will soon, I promise. Just as soon as we get blinds all hung up. :-) We moved in the morning of the 20th and that afternoon the snow storms started, and they really haven't stopped. We were very lucky to be able to move in when we did. Benjamin loves the new house, but he does miss his buddy Russton. Luckily he still gets to go there often to hang out while mom and dad are at work. Being in a family ward is quite different, but it's been fun. Our first Sunday was the most memorable, but we'll leave that for a later post.

We have almost all of our boxes unpacked and the only casualty in the move was a lamp shade from my cheap-o lamp broke. We have AWESOME friends here that helped us move in and we're SO grateful for them.

We learned one thing that we don't like about living in Hyrum...the distance to the Logan emergency room. Benjamin had been sporting a temperature for the last day or so. He was NOT feeling well and wanted me to rock him to sleep. He rarely gets sick, so anything like this is out of the ordinary. After he fell asleep I put him down for bed. At 10 p.m. he woke up and I could barely hear him crying. I went into his room and he was gasping for air and crying - not a good combination. He calmed down a little bit and still had difficulty breathing. I decided that it would probably be best to take him to the ER. Josh was still at work and didn't have his phone. Luckily he got home 10 minutes later. We got into the car and even the cold night air wasn't helping his croup much. We got him in and they gave him a steroid vapor mist and then an oral steroid medication. They monitored him for a while and then let us go after about 45 minutes. Thank goodness for DVD's - Finding Nemo kept him entertained the entire time. We got home around 1 a.m. and had to stay in the room with him or else he would freak out. None of us got much sleep that night, but the next night we all crashed! Benjamin is doing better, not 100% yet, but much better! We're thankful for prayers.

Needless to say, we've had an exciting go around since we've moved in. Now if only our loan would close so we can put up blinds and a garage door opener, that would be fantastic!

Pumpkin Blow 2010

The first Saturday after Halloween, the Nash family of Weston, ID always does the Pumpkin Blow. People come from EVERYWHERE to watch the pumpkin blow. They bring their pumpkins and then Papa Nash puts a ton of dynamite in with them (88 sticks this year). Then Miles shot the dynamite from afar as we all stood on top of the hill...

Where there were once pumpkins....

Now there's a crater! KABOOM! Sorry, I was covering Benjamin's ears so I didn't take a picture of the explosion!

Fun picture...beautiful view!

Benjamin HAD to go and see the dog a gazillion times. He LOVES dogs! Too bad we won't be getting any time soon. Actually, I'm okay with that.