Happy-Robert and Lois Day 2

So here's day two of our awesome getaway! After breakfast we went to the Logan temple. After that we went to change in our new room called Lost In Space. (And no we did not watch that stupid movie Lost in Space.) The paintings in the room were amazing! Some of the paint glowed in the dark. There were black lights that made some things look way cool.









The mirror represented some kinda worm hole. It was pretty fun!



I don't think Lois and I ever had as much fun in a bathroom as we did in the one in this room. It had cool launch pad lights and gauges to play with.








After a quick change we went to the Bluebird Restaurant-a 30's style restaurant with terrible service, but great food. It was a soda fountain, candy shop, restaurant and ice cream shop all in one! After that we went to find the Hardware Ranch to go on a sleigh ride through some beautiful country to see a huge herd of elk. It was about a 30 minute ride full of switchbacks like no other. It was a nice drive, but ended in disappointment because the place was closed. We made the drive back and just chilled for the rest of the night. We watched Titanic and went to bed.



Here's the Logan at night from space. (The room window.)



The next morning we had another delicious breakfast. We actually ate it in the jacuzzi just to say that we did.


We later went to the Bluebird again for lunch and free dessert for our anniversary and got great service and more great food. After lunch we went to the mall and then went home to Rexburg.

The End.

Happy-Robert and Lois!

These pictures are of where I took Lois to celebrate a bunch of celebrations we didn't get to celebrate on their proper dates due to school and work.

The celebrations took place from March 27 to March 29.


Lois had no idea what I had planned for the weekend. We went to Logan, Utah and stayed at the Anniversary Inn. It is a bed and breakfast with themed rooms. The picture is of Lois when we first got there and stayed in a room called Swiss Family Robinson. It is awesome.



Bathroom Sink and Mirror! Pump didn't actually pump water, but it was fun to pretend.






















Here are more pics of the room.

















Another suprise I got for Lois and I was a 30 minute professional massage in the room Thursday night!

After that we had a relaxing dip in the jacuzzi and got some of the best A&W for dinner and watched Swiss Family Robinson from the bed on the projector.

We slept the night away with stars twinkling in the ceiling as we listened to SoundScapes on satellite radio.









Here I am getting breakfast!



Pics of the Logan temple we went to on Friday.

Lunar Eclipse

Here are some pictures that Robert took of the lunar eclipse that happened tonight...just in case you missed it. It was too frickin' cold to stand outside and watch it from start to finish so there is no particular order for the shots.

Not too shabby for a digital camera!

NOW THAT'S ZOOM!

Honeymoon in Oregon (Better late than never)

This is a late blog of our trip to the Oregon Coast in the summer of 2007. We had such a great time! We had originally planned to go with another couple, but they were unable to join us. So Lois and I were able to finally have a honeymoon! There was no way that I was not going to go because I have this thing where I have to go to the Oregon Coast or any ocean beach every year or whenever we can. It seems to call me.

We began our long awaited journey on Saturday July 28, 2007. We stayed at Lois's sister, Cheri's house until Monday morning and made our way to Portland.

We stopped at Multinomah Falls that evening and enjoyed the beauty there before the sun went down. The picture doesn't do it justice, but it is amazing. That was Lois's first time to the Falls by the way. Let's see what she has to say about them. Robert: "Hey Lois." Lois:"Yeah." Robert: " What'd you think about your first time to the falls?" Lois: "Ummm, They were pretty. I think I've been there before." Robert: "What? You told me that was your first time ever there?" Lois: "Umm. Well I've been by them before, but I don't think I've ever stopped."

Well, you get the point, right? We liked it a lot!

OOOOOO!! AAAAAAHHHHH!!

After Multinomah Falls we decided to continue on and find the motel to stay at. We spent the night at a Motel 6 in Troutdale. It was cheap, availble and close enough to Portland that we wouldn't spend forever and a day getting to the Portland Temple. The price we had to pay to stay there was to drive in on the most lame set up of streets. There were stupid one way streets on both sides of the freeway!

It was our second time in the Portland Temple! It is so beautiful on the outside and the inside.

After we went to the temple we continued our trip south on I-5 to Corvallis and then headed west for the coast.

We made good time because we badly wanted to see the coast before the sun went down and we wanted to see about getting a campsite on the beach. Just something we both have always wanted to do and we still didn't get to do it because most of the campsites were booked full and the others we thought were too expensive for our taste. Plus we were getting hungry and didn't have the patience to search for the perfect one.

This is a picture, taken by Lois, of our first stop on the beach in Florence, Oregon. It was really windy there so we drove down a ways and flew kites on some sand dunes that overlooked the beach! That was fun! We didn't stay for more than 20 minutes because we were getting sand blasted. Afterwards we went to a restaurant called Moe's and had some really good seafood!

(Sorry the picture is gone, I think I deleted it.)

Don't mind the naked natives!! The Astoria column displays 14 scenes commemorating important events in the history of Astoria in chronological order. The column is at an elevation of 600 ft high. The mural scrolls around the 125-foot-high structure in an upward spiral direction, with the earliest scene at the base of the column. An interior 164-step spiral staircase leads to the top of a viewing platform with spectacular views and we climbed all of them. Don't believe us? Look at the pictures after this one!

Told you!

Robert and Lois throwing 75 cents off a 125-foot tall building!!

It was worth it!!!
The funny thing about a lot of the tourists there is that many of them had a fear of heights so this was there Mt. Everest! Some people were scared while they were climbing the stairs, which were enclosed without windows. They couldn't even see outside. Some people climbed all the way to the top and would not go outside and enjoy the view. It was pretty funny.

These next few pics are of the amazing view from the column.

Anyone else reminded of the end of the movie Goonies when looking at this picture? Robert is absolutely convinced that this is where One-eyed Willie's ship came from behind at the end of the movie. This shot was taken from the top of the column. Digital zoom is quite amazing!

One evening we decided to watch the sunset together while we sat in our camp chairs. We then watched a movie on a portable dvd player while listening to the ocean. It was so nice and relaxing I can't even begin to describe it.

We took one day and went to Newport. Here we went to the underwater aquarium and Ripley's Believe It Or Not wax museum. This was so much fun! We also got to go to a light house right near Newport. This light house was amazing. As we drove up to it there was this eerie fog that was covering the ground. The fog was so thick that it we could feel the mist as we got out of the car. While we were there we saw whales. At first we were just watching one big one and then we noticed this was a cow with her calf. This was the first time the Lois has remembered seeing a live whale. We got some great video of it. We were so close that we could hear these whales blowing water out of their blow holes. We stuck around and watched the whales for at least 45 minutes to 1 hour. Then we were hungry and so we at a Izzy's pizza. It had an amazing view and we looked at the beach and waves while eating a great pizza buffet.

This trip was amazing and well deserved. It created so many memories for us that will will enjoy to share with our future family! Robert was able to take me to the coast like he had always wanted and Lois is more willing to go every year possible like Robert wants to make tradition in our family.

School Starts

Not much as gone on with us since the new year. Robert has worked every weekday morning and Lois has worked everyday/evening. We have had some fun hanging out with friends and trying to get the most playtime before school starts.


I don't think that I ever mentioned that Robert and I went through the open house for the Rex burg, Idaho temple. We went on the opening day, December 29. Of coarse, that was a wonderful and beautiful experience. In the ordinance rooms there are murals of the Grand Tetons. Amazing! If anyone wants to go, please let us know and we can get tickets for you and you are more than welcome to come stay with us! It will be going on, I think until the 25 or 26th of January and then the dedication will be Feb. 3, 2008.


This semester will be a busy one. I will be working 30 hours a week and have 12 credits at school and Robert will be working and taking 16 credits at school. We hope to be able to see each other at least once a day, sad I know. But it will only be for 15 weeks and then this semester will be over. We are both excited about some of our classes and not so excited about others. I have 2 biology classes for my major and one physics class for my minor and a child's clothing class. Robert is taking geology, a couple classes for his major and then another class for general education and an online class. So, any prayers for help with school so we will be able to work and go to school will be much appreciated.



These are just some cute pictures of This. She had just come in from outside and Roberts slipper was in the middle of the floor in the sunshine. I think she must have know that it would be warm inside the slipper and so she put both of her front pays in there as if to get them warm. She was there for over 15 minutes. It was too cute to not post.



And one last thing. I cut my hair to the shortest it has ever been and here is a photo. (Toni this is for you) I love it! I can style it so many different ways and all of them seem to look good. That is all for now. I hope that we can keep you all updated, but there are no promises until after this semester.

Happy New Year!

New Years turned out better than expected. I, Lois, was scheduled to work from noon til midnight on New Year's eve, however I went into work at 10:30 am in hopes that I could get off at 10:30 pm. My plan worked! I also knew the person who is in charge of sending people home early and that helped. So, I did not tell Robert I was off and I had some friends stop by the house and invite him over and had them tell Robert to come spend time with them until I got off of work. I of course was in the car. So, I went to their club house and waited until Robert showed up to join them. So, it was about 11:15 and Robert came over and I surprise him because he did not think that we would be able to be together at midnight. That was a lot of fun. It was a very small party, but we all had fun. Our friends that hosted the party are Megan and Brandon Hebdon, this is the same couple that we had Christmas dinner with. Anyway, back to the party. We had root beer floats at midnight and played Phase 10 until about 3:30 in the morning. It wasn't much, but a lot more than we expected. Thank you Natalie for letting me off work early. We wish all of you a happy New Year and hope to continue to hear from you!

Merry Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Here is the beginning of our 4th Christmas together. We got up at about 8:30am and then read the Christmas story from the book of Matthew and then opened presents.

We had stockings for This and That and they both had fun with the play mice that we got them. Robert and I LOVE all of our gifts thank you EVERYONE! We got way more than expected and deserved!

Our Christmas letter.

Well, we are still in Rexburg, ID going to school. We are both attending BYU-Idaho. I, Lois, will graduate in mid July with a bachelors degree in biology. Robert just changed his major to communications. He just finished a very hard semester and came out with 3 A, 1 A-, and 1B. He is doing very well in school with an over all GPA of somewhere around a 3.66. He is also working early early mornings at FedEx Ground (5:00am til about 8:00am Monday- Friday). I am headed back to school in January and will finish in July as mentioned before. For the fall semester I was working at Melaleuca. I have been working there for just over a year now. I work evening Monday-Friday. I am not really sure what to do with my degree so if anyone has any suggestions, let me know.

Well, for our family it is still just Robert and me. We do have the two most amazing cats. They are sisters that we got last year around Thanksgiving (2006) time. Their names are This and That. They pretty much make up for the longing we have to have children. They are so much fun!

For Christmas this year we are staying here in Rexburg because Robert has to work. We are sad to not be going to see family for Christmas, but excited to start our own Christmas together. Here are a few pictures of our wonderful amazing cats.

Thanksgiving and Hunting

Robert and I went to Montana on Wednesday. Alan drove us up to Bozemen where my mother then picked us up. We traveled to Kalispell where we had Thanksgiving dinner with my aunt Phyllis. At about 2:00 Thursday morning on our way to my aunt's we were passed by a pick up truck that could not seem to stay on the road. There was a lot of fog and the roads were a little wet, but not icy yet. When he came back over into the lane in front of us he went over the white line by several feet. All three of us in the car knew for sure that he was drunk. All of us were thinking, we wouldn't be suprise to see him off the road in a ditch after awhile. Sure enough, we saw that same truck rolled over on the opposite of the road in the ditch.

His headlights and engine were still on when we came upon him and so we think that it had only happened maybe 2-3 minutes earlier. This happened about 10 minutes after he passed us. We called 911 and Robert got out of the car to go and check on him. He was fine and said that he was not hurt or bleeding. The car was laying on the passenger side and he was suspended by his seat belt. He was only about 3-5 feet from hitting a telephone pole. Man was this guy REALLY lucky!! All he cried about after he knew that we were there was that he wanted us to get him out, however, 911 advised us to wait until someone got there. A cop came fairly quickly and then we waited around until everyone else came so that we could see how he really was. Yeah, pretty much he was just drunk. There were SO many cars that came out to the accident. We wrote a statement and then left. We got to Phyllis's house at about 4:30ish that morning and then were in bed at about 5:00 or a little after. Robert and I slept most of the day until dinner. We ate dinner and that is as exciting as Thanksgiving got for us.

Today, when Robert and I got up we decided to go hunting with my mom and dad. Tomorrow was the last day of hunting season and so mom really wanted to use the tag that she had bought. So, we drove down their road about a mile until it dead ended and then turned around. On the way back everyone was looking for deer out to the sides of the road and then I looked up in front of us and there was a young buck just starting to cross the dirt road. I said stop and that buck just stood there and looked at us. My mom got out of the car and started to get ready, and then he started to walk across the road. Robert then whistled and the deer stopped and just stared again. My mom then aimed and shot the buck down. One Shot!!

We drove the 50-100 yards to the deer that was down in the road and then my dad shot him in the head just to make sure. We weren't quite sure where my mom hit the buck until we skinned it. My mom gutted it right there on the spot and then we put it on the hood of the car and drove it back to the house. It was like a 2-3 minute drive. When we got it here at the house Robert and I then had to finish getting the vital organs out. We had to take out the heart, lungs, liver and a kidney. I think that my mom got one of the kidneys because we only took one out. I got kind of grossed out the first time that I stuck my hand in to pull out the organs because it was still warm. Every other time that I have done anything like cutting up an animal it has been really cold and so, it was a shock to me. I soon got over it and helped to take out the insides. We then went to lunch. Before lunch we hung it in the rafters of my parents garage for it to finish bleeding.

After lunch we skinned it; while skinning it we found where my mom hit it. It was just above the shoulder, but a little high for the heart and lungs. Most likely when she hit it she paralized it. My mom found the bullet just inside the skin on the other side from where she shot it. It was a pretty clean shot. Nice work, mom! I got a small amout of meat that was on the ribs in between the layers of fat and cooked that up. The meat still had quite a bit of connective tissue/fat on it and so it is really chewy, but it tastes good to me. That was our fun day today. Hunting didn't last long, but we now have some yummy young buck meat and it was a new experience.

Our Trip Home to the USA

Well, on October 30 Robert and I left Japan to come back to the united States to get our working visas. We had been working in Japan since September without our visas. We were told by our employer and also the lady that hired us here (in Utah) that it was done all the time in Japan and that the government doesn't really care about it. Anyway... We were leaving for the U.S. on Sunday and it was on the Thursday before when, out of my own curosity, I decided to ask what exactly it was that we had to do to obtain a visa. So, then the "head teacher" told me that we needed to go to the American consulate while we were in America. So, I guess that it was a good thing that I asked, because I had assumed that when we came back into Japan that they would issue us our visas. Boy was I worng and so was the "head teacher". The "head teacher" also told me that I needed to talk to my big sister to find out how to do things. However, this is not her job and I told him that. I told him that it was my boss, Miyuki's, job but he disagreed with me and then told me that it was the contact in Utah, Anne-Marie's, job to tell me/us what it is that I/we needed to do to obtain a visa. So, we leave Japan and fly into Salt Lake City on Sunday October 30, 2005. Our friends Alan and Shelley pick us up at the airport and take us back to Rexburg, where we were trying to go. We needed to go back to Rexburg to take care of some personal things that had gotten screwed up because we left way sooner than expected to go to Japan in September. (Robert and I had previously talked and arranged with Miyuki for us to have 5 business days to take care of personal business while in the United States, which was an exception that she told us she would make. Normally we would have gone to Korea like any other teacher.) On Monday we slept most of the day because of jet lag. However, I did try to look up on-line what it was that I/we needed to do to get our visas. So right there is when we put our Visas in higher priority than our own business. I was looking at the UNITED STATES consulate sites as instructed by the "head teacher" and this is why I couldn't find anything. So, when I could find nothing at these sites, I wrote an email to my brother who has previously been to Japan a number of times and also my sister Kira, who is working for the same company, asking how to obtain our visas. My brother is the one who emailed me back with the website and information that I needed to find the information that I/we would need for a visa online. Robert and I are staying with friends because we are trying to save Miyuki money by not staying in a hotel. Well, Alan and Shelley do not have a house phone, all they have are cell phones and so we had no access to a phone for most of the day when they are at school/work. Tuesday we went to my sister Cheri's house about 100 miles away. She let me use her phone and also her computer to find some things out. I called to JAPANESE consulate and they informed me that we would need a certified marriage certificate for Robert to obtain a dependant visa. Miyuki still had our only certified copy of our marriage certificate back in Japan. So, then right away I looked up the town that we were married in and gave them a call to obtain a certified marriage certificate. They informed me that I would have to mail everything, because they need the money for it up front and they do not accept credit or debit cards. So, then the next day I sent a written request to get a certified marriage certificate, as instructed by the County Clerk's office. That day (Tuesday) we emailed Miyuki and let her know what was going on and that it would most likely take longer than expected. We told her what the problem was and that we were not sure how long it would take, but ESTIMATED a time frame for her. We also asked her if she would want us to try to go to the consulate and save time, or to do our visas by mail and save money. She told us to do it the less expensive away, so we stayed here in Rexburg and waited for our marriage certificate. Robert and I had all of our personal business taken care of within those days that we were initally given. Well, it took longer than expected to get our marriage certificate. When we got our certificates we mailed them into the consulate. Then the next day, Friday November 15, 2005, after we informed our boss of where we were in the process, she fired us that next day. She did not and has not told us why we are fired. We have asked her for information two times, concerning our termination, and she has not responded. We are hearing that there are rumors that are untrue about us going around with other workers and owners in Japan and we hope to clear all of those rumors up. This is a breif story of what happened and I did not write some of the rude emails that we recieved or how long it took us to get a reply from Miyuki on many things that we need(ed) and have requested.
One more thing that I want to mention is that she did email us and asked us for a phone number where she could reach us. So, Robert and I decided that the best way for her to get a hold of us according to her schedule and make sure that she had plenty of opportunities throughout the day and night to call us was for us to check into a hotel. So we did. We never recieved a phone call from her and we stayed in that hotel for 2 nights. Within those two nights, we were out of our hotel room for less than 4 hours total. There was voicemail available so we know that there was no call from her during that time. I contacted my parents and they told me that Anne-Marie(the English School Recruiter) was trying to get a hold of us as well. So, we called her and left a voice message with the hotel # and our room # and she never called us either.
We tried to communicate and make ourselves available to talk with those who were trying to contact us, however, we are being accused of not explaining or informing people of what was going on. We also were limited on resources because we were staying with friends. I hope this helps everyone understand a little better now that they know our side of the story. So, please if you hear rumors or gossip about us correct those spreading the rumors on what is true and false, or just refer them to this website. Or, have them email me asking questions because I am not afraid to share the truth of what has happened.

Robert's Birthday

Happy Birthday Robert! We didn't do anything really specail. At our friends Toni and Enrique's house I made him a birthday dinner and invited Alan and Shelley over. He requested teriyaki chicken and rice. That is what I made for him. Then later we had three more couples over and ate chocolate peanut torte. It was a lot of fun, but something very low key like Robert wanted. It was good. He talked to most of his family and was able to explain to them what was going on with out job in Japan.