Montana get ready

I am so excited that we are going to be heading up to Libby here in just a two and a half weeks! We are praying the the weather will be go and that the water will be at least bareable to dip in. If you are not coming, you will be missing out and we would love for you to be joining us! I only have 2 months and 11 days be for I graduate!

I love you, Montana. Someday I hope to live there again!

Just for you information, Robert and I have decided not to purchase a new car right away.

THE UPDATE EVERYONE'S BEEN WAITING FOR!

So the insurance called us this morning and told us what everyone has been wanting to know. The car was totalled. The amount of damage just from Looking at it was over 16 thousand dollars! We didn't actually lose any money off it though, so no need to panic. If there is anything else to know we will update the blog for yours and our convenience. Thank you for tuning in.

Great way to end the break and start the semester.

For the week in between semesters Robert and I headed up to my parents house in Libby. While we were there we got to see Aaron and Kelsey who had just come back from Ecuador a week prior and we were able to see my brother Chris who was on leave from Iraq. What a nice break we had!! After Robert and I were all relaxed from our week long vacation in Montana this past week we were headed back to Rexburg to start another semester of school. And this is going to be a great semester because it is my last semester. I will be graduating in July (if I pass the last of my classes) and this summer I only have 7 credits to take. This will be a great summer! These were our thoughts as we were leaving the happiest place on Earth, Libby, MT.

On our trip home we stopped to take Grandpa Stevens out to breakfast at his favorite place, Cislo's. Then we stopped in Polson to see my aunt Wanda who gave me a sewing machine (thanks).

Then we headed home. Just 5 hours to go and we would be at home and getting ready for church the next day.

When we were leaving we had seen on the weather reports that there was going to be snow storms most of the way home. Because these storms were going to be lasting 3-4 days we left on Saturday instead of Sunday. We were driving along between Missoula and Butte Montana when the road all of the sudden became horrible. So, Robert slowed down and began to drive with caution.


(Here is a picture the next day of the bridge that we were on. Mile marker 174 of I-90)



I was beginning to get sleepy and was trying to rest in the passenger seat, but I was having a hard time falling asleep, partly because of the roads and us slipping a little here and there. We began to go on this bridge when a huge gust of wind came up pushed us from one lane on the freeway to the other. Robert was able to correct this and I was a little shaken by that, but just as we were recovering another gust of wind came and blew us in the same way. So, because of the first gust of wind Robert had slowed way down. The car then spun in a 360 in the middle of the freeway and then continued to spin another 2 full 360 both of these times hitting the passenger side guard rail. Our car is pretty messed up. We think it is totalled, but we are waiting to hear from the insurance company to confirm that.




Needless to say we are doing GREAT! Our cats, This and That are okay as well. You can see the road conditions that we were driving on. This was taken about 10 minutes after the accident. We called 911 and waited about 45 minutes for the highway patrol to show up. It was freezing outside and luckily I had my winter coat in the car. Robert however had his coat, but could not get to his beany. Ice was literally forming on his ears and hair! It was on the driver's side and it was too dangerous to get into the car from that side because the traffic was going fast and was steady. We felt it was too dangerous to be in the car because it was on the bridge and again the traffic was steady, we were concerned that another car might spin out and hit us and then we would might get injured. So, we braved the freezing weather and stood outside on the other side of the guard rail and here we felt a lot more safe.

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!