YIKES

Let me preface this by saying I literally used the entirety of my Spanish vocabulary in the first five minutes of being in Spain. Also, I haven´t actually slept AT ALL in close to three days. The going is rough. This is the hardest thing I have ever done and I´ve got a month left. AHH! What was I thinking? Seriously wish me luck. Survival is the ultimate goal... scratch that... a huge siesta and THEN surviving. I´m seriously going to die. P.S. Spain is a mix between Harlem, Mexico, Inwood, and Europe. I´m reliving that first month in Manhattan step for step! More to come- buying bullfight tickets tomorrow, that will help.

Adios

Spain here I come... Yikes! Check here for further posts after I make it through an 8 hour time difference, a severe language barrier, and an all day flight in an aisle seat. Wish me luck. Immense luck. Neccesito mucho suerte!!!

P.S. Here are those garden pictures I was talking about. "Isn't she a Beauty?!?"

The Gawden

Well, Nicole is off to Spain... literally. We're leaving for SLC right now. Just thought we'd update you on the most important thing in our life: our garden... of, as they say it in NYC, the "gawden". It's pretty sad, Nicole is going to miss the first red tomatoes, the first cucumber and yellow squash, and pickeled beets. All of which will be ready by next week. Oh the sacrifice. Any way, here are a few pics of the progress of our pride and joy (above). Also, check out this little beauty: Quinn jumped right up to do the dishes for us last night. He even scrubbed the pots and pans. Isn't he awesome!

Gone Fishing, No Time to Grow Up!

Here are a few pics of the latest. Above is Nicole on her very last day of school (hurray!) and, of course, it was a snowy blizzard in Cedar City. Thouh school is out, she has been quite busy. Last weekend started the entorage of recital mayhem. There were 6 diamond talent childrens recitals last weekend and there are five more this coming weekend. Does it ever end? Quinn's latest passion, and we mean passion with a capitol P, is fishing. He goes EVERY chance he gets. He's been to Lake Powell twice in the last week and is planning on going this weekend. In fact, he's on his way there right this minute! He's been going with Todd Albrecht and they swear they've found an optimal spot. They even have the GPS coordinates memorized. He may be a fishing fiend, but he's the same old Quinn- i.e. poles breaking, reels coming off, lines getting tangelled, lots of swearing. Sometimes we wonder why he still fishes. Now that we live on the Gold Course, Quinn has been fishing down on the Sun Brooke pond every evening too. He said tonight he was at his moms house and looked across the street at the neighbors. There was Nick Ence mowing the grass with two kids trailing close behind and a wife in caprees and some sort of pink button up shirt setting out the sprinkler. Quinn said that was definately one moment he was glad not to be Nick Ence. To be free. To not have to get permeission from his wife to go fishing every night. And 'd have to agree. We work hard, we play hard, and we live life to the fullest. We've got it pretty good and come this fall, things will be better than ever: we have our first real salaries to look forward too! OK- at 27, it took us a while... but who else has had the adventures we have?

Long Time No Post

HURRAY! We made it!!! We are pleased to inform everyone that Nicole finally graduated... Again. She has been in school almost a decade- 9 years to be exact -and she's not quite sure how to become a normal person now that it's all over... but she is more than willing to try. Nicole now has a third major completed and a second Bachelors. Her first degree is a bachelor of science with a composite major in Advertising and Public Relations. She graduated with high honors and summa cum laude in 2002. This time she has earned a bachelor of arts in english education with an Utah Level 1 certification. She also managed to keep her status on the dean's list every semester and again graduated summa cum laude. In fact, save one grade she has strait A's and is walking with a 4.0 in her major content area!!! O.k.- that's the end of the bragging phase of this blog. It was the most aweful thing in the world to drive to Cedar and back everyday and work two jobs so you can't help Quinn and Nicole wanting to celebrate at least a little bit. As Nicole completes her study abroad this summer and an internship next fall, and Quinn finishes his apprenticeship this September it is starting to feel a lot like comping out of the dark. Finally we are becomming real people who are afforded the opportunity to live life without the guilt of unfinished homework lingering closely by. We can't possibly imagine what our new found freedom will feel like!

So now that the endless homework cycle is over, let us take a minute to update everyone on what we've been doing these past few months.

Last October we went to Disneyland with the Stirland family. We had a blast seeing everyone at our favorite place. This was our second stirland family trip to Disneyland. We didn't rent a greyhound this time, but we certainly created some new traditions. We stayed at the Grand Californian Resort and Hotel right in California Land. Suffice it to say, we are pretty spoiled now and if we ever go back I'm not sure we could down grade. Quinn flew home early for work (someone has to pay the mortgage) and the next day we went to the park wide trick o treat in California land. It rained but it wasn't cold and we really scored with some great treats. It was such a fun trip and a monumental one at that because it was the first time we met Spencer Shelton. We really hit it off with him and are looking forward to having another great in-law in the family.

Later this Spring we attended two major events: Becky's farewell and Kari and Spencer's wedding!

Becky has since left for the MTC and then she'll be in CHILE! It is crazy to think she is old enough to be serving a mission, but also very cool. After her farewell dinner we went to see the famous migrating snow geese during their annual stop in Delta. There we thousands of them!

Kari and Spencer had a chilly day, but one of the few sunny days during the inversion in SLC. Kari looked so beautiful and it was such a wonderful day. We had a super time with the fam and enjoyed seeing just about everyone at the reception.

THEN THERE WAS HAWAII. Unfortunately Nicole had to leave Quinn behind for this one. She managed to slip away on Spring break and She, Megan, Cindy, and Ron headed to paradise. We went to Kuai'i for the first time and now have decided it is the only to see when planning the ultimate Hawaiin vacation. We sunbathed with seals, four wheeled in the Volocirapter field from Jurassic park (yes, we broke down right in the middle), we communed with the Humpback Whales (so so cool), and ate mountains of seafood. It was a blast and before we left we planned our next vacation back.

In other news, about 100 babies were born. All of Quinn's brothers and sisters had a baby this spring, Nicole's two best friends had babies close to her birthday, and two cousins, Mindi and Katy, also have new little ones to look forward too. We have had a fun time meeting Mallorrie, Landon, Porter, Alex, Ava, Anika, Herb, and Jonah (still waiting to meet him). All of this baby business has got us thinking we really enjoy being just aunts and uncles. No babies for us any time soon.

Well, that about raps it up for the last few months. The only left to discuss is our very own enormously wonderful garden! When we got home form NYC we couldn't wait to get our hands in the dirt and we've been working on our garden ever since. The last week we have experiences our first yiedlings: RADISHES! I never thought anything could look so beautiful. When I pulled my first radish it was love at first sight! I'm telling you, these things are gorgeous. Now we are starting to see some squash, Zucchini, Strawberries, and tomatoes peeking out. It's the coolest proudest moment in the world when you step out into your garden each morning and see something new. We have planted and diligently take care of radishes, carrots, tomatoes, yellow sqaush, zucchini, cucmbers, red, gren, and yellow peppers, cantelope, pumpkins, watermellon, beets, 5 different kinds of tomatoes including cherry tomatoes, and strawberries. It is great fun. Our little garden is not so little as things start to grow and our sucker hose watering system has worked beautifully. Hopefully it's not too late to get a few onions in.

That's all for now. Have a great day everyone.

Happy Holidays

Merry Merry Christmas. Wow, what a difference being home for the holidays makes. Quinn and I kind of skipped the traditional family Christmas last year so this year we started listening to Jingle Bells and put up our tree around October. We had a party in Pine Valley, Thanksgiving in Ogden, and played played played during the break. The best part is that Nicole made it out of another semester with a 4.0!!! She's pretty happy but even more excited that there is only one semester left. It may be a 25 credit superfeat, but at least it will all soon be over. In other news, Quinn is doing well at work and is no longer the new guy. He has Wednesday's off and usually spends them coyote hunting with his dad. He keeps telling us it is his part time job (you get $65 for every one you kill) but we haven't seen any cash yet. We are enjoying the condo but can't believe how much stuff we have and that we are practically overflowing the place after only four months. It's great living in Sunny old St. George. After spending some time up in SLC with Katy, Luke, Kari, Spense, Matt and Ash, we are quite grateful to live in the desert. Most days are sunny and we never have to worry about snow. It seems like all we've done for the past few weeks is have fun. We even got to see Pat and Carly Killpack during their brief visit home from Manhattan. Of course we went out for Mexican food! They gave us the New York update and told us all about Jack. We miss him so much! Well that's about it. Santa brought us a new entertainment center and a sewing machine. We're pretty much the most spoiled kids on the planet. Now it's back to teaching tap, driving up to school everyday, and more work work work!

FALL 2006

Howdy friends. Happy Halloween! This is the first year Quinn and I actually carved some Pumpkins. Matt and Meree came to our new loft (I say that because it really is like living in a treehouse) and we sliced and diced until we had some beauties. I even cooked! Alright, it was a frozen pizza, but still... The boys of course used Yankees patterns to get some authentic logos on their pumpkins. The best part of the night, however, was watching the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders tryout marathon. They finally got rid of that girl who wasn't very flexible and asked the Julia Roberts look-a-like to read a book about Jackie O. It's our new addiction.

About our loft: We are now the proud owners (in 30 years) of a cute little condo on the Sunbrooke Golfcourse. It's pretty tiny but we opted for quality over quantity. We have granite and carpet and one of those fridges with the ice machine. Of even greater note is the fact that we have our very own washer and dryer right inside (New Yorkers: read 'em 'n weep). It is too good to be true. Sometimes I do laundry just to do laundry. The other day I threw in a sock and ran it through once just because I could and it didn't cost me 6 bucks a load. Our place sits all by itself above three garages so there are no adjoining walls and we have a pretty good view. We don't mind the stairs now that everything is finally moved it but boy was it a treck getting all our New York luggage up a flight. As you may recall, each suitcase weighed 100 pounds and there were 10 of them. We are still figuring out the paint situation, but the one thing I can't wait to get up on the walls are all of our New York prints. They should be done next week. We really upped the anty on them and ordered more than few matts in suede. We'll have to have some sort of shin dig when (in 10 years) everything finally gets put in place.

On a sidenote: Incidentally our new condo is located directly next to the only farm in SGU. One night in early October some horrible farmer decided to take all the moms away from the baby cows to ween them. Let me just tell you, we haven't had a good nights sleep since. All day long and into the wee hours of dawn those little baby cows cry and cry and cry. At first I felt sorry for them, Brandon and Alana (our best friends and neighbors) even went over and fed them hay one day, but now I just want to turn them all into big fat juicy hamburgers. You've never heard such an agonzing and relentless sound. One of them is still at it and it's nearly Thanksgiving!

This weekend Quinn and I took the Hadley parents and Matt and Meree to Pine Valley. It was so fun to spend some much needed free time up in "the country" as the Dozier's would say. Things were pretty dry and the weather was freezing and windy (especially compared to our 75 degree day last week). We ended up playing games and watching movies by the fire. It's always fun to go to the little old church up there and see who is in town. While we were in the mountains I made Quinn take some pictures for our yearly cheesy Christmas card. We all thought this one was the best but for some reason he wouldn't let me put it on the card. Things are staying busy for us in SGU and we are looking forward to the Holidays (and finals to be over). Dear Santa: Just for the record Quinn wants an electric guitar and I'm hoping for a huge Wok to try and cook some Thai food in.

why STEVE why?

I know it has been two months but I'm still struggling quite a bit. My greatest hero is gone and it's too much to bare. Last night I thought enough time had passed that I could finally sit down and watch the Barbara Walters interview with Teri. Man, it was sure rough. I went through an entire box of tissue... again. The void is so great. The pain is so enormous. I can't stop thinking about little Bindi and Bob. And then there is Terri and "me best mate Wes..." I suppose the only consolation we have is that Steve is now with his mom and Sui (his dog). I'm sure he is already on assignment wrangling up all those Noah's Ark animals and organizing some sort of animal communion in heaven. I miss him so much. Oh Steve... why? Why? Why?

I LOVE LOA

Hello Lake Powell

Say Hey to the fam:
Mom, Matt, Ash, Mark, Meg, Quinn, Nic, and Dad. This is our first trip to Lake Powell since coming home from NYC. We also got to see Matt and Ashley for the first time since that nine hour escapade in Times Suare on New Years Eve. Lake Powell has got to be one of the most beautiful places on the planet. If only Edward Abbey could waterski he might just have gone for the whole idea. We had only been home a few days and couldn't figure out why the parentals were so insistent on getting us out to the lake. Come to find out there was a big suprise. They had bought a houseboat at the new Anelope Marina. You don't even have to walk down the ramp there! These cute little guys pick you and all your gear up in golf carts and drive you straight to your boat. It's all pretty luxurious. The best part, however, was the stars. I think we saw maybe three sunsets the whole year in New York, so we couldn't wait to see dusk on the Lake. The sad news is that Quinn forgot his glasses. He was so excited to sleep up on the roof deck and then he couldn't even see the stars. Oh well, now that we live under the big Utah sky I have a feeling he'll have plenty of opportunities to see the great wide open.

To see our Fabulous year in Manhattan, don't forget our picture website:

www.quinnandnicole.shutterfly.com