Well, things have slowed down a bit here in Utah, and it’s colder than ever and there’s not much to do. I know I promised to get up some more pictures and posts before the new year, but things actually were pretty busy over the break and we didn’t get a chance to finish things. So I figured seeing as I don’t have much homework yet, I’ll put a couple things up now.
Ever since I was a little girl and we took our first trip to Oregon, I absolutely loved the Pacific Northwest and especially the coast. As many of you know, Oregon has a rather rocky coast with extremely cold water, so activities such as swimming aren’t very enjoyable for the normal person. But who needs swimming when you have breathtaking views and interesting creatures covering every square inch?
I love this place. I have been to almost every state in the continental United States, and if I had a free ticket to anywhere in the U.S., I would, without a doubt, hop on a plane to Oregon. So it probably was no surprise that I was thrilled when my parents relocated to Oregon a year and a half ago, but sadly, it wasn’t until this last Thanksgiving that we were able to go visit. Not only was I excited to bask in Mother Nature’s finest work, but I was eager to introduce Brandon to a place very dear to me. I knew he would like it because Brandon loves the mountainous regions in Guatemala, and when we were there, I would say over and over, “This looks just like Oregon!” Brandon grew up in a desert, but he loves anything and everything green. Well lucky for him, Oregon’s got plenty of that seeing as everything is covered in moss! Over the course of the week, if we ever had some down time, Brandon would often go off on walks with the camera to document the flora and fauna.
I was most anxious about introducing him to the Oregon coast because like most born n’ raised California boys, he likes his beaches sunny, warm and sandy. Well, Oregon’s beaches (at least the ones I like) aren’t really like that, especially in late November. Despite threats of cold weather, the whole family went out and got rubber boots, and made our way to the coast. Lucky for us, it was seal lion matin’ season, so we got to see our fair share.
Not close enough?
How about a liiiitttle closer? Okay!
Poor lil' guy...
Due to the big rocks everywhere, things can get a little intense. Here’s a 3 part series I like to call “Big Waves, Big Rocks, Big Splash.”
1.
Brandon was excited...
2.
TA DA!
3.
Wet.
What you guys can’t see is that on the other side of Brandon, there’s a 30 ft. drop into the ocean, so when the waves come barreling down that little rock channel, they’re going really fast and carry a lot of punch. One bad slip, and you’ll end up like that poor seal… The coastal views are simply amazing, but to be honest, I go for the tidal pools. I love to run around on the rocks when the tide is out and see what kind of creatures I can find.
Perfect tidal pools.
For those of you who have never been, here’s a brief introduction for you. You must wait until the tide is almost completely out, and then move quickly. You only have a small window to explore, and the really good stuff is usually further away from shore, so spot out the deep pools.
You need to walk carefully because most of the rocks are covered with a layer of muscles and barnacles.
When looking for a tide pool to explore, you can usually tell if it’s a good pool if there’s lots of sea anemones.
Brandon found this pool, and you look on the left, there's a purple sea urchin!
It can be hard to find your first star fish…
But once you see one, you start noticing them everywhere!
There's 4 different starfish in this picture.
My favorite part is getting my hands wet and touching the different animals. You can tickle the anemones and watch them curl up, and if you look closely you can easily find hermit crabs crawling along the bottom of the pool. At first, Brandon was afraid to touch them, but after a while he got the hang of it.
Watch out Jaque Cousteau, Brandon's coming...
So the next time you’re near the Oregon coast, check the local newspaper for tide schedules and have an adventure! But be careful, the water’s cold. Just ask George.
Ah, it’s just so beautiful.
So, I was just browsing through our pictures on iPhoto, and I realized that we haven’t shared anything that has happened for at least 2 months! We are the worst people EVER! I don’t want pictures from 2009 haunting my dreams, so now it’s my goal to finally post everything I’ve been meaning to post for the last couple months. First order of business? BEARS!
So for those of you who have not heard, stupid Leah decided to change her major when she was working on her senior project in another country. Yeah, I know, excellent timing. But, what can I say? I get to work with these guys now!
In case you can’t tell, those are 2 of the 4 very cutest baby bears in the whole world! I got to feed them apples, acorns, dog food, frozen squirrels, and PUMPKINS! Did you know that bears really like pumpkins? They especially like the goopy stuff on the inside.
Want to see a cute picture of one of them eating apples? I thought you did…
It’s unfortunate that the stupid chain-link fence is always in the shot, but I guess it’s for “safety.” I think, however, if I went into the cage and explained to them that I only wanted to give them hugs, rub their fat bellies, and then cuddle and take a nap with them, they’d completely understand. Maybe next time. More pictures? Okay, how about one scratching their back on the fence like Baloo does on a palm tree in the Jungle Book? Check.
What about a picture where one is standing up and it looks like a little fat, hairy person? Yup, I got one of those.
Oh my goodness, they are so cute! How about one more just for good measure?
In this one, I was filling up their water tub with a hose, and he kept on trying to splash me. I'm pretty sure he was trying to be territorial, but I don't care. I still want to snuggle with him.
So the reason why I’m spending some of my free time making googley eyes at baby bears, is that I’ve begun an internship at the Great Basin Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. Not only is this great experience in a field I actually want to work in, but also by the end of the internship, I can get my wildlife rehabilitation permit, which means I could open up my own rehab center. That is, of course, if Brandon doesn’t mind having a zoo in our backyard. So besides the 4 bears, the Center has eagles (3 bald and 2 golden), all sorts of hawks and falcons, a variety of owls, a raven (that can talk!), a skunk, and a big, fat raccoon. Ever since I was a kid, I have wanted to do something like this (–Mum and Dad can confirm this due to years of me bringing home anything that was slow enough for me to catch–), but holy moly do I have a lot to learn! Even though I work as a veterinary technician (it’s like a nurse, but for pets) at an animal hospital, we primarily see cats and dogs, so I have basically no experience with some of the more exotic animals. For example, I’ve never really held a bird bigger than a parakeet, and even then, it just sits on your finger. Well I got my first lesson on bird handling the other day… with a barn owl… that had a bone sticking out of its wing. Needless to say, it was scary and I had no idea what I was doing.
And in case you’ve never heard what a barn owl sounds like when he’s scared, I found a video on Youtube that does a pretty good job at explaining this. Now turn up the speakers on your computer as high as they can go and push play!
Now, I still have a lot more to learn, but I can already see a significant change in myself…
Here's lookin' at you, Brando.
Would anyone like to see where my dear husband and I are living?
We’ve offically made our nest in a cute little house on the corner of 300 East and 100 North.
Brandon and I think it looks like a gingerbread house. Sure it needs a good painting, but I think it’s darling. We’re pretty dang happy here, but what could make this sweeter? How about beautiful views of the mountains from our living room?
Yeah, that helps, but what would you say if I told you that Jesus is our neighbor? No, not Jesus Garcia, the Mexican railroad hero in which the Día del Ferrocarrilero is celebrated in his memory on November 7th, but JESUS Jesus.
As the story goes, Jesus has only lived next door for a few months, but he’s already the most popular guy in town. The Richard Dutcher, the creator of God’s Army (and as I see it, the father of Mormon cinema) owns a movie company, which is headquartered next door. And despite Dutcher’s recent parting with the LDS church, he had an exact replica of the Christus (found in the Visitor Center at Temple Square) installed. Everyday, there are at least 5 people that stop and take pictures of it, which can get pretty dangerous with people doing U-turns in the middle of the road to get a second-look. It’s okay though, because who else gets to see Jesus before and after school AND right before bedtime? Not very many people…
So, I’ve been waiting for something fun to happen so that we would have something to share, but silly me got caught up in midterms and forgot that something fun did happen! About 2 weeks ago, Meggie, Brando and the beautiful babies came for a visit! I don’t recall doing anything particularly exciting, but we just played with the babies for a couple of hours and took some cute pictures. And since I know that I never get sick of pictures of Georgie and Sylvie being cute, I figured most of you don’t either, so I’ll share my collection…
It had been almost 5 months since Brandon and I had seen The Babies (that’s their official name), and as the saying goes, they grow up so fast! They’re basically little people running around with their own very important agendas. Don’t believe me?
Well, take a look at Exhibit A:
Sylvie is a very curious little person and is an excellent (and determined!) problem-solver.
Sylvie sees a pumpkin we had on our coffee table. She wants it.
Note: George is trying to see what a Pirate's mask would look like on Sylvie's head. Yup, looks good. And for those wondering why George is holding a lemon-shaped cutting board, we'll explain in a minute...
Okay, so she gets it, no prob.
But Sylvie is no ordinary baby. Sure she could try eating it and drooling on it like any normal baby, but what would the pumpkin look like if she got a bird’s-eye view? Next mission: climb on to table.
It is important to check the weight capacity of a box full of DVDs before you stand on it...
Just make sure no one is watching…
Yes!
Mission complete! Or is it?
Not for this baby. As the granddaughter of a sociologist–that’s you Mummy–she needs to really feel how these pumpkins feel. She needs to know what’s it’s like to walk a mile in the pumpkins’… bowl?
Excellent! Maybe it’s just me, but I think she’s adorable.
And now for Exhibit B: George.
When we last saw them, George wasn’t much of a talker. He would talk to his parents, but if you weren’t in his Fave Five, he’d give you a look kind of like this.
Does anyone else remember these looks? No other baby has ever been able to make me feel like a loser as much as George did.
This time, however, George was extremely talkative and even seemed to enjoy our company. But don’t let his cute face fool you, there’s something he loves more than all of us COMBINED…
WII TENNIS!
In case any of you missed Meggie and Brando report on George’s fascination with tennis (it’s at the bottom of the post), that’s all he ever thinks about. If you even mention tennis or have him in the same room as a television, he immediately starts asking, “Wii tennis?” (which sounds more like “wehtenis?”). As the story goes, Brando loves tennis, so he will play the tennis game on their Wii at home. George loves to watch him, but is still too young to play, so Brando gave him a ping pong paddle so that he could play along. And now as a result, George is obsessed with tennis, especially the Wii variety, and he even was a tennis ball for Halloween.
So after about 20 minutes of George asking “Wii tennis Wii tennis?” and us ignoring him, he began to look us in the eyes and yell “WII TENNIS!?” Much to George’s dismay, we don’t have Wii tennis, but I did have some brightly colored, fruit-shaped cutting boards, which to a 2 yr old may look similar to a paddle…? So we turned on WALL-E (I know, nothing like Wii tennis, but Brandon and I don’t own a single tennis-related movie) and gave him his makeshift paddle.
Yeah, he wasn’t fooled. So then Brandon tried to distract him with a variety of antics.
Pirate mask? And are those bear claws, Brandon? Did you really expect that George would be interested in your Pirate-Bear hybrid? Nope. But naturally, Sylvie was intrigued…
So, what’s next? Music time with Uncle Brandon?
Maybe for a minute or two. But how about some good ol’ fashioned jumping on the bed?
Definitely… But no bed jumping would be complete without still yelling “WII TENNIS! WII TENNIS!”
Oh Babies, we love you. Thanks for letting us play with them, Meggie and Brando.
Hey, remember us? Yeah, we’re back and to be honest, I haven’t missed blogging at all. We’ve been super busy getting our lives back in order and trying to make it through the first month of school, so getting our blog going again has been pretty far down the list. But since I have a midterm to study for and need to make a poster on photosynthesis, writing this blog has all of a sudden become VERY important to me.
So let me fill all of you in about all that’s happened in the past month or two…
Brandon and I have moved into an awesome apartment that’s inside of a really cute house that was built in 1880. (I’ll do a whole post with all sorts of pictures soon.) We both started school: Brandon’s working on his last year of classes and I started my new major (Wildlife/Wildland Conservation). In terms of work, I returned to my job as a vet tech, and Brandon started a job with working with a professor as a translator and research assistant. Needless to say, we’re pretty busy, but we’re definitely happy.
In all of the hustle and bustle of things, the seasons have changed quickly and it seems as if we’ve zoomed through the one week of autumn we got and heading straight for winter. Since autumn is my favorite season, I sweet-talked Brandon into driving through Provo Canyon with me and visiting one of our favorite spots…
For those who haven’t heard the full story of “How Brandon and Leah Came to Live Happily Ever After,” this little section of Provo Canyon played a very big part. It was here that Brandon and I–after 5 months of being good friends–held hands for the first time, although it’s still disputed who grabbed who’s hand first. In fact, it happened at this very campsite 2 years, 3 months, and 28 days ago…
This also served as the backdrop to when Brandon proposed to me 1 year, 6 months, and 10 days ago. (Sorry for the exactness, but since we’ve been married for over a year, I’ve stopped keeping track of things, so I thought I’d figure it out just for your reading enjoyment!) Brandon and I wanted to continue our walk, but since it was the first nice weekend in a while, the trail was pretty busy, so we decided to go for our own adventure. We veered off the trail, climbed a hill, then climbed another hill, and then we found this.
A beautiful mountain meadow. It was quiet and peaceful, so we decided to sit and take it all in. Brandon had brought along his guitar to try out some new songs, and I brought along my sketchbook.
A peaceful Sunday afternoon with beautiful fall colors everywhere… I’m almost positive it doesn’t get any better than this.
