Four Corners & Petrified Forest

After Mesa Verde, we headed southwest towards the four corners monument, where Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona all come together. On the way there, we were amazed at the amount of beer bottles on the side of the road. It was crazy...for miles and miles, as far as you could see on BOTH sides of the highway, there were beer cans & bottles strewn all along the way. It's harder to see them in the 2nd photo, but if you look close you can see all the little white spots in the grass and dirt. That's the sun reflecting off the glass bottles. Haven't they heard of adopt-a-highway, or better yet, didn't their mother ever teach them not to litter?!?

We were excited to visit Four Corners Monument on the Navajo Nation, even though we had both heard earlier this year that it was discovered that surveyors were off by about 2.5 miles (I actually just checked this article) so the monument isn't actually in the right spot. We wanted to get pictures anyway.

So these may be pictures of us on a cement slab monument that may or may not be 300 yards (actually 2.5 miles) from the site where four states actually come together. We asked an old native guy that was selling his wares here at the monument what he knew about it. He skirted the issue like a professional politician. :)




Our last stop before returning home was supposed to be Petrified Forest National Park. Unfortunately, we arrived one hour after the park closed. :( As a consolation, we decided to take pictures in front of the sign...

Mesa Verde National Park

Mesa Verde National Park is located about an hour and a half from Farmington, New Mexico, so we decided that we would stop there on our way back home from visiting the Goodlucks. On the way up to the park we ran into an actual cattle drive. I didn't get a picture of all the cows, because I was too interested in seeing REAL cowboys. I got these two pictures, but missed a third that was carrying a baby calf in his arms. It was pretty cool to see.

Another picture in front of a National Park sign. In case you're wondering, I DO own other sweatshirts besides this red one. It's just that most of my stuff is packed up at the house in Utah, so this is the only sweatshirt I've got with me. I'm sure that none of you noticed, but it's been bugging me that I'm wearing this in ALL our pictures. :)

The ruins were amazing, nestled right into the side of the canyon. The Anasazi or ancient Puebloan people built into the crevices of the cliffs mainly to provide shelter from the harsh elements of the southwest. It was crazy to be standing there and seeing structures built around the time of Christ, and inhabited for almost 800 years following that initial settlement.

The ruin we visited is called Spruce Tree House, the easiest ruin to hike to. We're told there was an even better example of the ruins, but the hike involved multiple staircases, ladders and strenuous hiking, that I wasn't up for. Still, we were both pretty happy with being able to see this, and while it may not be the best example the park has to offer, it was REALLY COOL. By the way, the black on the ceiling rock in the photo below is from the many fires used by the anasazi people who once inhabited these ruins. AMAZING.






The wooden beams used to divide floors and support balconies are still visible in the upper right of the photo below.

This is solid rock along the trail to Spruce Tree House ruin. The rust colored blobs look like old pipes or melted re-bar sticking out of the rock. When we asked about it, we were told that these were all areas where water ran through these rocks, and over thousands of years, the iron deposits built up and created natural pipe-looking structures. Crazy, huh?


One more look at the Spruce Tree House ruins from the top of the canyon.

I was pretty proud of myself for doing OK with the hike, especially after we ran into the following sign. Since we love signs, we decided to take a picture of it. :)

Halloween Road Trip 2009

We got up Halloween morning and got ready to head back to Mesa. It was so fun to see Natalie and Ottis. It's the first time Nat and I have seen each other since 2006. Too long!! Here we are first thing in the morning. We have both been dealing with illnesses this year, so we commiserated together about feeling tired all the time. Nat's is bit more serious than mine, and she has been doing chemotherapy for two relatively rare autoimmune diseases. She is my hero, since she has three kids and continues to work as an RN!

Nat and I and her beautiful girls: Kylie, Jenna & Bree.

It's not fair that Bryan looks great even first thing in the morning, straight out of bed. Here's our requisite self-portrait for the morning. :)

Ottis and Natalie, with Kylie hopping into the pic at the last second.

The cute Goodluck family, moments before we said good bye and got out on the road. They were very gracious to indulge me in my photo habit first thing in the morning. Nat and I were roommates, and have taken many trips together, so she's very familiar with my photography addiction. Thanks, Nat!!

Once we had said good bye to the Goodlucks, we headed north for Colorado, and Mesa Verde National Park.

Our First Halloween

We took a little trip to New Mexico over Halloween weekend to visit one of my best friends, Natalie & Ottis Goodluck. I woke up very sick the morning that we had planned to leave, but we decided that since I was not contagious, we would make the trip anyway. We were so glad we did, because we had so much fun! Most of our Halloween festivities actually happened on Friday night, October 30th. We helped Natalie and her kids get ready to go to a trunk-or-treat, which was so much fun!

Natalie's oldest little girl, Kylie, was a witch, and I got to help her out with her green face paint. She was a little champ to sit still and keep her eyes closed for so long while I covered her entire face with the slimy stuff.

Nat found most of her costume on amazon, including her little broom. I can't wait to have kids and dress them up for Halloween!

Bree was an adorable little Lion, and I'm sure most moms love these kind of costumes since they also keep the little tykes warm during all the festivities.

Jenna was a frog, and was darling as she hopped around the house sticking her tongue out and enthusiastically shouting "Rrriibbett!!"

Since I was having a particularly bad bout with severe fatigue, we opted to stay home during the festivities. While the fam was out trick-or-treating, Bryan filled up our air mattress, (a wedding gift!) so that I could rest. We were supposed to put in a scary movie, but since neither one of us likes scary movies, we ended up watching 10,000 BC while we were waiting for them to get home.

Once Ottis and Natalie got back, we put in "The Sixth Sense" a classic thriller, and enjoyed popcorn and an amazingly yummy pumpkin cake with apple cider sauce that Natalie had made. It was so fun to visit friends and to be able to spend our first Halloween with them. Thanks for having us, Goodlucks!! We love you and hope to be able to do it again sometime soon!!

The Mighty Trail Walker

Bryan loves his job as a trailwalker at Anasazi Foundation, and he's great at working with kids. He also loves the outdoors, and it's a good thing. I snapped a few pictures last week as he arrived home after being on the trail for 8 days. He always looks so dirty and scraggly coming off the trail. It's pretty funny, and definitely something that needs to be recorded for posterity. I promise he's not a homeless man. :)

This is what he REALLY looks like when he gets home, and because I love him so much, he always gets a hug and kiss before he takes a shower. Still, the SHOWER is always the first priority once he walks in the door. His clothes smell so strongly like campfire and mountainman-having-worn-them-8-days-straight-ish-ness, that we bag them up immediately so they don't spread the wealth around. If we had our own washer & dryer they would go in the wash (in their very own load) immediately! :)

It's a good thing I like camping so much...it makes it easier to deal with the grime. The fact that I haven't seen him for eight days also makes it a lot easier, since I'm always so excited to see him when he gets home. He actually looks pretty sexy in a grizzly-Adams-ish sorta way. I'm really glad that Bryan enjoys what he's doing right now for work. I'm actually a little jealous, and once I get better, he's promised me that we'll do some backpacking of our own. I can't wait!

Our First Little (Temporary) Home

Since Bryan has been working in Arizona, we are temporarily living here. Right now is a very transitional time for us, so we've been trying to create as much stability as possible. Our first little home as newlyweds was at an Extended Stay hotel. We brought our own quilt and a few little things to try to make it feel as "homey" as possible. The totem poles and magnets from the fridge were souvenirs from our honeymoon.

Keep On Keepin' On

Just a quick health update: I'm still taking all my meds for my Lyme disease treatments. The biggest thing I've noticed in the last couple of months is that my hair is falling out! Luckily, I've always had tons of hair, but I was teasing Bryan the other day that we both have receding hair lines. This clump of hair came out as I washed and styled my hair the other day. It's a little scary that this amount has been the norm lately.

I still take medications eight different times throughout the day, and two of those doses are antibiotics. Those always make me sick with severe nausea, but usually only for about an hour after I've taken them. Then it passes and usually I'm fine.

We're looking into various options for continuing my treatment, since it's extremely expensive, and I haven't been working for quite awhile now. Still, Heavenly Father has continued to provide for us and open doors whenever we feel like we're at a dead end. I'm still having problems with severe fatigue, swelling & joint pain on my bad days, but all in all I am feeling pretty good and looking forward to the future!

My Latest Project!

Check out my latest project, www.establishingyourhistory.blogspot.com. If you enjoy photos, memorybooks, journaling, holidays, family traditions or making memories, I think you'll like it. I'm hoping it will be a fun resource on all of these topics and related stuff. I hope you enjoy it, and I want your input! If you do like it, become a follower, let me know what you think and check back often... :)

The Total Money Makeover

We were given a copy of Dave Ramsey's book, The Total Money Makeover, for a wedding gift last month. I try to listen to Dave Ramsey's radio show whenever I get the chance, and I like his down-to-earth, straight-forward style, so I was excited to read the book. I thought it was an excellent wedding gift, by the way, since it gives us the opportunity to start our financial life together with a plan and goals for the future. Obviously, we've had a lot going on, but now that things have started to settle down, and with Bryan out on the trail, I curled up and cracked it open last night. I read more than half of it in one sitting.

I have always read the ensign articles or conference talks on getting and staying out of debt, and I consider myself to be pretty good with money. But reading Dave's book last night was like being hit over the head. I'm not finished with it yet, but I'm far enough in to know that I love it! It basically lays out the myths about money that our society teaches us even as kids, and helps to dispel the myths with simple truths. It also outlines a proven and simple strategy for getting out of debt and building wealth...and follows that up with real-life success stories of families young and old, of all different incomes, backgrounds and levels of debt that have paid off all their debt, including their mortgage, using this strategy. The main mantra of the book is, "live like no one else now, so you can live like no one else later." Basically, be willing to make sacrifices now (in a buy now, pay later society) in order to be in a better situation down the road.

Other than the house and car, we don't have much debt, but I can appreciate that without a plan, we're probably not building much wealth. Oh, we have a 401k, and a couple of savings accounts. But where are we headed, and what are the goals? He lays out a plan and talks about the importance of understanding and making money a priority. In case you couldn't tell, I'm really excited about all of this, and more excited to set some goals for the future of our money. In my humble opinion, no matter where you are with your finances, whether you're swimming in debt or sitting on savings, this book will be an asset to you, and if you haven't heard of it, I wanted to share! You can get a used copy on amazon.com for $10.

Current Johnson Happenings

It's been awhile since I've blogged, but I figure that the wedding pictures were good things to leave up for awhile anyway. Here's are a few posts to update you on what we've been up to in our first month of marriage...

Married life is wonderful! Bryan and I are having so much fun, appreciating each other and enjoying being together. We've been very busy with lots of things, and of course taking lots of pictures. Right now is a season of transition for us, with a lot of things up in the air. To begin with right now, we're back and forth between Salt Lake City, Utah (where we own a home) and Mesa, Arizona (where Bryan is currently working.) Arizona is a temporary situation as we are trying to get into dental school somewhere for fall 2010, so Bryan has been busy with the application process. He has applied to several schools (its pretty competitive, so we'll be happy with wherever he's accepted) but our number one pick would be Oregon Health Sciences University, or OHSU. Its located right in Portland, so we would be able to move HOME, and would also be the least expensive since Bryan is still an Oregon resident and in-state tuition would apply. We found out last week that he is now to the third round of the process with OHSU -- the interview. It's next month, so we are praying. Feel free to join us in the effort. :)

Here in Arizona we are living (temporarily) at an extended stay hotel. It's been an interesting experience, but it made the most sense because there are so many unknowns right now. Bryan is currently working here in Mesa at Anasazi Foundation and really loves his job. He's a trailwalker working with troubled youth in a wilderness therapy program. In this picture he's out on the trail with several other trailwalkers. He's the one in the hat on the lower left. He loves the outdoors and working with kids, and has enough patience and compassion to be really good at it. It's a little hard for me, because he is out on the trail for 8 days at a time, but the great thing is we have six day weekends every other week.

Obviously, we've been doing our best to make the most of those six days, and it really is a huge opportunity to do lots of things that we wouldn't normally be able to do. That will bring me to the rest of my posting today of all of our latest travel adventures. We're having so much fun!!

The To-Do List

Before I update you on anything, I had to share these pictures. My wonderful husband is a combination of motivation (hence the dental school applications) and mellowness, (I talked to his grandma last week and she told me that the family joke is that if Bryan were any more laid back they would have to put a stone over his head.) Anyway, he loves lists, since writing things down helps him to keep track of and on top of everything going on. It also helps to balance the motivation and mellowness. I've known about the lists since we started dating, and have seen lots of them.

I'd like to share one that I stumbled onto on his computer the week after we got engaged. I was visiting him in Mesa so we could work on some wedding stuff. Notice item #3 on the list. This is a classic...I noticed that getting time off for the OSU/UNLV game is just above the decision. Hey, I was really lucky he didn't make me wait until football season was over before he married me. :) The list is still on his computer and Bryan suggested I take a picture of it last night for posterity. He soooo gets me.

First Snow of 2009!!

On our way back to Arizona, we drove over a pass on highway 20 in southern Utah and ran into a little bit of snow. It was our first opportunity for a snowball fight as a married couple and we were determined to take advantage of it. Bryan also decided that he would make a snowman to keep the summit sign company. Here are the pictures. :)

I LOVE Having a Husband!!

Perhaps being single for so long has given me the ability to truly appreciate having a husband. Well, I hope it has. I love my hubby so much, for so many reasons. But as a girl who stayed single for 10 to 15 years longer than most, it's sooo nice to have Bryan around to take care of the car, drive places when I'm tired, get me medicine or 7up when I'm sick, and of course, make repairs around the house...which brings me to my first big adventure. This past weekend we were in Salt Lake to winterize the house. We made a list of what needed to be done and tried to prioritize since Bryan needed to be back in Mesa for work on Wednesday morning, so we only had a couple of days to get things done. When we arrived Thursday night I went down to the basement to get something and noticed a puddle of water around the water heater. There has never been water down there, so I was a bit concerned and asked Bryan to check it out. The bottom of the water heater had rusted out and had started to leak...we were so glad that it happened while we were there!

We spent the weekend working on these projects...I did a few things around the house while Bryan replaced the waterheater. I was so proud of him for just jumping in and working on it. It ended up being a much bigger project since much of the plumbing in our house is really old and making the switch also meant replacing several other valves and other corroded pieces of the ancient plumbing. After a couple days without hot water, more trips to Lowe's than we'd like to think about, and Bryan's acquisition of several new tools, in the end everything was fixed and working great. While Bryan was working on "operation hot water" I worked on getting the yard ready for winter, which meant covering my wicker set on the front porch with lawn and yard bags...a bit white "trash" if you'll pardon the pun, but I didn't want to spend the money on covers right now. So these are my latest slipcover project. I also winterized the swamp cooler and organized the house a little bit more.

In case you're worried that we didn't have any fun, never fear, the weekend wasn't all work! Bryan's uncle Larry gave us an ice cream maker for a wedding gift, along with the family recipe for homemade ice cream, so of course we had to try it out. My friend Kristen and her kids came to hang out with us and we all enjoyed a little frozen treat. The dogs tried to lay low most of the weekend, but they are working their way into Bryan's heart. One night we watched a movie and Quincy curled up on the couch next to Bryan and rested his chin on Bryan's shoulder. They love Bryan, and he is enjoying them, and I'm glad. We have a few more things to do before the dead of winter, so we'll head back up soon, but it was a really productive weekend!

Arizona's Vermillion Cliffs

Once Bryan got back off the trail (our first time apart since the wedding, boo-hoo!) we headed out for Salt Lake. We decided to take a route we had never taken so that we could see Arizona's Vermillion Cliffs Highway. It was gorgeous, and of course we had a lot of fun!

A Surprise From My Sweet Hubby

Bryan left to go out on the trail for the first time since we've been married on October 7th. I was pretty sick and since we had just arrived in Mesa, he felt bad about leaving. He ran some errands the day before he left and came back with medicine for me, groceries, and a few little things that I wasn't allowed to look at. Wednesday morning before he left, he gave them to me, each marked with a certain day that I was supposed to open it. The first envelope was for Friday. It was a gift certificate for a massage that he had scheduled for me. I was supposed to open the card at 11:30, but the spa called me at 10am to confirm the appointment that Bryan had already made. When I went I took a picture outside the spa so he could see it. The second envelope was a card that I opened Sunday morning with a SWEET message that Bryan had written. The third little package for Monday morning was an OSU folder that had an audio book about Princess Diana, (those of you that have known me for a long time know I've always loved her.)

The massage was wonderful, and turned out to be even better than Bryan could have imagined since my massage therapist also happens to be LDS and live in the same ward we are in, so she invited me to come with her that night to a Relief Society activity. The activity was a lot of fun and allowed me not only to get out of the house on a Friday night by myself, but also gave me the opportunity to meet lots of great people. It was a ladies night out activity, with a self-defense class followed by a meal, chocolate tasting and pedicures. It was great. All of it was so unexpected and perfect.

I love Bryan so much, and I am always amazed at his thoughtfulness and concern for me. He is so wonderful and I feel so blessed to have him in my life. Everyone tells me that we are still in the honeymoon phase, and of course we are, but I feel like I have been blessed by his thoughtfulness and concern since I met him last January, and I can't wait for our future together!!

The Hoover Dam & Our First OSU Game Together

In case you missed our wedding pictures, I need to tell you that Bryan and his family are huge Oregon State fans...and Bryan is a huge fan of college football in general. When he found out that OSU was playing ASU in Tempe the afternoon after our Salt Lake City open house, he asked me if I would be ok with us leaving Salt Lake in order to drive to Phoenix in time for the game. I really wanted him to be able to see an OSU game this season, since he and his family had planned on going to the OSU/UNLV game in Las Vegas, but had to cancel plans since we planned our wedding for the next weekend. The day after our wedding, right after our Corvallis open house, all of Bryan's family went to OSU's first home game of the season, but I was too tired to go, so Bryan stayed home with me. Because of this, I agreed that we could do whatever we needed to so that we could make it to the game. My one stipulation was that Bryan would need to do the driving. :) We actually ended up leaving Salt Lake around midnight, after cleaning up at the open house, opening our gifts and loading the car. We stopped a couple times at truck stops and slept in the front seat of our car, but we were on our way!

I slept in the car almost the entire way, and I guess Bryan took advantage of that a little bit. While I was asleep, he took these pictures, which I didn't see until well after the fact:

When we got through Las Vegas, we decided that we wanted to stop at the Hoover Dam and take a short tour, and of course some pictures:

We rolled into Phoenix around 3:30pm on Saturday, October 3rd. Kickoff was at 4pm so we knew we were going to miss it. I was still wearing sweats from the all-night drive, so I changed my clothes in the car as we drove to the stadium. As part of our wedding gifts, I got an Oregon State t-shirt from Bryan's family, so I was really excited to be able to wear it for our first OSU game together! The game was AWESOME, OSU beat Arizona State in a match that was never really close. We had also gotten stadium seats and binoculars as wedding gifts, so we put those to good use as well. After the game we got yelled at by a few very unhappy and drunk ASU fans, but Bryan still proudly mounted the OSU flags to both sides of our car for the drive to our hotel. The flags were also part of a wedding gift from Bryan's family, (thanks guys!!) We were both dead tired when we unloaded our luggage into the hotel room, but it had been a fabulous and memorable day.

Our Salt Lake City Open House

We got back to Salt Lake from our honeymoon cruise on October 1st. On October 2nd we had the chance to celebrate our wedding with our Utah friends and family. It was much more casual and laid-back, but it was so fun to see everyone!

Bryan snapped a self-portrait of us at the beginning of the evening. Since this is a little tradition we have, we needed one from our last wedding party!!

Above: With Arianna and her little boy. I was Ari's Young Women's president when I lived in the Wilson Ward a couple years ago.

Above: Jon & Maggie Greene and Jim & Peggy Hopkinson. Jon & Maggie are my good friends from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and the Hopkinson's are my good friends from here in Salt Lake. Special thanks to the Hopkinson's for all their help with the open house. They helped set up, clean up and haul our gifts back to our house. Peggy also planned and organized all our refreshments for the open house. THANK YOU!!

Heather & Troy Olson, my really good friends here in Salt Lake, and Heather and I actually go back to Coeur d'Alene Days.

Above: Jim & Heather Romrell, Bryan's aunt & uncle with Cody & Sopie.

Above: Tony & Laura Archer, friends from my Wilson Ward days.

Jared & Allyson Cook with their kids, good friends from Salt Lake.

Above: Austen and Aubray Richards and their kids. Austen is one of my best friends from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.

Above: With two of my best girlfriends of all time, Nicole Green and Becky Stockton. We first met back in our BYU 219th Ward days, and have remained friends ever since.

Above: With Kristen Valdivieso, my friend since we were 4.

Kristen brought her cute kids, who have spent all kinds of time with Bryan and I while we were dating. We've been camping, to the zoo, and had all kinds of adventures.

Rachel & Gonzo Pena, LOVE these guys. Also friends from back in the BYU 219th ward days. It was a total surprise when they walked in. :)

My awesome friend and roomie, Mary Lamb. Mary and Bryan are fellow Aggie Alum, and Mary helped me with a lot of wedding details, including a couple of great gifts. ;)

Above: With my cute friend Valerie from SkinScience days.

Above: Erin Stewart and her dad. I was Erin's nanny when she was 4, and this is the first time I've seen her since. It was so fun that they came!

I was so happy that the DeMill's came. Eva Jean was my mom's college roommate, and we have been family friends for my whole life. Here are Jen, Shad, Eva Jean, Me, Bryan, Sherece & Greg.

Two of my best friends from Salt Lake, Zach & Shellie Bartholomew, and their cute baby Annabelle.

Bryan and his sister, Tasha, with the shoes that she borrowed for him, since we discovered just before the open house that Bryan had left his shoes in Oregon! Thanks, Tash!!

With my wonderful cousins, Amy & Laura.

With my Uncle Ron & Aunt Jan, and below, with their grandkids.

Bryan opening our gift from my cousin Amy...

These were our cleaning up outfits. Funny that I'm wearing sweats with a tiara and Bryan is wearing tennis shoes with his suit!!

A Few More Favorite Wedding Pics

The Professional Photographs I

The Professional Photographs II