A New Furnace

One of the items on our to-do list Thanksgiving weekend was to get bids on a new furnace for the front half of the house, lucky us! Thanks to a recommendation from our bro-in-law, we were able to save a bunch of money and have the new furnace installed on 2 days notice. Of course, I took a few pictures of the whole affair. The old furnace was massive and difficult to get out of the basement. Here's a picture of our new furnace, it's tiny and slick looking in comparison....I've also included a few pictures of the spectacle of removing the old hulk from the basement. Enjoy. :)

More Home Improvement

We had several home improvement projects on our list for Thanksgiving weekend. The biggest was actually unexpected. The shower surround in the master bath was really old and having problems when I bought the house a year and a half ago, but I lived with it for as long as I could. Well, the old shower insert was deteriorated to the point where water was seeping into the surrounding walls and baseboards, and beginning to cause damage. Bryan and his friend Devin actually started pulling it apart before I could get "before" pictures, but here is what they found underneath the insert. YUCK!

Since our house was built in 1922, the walls in the front half of the house are all lath and plaster, (the back half of the house was added on in the 80's.) If we keep the house long-term, I'd like to update all of the old walls with sheet rock, but I'm not sure that Bryan shares my enthusiasm. :)

There was quite a mess once the guys got going with the demo portion of the project. I have to admit, I had more than a few butterflies in my stomach as we were obviously past the point of no return. I'm sure anybody that's ever watched their husband punch a huge hole in the wall for a weekend-warrior DIY project understands. ;)

Bryan was happy to acquire more tools this weekend, and as long as he keeps using them to do things like this, I'm perfectly happy for him to continue acquiring them.

I insisted that Bryan wear a mask for the dirtiest portion of the tear-out. He humored me by putting it on for the picture. Thanks, babe.

The poor little tub. I was really worried about whether or not it would clean up after this major trama, but amazingly enough, it did great.

Our brother-in-law, Dan, came to help out. Bryan was totally stoked because Dan has a lot of tools, which of course he brought with him. Thanks so much Dan & Devin for all your help with this project! We REALLY appreciate it!

My cousins in Layton do wonderful tile work (they started out with the family business of building swimming pools with Caudle pools) and offered to help me finish the bathroom at some point. While it's not in our budget right now, if we keep the house, we would love to take them up on that. Here's a little note we left for ourselves if that ever happens.



We used cement backer board to minimize mildew and mold...slowly things started coming together, and I even got in on the action. I'm pretty good with a caulk gun, if I do say so myself!

We're not quite finished yet, but it looks so much better than before. I love Bryan so much, and I love that he's not afraid to dive into all these projects. I have always been a DIY kind of girl, but I will admit, it's so great to have a handy man around!

Thanksgiving 2009

We spent Thanksgiving in Utah this year, driving up the night before. We stayed Wednesday night with our friend Kristen in Payson.

Thanksgiving dinner was at Bryan's Uncle Tim & Aunt Dalita's house in Orem. The spread was excellent, and it was so fun to get together with everybody.

This is Bryan's cousin Ali and her husband Jon.

Me and my cute sister-in-law Tasha.

Above: The whole gang at the adult table. :)

This was our first Thanksgiving together...looking forward to many more to come!!

My sister-in-law Amber, and her husband Dan Grover with their little girl Ellie.

Ahhh...sparkling cider and pumpkin pie. Does it get any better than this? Obviously some little person couldn't wait for a slice of pie, as evidenced by the finger marks in the bottom of the picture. heehee...

This is our cute niece Maelyn, Dan & Amber's oldest little girl.

Ok, the medallion is a really long story. It gets passed around the family any time people get together and play a modified version of Rook. The winner gets to keep the medallion until the next game, whenever the family gets together. If you win the medallion and forget to bring it to the next family get together, you have to sing or perform some other humiliating task. Anyway, the medallion had been missing for quite awhile, until someone wrapped it up as a wedding gift and anonymously passed it off to Bryan and I at our wedding. Thanksgiving was our big chance to get rid of it. :)


This is the game where we were able to unload the medallion...


Bryan's cousin Zack won the honor and Bryan was able to bestow it upon him in a ceremony following the game...

Some of the cute Romrell & Stay girls having fun after dinner...

We had so much fun at Thanksgiving, and were reminded once again that the most important things in our lives are the relationships we have with our family and friends. Thank you to each of you who have done so much for us over this last year, our lives wouldn't be complete without you and we love you so much!

And Now, the Rest of the Story...

I have said before that one of the things I love about Bryan is that he is a "stop and smell the roses" kind of guy. I was delighted to find out this past weekend just exactly how much truth there was to that statement. Now that you've seen our pictures and heard the story of our visit to Lassen Volcanic NP, let me share with you the rest of the story.

When we first arrived at the Manzanita Lake entrance to the park, we discovered that the main road through the park was closed due to it now officially being the winter season (I guess this starts earlier for the National Park Service.) So we explored a bit and took some pictures, but we were both disappointed that the visitor's center was closed and we would miss out on much of what the park had to offer. We also would not be able to put another "passport stamp" in our atlas, again, since the vc was closed. I was bummed about this, but didn't say anything, because I'm a practical person. We knew that the south visitor's center was open, but looking at the map, it was another 60 miles back to the interstate, then a ways south, and then another 60 miles back in to the park's south entrance. It just seemed too crazy.

Before I had said anything about the stamp, Bryan said in a bit of a disappointed voice, "we won't be able to put a stamp in our book!" I told him that I was disappointed about it too, but that the main thing was that we were here, and we got a picture by the sign. :) After studying the atlas for a little while, he pointed out a little gray double-lined road that ran north-south directly along the park's western border. In this particular atlas, a gray double-line denotes an unpaved road. I told him I was game if he was, so we headed west toward the area where the road should be.

When we asked a local about the road, he was concerned about us driving in that direction because of several forks in the road - and we don't have GPS. We asked him about snow, and even though they were expecting a big storm the next day, he said all the roads were currently open. He gave us a different route that he said we should try, but when we headed in that direction neither one of us felt good about it. 10 minutes later we were back on the same dirt road we were going to try originally. A couple miles in, we ran into a logger that was working on his truck. We told him we were trying to get to Mineral, the tiny town to the south just outside the park entrance. He said the roads were open, and we would get there for sure, just to stay on the "A" line. What great advice that was!

The entire trek took about an hour, but at every fork in the road there was a spray-painted board with the words "A" Line. Had we not run into that old logger, we would have never figured out which way to go...as you might imagine, there were lots of other "lines" up there, too.

Up at the top, we stopped to take some pictures. The view was breathtaking, and worth every minute of the detour. I'm sure Raven was happy to be able to get some mud on her flaps for once, too. I know this is nothing compared to real off-roading, but it's more than what we usually do. :)

The view from the top, with Mt. Shasta in the background. You may have to look real close along the top of the gray mountains, but it's there...I promise. The white of the mountain sorta blends in with the rest of the clouds. :)


We passed several logging trucks on our way up, but once we passed the summit we actually ran into the logging crew. I had never seen actual logging taking place before. It was pretty cool. Some of the big machines were amazing. There was debris strewn all across the road that our little car would never have been able to drive across, so we sat and waited while one of the guys in the big machines cleared the way for us.

The machine below was crazy. It would pick up a log like a giant robot arm and send it through this little cup-looking device that instantly removed all the branches. It was crazy watching it work. Once it was all clean, it placed it neatly atop the pile that you see in that background of the picture.

Once we were headed back down the mountain, we ran into paved road again and stumbled upon this old bridge. The area was really picturesque, so we decided to get out and take some pictures. We ended up spending about a half an hour at this little spot, taking pictures with the tripod.

Once we got back on our way, it took us about another 15 or 20 minutes to find Mineral, and then make it up to Lassen's south entrance. Don't worry...we also got to put a stamp in our atlas! It had been a fun little adventure, and added to the fun of our road trip back to Arizona. By the time we left the park, it was getting dark, and as we got back onto I-5 South, we had our headlights on. We continued to drive until we were past Bakersfield, where we decided to pull off at a truck stop and stay for the night.

We both enjoy our little road trips, and we are getting quite the routine down. We pack the cooler, and other than our scheduled stops to sight-see or visit, we usually only stop to fill up and use the public restrooms. (ICK) We have a great routine down for sandwich making, and Bryan is quite the sandwich chef, even in the car. :) We made it home to Mesa by 4pm on Tuesday (We had left Philomath, Oregon at about 5:30am on Monday) so we feel like we made good time, and we had a lot of fun, to boot! And now you know the rest of the story....!

Lassen Volcanic National Park

On our way back from Oregon, we had decided to visit Lassen Volcanic National Park in Northern California. It wasn't exactly on our way, but it wasn't too far out of it, so we felt like we had enough time to go. Since we still have our America the Beautiful Parks Pass, we get into all the National Parks for free, so we're trying to take advantage of that as much as possible. It expires in June, and by that time (hopefully) our lives will be decidedly less mobile anyway. For now, it makes all of our road trips a lot more fun that we can usually find a new park to visit along the way.

I confess I had never heard of Lassen before we got our National Parks Atlas, and even once I had heard of it, I assumed it was built around a single ancient volcano...it sounded a bit less-than-interesting to me, since I've been to the Mt. St. Helens visitor center and if you've seen one volcano, you've seen them all, right? Wrong! The one thing I regret about our visit to the park is that it was the start of the winter season, so a lot of the trails & roads were closed.

The views from Manzanita Lake were gorgeous, but it was freezing cold, so we didn't take many pictures. Bryan was a sport in his basketball shorts and flip-flops.

Bryan made me nervous as he gingerly stepped out onto this log above the freezing cold edge of the lake. Ok, so I know the water was shallow underneath him, but seriously, who would want to fall into that? Below, our traditional self-portrait by Bryan. :)

We are really loving our tripod...it's made it so fun to take pictures wherever we are. I liked the look of these old gnarly tree roots, but the picture wasn't close enough to do them justice. Better luck next time, I suppose. :)

I thought this was a fun picture...it's our NP atlas on top of the actual atlas. Lassen is about 60 miles off of the I-5 in Northern California. It was AMAZING, and we hope to make it back!! Congress made Lassen a National Park in 1916, after Mt. Lassen's major eruption a year earlier. The park straddles the Cascade Range and the Sierra Nevadas, is included in the Pacific Ring of Fire, and is also home to a section of the Pacific Crest Trail, a trail which stretches from Canada to Mexico (which I've backpacked on, but in Oregon and not California.) Actually, if you're reading this and you've hiked on the Eagle Creek Trail in Oregon, you've hiked on it, too!

Since it was winter, only the visitor's center at the south entrance was open, so we headed down there to take a few pictures and find out more about the park. There was just us and one ranger at the VC, and he said that he had seen maybe 10 people all day...definitely off-season!

At the center, we watched a 20 minute film about the park and found out that Lassen Volcanic Park is one of the few places on earth that is actually home to all four different kinds of volcanoes. They include the plug dome, cinder cone, and composite, but I can't remember the fourth. Lassen also has mud pots and thermal springs, just like Yellowstone. The information and the views from the visitor's center made us want to come back in the summer for sure!

This is the new visitor's center at Lassen. It was beautiful, and I'm sorta partial to the log-cabin lodge look, anyway. If I had been up for it, we could have hiked a short mile up from the visitor's center to visit some of the mud pots. I hope that we get to make it back here sometime to see more of all the great things the park has to offer!



We've now visited 8 National Parks together, including Arches, Canyonlands, Zion, Grand Canyon, Glacier Bay, Mesa Verde, Joshua Tree & Lassen Volcanic. We've got at least three more visits planned for the near future. For now, 8 down, and 50 to go! According to our little atlas, there are officially 58 National Parks, about one for every state. It's interesting that most of them are out west. Utah has five. Colorado and California have a bunch, also. We figure that we'll try to visit as many as we can while we're "in the area." So the adventure continues...

Our First Thanksgiving...A Couple Weeks Early!

Bryan and I asked his mom if while we were in Oregon we could do a little Thanksgiving dinner, since we wouldn't be there on Thanksgiving weekend. She graciously said that we could, and we were really excited to find out a couple weeks later that it would be a turkey dinner complete with all the trimmings and even extended family! We had the dinner Sunday afternoon, so there was a lot of prep Saturday night and Sunday morning.

In the picture above, Lacey is helping her dad with prep for his primary class. The picture below is a funny picture of Bryan. I think he looks tired, but of course always smiling...he's reaching for the cereal box so we could have breakfast.

Terece started the turkey that morning and gave specific assignments to each of us for various parts of the meal, since she would be at choir after church. My assignment was pretty simple: peel, boil & mash two potatoes to have them ready to go into the dough for the rolls when she got home from choir. I completed my assignment with exactness. :)

As part of their primary lesson, Lacey & Gary built a Temple and little churches using legos. I wish I had done something like that for my primary class...what a fun idea!

Bryan did a good job of getting the pre-prepped bird out of the cooler and into the roaster. I was so proud of him. We also had the assignment of pumpkin pies, which we were going to make Saturday night. I wasn't feeling well at all, so I went to bed early and he made the pies by himself, including the home-made crusts! Way to go, babe! Isn't that a great looking pie??

In the interim after church and before dinner, Bryan and I cleaned out the car and sprayed for spiders. I got four bites on my legs during our two-day drive to Oregon, leading us to believe that there was some sort of eight-legged stow away living under the seats. This may not be too much of a stretch. Every week I pick up Bryan and all his wilderness gear (which is promptly thrown into the back of the RAV) so there would be ample opportunity for a little friend to get in there. YUCK!! Anyway, we sprayed everything down, so I felt a lot better about driving (and sleeping) in the car on our way back to Arizona.

Look at all this yummy food! Once dinner was all ready and all the guests had arrived, it was time to dig in. Bryan and I were asked to dish up first, since we were the guests of honor...how fun is that? We had all the usual yumminess, and everything was soooo good.

We had two tables to fit everyone, and I took pictures of both, but the other picture didn't turn out. :( Bryan and I got to sit at the "grown up" table, and I was pretty excited about that!

After dinner we played some mad rounds of Rummy-kub, which was super-duper fun. Jenaye's boyfriend was over, and was cracking me up as he couldn't remember my name...at one point he called me "that lady." It was really funny.

While we were there, Lacey was pet-sitting for a friend, so she had this little kitten named Rodeo with her. It was so funny to watch that little thing and realize the truth in the expression, "curiosity killed the cat!" She was so curious and into everything. I've always been more a dog person, for a lot of reasons. But the kitten sure was cute!

Another Oregon State Game

On Saturday, with the serious business of the interview behind us, we both felt like we could really relax and enjoy the rest of our visit. We had a yummy breakfast of German Pancakes with Bryan's family before we all headed to Corvallis for the OSU game...the last home game of the season. Bryan was so excited that we were going to be able to go, (more special thanks to his parents for the tickets!!) and this was definitely a highlight of our trip for him.

We put on our best OSU orange garb, (I also borrowed some, since I'm new to the Johnson clan and have not yet fully developed my orange and black wardrobe.) We were also excited to be able to use a few other wedding gifts for the second time this season: our OSU car flags, stadium seats and binoculars! Unfortunately, I had accidentally left our OSU temporary facial tattoos in Arizona...but I'm sure we'll have another chance to use them!

The prized tickets...Bryan was one happy guy.

We piled in the car with Bryan's mom, uncle Craig and both his grandpa's, Vern & Dale. Of course, they were all in their best orange garb as well. When we got to the stadium, we split off from the group as Bryan and I were sitting deep in the heart of enemy territory. To get our tickets last minute, his mom had to get them from University of Washington, so we were smack in the middle of all the Huskie fans. It was pretty funny, since the guys behind us were totally drunk before the game even started...so they were being pretty vocal.

Bryan's cute sister Lacey, who works in the OSU ticket office, came and sat with us after half-time. It was a pretty cold day, but we were bundled up pretty good. It was a great game, with OSU dominating the UW the entire game, and I think the final score was 49-21? I'm not sure about that, but it's at least close. UW scored in the final minutes of the game making the score a bit more respectable, but it was never close.

Lacey drove us home after the game and laughed at all my picture-taking fanaticism. I think my tendency towards fanaticism fits in really well with the Johnson family! We had a blast at the game, and later that night Bryan and I went to visit his Grandma Grayhl and Grandpa Vern. I was pretty worn out, but it had been a great day and was well worth it!

Dental School

Many of you know that Bryan and I met this last January while he was in Portland to interview for dental school at OHSU, and I happened to be in Portland at the same time. Even though he got "wait-listed" Bryan still considers that a successful trip, and of course I agree. Anyway, the dental school application process has always been a part of our relationship, since it's literally been something he's been focused on since day one. I have even helped him with little things where I could.

Right now, he's working with several schools where his applications are pending. Usually, you submit an initial application, and after review, you are either denied, or they invite you to participate in the next step of the process. After the initial application is accepted your next step is a secondary application, which is a bit more detailed and so it takes a little more time, and usually involves a bit more money. After the secondary application, if they still like you and are looking at you as a serious candidate, they invite you to come for an interview. Obviously, it's a pretty competitive process, and I'm so proud of Bryan for being where he's at, since to get here it's taken a lot of hard work.

He had his interview with OHSU this past Friday, the 13th. Since we were staying with his family in Philomath (by Corvallis) we left the house around 6:30 to be in Portland in plenty of time for his 9am interview. On the drive up I peppered him with mock interview questions, and he seemed pretty relaxed. My stomach was all in knots.

That morning I made him a good breakfast (well, it was eggs, toast & orange juice) so that he would have a full tummy and be functioning at optimal brain power. This was my attempt at being a good and supportive wife. :)

He had fun answering all my mock interview questions, and took me seriously, (obvious from his facial expression in the above picture) on our drive to Portland.

Ok, this picture is just me being photo-crazed...but I think it's cute. We arrived at OHSU about a half-hour early, which we had done on purpose to avoid any trouble with traffic. He hadn't worn his jacket in the car so it wouldn't get wrinkly on the two hour drive. I was so nervous for him as I dropped him off...he headed in and I headed to my brother and sis-in-law's house to pass the time until 2pm. I had total knots in my stomach and was purposely trying not to think about things the whole time. I had a good visit with Grant and Erika and also visited my friend Shirey while Bryan interviewed.

In the end, things went really well, and I'm so proud of him! When I picked him up, I asked him for all the details of every aspect of the day. I learned growing up with three brothers that usually the only way you get details is if you ask probing questions...so I've sorta perfected my technique. :) He told me about the essay question, (more on this later) the two interviews, and the observation and class audit. It was all very interesting and he did a good job of explaining everything as I asked about it.

The essay question was my favorite. The question he got was, if you could be anyone that you know, who would you be? I almost cried as he told me that he had answered that if he could be anyone he knew, he would be his wife. He then outlined several things about me, and about my life that I didn't even know he was really aware of, listing strengths and qualities that he admired. It was just so genuine and thoughtful...I was surprised but I totally loved it!

Another portion of the day was a meeting with the dean to discuss nitty-gritty details of admittance. The black and white of 4-year tuition is astronomical, so they list lots of ways to help pay for it. They also went over insurance, schedules and other detailed information. Luckily, Bryan brought home a packet that we've been looking over ever since. I took this last picture after we had gotten back to Philomath that night. I love how the shirt is untucked and he's still wearing his name tag. He looks relieved, don't you think?

Golfing with Mom in Corvallis

Bryan was looking forward to our trip for a couple reasons, but one of them was going golfing. Bryan's mom took us golfing at the country club where they belong on Thursday afternoon. I thought it was a great way for Bryan to have a little fun and calm down before the big interview the next morning.

We weren't able to go until later in the afternoon so we only had time to do nine holes. I actually mostly chipped and putted. There were a few holes where I tried driving, but it wears me out too fast, so I settled for just the fun part.

It was a really wet day, but luckily it had stopped raining for us. We had a cart, which I enjoyed driving, even though we could only drive on the cart paths since the grass was so wet. As a result, we got to walk a lot. It was still great fun, and I got a little exercise, always a good thing.

There were a couple holes where I did pretty well, and would have even made par, except for my putting skills are lacking. It's hard to judge what to do when I have no experience to fall back on to help with consistency. Although I think for most people, golf is a challenge because you're always trying to be consistent. I'm a beginner, so I'll blame it on that for as long as possible!

Here is an excellent example of woman's ability to multi-task. In the photo above, Terece is actually talking on a cell phone while putting. I think it was one of Bryan's sisters on the line. Shhh! I won't tell if you won't!



You can tell by the photo below that by the time we got to the eighth hole it was getting pretty dark. Bryan was nervous to have me drive the cart (the windshield was covered in rain drops) and it was full dark as we headed back. We made it though, and returned unscathed to the pre-lit safety of the club house parking lot. It was a really fun trip, and I'm anxious to go again. We had a great time!

Once we were home from golfing, we went over with his mom to play games with Bryan's Grandma Bonnie, Grandpa Dale, and Uncle Evan & Aunt Charity, (Evan & Charity are our age, so it sounds funny to say that!) We played a fun card game, but I can't remember what it's called. We also had some really fun snacks including Texas Caviar, (a really yummy mixture of tomatoes, onions, peppers, black-eyed peas and some other stuff) and some of Charity's yummy truffles. She even gave us the recipe. Grandpa Dale gave Bryan some great advice for his interview as well. It was a great time and always fun to spend time with family!

Joshua Tree & Journey Through Californ-I-A

Bryan had an interview in Portland on Friday the 13th and we planned to spend the long weekend (thanks to his six-days-off-at-a-time job) with his family doing fun stuff in Oregon. We also wanted to plan a couple fun places to stop along the way since it's a 22 hour drive from Mesa, AZ to Philomath, OR. Because we still have our National Parks pass, we thought it was a great opportunity to visit a couple different parks that were semi-sorta on our route.

We decided on Joshua Tree National Park for our trip up, because it's directly off the I-10 about 4 hours west of Phoenix, and directly on our route. We left at 4:30 am, and pulled into the park around 8:30am. When we pulled up to the visitor's center, there was no one around except for a park ranger, who explained that the VC would open at 8am. In our haste to explore the park, we forgot about the switch to PST from MST...so we were an hour early!

We're getting really good at these pictures in front of NP signs. This pic was the first we've taken with our new tripod, a wedding gift from our registry. We're very excited about it, since we can take pictures together virtually anywhere with this little gem!

Here's Bryan and Raven in front of this little patch of a specific kind of cactus. There were thousands of them all in this little spot in the park. Joshua Tree NP is made up of sections of both the Colorado & Mojave deserts, showcasing the unique landscapes, plants and animals in those regions. There's a lot more to the desert than I thought, and it was a really cool place to visit.

All throughout the park there were these piles of giant rocks that looked like they had been purposely put there. We were trying to get the scale of the rocks in these pictures below, but I still don't think they do them justice.

The rocks look smooth, but they were actually a really rough granite. The surface would actually scratch your hands or feet when you climbed on it.

Bryan discovered this little notch that was the perfect spot to take a little siesta, and that's what he did.

Here we are in front of a Joshua Tree, the park's namesake. These trees are amazing, but interestingly enough, they are not a cactus. They are actually related to lilies and onions.


After we were done at the park, we headed north through the state of California, stopping at about 7pm near Sacramento, to visit Bryan's sister Emily, who is working on her Master's degree at UC-Davis. We ate dinner and played a really fun game called Labyrinth with Emily and her boyfriend Joe. It was very fun to visit with them and play the game. It was also nice to rest for a bit.

When we got back on the road after our visit, we wanted to make it as far as Redding, in Northern California. It had been a LONG day, and we didn't make it that far. We ended up sleeping in the back of the RAV at a truck stop about 80 miles south of our intended target. It had been a tiring but very fun day!

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!!