Big Decisions with Some Twists of Fun

This week started out rough as I came down with something and spent a few days sick in bed. Secretly I think Chris didn't mind because he got to practice his new medical skills with ONDAMED (a really cool biofeedback machine that uses pulsed electromagnetic fields to help the body heal itself) AND an injection (you can tell I really trust him).

Chris did have a great opportunity to go to the hospital on Tuesday to check out the workplace of a nurse anesthetist we know from our ward and ask some questions about the profession. Chris is planning on watching him in the OR this summer to get a better idea of what it will be like.

We went to the Monticello temple on Wednesday night, as our hearts and minds were occupied in trying to decide which school had the best nursing program for Chris. My stud of a husband was accepted into every program he applied to! We had it narrowed down to Utah State Eastern in Price and Weber State University in Layton (the Davis campus). USU Eastern appealed to us because the tuition is the lowest in all of Utah and it's close to Moab, but Weber has a very well-known nursing program - one of the the best in Utah. Ultimately we felt right about going to Weber, and are excited for Chris to go to a university where he will have more experiences in larger, busier hospitals during his clinicals and a larger network of alumni to get to know. Now all we need to do is find me a job in Layton starting in the fall, so if anyone has connections let us know!

Luckily Matthew and Olivia helped to spice up the second half of our week by inviting us to their theater performances at the Moab Broadway Review. Those two have been practicing hard with other kids and their performances were fantastic. We really enjoyed watching not just them but so many of our friends and ward members who also performed.

Matthew in "Food, Glorious Food" (Oliver Twist) and Olivia in "I Can't Wait to Be King" (The Lion King)

On Saturday I did an up-and-down trip to Provo for a fantastic girls day with my favorite year of roommates - Laura, Jessica, Candace, and Michelle. Jessica is getting married this summer, and both Candace and Michelle are expecting their first kids. So we threw a bridal shower for Jess, which transitioned into a combined mini baby shower for Candace and Michelle! It was so good for the five of us to have time to spend together (a rare occasion the last few years). With Laura moving to Florida for the summer this week and then Candace moving to Alabama for her husband's schooling in the fall who knows when the next time will be that we can all get together. I'm so grateful that our year of random roommates brought us all lifelong best friends.

As much as Chris would have loved the hours on hours of girl talk, he stayed down in Moab and hung out with some buddies who were in town for the weekend. Todd (a college roommate) and his wife Jame came down with a former mission companion of Todd's and the four of them had quite the day of adventures! They mountain biked the Klondike Bluff Trails, tromped to Delicate Arch, and then repelled from Corona Arch. Though my day was equally fabulous I'm still a little jealous of their repelling adventure without me!

Anders, Chris, Todd and Jame battled the crowds and wind at Arches

Don't look down Anders!

After our big days on Saturday we loved having a relaxing and peaceful Sunday. Church on Sunday was perfectly rejuvenating and helped to spiritually and mentally prepare us for a new week. We're so grateful for the knowledge of the gospel we have.

Remember to pray and remember to play,

Mr. & Mrs. Andrew

The Men in My Life

Chris put in some 12 hour shifts at the office this week to try to catch up from our week-long hiatus, and he also agreed to fill in for one of Doc's assistants in Springville this Friday. We both had Wednesday off, so we spent the day mountain biking the Bar M - and considering it was my first time ever mountain biking I feel like it went really well. Chris is definitely the mountain biker, and I've always said it was the one adventure that looked too scary for me to have the desire to get into. However, Chris is convincing and after he bought me a used bike, it was impossible to tell him no. And I quickly realized that I actually love it! I definitely have a ways to go before I can do some of the crazy trails that Chris enjoys, but he's patient with me so I think this will be a lot of fun for us as I learn.

Work was a blast for me on Thursday because I got to go on the river! There was a family in town who wanted to go on a day trip, and since I was in town my boss asked me if I was willing to go, and we did a daily even though the company technically isn't open yet for the season. It. Was. Perfect. I sure have missed the river, and am excited to run it all summer long.

On Friday, Chris left at 4:30am to drive up with Doc to the Springville office to see patients. Although the staff in the Moab office do a great job of involving Chris in working with patients, most of his work is on the computer and on the phone. So Chris really enjoyed working directly with the patients in Springville as he checked them in, took their vitals, gave IVs, and took blood draws. By the time he goes to nursing school he will be showing his peers how to do this stuff!

Chris and I were lucky to spend the weekend with Grandma and Grandpa Andrew, and were even luckier that my dad had plans to fly in for a few days. We had a lot of time to spend with him and my brother Jacob. Saturday morning Chris and grandpa worked on fixing their Suzuki while grandma and I did some gardening in the front yard. After our busy morning, my dad landed and met us for lunch. We enjoyed grandma's yummy spaghetti, and then had the pleasure of having grandma and grandpa play tour guide for us. They took us to Thanksgiving Point and rented a golf cart to give us an amazing tour of the beautiful flower gardens, and after that we went for a drive up Alpine Canyon. Following our drive we left the Andrews to drive down to Provo to meet Jacob for dinner at Red Lobster. We then made it a really late night when we spontaneously decided to go to the dollar theater and see the new Star Wars movie in 3-D. It was a super fun night and was worth the lack of sleep.

On Sunday we went to church with Jacob. The reason Dad flew out in the first place was to give Jacob the Melchizedek priesthood, and Chris was honored when Jacob also asked him to stand in the circle. It was a really sweet moment, and I loved seeing my favorite men worthily using the priesthood. After church we had lunch and just spent time talking before Chris and I drove home.

While driving home we took a quick detour to drive around Price, as it is an option for nursing school. Price has been our first choice because their insanely cheap tuition and cost of living, but as we drove around the town, it just didn't feel like home. We arrived in Moab to an acceptance letter from Weber University (which we hadn't expected to get accepted to - here's a lesson in needing to have more faith!). Now we have a whole lot of praying to do as we have big decisions to make.

Remember to pray and remember to play,

Mr. & Mrs. Andrew

Crusin' around California

After spending a great Easter weekend in Fortuna, Dani and I headed down to Rancho Cordova to visit Dani's Grandpa Goss. It was great to meet him and listen to his fascinating stories from when he met and dated grandma, his time in the military, his travels, and teaching.

Monday morning we met up with Dani's cousin Camille and went ziplining through the redwoods. It was a first time for both of us and we had a blast! It was a lot of fun hanging out with Camille too and getting to know her.

The next day Grandpa took us to go visit grandma's gravesite. She passed away in 2010, but Dani always had a special relationship with her as she grew up. Having been born in California, Dani was grandma's "Little California Girl." I really enjoyed getting to know and spending time with Grandpa Goss.

Our next stop was Stockton, one of the areas where I served as a missionary. We stopped by to visit the Zunigas, a family I helped to teach and baptize. When I met them in 2012, the mother, Cynthia, had been less active in the church, and my companion and I baptized her husband and their oldest daughter. Now Edgar, the father, has baptized his two sons when they turned 8 and blessed his three youngest daughters! It is the greatest feeling as a returned missionary to know that your converts are continuing to be faithful to the gospel.

The Zuniga family

We had dinner with the Lemon family! They were also converts in Stockton, and have now been sealed in the temple. They are hilarious, and it was so good to catch up with them.

The Lemon family

On Wednesday we went to the Sacramento Temple and did an endowment session. I love it there! I got to tell Dani about my fond memories of attending with companions, members, and my mission president. We also visited the very first person I baptized, Jody Smith. She likes to tease me because I was so nervous that I forgot to say "Amen" before I immersed her in the water, making it so I had to "double-dunk" her after I got the baptismal prayer right the second time.

Jody Smith

Thursday Dani and I hung out with Victor and Nancy in Jackson. Victor was the ward mission leader there, and we quickly became friends and have continued to keep in contact. Victor showed us around his current project - restoring the historic Preston Castle with several other volunteers. It was an industry school for troubled boys years ago, and now it is being brought back to life.

At the top of the tower with Victor

Us with Victor and Nancy

That night we headed over to the Gomm's home, near Placerville, another one of my favorite areas. Sister Gomm made us a fantastic dinner, and we loved spending the evening talking with her around the table. Friday we went to Orangevale to visit Courtney, a college friend of Dani, and meet her adorable six month old son.

Sly Park

Years ago on my mission in Placerville I found a hippy cafe that I thought briefly, "That would be a fun place to take someone on a date." So after a stroll down historic Main I took Dani to Cosmic Cafe to enjoy dinner. Since Dani loves eclectic cafes so much it was a perfect evening. Following our date we visited more with Brother Gomm and learned from his incredible spiritual experiences. We left their home with a greater resolve to better ourselves as disciples of Jesus Christ.

Mark and Audrey Gomm

We headed home on Saturday, passing through the Sierra Nevada mountains and Lake Tahoe. As we took in the incredible scenery, we were agonizing over the fact that we were unable to hike the PCT this summer - but at the same time were somewhat glad we weren't trudging through several feet of snow that is still on the ground. We had to stop and take a picture at the crossroads (or is that crosstrail?) for the hike of our dreams.

It was an amazing week filled with happy reunions and quality time spent with family and friends. It felt great to have so many of my friends from my mission meet Danielle - and it was equally wonderful to meet some of her family. We finished our incredible week with General Conference on Sunday, and are working to catch up on the sessions we missed on Saturday.

Moab to California

Chris handled another busy week in the office and really loves learning from dad. Instead of just going on fun hikes by myself while he works, I started to get some pre-season work hours in at the river company's warehouse. We both had some long days, but it feels good to be working hard and saving up for school.

On Tuesday was Utah's republican caucus, and despite Moab's dominant liberal population, we had a good turnout. Chris mentioned it was almost like a church function because he saw so many people from the stake. With the way absentee ballots work, neither Chris nor I had ever been to caucus, so it felt good to participate in the election process.

The line was out the door!

Early in the week we went climbing on Wall Street and brought Jacob along. That boy slayed the routes! We were so impressed with his ability to complete intermediate climbs - especially since it was only his second time climbing. After a year of not consistently climbing, it also felt good for us to come back and do better than we thought we would.

Jacob toproping Lacto Mangulation - 5.10b

Much to Matthew's disappointment, both he and Olivia were too small to fit any of the climbing gear we own and therefore were unable to join us on the climbing adventure. We tried making it up to them by taking them out for a hike on Wednesday. Chris told us of this secret hike in Arches that goes out to a giant tunnel arch. It's an amazing hike, and barely anybody knows of it as it's not listed in any of the Arches pamphlets and doesn't even have a trail marker by the road. We spent hours hiking, and bushwhacking, as Chris lead the way on this hike he himself had only done once before about 6 years ago. Well, we never actually found this mysterious and secret tunnel arch. Nonetheless we still had a lot of fun hiking, and the kids absolutely loved the sand hills. Even though we never found our intended destination, we had a blast on our journey.

Matthew's bouquet for me - watch out ladies!

No joke - the piles of sand in Olivia's shoes.

Friday morning Chris and I woke up early and hit the road for a full day's drive to Fortuna, California - the start of our week long "Chris's Mission Tour/Meet Dani's Grandpa Adventure."

We spent Easter weekend with a couple that Chris had baptized three years ago (Saturday marked 3 years to the day!) that had moved north after their baptism. They have two of the sweetest girls we know. We had the greatest morning just chatting with all of them at their home as they got caught up with Chris and I got to know them better. In the afternoon we attempted to go out to the beach, but a storm a couple days earlier had gotten rid of all the parking spots and it started to rain. Instead they took us on a tour of the Redwoods and the Avenue of the Giants. Standing next to those giant trees is an easy way to feel small! The father had grown up in the area and he was the best tour guide we could have asked for. We had a nice evening with the family at home. On Sunday we went to church with them and stayed long enough to open Easter baskets with the girls (They even made Chris and I an AWESOME Easter basket). After that we hit the road to spend the next couple of nights with my grandpa in Rancho Cordova.

Our Easter Basket :)

Exploring an old railroad trestle 

See the fish up there? That was the high water mark from the 1964 flood that took out entire towns in Humbolt County.

Drive-thru Tree!

Remember to pray and remember to play,

Mr. & Mrs. Andrew

First Full Week in the Desert

After I trained at the doctor's office in Springville last Friday, Dani and I drove down to move to Moab to live for the summer. After settling into the guest bedroom at my parent's house, I had a full week ahead of me of training at the office. I'm working Monday through Friday, 8am-5pm. Dani took advantage of her free time to get out and enjoy the plentiful sunshine on some day-hikes in the area. She sent me PLENTY of pictures throughout the day just to make me jealous:

The Moab Valley from the top of the Rim trail.

Morning Glory Arch at the end of Negro Bill Canyon.

Dani's arm around an imaginary me while I'm at work.

Friday night we went on a short overnight trip to Culvert Canyon. We brought our tent, but the weather was so great that we decided to cowboy camp under the stars. We sure love the desert. After we hiked out of the canyon we stopped at the Moab dinosaur tracks and petroglyphs.

Sleepin' in in the morning sun.

Dino tracks!

Petroglyph panel at the Poison Spider Trailhead