Oh how I love you...Let me count the ways

As most of you know we finally upgraded from our one bedroom hometel, as we call it. This post is dedicated to counting the things that I love about our new 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath townhouse.

1. The large kitchen. It is big enough that
Greg and I can both participate in fixing
and cleaning up a meal. And I have empty cupboards! What a difference!

2. To go along with the large kitchen we actually have space for a table. And we can eat dinner together

at a table and not on the couch (much to Greg's dismay)!

3. Also in our fabulous kitchen, we have a dishwasher!It's amazing!
I forgot how handy these are!



4. Just off of the kitchen we have our washer and dryer. Also very exciting. For the past 2 1/2 years we have had to go to Aunt Kathleen's house to do our laundry. I can't explain how nice it was on Saturday to stay home and do laundry, and not have to haul it back and forth!



5. Our family room that is basically the size of our old apartment. As you can tell there is nothing on the walls and no decorating has been done. (That is why I didn't take a picture of the whole room). It seems so empty to me because we had everything packed into our other place. Anyway this is our new couch, and we are saving up to buy the loveseat.



There are a lot of other things that I love about our new place, the garage, the walk in closet, the little patio, the pool, and just how much space there is. As things get put back together and decorated I will post more pictures. As for now it just looks real bare. If you didn't remember reading it, we do have 3 bedrooms so we want lots of visitors now! Sorry about the weird set up. I couldn't figure out how to make it look good. I need some blogging lessons from Lara!

It's a Nice Day When You Wake Up in Disneyland!!

We have been back for a few days, but better late than never. It was perfect weather, and not too many people. We got there on Monday afternoon and checked into our hotel and then went to Downtown Disney. We ate at Rainforest cafe and I have to say that it is a little overpriced,
but the atmosphere was fun. We stayed at a really nice hotel that was about 2 blocks from Disneyland.

On Tuesday we started out the day in Disneyland. Disney knows how to do it right. They get you excited right from the start with the music right when you step through the Disneyland arch. We were both so excited, but Greg was a little more excited than I was, possibly because my day started out a little rough. I had some shoe issues right off. After searching for some flip flops that were not totally overpriced and ugly, we found some in Adventure Land that were cute and not overpriced (probably because they were not Disney brand). After I relieved my feet of the burning blisters we were off and running again. It felt so good not to have anything tearing up my heals. We basically walked on to every ride. The longest we waited was 25 min. So we went on everything and the day was still young, so we headed over to California Adventure.

Neither of us had ever been to California Adventure, so the excitement continued. We started off with Soarin over California. And I must admit that I was a little frightened by this ride. One because I didn't take of my flip flops so the whole time I was worried that they would fall off. I wanted to go on it again and take them off so I could enjoy it more, so we did and it was a little better, but it still got me. I think it was because I am a little scared of heights and your feet are just hanging there. It is a really cool ride though. Greg had never been on tower of terror before and he was thinking it wasn't going to be great, but he thought different after his first ride. It ended up being on of his favorites.


On Wednesday we went back for Nemo (which we didn't do on Tuesday), and second, third, and fourth rides. And a first and last adventurous ride on Heimlich's chew-chew train (for those of you who have been on it, you know its all but adventurous)! By about 2:00 we were done and we headed back to the hotel for some sun and swimming.


On Thursday we headed home and found that if you don't stop it's only a five hour drive. Not bad right? We also found that one thing to keep you entertained while standing in line besides people watching ( one of my favorite past times), is listening to the safety announcements in the different languages, and how the voices change for the different rides. We are already planning when we will be able to go back to the happiest place on earth!

Isn't Summer Supposed to be Fun?

This summer is going to be boring! Ok it might be a little early to pass judgment, but so far I'm not impressed. Steph worked Thursday and Friday and despite my best efforts I couldn't pick up a shift either day. Ideally I would work every day that Steph does and we would have days off together, but so far that's not happening. Thursday I sat at home all day and literally did nothing but watch tv. I can't imagine anything worse. I'm happy to say that Friday was much better. I decided to go to Snow Canyon to try out our new camera and I had a blast. Thank goodness we live so close to so many beautiful places. Maybe this summer won't be so bad after all. I hope to be able to go to Zions next week, but with gas being so expensive that's no cheap trip. Disneyland is one week away, but it can't come soon enough!

Updates

As you can tell our blog got an update. So I guess I will post a little update to go along with it. I really should be at work right now, but I got put on call, so that means I get to sit at home and wait for the phone to ring( not fun I would rather be at work making money)! Last weekend we were in Salt Lake to see Greg's brother and his family and for my nieces birthdays. We forgot to take our camera so I stole these pictures from my sisters blog. So if someone in Greg's family posts pictures from the weekend we can steal their pictures and post them. Talking about cameras and pictures...Greg and I bought a new camera the other day. We don't have it yet because we bought it from Amazon.com, but we are really excited about it.

What else have we been up to? We planned a trip to Disneyland!! On our way home from Salt Lake we were talking about how we have been wanting to get away for so long but how we never have the money. To make a long story short, Disneyland is only six hours from St. George, I have four days off in a row in May, and Greg won't have a CNA job by then. So we did it, we booked it, it's official!! We can't wait only 15 days! It will be a short trip, but it's Disneyland!

Late Again

We are becoming slackers! We were late reporting on Easter and we find ourselves behind again this week. Late or not, I couldn't let the events of last week pass without a post. We had planned on last weekend being a very fun, relaxing weekend with Allis and Em. What we didn't plan on was Grandma Orton passing away. Allis and Em came down on Friday and we got the call that Grandma had passed some time that afternoon. This may sound bad, but in a way Grandma's passing actually made the weekend better. Let me explain. Friday night we went to a Colbie Caillat concert at Tuacahn. The concert was great, but the music wasn't the best part. Tuacahn is located in a little canyon at the base of Red Mountain in Ivins, which is where Grandma grew up. Grandma told me many times that she didn't think there could possibly be any more beautiful mountain in the world than Red Mountain. The best part of that concert was sitting at the foot of that mountain and thinking about Grandma. I feel so lucky to have lived by Grandma for these past 4 years. Prior to those 4 years my most prominent memory of Grandma includes me being forced to eat the following; A LARGE piece of roast that was literally 80% fat, 1 whole cooked onion, 1 whole raw onion, a whole tomato, and a burnt piece of toast. Picture that plate. Needless to say it's not a great memory. In the past 4 years I got to know a much different side of Grandma. I came to know her as a faithful, loving, beautiful, sweet lady. Now my most prominent memory of Grandma is of her telling me about the day she and Grandpa were engaged and the early days of their marriage. She loved him so much, and missed him every day she was without him. That is, of course, why her passing is not such a sad thing. She spoke of the afterlife with such faith and conviction, never once questioning that she would see Grandpa and her two little ones again. I am so grateful for her example. St. George won't be the same without her. Another thing that comes to mind when I think of Grandma is thriftiness. Here is a little skit that I think grandma would have appreciated and some pictures of the rest of the weekend.