Rafting down the Snake River

The story begins at Christmas Time, as John and I received a gift from my Grandma. A trip to the snake river to go white water rafting. How could you pass up a trip like that, let alone when it is a generous gift to you.

So John and I left for this anticipated trip last Friday. Thinking all would go well, and we would arrive safely, things turned around!! First, before we even got through security the brand new bottles of sunscreen, after sun lotion, and tanning spray that we had just bought for the trip had to be discarded, I know I should have known better, but I didn't, and we did not check our luggage, so we had to dump them there. Second, Our flight schedule was to go from Buffalo to Atlanta, then Atlanta to Salt Lake city and then from Salt Lake city to Lewiston Idaho our final desination. As we arrived in Atlanta, besides it being like the biggest airport ever, we realized that our flight would be delayed an hour!! Bad News!! We thought we would still make it, because our layover in SLC was 1 hour and 20 minutes, so we would have to hurry but would still make it or so we thought. We had to catch it because we had a family trip to attend!! Well, you can probably guess what happened, we did not leave Atlanta until an hour and a half later, and in the air we had to take a detour to avoid some rough weather. We finally safely landed in Salt Lake, the same time we should have arrived in Idaho! So to say the least I was so sad, mad, disappointed, and frustrated, as you can imagine, so John had to go and speak with someone from Delta. Of course there was no flights at 10:30 at night! So to make a long story short, we ended up staying the night in SLC with my sister, Jessika. She was unable to go on the trip so that was a positive aspect of the delay, we were able to see her and her beautiful boys!!


This is Caden and us, He is her oldest, so cute. Sorry no pictures of Jackson, we forgot, but if you look close you can see his foot!
The next morning, as the raft crew left for the river we boarded our flight to Boise Idaho. So we flew into Boise, caught a ride to the dam on the river, and met up with the crew! Everyone was glad to see we made it, and we were glad to finally be on our vacation!!

This is John and I so happy to finally be on the river, we are on our way to meet up with everyone else. One of the guides stayed behind for us, and caught us up with the rest of the family!!
The company we went with was called OARS, there were 8 guides and 17 of us. My Grandma, aunts, uncles, cousins, my parents and us!! The group was private in that it was only our family!

My mom and dad, with me!

The Boys!! Nick (my brother in law), my dad, John and Jordan (johns little brother)! Hanging out on our lunch break!
The snake river runs along the border of Oregon and Idaho, so throughout the trip one side of the river would be Idaho and the other would be Oregon! The Snake river runs in a canyon called Hells Canyon, it is the largest gorge in North America, yes, even deeper than the Grand Canyon! It was so beautiful, to be out in the middle of a river, away from the city, out in nature was so realxing. To give you an idea of how the environment was like I can say one word, LOST! If you have seen it, that is what it was like, I would think that constantly. The trees, the large fields of grass, the sandy beaches, even one of our guides looked like Charlie!!

Doesn't that look like LOST! We took a nice hike, and I felt like I was Kate, and John was Sawyer or Jack trying to find the others!!
I would like to apologize for not having any pictures of the rapids, as you can guess, I was on the water, holding on for dear life, and taking a picture as water is splashing and we are rushing back and forth would not have been too smart! There were a few different types of boats/rafts that we took, we had a few dories ( wood or aluminum boats) that the guide would oar and the passengars would relax, and enjoy the ride, we had a paddle boat, which was a big raft, that everyone had to paddle, and two kayaks, a single and a double, plus a few equipment rafts. Everyone was able to ride in all of them. The water was pretty chilly, but the weather was beautiful, so the sunshine, and crisp, hot air would feel so good. We could clock about 20 miles a day on the river, it seems like a lot, but blazing through class 4 rapids made the time fly by. While we were not on the river we would be at camp. We would each have our own tent and sleeping bags, the guides would set up the kitchen and bathroom (or bucket behind a tree), and we would spend our time talking and catching up with our family. John had not met a number of my cousins and family so it was nice for them to get to know each other. We would play bocce ball, horseshoes, football, go kayaking, fishing, and hiking.

John and I at the top of suicide point, a nice hike up to a point where you have a beautiful view of the river!

John fishing! He was successful, a few nice small mouth bass!!
There was so much to do. The food was so yummy as well. It was great to go with guides, who spoil you with a nice camp, and make awesome food. Just to give you an idea, we are talking blueberry pancakes, fruit, eggs, sausage, orange juice. For lunch, some amazing salads, like taco salad, and pasta salad, with yummy chips and dips. Dinner was vegetable lasanga, salmon and steaks. Okay enough about the food, its making me hungry.
The last thing you are wondering is did anyone fall off, get hurt, flip over?? Of Course! We were white water rafting on some class four rapids!! Myself, however did not fall or flip the whole time! The kayaks or "duckies", would flip the easiest, I was not brave enough to get in one of those in the class four rapids, but John was. John only flipped once, and made it through several rapids without swimming. The guides said that our group enjoyed swimming a lot, or in other words we enjoyed flipping, or we were not good rafters because we fell off quite a bit. The most memorable flip was on the big paddle raft. Six people were on it (including grandma) , plus a guide, I had already gone through the rapid on a dory, and was looking back just in time to see, the paddle boat, ride up a huge rapid, and instead of coming down, it turned and flipped, people were flying, and continued through the rapids with no boat. Everyone was worried about Grandma, it took a few minutes to see heads come up. Luckily, everyone was okay. Grandma was pulled up to safety, and all wanted to get back on and ride again!!
The trip was awesome as you can imagine. Thanks Grandma Barton! Enjoy the pictures!

Here is the whole group!!

Our guides! They were all awesome, so fun and knowledgeable!!

John and I in the morning, they had hot chocolate, coffee, and tea call at 6:30-7:00 in the morning!!

John and I with our life jackets, and helmets, ready for a big day of rapids!

On the kayak, having fun!

We were able to see lots of animals. They were very comfortable, and would get pretty close to us, and our camp! Big horned sheep, white tailed deer, otters, and plenty of bugs!

Speaking of bugs! John and I woke up to this one morning! Yes, that is a black widow. We did some serious camping, we were not at a HIlton. Out in the wild, bugs and all!!

Free Time in Buffalo

John and I rarely have free time, and when we do, either I am working or John is in school. But when we do have time when we are together we love to have FUN!!!
Over memorial day weekend I had to work, but John took advantage of that, and had his own fun! We are talking a day of shooting, and golfing with friends, what more would a MAN want?! While John was out having fun, I was in the hospital (working, not sick), and believe it or not, the census was down, our floor has 22 rooms/beds, and we only had between 5-7 patients.Wow! It was so quiet. Knock on wood, it won't be long until we are back to full. But it was very weird to actaully sit down at work, read magazines, and watch the clock tick!!
Last Saturday, John and I went to the mall where John bought me a cute shirt and bangle bracelet.

He thinks he is being so nice buying me things, but its the money I make, (ha ha) the one time in my life when I can say that, so I better take advantage of it, right?!. We have been both craving to watch walk the line, so we rented it and enjoyed it together. I love Reese! She's my favorite!

We are also enjoying the warm weather here, its like 70-80 degrees! WOW! It does not feel like this is the same place where two months ago we were covered in snow!! But it is definately time to pull out the fan, and turn up the AC!!

Now that is getting warm enough outside I will have to start working on my white buffalo skin, its so sad my dark tan in AZ is gone, gone for the next three years!!( one down, three to go)
I have also been keeping busy with getting John and I ready for our upcoming vacation! Upcoming as in tomorrow! John and I leave tomorrow to go to Idaho, we are going white water rafting! This will be us!!


My grandmother is treating her kids and grandkids to a trip, down snake river! We are so excited! John and I have never done any rafting before, so we are hoping to stay in the raft, No falling overboard!! There will be a large group, so I am sure we will all be safe. Rafting, camping, hiking, swimming ( maybe not, too cold), eating, and being with family, I am sure we will have a ball!!
When we get back I will update with fun pictures!

I have been tagged!!

Seven Random Facts about Me!!

1- First I must say this, I am not musically talented. I love music and wish I could sing, but I just can't. However, despite this fact, I want to learn how to play the guitar. I would enjoy sitting around playing hymns and old classics with my family. I would play and John would sing of course, since he can actually carry a tune! (hopefully this summer I can take time to achieve this, or at least start)

2- I have a secret desire to be Martha Stewart, or to at least be like her. I love watching her show, and I could search her website for hours, deciding on all sorts of things I would love to do, if only I had more time and money. Crafts, food, gardening, more crafts and more food, its what I love!!

3- One day I want to run a marathon. I know it sounds crazy. I never liked to run until about 3 years ago. It would be something major that I believe I could accomplish, John says he wants to run it with me. but I don't know if he could keep up. It will definately be after school is done, and after all my kids are born!

4- I have never broken a bone, gotten stitches, or even had a cavity!! I know my life must have not been that exciting!! Oh, another thing, speaking of cavities, I am deathly afraid of dental work being done, I have never had any thing done to my teeth but a good cleaning and x-rays. I hated when my teeth were loose as a kid, I wouldn't pull them, I would just wait until they fell out. So I am dreading the day when the drill comes near my teeth.
P.S. And my husband will soon be a dentist!!

5- John and I grew up a mile away from each other, were in the same stake, went to different High schools, we even were at the same Student Council camp one year, and never even realized who each other were. Our future companion, the love of our life!! It is so funny how things work out. On the other hand, my dad gave my mom a friendship ring in the fifth grade and the rest is history!!

6- John and I on our honeymoon, in Grand Caymen went scuba diving. We were loving it, swimming around together, until we slowly noticed that surrounding us were several barracudas, we both stopped looked at each other, and I was thinking oh no, I can't swim up or down, or left or right, so we just chilled there for a minute( not really chilling more like panicing) and within a few minutes, they swam away, and so did we!! WOW, that was a close one!

7- I look forward to the sunday paper, each week. I love looking through the ads, the coupons, just to see what the stores have and what's on sale. I rarely do anything about the things I see. It is just something about relaxing and looking at the paper that I enjoy. I remember doing it growing up too!

Okay one more. . .
8- My last semester in High school, I just had a few classes, so I went to beauty school to be a nail technician, or someone who does nails. I finished school sucessfully, but never completed my state board exam to practice. I still love doing my own nails, and others and of course having pedicures. As I look back, sorry Mom and Dad, that was a waste of your money and my time, since I did not finish! Always finish what you start!!

Hopefully, you know a little more about me. Thanks Rachel for the tag!!

Nice relaxing four day Weekend!!

I think I have forgotten that I do have a job. These last four days of no work, and all play and all relax have been so nice. Saturday I really did not do to much at all. I watched a movie, surfed the internet, and hung out with John. It was nice not having anything that I had to do!! Saturday we got together with all of our friends, and celebrated Ella's first birthday. Ella is Richard and Erica's baby girl!! Like always it was fun to get together, and see all the cute kids, and babies. Ella had her own little cake, she slowly enjoyed it, not knowing for sure that it was okay to devour, loving mostly the frosting, on both hands, on her face, in her hair, the whole bit. It was so cute, she had all eyes on her!!


Here is Ella, so cute, she was stripped down, so she wouldn't get cake all over her cute brithday dress.
Today was stake conference, it was nice having a little break of no teaching, and just listening at church. It was a broadcast from Elder Monson, Elder Eyring, Elder Oaks(from the 70), and Sister Tanner. All the talks were inspiring. We came home and took a nice little nap, we don't get to enjoy those as much as we want to. Remember when you were younger and every sunday you would lay down for like 3-4 hours, you would wake up and it was almost time for bed again, okay, maybe that was just me, but that was the thing to do on Sunday afternoon.
This evening John decided to challenge me to a game of Bocce ball, out in front of our home. Little did he know how good I was. We played to 8 wins, and of course I won! 6 to 8! John thought he was being nice when he played using his left hand, little did he know my skills!!

Those are John's new set of bocce balls, I was blue, and they were very lucky!!
I used my kitchenaid mixer again today, this time John was able to witness the beautiful site. I made homemade banana muffins. Yummy! This is beginning to be a daily occurance, of making something with the kitchenaid!! Watch out! This could be dangerous!
Here is a picture of the muffins. There is a yummy crumb topping, that makes them even more delicious!

Fun in the Sun!!

Friday afternoon, after John was done with school, we headed off to the beach. The lake beach that is, thankfully we will be able to enjoy the ocean beach later in the summer. Beaver Island state park is really beautiful, trees everywhere, green grass, cool breeze. It was so nice. John and I enjoyed a relaxing afternoon on the sand. It was not too hot out, but just right. We brought out a kite( one that we have had for a while but have never flown), a picnic lunch, blankets, and bocce ball. ( I believe I forgot to tell you that John won an ebay auction for the bocce ball set, I had never played before,but its pretty fun).
We enjoyed flying the kite. It was a little windy out so we were able to get the kite up, however, we were not too good at keeping the kite up. We were amateurs, we can not remember the last time we flew a kite. Kite flying is quite a workout, we were running back and forth in the sand, trying to get the kite to soar!! We enjoyed the suns rays, had lunch, feeding the flock of seagulls, and relaxed. We had a great afternoon. Here a few pictures that captured the day!!







After our day at the beach. I was lucky enough to try out the kitchen aid! And I absolutely love it. My hand mixer is going in the back of my comboards only for emergency use. I can not believe I have managed this long without one because they are so so great. I love it. I tried out a recipe that came in the pamplet, titled Lemon cream cheese bars, they are like lemon bars, with a little cream cheesy layer inthe middle, they not only turned out fantastic, but it was so fun making them. The mixer is so nice, I can walk away while it is mixing. Oh, so nice! Well, I could go on and on about everything about it, but I will spare you all.

Our day however did not end as good as it begun, with the poor suns losing. I even wore my lucky suns playoff shirt, and John wore his hat. Even with our hope and lucky appearall, the suns could not pull away with a W!! We were so bummed.

1 year older and wiser too!

May 17th, is a special day! It is my birthday. Yeah, I had a great day. Let's not try to guess my age, it is 23! Wow, I feel like I just graduated high school! On my wish list was the infamous Kitchenaid mixer. And as you can see in the pics, it came true. I also got a cool nixon watch! The huge professional 600 seris, dark silver, mixer. I love it!! I spent all day looking at it, putting in together, looking through the book it came with. I am so very excited to use it.



We got together with our friends in the morning, and John whipped up some yummy smoothies, in our Vita mix, while we all chatted, and enjoyed hanging out together.
After school John and I got to spend the night together. I was craving some mexican food, and I know we are out here in Buffalo NY, which is lacking in real mexican food, but we went to a place named La Tolteca, and I enjoyed it. We enjoyed our meals, our yummy pina colada, and my beautiful sombero!!

John was making the birthday girl laugh. All ready to go out on the town!!


After dinner, we hung out together, in our fun fort we built, and relaxed and watched LOST!!
What a great birthday!! Thanks for everyone who helped make my day special, and those who helped get me my new love, the kitchenaid!!! ( I have the whole weekend off, so my birthday will continue)

A few other fun things that have happened.
A friend from work Rebekah, is getting married in June, so we had a shower for her Wednesday night at Casa di Pizza. It was fun getting together with people from work. Everyone I work with is so nice and fun. Congrats to her!!

John's summer school session is a lot of time in the lab, drilling and prepping teeth, lots of fun stuff. Much better than studying and listening to lectures all day. John spends some time with his new friend, his rubber, plastic head, in which he uses his teeth to practice on!! Looks like a real dentist, huh! Those glasses and everything!!


Monday night we served the missionaries, breakfast for dinner, yummy crepes, french toast, eggs, fruit!! And a little FHE with Dave and Briste. We need to start getting together for fun FHE's again!!

Need I say more?!

Thought this was cute!

Sometimes, I feel like that is the story of my life. Sometimes, I feel like I am a great cook. . . .

A few reasons why Buffalo is pretty cool!!!

We are twenty minutes from a beach!! I spent the day at the beach today, and it was not 4 or 7 hours away (as in AZ), but twenty minutes. Mind you it is not an ocean beach but a lake! Hey, out here that is all they have. But boy was it nice to relax, on the sand, with the sun beaming down on me, and a nice view. It was in the 80's today. I cannot remember the last time i felt the suns ray's on my skin, it felt so good. I went to beaver island beach on grand island. It was in a beautiful state park. I want to bring John back soon. I went with some other ladies in our ward. It was actually playgroup, and even though I am childless at the moment, I got an invite and definately accepted. It was tons of fun!




Another reason why Buffalo is pretty cool and why I think our house and place we live is so nice, Are the cute little cotton tail bunnies that hop wildly through our yard. It's so nice to look outside and see a cute little rabbit, hoping along! Not something you see out west.


So just a few things, that I am grateful for today.

Celebration Time!!

So John successfully completed his first year on Thursday, so this weekend was full of fun times together and celebrations!! On Thursday night, John and I went out to Dollar Bowling, with several other members in his class. It was fun to bowl, it had been such a long time, since I bowled, but my skills were not too bad!! John on the other hand. . . .

JOhn hopes the one pant thing might bring him luck!

Friends, Dave and Briste!

Briste and Me bowling!

Dick and I enjoy being with John!!
Friday I worked, and John slept in to 11am!! I was so glad, he needed to catch up. He also organized/got rid of his school work and papers from the past year. On friday at work I had a special delivery from my mother. She had a box of these cute cookies sent to me and all of my fellow nurses I work with. So cute, and everyone loved them! It was in honors of Nurses week!

That night John and I took advantage of our time together, had a nice dinner, just layed down together and talked and talked, and watched LOST! So fun, so stress free!!
Saturday John had a big Golf tournament along with 100 other guys in UB dental school. He had such a great time, mostly driving crazy in the golf cart, I am sure he was crazy dangerous, so I am glad I was not in the cart. While the boys had a great day playing golf, and having a nice steak dinner, and award show the girls had to go out. Briste, Kristen and I hung out during the day. We went to Target, and Pier One, then met up with Missy and Rachel, with the kiddies of course, and had a nice Mexican dinner( it was cinco de mayo). Dinner was so fun and delicious, they were doing a live radio show from the restaurant! It was quite an experience! Mucho Bueno! That night after dinner, Briste and I went for a little dessert, at none other than Cold stone creamery, It was delicious, my favorite!! Saturday night John came home, with a nice prize he had won, not from his golf playing skills, it was just a raffle. He won a nice golf bag! That is way nice, now all he wants are new clubs!



Sunday we went to the buffalo ward for the first time, our friends Dave and Stephanie blessed their baby, he is so cute. He still looks like such a newborn. Then back to our ward for fun Primary, our kids were so good today. We have such a good time with our little kids. Today was such a nice day. John and I look a nice walk. down to a park near our home, that has a beautiful waterfall, we played koosh ball, and just sat and talked. Such a nice day with the sun shining!


John starts his next little spring extension semester, but we have heard it is not too bad. It can't be as bad as these last few weeks of crazy finals. So he is back to school, but we should still have lots more time to hang out and do fun things!
A few other things I got to do this week: Plant my fun garden- basil, carrots, tomatoes, green onions etc, and pretty flowers,
I know it doesn't look to good now, but hopefully when things start to grow, it will be awesome, my very own garden!!

and make some yummy flower cupcakes!

Such a great weekend!!