Well a few weeks have passed since Christmas day! In that time a lot has happened for us. First of all we took a trip to Utah to visit Andrea's family and our friends that live in the area. It was great and relaxing and so nice to feel the cold weather while we were there.
It snowed for a few days and the kids absolutely loved playing in it! Tyson had never seen snow and Ruby hadn't played in it for at least three years!
We went sledding with our good friends the Weakleys, which was way fun!
We also had a great party for Andrea's 30th birthday at Grandma's house in Pleasant Grove! It was so fun to see everyone and reconnect with them!
We also spent some time with Robert, Heather, Julie and Jeff Brown! This pizza is HUGE!!! I don't think we finished it...
Our trip home took us through Portland, Oregon, where I must say the best airport I have ever been in exists! The kids had a great time running around and enjoying the children areas and practically empty halls. We had a pretty good trip and saw a lot of our really good friends. We didn't get very many pictures compared to what we should have but we did take home a lot of great memories. Thanks to Dad and Mandy for a wonderful trip and your hospitality!
Amazingly enough we came home to a clean house and very few critters. Life didn't take too long to get going again, and I started into my third semester of graduate school loaded down with 15 credits! It was a heavy load but I shooting for completion of my masters degree by December of 2010 which looked likely. What I didn't expect was that a Research Assistantship funded by USAID had become available while I was away which I was aware of but not positive on whether or not I would get it. My advisor (Dr. Travis Idol) officially offered me the position a couple of weeks ago and I start February 1st! The position will take my to India this year on at least one long trip (May - July) and possibly a short 10 day trip in March. I am very excited about it especially since it is so close to what I want to do in my career! Because of the added position I would be in school for 2 more years rather than 2 more semesters, so I expect to graduate in December of 2011, which prompted me to unload a few credits and take a lighter load this semester (8 Credits).
We had some friends of ours (Allan and Sue Meier) come visit for 10 days or so with their 5 children (From left: Audrey, Austin, Brayden, Tyson, Brianna, and Ruby - Gavin is tho only one missing in this photo and he is two months old). Needless to say our house was pretty busy but we had a lot of fun! The kids really enjoyed having more people to play with, and any excuse to go to the beach is a good one.
Ruby and Tyson are having fun growing and learning and causing general trouble. Ruby has moved up in her piano lessons and is learning more complicated songs, while Tyson is exploring his language skills and understanding by asking the endless question "Why?".
We're loving life and moving forward and learning a lot! Hopefully we'll keep posting more regularly and keep the posts a little shorter... :)
Happy New Year!
