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Steven-

So I just finished The Fellowship of the Ring, and as said before I've succumbed to the nerd with the LOTR. I surprised at how many frequent readers that I know have never "got into the books." I guess it may be due to the fact that Tolkien created an entire world by himself. Authors may create their own stories and background tales, but mister J.R.R. literally made his own universe with languages, an extensive history, map, and numerous side stories. This leads to a lot of parts in the book very descriptive, which may turn some readers off. As for me, I just want to find out more, especially if someone is named that I haven't heard of. I also love written languages, maybe because I love to write and do calligraphy.
This past weekend when we took Katie to the temple visitor's center, they had the Book of Mormon display of translated copies on a round table. I picked up the Welsh translation and fumbled through it. I've seen one before on my mission, they had a copy in the mission office. I'm pretty sure that is all due to Dan Jones when he preached in Wales long ago, it's not of much use today as everyone in Wales can speak English. But now I want to learn Welsh, I think it would be awesome. My Dad's family comes from Wales. If you've ever seen Welsh names, you can see that Powell comes straight from there. Also, Tolkien used a lot of the concepts of Welsh in his language, Sindarin. He also used a lot of the Finnish language for most of his created words. So, now that Danny knows Finnish, I want to learn Welsh, and not just to be a LOTR connoisseur. I can speak the accent, now I want to speak the language.
Now, how on earth am I going to learn it....

Katie Katie Katie!

This weekend my soul sister Katie Simons came to visit! It was a surprise when in the middle of the week she said she thought about coming down and I'm so glad she did! She got here later on Friday night and we watched a movie and talked until nearly 2a.m. (poor Steven fell asleep on the couch and went to bed around midnight).  Saturday Steven had to work so I showed Katie around Cedar City, we got some yummy shakes and some more Halloween stuff for the apartment :) When Steven got off work we headed down to got to the temple, but when we got there we realized it was closed due to the Relief society conference.  So we walked around the temple, took pictures, went through the visitors center, went shopping and headed back to Cedar. 

Katie and I went to the R.S. meeting, and I'm really glad we did, President Monson's talk was amazing! I love the quote he gave by Mother Teresa, "If you judge people, you have no time to love them." That one hit me, I really love that. I want it embroidered on a pillow or something! Steven picked us up and we went to dinner at Applebees; their new pasta is soooo good.  Then we came home and watched the new Alice in Wonderland. Katie left early this morning; we didn't do a ton of sight seeing and such but it was so good to just hang out with her!

I think I'll wear this hat to work....

3 down 5 to go! (siblings coming to visit)

This past weekend Steven's brother Ryan and his wife Caroline came to visit us! Have we mentioned how much we love having visitors?? Because we really do! :) They got here on Saturday around 3:00 pm, which worked out well because Steven had to work that morning.  We headed south to Silver Reef to show them the 'ghost town,' abandoned mine, and the pioneer graveyard.

She Fit!

 There were a lot of neat old machines and such

 He keeps trying to get away, but like it or not he's stuck with me :)

This was our serious pioneer pose

Here is an abandoned mine shaft that Caroline is trying to bring down

That is Steven standing over the very high and scary dark pit.

 We dropped rocks down in and it took a while before we heard it hit the bottom.

The pioneer graveyard

 Ryan and Caroline

 From there we headed to the Kolob Canyons

(notice the two smart ones with sunglasses are smiling nice without squinting)

 Das Bruders

Pretty!

 That night we got Costa Vida and watched the Office. The next day we got up early ish, for Sunday, and headed up the canyon to Cedar Breaks.

 Caroline on the edge

We did this nice hike to another view point. It was super crazy windy! But this tree was big, old, and dead and so cool looking :) 

You can't see it all from this picture, but the leaves are changing in the canyon! Just a week ago this was all green and now there is color everywhere, I love it! 

After the canyon Steven and I went to church and those two headed home to see if their new kitten was still alive (yes he was).  It was awesome having them visit!

I noticed we have a lot of the same places pictured in our blog such as Bryce, Zion, Cedar Breaks, St. George etc.  Well we live in the middle of it all! Every time someone new comes to visit we show them the things that might be new to them even if we've seen it numerous times, and we never tire of it :) So for anyone interested the invitation is always open! Especially to the siblings who have yet to visit us at all..hint...hint..i.e. Jesse, Laura, Jameson, and Parker and families (Danny can be excused seeing as he is in Finland).    

Filled With Nerd

From Steven-

Out of nowhere I started to want to read the Lord of the Rings. I can't say where it came from, but it just hit me a few weeks ago. We watched the movies, and two weeks ago I borrowed a set from my brother with original Tolkien illustrations on the covers. I must explain that the epic has run through the blood of my family for a long time. My mom read it way back when and loved it. I remember when my brothers read them and all of Tolkien's other books. One particular memory involved me asking my brother Jesse about the tale before church started and getting into a long conversation about it all. It eventually led to both of us skipping out of Sunday school and finding an empty classroom to continue talking about it. Jesse would also always read The Hobbit to Danny and I most every Christmas Eve.
Well I've been bitten again, and I can't stop reading. I find myself looking for other Middle-Earth information anywhere I can find it. I am a complete LOTR nerd for the time being. I guess I always have been, but the fire has been rekindled. I know it's a book that has kind of passed the popularity phase, and everyone is into different fantasy book at the moment, but I still hold firm that it is the quintessential fantasy-epic of all time. Was that poindexter or what? I don't care, I love the books and the movies, and it will be among the first books I encourage my children to read when they come of age.

Weekend Shenanigans

This weekend was great! For my birthday Steven took me to Sweet Basil, this Thai restaurant that is my new favorite place to eat in Cedar. He also decorated our place like Jim and Dwight do for Kelly on one of The Office episodes (if you haven't seen it you should because it's awesome!).  We also went to an art gallery and took a nice walk.  Steven's mom called to wish me a happy birthday and had all the grandchildren sing to me over the phone, it was so cute! It made me really happy :) On Friday my parents came down! We love having people visit. They brought down my new elliptical machine so that I can attempt to work off all the birthday treats :) We picked up Steven from work and headed to the temple. My parents had never been to the St. George temple so we decided to go do sealings with them. It was an awesome experience and I'm glad we got to do that with them.  After that we ate at Olive Garden, I love that place! Steven had never been and he really liked it too. The food is so good, we both got the never ending pasta dish plus appetizers and always the yummy bread sticks.  On Saturday my mom and I went to a relief society breakfast and then we all headed to Bryce Canyon (my parents had never been there).  One of the many gorgeous wonders of southern Utah.  We did the Navajo loop trail and looked at the pretty overlooks.  We were joking the whole time and just had fun. Then we got pizza and watched a movie. Today we went to church and then had dinner and showed my parents the view on the mountain top before they left.  We're glad they came down, we had a blast! The week had been a little stressful for me and I was also getting a really bad sinus infection (I went to the doctor on my birthday and got pills) so it was nice to be able to have such a fun weekend and spend it with people I love.

This is how Steven decorated our place; half blown up balloons, a boring banner with a period, and sad little streamers, I loved it! You have to see the office episode to understand it, but when i walked in from work and saw this I cried from laughing so hard!

 Bryce Canyon

 

Debbie trying to get balanced

Debbie's crown 

This is how Debbie would look over the edge (her fear of heights and all that), so naturally we had to imitate her :)

This is the beginning of the Navajo loop trail called Wall Street. You hike down switchbacks into the hoodoos. It's really neat, when you are down in it, it's like your going into Petra or something. 

who's who?

At the bottom of Wall Street

so strong...

This chipmunk was such a little poser

Debbie Cheating (she went off the path, on a harder way up)

Pinching Thor's hammer

Serenading the canyon

 It's funny how these little guys are such super stars at national parks. You see one surrounded by photo snapping tourists (we were guilty too), and they pose and sit up all cute, they really know how to work it. You'd think it was almost the equivalent of seeing a bear at Yellow Stone. This little guy was hiding from the limelight.

Dad had to rest his back after a long day; this was outside the 5 buck pizza while we waited for our order.  

We really did have a fun weekend. Bryce is such a beautiful place to see. It was great to have my parents visit for the weekend, they're awesome :) 

Birthday?

It's weird how the older you get (and I'm not saying I'm old because I'm not :), the less birthdays feel like birthdays.  I wish it felt like when you were a kid and it was very exciting because a year older was a year better.  There was usually a theme or just a fun party with lots of birthday cake that you didn't have to worry about going straight to your hips, butt, stomach etc. It just feels off that a birthday feels like any other day when you think back to how as a kid it was the best day ever.  They can still be fun and so far it's been a nice day, but it would be nice if birthdays still felt as great as when you were a kid, everything is better as a kid :) 
It was fun to see everyone over the weekend and have some cake :) Because I'm at a new job no one really knew it was my birthday except a few of the kids I work with.  They asked me a few days ago when my birthday was and I was surprised that they remembered! They wished me happy birthday and one kid even sang. Then a boy asked how old I was and jokingly I said I was, "really really old." And he said "So you're like 20?" since when is 20 really really old??? crazy kids. It made me happy that they remembered though.  
I haven't seen Steven much yet today but he is taking me to dinner tonight at a place I've wanted to try forever! He also gave me a really thoughtful and awesome early birthday present. We went to swiss days and I didn't think I'd have any money to spend there and before we left he gave me a gift card just to buy stuff with there :) haha but i didn't find anything i really wanted to buy there so it went to other things. My parents are coming down this weekend so that should be really fun, more food and probably sweets :D  

Parallel

Steven here. Yes, I'll post my own useless thoughts occasionally.
I don't know why this strikes me as blog material, but I have an interesting array of classes this semester, mostly concerning my minor in photography. The requirements include classes that cover the basics of drawing, digital design, and photography. I think it's a little strange that there are only two photography classes that are required for the minor, one of which I wont be taking cause it's intro. Anyway, the two art classes this semester are Drawing 1 and Digital Imaging. The Drawing 1 class is mainly freshmen. The skill levels range, but I'd say the majority are beginners. I feel like a big fish in some ways. On Friday, the student I sat next to said that I shouldn't sit by him because I was too good. It was a joke, but comments like that make you proud of your work, even though drawing isn't exactly my main art outlet anymore.
Contrast that to my digital imaging class where most of the students presented some of their past work this past week. Again, skill levels ranged, but some students had professional pieces of art in all mediums. I felt confident with my photographs, and I got some really good feedback from the class when I presented. But it was a completely different feeling than my drawing class.
So I think the digital class is a way of humbling me. I confess that sometimes in the drawing class I feel like I'm the best, which is not true at all. But I'm glad to be learning some of the basics again. And my digital class can keep me on my toes and open my mind to new concepts and ideas.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/estebangunther/