Arches Campout

Last weekend, James and some other geologists decided to go camping in Moab. I didn't go because I was going spend Saturday with my friends for one of their birthdays. However I really want to go camping soon.

They left at about noon on Friday and drove all the way to the Orange Land of Moab and found a nice campground. Then on Saturday morning, they moved to a campground that was closer to Arches and went shooting with .....some type of gun. Then they got to go swimming in a hole! It sounded fun. James didn't bring his camera there though, but this is the stream leading to the swimming hole. 

Then they spent the day hiking to the Balancing Rock, Double Arch, and Delicate Arch. 

James texted me this picture of him by Balancing Rock.

Double Arch

Delicate Arch

A very handsome fellow!

I love this picture he took of a prickly pear cactus. 

And here's a really cool time lapse video that James made of delicate arch!

James had a fun time, but I was really glad to have him back! :)

Henry V

On Monday night we went to see a Shakespeare performance by BYU's duck pond. It's a company called Grassroots Shakespeare who wants to perform plays just like people did in Shakespeare's time. So they don't have a director (I never even knew that Shakespeare wasn't the director!), they make their own costumes, and they only perform on a wooden stage (with a backdrop). They also do double-casting for most of the roles, and don't rehearse for very long before the actual performance.

I thought that it was really well done! Their play was really enjoyable. They had the audience cheer and boo and shout things at the actors which was fun. My only regret is not reading Henry V before watching it. I must confess I have only ever seen the movie version. Shakespearean language is a lot harder to follow in verbal form rather than written form. So I sometimes couldn't understand what the actors were saying.

But they were great at projecting so I could easily hear everything, and their acting was good, and I thought their costumes were awesome.

Miranda's Birthday

A couple weeks ago, on May 25, it was my birthday. I got a car. :) But that's another story.

We went to West Jordan to see my family for their birthday. My dad happened to have an errand to run in American Fork, so he took me and James along to our favorite Sushi place there! My dad, James, and I go there once in a while, just the three of us because my mom doesn't like sushi. Too bad. It was really good! My only regret is eating breakfast before going. We didn't order as much as usual.

When we got back, my mom had made the cutest cake which I loved! It was chocolate on the inside and filled with strawberry filling! Yum.

My grandparents and a couple of my friends came over for cake and a party. You can see that my mom gave us our (my) favorite cereal, Crispix!

This Easter bag and beautiful card (mostly an inside joke) was written by none other than our good friends from Provo, Dave....

And Tia.

I also got Burts Bee's chapstick. James lost that chapstick on one of our first dates. :)

Jennifer gave us a dish drying mat and a salt-and-pepper shaker. What a kind soul! 

Later that day I sat around outside with James because it was really nice out. He got out his camera and did a cute little birthday photo shoot! :)

This one is a panorama that James tried out.

I am so lucky to have my family, friends and husband who are all so kind and loving to me! They are so fun to be with, and I also feel really close to them. I'm glad I have them!

Scheels Trip

Quite a while ago I went to Scheels with James and my dad. We took some cute pictures so I figured I'd better put them up. If you haven't heard of Scheels (which I hadn't) but have heard of Cabela's (which I have) then just know that  Scheels is basically Cabela's, a giant outdoorsy-man store. But I thought Scheels was more fun, because unlike Cabela's, it also has some fun wildlife picture booths. We only posed for one, it seems, the skunk.

Pretty cute, eh?

Of course, as with any store containing guns, James and my dad wanted to spend some time looking at them. Looking at guns with James has really given me a lot of appreciation for how he feels when he goes to clothing stores (or worse, fabric stores) with me. Because I just simply CANNOT figure out what is so different about all those guns. I mean, what is the purpose in picking each one up and looking at it and then putting it back again?! 

Since James is always so patient when we go to stores I like, I am obliged to wait nicely for him too. So I played a game with myself called "Stand in a place where I can see both James and dad at the same time" and it's kinda fun! They both just wander around looking at different things.

I guess this gun would help me camouflage, if I were hunting flamingos.

Something else I liked about Scheels was that their aquarium was built into the pillars/archway that you walk under when you walk into the store.

Cabela's has their own aquarium too, but in a tunnel. Proof:

 

These pictures were taken in the Cabela's aquarium tunnel. Hooray for fish! And James :)

Dominion friends!

We are glad to have made some new friends, Matt and Angelique Randall, at Wymount. They aren't in our ward sadly, but they live just down the road and are fun to hang out with! James knows Matt from the geology major. They're going to be taking a 6-week field trip class together next summer. Matt came over during finals to study with James, and I made snickerdoodles. That's the key to new friends. You lure them in with baked goods.

So far we've had some game/movie nights and a family home evening night with them. This week, we decided to break out Dominion! James and I got Dominion for our wedding from some of our other good friends, Taylor and Katie, but sadly we hadn't even opened it until this week! We thought you needed more than 2 players for the game. It wasn't until we visited Taylor and Katie recently that they told us you can play it with TWO! Of course we were too skeptical to just check the box.

It's a fun game, if you haven't heard of it, but one of those longer games like Settlers of Catan. And there are a LOT of cards. It takes a while to get the hang of it. So Matt and Angelique helped us open all the packages and sort the cards. I'm happy to have it opened and even more happy that James and I can play it by ourselves. Oh, and I WON! :)

We didn't take any pictures. So to make up for it, here is a super cute picture James took with my phone a long time ago.

New Car

It was my birthday two Sundays ago. James wanted to take me horseback riding (really sweet of him) but since that didn't work out, I guess he opted for more convenient transportation and got me a car!

We hadn't actually planned it, but my family's friends happened to be selling their car. James went to look at it with my dad. And then bought it on the spot. That's because it was only $995! They were very nice people in my family's ward who probably took pity on us. The car is a 1999 white Oldsmobile Eighty Eight. I liked when James called it a "99-88."

I was so excited when he brought it home!

Here it is parked in front of our apartment. It's really in pretty good shape, for having 150 thousand miles on it. I guess they are mostly freeway miles, and it has brand new tires and also air conditioning. It even has a better engine than the car we had been borrowing from my parents....a V6 instead of a four cylinder engine according to the men in my life. James took it to the DMV last week, so it's all registered and has new license plates. We own our first car! Hooray! :D

On the down side, we've already had maintenance problems. Just a few days after we bought it the engine started squeaking. We took it to Master Muffler and they took off the belt and looked at it. It turned out to be a pulley that was attached to the belt. So they replaced that pulley and put a new belt on. Which cost a pretty penny, but not really too bad compared to what we were expecting to pay for a car by itself.

Something I think is really funny about the car is that the left turn signal works, but it will not turn off automatically after you turn. I am never judging those people again! (The ones who drive around with their turn signal on but never turn.) I sometimes wonder if people driving behind us think we're old. James said "Maybe if I drive like an old person, we'll get better mileage."