The Cat and Camel

These are some of the new exercises that Landon has to do for rehab on his back.  They call this the cat and the camel.  We don't really understand the camel analogy since camels should have humps too, but whatever.  I didn't quite capture it in this picture, but usually when he does the camel position he does his eyebrows up and the facial expression always reminds me of one of those hunting dogs that is pointing and waiting anxiously for his master.  Cracks me up every time, ha.  (and yes...I got permission to post this ;)

Rexburg

Whitney, Landon and I spontaneously decided to go up to Rexburg and visit Ryan for Memorial Day.  Landon told him a day ahead of time that we wanted to go on a triple date, so he had to get a date and also find one for Whitney.  No pressure but the guy had to be tall, too.  We weren't sure if Ry really would pull it off in time, but he passed with flying colors.  Not only did he get a cute girl named Marissa to stop her homework and come, but he got a guy that was probably over 6'3" and really nice for Whitney.  AND the guy brought two more people, so it wasn't quite so awkward for Whitney and Ryan's dates to be with all his family, ha.  We went glow-in-the-dark mini-golfing, and out to some delicious dairy ice cream.  I was surprised how cheap it was too!  We also got to see Landon's cousin Chad and his family because they were nice enough to let us stay with them on short notice, and a cousin came out with us to breakfast the next morning.  It was lots of fun.  Ryan even showed us some of the new buildings on BYU-Idaho's campus as well as the temple--where he works twice a week for most of the day.

He's always stealin' my food!

Rebellious Campers

We decided that before Landon leaves this summer, we had to try out our new camping gear.  So we were determined to camp out, but when I called they told me that every site from American Fork to Spanish Fork was full.  Apparently with all the flooding and snow pack, there are less sites open, and they fill up quickly.  But we drove out to try anyway, and saw some people just finding nice little places off of the road.  We tried to decide if we would get in trouble for doing it, and after some debate decided not to risk getting kicked out in the middle of the night by some national forest ranger.  But on our drive down, Landon just couldn't handle that other people were camping that way and getting away with it, so we went back and decided to do it, ha.  We felt so rebellious, which I think added to the fun.  We found a nice little area with a canyon view and some of the city lights far off in the distance--very pretty.  The area even had a fire pit that people had made out of rocks.  We got to roast some food and s'mores on the fire, and play some cards.  The only downsides were that we were freezing cold in the rain, and stressed every time we heard a car go down the road :)  When we finally decided to stay it was getting dark, so we had to go into hurry mode.  Landon got a roaring fire going in the rain, and I set up the tent all by myself.  Pretty impressive on both counts, I think.  Overall it was a pretty fun little trip.

Our new tent and tarp.  

Landon was being artistic

Field Trip!

For work we took a field trip to the Kennecott copper mine.  We do trips every month or so just for team morale and to get people out of the office.  After getting lost because of an interesting navigator :) we finally made it there about an hour before they were "evacuating". Sounds intense, right!  They were doing a blast near the visitor's center so we had to leave, but we really wished we could have stayed to watch.  Just an FYI, it is one of the largest copper mines in the world, producing a 4th of the copper for the US.  They say it is one of the few man-made things that can be seen from space...and since I wouldn't know, I believe them.  It's about 2 miles across and a mile deep.  I have wanted to see it for a long time and finally got to go for free!  Pretty sweet deal.

Calvin (the boss) joking around and posing 

Just to give you idea of how HUGE the
gravel trucks were compared to a semi.

Riley and Jeff reading about the early mine cars

Lots of truck constantly moving rock

I thought the leveled sides were interesting.
We found out it was because they used to have
rails for the cars to spiral down.

Me and Nicole--the only girls at our company, ha.

Feliz Cumpleanos!

Landon's birthday was last week!  Yes, the whole week; we like to celebrate for as many days as possible.  It started off with the first of a series of envelopes.  These are envelopes that he had seen the night before, and consequently couldn't sleep because he was too excited. "It's like Christmas, I just had too much anxiety."  His first envelope was lovin' from the Draney parents all the way in Washington, and came with a new Jimmer shirt, which he sported for the big day.  At 1:00 he opened his second envelope.  Since he has had back pain and problems for a while, his envelope lead him to a mysterious address that happened to be a spinal rehab place where they did some chiropractic manipulations and a massage.  He called me afterwards and the first thing he said was "That was GREAT!  Now I'm all loose."  He came to pick me up from work and was allowed to open his next envelope, which included a coupon for dinner at Tucanos.  Our server made sure he had the complete birthday experience and they sang to him with the drums and tambourine.  They made him and the other birthday boy at the next table "do their best Brazilian dancing" to earn the ice cream.  Landon's only disappointment was that they didn't let him play the tambourine during the song.

We got in some bowling too.  I "let" Landon win for his birthday... ;) For his next envelope he had to ask me if I had seen any good candles lately, which was my cue to bust out the cake.  The cake was more suited to Landon's fruit craze, so it was a little non-traditional.  Whitney and I sang a stunning rendition of what we could remember form the Red Robin birthday song, ha.  Lucky Landon had a bit easier time with blowing out the candles, since he only had two instead of the full 23, but at least then he gets his wish, right?  He also heard some great versions of happy birthday songs and raps from siblings and parents on both sides throughout the day, which was lots of fun.  

He finished up with opening some presents from Whitney and having to find my present in the apartment somewhere.  And he even has some shopping to look forward to, thanks to money from parents and grandparents!  

To complete the celebration, we went out with Whitney and the Hawkins cousins to iHOP for breakfast on Saturday.  The idea was to surprise him, but I'm not so good at those, and between him talking to me and his cousins enough beforehand, he pretty much knew.  But it was delicious all the same.  I must say that I am a fan of online birthday freebies--we really took advantage this time.  You should all look them up before your next celebration!

Last Game

top row: Landon, Amy, Alison, Darekah, Brittany, Sophie, Britney
bottom row: Caryn, Avery, Hannah, Rebekah, Anna, Julianne
missing: Catherine, Emme, Lauren

This was a picture taken at our last game on Saturday. Sadly, not everyone was there.  We had a blast coaching, and I thought you might enjoy some of our funnier experiences with these fun, definitely pre-teen girls.  

• For some reason, our girls had a thing with screaming.  Darekah even was warned by the ref in the last game to cut it out.  We think of Caryn, Emme, Darekah, and whoever else joined in as our "scream team"
• Darekah yelled to us on the sideline--"It's so hot!...just like me"
• Brittany--"Ooh, that guy's cute.  You should date him...well, you'd have to break up with Landon first.  Maybe I should date him"
• Ali--"Can I come out...Why does it feel like I'm on defense by MYSELF!"
• At every kickoff, Darekah yells "Charge!!"
• Brittany as she watched me and Landon--"Oh, you're such a...couple!"
• Avery was probably our sassiest player.  In a game where we were losing 6-1, she yelled when we scored--"Take THAT white!"
• Catherine, like most of them, always wants to go back in when I sub her out.  Last time she told me "I walked off the field because I had to save energy for when you sub me back in now."
• Lauren told me matter-of-factly that I needed to put her in because she was gonna score.  And I also needed me to let her do the next kick on a penalty.  I let her, and she did just as she said and scored off the next kick.
• Rebekah's Mom yelled from the sideline, "Beks!  Get the ball!"  Rebekah stops in the middle of the play to yell at the sideline "I WAS TRYING!"  The mothers all laughed and said "Wow, they actually hear us when we yell over here."
• Rebekah always wanted to tell me stories of her day during the game.  She recited to me "The Princess and the Pea" once.  Ali noticed, and asked "What, have you never heard the story?"  To which I responded, "Oh no, I have." I often had to pause her so that I could sub people in and out, and then let her continue.  She was pretty persistent.
• Anna, our smallest girl by far, won the shooting contest at practice.  But she didn't like to ever dribble--just kick it.  Brittany noted during the next game "Man, she can shoot it, but she won't dribble to the goal to shoot.  Somehow we need to place her next to the goal and get her the ball without it being offsides..."
• Emme always hit the floor screaming and writhing if anyone kicked her.
• I think Hannah has come up with every possible idea to get me to give her a candy bar when nobody is looking.

They were a fun group of girls!

Green Thumb

Our apartment complex took out the old hot tub that never actually worked and decided to offer residents the opportunity to have a garden plot.  Landon jumped on the idea right away.  I thought it was a great idea too, but since I am the only one who will be here this summer to weed it, I was maybe a little less gung ho. Nonetheless, we spent a couple hours last night planting our first family garden in a 6'x5' plot.  We crammed about as many herbs and vegetables in that space as we thought could possibly grow.  I told Landon "I'm a little afraid that we overdid it..." to which he responded "Well, we didn't leave them the optimum amount of space, but hopefully something will grow."  Seeing that the soil isn't the best (whatever they filled in the hot tub hole with--including rocks), and we've never farmed in Utah's weather, we have no idea how it will go.  But we are optimistic, and I've already used some fresh mint and cilantro.

I told Landon we had to take a picture after planting, when there are no weeds and we look like pro gardeners.

The pink trees outside our complex were really pretty this weekend.  Landon forced me to pose, and this is one of the few where I smiled...in most of them I was making the "I hate being in pictures by myself" face.

It's Here!

So, Landon received a belated Easter present this year.  It was planned to come in his basket, but it just so happens that they no longer make it, so I had to buy one of the two that are left online.  It shipped all the way from Belgium, so it took a little longer getting here.  Have you ever played the card game Twitch?  I love it.  Joe generally says it's because I'm mean and it allows me to pick on him.  I tell him it's only because he doesn't know his left from his right (an essential skill to this game) and I tend to flag him for it, ha.  Tami always encourages Joe's thinking, because it takes the heat off of her.  She is just as competitive at it as I am, but is a little more sneaky.  

On Landon's first weekend back from Mexico, he met my family.  Sadly only Michael and Tami were awake the night we taught him this game.  It was the most hilarious game of cards I've ever played.  Mostly because Landon either didn't understand the rules, or didn't care and was just so on edge that he kept throwing cards in the pile out of turn.  The rest of us got so confused that we didn't even know when to flag him for it or just play on.  The suspense of the game mixed with Landon's craziness, Michael's frustration, and the late hour resulted in Tami and I giggling the whole time.  

Bad Habits

In Preach My Gospel it states that in overcoming habits and addictions, it helps to create short wins and to get lots of friend support.  So, I have decided to post on the blog my small achievements, ha. Landon has been "encouraging" me lately to grow out my nails. For anyone who knows me, this is no small endeavor. I think I can count on one hand the times that I have had all ten of my nails long--and two of those occasions had to do with wedding pictures.  I had to get fake ones for high school dances.  It's not that I bite them...anymore.  I guess I did when I was little.  But when my friend Shira and I decided we had to stop that, I shifted to just tearing them off.  It is such a habit that I don't realize I'm doing it most of the time.  It's the worst when I am sitting for long periods of time.  Since school for 17 years of my life entailed just such a manner of sitting, and my other love of movies includes the same, I have never seemed to be able to grow them out. I told my Mom that long nails has to creep up on me.  Once I notice them, I start to tear them apart.  It's only when I'm so busy that I don't have time to sit around much that I realize they are getting longer.  So anyway, Landon made a deal with me that if I grow out all of my nails that he will take me out to dinner wherever I want.  That was a good move--food is a pretty good incentive in my world.  I negotiated until he allowed that if I had 9 long nails, then it would pass. Ha.  So now I guess if I must ruin them, I can focus on one nail and leave the rest alone.  I bought a french manicure set to inspire myself.  I'm making some progress, at least.