THE HOUSE

Okay people.  Here are the first images of the house.  There aren't very many of them, but there will be tons more once we are finished cleaning and painting.  Which should be sometime next week.  We are extremely excited to move in to our first home!

Here is the front of the house.

This is the living room.

Our stove.  We are so excited that it's gas.

This is our kitchen with the dining room in the same area.

Entry/Coat closet.

This is going to be Michael and I's bedroom.  Yes, the carpet is ugly.

One of the bedroom closets.

The utility/laundry/food storage room.

The family room.  It is twice the size as shown here and will double as my office.

This is the downstairs bathroom.  The upstairs is laid out the same though.

This is the under the stairs storage area.  Which will only store things that can wait until Michael can pull them out for me. :)

Well, that's our home!  We will have lots more pictures later, but we have just been so busy trying to get it cleaned and fixed up before we have to be out of our apartment.  I will post those photos as soon as I have them.  It's finally happened.  We're growing up!  :)

Bear Lake

Well, the camping season is officially over.  We came home on Labor Day from our last camping trip of the year.  We packed up the gear and we won't pull it out again until May.  The trip to Bear Lake was more like a vacation than your typical camping trip.  All the trailers were hooked up to water and power and we had a pavilion with tables and lights.  But we were right on the beach.  The water in Bear Lake has risen significantly this year due to all the rain fall, so we didn't have to walk very far to get to the water.  I spent almost the entire time stitching, while Michael read his book.  Our good family friend Marty Estrada Jr. came with us.  It was wonderful to be able to spend some time with him.  Sedric loved playing in the water.  I honestly have no idea where he got his energy.  Here are some pictures from our trip.

This is Marty.  If he looks familiar, it's because he's the one who married Michael and I.

This is Kira.  She followed me around and loved playing with Sedric.

This little guy sat on my hand for nearly an hour.  Isn't it cute?

Sammy had kind of a hard time in the water.  His life vest floated him so well that he ended up slipping and falling face down in the water.  Luckily Uncle Michael was right there to grab him.

I'm a plant girl at heart.  I was digging up weeds for my plant class.  There were tons of them!

Sammy sure did love his watermelon.  His whole face was covered.

Steven was being adorable and trying to hide from my camera.

Well, that was it.  Our last camping trip of 2011.  We had tons of fun, and are seriously looking forward to going again next year.  For more pictures visit:  http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.277454775601145.75992.100000098751896&l=67e01f9c7d&type=1

The Uintahs

While Michael was not able to go to the Uintahs with us, I was still able to take some really cool pictures.  Here are some of them.

There was tons of rain and hail.  We nearly floated away!

This hail was the size of nickels.  It was kinda nasty.

The area was beautiful.  This was by far my favorite camping trip of the year.

For more photos go to: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.276990098980946.75926.100000098751896&l=fe8a306114&type=1

Canning and Closing

We closed on the house!  We signed all the papers on Monday, and we got the keys yesterday.  We are trying to find the time, between Michael's work and my school, to get over and clean.  I will post pictures soon of the disaster awaiting us.  I am really excited about the yard, but it's going to be a project to say the least.

In other news, I started school on Monday as well, and I have already had 3 quizzes and 2 assignments due and turned in.  It's going to be a tough semester, but I am on top of my homework, and plan to stay that way.  All of my classes are at least mildly interesting, which is tons better than being bored.  I got my final grades for summer semester and am pleased to announce that I got a B- in Chemistry and an A on my internship.  I am fairly pleased with myself.

On Saturday I tried my first home canning project, and it went fairly well.  I picked some of the tomatillos from the family garden and made salsa verde.

It might not look very appetizing here, but it really is yummy.

I only ended up with two jars because I accidentally dropped the box and broke two of them.  But there are more tomatillos ripening, so I will be able to make more salsa soon.  I am also going to make strawberry and strawberry-rhubarb jam, and if I can manage to score some tomatoes I will be making stewed and diced tomatoes as well.  Next year Michael and I will have our own garden as well as the family one and we will be doing lots of canning from there.  Our new house has a decent size laundry room/cold storage room that I am looking forward to filling with home canning and other food storage items.  We are both excited to start making our own spice mixtures and batters.  Yep.  We're those kind of people.

I will also be posting pictures from my camping trip to the Uintahs and our last camping trip of the year to Bear Lake.  Those will be a little later as we are going to Bear Lake this weekend. :)

Once we have cleaned and painted we will post those pictures and then complete the set by posting pictures after we have furniture and pictures pit where we want them.  It's a project that will be well worth it in the end.  Wish us luck!