Snowbasin

our family riding the gondola up the mountain

Emma making her own trail

they were so excited to see snow!

Nick and the girls at the top of the mountain

With the weather suddenly turning cold we decided we better take a drive through the mountains to see the fall leaves. So after Conference on Saturday we grabbed lunch and headed up the canyon. Trapper's loop looked beautiful so we kept driving until we got to Snowbasin. My girls were having a great time tromping through the leaves and discovering snow. It was also the last day that you could ride the gondola up the mountain so we decided to try it. It was exciting even though all there was to do at the top was eat in the lodge or hike. (We weren't dressed for hiking around espeically when it felt like winter and we had already eaten.) Coming down was incredible because the sun had started to come out and you could see the whole valley! It was a fun fall day!

Update

I thought I should do a Nick update since it has been awhile. Nick had his latest PET scan on September 22 after his 4th chemotherapy cycle. Things looked great. All of the lymphoma areas were better and the doctors were very pleased. He still had to complete 2 more cycles of chemotherapy and his last one was on October 8th. Yeah! We have been very blessed that he has done so well on chemotherapy. He has actually gained weight and his only complaint was some body soreness. Now we are waiting until November 2nd when they will do another PET scan and bone marrow biopsy to see how things are going with no chemo. If that looks clear Nick's next check-up will be 3 months from then. That will put it around 1 year from when all of this started. (sigh). Right now, Nick is stuck in limbo. He feels good enough to start working (at least a few hours each day) but his transplant doctor does not want him to start back yet. He feels like Nick is still too susceptible to everything and he can't get the flu or H1N1 vaccines until it is closer to his 6 month mark (around Nov 2). His next appointment with his transplant doctor is next week so we will see what he says. For now, we are enjoying the fact that he is home and able to do things with us or can watch the girls for short periods of time! Do I dare say things are slowing down?

In my spare time....

the pillowcase dresses I made for the girls

my first 5K with my bro-in-law James

home-made salsa 2009

I decided to give myself an extension. I hate it when I don't get things done that are on my list, so it's bugging me that I still have items on my "30 list" and it is past my birthday. (My excuse is that I kind of had a crazy year!!) I'm still trying to work on the list and I am hoping I can get most of them done by the end of 2009, but we will see. So, here are a few things I've been working on.

Pillowcase dresses: they don't have anything to do with my list, but I was just so proud of myself for sewing them. I haven't sewn anything since my 7th grade windsock, so I was pretty pleased with how they turned out. I thought the girls looked cute in them.

5K: I ran my first 5K in August in the Dash for Donation. The course was at Weber State and it had two major hills to climb, but I did better than I thought. 8th place overall; 2nd in women ages 26-30. Official time: 37:35 which I know is not fast to those of you who run, but I was happy to be under 40 minutes since I hadn't run for 3 weeks prior to the race (Nick was in the hospital). I could barely walk down the stairs the next day, but it was such a great feeling of accomplishment! I liked it so much that I ran another 5K in September and I beat my time by 2 minutes! It's funny because I don't love to run, but the races make it worthwhile.

Salsa: I haven't made salsa in 5 years and Nick loves it, so I begged my mom to come help me one Friday night. We were up until 1 am, but we were able to can 7 quarts and 6 pints. It is the best salsa we have made so far. Let's hope it lasts until next year!

Surprise!

Normally, I love my birthday. Not this year. I was not looking forward it. Turning thirty seemed like the icing on the cake (no pun intended) to an already tumultuous year. It also happened to fall on Nick's 3rd chemotherapy appointment which meant we couldn't do much of a celebration. So I went along with life trying to ignore the upcoming date....until I found a piece of paper in Nick's gym shorts. It had the names of my 3 best friends from high school and their phone numbers, and addresses to some of my friends in Roy. What in the world is this? Oh no! Nick was trying to throw me a surprise party for my 30th birthday-- just like I did when he turned 30. Revenge or Love? So, I tried to not snoop to find out when this was happening. It was later when Nick practically forced me to see a movie I didn't really want to see, and then took me shopping (which I'm sure Nick didn't want to do), did I realize that he was distracting me while things were set up. Eventually we made it home to a garage full of family, friends, and food. And we had fun! Nick had the idea in the works for several weeks and also had a lot of help from family members. The garage was decorated, dinner was served, and we had cake and ice cream to top it off! It was great to visit and relax with everyone! (FYI on my actual birthday, I ate a delicious lunch from Huntsman while spending some quality time with Nick and then later we went to Farr's ice cream with the girls.Yum)