Brian can finally hear....

So last night we were out with the Wynns and word spread that Brian is hard of hearing, the topic then turned to earwax candles. There these candles that you stick in your ear and light the other end. It burns and with a little magic it sucks all the wax into the candle. We decided that Brian's hearing couldn't get worse so we decided to try it out......well a couple candle later, a lot of smoke and there is tons less wax in all our ears.

Vegas....

So last weekend we went to Vegas for Megan and Aaron's wedding. It was an awesome time! It was great to celebrate their great day with them, congrats guys! Also, while we were there Shelby and Mike were able to perform a miracle and score us tickets to see the Garth Brooks concert. It was a great time, and perfect way to get away for the weekend. Here's a few pics from the trip

A great weekend...

This weekend was a blast! On Friday night we went with Brian's family to see the lights at Temple Square. We decided to ride trax down from the stadium to avoid having to park downtown. The train was arriving the same time we did so Brian talked everyone, including his Grandma, into not buying a ticket and just hopping on (they never check tickets he said)...well halfway down the track we look up and see a cop coming through writing people tickets for hopping the train. We hurried off the train at the next stop and bought a ticket before getting back on...close call. We made it down and had a great time.




Saturday was game day!! We went to the Utah vs byu game. It was freezing cold, but we stuck it out to the end, and were payed off with an awesome field goal block for Utah to win the game.

Brian, his Dad Garry, and Jenn at the game

We knew it!!

That night we topped off the night with some of Brian's family to see the Rockettes Christmas Show.

Thanksgiving .....

This year we spent Thanksgiving with Brian's family. It was great because Heather and her kids were able to come down from Boise. We had a great time with the family.

Claire checking the turkey

Brian got to carve the bird since his Dad was recovering from surgery

A little post dinner dominos

Heather, Claire and Jenn

Rodeo and a Utes win, what more can you ask for....

This weekend was pretty sweet. We started out following the world’s worst GPS all over Ogden trying to find the rodeo. This rodeo was especially special because it was Heather's first rodeo. When we finally found it we learned a couple things...1) there are 10 year olds who are way more hardcore than Brian is. 2) Without her friends to stop her Jenn could easily bring all the little kids dressed like cowboys home, (she would see them, immediately name them, and ask to keep them). and 3) Ogden is Awesome! Thanks Mike and Heather for going on the adventure with us.

Mike and Heather at her first rodeo (you can see the joy in her eye, and the smell of cow poop in her nose)

10 year old riding a bull.....Hard Core!

On Saturday night we were able to watch the Utes break their 2 game losing streak in one of the most exciting games in weeks....Go Utes!!

Yeah, it's been 8 months.....

So, yeah we have been bad at blogging, but here's a rundown on the last 8 months.....

Well, we didnt go to Alaska this year so that Brian could do his internship at Planned Parenthood, we had a great summer hanging out with friends and family in Utah, but really missed Skagway!

We are both still finishing school and living in Salt Lake City......Basically we're just going to start from here.....enjoy

Spring Break in Phoenix....

Well we decided that since it's freezing in SLC we would take off for Phoenix for spring break week. Jenn drove down last week with her parents and the nieces, and Brian flew down last Friday after a midterm. It was great, we were able to soak up some sun, also we were able to take Olivia, Hailey and Austin to their first major league baseball game to watch the Mariners play the D-backs at spring training. It was a great, well needed break in the middle of a killer semester. Right now we are sitting in the airport waiting for our flights back to the cold, and school.

Olivia and Hailey come for a visit.....

Well it has been a long time since the last blog....but we're back! This last week has been a busy one. Jenn's sister's girls came up to stay with us for a week. We had a blast, first order of business was to take them up to the mountains. Since they have lived in Phoenix since they were really small they really haven't had a chance to play in the snow. So we took them up to Brian's family's cabin up near Park City. We even convinced Jenn's parents who were in town as well to brave the cold and come up as well. We had a great time riding snow mobiles, sledding, and playing in the snow. In all honesty I think the girls ate more snow than they played in. It seemed that every time we looked their way they were sitting in the snow, chowing down. We even took them sledding for the first time ever. We went to a small, but pretty steep hill. After a few runs of us riding with the girls we convinced Olivia to go alone. Brian promised that he would stop her before she hit the jump at the bottom...unfortunately he misjudged how fast she would go and instead of stopping her he just knocked her off her sled, check out the video below...

The next day we decided that we would take the girls to the local swimming pool. It's a pretty sweet indoor pool that has water slides, a lazy river, a whirlpool are, and tons of pipes that shoot out water. We had a great time swimming in perfect warm water while it was freezing outside.

During the rest of the week the girls were kept super busy by going to the children's museum, going to the movies, feeding the ducks, playing in the park, and eating their weight in candy. It was great to have them up here with us since we hardly get to see them.

From the beach to the books....

Well, our trip finally came to an end, and we are back in Salt Lake. We decided that we didnt want to drive home in the middle of the night just to make the first day of school, so we ditched it and stayed the night in Vegas. Now we are back in school, spending more time studying that anything else. Our first week back was a busy one, if you remember we moved apts the day before we took off on vacation so we came back to a house full of boxes. We spent this week unpacking and decorating our new diggs. This weekend Brian's sister Heather flew into town to visit for the weekend, so we are having a great time hanging out with her.

Can you get a sunburn on top of a sunburn....?

Why, yes you can!! All you have to do is take a look at Jenn today. So today we went back to the National Park to a different beach than we were at the other day. This one was almost totally deserted. It was awesome! We spent the morning swimming in perfectly clear water, and snorkeling around the reef. Also we spent a good deal of time fighting raccoons, at one point, there was one inches from Jenns unknowing hand ready to steal her granola bar, luckily Brian was there to warn her. (After it got really really close that is) After a few hours in what we thought was a spot mostly out of the sun we realized that were getting deeper sunburns, so we called it a day. On the way home we went to the street market for some good old fashion haggling. We got some pretty cool things to bring back and probably put in storage with all the other things we bring back from trips. Tonight we went back to the beach to watch the sun set. It was beautiful, and sad to know this is our last day at the coast. Tomorrow we leave for San Jose to catch a flight home on Sunday. We capped off our night with dinner at el Avian. Its a restaurant at the hotel that is build into an old CIA plane.Brian building "sand castles"

Jenn pretty much alone on the beach

At Sunset

The street market

Briand in front of the plane restaurant

Another Day at the beach....

Well, today we started the morning by letting the sun wake us up....which is at 530 am in Costa Rica. We decided to eat breakfast in our hotel room so Brian used his new pineapple cutting skills to make a fresh fruit spread. Then it was off to the beach. We went to the public beach that is right alongside our hotel. We have been using the public buses here because they pick up and drop off right in front of the hotel. In fact we have seen that they will usually stop whenever there is someone on the side of the road and pick them up, and they will let you off wherever you want. And it only costs like 50 cents for all day, unfortunately there are only people on the bus, we thought there would be chickens and goats like every South American bus on TV. So we took the bus to the public beach, it was another perfect day, too perfect we ended up looking like a pair of lobsters at the end of the day. On the public beach there are about a hundred guys renting chairs and umbrellas for 6 bucks a day. We got some from a guy who was stoked to meet us because he has a son named Brian. He was so excited that later that day he brought his wife and "little Brian" over to meet us. After a hot hot day at the beach we got take out on the way home and hung out in the hotel room. Jenn was out like a light before 830, gotta love vacation.

Before

After

This is where we spent the day

The arrow is pointing to our hotel from the beach

Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio

This is the beach we were at today

Today we spent our first full day in the tiny town of Manuel Antonio, and it was amazing! We are spending our last 5 days in the same hotel, we have a sweet view of the ocean from our balcony. We get to watch the sun set from there. Today we went to Manuel Antonio national park. It was perfect weather today so we hiked through the park to the beach. It was the most serene beach that we have been to in Costa Rica. White sand, calm waters, a coral reef to snorkel around....it was great. Also there was a family of racoons that were trying to get to everyone's food supplies. They must have been fed from coolers before because as soon as one hit the beach they were all over it. We literally spent the whole day laying in the sand and swimming in the ocean, a perfect day!

Jenn hangin on the beach

The racoon trying to steal food

Sunrise from our balcony

Tarzan....what?!?

Being that Aranal is the highest point in Costa Rica, we decided that we should take advantage of the views. We woke up early this morning to go on a canopy tour. We hiked so far up the mountain side we were literally in the clouds. We successfully survived 15 zip lines and one Tarzan swing. The Tarzan swing is a repelling rope tied up to a tree. You free fall about 40 feet before the rope catches and the swing begins.YIKES! Today is our last day in La Fortuna, We are now headed to Manuel Antonio, on the Pacific Coast. The beaches there are suppose to be some of the most beautiful beaches in the WORLD!

Volcano, Waterfall, and Hot Springs.....

Today we had a busy day in the Arenal Volcano area. We woke this morning and looked out our hotel window to see that the volcano was actually visible. Apparently over 70% of the time you arent able to see the volcano, so we got a real treat. Our hotel faced the inactive side of the volcano but we could still see smoke billowing out all day. After breakfast we took a hike to the La Fortuna waterfall, we hiked up and then went for a dip at the pool in the bottom. The water was amazing, it was nice and cool, a break from the usual water we have experienced. Later in the day we joined a tour group that took us on a hike through the rain forest at the base of the volcano. We spend a couple hours learning about the volcano, the plant life and the animals that live in the jungle. We also saw a bunch of monkeys again today. After that we drove around to the active side of the volcano to chance it and see if there was any lava flowing, luckily for us we got there just as some started coming down. After hanging out there for a while we went to Balhdi hot springs, its a resort that has pools that are natural hot springs feeding from around the volcano. They ranged from 94 to 152 degrees. We put our toes in the hottest one, but that was all we could manage. It was a great way to relax from a busy day halfway though our trip

Brian swimming in the waterfall pool

Arenal Volcano

La Fortuna waterfall from a distance


Jenn Hiking in the volcano rainforest

Lavaflow at volcano

Rain...in a rainforest.....who knew?

After 5 days of humidity and lots of walking we decided that today we needed a break and rented a scooter for the day. It was pretty fun since neither of us had ever drove one before, evident halfway through the day when Brian drove us into a ditch.... No harm though, it was already pretty banged up, and we walked away without a scratch to continue our day around the area. We went really far south today to a beach near the border of Costa Rica and Panama, It being a holiday weekend it was packed ! But when we got there it was perfect clear blue, calm waters. Then, the rain hit. It started pouring on us. So we packed up the scooter and headed back to town, By the time we got back we were soaked! We spent the rest of the day exploring Puerto Viejo, where at one point Jenn had a pack of 6 dogs trying to get her ice cream cone, (don't worry...none of them were successful.) Tomorrow we leave the beach for the volcano regions.

The beach across from our new hotel

Downtown Puerto Viejo

Manzillo Beach (before the downpour)

Brian (after the downpour)