I haven't even looked at a blog in months.
For one thing, I never get on the desktop computer anymore now that I have an iphone. And even though it doesn't document our life as well, facebook and instagram have taken the place of all the documentation I used to do on the blog. Go find me- Kate H Jefferies and spideylark...if you haven't already. ANYWAY... I'd really like to get back into the blog again, just so I can finally get around to making a book out of our most important milestones.
Another reason is that we have been extremely busy moving...moving! Holy moly! What a summer!
Back around the time I last posted, in May...Brent learned that he FINALLY got accepted to the post-doctorate fellowship that he was hoping (read: fixated on) to do since he had graduated 6 years earlier. Well, this fellowship happened to be at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. So we packed up 6 years of living in Oregon and moved back to Utah! It was bittersweet. One the one hand, so happy to be living close to our old family and friends again! So happy to experience all our old fun spots! So happy that Brent was finally getting a chance to do the research he had been hoping to do for years. But sad to leave the beautiful, green lands and the friends we have who are like family to us.
Well, we moved to Utah at the end of June ... and it was apparent almost right away that the research program he had been dreaming of was not the same one he had dabbled in during school. Maybe it changed in 6 years, or maybe Brent changed...but the biggest factor in him not liking it was that he realized that it would require much more of our family time than we were willing to sacrifice. So, Brent resigned just a few weeks into the program...with a heavy heart...but early enough in the fellowship so that they could still replace him. We really wanted to stay in Utah, but after looking high and low we found there were not many jobs open in his field (much to our surprise!). There were a LOT of jobs open back in Oregon, so we packed it up and moved on back! This time we are residing at the beautiful, wild coast!! We arrived in Lincoln City the very beginning of September.
Our summer in Utah was a great big, fun vacation!
All CrAzY, all bittersweet...LOTs of big changes for us and our kids in a short time. We are really hoping to settle in here and stay for several years though, and think we will be really happy here. It is the smallest town we have ever lived in. It is very touristy! The BEACH is only 1 block away from our house now.
Come visit!
8/16/12
We celebrated three years since Elsa's birth in Utah! We took a quick trip to Utah just to celebrate her birthday at her grave. No just kidding! But it felt like it. We were thinking about doing the trip so some of our family and friends could meet our new baby Milo, but I was really uncertain about wanting to do such a long trip with a 6 week old baby. I don't think I decided for certain if we would go or not until the night before. Because of that, all of our plans were last minute and it was not very well planned out and we didn't get to see as many people as we hoped, which is a bummer. But I was happy that we could have a birthday party on Elsa's grave this year. The whole celebration could not come close to comparing to
our beautiful tea party that we had last year...but I'm cutting myself some slack since I just had a baby! Anyway, we spent almost the whole day in the car driving, and we arrived in Salt Lake City around dinner time. We stopped and ordered some take out, picked up some flowers and a cake and other birthday supplies at Dan's, and went and had a picnic at Elsa's grave. The sign at the graveyard says no picnics, but I'm going to go ahead and waive that rule for us when we've just arrived from out of town on our daughter's birthday. :)
We put up some streamers and I bought a beautiful GIRLY butterfly balloon (which I payed for and then accidentally left at the store...but went back and got it afterward, and tied it on the flowers).
I took so long taking pictures that the wick burned out on the cheap candle, before we could finish singing Happy Birthday. Brent said that Elsa blew it out! :)
6 week-old Milo
I did have a couple of easy little Elsa Day Celebration projects, which didn't exactly get finished on her birthday. But they were good for me. I will post about them separately. I didn't order and release butterflies this year, or do a service project...but like I said earlier, we're cutting me some slack since I just had a baby! ;)
We love and miss our Elsa dearly...but our family would only be a shadow of what we've become in the past 3 years. I have faith that all will be Well!
November 23-29, 2011
This year for Thanksgiving we were lucky to be able to spend the holiday with *almost* all of BOTH of our families. It worked out really nicely! We took a quick trip to Utah, and had a total of 5 days to spend between both of our families. It was a treat! Our main reason for going was that Brent's parents were leaving on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to the Lyon, France mission...and their farewell just happened to be the weekend after Thanksgiving. AND my mom and her husband will be leaving on a mission to Vienna, Austria at the end of the winter so we were saying farewell to them too...since it probably won't be very safe to drive to Utah at that time of year. AND my little sister flew in from New York with her husband to spend time with us. So between all those people, all the dinners and festivities...we didn't make an effort to see any of our friends. And we are sorry and hope we didn't hurt any feelings...summer will be here before we know it, and we will take a big VAYCAY to see all our lovely friends in Utah (we won't have parents to visit then ;).
The drive from Oregon to Utah...it feels like we've taken it a million times.
We arrived at Grandma and Granddad Jefferies' house in Draper to find that they had cut down the huge tree in their front yard. Someone was a little sad about that!
So I guess he decided to go to work in the backyard raking up all the tons of leaves from the trees that are still back there...
...so grandma could JUMP into them!! Seriously! What an awesome grandma!
lots of fun time with all the Jefferies cousins!
{yes, Toby is sitting in a high chair...I guess we were a little short on chairs}
all of Brent's siblings got a great laugh out of Ollie's shirt!
On Black Friday, we packed up our gear and hit the slopes at our favorite places in the world!
driving up the canyon which I have driven up hundreds of times...
glorious place!
that building on our left is Molly Green's Pub where Brent and I had our wedding reception...it was an emergency relocation from the LDS church across the parking lot, due to an extreme downpour. On the right, up in the trees is where the camp I worked at for 3 years is located. I {heart} Brighton!
closeup of Molly Greens...our reception was in the banquet room on the second floor.
we're all ready and excited with my sis and her husband to hit the slopes!
what an amazing day!! There wasn't much snow, so it was a lot of dodging rocks...but it was blowing fiercely cold snow all day, so we ended up with some fresh powder! There were a couple of moments where the sun or blue sky broke through.
The MOST AMAZING thing that happened was when the ski lift STOPPED unexpectedly. We were only two lifts away from being at the top when it stopped. We waited...and waited...and waited...and it didn't start back up again. We saw staff arrive on snowmobiles with several stretchers, and started wondering what could have happened. Then we saw workers running in and out of the top of the lift frantically. Finally after 20 minutes the backup diesel engine for the lift fired up, and with much exhaust and choking smoke we finally got off that lift. 20 minutes may not sound like it was that long, but remember that it was blowing very hard and cold, and snowing. Brrrrrrrrrr!!!! WE were SO COLD when we got off. We're thinking that's why they had the stretchers ready at the top, in case anyone had severe hypothermia. We were well enough {thankfully} to ski down to the lodge, where we took a break with hot cups of cocoa. That was a skiing first {and hopefully a last} for all of us!
after our cold adventure...standing in front of Molly Greens!
Afterward, we warmed up at my mom's house with some chili and corn bread!
Carlos, Heather and Ollie on left, Mom and Marvino on the right.
The next day we took a little driving tour of some of our favorite places in Salt Lake City. First we started, of course, at Elsa's place:
where we left her a big, colorful bouquet of Thanksgiving flowers in a lovely turkey ceramic. We are as always, very thankful for our angel girl.
next, we drove through the neighborhood where I spent my childhood days. We showed the boys my humble but happy childhood home on Yalecrest.
nostalgic SLC
Then we met back up with my family for dinner at my mom's, where we had an announcement to make:
Brent set the camera to take 10 shots in a second and then said "one, two, three, we're having another baby in JUNE!". Then there were a series of pictures to document my mom and sisters' reactions. Sadly, one of my sister's was missing. :(
This was the best "reaction" shot. Are we happy?? Or...??
anyway...here's a group shot of all of us there that night.
The next day was Brent's parents' farewell:
*almost* all of the siblings were there. 8 out of 10...not bad!
we had another fabulous day frolicking with family!
and a final chance to say FAREWELL, as Grandma and Granddad were departing in the morning.
"Demain, a l'heur ou blanchit la campangne, je partirai."
{tomorrow, at the hour of first light in the country, I depart}
That's the first line of a poem I memorized and won a prize for reciting at the regional foreign language fair...when I took French in 8th grade...from Brent's dad!!!! Ah... how life makes a full circle. Although, I think I absolutely butchered the spelling.
That night, we slept over at Brent's brother's house, just so we could spend more time with their family and hang out the next day:
SLEEPOVER!!
{this was a treat, since we usually don't do sleepovers...but since we were there, it was acceptable}
These guys LOVE hanging out with these cousins.
Ella calls Joshua "noodle" Toby "cookie," and she chases them around! Joshua and Toby call Ella "cookie-noodle chaser." :)
We took a trip to the new Utah Museum of Natural History in research park, which we got in for free with our Oregon Museum of Science and Industry Membership. It was spectacular, although I felt slight sadness and nostalgia for the old museum...as I did when the Hansen Planetarium and the old Children's Museum closed down to make way for brand new, state of the art facilities.
This was my favorite room in the museum:
It was a life science laboratory...and I took this picture becasue a) there is a meadowlark in the mural, and b) someday I want to build a house with a playroom/science room, and I want to paint a mural like this on the wall. I also LOVE that shelf along the top of the wall with the specimens on in.
earth sceinces
Then we headed over to the Church museum, where they have a great children's play area for free:
Ella had a great time doing some Spanish dancing!
3 adorable cousins playing with the pretend food...OH, be still my heart!
My sweet little Olives playing with the nativity.
we walked across the street to temple square to see the lights...such a treat!
The next day we were gone, gone, gone...on our way back to Oregon. There were lots of beautiful skies on the way back:
Thankful.
EPIC!
11/05/2011
| Author:
kate
There are lots of things I could call this post:
Epic hike, epic anniversary date, epic day of physical exertion, but most of all epic FAIL!
As I mentioned in my
last post, we skipped going on a fancy schmancy 12th aniversary vacation for a few reasons. Mostly because we didn't want to spend big money, but also because Brent's brother was returning from his LDS mission to Singapore and having his homecoming celebration the day after our anniversary. We decided to go to Utah instead of a vacation...and while we were there wanted to plan something EPIC to do.
8/23:
LONE PEAK! I've wanted to hike that with Brent since I first met him, but the circumstances have never been quite right up until now. Still, we were pushing it to think we could hike Lone Peak in one day in the blistering heat of August.
Here is a visual overview of our hike:
On the right (where we started) is Draper. We walked up that big mountain all day and for several reasons we did not end up having enough daylight to make it all the way to the top. By the time we stopped I could go no further. I felt like such a quitter, but really there was nothing we could do about it...except plan our next trip better.
We started out on the wrong foot by getting going later than we planned. Everyone we have talked to says you have to start at 4 am to climb the mountain in one day. I think we started at 8:30. Also, Brent decided to take an experimental trail, one he's never taken before. We took the brand new Orson Smith trail on the front of the mountain, starting in Draper (as opposed to the shorter, much preferred Jacob's Ladder trail, which you can access from Draper or Alpine). All in all, we ended up hiking across the mountain and back twice in the time we could've been up to the top and on our way back down. Disappointing! The Jacob's Ladder trail is 11 miles, and we ended up hiking 13...all WITHOUT making it to the top. Oh well!
And I'd like to make myself feel better about it all by saying we had a great time anyway, but we really didn't have a great time. It was over 100 degrees, the sun was mercilessly beating down on us the whole time, and it was a very strenuous hike. Not to mention that we had to hike 3/4 of the way down in the dark...with no flashlights. BUT...even though I was questioning my sanity in voluntarily choosing to do this hike, I am glad we went. I was SO GLAD to finally see this mountain of which I've heard Brent gush about all our married life. And next time, yes there will be a next time...we will easily hike this in two days, starting from the Jacob's Ladder trail.
climbing altitude! Excited!
Draper LDS Temple
a view of Salt Lake City, SLC how I love thee!
somehow we cross the whole width of the mountain and ended up climbing the "bald spot". It went on FOREVER in the hot, blazing sun. I do not recommend doing that.
Brent at the top of the Bald Spot. He kept getting ahead of Emily and I, and I thought we were never going to catch up with him. Jonny, Brent's brother was
teaching paragliding lessons that morning. His plan was to run up the mountain (!) and meet us when he was done. Brent and his brother are pretty crazy, as you can tell.
from the top of the bald spot
after reaching the bald spot, we traversed the mountain once again to find the spring. We filled all of our water bottles and camelbacks. This hike would be impossible without this spring. We could not have carried more water than we did, and it was no where near enough. It is a very good thing that Brent and his family knows this mountain!
Jonny and Emily: Jonny finally caught up with us! He hiked with us for a few miles and then had to leave again to teach evening paragliding lessons! He ran back to the bald spot with his paraglider and flew off the mountain!
this is where we stalled out for the day. It was so sad, but we just did not have enough daylight to safely come down from the peak if we went any further. Not to mention, I really couldn't hike any further up.
here is the view of the cirque and the peak from where we stopped...SO close! Yet so far away...
beautiful flower and beautiful Emily
On our way back down we crossed over the mountain, yet again...this time to the north side, so we could stay out of the blazing heat.
the shady side is longer, but much more pleasant
and we found the old hikers cabin, which is supposed to be pretty hard to find!
Emily and Kate
Brent and Kate: Happy 12th Anniversary + 3 days!
beautiful flowers, glowing in the sunlight
ant
Emily missed a spot with the sunscreen! Ouch!
forget-me-nots {heart} favorite!
Giant nose picking
I LOVE aspen trees...and miss them in Oregon
red elderberry (poisonous) and rose hips (edible)
The sun is starting to set and I keep stopping to take all these breathtaking pictures because the lighting is perfect. Little did I realize that we still had a LONG way to hike. It looked like we were close, but we were only 1/4 of the way down.
It was a LONG, long, long way down in the dark, but we made it eventually. And when we got to the car that felt pretty miraculous!
Even though it was VERY hard, it was awesome to spend the day doing something we could NOT do with our kids for our anniversary. We love our kids and we take them everywhere with us...so that limits what we can do.
Happy Anniversary to my best friend and love!
