Nerf War

There is a long standing Christmas tradition in the Winter family. Most families traditions include things such as acting out the nativity, making homemade fudge, or decorating your house with the most lights on the block. The Winter family tradition is nothing of that sort. The Winter's tradition is to have a full out Nerf war in the living room with the whole family. This year the tradition was a little delayed, but it was a big success nonetheless. We met the family at a Kaysville church cultural hall, and had a splendid time with the festivities.

As you can probably tell, I have been quite occupied with other things for the past couple of months hence my hiatus from the blogging world. But now there is reason to rejoice! Rejoice with me all! For I am now Weber State alumni instead of a Weber State student. That is right, my friends, I have finally graduated with my bachelor's degree. Friday was the commencement ceremony, and I had a lot of fun celebrating with all of my nursing friends. To make it even more fun, Brad graduated with me. He wasn't to keen on the idea of walking in the ceremony for his associate's degree, but I said "you're going to be sitting through the long ceremony anyway, you might as well walk." So he did. Besides, he got to wear a purple robe, and he was pretty stoked about that too. My parents took us to lunch before the commencement ceremony which was a great idea because I had to leave about 45 minutes after the ceremony in order to get to Salt Lake before call time for the Tabernacle Choir Concert. Which, by the way, was wonderful. Natalie Cole did a great job. She definitely had a different style than past artists, but I guess each artist has been quite original. She was very captivating on Friday night. David McCullough was great to have at the concert also. He seems like a very down to earth type of guy. He's a great story teller, and just has so much knowledge to share. And of course Richard Elliott gave an amazing performance on the organ. He can just fly! I can't understand how his mind can keep track of so many things! I love being a part of such a great production.
In other news, Brad has all of his pharmacy school applications in, and we are now awaiting the invitations to interviews. We hate the waiting game, but it has to be done. So, anyway, there is a little bit of catch up in our lives.

September

So, school started, and now I never post. It is a sad fact of life that school takes up time. Anyway, I thought I should at least take the time to post a least once during the month of September. And guess what is so special about September? It is my birthday month! My birthday is actually on the 3rd of September, but we have pretty much been celebrating it all month long. Brad and I actually celebrated my birthday on my birthday. He took me shopping for some new clothes which I truly needed. I had a bell recording that night, but when I came home, he had made cupcakes. The funny thing is, is that we only had one egg in the house, and the cupcake recipe called for 3 eggs. So what did Brad do? He used his awesome conversion skills that he learned in pharmacy tech class and convert the whole recipe to 1/3 the size to account for the lone egg.


The next birthday celebration was about a week later with the whole fam. We met is Salt Lake and went to this delicious pizza place called Setebellos. I highly reccomend it. Guess what my siblings gave me? New KNIVES! We have a pretty shoddy set of kitchen knives and I constantly complain about how I can't even cut a carrot decently. So thank you fam!

The final birthday celebration was on Sunday. Mom made angel food cake, and we had fresh peaches on top with whipped cream. MMmmmm... that is so good.

This month has really just flown by. We are already in the 5th week of classes at Weber State. That means we're almost a third of the way through the semester (can anyone tell that it is my last semester of school, and I am a little more than eager to be done?) . Brad has made wonderful strides on his applications for pharmacy school. He is meeting with his professors for letters of reccomendation and for guidance on his personal statement. I am very impressed with how ahead of the game he is. He is really doing great despite his very hectic school schedule. So, all is going well for us.


This is the only picture I have of all the birthday festivities. Isn't it a becoming picture? Brad's pose in the background is also one in a million don't you think?

Pictures

Hawaii 2009

Here are a few pictures from our Hawaii adventure with the whole Winter family. It was such a fun experience, and we are so grateful to Mom and Dad for planning the whole thing for us! This is Brad and me being Tahitian warriors. I know, we're fearsome.We went to the Polynesian Cultural Center while we were on Oahu. We got to go to a really fun Luau and drink mango shakes from a pineapple. We ate fresh shrimp from Remy's shrimp shack. It was literally a shack on the side of the rode. But the shrimp was fresh, and it tasted great. It was a messy meal though.

When we got to Kauai, we went on a awesome hike along the Napali Coastline. It was so lush and green and just full of spectacular views. The whole trail supposedly takes about 3 days, but we only took the first stretch. It landed us at a very pretty beach, with some severe warnings

The last day, we went Kayaking along a river after playing on the beach. The kayaking was way fun, and that is where I received my sunburn of all sunburns (see previous post). It was totally worth it though.

Wear Sunscreen.....

I would like to bear testimony of the importance of wearing sunscreen. We were so good throughout our whole Hawaii trip to apply generous amounts of sunscreen, and because of our earnest efforts, we were not burnt at all until the last day of our vacation. But the sun had it out for me, and my legs now look like swollen tomatoes. We went kayaking the last day of our vacation, which means our legs were a perfect target for the sun, while the rest of our vacation they had been well hidden in the waves of the ocean. To make the matter even worse, I spent the whole next day on a plane where I could not elevate my feet. I wish I had a picture to show of the moment we landed in Salt Lake. It wasn't pretty. I had kankles! This picture is 4 days after the sunburn occurred, and the swelling has gone down drastically. However, I can still make polka dot pictures with the edema that remains after elevating my legs for significant amounts of time. So, yes, sunscreen does work. It prevents cancer. It prevents unnecessary pain. And it prevents kankles.

Hawaii

So we've spent about the last week in Hawaii with Brad's family. We have been having a great time, and really have not had time to sit down and post. I am just logging in to say hello since we have a little down time this evening. Let me tell you, Hawaii is amazing! We started out our trip on Oahu where I discovered what I want my new hobby to be... snorkeling! I know there isn't a lot of supreme snorkeling spots in Utah, so it wont really blossom into anything more, but I highly reccommend snorkeling. We went to Shark's cove where we saw angel fish, clown fish, a turtle, the Hawaii state fish, and all sorts of other amazing tropical fish. We got to Kauai on Sunday and went on an beautiful hike on Monday morning along the coastline near the Napali coast. Today we went to the ocean and played in the waves and did more snorkeling. This has been such a great adventure, but unfortunately, probably the only think Brad and I forgot was the memory card to our camera. I know! pretty stupid, huh? We were able to buy one, but I can't transfer the pictures to the computer until we get home, so I promise a few pictures next time. Until then... Aloha!

SIBLING ADVENTURE 2009!

So, BriAnn and Derek really instigated this whole thing. And for that, I give them a great big THANK YOU! We went camping "siblings only style" this past weekend and had so much fun. We stayed at Spirit Lake in the High Uintas and I highly recommend it. The camping trip really only consisted of fishing, eating, card games, and sleeping. But really, what could be better? Derek and BriAnn went up a day early and set up camp. Nathan, Janel, Brad, and I drove up after I got off work on Friday. Here are some of the pictures of all the fun we had.



Having fun at our campsite



Derek and Nathan being men with their fish. Derek caught 2 fish, and Nathan, I think, had 4 within his sight, but for some reason we couldn't get one in the boat for him.



Brad and the canoe.




Yes, believe it or not, I even caught a fish. It has probably been at least 10 years! Brad caught 2 fish! We were in this great little hole and caught all 3 within probably 30 minutes! I love fish cooked in the fire. It is so good. BriAnn also caught one, and we got to reap the benefits of her fine work because she doesn't like fish.



Isn't the scenery nice?



Nathan :)



Janel and BriAnn on our little hike while the men fished



Packing up



Everyone on our last day.

Yes, we truly enjoyed ourselves. We had fun improvising during the camping trip since none of us are pros at the planning part of the camping experience quite yet. We cooked pretty much anything we wanted to on a stick in the fire including rolls, starbursts, and bacon. When you're camping anything goes.

CAMPING ROCKS!


He He He.