Mexico

I have been a horrible blogger…but, Jason and I got back from Mexico a few days ago!  We had a much needed break and got to see each other for a record breaking 8 days in a row!  It was a very last minute trip as we were planning on going to Southern Utah for our “honeymoon” but we decided that warm weather was needed. We looked for the cheapest tickets and voila a trip to the Yucatan was born.  We flew into Cancun (which is not my cup of tea at all, think Mexican version of Las Vegas only more expensive and you don’t even feel like you are in Mexico if you do happen to stay at one of the monstrous resorts).  From Cancun we hopped on a ferry to Isla Muejeres.  Our first full day we followed Erin and Aaron’s lead and rented a scouter to tour the Island, so much fun!

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We had lunch on the southern end of the Island at this place that was praised to have the best fish on the Island, served with an ancient Mayan spice…Well I should have known better but I ordered it anyway (this would not be the first time that I was served a whole fish head on a plate).  I was so embarrassed when it came out, I had no idea what I was in for especially since the price did not indicate that this was a huge meal…

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Unlike the last time this happened to me this fish was actually very good and well worth the embarrassment!  Below you can see me lifting the fish off my plate, my fork is in the fish’s mouth…img_8800

Afterward we walked along the beach a bit and sat in some chairs to let our white skin soak up some sun, this guy next to me was doing the same thing…

img_8805Guess he didn’t want any of that sun on his lower half!  Since we happened to time our trip during Carnaval we got to enjoy lots of parades and local festivities that were going, it was fun to see the local people dressed up in their costumes and celebrating.  Our first night we saw this group of men and woman in pink costumes with flamingos on their heads, they did a choreographed dance in the sand…

img_8757While we were on Isla we also took a tour over to Isla Contoy which is a neighboring island that is uninhabited by people except for a research facility that studies some of the wildlife that is found there.  We unfortunately only saw one flamingo flying and it was too far away to get a picture but we did get to see some frigate birds, a  mantaray, hundreds of hermit crabs, some iguanas and one million hungry mosquitoes.  below is a picture of one of the iguanas surrounded by his crab friends living in harmony…

img_8917This one had the best house by far…

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Our tour guides made us a yummy lunch, more fish, a really good cucumber salad with peppers, fresh guacamole, rice and some watermelon!

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The next day we headed back to the mainland and caught a bus south to Tulum.  We got a room at Casa del Sol, a cute hostel with cabanas run by Lucy and Abuelita (the little Grandma, this was how Lucy introduced us to her) both spoke very little English so it was a great way to practice our Spanish.  Here is a picture of Jas hanging out at the hostel…

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The beaches at Tulum were really beautiful, picture perfect white sand and crystal clear water, we walked very south down the beach one afternoon…

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Had some yummy tacos with an idyllic setting…

img_9053found some friends…

img_9169We also went to Coba to check out the ruins there, here is a picture of me at the top looking not so excited about going down with all the other stupid tourists…

img_9120That’s all I got for now, will probably be posting the rest of our pictures to picasa in the next few days.  I am back on night shifts again and my brain and sleep cycle are all out of wack.  We had a great time and I am already missing the warm weather, is it spring time yet?!!!

Back to the grind…

After six days off I am headed back into the “office”, this picture captures the essence of my excitement…

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Mini-Moon

Last weekend Jason and I enjoyed a relaxing two day get-away in Midway, UT at a cute little B & B called The Invited Inn.  This was a wedding gift from Mom and Dad Hughson; we really needed the escape from SLC and all of the hustle and bustle from our busy work schedules!  We didn’t really take very many pictures because we were too busy relaxing, but right before we left we snapped a few…We had a fun princess-style bed…

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There was a fireplace that connected the bathroom and the bedroom,  please note Jason is pretending to go to the bathroom in this shot…

img_8695We went skiing at Sundance our first day, there wasn’t fresh snow but the weather was clear and we had a good time, this is a shot of Jason, mid calf stretch, on top of the mountain where there is a little lodge…

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A shot of Jason on the back patio of the lodge at Sundance…

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It was nice to return to our room at the end of a hard day of skiing, we relaxed in the jetted tub and hung out in the sauna before heading out to the Snake Creek Grill for dinner.  It was a perfect relaxing weekend, thanks Kathy and Dan!

3.

Visit all of Utah’s National Parks in 2010…two down.

img_8669The above picture is of Capitol Reef, Jas and I got away last weekend, we first explored Bryce and then on the way home took a quick tour of Capitol Reef.  I can’t wait to go back to do more hiking at Capitol it was absolutely amazing there, even better was the fact that we had the whole park to ourselves, literally we did not see another person!

img_8552Above is a picture of Jas cross country skiing at Bryce, looks as though he is about to go over the edge!  We had perfect weather this day, totally clear and warm enough to ski with just a long sleeve shirt on.

2.

Go on more winter hikes…even if it means I must go alone.

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New Year’s resolutions…

1. keep bulletin board free of useless clutter…done!

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Check out my sweet new flip calender from Hollye featuring her original artwork!

Happy New Year

I have been in a blog posting rut lately, so here’s to a more consistent blogging year filled with lots of new adventures!

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It is December already!

How the time flies when you have so many visitors!  I am seriously amazed by how many people have come to visit us in SLC, feel sort of spoiled too, it will be sad when people are sick of coming here but until then I am living it up!  In November we had Lindsay for a few days and luckily I also had some days off work so we were able to explore SLC unrestricted!  Lindsay, Jason and I hiked Grandeur Peak one day…

img_8428We also had a fun time exploring the SLC night scene which included a sad and hilarious attempt at “bar hopping” we ended our evening by performing Journey’s  “Don’t Stop Believing” at a Karaoke bar, it is pretty safe to say we were the only ones with talent, immediately after our performance despite the entire bar’s pleads for us to stay and give an encore, we left the building.  Here is a picture of Lindsay from that night…

img_8436After Lindsay left Steph came into town for Thanksgiving!  We had a good time as well, one of the absolute highlights of her trip was when we managed to come across 7 Newfoundlands at a very posh pet store in Park City, the owner of the dogs (and the store) must have sensed my love for them (I did tell him at least three times “I love them”) and gave us 2 Newfie’s for us to walk around Park City!!!  I was beyond excited, in fact I am still worked up about it, made my month!

I love them!  Walking them that day has only fueled my love and I can’t wait to have one of my own!  One of the Newf’s at the shop was 17 years old which is amazing for a  large HUGE dog and his owner told me that all of his dog’s have lived beyond 12 years of age.   Anyway, I love them :)

Steph and I also made a trip up to Brighton in Big Cottonwood Canyon for a sunny day of skiing.  It was our first day out for the season and our first time skiing in Utah, skiing in the sun = awesome!  I am so use to the miserable wet, cold and windy skiing in Oregon that I had no idea skiing could be so wonderful and enjoyable!

It was great fun, I am excited for more sunny skiing adventures!  While Steph was here she and I worked on a gingerbread house so that we could enter it virtually into the Dukovich-Kreim-Dukovcic gingerbread house contest that our families in Pennsylvania put on every year, this was our submission…

img_8469Oh Yeah we were pretty serious about it, our very own little Whoville!  Steph and I also cooked a turkey and did the whole Thanksgiving feast (mini style since it was just Jas, Steph and myself).  The turkey turned out amazing, although I have to say that while Lindsay was here she and I cooked a full turkey breast in preparation for my first bird and it was by no means an easy task, in fact it was a disaster.  Luckily the second bird turned out and was just wonderful, all credit going to Steph since I had to work the night before Thanksgiving when she did most of the work making the brine and everything else.   This picture is blurry but check that bird out!

Beautiful.  That is what has been going on in my world.  Jas is still hard at work but he is already half way through his first year of residency (woohoo!) the next two years should be much less intense in regards to his crazy schedule, so that is good.  He and I are looking forward to our break in February, we have big plans to explore the parks in Southern Utah, can’t wait!

Hello November…

Jason and I kicked off the Holiday season by making a batch of apple cider, since we aren’t going to be able to come home for any of the Holidays this year due to Jason being a slave to the University of Utah we decided we needed a little holiday cheer early on to soothe us…

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Yesterday I hiked Mt. Wire for time trial (this is the longer portion of the furniture hike and has become the “home course” for hikes) as I was trekking up the trail I almost stepped on this little guy…

img_8408That is a tarantula! My first wild tarantula!  I was really excited and so happy that I decided to bring my camera with me last minute.

img_8411It is official now, I live in the desert.

October in Review

I got called off for four hours this morning so I don’t have to go into work until 11am; this was like winning the lottery since I had an awful night of sleep tossing and turning.  Plus now I will be able to get a few things done this morning including a nice walk around the neighborhood!  I have been meaning to update this but have not had the motivation despite having plenty of things to talk about.  We had more visitors!  We really are getting spoiled over here so much so that when we go two weeks without a visitor I start to complain that it is lonely especially when Jas is working the long hours and I am left to fend for myself!  Kathy, Kelsey and Matthew came through right around Jas’ birthday so they were able to celebrate with us. I whipped up a knit lobster for Jas as a tribute to one of his more famous baby pictures…

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This was a great little project to use up yarn and to kick off the knitting season.  I have so many projects that I have lined up it is sort of overwhelming, but this little guy took me about three days (roughly 12 hours of straight knitting) and I am quite pleased with him.  I think Jas was surprised too, he might hang out in our downstairs bathroom which is starting to have a nautical theme to it by default (all sparked by an antique fishing reel that was given as a wedding gift).  While our visitors were here we headed up to some of the canyons for fall foliage and in hopes of spotting more moose.  Kathy suggested a nice hike to Doughnut Falls in Big Cottonwood Canyon, parts of it reminded me of Oneonta Gorge in Oregon…

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Sadly we did not spot any moose but it was a nice day and a nice hike.  Kathy, Kelsey and Matthew ventured to the Hogle Zoo which is about 2 minutes from our house I stayed home to rake leaves but was quickly persuaded that I must visit the zoo when I learned of all the babies that they have right now!  So, the next day Jason, Kathy and I went to the zoo to spot some babies.  The one that I was most excited about was the baby elephant, Zuri!  She was so tiny!

img_8349Here is a picture that gives a better perspective as to how tiny she actually is…

img_8358So cute, they also had three baby tigers, a monkey and a giraffe, Kelsey got some good pictures that you can see on her blog here and Jason got some good ones that you can see on his blog here.  I can’t believe that it is November already, October came and went in a flash!  Jason and I spent Halloween at home passing out candy to the little kiddies,  I was sort of disappointed with the turn out I was thinking we were going to have way more trick-or-treaters and was overly prepared with my giant pot of candy.  I took some pictures with my phone and will have to figure out how to upload those, we did carve pumpkins but I did not dress up first year in a long time.   I am looking forward to Thanksgiving and more visitors to come, up next Lindsay on the 15th and Steph around the 21st!  Should be fun times ahead especially with the changing of the seasons I suspect we will be snow shoeing and skiing before too long!