The New Life of Spring

So, I figure it's been a while since we've put anything about what we're actually up to on here. Spring is here and breathin new life into Steve and I.


I took my last final on Thursday of last week and am officially out of school until late August. Steve and I both feel like a huge weight has been lifted from our shoulders as this last semester was especially hard on me, and as a result on poor Steve... He was a real trooper though and an amazing support. Yeah, I think I'll keep him.

In this picture, I think Steve may be immitating how we were on mornings when he had to help me get up to study this last semester.

So today after I got home from work Steve and I enjoyed a full day of make-up dates we've been missing out on. First, we made cupcakes and went to our closing ward social. Thanks to the Barbers for the cupcake carrier which we finally used for the first time since we got it at our reception; it made the trip much easier! I know it's simple, and Betty Crocker did most of the work, but I was proud my first batch of cupcakes turned out well. They were one of the first desserts gone at the social.


Next, we took a walk through the Arboretum which is always beautiful this time of year. Unfortunately, most of the trees and bushes have already bloomed, but spring was evident in everything around us and we enjoyed basking in the sun. We saw rabbits, squirrels, birds, fish, frogs, ducks, and lots of goslings. Here are a few pictures form the Arboretum.


This picture included just for Kerry's enjoyment and the connection to Steve and Squirrels...
Also, on a more sentimental note, this is the bench where Steve officially proposed, despite the fact that I had been wearing my engagement ring for almost a week prior. The bench sits on the very top of this hill.


After the Arboretum we headed over to Pullman to visit the grizzly bears they have there. Here is the one bear who seemed interested in activity. I swear, Steve is so stinking social he can make friend anywhere! And yes, I am jealous...


Then we visited the bighorn sheep babies, because Steve and I are those sick kind of people who can't get enough of animals or babies.


Lastly we went to the movies and saw Angels and Demons. Steve says it is like 24 Vatican City style. I guess. Anyway, we both liked it and it was a great day!

In other news:

I am officially supervising swimming lessons at UI this summer and working at a second pool in Pullman, hoping to start getting hours soon. I also got hired to do another sign project after the 100 Years project went so well (sort of... or at least turned out well enough).

Steve is still subbing in Potlatch and we have applied to half a dozen jobs. We'll keep praying for guidance and know the Lord will send us where we need to be. We're just also hoping that place has an opening for a biology teacher for next year. I'm also very proud as Steve has come swimming at the UI while I guard the last few weeks and has improved a lot.

Other random news includes the purchase of new tires for the Prism after the old ones finally died. It's funny, but it seemed like a very adult purchase to me. I guess I will never stop having moments where it hits me that I'm an adult (somedays), and married, and will do those types of things now.

The family is doing well despite the fact that we had another jail-break and are now down to 3 newts instead of our original 5. No idea where they go or how they get out, but Steve and I have decided they went on Walk-About.

This blog is too long.
The end.

More from San Diego: Sea World

As long as it has been since our last San Diego related post, we really should have left you with a cliffhanger on the last one. "Tune in next time to see if Steve and Nicolle successfully fought through traffic to make it to Sea World."

One of the reasons its taken so long to make this post is that we took alot of video at Sea World. We took alot of video because the name "Sea World" had to have been taken from some ancient Greek word for "photographers nightmare." Here's an example:



This is a video of the Leopard Shark tank at Sea World, pretty cool looking. Have to love the music in the background, I'm not sure but I think if you play it backwards is says: "buy a hybrid car, buy a hybrid car." Now look what happens when you try to take a picture of the Leopard Shark tank:


I am sure there are several photographers in our family who could have taken pics that came out, I'm not one of them. After several bad pictures I finally decided that SD cards are cheap, I'll just take alot of video.

Probably the highlight of our whole trip came at Sea World. They have a large outdoor tank filled with Manta and Bat rays. You could sit and watch the Rays, or for $6 you could buy some fish and feed them. Up to this point we had done really good at avoiding overpriced tourist traps, we gave in on this one and we are really glad we did. The video says it all:



That is one of my all time favorite videos of Nicolle. Yeah feeding the rays was fun, it was fun enough that we bought an overpriced stuffed toy ray at the gift shop for memories sake.

Gift shops, yeah thats one downside of Sea World. Sea World isn't a zoo so much as its a giant gift store that happens to have a few animals. Some of the shameless ways they try to peddle you stuff would make Billie Mays or the Shamwow guy blush


Another important stop in Sea World was the Penguin display. Penguins have kind of always been our thing going back to when were dating. While were dating we watched the movie "Happy Feet" and "March of the Penguins" one night, so predictably that was one of our first stops.



One of our next stops was something I had been looking forward to since we decided we were going to Sea World: the underwater shark tube. The shark tube is a 83 foot long clear plastic tube that goes right through the main shark tank.



They should really build a surgery center at the end of this tube, one trip through would make a few people I know pass out, they could then save on anethesia!

Here's a quick video for Kathy, I remember when she had to do a report on manatees. Well here are some manatees up close.



Of course you can't mention Sea World without Shamu. I was able to record the entire Shamu show and the dolphin show, the files are way too big to upload though. Here's a quick video of Shamu up close.



Hope this post was worth the wait. Unfortunately it will probably take us even longer to make a post about the San Diego Zoo, lots and lots of pics from the San Diego Zoo. We have many more pics and vids from Sea World, I uploaded them to my SkyDrive for your viewing pleasure:

Link to Sea World Videos I was too lazy to rename all the files, if you click on each of the files I do have a description so you know what the video is about. The videos on my SkyDrive are bigger than the ones I've uploaded here, maybe even big enough you won't need reading classes.

Link to Sea World Pics

Tune in next time to see if Steve and Nicolle made it through traffic to the San Diego Zoo.

The Last 6-8 Months of My Life

So, this is the project which dominated last semester and ensured that my hair will go grey much earlier than it otherwise would have. Then, after semester break, picked right back up to taking my time for the last few months. However, it is done, and put up as of Tuesday. Hooray!!!

This picture is the display from the floor it's on, and gives you an idea of the curved wall we had to work with, and why anything on an ugly cement wall would have been an improvement.


This view is from the landing on the stairs above the panels so you can see all three next to each other.

The three individual panels.


The banner hanging next to the snag.


My baby throughout this process, the panel that I designed before finishing out the project and working on all three.


Thanks to this project, Steve got to deal with me really stressed out, and my class work probably suffered some, but it's probably the proudest accomplishment of college for me. And it makes me wonder if this type of work isn't something I'd like to investigate working in for the future. I officially made a mark on the University of Idaho!

The Non-Location-Specific Parts of San Diego

So, while Steve works on uploading pictures from Sea World and the San Diego Zoo, here is a blog to show you some of the random tidbits of our trip.

For starters, we flew on a lot of different airplanes, and some were pretty cool. Here is a sampling:

Our first plane of the trip was this cute little one we had to walk out to in order to fly from Spokane to Seattle.

A standard boring plane, the kind we took between Seattle/Salt Lake and San Diego.
The view from outside our window over California farmland on the boring big plane.
This was our last plane heading back from Salt Lake to Spokane. I just like all the pretty colors...

Related to planes, are airports, and the random stuff we enjoyed at them.

Steve loved his first few breaths of fresh(ish, we are in San Diego!) warm air outside the San Diego Airport.

Not being quite the showman Steve is, I was not as thrilled about having my picture taken after a long flight. If you look in the background, you can see the sea of taxis which constantly surround the airport and part of the reason why Steve and I were very grateful our rental car agency shuttled us to and from the airport.
I loved that the San Diego airport had rocking chairs by some of the windows and terminals. Very homey and unexpected. Steve here is trying to look like he's deep in contemplative thought, but we all know the truth...
Another jewel from the San Diego airport was that sparrows apparently nest by terminal signs. And it looks as if the airport accomodates them that way considering the presence of the bird house...
Next we got to go pick up our little rental car, which I actually really liked, and find our hotel.

Steve loves driving a little car.

Steve informed me before I even took this picture that when we wrote the blog, the caption would be "license to be a bad driver"
Our room in the top floor at the end of the building. We were right next to the pool! And we even bought Steve some swim shorts so we could enjoy it, but we were never at the room when the day was warm enough to want to swim...

Once we got off the airplane, we had to adjust our first couple days to the drastic change in weather. These pictures are after our day at the San Diego Zoo Wild Animal Park.

So sad to know I'll eventually be getting skin cancer.

But still very glad to be in sunny San Diego!
Last but certainly not least, Steve and I visited the San Diego Temple. Sadly, we were running on a tight schedule since we went the morning of our return flight back to Spokane, so we didn't get many good pictures of the temple. But as is the case with all Temples, it was beautiful. We loved the glass work in all the windows.
It is interesting that going to the Temple, something we both have done numerous times, presented us with perhaps the strangest experience of our trip as we accidentally found ourselves in a Spanish speaking session. Still, the Spirit there always makes Steve and I feel much closer and we always appreciate the opportunity to attend the Temple.

San Diego Zoo Wild Animal Park

Welcome back to sunny San Diego!


So our second stop in San Diego, on Wednesday, was the San Diego Zoo Wild Animal Park. Steve and I believe that this is probably the way all zoos should be. Steve likes to say that their philosophy was to put people in cages and let the animals roam free. Most of the 1800 acre park was an open area where African animals roamed in communities together. One exception was this beauty.

Kitty! Speaking of kitties, here is the miniature version we got to see in the nursery at the park. It took us a while to figure out what we were looking for in a window display full of stuffed animals that were bigger than this brand new baby! So cute!


This is the train that we rode through the African safari area. For me, it was great to hear a complete interpretive message. For the two of us, we were provided with some fascinating animal facts. And for taking pictures it was frustrating that we didn't stop more...


This is a view of just a little bit of the African area from our train ride.


The next cats I'll mention were just slightly larger than the cheetahs. Like huge! They were amazing animals. But, still acting like cats of course. And here it was bath time!


The next large animal we'll discuss is the gorillas. They were pretty entertaining. The largest male stayed back in a large cave and watched everything that happened in their enclosure, and as a result, our pictures of him are pretty creepy... This gorilla carrying the burlap cloth was a trouble maker and taking the blanket from other gorillas, pestering them, and just enjoying putting on a show for all those watching and comparing him to people they know in their own lives...


So this next picture illustrates that if I ever run into an angry gorilla, let's face it, I'm in a lot of trouble.


In comparison, Steve has amazingly gorilla-like proportions, but honestly, would still get pwned in a gorilla fight.


So another baby picture, and another large animal. Well, this one isn't really big yet, but he'll get there. This is the baby rhino (we think it was a black rhino) that was in the nursery area of the petting zoo (no, we couldn't pet the rhino). Steve claims that not all babies are cute, but since I find this rhino cute even with all of his skin flaps, I find myself begging to differ...


Steve would be upset with me if I failed to mention what was probably his favorite animal of the trip, Secretary Birds. Apparently they were named for the feathers that stick out around their heads looking like a pencil stuck in a woman's hair... They were really neat looking birds and we spent a lot of time watching their funny movements. If you look closely, they have such thin long legs, but they will crush snakes and eat them with those stick-legs!


This is another bird Steve will talk about, but in a totally different way. The California Condor is highly endangered, and Steve classifies them with Pandas as evolutionary rejects. It was pretty neat to see them though, even though they are quite curious looking, ugly birds...


So we only saw one of this bird, and we didn't even spend much time looking at it, but since I was discussing random birds, and I LOVED how beautiful this one was, I thought it needed to be mentioned as part of the highlights of the park.


As long as we're looking at pictures of random animals... We saw meerkats just about everywhere we went, but I loved them each time we saw them. This one, obviously, was on look out.


The last random animal: some kind of deer we met at the children's petting zoo. As usual, Steve knows just where a random animal wants to be scratched, and by obliging them, made a fast friend.


Also as usual, a random child and I found each other. This little girl needed to tell me about how another deer elsewhere in the petting zoo only had an eye on one side of its head. She seemed to think it was rather important that I know this. Kids are AWESOME!


These were just a couple of highlights from the trip. However, if you would like to see many more pictures and read Steve's smart-alec comments about those pictures, just go to:

Link to Wild Animal Park Pics


There are also some videos spanning across views of the park and a few funny animals at:

Link to Wild Animal Park Vids


Enjoy!