Summer Rafting Trip with Nomen Global students

This summer I took some of the students from my English school on a rafting trip. I wanted to post some of the pictures . . .we had a lot of fun water fighting and had the rare opportunity of seeing a moose on the river, one of only 2 times I've seen one on the lower Provo river.
The river was a lot of fun and the students loved the trip. I had students from South and Central America, Hong Kong, Russia, and Japan on this day come on the river trip. The ones who instigated most of the water-fights were David and Victor, both from Peru. They work in our local sales office (I do international sales).

make up artist

Yesterday while I was nursing the baby Colette disappeared for a while. She was totally quiet. After I was done nursing I realized that I hadn't seen or heard her for a while so little red flags went up in my mind; she usually is into something when she is so quiet, so I looked around for her and sure enough she had found a little pink lipgloss. As you can see, she got most of it onto her lips, but once she got enough there she just started smushing it her fingers and smearing it in her hair when she brushed it out of her face. It took me a while to her her hands and face clean. Then later the same day she got a hold of my make up bag. Rob found her with the mascara all over her eyes, busily trying to open the face powder. Then, after he took a few pictures he took my makeup bag away from her. The treachery of it all.

growning up fast

So this outfit brought to you by Elisa Hopewell-hand-me-downs:) Doesn't he look adorable? Please notice the sweet little dimple. Next notice how Johnathan is doing his best Zoolander impression-incredibly good looking. And Colette is trying to look like a baby while still being a "big" sister.
Finally Robbie reading a good night story to the babies. Johnathan just likes to be snuggled and Colette likes to point out all of the animals. We went bowling last night with our YSA group but we didn't take pictures with our digital camera so you will just have to imagine it. I will help you out with specifics, like Rob holding Colette on one hip while staring down the lane with the bowling ball cradled between his hand and his belly. Then there was the baby passing; Rob was first and I was last so I would hand him the baby for my turn and he would hand him back for his turn. Johnathan was a good sport about all the manhandling. I feel pretty uncool lately, especially since practically the only clothes that fit me are maternity or Rob's, but it is my own fault I guess. Or like Michelle says as she points accusingly at the babies, "you make your mom fat!"

Colette being bossy

Colette is bossy to whoever lets her boss them around, well and sometimes even those of us who try to not let her boss us around. Poor Johnathan.

Video of Colette dancing at the wedding

Sorry that it is sideways, but hopefully you can still get the full effect of Colette's hip shaking.
Also sorry that it goes kind of retarded at the end. I was crouching to film it and I was laughing so hard that I fell down and nearly peed my pants.

more green jacket

John took us on a small hike to the gravesite of the farms namesake, Chief Green Jacket telling us about the amazing history of the area. If you can read the grave marker it says "a friend of boys" because the Chief saved some boys lives.

Choza Verde-Green Jacket

Green Jacket is near Vernon, Utah and is the Bennion Farm. Liz and Allen Mitchell live and work here, on the 3 by 1 mile dry terrain. I have only been there once before, just after Rob and I were married. It was a lot of fun to take the babies, and they had a lot of fun being there. First we have Colette and Amy sneaking up to the dear near the house. Then we put Colette to work running down anything and everything with the tractor. Not really.




Allen gave me a short tour of the farm, it was dusk so it was incredibly beautiful.
We took advantage of the mini reunion to celebrate Betsy's birthday. It is hard to tell but she had just extinguished the major light souce, her candles.

I don't know why but the sky was especially lovely and I tried repeatedly to take pictures of the bright moon.

Dad's visit

Dad came for a mini visit from Sunday to Tuesday. He came to our Spanish Branch for a minute, then we had some lunch and headed to Grandpa Ashton's house where we interrupted but only minimally before we left for Manti. The leaves are already turning so the mountains look gorgeous. We had so much fun talking and joking that I only took two pictures the entire time! What a spaz. It made me ache for my family.

Independence day party

There are several Latinamerican countries that have the same independence day; September 15th. So there was a party for all of us. I decided to dress Colette up in her Costarican dress, without realizing that it was way too small for her anymore. Oh well. She couldn't really look Costarican no matter what I did. There was dancing while people trickled in, then there were dances performed by BYU students. The first was from Peru, the second picture is from a dance from Mexico. There was a Mariachi and singers and such. Colette danced with Rob, and a little boy that would stuff his shirt with a balloon and grab Colette's hands and swing her around. She was having fun with him until she slipped from his hands and fell down, then when he would swing her around she would just sit down. We only stayed until 11pm, but we heard on Sunday that people stayed and danced until 5 am. I wished my mom was there with us, that would have been even more fun. Even though it ended up being mostly a "Viva Mexico" kind of thing it still brought tears to my eyes to see all of these people all together in a foreign land celebrating their culture and freedom.

Trying to get in the groove

Big announcements consist of Colette getting a new tooth, Johnathan sleeping better at night and I dropped my volleyball class because I don't want to pay someone to demean me....
Anyway, this house just three houses down from John and Karla's house and is our fantasy house. We slowly walk by it and imagine our lives if we were living there, so I just thought I would post the ad for it so you can share in my fantasy.

fun at the cabin

After the train ride we went to the cabin with John, Karla and Chris. Johnathan loves playing "patty cake" with Rob, he giggles and giggles. Colette found a stash of toys and promptly put them to use. It was a much needed vacation. The last picture is of Colette watering Grandma Karla's plants with a creamer that Grandma Gene gave her. She spent a good 30 minutes playing and only came in because she started scooping the dirt out of the planter.

Train ride

Since Rob was working for the river rafting company High Country Rafting we got to ride the Heber Creeper for free. We chose to take the train and hay ride. Colette was SO excited. She wanted to watch the scenery and play with the kids. Johnathan just wanted to eat and sleep but couldn't because of the trains horn. Still he was a pretty good sport. I insisted on buying a train conductors hat and then neither of the kids wanted to wear it, oh well at least I got one picture. The scenery was beautiful.

Fun filled days and nights

Here's Johnathan wiggling to the groove at Grandma and Grandpa's house.
Next is Rob and Coco (she's calling herself that now, we don't know where she got it but it is cute) at a nighttime YSA activity that we went to to show our "support" at the local water park.


Next we went to the Brazilian Festival at UVSC, were Colette danced and played with other little girls, got her face painted with the Brazilian flag and was entranced by the "carnaval" dancers.

potty humor

Here are the not so long awaited pictures of various toilets in Japan:)
The first toilet is the one in MIA. Because it was shared by the barely potty-trained preschoolers and adults it reeked. You also can't really tell but the stall was tiny so was hard to get situated.
The second "squatter"
was in our "chapel", it also smelled awful. At first I thought that there were only squatters at church so I would hold it until I got home, which was difficult for three hours but nearly impossible when I was pregnant, but then I discovered the "handicapped" (the last picture) one in the church and just had to breath through my mouth to keep from getting sick.

At the doctors clinic there was the most high tech toilet and control panel I had ever seen. The seat lifted on its own, was heated and I've heard you could even get one that massages (vibrates). They had all kinds of options for the bidet, front or back, heated or cooled, lots of pressure or soft, air dry etc. The one it our house had a remote, which we never used. I also had too many fears of snakes or things coming up from the toilet to ever try the nifty features, so you will have to ask Rob if you're curious about it.

Hooray!

Today was a big day for us; we bought a new computer, a printer and an iPod and got internet! So now that we will be eating cardboard and peanut butter for the next year we better at least hear from everyone more often. Johnathan is HUGE, nearly as big as his two-year old sister but he is super sweet and cuddly. Colette is in the height of her terrible two's and destroys EVERYTHING she can get her hands on. She is also addicted to movies, I know, shame on us.
Rob is working full time at Noman Global, but it seems that it is more than he bargained for. He is also a vendor at David's Bridal in Provo, hopefully he can get even better at smoozing. Even though he won't admit it, he is getting more gigs everyday.
I still haven't decided with any finality what my major will be or how long it will take me. I just wish that someone kind would decide something feasible for me so that I don't have to be a grown up and have no one to blame but myself. I am currently taking a Children's Literature class and advanced volleyball, which may seem easy but it is all I can handle at the moment with the babies. Rob's parents have been AMAZING and I don't know if they will ever know how grateful I am for their help and advice. Still I miss my mommy and daddy so much it sometimes causes actual physical pain, but what can you do. Michelle is always there for me in an emergency and it makes me wonder if I create emergencies just to hang out with her...just kidding. Well I don't know what else to tell you about so till next time....do something great