PORT ARANSAS

Well just got back from a little fishing trip with my little brother and a good friend of ours in our Parents Ward in San Antonio. My brother and him have gone fishing every year for the past 5 yrs and this year I was able to go with them. Haley was a great sport and I dropped her off at my Moms to do a little girls weekend with her, my mom and my brother Joe's wife Kim. They had a lot of fun doing girl stuff. Anyway so the fishing trip, lets say it was awesome. We got there Thursday afternoon and we fished till about midnight and then we hit it early Friday morning and fished till about 1100 that night and then we fished till about noon and headed home. Well thats enough from me here are a few pics and I'll try to put a movie on. Enjoy.

I caught the first fish of the trip. Not quite the whopper I was hopping for.

We started fishing on the big jetty that protects the big tankers that come in to the bay. This particular one went out in the ocean about a mile and a half. We stopped walking about half way out. I was the only one that brought a chair, but hey I enjoy my comfort!!

We also celebrated my brother Joe's birthday and we promised him he would catch a Red on his birthday, he caught one but it was a little to small to take home. Sorry Joe

This is an 18in Skip Jack that I caught. Not good eatin' but it makes great shark bait.

We caught alot of sting rays (unfortunatly) remeber this is the thing that killed the crocidile man. Sorry you have to be really careful. We caught one thats wing span was close to 2ft across we were a little busy not getting stuck to take a picture of that one. Anyway it was sure fun and the beauty of the ocean is that you never know what your going to catch. Overall between the 3 of us we caught over 2oo fish things, but only kept about 10 of them. If you havent had the chance to really fish in the ocean you should!!!!

Meanwhile, Back At The Ranch...

Me and Bennett (OK, mostly me) are not very good sitters-arounders, so when Matt went down on his fishing trip we jumped on board for a free ride to San Antonio to visit some of our favorite people.

We spent a lot of time with Kim, Joe's wife, since she was also husbandless for the weekend. We shopped and talked and spent a wild and crazy night watching home videos. The police almost had to be called in to break up the madness of it all. :) We also went to the Relief Society Conference together, along with Mary, Sarah, Janell, and Aunt Mel, and I even got to go to the temple while Mary watched Bennett for me. It was all very fun, especially because we don't get to see Kim a whole lot.

Bennett and Aunt Kim. Bennett LOVED Kim. All she had to do was walk in the door and he would start laughing. They are good buddies.

These are the cute coats we got shopping at the outlet malls. They are so nice, and more importantly, so cheap! I am excited to finally have something to wear to church instead of my bulky ski jacket!

Joe and Kim have a dog named Gabby who is so cute in a mangy, aly-dog sort of way. I love her! Apparently, so did Bennett. This was his first close encounter with a dog and I think he thought it was a big stuffed animal that could move on it's own.

My favorite part is when he falls backwards. It's like he's considering whether or not he should be upset about the whole situation, and then decides the dog is way better than crying. Funny boy.

Redneck Dirt Racig

Saturday night we reveled in what was probably the most redneck thing I have ever experienced. Dirt Racing is an activity where anybody who owns a beater car and has a death wish, can legally crash into each other. It it AWESOME!!

Redneck Family

It was way past Bennett's bedtime though, so I took him home about halfway through it. Matt stayed for the whole thing and called not even ten minutes after we left to tell me that one of the cars had caught on fire. I was so mad I missed it, but we will be back to witness even more redneck carnage later!

The roar of thirteen ghetto engines revving up can get pretty loud, so ear protection was required for all. Meet the new crew chief!

Called To Serve...Dinner

When we moved into our new home I made a goal to feed the missionaries here once a month, and it has been so fun! We had some way cool Elders in our ward and me and Matt spent a lot of time with them. We watched the BYU vs. Oklahoma football game together--a big deal here, so the mission president allowed it--went to BBQ's with them and for them, and just got pretty close overall...maybe a little too close.

This last week we had a surprise call from the Elders. Their dinner appointment had fallen through and they asked if they could come over for dinner and bring the other companionship in our area with them. This would be one of the last meals they would ever eat in this town because they were being switched for sister missionaries, so we said no problem and threw a couple more chicken fried steaks on the stove. (Yes, I make a mean chicken fried steak now.) They showed up and ate, but I had to leave halfway through the dinner to go to my Achievement Day Activity. I said good-bye to the Elders, because dinners are only supposed to last one hour and I thought I wouldn't be back in time to see them again. Boy, was I wrong.

When I got home from Achievement Days, the missionaries' car was still out front, and when I walked in, this is what I saw...

Matt had taught the elders several "very useful" self-defense moves, and they were trying them out on each other. You forget that just because they are servants of the Lord, doesn't mean they are no longer teenage boys. They also had a lot of fun playing in our tree house, and admiring Matt's guns and tools.

Needless to say, they were a little late getting home, but since it was their last night here nobody felt too bad about it. :)

Happy Ending to a Long and Winding Road

As I write this post I can hear the sound of the Hallelujah Chorus playing in my head because, ladies and gentlemen, IT IS OFFICIAL!! I have graduated (with honors) from Brigham Young University-Idaho with a Bachelors of Science Degree in Communications, emphasizing in Advertising, and with clusters in Graphic Design and Photography! Hooray!

The journey started September 2005. Since then I have had the opportunity to learn many new and exciting (and some not so exciting) things. I lived in my first apartment, sharing rooms and food with various crazy (literally, one was on 5 different types of medication) college girls. I have traveled to six different countries in Europe, gotten married, and moved to Texas. We found out Bennett was coming to our family, I moved back to Rexburg without Matt for a semester, and then moved back to Texas when that was over. We moved to a new town, I went to college there, and, finally, graduated this July! What a journey!

There were some times I thought it wasn't worth it, especially after Bennett was born. But thanks to the love and support of Matt, both my families, and some babysitters for Bennett, I pushed through. Thank you to them all, and especially Matt who made sure I got to class on time and Bennett was taken care of.

So now I have that wonderful piece of paper and the knowledge that if anything happened to Matt (he is in the Army) me and Bennett would be OK. It is also a great feeling just knowing that I started something and finished. And boy, I am SO happy to be D-O-N-E!!!

The opening of the Diploma and Official Transcript. This was like, better than going to DisneyLand for me.

When Matt Graduated in April 2008, my mom and dad got him a way cool frame to put his diploma in. When I walked the stage last December, they gave me a matching frame, which has remained empty until this moment. It looks a lot better now that there is actually something in it!

Our cute frames, hanging in the office. Matt's is on the left, then Matt's Commissioning is in the middle, and mine is on the right. What edu-ma-cated people we are!

And this is the reason for it all! I have always admired my mom and Matt's mom for getting their degrees, and now I hope I am setting a good example for Bennett and his future brothers and sisters. It is so worth it!

A Quick Update

So we just got back from Bennett's 4 month well baby (yes, I know he is almost 6 moths, but we got a little behind in the beginning) and here is what we have to report.

Bennett is 26.8 inches long, weighs 18 lbs. 14 oz., which explains the fact that he is in 9-18month clothes already. Bennett likes to eat the Doctor's stethoscope, but does not like getting shots in both legs. He managed to recover quickly and was done crying before we left the room. I was very proud of him, since I still cry when I get shots myself. :)

I have also been thinking lately how funny it is that I am a grownup. I mean, I don't feel any different now than I did in high school, and even elementary school for that matter, but here I am, happy to be going to play dates, book clubs, and walking groups. It is just funny the way life changes, but I love it. All I can say is, "bring on the mom jeans!"

Anyway, nothing too exciting has happened lately, so my deep, philosophical thoughts are all you get for now.

Welcoming Cousins!

Bennett was very excited to welcome two more cousins into the Hazard side of the family today! His Uncle Logan and Aunt Rachell had twins, Jackson (a boy), and Adalie (a little girl). We are sad we won't get to see them until Christmas, but we know that there will be lots of pictures to keep us happy till then.

They were born on 09/09/09 during the 9:00am hour, so the Cleveland news thought that was pretty cool and did a piece on them. I threw the link to it in at the bottom. Anyway, we are very happy for them! Congratulations!

http://www.wkyc.com/news/local/news_article.aspx?storyid=121264&catid=3

A Laugh At Last!

Is there any better sound? :)

SCOUT CAMP

All right so my dear sweet wife has done an excellent in keeping our blog up to date and our little family is just doing awesome. I thought that I would add a little something to this melody of memories by telling ya'll a little bit about what I have been doing with my scouts. (fyi...couldnt do any of it without Haley's 100% support.

So to start it off we had ourselves a scout camp last month and we went to a fantastic place called Enchanted Rock. Its actually pretty cool. It is the oldest rock in Texas somethin' like 2 billion yrs, give or take a million.

Kinda backwards but here we are at the end of the 6 mile loop around enchanted. Some of the boys thought I was trying to kill them. It was only like 103 degrees outside and Bro. Hargrave told them to pack more water than they thought they would need but hey good learning experience right!!!


Here is the begining of the Hike up the Rock. Everyone was in a little bit higher spirits. Funny note the scout in this picture at the far left is as tall as me but doesnt even weight a 100 lbs. He started dragging so much on the way back that we tied a rope around his waist and mine just in case he fell and rolled down the hill. After that everybody beat Bro. Hargrave down the mountain!!!


Of course everyone made it to the summit. I mean hey its not the Rockies but it sure is fun and the boys decided to play a little tag on the top of the Rock so the hike up wasn't that bad.


The boys called this room the satellite room (oh did I mention that on the back side of the Rock is a whole bunch of caves) There holding there hands up because they just got done breaking something like a hundred glow sticks all over the cave walls. (provided of course by the US Army) Thanks Prez.

And of course you cant go out in the woods with boy scouts without messing with animals. We found this little bat on the way out and of course it was giving birth and of course all the boys wanted to touch it. Having a little sympathy for it (after I took the picture) we headed on out and let her do her thing.

The boys did find, however and entire nest of bats on the rock near our camp and promptly at 1900 the bats would start heading out for there evening meals and it would take nearly a good hour for all the bats to leave there cave/crack in the rock....its was pretty neat to see some of the amazing creatures that God created for this world.

Over all we had us an awesome time...the boys are working well together and they are teaching me loads of patience. We could all do with a little more right. I know I need my fair share of it.
Till next time then!!!!!

Marriage Retreat

A few weeks ago, Matt came home and told me about a three-day, two-night marriage retreat in Austin that the Army was hosting for his unit. It sounded like a pretty good deal to us, but we didn't really know what to do with the cute little boy that is attached to me 24/7. We tried finding babysitters in the family for him, but at such short notice nobody could do it. In the end, we decided it was just too hard and maybe we would go to the next one.

Then we got a phone call saying that child care was provided during classes. We were off!

I am so happy that we went! It was at this amazing spa and resort, with everything paid for by the Army. Rooms right on the lake, all meals and snacks provided at a very nice restaurant, tons of swimming pools, etc. And the best part was, Matt got paid for going! I tell you what, the Army takes pretty good care of its families.

The classes were really good, too. They were taught by the Army Chaplains and were all very Christian-based. We learned about love, respect, communication, budgeting, and forgiveness. It was also really good for me to kind of see how people adjust back to life after the Iraq experience, since Matt will probably be deployed next August.

After classes, we could either pick Bennett up from child care in the next room over, or go on date nights with just the two of us. The first night Matt and I spent alone together, and the second we spent as a family. It was so good to relax, play, and reconnect with each other. Sometimes I forget how cool Matt is.

All in all, it was one of the best things I think we have ever done together. I know that we have not been parents very long, but even in that short time we sort of got used to being with Bennett and not taking the time to be with just each other...and that's not always the best thing for me, because as much as I love our Bennett-Boy, I really like my husband, too. :)

Our hotel was very nice. It even had professional door-openers. I didn't touch a doorknob the entire time we were there.

Our view of the lake from our room.

We all got our fair share of relaxation. I also need to mention that the child care they provided were so good to Bennett. The people always knew his name, what his schedule was, and what his favorite toys were. Actually, I think they might have done a better job entertaining him than I do!

The Lagoon of pools! This was probably where we spent most of our time. There were like, seven different pools, with a water slide, waterfalls, water parks, and yes, even a water bar. (I never knew you could get drunk and swim at the same time...sounds dangerous to me.)

Bennett, enjoying the pools during our family night.

Me going down the water slide.

Matt going down the water slide.

Just hanging out with my best friend.

Sea World, here we come!

Last Monday Matt had the day off, because the Army gets more days off than bankers. Not that I am complaining. Anyway, we decided that since it was a three day weekend for him, we would finally take our family summer vacation to Sea World in San Antonio.

We figured it would be perfect, since there are plenty of shows we could go to together, plus a water park Bennett could swim in and rides for me and Matt. The best part though, is that since school started Monday (hence the day off) the lines would be super short. Plus, we got in free with our Military ID cards, and we like free stuff. So we packed up the car and the boy and headed out.

However, things are never as easy as they sound. We are always forgetting one thing or another, and this time we forgot to check the Sea World schedule. Turns out, they were closed this Monday. We are excellent planners!

We stayed with Matt's mom and Wayne anyway and ended up having a great weekend. It was also Bekah and Nathan's last week in San Antonio before heading back up to Rexburg for school, so it was fun/sad to say goodbye to them one last time. We may not have gotten to Sea World this time, but we will be back....

Matt is being promoted this next week to First Lieutenant, and we are all very proud of him. In honor of this, Wayne and Gunny (Wayne's step-dad) went in together to get Matt this way cool calvary sword that is an exact replica of the real thing, and gave it to him this weekend. Matt has not put it down since he got it.

I have to admit, I am not very into swords and all that, but this thing is pretty dang cool.

And introducing Bennetta! This cute outfit was going to his cousin, but we had to try it out on Bennett first. He makes a very adorable little girl...much to the horror of his father.

On the way home we even had some time to stop by and visit Jake and Janell, Matt's brother and sister-in-law. It was fun to eat lunch with them and see some of the cousins together. What cuties!