My Dad is # Juan!

Sara and Dad :)

I have been born of goodly parents. Seriously. Today is Father's Day 2012. Usually on Father's Day we (my brothers and myself) spend time at my dad's house to celebrate. It always turns into the same experience... my brothers sitting around on the couch watching some random show on the T.V. and me napping on a bed.. for a few hours minutes... Then we eat beans, meat, rice, tortillas and other delicious foods, open gifts (Eeets a sun-teen!), and eventually hug and leave. This year we celebrated a little differently. My brothers were going to go on a trip to Zion's this weekend, but it didn't work out so we moved the camping trip a little bit closer (North Fork) and invited the Daddy-o. I was really impressed with this switch-up and excited to go camping again with my dad. A favorite childhood memory with my dad was hearing his voice early in the morning outside of my tent on camping trips. He and my mom  chopped wood by the fire, while I stayed tucked in my sleeping bag with only the tip of my nose catching a hint of the freeeeezing mountain air. 

Yesterday (Saturday), my brothers and Brittie spent the afternoon staking out our campsite (the one by the stream where we always stay), and my dad and I spent the afternoon getting organized. This included making sure we had extra C batteries for my dad's emergency siren/radio/flashlight. He obviously needed to "listen" to talk radio throughout the evening and in case he got lost--he'd have a siren to signal for help. We bought eggs and sausage for breakfast, and packed the ketchup and mustard picnic kit that he's probably never used and then bought actual ketchup and mustard to fill the bottle containers. Of course, he also didn't forget to pack his sombrero for the camping trip. Did I mention how much I love my father? Well-- I do. 

Everyone just LOVED that I was taking pictures...

It was a crazy evening, including two trips down the canyon for various reasons and a trip to my mom's "camping store" in her basement for the camping stove, bed mats, and weenie roasters. I finally made it back up to the campsite a little after eight. Sara and Alesha met up with everyone earlier in the evening. Chon (Lorenzo) made me a hobo dinner and it was delicious and consumed with gratitude and lots of ketchup! 

We sat around the fire for a couple of hours roasting candy and marshmallows and trying to get the lantern started. I almost burned my face off trying to get it going-- but we won that battle! Dad told stories about times in Mexico and JP told scary stories that kept me awake most of the night... Thanks, Bum. Oh, and thank goodness his Brittie made him stop after awhile because I was already jumping up and down like a lunatic begging him to stop. Chon started putting all of the food in the cars and I couldn't have been more grateful. I have this irrational fear of bears attacking me when camping and putting the food in the cars is the only way I can get over it. Even with all of the careful storage we still had a visitor in the campsite last night. He left his grubby little raccoon footprints all over our table and benches. Hope he liked that sour patch kid that I forgot to throw out.

I have decided that I so very much WANT to love camping. I do. I really, really do. And for the most part, I do love it. I love the mountains. I love the fire. I love the stories (except for JP's). I love hearing the rushing stream. I love the outdoor smells and feelings. I love the time spent with my family. I so desperately love all of that. But, that being said-- I do not love being dirty. I do not love sleeping on rocks. I do not love listening to raccoons stomping on metal tables all night. I swear-- well I don't really swear (unless I'm scared in the middle of the canyon on a dark night... that's another story), I am the last one to fall asleep when I go camping. Anyone who knows me well, knows that I have a talent for falling asleep in .5834 seconds anywhere, on anything, at anytime, EXCEPT when I am camping. So-- I am a lover and a hater of camping. The end.

JP forgot a jacket. :(

Morning came and I had to giggle a little as I listened to Dad and Sara try to get out of their tent. I mostly heard a bunch of grunting and phrases like "I can't bend my knee," or "I can't even move," or "I can't feel my hands." Haha. I never think anything is funny at 5:30AM, but that was pretty funny. My dad got out of the tent and started chopping wood to start the fire. I curled up in my blanket and just enjoyed the experience. Chon got up not too long after and I followed. Dad made a fantastic breakfast of hash browns, eggs and sausage. My favorite part about breakfast was his fake spatula that he made out of cardboard and aluminum foil. Ha! He is a "Don't have it? Gonna make it" sort of man.. always has been.

We all cleaned up the campsite (left if better than we found it, Mom) and then I rushed home down the canyon to shampoo the smoke out of my hair and get to church in time for Relief Society. (PS I love my calling, and I love my sisters in the ward.)

This Father's Day, we celebrated our dad for all of his unique and fabulous qualities. Mi papi es un gran hombre. Siempre ha sido el papa perfecto para mi. Lo amo, lo quiero, y lo admiro. I'm so grateful for him.

Family Party and La Navidad

The Dearden Family Christmas Party 2011 was hosted by my Uncle Tom and Aunt Jana in Kaysville. They built a pool house this summer, and Tom joked that we were having the party in Uncle Tom's Cabin. Haha! We were all able to go this year, minus JP, who claimed the very familiar "nobody told me about it" excuse. It was probably legit....we were all busy. And of course, we missed Alex, who has been in Peru for about 18 months now! It was fun to be with the family and meet the new babies. I got to hold Malcom (Ashley's little cuteness). He was such a content little guy!

For the party, everyone was invited to perform a talent. I thought about what to perform for a good couple of weeks. In the past, my mom and I usually sing a song (usually Silent Night in Spanish or something). I love to sing, but I wasn't really feeling the whole "sing a song thing" this year. Soooo.... on the night of the party I was brainstorming quick talents, and I remembered one awesome talent that Amber and I performed (or didn't perform... sorry for leaving you hanging, Am.. and for turning around and hiding while banging my head on the wall as you tried desperately to continue...) for a YSA ward talent show. Let me explain- I once watched someone on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno laugh a song. She just laughed each note of the song instead of singing it. The secret is to use the laughter that naturally comes from feeling like an idiot to "sing" the next line of the song. We attempted to perform Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in front of our singles ward. Excellent. Why am I not married? Ha. ANYWAY. I figured that my mother and I could totally pull it off at the family party. We "practiced" a couple times on our way to Kaysville. Here are a couple of re-enactment photos.



I think we nailed it. HA-ha. Ha-ha-ha ha-ha.



Lorenzo read us all the Night Before Christmas story. Lovely.



Sorry for not posting pictures of the other talents. They were all great! Including Jamie keeping her baby alive, Hailey and Tom performing ballet (mostly Hailey), Jana and Grandma Ann singing/accompanying, Jordan soldering a pipe joint (that sounds both dangerous and gangsta), Malcom reaching for his toy (and then spitting up :), Ashley yodeling (very cool), Laura shaking her thang, and Dan and Vivian ballroom dancing.

After the talents, we hung around for some caroling with Grandma Ann.



Ha. Lorenzo and Katie were copying Jordan and MiQuelle's dance moves.



Overall, the party was very nice. I'm very grateful for my family.


CHRISTMAS EVE 2011

Kjersty was Mary this year in our family nativity program. I thought it was fitting. :) However, she did not think my joke of her being "great with child" was very funny. I still do. Hehe.



Of course, I pulled out our favorite black Baby Jesus. He was my doll when I was little. I named him Matthew. I gave him a "bowl-cut" hair cut a long time ago. I figured that that was how all boys cut their hair... but actually it was just my brothers. Haha.



My mom played the angel. Grandma Lou used to always be the angel in our nativity program. Mom has done a nice job filling in. I love Kjersty's face. She just got the news. :)



Here we have our shepherds (Brittie and Katie). Brittie had her costume on her lap. Haha. JP was our King Herod, and Lorenzo was Joseph. Mom was getting the myrrh ready.



Lance really got into his part. He was definitely sore afraid.

After the nativity program, Kjersty had to leave for work. Before she left, we made her open her presents. She was so lucky- "Santa" brought Kjersty a puzzle, new maternity pants (ha- she said it was like opening underwear in front of people), and new gloves to use with her phone. I gave her the spice rack that she has been asking for and a new portable heater for her room. She got a super cool cookbook to make me lots of yummy food from my mom and Lance. Win.


Baby Kole got a few presents, as well!

JP and Lorenzo enjoyed their new "chuyos" (the beanies) that Alex sent all of us from Peru. I'm not sure why Chon was hyperventilating into the bag... hmm..



And now for a nice picture.... I said a NICE picture... Oh well.



Finally- Stella and Lupe had a stare down over the top of Baby Jesus. He was nice and protected.



I love my family and my friends. My blessings are numerous. Jesus is the Christ. His birth was a miracle. His life was a blessing. His death and resurrection were real. The atonement that He performed is a gift. Everyday I am thankful.

Merry CHRISTmas.

Thanksgiving 2011

Thanks to Kjersty's eagerness to please people with her cooking skills, we planned Thanksgiving Dinner 2011 for our home, inviting both of our families. Although I was reminded of my serious anxiety if everything doesn't run smoothly (and even when it does), the dinner turned out super BIEN. I am so grateful for my bounty. Seriously. This month's Ensign has a challenge to name one hundred blessings in your life. I did it a few nights ago after decorating my $25 DI Christmas tree (best deal of my life!). It was so hard for me to narrow it down to 100. I hope that I can be better at sharing my blessings with others.

So the night before Thanksgiving, my inspired mother decided that we needed to make these adorable table turkeys made out of nuts. She got the idea from a lady at work and just HAD to make them... like 25 of them... at 10:00PM. It was so so so much fun. I love my mom. My favorite part about making them was the little snicker (kkhhhee, kkhhhee, kkhhheee) that my mom would make approximately every 45 seconds while admiring her creations. I am so thankful for a spontaneous, creative mother who drags me around making nut turkeys in the night time just for the fun of it.

They turned out ADORABLE!

After much feasting and no napping, Kjersty and my mom went to work while I went with my friends Megan, Atlanta and Keahi to see Hugo at the Ogden Megaplex. I really liked it. The idea is that everyone has an important part in life and that there are no extra pieces.

End of story. I am blessed.

San Diego. Hello, Ocean.

The ocean is magical. I'm in love with her, and I am terrified of her all at the same time. On my drive down the I-5, I could not stop myself from snapping pictures with my $30 Walmart camera phone. I knew the pictures would not adequately capture the Beauty in all of her sunshine-y goodness and glory. Yet, I tried. I sent a text to my mom back in Utah that said, "The ocean says, 'hello.'" She quickly replied requesting me to "tell her I miss her." That's how I know the ocean is a girl. Because my mom says so.

I was grateful for the opportunity to spend time in California. I flew in to the John Wayne Airport in Orange County and drove down to San Diego for the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association (ASHA) National Conference. Although the conference was ever-informing and a good experience, I really wanted to make it happen so that I could see my beautiful Aunt Lisa and family. I can't say enough about how fantastic each member of that family is. My collection of pictures will have to suffice.

Old Town San Diego is a gem.. a little hidden treasure. We enjoyed a good California-Mexican meal complete with our 70-year-old super Caucasian server. Lisa and I just couldn't make ourselves call him the Mexican name we had planned to call our waiter... it just didn't fit.

Speaking of things not fitting...


Hmmm... Look, it's Panchita in the middle! I swear I grabbed the child size...
or perhaps my head really IS that big...

The Mormon Battalion Site was recently rebuilt, rededicated, and was absolutely amazing. A very enjoyable experience!


We got to pan for gold! I found a nice chunk o' gold.

Eliza, Zoe, and Noah helped out during the awesome interactive tour.
Noah would have been a great soldier in the Mormon Battalion.

Patrick, Lisa, Eliza, Noah, Zoe, Me
I really LOVE them.
Thank you for letting me join you for a few BLESSED days!

Notice a pattern?

I tend to blog after the end of every semester, and I just finished my second to last semester EVER!!! I am not counting Spring 2012, since we don't have an official class... so see you at graduation in May! Haha. I will fake walk across the stage... but it will be AWESOME!!!

Now.. let the blogging catch-up begin!

Peace.

Cross it off!

I enjoy creating to-do lists. I love the thrill and feeling of accomplishment when I cross something off of the list. This summer I have had the same to-do list since June. One of those things is updating this blog. Since my other option is vacuuming my bedroom floor, I think I'll upload some pictures now...

This summer has been mighty swell. Preschool ended in May and summer semester started June 6th. I had three classes this summer. Voice Disorders, Stuttering, and a Severe Communication class. My favorite was the stuttering class for sure! I loved the teacher. I mean I really liked the other two teachers, but I loved Professor Elsweiler! It was hard work, but I got my overall GPA up to a 3.8 after getting all As this summer. Being around all type-A personalities in my class, it creates a sense of motivation for me to do my best. I hope I can keep the momentum for my research class this fall. Yikes.

After classes ended in July, I started my externship in Brigham City working at Pioneer Care and Willow Glen Nursing and Rehabilitation Facilities. I'm super lucky and I got to work a little bit with Tanja at the VA Home out by Golden Spike Arena. I just happened to be working with her CFY (Clinical First Year) supervisor. We were meant to be BFF from the beginning. I have learned a lot. For example, loose dentures and crisp string beans do not work well together, milk mixed with thickener is chunky, sometimes dementia patients hide silverware in their pants, but mostly I have learned that I don't really want to work with adults. I did it and usually enjoyed working with the clients, but my heart definitely belongs in the preschool. I think I give better therapy while sitting cross-legged on the floor. My externship will continue throughout the school year until I have completed the required hours in the medical setting. Please let it pass quickly. :)

Along with school and my externship, I got to do some fun stuff this summer, too! I wish I was better at taking pictures. But alas, I am not. And I broke my camera a couple of weeks ago when I was out on Willard Bay. Splashing water on cameras does not help cameras continue performing correctly. Here are the pictures that I managed to take before and after the water splashing.

Ashley (Amber's little sister) went from Mead to Steed. Happy Wedding! Breauna likes it when I post pictures that she didn't even want to be in.

After class one day, I drove up to Bear Lake to hang with my girls from the preschool. We spent the evening gorging ourselves with Lakeside Pizza and then busted our guts watching Who Shot Juanito Bandito at Pickleville Playhouse. I HIGHLY recommend the play. I couldn't breath at times because I was laughing so hard. Then we played a round of Quelf and once more busted a gut laughing at the outrageous things we all had to do. We spent the night at LaDean's beautiful cabin. I had to book it back in the morning for class, but it was worth it to spend some time with the ladies and enjoy me some beautiful Bear Lake.

Stella Luna has enjoyed her summer vacation as well. She spent a couple weeks up in Idaho with her Mama Breauna and I'm sure loved the freedom of running around the potato fields and swimming in the canal. She has been back and forth with me to and from Logan all summer. The poor girl is probably so confused as to where her home is. She even hung out over at my mom's house a bit this summer. One of her favorite things to do is stick her head through the blinds to watch the "excitement" happening in the neighbor's driveway. Haha! I love it. She used to do the same thing at the Logan condo. Oh, I love my puppy!

Vicky's aunt and uncle took us boating on Willard Bay. It wasn't the best day for boating because of the weather, but we had fun anyway! Russell and I got really good at encouraging and coaching each other through the turns on the tube. My favorite was when he said, "Paula, I think we're spooning." Ha! If you know Russell, then you know that he is the most celestial soul on this planet and so it made me laugh out loud when he said that. Vicky almost got up on the wakeboard and I tried for the first time and ate lake, as well. Thanks Mike, Helen and Tayla for sharing your boat with us!

For Vicky's birthday we went to the Drive-Inn in West Valley and watched Captain America. We decided to re-name him Captain Sexy. It was a good movie (even the second time around). Vicky had a dance party with her mission buddies at intermission. Get it, girl!

Okay, this past weekend was a blast!! Vicky and I were going to go on a roadtrip to end our summer, but we bagged it and instead I spent the weekend in Salt Lake at Vicky's place. She lives behind the capitol building and so it is the perfect location to explore SLC and the trax stop is just a 15 minute walk away.

Once again, I failed at picture taking... but my camera was on its last leg. On Thursday we went to the Twilight Concert Series at Pioneer Park. Bright Eyes was performing. The music was great, the amount of grunge/indie people was sufficient, and the weed was abundant. We had a good time watching the weirdo in front of us with his shorts hiked up to his boobies doing an "ants in the pants" dance the whole time. Vicky got an extra special treat when the naked man on mushrooms rubbed his hairy chest against her arm as he paraded around shouting who knows what. Seriously, the guy was hallucinating.

On Friday, Vicky wanted to do my makeup and hair. She did a superb job and so I needed to document it. Oh, and I burned my pinkie finger on her hair straightener. Ouch! Ha.


I don't think that Vick checks this blog so I'm posting this picture. She would kill me. I think she looks hot, but she did not likey this picture.... I love it. Ha!

After we got all made up, Vicky and I went to Beyond Spa in Layton where Vicky used her birthday massage gift certificate and I got a pedicure instead of a massage because my back was peeling from a sunburn so badly that it would have been wrong to make someone touch it. It was delightful. Vicky was so relaxed on the drive home that I thought she might fall asleep at the wheel. :) After showering and napping, we made our way over to the capitol building to save seats for the outdoor movie on the hill. The movie, Better Off Dead, was still as dumb as it was when I first saw it in fifth grade, but we had a good time cuddling and eating free popcorn.

Saturday morning was my favorite. We went to the Farmer's Market at Pioneer Park. It was super fun, and I loved seeing all of the cool things that people made and were selling. Vicky bought some Brazilian cheese bread and I bought a couple pairs of earrings and a BEAUTIFUL bouquet of fresh wildflowers. I would like to go back again and again. After the Farmer's Market we made our way across the street to Bruges Waffles and Frites were we devoured delicious waffles while conversing with a nice old man saving seats for his family. His son served a mission in Holland and so they came up to SL just to eat at the waffle house. Good choice.

Later Saturday, we accidentally ended up at the Tour of Utah bike race. Part of the course was through downtown and up around the capitol. It was really fun and we got free water bottles, bananas, and cow bells. I LOVED cheering for the cyclists. Something about the sweat, dedication and athleticism excited me. Vicky said that she might want to pick up cycling as a hobby. Good luck to her.

We wandered down the hill to Gateway. Vicky was looking for some sandals with no luck and so we ended up watching The Help at the Megaplex. Oh. My. Goodness. That movie is incredible! I hope it wins all the awards. I cried, chuckled, sobbed, laughed out loud, wept and cheered all through the movie. I bought the book later that night. That's how much I loved it. See it. Believe it.

There are so many other things that I wish I had pictures of. I loved living back up in Logan with Breauna for a few weeks (even though we only got to hang out a couple of times). I loved studying up on the fourth floor at McKay Dee Hospital with my mom until two in the morning. I loved sleepovers with Tanja while Brad was in Maine. I loved my weekly movie nights with Kjersty at the Cine Pointe 6 and all the buckets of buttered popcorn that came with them. I loved my afternoon with Helen in Logan. I loved my ward camp out up at Powder Mountain and Pineview Reservoir. My legs, arms and back are still peeling from that day on the lake. I still couldn't get up on the wakeboard, but I was so proud of myself to swim knowing there were GIANT fish swimming close by! I am enjoying my house and even more now that we finally have an air conditioner! I truly love my calling as a Relief Society teacher. Life is good and I am so blessed. Work at the preschool starts in six hours and 47 minutes. I am actually excited to get back to it. I love the kids and I miss my peeps.

Well... if you are still reading this you are a good friend... or really bored. :) Oh dear.. I still need to put away my laundry. Goodnight!