Herzog Halcyon Days

So, we've fallen behind. Again. But no matter! We have been keeping busy over the last few months. I started spring term classes--Leisure in Contemporary Society, New Testament, and Fly Fishing. I have wanted to take the fly fishing class since I first came to BYU and the class did not disappoint. We fished locally for most of the class, but then we took a final trip to the Flaming Gorge Dam for a camp out. I had a blast, but I did miss Sammy and John. I ended up rounding up a bunch of fish. I actually loved learning how to tie all the flies and am excited to eventually get my own fly tying equipment. I am hopefully going to get to go out on the Provo River here soon, but the runoff from the mountains has the river running really high. I finished off the semester strongly with 3 A's, of which I am proud.

John has been busy on his ORCA project, Bert, and it seems to be coming along nicely. He is in the process of switching to an all digital workflow, which is an adjustment. He is also working on his reapplication to the animation program in August, which is stressful, but he is doing well.


Towards the end of May, we were able to take a road trip to Los Angeles for a friend's wedding. It truly was an adventure! Our rental car gave us trouble on the way down, so we switched it out in LA (where they tried to make us file a claim on a scratch that was already on the car--got that settled finally) for a luxury car in which the AC broke while driving through the Mojave Desert! I'm not sure if we'll be renting from Enterprise again.

The wedding was beautiful and I was very happy to be there. The groom recently found a job in Salt Lake City, so now they are really close! While there, we stayed with some great friends, Nick and Stacy. We also had a chance to go to Disneyland. Sammy was a real trooper and we ended up staying all day with only one tiny meltdown. Sam loved all of the rides. She especially seemed to like the Pirates of the Caribbean--even the two little drops, which her daddy didn't care for too much!

Two weeks ago, John's sister, Lauren, came out for a visit. We had tons of fun, and her stay went by way too fast. We went on a tour of BYU with her, hoping to persuade her to come to the best University (wink, wink). We made it to the community pool where we caught some Utah sun and we even made it to the Hogle Zoo. We also hiked to Bridal Veil Falls. John and Lauren were both in flip flops, and I assured them that the trail was easy enough. Unfortunately, I chose the wrong trailhead. Needless to say, they were good sports about it, and we eventually found the right one and made it to the base of the falls.

In other news, Sammy is finally up and walking! She loves the new freedom that walking gives her and she is getting into even more mischief, if that is even possible. She has also learned how to go down the slide at the park all by herself! We are so proud of our little monkey.

Semester Coming to a Close

I blame the fact that I have not posted the past few months on the fact that we have been busy with school. Actually, it is because I prefer to post photos to show what is going on, and I finally got around to cleaning a few up! So much has been going on. Like I said in the previous post, we had a great time in Florida over the Christmas break. Samantha got to spend some time with her grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousin.

Sammy and her cousin, Marcus

 She even met Santa Claus for the first time.

Samantha celebrated her first birthday in February and since she is obsessed with Super Why (a character on PBS) I made her a Super Why cake! I ran out of icing around the edges, but I think it turned out alright.

Samantha seemed to enjoy it. She had cake from her head to in between her toes before she was done.

Sam is standing up and getting into everything now. She isn't quite walking yet, but she walks around with her little car's help.

She is our little spunky girl!

This is from when we were in Florida. It was at a park that I used to play at as a kid. We have a park just outside our apartment here in Provo. On the warm days, we try to make it out there. She especially loves the slides.

I still can't get over those blue eyes! Our little recessive gene baby.

 

 She loves making a mess. This was her first experience with red pasta sauce. After her bath that night, there was a sauce ring around the tub! It was crazy.

A few months ago, we enrolled Sam in a baby swim class. It wasn't so much to teach the kids how to swim but was more to get them used to the water. She had a blast. Samantha was in there with 3 year olds that were afraid to go under the water. Not Sam! She loved it and would even open her eyes under the water. We're definitely making the community pool a regular place this summer.

John and I have been keeping pretty busy with school. The semester ends in about two weeks and I am very excited. Its not that I do not like my classes--I love them in fact. I am just ready for a change. We may both end this semester with straight A's, which would be fantastic.  GREAT NEWS too! John received an ORCA grant from BYU to do his short animated film, Bert. Its about a guy who hates his job and to make life bearable, he day dreams about Hawaii. The idea is fantastic and things are moving along on that front. John recorded the narration for the film last month and he is working with a composer now to get the music recorded next month. He also got a new animation disk for his desk so he all ready to go. So he will be busy busy busy this summer animating. I am SO proud of him. 
All in all things have been going well. I recently changed my major from English to Recreation Management and Youth Leadership. I love English, but the part I am most passionate about is creative writing and this is only a small portion of the program here at BYU. I love to read and talk about books, but writing theory papers kind of sucks the fun out of it for me. And besides my first passion is being outdoors. One day, when I grow up, I would love to be a Park Naturalist. You know, the people with the funny hats and brown uniforms at state and national parks. I will have to do an internship with this major, which I am excited about, but that won't come for another two summers. I buzzed my head again. This time for the St. Baldrick's Foundation. I may be keeping it short for a bit. We'll see.
The other BIG news for me is that I got a new mountain bike. Its a Specialized Myka Disk and I am loving it so far. I ride it to school during the week and then hope to get out on the trails on the weekends (if the snow will ever go away). Speaking of snow, it was 70 degrees yesterday, and this morning we woke up to 6 inches of snow! Hopefully it'll be gone soon. Its supposed to be up in the 50s tomorrow, but then will dip back down at the end of the week. So anyway, I went to a Ladies Night Out event at Mad Dog Cycles two weeks ago to see if I could meet any other girl mountain bikers and they actually have a Ladies ride every month. So I am looking forward to that. I also managed to win a $200 cycling outfit in a raffle while at the event!

In other news, I have been asked to teach the 4-year-old Primary (Sunday school) class at my church. There are six kids and they are all a hoot. It should definitely be a fun adventure! Yesterday and today was General Conference (a televised broadcast from the leaders of my church) where we got to hear some amazing sermons. They spoke a lot about strengthening families and helping one another. I always feel so uplifted after conference. It was truly inspiring.

New Year, New Goals, New Challenges!

The holidays are over. They always go by too quickly for my liking, but it makes me appreciate that time of year even more. John finished up the semester strongly and is very excited to be done with his art history class. Too bad he still has one more to go. We had the opportunity to fly to Florida for the Christmas break and visit with family and friends. Samantha was an angel on all four flights. She kept everyone around us amused with her grins and her waves. It was so nice to spend time with family and just relax some. Samantha learned a lot on our trip-how to do "SO big!" say "uh oh" and give noggin (bump heads with another person). She is still very adventuresome and happy. She will be a year old in less than a month!

Christmas was wonderful. It is always a wonderful time and I am grateful for the day that Christ was born. Someone at my church explained that perhaps the reason we all make New Years Resolutions is because of the Spirit that we feel through the holidays. We reflect on our many blessings at and are a little more Christ-like through this time. These feelings and acts of goodwill and service fill us with the desire to continually do better and improve. Hence our New Years Resolutions. At least I like to think about it that way.

School has started in full swing and both John and I are loving our classes. John is taking a few GEs and some cinematography courses. He is so unbelievingly talented. I am looking forward to seeing his work through the semester. I am taking 5 courses including a British Literary History course (which is amazing thus far) and a Astronomy course (which I love as well). Samantha is doing really well with the schedule change and loving the time she gets to spend with her Daddy.

A few new developments: Starting this month I will be an author on a parenting blog called Notes on Parenting. It is a really great resource for parents that talks about many topics. Also, I will be starting a Photo365 project here in the next few days and will be posting the photos here. John will soon be finding out whether or not he will receive the ORCA Grant to work on his amazing animated project, Bert. Samantha starts a tots swim class next Saturday as well. We are definitely staying busy! 

The Holiday Season

Well, the past few months seemed to have flown by. Samantha had her first Halloween and helped carve her first pumpkin as can be seen here and here. She loved the gooey mess, and especially liked trying to eat the seeds and the newspaper the pumpkins were sitting on! She went trick or treating as a lamb this year and enjoyed all the colorful little pieces of wrapped candy she got every time someone opened the door.

She really is growing like a weed and is active as ever. Samantha's been crawling for awhile and now can walk along the furniture. Nothing is safe anymore from our little goat (she tries to eat everything!!) She is so bright and is a people person. Whenever we go to the store, she always talks to the other customers. I cannot believe that her first birthday is just around the corner.

We took Sammy's 9 month photos as well as a family photo last month in the leaves. I am happy we did it when we did because it got cold and rainy/snowy the very next day! Trying to keep the leaves out of her mouth was a challenge, but we all had fun.

Thanksgiving was great. This was the first time that I had to cook all of the meal, and I think it turned out pretty good for the first time around. We have so much to be grateful for and it was wonderful talking about it. We started a new tradition this year as well--the Thanksgiving Jar. The week preceding Thanksgiving, we each wrote something down on a slip of paper that we were grateful for and then after dinner on the big day, we opened and took turns reading the papers. I loved the opportunity each day to think about the thing that I am grateful for. This is definitely something that we want to continue with our kids each year.

Now we are into December! The year has just flown by. John is finishing up his last finals before the break. We are both extremely excited because on Saturday we are flying home to FLORIDA!! It will be so great to spend time with our families. I love this time of year and the warm fuzzies I get thinking about the blessings we receive because of Christ. I really am grateful for my wonderful husband and and beautiful daughter. I don't know what I would do without them.

The Coming of Autumn

Fall is finally here! The leaves really starting to change colors now. I always forget how much I enjoy Autumn until I am in a place that actually has all four seasons. Mount Timpanogos has some snow on its peak now. I really want to hike the mountain before it gets too cold, but I don't think that thats a hike I could take Sammy on. Its at least a 6 hour hike, maybe more.

We did get to hike The Timp caves a few weeks ago though. It was National Public Lands day so there were no fees. the hike was a bit strenuous, but we made it to the top and the view was fantastic. The caves were gorgeous. It gave me some ideas for some short stories. John was sick last week and Sam is getting over being sick now. I am fighting off getting sick too so we haven't been hiking the past few weekends. I'd still love to do Rock Canyon and the Y before it gets too much colder. We are also planning a trip down to Vegas over Thanksgiving break. John has never gone and his Great Grandfather did a lot of the neon lights on the old strip. They say John gets his artistic ability from him so I think it'll be great for John to go down and see it all. And you can't beat a deep fried twinkie or oreo now and then. On the way back up, we're planning a short camping trip at one of the National Parks. I am UBER excited.

School is in full swing for John. He is doing well in all of his classes and is especially enjoying his 2D animation class. He is also in the process of applying for an ORCA Research Grant to be able to research and create a modern cartoon-style short animated film. I really hope that he gets it because I believe his proposal is very solid and strong and his short film idea is great! I am still working away at my creative writing class and loving it. I also got back into BYU so I will start taking classes on campus next semester. John and I have already sat down and mapped out our schedules for next semester and one of will always be with Samantha so we won't have to have anyone else watch her.

Samantha is eight months old now. Her top two teeth have come through so now she look a little like Spongebob! She is still doing her inch worm crawl and she loves playing with her daddy. I still cannot believe how quickly she is growing. Right now we're reading Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein. We get through a few poems a day. I am looking forward to when Weird Al's new picture book comes out, When I Grow Up. I think picture books are great! This story, by The New York Times really burned me up. I think it is so sad kids are being taught that picture books are "baby books". Some of my favorite books from childhood were picture books. I have fond memories of my mom reading to my sister and me before bed time. Pictures books are what started my love for reading. I just hate how much pressure kids are under to perform perform perform. How are kids supposed to learn to love learning? At least I'll be able as a parent to choose to read picture books with my kids.

Settling into the Groove

Well, We've been here well over a month now. Strange how it feels shorter and longer at the same time. Last weekend we hiked up to Stewart Falls with Bekka. It was the first time we got to try out our Sherpani Rumba Superlight backpack carrier. I have to say it was fantastic. The pack does a great job of transferring the weight to your hips and legs. This is great for me because I get backaches/headaches easily if there's a lot of weight on by shoulders. Samantha LOVED it. She even fell asleep at the end! The falls were beautiful, but very cold. I learned that it is important to pack an extra layer of clothes, especially for the baby. Fortunately we had a warm blanket for her. The leaves were beginning to change, making the valley begin to light up. We were exhausted by the end of it all. I am hoping to hike up Rock Canyon this weekend, but we shall see.

John started school a few weeks ago. He is adjusting well and loving his classes. After his art classes his favorite class is Geology! He's been getting in lots of drawing and I am getting to see some of his real life art. He's fantastic! How did I end up with such a wonderful, amazingly talented guy?

I am taking a BYU creative writing course online right now. It is so great. I remember now why I love to write so much. Next semester I hope to starting going back full time. I am really excited for that. The goal is to graduate December 2012. Its so crazy. I graduated high school in 2004 and started college. That'll be eight years ago once I have my degree. Its kind of disheartening. But then I have to remind myself that I went on a mission to Brazil for a year and a half. And I took a year and a half off to start a family. So it'll just be like me getting my degree in 5 years. Ha ha. I guess I just need to continue pushing along.

Wymount is great. We love where we are located. The church here is great too. I really like the people at church. And there are quite a few kids around Sammy's age so she'll have friends as she gets older. Sammy loves going outside and playing in the grass. Real grass! None of that icky stuff that grows in Florida. I really want her to like the outdoors and not be a TV veggie. We try to go out as often as possible. Although she does like Super Why. I think she has a baby crush on the main cartoon character. :)

The Eagle Has Landed!

Well, our herd of Herzogs has officially made it to Utah and we are unpacked. Actually, we've been here since the 5th of August and have been unpacked for about 3 weeks now. I'm just now getting around to posting about it.

The epic trip out here was long, but good. We left Florida early on the 2nd of August. We drove through 10 states--Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Wyoming and Utah. Samantha was fantastic about 90% of the time. We would leave early enough that she was still asleep, but she would get pretty grumpy in the evenings, around 5:30-ish. Fortunately, all we'd have to do is stop for awhile and feed her and play awhile and then she'd go to sleep for the evening. She was such a good little girl!

I would not recommend the drive we took on a regular basis, but its fun knowing that we did it. Everything went very smoothly. A word to the wise--it takes MUCH longer to stop at a red light when pulling a 1500 lb trailer. In fact, you may end up in the middle of the intersection. Once you realize you're there, you have to try to speed away (which is not very easy with a 1500 lb trailer) before the crossing traffic can begin to move. Needless to say, we were all safe and it was very funny after the fact.

Tennessee was by far the prettiest state that we passed through. If we had the time, I would have loved to do some sight-seeing there. Lots of caving and camping and hiking. Nebraska consists of a whole lot of NOTHING. And it was one of the longest states. We woke up in Wyoming and it was in the low 40s! It was great. No more humidity for us. We were so happy to see the "Welcome to Utah" sign.

We were very extremely blessed during our trip. After we got to Utah, I happened to check the rating on our car, and we found out that we were pulling about 1000 lbs more than our car is rated to pull. We never once had a problem with our little Dodge Neon. The wind in the mountains that everyone told about seemed to vanish once we got there. No wind at all. HUGE blessing. The worst of it was a hill in Tennessee and about three or four in Wyoming where, at the bottom, we were going about 60mph but by the top we were going about 25mph. We just kept praying the the car just kept going. We are really thankful to all of our friends' and families' prayers. We could definitely feel the Lord looking out for us.

Our new apartment is great. It is wonderful to have three bedrooms and for Sam to have her own room. I will be posting more later on this week about our apartment and the unpacking and John beginning school. We are extremely grateful for all that we have and we are looking forward to our life here in Happy Valley (Provo) for the next few years!

Sam & Dad the day after arriving