International Talk Like a Pirate Day 2011

Avast! Here be a video of Sammy celebrating International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Enjoy Mateys!


Aqui 'e um video de Samantha celebrando o Dia de Fala como uma Pirata!

Weird Al and Fishing

Polka Face

(For my English-speaking friends and family--from now on, I will be putting the Portuguese translations after each paragraph for my friends in Brazil)

OK. So this is going to be a pretty short post, even though we had an awesome week! John and I were able to continue our tradition of seeing Weird Al Yankovic when he comes to town. Last time we saw him was back in  July of 2010 in Orlando, FL. He came to the Utah State Fair this past Monday and we had a blast! We wished we could have hung out at the fair a little more--John had class until we had to leave for the concert. It'll be fun to take Sammy to the fair next year.

Weird Al did not disappoint and he played quite a few songs that we didn't get to hear him play last year. There was a pretty good turn out and it was fun to be nerdy with a whole group of people. I have included a few videos from the concert at the end of this post.

Entao, ainda nao sei como fazer um acento num PC americana, mas vou aprender. Por favor, tenha paciencia porque meu portugues nao 'e como deve ser. Esse mensagem vai ser curto esse semana, mas vou tentar, nas semanas seguinte, a colocar a traducao em portugues nas outras "posts" aqui. John e eu fomos um concerto de Weird Al Yankovic esse semana pasada. Vamos a cada vez que ele passar por nosso cidade. Fomos o ano passado tambem.

O concerto foi muito bom e ele tocou alguns musicas diferentes do ano passado. Tinha muitas outras pessoas la tambem e foi bom a divertir com as outras pessoas que gostam Weird Al. Se voce nao conhece Weird Al, ele faz parodias de musicas famosas. Tenho video no fim desse post do concerto.

Yoda 

Eat It

Saga Begins

On Friday, I took Sammy fly-fishing for the very first time. I put her in the backpack carrier and away we went! We didn't go to the pest of fishing holes, but there was a little park nearby. We fished for awhile and then played on the jungle-gym and then fished some more. We even ran into a little friend (that about made me fall into the water--see photo). All in all, it was a great week!

No sexta-feira, eu e Samantha fomos pescar para a primeira vez juntos. Coloquei Samantha numa mochila pelas criancas e foi muito bom. fomos numa parque por perto, mas nao foi muito bom para pescar. O parque tinha lugar pelas criancas a brincar, entao nos pescamos e depois brincamos um pouco. Nos tambem concermos uma nova "amiga" (ver a foto em baixo). A semana foi otima!

Fishing/Pescando

Our little friend.../nossa nova 'amiga'

This first song, "The Saga Begins", was actually Weird Al's encore song. It is a parody of American Pie. It is particularly special to John and me because it is our song. While we were dating, it is how we knew we were meant for each other. On the first day that we met, we were in a car with some friends and I was humming the song. My friend asked what I was singing, so I started to belt the song out loud. John joined right in and we sang it by heart. You don't meet very many devout Weird Al fans. We were meant for each other!

Esse primeira musica, "The Saga Begins" 'ema musica especial para John e eu. A primeira vez que nos conhecermos um a outro, estavamos com alguns amigos. Eu comecei a cantar esse musica em baixo. Minha amiga me perguntar o que eu era cantando. Eu comecei a cantar mais alta e John comecou a cantar a musica tambem. Nao tem muitas pessoas que gostam Weird Al tanto como nos dois!

Summer Catch Up

Its impossible to get a serious photo from this guy!

Whew! Our summer was fantastic and very busy (hence why I am just now getting around to blogging about it). I realize that John updated our last blog post to include this (at the very bottom) but-- FIRST AND FOREMOST -- John reapplied to the BYU animation program and was accepted!!! I am SO proud! BYU's program is internationally ranked and many of the major studios, like Dreamworks, say it is the best one in the nation. John started his classes two weeks ago and he is already involved in an animated short that the department is working on. Its so exciting!

I started and finished Summer classes. I did well, but it was not my favorite term here at BYU. I enjoyed the subject matter, but the way it was presented was pretty lackluster. I am glad to be on to new classes.



Since so much has happened, I decided I would let the photos do most of the talking. Here is what we have been up to this summer:

Happy family the morning after our camp out

Our boat of a tent!

We had a church camp out, which was a blast. The had lots of games for the little kids and Sammy enjoyed playing with all the other munchkins. It was Sammy's first time camping and everything went smoothly, mostly because our tent is large enough to fit an elephant (at least it felt like that to me, who is used to sleeping with just a tarp!) We had a queen-sized air mattress and Sam's pack-n-play set up with enough room to fit another queen air mattress! Anyone want to come with us next time?

Me and our amazing friends @ the midnight showing of Harry Potter

We were able to see quite a few movies this summer including Pirate of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Super 8, Captain America, The Help, Kung Fu Panda 2 and Rise of the Planet of the Apes (best one). I was even able to go to the midnight showing of the final Harry Potter movie with some fantastic friends!

Hogsmeade @ Islands of Adventure

Speaking of Harry Potter, John and I were able to go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Islands of Adventure in Orlando a few weeks ago. We were able to meet up with some great friends while there and we had a blast. John's parents were kind enough to babysit for us. It was nice to get out together.

Butterbeer!

Hogwarts Castle

Hogwarts Express

Hogs Head Pub

REAL carnivorous pitcher plants!

The Three Broomsticks! We ate dinner here!

Us in Seuss Landing

So after classes were over for me, we were able to take a trip to FL to visit our folks. We spent about 5 days in Venice with my family and another 5 days in Orlando with John's family. We had a great time. Below are a few photos of our FL adventures.

View over the Great Salt Lake

View over the Gulf of Mexico

Sammy with her Grandpa Great and Grandma Great

First time at the beach!

Sammy and her cousin, Marcus

Sammy at the Venice fountains

I see you!

"hmm...maybe I can drink this"

Whee!

My family

It was so much fun visiting family and friends. I wish we could have stayed longer and seen everyone that we wanted to, but we had to fly back for the Fall semester. It is going well so far. I will have to keep you posted (hopefully more often than I did this summer). 

Sammy got her first haircut this last week. The last two photos are of her playing at the park and of her new haircut. 

Sporting pink. She loves her new sunglasses.

Samantha's new haircut!

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.