Arnold and Sun Valley

 Two weeks ago we went to Sun Valley for a couple days to be with my family.  My brother Cole and his wife Sara just got back from being in Hawaii for 6 months and this week they are moving to Missouri for medical school.  This was last our chance to spend time with them before their big move and new adventure. 

Nate was not planning on coming with me and Kate but last minute decided to come.  He wasn't able to do the activities with us during the day but he enjoyed eating, talking and playing games in the evening with everyone. 

The weather was not ideal but that did not stop us from enjoying beautiful Sun Valley.  

We rode bikes, hiked to a lake, and enjoyed the beautiful scenery of Red Fish Lake while sipping hot chocolate.  

One our last day we had breakfast at The Kneadery.  When we were waiting for a table to open up, in walked Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Nate looked at him straight in the face and gave him a nod.  Arnold kind of acknowledged Nate has he went into the restaurant.  We ended up being a table away from him so Nate sneaked a picture of Kate and I with Arnold in the background.

Me and Kate with "the terminator."

Getting out of Sun Valley was quite the process.  Right before we left, I locked the keys in the car.  Well I cannot say I really locked them in there because I never pushed the lock button.  I had no idea the car locked itself but it does.  It took the locksmith an hour to get to the cabin and then it took him 10-15 minutes to unlock the car.  He didn't know how to unlock the Civic and he didn't want to look it up in his book so it took him much longer than it should have.  

Once we got on the road it took about 3 minutes for Nate to get pulled over.  He wasn't paying attention to how fast he was going and right after my dad said he should slow down we were passing a cop.  The cop turned around and pulled Nate over.  It is never good to speed in Sun Valley.  The cops always pull you over.  

So the cop comes up to the window and Nate gives him his drivers license, registration, and insurance.  He asks Nate if he knows why he got pulled over and of course he does cause he was going like 25 over.  Nate then explains why he wasn't paying attention: we just locked our keys in the car and the locksmith just helped us and now we are trying to meet our family.  The cop decides to give Nate a warning, which I was so surprised but happy for.  Like I said, the Nielson family knows all too well that cops like to pull people over and give them tickets in the Sun Valley area.  

The cop then says well next time you get locked out of your car just call me cause I used work for this guy as he looks at my dad.  The thing is we don't know he is looking at my dad cause he is wearing sunglasses.  When he first said this we thought he was talking about working for the locksmith but he was talking about working for my dad.  The cop then goes on to tell my dad how he just saw his father, my grandpa, 3 weeks ago.  He tells my dad how he worked for him a couple of years ago but my dad does not remember this guy.   The cop talks some more and when he is about to leave Nate asks him if he went to Pocatello High School, which he did.  Nate then asks what year.  The cop responds, the same year as you.  Haha.  Man it was so funny.  Nate then asks him to take off his sunglasses to see if he recognizes him.  Nate did recognize him but he didn't know him that well in high school.  It was so crazy the cop knew my dad and Nate but they didn't really know him.  It was pretty awkward. Haha.  I think the only reason why Nate got off was the fact the cop knew my dad and Nate.  It was a huge blessing that cop was the one to pull us over!

Spring Break

Last week was Nate's Spring Break.

We spent the first couple of days in Sun Valley with family and friends.

 Nate skied and I stayed with Kate.

Kate and I met up with everyone in the lodge while they gave their legs a rest.

 

I had to add this photo of Tanner.  He has some serious hair issues.

Kate had a rough couple of days when we were in Sun Valley.  

As you can see from the pictures she wouldn't even crack a smile.

When anyone besides me or Nate held her she would pretty much freak out.

Grandma Sally was so sad about this.  

She likes to pride herself on her baby soothing techniques but Kate was not having it.

Kate just wanted her mommy:)

I decided to go off of dairy and it seems to be helping.

Kate has been a much happier baby recently! 

This face kills me. I love her!

 

After Sun Valley we headed to Pocatello. 

Me and Kate spent our days hanging with family, sleeping, Kate even took a nap in her car seat so I could play tennis, picking out fabric for Kate's crib, shopping, and me taking way too many cute pictures of Kate.  Nate spent a lot of his time working on his upper division paper:( Not the most exciting thing to be doing on his break but he needs to get that stupid paper done!

Luckily, Nate did take some time to hang with his little gal.

It was a nice little break for our family. 

We have loved being close to family these past couple of months.

Every couple of weeks we get to see them and they get to see Kate and how she is changing and growing.  They sure spoil her and love her.

We love that they love her so much!

Goodbye Summer, Welcome Fall

I love the fall season.  

I love the weather, colors, clothes, food and holidays that come with it.  Last week we spent the weekend in Pocatello.  On Sunday my dad took us on a drive up in the hills/moutains to see the leaves changing on the trees.  The colors were amazing.  I cannot wait to see the leaves change color here in Boise.

This picture does not do the colors justice.  The red was so vibrant.

Before I get caught up in fall, I better post about our summer.

Our summer was pretty low key but we were able to do a couple of fun things. 

At the end of May my family got together for a weekend.  

We went caving with my Uncle Dave and his wife, Valerie.  They love to explore caves and wanted to take us along for an adventure.  

They took us to the middle of nowhere in Southeast Idaho to an underground cave that was formed by lava flow thousands of years ago.

We are ready to go!

Entering the cave.

 The cave was pretty easy.  It was tall and very open.  

Once we had to crawl on our hands and knees.

It is amazing how caves are formed and then preserved.

It was fun to spend time with family and cannot wait till the family is all back together.

In July we spent the 4th of July week apart.

I spent the 4th in Sun Valley with my parents and Cole and Sara. 

I love the beauty of Sun Valley and the surrounding area.

 

We enjoyed hiking to a lake.

 

Love the Moutains.

The mouth of the Salmon River is somewhere down there.

 We went on a couple of bike rides.

We also went to an ice show, watched the small town fireworks, and celebrated my dad's birthday!

 Nate spent the 4th in White Clouds with his dad, Andrew, brother-in-law and nieces.

They spent the days hiking, fishing and playing games.

There was still lots of snow in the moutains and parts of the lakes were still frozen.

 

 

Maybe some day I will make the trip to the White Clouds but I am not big on camping. 

For now I will just enjoy looking at the pictures.    

The week before school started Nate had a week long class in Moscow.

It was a crazy, busy week for him but he got 2 credits from it so I think it was worth it.

While he was in Moscow going to class I was in classes at Education Week in Provo with my mom, Tanner and Alli.

It was my first time to EW and it did not disappoint.  It was a great week of being spiritually uplifted by words and music.  I came away wanting to be a better person, wife, daughter, sister, and friend.

In the evenings we spent time with Cole, Sara and Derek.

One evening we went to Bridal Veil Falls.

At the end of the week we went to President Monson's Birthday Celebration at the Conference Center in SLC.

President Monson really knows how to celebrate a birthday.  The music was spectacular and it was fun to see pictures of Pres. Monson over the years. 

It was a great way to end the week.

My dad flew my back to Boise.  It was the smoothest plane ride and baby girl didn't make me sick!

 I made it back in time to spend the end of Nate's b-day with him.

Too bad I am a horrible wife and didn't get him anything.  Luckily his parents were in town to help celebrate and make it a little more exciting!

At the end of August my parents took my to New York City for the U.S. Open.

When I was in high school they took my older brothers.  

My mom decided it was my turn to go and it was the perfect timing before baby comes.

We took the redeye to NYC.  I probably slept a total of one hour on the plane.  I am surprised I survived the week by starting the trip off with so little sleep.  We got into NY around 6 in the morning on Thursday.  We had to stick around the airport for like an hour and ahalf because they never put my mom's luggage on the plane and they couldn't find it in SLC.  They finally got things worked out and she ended up getting her luggage the next morning.

By the time we got to the city we decided that we wouldn't take naps like the original plan.  Instead we made our way to Central Park.  We rented bikes and road around the park.  I never realized how big it was until riding around it.

We rode about 6 miles around the whole park.

Central Park pretty much has everything.  There is a zoo, museums, toys, a free swimming pool (ice rink in the winter), trails to run and hike on, restaurants, monuments, a lake, a pond, a reservoir and thousands of people.  If I lived in NYC and lived near Central Park I would go there all the time.

That evening we went to Wicked.  It was amazing.  The music was amazing.  The acting was amazing.  The costumes, choreography, lighting, props, staging were all amazing.

The next two days were spent at the U.S. Open. 

We watched Andy Murray, who ended up winning the tournament.

We also saw Lleyton Hewitt, Del Potro, John Isner, Kim Clisters, and some young, up and coming Americans.  We didn't get to see Federer, William sisters, or Djokovic because they were always playing in Arthur Ashe Stadium  but we were able to still see some amazing tennis!

On Sunday we went to Long Island to spend the day with my sis-in-law Alli's family.

We went to church, walked the beach and enjoyed good food.

We wish we could have spent more time on Long Island but we were homeward bound the next day.

Our summer adventures are over but our fall ones are just beginning!  

It should be a busy fall as we start preparing for Baby Cuoio to come into this world!

Spring Break

Spring Break was 2 months ago.

I am so behind.

I don't know if I will ever blog about something a few days after it occurs? 

Maybe someday...

For Spring Break we decided to go to Seattle.

Nate actually went to Seattle the week before for trial team.

He got to fly, stay in a $200 hotel and eat expensive food and didn't have to pay a cent.

Now that is the way to travel!

He was able to scope things out and then take me to the places he enjoyed the most.  

It was a nice trip but ended up costing way more than we thought it would.

Who knew that there would be a $30 parking fee per day at the hotel we got on Priceline.

We totally thought we were getting a good deal until we found that little piece of information out.

We saved some money by buying cereal and milk for breakfast and we brought sandwich stuff to make sandwiches for lunch. 

We also didn't spend money on the sites.  They are all expensive.  

We could have done a city pass but we were only interested in like 2 things so it wouldn't be worth it for us to do it.  

So we decided to see the things that were free.

We walked here every day.  I loved the fresh flowers and produce. I really wish I would have taken pictures. If we lived in Seattle I would expect fresh flower weekly.  They are so cheap.  Produce on the other hand not so cheap but looked amazing and I'm sure is delicious.

 

We drove by the Space Needle.  It looks old.

The one place we spent money at was a Thai Restaurant our friends told us about.  We loved it.  Nate loved the noodles.  They were really thin, thinner than angel hair.  The place was a little dirty.  We sat down and I looked on the top of the backs of our booth and the fabric was covered in dust.  That was a little sketchy but the food was top notch.

We enjoyed walking on the Piers.  I loved this view, looking back at the city.  There were some fun shops on the Pier.  Nate loved the Curiosity Shop.  They have two mummified humans.  Pretty weird but kind of cool at the same time.

Outside the Art Museum.

The famous gum wall.

Seattle has a lot of fun shops.  We enjoyed walking downtown and stopping at all the shops.  Nate had found a store called Watson Kennedy when he was in Seattle the week before.  He told me it reminded him of Anthropology, like the home decor section, so we went there and a lot of the stuff you would find at Anthropology.  We bought a book there about Washington, D.C. by M. Sasek. It gives all the facts about D.C. but in story form with great pictures.  The author has other books about Paris, New York and some other places.  Some day I would like to collect them all.

For a long time Nate has wanted to get a globe or a map of the world.  Seattle had a great map store so we bought a huge map.  It is pretty cool but I do not know where we are going to put it in our small apartment.  I read this blog called 71toes.  They have a huge map near their kitchen table.  The map is to help spark conversation about the world.  One day, I think it will go near our table so our children will talk about what is happening all over the world and know where it is happening.  I just love the idea!

Our trip home, from Seattle, was a nightmare.

It usually takes about 5 hours from Seattle to Moscow but it took us 9.

Outside of Seattle there is Snoqualmie pass.  Can you guess by the name what happened?

It snowed, big time. 

Just as we were supposed to go up the pass, cops were checking every car to see if they had chains or 4 wheel drive.  Well we didn't have either.  So we had to drive back 30 minutes to find chains.  Then we had to wait in line to get checked by the cops again.  We probably waited 11/2 hours.  Then when we were on pass we had to stop for avalanche warnings.  Once again we sat for 30 minutes.  The driving was slow going, too.  It wasn't sure we would ever make it home but we eventually did!

 

At the end of Spring Break, I went to Coeur d'Alene with some friends.  We stayed at a friends timeshare on the lake.  The view was amazing.  We stayed up until 4 talking, painting finger nails and eating.  The next day we woke up way too early to go shopping in Spokane.

The great friends I love here in Moscow.

 

We are moving in 10 days.  I cannot believe it is already time to pack our stuff up and move to Boise.  I think I am in a little denial because I tell myself we have lots of time left, but we don't.
I never thought I would be sad about leaving Moscow.  Well the truth is, I am not sad about leaving the city I am just sad about leaving the friends I have made.  I have enjoyed many a girls night, workouts, walks/runs, and movies all with great friends.

Noah's Big Weekend in Denver

This post is long over due. I have been meaning to blog about our trip to Colorado for over a month now but as you can see I haven't done it. Lets just face the facts, I am bad at blogging. Without further ado, here is our trip to Colorado.

Remember this cute little guy, Noah?

In February, the people that love Noah most headed to Colorado to celebrate him turning 6 months old. When most babies turn 6 months it is just one month older and another ordinary day for them.
For Noah, turning 6 months old meant his adoption would be finalized, he would receive a baby blessing and he could be sealed to his parents! His parents decided to do all three things in a weekend so family could be there for it all. That being said, Noah had a big weekend: on Friday his adoption was finalized, Saturday he was sealed and Sunday he was blessed. Noah was exceptionally good for the weekend (he has suffered from colic). Everyone, especially his parents, were grateful that he was happy, smiling, and enjoying the weekend!

I flew out to Denver a few days early to spend a couple extra days with Ryan, Rachel, Noah and my mom(who also flew in early). My mom and I stayed at Rachel's grandparent's (Jack and Elaine) house, who live a 1 mile away from her. It was so nice of them to offer part of their home to us. Elaine spoiled us with so many options for breakfast each morning. She is the cutest grandma and so fun. She is a tiny thing and she can eat whatever she wants. She says she loves it! Every morning she has a waffle with pure maple syrup. She was a doll.

On Thursday, the girls(+Noah) had a good time shopping, eating at the Cheesecake Factory, playing with Noah, feeding Noah, and making Noah laugh. Noah was a trouper and seemed to love shopping!

On Friday, Noah's adoption was finalized in court. We woke up early and headed to the courthouse, where Noah was officially adopted around 8:30.
Everything went really fast. The judge asked Ryan and Rachel each a question having to do with why they are great parents for Noah and how he has changed them. Then he approved the adoption and Noah was officially theirs!

Photo with the judge. The judge gave Noah the little bear.

Noah with his amazing parents. He is one lucky baby.

Rachel's sister, Sarah; Rachel's dad, Mike; Rachel; Ryan;
baby Noah; Mom and me outside the courthouse.

After the adoption, we went for breakfast where I had this amazing coconut Belgium waffle with topical syrup. It was like dessert but I didn't care because I was on vacation.
The rest of the day we hung out, went to the fabric store, I made dinner for my family who came in Friday night, spent time with Katie and Drew's families (Noah's birth parents), played with Noah, made a Noah tie, and just enjoyed being with family. I made my family Butter Tandoori Chicken with this recipe , that I got from a friend. It's an Indian dish and my family loved it. They raved about it said it tasted better than a restaurant. You should all try it out.

Saturday, was another big day for Noah. He was sealed on February 11, in the Denver Temple.
It was a special day. Noah looked adorable in all white. He also sported one of my ties! He might need to become my model for them.
Noah was a little fussy in the sealing room and was not too happy to have/try to put his hand on his parents for the sealing but it was a beautiful ceremony. A few tears were shed for this happy occasion.
After the sealing, family and friends celebrated outside the temple. A lot of pictures were taken to document this wonderful day. Noah was pretty chipper for the pictures even though it was freezing. He managed to get through it better than I did. From the pictures it looks like he was not dressed very warm but he was well layered under those cute clothes. Don't worry his mother was looking out for him.

Such a beautiful family! I love this picture.

All the family and friends who came to witness this special day.
Noah is really loved!

Nielson family

After the temple, we all headed to Olive Garden for late lunch/early dinner. We all enjoyed each others company. Later, we hung out at Rachel's dad's(Mike) house, played with Noah, and enjoyed some good laughs while playing the "celebrity" game.

The last day of our trip, Sunday, was also the day Noah was blessed by my brother Ryan. Noah sat very quietly in Ryan and the priesthood holder's arms. I was so impressed with how well he did. Noah is a pretty vocal baby and makes lots of noises but he sat very content, watching all the men around him. Ryan gave a beautiful blessing. Rachel wrote about it on her blog and she gave me permission to post it here.
Rachel says it so much better than I could ever so here it is:

He told him that the miraculous circumstances surrounding his birth had strengthened the faith of many people and that he will always be able to think of the selfless sacrifice of his birth parents as an example of Christ’s Atonement. He blessed him with health, happiness, and understanding. He told him that we love his energy and enthusiasm. He encouraged him to learn from his mother how to serve others (yeah, this was basically the sweetest thing ever--made me feel so good). He blessed him to feel his Heavenly Father's love and to remain close to Him throughout his life.

I thought it was beautiful. I especially loved how Ryan told him to learn from his mother. Rachel is the most service oriented, charitable person I know. She is always looking to help and serve others. She is always doing kind things for others. One thing I love is the cards she sends Whether to say hi, thank you, wish you a happy birthday or whatever it may be, she loves to write and send people cards.
She loves stationary and loves to shop for it.
I have been the recipient many times and it I love receiving them.
I really should learn a lesson or two from her about service.
Did you know she has a nonprofit organization? Click on the sidebar, "The Hogar del Nino Project," to learn more about it and help spread of the word. She is always looking for good volunteers.

Back to our trip in Colorado.
After church, we all went to Mike's house for lunch. He made his famous tortillas soup, along with cornbread and salad. It was delicious. I think we all over ate because it was so good. We also had yummy desserts.
Mike was a great host, offering beds and food to my brothers and sister-in-laws. He was a great host for the rest of the company who came to celebrate "Noah's weekend." He welcomed us into his home and made us feel like family (I feel like we practically are).

Blessing day!

We love Noah, and Callum (Noah's cousin).

Our trip to Denver seemed too short but it was a great weekend.
Thanks for the great weekend Rachel, Ryan, and Noah. We are so glad we were able to come for Noah's big weekend.
Noah, we love you and are so glad you are a part of our family!