My first birthday!

Today was my first birthday as a Christensen! I had to work, but everyone still made it a very special day.

My boss and co-workers took me out to Pizza Factory for lunch and bought me a cake for my birthday.  My cake was so cute!

After work, my parents, Jeremy, Meredith, and their kids came to Cedar to take me out to dinner.  Jeremy and Meredith picked me up from my house and surprised me with flowers!
We met my parents at my favorite little Mexican restaurant in town, La Casa don Miguel. Along with great food and even better company, I got a gift card to Victoria's Secret from my mom and some cash from my dad (my dad said that he would NOT be part of anything to do with Victoria's Secret ha ha).

During dinner, Donna texted me and asked if we wanted to come over after dinner for some cake and ice cream. My parents agreed, so we headed over. Dani and Donna have been so good to me from the very beginning. They are always doing something to make me feel like part of the family.  They bought me an ice cream cake, candles, a present, and they even sang to me!

Right before we left Keith and Donna's, Brett texted me and told me that he had gotten me something.  When I got home there were a dozen roses on our kitchen table.  Even when he is hours away, he always finds a way to make my day.

Thank you to everyone who made this day so very special for me; for everyone who wrote me on Facebook, sent me a text, friends, family, and of course my husband.  I haven't had anyone make such a big deal about my birthday since I was a little kid.  I love you all and hope you know how much I appreciate each and every one of you!

Yummy chips and salsa from Visiting Teachers!

Memorial Day Weekend

Normally I spend Memorial Day weekend in the La Sal Mountains in Moab, Utah for the bear hunt.  This year, Brett and I ended up staying in good ol' Southern Utah. It was really nice to be able to just hang out and do what we wanted, when we wanted.

Thursday was the start of our weekend.  I got off work fairly early and Brett ended up getting home in decent time too.  Jeremy and Meredith asked us to watch their kids while they went on a date.  So Brett and I got to spend the evening with Hunter, Knox, and Krew. They were entranced from the second Brett put some tractors and monster trucks on t.v. After having some dinner and watching The Bee Movie, Brett and I took the boys and Hunter down to look at some "little kid dirt bikes."  We have tried to get Knox to sit on Brett's dirt bike, but he is terrified. He wasn't to thrilled the first time I put him on the little pit bike either, but after a minute he was climbing on and off of them and pretending to race them down the street.  It was so cute!

We bought a BBQ a few weeks ago and decided to break it in. So we called up a few friends Friday and Brett's family and invited them over.  I was nervous about having to do it in our driveway, but it ended up being a blast! Before the night was over, Shawn and Ashley Petersen helped us find a camp trailer! The guy selling it is in the Guard with Brett and they know each other pretty well, so when we called and told him we wanted it, he said it was ours. We have been looking for one for a few weeks now, so we were so excited to find it.  It is a fixer-upper, but Brett and I have big plans for this little trailer.

Saturday we were originally planning on taking the 400EX and the 450 up to Hogsheaven for a ride, but we got a call on our jeep and the guy wanted to come look at it.  So we decided to just spend the day lounging in town. And it is a good thing we did, because my niece, Hunter, ended up falling out of a tree and breaking her arm. Jeremy was in charge of chores at my parents house while they were in Moab, but he asked us to cover for him when Hunter had to go in for emergency surgery. So the guy came and looked at the Jeep and ended up buying it! We are sad to see it go, but also glad to get out from under the payment. I was glad to go out to New Harmony and help out. I miss being out there to help my dad around the farm and be able to just get away from all the hustle and bustle of town. Hunter's surgery went well and she is doing great.

Sunday morning, Brett and I woke up and decided to finally go up to Hogsheaven and see his family.  C.J. and Lacie decided to come up with us.  We didn't get out of town until later and we didn't get off the mountain until after midnight.  But it was well worth the trip up and back to get to spend some time on the mountain with friends and family. Brett's brother, Casey, ended up having dry socket when we were up on the mountain, so Brett and I offered to go get him some medicine, do some shopping for Matt and Jo, and come back up the next day.

Kaiser wouldn't leave Brett's side

My horny-toad I caught. Brett spotted him

Brett and C.J. shooting

So Monday morning, we woke up, went shopping, and headed back up the mountain. It ended up taking us 5 hours from the time we left our house to go shopping to get to the cabin. We got up to the mountain and Brett and I forgot the combination to the locked gate!! We fiddled with it for probably a half an hour and then decided to just walk up to the Lasson's cabin (it wasn't too far) to have them give us the combo.  We got there and the Lasson's were so helpful.  They gave us a ride back to our truck and told us the combo.  Once we got to the cabin, I got to play dentist on Casey. I guess it was pretty humerous seeing me working in Casey's mouth while he laid on a bench in the kitchen.

It was a long weekend, with lots of driving and quite a bit of personal stress, but overall it was a pretty good weekend.

Weekend with "The Us"

A little background on "The Us." When I was living in Logan, my brother in law, sister and I were talking about something to do with their family.  But me, being the nosy person I am, butted into the conversation saying something about "we". They decided that I had earned my way into "The Us," but frequently joked about getting kicked out.

So this weekend my Logan family came down to hang out with the family. They didn't get down here until very late Friday night and I had to work Saturday morning, but Saturday afternoon we met them, my brothers family, and my parents at the gas station in New Harmony to go on a little picnic and hike down in Silver Reef.  All of the really good spots were taken, so we had to hunt for shade but it was still a blast. We hiked down to the creek and played in the water before we went home.

Once we got home we all went fishing at my parents pond.  I am the most unlucky person in the world when it comes to fishing.  I was the only one to not catch a fish, but it was still fun to watch all my nieces and nephews get so excited when they caught them. The few that we did catch we cooked on the fire at my brothers house later that night. There wasn't enough fish to feed everyone, so we cooked some weinies and smores.

The next morning we woke up and went back out to New Harmony.  We went fishing a little more and helped my dad trim our pony's feet. All too soon, my sister had to go back to Logan.  It's always hard to see them go.

When Brett and I got home we decided to take Keith's Harley to Dairy Queen for some ice cream.  It was so fun! I fell in love with that Harley.

All of these things have gotten me so excited for summer. I am looking forward to many more fun adventures like this!

Don Williams

Last night, Brett and I met up with his family to go to the Don Williams concert (courtesy of my wonderful mother-in-law).

Dani picked Brett and I up and when we got to St. George we picked up Ray. Everyone else met at the concert. The opening entertainment was an Irish guy who was pretty good and Don was amazing! It was one of the best sounding and funniest concerts I've been to. Definitely made the top 3!

First time on the track

The whole gang down at Outlaw decided to take this past Saturday off to have a group riding day. Pat, Curtis, Kenney, Dustin, Brett and I all loaded up our quads and bikes and headed to a track out in Kannaraville. C.J. and Lacie even met up with us after a while. I have ridden on trails and in the dunes, but this was the first time that I had ever ridden on a track before. I was really nervous that I would be in the way and almost let that get in the way of me riding. But after a few pep talks from Brett I decided to just go out and have fun...which I did! The first jump that I got to I nose-dived so hard that my chest almost hit the handle bars. After a few times around the track, I got more comfortable and was actually able to jump my quad a little. After a little convincing, Brett talked me into trying out Pat's 450F.

Brett mostly rode his bike, but after a bit he decided to jump on Curtis's quad and ride with me. We rode around the track for a minute, but then the chain on Brett's quad broke.  There was another rider out on the track that wasn't with our group.  He came around the turn and barely saw Brett in time. He hit the brakes and wrecked pretty hard. I felt bad that he wrecked and that his bike got messed up so badly, but I'm more grateful that neither him nor Brett were seriously hurt. We managed to fix the chain so that Dustin could ride a little and Curtis could mess around on the quad.

The day started out beautiful.  Sun was out and the wind was fairly calm.  But, in typical Southern Utah fashion, our good fortune only lasted for a little while.  We called it a day when the wind started to pick up.

After we finished riding, Brett and I headed to St. George to see one of my best friends, Heather and her new baby. Since her little girl had already been born they said it was more of a "meet the baby" than the baby shower that it was. Brett was such a good sport to come with me (don't worry, he wasn't the only boy).  It was so good to be able to meet up with some of my really good friends from St. George and to get to see Heather and her cute family. It is so funny how good friends can go long periods of time without seeing each other and pick up like they just saw each other the day before.  I am so grateful to have such wonderful people in my life!