dinosaurs!

I am a bit distracted by all the things I should be doing to get ready for our trip to Zion today. However, I want to update this thing before we go because after I'll have to write about Zion and simultaneously be a grown up again and go to work every day. I'll be training for an indefinite period of time five days a week. I haven't worked five days a week since who knows when. Being a floor RN, or direct in-patient care usually means you only work 3-4 days a week, depending on your shift. I'm in for a real treat putting in five days. This is not complaining, by the way, I won't be doing five days a week forever. It's just so you know I might slack off on other things quite a bit during this time.

We had a small invasion, so we hired a few helping hands deal with the  intruders. By a few helping hands, I mean hundreds. And by intruders I mean aphids.  Ladybugs are one of the organic ways to treat aphids. However, they are wild creatures so they may eventually wander off to eat someone else's aphids if we run out. Hopefully a few will stick around and become our garden guards.

Ladybugs love to eat aphids and we have lots!

Did you know they can eat about 60 aphids a day? They also are Delaware's state bug despite the fact the first ones in America came from Australia back in the day. Today we have the task of naming all our new pets... Got any suggestions?

Okay, okay... DINOSAURS!

So, HERE is the link to Libby's blog. She has better pictures from the trip and mostly of their adorable children. So, while Sarah was here, we met up with our previous downstairs neighbors/friends the Newells and Eric from Fort Collins for an overnight adventure to Dinosaur National Monument. We had great fun catching up, learning about dinosaurs, riding dinosaurs, camping, fighting off ground squirrels, eating, and exploring. It is a pretty cool place that Viola and Davis both wanted to check out and it is sort of in the middle of Salt Lake City and Fort Collins.

Oh, and just imagine the Jurassic Park theme song running through your head the entire time.

Dina, welcoming us to Dinosaur land

Didn't have to tell them to stand there akwardly,
they do it own their own :)

Jr. Ranger Viola touching one of the many dinosaur bones

If you ever wanted to see just a few dinosaur bones, this is the place. If you ever wanted to see hundreds of dinosaur bones, this is the place. I don't really know or understand all the where, when, why, and how of dinosaurs but they sure have a lot of bones here. I once had a professor tell us that God reveals himself through the Bible and creation. If the two aren't adding up for whatever reason, it isn't because God lied or messed up. It just means us fallible humans did not interpret something correctly.  I'll just ask God one day about the specifics of dinosaurs.

Our camping spot on the green river. nothing like a river in a desert.

camping fun!

Most of the lighting is kind of terrible for face shots. However, I love the colors that dusk brings out. In the west, where there are less trees and more rocks, you learn to look at the beautiful colors in dirt. The lighting on the rocks just on the other side of the river were phenomenal. So much awesome beauty in big and little things in creation. Oh, and Charlie wants that s'more Davis is holding.

gimme that s'more.

He has a way with kids

campfire conversations, sarah mesmerized by fire

There was a super short trail just a hop, skip, and a jump from our campfire. I don't think it was an intentional trail by the park but people know where to find good views. We did a quick scramble to check out the scenery.

campsite down below

davis misses these man friends. a lot.

The next day we drove into Colorado, the bone part was in Utah, and took a long drive into the Canyon part of Dinosaur National Monument. To get down into the canyon and play where the Green and Yampa River meet you need something more than a Hyndai Elantra. It said no passenger cars or low clearance vehicles. Sad day. We enjoyed the drive and the views from the top. It is always more windy and chilly than you think it should be. We opted to not picnic at the top for survival reasons... or because we are kind of wimps... or because of small children.

you got to go down down down to get to the rivers merging

sarah on the edge

eric, from such great heights

western loves

The west is so vast, varied, and wild. If you want to be reminded of how small you are, this is the place. We can't help but say wow a thousand times. We drove through Aspen forests, high deserts, canyons, valleys, and fields in a short distance. There is so much creativity and beauty in creation. Being an east coast southerner, I felt at first the rocky brown of the west was so ugly and inhospitable. I used to romp around green lush rolling mountains as a child. I still love the east coast, it has a comfort about it. But I have grown to love the west and see beauty in wide open spaces, rocks of every color, shape, and size imaginable and the heights and depths of the topography. It is amazing all of this is for us to enjoy. Davis and I want to enjoy as much as possible.

Drive home, not so much desert here

Sarah came to town

I just took my sister to the airport and said good-bye. The end of the pre-employment season guests are over. This weekend, Davis and I will take our anniversary trip to Zion National Park and then Tuesday I begin work. I am so thankful for the time with my sister. Now she is flying through the air, I am beginning to really feel the anxiety of new job looming. I hope the anxiety doesn't remain constant on my mind this weekend. I am a very accomplished worrier. Even though I know I can do the job, anything new can be quite overwhelming and scary. It's that feeling of wanting to get it over with but also hoping to drag these final days out as much as possible. But let's not focus on that. The work will come soon enough.

this cutie at beans & brews after ikea

Sarah spent just over a week with us. We may have finally convinced someone to come live here. We are trying to convince everyone, with very poor results. Sarah just graduated from college and has a job set up in Charlottesville, VA at a school for autism. She loves special education and has a passion for special needs children. It was really encouraging to talk to her about her passion, it's the kind of desire that is contagious and makes you want to find your passion/calling and pursue it. But she also is looking into grad school eventually and University of Utah has exactly what she wants to do. Maybe in a year or two she'll join us. Plus, she enjoys the west and isn't afraid of adventure.

We did a lot while she was here. The main event was an overnight camping trip to Dinosaur National Monument where we met up with some friends from Fort Collins. I think I'll save that for another post. I have some chore catching up to do so we can have small group here tonight.

Sarah is one of the few people who visit where I feel comfortable completely immersing her into our life. So, we end up dragging her to a variety of things we don't always make other guests do. She attended our small group, went to lunch at Davis' work and met his coworkers, and we took her on a camping trip with people she has only met once before.

yum? ikea seafood spreads

She doesn't like shopping, like all of us in the Feero family. But she needed to experience the insanity that is Ikea. She handled the first part fairly well but at the end she was tired and overwhelmed. Coffee outing was necessary for post Ikea. We took this picture jokingly to send to Davis, you can tell Sarah is excited to try either. Davis response was "crab but either one sounds awesome". Silly, sweet Davis... :) Of course we didn't get them since it was supposed to be funny.

my favorite street corner

We went for walks and talked. Ingrid usually tagged along. She loves Sarah and Sarah loves her.

yummy gelato in 9th & 9th district

Sarah, not a food lover like Davis and I, was a really great sport about our food obsessions. We tried the local gelato place. Davis and I both picked the coconut sticky rice gelato. So good.  We also took her to our favorite coffee roasting place, a Belgian waffle restaurant, and a kick-butt Indian food house. Also, Sarah was introduced to several of our staple meals, like greek meatballs. Best of all, we had several nights where we made or created our own cocktails at home.

First of many homemade vesper martinis

Sarah loves mountains. We do too. We took her up a few local trails as well. The first night we trekked back up to the Living Room, dodging a rattlesnake on the way.  Sarah and I went on our own adventures while Davis worked. We found a great spot for very little effort, after we went to great effort to see the end of the trail. Ingrid enjoyed it too.

adventure dog

great spot for a picnic

Also, we checked out a few attractions. We went to the zoo and the Heritage Park, as well as other places. The Heritage Park was advertising "baby animal season", so we felt the need to see the baby animals. It is collection of Utah pioneer homes and memorials. It is very heavily influenced by the Mormon settlers but there was a shout out to the pony express, fur traders, and Native Americans. It was almost completely void of other guests the day we went and felt a little strange.

my favorite and most terrifying animal

sod house, similar to the one from "on the banks of plum creek"

Sarah was excited to climb into the sod house. She is a big fan of the Little House on the Prairie series. We read many very interesting signs.

hmm...

twin baby goats

not sure why this guy was here

All in all, we had a fabulous visit. Love my sister and am so excited for her future. I am glad I'll get to see her again in August for family beach trip and Labor Day weekend for Richard and Angel's wedding. Now, time for chores. Next time, DINOSAURS!!

signs of life

Another week has flown by. People have asked if this time of pre-employment has gone by slowly. Not at all. I cannot believe I have had a month now since we moved to just dink around the house. Of course, being my mother's/grandmother's daughter/granddaughter, I don't really do nothing.  I find plenty of little tasks and ways to make the time fly by. I am now on the two week count down until starting the new job. So much anxiety accompanies me into these situations unknown. I am trying to remain calm and confident but all this newness is starting to wear on me a little.

However, one of my favorite things to dink around in is the garden. I find it so thrilling to put little seeds into dirt and with a little water and sunshine, things grow! It's even better when they are edible things because we enjoy eating, as true southerners do. It is comforting to see signs of life.

little sprout, grow big and full so we can eat you!

  

Ingrid really loves to accompany me to the garden. Mostly so she can protect our vegetables from birds but also because she is our little shadow. 

I think this is a lettuce mix... should have labeled things...

Other than watering the garden since we basically live in the desert, I have been doing more of the cooking. Ladies, it is fabulous when a man loves cooking as well. Davis used to do the majority of the cooking. During this time I have been the primary cook and am trying to expand my go to recipes.

One of my new favorites

Since eggs are primal and fairly inexpensive, I've really enjoyed trying quiches lately. The problem with primal however is flour crusts are a no-no. We try to obey more closely at home to this way of eating but if people cook for us or we go to restaurants, we don't adhere as closely. Anyways, this is one of my new favorite recipes, a goat cheese quiche with sweet potato crust. I got it from this website: CLICK ME FOR DELICIOUS RECIPE. The first time I made it, I followed the directions almost entirely. The second time, pictured above, I went a little rogue. It was well worth it too! One of the best things about this besides an all-in-one meal, it works for any meal, even snacks. All-in-one meals/one dish meals are my favorite.

In effort to convince as many people as we can to visit us and because where we live is actually pretty awesome, we go out adventuring a few times a week so we can be good tour guides. And it is fun for us. The weather has been spectacular and it stays light outside for so long that we have until after 9pm to explore.  This week after work, we walked 6 miles up City Creek Canyon. 

Long shadows in the evening

It is a great, easy, and beautiful walk very close to home. Most people were biking up, but we sold our bikes so we used our legs :)

discrimination

way back, losing sunlight

Parts of the walk I could almost imagine myself back at Ridge Haven. The area was mostly green and lush for a desert like climate and there is a creek sharing the canyon. But then we'd see very western looking peaks and rock formations and we were reminded Utah is not North Carolina at all.

On Saturday we decided to try the popular Living Room trail, only 5 minutes from our house. It is a great little hike with an excellent view of the valley. People have taken large flat stones and created furniture. So once, you reach the living room, you can sit down and relax and enjoy the view! 

family!

Ingrid and I shared a seat so she would stop sniffing the other hiker's bookbags. 

family again :)

A view to the south east

I hope these pictures are putting a bee in your bonnet or lighting a fire under your butt to come see us! My sister, the fresh college graduate, is coming tomorrow to spend eight days with us! You don't have to come for eight days, but we love visitors.

Another very very very very very very very very very very x a million exciting thing happened this weekend back in Virginia. 

they are engaged!! my older brother, Richard, and his fiance, Angel

These two beautiful/handsome people got engaged! Sorry, I stole this picture of facebook. That is legal right... ? I am super excited to have a new sister and to have another sibling experience the wonderful challenging adventure that is marriage. I am a sad they are all the way in Charlottesville, VA. Maybe my picture will convince them to come visit :)

So we are slowly meeting people. We actually had dinner out with another couple Saturday night which was such a blessing. Sunday we met a lot of new people at church and ended up having a picnic lunch in Red Butte Gardens with a couple who had moved here from Charlottesville... small world. This same couple invited us to a game night at their house, just a few blocks from ours, and we met more people around our age.  We are very happy to finally be making connections. However, in my anxieties and fears, I fall prey easily to lies. It is hard for me to not compare these people to our friends in Fort Collins. Also, to not long for the familiarity of relationships more established. I even can believe that they are only being nice to us because they feel sorry for us being new. I know this is wrong. I needed to admit it. We are praying for relationships and to be able to love and serve our community. It is easy for me to believe relationships should serve me and meet my needs for comfort and security. This is wrong as well. People are sinful and even in our best efforts we can fail, my identity and true comfort must come from Christ. I need to remind myself of that in every way and every day.

Well, I made myself a to-do list, so I am going to get started. Tonight we are going to the opera, part of that under 30 ticket deal. I've never been to one and it's the famous Barber of Seville, so I'll recognize parts of the music. It sound so fancy to say we are going to the opera.

life as of late

hello fellow people


It's a Monday morning. Ingrid is on nap number three already. I've had my coffee and now am enjoying relaxing in the bedroom with the windows open, listening to birds chirping, and reflecting. Mondays right now are sweet but sad for me. A whole week has to go by to get Davis back from work to spend a full day together. My free Mondays are dwindling however. Last Thursday I was offered a as needed position for same day surgery at one of the hospitals in town. The hospital is actually called LDS (Latter Day Saints) Hospital but it is a part of the much larger Intermountain Healthcare system. Funny though, I had not actually been to see where the place was until yesterday. The interview was at the employee services center south of downtown. Honestly, I am not sure what I want to do in nursing. My job search primarily consisted of looking for normal hours. So, I can pick up any number of shifts but will never have to work weekends, holidays, call or nights. That was the selling point for me. Today is nurses day and maybe all week is nurses week. Hugs to all my fellow nurses. It's kind of odd being in between jobs during this week.

So this past week, I finished painting the red room blue. I love the color. It seems classy and antique. I picked "dutch blue" due to my personal connection to it plus it's down right pretty. Once I get everything in order I will put up more pictures of the transformation. Though, that may take a long time, so here is one until then.

it's in progress still :)

While painting, I had a lot of time to listen to sermons. It was so good for my soul to be encouraged in the gospel. Lately, I've been really thinking about living fully and loving where you are. Back in high school, I probably would have called myself a more radical christian. Only because I wanted to and felt the need to go live in a hut in Africa, forgoing all earthly comforts, in order to be an awesome Christian. It's really easy to place those who are called to a life less mundane in a higher category of christian awesomeness from us who work at medical device companies or hospitals. One can certainly feel guilty or less for not living so radically. It is great if you are called to that and if one day I am, I'll happily, although terrified, go. There have been several sermons, articles, and books lately that have really encouraged my heart to be serving God and loving neighbors where I am. And to cheerfully support those who do go.  Let's be honest, I am not very good at it now, so why do I sometimes think shipping me off to another country where I don't even know languages or cultural customs would make me a better witness and a more holy Christian? Davis and I have been praying lately to be salt and light in our community, where we have been given jobs, a roof over our heads, and so many people around us to love in the day to day activities.  Saturday, we spent the day working in the garden and the flower beds. Driving to pick up more seeds, I read this article: new legalism and was very encouraged. It is crazy though how sinful our hearts are that we can turn so many good things into idols. I often turn exotic types of Christian living into idols. So, as we picked out more vegetables than we could ever eat, we became very excited to hopefully harvest plenty to give away. Sunday, the pastor preached on Matthew 28:16-20. He really emphasized the fact Jesus tells us to go and make disciples. That doesn't mean you have to move to the far reaches of the earth to do this, though it is an option. Most encouraging, God is with us to the very end. Maybe I am just new to this mindset, but I am so encouraged and my eyes have been more aware of my surroundings when I realize God has redemption plans for everywhere.  TMeaning, wherever we go and whatever we do, we live for Jesus not ourselves.

........

Last Friday I spent the afternoon making shrimp creole for Davis the real way, at least according to this lady on the internet. It took awhile but Davis said it was delicious. I have no idea if it tasted like the real thing but lots of love went into it.

homemade shrimp stock

I even made the shrimp stock from scratch and have some left over. I am really excited to see what else I can make with the left overs.

lots of wandering to do, who wants to join us?

Saturday we picked up these books. We want to fully enjoy all the beautiful creation around us. It's also a great way to meet people. One book has a section for hikes with dogs, so yesterday we picked the closest and Ingrid friendly hike for the afternoon. It was a super easy, beautiful walk that starts literally in a park downtown and then all the sudden you are up in the mountains. It was just a few miles from out house.

state capitol building... looks familiar, eh?

We started across the street from the capitol building and headed down into City Creek Canyon/Memory Grove Park. You can go quite a ways up into the canyon but with Ingrid's bum knees (and I needing to callous up for chaco season) we only went part of the way.

Tulips at an events building in Memory Grove Park

Davis and I are both obsessed with all the tulips right now. Their colors are so vibrant. Also, the lilacs are starting to bloom. They are a personal favorite of my mine. I added a little lilac bush to the backyard on Saturday, just couldn't say no.

cooling off in the creek

The walkway follows a creek. There were lots of dogs and people enjoying the beautiful weather and sunshine. Ingrid enjoyed jumping in the water to cool off. She doesn't stay in long, just enough time to be refreshed. I climbed in the creek with her and froze my toes off. This southern girl still has to get used to cold mountain water, it's not like the bathtub lake water around Augusta :)

see the tiny capitol?

We ventured off City Creek Canyon onto Bonneville Shoreline trail. Before we knew it, we looked behind us and the city seemed so far away.

the great unknown ahead of us

To be only a mile or so from the heart of downtown, it sure felt like the wilderness, except we shared the trail with a dozen other sunshine seekers and mountain bikers.

the best friend

Davis loves these kind of walks. He does not enjoy when I take him wandering around neighborhoods to look at old houses. Love that man.

the mountainside was half alive

Spring is still in progress here. The farther up the canyon and higher in elevation we went, the less spring had made progress. We are in no hurry for all the blooms to disappear and summer to be in full swing. These long days with cool evenings and flowers galore are precious and few.

After we returned home, we debated about dinner. I coaxed  Davis into a quick trip to trader joes for some salsa and chips. We had to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, right? So, we ate chips and salsa for dinner with some Utah beers on the front porch. It was a lovely evening. That salsa verde is yummy! While we enjoyed the front porch, we met some neighbors. The wife is a nurse and the husband and engineer! We agreed to enjoy some front porch beers in the future.

happy cinco de mayo

Now, back to Monday. Have a lovely day friends.




ps. it's my favorite when ingrid wags her tail while she is napping. happy dreams?

there are things that have happened

I dropped my mom off at the airport yesterday. It was so sad to see her go. I had someone to explore and enjoy the new place with while Davis worked. Having mom around was just good for the soul too. It's been a week and there are things that have happened! This will probably be long but I'll try to include pictures galore.

We spent a lot of time walking around the part of SLC near our house. Ingrid enjoyed mom's visit because she got a lot of time to explore and sniff. I love walking and exploring and this probably came from my mom.

We checked out Liberty Park, which became a favorite. We returned several other times. The old Brigham Young farm house and barn are still on the premise. His house is quite nice with a huge porch, fairly southern looking if you ask me.

The pond at the park.

central walk way. it will be very lovely with leaves!

During the weekend, we took Davis down to the park minus Ingrid. We explored the Tracy Aviary, a bird zoo essentially. I can't wait to take my sister there. She loves birds. Just kidding. She is terrified of them :)

Birds! I think these were from Argentina...

Davis and I at the pond, very fitting a bird would be in the picture this day.

Mom and I also made the trek out to Antelope Island in the Salt Lake. We hiked a bit in rocky terrain, saw a few buffaloes/birds/jack rabbits, and were eaten by tiny black flies. It was barren and beautiful. But we would like to know when the flies are gone for going back!

mom on the island :)

views are lovely from the island. it was just a tad hazy that day.

beautiful landscape. flies, you sure were a downer.

Our backyard has three little garden beds. This feature was very important to Davis and me. While mom was visiting, we turned the soil, added a little compost, and planted the cold crops. It was quite warm and sunny this weekend, making it tempting to plant everything. Glad we didn't though, this morning was in the 30s again.

Ingrid intensely studying the art of seed planting.
It looks like this could be a Normal Rockwell painting.

During all the fun, I also went to a job interview. I feel very at peace about the job search, whether I get the job or not. It is nice to not be in a hurry. While I was leaving for the interview, I received a call saying that I was one of their top candidates for the first job and they wanted my references. We shall see!

We visited the Red Butte Botanical Gardens. Most of the plants were yet to be in full bloom but it was still beautiful. The views were amazing! Plus there was this awesome kids area, I wanted to come back and play in it when it's covered with leaves again.

flowers and foothills

enjoying the sunshine... terrible light angle for the picture

Mountains to the west.

There are many trails in the foothills/mountains. Several start from the botanical gardens so you could essentially explore for hours and hours and never see the same thing twice.

We visited a newer museum called The Leonardo. No, there is nothing made by Leonardo but it is all inspired by his love of art and science. Most things there are hands on, great for kids or Davis :) We were hoping to see the mummy exhibit too but another day!

 Davis made some stop animation at the Leonardo

Inside the city public library

park in between the library and the leonardo

The Leonardo is in the old library building. We stopped inside the new one, "library of the year 2006", for coffee. It is a pretty cool building even though I am usually not a fan of modern architecture.

Park City is about a 20-30 minute drive from SLC. Mom wanted to see the Olympic site at Park City. So we made a quick trip into the Wasatch. We had a lot of fun exploring the Ski and Olympic museum.

Giant buffalo head from olympic ceremony

davis did a little skiing.

mom did too.

 They have great form in their matching ski suits!

We still need to get him some sunglasses...

It was super windy outside although not very cold.  We saw were you can pay a lot of money and learn to ski jump. I guess you learn by landing in a pool first.

baby jumps into the pool

mom and I at olympic park

 Also, we took mom to Temple Square and City Creek Mall. The grounds are beautiful with flowers everywhere. On Thursday, you can listen to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir practice. So we stopped in for a bit. Apparently it is a popular activity. Their organ is incredible, one of the best in the world supposedly.

Looks like the inside of an egg with the ceiling.

Over all, it was good for my heart to have my mom here. I did not feel so disconnected from people to have a companion all day. Tonight we are going to a small group, hopefully some friendships in the making. On Sunday, our friends back in Fort Collins welcomed their baby girl into the world. Lucy Jane Angert finally arrived. I may hold a small grudge against her for waiting until we moved to come. I am so happy for Morgan and Lauren but sad to miss this huge occasion. Now we have to plan a trip back!

I suppose I should get to painting. The red room has been primed and now it must be painted!

and those are the happenings!