Photo of the Day

I just want to bring your attention to the fact that Trent's carrying two boards... what a gentleman.

Photo of the Day

Although this picture has nothing to do with the occasion... happy wedding day to Jenn & Jack!

Frequent Posts

After a lot of thinking... I've made the decision to increase the frequency of my blogging. Since coming home from my mission, I've been terrible at writing in a journal. In fact, my mission was the only time in my entire life I've been completely dedicated to documenting any sort of journal. I didn't miss a day while in the MTC or in Mongolia. It's fun looking back through it and reading about my successes and struggles. I wish I was always that dedicated to documenting. In an effort to become more committed, I'll start with the blog.



I'll also be posting a "photo of the day". Some days this will a picture taken that very day... and others it will be something from an "archived collection". Either way, it should give me more reason to take pictures. If a picture is really worth a thousand years words, that can't be a bad thing, right?



Today's Picture: The land I love!



Khailaast Branch... one of the very best.

A new addition!!

Baby Kelsie was born Friday, February 27th in the afternoon. She weighed 5 lbs 6 0z and was 20 inches long. Trent & I visited her for the first time two days later. By that time, she weighed in at a whopping 5 lbs 2 oz. The blankets wrapped around her seemed to weigh more than she did. Big sisters Morgan and Maddie are very happy about their new addition. Morgan is often heard saying "Kelsie is my best best friend!!" When others ask if they can be her friend too, she says "No, Kelsie is my friend". Congratulations to Justin & Alaris.

What we love about winter...

This video is from last season. We did a little hiking... and needed a break to rest. Trent didn't want to take a break... so he occupied himself doing other things.

New Job

Tomorrow, I will begin my new job. I'm extremely excited for it as I've been looking forward to starting over the past month. I'll be working in the "Client Retention & Growth Group". I'm looking forward to helping construct the overall vision and direction of the group. It is a very needed element the company. I believe the formation of this group will help facilitate increased client satisfaction and provide many opportunities to grow our current client base.

A long time ago, my grandpa told me if you work hard... focusing on your responsibilities... while not letting the "politics" of a situation affect you, you will always be recognized and rewarded for your efforts. I've tried to apply his advice and it has paid dividends for me. While I will likely miss certain elements of working in finance (mostly the people I worked so closely with), I'm looking forward to growing my own abilities and working in a more "client facing" department. I'll have opportunities to dabble in all sorts of different organizations (sales, marketing, client services, product management, etc). Tomorrow is day one... of many many more days to come.

Jamaica!!!

I just returned from an "all girls" cruise adventure. I went with my mom, Grandma, two of my mom's sisters (Colleen and Juanita), my grandma's sister (Linda) and her daughter (Michelle). We had all sorts of fun adventures on the cruise.

I will likely post more on our trip later but to start off, I wanted to highlight Jamaica. We loved Jamaica. Grandma & Aunt Linda wanted to shop in Jamaica and Michelle wanted to work on her tan. The rest of us wanted to see a little of the culture. We hired a "tour guide", Jeff, to drive us around and tell us about his country.

While there may have been a little skepticism about getting in a complete strangers car in a foreign place... especially when some people associate "dangerous" with it... Jeff was incredible and definitely a highlight of the trip.

Jeff drove us all over... to the jungle,
to the beach, he drove us through a small city, we saw the falls (with some nice "Rasta" guys),
we ate jerk,

and then we shopped. The people were very laid back and kind. Jeff's favorite thing to say (from my viewpoint b/c he said it in nearly every sentence) was "I understand... no problem mon". Jeff is 62 years old and has never left Jamaica. He said that people come from all over the world to Jamaica and tell him how beautiful it is... so what reason does he have to leave? Jamaica has some of the most beautiful horticulture I've ever seen. Crazy flowers were growing everywhere.

The weather was fantastic and by the end of the day, I felt like I could live there.