California Vacation!

Happy vacation time! The first weekend in August quickly became our time for vacationing. The first weekend we went to Lehi, UT for our new baby niece's blessing. She was absolutely adorable in her blessing outfit that Mike's sister Jen made for her. We enjoyed spending so much time with the family that was able to attend and the luncheon after church was absolutely delectable with chicken salad croissant sandwiches and all sorts of salads and desserts - YUM!
The following weekend we had a wedding to go to in St. George, UT so we decided to use the time in between for a quick trip to California to visit Mike's mission. Here are a few pictures from our trip and from the wedding reception after.

After staying part of Sunday and that evening at my roommate Jenni's house in Beaver, UT we started to make our way towards California.

We started out the trip wanting to take pictures of all of the states that we drove through but as you'll see by the end of this post this is the only state sign that we have a picture of. We forgot about about the Utah sign crossing in from Idaho and the other states didn't have one on the roads we were traveling on. So - welcome to Arizona, Feiks!


Is this real life? Our first stop to stretch our legs was in Las Vegas, Nevada. Mike had been when he was younger with his family but it was the first time for me. We stopped by M&M world and walked through 4 floors of M&M madness. One of the floors had an entire wall devoted to any flavor of M&M that you could think of. Tempting, oh so tempting.

Next we went to visit New York New York. Right when we walked in there was a HUGE sculpture of the Statue of Liberty made out of Jelly Beans. Someone has way too much time on their hands...


Walking through the MGM we were quite surprised to see Lions right next to the slot machines! Craziness. We walked through one of the tunnels and two of the females were laying on the glass right above us. I think that is the closest that I'll ever want to be to a Lion.
Across from the Lions we found the Rain Forest Cafe. I'd never been so we decided to stop for lunch. It was pretty exciting eating lunch in a room that looked like a jungle and had thunderstorms every half hour. I'm not so sure that I'd go again for the food, but definitely the drinks! We had some kind of strawberry lemonade freeze. It was absolutely delicious! These were the bar stools that they had at the bar. They made me laugh.


Continuing our trip we stopped in Baker, CA at the world's largest thermometer. I don't remember what the temperature was but it was definitely HOT! Being the Gateway to Death Valley I don't know why I would've expected anything different ...


First Mission Stop: Hesperia, California!
The place where it's a million degrees and no one has a lawn. I was quite appalled! It wasn't that the grass was dead or that they were waiting to plant sod, they just merely didn't have grass - AT ALL! This is one of the roads in a neighborhood in Mike's area. (I think I can call it a neighborhood anyways) There were roads and houses but some of the houses were abandoned and some of the roads didn't have names! It was all quite confusing. Mike said that they had to get pretty good and using the map and counting turns instead of using street names (I'm sure that the 7 1/2 months he spent here gave him lots of practice :) It was here in Hesperia that we were able to visit one of the ladies that Mike helped to reactivate. Gina and her three girls (Tateum, Natalie, and Mia) made us feel right at home and cooked us a wonderful meal of corn on the cob, carne asada, and seveche (crab, shrimp, carrots, lemon juice, lime juice, and probably some other ingredients that I don't remember.) Served on a tostada with mayo and hot sauce! YUM!
This would be a Joshua Tree. They are all over southern California! Mike tells me that they are extremely finicky. Too much water - they die. Not enough water - they die. There is a $5,000 fine for harming one and you have to get a special permit to move or cut one down because they are only found in very few areas. Kind of ugly looking - right?

Second Mission Stop: Lake Arrowhead and Surrounding Areas
After spending Monday night and Tuesday morning with Gina and the girls we headed out on the road again towards the higher elevations. We drove along some of the windiest, sharpest, steepest, craziest mountain roads I've ever been on. (I was quite surprised when I found myself feeling a little carsick) We drove along the Rim of the World on our way up the mountain. We could look out over Hesperia and the cities below. Or at least that was the idea of it. There was so much smog that you could hardly see a thing! I thought that since we were going to be spending some time there that I would get the opportunity for another picture. Needless to say, the smog only got worse during our stay and so I never did get a picture.
Mike also served in the Lake Arrowhead/Running Springs area for 7 1/2 months. We were able to drive around and see the remaining damage from the fires that swept the area while he was there and we also spent time visiting with a few of Mike's old mission families; the Crisps, Williams, and Lewis' and also the Ward Mission leader and his wife as well. We had a great time visiting with these families and hearing old mission stories and getting caught up with the latest news.
We were able to spend both Tuesday and Wednesday night at "Auten Manor," the home of one of Mike's mission families before meeting up with them in San Clemente at the beach on Wednesday. On our way to the beach we drove through San Bernardino and showed me where his old apartment and church building was. Mike also served 7 1/2 months in this area.

Mike and I at the beach! WAY SO MUCH FUN! It was the first time in a California ocean for me and we had lots of fun on the boogie boards. Sister Auten even taught me how to dig for sand crabs, we were able to catch a few of them and hold them in our hands. They tickle when they run around (so of course I'd scream - I couldn't help it) which of course made everyone laugh. Later that evening after a scrumptious dinner made by Sister Auten, we went to the pier to watch the sunset. It was absolutely beautiful! (We have pictures somewhere but I don't think Mike's put them on the computer yet.) While we were on the pier we witnessed the catching of two fish. The first being a Mackerel (or a trout according to the Auten's daughter Katie :) and a Shovel Nose Shark! The shark was about two or three feet long - so not exactly the Jaws type. :)


In and Out Burger:
On our way out of town on Thursday we decided to stop by In and Out in Hesperia for lunch. I'd never been and so many people rave about it. After experiencing it for myself I'm not exactly sure why. There are endless ways in which you can customize your order of burgers and fries but we decided to play it safe and made ours "animal style" which essentially just means that they put fry/special sauce on it and chopped up carmelized onions. The burger was great, but the fries weren't as fantastic as I'd thought. But everything is made fresh at the restaurant and never frozen, we watched one of the cooks slice a potato for the fries, I wish I had a fry maker like that!

Just outside of Vegas on our way back to Beaver for Jenni's wedding we saw this sign. How in the world do you say that? I almost wanted to take the exit just to ask but we were going to be getting in pretty late as it was so we decided just to take a picture instead :)

Yay for Jenni and Ryan!
My roommate Jenni Carter and old FHE brother Ryan Lundgren were sealed for time and all eternity in the St. George, UT temple on Friday August 6. 2010. We were able to attend their wonderful sealing ceremony along with their family and friends that morning. We were also able to attend a reception in their honor at Jenni's home in Beaver that evening. The entire day was absolutely magnificent and we are so happy for the both of them and can't wait to see them again in Rexburg this fall. (from left to right: Meagan Stewart (soon to be Meagan Garcia! :), Ryan Lundgren, Jenni Lundgren, Lara Feik, Becca Taylor, and Alyssa Taylor)

So that is pretty much it for our trip! We came home on Saturday and went to look at a basement apartment here in Rexburg beneath our friend's apartment. We called and talked to the owner and went ahead to put an application in. We should be hearing back from them sometime in this next week, so I guess we might be moving :) keep your fingers crossed! :)

With love,
The Feiks

Based on the requests of our friends and family I thought that maybe it just might possibly be a good idea to update our blog ... just maybe.

We're adjusting fairly well to our new life here in Rexburg. It wasn't as smooth of a transition as we'd hoped but if life were easy then we wouldn't have anything to complain about - right? Speaking of complaints, here are a few of mine. (Hopefully they'll make you laugh as much as we did! - okay so maybe not all of them made us laugh - but I'm sure you can get a good chuckle out of a few of them)

* Our sink was clogged (and knowing our manager's track record, we decided to fix it ourselves) it was an easy fix. We just disconnected the u bend under the sink and filled our nifty little bucket with various debris from our disposal and a PLASTIC KNIFE that was clogging it all up! Maybe the old tenants knew something we don't about cleaning drains?

* The accordion door to our laundry closet fell off for the umpteenth time the other day. It is now located in our hall because Mike is tired of fixing it. So our fabulous "hide everything doors" now only hide everything on the right side. (Oh but don't worry - the repair man is coming on Tuesday. Oh wait, that was two days ago ... still no repair man)

* The TV went KA - PUT. But no worries. It was still under warranty and merely needed to have its software updated. (Who knew that TVs had software? - I didn't) It should be back in 7-14 business days. Oh, wait - we just called to check on it. It will now be 14-21 business days

Okay, okay - enough complaining.

Work is going pretty well for the both of us. Mike's working for the school as he has in the past as a game manager. (he's pretty much the "first aide guy" for the teams) He's currently assigned to Girls Softball, Men's JV Basketball, and the occasional soccer game. He's pretty excited about his new responsibility of driving the Ranger (a small 4 wheel drive vehicle) up to the playing fields with water for the athletes. Yes, tad bit of a water boy - but much more. (I think he just likes to drive something that not very many other students can - and he gets the key!) It's nice because he mostly just works on the weekend so he doesn't have to worry about work conflicting with classes but, it makes it kind of rough when all I want to do on the weekends is be home AND with Mike but he's at one sporting event or another. I guess you can't have it all. :) So far I've been doing a little bit of both by going to Softball games on Friday nights and Soccer on Saturdays but just skipping the basketball games to stay home and get a few things done.

I was able to get a job washing cars at Rigby Chevrolet. Not exactly what I had in mind for employment this summer but it's paying the bills - plus - how could I pass up a Monday - Friday 8-4:30 job? No late nights, no Sundays, same schedule week after week - fantastic! I pretty much just wash and vacuum the cars that come into the shop to get an oil change and any of the cars on the lot that need a little scrub behind the mirrors. When there aren't any cars to wash I also function as a janitor, chauffeur, coffee/hot water/popcorn maker, car deliverer, inventory specialist, window washer, or anything else that needs done. I also used to deliver and pick up parts from various places in Rigby, Rexburg, and Idaho Falls but they hired someone else to take care of that. I was pretty bummed. That was my most favorite part of the job. Except when I would get lost ... and we just don't need to talk about that. Being the only girl in the shop I feel like I get pretty spoiled sometimes - but I'm not complaining! :) The guys I work with are great, I realized that most of them are old enough to be my dad ... or grandpa. Much different age group than my babysitting jobs last summer - and yet, sometimes they behave the same way :).

We learn something new every day and we're always counting our blessings and looking forward to the next. Hope all is going well with you and yours!
Love,
The Feiks

p.s. I think I'm really starting to get the hang of this couponing thing - I LOVE IT! But I won't blog about it now. Then I'd really have an enormously long post for today :)

Hello From Snowy Wyoming!

Welcome to our blog!
We thought that we would give you a little bit of an update on our lives to start off our new blog. We've both been working what seems like every waking minute lately and are very much looking forward to moving to Rexburg on April 13th!
We have had some time for a little time though. Our friends from Rexburg (Dan and Ashley) came up to visit us for the weekend. After a brief rescue by way of a tow truck followed by a pleasant chauffeured trip to Jackson we were able to squeeze a little bit of fun from the rest of the weekend. After a huckleberry BBQ chicken and salad lunch we decided to go for a little drive to see the sights. As we were driving on a seemingly harmless dirt road through the Elk Refuge we were greeted by a herd of Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep! (We were really quite lucky to see them - apparently there are only about 90 sheep total that live in the area - this is what reading the newspaper at work does to you - you have all this random information stored away in your brain to spew forth while blogging .... fantastic!) We were able to get several nice pictures of them.

We were also able to do typical "tourist" activities. Walked the shops, took pictures in front of the Elk Antler Arches, visited the candy store and stopped off to see Bigfoot himself! All very exciting things to do. We had dinner at a new Italian restaurant in town that Mike and I had heard great things about but, needless to say, we weren't very impressed. Following dinner we watched the Jackson Hole Moose hockey team play against the Spokane Railers. We still aren't exactly sure what a "railer" is. We rounded off the evening learning two new games from the Jensens)

Other than our Rexburg visitors and the birth of our new cousin Estella Marie we haven't had a whole lot occupying our time. We have been greeted by a fresh layer of snow the past few mornings. Actually it was more like a dump of snow this morning ... and we thought April meant Spring weather. How silly of us.
That's about it for us. This week is pretty busy with working/packing/saying goodbye to nursery kiddos :(/moving. We'll do a new post next week with pictures of our new place - yay Rexburg! (and hopefully warmer weather :)