Hello Sun!

Somehow I know it's going to be a good day when some of the first words out of Ashton's mouth to me is, "Zarah, get your head out of my armpit!" I couldn't help it, he smelled good...and I was also half-asleep.

I love spring\summer time. Spring only seems to last a couple weeks here in Utah. Then it's on to hot weather, which I love. I could still go for some humidity, but that's mainly because it's annoying to have to put lotion on several times a day. I just love walking outside and feeling sunshine on my skin. I love being able to wear shorts and have nicely shaven legs that stay smooth longer than the few minutes after turning the water off in the shower and stepping out of the shower. If my skirt collection didn't consist of mostly knee-length skirts (and if I didn't have so much leg hair), I probably wouldn't shave in the winter.

Of course, there are a few downsides to summer. The mosquito cloud that is bound to follow you after a certain time of the day is one. The mosquitoes have at least stopped hanging out on the door after dark, thanks to a mostly squished mosquito that I left there as a warning to all others (Don't worry, he's dead, just not squished to the point of not being recognizable as a mosquito).

I love this time of year. I love everything about it. Sun, flowers, grass (which may or may not be green here in Utah), warmth, swimming, etc. It's going to be a great summer.

Graduation!

Ok, so I'm a week late on this, but here it is, Ashton graduated last Friday! It was a crazy day since he wasn't the only one who was graduating in his family and amongst our friends, but it ended up being a beautiful day. His ceremony was at 8:00 AM and we hung around campus with his family, taking loads of pictures and such, until we had to go to his sister's (Melissa) and sister-in-law's (Stacy) ceremony at 2:00 PM. Actually, since they were at the same time, we had to choose one or the other. Bum deal on that one.

Ashton was actually a really good sport about all the picture taking. He was tired of all the pictures by the end, but he was good about the first 50 or so. I think he was really happy when I allowed him to leave the cap in the car and only had him carry the gown part with him.

It's been strange having him all graduated now. I keep having to remind myself that he doesn't have homework anymore, so we actually get to do things after he gets home from work. I'm sure it'll be even stranger when Fall comes around and he's not signing up for classes. Although, by then, he'll have a fancy diploma to prove that he's officialy done. Done, that is, until he decides to go to graduate school. He even got a new backpack as a graduation present. I think my response to that one was confusion as I turned to Ashton and asked, "Is there something I don't know about?"

In any case, the moment that you've all been waiting for, the pictures!

Ashton walking to get his diploma.

They had the front row devoted to people who wanted to take pictures while they were shaking hands, which was really nice. It allowed me to get this nice picture.

After Ashton got his diploma, Katelyn got a little bored of just sitting there.

Ashton and his dad.

Ashton and his mom.

I don't think I need to tell you who is in this picture.

So, the statue is of Karl G. Maeser and he's Ashton great great (add a lot more "greats") grandfather. This statue is on-campus so we decided to take some pictures with him.

Melissa was also graduating as I mentioned and so we had them take some pictures together.

Ashton, Lance, and Dad. It took some doing to get Ashton's dad up there.

Just for a change of pace, we saw these ducks walking around campus and it was too cute!

We caught up to Stacy and our friend Joe, so we took group photos.

Melissa was so happy.

Ashton and Dad again.

The group in front of Brigham Young.

Walking around all day gave me blisters, hence the no shoes in this photo. Also, I'm wearing a cap, because we were also kinda celebrating my graduation, too.

Gail, Melissa, and Steve.

Lance and Stacy.

Hello Spring!

We've been having beautiful weather here and it's great! Ashton had to take a final this past Saturday and so I had a few hours to kill. It was really nice out and I felt like a drive, so I grabbed my camera and headed out. 2 parks and 80 pictures later, I decided I should head home. It was fun to take pictures of spring and things in bloom, as you can probably guess by the volume of pictures I took. As fun as it is to take pictures of snow, they all kind of look the same after a while. Ice, snow, sparkly, woo. I was excited to have new subjects to take pictures of. So, here are some of the pictures I took.

I found this group of flowers starting to grow (I think they're irises) and was excited. With the snow we had gotten a few days before (that thankfully melted soon after arriving), I wasn't sure there would be much growing. I was happy to be wrong.

I was surprised to see these little flowers. I expected things to be budding rather than full grown. I guess it doesn't take long to grow when you're tiny.

I love it when trees start to bud.

It would hardly be spring without dandelions everywhere.

I tried a lot of different things with the dandelion. It kinda became my main subject.

The dandelion was a good sport to pose for all my pictures.

Here's a break from the dandelions. I didn't just take a random picture of a light. There's a seagull that's up there and he was just kinda hanging out there while his buddies were making all sorts of noise so I thought I'd take a picture of him in return for him not pooping on me.

Happy Easter!

I hope everyone had a great Easter Sunday yesterday! We enjoyed a great day with sunshine and, of course, some Easter eggs.

While I was showering and getting ready for church, Ashton hid some Easter eggs for me to find after we got home. Of course, I couldn't let him get away with just sitting around and watching me find the eggs, so after I got done finding, I hid some for him to find.

We spent the rest of the day spending time together, which we don't always get a chance to do, so we took the opportunity to do so. It's amazing what happens when you're both in the mood to talk and spend time together.

Since it was a beautiful day, we even sat outside in the sun for a little while. The wind was not so beautiful as it was cold, but it was still nice to spend a little bit of time outside. The trees are blooming and everything else is budding so, spring is here! We bought some flower seeds the other day, so I'm looking forward to planting those. We usually do seedlings instead of seeds so I'm excited for the change. We're even trying different flowers so that'll be fun as well. I might have to call this the "great experiment."

Ashton even did some "experimental" cooking yesterday. We've made Sundays his turn to cook and I didn't feel like volunteering to take over since it was a holiday. It wasn't all that experimental except for the fact that most of the stuff he made was stuff he hasn't made before. We got a small pre-cooked ham, and had some baked potatoes and green beans with them. It was a small feast that turned out really well.

In other news, graduation is next week and we're both wicked excited for Ashton to be done! Classes end this week and he has two finals. One is also this week and then one next week. So, it would seem that this week will be another busy week for Ashton, but the nice thing about the end of classes/beginning of finals is his last day of classes is Tuesday so he'll be on a regular work schedule the rest of the week! We've both tried to imagine what it'll be like for him to be done with school and only have to work, and neither of us can picture it besides this wonderful, glorious thing. It seems like one of those dreams that's too good to be true. A regular work schedule...who knew such a thing existed?

My New Haircut

I got my hair cut yesterday! I've been told that I needed to post pictures of it, so here they are! I didn't take a "before" picture, so you'll have to be satisfied with the after shots. Keep in mind, this was taken late at night so my hair was kinda falling flat at that point and although it might not look so different, there are some things that are different. Just not as drastic as they could be I guess. In any case, I love it.

Flying Home Again

I had some time to kill sitting in the JFK airport, so I thought that I'd update the blog. I've spent the last week in Maine with family. I wasn't too excited to come back out East this time. Funerals aren't the best reasons to go on a trip. It turned out to be fun though, after the funeral stuff ended that is. I spent a week with my brother Jacob and his family. I got put to work playing with the kids, helping packing some stuff up, cleaning, and sorting through baby clothes so that they are ready when my new niece arrives in August. Not to mention, I got to learn how to make some more yummy food.

Anyways, after a false start yesterday (sorry and thanks again Jacob and Heather!), I am headed back home today! I'm happy that everything appears to be on time, of course, I still have a couple hours to go before I get on my next plane. Someone knock on wood for me.

I'm excited to see Ashton, as well. I thought when I got married that I wouldn't do too much traveling by myself anymore. Guess I was wrong. We're hoping that he'll be able to come out to Maine with me when I come back out in August. Of course, we're also hoping that I'll be able to come out in August (the plans aren't finalized and surprises always seem to happen when you count on something working).

The nice thing about coming out in August is that it'll be summer time! The last time I was in Maine during the summer was when we got married, and that was more spring than summer. While I was packing for Maine this time, I realized that my wardrobe looked pretty similar to what I had taken to wear the last time. It'll be nice to be able to pack something else besides sweaters and socks. Much lighter, too.

Anyways, thanks for a fun week Jacob, Heather, Liliana, and Mattie! I'll miss you all and getting to be around. I'll especially miss hearing my name being called "Awah" all the time and being asked once every two minutes what I'm doing, if I want to play a game, and being told that a certain little girl wants to help, even when no help is required. I'm glad I got to see the rest of my family while I was there, as well. It's always sad to leave, but it's always nice to go home.

Howdy Howdy Howdy

This weekend, we had a ward activity that was a chili/pie cook-off with a Western theme. We were in charge of decorations and I had a lot of fun picking stuff out, although it was a bit stressful. Thanks to our brother-in-law Trevor, some of that was made quite a bit easier. He let us borrow some cowboy hats, a saw horse, lasso, and some other stuff. He even taught us how to use the lasso that morning. It was fun to watch Ashton get in touch with the hick within. Apparently my hick side isn't too far from the surface because I roped the target (a shovel handle) with the first try. Granted, I did grow up what most people would consider out in the middle of nowhere and it's not like it took Ashton a long time to get it. In any case, we had a blast at the activity and took a few pictures to remember it by.

This was our "horse." We put a saddle on the saw horse, and to make it look more like a horse, we rigged a stick horse to it that I had found at a dollar store. I just couldn't resist a picture when Ashton sat on it.

What can I say? It looked like fun and Ashton decided to get me back for the previous picture.

I was a big bully and "stole" the horse from the kid. He wasn't too happy and decided that the way to get me off was to "rope" me. I believe his exact words after getting the rope over my head was "Ok, let's go!"

It's been a while since we've taken a picture together, so I decided that tonight was a good night to do it. Turned out pretty well I think.