Family Pictures 2008

My mom thought it would be a good idea to take some family pictures before my brother Dan and his wife Emily and their son Andersen moved to Erie PA tomorrow for medical school. It's always so funny how you take 100 + pictures but only like 5 really sort of turn out. I think these ones are cute!!











My little family (Marianne, Mark, Ashton, and Justin)













My little family again (Mark of course forgot to take his sunglasses off)













My sister Katie and her husband Per (Nic) and their dog Maddie













The whole family (Marianne, Mark, Ashton, Justin, Holly, Scott, Dan, Emily, Andersen, Stefan, Sam, Katie, Per)













My brother Dan and his wife Emily and their son Andersen














My Boys: Justin and Ashton

Lake Powell 2008

We had a wonderful 8 day vacation to beautiful Lake Powell. This trip was incredible in so many different ways. This year my dad bought a new house boat… with AIR CONDITIONING!!! That was incredible. There were a lot of people on this trip which made it incredibly crowded. We brought Ashton which was both incredibly rewarding and incredibly hard at the same time. I’m still trying to loose my baby belly so I felt incredibly FAT… hopefully next summer I won’t be the biggest girl on the boat!! Especially next to my size nothing sister and sister-in-law!!

Justin was an amazing little wake boarder this year. He has officially graduated from the child size board to the adult Liquid Force board. I think he was very proud of that. He did all sorts of jumps, butter slides, and his own “tricks” that amazed everyone. He did get a pretty nasty sunburn on his lips… hopefully they don’t fall off!! We had a great little cliff to jump off of right behind our boat. He was always going over with Papa to jump off.

Mark learned how to do the stand up Super Jet Jet Ski and loved it. It was also Mark’s first experience on a moving house boat. He’s only ever come down and stayed on the boat in the marina or camped with friends. I think he really loved taking the house boat up the lake and having an entire bay all to ourselves. Mark even got to drive the houseboat back to the marina for a while.

Ashton did amazingly well. Much better than I could’ve ever hoped. He loved riding in the ski boat and he really loved the water. Especially when mom let him swim naked. Ha ha ha! We brought his Baby Einstein Jumper with us which was truly the one item that saved me throughout the trip. He loves that jumper. He’ll sit there forever and jump and play with “Mr. Sunshine” and the music.

I spent a little too much time in the SUN on Tuesday and ended up with sun poisoning. If you’ve never had the joy of experiencing such poisoning count yourself lucky!! I was stuck in a hot boat with 16 people sick and vomiting. Then to make matters worse... I had to stay out of the sun for a couple of days! I guess I learned my lesson… all things in MODERATION!!!

All in all it was an absolutely wonderful vacation. The best part being that my little family got to spend 8 full days together.

Twilight

So about a month or so before Ashton was born my sister-in-law, Emily, told me about a book series she had just finished and it was, "SOOOO GOOD!!!". So she let me borrow the
1st of the series, a book called Twilight. I started reading right before Ashton was born and I litterally read half the book one Saturday morning. It really was good. But then Ashton came and i've been busy ever since. Well about two weeks ago I decided i'd read durring my down time at work. Well... now i'm ADDICTED to these books!! I'm really not much of a reader outside of the Harry Potter series, but these books have litterally mezmerized me. I finished the 1st book and had to go out that night to buy the 2nd (New Moon)... only to finish the 2nd book two days later and had to go buy the 3rd (Eclipse)...I finished the 3rd book last night and now i've got to wait until August 2nd!!! to get the 4th book. So the point to my little blog is, GO BUY THESE BOOKS!!!

Tagged

Welcome to the 2008 edition of getting to know your friends. Change all
The answers so they apply to you, and then send this to your friends
Including the person who sent it to you. The theory is that you will
Learn
A lot of little things about your friends that you might not have known!

1. What time did you get-up this morning? As much as I’d LOVE to sleep in until my alarm goes off at 6, I usually get woken up by some cute baby babbles coming from Ashton. So this morning I think we were up around 5:45… fun, huh?!?

2. Diamond or pearls? Diamonds

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Seeing Indiana Jones tonight… does that count?

4. What is your favorite TV show? LOST!! I absolutely LOVE this show and now I’ve got Mark and my sis and her hubby hooked too!

5. What do you usually have for breakfast? I grab a Yoplait yogurt as I’m running out the door and eat it at work.

6. What is your middle name? I don’t have one. It’s always been a soar spot for me. Who doesn’t have a middle name?!?!

7. What food do you dislike? Cottage Cheese... YUCK!!

8. What is your favorite CD at moment? I’m loving the Baby Einstein lullaby cd right now.

9. What kind of car do you drive? A Honda Civic, or a GMC Sierra.

10. Favorite sandwich? PBJ’s

11. What characteristic do you despise? People who feel they have to interject their opinion, even when it’s not asked for.

12. Favorite item of clothing? Cute new cropped jacket I just got at Harold’s… it’s SO CUTE!!

13. If you could go anywhere in the world, on vacation, where would
you go? Mark and I are going to go to Paris!! We finally have enough F.F. miles! YAY!!

14. Favorite brand of clothing name? I love banana republic

15. Where would you retire to? After our trip to Canada last summer, Mark and I decided we want to be Canadians some day 

16. What was your most recent memorable birthday? Recently they’re not very memorable… I just wish they would stop!!

17. Favorite sport to watch? Basketball

18. Furthest place you are sending this? Idaho

19. Person you expect to send it back first? Kayci

20. When is your birthday? April 15, 1980

21. Are you a morning person or a night person? I used to be a major night person (Lindsay, you’ll remember that!!)… but lately I can’t seem to keep my eyes open past 10 pm!! So I guess I’m a morning person… yet I’m always late for work.

22 What is your shoe size? 9 or 9.5

23. Pets? Zoe – american Staffordshire terrier, Zero – Pekingese, Fire – beta fish

Where's question 24?

25. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share with us? Justin is a cub scout and is getting baptized next month, and Ashton’s most recent medical appointment showed us that he’s in the 90% for height and 50% for weight… so he’ll be a string bean just like his dad!!

26. What did you want to be when you were little? A doctor like my dad

27. How are you today? BUSY at work which is GREAT!!

28. What is your favorite candy? I love black licorice! I know, I know… you all are yelling EEEWWWWW right now, but it’s yummy!!

29. What is your favorite flower? Lilacs

30. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? June 29th… going to LAKE POWELL!!!


31. Question missing also.
32. What is your full name? Marianne Hurst (or pseudo Marianne Stewart since I’m with a commitment phob!! They were calling him Mr. Hurst at Justin’s school yesterday… that was pretty funny!!)

33. What are you listening to right now? B 98.7 on the radio at work

34. What was the last thing you ate? Cherry flavored salt water taffy. Thanks Maria!!

35. Do you wish on stars? ALWAYS

36. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Periwinkle

37. How is the weather right now? It looks beautiful, and the guys coming in keep saying it’s really warm out there.

38. Last person you spoke to on the phone? My mom, she called to see if I wanted to see Indiana Jones tonight

39. Favorite soft drink? If they could hook me up to a Diet Coke IV, I’d be a happy girl 

40. Favorite restaurant? For lunch: Plates and Palates in Bountiful, for dinner: Cheesecake Factory

41. Hair color? Dark Brown (Today)

42. What was your favorite toy as a child? Erma, my life size cloth doll I carried around with me

43. Summer or winter? Summer for heat and boating, and winter for skiing and Christmas

44. Hugs or Kisses? Kisses from all of my boys

45. Chocolate or Vanilla? Vanilla

46. Coffee or Tea? Tea

47. Do you want your friends to email you back? Yes!!!

48. The last time you cried? Sunday, I teared up during Justin’s talk in sharing time

49. What is under your bed? Boxes of swimsuits… yes, I have an obsession.

50. What did you do last night? Watched the LOST finale with my boys after Justin’s baseball game

51. What are you afraid of? The unknown

52 Salty or Sweet? SALTY

53. How many keys on your keyring? 5

54. How many years at your current job? 3 years at OEFCU, 6 years in banking

55. Favorite day of the week? Saturday

56. How many towns have you lived in? 4 (Salt Lake, Bountiful, Logan, North Salt Lake)

57. Do you make friends easily? I have always been painfully shy. I think I’ve come out of it a bit, but it is still a struggle for me.

58. How many people will you send this to? As many people as I can remember their email…

59. How many will respond? Hopefully all of them 

Memorial Day Weekend

I was so looking forward to this Memorial Day weekend. I had thoughts of sleeping in, doing fun things with the boys, and having great BBQ's... well Friday morning we awoke to horrible coughing and a snotty nose... Ashton was sick. The worst was when his little nose got so stuffy and he couldn't breathe while he was eating. He'd get so frustrated and all I could do was get the ball syringe and suck his brain. I don't think I slept more than 8 hours all weekend... can we RE-DO the weekend?!?! PLEASE?!!?! Now it's Tuesday morning and he's finally starting to feel better.

Justin gave a talk in sharing time. He was SO nervous, but he did such a good job!! There were some pretty big words and he only needed help once. When he got done he ran over to sit with me and said that he almost cried... isn't that so tender??

We did have a yummy BBQ at my moms last night. My grandma Vi and grandpa Bob are in town from Corrona California for the week. It's always so fun when they're here! Katie and Per were also down from Pocatello and they're staying all week!! We're so excited. ~After the BBQ Justin, Ashton and I went back home to hang out with Mark who had just returned from work. We stopped at Maverick and got some ice cream. We all snuggled on the couch and watched Enchanted. It was a fun night!

Oh... and I got Ashton's school pictures on Friday! They are so cute!! Check these out!!