Allie Elizabeth

I am the oldest of four kids. All things considered, I love it. Besides being the "experiment" as I like to say to my dad, I enjoy being the oldest child. I'm bossy, yep shocker. Whenever my parents would leave me to babysit, I remember loving to throw around the phrase, "Well too bad, 'cause I'm in charge now." (Nate doesn't ever hear that I promise)

When I was 11, my littlest sister Allie was born. I'm pretty sure the term "little mother" would have described our situation. She is, after all, my spitting image. I always joke with her that she better think I'm beautiful because she's going to look just like me.
Well the other day I received a text message...
(she uses my Dad's phone so sometimes it takes me a second to decipher the sender)

"why dont you ever blog about me youve done cade dad mom nate and bekka but not me"

After a good laugh I responded:
"Haha you're funny Pals. I'll do one just for you. How's that?

"ya i would like that very much"

So here's to you Al. I miss you lots when I leave for the summer, but it also makes you realize that you do kinda like me after all, right? Nate wanted me to tell you that I only blog about him cause I have to, so don't feel too bad. :) Hope you're having a fun summer, and I'll see you in a few weeks!

Happy Dad's Day!

A few of my favorite memories with my Dad:
~One of my earliest memories was tagging along to an old milk barn where he kept some of his cows. I would watch him while he worked and I even named all the cows. Some were: Laci Jae (how original), Licorice, and I think even Lollipop. Either I only knew “L” names or my parents fed me too much candy. :)
~Some of my favorite afternoons were when he would get home from work and we would watch movies in the basement. I would always choose Little Mermaid or Beauty and the Beast. What a good sport he was...although I guess he would always end up taking a nap by the end anyways.
~ Most Saturdays we would drive to Bear Lake to my cousin's house. We would stop in Preston at the Arctic Circle, then at the convenience store to get brown licorice. We'd listen to Marty Robbins (that's why he's in my music play list) or Patsy Cline and play 20 questions on the way.
~During the winter he would move his huge draft horses to the pasture behind our house. On really snowy days he would hook them up to a sleigh and pull me and my brother all around our yard, making sure to send us flying over the big mounds of shoveled snow.
~Beginning in the winter I was in 3^rd grade, he would pick me up from school and we would go to Amalga to feed cows. I would “drive” the truck or tractor while he fed hay to the cows off the back. My driving was basically just steering the vehicle while it was in neutral or low gear. We still laugh about some of the close calls we experienced. A few included getting stuck in the snow (more than once), or when I sent us careening down a hill towards the Bear River.
~During the summer he would have me and my brother move firewood from the pile that was against our house, to a new stack across the other side of our yard. I had to use a wheel-barrow while Cade got to pull the red wagon. Sometimes I think he just had us do that for busy work. :)
~He helped us raise 4-H animals every year for the fair. The fair was, and still is, my favorite event of the summer.
~When Cade and I weren’t stacking wood or picking up rotten apples that had fallen from our apple tree, we would move the big sprinkler pipe for an older couple in the field behind their house. I complained A LOT, but now that I look back I’m so grateful my dad taught me the importance of hard work and service. Those are two traits I definitely want to teach my kids.
~Anyone who knows me, knows I LOVE Christmas time. I am positive I inherited that from my Dad. Every year we would go to Rudy’s Greenhouse and pick out our Christmas tree together. He’d always let me have the final say and it made me feel pretty special. He’d also break out his collection of Christmas books and we’d read one every night for the month of December. A tradition he still continues with my littlest sister.
~I loved summer vacation because we'd always go camping or make a trip to Riverdale Resort. Dad and I were the only "brave" ones to go down the slide.
~During Jr. High and high school, he would attempt to wake me up every morning by coming down and belly flopping on my bed so I would be launched in the air. He’d laugh, I’d scream.
~These are just a few of the memories I love to look back on. Dad, you are my example of hard work, honesty, patience, fun, love, and especially faith. I take comfort in knowing you are just a phone call or even text message :) away. You give of yourself all the time and I love you so much! Happy Father’s Day Dad!

Why Nate is Great: Part Deux-

*For the original "Why Nate is Great" post click here:* http://lacibuttars.blogspot.com/2008_03_01_archive.html

During the summer my day begins after a good amount of sleeping in. I daresay if there were a competition of staying up far too late, and sleeping in way too long, I would take the prize. A sad confession, I realize. (my only justification is that it's summer and I'm more productive during the school year) After a long snooze I rouse to make Nate's sack lunch before he heads off to his daily work meeting and then continues to a 7-8 hour day of knocking doors. All the while, I try and keep myself busy by either shopping with friends or straightening the house.
Last week I spent more days then I'd feel comfortable admitting wandering around the mall, so today I knew I needed to do some serious cleaning. As I sat here at our rented, black, wooden table and scowled at the tower of dirty dishes in the sink; I was a bit discouraged to consider the long process that lay ahead of me. Scrubbing slimy plates that have sat slightly ignored for too many days, and attempting not to dry-heave (sorry to be so graphic) as gooey globs of garden salad slide down the garbage disposal, is not my idea of a good time. Long story short - I DESPISE doing dishes. Why don't we just rinse our bowls after slurping down cereal? Good question. But for reasons unknown, Nate and I just can't seem to keep on top of this specific household chore.
I was almost completely fed up with being the one who always succumbs to the soapy job. "Why can't Nate give me a break at least once?" I silently whined as I hot water seeped up the stainless steel sink. Just as I began to slide into self-pity, I snapped out just as quickly as I realized the contrast in my daily activities compared to Nate's.

Therefore the actual reason of this post - in good old fashioned David Letterman style,

THE TOP TEN REASONS
Why Nate is Great: Part Deux-

10. As mentioned above, he spends the vast majority of his day knocking doors.

9. He doesn't complain about the continually unoriginal sack lunches I make him everyday.
(a PB&J or turkey and cheese sandwich, yogurt, small bag of chips, Oreos 100 calorie pack, and a Gatorade)

8. He has 6 shirts to choose from throughout the whole summer. (There are only 5 in the pic because he's wearing one. I DO know how to count)7. He has even fewer pairs of shorts to choose between.6. To him, accessorizing with a hat is best part of getting dressed. (He had all these specially made just to stand out a bit)5. He does all this work in extreme heat. Yesterday the temp hit a high of 101 degrees, not to mention humidity. WOW.

4. He cut his own hair in attempt to stay cool from the heat. 3. Instead of sexy smelling cologne, he gets to smell like a mixture of these:2. He RARELY complains. I honestly think I complain for him more often than not.

1. He does all of this so we will have more money and won't have to work as much during the school year.

So go ahead Nate, kick back with your Dr. Pepper and NBA Live '08 on the Playstation. I'll scrub the dishes anytime.

Memorial Day Weekend

It's true! There really is a beach here! We finally made it last Sunday afternoon with no weather complications. Since it was Memorial Day weekend, there were as my dad would say "throngs" of tourists, but all in all it was pretty fun. Live bands were playing up and down the boardwalk and they even broke out some kinda weak fireworks.
Here is Nate (I was the photographer) with some other couples from our office. We were quite the group. Rem and Traci took turns long boarding and almost running into people, Nate and I pretended we were parents to Sawyer, Dani and Trevor stopped all the Grandmas and children with their little puppy Lucy, and Sam and Bekah told the funny stories.

Traci and Laci. And in case you were wondering there is another wife named Stacie. It's so cute. Haha.

King Neptune. We all named him King Triton though. He was enormous as you can see and we all took turns getting our pictures with him. Nate and I were lucky enough to get that random man in ours as well. P.s. Thanks Rem for centering it.
As they say, "Virginia is for lovers". I guess that's what we are. It is fun to spend our Sunday afternoons exploring our surroundings since that is basically the only time Nate isn't working.
My sister Bekka was nice enough to send me some family updates of their weekend back home. It's funny, when I was younger, Memorial Day meant school was almost out and we had one last long weekend to play. My mom would always take us to Clarkston to put flowers on my grandpa's and great-grandparent's graves. I didn't hate it, but for some reason I always thought I had better things to do. Since we've been gone these last two Memorial Days I've really missed the day spent in Clarkston continuing the tradition my mom taught me to appreciate.

I will always love my mom's headstone. My dad did such an awesome job "designing" it so to speak. All the flowers look so pretty as well.

My family usually makes a trip to Bear Lake also. This is my aunt Lauri Ann's grave in that cemetery. She died when my dad was just a kid.
I hope everyone had a good weekend however you spent it!

Happy May Birthdays!

We hope you have (and had, sorry Ash) some pretty great days, wish we were there to tell you in person!


Ashley
My cute sister-in-law's birthday was actually back on the 5th. She and Cody are Nate and I's gaming buddies. Just don't beat her, she doesn't like it. ;) Hope you had a good day Ash, thanks for all you do!




Brex!
Today, the 17th,
is my nephew Brexton's day. He has called me his girlfriend since I first started hanging around and I love it. He's growing up so fast and will soon have all the kindergarten girls wanting to be his girlfriends too. Hope you have a fun 5th birthday Brex!




Tif
Another cute sister-in-law, also today the 17th, who I don't get to see as often because she lives in California. Even though I don't know her as much as I'd like, I know she is an awesome mom and friend. She's always been there to help Nate and I as well. Happy Birthday from afar Tif!

Cade
Tomorrow is my little brother's day. He's turning the big 19. Anyone who knows the Wallentines knows that we are a bit lacking in telling each other how much we love and appreciate each other as often as we should. However, I do think my brother is pretty cool! He's a tough cowboy with a tender heart! S0rry I outed you Cade. He really is an example to me in lots of ways. I'm also excited for him to serve a mission cause I know he'll be an excellent missionary. Happy Birthday T. Cade!

You're Not in Utah Anymore...

So this post is more to "journal" our time in Virginia but also to share as well.
Last Sunday after church we decided to try and find the beach. It was a bit cloudy and a little breezy but we weren't planning on doing much more than looking. SO... we met up with Rem, Traci, Sawyer boy, and with lots of help from the GPS, made our way to the beach.
Just as we parked the car and set foot on the boardwalk the "rains came pouring down." (As in the Wise Man and the Foolish Man) Sand pelted my ankles as the wind picked it up and threw it every which way. Dark spots grew into dark blotches on our clothes as we ran for cover back to the parking garage. Needless to say, our beach tour lasted a good 10 minutes. We decided a drive by viewing would suffice for now.
As we made our way home, the radio hummed in the background until I heard the long and annoying BEEEEEP that is usually followed by information that you'd probably rather not hear. Well, that something turned out to be a tornado warning. Correct. A real tornado as in those big swirly things that pick up Holstein cows in the movie "Twister". The announcement proceeded to warn people to find immediate shelter, at ground level, and if caught in a tornado, to find an interior wall closet or room and to cover yourself in pillows and blankets - and to stay away from windows.
So being the sheltered "valley girl" that I am - make that Cache Valley girl I guess - I obviously experienced a few moments of shear panic.After we made it home, we looked on the internet to find that Virginia Beach was on the borderline of the warning area. This calmed our worries a "skosh" (as Mrs. Olson would say) and the storm raged on for a couple more hours. Luckily I never saw a witch fly by on a bike or anything. Long story short, we're perfectly safe, and have now experienced tornado ensuing weather.

Lesson learned: I'm grateful for mountains.

We're Heerrre!

Virginia is pretty sweet! (and very warm) Just thought I'd document our very long road trip:
When we were still sane - before thirty plus hours in the car.
After we had to take a very long detour because the Wyoming freeway was closed. Not cool.
Just a few of the hundreds we saw.
Yes, the rumors are true. Kansas is flat.
Eating lunch in Kansas with the Allens, our travel buddies.
Yes. I got pulled over. Stupid Kansas. Who drives 60 on the freeway?? Luckily the guy was pretty nice and just gave me a warning.
I tried and tried to take a cool picture of all the cows and barns for my Dad, but I was always to slow.
A sunset pic with the Allens in tow.
Saying goodbye to our ghetto motel.
Apparently Santa lives in Missouri, not the North Pole.
I love Kentucky! That is where we lived last summer. This is right before my camera died, so from there to Virginia got left out.