Fall Break Oct 2020

On Friday, Oct 16th, Natalie took the boys yard selling in the morning, and to the skatepark. Later in the Day, we all went swimming

On Saturday we went to yard sales the skatepark, Costco. Pizza and hotdogs for lunch, then went  to the Washington City Park  to play and eat lunch.  Then we went home  and swam,  then had a small dinner  and watched and Scooby-Doo the movie

On Sunday, we watched our virtual sacrament meeting in Riverton via Google meet at 9 a.m., then we did the Sunday School resume, then we played a little bit of tennis as a family, then we went swimming. We watch the LDS movie "the resistance" and we played several hands of Old Maid 

On Monday morning, we drove to Snow Canyon, purchased an annual pass, and then went to the butterfly Loop and lava tube trails. We hiked the lower lava tube cave, then we hike up to the lookout Peak, then we hike up to the upper lava tube and went as deep as we dared.

We ate lunch across the street at the upper galloup parking lot and picnic area, then we drove down the canyon to the Pioneer names and hike up The Path and up the rock wall to the Pioneer names. We then drove down the canyon to Jenny's Canyon and hiked Jenny's canyon. We went home, went swimming for several hours, came home ate dinner, then watched Casper the beginnings or Casper too.

On Tuesday, we got up fairly early and we all hopped on our bikes and rode east past Thunder Junction and under the freeway past the Crosby park down the parkway passed under the bridge and onto the south side of the Virgin River Trail, then continued East until we stop at Spring Park, which is a fre blocks from Mall Drive. We played on the park, then watched the ducks and geese and Swan at the small pond, then we rode back up to thunder Junction and let the boys play at the park 4 an hour. We rode our bikes home, then hopped in the car and drove to Costco, picked up a pizza and several hot dogs, then went to Canyon Park in Eastern Washington which had Ninja Warrior a Ninja Warrior course and really long slides. After this late lunch, we went home and swam, then had a small dinner and started watching the movie Labyrinth with David Bowie.

Wednesday was a Cedar City day. We got up early and drove past Cedar City to Parowan, then Northwest to the Parowan Gap. We looked at all of the petroglyphs at the Parowan Gap, and quite climbed some of the rocks and surrounding Hills. We then drove back up the road, East towards Parowan, and stopped at the dinosaur tracks Park where we were able to see several big stones with petrified dinosaur tracks. We spent about an hour there and climbed all the stones and climbed high up on the mountain side. We drove back into Parowan, and stopped at The Visitor Center to use the potty, then we headed out towards Brian Head and stopped at the Hidden Haven trailhead. We hiked up the canyon to the Hidden Haven waterfall, which was about a two-mile hike. On the way down, we stayed close to or in the river and follow the water down until we hit the trail, it was a fun adventure to follow the river down the canyon. From there we went back up into Cedar City and went to the Dig Discovery Park. We had lunch at the Discovery Park and the kids played for hours. Then we took the back road towards St George Express on the way we stopped at Old irontown, which is a ghost town and looked at the foundations some old houses and the iron foundry. We continued our journey home through New Castle, Enterprise, Vail oh, and dammeron Valley. We got home somewhat late and had a small dinner since none of us were very hungry from the late lunch. We went swimming, then finished watching Labyrinth, then watched some Halloween specials on TV.

Thursday was kind of a free day. We let we all slept in and we let the boys stay home and play Minecraft and watch TV while Natalie and I hiked up Padre Canyon by 2002 the back of the canyon to the saddle. At that Ridge we could see both parts of Snow Canyon and the Padre Canyon (Tuachan Canyon) and we could see Tuacahn, and all the way down into st. George. After taking a wrong turn, we also hiked up some of the canyon walls and in all we hiked about eight miles. It was a fun adventure to go off Trail once we lost the trail and had to find our own way.  When we returned home, we had lunch and relaxed. We went swimming later that day, then came home and had steak and potatoes for dinner and watched Spooky Buddies, a Disney halloween show about puppies.

On Friday we slept in a little but we left as early as we could to go out and yard sale. We hit three yard sales on the way to Snow Canyon and we drove directly to the cinder cone Trailhead, which is a dormant volcano hike. We hiked up the volcano around the cone and then came down the face of the volcano through all the Slick lava rock. Then we drove back down Snow Canyon to the sand dunes where the boys played in the Sand 4 hours. We had lunch at a picnic table they're under some trees in the shade. Then the boys played with sand some more.

We just got our house, how blessed we are!

Our realtor, Brad Miles, just called us around 11 AM (Saturday, Jan 21st) to inform us that our offer on a house that we really like had been accepted. This house is a bank owned house and we actually but a bid in on it just before Christmas time, but were outbid. The prior party's bid fell through earlier this week, on Thursday and they asked us if we were still interested. They then asked us to have our highest and best bid back to them on Friday morning by 9 AM. We are so excited and feel extremely blessed to have won the bid on this house. We were very disappointed when we lost this house the first time around. Since that time we have continually thought about this house and discussed how it would have been a perfect house for us. The basement is finished and so is the backyard landscaping and fence. There is a lot of storage already built into the house and a nice family or entertainment room downstairs.

Last Week in Arkansas

Taycen really has found both his feet and his voice this past week. We went to the mall in Fayetteville on Saturday. While in Dillards, in the womens section, Taycen let out a joyful scream just as a group of young women were passing by. They stopped and payed so much attention to him and he loved it. They smiled at him and touched his arms and told him how cute he was. He was in heaven.

I am so happy!

It has been a while.

Well, it has really been a while since we last posted to this blog. Since that time, we returned to Salt Lake City, had our baby boy, enjoyed Holloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and are now in Arkansas on business for two months. Joe is enjoying the travel only becasue the whole family can go too. The baby is doing well and is growing fast. for more about our life, go to www.taycen.blogspot.com

Back in DC

July 20, 2009

We are back in DC for 6 weeks more before returning back home. Before we left, Joe and his parents spent a couple of days painting the inside of our house and helping to get the house ready to put on the market as soon as we get the word from Joe's company. We will be moving back to DC permanently (or at least 3-10 years) for Joe's job. We both have mixed feelings about this but we are excited and feel it is the right thing to do. So for now, we need to sell our house and find one back in the DC area. Luckily, Joe's company will help us do both.
We have spent the past two weekends looking at areas and crossing out some that are too far or just don't feel right.

Over this past weekend we were able to drive to Charlottesville, Va to walk through Thomas Jefferson's Monticello estate. It was absolutetly gorgeous! Joe had been once as a child, but I had never been. The drive took about 2 1/2 hours, but it was neat to look at the countryside and experience a different part of Virginia other than the busy urban life we have been used to in Arlington. We both prefer the life away from the city and hopefully we can find a place to live that will offer us a little of that. It was great to learn of the history of Jefferson and to compare and tie it in with things we had seen in DC and Philadelphia.

My youngest brother, Daniel Vance, was married a few weeks before we left to return to DC. He and his wife are staying at our house and taking care of things while we are gone.

I am about 27 weeks pregnant and Joe and I are expecting a little boy on October 16th. It has been neat to experience the woes of being pregnant with my little sister, Marchaan,(who is expecting in December) and Maria, my brother's wife, who is also expecting a boy. Marchaan will find out next week what she will be having. It has been difficult to slow down and experience back pain, sickness, and general crankiness :). For now, I spend my mornings at the gym (located in the same complex as our corporate apartment) and can't go quite as fast or hard as I am used to the rest of the day. We are hoping to have the baby back in Salt Lake before we move out to DC.

We just arrived back in DC after spending a week in San Francisco. Joe had a conference to attend for work and I got to tag along. While we were there, we rode the trolley down to the pier and walked along the shops at the Cannery. It was quite warm the first few days we were there, reaching up to 90 degrees. Then it cooled down suddenly and we were back to coats and fighting the wind and cold.

We were also able to see the play "Wicked" at the Orpheum theater. Luckily, the theater was just a ten minute walk from the Intercontinental Hotel where we were staying. We were able to get great tickets for the Thursday night show and sit 10 rows from the stage. Joe's co-worker, Cristina, came with us and we all absolutely loved the production. The vocals were amazing and the costumes were exquisite! We had wanted to see this musical in New York but the tickets were outrageously priced and in Salt Lake the tickets were either sold out or being sold by scalpers for unreal prices. We got great seats for a pretty good price. Joe and I would love to see this production again.

We flew back to DC on Saturday to hot and humid weather. On our connecting flight in Detroit, our flight had been cancelled, but we were lucky enough to get on another flight to the Dulles airport which is about 20-30 minutes away from our apartment. Now we just get to deal with no air conditioning in 90+ degree weather. The extreme weather changes and 3-hour time difference have definitely taken a toll on our bodies!

Joe took a few days off of work so we could go to New York for a bit. We took a 4 hour bus from Arlington to New York on Easter morning and stayed in a hotel right off of Times Square. It was neat to see all the lights and tall buildings. Joe has been there before but it was my first time and a place I have always wanted to go (probably because I wanted to be on Broadway as a kid :)).

We bought a 3 day bus/tour pass that took us all around Times Square, Ground Zero, Harlem, and Brooklyn. It was pretty incredible to stand at the top of the Empire State building and look down on all the tiny cars on such a beautiful clear day. We also took a 2 hour cruise around the river and got to see the Statue of Liberty and the bridges. It was quite neat.
Probably my favorite thing that we did was go the David Letterman show. We went Monday morning to get lottery tickets and were called later that day to attend the Wednesday filming with Drew Barymore. I grew up watching Dave with my brother and dad and always thought it would be neat to be on the show. We were also lucky enough to be chosen as the "elite audience" and sit on the first 2 rows to motivate other audience members to laugh and clap. They told us they were chance of a lifetime tickets and chose us because of "your beautiful smiles and faces and your enthusiasm". How cool?!! They told us to laugh at everything because Dave feeds off of the energy. It was a neat experience that we didn't have to pay for!

We also bought tickets at half price to attend "Blithe Spirit". Angela Lansberry and Rupert Everett were in the cast and it was so neat to actually see their faces up close and in action as they wonderfully portrayed their characters. After the show, audience members grouped around the cast members entrance to get a chance for a photo or autograph. We tried to get a picture or autograph with Angela Lansberry, but she left out a different door. We did, however, get to see Rupert Everett up close and get a side shot of his face. :)

We stayed from Sunday to Thursday and walked so much that we slept quite well at night. Our hotel room was tiny but it was just off of Time Square and within close walking distance of so much that it was much appreciated after a long day.

Weekend Getaways

Jefferson Memorial

On the Mall at the base of the Lincoln Memorial looking towards the Capitol Building

The Lincoln, Korean, and Vietnam Memorials

WWII Memorial - Utah & Wyoming

The National Cathedral

Gettysburg - Cool train museum, Pickett's Charge, and Little Round Top

One month in and...

Five weeks have passed since arriving in the DC area. Arlington is treating us well, but we miss the convenience of our shopping district in Cottonwood. Work is going well for Joe and we have both fallen into a comfortable groove. Natalie enjoys the fitness facility at the apartment complex. They are working on the pool and that should be opening up soon. We have been able to do a fair share of exploring on the weekends. We have visited many of the Smithsonian here in DC. We visited Gettysburg twice just too fully soak it all in. We are really looking forward to the visit of Mom, Dad, Sheri, and Lisa in the first part of May. I think that we have a good plan of what we are going to do. We are headed to San Francisco next week and we are hoping to hit New York this weekend.

Washington D.C.

Well we finally made it to D.C. around 10 pm. We had to circle around twice to the airport because we got lost finding our way to our new apartment. It was dark and the signs are so confusing! Joe had looked up directions on google maps, but they were wrong. The directions refer to exits differently than they are listed on the road and there are so many different freeways! We were lucky enough to find a corporate aparment in Rosslyn just across from the Iwo Jima Memorial and the Arlington Cemetery. You can look out our balcony and bedroom window and have a great view of the Washington memorial and the Key Bridge. It is quite spectacular.

We spent today trying to find a Wal-Mart and grocery store. We had heard from a friend that it is less expensive if you shop in stores outside the loop and the main DC area where we live. So we ventured down the highway about 20 miles and eventually found a Wal-Mart and Shoppers grocery store where we were able to buy food and supplies. I had a visiting teacher that was sweet enough to type up things I should know for living in DC. One of the things was that the water from the tap is horrible. It is apparently loaded with pesticides, prescription drugs, and hormones that get flushed and recycled in the water. People have noticed when they drink the water they mysteriously gain weight and as soon as they stop, they lose that weight. So Joe and I bought a filter and some bottled water to keep on hand. Man, it's expensive to start over again, though! We were limited in what we could bring so we had to buy essentialsthat were left behind. We may be living off of peanut butter sandwiches for the next 3 months! :)

Our layover was in Denver for 3 1/2 hours so we stopped at a restaurant airport called the Mese Verde or something like that to eat lunch. We split a hamburger and some soup that eventually came back to haunt us. A couple of hours later I had an intense headache, stomach pain, and nausea. Pretty soon Joe was feeling the same way. Let's just say that we were glad to get off the plane and be next to a toilet for the rest of the night. Note to self: never eat at an airport restaurant that is not well-known.

I have to be honest, I am ready for summer. I am tired of this cold weather and inversion caused by the current high pressure over SLC. I am looking forward to planting a garden and flowers this spring. We have also discussed putting up a white vinyl fence and planting trees in the park strips. I still need to clear the second park strip of the rocks :( I am not looking forward to that. It took my all summer last year to clear out the first one.

Back to life as normal

We finally got the word this week that we will not be moving to Colorado. We were initially supposed to move there in September of 08 for three months for Joe's job. We are both kind of relieved. Back in September, when we were supposed to go, it was exciting and we were ready. The more that we were told to wait, the more difficult it became. Every couple of weeks they would tell us that the contacts were close to being signed and to get ready. This dragged on for three months. Joe has just continued doing his normal job functions, and Natalie has returned to work.

Fall Update

It has been a long time since I last posted. As many of you know, we were supposed to move to Denver for three months to complete a work assignment. Unfortunately, I believe that the contract is now dead between my company and the customer due to an irreconcilable disagreement between the attorney teams. Both companies have tried and tried to rework the deal, but the both attorney teams are being childish and unwilling to compromise, so I believe that it is now officially dead. :(

Currently, we are waiting for our next assignment. It will be to Santa Clara, CA for another customer. I am a field engineer and I will be their onsite specialist for our security products. The assignment will be for one year. It will either start in mid to late November, or as late as February. It all depends on the customer and how long it takes them to prepare for the system implementation.

Natalie and I were both quite disappointed when the Denver deal fell through. On the Sunday night before we were ready to go, we were all packed, but waiting to put it all in the car and go, but unfortunately, we never received the call.

Natalie told her clients that she was leaving and I transitioned the bulk of my job responsibilities to another, so we have been waiting to hear if Denver was going to happen or not. We have just been placed on hold. It is very difficult. Natalie feels like a caged animal and gets very anxious. I have been keeping myself busy with work, trying to do what I can, and with jobs around the house.

Natalie is not longer working, so that has eliminated a majority of our disposable income, but I am glad that she is not working. Her job was very stressful to her. She is happier now, although she feels a little out of sorts. She has always worked, so she is now trying to find hobbies, and other interests to fill her day.

We are planning on another Disney vacation in the early part of December. I have asked Natalie if she just wants to take the vacation now, but she really wants to see Disneyland with all of the Christmas decorations. To be honest, I really do to. I thought about going now, and later, but we are trying to save as much as we can.

That is an update as to what is happening in our little work as of right now.

Parkstrip Problems

We have decided that the gravel in the parkway has to come out. We are going to replace it with grass and trees.

So I have started working on this little project.

So after taking out all of the rocks and putting in a sprinking line, this is what the parkstrip looks like now. Next spring, I will plant threeRed Maple trees spaced about 20 feet apart in this strip. I will then start on the other parkstrip. Darn corner lot...

The grass is still a little thin, but it will fill in next spring.

Flower Gardens

This flower bed was completely overrun with ugly ground cover and vines. I have been fighting it all spring, so I finally got the lawn mower in there and wacked a majority of it down.

After round up and brush killer, Mom told me that these plants wouldn't take the poison to the roots until later in the summer, they just try to grow too hard in the spring.

With that in mind, I get a weed eater and completely scalped everything in the bed. It looks great for the present time. I know that they ground cover and vines will grow back, but at that time I will spray them with the vine killer and that should take care of it.

Natalie and I planted three pumpkins and two spaghetti squash in the bed since it will be our garden this year.

Tools of choise: weed eater, shovel, pick, soil screen, and ax. (click on pictures to enlarge)

Finished Product :)

Finished Product :)

Bathroom Remodel

We decided to remodel our guest bathroom since there was no shower, just a bathtub. This is just one of our many projects, so it has been in the works for a while.

I really don't like the marble tiled countertop, but I don't know if we will be able to replace that right away.

We started by taking off all of the existing tile and adding plumbing for the shower.

We were originally going to go with an ivory colored travertine, but we found an ivory colored porcelain tile that looks very similar to the ivory travertine. These are 20 inch tiles (very heavy).

For a long time, I only had two tiles hung on the tub surround. Well, I hung two more, so now we have a total of four times hanging on the wall. I am really happ how the top two and the bottom right tiles went on. I am not happy with the bottom right tile. I put too much grout on it and it sticks out too far, but then I get it grouted (hopefully sometime this summer) it will blend in well.

Closed on the House

On December 17, 2007 Natalie and I closed on our house and we finished moving in on the 22nd. We spent Christmas in Richfield with Mom and Dad, then we returned to the house to unpack and get settled in.

I think that this was the most exciting part of the move, the piano!