Spring/Summer 2012 in Numbers

Well, as usual it has been awhile. And any normal person would catch up slowly by doing a bunch of little posts. But we all know I am not a normal person. So here goes all of Spring and Summer 2012... in numbers! Buckle up, its gonna be a long ride.

{ 3494.9 }

miles between Quito, Ecuador and Salt Lake City, Utah. This gap was FINALLY closed when Danny returned from his internship on  March 17th. I decided to make posters for him and have a homecoming because to me it felt like I was waiting for a missionary to get home. One that I was already married to! 

{ 5 }

times we have moved in the last 2 years.  Danny got another internship for the summer this time in Salt Lake City, so we packed up and moved. We were so lucky to live with Danny's cousin Jose, his wife, Analee and their son, Elias for the summer in Fruit Heights. We had a blast with them! Danny worked for Enterprise Rent a car and I got a job at Independence University, an online college owned by Stevens Henager. We had a great summer and it was so great to spend time with family and friends. (I seriously don't have a single picture of us with Jose and Analee or at work or anything....sorry!)

{ 28 }

years my wonderful husband has been alive! Danny's birthday is May 29th which means we usually get a long weekend for Memorial Day to celebrate his birthday. Awesome! Except....we celebrated his birthday by having the stomach flu over for a visit. It was pretty crappy. But Happy Birthday to Danny!

{ 116 }

degrees Fahrenheit in Phoenix Arizona in May at my friend Beth's wedding. But totally worth it. I had the best roommates in the world my freshman year in college and we have stayed close over the years. One of the roommates, Beth, got married in Phoenix and we were all able to make it! We spent the days shopping, laying by the pool, reminiscing, and laughing. I love those girls! Danny was not able to come with me, so I drove down with Karie and her husband Tyson which made the trip that much more fun. We stayed in Vegas on the way down and on the way home so we took advantage and spent the night walking around the strip and laying by the pool.

A perfect roommate triangle

Innocent I tell you, we were innocent

We were trying to blend in with the statues

{ 31:21:01.8 }

Hours it took for Danny and his RAGNAR team to run 192 miles.  RAGNAR is a relay race in which 12 team members run from Logan to Park City nonstop, meaning someone is always running. Danny was on a team with his cousins and brother and overall, it was challenging but a great experience. And they took 156th out of 700. Not bad!

{ 2 }

Number of pets we lost. Fernando the fish passed away early in the Spring from overexposure to Lucy the turtle's heat lamp. Sorry Fernando! Lucy the turtle made it safely to Fruit Heights with us. However we built her an outdoor enclosure and somehow she ran away (ironic for a turtle huh?) so she is literally lost.... I'm hoping someone found her and is taking good care of her. I have committed now to not having any more pets because I am not a very good caretaker.

{ 25 }

Years that I have been alive. July 27th I turned a quarter century old. This year it was the opening ceremonies for the Summer Olympics so the way I see it, the whole world threw me a birthday party! Thanks for singing at my party Paul McCartney!

{ 17 }

months my wedding ring was missing before.... I FOUND IT! This was a Christmas in July miracle! I lost my ring in January 2011 and I looked for it everywhere. I even had a group of friends over to tear my house apart looking for it. When we moved in May I thought it was gone for sure. Apparently there was one place we didn't look though because one morning I was looking for some new deodorant in one of our bathroom Tupperware when something sparkly caught my eye. There was a little plastic bag full of shower suction cup things (you know, the ones you hang your loofah on) and inside was my ring!!! Totally camouflaged. I wish I could have caught my face on camera. You know that feeling when all the blood rushes to your face and you want to curl up in the fetal position and start squealing with excitement? It was like that. And then it felt like I was newly engaged all over again, I would find myself staring at my ring all day. Pretty sweet eh? And just so you can get the idea of how beautiful my ring is....

{ 12,183 }

Feet above sea level, the highest point in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. In August we drove to Colorado to visit our friend, Eric. This was our only vacation we took together this summer and we had so much fun. Eric is a friend Danny worked with in Ecuador and when we heard he would be in Colorado we couldn't pass up the chance to go visit. Since Danny works for Enterprise he got a sweet deal on renting a Cadillac SRX and he was in heaven driving that around. While in Colorado we went camping, hiking, drove through Rocky Mountain National Park, shopped at the outlets in Castle Rock, and ate a lot of good food.

{ 23x23 }

the dimensions of our shower in inches. Inches people. Our TV is bigger than our shower. Smallest shower ever. But all in proportion because we live in the smallest apartment ever. We returned to Logan again at the end of August for Danny to finish school (woot woot!). Just to throw out a few more numbers, this will be the 7th year I have lived in Logan, and now our 6th move. Here are a few pictures to show how tiny our apt is. It is a studio which means it is just one room, and then a little bathroom off of that.

View as you walk in the door. To the right is the kitchen (seen below) and to the left is the closet (with mirror doors)

View from the kitchen, you can see the bookcase/kitchen entryway in the closet mirror, and the door to the bathroom.

The bathroom. Notice the smallest shower ever on the left as well as the fact that only a very small human could fit between the shower and the sink. Makes it difficult to brush teeth, wash face, etc.

The kitchen. This is the right wall of the apartment. And I would say the saving grace. Its small but newly remodeled.

It was hard to move again but being in Logan feels a little bit like coming home now.  Danny is working at Enterprise in Logan as well as the computer labs on campus again, coaching the USU men's soccer team, and taking 15 credits of hard upper level courses. He is amazing. He is also in his last semester of school and we could not be more excited. I got a job at the Registrars office on campus and I am also working as an equipment tester at ICON (they make exercise equipment) which basically means I get paid to work out!

{ 81 }

Years my beautiful, sweet grandmother graced the earth. My Grandma Taylor passed away on August 28th and while it was sad to have her leave this life and I miss her, it is such a blessing that she is out of pain and has been reunited with her husband at last. Such a blessing to know that families are forever! My grandma is such an example to me of faith, endurance, and charity. She was always finding ways to serve others and she loved us grand kids so much. She was an incredible quilter and I have a beautiful baby blanket that I grew up with, a quilt she gave me when Danny and I got married, and another baby blanket for our future children. We miss you Grandma! What a wonderful lady!

Grandma Taylor, Me, and Danny at our wedding

{ 6 }

awesome siblings. When my Grandma passed away, all of my siblings flew in for the funeral. While it was sad that the the in-laws, nieces, and nephews could not come as well, it was so much fun to have the original "Taylor Bunch" together. This never happens because everyone lives so far away. We had so much fun staying up late talking, hiking to the waterfall with Angela and Russell, having "mans night" at Buffalo wild wings (obviously I was not invited to that one), shoe shopping with Michael, and just hanging out. I LOVE my family!

Mug shot line up. Pretty sure Russell did it, look at that face!

So... I think not being photogenic is genetic.

{ 3 }

hours later... and I think I am caught up. If you made it this far I owe you a treat or something for caring about me enough to read all of that! Here's to not waiting another 6 months to update again!

 

Ecuador Part Dos

So I actually don't have much more to say about the days we were at the beach, but that is where I took the most pictures, so here are a few more that didn't make it in the last post:

Danny riding a wave on the boogie board

Danny and his co-worker Eric with the boogie boards

 

Danny and I with our boogie boards

The sunset as we were driving to the beach house

We drove back to Quito on Tuesday morning and then we were so exhausted we just relaxed the rest of the day. Danny's co-worker, Eric, invited us over for dinner and then they taught me how to play Risk. I killed them! (I'm usually not a competitive person but I NEVER beat Danny in anything, so it has to be mentioned)

Danny took the day off of work on Wednesday so that we could go see a few places. We went to the market and bought a few things and then went to a restaurant I had been to when I was in Ecuador the first time called, "The Magic Bean." It seemed so surreal to be sitting in the exact some restaurant I had been to almost three years ago, but this time I was here with my husband. It was amazing.

Danny enjoying his smoothie (mine was better though)

My half eaten meal- random picture I know

So I guess I'll just throw in this little disclaimer now that kind of explains the remaining four days of my trip. Danny and I hadn't seen each other for over six weeks and while it was so exciting to be in another country together and we had made big plans to go see a lot of different tourist sites, a lot of that didn't happen. Because when it came down to it we could either call a taxi, be in a car for a few hours, be at a site for an hour, and then turn around and come home exhausted... or we could make dinner together and watch a movie and just enjoy spending time with each other. Which is what we chose to do most of the time. I guess when it came down to it I flew out to Ecuador to see my husband, not a bunch of touristy sites.

So with that being said here is a breakdown of the few more exciting things I did while I was there:

For those of you who don't know this, I spent the Summer of 2009 working in an orphanage in Quito (see my short-lived blog http://marztaylor.blogspot.com/). This was another huge reason I pushed for Danny doing this internship in Ecuador (little did I know I wouldn't be able to go with him). I wanted really badly to go back to the orphanage (ideally with Danny) because it holds such a special place in my heart. For a lot of different reasons I won't go into, I was only able to spend one afternoon at the orphanage, and Danny wasn't able to come. But it was wonderful and at the same time really hard to take. Most of the kids that I worked with while I was there almost three years ago are still in the orphanage. I remember them, I think about them all the time, they make appearances in my dreams on a regular basis. I will never forget the things they taught me.

However, none of them remembered me. And I did not expect them to, I was just another "Chica de Osso" to them that was there for 6 weeks and then in came another group of girls to take care of them.

As much as I knew they would not remember me, it was still a hard pill to swallow. It was fun talk to little Samuel, (who was always biting Mateo and just learning how to walk when I was there last) and have him show me how to make his bed, and ask me my name, and hear him say it out loud. It was incredible to see sweet, quiet, smart little Daniella get adopted (her adoptive parents were there to get her the day I was there). She looked at me for just a moment and I will never forget it, she reminded me so much of my niece Samantha. It was funny (and a little bit sad) to watch Pete (who apparently no one calls Pete anymore, only Pedro) ride his bike around and totally and completely ignore the strange white girl calling him Pete (that was me). It was a tender moment to hold Emily and try to calm her two-year-old temper tantrum when the last time I held her she was a newborn. I could continue, but it was such a great experience for me. But it was too hard to go back again, it was time to move on, these kids had their new "Chicas de Osso" and I will just have to go on dreaming about them, praying for them, and loving them from a distance.

(Sorry no pictures from the orphanage- it is a strict rule for the safety and security of the kids that pictures aren't taken)

And...transition back to normal Ecuador life: (that day in the orphanage felt like a dream)

Danny went paint-balling with a bunch of people from the Embassy on Saturday, and then we went to one of my favorite restaurants in Ecuador, "Crepes and Waffles" for lunch. 

The paint-balling crew

Danny in action

Awful picture, but I had to document the occasion

I left to come back to Utah late Saturday night, and when I got back to the SLC airport I was choking back tears until the time I pulled into my driveway in Logan. I'm pretty sure the Park N Jet shuttle driver thought I was crazy. But its good to be back and to have had that experience, and as of today only 6 MORE DAYS til Danny is home for good (I just keep telling myself that).

Thanks for reading. Come again.

Ecuador Part Uno

Danny has been in Ecuador since January 7th doing an internship for the US Department of State and will be there for 10 weeks total. I made it about six weeks and then decided I couldn't do it anymore so I bought a ticket and flew down to visit him. It was great to see him and so fun to go back to Ecuador. Here is part one of my week and half there:

On Friday, Danny took me on a tour of the Embassy and then we drove to the Jama where we stayed on the beach for a few days:
This is the panoramic view from the balcony off our bedroom: (on the bottom picture near the bottom on the left is the infinity pool)

We spent three days playing games, swimming, boogie boarding, eating, reading, and laying in the sun. It was incredible. (I got a little sunburned)

One night it was raining really hard (not unusual for a beach town in Ecuador) and apparently the drain got blocked in some way. So the rain all came through the house, in the form of a river. It was so crazy. Luckily nothing got damaged because all the bedrooms were up stairs. It just came in the front door, down the stairs, across the living room, and we swept it out the back door.

In the front door

Down the stairs

Notice the towel we put down- we grossly underestimated the amount of water that would come in

Out the back door

 Living in a way sweet beach house only a few feet from the beach was one of the most incredible things I have done. Everything was so beautiful, it seemed like a dream. I kept thinking to myself, "Is this real life?!"

Stay tuned for Part Dos.

Second Half of 2011 In Review

So I am a slacker. A major major slacker. I would like to think I have been spending my time doing more important things than blogging- but who are we kidding? I am just a slacker. So I am going to wrap up 2011 in a "best of" post, concise and to the point of the defining moments of second half of the last year. Maybe this year I can start fresh in 2012 (only one month late). So here goes it goes- wish me luck, and feel free to stop reading at any time.

June: 
Family Vacation to Yosemite National Park in California:

Danny and Owen

The family in front of a really large tree (its late and I can't remember the name of it)

A few quick things about the trip:
-This was the first time our whole family has been together since Danny and I got married (Stephen was on his mission, and everyone lives in different parts of the country). It was so fun to see how everyone interacted!
-Russell wrote a show called "The Taylor Bunch" (the exact script of a Brady Bunch episode) and we all acted it out which was not only an amazing feat but incredibly humorous.

Also in June: I got called as the ward Young Women President and Danny left for his internship in Chile.

July: 
Girls Camp near the "City of Rocks" in Idaho. There are only three Young Women in the ward so we had just as many leaders as girls but we had such a good time. I love that the girls view us not only as leaders but as friends. We made crafts, braided strings into each others hair, made fires, hiked, and of course went "snipe hunting." One night I stayed up late with the girls and played Truth or Dare. We had so much fun, one of the girls made me eat a tablespoon of mustard though and I about lost it!

Hiking at the City of Rocks

Braiding Each others hair

Also in June, Danny was gone all month doing an internship for the LDS Church in Santiago, Chile. He really enjoyed the work he did there and he especially enjoyed the people he worked with. He got to see a bunch of really cool places and things but my favorite part of the whole thing was when he came home on July 30th!

August:
My goal in August was to cram an entire summers worth of activities into one month (since Danny was in school or gone for the rest of the summer). We spent a lot of time visiting family and enjoying being in the same country. We also went to Florida with our good friends Chad, Tiani, Melinda, Tony, and Cam. These are some of the funnest people to be with. We went snorkeling in Key Largo, went to Universal Studios/Harry Potter World (dream come true), and spent a relaxing day on the beach. 

Snorkeling in Key Largo 

Eating at a seafood shack on the beach

Drinking butterbeer at "The Three Broomsticks" in Harry Potter World

Hogwarts

September: 
September meant back to school, and more importantly for Danny, back to soccer! This month was full of getting back into the swing of things with school, work, sports, and church. It was nice be back to normal life.

October: 
Ever since we got married (and when we were engaged) I have wanted to dress up like Lucy and Ricky Ricardo for Halloween because, lets by honest, this is kind of our life (except Danny isn't musical). Unfortunately Danny's regional soccer tournament is always the weekend of Halloween. So this year my friend Karie and I planned a Halloween Party on Monday so I would have an excuse to dress up. 

(we didn't really get a good picture)

November:
This month was full of trials for the Taylor family.
On November 9th my little one-year-old niece, Sadie, was diagnosed with Leukemia. She is the happiest little girl in the world and it was really heart wrenching to see this trial in her life at such a young age. Two days later my sister Julianne delivered a little baby boy, Zachary. He was born born healthy and without too much difficulty, but about 8 hours after he was born he started having trouble breathing and was rushed to another hospital. To make a long story short, his lung collapsed and he came fairly close to not making it. My sister was in one hospital and her newborn son was in the NICU in another.

As I was in Utah waiting every moment to hear news of how my family members were doing many times I felt helpless. I wish I could be there for them, carry the burden, or help in any way I could. (one lives in California, the other in Washington DC)
All I could do was pray that they would be comforted and that Heavenly Father would watch over them. As Thanksgiving came closer I felt like I should take the opportunity of having a few days off of work to help in whatever way I could. So I flew out to Washington DC for a few days to watch Zach's older sister and help drive Julianne to and from the hospital to visit her son. I was so grateful for this opportunity to spend time with my sister who I rarely see, and (hopefully) I helped lighten her load a little. There is nothing like a few trials to really make you grateful for everything that you have. This really made Thanksgiving even more meaningful for me.

Update: Zach was in the hospital for almost a month but has made a full recovery and is doing great! Sadie began chemo therapy right away, she is responding very well and things are looking very good for her.

December:
Always a favorite of mine, this month of December. I love that the snow is still exciting, that school is ending for Danny, and that it is Christmas time. Sadly, this December was a little less cheery than usual because it was foreshadowing by Danny leaving for another internship at the beginning of January. I tried to suck every last morsel out of the time we had together (pretty sure Danny got sick of me) but it sure didn't seem like enough. We spent the month with family and friends, the usual Christmas parties and seeing people we don't usually get to see.

The annual roommate Christmas party

Alright thanks for hanging in there. I will make a valiant effort to do better in 2012

We are Family

A picture says a thousand words so I will let these pictures speak accompanied by four words of my own: I love my family!

The whole crew

The Taylor girls

The "Taylor Bunch"

Fonseca Family

The little ones

My cute parents

One is the Loneliest Number

"Number one is the loneliest number that you'll ever do

One is the loneliest, one is the loneliest,

One is the loneleliest number that you'll ever do

It's just no good anymore since [he] went away"

-Three Dog Night

This song has been running through my head for a week now. Danny got an internship working for the LDS church this summer in Santiago, Chile. Which is AWESOME for him. However, it makes for one lonely wife back in Utah. He has been gone for a week now and has 34 days left (but who's counting?!). So if anyone wants to hang out this summer, you know where to find me :)

Gift of Life and Breath 5k

My sister Julianne's father-in-law passed away from lung cancer a few years ago and his family has started an annual 5k fundraiser in Denver called the Gift of Life and Breath to help support early detection of lung cancer.This year Danny and I along with my brother Stephen decided to drive to Colorado to participate.

The crew after the race. Go "Team Zollinger!"

*I see now why people always thought we were twins.

The 5k was a success- Danny ran it in half the time I did- but I came in 5 minutes under my goal so I felt good about it. It was so great to be able to go up and help support such a great cause that hits so close to home. We also enjoyed spending some quality time with Julianne, Nathan and Addison.

The Ping Pong was Passionate and Powerful

The Addison was agitated and yet...adorable

Thanks for the great weekend Zollinger family!