FHE?

I am the FHE Mom for my group which means I have to come up with an activity and a lesson each week. I'm sure the group will help me as will the "Dad", but none of us are that creative. I need some good ideas for lessons and activities that last about 1 hour. Post your FHE ideas in the comments. I need all the help I can get. Thanks!

School is in Session

So I am back at school. Amy and I drove up together just over 4 weeks ago and we are all settled in and trying not to be too anti-social. Here are some pictures from our road trip...

So far nothing too exciting has happened...let's pretend you didn't already guess this. Actually Nikki, Jordan, and Warren came up to Utah and it was so nice to see them. Nikki treated me to dinner and we just got to talk for a long time which hasn't really happened since we shared a room before her wedding. Warren is as cute as ever and he can even say my name! It took a lot of coaching and coaxing, but he did it and it was so cute. He says his name pretty well too.

This is the cage that Nikki mentioned in her blog.


I just got back from Break the Fast and it was good, but there wasn't very much food so I felt like I couldn't eat a lot. I'm sure I will be cooking up some Mac and Cheese pretty soon. Thank you Western Family. If you don't know what I am referring to, it is the generic brand that I survive on these days. I got to hear from Steph and the Disneyland gang last night and they seem to have had a good time. I also got to talk to Mom and Grandpa and I heard we have a new puppy...(What are we thinking?) Good luck with that. By the way...if you wanted my opinion on the name, I would go with Apple Spice and just call her Apple for short. If Gwenyth Paltrow can get away with naming her child that then I'm sure it will fly with an apple-headed chihuahua.

Anyway school is going well. It takes me less than 10 minutes to walk to class or work everyday. Some of my classes are more work than I expected, but I enjoy them all for the most part. I have Mission Prep, New Testament (The Gospels), Physical Science 110B (geology), ASL 201, CPSE 400 (my first Special Ed class--it is amazing), and Civilizations 1 (history from the beginning to 1500 AD). More later...I need to work on my mission prep paper and do some other stuff.

I love you all. I need more visitors so please make a trip to Utah.

Peter...are you having Thanksgiving with us--Mom, Dad, Kyle, and I?

I would love to come home, but you can all trek up here as long as Grandpa and Grandma come.

Peter

I did want to mention that although I did say Peter tries to tell me what to do...I still love him a lot and look up to him. He is a wonderful brother, but he, like all brothers, teases and thinks he knows what is best for me. I appreciate though that he cares enough to tell me what he thinks and give me advice. There are countless times when I have turned to him where no one else could have helped me like he did. I still get way mad when he teases me about dating, Zach, my eyebrows, etc., but I will be a turd when he finally decides to find himself a wife. All jokes aside though...thanks for being you Peter. I love you!

The past

I want to finish back-blogging and get you up to speed on my life right now so I will quickly sum up a few things...

We went to San Diego to see Peter and go to the beach with our Favero cousins in August. Here are a few pictures from the Botanical Gardens etc. Elyse was having a bad day...the "worst day of her life" according to her, but Lucy seemed to be having a blast. Elyse was pretty funny as was Christian of course. and they did very well considering they were away from their parents for so long. P.S. I miss you both. Come visit me!

One of the last weekends I was home I went to Disneyland with Christian, Elyse, Steph, Grant, Peter, Mom, and Dad. Christian was a brave soul and went on Tower of Terror twice in a row and California Screamin'. He was relieved though that he is still too short for the Maliboomer. A new favorite ride is the big orange with swings. Elyse was too small for most rides, but she got her thrills dancing in the streets of Disneyland. Grant was very good and he was pretty independent most of the day. We just let him sit in the teacup while we rode the big rides, but he did come with us for Pirates and as you can see he can't wait to go again. I'm kidding...we didn't leave him alone...Dad was just having fun posing Grant. It was a lot of fun and I hope we can go back again soon.

Mexico!

I met Peter in San Diego the last weekend in July to go to Mexico and help in an orphanage. I drove Candice, Amy, and Sam and then we went with Peter and company on down to Mexico. We stayed in bunks one night and on the beach the next. The kids were very well cared for which was a big relief. I had just felt so bad for them before, but they really are in a much better situation than most. We cleaned up and played with the kids and Candice pretty much ran the painting project. Anyway, it was a lot of fun to be there with Peter and some longtime friends and especially Candice. Peter is a good guy and brother even if he has ridiculous expectations and tries to tell me what to do. Candice is way too much fun and I appreciate that she likes to hang out with me--although we both know she is much too cool for me.
Peter and Alex
Some of the San Diego group
Candice holding the littlest baby at the orphanage. I believe she was 8 months then and she was seriously smaller than Grant at that time.
Sam and I in our Nacho Libre masks.
Jim Halpert look alike to the left. Don't analyze him too closely, but he really does look like him.

Family Reunion

I am back-blogging the last half of the summer because I suck at being on top of it. So first up is the Nichols Family Reunion. It was a fun filled 4 days of family, the beach, delicious food, and Harry Potter (everyone was reading the final book...tear). We had a kind of week long photo scavenger hunt which was fun. I will insert a few pictures of that here...

One thing to do was do what a sign said so here is Christian.
P.S. He wanted to be in every picture and he decided he needed to take his shirt off.

Another thing was holding a baby so here is Aunt Linda holding Uncle Marc--She was laughing so hard that they fell off the rock before this picture.

Just some other cute pictures...scavenger hunt and candid.