For the LoVe of SaLtWatEr

I am absolutely in love with my saltwater fish tank that Steve gave me. It is really the best birthday present ever! A gift to keep growing! Over the past month and a half we have expanded our tank life. Thanks to our friends Adam and Marzena for the live rock! Without the live rock it would have taken 3 or more months to have added anything to my tank. When I say live rock it means having algae growing on the rock. Thanks to Nich and Steph for all the coral frags! We really appreciate them.

So this is the full view of the tank. Mind you my tank is only 28 gallons so it's a lot smaller than a lot of people's I have met. And already my husband is outsizing me....a friend gave him a 55 gallon. Not fair!!!

If you look in the picture below, you can see a yellow fish. This is my newest fish called a yellow watchman gobie. Hopefully he will like his new home.

In this picture are all my mushrooms that I have. There is the fuzzy mushroom (closest to you) which is green and brown. There is another mushroom behind and to the left which is purple and green and another mushroom growing off the black rocks. They are nothing like the mushrooms I picture that grow in our yards or what people eat. They are very vibrant in color.

This is one of my clown fish hovering over their new green bubble tipped anemone. We bought the anemone tonight. I have been wanting to get one ever since we bought the clowns but they are quite expensive. We were able to get a good deal and so we bought our clowns a home! They love it!

This purple square plate is fungia. I don't know what exactly that is and it sure doesn't do much.

This is another picture of the green bubble tipped anemone. The picture doesn't show how green it really is. It's so cool looking and feels neat too.

The tree looking thing is a hard coral. Just above the anemone there are some green polyps that have started to spread and sprout more polyps. The hardest thing to do is to wait for the corals to grow. It takes forever!

In the middle of this picture, there is an orange sponge under the rock. There is also a yellow polyp on the rock to the left. And in the middle of the rock to the left there are green star polyps. Eventually the green star polyps will grow so long it will look like grass in a meadow on a windy day!

More coral! There are lots of different types and I don't know what they are all called. A lot of the soft corals we got from my brother-in-law Nich.

This is my fairy wrasse. She is very beautiful. The fish store told us if there is ever any fish that are shy, this wrasse will coax them out and get them to be more friendly. But my poor fish is being beaten up by my male clown fish. I watched him chase her and bite her tail. She is missing chunks out of her tail. My male clown needs a beating!

Here is my male clown staring at us! He saw me taking pictures by his anemone and had to be in them. Clowns can get protective of their anemone.

This is my large Xenia Pom-Pom. It is really fun to watch each hand open and close. It is a live organism and not a plant. Actually all corals are live organisms.

We have a male and female clown fish, 2 green chromis, a neon gobie, a fairy wrasse and now a yellow watchman gobie. We have 2 peppermint shrimp, 2 emerald crabs, lots of snails and lots of hermit crabs. What a collection. I am sure we will end up with a larger tank than a 55 gallon someday. We have enjoyed starting up my smaller tank and can't wait to get the big one going. It's incredible the things you can buy for the tanks.

Padre

On December 29, 2009 our family lost a great man, Padre. We were called at 3:45am to come to St. Joseph's Villa due to a sudden change in health. Steve and I were able to pick Madre up and bring her down with us. I truly believe that Padre was waiting for Madre to get there. He passed within 15 minutes of our arrival.

Padre was Steve's hero. He looked up to him for everything. I am pretty sure this is who Steve learned a lot of his skills and love for things from. Padre was an avid reader, had a thirst for knowledge, supported the Utes Football team, enjoyed living in and visiting Russia, and loved his country and his family.

Padre was in the Navy and loved anything that had to do with the Military and history. In the picture above, Sue (Steve's Mom) took him to a Military exhibit and they actually took him flying in a B-17 bomber. He did not let being stuck in a wheelchair stop him from doing things he liked. Below, he was invited to a World War II dedication in Washington, D.C. with all expenses paid. His brother flew out with him to help him around with his wheelchair. Such a wonderful and dedicated man to the United States of America!

I love these pictures of Steve and Padre. You can just see the love in his eyes for his Grandpa. Padre loved to take the grandkids hiking. He also took them out of school to go to the Golden Spike reenactment. (Figured you learned more seeing it than reading about it!) In the winters, Padre would shovel the snow from the driveway into one big pile. When the grandkids came over he would build igloos with them. Padre was always building something or doing something in his garden. A few years ago, Padre suffered a stroke which left him confined to a wheelchair. Before that, he was still skiing every winter until he was 80 years old. The year he turned 80, Alta Ski Resort gave him a lifetime skier pass, which meant he could ski for free anytime. Unfortunately, he never was able to use it.

Padre met his wife, Louise, in New York City. They were married the following year in The Salt Lake Temple. They have been faithful to the LDS church and following callings. Padre developed an interest in Russia and took classes from the University of Utah to learn about Russia and to speak the language. Later on, they put in papers to do a couples mission and learned they would go to Russia. How exciting for them! They returned to Russia on another mission and twice to visit. On one of the visits, Steve was able to go with them. What a special event for Steve! His grandparents would always take one grandchild at a time on a special trip. What a world away!

These pictures are from my graduation party. It was a Luau themed party and everyone had such a great time. I am so glad they were able to make it to the party. Madre even wanted the Mai Tai's though no one let her! She kept saying how delicious it looked.

I believe the picture of Padre below is at a reenactment of Golden Spike. My brother-in-law, Brian is in the Navy. A lot of the family traveled out to Chicago to go to his graduation from boot camp. Padre wore his old Navy uniform. They look great together. He was very proud of his two grandsons that were in the military (Dan was in the Coast Guard). Padre was born in Driggs, Idaho which is located in Teton County. He entered a contest in his hometown newspaper for the oldest running snowmobile and won! Padre and Madre were wonderful chefs! We would eat dinner there a lot. If we just happened to stop by, there was always something on the stove.

This is the last family photo with every single child and grandchild in it. This is Stephanie and Nich's wedding.

On January 1, 2010 Padre was buried out at Camp Williams Cemetery. The pallbearers were all the grandkids and a nephew.

That morning when we woke up, it was a blizzard outside. It seemed like it would be a snowy cold day but it turned into a clear beautiful cold day. The speakers at the funeral were wonderful. The stories they told of good times and bad times, of tricks played, and of love. Steve spoke of his grandpa and I have to say I think his speech was the best. It was centered around the love that Padre gave his grandchildren and all the fun activities he did with them and for them.

Brian, being in the military, played TAPS on his trumpet for Padre. Steve and Brian did the folding of the flag. It was a very special moment and heartbreaking at the same time. It had to be hard to be the one presenting the American flag to your own grandmother. Brian did a wonderful job of presenting the flag to her.

I love these pictures I took of Madre with her two kids. My favorite is with her son Mike.

After the presenting of the flag, all the pallbearers took their flowers and put them on his casket. By the way, Padre always told his family to put him in a pine box and bury him in the Tetons. Well he got his pine box! It is a beautiful casket.

My favorite flowers were the ones from the grandkids. They were so vibrant with color and life just like Padre. The ones adorned "Honey" were Madre's. Those were her favorite flowers.

Steve is the oldest grandkid and so has known his grandparents the longest. He was extremely close to both of them and has helped them for many years. This picture is very special to me.

Jessie's 28th Birthday

We celebrated my birthday on Monday, December 21st with friends and family. My day started with having lunch with my good friends Shirley, KD, Becky, Kayla and Melanie. We went to my favorite bakery....Kneaders. (It was also where I ordered my cake from!)

At night we had everyone over for cake and icecream. I ordered a Pineapple Coconut Cream cake and it was oh so delicious! It was covered in coconut and was plain white so I had to get some cake decorating icing. I decorated it with hibiscus flowers and a turtle! It looked awesome afterwards.

Instead of blowing out 28 candles I decided to be fire safe and get the numbers. I know not as fun but easier. And besides who really wants to eat cake that has someone's spit blown all over it!

Then the presents came. Thank you so much to my parents and grandma for the money and tropical bath supplies. Thanks to Becky for Mango lotion and the shot glass! Maybe I will begin the drinking again! And Shirley thanks for the massage gift card....lets make appointments together!

Now Steve has been keeping his gift to me under webcam supervision to ensure that I wouldn't peek at all. And everyday I was reminded that there was no peeking. He brings his Christmas and birthday gifts upstairs finally the day of my birthday. And again he tells me I don't get to touch it because its fragile. Of course, I didn't touch it.

Finally I get to open the dang thing and what do I get....a computer. Disappointing. I don't want a computer. But I am married to a computer nerd that thinks you should upgrade your computer every month. So no surprise there. Well I put the computer upright on the table and there's another present wrapped inside the case.

I open this next gift and it turns out to be a Discovery Kids Aquarium. The whole time I am thinking "Theres got to be more to this than this little kids toy". I kept looking in the box for tickets to Hawaii.....fish..Hawaii, they go together! No tickets. So we plug in the aquarium and I watch as the fish go around and there's a message "Check your email". Steve tells me to read it off my phone. So I look at my phone and there's no email from him. Refresh. There it was titled "Your Birthday Prize". It read "If that first gift doesn't give you glee, grab the big one by the tree- that's your true birthday gift you see".

So the big gift by the tree was the one wrapped in Christmas paper. We had piled all of our other gifts on it earlier in the evening.

So here I had to go unbury the gift and let me tell you it was a big box. It's a good thing all the little kids helped me unwrap the thing.

I was so excited!!! It was a Nano Cube Aquarium! I have wanted to do a salt water fish tank for a very long time. And my brother in law had a Nano Cube that he sold that I was so disappointed he didn't give to me for Christmas. But here it is and now I have one. I so can't wait to get a Nemo fish!

All in all, it was a fabulous birthday! I don't feel that much older but I am pushing 30 soon!

32 years old!

Steve turned 32 on November 22. We celebrated by just hanging out all day. I think for the first time he actually really enjoyed his birthday. Steve is not the type to celebrate birthdays or holidays. It really bums me out because I like to celebrate birthdays for sure. His birthday breakfast started off with pizza and coffee. And he ate the whole thing. Steve has been talking about wanting to learn how to play the guitar for a long time so I thought that would be the perfect gift.

I checked a couple of nice guitars out online but ended up buying one from Target that turns out to be a really good brand. Yay for Target!!! I also purchased a gift box that contained a DVD and book on how to play the guitar. He really liked those gifts alot.

He also got a Denver Broncos shirt and Christmas ornaments, new PJ bottoms, and the Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen DVD. The DVD is more for me than him because I'm obsessed with the Transformers.

We went to Costco later with Steph, Nich and Dan for a few items. I swear I can't make it out of Costco for under $200 when Steve comes with me. He bought himself a kite and a K'nex set for his birthday. What an expensive birthday! Steph and Nich paid for Steve's lunch at Noodles that day.

I made Steve key lime bars for dessert since he hates cake and normal pie. Too bad he decided he didn't like the powdered sugar on top. What a waste since I don't like lime. We went to dinner with his Mom and Steven at Outback. A busy day but a good day.

We put his K'Nex set together that night. It took forever and my thumbs hurt so bad pushing all the parts together but we did it. Our friend Brem came over later on and helped Steve tune the guitar up. Maybe someday Steve will be playing me beautiful songs on it.

Happy Birthday Steve!!! I love you.