Courtney, Science Fair Judge

Tuesday morning, I had the great opportunity to be a judge for the local elementary school science fair. My work got a call asking for volunteers to judge. I thought it would be fun do I decided to sign up. Being at the elementary school brought back memories of playing at recess, trading pods, and playing with my Tomagatchi virtual pet. 

                                    

There were a handful of good science projects I judged. One of them was a sixth grade girl who loves nail polish. We got a long really well. Her science project was about testing different brands of top coats and seeing which one lasts longer. She tested three types and for the variable she didn't use a top coat. To my surprise, what lasted the longest was not wearing a top coat at all!  What!?!?  I thought her science project could be useful in our world today, so I gave her a good score.  

After we judged the school fed us a cafeteria lunch. Lunch now is a lot different then it was when I was a kid. Who ever heard of wheat and you never saw anything green. I was impressed with lunch, it was tasty. 

                                    

Snow shoeing

Saturday morning I woke up to find a lot of snow on the ground. The first thought that came into my head was, "I'll be able to use the snow shoes I got back in November!"  I took little Winston with me and we saw some beautiful scenery. Memories of the great windstorm in November were brought back when I saw so many trees that got knocked down up Adam's Canyon.  We had fun.  Winston made it about a 1 1/4 way up and started crying because he was so cold.  I had to carry him all the way back in my coat.  Just trying to break him in a little so he can get ready for this girl's active life.

A big tree fell down over the trail, we had to climb over this tree.  Winston started barking because he was scared of the tree.

You can see the stream flowing through the canyon.

Frustrations

Today was a day full of frustrations. I felt: disappointed, failure, misrepresented, and upset. I'm really grateful for a husband who drops things at work to talk to me during my bad day and a sister who knows exactly what I went through today. And I thought this magnet was funny.

Lunch Break

Yesterday I went home during lunch to let Winston out. It was such a beautiful and sunny afternoon. We ate our lunch outside. If winters in Utah are like this all of the time, I would be ok with this. The sunshine made me happy.

Getting caught up.

Our holiday season in a nutshell. 

1. Ran the Farmington Turkey Leg 5K on Thanksgiving morning with the entire Craig family!  It was perfect weather and I finished 87th overall, 5th in my age group and at 27:27. 

2. Had Thanksgiving dinner w/the Killpacks.  Because the extended family is so large we had it at a church in Orem.  McKay's family made it very elegant looking for a basketball court.

3. Melanie and Andrew came up for Thanksgiving and I took an entire week off to spent it with my sista.  We had a lot of fun!

4. Endured the craziest wind storm I've ever experienced in my life.  We both survived and thankfully so did our house without any damage.  

5. Finished the biggest part of our kitchen remodel: the cabinets, back splash, counter tops, sink and faucet. 

We did the back splash ourselves.  It took us three days, a lot of tile spacers and patience.

I'll get another picture up once it's all decorated.

6. Got a new office at work!  I have a window that looks out to another window that looks out to a window outside! 

 

7. Got a dog for Christmas, named him Winston and we heart him.

Festive Winston

McKay practicing his clarinet for Christmas, Winston not far away.

The first night we got him, he slept all night long.

 

Sweet Winston taking a nap on me.

7. Returned four fake Christmas trees to Home Depot because McKay wasn't satisfied with their artificialness and the lights went out after using it for three weeks.  We had really bad luck with Christmas trees this year.

8. Had a great Christmas with both families. 

9. Celebrated our 5th Wedding Anniversary!  To celebrate it we drove up to McKay's parents cabin east of Park City.  Our car struggled getting up there because of the icy roads.  We had to park 2.5 miles down the road and walk the rest.  It a perfect winter day, it was sunny.  Once we got to the cabin, we turned on every space heater in there and started to watch a movie.  We got half way through the movie and it was already 4:00 p.m., we had to leave soon after that so we could get to our car before it got dark.  We went out to eat to this little Mexican restaurant in Farmington called Francisco's and it was really good.  I saw three people I went to high school with, that's what you get for living next to where you grew up.

McKay keeping Winston warm during our hike up to the cabin.

10. Had a 60's mocktail party with some of our friends for New Year's Eve.  We had good food, a lot of specialty drinks from World Market, Just Dance, and close friends.

 2011 Family Picture

 

 Even Winston gets a drink.

I don't remember what we were laughing at, but I love this picture.
 

 McKay and I playing Just Dance, we did pretty good.

11. McKay had 11 days off and I had three, boo!