2006

I cannot help but feel grateful in these last six hours of the year 2006. Becca attended and graduated from massage therapy school and has been working in her profession almost uninterruptedly since then. My business has been a much better source of income for our little family and has given me a way to directly apply the principles that I have learned in my classes. We have many friends to do fun things with when we have free time and we have the ability to communicate regularly with our family members and visit them often. In our new ward, my church service has felt more rewarding and Becca and I are starting to have family home evening more frequently.

I feel grateful not only because 2006 has been so positive but because 2007 is looking to be exciting. I will graduate with a double major in Spanish and Portuguese and Becca and I will spend five months touring southern Brazil and northern Argentina. After that I have thought of applying for a job as a junior editor at a local Spanish Language newspaper and running my business on the side while I prepare to apply for a job in the State Department. No, we do not know where we will be living and we have no idea where or when we will be settling down.

I’m not a huge fan of New Years Resolutions but I suppose that if any change would make me happy this time next year it would be one of health. I don’t have any big reason to complain but I would still like to reestablish some good habits about dieting, as in changing my diet for good, and exercise. I am twenty five and sometimes I think that I look and feel more as if I were in my early thirties. Other than that, things can just continue to progress as they have been. I’d like to have good steady employment that is advancing me professionally and providing for my family, I would like my church service to continue to feel meaningful and Becca and I should continue to grow personally and as a couple.

Becca and I will ring in the New Year between one to three hours before all of you so let me be the first to wish you all a happy new year. Thank you all for the wonderful and enriching things you do to make our lives that much better. Thank you for your prayers, your emails, your phone calls, your lovely gifts, your concern, your jokes and, especially, your love.

CHRISTMAS TIME IS HERE!!!

Merry Christmas! It's 5:45am and I am sick. I was singing Christmas carols last night when suddenly I realized that my throat had been hurting for a while and I had a slight headache. No, this wasn't due to poor singing. Although the tons of water, juice and homeopathic concoctions that I have consumed in the past six hours or so have probably helped, I could not go to sleep all of the way. Interestingly, neither could my father-in-law. I got up about every hour to get a drink and go to the bathroom and he was there at the computer playing on on-line game that he really likes. You have to cut him some slack and let him enjoy his vacation because the poor guy has to go back to work on Tuesday.

I have been threatened for a while now that I'm going to have to follow the Schwartz tradition of waking up at 5:00am on Christmas. They did this to my brother-in-law, Rick, some years ago and he has insisted that it is now my turn. However, the twins keep he and Leah up at night so he is in no position to be loosing precious hours of sleep just to initiate me into the family. Ironically, this year would have been perfect for my initiation. Ah well.

My wonderful mother-in-law just got up to ask me why I was awake so early. She's now poking at the ham which has been cooking in a crock-pot all night. We had Shepherd's Pie last night and will be enjoying ham and a million other wonderfully cooked goodies. I wonder how many of them I will actually end up eating.

We arrived in Lansing one week ago. Last time I was here my nephew Johnathan wouldn't talk to us. I say wouldn't because his mother firmly maintained that the little one-year-old could, in fact, say quite a few words. This time, now a giggly three-year-old, he came to pick us up from the airport and he and I had fun sitting in the back seat of the van chatting and making funny faces. Since I have known him he has been obsessed with large vehicles: planes, fire engines and even garbage trucks. He was easy to buy for this Christmas. He loves Bob the Builder videos, one of which I almost saw half of. I play the part of the annoying uncle and sing the show's intro song randomly throughout the day to which he replies clearly and emphatically, “It's over!”
Becca has been having fun helping Leah take care of her four boys, especially the twins Maxwell and Benjamin. I have been amused at what good tag-teamers these two are. They rarely cry at the same time but once one has been consoled, the other pipes up. They often take naps and sleep at night at staggered times. Leah has said that this is good and bad as she never has to deal with them at once but rarely gets a rest.

My oldest nephew, Richard William Tobey II, is a very intelligent first grader. Intelligent children need lots of attention or they will demand it by misbehaving so Becca and I attended his class' holiday party. We helped with games like Hot Potato and Musical Chairs. I was impressed with the way that Richard's teacher handled the kids in the class. Richard is precocious to say the least and is luckily in a school that has a system that allows children to advance at their own pace. I understand that he is doing second grade level math.

Rick and I have been to the local YMCA twice to play racket ball. The second time was not quite as humiliating as the first but Rick was a very good sport and did his best not to make me feel like a big wimp. His racket ball partner's doctor told him not to play racket ball anymore so Rick hasn't been playing as much as he used to since he has no one to play with. Perhaps I'll let him thrash me again before we go back to the icebox that is Utah.

Curiously, this Christmas in Lansing has reminded me more of a chilly Modesto winter than the white Christmas that I've seen on TV and have been expecting. It has been overcast, drizzling and cold but not cold enough to snow. One of the guys at the desk thanked me for bringing California weather with me; he doesn't know how right he really was.

I suppose we'll be opening presents in an hour or so. Rick's parents and youngest brother are also here so there is a mountain of gifts under the little Christmas tree at the Tobey's house. Becca bought me a bunch of little gifts while I bought her a small yet costly one. To throw her off I've wrapped it in a box that's about ten times too big, put a library book in the box so it will feel heavier than it should and then stuffed it with newspaper so nothing will roll around too much. This is going to be fun!

Thank you for your letters. Sundays have become a little busier for me so I haven't been posting as much on this blog. I like the blog and the family letters because they serve as a sort of journal. Speaking of remembering, not too long ago my mother watched a bunch of old family videos from about ten years ago where I did overtly dorky things. I told her to get her fill this year because next year those won't be anything that I would want to watch. Becca's interest is peeked though so I suppose I'll have to vacate the house a bit so she can see them and then grin knowingly and chuckle at me when I get back. She's cute when she thinks that she has something on me.

I'll be speaking to some of you later today I'm sure but let me wish another Merry Christmas. For the past ten years or so I haven't really wanted to sing carols much because of how much I had to sing them in high school in the different choirs I participated in but this year I have really enjoyed it. Yesterday, being Sunday, we tried to sing songs that particularly had to do with Jesus Christ. It was a rather moving experience for me and was very helpful to get my focus back to where it should be. This year, the Christmas story, the ministry of the Saviour and His sacrifice have weaved in an out of my mind as a more continuous whole. I hope that this year we can all ponder on what it means to be a disciple of Christ.

CRAZY 9'S, SUBTITLES AND FRENCH TRUFFLES

I jogged about nine miles this week. I find it difficult to get out and jog more than three times a week. I like jogging though because it helps me to sleep better at night and feel better overall. I especially like jogging as the sun goes down because the setting sun in the west shines on the mountains to the east giving me beautiful scenery to look at as I run.

Thanksgiving weekend was nice. Our friends, the Cranes, invited us to their brother’s house in Roosevelt, Utah. Some of their relatives had flown in from Texas, some were going to school in Utah and there was one other guy there who, like us, wasn’t family. Becca and I stayed up late the night before making her famous berry pie. Like always, everyone loved her pie and asked her questions about it while she pointed out all of the little bits of the recipe that she had forgotten. We chatted; I taught them how to play Crazy 9’s (Grandpa Boothe’s favorite card game) and then Becca sat on our friends’ mom to relieve her lower back pain. All in all, it was a good day though we would have preferred to be with all of you.

Other than that it’s been the same-old-same old. Work, school and then work and school and them some more work…and then we watch movies. Our friends the Higbees let us borrow some Argentine movies which had some very vulgar subtitles. The original will say something along the lines of Darn it! and the translator will choose a colorful explicative for the English version. A couple of them, however, were quite good and I’m thinking about buying one in particular if I can find it for the right price on Amazon.com.

Here’s Becca!!!!!!

Well, Ryan just gave me some ice-cream that he mixed together to imitate Cold Stone ice-cream. It is very tasty! It has Bryers vanilla ice cream with chopped strawberries, dark chocolate French truffle chunks (actually from France) and homemade cheesecake bits. It is quite scrumptious!

This week has been interesting for me. It has been really busy at work due to Thanksgiving. Funny enough…through all of the business…a BYU/U of U game happened on Saturday up in SLC. BYU won. Well, I guess our clients consist of football watchers, because we had almost no clients! So we went from overbooked, to way under booked. I got to go home and be on call. I was happy.

One of the girls at work was bringing these amazing chocolate truffles. When I asked her where to get them, and how much…she said, “Costco, $10.31 with tax”. I said, “If I give you the money will you get me some?” Needless to say, I now have a huge box of truffles imported from France. They are incredible!!!! Well, a little over half the box is gone. It isn’t all my fault, I happily shared a bag (1 of 4) at Thanksgiving. You actually get a ton of Chocolate for the price! And even I cannot eat a lot at once. So to all my chocolate loving family members…I highly recommend going to Costco and investing in your taste buds!

I’m quite happy to listen to Christmas music now. It makes me soooo happy! We plan on going to Michigan for Christmas. It will be nice to make snowmen with the nephews (so there better be a decent sticky, you know your back East type of snowfall)! The last time I had Christmas (or any holiday for that matter) with my side of the family was in 2003, so this will be nice!! Oh my goodness…my last holiday with them was when Johnathan was only a couple months old! Now our nephews have doubled (ages 6, 3 and two @ 4 months)!! Wow, time flies so quickly! Don’t get me wrong, I love spending the holidays with my wonderful in-laws…it will just be nice to spend quality time with my family, and have it be with my husband.

Well, it is time for me to help Ryan with the dishes.

MONTEREY, SÃO PAULO AND SUNDANCE

I suppose I should explain what Grandma Leota was referring to in her last family letter when she said that she hoped that my friends and I made it home okay. Last weekend, five of us from the Spanish Translation program decided to go to the Monterey Institute of International Studies’ open house that was going to be on Saturday the 4^th. We all piled into my friend’s minivan and headed out west after classes on Friday. As Aunt Debbie pointed out when we went and paid her a visit, there were a lot of nerdy language discussions going on in that car but I suppose that’s okay because we all had fun.

We stayed with one of the guy’s relatives in the Bay Area, arriving at 3:00am and left later that morning at 6:45 to attend the open house at 9:00. We were about twenty miles away from Monterey when we started having car trouble. We pulled over to the side of the road to let the car cool down and assess the situation. Nothing looked like it was in too bad of shape and we all figured that probably meant that the problem was either minor, quick and cheap or technical, lengthy and expensive. The car didn’t want to get out of second gear so we traveled the last stretch with our hazard lights on going 45 mph.

When we got there we were late, unshaven and in a bad mood. I regret to say that the school didn’t impress me much, however, I haven’t completely thrown out the idea of getting a degree there because it’s a reputed school where I could possibly get a M.A. in translation in one year. That’s a deal that’s hard to beat.

After the open house we took the car to the only mechanics shop in Monterey that was open on Saturday and, when the head mechanic got back from lunch, we found out that the transmission was shot. That’s when the brainstorming began, was rather difficult because we were all running on about three hours of sleep. Alvaro and I have relatives in California so we started contacting people. After about three dozen phone calls we decided that it would be cheaper to rent a van and drive back to Utah than anything else we could do so we got back out on the freeway at our neck-breaking speed of 45mph and drove out to the airport. After getting the van we then drove to Hollister where my aunt Debbie kindly allowed us to dump the old van. It was nice to see Deb again too.

In the new van it seemed that we were traveling at the speed of light on our way up to Livermore where Alvaro’s parents live. Even though we got there at around 9:30pm their Chilean sense of hospitality made sure that we still got a barbecue dinner. After a couple of good meals and eight hours of sleep we headed back to Utah.

Although the car trouble was a drag, we actually had a lot of fun. It seems like everybody in the Translation program is super busy so we never hang out much. Two of us five are quite seriously considering going to the MIIS and the other three of us are not entirely sure. My buddy David has already found a transmission on Ebay and will be out to California in December to have it installed.

The only other kind of noteworthy thing that’s happened lately is that I’ve been contracting translators for languages other than Spanish. I’ve got people working on projects in Tagalog, Ukrainian and Russian and I’m still looking for somebody decent to do a job in Vietnamese. We’ll see what happens.

I’ll let the lovely Becca tell you about what we plan to do next summer:

Well, it is what we “plan”, and are trying to find a way to accomplish. But we ARE doing it, unless I get pregnant in the next 4 months. We are going to Brazil!!!!!!!!! YEA!!!! It is going to be soooo much fun. It is for a study abroad program at through the Y so we will be able to be there from late June until mid August and then we hope to stay with some family friends till October or so while renting their summer home. After that we hope to meet Kim and Grant in Argentina to pick Elder Boothe up from his mission. We are stoked! We will find a way to do all of this! It will be a great immersion for Ryan into the Portuguese language, and as for me…a crash course. I should audit a Portuguese 101 class at the Y before we go. I plan on buying lots of native gemstone jewelry, because I hear it is really nice, and very cheap. We are going to be able to go to some of the most stunningly beautiful beaches in the world, Iguaçu Falls, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro (and other famous cities) and the most authentic and delicious churrascarias (Brazilian grills). I can’t wait!

I have been working, as always. One of my clients has told me that I can set up a couple massage chairs at his fashion show during the Sundance Film Festival in mid January. I hope to do really well that night!!! He has a restaurant booked out for the show, and it is where all the celebrities already go!!!!!!!!!!!!! Who knows, maybe I’ll get my hands on some famous people!!!! The fact that my chances of doing so are very probable scare and excite me all at once! He is going to send out my business cards with his brochures, and allow me to have business cards there…so this is an amazing opportunity to get my hands on some reputable clientele who would be great sources of referrals! It is his fashion show, and he has said yes, but he still has to run it by his good friend who is providing all of his models (she is helping coordinate everything). I almost can’t believe that I have already gotten this far with the idea!!!!

Anyway, there are exciting things that could happen to this part of the Boothe family over the next year! We both have increasing numbers of clientele which is a blessing. We are both going strong and healthy. We love you, and hope you have a wonderful week!

PS- For those of you who haven’t seen…my twin nephews were Peas in a Pod for Halloween! I think they are the cutest little guys ever!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

This past week we had our first snowfall down here in Utah Valley. My weeks are really seeming long right now. I site down and think about Monday and it honestly seems as though it were two weeks ago. The Mayans believed that time was not linear, but circular; Virginia Wolf said that time was like the radiance of light rather than a line of motion; the scriptures say that past, present and future are before God at all times. Every now and again Becca wakes up late on a Thursday and wonders what I’m doing still at home. I haven’t had Tuesday or Thursday classes since we’ve been married. Seeing as time is truly relative, I suppose that it’s okay for Becca and me to get a little disoriented.

WARNING!

Ryan is about to tell a story about South American History. Those not interested should skip the next three paragraphs!

In the late 1800’s Paraguay fought a war against Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil. They realized that without an outlet to the sea their nation would never be great, so they marched their formidable army to the south and robbed territory that belonged to the other three nations. This would allow them to ship their national goods, like pineapples and spider monkeys, to Europe without paying export taxes.

Brazil had only ever been attacked from the sea so all they had was a cost guard to make sure that the slave traders made it into port okay. Uruguay is puny and weak; they always have been and they always will be. That left Argentina who, to this day only really cares about Buenos Aires. It was one of those ideas that probably looked great on paper, kind of like that whole Bill Clinton talk show that was going to go on the air a few years back.

Brazil got really mad, got together an army and beat the Paraguayans back and then, to make sure that Paraguay never attacked them again, they went onto Paraguayan land and killed thousands of people. Paraguay lost twenty percent of its population during those ten years of war; most of the dead were young men so for a long time Paraguay was a country of women, children and elderly people. Paraguay never got over that loss. They are, and will probably continue to be, one of the poorest countries in the world.

I got a call from a school district in Arizona last week that wanted a translator for the Ethiopian language Hadic. I was doubtful that I would be able to find someone to translate into Hadic, but I decided to look. I looked up Ethiopia on wikipedia.org and found that their national language is Amharic. It sounded to me like the lady from Arizona was just a little confused so I took the initiative to find a couple of translators who could possibly do that job. I called the lady back and gave her the info, which she seemed quite pleased with, and then she asked if I could get people to come to her school to provide oral translation. I then had to explain to her that oral translation is called interpreting and that what she needed were interpreters and we only provide translators. I was thoroughly annoyed.

Just so everyone knows, prosecutors try to throw you in jail, defense attorneys try to keep you out; there’s a difference. Pediatricians take care of your children and podiatrists take care of your feet; there’s a difference. Personal computers stay at the office but laptops can come home with you; there’s a difference. Actors are men, actresses are women; there’s a difference. An interpreter stands next to you and tells you that the little Japanese man sitting across the room wants his car factory in L.A. to be more productive and a translator takes an instruction manual from the same car company and rewrites it in English; there is a difference.

I’ll let the lovely Becca fill you in on a few of the other things that we’ve been doing this week.

Well, there isn’t much to say on my end. I have been working like always.

We went to a haunted forest yesterday. It was pretty creepy. They did a good job. I didn’t want the actors to focus on me, so despite my desire to scream, I forced it into laughter, and said things like “how clever! ...that was done well”. It worked pretty well. The chainsaw men, goblins, ghouls, aliens, closet monsters and swamp monsters focused on my screaming, run for your life friends instead. I was still holding tightly onto Ryan’s arm with fear. Even though I knew it was fake, they did a very good job at playing on the fears of people (small, lightless and damp enclosed spaces decorated just right, sometimes all three of those things together along with the actors, and things popping out of the walls, hanging bags of who knows what and aromas to fit the atmosphere). I have told Ryan that I never want to go to something like that again. The props are becoming too real. The scary things you see actually still happen to people. The main reason is that I walked out wanting the Holy Spirit to be with me again. I would rather not feel the loss of it in the first place. Also, your preconscious mind doesn’t work in the imaginative; In other words, it doesn’t know that what you are seeing isn’t real. For all it knows, all of those things really are happening, and they aren’t fake. That type of stress on your body just isn’t good. The fear of death in a concentrated form like that of a really realistic haunted forest just isn’t good for you. So I’d rather not stimulate that kind of stress in my body- Even if it is to hang out with some friends that we haven’t seen in a year.

Ryan continues to be my bug slayer. That makes me happy.

Well, that is it for today. We hope everyone is doing well.

PS- Here is a picture of the cute little Elderly couple that got married in our ward:

Alex and Doretta

PLAY-FIGHTING AND VENEZUELAN FASHION DESIGNERS

I am happy to report that I went jogging for a total of about ten miles this week. I’ve tried several times to go jogging consistently like I did in 2003 and 2004 but I never could seem to make it past a couple of weeks before I stopped. I don’t remember if it’s been one month or two since I started jogging again but I like it. It gives me time to clear my head.

I have so many college credits that I get to sign up for next semester’s classes this coming Tuesday. If I take a certain class next semester and two more during the “Spring Term” then I could graduate in August with a double major in Spanish Translation and Interpretation and Latin American Studies and also have a minor in Portuguese. I think that the Latin American Studies major would make me look attractive to a couple of places that I’d like to work and also be in line with the things that I would like to eventually teach at a University level. I think that it would be fun to eventually get a M.A. in Latin American Studies, with an emphasis in Argentine/Brazilian relations, and then get a PhD so I could teach at a university level. However, the business is showing signs of promise so I may just do that for a while after I graduate. Well see.

My Grandma Barbara got out of shoulder/neck surgery this past week so let’s all remember her in our prayers so that she can have a speedy recovery. It’s been nice to hear from so many of you this past week. Mom (Kim) is enjoying her musical experience, Dad (Teryl) got a hydrotherapy table, Debbie is growing as a teacher and Grandma Boothe has to deal with broken mud-guards. I am grateful for those of you who left your comments this past week; it’s always nice to know that people read our blog and even better to know what they think about what we wrote. By the way, if anyone looks at the site after a week and doesn’t see a new post, try pushing the “Refresh” button (at the top of your screen to the left of the button that looks like a house) and that should do the trick. I’m not sure where that problem comes from but I’ll figure it out eventually.

One more quick thing to add: a document I had to translate not too long ago banned any type of play-fighting at elementary schools. I’d hate to be the person in charge of enforcing that rule! Their definition of play-fighting was rather broad and included many, many things so if I had attended this school as a third grader I’d have been suspended for playing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They’re going to end up expelling all of the boys in their elementary schools! Extreme rules like that one are usually brought on by extreme circumstances. I’m sure that the teachers in our family could tell us some pretty good stories.

That’s enough from me, here’s the lovely Becca:

Well, there isn’t much from me this week. I have a new job and am starting up my own outcall business. There are a couple of clients from clinic when I went to UCMT that will be either weekly or monthly clients. One of which is a fashion clothing designer!!! I called him up to let him know that I was doing house calls and he scheduled Saturday with me. He has an account with Nordstrom which I think is really cool. I’ve never shopped there (since it is sooo expensive), but I think I will stop by sometime for the thrill of trying on clothes and being able to say…“I’m his massage therapist” to my friends. I know, I know…that would be bragging…but how cool will that be? ...come on…you gotta admit that is cool!!!! He is so far a weekly client. He is a convert to the church of about 3 years or so and is from Venezuela where he designed and sold $2000 silk wedding gowns. The cool thing about his clothing line is that everything is modest. He decided to revamp his entire business plan after he joined the church. I think that is admirable. He designs really fashionable clothes, but makes it so that they are modest, and on top of that, is going to sell them at a HUGE well known retail chain that is all over the country!! I saw sketches and some of the actual product. I really like them! He is going to have a runway show in Sun Dance, during the Sun Dance Film Festival to introduce his product! I think that is sooo cool! Well, that is my most exciting news of the past week.

It looks as though Ryan and I are going to make it to MI for Christmas. I have 59 hrs at work that I will need to cover during that time, so hopefully I will be able to. It kinda stinks being an employee, because now I can’t just take time off. I HAVE to cover my shift. It looks as though I may be able to though. I’m keeping my fingers crossed!! The twins seem to be doing great. They are already over 10 lbs each and have definitely filled out!! I don’t even recognize them! I can’t wait to see them in December.

Oh yeah, I chopped my hair and got bangs that go to the side. I like it. I’ve never ever had bangs, so it is different.

Well, my hubby has let me know that he is tired, so I should end the letter. I hope all of you are doing well. We keep you in our prayers!

MOVIES, EXISTENTIALISM, MARRIAGE AND BUGS

We honestly need to stop buying movies. Back in April we owned about ten movies and now we have almost fifty. We just keep finding great deals! For those of you who don’t know, Hollywood is forcing the people who edit the gore, swearing, nudity ect. out of movies to go out of business. Because of this there are some major sales for edited movies going on right now and you can buy movies like Braveheart, Schindler’s List and others for under $15.00.

Our internet was out for almost all of last week. This was mainly my fault since I forgot to pay our internet bill for two months in a row. I have since set up the account to take money directly out of my bank account so it won’t happen again. I have since found out that this particular internet company puts peoples names on a list to get their service disconnected. Once on the list, the cable installation guys will come by your house and disconnect you, without telling you. Well, I paid for the two months, got everything set up so I wouldn’t get behind on my payments again and then one morning we found that we had no internet. Remember that for us this is particularly bad since our home, business phone and fax are run through the internet, when we have no internet we are really cut off in a bad way. I spent hours on my cell phone with tech support people from four different countries trying to find out what the problem was. It wasn’t until a repair man was sent out that I was informed that although the company puts people on the list, they don’t bother to take them off. They wait until you’ve been disconnected and for you to ask to be reconnected.

Church was really nice today. During the third hour I participated in a wonderful discussion about agency. I think that Mormon’s are some of the biggest non-atheist existentialists you’ll ever meet. I think that our decisions are what define us more than anything else. Being imperfect individuals, the ability to choose will inevitably lead to mistakes and therefore sin. For this cause, Jesus Christ’s sacrifice is all the more meaningful. He allows us to learn from our mistakes without having to pay for them eternally so that we can eventually return to the presence of the Father and experience never ending joy.

After a four week absence, HERE’S BECCA!!

Well, even though I haven’t written for about 4 weeks…not much has really gone on. I’m “chugging” along with work, and still interviewing at other places. So far things have been going pretty well. I miss The Heavenly Spa in Modesto though…*sigh*. It was a really good place to work.

I have been buying little things here and there for our basement apartment. It is getting better and better. OOOO….I did buy some of that silicone bakeware. IT IS AMAZING!!!! (not to sound too enthusiastic) I absolutely love it. Baking has never been easier. The light in our bedroom still likes to only go on when our upstairs neighbors are home at night and rollie-pollie/potatoe bugs love our home. I don’t like that they love coming inside, so I have a can of raid on hand. One spray and they are gone. Too bad their relatives don’t get the idea. I tried saving them at first by putting them outside, but it became too frequent. Now I just kill them. I’m not talking about one or two a month, it is more like 5+/week.

You all know how I hate them. Ryan continues to be my “bug slayer” when it comes to spiders. Anyway, enough about bugs. An 80 year old woman just got sealed in the Provo temple yesterday (Saturday). She has never been married before, and couldn’t be more happy. She was a sweet blushing bride. I took near 400 pictures for them. I’ll pick like the best 50 and print them out and put them in a photo album as my gift. There were other people who volunteered to be the photographer as well, so it will be a nice combined effort. All of the pictures are going to go on a CD for them as well. I don’t know if they have a computer with a program that will work, so I’m giving them some hard copies just incase. It was a lot of fun. I’m sure they will be quite happy together.

Well, it is getting late. All Boothes in this house should be going to bed. We love you and hope all is well.

RAIN, SALES AND LITTLE KIDS

Fall is upon us in all its bitterness and inconsistency. Although the weekend has been lovely every weekday of last week was showered with cold rain. The week before last the temperatures dropped quickly from a pleasant evening low of 60° to a chilling 30°. Bleech! We were piling the blankets on our bed when we realized that we paid flat fee for our utilities and could therefore afford to turn on the heaters, not like in our other place.

Life continues to be chalked full of work and school. I figure between the two I pull anywhere from a 10 to 12 hour day, 6 days a week. I keep hoping that I’ll be able to get a little ahead or that the translations or school work will be less time consuming but so far that hasn’t happened. I suppose it’s better to be too busy than to be bored.

My sanity is conserved by watching movies with Becca (we watch about six a week) and going out on the weekends. Friday night we went shopping for clothes and found one of the most amazing sales I’ve ever seen. Those who know me well know that I don’t like shopping but even I got sucked into buying more than I intended. Becca averaged buying things at 90% off. Now we just need to find a place to put all of these clothes.

Ashi was one of the cute little kids we got to play with at the birthday party we went to.

We also had the pleasure of going to a birthday party for my friend David's wife and oldest son. Joaquín turned three and got a gazillion toy cars for his birthday. I’ve never seen the little kid so happy in his life. As there would be more Argentine people at the party than American’s, I was worried that Becca would get left out but enough of them spoke English for her to feel included and enjoy herself. Joaquín, who until that point had scowled at Becca a bit, warmed up to her quite nicely at the party. We know that he warmed up to her because he attacked her while pretending to be a lion. In little boy culture that is a sign of acceptance. Becca is treating Evy, the mom, to a facial and a massage at the spa where she works. Makes you want to invite Becca to more of your parties doesn’t it?

Garit with fellow missionary Elder Petersen and some church members way down there in Resistencia

You can tell that my parents have a missionary to write to because their family letters are more frequent than everyone else’s. We miss you and hope that all is well with you.

MASSAGE AND PETROLEUM

This week home has been a good one. I got the first massage job that I interviewed for…yea!!! It will be a nice job to have. It is a newer place called The Seasons Salon and Day Spa. Ryan and I both get free services, and family and friends get amazing discounts. I am starting to get used to living in our new place. In other words it is becoming more and more like home.

I have to study for the nationals (a really big test...”the LSAT of the massage world”) that I have to take on Wednesday. Wish me luck…

There isn’t really anything else but those few things. Life is still good. I still enjoy being married and having such a wonderful hubby!!!

Oh yeah…I made my “famous” pie and it turned out wonderfully. The last time I made it, something went wrong…and I stopped cooking for a while since I was so frustrated. I have also been making Thai food which we have enjoyed. We also went to a Brazilian fest up at UVSC and got cheap food from Rodizios Brazilian Grill which we LOVED!!! I’ll let Ryan elaborate on that.

Here is my sweetums!

The Brazilian fest was fun. You’d be surprised to find out just how many Brazilians live in Utah. Even though it hailed and even snowed a little bit, there were hundreds of them out dancing and eating their grilled meat and sweet desserts and drinking their guaraná. I bought a Brazilian t-shirt. There are guys that go to my Portuguese 355 class that wear a Brazilian shirt almost every class.

Yesterday I spent two hours preparing invoices for my schools. Does anyone know if Quick Books is any good for keeping track of things like that? Preparing invoices drives me nuts. I make lots of little mistakes and end up having to reprint or redo this or that. It’s annoying to say the least. The good news is that I have work to invoice for.

This little cartoon basically shows what I end up doing. I think that it’s disgusting how dependent we are on gasoline. Tomorrow my geology professor (the one who worked for Mobile Oil for 15 years or so) is going to ask us whether or not there should be oil drilling in a national wildlife reserve in Alaska. I really want to give him a piece of my mind and spout my conspiracy theories about how the rich oil companies have kept the world from developing alternate sources of fuel but I’d probably get carried away and end up insulting him. Personally offending professors is to be avoided if one cares about grades.

Not to get too political, but I think that this cartoon shares a good message. If you don’t agree with something that is being promoted, DON’T WATCH IT, don’t buy the product or even the products from the companies that are sponsoring whatever it is that you find morally offensive. This is capitalistic America so if something doesn’t sell it will soon be forgotten.

We sincerely hope that all of you are enjoying yourselves and are well, where ever you may be. Till next week.

I'M BACK!!

My time in Michigan was wonderful! I miss my family a lot. It was wonderful to be able to hold 2 babies that you love soooo much. I didn’t get a picture that I really wanted though; I wanted all 4 nephews in my lap, 2 giving me kisses on my cheeks while I juggled the newborns. Richard and Jonathan got sick, so when I thought to do the picture, it was too late. Oh well, over Christmas I guess.

It has been fun trying to get back to normal life since Thursday. Ryan picked me up at the airport with a dozen red roses and then we went to Rodizios, an authentic Brazilian grill. We tried about 10 different varieties of meat. The drink was a pineapple and lime juice mixed with crème. MmmmMmmm!!!!! I highly recommend the restaurant. It is in Trolley Square in Salt Lake City, UT. In order to get the waiter to come around with delectable skewers of meat, you need to get the buffet. It is tempting to eat a ton from the buffet, but let me warn you, you will NOT be able to eat much of the meat if you do!!!! The meat is the best part!!!! Definitely try some stuff from the salad bar that look yummy…but only a bite or two of each. Trust me…you want the meat!! It is the best meat you may ever try!!

I have to get back into the groove of life. The day I got back I sent a resume out and had an interview the next day. I would be working at UCMT. I want to have a massage job on top of a regular job so that I don’t have to beat myself up doing massage full time. I don’t know if I want to work at the school quite yet though. Getting off for Christmas would be harder.

Rick showed me what acupuncture feels like. He put a needle in 2 points, then I put one in him, and then in myself. It was fun. He sent me home with a book, point finder and needles. I know acupressure which is acupuncture without needles. It isn’t hard to do acupuncture. I won’t be as specific as a professional, but what I can do isn’t harmful.

Our stake conference was wonderful today. President Monson presided over the meeting with Elder Wirthlin and Elder Samuelson. It was quite an enjoyable meeting. It was broadcast from the Marriot Center on the BYU campus. I really like the change in how stake conference is going to be from now on. I think it will be much more effective, and allow the brethren to become more real to us. Elder Monson was very personal, uplifting, bluntly honest, funny and informal. It was not your typical general authority talk, with that tone of voice that they all have. In better words, it wasn’t General Conference. Don’t get me wrong, I love General Conference!!!! But this was very much a fun personal time with an apostle. The message given by all three of the men was powerful, enjoyable and applicable to the people whose ears were in reach. I feel like I just had some one on one time with a friend...an enjoyable conversation. They are truly men of God. It was wonderful!!

Well, I hope you continue on to read all the wonderful things my sweet Ryan has to say:

I also enjoyed our Sunday meetings very much. I feel very good in our new congregation. A funny thing that always happens to me every Sunday is that I look for a friend of mine, who attends the Spanish ward, and end up seeing someone else that I know. This time it was my friend Matt Hill who is a talented member of my Spanish Translation program. Like most of the members of the program, he has no intention of being a translator.

I just received two family emails from uncles Jim and Greg so I’ll comment briefly on them. Greg, when I heard that you were going on a 120 mile hike out in Sierra Nevadas, I thought you were pretty nuts. I’ve been wanting to go camping lately but not that much. I’m glad that you’re home safe and sound in spite of your daring hobbies. Jim, I’ve had a cold these past couple days and I feel for you. I hate being sick, especially when I’ve got a lot to do and I’ve got a lot to do this week. Hang in there with your church service. Some of the most meaningful people who have influenced us all most positively have been church leaders and I feel confident that you are influencing many people for good. As an aside, I’d like to tell everyone that I’ve been saving all of the missionary and family letters that I’ve received for the past year or so. It’s my small way of doing family history.

School started for me last Wednesday and my first class of the day is Geology. Yep, I’ve been putting off my science GE classes and this semester I’ve decided to bite the bullet and take two! Dr. Nixon (no, I don’t think there’s any relation) worked for Mobile oil for about ten years before they paid him to go back to school and get his doctorate. He had some much fun getting his degree that he retired from Mobile about five years later and has been teaching for the last 15. He says that he’ll try to make the class entertaining, we start each class with someone telling a joke, and not to give us any “busy work.” My kind of guy.

Next I have a Brazilian culture class which will probably be my favorite. Most of our tests are written, as opposed to multiple-choice which I’m lousy at, and the professor and people in my class are a lot of fun. It’s been my experience that people who have spent time in Brazil turn out being a lot of fun. Maybe some of the Brazilian’s fun-loving nature rubs off on them. I have a sneaky suspicion that we will have an end-of-the-semester party in this class.

After that I enter a class of 200+ students. This Physical Science class scares me. I weaseled my way out of taking any physics in high school so I have no point of reference. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any chemistry either and that was my other option to fulfill this GE requirement. Physics is reported to have a lower mortality rate than chemistry and that’s why I chose it. I ended up getting an A- in biology three years ago so maybe there’s hope after all.

I end the day in my Spanish Translation class. My poor English to Spanish professor has undergone another surgery but has a higher wheelchair, which makes her happy. She informed us that our Spanish to English professor just tore both of his rotator-cuffs but we still have hope that he will recover in time to teach our class during the second quarter. Being a Spanish professor seems to be a little risky if you ask me.

I would like to call everyone’s attention to the “Links” section of this blog. Although I have not read it yet, I would like to encourage everyone to read Grant’s first chapter, which was recently posted on his blog, and give him some feed-back. I would also like to point out that, if anyone is interested, I’ll be placing a link to a movie trailer that I think is funny, noteworthy or not very well known on this page. As the name suggests, there will be a different trailer every week.

Well, I’ve prattled on long enough. We love you all and hope that you all are doing well. Thanks for your love and support, until next week!

A LONE MAN IN P-TOWN

As you all probably have deduced from her latest entry below, Becca has left me here in Provo to go help her sister Leah in Lansing, Michigan. She flew out last Wednesday and will be back this coming Wednesday. Having the bed all to myself has been strange as I have become very accustomed to sharing it with Becca. She has informed me, however, that although she misses me and has a hard time getting to sleep at night, she’s loved having a bed to herself again so she can stretch out at night.

On Wednesday morning we were cruising up I-15 to the airport thinking we had all the time in the world when Becca realized that we had left the house an hour after we should have. The next half an hour was a stressful one as I raced through traffic faster than I should have to try and get her to the airport on time. The only good part about this was the fact that it pretty much kept us from getting sad about how we would be apart for the first time in our 20 month marriage. I think this is the only time I can say that it was a good thing that the flight was about 30 minutes behind schedule.

Every time I think that I’m going to have extra time on my hands to get something done, I get tons of translations. Monday and Tuesday they came in like crazy and then a slow trickle of them came in right up to Friday. Although I feign annoyance, I realize that this is a blessing and an answer to our prayers.

My newest translator, Mauro, and I were missionary companions in Chile

I’ve come to the conclusion that I need help and have enlisted the services of my Argentine friend Mauro to handle the translations from my newest school. As my work load increases I will probably be hiring more people to help out. There’s only so much I can handle all by myself, especially when school starts on Tuesday (thank goodness for Labor Day).

My website has gone through another change and I invite you all to take a look. I’m hoping that the “References” section and the better format will facilitate more work. Since I can’t go to California, Idaho and all the other states I do business in, my website is really what represents me.

Becca and I have been keeping in touch during the week with the use of our web-cameras and microphones. In fact, Becca took her parents’ laptop to Rick and Leah’s house today where they were all having dinner and turned the web-camera on while I ate the meal that I had prepared. It was a rather strange family dinner. We talk twice or three times a day and I really think that it helps us not to miss one another quite so much. It’s not as good as having her here, but it will do for now.

Thank you all for your comments and for visiting this blog. We enjoy keeping in touch with our loved ones.

BECCA'S ADVENTURES IN MICHIGAN

The Tobey twins are home!

Well this week has been a wonderful!!!!! I’m in Michigan right now with my family. The only sad part is that my sweet, sweet hubby isn’t here with me! I can’t wait to see him again. The twins are doing wonderful. They are a delight to be around. They are the cutest little sweethearts. I am really enjoying being around all of my 4 nephews and helping my sister.

Three-year-ol Johnathan gets to be a big brother too

It is strange to be at my family’s home. It isn’t the one that I grew up in, so I feel quite lost around the place. I feel out of place. It has also been strange being without Ryan. My family has been around a single younger sister of a Becca for so long…that it isn’t that different to them.

Almost six-year-old Richard looks pretty spiffy in his new suit

My parents have seen me twice since the wedding, and my sister’s family has only seen us once since the wedding! Soooo I feel like that is how my life has always been, and that I’m not married, because I have seemed to have gone back to being the little sister who isn’t married. I hope that makes sense. I can’t wait to see my hubby.

Well, I have to go make dessert for dinner tonight. The babies were blessed today. I hope everyone is doing well.

Love ya lots!

~Becca

GETTING USED TO THE NEW HOUSE

This last week feels as though it were more like three or four. We are at that interesting point in unpacking where all of the rooms are functional but not yet totally organized and we would never let anyone look in our closets. It’s hard to move past this point quickly because we can go about our daily business without unpacking anything else.

Instead of organizing our old things, we’ve bought new ones! Desperately needed new clothes, a futon for the guest bedroom/dining room (where Mom slept last night), new pillows for the couches, plastic shelving to store food, more sheets for our bed ect., ect. Becca came back from Wal-Mart yesterday and said, “This is the last new thing that we’re going to buy for the house for a while!”

This is an old place and we’ve already experienced our share of quirks. The waste from the garbage disposal came up through our shower drain twice, water flooded onto our kitchen floor from the pipes below, the light in our bedroom has gone out on us twice and one of the burners on our stove needed to be repaired. We have developed a good relationship with Clint the handy-man because he’s had to come by several times this week and will need to come by again to figure out why the light in our bedroom won’t turn on.

We’ve had a lovely time becoming reacquainted with old friends and are looking forward to seeing everyone else who haven’t said hi to yet. Our friends the Crane’s have been over twice and we’ve been over to our friends the Higbee’s house twice. My friend David Higbee is a state court interpreter and I’ll be shadowing him on Thursday while he does a case in Heber. His wife Evy took pity on me when she found out that Becca was going to be in Michigan and invited me over for dinner when the David and I finished up in Heber.

The internet and phones are up and working so feel free to call us. Also, we have our web camera and microphone installed as well so we’d love to talk to those of you who would like to purchase those items for your computer. It’ll be the best $30 you’ve ever spent.

Speaking of spending money, the highlighted words on this blog, as you see them using Microsoft Explorer, are the way that blogger.com makes money and are why I don’t have to pay anything to have a blog. I hope that they have not been too much of a nuisance. If you want to see my blog without the links that take you to advertisements, look at it in Mozila Firefox or Netscape or some browser other that MS Explorer.

Paella is a Spanish dish and is what Becca's making tonight

Becca is preparing a delicious meal for us tonight so I’ll take the liberty of writing a little bit more since she won’t be adding her two cents this week. Yesterday I helped two couples from church move out of the neighborhood and tomorrow I’ll be helping another family. I have felt so grateful that our friends came through for us when we moved in that I’ve wanted to help others as well. Although, I am getting pretty tired so it’s a good thing that the semester is starting soon and that no one else will be moving in.

At the end of the day yesterday Becca and I attended my friend Joy Nielsen’s wedding reception. The lovely couple was sealed in the Manti Temple, just like Becca and I. The reception was gorgeous and very classy. There was a musical number performed by Joy, Joy’s twin Sarah, her older sister Amy, her younger sister Tona and her new husband Andrew. After the musical number she and Andrew performed a waltz for our enjoyment. I guess guys named Andrew just like to waltz with their brides when they get married. Mom had spent the weekend with the Nielsens and came home with us after the reception. It was nice to take her to church with us.

Well, this post is long enough as it is. You’re all wonderful people and we’re glad that you’re in our lives. Love, the Ryan and Becca.

BACK IN PROVO

Hey everyone!

This week has been stressful and wonderful. Ryan and I moved into our new place. It is smaller than we remember …but bigger than our last place. It suits our needs. We have been moving in little by little. The bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, laundry room and living room are pretty much all moved in. We still need to work on the office, dining room and closets. We have a nice sized front and back yard that we share with our neighbors upstairs which includes a decent sized garden, flower gardens and a couple’s porch swing. All of the curtains were left when we moved in. I’m glad we don’t have to buy ones to fit all the windows. I have put most of our pictures up. We are looking to purchase more pictures. I am looking forward to adding all the “home-sweet-home” touches to the place.

Our first day of church in a new building was wonderful. It is a very friendly group of Latter Day Saints. One of the sisters brought over a bunch of homegrown tomatoes since she found out we want to grow them to make salsa. We can’t wait to buy cilantro and onions to add to the yummyness.

My sister had her twin babies on Thursday!!!!! Maxwell Adam Tobey is 4lbs 14oz, and his younger by a minute brother, Benjamin Joseph Tobey was 4lbs 13.6oz. Both of them are healthy and doing very well. They are able to go home tomorrow!!! I’m so excited to see them!!!! I get to go to Michigan from August 30th – Sept 6th. I’m definitely going to take lots of pictures!! I hope Ryan won’t be too lonely here in Utah.

Well, that is the most interesting news of the week for me..OH..except, that when we moved in, Ryan so loving dealt with my panic of seeing an enormous brown jumping spider that was about the size of a quarter, and a centimeter high…in our kitchen sink!!!!! Yes I know there are much bigger spiders in the world, but none that I have seen in Utah. I got a spider killing product that claimed “Kills on contact”, and when I saw the second spider in the dining room behind the door, I must have sprayed half the can on the bugger. He wouldn’t die!!!! And he started to charge at me. Ryan stepped on him.

………….I want my money back….

Here is my sweet hubby!

Mom bought Becca an Emergency Chocolate jar

One more visit to the Boothe Homestead

Last week was bitter sweet for us as we said goodbye to our loving family in the Central Valley. Everyone was wonderful to us and I would just like to say thank-you to everyone for all of your kindness and generosity, especially to Mom and Grant, for opening up their house to us. We will always remember your kindness.

On a recent note, we’re very grateful to Emma and Deb for letting us stay at their house again. That trip from Modesto to Provo is a lot to do in one day and it’s nice to be able to stop somewhere to shave an hour off of the total drive. That may not seem like much, but it is to us.

Our move back was fairly easy. Three of our friends came to help us load and unload our things from storage onto the rented truck and then into our house, which was much easier than Walter and I doing almost all of it ourselves. We’ve only been here a little more than two days but I feel confident that things will look very nice for Mom when she gets here on Saturday. Over all Becca and I are very happy with our new place. Being basement dwellers isn’t all that bad.

Well we won’t have internet at home until the Comcast guy gets here on Thursday afternoon so Becca and I are going over to our friends’ the Higbees’ house so we can publish this post. We will be seeing some of you sooner than later but in the end we’re just happy that we will see you again. Love, the newlyweds!

TEMPLES AND MORE TEMPLES

What a week this has been! It’s been so great that we’re just going to have to split it up into several posts. We hope that the writing and pictures will merit your extra attention.

This Monday Mom, Grant, Becca and I went to the Sacramento Temple’s Open House and it was wonderful. It was very nice to meet one of Mom’s friends, Allen, and see our friends Lorna and Peter Schofield. I suppose if one is going to have a problem it should be that there are just too many loved ones and friends to visit with. Such is my case. It had been far too long since I had seen Lorna and her family.

The tour guides said that they expected over 150,000 people to tour the Sacramento Temple before it was officially dedicated and I believe them because there were hundreds of people there at the same time we were. However, the Church is small and we had the good fortune to bump into my good friend Andrew and his fiancée Karina, whom I had never met. Though I have only had a very short time to visit with her, I must say that I have nothing but the best impressions about her and Andrew. They were a very cute engaged couple.

The temple is esthetically beautiful, as you can see thanks to Becca’s wonderful photography, but what makes it special is its dedication to being a reverent place where Heavenly Father communes with His children. We members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints are very fortunate to have so many temples all over the Earth where we can feel closer to the Lord.

I’ll let Becca put in her two cents:

It was a really wonderful experience to go through the temple. We had fun visiting with all of our friends and enjoying each others company. I was so excited to see Andrew and Karina! She is a really sweet girl. I can tell that they love each other a lot!

The next day, Becca got home from work, I ironed a white shirt and we went down south to Fresno to go to an operating temple. It had been a few months since I had been to an operating temple and I feel refreshed after the experience though I have to say that what made it especially memorable to me was seeing my Grandpa and Grandma Boothe working there as volunteers. They are wonderful examples for their posterity and Becca and I love them a lot.

Becca and I in front of the temple in Fresno

Not that we don’t love all of you. You’re on our mailing list for goodness sakes! My Lee cousins live close to the temple but, after much trial and travail, we could not find their house and no one answered the phone when we called. I’d like to go on record and say that the city planning in that neighborhood is more of a maze than a suburb.

All Latter- Day Saint temples are dedicated to God

Wednesday was a work day and I was able to get a bit of translating done, in addition to making my administrators list considerably longer. We had a kick back night and watched Madea’s Family Reunion again. Mom thought the movie was so funny that she bought it! Not a bad purchase. If Becca and I hadn’t bought so many movies over the summer already, we’d buy it too.

Let's hear from the Lovely Becca again:

It was really nice seeing the grandparents again! I always enjoy seeing family members dressed in white in the temple. There is a loving peace that surrounds experiences like that. We were so excited to see the Lee family! We had our Map Quest directions from the temple to their house; They made no sense from the very first direction. We had to go by luck to find the house, and then the house number was nowhere to be found!! So we changed one digit (the logical one to change, because none of the houses had it as a 2^nd number), found the house, and Ryan didn’t remember it. No one answered the phone, so we made our way back home. It was quite the adventure!

ROLLER COASTERS, TIGERS AND AN ORCA

Thursday Dad and Penny took all of us out to Six Flags Marine World. It was a lot of fun. Penny, Becca, Breanna and I started off as the daredevils, leaving the other three behind to go on the slower rides, however, there was one particular ride the banged my head around so much and made me so dizzy that I needed to take a big break.

Although the whole day was fun there were three particular high lights for me: riding on the Sky Coaster (I’ll let Becca explain that one), riding on an elephant and watching Dad get drenched.

There was a bit of irony in Dad getting drenched that made it so delicious. Seeing Dad get wet in general is not very funny due to the fact that he has a pool but under the right circumstances it can be quite entertaining. We had to split up into two groups for a water rafting ride so Dad, Grant and I went in one raft while the girls went in another. Dad gave me that wryly look that many of you are familiar with and said something to the effect of, “You know the water comes in that side of the boat. You’re going to get soaked.” Not five seconds after he said that, the raft changed positions and Dad was in my spot. This resulted in him getting a little wet, which was only he-hah funny but looking down our course a ways, I could see that I was in line to go right under a waterfall. As if turned by mischievous water park imps, our raft turned again and Dad went right under it! I’m chuckling even now as I write this post.

We found that there are big squirt guns on the side of the water rides that people can use for twenty-five cents. Dad was able to turn the tables and drenched quite a few strangers and even Penny, Becca, Breanna and Tristine. Revenge is sweet!

I don’t know why the elephant ride was so much fun for me but it was. I suppose it was just the novelty of being able to say that I rode on top of an 8,800 lbs. animal. Becca was a good sport and rode with me even though she’d all ready done it once before years ago.

My sweet Becca can tell you about how she, Grant and I fell from 80 feet in the air:

Well, I had been on a 180 foot Sky Coaster before while at a theme park in Canada, and loved it!! I really wanted Ryan to experience it. Grant was excited to try it out and asked to go up before Breanna, so she was really disappointed not to go up. It is that ride you see that looks like a giant swing where people strap themselves into harnesses and get pulled up into the air by a cord, and then fly like superman.

The last time I wasn’t the one who pulled the rip cord (what sets you loose upon pulling)…so this time I was going to!! Once you are up as high as you can go, you hear a voice on the speaker say 1-2-3 FLY!!! That is the cue to pull the rip cord and free fall for at least 2 seconds until you get caught by what you are harnessed in. It was sooooooooooooooo much fun!!!!!! Ryan, Grant and I were all smiles afterward. Next time I will have to go with Breanna!!!