Seattle Day 1

 For our 1st Wedding Anniversary we decided to take a vacation.  After looking in to several cities we decided on Seattle because neither of us had ever been and we got a really good deal on airfare and everything.  We arrived Thursday morning and packed a lot in to our first day.

Trying my hand at milking in the farm area.

Cassidy's must have picture with the Monkeys.

Playing around in the kids area. 

 After the Zoo we headed downtown to the Spaceneedle!  The view from the top was pretty amazing even if it isn't the tallest building in Seattle. 

The city skyline from the top of the Spaceneedle.

From the top of the Spaceneedle we could see this maze painted on the ground and people walking it so naturally we had to go try it out as well.  I think Cass was tired of the camera at this point. 

We also saw this water fountain from the top and right as we walked by a show started.   

  

 After the Spaceneedle it was over to Pike's Market Place where Cass bought me some flowers for our anniversary to keep in our hotel room.  We also got some really huge delicious fruit here too.  We are not sure of the importance of the pig, but lots of people were taking pictures there and it was less crowded than actually being in the market so that's the history behind this picture.

 It was a great day followed by a soak in the hot tub to rest our feet from all of the walking.  Stay tuned for the rest of our vacation.

Buzz In The Air

A few weeks ago we saw an add on TV for four box seat tickets to the local triple A baseball team the Salt Lake Bees (they feed in to the Angels) for $20. We called up our friends Mike and Angela who love baseball to see if they wanted to come with us and then got the tickets. We had a fun evening and got to see two games for the price of one because the game from the night before was canceled due to weather so it was a double header. Here are some pictures from the game and some of the activities we did with Cooper in between the two games to keep him entertained.

I took this picture and then he hit a home run. It was the only one for the Bees for the evening. They lost both games, but since we have never been to a game they have one we weren't expecting much and we weren't disappointed.

Cooper's first time getting his painted. It looked so cute even if he didn't enjoy the experience.

It was pretty cold by the time the second game started and a lot of people left so Bumble the mascot wandered through the crowd taking pictures with whomever wanted them. Thanks Mike, Angela, and Cooper for coming with us we had a really good time and can't wait to go to another game later this season.

Easter Weekend

This last weekend has been rather fun for both of us. Saturday we got to go to the Salt Lake City Temple and do a session with two really good friends, Mike and Sarah. First we had lunch at our apartment then up to the temple, then to Iceberg for some ice cream.

Sorry no photos.

As for Easter Sunday it was filled with church then down to Cassidy's parents house for dinner and watch the nieces and nephew scavenge the back yard for all the candy.

Later it back inside to color Easter eggs camo style.

After coloring the Easter eggs Cassidy and his dad started to fix one of his rifles where the stock had slip last week when he took Rudy and his brother Sam out shooting.

We also put together two penguins out of wood that Randi's mother got us for Easter.

All in all we had a fun filled Easter weekend and we hope everyone did as well.

The Light At The End Of The Tunnel

This last month Cassidy had to go through an interview process to complete one of his larger steps in completing his degree. So at the first of April we got the news of how that interview went...

CASSIDY GOT ACCEPTED!!!

Yes he got into the education program at Utah Valley University and so now he can stay on track to graduate in December of 2012.

All That Jazz

At Christmas my Aunt LaWayne got her firm tickets to the March 28th Jazz game. Knowing that I am a huge Jazz fan and the closest family member she let me come with her. This is not our first Jazz game together, but this was our first one sitting this close. If you look at the picture below I am pointing to the row we were seated in. It is row 9!!!!! The game was amazing sitting that close even though the team has gone through some major changes in the last 6 weeks and isn't exactly hot right now.

This is the view from our seats without any zoom. Pretty good, right? I forgot how tall basketball players are :)

Can't wait for the game to start!

Even though you can't really tell from the photo LaWayne and I are standing on the court during warm ups. The usher would only allow us one picture and he isn't exactly going to win any photography awards in the near future. This was my first time on the court though so it was a pretty exciting moment.

My two favorite men in the Jazz organization right now, Jeff Hornacek and Paul Millsap.

Opening tip off. We lost by 5 in overtime, but overall it was a pretty exciting game.

The Jazz Bear and bear in training. I thought his jersey with the number 1/2 was pretty cute.

Thanks for taking me with you to the game LaWayne. I had a blast and love living close enough that we can spend so much time together.

Bridging The Gap

As some of you might know a 23 mile section of I-15 in Utah is under construction. With widening the interstate Utah must replace several of their bridges along the section. On Saturday night Cassidy and Randi had the opportunity to go and watch them move the Sam White Bridge into place. We knew this was a blog worthy event when UDOT (Utah Department of Transportation) workers came around taking pictures of the crowd for their facebook page.

So Cassidy and Randi stood outside in the cold and rain from 11 pm to 1 am to watch them move the bridge off the original supports.

Here are some cool little tidbits about the bridge and how it is moved.
-The bridge weights 3.82 million pounds-It is 354 feet long and 80 feet wide (the longest two span bridge ever moved in the western hemisphere).
-It took 12,700 hours to build and move the bridge into place.

-It was moved by a Self Propelled Modular Transporter (SPMT) that uses hydraulic rams to hoist the bridge 21 feet off the ground.
-The SPMT has over 200 tires and is ran by a single joist stick.

We both had a good time watching the wonders of modern engineering at work, even though it was cold and rainy.

Here is the finished project.

Back To My Roots

Last week was Cassidy's spring break so we decided to head to my hometown of Elko for the weekend. We had talked about it for quite a while and my parents were excited for our visit. My mom said Cassidy always looks bored when he is in Elko so they found a few things for him to do this trip. I wonder if Cass will ever want to go visit my parents again? :)

Friday when we arrived my parents were both working so we stopped in and said hi and then headed home to have dinner ready for them. Cassidy started on his first project of rehanging the casing around the door to the garage.

Before he could hang the casing we had to take a trip to Home Dept for a hammer because my dad's has come up missing. While there my parents decided it would be nice to update a couple of the light fixtures and this was a good time because Cass knows exactly how to do that. So after he finished with the door he got to hang a new chandelier in the dining room. Isn't he a lucky guy :)

This is my feeble attempt at helping. I held the light while he wired it.

While Cass was busy with his chores I helped my dad figure out exactly how to use his Silhoutte cutter. And my mom made cinnamon rolls.

The finished product. My parents are really excited about how much brighter the room is.

First thing Saturday morning Cass changed the light fixture in the living room. From then on all my dad could talk about was how much brighter the living room was and how much he loved the new light. Cass definitely figured out how to impress the Nortons :)

The trip was not all work though. Saturday afternoon we went to the Northeastern Nevada Museum to see the new wildlife wing and the bald eagle Silver pictured below. There is a cool story about Silver that you can find on www.outbacknevada.us if you are really interested.

Cass was also impressed with the large gun collection that the museum has.

This is me with next to Bing Crosby's denim suit that he had as honorary mayor of Elko.

The museum also has these fun games on loan from Oregon to help you learn about taking care of your body. This is Cass trying to balance and my mom playing the game to find out what a portion size of different foods should look like.

Finally the wildlife wing. This is fairly new to the museum so none of us had ever been to it before. I think we were pretty impressed at the size of the edition and number of animals for a small town museum.

In front of the museum in front of a Pony Express cabin that one of my dad's ancestors actually stayed in.

After the museum we made another stop at Home Depot for some tiles for my dad to practice with his vinyl cutter. While we there it was decided that the light in the kitchen now needed to be changed because it didn't match any of the other lights so Cass got to change a third light, but I don't have a picture of that because the camera was dead at this point. My parents did pay him and me by taking us to eat at the new fancy restaurant in one of the Casinos. I got carded and did not have my ID on me so I had to run home and come back in order to enjoy my Dr. Pepper. Good thing Elko is a small town :)

And finally no trip to Elko would be complete without a picture of the missionaries that live in my parent's basement, Elder Merrill and Elder Ramos.