Biking in the Desert

My bike is tuned up and ready to go! Squirty and I were ecstatic about resurrecting one of our favorite past-times from last year, and in Page especially. The streets are wide and almost always empty, the weather is perfect, and riding around the mesa always provides some electrifying views of buttes, a lake, and lovely desert landscape.

Family Bicycling

We decided to start bicycling as a family. To spare you a long and boring story, let's just say we had our reasons: it was a less expensive hobby for us to start (Derrick has a great mountain bike left over from High School and Amanda and I inherited Mom and Dad Hull's bikes), Provo is a great location for bicyclists, with one kid it really isn't that hard, it's fun, it's healthy, it's eco-friendly, you get the idea.

For any families with young children, I highly recommend the front-mounted iBert safe-T-seat suggested by my friend, Elizabeth (Thanks!). It has great safety features and gives the kids a better view. It also allows for more parent/child interaction during bike rides and it's extremely easy to put on/take off.

Getting buckled in...

and ready to go!

Just look at her face! She loves our bike rides, but we're still working on her endurance. So far she can only last about 40 minutes or so.

We hope to give you more updates on our bicyling adventures as time goes on.

Artists in Residence

This is going to be a big surprise to many of you, but Derrick and I aren't really artists. Nope. In fact my cousins, Michelle and Lisa, who just happen to be amazing artists, might snigger a little while reading this post. No matter.
-
Though we aren't artists, we do like to spend time together and we enjoy trying new things. Additionally, I'm not a big decorator or decoration buyer, but I hated a certain wall in my apartment that always looked blank no matter what I hung up. So I decided several months ago to ditch the standard date-night set-up (babysitter, eating out, etc.) and headed to my university's bookstore to buy some painting supplies.

As you can see, I didn't go out on a limb. I bought the very basic colors, knowing we could create any color we needed by mixing primary colors. I remembered that vividly from my elementary school days. Impressive, no?

For other supplies we used newspaper (also acquired at BYU-who reads the student newspaper anyway?) and for a palette we got a piece of cardboard and stapled a plastic bag over it. Because I'm not a serious artist, I felt no need or desire to actually spend money on a legitimate palette. Besides, this worked just as well.
-
When I told Derrick about my idea he jumped right on board and never complained. Isn't he a stud? We started talking about what to paint and decided on painting a place we want to live or travel to someday. Problem was, we couldn't decide which place, so we decided to divide the canvas and do several of them.

Masking tape served as the divider, here's the painting in it's first stage.

Closer to it's final stage...


And...done!

I know all of you are dying to have one of our masterpieces in your very own home, but at this stage in our career, it would be impossible to keep up with all of your orders. Sorry, guys.

Now let's see how many of you can accurately name the places we painted and extra credit for those who can guess which scenes Derrick or I are responsible for.

Creativity

It is a great source of happiness and pride to me that I belong to a church that discusses the worth and importance of personal creativity and individual action. One of my favorite addresses of all time was given by Elder Uchtdorf. Watch part of his address by visiting the link below:

http://www.youtube.com/user/MormonMessages#p/f/4/RhLlnq5yY7k

I don't consider myself a crafty person. At all. But I do enjoy being busy and creative.

Here are some things I've created lately:

This is me and my partner in crime for the Hunger Banquet, Rachel. Not only was she an awesome person to work with, but it was her birthday the week after the HB; I felt beholden by her awesomness to create this beanie for her.

I've tried my hand at knitting. And failed. Crocheting is much more accesible for me for some reason. It also gives my hands something to do when we're watching movies or I feel lazy and bored in general.

Cute, no?

This object was meant to be a baby blanket, but ended up being more of a throw.

Oh, well. It was my first time, and I think it ended up looking great anyway.

Especially when wrapped around a cute little baby.
Pie is a more recent venture for me.

Unfortunately, I'd just discovered my ability to make

pastry when we diagnosed Derrick with Celiac's disease.

However, I still make it when Derrick's back is turned :)

Yum!