Family Visit

Briawna, Palmer, and Portia came to visit last week from Utah. McKenna decided she felt left out, so she flew up from L.A. I was pretty busy during the week, so I didn't get to see them until the weekend. We went to Eugene on Friday for a family company bbq, and then we were in Portland on Saturday and Sunday. I had so much fun with them, and was very proud that even though I don't live in Utah, I'm still their favorite. Portia calls me YuYu, always with a big smile. So I apologize, but be prepared for a lot of pictures.

All of these pictures were taken at one of my favorite places, the Portland Rose Gardens:

Bri was trying to get Palmer and Portia to sit still to take a family picture. But Portia enjoyed hitting Palmer too much. Here she is slapping him on the back. He's very disturbed by it, as you can tell. She gets particularly violent every time Palmer tries to hug her or kiss her.
They're singing along with Papa to Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes.
Palmer smelling the roses with Papa.Nona taking Palmer for a walk.
Cheese!
Again, singing head, shoulders, knees and toes. She likes that song. But it's still not as entertaing as the Wiggles Song.

My Belated B-day

It has taken me a while to post about my b-day. But I have been pretty tired, recovering from the party that it was. Actually, no, I've just been lazy. Nick took me to the coast for my b-day. It was so fun and relaxing. I love the Oregon coast, even if its not the warmest weather! The fact that it was sunny was pretty much all we could ask for.

Nick and I bought a 99 cent Ninja Turtle kite from Walgreens. We were very impressed with its high flying abilities. While we flew our kite, we watched the local surfing competition.


This was our cute hotel we stayed on, right on the water. Our hotel room was the bottom one on the right. It was so relaxing sitting on our deck, reading, listening to the ocean.
This was our view. We were on a little bay right off of the coast.
I got really warm after playing volleyball with Nick, so I decided it was worth the pain, and I went in the water. Once my feet got numb, it wasn't even cold!

Mo's has the best clam chowder!
There were a ton of sealions out on the coast just hanging out. Nick is imitating them.

We took a long walk on the beach, and watched the sunset.

On my actual b-day, we went to my parents house and my Mom cooked me a fabulous meal. It was mostly fabulous cause I didn't have to cook it. I opened presents and Nick gave me a beginning of the school year blessing. The best present I got was a new brown, leather, loveseat. I'll have to post a picture of it. But it is SO nice. The couch in our office so I can start my counseling business. I had a great b-day and felt very loved.

I am cheap

So don't take my title to mean the wrong thing, but I really am cheap. It's something that I am very aware of and it can be a bad thing at times. But I pay attention to money and find eternal joy when I discover that I have saved money or gotten a bargain. Today I was driving to work and I realized that I have not had to fill up my car in over a month!!!!

The last few years, I have been commuting up and down Utah, driving anywhere from Salt Lake to Orem. And now, I drive five minutes to work in downtown Salem. I seriously almost cried for joy when I realized this. Not to be sacriligious, (or sacrilicious as Meredith would say), but it's truly a "tender mercy" from the Lord. My lean green Honda machine has served me well. And now I don't have to fast for gas prices to go down (although it couldn't hurt).

My Serious Tagging

Notice the pun with grafitti? I spend too much time around gang banging high schoolers.

8 things that i am passionate about
1. Counseling kids
2. The gospel
3. Nick/my marriage
4. Friends
5. Sleeping
6. The Ducks and BYU football
7. Being outside and active, for any excuse
8. Politics

8 words or phrases i use often...
1. Get your butts down! Stay on the balls of your feet! Watch your foot work! (I'm helping coach girls volleyball)
2. One more episode (of Arrested Development/Friends)
3. I'm tired (every night after work and practice)
4. I'll see you tomorrow night, maybe (to Nick when we go to bed)
5. Yeah, that's frustrating (kids being in a class they hate or some other problem)
6. Hi, I'm Lexie (I've met a lot of new people in the last few weeks)
7. No! (to kids and to Nick)
8. I can take a look at it (working with teachers, administrators, parents, kids, etc.)

8 things i want to do before i die...
1. Have a family
2. Travel to a lot of different places, as many as possible
3. Learn Spanish well
4. Start my own counseling business
5. Go on a mission
6. Do a triathlon, at least a sprint
7. Let people know how much I care about them.
8. Sky dive

8 things i have learned from my past..
1. Life sucks as a teenager.
2. Living in the moment is what true peace is. Worrying about the future does not do any good (still trying to get better at this :))
3. Trust in the spirit and have faith in the Lord, even when things don't make sense.
4. Everyone else has their own insecurities too.
5. Be nice to your parents.
6. In high school (well and pretty much most of their life) boys are only really thinking about one thing.
7. The older you get, the less you really know.
8. Get your will in order before you die (this is a shout out to my madre).

8 places i would love to go or see..
1. Australia/New Zealand
2. Italy
3. Jerusalem
4. Costa Rica
5. Southeast Asia
6. Seattle!!!! (can you believe I've never been)
7. Portland Rose Garden (one of my favorite places ever)
8. Anywhere!!! Honestly, I will go anywhere and see anything (I mean, within logical reason).

8 things i currently need or want...
1. More sleep
2. A window in my office
3. A lot of money for Nick's school (as in, not a loan)
4. A couch for my office and a couple rugs for my house
5. Free vacations all the time!
6. Nicer/new running shoes and running clothes
7. A baby :(
8. Road trips with my friends - preferrably to see any kind of theater event.

8 people i tag..
1. Amander
2. Bri Hugh
3. Meredith
4. Carly
5. Kristi Jo
6. Melinda
7. Sally
8. Megan Thayne

Labor Day Freezing!

Once again, Nick and I went to our favorite spot this weekend, our family cabin. I love going there because it gives me an excuse to not shower the whole weekend, all in the name of being "outdoorsy." We were all geared up for wakeboarding and waterskiing, but instead, it almost snowed. It was 35 degrees one night, and not usually above 55 during the day. Nick and I did jump in the water one night, but it was too cold to stay in longer than 5 seconds. But we still had an extremely enjoyable weekend with David, Stacy, Sisi, and the Kuykendalls. On Saturday, we decided to go to Crater Lake, since I had never been. Can you believe it! I went to high school in Oregon and still never went. I could not consider myself a true Oregonian until I had been there.

I could not believe how blue the water was.

I kind of think the background looks fake. But oh no, it's not. I don't know what weird face Nick is making. He's weird.

I like this picture because of the beautiful scenery and because of Nick's body language. He is telling a very engaging story. Either that, or else he just smelled something nasty.

Saturday night we went with my Dad and James (uncle) to the Oregon Ducks game, and felt very special sititng in the VIP section. We actually mostly just felt young, because there were a lot, a lot, of old Ducks fan. It was a fun game to watch, particularly Washington get the crap beaten out of them. I also enjoyed listening to the chants from the Ducks which mostly were just , "F#$% you Huskies!" Very creative! (P.S. I tried to fit in by wearing my "Duck Off! Duck You!" tee-shirt).

There was a guy sitting behind my Dad who kept rubbing his shoulders. Hahaha. For anyone who knows my Dad, you can imagine how much he enoyed this. The guy was a little drunk and was not getting the message even when my Dad told him to stop it.

Nick is teaching our little cousins (Nash and Jaxon) to shoot bebe guns. They had a full-on brawl later where they put on masks, a.k.a swim goggles and binis, and ran around the forest shooting each other.

Sunday, still being really cold, my Mom and I decided to go on a nearby hike to Fawn Lake. You might think my Mom was trying to be artsy with her picture, but she is just really bad at taking pictures.