October was a great month!

At the beginning of the month (1st-4th) I went to Utah. I went mostly to see my Aunt Wanda and Uncle Jack. I went the weekend of conference and was able to go to both the Sunday morning and afternoon sessions in the conference center. What a wonderful experience. I also got to spend time with friends; Jill, we spent Friday taking pictures together, Brandon and Noelle, it has been too long since I have seen them (13 years) Noelle was one of my first roommates at BYU. And the Quinney’s. Scotty and I took pictures of the them up in the canyon. I also went and roamed around BYU. I love Utah in the fall. It was gorgeous!!

A couple pictures of BYU

Brandon, me and Noelle

Brandon and Noelle with their adorable children.

Jill

American Fork Canyon

Jack, Me, Wanda

Another shot of American Fork Canyon

Quinney Family

Eric, Beth, Me and Scotty

Scotty and I had some fun taking pictures of each other.

Scotty and I in front of the conference center

Scotty, Me, Sasha and Jon

The other big event of October was the begining of my holiday special. I took pictures for Sabrina, Alica and Charles, Valana and her dogs, Yolanda and Ashlee and the Udalls. Here are a few from each shoot.

Sabrina-

Hilbran’s-

Valana and her dogs-

Udall’s-

Yolanda and Ashlee-

In addition the to the holiday specials I also shot pictures of  Elliot Groves Ward Halloween party and JJ and Zach’s reception.

—-

—-

At nights I keep busy with homework and watching my favorite reality shows; SYTYCD, Survivor, Amazing Race and occasionaly Biggest Loser.

Thanks for checking in.

This has been an exciting month.

It started with my decision to go on a Mediterranean cruise!

Yes the down payment was paid September  3rd. The trip is Oct 4-19, 2010 so I have a year to study and learn all about Venice, Egypt, Israel, Greece and Croatia. I am so excited for this wonderful opportunity to go to the Middle East – I can’t wait to see the pyramids, the Holy Land, and the Acropolis in Athens. And I get to do it from a cruise. I am going with my roommate Angela and her family. There will be more blogs to come! 

 This month there was a very big first. I ran my fist 5K! I have never been much of a runner but decided that it was good exercise so I started training using Robert Ollery’s 9 week Couch to 5K pod cast. Here is a picture of Me, Sasha and Renee right before the race.

It was a September 11^th memorial run. I did well… 37 minutes and no walking. J

September is also the start of new seasons of TV shows. My favorites are reality shows–So You Think You can Dance, Biggest Loser, America’s Next Top Model, Survivor, and Amazing Race (in no particular order). Thank goodness for technology and the ability to be able to watch most of the shows on line at my convenience.

September is Restaurant week in Phoenix so Dave, Alec, Mike, and Leigh went to Wildfish. It was a great dinner (yummy trout) and evening. It was great to catch up on what is going on each other’s lives.

The General Women’s Relief Society broadcast was wonderful. I feel so blessed to be a part of the Relief Society and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It was a evening of friendship, love and the spirit of Christ.

Elric turned 5 and Kristen turned 35 this month. I love them both so much!

My Blog will now have monthly installments. At the end of the year I will to write about the top highlights of the year.

I spent a wonderful week in Oregon with my family. We went to the Redwood forrest, Oregon Coast and then spent quality time in Klammath with the parents.

Jay, Jodi, Donavoaghn, and Emerson at the base of one the trees.

Next was the coast

It is hard to imagine but the boys played in the freezing cold water. And I never took my sweatshirt off. I must be getting old.

This one is for Remington…his future house on the coast.

And this is Jay and Jodi’s house on the beach.

Emerson showing his manly chest.

my cute dad.

Jay and Jodi posing on a rock in the river.

The view out my parents front window. The horse closest is named Steed and the one in the back is Tammy.

Here is mom feeding steed.

These are the raseberries we picked out of the garden.

And this is dad holding the best meal I had on vacation.

One day we went bowling

and another a girls lunch

Klamath Lake

I had a wonderful time.

I am going back to school! I have often considered going back and getting a PhD in higher education with an emphais on engineers studying abroad, but for now that will have to wait…while I get my certification in massage therapy. There is a program through the local community college that I have enrolled in. This summer I am taking my first course–Intro to Massage Therapy. I LOVE IT!

Since I work full time I will be going to school part time. I anticipate that the program will take about 3 years to complete.  When I turn 40 I should be a licensed massage therapist!  Then I can work on my friends and family. I love my career in academia so this massage therapy is on the side–just to learn more about the body, help people, relax, and earn a little extra money.

I am excited for the endeavor.

Every year I am lucky enough to get to go back to DC. I love the east coast in the spring time, the azelea’s and dogwoods were in bloom and it was gorgeous. In addition to how beautiful it was I got to see my friends. This time more than ever before I ate! I ate Brazillian, Indian, Italian, Seafood, and my favorite Eastern Market real-maple-syrup-peacan-french-toast. The older I get the more I realize how eating is a very social activity. Here are a few pictures taken with my little camera. For more pictures see my facebook page. For the professional pictures see my other blog http://jarviephotography.blogspot.com/

Me, Callie and Melinda

I spent a lot of time with Ketan Patel this trip.

Me and Jana

At Hook with Nashwa, Colin, Howard and Yin

Sarah and Ashley on our way to Eastern Market

Me and Erika. Notice Ella is falling off the couch in the background

Camille Pissaro at the National Gallery of Art

My favorite–Dogwood

I took a half day from work and spent the time with some friends that I taught English with 9 years ago in taiwan. We went to lunch then the zoo. I just had my little camera and of course cute little Amelia got the most pictures, except the last one where the guy cut her out. It was great.

One of the great things about living in Arizona is that I get to spend time with Bethany. We were college roommates and have been friends for 14 years now. Last Sunday I went to her 5th child’s baby blessing and right before the blessing I took some family pictures. I think they turned out great!

I have a couple of goals right now and yesterday I worked on two of them. One of my goals is to get to know my brothers Matt and David better while living in Arizona. Another of my goals is to do at least one photographic event with friends a month. My brother Scotty lives in Utah and goes on Photo Walking tours, I want to start something like that here in AZ. Yesterday was the beginging of that except instead of walking we went jeeping. I took my roommate Angela up to Cave Creek to Matt’s house and he took us out into the desert, here are some pictures. Enjoy.  

Angela

Matt

Matt’s new puppy- Sparky

I loved this!

Lots of the cati were in bloom.

Sparky under Matt’s jeep

Matt spreading seeds out in the desert

A beautiful catus garden

And of course some saguro cati.

For more pictures click here.

When I left GW a couple of years ago a couple of my favorite students told me they would come visit me for spring break. They did, a couple of weeks ago! And here are some pictures of it. It made me so happy that they would spend part of the thier spring break in Arizona with me. I love you Sible and Alice!

Alice, me, Sible. We got up super early so that we could make it all the way to the Grand Canyon in one day stopping in Sedona, Flagstaff and Oakcreek Canyon. We also decided to all wear our GW Engineering sweaters to represent!

Sedona. I love the beautiful red rock formations. It was so fun to go with Alice and Sible since they have never seen anything like it.

Alice and Sible

This was taken at a rest stop on our way through Oak Creek Canyon. It was so beautiful!

For lunch we stopped a wonderful Himalayan resturant in Flagstaff. I LOVE Indian food.

Us at the sign by the park enterance.

Here is one of the many shots I took of the Grand Canyon. It was cold but so worth the trip.

We saw quite a bit of wildlife.

I like this pictures cause you can see the Colorado River. It would so cool to see the Grand Canyon rafting down the Colorado.

We got up early (with hundreds of other people) to witness the sunrise. Wow!

What a great spring break. Thanks for coming out to see me Alice and Sible.