Fall Pictures

Jason and I just love being down here in St. George and enjoy the wonderful weather. I love the fact that if we want to take fall pictures we have to wait for the winter. These pictures were taken just before Christmas around town in St. George. We started out taking the pictures at a local park but got distracted by the playground, as you might see. Here are a couple of pictures and then a video with the rest of our favorite shots.

Snow in St. George??

That's right- you heard correctly. The recent cold spell that hit the state allowed us to awake to a town lightly covered in snow. Don't worry, because the snow melted within the day and all was back to normal. By the end of the week I was using the AC in my car. Here is a picture of the temple that you usually don't get to see in St. George.

New Orleans: Day 3

Today was all about the ASHA conference. Jason and I were up early so I could get to the convention to get things ready for the morning presentations. Jason was great to help out and do his homework while I stayed plenty busy with work and sessions. Here are a couple pictures from our day:



A picture of Sonia and me:



Claire and I posing in work mode

We will have more pictures tomorrow that will probably be more exciting than conference picutres.

New Orleans: Day 2

Today was the first day of the ASHA Convention (American Speech-Language Hearing Association). This is the real reason that we have come out to New Orleans, was to support Lisa in not only her professional development, but to interact and connect with many people in her same field.


While Lisa was in conference sessions learning and networking, I got to check out all the free stuff in the vendor hall.





Can you say S.W.A.G.?




Afterwords, Lisa and I were able to see more of New Orleans. We got to eat at a Chef John Besch restaurant called Luke. It was really fun, especially because we had a great seat next to the kitchen, which was surrounded by glass so you could watch the food being prepared. It is fun to wander in New Orleans, because the very informative street signs help keep you straight.




And here is a picture of Lisa sporting her ASHA Badge.

New Orleans: Day 1

We made it to New Orleans! After a quick red-eye flight we made it to the Big Easy this morning and have spent the whole day exploring. Here are some things we found:


We found the Mississippi River (how could you miss it?)



We found the French Quaters




We visited Jackson Square and St. Louis Cathedral

We stumbled upon Bourbon Street (maybe stumbled was the wrong word)

We also managed to eat a lot of food, including gumbo, jambalaya, and a muffuletta (pictured below). We also took a trip to the Art Gallery to view some artwork.

I know it looks like we fooled everyone in believing that this is actually supposed to be a "buisness trip," but I promise I will get to work tomorrow because the conference is starting and I will be busy learning and assissting the presenters. Personally, I am just excited for all of the free stuff!

We are having a blast and will upload more pictures tomorrow.

Halloween Time

This is a picture of our halloween costumes. Jason was a Ghostbuster and I was a ghost.



For some reason Jason and I were out hiking one day after work and we pulled out the camera and pretended to take scary pictures of each other. We then came home and played with the pictures a little bit and we ended up with these.

Day 5: Final Touches

It is so sad to say this but our final full day in Ireland has come and gone. We started out the day waking up in our beautiful room in Waterford Castle. I didn't want to get up but we walked through the forest to see the sunrise and watch the deer and pheasants in the forest. It was magical! Here are some final pictures in Waterford.





We then headed back to Dublin and spent the remander of the day buying last minute things and eating our last pub dinner. We are now packing and getting ready to head back home. We always experience this bittersweet feeling when getting ready to leave somewhere because we get very attached with the places we visit and can often picture ourselves staying there. But when it comes down to it, we are anxious to get home and see our friends and family.

We will soon put up ALL of our pictures from the trip and hopefully the videos that accompany them. We have had a wonderful and unforgettable time here in Ireland and hope you have enjoyed seeing this unique country through our eyes.

Love, Jason and Lisa

Day 4-Southern Ireland

Well, today was a little dark and cloudy in Dublin. Which was just fine, because we left it by train. We avoided the rain, and fled to Kilkenny, the former ancient capital of Ireland. Kilkenny is a beautiful town that is reich in history. We strolled through Killkenny's narrow streets to get to Kilkenny Castle and all of its ornamental gardens. Here is a picture of us at the castle in one of the gardens.



We strolled through the city for several hours taking in all of the sights and sounds. Afterwords, we took the train to Waterford in the South. We are staying the evening in the posh Waterford Castle. To get to the castle you have to take a private ferry as the Castle is situated on a private island. We are staying in the Presidential Suite of the castle this evening.
Here is a picutre of the bedroom. In the back of the picture you can see the door to the HUGE bahroom, and a second door to the library/drawing room.




We are off to dinner, so more from Ireland tomorrow!

Day Three-Western Ireland

Today was another day out and about in Ireland. Today was about castles and the natural wonders that Ireland has to offer in Western Ireland. We first started off by traveling from Dublin to Limerick to see King John’s Castle. Basically, it is like most other castles, but here is a picture of us in front of it.




From there we went to a place in Ireland called the Burren, which I think it means barren in Gaelic. They describe it as a lunar landscape. To us it really looked like a barren landscape; yet, in its own way it was really is interesting. It reminds us a lot of the lava in St. George. Here is a picture.




After that we ate a pub lunch in a small town called Doolin. Following that, we drove to the Cliffs of Moher. These Cliffs are the tallest in Europe, even taller than the Cliffs of Dover. The tallest point is a half mile drop. Here are a couple of pictures we took there.






We had tons of fun today, and will have more fun with castles tomorrow. We will try to get some of our videos online then.

Day 2: Northern Ireland

So today has been nonstop and we were up at 4:00am (that is 9:00pm yesterday for you guys) and got home around 10:00pm (3:00pm today for MST). We traveled to Northern Ireland, which is actually part of the UK. It was a beautiful drive up there and actually, the weather was fantastic! Our guide was telling us that the weather was better than most summer days. It was an outdoors day and we started out the day at this cool rope bridge that is actually within sight of Scotland. Here are some pictures and a video from there:





This is an unusual shot for the rope bridge because it is taken off of the bridge where there is nothing but a long drop into the Irish Sea. If you figured out how we took it, keep in on the down low.

After that we traveled on to what I had been looking forward to on the trip: Giant’s Causeway. It is an interesting legend on how it got the name, so be sure to ask us when you see us in the states. I love the shape of the rocks, because they formed in a hexagonal shape and rose up in pillars. Some people call it Ireland’s playground. It is right next to the ocean and the waves were calm and a deep, vibrant blue! Here are some pictures and another video from there:






We love each other!

This is a castle in Northern Ireland (one of many) that has long since been abandoned but I love the location of the castle.


We spent whole day getting history lessons and walking tours of the towns up North. We then traveled back and are getting ready for tomorrow. Cya!

Day 1: Dublin

We made it to Ireland! After a long flight and only a couple hours of sleep we arrived in Dublin and immediately started exploring. We dropped off our luggage and jumped on a bus tour that allowed us to get on and off as we pleased. One of our favorite spots was Trinity College. I know it sounds sad that when the two of us, who are both full time students, go on vacation the first thing we visit is another college! What can we say, we like to learn!! Jason fell in love with the library and I loved exploring the buildings.



We eventually made it to other places in Dublin, including Phoenix Park. This is the largest park in all of Europe, and it is huge!! The leaves are starting to change here so it is the bright Ireland green you would expect with splashes of reds and yellows.



We went on to see other sites in Dublin and including some shopping and visiting some museums and art galleries.
Basically, we are exhausted! Dublin is a fun and exciting town but we are excited to go and see the country tomorrow.

Ireland-Day 1 Flying to Dublin

Well, we are off on our trip. The first day we are driving to Salt Lake City.

Ireland!

It is official! Ireland is almost here. Lisa and I are getting so excited for the trip. Please check back often, as we will update the blog daily with all of the sights and sounds of Ireland!

Just to get you excited, here is a map of Dublin with a few of the things that we will be seeing and doing in Dublin. The map is a little small, so you may have to move it around a little to see everything that is there.

View Dublin, Ireland in a larger

Labor Day Weekend

So I know that Labor Day Weekend was a while ago but here are the pictures from our trip we took that weekend. Jason and I had a great weekend with my parents and spent the first day of our trip at the Huntington Library and Gardens.
The Huntington is so beautiful and has an impressive art gallery and themed gardens.



The next day we decided to break our usual trip to Disneyland and go to Universal Studios. Jason had never been and Mom, Dad and I haven't been for years. We had a blast visiting there again. I think our favorite thing was we ended up getting a "Front of the Line"pass, which was expensive but TOTALLY WORTH IT!! We highly recommend getting one on your next visit there.





The shot of us taken with Scooby and Shaggy is for our nephews, Drew and Matt, who both love Scooby Doo!

Almost looks real, huh.

We all really enjoyed doing the Backlot Tour and seeing some famous movie sites. Here is a classic Hitchcock site. Very appropriate for the Halloween time.

Here's a video of Jason being a star and participating with one of the demonstrations at Universal Studios. This was done at the special effects studio and is kind of messy, so don't watch it if you easily faint. :)