for the past two years

To Mackenzie
From Beau

southern utah adventure

Dear BYU,

Thanks for sending us on a wonderful trip to lovely St. George last weekend.


I know that the intended purpose was for me to interview some people in Fillmore, Cedar City, Kanab, and St. George about the Placement Program, but we really spent most of our time playing.

We quite enjoyed driving the cute little Prius you gave us to use. We are still trying to figure out how it knows to unlock the door when the keys are in my pocket and my hand is just at the door handle. It is a smart little thing. It doesn't unlock if I wave the key by the handle, only when my hand is just about to grab the handle and the key is nearby. It is also so smart that it locks the door for me when it sees me walking away with the keys. But I'm sure you already know this, because it is your car.

Thank you for paying for our hotels and food, too. We made a rule that we would only go to non-chain restaurants (something I think I will adopt for the rest of my life). Because of you and your fantastic usage of member's tithing, we were able go to fine dining such as Arshel's in Beaver, UT.


We also appreciate you providing me with hours to pay for a GPS system to guide us around foreign territory. Because of it, we were able to find Snow Canyon, Fremont Indian State Park, and the Shade Outlet store.

(That picture ^ was taken standing on here v )

The drive through Zion National Forest was especially beautiful. I though it was funny that we could experience snowy canyons and dry deserts all within a few hours.



So, thanks again, Cecil. This almost compensates for not letting us publish any findings.

Love,

Mackenzie and Beau

what we learned in 2009

- Beau may have a hard time getting to an 8am class on time, but 6am basketball is not a problem.
- Mackenzie is much happier when she is riding regularly.
- Beau is much happier when Mackenzie is riding regularly.
- 30 Rock > The Office
- Latina ladies at California Tortilla see Beau as a pretty cute green card.
- How not to run a business. I don't think I should go any further, because this IS the internets, after all.
- If you're subletting your apartment, change the bills our of your name because the other tenants miiiight not pay their bills.
- Beau is a much better Russian student than engineering.
- Just because you had a calling in nursery in one ward does not make you immune to it in the next.
- You can go until about December 3rd without turning the heat on in your apartment.


I am one week into my last semester at BYU (except for 1 class in the spring- but we won't count that. And maybe more if I want to repeat classes to raise my GPA) and already counting down the days till we can leave Utah. Too bad Beau doesn't graduate until December 2010. Less than a year, right?

I am finishing up the interviews for the Placement Program with a trip to St. George this weekend, and just started a new job as a secretary in the Sociology department. The highlight of my day is getting the mail. Beau has been reffing for Provo City basketball and should be starting work with the census soon administering surveys to the Russian American population.

Hm, no pictures for this one? Let's pick a random one from the archives of my computer.

Scrawny newborn Carson.

CHRISTMAS.

I get a big fat FAIL for not taking very many pictures over Christmas break.

BOTH of our parents came to Utah this year, so we got to see lots of family.

My trainer was out of town for a few days, so the first half of my break was spent mostly at the barn. Nothing like feeding and mucking out stalls on Christmas morning. Meant to take a photo there. Didn't happen.

Christmas morning was hilarious- so much more fun when there are little kids super excited to play with new toys. And my mom made the craziest pajamas for the kiddies. All Carson needs is a couple gold chains and his Halloween pimp costume is set.


Christmas afternoon we went to Alyse's house and hung out and saw Avatar in 3D. Note Beau's new Christmas sweater.

Okay, I don't get why people are saying how amazing this movie is. The visual effects are fantastic, especially in 3D, but the plot was terribly predictable and, as a friend pointed out, already done in Fern Gully. And Pocahontas. As documented here.

We went on a few field trips- like the Bean Museum (pictured), Jumpin Jax, and everyone came to see the horses while I was working.


Baby Cooper was blessed the Sunday after Christmas. Isn't he darling? I hope my babies have hair. Oh wait, but I'm a Dickson.


Me and Martha are BFFL. Her brother lives in SLC and she was visiting for the holidays.



And in between working at the barn, skiing, and playing with kids we painted our apartment! We're not quite done, so I'll put up pictures when we're all finished.

And this paint really is yellow, but the flash made it look otherwise...

all this holiday baking has got to stop..

Can you believe it's Christmas time already? It finally snowed (a LOT) here in Provo, and it finally feels like it's time for the holidays.

We spent Thanksgiving in Parker, Colorado with Beau's family, and it was GREAT. So relaxing. I hadn't seen Miller... since our wedding, maybe? Here he is sitting in this cute little chair.


Thanks to Brady for letting us borrow his clothes while he's on his mission. I also like how the TV in the background looks like it's one of those fake fireplace things. I think really it was on the news and they were covering a warehouse fire.


Sammy, my running buddy! We went 5 miles on Thanksgiving. I still don't think that made up for the massive quantities of food I ate.


It's hard to take good pictures of children. They move around a lot.


We had a wonderful makeup free and shave free weekend. Thanks, Guy and Ellen!


Saturday we went to the barn to film a little video for one of Beau's Russian classes. Here's me and a fuzzy Buckwheat.


And THEN, we went to Salt Lake for some interviews (which reminds me, I don't think I've mentioned my job before. I interview people. More on that later) and went to this little Russian cafe/store, picture below. We had verenky (kind of like potstickers) and pelmeni (kind of like ravioli) and borscht. It was actually pretty good.


On the way back we stopped at a tack store in Draper, where I got me some new warm riding/work gloves. I get really excited about little things like that. I'm realizing that I haven't worked at a barn in the winter since junior year of high school, and I'm struggling to know how to dress.

So, my job. I work for the BYU Sociology department (specifically the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies) for a professor who is collecting oral histories about experiences with the Indian Placement Program. The Placement Program was a program by the church that placed Native American kids in Mormon foster homes. The program was completely voluntary, of course, and it was to give the Indian kids opportunities to go to school and live off of the reservation. It started in 1947 and ended in 1996, but it was mostly popular in the 70's. I interview families that hosted the Placement kids about their experiences. It's really interesting and I'm learning a lot about Native American culture. I also get to talk to some really funny people.

Welp, that's about it for now. Happy end of the semester, everybody!


Oh, an impromptu clip from Beau's video.

IT'S MY MAMA'S BIRFDAY.

Today is mi madre's birthday, which deserves a dedicatory blog post.

On Mia, the first horse I leased. My mom likes paint horses because she likes to think she's a cowgirl.

Skiing at Sundance with Dad. I'm her favorite daughter because I'm the best skier of my sisters. Last winter, she called Beau to go skiing with her when my dad was sick. Just Beau and Mom. What a cute date.

My parents are Appalachian Trail fanatics. They hiked 12 miles on Thanksgiving day.


Sometimes they let me go with them.

It's fun to have a mom that is so exercise and health oriented. She goes to the gym 6 times a week, always takes the stairs, initiates family walks/bike rides, and takes walks on her lunch breaks at work. One time she walked the 6 miles home from my high school because my dad wanted to finish watching the homecoming game.

Showing off her orange peeling skills.



I think this is my favorite picture of my mom (taken by Page when my mom was visiting their Wymount apt) because it simultaneously shows her compulsion to organize other people's things and Page's bag collecting habits.



I don't know any other girls my age that share clothes with their mom- not only are we the same size, but she has great taste in clothes. It comes in really handy.

Happy 55th, mother!

rip toby and other halloween events

Beau=golfer. Or 1940's person. Or Newsies boy.
And I'm a puppy!

First stop on our Halloween tour: my english teacher's house. She has the tradition of making doughnuts for the neighborhood/ward (since they are the same thing in Utah) on Halloween. I'm not even a doughnut fan, but they were way good. The garage was a makeshift bakery to cook the 1,000 doughnuts and tables were set up with powdered sugar, regular sugar, glazes, etc.

Next was Spencer and Aly's annual Halloween bash (shown as the old couple on the right). I have fun cousins. And Aly is the best hostess ever.


In other, more saddening news...

In January of 2007, my dear roommate Kate and I brought home a new addition to our dorm, Toby. We had been preparing for our new arrival by polluting the snow with the contents of a free lava lamp from Wells Fargo Bank and filling it with nice clean water for our new friend.













Unfortunately, we got the wrong kind of water conditioner (even though I worked at PetSmart for 3 years? Fail.) and he died in a few hours.


But then we got a NEW Toby, a much better Toby, and he followed us around all over Provo until he passed away this morning in Kate's home. It must be noted that he survived through 10 different homes, several traumatic water changing experiences (that lava lamp had a narrow opening), neglect while Beau had him summer semester, and many minutes out of water and on Katie Smith's kitchen floor while she freaked out that she had dropped him.

Rest in peace, Toby. He was a good little fish.