It's a Wonderful Life

Wow!  The Owens 2012 wrapped up in one blog!  Here it goes!

 This spring Nate went to Regionals with Utah State's Concrete Canoe team and they took 1st place!

  While Nate was at the competition, I went to DisneyLand and Las Vegas with Scott, Kelli and Katy.  While in Las Vegas, Katy got to have her picture taken with Hunter Hayes! She about died out of excitement!  We had a great time! 

In May, we went to Huntington and Goblin Valley State Parks in Southern Utah, with Wayne and Jackie!  We had a blast!  It was like a big kid's playland with tons of easy rock climbing and cave exploring.  

Nate and Scott both ventured out into the world of tablet owners.  Of course us kids had to have fun with the photo features. 

Donnell was our ward's girls camp director this summer.  It was their "high adventure" camp with a low budget so we got tons of awesome help from friends and family.  

One of our most fervent prayers was answered when Nate got his internship with Cartwright Engineers!  It has been so good for him to get the experience that he needs. 

We also had the beautiful blessing of getting to visit my Grandma and Grandpa Olsen and then head up to our favorite fishing spot . . . Wallace Lake!

It also has been so great to spend time with our family and friends!  There is a million more pictures I could post of all the great times we have had with everyone!

 We also went through two sad events this year with the passing of my dear friend Ali and our beloved Uncle Neil.  We miss them dearly and know that they are in our Heavenly Father's care. 

This summer, we also got to vacation in Wolf Creek / Ogden Valley with the Owens!  We had tons and tons of fun including canoeing, cliff jumping, and going on motorcycle and ATV rides!

For our 3rd year anniversary, Nate took me to this beautiful waterfall called Doughnut Falls because it falls through a hole in the ceiling of a cave and I took Nate to the Living Planet Aquarium.  My favorite exhibit was the adorable river otters and Nate and I got to touch a shark in a touch tank.

This year's winner of the 2nd Annual Golden Gardner's Competition was Wayne and Jackie for growing the largest onion.  Next year the competition is going to be the biggest zucchini. 

 This fall we went on numerous hikes to enjoy the fall colors like the Crimson trail and Bloomington Lake!  Oh how I love the change in the seasons!

These next two pictures could basically explain the majority of Nate's life this past year!  His love for his salt water fish tank and the most time, by far, was spent at the kitchen table working on homework!  Uugghh!  He only has one more semester to go!  There is a light at the end of the tunnel!

 This summer we found some property that we can foresee, in our future, being the place that we could one day build our dream home.  It is absolutely beautiful there and we couldn't pass up the price.  The view of the mountains and of Cache Valley is breathtaking and it puts us out in the little farming community of Newton.  Nate and I are both country kids at heart and this property seemed to fit the bill.  It currently has a little cabin there that we could live in while we build.  It is all hinging on whether or not Nate gets a job here of when we will build.  It may be a case of us holding on to the property for several years while Nate works on getting a job in Cache Valley, we are not sure, but one thing we are sure of is that we both feel like Newton is where we are supposed to raise our family someday. 

So, we have been working on finishing our basement and selling our current home which we will dearly miss, but feel like we are doing the right thing.  

At this time of year, we get to reflect back on our blessings, joys, heartbreaks, answered prayers, and time spent with family and friends and know that our Savior, Jesus Christ, has been with us the whole year through.  We are so grateful for the Gospel in our lives and for our testimonies.  We know that our Savior lives and that our Heavenly Father loves all of His children!  We hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Depoe Bay, Oregon

This was on our way there with the Three Sisters Mountains in the background.

Near Eagle Crest we went and took a tour of a Goody's factory. It only cost $2 and that included 6 delicious samples.

Donnell in heaven because of the chocolates!

I love the landscape of Oregon and how daisies (my favorite flower) just grows wild there. So, so, so beautiful.

We spent part of one day walking along Newport's Historic Bayfront, enjoying the murals, ice cream, people crabbing off the dock, and all of the shops.

This picture was taken by setting the camera on a post. The funny thing was that everyone passing had no idea that the camera was there and we looked like this crazy family posing for no reason. :)

On one of our days Katy, Nate and I went on quite the adventure. We went to explore the tide pools in our favorite spot Boiler Bay (which is named that because a boiler from a wrecked ship floated into the bay and has remained there ever since.) Well, we started heading along the tide pools and trying to get to a really neat rock in the distance. When we finally arrived we found out real quick that we were not going to be able to climb that rock because the seagulls were giving us all they had to protect their babies on top of it.... dive bombing, squawking, pooping. So we made it back to a little beach where Nate found a small ocean cave. Meanwhile, I was trying to decide a way to get to the road rather than backtrack along the tide pools. I climbed up this hillside and immediately I was in the deepest darkest forest I have ever been in. But, there was a trail so it looked promising, I signaled for the others to come and we went on our way. To add to the creepiness of this dark forest/jungle, we had just watched the night before a show on finding sasquatch and how there had been sightings in Oregon. :) But, no luck, we didn't see him. So, once we made it out to the road we realized that the sun was still out and we made it back in time for supper.

Another day we decided to go whale watching. We could see gray whales from our condo every day that we were there but we wanted to find out what was so exciting about going out on the boat. It cost $16 and I would have paid that purely for the boat ride. It was an absolute blast, we were right up at the bow of the boat. This was my first time on a boat in the open ocean. The waves made it feel like you were riding a roller coaster and the waves would splash up on you when they hit just right. But to add to the excitement, Captain Dan took us straight to where 3 gray whales were feeding. We were looking at one about a 100 feet away when all of a sudden one spouted 20 feet from where I was standing. I screamed out of surprise and excitement. Everyone made fun of how earlier in the week I saw a whale very close to the shore and I told them that "I saw his barnacles" like it was embarrassing or something. Anyway, we could see all of this whale including his tail which was very exciting. It was absolutely awe-inspiring to see the whale in the water and see his enormous shadow and how his body would roll along the surface for so long. I felt so small and insignificant next to those magnificent creatures.

A gray whale spouting and this is really how close we were to him. My camera is not zoomed in at all.

Us sopping wet from the ocean waves but we loved every minute of it. :)

One night Nate and I cooked fresh crab for dinner, with the emphasis on fresh. He was pulled up out of the ocean right in front of us and bought for $11. Nate enjoyed every second of me freaking out and screaming trying to take this picture. We had about an hour before we were going to cook the crab so we set it on the counter and put a wet hand towel on top of it. So about 20 mins. later out of pure habit I reached over and wiped my hands on the hand towel and screamed again when I remembered that there was a live crab under it. Needless to say, I survived, Nate and dad cooked an amazing crab, and dinner was delicious. We also cooked a taster of fresh salmon, halibut and rockfish. Halibut by far was my favorite, too bad it was $17.99 a pound.

This is down inside of Devil's Punchbowl at low tide. During high tide it fills up and the water crashes through that hole in the rock behind us and comes in and churns around and you can watch it through the open hole at the top. Needless to say you wouldn't want to be inside of it like we are if it were high tide.

This is Drift Creek Falls Suspension Bridge. This is just a walking bridge that is 240 feet long and about 100 feet off the of the ground in the middle. It was a lot of fun but would be very hard to cross if you were afraid of heights.

This is down in a tide pool at low tide at Cobblestone Beach. It was very cold as you can tell I have two coats on and Nate's got his coat all the way zipped up. This beach and tide pools are very unique because they are made out of black lava rocks.

This is Yaquina Head Lighthouse, 93 feet tall, Oregon's tallest lighthouse. It also is still functioning to guide ships into harbor. We were able to go inside of it and climb the stairs to the top and see the light and the view of the ocean from inside a lighthouse.

This is the one beach that we decided that it was warm enough to play in the sand and water a little bit. But it was still the pacific coast in Oregon which means freezing cold water. Anyway, we still had a lot of fun building sand castles that ended up being sea turtles, running through the water when it splashed up on the sand, and flying kites.

This is the beginning of the Yaquina Bay Bridge in Newport. We decided it would be a lot of fun

to walk across it. It was absolutely amazing how high up it was and to feel it shake a little when trucks would drive past. The wind up there was absolutely crazy, I often held on to the rail just not to be blown over.

Nate and I sitting on cobblestone beach. So this beach happens to be very rare. It is a beach made up of a whole bunch of perfectly smooth cobblestones. We spent a whole hour there just sitting and listening to the waves hit the cobblestones. You'd never be able to fully appreciate it without going there but the waves hit and it sincerely sounds like a 1,000 people applauding.

The shops were a ton of fun to go around to and to look at all of their fun stuff. We also went to a saltwater taffy shop and bought one of almost every flavor.

This is just outside of our condo. This was the amazing view that we had for a whole week. Just over this ledge was a colony of harbor seals. They were so much fun to watch. Almost everyday I would just stand right there and watch the seals interact, swim, and be washed off of their rock when the tide came in too high.

Nate decided to try surfing. :) No, actually there was this funny thing that was purposely for taking pictures. So, we got a picture of every one of us surfing.

A nice sunny day in Oregon!

So, this was so, so, so exciting. Nate is quite the explorer and he climbed up some rocks at one of the beaches we were at and happened to find a spouting horn or something along those lines. Anyway, the wave would come in and the rocks would rumble a deep rumbling sound and then the water would shoot up and out sometimes even up to probably 30 feet or more. It was so thrilling to sit their and watch it.

On our way home we stopped at Multnomah falls which is the second tallest year round waterfall in the United States. It is absolutely gorgeous. We had such a fun time on our vacation and are so glad that we were able to go with family and enjoy it all together.

Results at Nationals

Nate's team placed 23rd in the nation overall out of 200+ schools. They placed 13th in bridge strength! So proud of them!

The Engineer Going to Nationals!

Nate is finishing up his Junior year at Utah State, so he has started looking into getting an internship. One night he went to a dinner to meet employees from local engineering firms. When he came home it was so nice to see him all professional looking.

I had to smile when I saw his pocket full of pens. His excuse was that they were free from the dinner. My opinion is that he is starting to really play the part of an engineer.

It wasn't five minutes later and he was back to his usual attire, sitting at the table with his homework all spread out. If you ask what Nate has been doing over the last few months this picture basically sums it all up.

He also has been involved with the ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) Steel Bridge Competition. They had to design and build a 21 ft. long steel bridge that could hold 2,400 lbs. The bridge had to be disassembled to fit into a box. The competition included the amount of time it took to build, not stepping in the marshland, not dropping any piece of it, and not bending very much under the weight.
There are 8 people that get to build it. The first time they ever built it, it took them 5 hours, 2nd time 3 hours, at the competition . . . 15 minutes.

Needless to say they did absolutely awesome. There were also other Utah State teams competing at this competition doing other things like concrete canoe, etc. The best part about it all is that UTAH STATE took 1st place overall, resulting in a massive trophy to display at the engineering building. This is something that hasn't happened in 14 years. Looks like they are headed to Nationals in Texas, this May. Man! I am so proud of them.

On top of all this, Nate also has some very exciting things happening this summer. He is headed to Peru with his Engineers Without Borders team to check out and repair a water distribution system for a village. Nate was also referred by one of his professors to a man who wants Nate to design a water distribution and waste-water treatment system for a school in Tanzania, Africa. The possibility of Nate actually going to Africa this summer is very high. So, internship or not he is getting some amazing experiences in.