Roses at the Tulip Festival

Hi from Rachael and Richard. After four years of living in Provo, we finally got to go the tulip festival at Thanksgiving point.

If you are very quiet you can actually catch some of the wildlife at the festival. They were very shy, so I brought out some miniature snickers bars and they started poking their heads out. They are so cute in their natural habitat. The one in the foreground was especially friendly and ate right out of my hand!

One of the fountain statues broke so I offered to fill in for the afternoon. It sure gave me a crick in my neck though!

I'm not even pushing out or anything! this was on one of my "more pregnant" days, but I guess at 7 months the baby only has so many places to hide in there


If Dorothy had been following THIS road, she never would have made it to the emerald city. We roses like to "stop and smell the flowers" but this is ridiculous!

(Richard told me that he likes tulips and that they belong to me) :)

Golds Gym Goof

So, I am sitting in one of the weight machines at Golds Gym, totally minding my own business pumping some iron, when this Golds Gym guy (or "GGG" for short) comes swaggering over to me and lays one of his arms over the machine. I politely stop because grunting really shouldn't intersperse a conversation and look to him expectantly. I know I am using the machine correctly because weights go up and down when I move my legs. As he opens his mouth I half expect him to ask me out (I mean, why else do people go to the gym, really?), which I think would be dumb for three reasons: 1) I am married, 2) I am pregnant, and 3) I am actually dressed for the gym in sweat pants and a T-shirt-- very attractive.

Instead he asks me, "so, have you ever thought of a personal trainer?"

I pause, incredulously, as I search for just the right words to express what I think about his idea. At this point in my pregnancy, I am pretty sure I am showing, so either he A) thinks I am fat, or B) doesn't know anything about pregnant women. Probably not a good time to be working on my 6 pack!

I tell him that I am actually 7 months pregnant and that this is probably not the best time to be getting a personal trainer. At this point my husband walks up, looking very large and intimidating. I tell the GGG, "this is my husband Swen-- he pulls semi trucks with his teeth for a living" and the GGG backs away with his tail between his legs.

True story, all except for the Swen/semi trucks part.

Cancun and Swine Flu

These pictures are from our recent babymoon/anniversary/graduation trip to Cancun. Now Richard can add one more country to his list of "countries visited." We left on April 27 and got back on May 1. We happened to pick the ONE week where pretty much the entire world thought that Mexico was the center of disaster and that "I am Legend" was becoming a reality. Yes, we were here during Swine Flu Pandemic outbreak. Fortunately, we had a great time and Mexico was beautiful as ever.

Richard wanted one thing, and one thing only in Mexico.......grilled calamari! He ate pounds and pounds of it to my dismay (apparently you are supposed to limit certain seafoods during pregnancy). I snuck a few rings when he wasn't looking. Whenever we are in close proximity to an ocean (0r a Puget, as I like to call the Puget sound in Seattle) we like to eat a lot of seafood. Call me crazy, but I don't trust landlocked states for getting me the goodstuff!


We loved just sitting on these chairs and watching the ocean, during the day or at night. In fact, as I am getting ready to give birth, and I want to think about a "happy place" to keep me focused and calm (I will tell you about hypnobirthing later), I go here. We were at a family friendly resort and there was not a whole lot of people there. We did not care. I doubt I would have been a candidate for MTV's Spring break 2009 beach party at Cancun. Although, I gotta say, I looked pretty darn cute in my maternity swimsuit.

After Hurricane Katrina, all the beaches got kind of wiped out. YOu could still look at the ocean, but if there was a red flag (and there is always a red flag), it means it is too dangerous to swim.


This was our best sunset. I think all couples need chances to get away for romantic weekends. Sure, this was a babymoon for Richard and I, but when our little girl gets here, it will be even more important for us to find time to spend away from her to continue to develop our romantic relationship. Luckily, Richard's mom is even more excited than we are for the baby to come, so we will not have a shortage of offers to watch her (potentially for extended periods of time) so that we can continue to pretend that we are the stars of our own romance novel!

In an effort to control alcohol consumption, the concierge at the resort gave us these mugs for our use during our stay there. Mmmmm....nothing like a drop of pina colada on the veranda!


This is a baby sea turtle. We saw them during a trip to Xcaret-- a kind of Natural Disneyland!They grow very fast.

We turned around, and it had already grown to this size. It started speaking forth words of wisdom, so we called it "Aristurtle."


This is Richard and I in front of Chitzinitza.....if you have been there before, and you are thinking "but it looks so much smaller than when I visited it," you are probably just remembering wrong. Pictures never lie.....

Actually, due to swine flu (roll of the eyes) the Mexican government closed all "non-essential government functions" which apparently means all government landmarks! Luckily, we were not here on a Book of Mormon history trip, we were here to have fun and relax. We had booked a trip to Chitz. but they called us the night before to tell us it was cancelled. Strangely enough, they still sent a shuttle to pick us up at 7:20 am the next morning (you can guess we were not awake-- this IS our vacation!), so we ran around, grabbed some poptarts and our bathing suits and were on our way....to find out again, that our trip had been cancelled. In the spirit of flexibility, we transferred our tickets so that we could go on the next bus to Xcaret (underground rivers, snorkeling, zoo, acquarium, mayan village).



Too lazy to right this photo. Another picture of our replacement Chitzinitza. These were part of some ruins at Xcaret.

There were some people who spotted that we were Mormons while we were at Cancun. Let me paint a picture for you. A couple is walking down the street. The couple is young, the wife is pregnant, wearing capris and a button up blue plaid T-shirt, the man wearing a polo shirt, on day where unless you were loco, you were probably wearing as little clothing as possible. Apparently, just wearing clothing makes you stand out here.



The dolphin just came by to say Hello, shoot the breeze, ask how I was doing....

This is how we looked just before we were ready to return. Sun does horrible things to your skin! Always wear sunscreen. This is a picture of Richard. I think he looks pretty good.

We had to pass through a health screening room before we got our boarding passes to come back to the United states. Kind of scary. Everyone was wearing face masks!

And we also had to fill this form out. Do you think we were going to answer "yes" to any of those questions?

Master Richard Rose (aka C.P.A. Accountingless)

I don't understand it-- I was just trying to take Richard's picture when all of a sudden he started floating up toward the sky. Apparently so much weight was lifted from his shoulders when he graduated, that gravity no longer had any hold on him!

Take a good, long look at this picture. This is the future! Did you know that Richard was voted "most likely to become a flying nun" his senior year of high school?

Someday, if all goes well, students thirty years from now will get their pictures taken by the Richard Ray Rose Building (a home for gifted boys with bright futures in acccounting). It will be situated right next to the Rachael Suzanne Rose building (a home for gifted girls with bright futures in the law).

The best feature of Richard's graduation robe was the sleeves. They remind me of the spit drools that hang from dog's mouths. I have no idea what they mean, but Richard sure loved wearing this robe. Because he wanted to get his money worth out of the two day rental, he slept in it and wore it instead of his bathrobe....just kidding. The idea did occur to him to start a rival robe rental company to compete with the Herff Jones monopoly!

The most common element to any Richard Rose wardrobe is the flip flop. Congratulations Richard! You Rock!!