College!

Hey everyone! So, I moved to Utah State on Saturday and had my first day today, weird, I know. I am loving it so far. I am already learning so much and having fun. My apartment is on the top floor and, tell you what, four flights of stairs after a full day of walking and biking campus are not fun. My roommates are awesome. They are all so nice. We are all really different but we get along really well. My room roommate is Kelsey. We knew each other from high school. I went to the student ward for the first time yesterday and it was fun. The funniest part about it is that our ward is about 90% girls. We had good lessons though. I had my first day of classes and I am worn out. I have 4 classes on Mondays. Busy but fun. I start with Math 1060 then to History of Jazz, Chemistry, and I finish the day with English. My chemistry teacher has already blown something up so that's a good sign. I am so excited for my jazz class, just from today I can tell that it is going to be so interesting and well... awesome! I have a Women in Engineering Seminar on Thursday I think that will have lots of cool stuff to learn. Fun stuff. I am really liking it so far. I love you guys and miss you a lot.

Oregon!

Just thought we would share a few of the many memories we have already made here in Oregon.

 Ellie's 4th Birthday!

 We love the beach

 Happy Fourth of July!

 Hike to Silver Falls

 We were able to complete about 2 miles of a 10 mile hike.

 Ellie Avenue

 Ocean!!

 Thanks Grandpa for the best present ever!

 Building a birdhouse.

 We sure do miss our carpool buddy, Terser

 Yeah for Oregon!

 Ellie's new favorite part of the zoo.

 Chris loves to talk about how the birdie pinched his arm.

 We have picked a lot of berries!  

(blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries)

And we have baked a lot of delicious breakfasts with them!

We love it here, but we do miss our family.  Love you all.  Hope you enjoy the pics!

Emmalee is alive! even though she is a senior.

So I am trying this blog post thing. I figure since I am terrible at talking on the phone or even talking to people in general, I should let you know that I have not died. I have just been living it up as a senior.
My life has pretty much consisted of playing the bass, school, internship, and trying to keep up with the awesomeness that is my family.

A few of my friends and I didn't get asked to prom so we had our own dance. Tacky pictures and Just Dance making it way more fun than the actual dance was.

As I mentioned before I am doing an internship. I am an engineering intern at Chromalox, Inc. I do whatever the engineers tell me to do. Most often that means that I am making 3D computer models of the heating elements. I just started doing the calculations for flanges. Which basically means that I do math to figure out how thick to make something so it doesn't explode. 

I even have an official badge. Also, random fact, one of the engineers used to run with Kristi. He remembered me being at the track meets because he thought it was weird that someone in high school would have such a young sibling.

In January I got the opportunity to play in the Utah All State Orchestra. It was awesome! Two full days of playing the bass without anyone telling me to stop. It was so cool to play with so many talented musicians.On the second day we had 8 almost continuous hours of rehearsal. I loved it! and what made it even better was that we performed in Abravenel Hall on my birthday!

southern utah

Rob can't seem to get Southern Utah out of his system. I think it's in his blood, he loves the memories associated with it and the mountains and canyons and everything. Every time we come up to Utah, we make some type of side trip through Zion's or the Grand Canyon (which I guess is not really southern Utah). Every time we drive through Lee's Ferry, he tells me about his ancestors there. When we moved down to Arizona Rob and his dad made the drive down together and Rob learned all about this family history. It's fun that now he tries to share it with our kids. But our kids are busy shouting "Lightning McQueen! Ka-chow!" out the window. In all fairness I guess all the red rock of the canyons really does remind us of Lightning McQueen :)

 This next trip up I think we are going to stop in Bryce Canyon and Ruby's Inn, which are full of memories for both of us. I remember that Bryce trip as the last time I really saw Grandpa Winter happy, he had a spring in his step and was so happy to have his family around. Being so new to the family, I was super worried about going on this huge family trip when we had only been married 6 months, but it was so fun and wonderful.

Bryce Canyon....we were such babies! Back when we were skinny.....

Sorry I have not posted anything lately.  I guess I have the excuse of working two jobs but that is not really an excuse.  So here goes.  I was thinking the other day about the joys of vacations with my family and I want to share some of my favorite memories with you.  First of all, let me give you all some advise.  It is important to become financially secure in life, something that I have not spent enough effort on in my life time, but it is also very important to stop and smell the rose in life once in a while.  Trouble is most of that rose smelling time is not cheep.  My Dad taught me that spending time with your family on vacation is important.
Some of my favorite memories:
First with Robert and family.  When Robert was a senior in high school, we had Gabriel Ellias come and stay with us for a few months.  I had a pharmacy C.E. scheduled in San Diego, Ca and decided to take Robert and Gab with me on this business trip.  We stayed in a hotel just to the north of San Diego.  The thing I remember was renting jet skis and riding them in the area by Sea World.  I remember that my jet ski did not work that well, but Gab and Robert had a blast.  I also remember another trip to San Diego with Robert.  My Dad and Mom had been called to serve in the San Diego mission.  Two days before their farewell, Robert fell off a cabin roof at Bear Lake and broke his wrist.  He did not get to go to his Grandpa and Grandma's farewell meeting.  They left Robert in a hospital bed.  When Robert got his mission call, I wanted to get him down to San Diego to bid farewell to his Grandpa and Grandma Winter.  We spent a few days with Elder and Sister Winter at the Morman Battallion Center, the San Diego Temple, at their apartment, and   got them to a presentation of "Forever Plaid" in Old San Diego.  It was great to be with my Son and my Mom and Dad.  After Rob had been home for awhile, Sue and I had bought the Hawaii house and it had some problems that needed to be fixed.  Robert was working at the pharmacy for me and I decided that he would be perfect to send to Hawaii to do some repairs.  But who wants to go to Hawaii alone.  So I told him to ask this Kristen Jensen girl who he had started to date to go with him to Hawaii.  Turns out she did go with him.  We told Rhena to make sure that she slept in the room with Kristen with Rhena's feet on the door so Robert would not break into the room at night.  Well, that worked until Kristen became ill and Rhena felling sorry for Kristen, told Robert to stay in the room to comfort Kristen.  Also Steksin felt sorry for Rob and Kristen having to work while in Hawaii and sent them off to play while the family did the work.  Next when little Joel Winter came along he had to join the family for the Disney World trip.  Robert could not go, as he had just started Medical School.  So Kristen and one and one-half month old Joel where off for a Disney World trip.  Probably not the smartest, but I know Joel was having the time of his young life.  Most of the pictures has Joel smiling.  Grandpa, Joel and now Charlotte have shared a few Disney trips together.
Kristina and Family:  My earliest memories in travel with Kristina, Robert, Aubrey, and Bradly was a trip we took to the Oregon coast.  Sue and I had just bought our first big family car - a Toyota Van.  We bought a tent that hooked onto the side of the van.  So off we went.  We would travel during the day and at night stop at a camp ground and hook up the tent to the van.  Sue and I would sleep in the Van and the kids would sleep in the tent.  At the time I thought we where world class travelers, but looking at the pictures it looked like the kids where always dressed in clothes that did not always seem to fit and where on their second or third go around.  A car or two later I remember a trip to see Uncle Dave and Church history in Ill. and Missouri.  We traveled by way of South Dakota.  I remember being in a driving rain storm, pulling the tent trailer, getting lost, and not even seeing the famous Mount Rushmore.  I remember our first Colvin reunion in Midway Utah and Kristina and all of her cousin and second cousins connecting and having a great time.  Later in life, Kristina was going away to school in Rexburg, Idaho.  I remember the driving to and from Rexberg.  We talked of school, the gospel, boys, and other things.  After Josh and Kristi got married and Liezl came along, they soon where on their way to medical school in Washington, DC.  I remember our trips to visit them.  One of my favorites was the time I was traveling to a compounding meeting and we went to Sesame Street World.  I remember that Liezl and Quincy where not very big but it seem we all went to a water park and we all rode the big water slides.  Speaking of Water parks, I can not think about Kristina and not remember our first trip to Disney World.  Kristina was a world class small boat driver.  It seems that her little sprit kind of went around in circles.  Also I wanted to have the kids experience the thrill of snorkling.  So at the one water park we went to the salt water area with the small rays.  I remember Kristina not being able to stand up because she was afraid to step on a ray.
Comming Aubrey, Bradly, Milley, Whit, and Emma

kind of random

Well, I haven't talked to any of you in awhile so I thought I'd write a little bit about what we are up to. Actually, it's better than talking to me because I just had a root canal and my mouth doesn't let me talk as fast as I like to :) It's been a fun couple of weeks, we've been trying to keep busy!

I have no idea why she loves this, but it makes her feel like a big kid to sit in Joel's car seat. She grins the whole time, like "Hahaha, I am in HIS chair!"

It's gorgeous weather out here (today is in the 90's!) so we have been spending lots of time outside. Every year I forget that Joel has sever reactions to bug bites, and every year it takes a couple bad experiences for me to remember. He had quarter sized welts all over his arms and legs yesterday from the ants in the playground.

I was too slow to take video, but Joel has been speaking "whale" to the fish. He brings his Nemo fish and Baby Nemo fish and Turtle (I think all of these are from grandpa winter too) and makes them talk to the fish in the tank-- it's hilarious and so funny to watch his little mind go!

Yeah- I kind of thought getting her a big girl bed would mean she would sleep in it. Nope, she loves sleeping in a pile of toys on the messy floor. The girl can sleep through anything, but if you move one of her toys or try to get her onto the bed-- she's wide awake and ready to play.

I've started a random hobby of hoarding old plastic toys. I wish I was joking, I am not though. In the past two weeks I have bought a picnic table, play house (this photo), one of those little orange and yellow cars, a big wheel, and a play kitchen. I think I spent $50 for everything? Anyway, we've been using a special plastic spray paint to make then new to us. Here is Joel, demonstrating how nice it is to go pantsless in your own house. This house was originally super gross, had a blueroof, green shutters, and a pink front door.  It now has a brown roof, red shutters and door. It looks much better, I think.