You wanna come mow my lawn?

After being asked last week, for what seems like the millionth time, if I was really slow at work because I couldn't work outside this time of year, I thought I would educate you all on what exactly I do. Since I started my endevors to become a Landscape Architect and have told people what I was going to be, I have gotten some really great questions from people that usually go like this. "Do you want to come over and mow my lawn?" "Do you want to come help me lay sod?" Do you want to help me install my landscaping?" PEOPLE?!!! If I really wanted to do that I would have earned a degree in grunt work. I earned a degree from Utah State University (Go Aggies!!!) in Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning. I worked my rear-end off for 4 hard years pulling all-nighters in my studio to make sure that my projects were perfect. But, I can understand that some of you could get confused. I mean landscape architecture does have the word "landscape" in it and landscapers do landscape. Well, let me explain what I do. I am involved with the analysis, planning, design, management, and stewardship of the natural and built environments. The types of projects that Landscape Architects work on include: residential; parks and recreation; monuments; urban design; streetscapes and public spaces; transportation corridors and facilities; gardens and arboreta; security design; hospitality and resorts; institutional; academic campuses; therapeutic gardens; historic preservation and restoration; reclamation; conservation; corporate and commercial; landscape art and earth sculpture; interior landscapes; and more. I also made that BIG decision to take my registration exam this year. Yes, we landscape architects do have to be licensed. This is a VERY hard test that most takers do not pass the first time. Anyways, I just thought I would get that off my chest and now you are all educated on what a Landscape Architect is and what we do.

We have a crawler!

After 2 months of rocking back and forth on his hands and knees, Blaine decided it was time to crawl. So, on Valentine's Day, he took his first "steps" forward. Now, he is all over the place. We have quickly learned that we need to make some changes in our home. Our DVD player has been on the floor because we gave away our entertainment center when we moved from Logan. Well, it just so happens that a DVD player is a perfect thing to crawl over to and climb on or press its button.



Also, our DVDs have been on a book shelf that is right at Blaine's eye level. He loves to crawl over to it and pull the movies off. I like to have my movies alphabetized. (It's a nerdy Thompson girl thing. Summer does it too! Ü) I think that will come to an end pretty quickly. It will get old realphabetizing them every hour or so.

But, I have to admit, it is a lot of fun watching Blaine crawling all over the place! Ü

Swenson Family Vacation

Tyson says that I don't contribute to our Blog, so I decided that I would prove him wrong and tell you about our trip to California before he gets the chance to. So, here goes. Ü

For about the last year, I have been bugging Tyson's dad about how we needed to have a family vacation. My persistance finally paid off! For Christmas, Ty told us that he was taking all of us to California for 8 days. Yeah!! We left our house at 8:00 p.m. on thursday, January 31 and drove all night. YIKES! (Tyson and I decided we will not be doing that again anytime soon!)

On the first day we went to Legoland. (That will be a once in a lifetime experience.) I wasn't a huge fan of Legoland, but that could have been because of the lack of sleep the night before. The next day we went to the San Diego Zoo. That was a lot of fun. The zoo was HUGE!! We were there for most of the day and didn't get through half of the zoo. I would definitly recommend it.

Sunday, we didn't do too much. We went to Chuck E Cheese for lunch. I'm pretty sure Chuck E Cheese is supposed to be a little kids place, but I think our "big kids" (Tyson, Anthony, Ryan and Blayne) had more fun than the little kids. They probably spent $70 between the four of them on tokens for games. Monday and Tuesday we went to Disneyland!! Yeah! We love Disneyland. I have to admit that vacationing with children is a lot different. I was so woried about remembering sunscreen and a hat for Blaine, that I completly forgot to pack an extra outfit in the diaper bag. Ooops! Of course, our first day at Disneyland Blaine peed through his outfit. It was soaked! So, we had to buy an outfit for him at Disneyland. (Tyson's mom thought I did that on purpose. Ü) We got to see Pluto. Blaine liked his whiskers. He kept pulling on them. Silly boy.Our favorite part with Blaine was in California Adventure. They have a Bugs Life area that has lots of cute little kid rides. We loved Heimlech's Chew Chew Train. So Cute!!

But our most favorite ride is Tower of Terror! I still get scared when I ride it. But it's so much fun!! Ü

Wednesday, we went to Knott's Berry Farm. That was really cool, I had never been there before. They had mostly thrill rides. There was one ride we went on that shoots you to 80 mph in 2 seconds. Holy Cow! It was scarey, but I would totally ride it again.

Thursday was our more relaxed day. We went to the beach. It was kind of cold, but very pretty. Blaine got to play in the sand for the first time. He really liked it. (The Tigger outfit is the one we had to buy in Disneyland!)

Friday we drove home... all day. We left our condo at 10 a.m and got home at 11 p.m. It was a very fun trip and much needed. Too bad Blaine won't remember any of it!! Ü