Time flies...

Good grief, I know I'm almost two months late but Austin and I have been married for a year! We can hardly believe it :) some days it feels like we just met - other days we feel like we've known each other forever. And we can't get enough of it :)
To celebrate, we took a slightly early trip to Six Flags Magic Mountain before school got started again. It was very short (3 days) but very nice :) We got to go on our favorite thrill rides - Superman for Austin, of course! And Tatsu for me.

It's difficult to tell from this picture, but Tatsu holds you parallel to the ground so you feel like you are flying over the park! So incredible!
It's remarkable how loud this ride is. You can hear the cars thundering to 100 miles an hour all over the park.

Since our anniversary, life has been flying at it's usual high speed. Austin got started at ASU this fall and is class a few days a week, in addition to working full time. Since he got all his non-design classes done at MCC, all he has are architecture studios and lectures. They are filled with projects, but fortunately aren't too hard. Here's a picture of a chair he had to make solely out of cardboard that could support 200 pounds:

And things in my work/school camp are the same as ever. But this is my last semester of weekly classes! I student teach starting in January and then I'm done :) Then it's on to the job hunt.

Here's to another wonderful year!

Doggie Doritos?

So apparently Indy likes Doritos...

I caught him stealing a bag off our bottom shelf and running away to hide under our bed :) I got a big kick out of that one!

I love my family!

We made loaded pancakes for Sunday dinner last week and Quinton got really excited over spray cool whip. But, as we are ever the teasing household, Kyle got a huge pile of whip cream in Q's face :)

But the real kicker? My dad tricked Quinton into shoving the whipped cream in his own face a second time!
Even though he was named the salutatorian in his 8th grade class, Q can be a little slow sometimes. But that's why we love him :)

Happy Independence Day!

Happy Fourth of July :) May your day be filled with swimming pools, bbqs and NO WORK! We are sure enjoying that part.

My mom put together this table setting for Father's Day and I loved it, but didn't post it in time. But I think it still works for the Fourth. My dad is an avid sailor and Mom found some great nautical items.

And, if you're ever looking for a fun date idea, on Friday we went with my sister and cousin to the Science Center (FREE on the first Friday of the month), followed by $5 desserts at the Compass Room after 9 pm. The Compass Room is on the top of the Hyatt Hotel in DT Phx; it's the really neat restaurant that rotates and gives you a beautiful, ever-changing view of the Valley. Highly Recommended!



(By the way, we did the math, and.... A restaurant that has been open since 1976 and only rotates once an hour can't have an estimated 1 million revolutions... But it's still fun!)

Ok, I'm a slacker...

Wow, I have really neglected posting for the past 2 months! We have been busy, as usual, but good busy.

First order of business, we got a dog! Indy, an extremely cute mini-schnauzer (who is trying to atype with me right now), joined our home on May 6. He is a super good dog, which I'm very relieved about, as he's the first big pet I've ever had. The Macdonalds are bird people, and just all around not-big-pet people :) (not that we have anything against animals, we just never really had them) But the Baxters sure do love pets! So hence 1 very sweet dog, 5 frogs who love to hide and scare us and a few non-interesting fish :) Makes life fun! I admit, I'm converted on whole the dog thing. So long as they stay small and cute.

Jeez, what else has happened... Well, Kyle graduated from Perry High! My parents now have more children at ASU than anywhere else! I'm working on my MA, Janie's in nursing school, and Austin and Kyle will be there in the fall studying Architecture and Pre-Med :) Everyone's growing up! And check out our most recent family picture. We are getting old. It's a neat transition for us all :)

I am out of school for the summer! Sort of... Humphey Elementary's last day was June 1 and Thankfully I was offered a postition in my same ED classroom for next year :) I love my class, and especially love my co-teacher Denise, so I'm thrilled to be back! But while work-school is over, school-school is far from it. My Master's program runs year round until next May, so I'm in class nights twice a week for the month of June and four times a week for the month of July. But fortunately, I'm not working full time and having to be in class so much. I'm taking a few hours part time for the day care, leaving me plenty of time to catch up on all the projects at home.

What other adventures... Oh! We got go camping over Memorial Day with the Eagars and Acedos in our ward. It was suuuuuper windy while we were there, but worth it. It was a very relaxing weekend, we just played lots of games, read and hunted for crawdads at the lake. An overall great time!

Welcome to Chez Baxter

I was watching America's Test Kitchen (a FANTASTIC cooking show if you've never seen it) last weekend and they shared their recipe for the perfect fish fillet. I love love love fish but have never had luck preparing it. The past few times have turned out dry, overdone and honestly pretty gross. But I saw this simple recipe and had to try it! So Austin and I bought a few cod fillets and I gave it a shot. They turned out better than I'd hoped! I am pretty proud of myself :) It wasn't exactly a 5 star meal, but by george we felt pretty fancy eating good fish and drinking from our stem glasses.

You can find the link for skillet-roasted fish fillets here at AmericasTestKitchen.com

A room with a view

I found these pictures on my camera and they were too cute not to post! This is our niece Bou... and my mother-in-law's dog Story :)

What a perfect fit!