What we are looking forward to in 2011...

Since 2010 is coming to a close I thought I would update with a few things Darrell and I are looking forward to this year. To start off at the end of January Darrell and I will be spending a week here:

The Inn at Mazatlan, my parents have had a time share here for years and this year Darrell and I will be going with them to spend a week in the sun! I am SO excited!! I have been here several different times on vacation and my family has many memories that were made hanging out at the beach here and wandering the town. I am really looking forward to taking Darrell and showing him one of my favorite vacation spots. Plus it will be a nice break from the snowy, icy, cold weather we have been having here in Utah.

I would say the next big thing after that is this:

Yep, I'm pregnant!!! This is our first ultrasound picture that was taken on he first of December. It's a little fuzzy and hard to see but there is definitely a baby in there. As of today I am 13 weeks along and our little bundle of joy is officially due on July 7, 2011. We will find out at the end of February whether it' a boy or a girl. Darrell and I are very excited and a little nervous at the same time. We will be very busy in 2011 and we can't wait! Hope everyone is doing well!

Alaskan Cruise!!!

We went on vacation with my family a few weeks ago on an alaskan cruise. There was 14 of us all in our group. We went to celebrate my dad turning 50 this year. We were gone for 12 days. We did a cruise and then a land tour where we traveled by bus and train. Alaska is BEAUTIFUL!! We also had really good weather. There were only maybe two days where it was actually cold and even those few days it was only in the morning. We did some really fun stuff like zip lining, white water rafting, I went halibut fishing, we rented bikes, we went swimming, and most of all did a whole lot of relaxing. We saw Mt. McKinley the tallest mountain in north america. We were really lucky to see it. Our tour guides kept telling us that only 30% of people who visit Alaska get to see it because it's usually covered in clouds. It was a great vacation. Here are some pics:

The day we rented bikes in Talkeetna.
Here is Mt. McKinley. It looks like a cloud in this picture.
Our cruise boat stopped in front of a glacier (so cool!)
In our zip lining gear.
My dad, me, my aunt Carol on the day we went halibut fishing.
I was the only one who caught a halibut that day! I was very proud of myself. I got it sent home to me and it was so good!

We had so much fun! Darrell was taking pictures like crazy. These are just a select few.

Camping!

Over the July 24th weekend we went camping with our good friends the Schramers. We went down to the desert kind of by Price. Back in the 1930's there was a homestead act in that area and if you fulfilled the requirements you could keep the land. My great grandfather and his brothers did it and so the land is still in my dad's family. It's private land and so there is almost never other people camping out there. It was a lot of fun but I think we all agreed that camping in the desert in July was probably a mistake because it was HOT. Poor Yoko had hard time. We did have fun though. We did some target shooting with Darrell's arsenal, we had sparklers for the 24th, did a little hiking, had campfires, and a lot of fun conversation! My dad has a farm down there in a town called Cleveland and we took off in the afternoon and went to visit him. That was the highlight of the trip for me because we were got sprayed by his huge sprinklers in one of the hay fields! It was a very fun camping trip. It never really seems like summer unless you go camping for some reason. Thanks Matt and Brittnee for putting up with us for a few days, we had a lot of fun!

Darrell, me, Brittnee, and Matt. We were so relieved when the sun started to go down!

Happy Anniversary to us!

We celebrated our three year anniversary in June. To celebrate we went to dinner at a really nice steakhouse in Salt Lake named Spencer's. I am so glad I am married to Darrell!

So it's been a while...

I guess it's about time I updated our blog seeing as it's been six months or so. Darrell and I had a really great summer this year. We did a lot of fun things that I will also post about. For now I will just give an update on the Johnston family!

Darrell started school again a few weeks ago! He is taking a few night classes through UVU. After this semester he will have his associates degree. Next semester he will need to take physiology and the we will be applying to some bachelors programs for prosthetics and orthotics. It has been hard for Darrell to get back in the habit of going to school and doing homework again but it's going well for him. It will be good for our family for him to finish up his schooling.

I am working graveyard shifts as an RN at a nursing home close to where we live. I really love it! It is sometimes hard to work the graveyard shifts especially now that Darrell is in school again. We don't see each other as much as we would like to. But I really do enjoy being a nurse so far. I feel like I am always learning new things. I am glad that I work in a filed where I can always learn something new every day.

Other than that nothing else is really new with us. We are just living life and loving it! I will post more about some of our summer activities later!

Amanda Johnston R.N.

I am so excited!!! I just found out that I passed my state boards and I am officially a registered nurse! I took my test on Tuesday and it was so scary... They take the security pretty seriously there. They scan your hand for prints, they make you show your drivers license, they record you the whole time (so they can see and hear you at all times), they make you turn out your pockets ( they even checked the hood of my hoodie), and you cannot enter or leave the testing room without being escorted by the test administrator. I was prepared to get at least 120 questions but my computer shut off after 75 questions (which is the minimum). The questions were really hard. I felt like I did not know the answers to any of them. I came home and looked up the answers to a few questions that had stuck in my mind and realized I got them wrong so I was kind of freaking out a little but it turned out alright. I am so relieved! It feels so good to finally achieve something that I have been working really hard for for a year and a half. Yay for me!!!!

Nursing school is OVER!!!!

I have finally finished nursing school!! I am so excited and relieved to finally be able to say this. The past year and a half have been quite stressful for me. I have worked so hard and now it's over, thank goodness!! This past week has been so hard for me. At my school we are required to pass an exit exam in order to graduate and we had two chances to take it. The first attempt was last Friday and I failed it. I was devastated. To add to that my parents and two of my siblings went to Mexico on vacation this week without me (Darrell and I were supposed to go to but ended up not being able to because of my school schedule), with my mom being out of town I am babysitting her two dogs (I also have one of my own), my grandma had a major surgery and is in a rehabilitation center (I have been going there every day to check on her), I have had a nasty ear infection and a sore throat, and I have been panicking about my second exit exam attempt. So needless to say it has been a really rough week for me. Today when I passed I had a hard time not crying because I was so relieved! I am so grateful for Darrell for helping me out this week. I have been sick and pretty emotional. He has done everything he could to take care of me and try to cheer me up. I am also grateful for my little brother Clint. He came to my house last night and he and Darrell gave me a blessing. I am so glad, I felt totally calm afterwards and I was able to sleep pretty well. That calm feeling stayed with me today until the last 5-10 questions of my test (I then started getting nervous because I would be getting my score soon). I am also so grateful to both mine and Darrell's families. I truly could not have done it without them!!!

Now I am finished with nursing school I just have to take my state boards to get my RN. Wish me luck! I should be able to pick my test date next week!