Merry Christmas

We hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!

pumpkin carving

A couple weeks before halloween James and Jill invited us over for pumpkin carving and to make carmel apples. We always have a good time and this night was no exception. Our pumpkins didn't even make it to halloween before their faces were sunken in and they looked much scarier than our faces look in this photo. The apple were delicious and they too didn't last till halloween ... actually they didn't even last till the next day.

update ...

Update ... update ... update ... that is what I'm about to attempt. The past few months have flown by and I can't remember everything that has gone on in out exciting lives but I will do my best.

At the beginning of October I flew up to Washington to visit my mom, dad and sister for a few days. Brad drove south to do some much needed male bonding with his good friends. I had a great time and we were able to see a lot and do a lot thanks to good weather. The first day I was there my mom and I were able to go to the Portland Temple and go through a session. Kelsey {sister} waited for us outside and then humored me while I took some photos of her. We had a good time on our girls day out ... minus the driving home. Oregon doesn't have the best road signs but we made it ... eventually.

There is an old train bridge in Washougal {where my parents live} and since my dad shares in my joy of taking photographs we left my mom and sister home to go have some fun.

Later that day we went to visit a couple waterfalls on the Oregon side of the Columbia River. This was probably the neatest one of the two. This was featured in the movie 'Twilight' but we didn't see any vampires ... but we still had a good time.

The next day we packed up early and drove to the coast. On the agenda was Canon Beach and Astoria. When I was younger we had this movie on a beta tape called 'Goonies'. Haystack rock is shown here but what was more exciting to see was the sun. This was my parents  sixth trip to the beach and never once has it been sunny. I guess I'm good luck. 

This is a tower that sits up on the hill in Astoria. The plan was to climb the stairs to the top and see an amazing view ... however, the tower was closed because the stairs were being replaced. We settled for creative photos on the ground instead. We also drove by the famous 'Goonies' house but didn't take any photos.

Oh yes one more stop on our journey ... it's an old ship wreck. Yup that's about it an old ship wreck.

And while I was doing all of that Brad was doing all of this ...

They call it 'hunting' but I'm not so sure they even shot their guns. They did go fishing and race little motorcycles. There were also some entertaining videos involved and I will post some if I can it to work.

World of Speed video

Here it is ... enjoy

I love my job

I love my job ... and I think I'll be hurting tomorrow. Today's adventure took me west and I mean as far west as you can go in Utah without being in Nevada. I went to shoot video of the World Speedway at the Bonneville Salt Flats. Since I was 'media' then I got to wear this fancy orange hat that was way too big while I was out on the track. This was for two reasons.

1. so I didn't get hit and ...

2. so the officials would know I wasn't a spectator and wouldn't waste their time stopping me

Lucky for me I didn't have to where it in the pit {not a fancy place but where all the fancy cars where resting their engines} so I didn't look ridiculous the whole day.

Because I was out on the white salt all day I put sun screen on everywhere but my arms ... so I'm starting to feel a little warmth in them and I'm hoping I'll wake up in the morning and they will be tan. Unfortunately I'm thinking they might be a little sore. However it was worth it to not be in the office all day and to see something that was ... well, interesting.

Tomorrow I will be in the office all day putting together a video so all of you can see what was so interesting. One guy described it as the 'funnest thing you can do with your clothes on' ... and I'll leave it at that. 

groovy disco party

Momma Molly {brad's mom} turned the big five-0 this year so we decided to celebrate with a groovy disco party. She didn't want a party and she really didn't want a black and white party so we surprised her and had fun with color from the good old days. Well I'm not sure how good they were since I wasn't around but we sure had fun dressing up. I  found our vintage outfits at DI {deseret industries}. We ate, played games, watched the birthday girl open presents and just enjoyed each others company.

I always feel bad for those people that don't get along with their mother in-laws because mine is fabulous. So happy birthday momma molly ... we hope you had a good time celebrating because we sure did!!

three year old for a day

After running last Saturday we headed to Salt Lake with Elizabeth. Her birthday was a few weeks ago and instead of a present we decided to take her to Build -a- Bear for the afternoon. Rich and Ginny were more than happy to let us take her.

We rode the FrontRunner train from Farmington to Salt Lake. She was pretty excited about it and just sat and looked out the window for about five minutes. Once she realized there were no restraints she got a bit wiggly but the ride was only twenty-five minutes so it wasn't too bad.

Once we got to Salt Lake we had to walk a few blocks to the Gateway where we met up with Layne and Manda. Build -a- Bear was our first stop. As we were walking past the restaurants there was some music playing and she let go of our hands and started dancing. She amused us and the lucky  people that were dining on the patio for a few minutes and then we were on our way.

We let Elizabeth choose which animal she wanted to stuff and she chose an elephant. It takes a certain person to be able to work at a place like Build -a- Bear and the teenager that helped Elizabeth was certainly it. I think he was even a little over the top for her but she pushed on the pedal and filled her elephant full of stuffing and even put it a silky red heart. The next step was choosing some clothes and she chose an Ariel outfit. We weren't surprised because that has been her favorite lately, but it definitely made for an interesting elephant.

Once ariel elephant was all boxed up we headed to the California Pizza Kitchen for some dinner and then onto the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory for desert.

Since Layne and Manda drove down we all drove back to Farmington with them rather than taking the train. Having a three year old for a day wasn't as difficult as we were thinking it might be. Elizabeth was very well behaved and kept us laughing. Not to say that we weren't tired after our adventure because she certainly doesn't slow down. We had a lot of fun and might even be tempted to do it again.