A Merry Christmas!

We have been so very busy lately, we haven't had a chance to write anything about our Christmas activities. Or about taking Nate's brother to the MTC. Or anything else at all.

But we have had fun both getting ready for Christmas and celebrating it. It was so nice to have a house this year to decorate with lights:

And room to put up a larger Christmas tree than we have had before:

We just enjoyed a wonderful couple of days with my family celebrating Christmas together and enjoying everyone's company this weekend. We headed down to my parents' house Thursday evening with a car packed full of gifts, pets, and clothing and supplies needed for our stay. Friday we went bowling with my family. That was a lot of fun, particularly considering I got a new record high bowling score of 118 for myself. Not amazing by many standards, but I was quite happy. Friday afternoon Nate and I went snowshoeing with Zipper. The snow was pretty hard and crunchy, but the scenery was still pretty and we had fun. Zipper particularly enjoyed herself.

The patterns in the snow looked pretty cool.

For Christmas eve we enjoyed reading the Christmas story and singing Christmas songs and hymns together (well, most of us...I seemed to be fighting a cold and didn't have much of a voice). On Christmas day we enjoyed our usual traditions like an omelet and blueberry muffin breakfast. Plus, we got to call and talk to my brother Ben who is on his mission in Madagascar. Our Christmas dinner ran into a couple obstacles when the oven died in the middle to baking the ham, but luckily some generous neighbors let us borrow their oven to finish things up.

After dinner with enjoyed another round of gifts with my grandparents and aunts. As usual, we ended up with some pretty awesome "Santa" gifts:

We have been needing a new dishwasher!

Both my mom and I got these fancy flamingo necklaces.

The flamingo necklaces even light up with the push of a button. They can either flash or stay all lit. Who wouldn't want something as cool as that?

Zipper was pretty spoiled for her first Christmas. She ended up with several new toys, a bag of treats, and a soft dog bed. Best of all, there were plenty of people to play with and pay attention to her.

Guess all the attention wore her out though, since she has been sleeping and lounging on her new dog bed most of today.

Leaf Attack

Just wanted to post some pictures of the fun we've been having this Fall.

Coldwater Creek Hike (no attacking yet):

Zipper attacking leaves in the backyard (click on it; it's animated):

Nate attacking leaves in the backyard:

at least 10 mower loads of 2 bags each

Leaves attacking the backyard (taken right after "finishing"):

Our Halloween Celebrations

We had a couple of Halloween parties this year. The first was on Thursday. We invited our primary class over for some Halloween games and activities. Five of the eight kids in our class came. We decided having five wound-up and rambunctious nine-year-olds over at a time was plenty for us. At least they seemed to have fun! We played Halloween charades, made masks, ate doughnuts off strings, played "Pin the Nose on the Witch," and played "Zombie Attack" (which involved trying to knock down "zombie" soda bottles with bean bags).

Friday evening we went down to Orem for my family's annual Halloween party. That was a lot of fun. First we ate dinner, and then we carved jack-o-lanterns:

My brother Allan carved the up-side-down face (which keeps looking like a cat to me), my parents did the one with the mustache, Nate and I carved the one with the wide toothy grin, my aunts carved the one with the glasses, and my brother Nathan made the can jack-o-lantern at his STEPS program.

Then of course, we all dressed up:

Nate and I dressed as Paul Bunyan and Babe the blue ox. Nate thought it was so much fun to refer to me all evening as "Babe." We also found a costume for Zipper. She was a cow with a stuffed cowboy rider.

True to her character, Zipper ran around in her costume whenever we put it on, doing her best to snatch the hat the cowboy was holding and shaking as hard as she could trying to get the costume off.

On the other hand, we also tried the costume on my parent's dog Apollo. He is the most patient dog I know. He sat there with the costume on, not moving, and patiently tolerated the costume until I took it off.

My parents and Nathan dressed up as pirates this year:

I was particularly impressed that my grandparents decided to get into the fun, since usually they don't wear anything special for Halloween:

After eating some doughnuts, cider, root beer, and chocolate milk, we finished off our evening with a Halloween story and by watching "Little Sheep of Horrors."

More Home Improvements

We have actually had the major work done for these rooms for quite some time; we just haven't had a chance to take pictures and post them.

Master Bedroom:

Before:

 After:

 

Master Bathroom:

Before:

 After:

Studio:

Before:

After:

We also recently adjusted the chandelier over our dinning area. We took it down, shortened the chain, and then put it back up again. Now we don't accidentally bump our heads on it as we walk by. The added bonus was that having the light up higher actually made the room feel brighter when we turn the light on.

It was sort of hard to hold the lamp up while working on it though, so instead, we stacked boxes up for it to rest on:

When we took the chandelier down, we also found the tail of a dead mouse hanging down. That wasn't the first dead mouse we have found in this house. I think that they must have had a mouse problem at some point from all the signs of it. At least we were able to get the dead mouse out.

Birthdays

I had a combined birthday celebration with my brother-in-law Nathan this weekend.  Rebecca's whole family came over for a delicious dinner of pot roast with carrots, mashed potatoes, garden-fresh green beans, fruit, and rolls. I know you're all thinking that Rebecca must have been in the kitchen all day, but don't worry; the guests brought everything but the roast and potatoes.  Instead of birthday cake, I requested peach cobbler. It was soooo good with peaches being in season. After Rebecca's mom and aunts cleaned up the kitchen (a whole birthday present in itself) everyone gave Nathan and I very generous gifts. It was a great party.

Labor Day Weekend

We took full advantage of our Labor Day weekend. Friday even after Nate got off of work, we took off and headed to Orem to spend some time with my family at the Storytelling Festival. The festival is always so much fun. Of course, I have always been a fan of good stories, but it is even better listening to very talented professional tellers tell them.

We came back from the festival Saturday evening, but we took off again Sunday evening and drove up to Logan. We then spent Labor Day with Melissa and Seth's family. We decided to go on a hike, so Monday morning after breakfast, we headed up Logan Canyon with Melissa, Zipper, and our two oldest nephews Scott and Max.

Tony Grove Lake

After looking up information online, we had decided to hike White Pine Lake, which started from Tony Grove. The information online told us that it was a two mile hike. Unfortunately, after finding the trail head, we found the sign telling us that it was a 3.8 mile hike.

We ended up going the whole way in any case, and we got back from hiking a lot later than we had planned.

It was worth it though. The lake was beautiful.

White Pine Lake

White Pine Lake with Mount Magog in background

And we had lots of fun. The nephews held up really well the whole way.

They even got to take turns walking Zipper. Plus, a large herd of sheep crossed the trail on our way back from the lake.

They looked really cool on the hillsides.

After returning, we had a hamburger barbecue, played a game of "Ticket to Ride," and ate dessert before heading back home.

Announcing...

This last Friday my brother Allan drove up to spend a good part of the weekend with us. We hung out, hiked Adams Canyon with him, and worked a bunch on our pathetic yard. Thanks for your help Allan! We so appreciate it!

I am also happy to announce a project I have been working on for a few months now: the Trails Trekker blog. I think we have finally ironed out at least most of the glitches in it.

Of course, there are really only a few trails on it now, but as we keep hiking, I will keep adding more. I am hoping to make the blog into a useful resource for those looking for good trails. It will take some time to make it more substantial than it currently is, but I think it is off to a good start. Let me know what you think. And if you know anyone who might be looking for a trail in this area, be sure to mention the blog to them.