Christmas is in the Snow

Caroline and I had a blast in Calgary with my family. We did not want to come home. Here are a few shots of our fun.











Yes, that was a cornish game hen and yes we got my grandma to play her first video games ever.

The Eternal Drive

Because plane tickets to Canada were about $1200 or more Caroline and I decided to drive instead. To preserve our dear little Blueberry (a 1997 Toyota Corolla with over 215,000 miles) we decided to rent a Chevy Cobalt. We picked the car up at 8am on Friday the 19th and after loading it up we set out for the frozen north at about 9am. Unfortunately the weather felt like reminding us that it was Christmas time and we were going to the land of the snow.

By the time we had hit Salt Lake it was snowing pretty good and some very timid drivers kept our pace somwhat limited. Me being me, with my countless years of sliding and slipping experience I kept us at the breakneck speed of 45mph. Everyone we passed seem to think that we were either trying to make a getaway from robbing a bank or that we had escaped from a mental insitution.

The snow eventually stopped falling and the roads were okay for awhile, but it got very cold. So cold that all of the windows had ice on the inside, which Caroline even attempted to scrape off with little success. Because it was so cold the next time it snowed it was more like a very fine dust, which would billow about in the very strong winds making visibility sometimes only a few feet. Thankfully, after about an hour we made it through that too. For the rest of the way we had snow off and on, but the roads were okay most of the time.

By around supper time we had only made it to Great Falls Montana, where we experienced another challenge: signage. In a brilliant attempt to increase their population Great Falls has decided to put up "I-15 Business" signs everywhere without any that actually lead you to the freeway. Thus, after eating we merrily followed them until we were suddenly leaving town on a 2-lane country road heading southeast. Fearful that we might get trapped in Montana and be forced to wrangle cattle for the rest of our lives I executed a 180 on the snowy roads by using the e-brake and we backtracked for half an hour in order to return to the real I-15, from whence we resumed our pilgrimage to the motherland.

We finally arrived in Calgary at the very pleasant hour of 1am. Our 16 hour snowy adventure was finally over and we could sleep, except that I couldn't sleep because my body felt weird not moving. Oh well, sleep is for sissys anyway. Besides, driving allowed us to bring our snowboarding gear, so tomorrow we will get to enjoy all that fabulous snow. Hurry for snow!

3 Years and Counting

Yesterday was Brad and my 3rd anniversary!

The thing about being married for three years is that the you know each other even better than you did the first two years, and definitely more than you did the day you married each other. It is amazing to me to remember that day and realize that although I knew Brad, I didn't really know Brad. Lucky for me, I love Brad more than I did that day. He is a wonderful man and husband and I feel privileged to be his wife.

To celebrate we went to the temple. It is fun for me because I get to wear my real wedding dress every time we go to the temple (I wasn't married in the "wedding gown" you see me in above, but in my temple dress). Afterwards we went and got a bite to eat and then we went to a BYU Chamber Orchestra concert that ended up being really good. The orchestra played, among other things, Vivaldi's Four Seasons, it was beautiful.

I can't believe it's been 3 years! I can't believe it's only been 3 years! Mostly I am just looking forward to forever with Brad.

(Yes I am a sentimental little gal')

Some Very Important Questions

T-Rav, thanks for the great questions. Maybe I should work as a CIA agent guarding the president from mobs of zombie 5 year olds.

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Gooble-gooble

This past Thanksgiving Day was a weekend of relaxation, fun, friends, and family. Brad and I spent the weekend at my parents home in Midway. Our friends Travis and Kelly Z., Bradon and Michelle R., and Clayton (my youngest brother) all came up Thanksgiving morning. We spent the day cooking, playing the Wii, and napping (some more than others). Everyone spent the night and us ladies and T-rav went shopping on Black Friday. Brad and I ended up staying at my parents house Wed to Saturday, it was a lot of fun. Thanks Mom and Dad for letting us use your house while you were in California! We had a great weekend.

Here are some choice pictures from Thanksgiving Day!

You can see the boys working hard...at Duck Hunt!

Michelle and Kelly working on the final prep.

Brandon (being the tall man that he is) did his part and got some of the kitchen lights to work so that we could have more light.

Brad worked on the mashed potatoes, his speciality!

No one was exempt from helping with the feast, even Clayton! (Although Clayton didn't make any gumdrop turkeys this year, which really was a shame.)

Here's the group, minus me. Someone had to document the event.

A sample of some of the fixins'. Yes we made homemade cranberry sauce (and it was delicious) and we put butter on anything that would hold still. And yes we cooked all the insides of the turkey, and yes T-rav tried most of them. Kelly did a great job of planning the menu!

Gooble-gooble! Hope your feast was as great as ours!

It's Alive!

I a made a comment on Caroline's last post about her spatula, and guess what...she didn't throw it away. Apparently it was just too good of a spatula to get rid of, so we still have it, although it is now a mini-handled spatula. : )

Breaking Binge

There have been various times in my life when I go through a binge...not an alcohol or drinking binge, but rather a breaking binge. I appear to be in one now. First, I broke a glass at NH and Ashley's house. Next, I somehow managed to tear apart our fitted sheet during the middle of the night while I was sleeping. Not near my feet or anything, but underneath my mid-back. And then the other night while I was making some cookies I managed to break a spatula. Now I wasn't doing anything labor intensive with it, I was merely scooping out some shortening from a can. So let me apologize in advance if I come to your house and break something. I don't mean too, I am just binging!

Pics of the Planetarium

I just thought I would post a few more pics of the planetarium we saw in California and one of my cute wife.

Everything you can Imagine and More

As Caroline mentioned we went to a car show in Vegas last week, the SEMA Show to be exact. It is for aftermarket car jive, like rims, turbo chargers, body kits, etc. and is only open to those in the industry and the media (and spouses in Caroline's case). Despite this it is one of the largest car shows in the world, with tons of international attendees and everything you can imagine and more, from exotics and luxury cars, to offroaders and econo boxes, but all are decked out. With all those sweet cars everywhere it was amazing how quickly we were saying, oh just another Porsche, another GT-R, another Rolls. Here is a very small sampling of what there was there. I am curious to see if you can even figure out what some of them are. Post them in the comments, a point for each one...and no peaking. If you need to see a full-sized version click on the picture. Oh and that is a machine gun mounted on the fender of the second to last one.



















If you are still interested in seeing more I have been posting batches of them on www.motorcities.com

Phew

I just finished my thesis defense. I passed with minor revisions. I am relived, but not feeling too excited about having to actually work on it anymore. Mostly I just feel really tired now after that all the adrenaline and anxiety has worn off.

Last weekend

Last weekend Brad and I went to LV and LA. It was great. Warm weather, friends, family and plenty of hamburgers. (For those of you who don't know, I love hamburgers. Funny that I was a vegetarian for so long...) Anyways we went to a car show in Las Vegas, I did some clothes shopping in Vegas, and then we headed to Cali., where the sun is bright and the traffic is plentiful. Here are a couple of pics. I am going to let Brad post the car pics he wants from the car show...hint hint Brad.

This is at the Griffiths Observatory near NH and Ashley's house.Got to love those birds of paradise.NH and Ashley are much more hip than us.

This is a good resemblance of Brad's life. Him just trying to get along and live life and me hassling him most of the time.

This is the Wann family. That is my sister and her husband Guy and their children.This is a reenactment of their "engagement" photos.That's me and Brad at the Wann's house.