In the Spirit of Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! Click here for a Thanksgiving message. Love it!

Family Pictures

Veteran's Day

THANK YOU to our wonderful veterans who have served to protect our freedoms. THANK YOU to those who are currently serving our country. THANK YOU for your courage and sacrifice. This morning we were able to attend a very touching ceremony paying tribute to our military and veterans. After the ceremony, we had a great day honoring family veterans and hearing stories about their service. We were very impressed and intrigued by their experiences. Wow. They are heroes.

HONORING OUR HEROES

Children's Nature Park

Today we visited the Children's Nature Park. We are frequent visitors to the park, we love to walk along the paths that circle the park pond. Our favorite... the waterfowl. This afternoon, we sat by the pond feeding ducks and savoring every moment of sunshine and warm autumn weather. Hope this beautiful weather stays for a few days.

H A L L O W E E N

Costumes:

Vampire(trying to be as spooky as possible),

a sweet little bunny and a dancer.

H a p p y H a l l o w e e n !

Mesa Falls

We absolutely love spending time in the mountains. Yesterday, we visited Mesa Falls. The upper and lower falls are breathtaking. We hiked, played in the leaves and fed the fish at Warm River.

Feeding the fish at Warm River

Upper Mesa Falls

Love this time of year!

Our little sweeties

Lower Mesa Falls

Night at the Derby

Diamond Princess

Brad is a fan of the pinewood derby :) He is lucky to have three little girls who share in his enthusiasm. I go along with it, slightly embarrassed to enter the derby without a scout in the house, but eager to support their ambitions. This year the girls and their cute dad entered the "Diamond Princess" car. She was double the weight and three times the height of the other cars. Diamond Princess flew down the track (we about lost Snow White when they crashed into the finish line). At the end of the night we had 3 very proud little girls. They won a prize for best design and that is all that mattered to them :)

Glitter Pumpkins

Glitter pumpkins have become an annual autumn project at our house! We make them in October and they last through Thanksgiving. We love them. Click here for directions.

The kids each did their own pumpkin this year.

They were very proud of themselves and very messy :)

The Bench & The Bar

Yesterday, we had another opportunity to sit in on a session of the Supreme Court... this time Idaho. Brad was admitted to the Idaho Bar along with two good friends, Blake Murray and Adam Andersen. The ceremony was awesome. Idaho only had 99 admittees, so the Chief Justice of the Idaho Supreme Court called each new attorney to the stage, one by one, and congratulated them personally. It was a great honor. Another fantastic day!

Mount Timpanogos

Uncle Steve, Sadie, Brad and I at the summit.

SUMMIT

Distance: 15 miles

Elevation: 11,749 feet

Time: 8.5 hours

View: SPECTACULAR

Mountain goats along the trail.

Bear Lake

This week we spent a few days with my sister and her family at my parent's condo in Bear Lake. We enjoyed our time playing in the water on Bear Lake's north beach. It was the perfect week to visit the lake. The weather was so nice and we were surrounded by autumn leaves beginning to show their color. BEAUTIFUL.

The kids played in the lake for hours.

Have you heard the legend of the famous Bear Lake Sea Monster?

Click here to check it out.
I think we got a picture :)

Good News

After a long wait, results are in...

Brad PASSED the Idaho bar exam :)

We are celebrating.

Congrats Brad! I love you.

Survivor

Here are the clothes of an ice cave survivor. Brad started his journey early yesterday morning with his brother and a few other guys. They started in the ice caves and climbed through to the wind caves. They were in the caves for over 6 hours. The day was full of adventure, a little more than he had planned on...hiking, sliding, rappelling, crawling through mud, wading through ice cold water and climbing. Sound like fun? I am glad he made it home safe, sound and with another mission accomplished :)

Labor Day Weekend

We had such a great Labor Day weekend! The weekend started with camping on Friday night. We cooked brats and s'mores on the fire, played games, sang songs and then disco danced in our tent (flashlight-strobe light effect) late into the night. Brad was champion of the dance off. When it comes to disco, he can't be beat-seriously :)

After our camp out, we spent a fantastic evening in Island Park at my Uncle Chris's cabin. The food was fabulous (fresh fish caught in Alaska) and it was so great to spend time with Chris and Tina and their family. Our girls had so much fun playing with all of their cute cousins. We will have to get together again soon!

After Island Park, we went with my parents to their condo in West Yellowstone. It was a nice get away. We especially enjoyed the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center. We observed and learned a lot about the mighty grizzly. Very big, strong and impressive. I have been telling Brad all summer that I want to see a bear in the wild. After this experience, I have decide that I am fine observing bears behind a fence, and that we are going to start hiking with bear spray :)

First week of school

The start of a new school year is always so much fun. Addison loves the 1st grade. She is so excited about her teacher and all of the fun things they are going to learn this year. The highlight of her week was definitely going to cheer clinic each day after school. Last night she cheered at the university stadium for a local high school's half time. It was fun to watch her, she loved every minute of it.

Two adorable little spectators.

A girl with a lot of spirit :)

So excited to be a flyer on the front row.

Mesa Falls Marathon

Yesterday morning was the Mesa Falls Marathon. A few months ago, several people in my family decided to make this day a family event. My uncle (Steve) was planning on doing the full marathon. My cousin (Tarra) and I were going to do the half marathon. My sister (Kambria) and my aunt (Karla) were going to do the 5k. In the weeks before the race, I injured my IT band. Ouch! So, training had to stop. Big disappointment, but the day still turned out to be so much fun! Tarra decided last minute to run the full marathon and she did AWESOME. I met them somewhere in the middle and ran with them and then ran Tarra in her last couple of miles. Karla, Kam, Brad and I did the 5k and then Brad ran Steve in his last couple of miles. What a huge accomplishment for our two marathoners!!!!!! They made it look so easy!

Here is a funny picture that Brad snapped. After I ran my short stretch in the middle of the marathon I was tired and ready to hop back in the car. Well, this is me trying to catch up with the car. Brad was going just fast enough that I could not catch up and just slow enough that I could reach out and touch the bumper. He was laughing and snapping pictures of my desperate state. He was nice enough to let me in before a huge hill, thanks Brad :)

Mountain Man

Brad hiked to the Tetons in the Grand Teton National Park. He took off early in the morning (alone) to begin his very adventurous 15 mile hike. I was a little nervous that he was alone, and after taking a very dangerous journey (off trail) he will be hiking with a buddy next time :) He made it home with cuts, bruises and burn from stinging nettle, but overall had an amazing experience. He took some beautiful pictures.

Happy Birthday Addison!

Addison turned 7 years old this weekend! She is growing up so fast! We had a water party with family and friends on Friday and then a day trip to Yellowstone on Saturday. Lots of fun. Addie's birthday request...a cell phone and a bright green beach cruiser. The cell phone request really made us laugh. Instead of a cell phone, she received walkie talkies that look and act like cell phones. She was busy calling Olivia all day. CUTE, she is so much fun!

Strolling around Yellowstone with her new cell phone :)

Huckleberries

For Family Home Evening on Monday night, we decided to venture to the mountains and do a little huckleberry picking.  We left after dinner and had very high hopes for huckleberry jam and syrup in our future.  We picked until sunset and were only able to pick about 2 cups of berries!  Our huge bucket shows our ambition.  We just laughed.   Next year we'll have to plan a day trip :)  

Sweet Ella picking berries...

put it in, take it out and eat it. So cute!

2 cups of berries were perfect for 

5 fantastic milkshakes-DELISH!

Trip to Boise

Brad and I took a little 4 day vacation to Boise.  Well, it was a vacation for me, not so much for Brad.  He was there for the Idaho bar exam. My sister had our kids, so I spent my days soaking in the sun by the pool- reading, relaxing and eating blueberries.  It was the best!    

After the test, Brad and I had a couple days to explore Boise.  We loved the downtown area, a lot of fun shops and restaurants.  Whenever we travel, we like to try new food and best loved restaurants and bakeries.  I found two of my favorites in Boise.  Boise has really great sushi! We went to Boise's top rated sushi bar-WOW.  We loved it and can not wait to go back!  After that we found some serious chocolatiers at a bakery-bistro in BoDo.  YUM.  

It was so fun to get away for a few days.  Thanks so much to my awesome sister who took care of our kids!  We had a great time.