An Oregonian Christmas!

It's a Merry Christmas in Portland, Oregon! And
so nice to be away from Provo for a bit. Here is Michelle and Steve's 9 foot Christmas tree covered in more than two thousand lights. Great decorating job! It also snowed on Christmas Day! It's a Christmas Miracle! It stuck but only stayed for a couple of hours. It was still exciting though!

We did regular Christmas activities which included stockings, breakfast, pickle searching, and presents. We managed to drag out present opening festivities for 2 hours... and we didn't have that many gifts under the tree... amazing! We received delightful gifts from one another - I was especially elated about receiving a pastry cutter! Weird, yes, but hey, I've been wanting one!

We decided to include frisbee golf as part of our Christmas celebration. Since it's been raining since I stepped off the airplane in addition to the snow that fell, the frisbee golf course was not in it's best condition... but it made it all the more fun. There were several lakes that aren't usually there... I'm already not that great at the game and the wind and water didn't help. Michelle and I got to use the good frisbees while Steve used the cheep/free frisbee from Wells Fargo (and I don't recommend banking there) so that was no help to him... and yet he still won which kinda tells you something about mine and Mic's skills.

My frisbee managed to find every body of water possible.

We were fairly wet and muddy in the end - I even had puddles in my shoes - but it was well worth it. I think a New Year's Day rematch is a must!

Work work work!

Work seems to have taken over my life lately so I'm posting pictures of some of the activities we've done in the last couple months. Enjoy!

This was on our way to Logan in the canyon back at the end of September. Who knew Utah could get so colorful?

In Logan, we all had the chance to milk a cow... I milked a goat in Kentucky so it wasn't too awkward. After one of the participants milked the cow, he said, "that was WEIRD!"

This is the group we took on the Logan overniter. It was an American West Festival so that kinda explains the hay and cow milking... we also went on a hay ride and then got lost in a cornmaze for almost 3 hours... the next day in Logan, it snowed...

"Peace to the white man." Craig's favorite sign and saying - "PEACE". One day he surprised us by saying, "peace to the white man." It made us laugh for a while afterwards.

In October we rode the Historic Heber Valley Train (the Heber Creeper) from Heber to Vivian Park in Provo Canyon. It was a chilly day but fun. The colors weren't as great as in Logan's canyon but it was still a pretty ride. Left: me and 3 of my co-workers. Right: the group that came on the ride.

Halloween Party. We had a mummy wrappy contest. I helped Kenneth wrap Susie. Also wrapped is Rex on the bottom left... even the hat he was holding got wrapped. The other mummy wrapping job is pretty heavy duty. I don't even know who that is.

Pumpkin picking at the pumpkin patch in Santaquin.

Top right: Hope, me and Susie at the cornmaze at Thanksgiving point. It was lame. The corn was dry and thrashed and you couldn't tell what was the path or not... and it was only the beginning of the corn maze season! The other two pictures are of the cooking class we had at the beginning of this month. We cooked several delicious meals.

So there you have it. Some of the many activities we've been up to lately. Today we just went and saw High School Musical on Ice. I've never seen the movie so it wasn't that exciting for me, and the skating was mediocre. But our folks loved it so hooray!

Who am I? ...I Don't Know Either.

We had our ward Halloween Party Monday night. I still had no clue as to what I was going to dress up as. My roommates all had a costume... so at the last minute, I put on some random clothes I found and wore 2 different sandals, and just put on whatever... and called myself Kendra (who is my roommate). Of course, what I was wearing is nothing that she would ever wear but since I was dressing up as no one in particular, it seemed funny to say I was someone that everyone knew. Well by the end of the night, I was told that I should be Ugly Betty - which is a TV show that I've never watched. Apparently she wears frumpy mismatched clothes like I was. Alyssa sometimes takes pictures at random angles... sorry to have to have you crane your necks...

Here is me and Mary Poppins (Alyssa). And then there is a picture of my bishop and his wife. Great costume wouldn't you say? And then me, Mary, Albert Einstein (my roommate Emili) and... I'm not sure who Michael is dressed up as (but standing in the opposite order of what i said... obviously). And then my FHE dad and me and Kendra in the pirate costume and one of our FHE brothers. Our FHE group was in charge of karicachers (spelled phonetically since i don't know how to spell it) but only a few people could actually draw decently, I not being one of them.

What Are You Going to Be for Halloween?

Well I don't know what I'm going to be - or if I'm going to dress up... (last year I chose to be a pedestrian) but I found some pictures of these random kids who had some pretty cool costumes. The reason I came across these pictures is because I was looking for some ideas for decorating Halloween goodies (for work purposes of course) and I got distracted by these costume pictures. These ones in particular made me laugh a lot so I hope they have the same effect on you or this post will be really lame-o.

Dirt Devil Vacuum & Chicken Little

Baby Elephant & Old People

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So the Old People picture is the one that made me laugh for so long. Don't you agree that these kids and their costumes are so adorable? The end.

Asian Pumpkin!

This is Asian nancy showing Asian Pumpkin. Asian nancy carved him last night at FHE. He only weighed 2.32 pounds and therefore only cost 40 cents to purchase. It only took 7 minutes to gut him. And 10 minutes to carve his face. At first, most people thought he was Robot Pumpkin. Not so. He's definitely Asian Pumpkin. Most people agree that Asian suits him better than Robot Pumpkin anyhow. He now sits at the corner of the doorway and greets visitors. Isn't that special?

Did You Steal That From Your Little Brother?

NO! Of course not! And let me outline the reasons why this is not possible.

a) I don't even have a little brother!
2) I would never go to Grand Junction, Colorado to steal something! and

d) Do you really think I could pull off stealing something like this? A cookie? Probably. But a car? Get real!

So Jason and Heather moved to Hawaii (lucky duckies) and needed to sell their car fast. Fortunately, I was looking to buy a car. And was able to do it fast. Alyssa and I went to Grand Junction to pick up the car and Heather's brother Taylor was kind enough to chaffeur us down... it really was like he was our chaffeur because we both sat in the back. There is reason for this as the seatbelt in the front seat was broken and I wasn't about to sit up there without one! Taylor reassured me that it would be fine for me to sit up front and that he would even not buckle up as extra care that we really wouldn't get into an accident. Yeah right! Well in the end we were all safely strapped into our seats and off we went! No accidents involved. Thanks Tay! All went well, we were all able to help Jason and Heather in some way or another and after spending all day with them, we returned home.

The car is my first big purchase and now I actually have to budget, but it has been joyous to have a vehicle! Hooray for growing up (sorta)! But while the weather is still chipper and sunny, I continue to ride my bike to work so don't worry, the bike still gets plenty of love! And speaking of work, that building in the background of the picture is my work... well it's part of the building anyway.

"Did You Steal That From Your Little Brother?"

Someone asked that once but no... it's mine! I own a bike. And here it is!

Yes I know you're thinking, that bike is TINY. And yes, I look like a big kid on a little kid's bike but who cares! It's a bike! And it's mine! And it was FREE! What can be better than that?! I was blessed to get it from work. It was a donation and we were going to give it as a prize at one of our activities but anyway to make a long story short, I was given the bike as long as I was going to ride to it work. And ride it to work I do everyday!!! I love it!

I got the bike almost a month ago, and after my first bike ride home, the very second I stepped in the door of my apartment, I set right to work on fixing some loose bolts... I didn't even bother to say hello to the roommates. I was too excited!

So it's like a BMX bike and it has pegs on the front and back tires, which makes it a trick bike. Do I know any tricks? No. Will I learn how to do tricks? Probably not. But do I use the pegs? You BET! My roommate Alyssa and I have taken many a trips around Provo with me riding the bike and her riding the pegs. It's fantastic. Several people have commented that they've seen us riding down 7th North... mostly because that's one of the only streets that we don't have to stop at intersections. It can get a little difficult stopping and starting without falling over - you should've seen us the first time I tried to peg her... We are much better at getting going now!

Ok, so we look a little ridiculous but it's so much fun! I never realized how silly we actually look until I saw this picture. Does that stop us from riding around still? NO! Really we can't go very far because it is pretty tiring for my legs (especially when we go up the slightest hill and we seem to be able to only go 5 or less mph) and you'd be surprised at how tiring it gets for Alyssa's calves. So we've only gone maybe 2 miles at the most. Anyway, the bike has been a fantastic addition to my life and I'll be sad when the weather turns bleak and snowy and bike fun will be over for a season. But until then, let the good times roll!