O Tannenbaum

Behold, our glorious 12 foot Christmas tree!

I love it.  It is so fragrant!  I feel like we have a little forest in our living room.  It reminds me of the children's book "Harold and the Purple Crayon."  There's a part in that book where Harold draws a forest, but he only draws one tree so he won't get lost.  That's the type of forest we have in our living room.  (There's the 1st grade teacher coming out in me, relating my life to children's books!)


We drove down to Fillmore last weekend and cut it down with the help of my dad (who found the tree) and my sister-in-law Jessica (who kept me company in the car when we got too cold to walk around hunting for trees).

As soon as we put the tree up, I felt like the Christmas season had begun.  Now I just need to get my Christmas cards ready to send out!

New baby

My little brother and his wife just had their first baby, and luckily we live so close and could go visit them at the hospital the day little Asher was born.


What a cute little boy! He will be so spoiled as the first grandchild on both his parents' sides of the family!

Congratulations Michael and Jessica!

I have an excuse...

Actually, I have a few excuses for waiting this long to post our Halloween fun. The morning after Halloween I took a shower and was about to get ready for stake conference, when I immediately started feeling really sick. I was nauseous, achey, tired, the whole bit. I laid on the couch all day and even called in sick for school on Monday (which I almost NEVER do, sub plans are the worst!)

By Tuesday morning I was feeling well enough to go to school, which was a very good thing since I had Parent Teacher Conferences to get ready for on Wednesday and Thursday evening. Unfortunately, staying at school from 7:00 in the morning to after 7:00 in the evening two days in a row leaves very little time for blogging.

As if two excuses are not enough, during my final parent conference yesterday (Thursday), I started to feel sick again. By the time I made the drive home, I could barely walk from the car to the couch to lay down. And of course, it's a different sick than last time. Now it's my throat mostly, I'm guessing strep. Luckily I did not have school on Friday because of conferences, so I have been laying on the couch all day again. I'm starting to be bored out of my mind right now, and feeling just well enough to prop up the laptop and get these photos on the blog before Thanksgiving. So here you go.

Spencer and I went as Thing 1 and Thing 2 for Halloween. It was a good costume to wear for school and for Spencer's Halloween band party.

Speaking of the band, Spencer and his buddies have a little rock band and they planned a great Halloween concert/party to show off their skills. They played a variety of music, from Poison to Bon Jovi, and even a little number from the movie Music and Lyrics.


The party was on Halloween eve. On Halloween day we helped Michael and Jessica move into their new place, and then drove up American Fork Canyon with some of the family to enjoy the sights. Most of the leaves were gone, but the scenery was still amazing.

Same Ol'

I think this is the longest I've gone between blog posts! I can't tell if it's because we haven't had anything exciting going on or if we've been too busy to blog. Maybe it's a little bit of both. But since today is Saturday and I have some spare time on my hands, let me share a few pictures that I just downloaded from my camera to the computer.

Let's start with a delicious dinner Spencer cooked for me a while ago.

bacon-wrapped tenderloin, potatoes, and green beans -- yummy!

We traveled out to the golf course near Grantsville to play 9 holes with Jeff and Cristian, our brother and sister-in-law. Not the prettiest course ever, but we had a lot of fun!

For some reason, I did not get any pictures on the course, so enjoy the great parking lot view!

And, of course, more pictures of American Fork Canyon. We drove up for an evening and went on a quick little hike.

Jack almost caught a squirrel! (not really, but he sure loves to try!)

There, I've updated my blog. That wasn't so hard!

More Camping

I've noticed that many of our blog posts are about camping. Here's another one!

We went up American Fork Canyon for Friday night and Saturday of Labor Day weekend. Just like before, I am just amazed at how beautiful the scenery is! I have decided that we need to live in a cabin in the woods somewhere. Maybe someday...

Spencer found a great camp spot off the main road and tucked between a few tall trees. It was very secluded and sheltered from potential wind and rain.

The trailer is to the right of the 4Runner. You can see the top of it over the bushes.

We did end up getting some rain on Saturday, but that's pretty typical when we go camping. Luckily we were able to go an a nice hike before the rain started. Then we took a nap during the rainstorm.

We came across this sign during our hike. We were just 2 miles from Deer Creek, and could see it at one spot of the trail.

On Friday evening, we were walking around near our camp spot and heard an owl hooting. The owl never made itself visible, but we did see some wildlife here and there (mostly bugs!).

I think these were both dead. Weird that they died together!

busy bumblebee

What a strange-looking caterpillar!

We also saw some deer, a raptor of some sort (the bird, not the dinosaur), and plenty of squirrels and chipmunks. Jack loved chasing the squirrels when we were on our hike!

"Is that another squirrel I hear?"

One of my favorite parts of the trip was eating Cheetohs. I'm so addicted to Cheetohs, we can never buy them except for special occasions because I will eat the entire bag in one sitting! But we got Cheetohs for the trip, and I managed not to eat the whole bag at once.

I always designate two fingers for eating Cheetohs, so not all of my fingers end up with the delicious orange cheese dust.

I took a lot of pictures of the scenery.

I hope we can get out at least one more time before the weather gets too cold.

Bath Time

"I don't like to be wet."

"But I have to say, my hair looks pretty cool..."

"They tried to dry me off a little after that horrible bath."



"But they didn't do a very good job."



"Aaahhh, that's better!"

American Fork Canyon

We finally got around to buying a year pass to American Fork Canyon (well, not so much 'we' as Spencer) and I just wish we would have done this sooner! Even though we're in Draper, this canyon is really close to us. And it is beautiful up there! The road was definitely bumpy at times, but well worth it to see some amazing scenery.



We followed a rough dirt road for a while until finally coming across this grave plot. If you click on the picture you can read the sign.





We got some rain and hail while we were camping. Jack does not like being wet, so it was funny for us to see him with his slick, spiky, wet fur. He also found a bunch of little burrs to stick in his new hairstyle. He loves being in the mountains!


Here are all the pictures from our trip. Even though I'm not in any of the pictures, I was on the trip. Trust me.

5 Years

We just celebrated our 5th Anniversary. That's right, number five! I can't believe we've been married for five years! In honor of our anniversary, I want to share five things I love about Spencer.

5. He can fix almost anything! From cars to electronics to furniture, Spencer is so persistent and knowledgeable about getting things to work well.

4. He doesn't give up and helps me push myself further than I would otherwise.

3. He cares about his and my health. He exercises, and without being pushy, motivates me to exercise.

2. He is great with kids. Nieces and nephews love to be around him. His patients' children are excited to have him come over and sad to see him leave. He can relate to children and make them feel comfortable.

1. He supports me spiritually, emotionally, and physically.

We have had our share of trials in these first five years of marriage, but with each trial that we have come across, we have been able to lift each other up and rely on one another for strength and support. We have grown closer together. And I don't worry about what might happen in the future, because I know that we will always have each other. It's cheesy, I know. But it's true.

Now to share a brief view of our fifth anniversary celebration!

I surprised Spencer by planning a trip to the Johnson Mill Bed and Breakfast in Midway, UT. We stayed here for the first two nights of our honeymoon, so it was nice to go back. We drove up early Thursday afternoon and left the next morning. It is such a peaceful place to go and relax and enjoy being married. Hopefully this will not be our last trip to the Johnson Mill.

We took a little canoe ride on the pond in the afternoon.



I loved the little touches that made everything seem more personal and special.

This is a view from the balcony attached to our room.

Back to the Beginning

The first real post on our blog was about our trip to the Uintahs last summer. Well, I guess it's been a whole year, and now you get to endure another post about our annual camping trip.

I probably should have gone over the post we did last year so I'm not just repeating myself, but I'm not gonna! So here goes...

The drive out to our camp spot is so pretty! Here are some shots taken from out the window as we drove along.



As per tradition, we must always stop at the last available toilet before making our way into primitive camping. If I could change one thing about the trip, it would be to have some sort of toilet available where we camp. Oh well.


There was a big turn-out this year for the family reunion. Spencer and I are not technically a part of this wonderful family, but they let us come along anyway.

We're on the far right kneeling in the front.

We found a spot a little bit away from everyone else to set up our trailer.


Jack loved to run around in the field chasing "pot-guts." I had never heard of pot-guts before. I guess they're sort of like ground hogs or something.


Here is how Spencer spent most of his time:

deep thinker

guns, guns, guns!

discussing the best strategies to catch fish

And here's how I spent my time:

helping the little ones

taking pictures (those guns are LOUD!!)

so many pretty wildflowers

We drove up to camp on Thursday evening and came home Saturday. As we packed up camp, both of us felt like we weren't quite ready to get back to civilized life, so we stopped at the top of Elizabeth Ridge for one final hike.






So long, until next year!