Behold, Polly and Nathan

Christmas Photo Shoot

2011-12-23T09:51:00.000-08:00

Just wanting to spread a little holiday cheer!

Summer's Best Memories

2011-11-02T11:05:00.000-07:00

This summer was so much fun and sadly it passed by to fast. I never want the summer to end but looking back on it, it was one of the best summers. Here are just a few of the top moments of summer 2011.
This picture warms my heart and brings great joy to me. Unfortunately Annie and Chad were in a very serious roll over accident this summer that was life threatening. I will never forget arriving at the hospital to see them and the overwhelming emotions that I felt. It was surreal to think that they had been blessed and saved by the Lord when easily things could have gone so differently. And the true miracle was not only their lives being saved but that their precious girls came away from that terrible wreck with out one scratch on their bodies. Seeing the people I love go through this really made me appreciate even more the gift of life and the lives of those I love.
This summer Sarah and her kids came down for a month and I loved having them here. I wish so badly they lived here. I enjoyed every second they were here and could not get enough of all the sweet Passey kids. This is one of my favorite pictures I took of Abbie holding Molly. When I look at this picture I can't get over how precious Molly is.
When all my family was here for the summer I put together a temple day. This was a very special day for me because I had 75 names from the Seitter line that I had found to do work for. Seitter is my middle and my grandmas maiden name.This name and means a lot to me. I have felt a great sense of responsibility and duty to do the work for that line. That day at the temple we did baptisms, confirmations, initiatory and endowment. The feelings I felt on that day were incredible and so special. It is amazing when you put your time and heart into genealogy work how the temple and your ancestors begin to take on a new level of meaning, understanding, and great significance and blessing in your life.
This was a hug highlight of the summer! My sweet father always has something up his sleeve and this time it was nothing short of greatness! What Lorilynn is holding in the picture is the Sisterhood of the traveling bracelet. Who's great idea was this? Well my dads of course. Lets back track a little bit. So my dad decided to take us to get some jewelry but he wanted it to be extra special so he went into Gertrude Zachary and asked if he could bring all us girls after the store had closed so we could have the whole store to our selves. Now my dad has a way with people and people just like him so they said yes!!! So we all got in a mustang and drove over there. When we walked in it was like something out of a movie. All of us girls were so excited. So as we shopped we came upon the bracelet boo is holding and we all admired it so that is when my dad made that very awesome proposal of what that bracelet would be called and how it could belong to all of us. We had the best time and it is definitely one of those things you will never forget. After ward we went and ate at Frontier which was the perfect ending to our perfect night. I am so grateful for my sweet father who fills our lives with great excitement!

Every summer we go up to the Cabin for pioneer days. I always look forward to this. We like to run the 5k together that is held in Manassa. It was so much fun to be able to do that with my siblings.
When ever we get the chance we love to hike up to Conejos peak. It is beautiful beyond description and it fills you with the greatest peace, amazement and love for the beautiful things our Lord has created.

This year Boo did a float for our family to take through the Manasas pioneer parade. She always does such a great job and I love that she has created something so memorable for our family. This year I got to ride on the float with all this kids and I LOVED IT! Now, even though we may not have had the most professional looking float our float rocked because the kids made it amazing. Our float was the only one with lowed music and all the kids were dancing so hard! It was the cutest thing ever. Seeing the crowd and how they reacted to our float was awesome.We had so many people in the crowd that started dancing when our float came around! Being on the float made want to freeze all the grand kids as they are and just hold onto this moment in our lives for as long as I could. I dread the day they will get to cool and maybe not want to be dancing up on a float any longer. Little kids are the best ever.

This is Gladys and she is an amazing story teller. My parents came upon her on their church history tour at a museum. She was telling her stories and they fell in in the love with the way she could tell her stories. My parents really wanted us to meet her so they flew her out so she could perform for our family. This night was so special and so much fun. The kids were mesmerized by her. I have to say she was amazing and I enjoyed every minute of her performance. In the picture below this one she had us all do this crazy dance and it was FUNNY. She also had me Dave and Chad do this crazy chicken type dance and people couldn't get over Dave's great performance. Little did some us know in the family that Dave can be the biggest goof ball of all. We all got a kick out to that. This summer we also had the privilege of meeting a beautiful Amish family and being able to spend some time with them. My father loves meeting people and making new freinds. He has become very good freinds with the Amish that live in Manassa. They are building him a barn and the barn is amazing. So he is officially in with he Amish and decided we all had to meet them so he picked them up and brought them to our house for the weekend.They are incredible people and I am amazed at how good their kids are, Shocked really. Sadly they do not do pictures so you will just have to imagine this perfect little Amish family with matching home-aide clothes, the women in bonnets and the men with bowl cut hair dews and straw hats, with humble beautiful faces.

Four wheeling is always a high light of the summer. This is one of our favorites activities that we do as a family.
I love looking back on this picture because this night 3 grown professional men became boys hunting for a mouse. You should have seen them! I am laughing now just thinking about it. They got so into it and were so determined to catch that mouse in the cabin. After they had caught it they were all so proud of them selves!!

It's a girls night!!!! I took the girls out and Nathan took the boys and we had the best time. When all those girls get together it gets very fun and crazy. My favorite moment of the night was when we were in the car blasting the radio and having all the girls singing "tonight tonight there's a party on the roof top top of the world!"

Happy Birthday NATHAN!!!

2011-10-19T19:52:00.000-07:00

Nathan had an incredible year being 30. He lived it to the fullest and accomplished great things. Most importantly he did it by bringing so much joy and laughter to everyone that came his way! I'll just be honest he may be one of the most incredible men that has ever lived and here is why.

This is him on his first day to ever go to court. I was so excited that I wanted to take pictures. This is the pose he struck. When he got to court he was really nervous so when he stood up in front of the judge to make his plea he apologized for being nervous, saying it was his first time in court and then cracks a joke. He says that his wife was so excited and proud of him going to court that she was taking pictures of him like he was a little kid going off to his first day of kinder garden. This made the judge laugh real good. So yes he won his plea and the judge told him to tell me that he did a really great job.

We are driving home from the cabin and Nathan says Polly look over here!!!! and this is what I saw. Him in my moms big floppy hat. That was really funny.

All kids love him not just my nieces and nephews. He some how attracts them because he is a big kid himself and that what is so great about him. Which reminds me of the time we were eating at this restaurant having a great conversation then all this sudden he pulls off a piece of cilantro from his plate and sticks it on his front tooth and smiles. OH goodness that was was funny

He plays so hard with the kids. Something I never have to worry about is him always wanting to be with and play with our kids.

Oh yes he struck this pose too!

Now what is really impressive is Nathan took three bars and he passed them all. What is more impressive is that he doesn't show his stress. If that had been me I would have been crying every day. I cried over high school math so a bar would have been an impossible feet for me. This makes me even more proud and amazed!

Nathan loves nature and adventure and I love this about him. We see and do so many fun things. The only thing is Nathan is always wanting us to go out in the wilderness and just find our way and survive off the land kind of like Man verses wild. I just don't have that in me. I prefer Nathan to be the only bear I ever come in contact with. The nice cuddly kind, not the mean or ferocious kind.

Happy Happy Birthday Nathan! You are my world and mean the world to me!

The Great Law School Reunion/ Colorado/ Antelope Canyon and Paige Arizona

2011-06-02T14:40:00.001-07:00

Nathan and I were able to go to some great places this past month and meet up with our great friends that we made during law school. The trips were amazing, we saw incredible things and had the most perfect weekend with our friends. This is how it went.

Nathan and I were able to go to the Cabin in Colorado for the weekend. It was so nice being there. We love the cabin so much. We did a lot of hiking and playing games. It was the perfect weekend. As you can see the beatiful picture of the Quakie tree's, they are my favorite.

This is the beast that we rode in to get to the Antelope Canyon. You got thrown around a lot which made it really fun. We were really excited to see this canyon because it is the most photographed canyon in the US and it lived up to all our expectations. The canyon was so incredible and unlike any thing I had ever seen. It blew us away to say the least. When we go back we will definitely go for the longer tour because the one hour tour just wasn't long enough.

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This is my favorite picture of the Canyon, it is called the spindle.
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This picture is in Paige Arizona, it is called the horse shoe canyon. This was so magnificent, just look at, it is beautiful!

Here we are onto the reunion! The moment I saw all of our friends it was though time had never passed. The weekend that we spent together only solidified our friendships and our love for one another. Seeing all the guys together again was so great. Wow when they get together.... even I am not sure what happens, but it becomes this crazy, loud, combustion of constant jokes and laughter. It is like they had gone to Marmot heaven or something. Any way, our perfect weekend consisted of staying up to 2 or 3 in the morning every night. Eating at the most random times of the day, hanging out at the pool, playing games, the boys playing tons of sports(they couldn't get enough of that) girls days out and a few hilarious top weekend moments. Like when we were playing the newly wed game and the couples had to write down what their song was and Tyson put Emminem and Rianna's song, you know the one where he loves her and hates her. HMMMM that was funny. Or how Brett told us the story of him waking up Michelle in the middle of the night after he had just downed another bowl of ice cream and confessed to her that he has a serious ice cream addiction and that he needs help. Well you get the picture, the weekend was full of great conversation, lots of laughter and so many great memories created.

OK I love this picture and every time I see it I laugh. Come on, what guys do you know just all hang out together in the pool? That is true brotherhood right there.

While the guys played golf we went to Cafe Rio and shopping. That was a good time!

This is at our Condo that we stayed at. We spent a lot of time there just hanging out and having a great time.

Nathan and I had to go to Costco to get some food and right when I walked in I saw who I thought was Greg Olsen just sitting in front of his paintings doodling on some paper. So I went up to him and asked him if He was Greg Olsen, which he was! I cannot tell you how excited I was to meet him. He is one of my favorite LDS artists and his depiction of Christ in his painting "The Gentle Healer" is my favorite one of Christ. I told him all these things and got all teary eyed while doing it. I just couldn't believe that I was able to meet the man whose paintings have touched me so profoundly and really inspired me! I was also really confused to why no one really seemed to care that he was there. It was like it was so normal or something, or maybe people honestly didn't know who he was. So of course I had to buy a picture and he signed it to Nathan and I. His handwriting by the way is so perfect!

Here we are, I am so happy. Greg Olsen by the way was such a ,loving man. As I was walking out of costco, literally tears of joy came down my face because I felt so honored to meet such a great man. Ahh what a beautiful moment.

The girls went to Zumba in the morning, then to get pedicures. We had such a great time. The guys golfed on this really beautiful course.

I love this picture of the guys. Levi took this with his phone. Good job Levi!

Our last night together we went to eat at the River Walk grill. It over looked a beautiful golf course. The night could not have been more perfect. The food was great, the night and sky were beautiful and the company was the best!

Here is to all our great friends! Unfortunately Bryce and Paige were missing, but we hope they will be there next year because it was not the same with out them. The memories created on the trip will just add to all the memories we have already created with each other over Law School. And our friendships will only continue to grow. You all mean the world to me and I feel blessed to know you all and to call you my dear freinds. Until next year!

Whats been going on?

2011-05-03T19:36:00.000-07:00

Life has been good, that is what has been going on. Nathan took and passed the Navajo bar...that is very awesome! Easter was as great as ever. Spending the day with the family was perfect. Annie made a beautiful bunny cake, the kids went crazy while Nathan and I hid eggs. The egg hunt was a great success... that is after I took all of my moms eggs that only had one jelly bean...yes, one only jelly bean in each of them and loaded them up. I put on a exotic car dyno day and it was such a great success! The cars were amazing and seeing them dynoed was really exciting. Some of the cars had fire come out of the exhaust, no I'm not joking, and our fasted was a red viper that hit 831 horse power..WOW! We went to tent rocks and just happened to run into Annie and Chad, what a wonderful surprise! Tent rocks was so incredible. The hike was so amazing because we hiked through canyon walls and got to see the most beautiful rock formations. We went to Arizona for Nathan to take the bar. He gets the results May 11, we are very anxious to get the results already! We had a great time in Arizona...that is when Nathan wasn't taking the test.We started off our trip at Ruth Chris stake house and had crab cakes and steak. Oh... just thinking about that food makes me happy, really happy. We hiked Camel Back mountain and was able to see out to all Scottsdale, phoenix and the surrounding areas! It was beautiful and such a fun hike. We saw our friends, Erik and Emily and Adam and Sheri from back in our Provo days, and it was so wonderful seeing them. They are such great friends and people and we loved spending time and catching up with them. Yes, life is good, very good.

It's LJ STYDE Time!

2011-03-27T14:41:00.000-07:00

Let me start off by saying that my sisters and I look forward all year long for this trip. We talk about and dream about it. Then it arrives and it exceeds all our hopes then we get what Boo calls the PLJD Post Lady Junkit Depression, because the trip was that good. But lets not think about that. Lets talk about just how great the trip was. This year we went Seattle, Vancouver then ended our trip seeing Landon's family in The Tri Cities. The highlight of the trip honestly was just being with all my sisters and Dad. But I have to say the Capilano Bridge in Vancouver was absolutely amazing, and really all of Vancouver was so stunning!

This Blog would not be complete with out honoring my very sweet and incredible father. There is no man like him period. He works hard all year to save up for this trip which allows us to experience so many incredible things. For you to get a glimpse of how special he is we encountered a funny situation when crossing into Canada. We had a man come and get all of our pass ports. He asked my dad questions of why we were in Canada. He was completely taken back by my dads answers and had this really bewildered look on his face when he found out these were are his girls (well sister-in-laws too) but sisters all the same. He couldn't grasp the fact that any man would want to vacation with all women especially 8 of them. Then the man went silent trying to process the whole situation and then said "Well I don't know what to tell you." My dad got a real kick out of that. But how true is it that most men would not want to go hang out with a bunch of women for 5 days and cart them around to their every beck and call. Not to mention our bathroom demands... with all of us combined we have to stop and go every 30 minutes! And my sweet dad just has so much patients. Well that is what my dad does and that is why there is no one like him. My love for him big, really big.

All of us finding out where we are going. Always an exciting part of the trip.

We got dad an LJ STYDE jacket and he loved it.

My face says it all. I look forward to dad pulling up at the air port and picking us up for our trip! Let the fun begin.

On our way to downtown Seattle and pikes place market! Pikes place market is one of my favorite places and I love Seattle.

This is after the fish was thrown over our heads, it was pretty funny. But then I felt bad for Annie because the guy who caught the fish was sticking the nasty fish in her face. Who wants a nasty smelly fish in there face, honestly.

All of my beautiful Sisters and Mom and Dad eating breakfast at our hotel in down town Vancouver. We did some shopping downtown and walking around to see the beautiful city.

Capilano Suspensuion bridge was breath taking. I loved walking through the trees and seeing the beauty of Canada. I started laughing when I saw Annie all of this sudden book it off the bridge. I was just enjoying the view and the swaying of the bridge when I see Annie running for her life to get off that Bridge! She did better on her way back over the bridge. But you know she has a lot to live for, namely her two precious girls.

Annie and I loved this little house and lake because it reminded us of a scene out of Pirates of the Caribbean.

This tree is 300 hundred years old. My mother stopped in front of it and gave us a very sweet insight of that tree. It went something like this. " Look at this big beautiful tree everyone is admiring. It is 300 years old, it is tall and beautiful. it is full of life, and wisdom. Now look at the little tree that is in front of it. It is small and flimsy and no one care about this little thing. Sadly in today's society people look at the elderly as old,good for nothing and unable. People don't want to get old and they do everything to stay young. But as you can see no one is looking at the young tree, they are only looking at the old tree. You girls remember that. There is nothing wrong with getting old. Hence the parable of the tree.It really was a special little moment of my mothers wisdom.

I was really missing my Nae Bear back home (aka Nathan, he has had that nick name ever since he was a young boy) So I decided to cuddle up and hold hands with this bear.

We went to this really great restaurant called Anthony s were we got some great seafood. Well honestly I gave it a B, but my sisters told me their desert was the BOMB! Well that makes it worth it then.

We took at trip up the Space needle and the views were so beautiful!

Then we shopped. As Sarah was about to get out of the van I told her to pose in a way that would show her excitement to go shopping! This is what she pulled out and it was awesome! This was Annie's favorite thing she bought, Lydia's swim suite! So cute!

We stayed up late, having a great time talking and eating the most amazing cookies! Good times! Really good times! The following day we went to Gas works park. It gives you beautiful views of the city. That boat/ car thing in the water is so great. Those thing crack me up. It drives on land and swims in the water... who knew.

On our way to Tri Cities. The view is so amazing! Being able to see Landon and his family was so much fun. I love his kids, they are all so special. I always have such a great time with them. It was a great way to end the trip.

Landon, we love you and miss you, come home please. It is time to come home! And thanks for the incredible food, it was the BOMB! Peekaboo I see Williams lil' head down there.

These were the beautiful views from the plane. Oh I was so sad coming home knowing it was all over and that I have to wait one more year. Sniffle sniffle. Well the countdown is on for next year, but here is to an absolutely epic trip, because in my eyes that what every junkit is.... EPIC. Now just a side note. After seeing all the pics you may be thinking to yourself... um Polly is wearing the same outfit in every photo. Wasn't this a 5 day trip. Well yes it was a 5 day trip and yes I did wear the same clothes every day. Nasty... well ya, but honestly who cares. I certainly didn't. All that mattered is that I was warm and comfy the entire trip.No need to impress any one. NO need at all!

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The Holidays Part 2 and Snowmobiling

2011-02-17T19:38:00.000-08:00

#1 This is so late in coming but who cares! The holidays were wonderful in every way. Papa has his jelly bean parties, Grams teaches the girls ballet, and I play dress up with the girls and feed them candy at 10pm. Abbie wrote me a letter and told me that that night was the best night of her life! That is so sweet. What made the holidays so great was my dad flew Andrew and Sarah in as a surprise for my mother. My dad had this great idea of them all getting in a huge box and then jumping out of it to surprise my mom. Needles to say my mom thought it was a snowmobile and was so happy when it wasn't. #2 Christmas eve was one of the best our family has ever had. Great Mexican food, and a great eventful evening. Olive made the great donkey ears for Nathan. The kids did such a great job on the nativity. Boo read the night before Christmas. The kids did small performances of Christmas songs. We sang Christmas songs and Lydia danced. We had a white elephant gift exchange which is always funny and I made a slide show for my family of what we had done that year. It was a perfect night. #3 Christmas morning was so great because Sarah's kids were there. Seeing Noah open his first gift was so incredibly intense and exciting, that it makes you realize real quick that those moments are what makes Christmas morning so wonderful. My dad had fun with the kids toys and wrote out his favorite nick name for Nathan which is SA(Smack Anderson) because he talks a lot of smack. #3 My birthday was sad because I was in the bed sick. However my sisters brought me gifts and we later went out to flying star and to buy some jewelry. That was a great day. #4 Still feeling sick on my anniversary. However we went out to eat at little Anita's which is one of our favorite restaurants. It was a perfect way to celebrate our love and marriage of 7 years. #5 New years eve was awesome. I don't have the pictures but my family went and ate at Dion's then we headed over to the stake center where Abe was set up to DJ the youth dance and he put on a dance for us before the kids got there. We had so much fun dancing it up like crazy! #6 I was able to go snowmobiling three time with my dad and family. Everything about snowmobiling I love. The beauty and serenity of the land and snow. The power and excitement on being on the machines and being with my family. It couldn't be better.

The Holidays Part 1

2011-01-13T19:48:00.001-08:00

Here we go a little late, but better late than never. Our holiday season was incredible. We were able to do so many great and memorable things together, and with our family and freinds. The only downfall to the season was that I was stricken down with the flu from H E double hockey sicks. It lasted way to long almost 3 weeks to be precise but despite that everything was so wonderful. We went to Utah and had the greatest time. We went sledding,Nathan went snowmobiling with out me due to my nasty flu, and we went Christmas tree hunting where I found the perfect tree.

Seeing the lights on temple square brings back so many great memories of when we were married. The lights as always were beautiful.

A little insert here of Tacos El Paisa, got my pictures a little jumbled. So the dirty taco truck on the side of the road in Salt lake that Nathan can't get enough of I finally embraced. I always said that Nathan would get food poisoning from that truck. He never did so I decided to try it. Nathan was so proud that he had to document this major break through in my life. And well it was Amazing, with a capital A.

Here are our friends LJ and Ashley. Now, these two made our dreams come true. Driving up to Utah we were sad because we did not have tickets to the Christmas concert with David Archuleta and the Motab.( An important note is that these thickets are almost impossible to get) All that was about change when LJ called us and said he had two extra tickets. If he could have only seen our reaction. We thought he was joking. But this was for real and the concert was everything and more that we hoped it would be. We had a great night with LJ and Ashley looking at the lights and eating at Tucanos at 10 at night. A big shout out, of the greatest thanks for making our dreams come true, goes to Ashley and LJ.

The conference center was magnificent.

We went to the Carl Bloch art display at BYU. He is a famous painter from Denmark. BYU was some how able to get numerous original paintings that are in chapels in Europe for this art exhibit. The whole process of making this come to reality took ten years. I have to say that walking though this and seeing the paintings blew me and Nathan away. We had many spiritual experiences and will never forget this. If you are in Utah or are going you must go see this.

We were able to see our friends Levi and Becca from law school. It was so wonderful seeing them and spending time with them. We miss you guys so much!

These beautiful girls are the girls that became my freinds when I moved up to Utah. I moved there with no freinds and not knowing anyone. They came to my rescue and befriended me and we had some great times together. I was so wonderful and exciting seeing all of you!

This picturesque halo was what Nathan witnessed snowmobiling. When I saw the picture I couldn't believe it. He said it was unbelievable. When I see things like this the first thing I think of is how magnificent the Lord is and how blessed I am to live on this earth. Nathan had a blast snowmobiling, how I wish I was there.

This is our family's designated sledding hill. It is a great hill, we had so much fun.

Here we are Christmas tree hunting. Any time Papa is around you can bet the twins are on his lap. We hunted for trees, roasted hot dogs, ate snow, had snow ball fights and best of all found my Christmas tree that had been dreaming about. This is how it went. I told my family that I was not coming home until I had my 18 foot tall Christmas tree. They all thought I was crazy, my mother kept telling there was no way she was putting that things up in her house and decorating it. All in all my only devout supporter was my Dad and Nathan( although he was a little hot and cold). And well, of course that was the case because he is the one that has always taught me to dream big. My mother often says "well you know that Polly is Lanes daughter". She likes big over the top things and likes to drive fast cars and any kind of nice machines really. I'm getting off point here, but keep reading.

Here it started on a beautiful, serene day. I had to go and find what my heart desired most.

My sweet Nathan by my side despite thinking this was all a little crazy. By this time we had been searching for a good 45 minutes.

Yearning for my tree. "Oh Christmas Tree Where art Thou?"

And then right before me I saw it and new it was the one. "I SEE YOU"(from Avatar)

Then the light shown upon it and I knew that it was meant to be.

"Nathan this is it, get in there and cut it down. You can do it." "Polly, ya right this tree is like 25 feet tall and probably weighs a good 300 pounds." "Nathan I don't care just do it, you can do this I promise." The entire time he was cutting it down I had to keep motivating him because it was hard work and he was sweating bullets.
Low and behold he conquered that tree and we were both so happy. Chad told us good luck with carrying that thing down the mountain. He didn't think we could do it. But we did it. We hoisted that tree up and carried it down the mountain. And trust me freinds this was no small feat.

We got the tree in the house and it touched the ceiling and it was perfect.
The final masterpiece after it was decorated. I love this tree so much that I still havent taken it down. I just can't seem to part with it. I need at least to the end of January with it. This tree brought so many so much joy. The End.

Life In New Mexico is GOOD

2010-11-01T18:57:00.000-07:00

I love being home. My appreciation for NM has changed a lot and I am loving living here. The skies blow me away, I'm not sure if there is any place that can compare. And the amazing thing the skies always look this beautiful. I have loved the fall time here. The smell of the green chile roasting, the bosgue tree's turning colors and the perfect weather is sooo wonderful. I can't forget the incredible Mexican food here. I have been in heaven, green chile heaven.

My Sweet Nathan turned 30. We celebrated a lot and he got some great gifts. Here he is on his b-day. This was the only picture I got so don't mind the garments. Any way he is reading the birthday book I put together for him that all his friends and family wrote in. It brought a tear to his eye, which makes a big success. See that football he has in the bed. I have now come to accept on forced terms that his athletic ball constitute as our children therefore they can be in the bed with us. Besides the ball in bed thing Nathan has done and accomplished so much in this last year that I couldn't be more proud. I am very excited for this year for him, it will be a great one. One reason being he has left me in primary and moved onto his dream calling of varsity scout leader. Needless to say he is watching a lot of man vs wild.

We went to the special shapes balloon fiesta this year, and it rocked. I haven't been in 7 years and I loved it!

This is my favorite shape balloon. I took one too many pictures of this cow.

See this sunset, this is for real my friends, there is nothing photo shopped about this. 100% real NM sunset.
The greatest thing about being home is my family. I'm not sure how I lived with out my family for so long. This is a typical Sunday for Nathan. The kids can't get enough of him.

We had a party for Lydia after she got her trach out. This was such a great day!

I love, love all my neices and nephews.

My dad has this Dyno shop and we have Duno days there, where people can see how much power is in their car and they can get it tuned to have more power. These dyno days are so much fun. Nathan and I barbecued for everyone and overall it is a great event. This day was an evo and Subaru day and we are gearing up for a viper competition day in December. I am really excited to put the viper dyno day together. It is going to be pretty crazy to see so many vipers all together at once.

My dad strapping down the viper before the dyno. This Viper had almost 600 horse power. Watching it dynoed is pretty crazy because they will take the car up to 150 miles an hour.

These guys came to our dyno day and brought their viper and custom mustang. I was awesome seeing both the cars dynoed. This Viper competition day will be just the first of many to come. I will be putting together a corvette, mustang, and camero dyno day too.

It is Official, Nathan is an Attorney

2010-09-23T15:33:00.001-07:00

Monday September 20th was a remarkable day for us and one that we will never forget. The swearing in of each new attorney to the NM supreme Court lasted 3 hours. I couldn't stop smiling because I was so grateful and happy this day had finally arrived. I loved hearing each attorney stand and swear in their new attorney. So many great things were said about each of them. The energy in the room as awesome, all the friends, family and new employers were all so proud. Sitting behind us were twin sons who were sworn in by their father and now working for him. That was really cool to see and many more that were equally impressive. But of course the most impressive was my sweet Nathan. Why? because he is my husband and to have the man you love the most show his love by accomplishing things I have dreamed of him doing is one of the greatest gifts of selflessness, honor and happiness and security he could give me. He has blessed me and our future family beyond measure with this accomplishment.

My sweet Momma came and supported us.She also took us out to PF Changs afterward for lunch.

This is NM supreme Court. At the end each of them spoke and offered great council and wisdom to all the new attorneys. I loved hearing each of them speak.

This is Nathan taking his Oath. The whole time I was thinking how bummed I was that this was the only shot I could get. Oh well you get the picture.

See this smile, this was the smile that was permanently fixed on my face for 3 hours, I kid you not.
This is Paul, Nathans new boss. He gave such a great swearing in for Nathan and I wish I would have wrote it down. However I do remember him saying that Nathan was a man of Integrity and a hard worker.

Below are some of the great words spoken from the NM Supreme Court.
*Your word is your bond
* With great power comes great responsibility, use that power to do great work.
* Serve your community in additional ways, do at least 50 hours of probono work every year and reach out to the people with low income in NM. Make this world a better place.
* See the beauty of being a lawyer, it is a great honor and privilege.
* Consider how you will conduct yourself and establish a great reputation.
* Always live by the Golden Rule
* Be true to yourself, your conscious, and the obligation this profession holds.
* Establish an alliance and do not burn your bridges.
* You are healers with power to positively affect change in difficult situations. Honor this noble profession. You will heal and bring justice to the people and restore their faith in the American Justice System.
*This life experience of being sworn in is a personal transformation for each of you. By taking this oath you can now take people through the doors of justice and that is transforming.

My Sweet Nathan, Thank you for making me the happiest and most proud wife. I couldn't be more grateful to you for all you have done.

Mancation

2010-08-31T19:50:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pics from a weekend trip with my friends to celebrate Johnny's 30 birthday. His wife, Ally wanted to send him on a trip with his buddies so she got the ball rolling and Johnny, Adam and LJ flew to Albuquerque for a little mancation. On Friday morning we drove the mustangs compliments of my father in law to the top of Sandia Mountain. The top elevation is over 10,000 ft.
LJ was missing because he was really sick the first day. But he recovered in time to enjoy the rest of the weekend. After we drove the Mustangs we packed up and drove up to the Cabin in Colorado. It really didn't take Johnny long to get comfortable and make himself at home. On saturday morning we went four wheeling, which was dirty but awesome.
We stopped along the trail and roasted some dogs for lunch. We rode again on the second day.
Then we did some base jumping from these rocks. We all got into base jumping when Walmart started selling those prepacked parachutes for $99. Then, when we went back to the cabin, we saw this rainbow from start to finish. It was a sign that our mancation was acceptable in the sight of God. On the last day, we all decided to float the river on inner tubes. It was windy and raining but it was the only time we could do it so we did our Navy Seal duty and went for it. I don't have any pictures but it basically looked like a pod of killer wales slowly making there way downstream. We beached ourselves a couple times in the shallows.
Overall it was an amazing weekend. We played, we laughed, we cried, we had Sound of Music sing along in the car ride home and we really did it up real big for Jawa's birthday. Thanks for coming down boys.

This is where we be Top 3

2010-08-17T16:51:00.000-07:00

#1 Are my honorable mentions over this summer and what is new in mine and Nathans life. #2 Is my amazing trip to California with Nathans Family. I definitely get the worst wife of the year because while he was at home studying his brains out all summer for the bar, I went on vacation with both his and my family.That's really punk, maybe I shouldn't be admitting this. Hopefully my Nathan will forgive and forget.#3 I spent a lot of time at the cabin this summer, If I could I would have spent my entire summer up there. Every time I leave I get sad, because that place brings me the greatest joy. Ok here we go.

#1 Honorable Mentions

Picture this, Nathan just getting home from basketball on Wednesday and all he can think about is playing Call Of Duty that his friends gave him. He rushes up stairs takes off his sweaty shirt and gets ready to play. Head phones...check, serious focus and determination....check. Our clean blanket wrapped around his sweaty body, because he got cold....check, hey wait not check that's nasty. So I walked upstairs and found this and couldn't stop laughing.

Our niece Bella's bum and the watermelon.

Bella riding the watermelon. Bella- rina girl I'm so in love with you.

I found this kid at Disney Land. Hey mom I was thinking of putting a big z on the side of my hair and a lopsided bleached rats tail some where near the back of my head.Done, no questions.Serious?
Found this one at Disnay Land too.Honey I have always loved mullets and I think we should give our boy one who has no say because he is to young to tell us heck no a mullet. You know he has such nice flowy, curly hair, it will just be amazing. Poor boy, the sad thing is, he doesn't even know what's going on; or that people are secretly blogging about his nasty hair cut. Oh I'm being bad,forgive me. Friends, just promise to never give your kid a mullet...ever!

Nathan got a job with Barber and Borg, where he will be doing personal injury work on the reservations in NM and Arizona. He worked so hard this summer studying. I was so proud of him. I felt so bad for the entire summer, because his study schedule was seriously grueling. The day it was over both of us felt this massive burden lift from us. Sadly he still has to take the Navajo and Arizona bar, but he is just taking it one test at a time. Here he is looking at his new baby, since we don't have one yet. All of you that gave him graduation money it went toward this. A Samsung 46" HDTV. What a beautiful thing. I was surprised how much I liked it.

We went to El Pinto that night and it was so so good.

When Nathan got home from his test I gave him the photo book I made for him. He loved it.

Being home has been so great, in so many ways. It takes being away to realize what an incredibly beautiful place NM is. I loved Utah and Washington, but there is no place like Albuquerque. When people complain about this place and say it is ugly, I think how sad it is that they can't see the magnificent beauty of this place. They sky's are like nothing else I have ever seen. The mountains are amazing. I love living on the west side so I can see the trees of the basque and the Mountains. I love the food, the culture and architecture and the weather. Nathan and I are looking forward to the day we will get our dream home which will be the adobe, Mediterranean style home. And of course being home with my family is more than I could ever ask for. Nathan and I go to cougar hill at night and work out together and this is just one of the many sunsets we have seen this summer.

I am now working in the Albuquerque Temple on Thursday mornings with my sweet mother. She was my trainer and I have to say my Mother was even more beautiful and angelic in the temple. I am so happy to be able to spend this time with her. I love this temple so much and am so grateful to working here. But there has been one thing that makes me sad about this shift, no one comes. It honestly makes me sad. Whenever we do have a patron come in I am always so grateful to that person who took the time to serve the Lord. So if you are reading this, go to the temple. Go as often as you can, you will be amazed with how your life will change.

The next two pictures are views of the Sandia Mountains from where I work. I got a job at the Tamaya Hyatt Resort out in Bernillo. The spa is so amazing,and I really love working there. It has been such a blessing. The resort is beautiful and the view of the mountains is awesome.

#2 California Trip. Nathan's sweet parents put this trip together and it was awesome. I was so grateful to be able to go. We did so many great things. Mom presented me with a park pass that had Disney Land, Sea World, Universal Studios, and the San Diego zoo. When I got this pass I was soooo happy. I would have to say that my favorite place was Sea World, but all the other parks came in a close second. We also went to the Animal Kingdom. Yes we were park hopping like crazzzy.

Dad took us to Farells, and little did I know that this is the place where dreams come true. This place was in a constant fury of outrageous birthday songs, the waiters saying jokes for the people, sirens going off when people ordered a massive bowl of ice cream and so much more. Dad and Mom thanks for an evening I will never forget.

Behold the Massive Bowl of ice cream. I can't remember what it was called, all I know is that it was 50 bucks and had everything in it you could ever want or imagine.

Ok this was awesome. All this sudden we hear this loud siren go off and these guys are racing around the restaurant with our bowl of ice cream on this fantastic holder/shrine thing. And they were running, fast, it was hilarious and completely dangerous and out of control. I was just glad the ice cream made it to our table safely.

This is at the Wild Animal Kingdom. This amazing animal, I don't know what it is called, was beautiful, buff and he eats standing up. Who knew?

Footsie Wootsie, I knew I would love this thing just by the name. Great name= I'm hooked. And who would have thought that for only 25 cents I would be able to relax, rejuvenate and revive my feet. That's the best deal I have ever heard of. So I tried it out and the footsie wootsie did not disappoint.

I really wanted to jump inside the Flamingo's habitat and pet/snuggle/squeeze that little baby. But I held back.

My very sweet Nephew Gabriel. Who wouldn't want a mustache made out of beef jerky. I know for a fact Nathan would.

The Meercats. They were my all time favorite animal that I saw. Reason being is that they reminded me of Nathan. The whole trip I was wishing so badly that Nathan was with me. So when I saw these cute fellows I felt one with Nathan.

This was Biff at sea world in the Sea Lion show. He dressed up as a bunch of artists and did the funniest dances. Here he is Vanilla Ice. So I have never laughed so hard for so long like I did during this show. Hands down my favorite show.

The acrobatics done in this show blew my mind.

The little girl running behind the princess( I forget her name, you know the one from princess and the frog) was shouting to the princess, I love you, I'm your biggest fan. I have your picture and autograph on my wall.I't was so cute, you would think with how she was acting that this princess was some Goddess.

No I don't know that lady in the picture beside Cruela Devil.

This rides sole purpose was to get us soaking wet, and it did. Dad bought be a big Shamu parka, but even that couldn't protect me against this ride. BAD RIDE. We were so cold the rest of the day.

Here we are on our way to Disney Land. We were all filled with the most incredible joy I think a person can feel.

#3 Colorado. We went four wheeling, hiking, saw the fire works, the pioneer day celebration, had a talent show, did some dancing and just hung out with the family. Life is sweet.

As many know our family likes to dance and my sweet Momma has gotten the name of Groovin Grams. That name fits her perfectly and everyone in my family is always telling my I'm just like mom because I tend to dance a lot and do random dance moves here and there. And if you must know I was awarded the best dancer award at my family reunion, that's right I'm bragging about my skills, since I have such mad dance skills...right.

The girls were performing the skit poison cookie dough, at it was awesome, I was really impressed.

The boys showing us their moves to the song kung fu fighting.

I love this picture of my mom an dad.

Watching the fire works in Alamosa. They were darn good.

Dad got all the grandkids on the ATV and was driving them around. Love it.

The Colorado Quakie tree are my favorite trees. They are so beautiful.

This was Nathan and I's all time favorite ATV ride. There was still a lot of snow and water on the trails when we went so it made for the greatest mud riding.
Ah good times.

Nathan Graduates Law School

2010-06-10T09:12:00.000-07:00

I am blogging in a hurry, so here we go. 1)Wow what an accomplishment for Nathan. He has brought me so much happiness and I couldn't be more thankful or proud. 2) We are so grateful for all of the family who supported us. Thanks to all the family and friends who came to his graduation and gave Him such generous gifts. He will be buying a tv with that money. He talks about it everyday with me, he is so excited he can barely contain himself. 3) Graduation day was awesome, we went to the park with friends and out to eat at PF changs. It couldn't have been a better day.4) To our dear friends, you brought so much happiness into our lives and made our law school experience truly unique and special. What a blessing to have so many great friends. We are missing you all.5) Nathans brotherhood that he created with all the guys was really special. I hope the Marmots will always live on!6) Nathan and I took a few days after graduation and spent a few days in Utah. It was wonderful being able to see some friends and go to the Salt lake Temple. Ok Yes I got a little carried away with taking pics of the temple. But do you blame me. We also hiked to the hole in the rock in Moab. That was awesome! 7) Driving into Albuquerque was to good. I believe I had tears of joy running down my face when I was taking this. Yes That is old blue with Nathan driving. OK so I was taking pics while I was driving. Completely reckless I know but I couldn't pass up on documenting on of the most important days of my life....coming home.

Good bye Spokane Hello Albuquerque

2010-06-07T19:00:00.000-07:00

Our time in Spokane couldn't have been better. We had so many great experiences and were so grateful for all the dear friends we made. There were so many things we loved about being there and here are a few.

Our great friends Adam and Dirk. We love them and were so grateful for Adams generosity. He was constantly taking us out to eat and to the movies and also he would take Nathan out to lunch at least twice a week. No we didn't just love him because he bought us stuff. He is our very loyal, funny friend, who makes us laugh like crazy.

Girls nights out. I loved these nights and loved knowing and spending time with so many great women.

Bull and Pitcher.Here are some of the great friends we made. We love them and had so many great times with them. We came here often and would have barbecues and just hang out.

Our Halloween Parties. Becca started this tradition and we had some great times!

NIIICE! That ones-y looks really hot on Nathan. Just to let everyone know those are lobsters on his ones-y.

Pig out in the Park. Every august Spokane held this great event and we would go and pig out. Well, I would watch Nathan pig out because I couldn't eat any of those foods with out getting sick.

Nathans sports. I loved seeing Nathan and his friends play. They played intramural football, basketball, softball and on as many city leagues they could. They were really good and it was fun to see them win 4 championships. I'll miss that, a lot.

This is were they played both flag football and softball.

This is the house that we would walk past every time e went to Manito Park. We loved this house and would dream of owning a house like this one some day.

The hotel where I worked. I loved working at Spa Paradiso. it was a great job.

Manito Park. We would come here often and have picnics and walk around. It was such a beautiful park. Spokane had a lot of great parks.

The Japanese gardens in Manito park.

The Spokane Temple. It was such a blessing to work here. It was such a wonderful experience. Our ward and all of our friends there I will miss too. We had such a great ward and I miss all my YW.

Downtown Spokane. The Spokane river ran through Downtown. We loved walking around here because there was also a park and trail that ran though downtown too.

Our Photo Shoot

2010-05-03T22:42:00.000-07:00

These are the photo's that my friend Misty took of us. She did such an incredible job. She really does has a gift and I was so grateful that she was able to share her gift with us. Here are a few of my favorites. And when I say a few I really loved all the pics so much that is was hard to choose which ones to put on the blog. Thank you Misty so much! These pictures are so special to us because we felt like you were able to capture the love that we have for one another. These pictures were taken in Courdalene Idaho.

Pics for Muffy

2010-04-22T20:37:00.001-07:00

Lj Styde Number 5

2010-04-01T21:26:00.001-07:00

The top 5 things about this trip to Charleston South Carolina

1) Seeing my Dad pull up in the van to pick me up at the airport.
2) Being with my sweet sisters, sister-in-laws and my Mom and Dad.
3) Feeling and seeing the "Belle" of the South. Breath taking!
4) Coming to kmow that Southern Hospitality is real thing, I was amazed!
5) And of course shopping till I dropped.

My dad drove across the US( well almost) to treat us to an lj styde that will never be forgotten. I was so excited when I found out where we were going because I have never been to a place like this. I find it so humbling and amazing how my Father is willing to sacrifice so much for me that I may be able to experience such incredible, memorable, exciting things. I cherish these trips so much and am forever grateful to my Father for dreaming up the Lj Styde. What a brilliant, brilliant man, if I say so myself. There really is no one like Him.

Beautiful girls, and so excited to get this party started.

My sweet Mama. She is constantly doing the funniest things. She listened to her ipod a lot on the trip and she would always being dancing; her moves are very funny and cute. Then out of no where you would hear her bust out and sing really loud when she felt really passionate about a song that came on.

We ate at Cracker Barrel a few times on this trip. We really like the store and the rocking chairs.

Heading towards down town Charleston where we ate, shopped and strolled down the streets to see the beautiful architecture.

We ate a restaurant called Magnolia's. It was some really great southern food! We had sweet potato fries and this is my dish. It was blackened catfish with dirty rice and fried green tomatoes. It was amazing.

This is the building that is the entrance to the out door flee market in down town. It was such a unique market place.

This picture gives you the perfect depiction of the south with the trees and architecture.

We came upon this old church and cemetery. The dates of the lives of the people in the cemetery dated back to the 1800's. It was such a beautiful cemetery and the feeling of it all was really awesome.

This is Lorilynn's Baby Bella. She is the type of Baby that makes you want to have babies, and alot of them. She is such a peaceful angel that she draws you to her. My Mom sang her this song that says " Bella rina girl I'm so in love with you". After I heard her sing that to Bella every time I saw Bella I just had to sing her that song because I really am in love with her. Oh what a miracle it would be if I could ever have a baby like her.

This is Heidi's baby William. He is a really beautiful boy and has the most fabulous ears. He is a very sweet baby.

Here is some of the architecture and homes in Charleston. It was so beautiful and I feel like the pictures just didn't do it justice.

Here we are at the Magnolia plantation. This was so exciting to see. This was a rice plantation way back in the day. We took a tour of the land and of the plantation house. The beauty and history where so amazing. I loved being able to experience the plantation.

This is the homes of the slaves. Two families would live in one house and each family usually had 10 plus kids.

The tour bus. William has a funny face.

The swamps where so cool and eery at the same time.

This was the first time seeing an alligator. It was really close to our bus and Annie was like "Um you guys that is really scary, haven't you seen the shows on the discovery channel of the alligators leaping out of water and killing and devouring the animals that are drinking the water in the lake." I thought that was funny because I was just thinking how cool it was that the alligator was so close to us and that I was getting good pics of it.

I couldn't get enough of those trees. They where so neat and eery to me.

The plantation house. This was the third one built because the first two ended up burning down. The first one burned down because lightening struck it. Pretty interesting, hmmmm.... Maybe the Lord was trying to tell them something.

I have never seen a rooster like this in all my life. The colors were incredible.

shopping at the outlets.

We really liked eating here.

What a great name to call your jewlery buisness.

In the airport at the end of our trip. This was a very sad time. Why did it have to end, why. Untill next year lj styde, I am already anticipating it.

Our Trip to Seattle

2010-03-18T21:21:00.001-07:00

We were able to go spend a few days in Seattle since Nathan was on his Spring break. I wish we could have stayed longer and visit more people but I had to get back to work. But the time we had we did some of our favorite things.

We went to the temple and did sealing's and initiatory. The temple had so many beautiful flowers blooming on the grounds. It made me so happy seeing all of the beautiful trees and flowers because this means that winter is coming to an end(thank goodness) and spring is on it's way (hallelujah).

I spotted this tree from a ways off and had Nathan drive me to it so I could take some pictures of it. Wow it was so beautiful.

The tree in all it's glory. I wish we had a tree like this out side our window.

This is mountain biking trails underneath the freeways in Seattle. Nathan was really excited to try it out.

It was a beautiful day in Seattle. When the sun is shining Seattle is so breath taking. The tree's, water, it is all amazing.

One of our favorite places. The Pikes place market. We love going here and eating. We got some of the best fruits and vegetables and clam chowder.

The gum wall. There is a wall in Seattle where people go stick their gum. It was the nastiest, greatest thing ever. I thought it was really gross and funny that this couple decide to chew a pack of gum and shape it into this heart with their initials. Well I guess people will express their love in all sorts of crazy ways.

Nathan dreams about these mini doughnuts at night.

Tulips are in bloom and these were incredible.

The fruit and vegetable stands are off the charts. Ahhh... so wonderful.

These are Nathan's favorite. He get's these fruit logs every time we come. They are these amazing chewy fresh fruit things rolled in coconut. MMMMMmmm.

I die and go to fruit heaven.

This is Bellevue. We love going to the mall here and the cheesecake factory. How I lovest thou thy cheesecake factory.

This is the notorious Monk fish that is at the market. It's tale is tied to a rope that people can't see. When people get close to take a look at this ugly fish the men behind the counter pull the rope really hard and really fast. Basically it makes the fish come alive in a bad way, it' really scary but great to see peoples reactions.

They sale these bouquets of flowers for 5, 10 and 15 bucks. They are so beautiful and I am always shocked at how cheap they are.

My trip to New Mexico

2010-03-10T22:00:00.000-08:00

I went home for my sweet Great Grandmothers funeral. I didn't have a picture of her in my computer so I was really bummed but I will say a little something about her any way. My Great Grandmother name was Mary Brown and she was a very strong, motivated, loving and giving woman. I remember her making our family food. She was a great cook and constantly would bring over her special beans, tuna, cream pies, banana bread and more. I would take her to the hair salon and to get grocery's when I was in high school and she would give me a little spending money and she would always tell me how pretty I was. I loved playing in her all pink bathroom when I was a child, it was a really magical place in that bathroom of hers and I loved sneaking into her room and lathering on really thick her cherry chap stick. If she only new. I loved my O'mom and am grateful for her life, for the love and service she gave to me how she took care of my dear mother. Her funeral service was beautiful and a wonderful celebration of her life. She lived to be 92. I hope to live to be that old one day. My O'mom loved onions with the passion, and maybe that is where I get it from. My mom says that eating all those onions made her really healthy and live a long life so maybe I will have a chance! It was so wonderful seeing my mom's side of the family whom I never see. It was so nice to be all together again. So while I was home of course I did some fun things as well and below are a few of my highlights from the trip.

We went to this jumpy place, I forget the name but we had such a great time. This is a picture of Muffins twins. They were so cute and funny coming down that slide. I especially liked this day because Jakey poo bear decided to become my friend finally. After all week with him not wanting anything to do with me, he all this sudden wanted me to hike him up these crazy jumpy slides over and over again, breaking my back; and when I did that he decided he loved me and wouldn't leave my side.

Ahhh my dream of being a biker chick and riding bikes was so real and was finally coming true. My dad has some Harley's and wanted to teach me to ride. We went out twice (of course just touring the neighborhood). It was honestly so great, and I hadn't even gotten out on the open rode yet. My dad got me a helmet and we had plans of buying my a jacket and chaps when we move there. so as soon as my dream was coming alive and real it went crashing away right before my eyes when I got a call from my sweet mother. Basically she pleaded with my not to ride those things and that I had to much of my life to live to jeopardize it with something so dangerous. So of course I heard my sweet mothers plea and obeyed her request. The thing is she speaks the truth and I guess I will have to get my thrill from something else.

Mike and Boo blessed Bella at my parents house. It was such a beautiful blessing. Bella is so incredibly beautiful and sweet it kills me. They are such a beautiful family. And I have to mention sweet Carter. So every time I come home the kids change so much. But I have never witnessed a change quiet like Carters. He went from some pretty darn loud, rascally terrible 2 and threes, to this quiet, sweet, polite, calm incredible little man. I was so confused what had happened to him. He was a 100% different little boy. Wow he really is something and his glasses make him that much sweeter. This gave me hope that if I have a boy go through some really bad 2 and 3's there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Here are some of my nieces and nephews. I will be really sad the day they grow out of wanting make up parties and doing little corny performances that I come up with to have them perform for the family.

My beautiful, wonderful sisters. Here we are at La Casa Sena in Santa Fe after sending off O'mom in a little service for her to be buried next to O'pa. We love this restaurant. Every time we go to Santa Fe we come here.

My dad dancing with Maddie and Mom dancing with Lydia. This is what we do in our family, we put on music and dance.

We celebrated Muffins and Mia's birthdays. This is Sarah's boy Noah and I thought his chocolate face was the greatest thing going. And his smile made it even better.

Mia and Abby, so pretty and so sweet.

Muffy and Sammy. Sammy's little voice has got to be one of the cutest little voices I've heard.

Sweet Kisses

I love her smile in this picture.

Ahhh, me and Lydia. Here we are in the dollar store. So Annie and I are just strollin along shopping not really paying attention to Lydia. All this sudden I hear this small talking and laughing. I look at her and she is just so happy and so content in that cart. She seriously cracks me. She is always so happy and doing these cute little chuckles. So Annie grabbed the bunny ears and put them on her and she was really liking that so we took some pictures with them.

She is so happy, it makes me happy!

Love....True Love

2010-02-13T21:10:00.000-08:00

My Sweet Nathan, sadly once again we find ourselves apart on V-day, so sad. So I decided even though we are far apart I was going to give you a few tokens of my love. Here they are and I hope you enjoy them.

I organized all of the nieces and nephews and did a singing telegram to all of the parents. They were so cute and they sang to them the song skiddle-merinki-dinki-doo. Now you must know that I did do this for all the parents but my number 1 motive was to have the kids put on their letters so I could take this picture and send it to you. So here is the first token of my love. We love you! And yes all the nieces and nephews love you so much. They all wanted to know where you were. That is always the first question the boys ask me. Where's Nathan! Polly you're nice and all but we want Nathan to play and wrestle with us. Notice the stickers on the kids faces, that was my idea and Sophie was the only one that really, really got into it. Click on the picture so you can see her face better. I thought it was so funny.

Here are the beautiful heart cookies I made just for you, but then gave to Mom and Dad.But be assured that they really loved your cookies! I tried the royal icing for the first time and they turned out so pretty. I was so proud I made you great cookies but then sad you couldn't eat them, so lets just pretend you ate them and loved them.

Did you notice the kisses on this cookie? Kiss. Well once again just pretend we kissed.

Now if this doesn't speak of my true devotion to you then I don't know what does. I Love Nathan!

I want you to know that I wear this shirt with pride! Maybe I will wear it when you pick me up from the airport. Wouldn't that be nice.

My Sweet Nathan you really and truly are one of kind and I am so happy you are mine. I love you so very much. As my last token of love I have hid a special gift for you in the house.

Our Month of Basketball aka January.

2010-02-01T21:19:00.000-08:00

Our January has been great. We have gone skiing, the indoor water park, hung out with friends, lots of basketball, and of course my yw's calling. In the pic below this is the guys at their A gonzaga league. This is probably the guys most important league so watching them play is really fun. This game was absolutely amazing. It was neck and neck the entire game, went into over time and then Jake hit a 3 pointer at the buzzer to win the game by 3 points. I was so proud of them.

Nathan told me a while back that he was on 4 basketball leagues and that he was getting a ski pass to Schweitzer. I was a little taken back, thinking when in the world is he going to do his school work, church calling, apply for jobs and see me! Well Nathan has proved me wrong despite the b-ball being a little excessive (which he did finally admit to me) he seems to fit in playing basket ball 3-4 times a week, going skiing any time he gets the chance and getting everything else done. Also I love going to see the guys play, so yes I have fully embraced the 4 basketball leagues.

Church ball league.

The indoor water park in Kellog. We came here and stayed at the nice hotel, went skiing with our friends Levi and Tyson and then went to the water park with Beca and Levi. We had such an awesome time.

One of Nathan's favorite things to do is ski.

We have so much fun skiing together.

My friend Beca, we have a wonderful time together.

After the water park we went to Becca's and Levi's room and played games. I would just like to make a little shout out to Beca and Levi. We love you guys and love hanging out you and all the sweet kiddos! Ps I completely take full responsibility for dropping a bomb on you!

For mutual we went to the ice skating ring. We all had such a great time. We decided to do ice skater poses on the ground since none of us could have done them on the ice with out falling.

Me and Jessica. I would now like to give a shout out to Jessica. I love you and have the greatest time with you and the girls. I am so happy you are able to go to mutual now!

Christmas, My birthday, Our Anniversary

2010-01-04T22:50:00.000-08:00

Our Christmas break was wonderful! We had such a great time, did a lot, celebrated a lot and saw our wonderful friends and family. We were very sad to leave. I didn't get any pics of new years but we went to Adams house and had a great time with our friends. In this picture we are at the Seattle temple and this is where we celebrated our anniversary. It was so wonderful and we decided to always go to the temple on our anniversary. We also went and saw avatar this day and went out to eat after the temple. We were able to go with Mom and Dad Anderson and Carly and Scott which made it even more special. I love going to the temple with family. Just a note if you have not seen Avatar I would go see it ASAP because it was so incredible, definently my most favorite movie of the year.

For my birthday we went to downtown Seattle to the 5th Avenue theater and saw White Christmas. It was a great play with great music and dancing.

This is downtown Seattle. We walked around before we went and ate dinner. We went and saw the ginger bread/ candy houses. They were awesome.

We went to Ruth Chris Steak House and had Steak and Lobster. I was in heaven and was anticipating this dinner for weeks. It was everything I dreamed.

They put cute little happy birthday confetti on our table. It was very nice. I also got a free desert which Nathan got to enjoy and I got to see him enjoy eating it. It really pays for Nathan to have a wife that can't eat sugar.

One of the ginger bread houses we liked.

Our favorite ginger bread house. How can you not love the leg lamp. Impressive.

The day after Christmas we go to Grandma Andersons house. We always look forward to going there. We have such a great time with her, she is quite the Grandma and is incredibly talented. We always spend a few extra days at her house and have a great time.

Grandma Anderson lives in Olympia and this is the view off of her balcony. It is so beautiful. This mountain is mount Rainier.

Me and Gabriel. He is a very sweet boy and our only nephew on Nathans side.

Grandma Andersons Tree. It is magical and I couldn't stop starring at it.

This is the beautiful setting Grandma does for Christmas dinner. She is like a Martha Stewart. Amazing food, beatuiful settings with your name by your plate and very detailed.

This is the lego truck that Nathan made on Christmas day. He was so excited to build this amazing truck so he got out all their legos, which are a ton and worked so hard, 5 hours hard to be exact. I kept thinking where the heck is Nathan, oh ya he is building his truck. It was ok because he was so happy to be playing with those legos and I helped cook a really good christmas dinner.

Nathan later told me he was really dissapointed about his truck and that it wasn't anything he hoped and dreamed it to be. What are you telling me! Lets just say next Christmas if he wants to break out the legos maybe he can take on a smaller project, an hour building session instead of 5 hours. I have to admit though I was happy he just got to play like he was a kid again.

This is what you call SNUGGIE MANIA.

Nathan fought for this snuggie at his works gift exchange and he won. As you can tell he wears it with pride. The funny thing is, is that he was so excited to get it and every time I would see him he would be wearing it. He would even wear it out(No I'm not joking) He told me that he thought I would like it, when I asked him why the heck he would pick this over the 40 gift certifcate to the casino. No we were not going to go gambling. I was thinking all you can eat buffet and maybe some bowling. So he had me try it on and lets just say I was not impressed at all. First off the material was way to thin. Soft yes, but really cheap. Second it didn't even have velcrow in the back to keep the thing on you, it kept falling off my arms. And lastly I just don't think I can support a product that is making millions because some one decided to sew arms on a blanket. Really the suggie just bugs the heck out of me.

Our drive to Seattle, it was beautiful. I didn't get a pics of Christmas Eve but we went to Nathan's mom's side of the family and had a great time with all the Byers.

This is the Christmas tree in the hotel where I work. It is so big and so beautiful. My brother and his family came over right before Christmas and we had such a great time together. We went to the hotel and they have ginger bread houses as well so it was fun to see them.

Snow White, really liked this one.

Whoville, one of my favorites.

My neices Cara and Allison and Nephew's Lane and Breton. I love hanging out with them.

Lady and the Tramp, really cute.

YW In Excellence

2010-01-01T20:03:00.000-08:00

For Yw in Excellence this year I did a night of recognition for the girls with the theme of a Return to Virtue. I start planning really early in the year because this is the one event that I get most excited for. It turned out to be beautiful night and every thing went exactly as I hoped. We had pictures of each of the girls and what they had accomplished that year in every aspect of their lives. We ran the slide show and had all the leaders spotlight each girl. We also gave the girls frames with their picture in it with the saying Return to Virtue on it. And we closed the night with a fun slide show with music of all that we had done that year. As many of you know I love my calling, and love to spend a lot of time with my yw. And honestly my time couldn't be more well spent any place else.

This is Molly. She is a beehive and one of the happiest, most kind and positive girl. She sang a Christmas song which was so beautiful. Some of the girls showed their talents and performed. They all did such a lovely job. I was so proud if them.

The girls were really happy when they saw the desert table. It makes me happy and I can't even eat any of it.

All of the leaders in yw's. We have a great time together and get along really well which is a wonderful blessing. And they support me in all my over the top ideas which is always nice.

One of my Laurels Allison. She is a very talented girl in so many ways it's incredible. She is about to turn 18 and when I first came into yw's she was only 15; so it has wonderful being able to see her grow.

Happy Birthday!

2009-12-27T17:49:00.000-08:00

Today, we celebrate! Twas December 28, 1982 when the course of world events were cataclysmically and wondrously altered for the benefit of all humankind. For it was on this day; this bright, sunny, oft forgotten day, when Polly Seitter Sego entered this world. Oh what a magnificent day that was! So let us celebrate, here and now, her life anniversary with joy in our hearts and a gleam in our eye. Here are some photos to mark this momentous occasion. She was an angel right from birth. It is said in some circles that hearing Polly cry as a baby was akin to me receiving my Eagle Scout award...it never happened.

Polly has always loved to learn about the things she is passionate about. She can tell me everything I want to know about anatomy, nutrition, massage therapy, body mechanics, exercise, track and field, Twilight and the Young Woman's program.
One thing she does not know much about is Ireland. On one occasion we went out to eat with our friend Adam and we started talking about accents. Adam and I took turns doing our best English, Scottish, and Irish accents. When Polly made an attempt to do an Irish accent she said in an her forced baritone voice, "Ay Ay matey!" Adam and I both started laughing as her look of proud confidence was replaced with bewilderment. Her attempted Irish accent was straight Pirate. I would have at least credited her with a "Pirish" accent if she had said "these scurvy ridden, land lovin' scallywags are after me pot o' gold." Once we told her, she started laughing too. Unfortunately, this was not an isolated incident of Irish discrimination. More recently, my cousin brought her new boyfriend to a family Christmas party. The boyfriend was from Ireland and had the accent to prove it. For some reason Polly got in her mind that he was from Iceland. For the next ten minutes she kept asking him about Vikings, how Iceland and Greenland got their names, and so on. I came in on the tail end of the conversation and heard Polly say something about Iceland. Then I whispered to her that he was from Ireland. She immediately started laughing and explained to my cousin's boyfriend how she got mixed up, assured him she knew the difference between Iceland and Ireland, and apologized. It was hilarious. I don't know where her disdain for all things Irish comes from, but she has it and I enjoy it very much.
Just so everyone knows, Polly is quite smart. She just has some great slips every now and then that make me so happy.
Besides her keen intellect, Polly has great style as can be witnessed in this picture. Just look at that makeup, hair and dress. I have tried numerous times to get her to resurrect this look but she refuses.
Polly is also so beautiful its crazy. She was so beautiful on our wedding day and she has only gotten more beautiful as she has gotten older. You may not be able to tell from this picture, but Polly had about 20 more pounds of muscle in this picture. When we got married she was still training really hard. After she got sick, she lost all her muscle and now she has no reason to put it back on. Either way she is a real beauty.

Polly, Happy Birthday! I am so excited for our day today and all of the fun things we are going to do. I love you and am so grateful for you. I love everything about you.

Love, Nathan

Thanksgiving!

2009-11-29T18:25:00.000-08:00

We had the most fabulous Thanksgiving. Unfortunalty Nathan's family was not able to make it over because of Daddy Bryans health. We missed them, but can't wait to see them for Christmas time. We always love being in Seattle for christmas. So it was just Nathan, Adam and I. We first went to the Davenport hotel(this is the hotel that I work at)to eat at their Thanksgiving buffet. This is our 3rd year eating here and it is so amazing it is hard to capture it's greatness. I think what makes it so great is a combination of a lot of things. First off the food is some of the best thanksgiving food you could ever eat. Second the ballroom that we eat in is so beautiful. Third it is so wonderful to not have to be in the kitchen all day long making food and then cleaning and doing more cleaning. After we went and took some pictures in the hotel and sat in the lobby. We love to just sit, take in the beauty of the hotel and listen to the pianio player play beautiful christmas songs. We then went to the mall and saw the movie The Blind side. It was such a great movie with out any crap in it. So I would highly recomend it. Lastly we went to our great friends Beau and Mauressa's house and played games and watched Friday Night Lights. It was a wonderful day!

Me taking a picture in Santas seat cuddling with Santas big bear.

In the mall. As you can see that is one big tree.

In the lobby just hanging out.

One of the beautiful christmas trees in the hotel.

This is the Isabella ball room where most of the weddings take place. Every time I get out of work on Saterday I usually will see a wedding party. We decided to take a few picture here because it was so pretty.

This is the second floor that over looks the lobby. I love it when the hotel decorates for christmas time. It makes me so excited and so happy every time I walk into work.

This is the Grande Penitan Ball room where they have us eat.

I forget what this area is called but as you can see the desert table is in the back round. Nathan was in heaven with that desert table.
All of us after dinner and very happy and content!

The Most Fabulous Surprise!

2009-11-29T17:41:00.001-08:00

This surprise needs the right introduction. Here is to our dear Friend Adam who made this incredible surprise all happen. It was he who was so gracious and kind to pay for this extravagant memorable night out with Nathan. He bought the tickets in which we couldn't afford. He knew that I wanted to see this play so so badly so he sacrificed for us. Then to pay for our dinner by calling the restaurant we were going to and working it out with the manager to find out who we were by carding the entire restaurant from 6-7 pm; then fitting the bill for dinner was really amazing, because believe me Adam went through a lot of trouble to make this work out. So, Adam we thank you for being the most incredible friend we could ever ask for. Your generosity and love, and sacrifice you constantly give us is appreciated more than we could ever tell you. Adam you truly are one of a kind.

The Surprise; we went to go see the Lion King Play! Which had to be one of the best plays I have ever seen. So how this all went down was; I was at work and I went into the serenity room to pick up my next client and I saw Nathan sitting on the couch. I just thought oh how nice he came to say hi. So after I said my clients name and she was not there Nathan came up to me and said I have a surprise for you! I couldn't believe it because our entire marriage Nathan has never been able to keep a secret from me. He always ends up accidentally spilling the secret.He proceeds to pull two lion King tickets out of his pocket and said come on, get your things we are going out to dinner and the play. My clients I supposedly had were fake people put on my schedule to think I had clients. Nathan did all of this with my boss! Of course I cried because I was so happy. Then I asked wait how are we paying for this and that is when he told me our most amazing friend Adam and bought them for us. Then I cried some more. Nathan, Thank you for helping with Adam to set this all up. It was so sweet of you to surprise me with this wonderful night.

Nathan out side the play. This play was one I will always remember. The costuming, music, sets and actors were absolutely phenomenal. I would highly recommend all to see this play.

Steel head Grill. This restaurant was so great. The atmosphere and food were awesome, and the price was cheap.Can't get much better then that.

This is me after the waitress came up and told me a very kind friend had taken care of our dinner. She told us " man I wish I had a friend like that!" You see we were planning on paying for it but Adam had something different in mind for us. As you can see by my face this is the look of complete happiness and about to have a few tears come because I was so grateful. When the waitress had said that a friend had taken care of it we both looked at each other and immediately said Adam!

Our Great Saturday

2009-11-22T21:54:00.000-08:00

This is our friends Shay and Misty. They received their endowments and then were sealed. It was so wonderful to be apart this great day with them. We are so happy for them in their decision to do this. It was also wonderful to be at the temple with all of our friends. We feel so blessed to have come to know and have so many great friends while being here.

Shay and Misty. We love you!

Just hanging out and talking after the sealing.

Our wonderful friends. In this picture is Bryce and Paige Mackay, Misty and Shay Wells and Beca and Levi Adams, and yes us.

After the Temple we went to Chile's and had the amazing chips and salsa with our friends and then went and saw New Moon which was so awesome. Loved the movie.

Working in the Temple

2009-11-22T21:25:00.000-08:00

I am now working in the temple on Wednesday morning and I couldn't be happier. I have the early morning shift and have to be at the temple at 4:45 am. It is a little early but so worth it. My first day was last week and all of the old people were so happy and excited to see me working. They all kept on telling me how young and pretty I was. It was really funny and sweet. I feel so blessed to be able to do this work at this time in my life.

Sacred Love

2009-11-15T21:16:00.000-08:00

As you are all well aware, one of the three fold missions of this blog is to declare our unfailing love to the world. For all you doubters out there, I present you with this. It speaks for itself.

Our wonderful weekend in Tri-Cities

2009-11-10T22:07:00.001-08:00

We went to the Tri-Cities this weekend to be with my brother Landon and his family and to be able to see the blessing of William. The blessing was so beautiful and being with family was wonderful. It was also my dad's birthday and it was so nice to celebrate with him. In this picture and below we took a few family pictures before church.

This is my nephew Bretton. I loved being with him and being with him further confirmed how much I love 3 year olds. Just a few reasons why I love 3 year olds.
1) They are passed the terrible two's. 2) They can talk really well and they are constantly saying and doing the funniest things. 3) They are socially still at a place where they can do, say, sing anything at any time and any where and not be embarrassed.4) They desperately want your attention so they are not to good for you. 5) They are always excited to see you and you never get old to them especially if you give them candy or tickle their arm and back. 6) They can't say your name right but every time they do it comes out as some ridiculously cute ( way cuter) version of my name. I loved it when Bretton walked around in his underwear with the long church socks he put on of his dads and would clench his fists and shake them and his entire body with utter excitement, with a smile so big every time I would kiss him and gently tickle his ear, arms and back.

Nathan and Alli, so cute.

Sweet Cara played and sang for Papa for his birthday. She did such a good job.

Nathan and Baby William. He is such a good, peaceful beautiful baby. And I must mention that William smelled so good.

Heidi and Landon got this phone for my Dad and he was so excited. So I guess this is the new thing. It is an old fashion phone that plugs into your cell phone. My dad couldn't get enough of it and I couldn't stop laughing about it.

We went to this really nice restaurant on my dads birthday. He is reading the card we gave him and he is laughing so hard because of what Nathan wrote. He wrote " I know your birthday will be great because you are spending it with me."

It was so wonderful to see and spend time with my Mom and Dad. I love them and miss them so much!

Gonzaga Intramural Flag football Champs

2009-11-10T21:48:00.000-08:00

This was such an exciting win! It was a great way to end their last time playing flag football together. All of the guys played so well and really put a smack down on every team they played this season( except for that one game which doesn't need to be mentioned). They mercy ruled the the team they beat to win it all. The final score was 35 to 14. Adam and I were the loyal fans with them every step of the way so I fully take partial responsibility for the win.

That's SCARY!

2009-10-26T19:33:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween! We had a Halloween Party with some of our friends this week. I went as one of my personal heroes...Sir Richard Simmons. Polly was my beautiful assistant. Here are some shots from our pre-party photoshoot. Richard, I hope I did you proud. Your perspiration is my inspiration. Rest in peace old friend.

This pose is so awkwardly nasty,every time I look at it I die with laughter. Once again you will see why Nathan is a natural when it comes to these photo shoots. We put on Richard Simmons youtube clips so Nathan could find his inner Richard. Nathan you definently made him proud and me too. Adam once again did great as our photographer, thank you. And to our friends at the party, nice costumes! And Bryce and Caleb nice shots, impressive.

Happy Birthday Nathan THE BIG 2 9 !!!!

2009-10-19T20:00:00.000-07:00

This is a special blog for my very Special Birthday Man! Nathan is very special in so many ways to so many people. He lights up my life with incredible happiness and laughter. Below are some of my favorite pictures of Nathan as well as some of my favorite things he says, calls me, does and has taught me. Nathan is such a character and one of the things I love most is how he fills my life with constant laughter. With Nathan I never know what he is going to do our say. I am always amazed how he comes up with what he does. My life in never boring with Nathan around because he is always doing something to make me laugh or to get a reaction out of me. I love this about him! For example he was being a rascal one day so I stuck my finger in his ear and twisted. Then he said "ouch, don't you know that a dry willy is way worse than a wet willy? Dry ones are too scratchy in your ear. Wet ones create a nice lubrication for a smooth clean twist in the ear". I laughed really hard. Or the Morning I woke up and my hair was kinda crazy. This shocked Nathan because I usually wake up with normal looking hair. So I sit down next to him and he says " Um I think I see a rat in your hair and some twigs too" I guess my hair was a rats nest.

This is one one my favorite faces of Nathan. He has many faces but this one has to be at the top of my list. So a few funny things he has said recently are "I love you like a fat kid loves cake". (he has a slight obsession with fat kids and chocolate cake, probably because he wishes he was a fat kid that ate chocolate cake all day). "Football is the only thing that isn't allowing our marriage to get to the next level because you won't embrace it". Funny, however I don't agree.

Nathan is a natural when it comes to taking funny pictures. Everything about this picture makes me laugh. So Nathan likes to call me all sorts of names. I never know what he is going to call me next. Here are a few of the things he calls me. And when I say a few it's because he has a never ending flow of names for me. Sometimes he comes up with nice names and sometimes they are gross. These are just a few, " Gus, rufus, cheezy, boomer, squeezy, desert flower, peach blossom, shnooks, babe, snugger, etc. etc.

Nathan playing softball. I love going to watch him play sports. So Nathan is very into his sports, and I barley come in first to his second love of sports. I am grateful I am still his #1. He likes to keep his footballs and basketball by the side of our bed, then he likes to throw them up and down before he goes to bed. On many occasions he brings the balls into our clean bed. Under our covers, snuggled in between Nathan and I in which he says that I need to love his football or basketball and I need to kiss them. I don't want to kiss his nasty, dirty basketball, football and baseballs and I don't want them in our clean bed. Then he says they are our babies and that I need to embrace them in our bed. OH man we really need some kids.

Nathan playing basketball and very sweaty. Nathan likes to teach me all sorts of things. He has taught me to throw a football and how to get a hand off and run the football. In our house he sets up a little course. He is very serious about this. He has me get behind him and gives me the directions. I must look at which heel he lifts and run that way to get the pass off of the football, then dodge the obstacles and run down the hall. If I do it bad and without total commitment and passion he has me do it again and again until I get it right. He has also taught me to fold our laundry to perfection and precision. My way was way to messy and he taught me how to evenly cut cheese for his sandwich so it covers every square inch of his bread. I am now a professional at that skill. But in all seriousness Nathan has taught me so many things that has made me become so much more of a Christlike person. I couldn't ask for a better husband, partner and best friend.

This is Nathan right before he was about to go to school. He got this new back pack that he was so excited about and proud of. So I decided to take a picture and this is the pose he gave me, it made me laugh.
Nathan was not liking that I was taking pictures of him so he made this face.

Nathan's smile is so cute and his bangs in this picture are awesome and funny.

I love this picture of Nathan as a baby. His face was so round and his lips are a perfect heart shape.

A few nice pics

2009-10-18T20:26:00.000-07:00

This is our friends Levi and Becca's little girl Audrey. She is the sweetest little girl and we love her. I really love that she always wants me to tickle her back. I hadn't seen her in a few days so when I saw her I said "hi Audrey do you remember me?" and this picture was her reaction to me. I about died. It was so sweet and cute and it made me so happy. When she saw me she wanted to give me a big kiss. So precious. Her little pucker is quite the pucker.

Nathan and Abby. Levi's and Becca's blog reminded us about these pictures. We went to Couer D'Alene Lake and had a picnic with Levi and Becca. We had such a great night with them.

My brother Landon and Ally came into town for her diabetes appointment. We spent some time at Manito park. It is always so wonderful to see them.

Me and Ally dancing. We were walking around the park and heard this lady playing on the violin. She was so good, just sitting on the bench fiddling up a storm, and of course it made me want to dance, and of course Ally wouldn't say no. So we danced.

My mom came up when Landon and Heidi had their baby. She was able to spend a little time with me. This is us at Manito Park. This park is so beautiful that I take everyone there. Being with my Mom is always so wonderful, she is such an angel.

Nathan and I at the Couer d'Alene Lake.

Fun with the Young Women

2009-10-18T19:57:00.001-07:00

This is at our ugly pajama party. Doin some dancing. I must say that Jessica committed to her dance moves and was awesome.

We got partners and then tried to put lipstick on each other the best we could while blind folded. One of my Beehives Samantha did this job. Ya she didn't win.

The whole group.(A lot of the girls are missing) My get up was nasty but my yw and I liked it. We had a great time together. I love being with the YW.

Only a few girls showed up to mutual so I took them to get ice cream then we went to Manito Park and took pictures. We had such a great time. This is Reilly a very sweet girl.

Me and Stephanie lounging in the flower pedals.

Husky Game

2009-10-18T19:30:00.001-07:00

Me and my Dad at the game. The Huskies won after scoring two touchdowns in the final four minutes. It was awesome. Thanks for the tickets Dad.
The guys.
The pregame scrimmage between friends.
While I was home, I went for a little spin through the old neighborhood. Why is this bike at my parents house?

Seattle

2009-10-18T19:20:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics of our trip to Seattle. Polly had continuing education in Bellevue, but we still managed to have some fun over the weekend.

Road Trip: Grand Canyon

2009-09-27T21:47:00.000-07:00

P: These are the last pictures of our trip that we took going back to Spokane. We have liked reliving our trip even though these pics are a little outdated. This trip with Nathan had to be one of the best trips of our lives. I marvel at how much beauty we saw in the matter of a week. The grand canyon was.. well GRAND! We both agreed the best part of our trip was Yosemite. However every thing else comes in a close second. Being in Nature with Nathan, no cell phones, tv,(Sports Center)was such a refreshing, wonderful time. Enjoy all the funny things Nathan wrote!

P: If your wondering why I am wearing this ugly hat in every picture let me explain. We camped for almost our entire trip and my hair.... well lets just say it is a lot better to look at this hat than my nasty hair.

N: As most of you know, my life revolves around model trains, the classic American game Connect Four ("Go for the glory, go for one more! Go for it! Connect Four!), and the intoxicating world of high fashion. That being said, I consider myself more than qualified to make some observations on the fashion faux pas Polly and I were tortured with in Grand Canyon National Park. Here is just a small sampling of the debauchery that is "eurofashion". N: I love this. Me, relaxing on a bench, taking in some of the most scenic vistas this great country has to offer, pretending to review the pictures I have taken of those vistas, while in reality snapping shots of these two Euros. The dude is proudly displaying a murse (man purse), which I didn't get in the shot so you will have to trust me, and some man capris. Every man was wearing capris. If you are hot, just go with the shorts! If you are seeking coverage, then go with the pants. The capris bring nothing to the table and are a complete fashion disaster. That is all.

P: We had a lot of fun at the grand canyon but what really made the whole experience especially grand was when we decided to secretly take pictures of euros in all their fashion glory. Nathan was pulling the funniest things and I could not stop laughing. He got so into this and it was his mission to find the best offenders. We sneakily did this for about 45 minutes and it was great. People have got to be some of the best entertainment.It is know so clear to why my dad always just wanted to sit on the bench at the mall and watch people while we shopped.
N: Man capris? Check. Obscure brand of shoes with an Italian name that no one has ever heard of? Check. Fly fishing vest filled to the brim with anything but soap and deodorant? Check. He's got the trifecta.

N: I like this shot cause I caught her adjusting. This guy thought he would shake things up and strut it in the more rare jean capris but the real disaster here is the shoes and socks combos. Naturally, if you wear black shoes, you got to go with white socks. Wait a second...what if you only have white shoes? Easy, black socks.
N: Bless his heart this guy tried to blend in by putting on an American cowboy hat. He even hemmed up his capris to make bona fide shorts, but to no avail. The pink flannel and brown dress shoes with black socks were a dead giveaway. What at first glance appeared to be your good ol' American cowboy, turned out to be just another eurofashion train wreck.

Honorable Mention N: Polly liked this one.
P: We kept on running into this girl, so I took a picture of her. Little does she know that her amazing fashion will now be see by even more people. However I don't believe her fashion statement will create followers just a few "what in the world was she thinking." If any of you have red tights with designs on them retire them NOW and make sure to not wear them in my presence.
N: Sticking with the tights theme. I am sure this is a good look in Hong Kong.
p: You can't see that this lady is wearing black dress shoes to match her black purse. So fashion forward, the black nicely off sets the all white outfit. Her shirt/dress is puffy, has lace tights and is ready for hiking around the grand canyon. Yes she definitely has the right attire on.

Road Trip: Vegas

2009-09-27T19:53:00.000-07:00

N: The Hoover. It pretty much speaks for itself. I am glad I had the chance to drive over it before they finish the new bridge. See below.
p: It was amazing.
N: Here is my list of top five things I wish I had to throw off of here. 5) An older television set, 4) an inflated tire and wheel 3) Paris Hilton, 2) an exercise ball filled with ketchup, and 1) a huge watermelon

N: This is the suspension bridge they are building for the highway to bypass the dam. It really is a dam shame. That is proper usage right?
p: Your funny Nathan.

p: When we go to Vegas we always go to the mall in Caesars Palace and eat at The Cheese Cake Factory, one of our favorites.
N: Vegas is good for a short time and perfect for one of Polly and I's favorite hobbies, People Watching. We sat near a fountain at Caesars and watched people walk by for about an hour, confirming once again that everyone else is weird.
P: I like going to Vegas for about ah.. a few hours then the whole wonder and excitement wears off and you start to feel dirty and like a sinner. How ever We did have fun for a while. The guy that took this picture was standing there in a suit with a fake badge acting like he worked for some hotel. After he took this picture which took 2 seconds he blatantly asked for money. It kinda caught me off guard, but hey at least he's makin his money. The people-watching was hilarious, I couldn't get enough of all the girls in their prom dresses/ nasty/ thinking they are hot/ too high of heels trying to walk all sexy down the strip. And then it did get old because I could no longer handle all the scandalous girls I and Nathan kept on seeing. Vegas.... what a crazy place. My mom says Vegas will be the first place swallowed up in the earth when the world is coming to an end. I always used to kind of laugh when she would say that. I can now definitely confirm she is 100% correct. Honestly I am surprised a massive tornado hasn't hit that place yet and destroyed the whole of it.
N: Paul Blart got promoted to Caesar's Palace. The most important part of operating a Segway is to stay properly hydrated...you know, in case you have to chase someone down.
P: Right when I saw this guy I started taking pictures of him because I knew this pic was priceless. Nathan got really embarrassed and said it was rude. That is why the shot isn't that great, he made me stop. For all we know this could have been the guy that inspired the movie in the first place. I have a good feeling this guy likes his new found celebrity. What really does it for me in this picture is the helmet and the sipping of the water. I guess you can never take to much precaution on one of those wheely things, what ever their called.
N: I have never really thought that if my car broke down someplace that I would probably die, but I actually thought that driving from Vegas to Yosemite. I drove down the middle of this highway for 20 miles and never saw another car. It was a complete wasteland out there...105 degrees, no cell service, no gas stations, and no shade. Luckily, our Passatt did just fine and after getting lost for a little while, we found our campground at June Lake.
P: Yeah... um got a little nervous when Nathan didn't know exactly where we were going, thank goodness he pulled through. He thought he was really cool driving down the middle of the street.

Road Trip: Yosemite National Park

2009-09-13T21:16:00.000-07:00

N: Buckle up world cause you are about to go on a thrilling ride into one of this nations most majestic natural playgrounds. Sit back and relax while you take in stunning vistas, cascading waterfalls, magnificent valleys and massive trees, all from the comfort of your living room. And of course those two lovable troublemakers, Polly and Nathan will be right there with you every step of the way. THIS...IS...YOSEMITE!
P: Nathan is experimenting with blog teasers to try and increase our number of readers and comments.

N: Yes, the water felt great, and Yes, those are my shorts on the rock. What a liberating swim.
P: Sick. Um... no he is not having a swim in his b-day suit. Only liberating because the water was freezing and of course the beauty that surrounded us.

N: This picture sums up Yosemite. Emerald pool, waterfalls, and half dome. This was an awesome hike.

P: This hike up to the falls was one of the most beautiful hikes I have ever been on. What was so amazing about this waterfall was the rainbow that just stayed right under it. WOW!

N: This is a Sequoia tree. They only grow in parts of the Sierra Nevada mountains and are thicker than a Redwood, but shorter. The name of the tree also has four vowels in a row while Redwood only has two vowels in a row, so it has that over Redwoods as well. I really don't know who I would take in a no holds barred tree fight. A Redwood clearly has the reach advantage, but a Sequoia's girth is nothing to laugh at.

N: "Excuse me, I thought I ordered the large pine cone?"

N: Polly sometimes refers to Sequoias as Sycamores, but you know Potato, Pot-ah-to. Or maybe it would be more like potato, tom-ah-to since they are two completely different trees?
P: Well, I don't know what to say. He didn't mention that I also called them a spruce or a syracuse (I know that isn't even a tree... mercy what was i thinking) You know, if my dumb moments can make Nathan and apparently now a lot of people laugh then I am ok with that. I'm not going to pretend to be all smart like Nathan.
N: I am not pretending. Ouch!

N: We biked all over Yosemite Valley. This is absolutely the way to go. The bike trails make a big loop and let you see everything.
P: Biking around yosemite was the bomb! We got off and did the hikes when we got to them.
N: This was a squirrel that Polly insisted looked like Snoopy. This was one of about 40 squirrel shots she took in a matter of about five minutes when we were eating lunch. I told her she was treating them like her nieces and nephews, but she just kept taking pictures. The really weird part is that we now have a three foot tall poster of this squirrel on our bedroom wall.
P: I am not going to defend my squirrel obsession for one minute but I will say that squirrel is a little snoopy and I love that poster on our wall.
N: El Capitan.
P: I took this picture as the sun was setting and I was amazed how it made the trees sparkle. Being here I was always in constant awe of the Lord's creations.
N: This deer was loose in the village area. I thought it was going to go nuts on all these tourists who were surrounding it, but a Ranger scared the deer out of the populated area before it could gore anyone.

P: This is a picture of Half Dome from the upper part of Yosemite. Next time we go we will hike it. It takes all day and is a pretty grueling hike from what we heard.

N: I summitted this peak in just over 17 hours. Then I base jumped without a shoot off the back side. I guess I am just extreme like that.
P: Nathan is like a big monkey always trying to climb everything. He is like a kid, "Hey Polly watch me climb this rock and take a picture of how cool I am". Yes, I am so proud of him.

N: Everything in Yosemite was amazing. It was hard to pick which pics to put on here.

N: This was June Lake where we camped near Yosemite.

Road trip: Redwoods and Coast

2009-09-06T22:29:00.000-07:00

N: Polly and I enjoyed watching the sun set on the Pacific Ocean. So romantic.
P: This was another perfect ending to our day. Being with Nathan in such a beautiful place was perfect.

N: Polly took this "sacred grove" shot. Well done.
P: I took this picture in the morning at our campsite. When I saw all of the rays coming through the trees I couldn't believe the beauty. I had never seen any thing quite like this before.

N: We did some biking in the Redwoods. It went much better than our McKenzie River Trail biking.

P: This is me picking black berries. It is one of Nathan and I's favorite hobbies. Yes I said hobbies. Any time we find black berry bushes we pull over and pick and eat to our hearts content. In Oregon we picked blueberries and I ate the entire bag in about 10 minutes, it was so wonderful. Makes me smile just thinking about it.

N: Fern Canyon was a really cool hike because it went right up the middle of the canyon along the stream.
P: we hiked though the Fern Canyon and through the red woods old growth forest and it was incredible.

N: This was Polly's first sand castle. We used the standard three tiered line of defense approach to protect it from the incoming tide. First, a sand retainer wall on the ocean side of the castle. Second, a four inch deep moat surrounding all four sides. And third, a castle wall to stop any waves that breach the first two lines. Needless to say, it still stands as a symbol of our everlasting love for each other.
P: We camped on the beach this night and it was so wonderful to walk along it, build my first sandcastle with Nathan and just enjoy the beauty of the ocean. We collected all of these really great basalt rocks that I use for hot stone massage. The rocks were incredible. I couldn't believe that I could find so many that were so perfect, because buying rocks like this are really expensive. It was the best ending to our day.

N: Polly found these two snails in our campsite and played snail matchmaker. It sounds like a premise for a great reality tv show. She was so happy to see them together and kept checking in on them to make sure they were still friends. I think it was the highlight of our trip for her.
P: Hey every little animal needs a true lover and best friend. So I have to admit that when I checked on them before we left our campsite and they were still next to each other just slime-in along(much to my surprise) I was so happy and had to take a picture of them. They probably lived happily ever after thanks to me.

N: These are Redwoods and they are really big. Usually, I physically impose my will on anything in my path, but not these giants.
P: Yep they really were big. They were stunningly beautiful and magnificent. Looking up into the sky at them was quite a site because they went on forever. We biked and hiked through them and we loved it.

Road Trippin': McKenzie River, Oregon

2009-09-02T22:19:00.000-07:00

Our last stop on our trip was the McKenzie River in central Oregon. We came here to do some mountain biking but found a ton of other great reasons to visit.

N: We camped at Paradise Campground right on the river. It was awesome except at night when this bug would start making this really annoying noise while I was trying to sleep. When I heard it, I would grab the flashlight and creep over to the sound with the light off. Then when I thought I knew exactly where he was, I would flip on the light and try to spot it. When I didn't see him, I grabbed my hatchet and went straight ax murderer on the entire area. After completely demolishing his entire habitat, I went back to bed only to have him start buzzing again. I hate that bug. Eventually, I just stuffed my ears with TP and fell asleep.
P: You did want that bugs life. Poor little ugly bug. You knew it was ugly by the sound it was making. You just needed to embrace his annoying little noise and envision it a little chime putting you to sleep like I did. I didn't mind the bug. Anyway, when we got to our camp and first saw the river it was honestly the most incredible blue color I have ever seen in a river. Not even crayola could make a color like that. I loved just staring at it and didn't want to leave.

N: This is the McKenzie River Trail, which is a 30 mile hiking and biking trail that follows the river. This trail was the reason we came here. Polly is on her bike in this shot, but soon after this bridge, the trail turned to nobby, rough lava rock. She had to ditch her bike and hike to the Blue Pool. Only a few small parts of the trail are lava rock, everything else is nice dirt single track through old growth forest.
P: Yeah, I need to work on my mountain biking skills. Nathan was real patient with me because he is a real pro and I am a real beginner, lets just say I am a lot better on a road bike. However it was so much fun and the single track is really fun; well until we got to the lava rock. I said hasta la vista to my bike at that point. At least the old people I passed on the trail thought I was smart.

N: This was the Blue Pool. The river went underground for about a mile and this pool is where it reappears. Just another one of the really cool features on the McKenzie River.
P: Hiking through all the lava rock was totally worth it when I saw this little wonder.

N: This was Deer Creek Hot Springs right on the river's edge. We were the only one's there and it was a nice 85 degrees.
P: Ahhhh! The hot springs, it was glorious. A real gem.

N: This was our river guide Chachy. He lives on the McKenzie, works as a river guide in the summer and is on ski patrol in the winter. That sounds like the life. What am I doing in law school!
P:Chachy was a real funny dude who kept on telling Nathan to get out of the raft because he was a lawyer but that I could stay in because I am a massage therapist. He made the whole experience really great!

N: We rafted the river which was definitely one of the highlights of our whole trip. It was a little expensive but worth every dime. I highly recommend it if you get the chance.
P: Chachy challenged us to try whats called Riding The Bull. Right before we went down some big class 3 rapids we went and sat on the front of the raft, with our legs hanging over. Our only chance at staying on the raft was holding onto a single rope on the front of the raft. It was a little crazy! Nathan got bucked off pretty fast into the raft but I did pretty darn good. Then Nathan was some what of a beached whale on the floor of the raft, it was hilarious. This was my first time rafting and I loved it.

N: These were the falls on the river. The top one was about 70 feet tall and the lower one was about 60 feet tall. The falls rage even in August because the river is mostly spring fed rather than from snow melt. The middle picture is the section of river in between the two falls.
P: Hiking around the falls was awesome and quite a site. The guide from our river rafting trip told us that both of these falls have been kayaked over... crazy.

N: This was a little restaurant on Clear Lake. It had a great view but really it was all about the Marionberry Pie. It was unbelievable! The story is that an old grandma has made pies for the restaurant for the past 20 years, and delivers fresh ones everyday. Sadly, I have to admit that if I ran into that Grandma I would water board her for the recipe if needs be.
P: Yeah, I shnooked a bite of that pie and I was in heaven, wishing I could eat more. Nathan told me to take a picture of him so he could remember this amazing moment in time with his pie forever!

N: This is Clear Lake. It is the headwaters for the McKenzie River and is almost entirely spring fed from water that comes from a huge underground aquifer. Because the water is filtered by the aquifer, it is completely clear and really cold. The water temp never gets above 36 degrees in the lake.
P: The Beauty of the lake was incredible. The picture is pretty great but it doesn't do it justice.