More Payson Pictures

Here are some more pictures from our family trip to Payson.

First is Dad and his infamous Tote-Gote, he has made some changes to it in the last couple of years, resewed the seat, added a new motor engine to it and also finished it with a glossy red paint. Dad admitted that it is well over 30 years old, he has spent a lot of time getting it ready for this trip. Mostly I was suprised how well he has fixed it up, he can pick up some really good speed on it.



At this point Dad just wanted to take it for a quick spin before we had to head back home, he even tried to get Brian and I to drive on it, you can guess how we responded.



While Dad was driving around in the snow, wearing shorts if you cannot tell, Brenlie and I look on from the comfort of the camper.



Brenlie and Behr were so funny the whole trip, for as much as they loved the snow, and played in it they would always head back to the camper and sit there until someone got their interest. During one of our rides Brenlie refused to budge from the front seat of the 4-Wheeler and so Dad had to stand in the back because Brenlie could not be moved. I wish we had a picture of that to show.



One really cool thing about this trip was that it was my first experience with falling snow. I have been in snow before, but I have never actually seen it fall and it was so pretty and amazing. Mom thought I was dumb, but I was just so awestruck by how pretty it looked, I wish we could have stayed longer. We however were not expecting snow and were not dressed accordingly, and so we were all were pretty cold at this point.

Christmas Tree Chopping

It has been a while since I was able to go Christmas Tree Chopping with my family up in Payson. This year it was amazing, a great experience. In order to get the day after Thanksgiving off I went Black Friday shopping with my manager which meant standing in line at Best Buy at 3:00 a.m. It really was not too bad, plus by 7:00 a.m. she knew I had plans and let me leave early.

Dad rented a 4-Wheeler to take with us up to the mountains to make hiking a lot easier. It was SO much fun to ride in it through the forest looking at the beautiful trees and snow. We covered a lot of ground, Dad even gave Brian and I a chance to drive it which was amazing, it was tons of fun. However we were not expecting snow so I was not dressed appropriately and my hands got too cold too fast to drive for very long.



This is for Kylene, sorry but Dad got the chainsaw working too fast, and we could not get a great picture like you used to of dad bending over trying to get it to work. Maybe next year. This is Dad sawing the tree down however, and it dropped down in a matter of seconds, and no branches snapped this time - a miracle.



Brian and I with the dogs Brenlie and Behr. You can see in the background all the trees covered in snow, it was a really beautiful sight.



The dogs were so funny in the snow, we have tons of pictures of them just rolling around in and being silly. Brenlie especially loved to play in the snow, as soon as we got out of the truck she was face first in the snow.



Another bonus to the 4-Wheeler, it did all the carrying. We were able to just lift the tree on the back, and drive it back to the truck which saved us a lot of back pains.

The Newest Addition To Our Home:

This is for Michael, I know that he does not get to see the dogs or Grandpa that often so I will try to get them on my blog whenever a photo opportunity presents itself.

Dad recently bought a Nordic Track that currently lives in our family room, getting it there left me bruised for two weeks so I am in no hurry to move it soon. Dad usually runs on it at night after he gets home from work, the dogs Behr and Brenlie cannot stand the noise it makes and so they stand around and bark at it.

This picture shows the track going super slow in hopes of getting the dogs on it and not afraid. That lasted about 5 seconds, as you can see Dad is trying to pull a resistent Behr back on, and Brenlie is very safely off and cowering. Brian is pretty winded from Behr almost falling on him.



Behr is too big of a dog for even Dad to physically make him obey, and Behr slipped off and started barking again. It lasted about 4 more trials until we gave up, Behr and Brenlie can be very stubborn dogs, you can say that they fit right in with the family.

Brunette Again

I have wanted to dye my hair dark for a bit now and decided to go even darker than I did last year. There is still a little blonde that shines through but I love it, the color and the cut. Kylene and I are almost twins except that I got a side bang cut to mix things up so she cannot say I copied her.



In the background you can see that while I am doing homework (by homework I mean browsing through family photos - which I tend to do instead of homework) that I am watching Lingo which is my favorite Game Show Network word game. My cluttered desk in the background is just a bonus, Mom took the photo on purpose with Lingo in the background. She may have got my dirty desk to perhaps embarrass me, I'll never know.

Primary Program

Today was my Primary Program and it went amazing! I have been the CTR 8 Instructor for the past two years and so this is only my second Children's Program that I have been since I was in Primary myself. We have been practicing all year some of my favorite Primary songs and even some that I have never heard of before. Our Primary Chorister organized some great duets and groups to sing verses while the rest of the primary sang the chorus. It was fun to have kids who normally are shy stand up in front of our whole congregation and sing into a microphone with one or more kids. I could be biased but my CTR 8 kids I thought were particularily talented and put forth the best performance. There was a great deal of support from family members that came to watch the children, our overflow was almost completely full. It was a very spiritual experience, I am sure I looked very silly sitting up there smiling and beaming at all the children. However, it was a very special time and I tried hard to remember that during lesson and sharing time later because the kids were very high-strung and hard to keep reverent. We have the 3 - 6 p.m. church and now that the weather has changed so drastically it makes coming out of church at 6 p.m. very difficult because it is so dark and cold. I wish we could have recorded it because I would love to watch it over and over again, but I guess I will have to wait until next year.

Tag

Where is your cell phone? backpack
Where is your sig. other? n/a :(
Your hair color? brown/blonde
Your mother? amazing
Your father? original
Your favorite thing? family
Your dream last night? limited
Your dream/goal? limitless
The room you're in? bedroom
Your hobby? cross-stitching
Your fear? failing
Where do you want to be in 6 years? happy
Where were you last night? class
What you're not? coordinated
One of your wish list items? framing
Where you grew up? Arizona
Last thing you ate? trailmix
What are you wearing? lounge-wear
Your TV? off
Your pet? Brenlie/Behr
Your computer? on
Your mood? exhausted
Missing someone? family
Your car? dirty
Something you're not wearing? jacket
Favorite store? The Attic
Your summer? Long
Love someone? Family
Favorite color? purple
When was the last time you laughed? today
When was the last time you cried? yesterday

Thanks Kylene, some of ours were pretty similar. I think I will tag Jolene. She is more articulate than I am. One-word responses are a beast.

Harry Potter Halloween 2008

We decided this year to dress ourselves around the theme of the Harry Potter book series. Mom was Professor McGonagall, I was Hermione Granger, and Brian was Harry Potter.

Brian is showing off his wand that he made literally that day with the help of Dad he was able to make a pretty authentic looking wand. The stain was a nice touch.

Mom's costume was really pretty, the green hat and cloak were perfect. She even had her Harry Potter theme sound track from The Sorcerer's Stone playing in the background while we waited for trick-or-treaters. It was a pretty slow night, out there from 6 p.m. to about 10 p.m. but we also visited neighbors. We even brought out the UNO cards to play a few games while waiting, it was a fun night.

My wand had been done since Wednesday night, Dad helped me with the lathe first. The stain was not added until an hour before we needed to head outside. This year was amazing, I only wish we had more trick-or-treaters. I love seeing the little kids costumes, we had some really cute ones this year.

Happy Halloween!

Marie-Therese Gown GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

Marie-Therese Gown GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

This an amazing dress, the stitching and detailing is breath taking. My neice would absolutely love it, she is a beautiful dear who would really love this dress. Thanks!

Fall Semester 2008

My fall semester has been very busy. I am taking 15 credit hours instead my usual 12 credit hours which accounts for many late nights. It is my senior year and cannot wait for graduation, although I sometimes fear that it will never come. Right now I am anxiously trying to find an internship that will meet all the university requirement before November. If you cannot tell I still am working for Wells Fargo, but I would like to try an internship with a different company for a change of pace. I have been there almost 2 years now and love it now more than ever, my new branch at Higley and Brown is amazing. I love it there.

Summer 2008

Summer has been a busy time for me, I transferred locations for work and completed summer sessions for June and July. Recently I have been enjoying some time off school to work, and enjoy baseball season, and catch up on my hobby of cross-stitching.

The picture was taken recently, my mother needed more present pictures of me to take to Utah for her family reunion. They were creating a scrapbook, and so we quickly took several pictures in various clothing and poses to make it look like they were taken at different times throughout the year. It was fun, and the result was good, we had casual ones with everyone in jeans, more formal ones like the one posted in dresses, and also some pictures of accomplishments we had. Mine was a cross-stitch that I had completed and has professionally framed.