Thanksgiving

This year we traveled to Idaho Falls to visit Gary's grandparents for Thanksgiving. Along the way we stayed at Jeanette's brother David's house. I met his beautiful family and enjoyed a lovely Papa Murphy's Pizza dinner. We stayed the night and had a fancy breakfast, went to church then headed to Huntsville. There we were served an amazing Thanksgiving dinner at Jeanette's other brother Greg's restaurant, Texas Pride. There I met all her sibblings except for her one sister. It was a great get together!!

We then headed to my grandparent's house and had a fantastic time visiting with some of my favorite people in the whole wide world! We enjoyed a very cozy nights sleep and took off once everyone had eaten breakfast. I was extreemly thankful to get to see them and Tanya!

Two hours later we landed ourselves at the Hall grandparent's house. Rachelle and Ryan came up from Rexburg and together we filled the house with loudness and fun! We played games at the church such as ping-pong and human fooseball... we also played games at the house (maffia, uno and more games that I'm not remembering...). We watched movies and even went to see New Moon on Thanksgiving day. We had a really yummmy Thanksgiving dinner and napped the afternoon away.  It really was a wonderful trip!

Blogging out my eyeballs

Hey, sorry I have not blogged on my own family blog in about a month! Ouch! That's bad. I have however, posted 40+ blog posts since then... As I mentioned, I'm blogging as a major hobby. When I get a good amount of visitors and/or someone clicks on the adds I get money from Google. How cool is that?!  So far, I have made $3.78! Enough about blogging.

Gary and I had a great Halloween! We (Paul, Gary and I)  went to Qdoba dressed as burritos (hardly) and received two free steak burritos. As long as you had some tin foil on you got to pick any burrito you wanted with any or all the toppings you want. It was fun! Then we went back home and watched a move and wished there were more trick-or-treators. It was a pretty good night.

Gary is still working away with his business. He's making enough to live off of which is very nice. We are also wrapping up tax school. We're learning how to use the computer software and work problems out as if there was really a customer in front of us. It's much more fun than the class.

I had a job interview today. It was for a preschool in Arvada. Lucky me! Now I get to go to work from 9:00 to 5:00 and teach 7 little 2 year olds. Your jealous. I know you are. Really, I'm excited to get to work with such little children and teach them the basics. We get to learn about colors, how to count to 10! And our ABC's. I really am looking forward to seeing them progress as I plan, prepare and teach them my lessons.

I talked with my new boss and from the sounds of it, I'll get a good amount of time off (maybe 3 hours a week) because other girls really want extra hours! Thank heaven for them! I'd love to have time off! As I explained to my boss; I am working for fun, not because I need the extra money. If other people need/want the hours by all means... take my hours! I'm not sure how that works exactly though, since I'm "group leader" or their main teacher. I guess the assistants get to watch them for a while without me or something of the sorts. Honestly, I know nothing about the job yet other than my hours and the age and number of children. I don't know where my room is, what their daily schedule is like. I don't know names, what they already know. I don't know what materials I have to work with. To say the least, Wednesday will be interesting.

Gary and I were blessed with callings yesterday at church. First he was called into the office. The counselor asked if we were temple worthy. We replied not only with a yes, but also telling him we just went on Wednesday! He was pleased and then asked Gary if he'd be the Sunday School President. It was a bigger calling than I was expecting as new ward members but I'm excited for him. On our way to Sunday School (our first hour) another counselor asked if he could talk with us. We agreed and he pulled us out into the courtyard (yes, our ward building has a courtyard!). He asked if I'd be willing to work in the nursery!  Wow, lucky me! I get to work with 2 year olds 6 days a week! Thank heaven for Saturdays! I'm excited to work with them though and thankful that I have the opportunity to serve.

Well, that about sums it up. If you want more details... just read my other blogs!

Recipes for Kids!

Opinionatedfood

Happy Family Ideas

Colorado Critics

Family

I don't know if this is normal or if this will ever go away, but I miss living at home with my parents! I miss it more than I can explain!! Don't get me wrong, I love Gary and I love living with him. I know I'm building my own family. I know all this. It's just so hard sometimes to realize I'll never live at home again. Just had to get that out there.

General Confrence, Rockies and Amazing Cinnamon Rolls!

Well... I have a lot to blog about today! I guess that's what I get for avoiding it for the past week.

Thursday I was fortunate enough to get to go to the Rockies game with Gary, Eric and a girl Eric brought (her name was Erin). I don't really love baseball as much as I do football or basketball so I was a wee bit excited but figured it would be long. Well... we got there and luckily it was sunny and warm-ish. We were sitting about 8 rows back from the field so we had a great view! It turned out to be pretty fun and entertaining. We won which gave us a wild card so the fans were pretty dang excited!
Eric was asked to play a game between innings. He said yes and was pretty excited. When it came time to play and the camera was all ready the announcer decided he had a better idea! So Eric didn't get to play. He did receive a $50 visa gift card though!

Friday we hung out with Eric, Bua, Taryn, Kris, and Derick. We mostly just  at around our house waiting for everyone to show up, at which point 6 hours had passed and it was midnight so they went to go party and we went to bed.

Then, this past weekend was General Conference. Everyone always asks one of two questions so I'll answer them both for you.
1) What was your favorite talk?
Answer: I really loved President Monson's talk. I loved the service ideas and how it helped me see the millions of little things I can do to serve others!

2) What did you think the theme was?
Answer: I saw a few themes but mostly, love and service. I loved it!

We went up to Gary's parents Saturday morning to watch Saturday's two sessions and stay the night to watch Sunday's two sessions. I woke up at 7:00 on Saturday and make some homemade cinnamon rolls using a "Clone of a Cinnabon" recipe. They were amazing! We enjoyed eating them as we watched the Saturday Morning session. The rest of our weekend was spent just hanging out with the family and enjoying each other's company!

New Grass!

When we moved into the new house the yard was filled with weeds! We knew it needed to be tilled and that we should put in some grass seed but we were going to wait til Spring. Well, Monday morning we found out that the church was going to be taking out some grass to put in some pipes. We rented a sod cutter and ta da! We had grass! Ok, it was not that easy! The guys (Gary, Mark and their dad) cut sod for a few hours, loaded it up in the trailer, tilled the yard, we all raked and Gary's mom pulled weeds. Then we had to lay the sod. It was our Monday activity.

When it was all finished, we ran to Home Depot and bought a few flowers for the flower bed. It was dark by then but I was so excited to have a presentable yard that I put them in right away!

This sod business actually ended up taking another day since on Monday we really only did a quarter of the yard... So now it's beautiful!!!! I'm pretty thrilled to have such a nice front yard. I haven't taken pictures yet but I will put some up this week. With the new paint and the new yard, this is a pretty hip house!

Uneventful Weekend

I haven't posted in a while so I thought I'd give an update. Then I realized there is nothing TO update.

Gary is doing an amazing job selling SEO (search engine optimization) and web development for the business he and his dad started. They are bringing in enough money for us to get by. A few more sales and we'll be living cozy! If any of you know any business owners who need some internet marketing send them our way!!!!

I am working on finding a good job (that entails good hours, good pay and good location). I'm also helping out anywhere I need to or can. Oh my heck!! How could I forget? Gary and I are going to tax school! We're learning about taxes and it's overwhelming but fun!

Friday I got the opportunity to go to "Fantastic Friday" at the ward building in Arvada. Jeanette (Gary's mother) invited me and I'm SO glad she did! We helped do crafts and learned how to make egg rolls!!!!! It was simply AMAZING! SO FUN!

Saturday we spent the morning painting the outside of the new house!! Then we relaxed the rest of the day. Sunday we went to stake confrence, which was out in tim-buck-two- Aurora. It was great. After that we, as in I, took a nap and headed to Arvada to visit with Gary's family. We played Master Piece and had a delicious dinner!! After that we went with them to the youth fireside. The fireside was good other than the speaker did not do what he was assigned to do... he did give a great talk though!

Now for this week, I'm working on getting my Colorado driver's license! Pray that it goes well. I have to prove I'm a resident and I'm not sure how I'm going to do that... but my license expires in a couple weeks so I need to get my new one ASAP!

Opinionated Food!

Alright, I have been a little less than busy since I moved to Denver. I'm looking for a fun job, but those don't just come easy so in the mean time... I'm creating a new blog!! It's all about food and its just glorious! I'd suggest you check it out.

Opinionated Food

New House!!!

The tippy top is one of the livingrooms. Next one is From livingroom into "fish room"

Above: Dining Room!

Above are both pictures of the kitchen, behind the kitchen is my laundry room!

This is the lovely bathroom!!!

This is the bedroom!

and this is the office/spare bedroom.

We also have a family room off past the dining room but I forgot to take picutres of it. I'll post them another day.

Below are other not as cool pictures of the house! I'll add more when I get around to it!

DENVER! Pure bliss!

So, I now live in Denver Colorado! Woo Hoo! We safely made our move and are almost done unpacking. The only catch is... the house we're living in is up for sale. Kent (my father in law) owns the house and has remodeled it. It's beautiful!!! and I love it. He's trying to sell it but in the mean time, we're living there to make the mortgage payment and to make it look lived in. The only down side is, we could have to move again any given month.

I was a little scared of the big move. My fears were/are not finding or liking a new job, not renting out the basement apartment in Provo (PLEASE spread the word, it's a nice apartment for a good deal!) and being lonely. We'll see how those issues turn out. So far though I have found Denver to be 1) VERY confusing as far as some roads go and 2) filled with VERY nice people! You would think people in Utah would be nicer, right? Totally wrong! As a whole, Denver's citizens are by far much more considerate than I'd see in Utah.

I also love the shopping here. You see, when I say we live in Denver... I mean Denver! We're right smack in the middle of it all which means you find your store just around the corner! Ikea for example... just 10 minutes away! Walmart? Yep, 10 blocks away. Target? Got a few of those. Seriously, this place is awesome!

Gary and his dad are working on their business and I'm just tagging along with whom ever has the more exciting day planed. I hope I find a job soon, and hope even more that the basement gets rented out! Thanks for reading, and I'll keep you updated!

One Year Down... Eternity to Go!!!

It's hard to believe that Gary and I have been married for a year now! It has been an amazing year and I'm really thankful to be married to him not just for time, but for eternity. Everyone says the first five years are the hardest... if these years are "hard" I really can't wait for the easy ones! We have been blessed to not be faced with any major trials or disagreements. We are really just happy and in love!

For our anniversary we went to Salt Lake City! We first went to Ikea and shopped around. Gary was AMAZING and made sure that I saw everything in the store. He was so fun to shop with! Then we went out to a yummy lunch after which we checked into our Bed and Breakfast! We stayed at the Parrish Place . After taking a short nap while Gary read, we went to Gateway mall for more shopping! and a movie. We saw, and loved, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Since it ended at 11:30 we then called it a night. The next morning we woke up to a lovely breakfast in bed! We checked out and took the scinic rout back home just in time for dinner with the family! It was a really great weekend away.

The yummy breakfast!



The jettet tub/shower!



The sitting area we never sat in.





Our Sleep Number Bed! (I'm a 35)

MOVING!

Most of you have heard... Gary and I are moving to Denver August 28th!! That's about 3 weeks away now. I'm extremely excited to get out of Utah and move on with the next chapter in our life. We're looking for jobs but have 100% faith that everything will work out nicely.

In the mean time, we're still carrying on our daily rituals. I'm now working as receptionist/activities director at the Charleston. Long story short, we don't have anyone doing activities so I'm putting together the calendars and on Tuesdays I even get to do the activities with them! It's stressful and I really don't enjoy it most of the time but I'm the type that likes things to be done the right way so I just take the initiative and do it myself. Actually, really... I love playing with the residents. I just don't like gathering them all together (going to all 64 doors and asking them to come down...). And today a coworker that I had admired and respected really threw me off guard and started yelling at me. Yeah... that's a nice way to start the day! NOT! I tried to just brush it off and not care but I couldn't help but to loose a lot of respect for the poor girl. I'll have to pray about that one. (update: 2 days pass and we're back to good standing.)

Gary is still working at the same place. (I don't even know what its called) He does customer service and is actually the team lead so he deals with the REALLY angry people. He seems to do a great job at anything he does though! He and his dad are working hard on their companies too so Gary is always working and trying to become more successful! He's really quite amazing.

July Weekends are the BEST!

This weekend was one of those weekends I will always remember. It was warm, sunny, I have all my responsibilities under control, I'm in love with my husband and best of all... I'm childless and free to go have fun!

Saturday we got up, I made a new waffle recipe. Then we cut Gary's hair and got ready for the day. Sid showed up then we went out to do our chores (filled up with gas and deposited checks). The rest of the afternoon was spent just relaxing and hanging out. I made a home made BBQ chicken pizza. It was pretty good! After feeding all the boys I took a nice little nap.

After watching Swing Vote, Gary decided it was a good night to go for a midnight cruise. Eric, Gary and I then spent the next few hours just driving around on the bikes. We stopped at Sonic and tried their new Chillers. It was pretty much a milkshake, yum! The way home was beautiful! The moon was shining over the mountains. The air was perfectly warm and filled with fresh scents of summer and I was holding on to Gary. It was simply perfect.

As we were driving and I was admiring the moment I realized that one day I'll be old, and less able to get out and just go. I of course was thinking of the residents at work, thinking about how they all had their own perfect moments in their youth. It made me want to bottle it all up and remember this time of my life forever, which is why I'm writing about it!

I just hope I can always remember how blessed I am to be where I am, to have what I have and to cherish each phase I am living in life. I hope I can always soak up the beauty in my life and appreciate all that I have. To me, that is what makes life worth living.

Changes?

Expecting a big change soon! (Thats all, no hints or questions.)

May, June and Now... JULY!!!

I feel really bad for not writing for 2 months!! Yikes! We have had a lot of fun though. Gary turned 24, and I learned he would rather have his day ignored then celebrated. His parent's came to Provo to take Mark and his friends to EFY. We spent a Sunday on Temple square and the rest of the week just hanging out (slack lining, eating the best french toast in the world, meeting more family....). I really enjoyed their visit.

Gary has been in and out of a few jobs. He's currently a manager of a call center that is struggling. He also works full time at another call center taking inbound calls. As for me, I'm still in LOVE with my job at the Charleston. I now work about 40 hours a week. I'm doing activities on Tuesdays. When summer is over I'll just do reception 5 days a week. Now that I'm used to it, working full time is piece of cake! I still have plenty of time to make the house spotless, make new dinners and have fun! (and the hours are really good on the bank!).

Now we are in Preston Idaho for the holiday weekend. There are 20 people here! My family is here from Washington, Preston and Jen are here with their kids and the Allreds are here as well. It's crazy but a lot of fun!!! I'm REALLY LOOKING FORWARD TO TONIGHT!!!

Happy Independence Day!!

Idaho and a Wedding!

This weekend we had the opportunity to drive to Idaho to visit Gary's grandparents and go to my cousin's wedding. We arrived Friday night and just went to bed. The wedding was Saturday at 8:30 am so it was an early morning!!! It was a nice sealing.

After the sealing we went back to the Hall's to visit and help them around the house. Gary did some work for Grandpa in the yard and I sat inside and visited with Grandma. We talked about all kinds of things!! I really enjoyed talking with her. Later that night we went to the reception in Firth. I was glad we went since not many people could make it.

Sunday we went to church with the grandparents (Ryan was there staying with them for the week). When we got home Rachelle was there!! I was really excited to see her. We all ate a nice lunch and talked for a while before we had to leave.

Now, 5 hours later we are home and all unpacked. We're currently on the phone with Gary's parents and about to head off to the Farley's for a visit!! It has been an amazingly nice weekend!! I love getting out of the house and I especially enjoy being with family.

I love every holiday! I especially love to do all of the childish things that go along with each holiday. For example, dying Easter eggs! It's no fun to do it all alone so I had Gary and his brother, Ryan, do some too!

We had fun drawing on the eggs and coloring them.
Here is the final result of our egg dying!!!

First Bee Sting in 20 years!

I was approximately 9 months old as I sat on the front lawn of my grandparents yard. With a "For Sale" sign in front of me and a bee on my arm I experienced my first bee sting. I don't remember any of it, as I was just a little baby but it has always been a funny story to me. I especially like the fact that my uncle was trying to sell me as a joke.

That was the last time I have been stung... until this past Monday anyway. Gary was playing Halo 3 live online with his friends as I was enjoying the fish. I sprinkled a few little flakes into the small tank and set the bottle down to enjoy the fish when suddenly my arm started to have a pinch in it. I ran into Gary and sat down on the couch.

"My arm hurts!" I yelled.

Gary kept focused on his game asking "why does your arm hurt".

"It hurts! It feels like something bit me. It HURTS! OUCH! My arm hurts" I progressively got louder and more panicked as my arm began to burn and sting. My upper arm was turning bright red. Then we see a bee fly into the window sill. As I realized I just got stung by a bee I really started freaking out! I start screaming and yelling like a little two year old. I ran into the bedroom and continued crying. Gary came in and tried to calm me down. He called my parents to see if I was allergic but of course, they didn't know. Karen told him to go get me baking soda and water and put it on my arm and to then go get a Benadryl.

Gary did a wonderful job of taking good care of me and trying to make it all better. It hurt for the rest of the night! It actually still hurts now... 4 days later. Anyway, I now hate bees and fear for my life as I open closets and cupboards in the house. I know its silly but I have a deep fear that our house is now infested with creatures that will inflict more pain on me....

This is my arm this morning, 4 days after the sting!

March!! And SPRING!!!

I am SO ready for spring. I love being able to just walk outside without having to bundle up first. It's also really refreshing to open the windows in the mornings, that part is one of my favorite parts of spring! Anyway, as it gets warmer here there are more things to do! For example, we went for a nice little bike ride a couple weeks ago.

I am still working at the Charleston Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and teaching on Thursdays. I really enjoy my Tuesdays though. Those are my deep cleaning days. I have worked everyday for the past two weeks so I was pretty excited when Tuesday came around this week!! I had done a pretty good job of keeping up with everything though so I also took some time to take it easy.

Gary is getting pretty burned out of his job at Orange Soda. He's looking into doing a sales job with a food storage company this summer though. It's a brand new company and so far they are doing really well here in Utah, as you could imagine... He seems pretty excited to try it out!

I went to the doctor again this morning. I'm excited because I was sick of going to those community health centers that are looming with illness. I finally have a doctor!! In a real office!! Anyway, I just went for a check up and he told me I'm crazy! HA ha, not really. He did tell me that I probably do have OCD and then told me to chill out. If I can't he told me he's going to have me "just talk with a psychologist". He told me that he thinks my migraines are a result of the stress. So I'm going to try and "chill" I guess and that should make me so much happier and healthier too. I knew these things... I just have a strong desire to be perfect.

Other then that, not a lot has been going on around here. We bought a few guppies today, but that wouldn't be a surprise to anyone. We're always buying fish. You'd think we have hundreds but we're only at about 30. But we've got 85 gallons of water to fill!!! (that's the 75 gallon and the 10 gallon).

I really want to move away from this Utah place. It feels so temporary. It's like I'm in limbo waiting to be moved to a permanent location. I told Gary that we need to move to Denver or Vancouver because once we have kids I want to be around family. We really have no idea what we'll be doing even in a year from now though so who knows where we'll be!!

Anyway, that's the latest here in the Hall home of Provo. Hope everyone who's reading is doing well!!

Love!

Let me start out by saying, Valentine's Day is hated by many but it is my favorite holiday and pretty close to my favorite day of the year. I have, rather than a favorite color, favorite color combinations. One being black and white, the other being red, pink and white. So you can imagine how excited I get when I step into a store near February. I LOVE decorating for the special day too.

Last year Gary sent me 18 red roses in a red vase, spending near $100. This year we decided that rather then spending money on flowers and chocolate, in which no evidence will remain 2 weeks later.... we will spend the day doing something special. Gary heard in a recent study that "Making a memory creates longer term happiness then buying or receiving something". I loved the idea and went along with it.

We started the day out by eating a nice bowl of cereal, lol. I would have made something special but we didn't have the ingredients. We got ready and left to the early bird showing for Coraline. To our surprise it was in "real 3D". It was a really neat experience! The movie was great and we did as planed, had a great time! Next Gary had planned on taking me to the California Pizza Kitchen because I'd never been there and I LOVE pizza! We enjoyed a great lunch and then went next door to the mall. Gary found a video game he wanted. Seeing that it was only $15 I begged him to buy it for himself. Next we bought a couple Wall-flower re-fills at Bath & Body Works.

When we got home Ryan was back (he was staying with us for the long weekend). We decided to take him to the movies so we eat a yummy spaghetti dinner and ran back to the theaters. I cant believe I went to the theaters twice in a day, but I did... and I loved it.

We got home and the boys played video games; or should I say Gary played and Ryan "worked on homework". I watched a movie in the bedroom and folded some laundry. It was a wonderful day and I really lookforward to my many Valentine's Days to come, filled with new and special experiences.

Time FLYS!

Well here we are, almost finished with January 2009. I can hardly believe it! I was just thinking today about my blueprint of life. Since I can remember I've planned on getting married, about when I did... and having children around our two year anniversary. Yes we've only been married for just under 6 months but that puts me at being a mom NEXT YEAR! I'm not making ANY promises here, nor am I hinting at anything. I'm just saying... I'm getting old!

Anyway... we have had some changes and things worth mentioning since the start of the year.

First of all, I got a new job! I'm working at an assisted living called The Charleston at Cedar Hills. I'm a receptionist on Wednesday's and Fridays. It doesn't sound like much but just in those two days I'm making more than I do even in 4 days of subbing. It's a lot of fun too! I LOVE working with the residents and am loving them the more I'm there. You can and should check this place out! It's the most outstanding place I've seen... ever! Here is a link: http://www.thecharlestonatcedarhills.com/index.php

Gary and I are discussing our education and trying to figure it all out. Honestly, I really do not want to go back right now. I'm working hard as it is and I feel like I should continue this path while Gary finishes. I do respectable work with the degree I have and I plan on getting my bachelors and even masters eventually, maybe just not right now. On the other hand, Gary is motivated more than ever to go back and finish his degree.

Speaking of Gary, as most of you heard he was pretty sick there for a while. He had a severely sore throat that kept him up all night for close to a week! Finally he went in and got some anti-biotics and is all better now!

I continue to have strange health issues but nothing too bad. We're waiting to have insurance to maybe look a little deeper. Overall, I feel great. I just tend to have minor set backs on a weekly and daily basis. (ocular migraines, UTI's, unexplained weight loss, worst of all extreme fatigue)

To tie that together with more GOOD news, Gary is now considered full time (even though he's always been full time...) which means he now gets benefits! We'll have insurance in a month!

Well... I think that is all for now. Life is going so well. I was reading Gary's patriarchal blessing this week and it brought overwhelming gratitude and humility to me. It reminded me how extremely blessed I am. With that, I want everyone to know how much I love you, how much I love this gospel and how thankful I am for all that I have.

The worst working day ever!

This week BYU and the Provo School District had fall break so I only got to work one day. I was excited since I knew who I was subbing for. She seemed to have a pretty good schedual and she was just a teacher assistant. Once I arived to the school I was asked to "go get the 8 special ed. students from the busses". I'd never seen these students before, how am I supposed to find them? Once the bus arrived I realized that was the least of my problems. There was a student in a wheel chair (he was non-functioning), and 6 other students that needed assistance getting off the bus. I was alone!! Luckly, one of the main stream students that I've taught before came running out to help me. I was releaved!

Once I got into the classroom the main teacher left me with the students. First of all, my contract says that I'm not to be alone with special ed. students for safty reasons. Second of all, they don't know me and didn't like that I was left with them. Suddenly there were a lot of problems! I had a student on top of a chair, another banging the radio on the floor, one playing in the teacher's desk, and then a student I was supposed to be keeping an eye on as he was tube feeding. AHHH!!! I didn't think I would survive! But I apparently did, right? Worst day as a sub!

A WHITE WHITE Christmas!

Well, as I mentioned we went to Washington for the holidays this year. Mainly because Bayli was getting baptized on the 27th! Our plan was to leave December 23rd and stay at my mom's til Christmas morning...

The 800 Mile Journey to Washington!
On the 22nd a snow storm came into Utah (and everywhere west of it for that matter) so we decided to leave early and stay the night at my uncle Preston's house in Tremonton UT. We made it there pretty quickly and went on our way on the morning of the 23rd. The roads were great!!! There was a patch of snow on the road here and there but 90% of it was as clear as any other day.
Once we got into Portland we hit some tough snow and ice which delayed us quite a bit. I got extremely stressed out and feared for my life. Poor Gary had to listen to me scream and cry as I was sure we were going to die. As a result, we stayed in a Howard Johnson in Tualitan, just north of Sherwood where my mom lives. It was a really nice hotel and we were in great need of a rest after the 13 hours in the car.

Visiting my Mom!
Luckily we made it safely to my mom's new house with ease on the 24th. Once we reached her driveway we had Scott (her fiance) come get us on the 4 wheelers because he didn't want us to slip off the driveway. Once we arrived to the nice warm home we did some catching up and took a tour of her grand mansion in the middle of nowhere. We didn't get to see it in its true beauty as the power was out the entire visit but it was a very lovely home.
Christmas morning was fun! We got to open our presents and watch Jeremy open his new PSP! Not long after that we left for our long journey to Washougal.
To make a long story short, it took us an hour to get out of my mom's driveway Christmas morning. Luckily Scott's brother (who lives next door) has a snow plow/tractor and helped us out. Once we got out of that mess we were at my dad's in no time.

Home Sweet Home!
We were warmly greeted at my dad's. Oh how I love to be home. Colton and Bayli had waited to open their gifts, which was extremely sweet of them! Luckily we got to enjoy all the gift giving again! Gary and I got pj's, some crystal Christmas decorations, games, movies and books! We all spent the rest of the day relaxing.
Unfortunately I woke up with the stomach flu so my goal for the day was to recover! None the less, it was an outstanding Christmas. I loved being with my family and having Gary with me too.

The rest of the week was enjoyed as we played games, spent time with aunts, uncles, and my family. Gary and I also ran around town a little on day care days. We even took a family trip to Powell's bookstore! Bayli was baptized too which was a glorious event! All in all, it was a WONDERFUL vacation!

We left for home and made it their safely! For New Year's Gary was sweet enough to take me to my Grandparent's house in Preston ID where we enjoyed more games and family.