Yeah, we're just now writing about the holidays...

Alright we caved. After getting e-mail after e-mail of requests for more blog posts we are pleased to announce a new post for everybody!

So the holidays are over and we have returned from all of our travels. This post is going to be a two-parter, so be ready for that.

My part of the post is going to be dealing with Thanksgiving.

I am not sure if any of you are familiar with the drive from Utah to Oregon, so I am just going to key you in on a few facts. From Provo to Gresham it is 798 miles. I am no math major, but if you were to travel an average of 75 MPH that would get you there in just under 11 hours.

Well on this particular adventure it took us 8 hours to get to Boise alone. We would like to express our thanks not only to UDOT and IDOT for not even bothering to clear the roads, but also to all of the expert winter drivers out there.

We ended up staying in Boise that Wednesday and finished our drive to Gresham on Thanksgiving day. Road

conditions may or may not have looked like this:

This was a good stretch of road because there was no ice, or traffic. Double bonus!

We were certainly grateful to have been done with driving for a little bit.

Thanksgiving at my place was huge as usual. I am pretty sure it is a bigger holiday in my family (celebration wise at least) than any other. Each year my mom bakes pies for pie night (always the night before Thanksgiving, which we missed this year. Thanks again crappy roads...) and each person gets their own pie request. Alex chose peach pie and I chose black bottom banana cream pie. They were kind enough to save us some by the time we rolled in.

Personal faves from this year's feast:

Baked cauliflower

Mashed potatoes

Rolls

Yams

Homemade mustard

Fruit salad with pomegranate

We had a lot of fun hanging out with family and just relaxing for a few days.

Thanks again to for the good times and letting us take over Corinne's room.

Now for a few pictures. Enjoy!

The Thanksgiving spread

Corinne attempting to each 2 oreos, 5 candy corn, a mini reese's, and a bunch of frosting all at once.

Olivia having attempted the same...

Yeah we went to OMSI. Alex inside the USS Blueback. Cross that one off her bucket list.

I looked out the window and what did I see...

Maybe its the Thanksgiving season (or the fact that our Oregon vacation is so close I can almost touch it) but I'm feeling especially grateful this morning. Thus, I get to take a moment before running off to school to talk about how awesome my husband is.

We woke up this morning before the sun even came out. Troy had to be at work before 8 in order to open the call floor. Because I kick and drag my heels every morning as he is trying to leave on time, he only had about 20 minutes to get to work.

After he left, I was sitting on the bed, pretending to get ready for the day when I heard something from outside. I opened the window and this is what was going down.

So this is my special thanks to a wonderful husband who decided to de-snow/ice my car before heading to work even though he probably didn't have the extra time to do so. Isn't he great? I don't think anyone could ask for anything better than to not have to deal with an ice car. I sure do love him, that's for sure.

We Went to Hoover and All We Have to Show for it Are These Dam Pictures

I feel like I have been waiting 24 years to create a blog with that title. Dream finally come true.

This past weekend we went down to Vegas to visit with Alex's family. We left after work on Friday and made it down there Friday night. Saturday morning we got up and went to Hoover Dam (for you olde tymers, you may know it as Boulder Dam). Now I had never been previously and had really only seen the dam in movies, games, and this clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6oxhLz9l5s

Needless to say I was inspired with all sorts of amazing quotes. It was a fun tour, and the place is massive. If you don't believe me just take a look:

The view from the newly constructed bridge.

Hello generators that produce power for everyone...

At the Nevada-Arizona border. You can tell that we are not used to seeing a ton of sun this time of year.

Need I say more.

We may have a third wheel in our marriage, but at least our third wheel wins. Just saying.

The Love Affair

They usually say that third wheels are awkward, but not in our family. You see, Alex has a friend who is going to Oregon State, so she decided that she would be a Beavers fan. That's cool and all, but I am certainly not a Beavers fan and have been trying to convert her to the Ducks for quite some time.

I finally found a way to accomplish this, and it came in the form of this beautiful YouTube clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_P1PPy7FTo

I had already shown her another one where Puddles got in a fight with Houston Cougar's mascot. That had sparked her interest because as she noted, that duck had edge.

Totally dominated

But she was truly swayed when she saw the Return of the Quack. All I had to do was show this to Alex, and she was hooked. I returned home that night and was told that she had not only watched that video several times, but had also searched for other duck videos to enjoy. She stumbled upon a bunch of other good ones, but I still think that this one remains at the top of her favorites list.

Now it seems that every day when I get home there are new pictures of Puddles popping up everywhere from the background on her computer and phone, to our wall of pictures in our room.

I have never seen her so excited to watch a football game as she was last night when we watched UCLA fall to Oregon 60-13. She watched the whole thing, while i fell asleep (I'm not exactly 100% healthy right now, that's my story and I'm sticking to it).

Anyways, I leave you with this parting image:

How can you not love that face?

mmmmm

Some people have this idea that college students live off of Ramen and Mac and Cheese. While I do love Mac and Cheese, Troy and I are now taking college food to a whole new level.

We made this awesome chicken pot pie the other day. Just try not to be too jealous ok?

Fall Camping

If you are not familiar with the weekend of General Conference and how things go down here in Utah let me inform you. First off, many people from the greater provo area will tell you that this place is zion, mainly because of the mountains and because "This is the place" where BYU was established. Please do not believe these people. Whoever created the layout of the city did not do so with car traffic in mind.

The Friday before General Conference is a perfect example of this. You see, every male over the age of 21 who has served a mission will be attending a mission reunion on this day. Also BYU and Utah State play football this Friday so that both players and fans alike can watch all sessions of conference (chances that actually happens: 0%). So with all this traffic, it is a headache to go anywhere.

Luckily Alex and I decided that we were going to go on our first ever FAMILY CAMPING TRIP! Hello awesome.

After scouting out a few places (AKA talking with some people who know places to camp) we decided that we would head out towards the booming city of Heber. We got the car packed with everything that we needed and made our way to the camp area. Here is a picture of the drive:

I think that is Deer Creek, but don't quote me on that because I am not 100% familiar with places in Utah.

Because the sun was going down and we wanted some light so that we could set up camp, make a fire, and get dinner ready, we decided to stop at Deer Creek State Park instead of continuing to our original destination. It was a nice little place, and wasn't too packed because of all the festivities going on in the city.

Our campsite. Pretty nice stuff.

We were able to get everything set up super quick. Alex seems to have a natural radar for perfect fire material and was super helpful in getting that going. She was also able to partake in the joys of hotdogs roasted over an open fire and real s'mores instead of the microwaved kind. We were both a little restless and at 2 am played a game of war with a deck of cards.

Saturday morning. Yes it was 7 am.

All in all it was a fun experience. We got up the next morning, broke camp, and made our way home in time to make hot chocolate and french toast and sit down for the morning session of conference.

What a great weekend yeah?

Sometimes great things just happen....

This is a story about two hilarious children. They grew up with great fashion sense and met friends that understood them. One fateful day they met each other; he forgot English. She thought it was hilarious. And that was just the beginning....