Christmas 2011

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Bragging Rights

Nate and I went bowling last weekend and I have to say I wasn't too excited because I knew I would lose...or so I thought! Usually Nate bowls around a 190 or 200, but for some Christmas miracle I beat him. Twice!  So this was definitely something I needed to share. Plus on our first game I beat my personal best! I'm not much of a bowler so this is a great feat for me! (Sorry Nate. I know you will probably be embarrassed by your worst bowling scores ever, but what's a gal to do?)

13 Days of Halloween/Fall Fun

It's that time of year again. The time where Nate I and do silly things for 13 days to enjoy our favorite season. Things didn't turn out the way we were expecting because the World Series was going on at the same time. (Nate wasn't disappointed at all!) Our 13 days was put on the back burner a few times (hence the lack of pictures and dressing up), but we still had fun. Here's the breakdown:

Day 13: We kicked off the celebration with some home-made Halloween cards to each other.

Day 12: We were suppose to work on Halloween costumes for Mel and Kel's party, but alas, we could not go. So we ended up watching a World Series game.

Day 11: Drank some hot chocolate from the local Maverik. That's some gourmet hot chocolate.

Day 10: I dressed up for a running club I am involved with. We meet once a month and do a "fun run". For October we got to dress up so I decided to dress up as an out-of-shape runner.

Day 9: We enjoyed a walk through the beautiful fall leaves at Freeman Park.

Day 8: We ate a full pan of squash.

Day 7: We were suppose to take Skip for a walk in the dark around the neighborhood but it was cold and we were tired. So we decided to turn off all the lights and walk around the house in the dark. Yeah...we are pretty awesome.

Day 6: We told some scary ghost stories to each other under the covers. I'm pretty sure that's why Nate didn't sleep well that night.

Day 5: We made Caramel Apples. They didn't quite turn out how we were hoping. That's why there is no picture.

Day 4: I made pumpkin bars. Enough said.

Day 3: We watched a Halloween movie on T.V. Well I actually watched it while Nate rested his eyes.

Day 2: I made some pumpkin dip to take to work for a Halloween party. I wanted Nate to taste it but ended up getting him a little messy in the process.

Day 1: We enjoyed Halloween at our house by passing out Halloween candy. Oh yeah, and wearing our sweet Halloween shirts we made last year.

Until next year!!!

September Adventures

Where to begin. Our September has been packed (as usual) with lots of fun. Of course one big highlight was that we made it to the annual Spud Days. Yes, our favorite event in little Shelley Idaho. Unfortunately we only had time to make it to the Disc-Golf Tournament. Enough time for me to win 2nd place and make a few bucks. Gotta love it.

But our favorite event of September was getting a quick invitation to see a Rockies Game in Colorado with T.Jay and Julie. Nate of course can't say no to baseball and when he found out food was also involved , we had to re-arrange our schedules to take a little drive down to Denver in the middle of the work week. It was a trip well worth it!

 Our amazing view in our awesome suite!

 I don't know if this picture really expresses how excited Nate was to see a baseball game and to eat free food.

 Of course we had so much fun playing with the cute kids!

On the way back home we decided to make a few stops to make our trip longer and visited the Lincoln Monument on the side of the highway.

Thanks for the quick and fun trip T.Jay and Julie. Our baseball watching experience has changed forever!

Pocatello Half Marathon

Was I crazy? Probably. I know I wasn't thinking straight. But I did it. I ran my very first half marathon this last weekend in Pocatello. Despite the pre-race jitters and all the anxiety and training for the past few months, it all paid off and I actually had a pretty great time. I even shaved a minute and a half off of each mile I ran and ended up running it in a faster pace than anticipated.

Here I am around mile 9 and feeling great!

  This mile had a pretty funny story. Nate met up with me around this time and was jogging along with me for a few yards and ended up tripping and falling right on his face. I didn't know if I should stop or not and and as I was slowing down and looking back, I see Nate sprawled on the road waving his hand and shouting, "Go on without me!"  It was a pretty great moment. The guy running right next to me commented,  "Now we know why he didn't sign up for the marathon."  I pretty much laughed my way into the finish line after that.

 My awesome medal after the finish line.

And of course my greatest supporter!

I never thought I would say this but I just might try it again. But next time Nate is going to be doing it with me. He doesn't know that yet.

We Love Camping

To take advantage of the nice summer weather, we spent an awesome weekend with Mel and Kel camping at Lava Hot Springs. After many hours of searching for a spot, we were finally able to get up way in the mountains on some private land. (Don't worry-we asked first).

One of my favorite moments was watching Nate experience the zip-line that was at our camp spot. This video is his second attempt...but still funny.

Thanks friends for the good times. I love the camping tradition we get to have every summer. And who would have thought it all started with two crazy girls in high-school. Like we really knew what we were doing.

Hittin' Up Yellowstone

Nate has lived in Idaho his whole life and has never ventured into Yellowstone Park. So of course we had to try and make some time to go so he could experience how amazing it is. So bright one Saturday morning we jammed ourselves into the car with his siblings Isaac, Heidi, Spencer, and Hannah and went to Yellowstone.

 In front of one of the many beautiful waterfalls.

 A really cool "hot" spot.

 Yes...Nate is driving with his head out of the sun-roof. Don't ask. It's just Nate.

 Old Faithful.

 Playing down by Yellowstone Lake.

 Well Hello Mr. Bison. Thank-you for walking right next to our car so we could get a good picture.

 One of nature's unique creations.

 Some Elk in the middle of town. The boys were on one side of the street while the girls were on the other. Figures.

An awesome sunset to complete our journey home.

A Little Fire and a Lot of Water

This past weekend we went camping at Palisades and played in the water all day behind a jet-ski at the reservoir with the family. We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful weekend.

 Camping with the brothers Isaac and Jason. Nate looks pretty excited about camping.

 We made some yummy corn bread out of the dutch oven to go along with our tin-foil dinners.

 Our camping spot thanks to a friend of Nate's who owns a few hundred acres of land close to Palisades Reservoir.

 The family hanging around on the dock.

 One of my favorite moments...Heidi and Spencer being pulled by Dad and Nate on a tube. Let's just say there was a bit of weight and they didn't go very fast. It was hilarious.

  It woudn't be a family trip without teasing Brig.

 I even water-skied! Yahoo.

And last but not least....synchronized diving. Enjoy.

Gem Lake

A couple of weeks ago, our good friends Trev and Shan invited us to Gem Lake to go boating with them. We had a great time even though the water was about 40 degrees. We did a little knee-boarding, water-skiing, and tubing.  

 Nate doing some knee-boarding

 I was really proud of myself tubing. I had a pretty wild ride but hung on to my dear life and didn't fall in once! But of course Nate was so kind and decided to tip my tube when I was ready to get back into the boat. The water was so cold I could hardly talk. Darn his hide!

Thanks for inviting us Trev and Shan!

Friend Reunion

It was great to see you friends. Wished we had more time. Thanks for all the fun and good laughs!

It's Camping Time!

Nate and I finally had a free weekend where we were both home and didn't have any set plans so we decided to do one of our favorite things...CAMPING! We went up to Moody and found the best campsite. We didn't even see anyone until we left in the morning to do some more exploring. Now that's my type of camping!

    

Nate preparing the campfire for our hot-dogs.

   

Good ol' Skip.



Our spacious tent.

 

Peach French Toast. A yummy breakfast made by the hubby from his new dutch oven recipe cookbook.

Sleep-Over

My cute little niece was in town for a couple of weeks so I decided to invite her over for a little sleep-over. We had so much fun! I brought out all my old Barbies and accessories and she loved playing with them. I think she would have played all night with them if I let her! We had a great night full of playing with barbies, painting our nails, going to eat at McDonald's, getting ice cream at Reed's Dairy, watching a movie with homemade popcorn, and building a fort to sleep in. Thank-goodness I didn't make her sick with all the food and treats! 

Paige making a house out of the Barbie furniture and accessories.

Our beautiful painted finernails and toes.

And last but not least...the fort to sleep under. Nate wasn't home to help make the fort and that is why it's pretty small, but I don't think anyone noticed!

Thanks Paige for the fun night! I wished you lived closer so we could have sleep-overs all the time!

Suprise Party

So since Nate only turns 30 once in his lifetime, I decided to make a big deal out of it being the good wife that I am. I ended up throwing a suprise party for him. It was great. He had no idea it was coming which made it even better. The theme was a mixed up pool party and we all greeted him with our swimming attire on the outside of our clothes standing around a small kiddie pool. Good times.

Some of the decorations.

A couple of the brothers...Isaac and Jason.

The Mom on the look-out for Nate. Love the swim attire.

Heidi.

Hannah and Spencer.

The Mom and Brigham.

Brigham, Ryker, and Paige enjoying the food before it started to pour rain.

Amber and Brady. Brady your outfit was funny and sick at the same time!

Nate with his Donut birthday cake.

Although we ended up having to move inside the teeny tiny house, it turned out to be a good birthday party. Thank you everyone for coming! Happy Birthday to you Nate! (Until next time!)