Extreme Tubing

Finally lots of snow to play in, woot woot! Our Saturday was filled with igloos, forts, snow caves, lots of snowballs, and of course some good ol' sledding and tubing.

Abbie and Alethea braving the "double"

My wicked tubing face

This picture KILLS me, it reminds me of Calvin & Hobbes. Joe and Kaden weren't supposed to hit the kicker with the sled...they did and caught some BIG air. Fortunately no major injuries, just some snow to the face and tears.

Georgie gearing up for his landing.

Sara's extreme tubing face

Kyson takes the cake...here's a video of his amazing tubing skills.

George's Wreath

A couple weeks ago I told George that it was time our door had a wreath and had decided to buy one. His response surprised me. He said "Why don't I just make you one." Perfect!! And viola that same day he made me a wreath. He used an old hubcap ring for the circle and created a beautiful wreath. I was very impressed with how "full" it looked. I added a few personal touches. I think this will be our new family tradition...making our wreath from local resources :) This year's resources: prickly pine boughs, pine and douglas fir cones, and red rocks all from up the canyon. The ribbon is even "recycled" from a 4th of July present.

Happy Happy Birthday Mother Dear :)

I am so blessed to have the mother I do...she is full of love and is the most giving person I know. She gives of her time, her patience, her love, her knowledge, her skills....the list goes on and on! She has always been a great example for doing what she believes in and sharing happiness wherever she goes. I continue to learn from her every day and still call her for advice and direction. I admire her thrift, I want to cook and bake as well as she does, and I want to always be willing to change and learn no matter what my circumstances...just like her. She does, and I know would do, anything for her husband and all six of us kids. I've always felt her love and I'm so grateful for her. I love you mom!

Half a Year!!

I can't believe how time flies...George and I have been married for 6 months today. Married life really has been SO fun. We always tell people if we would have known how great it is, we would have jumped on the band wagon a long time ago :) We feel so blessed and are enjoying this time in our lives and look forward to many, many more years together!

Fat & Sore

Yet again I've followed the wicked tradition of stuffing myself beyond belief. There wasn't a lot of slave labor in the kitchen because we spread out the responsibilities between my brothers and sisters. The food was delightful, and it didn't even look like we made a dent by the time we were all moaning. Of course no one can complain about Thanksgiving left-overs. And if you were wondering...my first turkey turned out nice and juicy!

Amazing spread

It was SO fun to have my brothers and sisters in town (except Abbie, but she's coming soon!)And fortunately this year we got to get out and exercise our bodies by rock climbing...we spent a day in St. George at Black Rocks and then a day in Cedar City at Pocket Rocks. I couldn't believe how weak I am...and now how sore I am! George and I need to get our own gear so we can go more often than just when my brothers are in town.

Awepia - pro climber

Georgie-porgie puddin and pie climbin'

Seesters!

Happy Thanksgiving

A couple hours ago I just put my "first" turkey in the oven. Although I'm not a vegetarian I think meat is gross to prepare. But at least it was simple to prepare...and now we wait for hours to find out if I did any good.

So back in 2002 I started a personal gratitude journal. In it I write down my many blessings and the things I'm thankful for. Today I thought it would be appropriate to include an entry on my blog.

I'm so thankful for my husband George...he is such an incredible man. I love the way his mind works, it's enlightening to be in his company. It's wonderful to be married to him and very exciting to start our own family. He works hard and is a lot of fun to live with (not to mention he picks up after himself, makes the bed, and does the dishes). Family is such a wonderful blessing and I'm thankful for my parents that have always been a solid example for all things good and right. Brothers and sisters are the best! I enjoy spending time with them and I always learn something new in their company. I'm forever grateful for the gospel that fills my heart with joy and which provides the only sure foundation we have in this life. Friends are like family and I feel so blessed to have so many wonderful friends in my life. I LOVE dark chocolate, although today we are trying pumpkin cardamom cream truffles which should be delightful. Which brings me to another point...I enjoy trying new things, expanding my perspective, and learning about new opportunities. Fresh starched sheets, new socks, and jeans out of the dryer are wonderful! I am thankful for fun bosses that take care of both my husband and me. To wrap up today's entry I'm thankful for this Earth...especially for the mountains, trees, and fresh air I get to breathe each day.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!!!

P.S. I just got an email forward that sends postcards to servicemen...it only takes a minute.

Elder & Sister Lewis

My parents came for a visit in Cedar City a few days before they had to report for their mission. We had a wonderful time full of walks, food, and grandkids. Last Saturday we hiked up to Red Cliffs...and guess what we saw? A real-live turantula in the wild! Kyson was absolutely estatic, his dream come true, haha. It was huge AND hairy...unfortunately my mom is the only one that got pix. My parents entered the MTC (missionary training center) on Monday, November 10th. After an intense week of training I was able to meet up with them Friday evening for dinner. They were so excited and ready to head to West Virginia. They are now in Spencer, West Virginia getting settled. I'm so excited for them, I know they will make wonderful missionaries.

Impressive...not too much stuff for 18 months away.

The classic missionary photo...aren't they a good-looking couple?!

Eliza said yes!

And she was such a gorgeous bride! Eliza is one of the most loving people I know. Jason sure knows how to choose 'em! It was a wonderful weekend. Our mission president was her sealer which made it even more special. And of course classic Eliza, they had ice cream and tons of candy at her reception. It was so fun to enjoy this happy day with her and get to see old friends from the mission.

The happy couple - Jason & Eliza

It was a "moter" weekend. Moter or motra is how they say "sister" in Albanian. I met Eliza and Elaine when we served together in Albania.

Congrats Mr. & Mrs. Ruys!

I Voted

I voted, and I hope you did too. It's not only our privilege, but our obligation.


Quote of the day by Rev. William J. H. Boetcker:

• "You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
• You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
• You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
• You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.
• You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
• You cannot build character and courage by taking away Men's initiative and independence.
• You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should, do for themselves.
• You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money,
• You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income."
  

God Bless the U.S.A.

Happy Halloween!

My nephew, the lil dragon, SO scary!

My niece, the lil lamb, SO adorable!

All the dressing-up I did this year was wear these earrings to work.

Of course Kaden had to try them on first...

I hope everyone gets lots of chocolate and has a Happy Halloween!

Rope 'em N Ride 'em!

Or just brand them actually...well except for Cody and George, they actually got a little riding in.

So yes, we got to help out on the Melling Farm this weekend and get our hands dirty (literally with poo, eww!) by helping brand the cows. I guess most years they have 80+ cows, but this year we only had 20 so it went pretty quickly. I just went to watch, but I couldn't resist helping out. I think it'd be fun to live on a ranch someday, yeehaw!

Proof that we really got our hands dirty. Yes that is manure, gross!

Here they are nice and peaceful, just eating before the round-up began.

Brittany, Cody, Wayne, and Joe herding the moo moo's.

In the chute on the way to the hot iron, eek!

Our job was to put the boards in behind the cows once they got in the chute.

Cody doing a little cow surfing :)

This cow was a little too small so he kept moving around, fortunately George was happy to help out with his headlock.

Grandpa doing the actual branding...it stunk SO bad!

Part of the "rounding up" included getting the horses tied up and out of the way. George thought it was necessary to ride them bareback, crazy kid.

Fresh off the press!

We just spent the most wonderful weekend in Cedaredge, Colorado. I grew up there until my family moved to Alaska when I was 13-years-old. My uncle still lives there and owns an organic apple orchard. When my parents moved they left their cider press with close family friends...so that leaves us the perfect equation for our annual autumn tradition...fresh apple cider! The whole weekend was full of smiles as we caught up with family and friends. And it was so much fun to get to show George what my childhood was like. Plus the weather was perfect...beautiful fall day in the 70's. Below is my brother, David, driving the tractor.

Our good friends Hannah and Whitney Watts - we worked together and picked a bin of golden delicious apples in about 45 minutes.

We made 30+ gallons of cider in just a couple of hours.

The whole cider-pressing operation. We wash the apples, throw them in the grinder which turns them to pulp. We then press the pulp and viola the most naturally sweet apple cider begins pouring out! A big buck even helped with clean-up and came by the next morning and ate the left-over apple pulp.

Go ahead - stick your cup under that stream of as-fresh-as-it-gets apple cider, it's so delightful!

The whole weekend ended up being a mini-reunion. It'd been almost three years since I'd seen my cousins, uncles, and aunt. It was wonderful to get to catch up!

I just have to brag about Terrie's cooking...she makes spreads like this appear so easily, and it always tastes amazing. Thank you for taking care of us!

If anyone is coming through Cedar soon we'll give you a taste. If you wait too long though it might be considered moonshine goods :)

The Call

My parent's finally received that big white envelope in the mail...they will be headed to West Virginia!!! They report on November 10th to serve an 18-month mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The neat things is that the mission president currently there is one of the missionaries that taught and baptized them some 30+ years ago. They'll serve in a small town called Spencer (pop. 2000). I'm SO excited just thinking of all the experiences that await them. I know they will be such a blessing to the people there. With all the excitement of their call, it's brought back so many memories from when I served in Albania. What an amazing experience that was for me. I love you mom and dad! Thank you for your wonderful example.

The Deschutes

Bug guarding our gear at the put-in...he liked the solid ground

We just got back from a long and fun weekend in Oregon. Most of our time was spent on the Deschutes River. The whole raft trip was a wedding present from my bro, Mac, and his girlfriend, Stephanie. It was SO much fun...my parents came up from California and my lil sis flew out from Colorado too. The Deschutes River flows through the area of Oregon known as the "rain shadow" which basically means it gets no rain. And lucky for us it was sunny the whole time we were there. The mountains and hills are covered in cheat grass and columnar basalt...bizarre landscape for a large river to be flowing.

The wildlife was great, although I didn't get many pictures. We saw a ton of Great Blue Herons, Big Horn Sheep of the desert race, an osprey dive bombed into the river and came out with a good-sized trout. We stopped on the side of the river for a few minutes and it was right by this tree that was COVERED in caterpillar nests...so I did get a picture of one of them.


One of our camp spots had a very active night...the train passed by a couple of times, a bunch of deer ran through, a rock slide happened across the river, and an owl proceeded to kill a rodent...you could hear the hoo-hooing for a while and then the rodent screamed and then it got nice and quiet after that.



As hard as I tried, we never got a group photo, but here is one of our fully-loaded boats. Enough gear for 7 people and a dog for 3 days.


The rapids weren't crazy...the highest rating was a 3+ I believe. There was one particular wave I remember because I swam through it...the duckie bucked me off...luckily I came up right by the boat and was able to climb back in, and most importantly I held onto my paddle the whole time! George was proud of me because I didn't "freak out".

Our guide extraordinaire

The cute MOM :)

A lunch break

Mac & Steph - the guides and cooks

It was tons of fun, thanks Mac & Steph!

Also a BIG thanks to the padres and Alethea for coming out for the party!