Zion National Park

Monday January 31st, 2011, SM's sister and family took us to see Zion National Park near their home.  One of the first things we saw was this frozen waterfall and my brother-in-law was kind enough to pull over and let us get a picture of it.  Isn't that beautiful?

Here's my beautiful SIL.  We were both walking around with our camera's taking all sorts of photos.

My niece loved this root and spent some time trying to figure out why it looks they way it does.  (Don't you just love how kids will question many things to figure out why things are the way they are?) 

And here's my mighty husband, relaxing against a large rock structure and wondering why it is taking me so long to catch up to the group.  The answer is that I kept stopping to take picture of the natural beauty around me and then had to hurry to catch up to the group.



What a cute family!




Here I am, not really hiding in the trees but posing to get my picture taken!



Neither of these two have a fear of heights.  I was scared for them and chose to shoot the picture and then walk away.  I didn't want to watch them try to get down from that rock.

After a lovely afternoon we stopped for dinner at a place called Oscars and had some terrific burgers and sweet potato fries.  Above is SM's sister and husband.

Me and SM

The girls.

And a view of Zions at sunset!  It was a lovely trip and I'm glad I had the opportunity of going to visit our friends and family in St. George.

St. George

Last weekend we had the chance to go to St. George to visit SM's sister and her family.  Have any of you played Just Dance for the Wii?  We got to try it for the first time and we had a blast.  Or I should say that I really really really enjoyed it and SM tolerated it.

Here are the two siblings dancing to "Cotton-eyed Joe."  It was one of those songs that goes on and on but also had some fun dance moves.

And this would be one of those really fun dance moves...from the "Cotton-eyed Joe."

I asked SM to take a few pictures of my dancing with my niece...and he took around 50...can you say "smart-aleck."  One of the reasons I enjoyed this Wii game is because I actually did decent at the game.  About half the time I would win and of course, the other half the time I'd lose.  But that's saying something because with most Wii games I don't win.  Plus, it felt like a lot of fun exercise.  I can definitely see this game going in out library of Wii games. 

And here is my other niece.  She wanted her picture taken while she was dancing!

Guitar Hero with my siblings

Last weekend we were able to go to my brother's house to play some Guitar Hero.  As you will see in these photos, we have some serious players...or not so serious.  But we sure had fun.

Isn't this a cute nephew?   And his personality matches that cute face!

And look at this nephew!  Look at that joy in his face.

And that was our party!

My niece's baptism

My niece turned eight in December and had the opportunity to be baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in January.  My brother was very excited to baptize his daughter.  Do you remember how old you felt when you were baptized (if you were eight years old)?  I remember how old I felt.  And then I look at my niece and wonder if she feels as old as I felt.  It is such a strange feeling to see life at different ages and then see others experiences those same things and yet they seem so young.

You'll notice that I still have my coat and scarf on...well, the church was quite cool and I hadn't yet warmed up.  My brother and my niece were also cold but they didn't have their coats.

Here's my parents with my brother and niece.  Look at that cute family...I think I have a great family.

And here's my niece with my sister and her hubby, and two younger nieces that are only two weeks apart in age.  These three girls have a lot of fun when they get together.  They were so excited to see their sister/cousin get baptized.

Friends



SM and I drove through Wyoming on our trip from Ohio to Utah.  We spent the night in Cheyenne with my friend Becky.  Becky and I had been roommates when we were in college and have kept up with our friendship as our lives have changed.  Here she is with her cute family.  We were able to spend the last day of 2010 with them and had breakfast with them on the first day of 2011.  I think that it was a great way to start my new year.  I also have to add that our breakfast was so delicious.  We were able to join in on a family tradition at eating at The Egg and I...lots of yummy breakfast foods.



Christmas Evening

We were invited to a marvelous house for Christmas dinner.  The husband of the home is an emergency room doctor and had to work on Christmas day and so his wife held Christmas for him until he could get home that evening.  The family goes by the last name of Allred and had a magnificent home.

Bro. Allred enjoys hunting and then having his prey stuffed and mounted.  His house is very large and the two main rooms show off the animals he has brought back from his hunts all over the world.



If you look closely at the photos, you'll notice that Sis. Allred has decorated her house for the holidays and has put little red and white hats on some of the animals in the home.  She also has a couple very large fireplaces and trees that are also decorated.



These photos don't show all of the stuffed animals, only some of them.  As soon as I pulled my camera out, I realized that my battery was about to die and so I quickly ran around taking as many photos as I could before it the battery died.  I am sad to say I didn't get a photo of the 14 foot crocodile that was lounging near one of the fireplaces.

The Allreds had decorated their home with all these animals and had also a medieval theme.  They had daggers and swords framed and mounted on the walls.  They had suits of armor standing in corners and alcoves.  There was a joker riding this leopard/cheetah...

I loved this wall-hanging of a castle and had to take a picture of it.  I really loved all the medieval decorations mixed in with the mounted animals.

Have any of you been to the Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum on the campus of BYU?  My dad used to take my brothers and I to the museum for FHE (Family Home Evening) on Monday nights.  We went often enough that I knew which floor different animals were on and could find my favorite displays.  (As a side note, I really like the beetle display at one time in my growing up years).  Anyway, long story shorter, when I entered this room the first thing I thought of was the Bean Museum and when a few other families arrived a little later, I also heard people exclaim that this house reminded them of the Bean Museum.  Isn't the above picture awesome?  Apparently Bro. Allred brought back the zebra and lion together on this hunting excursion and had them mounted like this...awesome!

And here is SM with his favorite animal of the two rooms...the giraffe!  His first favorite animal was the 14 foot crocodile until he turned around a couple seconds later and saw the giraffe mounted on the wall.  We had to get a photo with the giraffe.  I like that you can also see a suit of armour behind him and a framed dagger on the wall.

I didn't post all the pictures I took of the Allred home but I did have to show all these heads with awesome horns.   In the upper left corner you can see a goose with a small red hat.  There were quite few birds and fish that I didn't get pictures of but they were there!

This was a mural painted on one wall that came down and out into the living space.  The diorama included a large animal (the deer) and a few smaller animals.  We have a black crow getting ready to peck at a tan human skull in the brush as a beaver works at gathering sticks for his home from the small stream that goes through the diorama.  If you look at the mural you will see a knight on his horse turned toward the castle on the hill.

There were a couple large decorative chairs and  I had to get a picture of at least one before my battery died.  And I did get one of their Christmas trees in the photo.

And we'll end the tour of the animals in the Allred home with this photo of a moose above a fireplace.  If the men would have moved and I would have pointed my camera down to the ground, I would have taken a photo of the crocodile but I guess I missed out.

Christmas Morning

This is our Christmas tree (2010) and how it looked on Christmas morning.  Because all our belongings were being put in storage two days after Christmas and one of those days was a Sunday (in which we kept holy and didn't pack), we kept our Christmas kind of small this year.  The tree is very special to me because my grandmother gave it to me.   My mother had given it to my grandmother years ago and grandma decided that she didn't want it any more and offered it to me.  She also gave me a few other Christmas decorations but we didn't use them this year but I really really really hope I will be able to use them next year.  The tree is a fiber-optics tree and changes color when plugged in at night.  I tried to take a picture of it at night but it didn't turn out so well.

Here are our stockings...I made them last year and it was so much fun to pull them out and use them this year.

And look at those awesome gifts...SM did a wonderful job this year at getting some great presents.  I bought myself the socks.   I got books, a book on CD from my parents, and a music CD, and head phone stuff and sheets and a blanket for my bed.  I loved every gift.

I'm not exactly sure that SM will like that I'm putting this photo of him on the blog.  Oh well...  Here he is with some of his Christmas gifts.  He actually knew every gift under the tree except the two from my parents since he was the one who bought all the gifts for Christmas this year.  I am blaming my lack of Christmas spirit on the fact that we were moving so closely after the holiday.  But I am very grateful that SM took the initiative and bought our gifts for Christmas this year.