Random photos

I'm trying to learn how to take pictures with Dave's DSLR camera. Rob gave me a little tutorial when we were in St. George after Christmas. I tried to do a little practicing, and these ones came out the best. Keep in mind these were all taken in full manual mode, and I haven't done any editing to them, so I'm sure they're not perfect - but I like them!  

A trip to visit Harry

Dave's been very busy at work these last couple of months - crazy busy, in fact.  So we decided to give him a break by taking a trip to someplace relaxing, quiet, and soothing.  We visited The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, along with about 20,000 other people.  And spent 3 days walking in the 90 degree humidity of Florida. But it was a dream come true for at least two people in our family - Dave and Rebekah.  Here's the proof:

In front of the Three Broomsticks

 Drinking butterbeer for breakfast

At Olivander's

 In front of Hagrid's house

Hogwarts

Tri-wizard's cup

Bekah in front of the scary dragon roller coaster.

She was the onlyone brave enough to ride it.

And of course we had to hit the other sites at Universal Studios.  Like Krustyland.

Toon Land (that's Olive Oyl, in case you can't tell).

 A gigantic shark at Fisherman's Wharf 

 And Dr. Seuss land

As you can tell by the photos, we had a great time.  But it definitely wasn't relaxing!  It think we probably

walked at least 10 miles a day.  We were pooped at the end of the day and couldn't wait to get back to the hotel and put our feet up.

It's catch-up time

We just got back from a trip to Florida, and when I was downloading those pictures from our camera, I came across these pictures from our trip to visit Matt and Amy when Porter was blessed (back in February). We had so much fun visiting them and their two adorable little boys.

Porter has changed a lot since then, of course, and even Preston looks bigger now.  But these pictures are so cute that I wanted to share them, especially for the benefit of my mom, who isn't on facebook to see the pictures that were posted there:

Who knew?

Way back in August Dave and I took a day trip up to Santa Fe, which is about 45 minutes north of Albuquerque.  It's an interesting town.  Similar looking to Albuquerque, but a more touristy, artsy and a nicer historic/shopping district.

Here's a picture of the landscape around Albuquerque.  The landscape around Santa Fe looks pretty much the same.

After touring their downtown (they were having a big craft fair in the town square), we drove to the Santa Fe Ski Resort just north of Santa Fe.  I googled it - the ski area is exactly 57.6 miles north of our house, and 4.2 miles from downtown Santa Fe.  Here's a picture of the Santa Fe Ski area

What?!?  How can this be?  A difference of 4.2 miles?  I couldn't believe me eyes - green mountains, trees, scenery - it was beautiful!

I guess we need to get out of Albuquerque and explore New Mexico a little more often.

Fall catchup

Once again I have waited three months between blog posts, so it's time to play catch up.

August and September fun things:

I mentioned this in my last post, but it does count
as an August Very Big Event - Bekah's 20th birthday!

 Celebrated with this awesome Hogwart's cake.  Don't even ask.

Forrest's 1st birthday

 

It took him a while to get excited about his birthday cake, but when he figured it out, he dug right in!

Craft day with Abby and Megan

They each painted a little cardboard purse, and they were very creative, as you can see! 

We cheered Jake on at a few more races.  

This race was way up in the middle of nowhere in northern Utah.

Rachel and Forrest paid us a visit in Albuquerque, 

where (sadly for Jeff's sake but fun for me!) Forrest took his first steps:

 October Fun Things

My mom was down in Albuquerque visiting for a few days, 

so it was fun to spend some time with her

and Emily's family.  (But sadly no pictures)

A (much too quick) visit to New York

to celebrate Dave's dad's 80th birthday.

 A pumpkin patch and corn maze visit with Rachel and Forrest, 

Bekah, and Abby and Megan:

Also during the October visit to Utah, we went to Jake's race in Indianola, and I helped Nicole paint her kitchen cupboards.  I wish I'd taken a picture of Nicole's cabinet project along the way, but I didn't.  We'll have to wait to see the final product when Nicole puts a picture up.

And last but not least, my kitchen in Albuquerque is finally done!  (Well, still a few little details to go, but it's definitely MUCH, MUCH better!)

 Hurray!

Cross country trips, birthdays, grandkids - you name it!

It has been a very long time since I have posted anything here, so this post is going to be my attempt to remember the whirlwind of the past three months.  I'm sure I'll forget lots of important things (when you get to my advanced age, the details start slipping through the cracks), but I'll do my best to capture the highlights. Feel free to go get yourself a snack - this may take a while!

• In May, Dave took a job at Presbyterian Health Systems in (drumroll please) Albuquerque, NM!  Surprise!  I never in a million years would have guessed that we would move to NM, but crazier things have happened, I guess.  So we closed down Dave's CPA practice, hired a manager for my stores in Heber, rented our house, split all our belongings up between a little condo in Springville, and a small house in Albuquerque, and took the plunge.  Whewww....that's a lot of moving, believe me!  If you want to see pictures of our house in Albuquerque, check out my other blog Amenities Design  I'll be posting pictures of the scary, (very) depressing before pictures, and the happier after pictures.  It's not all done yet, but it's a heck of a lot better!  I will be making frequent trips to Utah to keep up with the stores, the kids, and the grandkids.  I also plan on making frequent trips to northwest Arkansas to see the attractions there (i.e. Matt's family!)

• I flew to Iowa in June (?) to help Rachel, Jeff, and Forrest make their cross-country trek to Utah.  Even though it's a long (and mostly boring) drive, it wasn't much of a sacrifice because it meant I get to be a little closer Rachel, Jeff, and this little guy:

I'll bet you'd drive cross-country for that face too, wouldn't you?!

• Matt, Amy, and Preston flew to Utah the end of June, and we had fun visiting with them.  We were getting close to the date we had to be out of the Heber house by then, so Preston helped Dave with some of the packing:

"Help pia, help!"

• In July, Matt and Amy took a trip to Guatemala to visit some of the places Matt had served during his mission.  The bonus for us was that we got to have Preston all to ourselves for 10 days!  I recruited Bekah to help me, since he loves her so much (well, it's a mutual attraction), so she flew down here to NM as well.  We had a great time with Preston - he's full of personality, that boy is!  Here are a few of my favorite shots from his visit:

Bekah showed no mercy when it came to the water-gun fights.

A trip to a local spray park, where Preston was obsessed with

getting a little girl's plastic cup for himself to play with.

Box car lovingly created by Bekah, to Preston's exacting specifications.

Bekah getting a ride in the box car.

• On our last trip up to Utah, I invited Rachel to bring Forrest swimming, and I picked up Megan and Abby.  Bekah was with us as well.  We had a great time in the pool, where I quickly learned that it is very difficult to keep your eye on three swimming grandkids at the same time.  Megan and Abby slept over afterwards, and we had a fun time watching Disney princess movies and playing Barbies.  During the same trip, we also celebrated Rebekah's 20 birthday.  What?!  How can it be that our little baby is 20 years old and all grown up?  Sigh - don't know how that happened, but it sure did!  We celebrated with a Harry Potter themed party.  I know that this is going to be the butt of jokes for many years to come, but here it is - the Harry Potter House Colors cake.  First I'll show you what it's supposed to look like:

Oh sure, it looks easy.

After two attempts, here's my version:

Where was Amy when I needed her?!

Yep.  Could not make that darn thing come out for the life of me. Oh well, we had a fun party, and we all had a good laugh over that stupid cake.  

Here's the beautiful 20 year old:

Happy Birthday Bekah!  We love you!!!

• Lots of birthdays to celebrate this summer - Rachel had a birthday in July (which sadly I missed being there for, but I was thinking of her!), and Rob celebrates his birthday today!  Happy birthday today, Rob!   I will be able to see Forrest celebrate his 1 year birthday, though.  Hurray for airplanes!

• Oh yes, and we got family pictures taken this summer.  It was a lot of fun, and we got some really great shots of everybody.  Here's one of my favorites of the kids and kids-in-law

Another one of my favorites

Those leaves were very intriguing.

Okay, there you have at least some of the highlights from the last three months.  Hopefully I won't go another three months before my next post - it's too hard to remember!

A trip to the zoo

Bekah and I went to Hogle Zoo today with Rob, Mindy and the girls.  I somehow managed to capture some really cute pictures (total luck, I know!)

Abby in a tortoise shell

Prairie dog hunting

Brave girl!

This one came out so cute!

 Look at the cute smile!

Doesn't Megan look so pretty?

Abby taking pictures of the giraffes

Rebekah scratching a bug bite (exciting, I know)