Tidbits #1

It's almost March! Yikes! Well, here are some tidbits from the past few months. We'll cover Thanksgiving now and then go from there. :)

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. We spent it with Mikey's family and Mikey smoked his first turkey. Oh.my.gosh. Delish! It definitely became a fast tradition. And it was so much easier than we thought it would be. (Well, he did most of the work, so it was really easy for me!)

It looks a little burned on the outside, but underneath that . . . heaven!

Our little smoked turkey was more of a side-dish, so Colleen also roasted a larger turkey in the oven. TWO turkeys?! Doesn't get better than that! Hello, Leftovers!

Mikey and Grandma Pete. Love her.

Darling nephew Cole

Alain "sneaking" some smoked turkey before dinner

...and the Dinner Crew (going clockwise starting from the far left): Michelle, Cole, Colleen, Russ, Pat, Grandma Pete, Mikey, Karie, Alain, Riley, Sydney, and Luke

Successful dinner! Fun day!

Does Santa Know What You're Thinking?

This week at school I read my third-graders a story about a girl who wouldn't tell her family what she wanted for Christmas. She insisted that, "Santa knows what I want!" I asked my students if they thought Santa could tell what they where thinking or if they had to say what they wanted out loud so he would know what they wanted. Their opinions were mixed, but I had one student who exclaimed, "Santa can't tell what you're thinking, but Jesus can! And He can tell Santa!"

My "Cute" Voice

Teaching 3rd grade I've definitely learned that "kids say the darnest things." Today at lunch recess I could hear a few first grade boys playing in the bathrooms. So I called into the bathrooms kind of sternly, "Boys, you need to go outside. We don't play in the bathrooms." Standing by me was this innocent little first grade girl who promptly commented to me, "You have a cute voice!" Haha, thanks! I'll have to speak sternly more often!

My Jazz Fan Has Moved . . .

. . . but just to a new web address! (Thank goodness Mikey didn't move!! :D)

Mikey has switched his Tunes-etc. blog from WordPress to Blogger, so he has a new address. To kick-off his new home, he's focused on the "etc." portion of his blog--a special tribute to his die-hard Utah Jazz fandom. Haha! He's a really clever writer. I think you'll enjoy it. Mikey and some of his buddies get together every week to also produce a Utah Jazz Fan Podcast. So, if you or any of your husbands are into that, check it out. It's pretty cool!

Mikey will, of course, continue to post blogs about music he loves and thinks you might like. For sure add his blog to your reader, because he'll soon be posting a lot of our favorite Christmas music. You'll love it! (And we don't make money off the blog--it's just purely for fun!)

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving! And now I can say . . . Merry Christmas!

Shutterfly's 50 Free Cards for Bloggers!

Calling all BLOGGERS! You may have already heard of this awesome promotion that Shutterfly is doing this year...but I'll tell you anyway! I love Shutterfly's photo merchandise. Mikey and I have made photobooks for individual vacations that we have loved and they're so much fun to look back at. Our Shutterfly books have turned out so beautifully. The quality is great. And I'm thrilled to try their Holiday Card Collection this year! Who can pass up their fresh and colorful designs.... plus bloggers get 50 FREE cards! What could be better?! I have never been disappointed in their products or delivery. Oh... and don't forget their special offers right now, including free shipping if you spend 30 dollars or more! Why is free shipping so awesome!?

Want in on 50 FREE Holiday Cards?

Share on Twitter, Facebook, and in your post:

Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly… sign up:http://bit.ly/sfly2010

I am trying to decide which card to use. Such a big decision! Here are a few of my favorites from the flat stationary line...

Halloween 2010

Mikey & I love dressing up for Halloween. Neither of us were Halloween Nuts growing up, but it became an instant tradition with us when we were engaged. So, here are the pics from this year! We were pretty excited about our weight loss. Mikey lost about 300 pounds and I lost about 200! Wahoo!

If you'd like to see past years' costumes, click here and here.

Looking for New Tunes?

Check out Mikey's blog!

He has such a knack for finding good music and he shares his finds on his music blog.

Especially check out the post titled, "Our New Theme Song." I can play that song over, and over, and um, over again. Love it.

Enjoy!

Lake Powell 2010 Part 2

Okay, hold on tight! There a lot of photos coming up. The photos pretty much speak for themselves, but I do have to include some narration here and there. This was such a fun trip. We had the best time!

Hole-in-the-Rock is an amazing place where the pioneers came down to cross the Colorado River when they were asked to settle the San Piette area. It took a ton of preparation and work, but the pioneers brought 80 covered wagons down this steep, steep, steep crack. (For those who were at Regional Conference this morning listening to Elder Holland's talk, this is where he was talking about!)

As we boated up to get a better view of Hole-in-the-Rock, Mikey played "Come, Come Ye Saints" on the ipod for us. It was pretty moving.

Rainbow Bridge

Riley held up the Bridge so it wouldn't fall. Thanks, Roo!

Photos Mikey's dad took of Rainbow Bridge:

(Actually he took most of the photos in this blog post! . . . so I guess I better say, please don't copy them.)

The whole Crew: Michelle, Sydney, Heidi, Kerry, Ethan, Russ, Riley, Colleen, Mikey, & Karie

As we listened to the Park Ranger tell us about Rainbow Bridge, Sydney found a little Butterfly Friend.

The Ranger told us that Rainbow Bridge is so tall that the Statue of Liberty could fit underneath it! Wow!

I'll get the towels! Don't worry about me!

Adventures playing on the houseboat:

Sydney's expression every time she went down the slide:

Sydney telling the boat she wanted to go faster. I think her arm was glued on like that!

The cutest guy EVER!:

This was the forecast for the whole week, but other than windstorms at night, the weather was perfect . . .

. . . until our last night! We had the HUGEST lightening storm (which was awesome!) followed by a BIG rain storm.

We slept on top of the houseboat, which has a fabric cover over it and, though we also had a tarp on top of us while we slept, we still ended up soaked by the morning. This is our bed that we deserted at 6a.m.

The great part about rainstorms at Lake Powell, though, is that they result in WATERFALLS! :) Once there was a break in the rain, we all jumped in the boat and threw TLC's warning of "Don't go chasing waterfalls," out the window!

Heidi's special waterfall:

(This is also the same place we had our picture taken in the last post.)

So, chasing waterfalls was a great, fun adventure in and of itself . . . and then it started to rain again . . . and then we ran out of gas! We were just 1/2 mile away from the gas station, but stranded nonetheless. So, guess who came up with this handy-dandy S.O.S. signal? Me! :) And it worked! We had a couple boats pull up and help us out. Once we got back to the gas station, we had to document our distress signal:

We were so freezing from boating around and being stranded in the rain that when we got back to the house boat, we jumped in the lake to warm up. It was like a nice, warm bath.

And this is how the trip ended, with us packing up all of our wet towels and beds and heading home. Though the last day was pretty crazy, it was one of the funnest days at Lake Powell ever!