christams 2012 part 2

I accomplished two good things this christmas season. I taught Gage how to light fires and drink margaritas.... I love mixing "fancy drinks" in fancy cups.






For my birthday we went to rancho de chimiyo (of course). My phone is really blurry for these but don't worry it was amazing! Melanie even rode her bike down there which was also amazing.

Then we went down Helm's Hole (didn't get any pictures since we are down in a cave)

Then had build your own trifle bar. YUM.

Other adventures included shoping, bandolier,

And "running" for me and Thorpe. Poor Thorpe is getting old and our exercise wore him out to the point where he had to ice up. Melanie and Jared ran quite a bit futher then I did but thats ok, they are actually in shape.

And ice skating. We had a good time.

We also had lots of good food and fun games (like telephone pictionary). Amy and Angela decorated this cute gingerbread house.

Thanks mom and dad for another awesome Christmas.

Christmas 2011 part 1

I got to go home for Christmas. Amy, Jared, and Gage rode with me and we had a non-eventful fun trip. We stoped at Wilson's arch just to the side of the road between Moab and Montecello. Its a fun quick jaunt in the middle of the long trip.

As is always the case I mostly have random pictures instead of highlights of the actual festivities. Sorry.

Once in New Mexico there was some last minute shoping to be done. Thorpe and Aaron were sad to be left behind.

Tried 4 different cinnamon roll recipes this year and we decided getting pizza that afternoon is a new tradition.

New Years Eve we got the luminarios ready, and then of course lit them as soon as it was dark, right before warming up with traditional clam chowder (and then heading out for caroling). Luminarios is one of my favorite traditions. The little lights line our walkways inviting the christ child into our house showing that although there was no room in the inn, there is room in our hearts and homes. Its quite, dark and cold, and each light warms us. Plus its a chance to play with fire :)

One thing that was funny the morning of Christmas was Thorpe knew santa had been there and he wanted in the room!

Hurry up Guys!










Pre going in photos. I got distracted afterwards so there aren't any pictures of the actual loot.

Then we went to church and many of us participated in the christmas program. Came back ate good food and then finished opening some presents. It was great!

4th of july 2011

i went home for th 4th of July, but there was a massive fire threatening the town again so most of the usual festivities were cancelled. Los Alamos was evacuated but we stayed put inWhite Rock. It was even visible from plane. Looked like the whole mountain was on fire AGAIN.

So lots of pictures of the fire looking towards LA from Santa Fe bipass

It looked like this part of the smoke cloud was twisting

This is the main part of the fire right on the Jemez behind LA

Because of all the smoke we had interestng sun sets. I was glad my parents installed air conditioning last year as it wasn't a good idea to have the windows open.

This should be a bright evening sun....








On evenings when the smoke didn't settle in WR, we hung around outside

when it was bad we were silly inside.

After LA opened back up we went uptown to support local buisneses. Even though LA was out of danger, the fire was sill going strong. New flames and plumes of smoke would flare up while we were watching. Snorkle helocopters overhead seemed tiny in comparison.

Mood was somewhat somber

Kids were playing some sort of game with Aaron

I went up on the roof most nights I was there. Scary the first couple of nights as could see the fire raging. Huge flames from exploding trees. Wind blowing them onward.

One night the wind changed and smoke cleard so the moon was bright. Then my camera broke and its still refusing to work. I didn't get pictures of our bbq or "fireworks" (mentos put into diet soda's).

Lastly a video of the little wren that built a nest in Mom's watering can on the front porch. Can't see the bird too well, but listen to him sing!

memorial day last year

Melanie came to visit me for Memorial Day last year. I hope it becomes a tradition because we had fun! We went to the Orem City Fire Dept Pancake breakfast and posed with the trucks.

Melanie who helped me build these trelisis for the melons out front

Then we went to the store to buy supplies for the graves.

We ended up having flags left over so we put some on top of the trellisis.

After looking up info for some likely locations around for some ancestors, we decided to start at the Provo city cemetary. They had a book so we could try and locate where they were. It was a cool and rainy day.

Its a big cemetary so it took us a while to find anything....

Then we found some... whats interesting about this couple is they moved to ID and had their kids there, but decided to be burried here in Provo

found a few other Barretts, not totally sure if we're related to the 2nd one. ...

so we cleaned the graves (next time we'll bring some scrubbers or something to do a better job with), put flowers and flags by the graves

(no we aren't posing or anything, why would you think that?)

Then we found another group of relatives.... someone had already put a decoration on it

It said, if you are a relative of these people call me. So I did....

She was talkative and told me about her side of the story and told me a little more about these ladies. I hadn't known Mary had a sister named Emily. Great Name.

We had so much fun we decided to try and find out family members from my dad's side. They settled the other side of the lake out in Cedar Fort. I loved how isolated and quite this cemetary was. I wonder about their story, as far as we know their children all went to ID but they decided to stay put.

We found the marker, but it was hard to read so if we go again we will probably take rubbings.

When Melanie comes to visit we go out to eat cause she knows I love it so much. This picture wasn't actually from this trip, but I put it in anyways :)




We already have plans for next memorial day cause we have more people burried in the pioneer cemetray