christmastime

we've had a good, eventful christmas week. on the monday before christmas we got quite a bit of snow. and then on tuesday we got even more. i don't know how much but at least 1.5 feet. that meant a lot of snow shoveling and not a lot of running. but it also meant that we lost some of our trees!



i was out shoveling snow when i heard the crack. the cedar tree in front of our house broke in half. and before the heavy snow had melted, we had a major branch on our big plum tree break and a few cedar branches in our backyard break too.

we still need to get all of this taken care of (ie get rid of the broken tree in our front yard), but it doesn't seem very pressing yet.

on wednesday, we went as a family to go bowling. we did bumper bowling this time, and our scores were naturally a bit inflated. but it still felt good to get over 100. and i did get a non-bumper strike. then we went and saw secretariat, which was a fine movie. and, of course, we topped off the day with a little trip to the di.

on friday, christmas eve, we went up to my mom's house for dinner. we had an italian themed dinner. we made homemade pizza, which i was quite proud of actually, and there was other good food. after the meal, we each got a part and acted out the nativity. below are some pictures of that. brian and i were joseph and mary, and willy was the angel.







after the nativity, we opened some presents...








then we ended the evening by each talking to my oldest sister and her family via skype and a piece of carrot cake (left over from the sealing party in july!).

saturday morning, i kept thinking that willy would wake us up early, but b and i actually got up before william did. we started the presents festivities around 8 am.










willy's favorite presents were the big lego set from my mom, the air hockey table from b's parents, and the complete 2nd season of bonanza on dvd.

the other pictures show some of my and b's favorite presents.

later that day we went on a drive to explore good arrowhead fields. it was really foggy out, and william was dressed in his best bonanza outfit.




it's been a good christmas!

thanksgiving weekend

we had a good thanksgiving weekend. because we didn't have internet access on wednesday, i had three work days off, which was very nice. brian worked a bit, but he made some good headway on things that have to get done. below is the rundown of the weekend.

tuesday night it was predicted that we would have a big, bad winter storm. it never materialized, but william and i did have wednesday off.

thursday we drove up to my mom's house and had thanksgiving up there with mom, kyle, amy, jackson, whitney, matt, and matt (w and m's friend). the food was great. i love turkey and all the trimmings, but mostly turkey is my favorite. william decided he liked turkey too. he wanted a whole leg to himself, and he at the whole leg. it was so filling that that (and a little jello) was all he had for dinner.

friday, william and i did a little shopping. i even toyed with the idea of getting a real tree, but when push came to shove, i opted to use our fake tree. i also finally splurged and got us our first tree topper and the big old-fashioned christmas lights that i like so much. neither of those are really splurges, but it was exciting to finally have them.

saturday, we went out to eat with my mom and kyle and amy to the purple turtle. given our love of turtles, we have wanted to eat there for a long time. we all enjoyed a good burger. then the three of us went to a couple di's. later that night we decorated our tree with whitney and matt.




on saturday night/sunday morning we got our first big snow storm of the season. i got to shovel, which was a good workout.

halloween

today has been a fun day. brian came home early and we headed up to the mountains to enjoy a nice walk along a river. it was a bit chilly, but pretty soon we all had our coats off. brian didn't want to carry his--so he stuffed his inside his mock turtleneck shirt. willy liked that idea and copied him.





we then went bowling. brian had an excellent showing with a score of 145 (he had several strikes and spares), i had a good showing for me with a score of 89 (i had one strike a couple spares), and w did a good job. it's hard to bowl without the bumpers, but that's what william chose. the bowling alley had a halloween motif and they were playing really good music. too bad it wasn't dance-bowling.

then we went to the thrift store and found some good treasures--some good books and a funky little end table. next, we came home and i made, if not a halloweeny meal at least a festive meal. i made green eggs and yellow, red, green, and blue biscuits. i wanted the biscuits to be orange (like little pumpkins), but that didn't work. so they were sort-of tye-dyed looking.

william then got dressed up in his knight costume to go out trick-or-treating with b.




b and w are still out trick-or-treating. hopefully they'll be back soon since i still need to go to the grocery store tonight. tomorrow i'm going to try my hand at a pumpkin bread pudding with a marscapone topping. it sounds great to me--hopefully it turns out as good as i imagine it will.

ps--w and i started watching the charlie brown halloween movie on hulu today. for any who haven't seen it lately, i'd recommend it. it had been a long time for me, but the dialogue is great. fun for kids and funny for adults too.

the falltime

brian with some of his birthday presents.


so, we celebrated brian's birthday awhile ago. it was a good birthday. he opened presents and cards, we went out to our favorite mexican place for burritos (and my mom had her first chile relleno), and then my mom stayed home with william so we could go out to fork fest. it may be difficult to guess what that is, so i'll just say: a concert with lots of local bands playing. it was very akin to the sego fest we enjoyed so much a few years ago. we luckily found out about it the night before and then everything fell into place so we could go for a few hours. the music was good, and we got to dance. and then on top of that it was a beautiful (birthday) night. we weren't even in jackets. ah, so nice!

since then things have been going at a break-neck speed it seems like. we've had a lot going in, in addition to just having a lot going on at work. things have been extra busy for both me and b at work. but i can see a light at the end of the tunnel. i will get to take off time at thanksgiving and christmas, and that will be nice.

as a final parting note tonight, we had our first snow down here in the valley. it was just a light sprinking of snow. nothing stuck, but it was fun to see a little coming down. of course by the time january rolls around i'll be tired of winter, but for now it seems fun.

things are happening

it's been a long time since i've posted anything--so i'll try to hit some of our recent highlights.

awhile ago brian and i went out to a new neveria (mexican ice cream shop) and had the most delicious ice cream i've had in a long time. they have the best flavors, and it's all made right there in the shop. brian had mamey (yes, zapote) and rose petal, and i had mamey and coconut. the place is called la michoacana. if you're a local reading this, we'd highly recommend it.

william got to go to his first byu football game last weekend. they actually won, which i guess is quite a feat this year. he had a good time, of course. while he was there (he got invited to attend with a friend), brian and i discovered a new hawaiian foodery that had super good kailuah pork (it's called pounders and is close to la michoacana)and went out for a very filling shrimp dinner. lest you think we're gluttons, we just had a sample of the pork.

brian's birthday is tomorrow. we don't know exactly what all we'll be doing, but it seems like it will involve presents, cards, mexican food, and figs and cheese for dessert. i love birthdays, and i love celebrating brian's birthday--so i'm excited about tomorrow.

i just found out that i will get to go to london and berlin this spring for work. my boss gave approval for that a few days ago. of course that's a long way off and it is a work trip (not just pure pleasure), but i am excited. it's been a long time since i've dusted off my passport.

william received his halloween costume from his grandma roberts in the mail this week. he is going to be a knight. the costume is fun, and he's really excited about it. i was a little worried about halloween being on sunday this year, but it turns out that kids in our neighborhood at least just go out on saturday. so, halloween is saved! funny, by the next time halloween is on sunday, willy will be a teenager.

my younger brother kyle and his wife just had their first baby. his middle name is lanny (named after my dad). i had a call with my german client jana the day he was born, and told her his name. i explained that lanny is quite a strange name so that she wouldn't be confused by the name. she responded by saying it's not weird at all--she's heard of lenny kravitz. i thought that was pretty funny.

that's all i can think of right now. i'll try to post some pictures soon, which i know are more fun than just words.

another quick note

i'm excited that community and the office are coming back tonight. it's been a long wait, but i'm sure it'll be worth it.

a trip to the mountains

last weekend we had the chance to go up into the canyon to attend a weekend-long retreat at a lodge. we weren't sure what exactly would happen, but as soon as we saw the beautiful fall colors on the trees on our drive up, we realized it couldn't be all bad to get away for a few days.

the trees were beautiful, the air was crisper (which felt good), and we got to do some fun activites. personally, my favorite, was going for a saturday morning run on the mountain road. my throat was burning and i kept fluxuating between cold and too warm, but the scenery was beautiful. it felt really good to be out without a lot of people around. it was peaceful and envigorating.

william most enjoyed hanging out by the river. he spotted some red-breasted nuthatches (a bird i've never even seen before), several trout, a bat, and several squirrels. william also really loved an old west playground at the lodge. it was pretty cool with lots of little buildings that reflected the wild west theme.

i'm not really sure what brian most enjoyed. he did find a juneberry tree, but it had the more unsavory berries on it (some have delicious berries, some don't). he also got to get a little extra sleep and read from his book about a guy walking around in borneo. so, he was able to relax, and that's never a bad thing.

w in front of the lodge.

me and w in the dining hall.

the haps

over the past couple weeks, we've had a chance to do some fun things. below is the recap.

a few saturdays ago, b and i woke up and decided to go hiking in rock canyon. that turned into going all the way up to squaw peak. that wasn't the original plan--so we weren't super prepared--but we did have some food and water. and there's a lovely, beautiful spring along the way where we drank lots and lots of good mountain water. it's a pretty strenuous hike, but the view from the top is great.

w at the top

another one from the top.

on the way back down, we found some juneberries (aka saskatoons and serviceberries). we all enjoyed eating some, although brian enjoyed them the most. i started getting too thirsty.

b and the berries.

on the 24th of august, william started school again. he's now in 2nd grade. on the first day, we took him to the creamery so he could have a special donut breakfast.

me and william before heading out. notice w's grey t-shirt. he likes wearing plain grey shirts because b often wears plain grey shirts. he likes looking like this dad!

w and b at the creamery.

recently, we decided it was time to say good-bye to the garter snake that w caught awhile ago. he caught it because he thought leche would eat it, but leche didn't eat it. they actually seemed to become friends.

w just moments before he let the garter snake go.

last weekend we went up to the high uintas to explore some new lakes. we ended up getting in a pretty good hike still (about 7 miles i think), although it was a lot flatter than other parts of the uintas. brian had pretty good luck fishing (he caught 7 trout), but william and i never had a bite. it doesn't make a lot of sense, but so it goes with fishing. on the outing we saw some neat animals (including a frog, several deer, some nice birds, etc), and we also found out that if you turn hiking into a game of hide and seek, it can be more fun for an 8-year-old kid.

b and w with the best fish of the day: a fine cutthroat.

a nice nature shot.

last sunday we noticed that our peach tree's peaches were ripe! we each picked 4 peaches, and then came in to eat them. they were really good. it's so exciting to have our own fruit tree!

hawaii pictures

waimea bay--our favorite beach.


us at hanauma bay after we snorkeled there.


a rainbow at the valley of the temples.


me at shark's cove after we snorkeled there the first time.


another view of the ko'olau mountains.


brian and the buddah at the byodo-in temple.


outside the house brian lived in with his family from the time he was about 3-7.


looking tough with the "fruit" brian just knocked off a tree on our hike. it turned out it wasn't fruit at all, but a big seed with hawaiian paintbrushes inside.


b jumping off rock at waimea bay.


b at ka'aena point on the far nw side of the island.


me on the moke island after we kayaked there.


a sleeping sea turtle.


the sea turtle up close.


me swimming with the big sea turtle.


another one with me and that big ol' sea turtle.


kayaking to the moke islands.


fish.


good tropical fish picture.


me next to one of my favorite trees there.


b getting the last of the poi out of the poi bag.


b at the pali lookout.