Breakfast

Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Weekend

We brought Grant and Jill with us to the cabin in Midway. We all got in Saturday night, relaxed on Sunday, and went snowshoeing Monday morning.

Joining us in the cabin was Lucy "Scabbers" the Rat. We rat-sat her for our cousin Spencer (well, he didn't know because she was a surprise birthday gift for him). The boys were brave enough to pick her up so we could touch her. Even though we kind of did want to see her, it would still make Jill and I squeal whenever they brought her out. One night we built her a course to run in. Mostly she just knocked things down and tried to escape. You should've seen Jill react whenever Lucy came to her corner of the cake box barrier. So funny!

Monday morning was a perfect day to go snowshoeing. We went up to the state park and hiked wherever we could find open space. We barely managed to avoid losing the boys down a cliff they jumped off of, sprinting away from the snow plow, turning to road kill for food, mistaking running water for seeping gas, prying into a monster's shed and causing an avalanche. Other than those incidents, it was a very pleasant walk--complete with a delightful shower of snow the whole trip.

My Gracie Lou Freebush

My best friend Grace got married on January 16th--just like I told her.

I met Grace my freshman year when we kind of liked the same guy. And then we realized that we didn't really like him--we liked being with each other better. So we roomed together the next year and had a BLAST! (Have you ever made throwing panties into the ceiling fan a hobby? Well, you should...) I went on my mission to Oregon and Grace went on her mission to Guatemala. And then I got married and then she went to France to nanny. When she finally decided to come home again, we had a long chat about her future plans with "the boy", whom she'd been dating for a couple of years. It was a long chat over a beautiful platter of Italian goodness and two hunks of chocolate sin plus several hours over the short couch in our house. Born of that conversation was the official date of when she needed to marry Kevin.

So on Saturday the 16th Josh and I drove to the Oquirrh Mountain temple and watched my beautiful friend be sealed to the love of her life. While Grace was caught up in her wedding gettin' busyness and festivities--Josh and I spent the rest of our time with my old roommates and friends from Rexburg. It. was. a. hilarious. night. Thank you Lindsey, Liz, Melissa, and Megan!

Aerial Competition

In January, we went with Grant and Jill up to Deer Valley Resort in Park City to watch the pre-Olympic aerials competition. It was really cool! The resort was packed so Jill and I hopped out to find a spot while the boys parked the car. We had to duck-walk up the bunny hill because the snow was so slipperty (oops..that was an accident but I think I like it). Jill and I wormed our way into the crowd and watched the skiers shoot off the jumps. We couldn't see them at all beforehand and had to wait on the announcer to know when one was coming. They flipped and spun so fast that it was hard to grasp it all. I wish I could have seen some kind of slow motion replay.

We'd all gotten to the competition late so it was very short but very fun, especially the fireworks display at the end of the medal ceremony. It was probably the best fireworks show I'd ever seen--just ask Grant and Jill, they're firework connoisseurs.

From the bunny hill, looking down on Deer Valley Resort.

The bottom of the aerial course.

The mogul course right next to us.

A portion of the incredible fireworks display.


And here's a very sideways (can you be very sideways? I mean, either you're sideways or you're upside down, right?) video of our view of the aerials.

Christmas in Georgia

This year we were able to go home to Georgia for Christmas. The holiday season was filled with secret shopping trips to the mall (nearly every day), several games of bowling, late night rounds Mexican Train, a Settlers game here and there, lots of good eatin', and plenty of relaxing.

Josh and I celebrated our proposal anniversary. Three years ago on the 23rd, he had recreated our first date and proposed in the back of his truck in the mall parking lot. I'm fully aware of the powerful, romantic magnetism of asphalt but it really was the sweetest.

Christmas Eve was spent at the Haycock home with Josh's grandparents and my family (minus Darcy...tear). We had a wonderful soup dinner and then went on the traditional Christmas Eve scavenger hunt for our white elephant gifts. Josh got a denture ice tray and I found a Disney Princess Sing-along CD. Afterward, Josh's dad and Ashley shared the Christmas story through a series of Bible and Book of Mormon scriptures.


We spent the night at my parent's house and woke up to find this boy outside the bedroom door.
It's my favorite way to find Matt on Christmas morning--huddled over his pillow (unfortunately not his Pikachu anymore), ready to be the first one to fly down the stairs as soon as Dad gives the go-ahead.


Mom and Dad and their matching....wait, what were those?

Where We've Been Together

Gig Harbor Washington. Mount St. Helens. Astoria Oregon. Portland Oregon. Cannon Beach Oregon. Albany Oregon. Salem Oregon. Lincoln City Oregon. Crater Lake National Park. Roseburg Oregon. Newport Beach. Medford Oregon. Boise Idaho. West Yellowstone. Rexburg Idaho. Idaho Falls Idaho. Logan Utah. Salt Lake City Utah. Provo Utah. Heber City Utah. Midway Utah. Arches National Park. Moab Utah. Zion National Park. St. George Utah. Las Vegas Nevada. Henderson Nevada. Kearney Nebraska. Winter Quarters. Keokuk Illinois. Nauvoo. Chicago Illinois. The Gateway Arch. Birmingham Alabama. Great Smokey Mountains National Park. Augusta Georgia. Atlanta Georgia. Suwanee Georgia. Buford Georgia. Chattahoochee National Forest. New York City New York.

The Bread Maker

Not only does Josh bring in the dough but he also bakes the bread in the family. I really like having a Bread Maker. When I first got the machine I was excited to be domestic and bake my own bread. It's far from being mixed and kneaded by hand but I do consider it homemade!

But my futile attempts to bake bread in the past were disastrous. It would come out compact and hard as a rock or just hard as a rock or it simply wouldn't even mix. I'm not one to usually follow recipes but I really tried to follow the directions correctly and they still wouldn't rise into a mouth-watering hunk of carbolicious goodness!

One day I asked Josh to bake the bread. Or did he decide to give it a try after he chipped his tooth on his sandwich? I don't remember... However it happend, the boy made a perfect loaf of bread...again and again and again.

So while I may not be a Little Red Hen, I'm very pleased to have a sweet loaf of bread and a sweet boy to make it!