Craft Night!

Friday night we had a girls craft night and made these cute Christmas advent calendars. We used mini-muffin tins and for each day in December up to Christmas-Eve you look behind the number and find a scripture and and activity to do on that day, and maybe even a little treat! It's still not completely finished. I still need to punch holes in the muffin tin and tie ribbon to it so I can hang it on the wall. After making this I'm really starting to get excited for Christmas time. I'm so excited for when we have our own kids to do activities like this with and start our own traditions.

Murder at the Juice Joint

Our friends Paul and Tonii hosted quite an amazing murder mystery party the weekend before Halloween. It was a 20's gangster/ mob theme and the scene was a Chicago local hot spot, the Juice Joint. Those attending were Hollywood film directors, actresses seeking the big screen, local law enforcement, mobsters, local political celebrities among others.



Here are the crafty party favours and prizes
You could win a prize if you guessed the murder correctly.
Or if you gained the most wealth (bribery, stealing and gambling are all encouraged)
Of if you were the most dramatic in your character.



Some of the grub, as well as the attendees.

And the whole group!

The investigator considering his suspects.

Thanks Johnsons! We had a blast. And thanks to everyone for getting so involved in their parts. It made all the difference.

Anderson Family Pictures

A few Sunday's ago after our family dinner at Tiff and Jeff's house we drove over to the park and took some family pictures while the leaves were just starting to get bright.




The whole gang



Blaine & Diane





Chrissy & Danny




Probst family: Chrissy, Danny, Hannah, Rachel, Spencer & Ethan



Tiff & Jeff



Us!

Turner/Anderson 2nd Annual Karlee's Birthday Hike

Every year since last year the Turners and the Andersons go hiking on October 10th to celebrate Karlee's birthday. This year was no different, except maybe a little more chilly! If you remember last years pictures, we were sweating in our shorts and t-shirts. This year, well not so much. We drove up American Fork Canyon for this hike, way past Tibble Fork Reservoir.



Here is the proud new papa of this cute (at the time) 6 week old. Babies first hike.



Like I said, it was a bit colder than last year. Yep, we ARE hiking in snow!



The views were amazing!



Cute new family!

After it was all said and done, some of us still had to relieve ourselves. Yes, Travis is still holding baby Beck in front of him.

Stay tuned for next October 10th to see where we go on our 3rd annual!

West Yellowstone

Over Labor day weekend Kristin and I were invited to go with the Browns, and the Johnson's up to West Yellowstone. We really had a good time up at the Johnson's cabin. The trip started out late Wen. night. We had planned on leaving at around 7 (that would have put us at our destination around 12), but we didn't leave til about 9. It made for a late night. About 3 hours into the trip we spotted an out of control van heading in the same direction that we were. Ill admit I was a bit terrified that we would pass the van for fear that this van would side swipe us. He was out of control. Every min or so he would swerve off the road and then jerk back into his lane. Kristin and I were car pooling with the Johnson's, so we had Paul call back to our Police officer friend that was in the car behind us. In a matter of seconds Matthew our police buddy was on his cell phone calling in the disturbed driver. No more then a min a trooper passed us and pulled over the van. I felt like Miami vice as we followed the trooper to the side of the road, after all I was an eye witness. Matt looked so handsome as he stepped out of the Honda that he was driving to assist in the capture of this delirious man. (I could see Matt's badge and gun attached to his hip) I then got out of the driver side door of the vehicle that I was in and drew my weapon and yelled, "PUT YOUR HANDS WHERE I CAN SEE THEM". I was about to take this man down on my own accord...
...... Just kidding... I stayed in the car while the real troopers took care of this crazy. We were on our way in no time and then about about a mile down the highway we pulled off for fuel. Not more then 15 mins later the van that we had just pulled over not more then 20 mins earlier was fueling up next to us. Go figure, he must have just been tired or something. He must have came to get a red bull.
We had so much fun during the weekend. We had a couple of 4 wheelers, and a dune buggy that I rolled. Paul's family has had this cabin for years, and the carpet was amazing. Orange and Green Shag!

Paul ordered some Pizza with sauerkraut, sounded Delicious...

Here is the piece that I couldn't finish... this actually made it to my mouth, then I spit it out. I just can't handle the taste, and on pizza, pizza should have pepperoni...

Take a look at this moose (not Paul, look just to his right our left). Amazing wildlife up in the West Yellowstone area...

These kids are great! We were able to go into town and enjoy some shopping and Ice cream.

This is such a beautiful place, we took the kids here and fed some huge fish (fishing is illegal here) and were able to see a muskrat too!

I had to get a final good bye picture with us all sitting on the porch of the cabin. We really enjoyed ourselves and hope to make this a regular outing. Perfect end to our perfect Labor day vacation.

Bear Lake

Here we are sampling the famous raspberry shakes with Matt and Shannon, Matt is behind the camera and Kristin is not pictured sitting across from Nate. ( the original picture had Kristin in it, but she thought she looked ornery so she cut herself out of it.)

This weekend we were able to go to Bear Lake! The trip was a lot of fun. We got up on Friday morning and got back home on Sunday just as church was let out around 2! Thanks Matt and Maryann for watching the dogs! We stayed up at Rob and Shelly's cabin and were on the lake pretty much the whole time we were there. In the evenings we went into town and enjoyed the famous raspberry shakes. The trip was great. A little cooler but great. Everyone the came said that they had a good time.

Bells Canyon

This last weekend our good friends Matt and Shannon took us on a hike with them in Bells Canyon. The week before they did this same hike with a goal to find the 2ND lake at the top of the canyon, but couldn't find it. For this attempt they did some online research and also found someone that has been there to try and see if they could describe the way. Why is it so difficult? The trail only goes so far and then you are pretty much bush-whacking it hoping you can make your way to the end. Our hike began fairly moderate through to the first lake and on past the waterfall. We followed the trail as far as it led us and then we had to rely on the cairns to lead us in the right direction.

Here if you look right in the middle you can see the first lake towards the beginning of the hike. From this ridge is probably close to the half way mark to our destination, the 2ND lake.

It isn't much farther past this point that the trail ends and the cairns eventually disappear. The last marker we saw was at the first boulder field and from that point is where it started to get messy. From what we were told by those that had supposedly made it to the lake, we were just supposed to stay to the right of the river and gain elevation.... whatever that's supposed to mean. A couple more hours past midway we found ourselves engulfed in waist high brush and often weaving our way over and under trees. We held a vote on whether or not to continue and after a tie, the girls just couldn't seem to convince the men to keep going. After 5 1/2 hours, scraped up arms and legs and signs of thunderstorms we began our trek back down. We decided we will try again and we WILL find this lake, but next time we will come more prepared. Next time we will need to have a machete to clear a path when the brush gets thick and maybe we will have found someone that has been there before to guide the way. It took us a good 8 hours to get as far as we did and back, but I think if we had a better navigation plan we probably could have made it the whole way in the same amount of time. Have you or anyone you know made it to that 2ND lake?

Lake Powell or BUST!

This is my lovely wife tearing it up...

here is me...

In case you were wondering... No, I did not fall off the tube... Despite everybodies best efforts in getting me off the tube, the best was when Kristin drove, she had to go like 40 MPH and finally I let go out of sheer terror!

This is the group that we invited, bottom row left to right: me, Craig, and Cory
Top row left to right: Taryn, Kristin, and Melissa

Sam and I were the only ones that actually jumped... (we are the two falling) we did some more cliff jumping on some smaller shorter cliffs so that everyone could jump!

Me at the drivers seat of the new boat!

This is the view from our camp spot! it was so pretty morning and evening... I like this photo because of the moon. We are pretty blessed to live in such a beautiful state!

We only had one casualty from the wind!!! A pop up shade canopy for eating under... we were able to lash it together to make it work for the rest of the trip!!!
I take no pride in lashings, this is Stuarts doing... (Kristin's dad). We love you Stuart!

We hope that everyone had a great holiday weekend! We were lucky enough to make it down south to one of our favorite vacation spots for the 4th of July weekend. Lake Powell!!! We had a good time despite the car problems on the way down and back. While on the lake we were able to unwind a bit, and just have some good old fun. We made it down on Wednesday the 1st. I was so excited to get on the lake I couldn't sleep, and we ended up leaving at 4:00 a.m. that morning. The drive seemed to take forever, lasting about 6 and 1/2 hours putting us on the lake by noon. We then packed up all our camping gear into the boat and headed out in search for nice sandy beaches, shade, and a place to pitch our tents. The weather was great too, we were able to enjoy some overcast days which made being on the water less intense from the heat! The water is amazing... 76 degrees, and for most of the trip it was really nice to be on...
Thanks for everyone that came, and made this trip so memorable! We should make this a yearly tradition!

Snowboarding in our swim suits!

JK! Well kind of....

This Last weekend Nate and I went snowboarding with our friends Shannon and Matt at Brighton and because it was the last Saturday of the year you could buy tickets half off if you wore your swimming suit. So we did board in our swim suits.... just underneath our snow clothes.

It was the perfect day to end the year. At the base of the mountain it got to the mid 50's and SUNNY SUNNY SUNNY!

I was surprised at how many people we saw in just their swimming suit... Ya it was a warm day, but talk about wind chill, brr!

I do love snowboarding, but that's about it in the winter. I am so glad it's over!

And of course you know Nate... He's already taking his lunch breaks at Marine Products. Now that I think about it I think he is there right now getting a new wakeboard rope. Out with the snowboarding, in with the wakeboarding!