Our Space

Craft Night!

2009-11-07T17:16:00.002-07:00

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

2009-11-02T16:30:00.006-07:00

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

2009-11-02T16:11:00.004-07:00

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

2009-11-02T15:42:00.006-07:00

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

2009-09-23T10:54:00.014-06:00

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

2009-08-03T10:24:00.005-06:00

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

2009-07-13T17:00:00.012-06:00

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!

2009-07-06T09:05:00.011-06:00

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!

2009-04-23T13:52:00.006-06:00

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!

Sunday park adventure

2009-04-23T11:12:00.005-06:00

This Sunday we went to the park with the Browns. It was such a great day! We took Dax and Sadie "the brownie and the licky" It was fun to fly a kite and throw the ball with the dogs. We love Herriman, and are lucky to live so close to family and friends.

It was fun to see how tired Dax and Sadie were after throwing the ball with them.

We even got some sun on those white legs!!!

The Blasted Radiator

2009-04-08T09:02:00.002-06:00

So, it began... last week I started pulling out the radiator in the jeep. It took about 4 hours to pull and about an hour to replace. The problem was after the new part was in it still leaked... bummer, maybe I should have just had it done at the dealership. This isn't the first time that I have made this kind of a mistake, it later costing time or money. As is life, there is always something to learn. I found some comfort this past weekend listening to general conference. My favorite talk if I had one would have been the talk by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf in the priesthood session. He shared a story about a bulb, that was burnt out. The story goes on, and the message that I got from his talk was what matters most. I thought about that jeep, and what really matters most to me. I would say that Kristin matters most to me. I should focus more on her and her happiness, and our relationship. I love her more then life itself, and I haven't always been the type to make sure that she knows that she matters most to me.

Car's (not the movie)

2009-04-01T14:48:00.002-06:00

Cars, they can bring joy... sadness, and cost lots of money. Last weekend our jeeps' radiator pooped out on us. We were going to spend a few hundred dollars on the basement and on our way to do that we noticed a big green puddle of antifreeze. OH NO!!! Car problems... so, that basement will have to wait... I'll get to replace that radiator... if anyone has done this before I'm open to tips... I just wanted to rant and rave about costly repairs... Cars are definitely not a good investment. They cost money to fill up with gas, they cost loads to insure, and then you have your maintenance... No fun... On the brighter side the radiator should last a long time.

March!

2009-03-02T11:02:00.004-07:00

I can't believe that its already March! Time seems to go by much faster the older that I get. We didn't really do anything crazy this weekend like paint or build something in the basement. Our weekend was pretty normal. We spend Friday at home and had some friends over to play games! It was pretty fun to see Kristin win both games that she played! Kudos to her, Settlers Champ! Saturday was filled with Saturday activities. We needed to get the jeep registered and take it in for safety and emotions, in order for it to pass safety inspections, we had to remove the tint on the front two windows and a few other little miscellaneous things. I was upset that it was still rejected after all the little things that we did to it. Its a new Utah law that the battery needs to be strapped down... so, after getting that all squared around, later that night Kristin and I just had a lazy evening at home in our home theater and watched a movie and ended up falling asleep. Sunday was great, we got ready as usual and went to church. We were asked to watch the nursery kids, which was fun... I sorta miss that calling. When we first moved in and were asked to come into see the bishop. I told Kristin that if we were to get a calling I would be happy with anything other then primary, then I thought and said no worse would be nursery. A little more then 9 months later I was happy to say that being in nursery was great! When I was hungry I got a snack, and I was able to play with the toys too! Kristin is going to be the best mommy... it was fun to see little Kendal fall asleep in her arms!
Later that night we went over to Kristin's parents house where conversation ended up talking about summer activities and vacations to plan for this summer. I love boating... and Lake Powell... It makes summer come even slower when I'm this excited for summer activities... I just have to tell myself to take one day at a time and enjoy what is happening around me at this moment.

2009-02-24T12:57:00.002-07:00

Summer seems so far away. This time of year I can't help but think about our summer activities. BBQ's and water fun! I was going through some pictures that were on the camera and I couldn't help but post a picture of the boat. I think the boat to me is more then just a toy, but its an escape. I can be having the worst day at work, but as soon as we get off and head to the lake, my attitude quickly changes. There is nothing better then a day or an evening out on the lake. Friends and family welcome!!! Bring out some drinks (non-alcohol beverages of course) and relax, even if its a little windy we can always pump up a tube, when the water calms down its time for water skiing and wake boarding. LOVE!!!

2009-02-24T11:35:00.003-07:00

This last month Kristin and I took a sick day... we decided on our way to work that we were going to go snowboarding instead. We turned the car around and went back home to get ready for a day up at Brighton. The day was perfect! We were even able to get a few photos of us together on the hill, this is the same area that I proposed to Kristin. A moment of silence... ok... it was really nice to spend the day with my beautiful wife! I love her so much! It was a great day!

Girls Night!

2008-12-31T12:18:00.002-07:00

The other night my favorite girls from high school got together for the first time in SUCH a long time for dinner. Oh my goodness, after seeing them reminded me of how much I miss our high school and college days together. I loved our weekend trips down to Dixie to pick up Britt on our way to Vegas, our times in Moab and just our lazy days doing nothing.

It's amazing to me how much we have all grown up. Brittany with her baby Jaxon, Jamie teaching in Italy and Julie working in radiology. You girls are so beautiful and we have to do this much more often!

Go Nate!

2008-12-31T11:48:00.005-07:00

This Christmas our gift to each other was finishing our basement. Mostly it was a gift to me because Nate did all of the work. I just followed him around with the broom. I love having such a handy husband. He did all the work himself from the framing to the drywall, except we had such great friends and family who were so awesome to help hang most of the drywall. We also received help from generous gift cards to home depot for birthdays and Christmas from family along the way. We didn't finish the whole basement yet, just the family room part of it. There is still room for a possible bedroom and bathroom.

Our next project... the bathroom! That may be a while... we are having too much fun hanging out in our new media room!

The dogs think we finished it as their play room. This picture is a little out of date already. We moved a couch and our siesta sac downstairs, and Nate mounted our TV on the wall. I am so proud of him and all the work he has done.

The Mixer

2008-11-07T09:53:00.004-07:00

First of all I must tell my wife that I love her deeply... I really wanted to share a quick story with everyone about how much Kristin loves her Kitchenaid. So, when we got married I bought her one of those expensive Kitchenaid mixers, the sexy black one. Lets fast-forward to this week. Just on Monday, she was using it to grind her own wheat (to make some wonderful home made bread), and the dang thing locked up on her. I was a little frustrated because we had only had the mixer for about 18 months, and it was so expensive, but thought oh well that was fun while it lasted. Well, I guess she had grown attached to it emotionally because when it locked up she was so sad... The next two days were hard because she was so upset and couldn't drop the fact that her kitchenaid was ruined. I had mentioned to her that we could look into getting it fixed and before I realized what I had suggested, she was sending me emails with information on how to fix it myself... Being the great husband that I am that night I decided to to tear into to the mixer and fix the machine myself. 2 hours later our kitchen counter was covered in kitchenaid parts, it smelled like a shop from all the grease and oil that was in the unit too. I had discovered why it had locked up! The inside parts had pretty much melted to the metal housing of the mixer, no way that it could be fixed unless it was machined by the manufacturer. With the warranty expired, and the parts melted, there was little that could be done about the mixer. I thought the story ended there... but Kristin wouldn't give up, after a call to Kitchenaid and a long wait on the phone, she was able to get them to send out a new sexy black mixer free of charge in 7-10 days and after we get the new mixer all we need to do is send back the broken one. So, now I'm faced with the decision to send back a box full of parts or put it all back together...

2ND Anniversary!!!

2008-11-06T14:34:00.006-07:00

Monday was Nate and my 2ND year anniversary and to celebrate we went up and spent the night at Hotel Park City. It was such a treat and a relaxing weekend. I love it when I get the chance to hang out with just my hubby. I can't believe we have been married for 2 years already. I can honestly say that the past 2 years have been such a joy learning and growing together with my husband. I love my husband and am so excited for so many more years to come.

Connected to the hotel is Ruth's Chris Steak House and where we ate dinner.
There are not words to describe the delicious meal that we had here. Wow... This was my first time eating at Ruth's Chris and I have never had a better steak in my life.... really.

This was the view from our room. Right behind the hotel was the golf course and then Park City Ski Resort. The mountains were so beautiful with all the fall colors. I love autumn, my favorite season for sure!

Halloween

2008-11-06T14:15:00.003-07:00

Halloween night our friends Travis and Karlee came over to hang out and make yummy Navajo Tacos for dinner. After our friends Matt and Maryann and Paul and Tonii took their kids out trick or treating they all came over to show us their super cute costumes.

Here is the cutest duo ever Max and Carter. Max is the Indian and Carter is the cowboy. These two adorable boys are Matt and Maryann's kids.

This is Cinderella, aka Skylar, one of Paul and Tonii's super sweet and gorgeous daughters!

Here I have Kendall, Paul and Tonii's other beautiful daughter. We were best friends this night because I gave her all the junior mints she wanted.

Pickin' Pumpkins!

2008-11-06T14:05:00.003-07:00

Our friends Craig and Teryn came down from Ogden a couple weeks ago and spent the night. Whenever Nate and Craig are around each other they get so crazy! Oh my goodness they turn into 12 year olds...

We went and picked out some pumpkins the next day near our house.

Teryn thought she would just drive this tractor home...

Road Trip!

2008-11-06T13:51:00.004-07:00

Over UEA the girls all skipped town and headed to St. George for a nice long weekend in the sun. It was so nice to not have a schedule and to just do whatever we felt like. I loved being able to sleep in until the late morning, getting massages, eating, laying out by the pool, eating, shopping, eating, falling asleep to chick flicks, downing frozen oreos in one night and telling lots of secrets! I love these girls and our weekend was such a blast and so, so needed.

This is me, Tonii, Karlee, Maryann and Sue at the Pizza Factory.

Here we are just doing my favorite part.... nothing!

And our last night out at Texas Roadhouse. Thanks girls for an awesome weekend!

Say It Ain't So!

2008-10-09T14:40:00.004-06:00

Tuesday night we went with Nate's mission companion Craig and his wife Teryn and and our friends Cory and Melissa to the Weezer concert. It was Craig's birthday and his wife surprised him with tickets. He had no idea how sneaky his wife was in planning it all and keeping it a secret for so long. Nice job Teryn!

Here we all are at dinner before the concert. I am sitting by Melissa and Cory and Nate is by Craig and Teryn.

Angels and Airwaves opened for Weezer. Before the concert I loved Angels and Airwaves. I was a little disappointed, because they didn't sound the greatest live. They were pretty crude too... F this and F that... oh my goodness, enough already. Weezer puts on a great show. They are so entertaining and nerdy! Not to mention they perform great live. I was so impressed. My favorite part was toward the end of the concert. X96 had a contest for anyone that played an instrument to try out to win a spot to perform with Weezer. About 3o people got up on stage with every instrument you can imagine. Someone had an accordion and there were all sorts of crazy instruments. You'd never believe it, but it didn't sound too bad.

This picture could have turned out good.... except what's with all the crazy lights?

Birthday Hike

2008-10-09T14:18:00.003-06:00

On the morning of my birthday we drove up Yellow Fork canyon with our friends Travis and Karlee for a BEAUTIFUL fall hike. I love the leaves in the mountains in the fall time, so pretty!

By the way... this photo was taken right before the trail suddenly changed to a STEEP incline for the next couple of miles. Thanks to Travis we plowed right through it. If we were to have taken an after photo, our faces would be beet red and we would all be dripping in sweat.

ALOHA!

2008-09-25T12:56:00.006-06:00

Last Saturday we hosted a Lethal Luau Murder Mystery dinner party. We have never done one or even been to one, so let's just say it was a "learning experience." We had a feast thanks to everybody helping out with the food. Dinner included coconut shrimp, chicken teriyaki
with stir fried vegetables and rice, yummy salad, and grilled pineapple with vanilla bean ice cream and carmel sauce. Everybody looked awesome dressed up to fit their character. There were 3 scenes to the mystery and after the first scene the cd skipped to the end and revealed the murder. The next day we figured out that it was set to shuffle... what a bummer! We thought the night was ruined until someone suggested playing mafia. After the dinner and games our friends Travis and Karlee came over to hang out. For some reason they thought going to a lame BYU game was more important than being a part of our cast. If it was a Utah game then maybe they would have a good excuse.

This is Les Baggs, he is the typical tourist visiting Hawaii... or so he wants you to think.

Nadia Seymour, a super model in Hawaii for some photo shoots.

Cheif Honikawa Wikiwiki and the extremely wealthy Holly Day.

Sweet Escape

2008-09-04T15:03:00.009-06:00

Over Labor day weekend Nate and I and the 2 mutts went down to Lake Powell with all of his family for a week of good food, homeade ice cream, soaking up the sun, going big on the new wake board, cutting hard on the ski and being lazy on the inflatable island. By the 2ND day the dogs were more exhausted than I have ever seen them. We could not keep them out of the water. The company was more than you could ask for hanging out with Nate's parents, his 2 sisters and their husbands and our 4 nieces and nephews. Sadly enough the week had to end with high winds and a thunder storm with tons of rain. They say it's monsoon season right now at Powell.

Up to the mountains we go!

2008-09-04T13:55:00.007-06:00

A few weeks ago we drove up the canyon and went camping with our friends Matt and Maryann and their 2 adorable kids Max and Carter. We ate hobo dinners and had a delicious apple crumble for dessert. (thanks Maryann!) The next morning we had a hearty mountain man dutch oven breakfast which fueled us up for our hike to Donut Falls!

2008-08-05T16:30:00.002-06:00

We are def needing to get some other pictures on this blog. Maybe some other pictures of us enjoying the lake out on the boat. I would consider that our main love in life right now, other then of course our dogs, family, friends, and each other. Kristins parents have been in Cambodia for the last 14 days, its been nice to use there home theater for just the two of us. Her parents and family return this evening, we will be picking them up at the airport right after work. From the sound of emails and the look from pictures that we have seen, it looks like it is very hot and humid..... making memories. The pictures that they have sent have been very different from what I have imagained...

2008-08-04T15:50:00.003-06:00

After some prodding, we have finally gotten the blog going. Last week we bought a new camera, well.... it was mostly cause I 'miss placed' Kristin's about 4 months earlier. :)