UTAH!

This last week we got to go to Utah to enjoy Thanksgiving with both of our families, the original plan was to leave Seattle on Wednesday, but because of the whopping 4 inches of snow that Seattle got on Monday Richard's school was cancelled on Tuesday so we decided to leave late Tuesday morning. The weather wasn't great, so we only made it to Pendleton, OR...about 1/3 of the way. So we stayed the night in a hotel and got up bright and early for the second part of our drive on Wednesday, again the roads were not great, but we rolled into Spanish Fork at about 6:00.

Thursday we had Thanksgiving with my family at 12:30 and then we went to a second Thanksgiving dinner with Richard's family at about 3:00. Both of our Thanksgivings were spectacular!

Friday, Richard went skiing with a bunch of the boys in his family, I took the day easy with my family. I went shopping with my mom and brothers and just had a nice relaxing day.

Saturday, we went to Grandma Christensen's to have Christmas morning with Richard's parents then we went to my house to watch the BYU vs Utah football game, which we lost. :(

Saturday night brought the real reason for our trip to Utah, the most important part. It was Grandma Christensen's 80th birthday party. Almost her entire family came to Utah to be a part of the event, only four of her grandchildren weren't able to make it. She had family from all corners of the country: New Hampshire, Georgia, Washington, Arizona, and many others. It was a fantastic night and it was so great to honor grandma and see her life in pictures. We love you grandma, happy birthday!

Unfortunately, on Sunday we had to drive back to Seattle. We woke up at 3:15 Washington time and picked up Richard's dad and sister from Grandma's house to take them to the airport and then we were on our way. Just a mere 3 hours into our drive we hit the first snag...we learned that I-84 was closed at the Utah/Idaho border so we pulled off the freeway to discuss what we wanted to do...our options were sit there, go back to spanish fork, or go all the way around I-84 through Pocatello which, at the speed limit would add 2 hours to our drive. We decided that we would just be annoyed all day if we weren't making progress so we decided to go ahead and take the 2 hour detour, but before we got back on the road we wanted breakfast, but NOTHING was open, so we ended up finding a walmart and buying some pop-tarts and graham crackers.

The roads were pretty nasty until about 100 miles from Boise so it was a LONG drive, the normal 6 hour drive to Boise took TEN hours!!!! After that, the drive was fairly smooth, we were going to stop in Kennewick for the night, but we really didn't want to and we were feeling good so we were able to make it all the way home. We got in at about 10:30, which isn't that late except that we had been awake since 3:15...

18.5 HOURS LATER WE HAD FINALLY MADE IT HOME!

But the trip was totally worth it and we would do it all again!

Halloween

For Halloween our friend's Dustin and Sally Bluhm hosted a great 80's themed party, it was a lot of fun, and they went all out, it was so great!

Richard is rockin the flat top, he won the prize for best hair. And I found this fabulous wedding dress for $20 at Value Village.

Dierks Bentley

Back in September I went to a Dierks Bentley concert with a few of my girlfriends from the ward. While we were enjoying our country music (which all of our husband's hate...hence the girls night) our husband's were enjoying the ward chili cookoff and some wii games.

Before the concert we were walking around trying to decide where to eat dinner and as we were getting ready to cross the street down came Dierks Bentley and his police escort. Sweet!

Update

I have been chastised several times over the last month for not updating the blog...in my defense I cannot find our camera ANYWHERE and blogging just isn't quite as fun without pictures...so I have raided some friend's facebook and blogs to see what I could find. So the next few posts will be my attempt at remembering as much as I can without the camera/pictures...

These are the cute kids that I babysit, here they are decorating cookies.

This is what I did today....got my wisdom teeth out. The procedure went smoothly and I am glad it is over, but now I am very sore and swollen (which doesn't show very well in this picture, but you can see it a little bit). :(

As a side note I dropped my phone in the parking lot walking into work and the screen is now black so I can't read or send texts... Rough day....

Fall=Football!!!!!!

Two weeks ago we got to go to our first UW football game, it was fun, I love football. They played Syracuse and won, hurray! I must say, UW football games are much more relaxing than BYU games for me. I have no emotional investment in the team and therefore I can just enjoy the football game regardless of the result. There is very little anxiety for me while I watch the game...and it is a good thing because UW is not going to have a very good season...last week they lost 56-21.

Miscellaneous Last Day

We went to Theo's Chocolate Factory and took a tour, it was really interesting and we got to eat lots of chocolate! VERY FUN! :D

Then we went and saw my office. Richard is holding up his favorite item in the office (it is part of our safe sleep kits). It is a onesie that says (on the back), "if you can read this, turn me over." It is cute and funny, we like it!

Then we got to go see Richard's building at UW, this is the classroom where he will be spending his life (all of his classes are in here)!

Beach and Burritos

One afternoon while they were visiting we went to Matthew's Beach, it is the best, and it is only like 2 minutes away from where we live.

A few weeks ago some friends told us about a place called Gordito's, their slogan is (no joke) "Burritos the size of infants." So of course we went there and got way more than we needed...three for four people, we had half of each left.

And when we went to order there was a sign that said if you bring in your newborn baby and let them take a picture of them next to one of their burritos you get a free burrito...needless to say, if we have a baby while we are in Seattle we will definitely be cashing in on our free burrito! :)

Biking and Pike Place

On Monday Richard and Jeff rode their bikes to work with me and then they went on a bike ride together.

I only worked 8-10am while they were in town, so after work we got to go down to Pike Place Market, have I mentioned that they have the most beautiful flowers there...and they are CHEAP!!!

Church and Aunt Gladys

On Sunday we went to church.

Then after church we went and visited Aunt Gladys. I don't think I have talked about Aunt Gladys on the blog yet. She is Richard's great-great-aunt (his Grandma Lee's aunt) and she just happens to be in our ward...SMALL WORLD! She is great, and she will be turning 100 this year!

TETRIS!

A few weeks ago we bought tetris for the wii and it is so fun! We spent A LOT of time playing tetris! :)

Susan was obsessed with it, she had a great time!

Gas Works Park

We also went to Gas Works Park, it is where we watched the 4th of July fireworks and it has an AMAZING view of downtown.

UW

Richard's parents and sister, Amanda, came up at the end of August to spend a few days with us. The next few posts are about their visit.

The first day that they were here we went and walked around UW campus, it is absolutely beautiful and it was fun to walk around.

More Fun

We also got to go canoeing with grandma, which was a lot of fun.

This is a great picture that Richard took from Gas Works Park, it has the BEST view of downtown Seattle!

Japanese Garden

After going to Taran's house we went and visited the Japanese Garden and the Rose Garden, they were both very pretty.