Thanksgiving & Other Celebrations

First off, I need to clarify for some people what our AWESOME jack-o-lantern from this Halloween portrayed. . . Not a cat-person or a burglar, but BIG FOOT!

 

This is an image from the most famous big foot video ever, and our 

Halloween inspiration!  We did a good job, huh?

Kyle celebrate "no shave November" this year.  The first time I have ever seen him with a beard!  I was quite surprised that it didn't bother me.  Kyle said he grows an "Abe Lincoln" beard since it was mostly around his face/under his chin and not on his face.  I was intending to take some portraits/profiles of him with his beard but he shaved it off before I got around to it.  But you can tell from the photos below.  These were taken over Thanksgiving. 

Doesn't Kristy look especially happy in these photos ;) Keep reading to find out why . . .

As you may have guessed by now, we visited Temple Square while in Utah for Thanksgiving.  It was a lot of fun to see Kyle's family.  Kristy had some especially exciting news to share with us . . . she is ENGAGED!! Yay!! She and David are planning for a May wedding!  I'm so excited!  Over Thanksgiving we did some bowling and laser tag, a little bit of shopping, visited Temple Square, saw the "Savior of the World" play, and of course ate some tasty food!  I love vacation and family time.  

Not too long after Thanksgiving comes December 9th which is Kyle's Birthday!!  He turned 26 this year!   Here he is with his gifts.  26 and clean shaven. Haha.

To celebrate his Birthday we went and saw the new James Bond movie and then went out to Texas Road house for dinner.  The movie and dinner were both really good!

The month of December has given my wonderful boss Gloria an extra reason to spoil Inge and I.   It started with a 1/2 day in the office followed by 4 treatments at the spa!  We got massages, facials, manicures and pedicures.  Complete with awesome, special-ordered zebra-print pedicure sandals. 

Aren't these sandals fun?  I am the rebel with silver nails instead of red.  Now every time I paint my toes I will use my fun pedi-sandals and remember our office spa day!

Inge, Gloria and I toasting with some sparkling cider at the spa! Aren't we radiant? :)

Two Fridays ago Gloria took Inge and I to the Pocatello Realtor Christmas party.  We had a fantastic dinner, got fun gifts, and watched some of the realtors play "family feud" realtor-style.  

This past Friday Gloria treated Inge and I as well as Inge's three kiddos to the local performance of the Nutcracker ballet.  All of the dancers were so talented and we had a lot of fun!

Gloria, Inge, Preslei, Tenlie, Kennadi & Me after the Nutcracker

We decorated the office for Christmas and had a surplus of fake ever green trees. Gloria was kind enough to let me borrow one for our apartment.  It's all decorated and I'm glad to have some Christmas cheer in our little apartment!

 

 Kyle is studying for his finals this week and on Saturday we will fly out to TN for Christmas!  Merry Christmas Everyone!!

The Next-to-Last Pumpkin

We didn't really make any Halloween plans this year.  The one thing that I knew I wanted to do was to carve a pumpkin since we've done that every year so far.  BUT, we waited until the night before Halloween to go pumpkin shopping.  We went to THREE different stores who were SOLD OUT of pumpkins.  Halloween day I called three more stores who were also sold out of pumpkins.  Finally, I found a local grocery store who said "we've got two big ones left."  On my lunch break I ran over there and snatched up the next-to-last pumpkin in all of Pocatello.  It was a 30-pounder!!  So, we spent our Halloween evening planning and carving our pumpkin.  It turned out to be our most awesome 

jack-o-lantern yet!!! 

 I bet you can guess whose idea this was?  It turned out so good!

And since we had such a huge pumpkin I figured we might as well get the most out of it!  We've already made "pumpkin gut" muffins and I harvested almost 1/2 of the pumpkin and now have 15cups of pumpkin puree in my freezer.  I plan to make: pumpkin bread, pumpkin soup, pumpkin pie. . .  It should last us all year and probably longer than that.  I'll have to find some creative pumpkin recipes.

Pumpkin Harvest (still life by Sharon Hadley)  (HAHA)

Next year we will buy our pumpkins the 1st day they go on the market! Seriously, I have never heard of an entire city running out of pumpkins before Halloween!

Pocatello

We've been in Pocatello for a few months now and things are going great!  Kyle is loving the physical therapy program - he says all of his professors have great credentials and he is learning a lot from them.  For the most part, time is flying by and it's already time for this semester's midterms.  Just a couple more years (+ some change) until he will be Dr. Hadley!

I found an AWESOME job working for a realtor, Gloria Howell.  Gloria is Great to work for, very fun and generous.  I help run the office with my coworker, Inge, who is also Awesome.  Gloria also lets me photograph the new listings she gets as a 'side-job' - and you know I love any excuse to use my camera :) She also hired Kyle to place the signs at the properties as needed - which is a great side-job for him since he is a student and they really recommend that he not work . . . So we are feeling very blessed and we are doing great.

Here are a few things that have happened since we've arrived:

I RAN MY 1/2 MARATHON!!

 They gave us pretty cool finishing medals!

  

The Official Race Times - You will probably have to click on this one to be able to read it but I underlined my name so you could find me.  I feel like I ran ultra fast because I was training at just over a 10min mile and I ran at a 9:50 pace even!  I'm such a speed demon . . . JK, this 11 or 12 year old girl beat me, she ran with her dad and I felt good because I was ahead of them but then they sprinted like the whole last half mile and I didn't even stand a chance. I also got beat by an ancient, grey-haired lady who told me that I "run so effortlessly" . . . She was kind, I shouldn't call her ancient.  But it was a lot fun!! Who knows, maybe one day I will train for a full marathon.

 I couldn't have done it without my personal trainer! Thanks for training with me Kyle!

We fed the missionaries for the first time in our married lives.  Kyle was on his way to get me from work one day when he saw some missionaries out riding their bikes - and he recognized one of them!  It turns out that Kyle baptized this Elder when he was a missionary! What a crazy coincidence.  We actually knew that he had been called to Idaho (pocatello area) but we hadn't tried to track him down yet.  We took them out to get some Chinese food. I kept  hoping that they would speak Marshallese but they didn't speak very much.  It was fun for them to get reunited. 

I turned one year older and wiser too!

We celebrated with some awesome triple chocolate cake, dinner out and some rock-climbing.  24 is still so young! :)

Last week we got to have dinner with my grandma Anja and aunt Suvi!  They had driven to Salt Lake for conference and then took another route home so they could stop and say hi to us here and also visit my cousin in Rexburg.  It was fun to see them!!

And, lastly, Kyle got to be in the home coming parade for ISU!  The physical therapy department had a spot in the parade and so Kyle got to be a part of it.   I watched the parade with Inge and her kiddos and it was a lot of fun.  It was a looong parade though.  Kyle said they ran out of candy pretty quick and then all they had left to give out were flyers.  He totally made those flyers very desirable to the kids though.  He said he would go over to groups of them and say "who wants a paper?!?!?!" and they all, really wanted the paper - the kids who got them were so happy.  :)

And that's an update!! Things are going great.  Until next time.

To Cali and Beyond - Vacation Part 2

When our TN time came to an end we packed up our car and headed across the country to Sunny California!  We camped a couple of nights on the way.  We camped the first night in Missouri where I got bonus points for having chosen a campground with a neighboring Disc Golf Complex!  3 courses in one park - it was pretty awesome.  When I made our reservations I  had no idea that the campground had disc golf  complex but it turned out to be a pleasant surprise and Kyle got to add Missouri to his list of states that he has played disc golf in.

 

We camped the next night in Nebraska where we woke up to our tent being leveled on top of us by a wind storm.  It was pretty crazy.  I was planning to take a picture of our campsite before we left but the wind sort of stopped that from happening.  After Nebraska, our next stop was Utah where we got to attend my friends wedding!

Jade & Chris

Jade's mom and my mom were mission companions in Taiwan and are still best friends today.  Growing up, our families would take turns visiting each other in Utah and Tennessee.  Jade and Chris got engaged while we were living in West Jordan and I had the honor of taking their engagement pictures!  It was a ton of fun to be able to also attend their sealing and celebrations.  I love weddings! They are so fun!  Of course I had my camera with me so I got to snap some fun shots... I've decided I'm ready to photograph weddings!  It wasn't as scary as I'd thought it would be.  Of course I was taking photos for fun and not for real, so there was no pressure.  After the reception we drove up to Panguitch where we picked up this cutie:

Pepper

Kyles aunt Tracy's dog had puppies and this one was promised to April, Susan and Brian.  We got the honor of driving her to her new home.  When we got to Kyle's house we took her to the back yard, let her loose and then waited at the side of the house until we heard April say "Um, mom. . .there is a dog in our backyard"  :)  I can't wait till Kyle and I are no longer renters so we can get a cute little puppy.

Our time in California was packed with lots of adventures.  April got to take a day off from school and the 3 of us went to . . .

It was the first time Kyle and I had been to an amusement park together and we had a lot of fun!  April was a great tour guide and made sure that we got to do all of the best coasters.  The park was busy but not too bad and the lines weren't too long.  One of our favorite rides turned out to be the Perilous Plunge which actually had the longest/slowest line and looked really scary so we weren't sure if it would be worth the wait.  But it totally was

April took this of us - the drop for the Perilous Plunge is directly to my left

If you don't get wet enough on the ride you can stand at this overlook and you'll get a good spray every time the ride goes.

We also spent a day with Susan at the Wild Animal Zoo Safari Park.  I love zoos.  We got to watch a show where they brought out one of the cheetahs and set it to chase after this toy.  Before they had the cheetah run the track they had a dog and a kid run the track so we could get time comparisons.  The cheetah was soo much faster.  It was cool to watch.  The zoo safari park also has a safari ride you go on witch takes you through all of these exhibits where the animals are living together in wide open enclosures like they really do in the wild.

A baby giraffe we saw while on the safari ride, we also saw a baby zebra

Right at the end of our day at the zoo we checked out the Gorilla exhibit.  We saw a cute baby gorilla out playing around and we saw Half of a Giant daddy gorilla. . . hehe.  The opening to the "gorilla" cave was half taken up with the daddy gorilla.  He didn't move the whole time we were there watching.  It was slightly scary but I think if he had moved it would have been terrifying. :)

While in California Kyle and I also got a groupon to go on an ocean kayak tour.  That was also a lot of fun.  We were lucky and went on a day when the water was pretty calm.  We left from La Jolla shores and paddled out to some ocean caves and back.  I did not take my camera because I didn't know if we'd end up getting knocked out of our kayak or not.  Before our group left we watched some other groups coming and going and saw several people flip over.  Getting through the waves breaking close to the shore is the hardest part and that's where a lot of people went down.  Kyle and I ended up making it out and back without flipping though and I totally should have risked taking a camera out.  Next time we go to Cali I'm just going to have to get one of the water proof disposable cameras for us.  If we lived in California I am pretty sure we would end up owning a kayak, it was fun.
And now I want to share with you one of my favorite tickets we used while in Cali. . . .

Tickets to the Flea Market!!

:)  We went to the flea market a couple of times while we were there.  It  happens every weekend and it is so awesome!  Here are a couple of our great buys:

An awesome bonsai tree and a great Ninja blender!

Isn't the bonsai tree the coolest?  We got the 2nd smallest size available but they were selling them in all sizes and it's going to look even more awesome in about 15 years.  And we love our Ninja blender too!!  We ended up getting our Ninja for $50!!  They were asking $80 each but we talked them down to 2 for $100 (one for us and one for Kyle's family).  At the store the version we got costs about $150.  It blends like nothing else and we make great fresh fruit smoothies!  And while we were there Susan used hers to make cinnamon rolls!  Yum.  Flea markets are awesome and I wish Pocatello had one.

While in California Kyle and I were also very good about running and training for the upcoming 1/2 marathon (stay tuned for a future post about that!).  And we got to celebrate Susan's birthday before leaving California!

But the fun doesn't stop there!  We left California for the Ranch where we had a great 4th of July reunion with more of Kyle's family.  On the 4th Mitchell, Kyle and I took the boat out to Panguitch lake and had a Fantastic time fishing!

Showing off our catches

The fish were biting like crazy.  Mitchell got a 16" fish which was by far the biggest.  I think I hooked like three 20+ inchers but they all broke off the line before I could get them into the boat.  Seriously. I fought with some Big ones but they never made it in.  We had one of the only successful boating trips that happened while at the ranch.  Mitchell, Kristy and David took the boat out another time and the engine died on the . . . then Kyle and I tried to go again later and the boat was flooding - someone had taken a stopper out that we didn't know about. Then when we realized what was happening and tried to put the plug back in we ended up losing the plug all together.  Hehe.   But, the boat didn't sink and hopefully there will be some more successful boating/fishing trips in the future. 

We also took a day trip to Bryce canyon and got to do a couple of hikes. 

Here we are at the top of the canyon

Walking through some arches

The whole Bryce gang: David, Kristy, Susan, Kyle, Myself, Mitchell, Tom

Some of the "Hoodoos" (awesome rock formations)

And we found these Hoodoos in a tree!  

A whole section of a trail that we did had these man-made Hoodoos hidden around.  It was pretty cool and we made our own to add as well.

We also spent a day walking around the town of Panguitch.  Of all the times I had been to the ranch before this was the first time that I got to walk around Panguitch.  Kyle is not a big fan of walking through little town shops so he hadn't taken me before.  Luckily Susan, Kristy and April were there this time and wanted to walk around town too.

Me as a Panguitch Cowgirl

Taking turns in Panguitch jail. . . I was the only happy prisoner

Panguitch also recently restored their old movie theater and we got to go with Kyle's family to see The Amazing Spiderman there.  It's a fun theater with a game room and ice cream parlor. 

We also went on a 50+ mile four wheeler ride.  Brian had always wanted to ride from Panguitch to Parowin and get a hamburger and then ride back.  So while he was with us at the ranch we made that happen!  We rode up and over the mountain and down through some back roads into Parowin.  When we got there we ate some burgers and headed back.  All together the trip took about 4 hours and was a little over 50 miles!  I didn't take any photos on the trail. :(  Before we started the ride though I spotted this little guy:

 It's a horny toad lizard!

Before going to the ranch Kyle would tell me about how he always caught horny toad lizards when he used to go to the ranch as a kid.  He had decided that the lizards just weren't around as much as they used to be.  But then I found this one . . . and his younger cousins were finding them all over the place too.  

And finally, before our vacation ended, I had to get these two pictures:

A picture with Pepper, Pepper

and

A picture with Kooz

Some of you may recognize Kooz from the back window of our car.  Kyle and I won Kooz on the way home from my first trip to California with him.  We stopped at a gas station and decided to try our luck at the claw machine game.  We got Kooz on our first try!  We were jumping up and down celebrating and the rest of the people there thought we were crazy.  But we knew we were just cool.  While we were in Cali for that 1st trip there we had gone to a Padres baseball game and one of their better players was Kooz.  So when we won this guy we knew just what to name him.  He decorated the back of our car for a couple of years and got a little sun faded in the process.  We finally retired him to the toy bin at the ranch for the kiddos to enjoy while they are there.

Thank you to Kyle's wonderful family for all of the adventures in Cali and at the ranch!!  That pretty much sums up our travels for the summer.  We had a great time!    We are now in wonderful Pocatello, ID and things are going just fine.   

Tennessee Time - Vacation Part 1

I'm pretty sure that you've all heard that Kyle got accepted to Idaho State University's Physical Therapy program which starts in just over a week!  Well, before his spot at ISU came up (he was 12th on their waiting list), we were planning to move to Provo for a PT program there that started in May. So, we had made all of the arrangements to move and then his spot at ISU came up and we ended up with a few months off since ISU doesn't start until the end of Aug.  Time to vacation and visit family!  Our first stop was Tennessee.  We spent our first little bit of time in TN helping with projects around the house and at my parent's rental property.  We stained a deck, painted a shed, refinished a table, did some landscaping... kyle got to help move some heavy furniture so the carpets could be cleaned :)  And after our projects were over we got to play.  First off, we entertained company.  My aunt Delsa came down from Memphis to visit for a bit!  It is always so fun to see her!  And I got to meet my great aunt and uncle, Jorma and Liisa, from Finland!  When Sarah graduated high school she and my dad went to Finland for her senior trip and they stayed for part of their vacation with Jorma and Liisa.  It was a lot of fun to meet them and spend time with them.  They are two fun people!  While company was here we went on a lunch cruise on the General Jackson river boat.  It cruises down the Cumberland river, which is also the river that you can see from my parent's backyard in TN.  We cruised the other direction though and got to see downtown Nashville from the river.  It was a cool little lunch cruise and during lunch we were entertained by a comedian and some musicians. 

Liisa, Jorma, My dad as we were boarding the General Jackson

 

Here we are on the General Jackson with the Nashville skyline as our backdrop

Kyle and I also got to spend a night at my aunt and uncles' in Hurricane Mills, TN (just about an hour and a half from home).  They have a beautiful farm!  We went with Joyce (my aunt) to visit the Amish - something Kyle had never seen before.  We bought some of their tasty baked goods and got to meet an Amish family that's really close to Joyce and was also close to my cousins while they were growing up.  So that was neat!  The Amish are very friendly people.  We also got to spend an evening playing baseball with Davis, my cousin Nikki's boy.  He was quite the ball player.  And Troy (my uncle) took us fishing in his ponds.  With our first few catches, he taught us the camera trick to make our fish look bigger.

Same fish, but doesn't it look so much bigger when you hold it out in front of you? :)

Isn't it a beautiful lake?

The next day we went fishing again and, well, let's just say there was really no camera trick needed :)

They were both HUGE fish but I'm pretty sure the one I caught was bigger.  My arm felt like it was going to break from just holding the fish out for the picture. I'll have to improve my upper body strength for next time. Hehe.  Also while we were visiting, Joyce treated us to some scrumptious food at the Log Cabin restaurant. The restaurant which my grandpa built and Troy and Joyce now own.  I remember always loving to eat there as a kid and it had been forever since I'd been there. 

 I stole this photo off the internet since I didn't think to take one while we were there

The food was just as yummy as I remembered.  We had a lot of fun and it was good to get to spend some time with Troy and Joyce!

While in TN we also got to spend some time in Gatlinburg.  It's a touristy little town up in the Smoky Mountains.  We got to do some pretty hikes up to different waterfalls. 

On this particular hike, Kyle and I were ahead of my mom and dad when we spotted this fallen tree that made a perfect bridge across the water.  We got on and scooted out and waved to them as they hiked up.  We really felt like we had scooted out a lot further than the picture shows.  It was a little frightening though so I'm not surprised that we hadn't made it as far as we thought. 

At the top of this hike there was another falls that we could walk behind

 

And on the way down we posed for a group photo

We also did a hike up to a water fall called Laurel Falls.  It was 1.3 miles to the falls.

Here we are at the top.

Pretty much right after we started back down from laurel falls a Huge rain storm hit.  Hehe.  We went over a mile in the Pouring rain.  It was actually pretty fun to get drenched but then I was cold on the car ride back to the hotel.  :)

Pausing under some branches during the downpour for a kodak moment

There were also some trails to some historical sites; old churches and farm houses.  While driving one of the looks with the historical sites we saw some baby black bears!!  Sadly, I took photos of them on my mom's camera and forgot to get the photos before we left.  But I did get this photo:

Hehe.

There was actually a gigantic spider in there that I climbed up to look at after Kyle.  It was the size of a baseball. Freaky. Back in town Kyle and I took the ski lift up to the smoky mountain look-out.  

 This is the lift we rode, it was Really steep

 We didn't buy the expensive souvenirs up top but we did opt for the 25cent binoculars

While in Gatlinburg we also spent a little bit of time in Pigeon Forge, it's another touristy town probably 20 minutes outside of Gatlinburg.  In Pigeon Forge there is an outlet mall and there are also some of the Coolest go-karts I have ever seen.  I'm talking two-story go-kart tracks with spirals up and spirals down and little "hills."  My dad, Kyle and I got arm bands for the go-karts and the it felt more like we were driving on a roller coaster track.  Pretty sweet!  Gatlinburg sure is a fun little town and the smoky mountains sure are grand!

Finally, since we were in TN for most of the month of May, we were there just in time to celebrate Sarah's 21st birthday!  WOO-HOO!!!  We actually celebrated a few days early since her true birthday isn't until June 1st.  But I was glad we got to celebrate with her!

 Sarah and her yummy carrot cake

So, that was our month in TN!! If I left anything out it was purely accidental.  I think next time (in several years or more. . .) when we get to go on a long vacation I'll have to blog while traveling and then just go back and insert the pictures later.  But it's been fun to go through all the vacation pictures and write up the stories. So that's it for today but there is still more to come!