Halloweeeeen!

Heber and I aren't really fans of this holiday, but this year we decided to have fun with it.  We invited friends over to carve pumpkins and we even made pumpkin soup! It was a lot of fun!

 Daxton thought getting the pumpkin guts out was pretty cool!

 I even made my first sugar cookies!

We had a pumpkin decorating contest at work. I thought I'd be creative and win first prize. Apparently racial pumpkins don't get many votes...

A little catch up... again...

For Heber's birthday we went on a trip to Boston to visit good friends, Spencer & Christina.Then we were off to NYC to explore the city. Here are a few pics from our adventures! (most of the pics are from Boston, we did a poor job documenting this...)








Heber's getting me ready...















Emerson was next and he just couldn't find it in him to let go of his little flower. Too cute.







Emerson was having a long conversation with the Blacksmith while visiting an old witch town.









Waiting in line at the Lobster Shanty (it's a DDD). We aren't sure it was worth the hour and a half wait to get our food. But it was a fun experience and yummy food.





We went to an old cemetery in Salem. Lincoln really liked this gravestone. His belly didn't really care for the leaves he ate though...





Goofin' off at the end of our "Freedom Trail" tour.









Walkin' the freedom trail...











The USS Constitution is behind us. We didn't have time to go over there and get closer. Our bus was going to leave us.







Thanks for letting us invade your lives Spencer & Christina. We wish we lived closer to you guys!

Summer Is . . .

Going to Lagoon. Afterall, "it's what fun is" . . . We went to Lagoon with Matt & his fam, Luke & Jed over the Memorial Day weekend. If only I could have captured the ear-to-ear smiles on each of their faces . . .

Riding our Bikes on the "green-belt" in Idaho with Matt & his family. It's one of our favorites. Next to getting a peanut butter chocolate milkshake. Mmmm . . .

Going to the REAL Salt Lake game - too bad the fireworks were crappy. . . We still had a good time. Thanks APX Alarm for the sweet tix!

Going to Stadium of Fire and watching Carrie Underwood perform! These fireworks rocked!

Heber plays softball in the spring/summer. His team didn't catch many "W's" but it's a lot of fun to go and watch. This is miss Mila Hanks cheering on her dad. What a cutie!

Going to Park City and riding the Alpine Coaster & the Alpine Slide with our neighbors Todd & Larissa. Good Times . . .

My mom decided it was time Heber take her for a spin on his motorcycle. I think it made her day . . . (BTW his bike is for sale if you know of any takers ;))

We had a big family dinner for my birthday with the Brown's & the Eastman's. My dad's work had these kickin' flag hats and my mom was dying to get a picture. These three are the only one's who dared to do it. Good work.

And last but not least, another county concert! For my birthday Heber got me tickets to the Tim McGraw & Lady A concert! He sure is a trooper surviving TWO country concerts in one summer. He's too good to me . . .

No big deal... It's just snow... In MAY!

Seriously ... snow at the end of May ... what is the world coming to ...

We've Got Birds...

For the last few weeks I have been convinced that birds had found a home in our home. I wasn't sure where they were, but I could hear them from inside, we had twigs and such scattered over our back porch and bird poop.

Apparently our neighbor was having the same problem and called our HOA to come and take care of it. Luckily this man saw birds by our house as well. Turns out these sneaky little birds had found a way in our bathroom vent, outside, and nested about 5 feet in...

After at least two hours they were able to get the nest out of our house! And they placed a "cage" on the outside of our vent to prevent them from coming back! Whew!

I haven't heard much of the birds since. But the rest of that day and the next couple - those birds were NOT happy with us. Sorry little birdies!

Hello San Francisco!

I can't really think of a better way to end a semester than to go on a vacation - that's just what we did. I took my last final, for Spring semester, last Thursday then, later that day we flew to San Francisco! Jed & H were kind enough to let us stay with them and interrupt their weekend.

Some of my favorites for the weekend were: eating fro-yo at Yoggi's, going to a Martin Sexton concert - for the first time, meeting Frankie, breakfast at Red Door Cafe (I think that was the name), relaxing without having to worry about school and Heber not having to worry about work.

Here are some pics.

This was Frankie's first Trolley ride - and yes, they made Jed pay FULL PRICE to bring this little one with us!

Heber watching the sail boats. It was still a little chilly, but in Heber's world that means it was perfect weather to wear shorts.

Of course we had to go for sushi. (Well, I didn't. But I had yummy chicken sukiyaki.) Zushi's made each dish beautiful.

That's a wrap. We have seen a lot of Jed & H lately and we love it! Thanks again for a fantastic weekend!

Much love.

These are the days of our lives (or the last 7 months)

We have been busy that is for sure!

I have been busy: studying, testing, cramming and hopefully passing.

Heber has been busy: working, designing, soccer-ing, softball-ing and running.

Let's start where we left off -

November: We had a great Thanksgiving combined with both of our families hosted by the Eastman's in West Bountiful. We spent plenty of time eating, pondering on all our blessings and of course sleeping! (thanks Mom for catching this classic pic)

December: We had an unfortunate flu bug the week of Christmas and spent plenty of unwanted time in the bathroom. But we healed quickly enough to have Jed & H stay one night with us and have Sharon, a good family friend, stay with us as well. Christmas was low-key and grand! As always Heber spoiled me rotten!

January: We rang in the new year partying in Grantsville with the Thompson clan enjoying lots of yummy fondue and playing crazy games! We also went snowshoeing with a bunch of friends. Who would think a girl like me who is cold ALL THE TIME would like such an event, but I actually look forward to it. As always, Robby came through and brought treats!

February: The "love" month. Of course we had a wonderful V-day, but we also got to celebrate our engagement one year ago! (can you believe it!)

March: Turned out to be more eventful than we were planning. For my spring break we flew to Georgia to visit Heber's brother Alex and his adorable family. They were so kind to let us invade their lives for an entire week. We had lots of fun, ate lots of yummy food, Heber golfed and I studied. Here are some pics of our fun trip.

Here is Justin at his "fun run". He kicked butt. He ran all 35 laps. Here is a picture of his shirt to prove it. (sorry the photo wouldn't rotate)

McKenzie wasn't as fond of Justin's running...

Heber found a new best friend, Josie. She is quite adorable.

And I watched McKenzie at her gymnastics class ... I think she is adorable AND she calls me Princess Carley...What's not to love! (sorry I can't get this pic to rotate either...)

The end of March turned out a little sad as we got the news of Heber's sister Samantha passing away unexpectedly. We all miss her dearly and we continuously pray for her sweet family. She taught us a lot of things and she lived an impeccable example of selfless service and Christlike love. We did a lot of things that week in honor of her (like eat a DQ Blizzard) - but most of all we all realized we want to improve our own lives and take on some of the wonderful attributes she held. We love and miss you Sam!

April: Heber, Tom, Matt & Kim all ran the SL Half Marathon this year. I was supposed join them (and was training my guys out - I might add...) to but injured my ankle about a month before the race....let's not talk about it, it was depressing.

On a happier note, we have successfully been married for ONE WHOLE YEAR!!! Once again, Heber spoiled me and we had a fantastic weekend. Thanks babe!

We also had the pleasure of bowling with some of the Eastman clan. Too bad we finished just as the black lights came on...next time...

And now we are caught up! Whew... This blogging stuff is a lot of work when you don't do it often. I'll do my best people, but I'm new at this so please forgive the screwy layouts, large pics, etc.

Much love.