Christmas 2012

Christmas in July? Nah... how about Christmas in April! Apparently I'm behind in my blogging yet again.

 Hmm... let's see what I can remember about Christmas 2012... other than it was good :)

 

 Ian asked for a new vacuum... and got a new vacuum! We love our shark! It's the best thing to happen to our nasty green carpet that shows every little speck of anything.

I love the juicer I got!

Mom's tree.

Our tree.

And that's about all I can remember at this point :) Oh well.

Thanksgiving Family Pics 2012

Thanksgiving is family picture time! We had a fun little photo shoot. Lots of laughter and craziness!

Everyone thought Mom's ladder idea was ridiculous... but it turned out to be the best picture!

Brooke's foot was the only ladder casualty.

 

 We're all a little nutty... Wonder where we get it from...

Mom brought us to tears with her climbing of the tree. Just call her Mama Sloth! Dad had to push her up and "catch" her out. Charlie horses will get ya every time...

Halloween Party

This year we hosted a Halloween party. There was lots of food, friends & family, and fun!

Plus some creative pumpkin carving!

Everyone's kiddos were so cute! They totally make me smile. Best part was little F gnawing on my caramel apples that had gone very wrong...

Little K took attachment to Ian's pumpkin... probably because it looked like someone of that age would do ;) 

Ian explained the 3 holes to me...but I still didn't get what it was supposed to be. (Still make fun of him for it...)

Does it get much cuter than a little girl in overalls!!

We have the most awesome friends & family ever! We're glad they come have fun with us!

Cress Creek

I love Fall! We took our yearly trip to Heise to enjoy the fall colors. Normally we walk down a long the river, but as we were heading down there, a family with 3 huge dogs came along. Our river plans quickly changed... So we "hiked" up Cress Creek. 

I'm not a hiker... never liked it. I'm too fat for hiking. But as the years go on, I've realized you have to hike to get to cool places. So I've shocked Ian lately with my desire to hike.

Cress Creek is my idea of hiking... it has a sidewalk! Best thing ever. The colors were awesome. We came at just the right time. I always feel like I hit the jackpot with red trees in the fall. They are my favorite!

Ian loves to stop and read the signs... I'm not a reader either, but they had some pretty cool info. There was a fossilized patch of ash and this is the biggest patch of Cottonwoods west of the Mississippi.

I look forward to this every year! We'll probably add Cress Creek to our tradition now!

Palisades to Jackson

We took a drive one Sunday to go look at the leaves changing color. Fall is my favorite time of year!

So we headed up to Palisades. 

Of course we had to stop for square ice cream. Tradition...

Lots of color! The trees that change to red are my favorite.

It was a beautiful drive!

The lake was super low. We are literally in the middle of the lake here... Who knew there was a road on the bottom of the lake. It was pretty cool.

We were only planning on going to Palisades and back, but decided to head over to Jackson. We haven't been there together yet. We didn't have a lot of time, but it was still fun walking around.

The ever famous antlers! I don't think I've ever done the whole tourist thing and take pictures with them. That was fun.

It's a little washed out, but I love the essence of Wyoming in the background :)

We didn't have a lot of money and needed somewhere cheap for dinner. Cheap and Jackson don't really mix. We ended up walking a few blocks to a brewery. It was a little questionable walking up to it, but once we got to the front and inside, it was nice. Our burgers were a little overpriced, but what do you expect for Jackson. It was a fun place though. Reminded me of the breweries I ate at in Milwaukee.

Ian asked if we were the only mormons in there... Well, we were in a brewery... on Sunday! Haha!

Good times!

On our way home, there were lots of signs saying moose were all over the Jackson pass. Steep grades, lots of curves, and moose.... I was not really enjoying myself. But we made it without spotting any. We decided to cut over to Swan Valley from Driggs instead of coming home the other way. I've never been this way as an adult and certainly not in the dark. I thought it would have been the "shortcut", but I don't think it was. It was a lot more of the "pass" roads. Not as bad, but still not pleasant when you don't quite know where you are going. 

About halfway through, cars were flashing their lights at us like crazy. So we started slowing down. All of a sudden there was the MOOSE. Just sitting in the middle of the road like it owned the place! It was a big one too! We were grateful that people let us know there was something ahead. We've never hit any wild animals like that, and I certainly don't want to start with moose. 

It was a fun fall drive! We love where we live and that we have such awesome places so close.