Christmas Fun

It was a special Christmas for a few reasons. We got to spend a lot of time with family. That was the priority of our Christmas this year. Get as much family time as possible.

I got to take pictures in the snow with this cute family! It was cold but everyone was a good sport. Thanks guys!

This isn't uncommon to try at a Gowen gathering. In some way or other.

Christmas morning started over at the Smiths....

This was a choice time. Grandpa received a book from his grandchildren honoring the life and memories of his wife Velva Lee.

And Christmas ended over at the Gowens.....

It was a lovely Christmas. Merry Christmas to all!!!

Hiking Season Ends.... Mostly

This morning, the sky was blue and the world still snow covered and frosty! Now that the roads are mostly good, I can enjoy it a lot more.

These are pictures I took this morning. As you can see, our roof forces the snow to melt in a creative way. You can also see the snowman I helped create yesterday. He started melting, and froze again. It almost makes you want to put props on the left side for him or something....

We had some hikes to finish up for work. The easy hike was Faux Falls:

 The hard hike was Spring Canyon:

Our friends Tommy and Tyler were able to come visit before Thanksgiving. My battery ran out after one hike due to me dropping my other battery, but you can see some of the fun. Since it had just snowed, it was very muddy on the trail. We hiked close to a Canadian group on the Delicate Arch trail who were entertaining.

For Thanksgiving, we had our friends the Gales over! Much fun was had and we ate a lot of delicious food. I think I was pooped after making food, so no pictures of how beautiful the skin was on the turkey. Trust me. It was beautiful and delicious. (Having paper plates the whole weekend was the best idea ever.)  But. We did go exploring on some hikes, and those were documented.

The last hike for work, the medium one, was Courthouse Wash:

Then we hiked Hidden Valley, and saw some very cool petroglyphs. We're holding hands in one picture because that's what the people on the wall are doing.

Then we ventured off to Faux Falls again. Can you see the human skull in the rock formation? 

We enjoyed seeing family and friends this last month. Not all visits were documented, but they will definitely be remembered. Thank you Tommy and Tyler, and Jeff and Brittany for visiting!

Paint Project - China Cabinet

Here's something I've been working on. It's not fully completed yet, but it is pretty close. We inherited a china cabinet from Sean's parents. It fit in our kitchen nicely, but it needed a little something - other than our personal things inside - to settle it into it's new home.

Paint!!

I saw painting inspiration on my friend's blog.

So, here it is. The recreation of my in-law's china cabinet:

 Remember those green colors in the painting supplies picture above?

Well, I decided the back of the cabinet needed a little pop of color....

And green was the color of choice....

I'm still figuring out what goes where, and what deserves to go in the new cabinet. I love how it shows off my kitchen colors, and it gives me some more shelf space in the kitchen cabinets.

Next project: bedroom furniture?? I'll keep you posted.

Another Bout of Hikes

Over the last couple weeks, we have gone on some more hikes. The weather continues to be perfect to explore the outdoors.

First up: Prospector Trail. This was the easy hike.

The medium hike was Cable Arch. This on is fun because it requires a little bit of scrambling.

The hard hike we went on was the Portal Trail. My favorite was the item we had to take pictures with to prove we'd done the hike.

The bonus hike was Fisher Tower. It was the furthest we had gone on the trail, and we were there when the sun set. Always a treat. We applauded after the sun had gone down. It was beautiful.

Northwest Trip Part 2: Washington

After saying farewell to the Bundys, we left Oregon and drove up to Washington to see the Maners.

There were a few spots along the road where the air smelled funny. After some investigation, we decided the smell was coming from the mills where they processed the lumber.

The first night, we had a cookout in the backyard. 

The girls had fun taking turns with my camera....

The next day everyone took the day off work and school, and we ventured to Mt. Rainer. It. Was. Beautiful.

While we were in the Seattle area, we tried out three different donut shops, checked out the new outlets, hung out, and Jenn introduced me to Charming Charlies. (We just found out it's expanding to Utah. Be excited!)

Sean and I got to go to the Seattle Temple.

 There were chestnut trees all around the temple. While we walked around, we kept hearing lots of clangs and pings. That was from the trees dropping their nuts.

Sean and I drove into the city to try out and authentic ramen shop. It was pretty tasty.

Us adults got to go on a date night to Seattle. We went to see Second Hand Lions: the Musical. It hasn't been on broadway yet, but it might someday. The performance was a premier and they are still revising it based on audience responses and input. I think it has a lot of potential.

To end our trip, we took the parents and older kiddos to a soccer game: Seattle Sounders vs. Real Salt Lake. We didn't realize when we got the tickets we were kind of in a supporters section....It was intimidating being in that stadium with over 55,000 spectators....most of them wearing lime green. Since we were noticeably supporting Salt Lake we got boos and hisses, but everyone was cordial. It probably helped we had some cute kids with us.

Our trip was so nice, it made it hard to leave. There were some stowaways in our car, and after driving them around the neighborhood we returned them home.

Thank you Justin, Jennifer, Brandon, Lindsey, Katelyn, Dylan, and Weston. We loved spending time with you guys in your own place.

Jenn also blogged about our trip here.

Northwest Trip Part 1: Oregon

We planned on taking a trip to the Northwest this year, and decided we could visit some friends along the way.

First of all, it was a beautiful drive. The weather was nice, and the earth just looked lovely. I am partial to the landscape in Idaho, but the drive along the Columbia River was gorgeous.

The Bundy's took us to see some of the sights around Salem. We drove to see a lighthouse, and went through Tillamook to get there. Tillamook gets some of their product from local dairies, the farms with a pattern on them. I thought the high school we drove by had a choice mascot: cheesemakers.

The lighthouse was at Cape Meares. It is pretty small, and very cool. We went on a little tour, and went inside the lighthouse.

There were trails around the lighthouse, and there were three things I loved around the park: 1. Ocean. It was such a clear day, and we enjoyed watching the waves crash on the cliffs. 2. Moss. It grew on everything and was so cool! We certainly don't see any of that in Moab. 3. Mushrooms. There were so many varieties of mushrooms. Everything looked like it was from a story book.

Driving along the coast was fun. I had never seen lobster traps in action before:

We stayed near the coast for dinner and went to the famous Mo's restaurant. Everything was fresh and delicious! Talk about good!

After dinner, we went for a walk on the pier and beach. It was a perfect end to a fun day.

We had such a nice weekend with the Bundy's! They took good care of us, and it was nice hanging out in their neck of the woods.

On our way out of town, we went to a fun place for breakfast: Word of Mouth. Then we drove through Portland to make our way to Washington.

Thanks David and Katie!!!

Season for Hikings

It's that time of year again! The time when we are given a list of hikes from work. If we take a picture with the item at the end (typically a toy), we get credit and a little health bonus. As you can see below, we had some difficulty finding one of the boxes.

The easy hike: Millcreek.

The medium hike: Hunter Canyon

The hard hike: Jeep Arch

The bonus hike: Landscape Arch

A New Seat in Time for Labor Day

About a year ago, our new neighbors gave us some chairs they had inherited from past friends. This meant we had outdoor furniture! A place to sit when taking off shoes covered and filled with Moab dirt. A place to sit and watch storms while the husband tinkered on the guitar. However, these chairs were getting plastered with the sprinklers several times a week without much protection for the wood.

They were painted red and orange. Their names were painted accordingly:

 I sanded these babies down, and wasn't too careful of what I tracked inside the house....

I painted away with the vibrant Million Dollar Red. It looked closer to pink when I put it on. *face palm* Thankfully it dried darker, so it was closer to the look I was going for:

The ending result: a cheerful entry to the house that will be protected from the elements and look nice year round!! They look better in person. You should see for yourself!

 

 As for Labor Day weekend, we played and tried out some new forms of Moab recreation. We went rock climbing at Ice Cream Parlor. (Outdoor rock climbing was a first for me!)

Who doesn't love playing in the water at the beach?? Oh, oh pick me!! A beach off the Colorado River? That works!

Thanks Sparks for introducing us to some new recreation!