Up to Date

Okay. This is not Erin. And I also have no idea what I'm doing. Or something. Occasionally Erin thinks about getting caught up on the blog, but then I see her eyes glaze over when she realizes how much time has passed. I figured I'd help her out. Just this once.

July

Erin and I both had birthdays. There was a party. People came down. Fireworks. Look! Pictures!

Behold Travis' shame at losing the pushup contest.

The always adorable Rowan.

Don's enviable camping chair.

We also went up for a Smith family reunion. See?

Erin wanted me to add the pretty one, but funny faces trump all.

August

Erin's sister Cindy came to visit. We were all invited to cruise down the river. It was the first time Erin and I had gotten on the river in the 3 years we've lived here.

Not actually us, but you get the idea.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Two cute ladies and a really ugly guy.

 There were also some hikes or something...

Notice the picture in the bottom left hand corner where Sean slips and falls into a giant pothole. What a loser!

My first experience with quicksand. And scorpions the size of my hand. I prefer quicksand.

September

Erin (who is really hot) got me climbing gear for my birthday, so we were able to go climbing several times throughout the summer. There is even photographic evidence!

That is definitely me. Not Forrest.

And then we went to Boston for [insert long, boring, unimportant story], but we were able to stop by the temple while we were there.

I like how the flash brings out my eyes...

October

Apparently nothing happened in October.

November

We were able to go down to west Texas (eww gross) and east Texas (oooh nice!) to visit family and friends. Good time was had by all. Except for the Turkey. Cause it was dead.

The Jay Gowen Family. We visited them. In Texas.

Jay and Shauna were fabulous hosts. And they make surprisingly good gumbo. We spent an entire day trying to find pig trotters. I'll leave the rest of that story up to your imagination.

December

Ya know...Christmas

January

Our super good friends, The Gales, came up to spend New Years Eve (it turned into New Years Week) with us. There was a slug* of appetizers. It's always a party with the Gales around. No picture evidence of this event, though.

We also decided to adopt a dog from the local Animal Shelter. His name is Jack (or Jak; we change the spelling at random (because it's funny)). Here is a picture of him and Erin falling asleep together on the floor. Aren't they adorable?

I don't know how they look so cute when they sleep. I look awful.

February

Erin got a job at a local credit union. Here's a random picture of someone working that I stole off the internet.

This could totally be copyrighted, so let's keep this between us, m'kay?

Wow, I really started running out of steam at the end there. That is the last 9ish months in a nutshell (Why do people say that, anyway?).

If you have any questions or complaints please direct them to my facbook account and I'll get back to you next time I get on The Facebook. Bwa ha ha!

*Slug: unit of mass in standard units. Approximately equal to 32 lbs. Stupid SI units.

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!!!

Smith Reunion 2013

When one family from out of states comes to visit in Utah, we tend to see how many of us can make it. Everyone was able to come in August, so that's when the reunion was set.

**Warning: there are a whole lot of pictures! (It kinda happens when I'm around the grandkids for a whole week....)

Here's the crew!

First there was an outing to the park.

Then there was an outing to the splash pad.

 We checked out the Tracy Aviary.

After looking at the birds, the grand kids had to try a ride.

We took Trax down to the Clark Planetarium.

 We hiked Mt. Timp and checked out the caves.

We played Minute To Win It.

We made bubbles of all shapes and sizes.

We had Family Olympics. The Purple Panthers against the Golden Eagles. Golden Eagles won.

There was a scavenger hunt to find a special treasure.

There was a lot of hanging out and being our usual selves.

Thanks Mom and Dad for hosting us and for coming up with fun activities. It sure was fun all being together! Until next time.

Summer Coming to a Close

Time to catch up a bit! Hold onto your hats...or scarfs.....or popsicles....

I got to go to Logan with our stake for Youth Conference. It was fantastic! There was a good mix of spiritual things, activities, and down time.

The final activity was hiking Ensign Peak and raising our personal banners. It was a perfect day for the hike, and a cool experience.

An old ward member was reporting for his mission, so some of us stayed to see him. We hung out at Temple Square, and Plato's Closet. (Those girls were thrilled at the variety and prices.)

I finished my jeans quilt!! It has taken so long since it has been the main project I work on when we go to Wendover. I'm not sure the cleaning crew appreciated having the quilting boards taking over the room.....

We went up to Salt Lake County to spend some time with family. To start off, we got to have breakfast with some of our favorite people! These fritters were a special treat! (A birthday treat!)

The rest of the week was a reunion with the Smith's. That will be another post...I took a lot of pictures....

 A gal I visit teach is having a baby girl in a month, so I got to help put on a shower for her. Here's what I caught on camera. You can't see everything below, but it will give the gist. It was fun to do, and we had enough food for 40 people! We were snacking on goodies for days....even after we shared. Thanks Jessica, McKay, and Kelly!

The J Junction

The J Junction. That means the end of June has met the beginning of July.

We both got to go to camp this year with our youth, I got Girls Camp and Sean got Scout Camp. I took pictures of what the girls did. Here's a little taste of our fun:

My friend wanted to do an oil painting as a wedding gift. She invited me to go picture taking with her as she needed to catch the shadows at the right time of day. (That's a true artist!) And what an awesome wedding gift!

Double Arch and the Window Section

We took the Young Women to go see the Manti Pagaent. We got there early, so there was plenty of time to take lots of pictures.

We went up to Salt Lake for a full and quick trip.

Not pictured: Jean and Dylan's open house in Provo.

Not pictured: Cindy's new apartment and the pile of boxes she emptied!

Pictured: Spending some time with some Smiths, Johnsons, and Poultons. Always a good situation!

Not pictured: Seeing Elder Bradshaw at his homecoming after serving in the Marshal Islands.

Not pictured: Seeing our dear friends the Cooks and their new baby boy. (I was a little busy holding the precious little one.)

We got to spent dome time with with Franz's, so we got some good Franz/Gowen time.

For our Family Home Evening activity, we hiked Cable Arch with our friends the Balls. I don't think we quite realized how hot it would still be, but it was a fun and rewarding hike. Their little one is sure the climber, and got to practice his skills.

It's June

I was going through my camera this morning, and forgot some things that have been going on.

Memorial Day Weekend, we got back in town after being in Wendover. Saturday morning, we had a posse of bikers gather in the parking lot behind our house:

The Moab Arts Festival was going on in town so we headed over to check it out. We were impressed at the variety of booth and vendors.Our neighbor is in the Taiko Group and they played at the festival. They were pretty darn good. (Taiko is a Japanese drum.)

Our friends the Cooks stayed with us for a few days. It was nice to see them and catch up. Sean taught their daughter a fun way to accessorize:

I headed up to Salt Lake this last weekend to see my friend Heather. We checked out Temple Square:

And visited the Draper and Oquirrh Mountain Temples. Heather let me practice some of my portrait skills on her. Two of my favorites:

We met up with our friend Karalee, and I was the model for them as we did a vintage photo shoot. I've only seen little previews, but it was fun to do and fun to spend time with those two.

I think that brings us up to date. The weather is getting warmer, and we haven't killed all of our garden yet!