Happy Holidays

The bum part of working is only having a few days off for the holidays. Although our holiday break was short this year we still managed to have a great time sneaking in a last minute trip up to Montana. It was lots of fun. Kara's mom spoiled us and babysat Jake each day we were there so we could go out downhill skiing, cross-country skiing and sledding. It was a nice to have a little get away during the day and then a family gathering at night.
Jake was a whole lot of fun for Christmas. He couldn;t quite unwrap the gifts on his own but he helped out a lot and got real excited to see what was inside. Christmas is much more special when you have a little one to share it with! (Note the fourth picture up is the view out of Kara's parents' window, which is just one of the many reasons to love MONTANA!) It felt great to be back in the trees and the mountains for a little bit before returning to Twin Falls)

Thanksgiving

I feel like we have so much to be greatful for. It has been a year of many blessings for our family so this Thanksgiving was particularly meaningful.
To celebrate this year we were fortunate to have Erich's parents, sister, neice & nephew (from BYU) come up for the Thanksgiving weekend. Although we didn't have the snow we were wanting for sledding and skiing, we managed to have a great time. Erich's family was so kind and helped us decorate Jake's nursery, put up Christmas lights, build a dog kennel, and cut down/decorate a Christmas tree. Don't you all want to come to our house now? Despite all the work, it was a blast hanging out with family. And a bit thrilling at time (those of you who watched the BYU v. Utah game will understand what I mean!) I have to say Thanksgiving is one of my fav holidays...good food, good family, good shopping, good football,...can't complain about that!
While I am very sad that the holiday weekedn is over and all our company is gone, our dishwasher isn't. Finally a day without three or four loads :)

Gotta Love Visitors

This weekend was lots of fun, we were ultra spoiled because my sister and her kids and my parents came to spend the weekend. We only had a few days together but we got in a lot of shopping, good eating and game playing. We even got to watch a bunch of base jumpers. (For those of you who don't know base jumping is jumping off a super high bridge and parachuting to the bottom. We have a very tall bridge over the river canyon and it is one of the only places in the US where bridge jumping is legal without a special permit so we get people from all of the world here. We usually see novices but this weekend there were some pretty experienced jumpers who were doing flips, jumping doubles and other cool stuffs. I got enough of a rush just watching them. Unfortunately I forgot to whip out my camera while all the fun was here.
The weather has been so gorgeous here so we snuck out to take a hike around the falls and little lake. It was awesome to get out and enjoy a sunny, crisp autumn day. Jake liked the slide quite a bit, but I am not sure who was having more fun, dad or Jake :)

lil' stinker

My brother's son was a skunk last year and it was the cutest costume I had ever seen. Thankfully they were nice enough to pass it on down to Jake. So we had a lot of fun this Halloween with our lil' Stinker. I wasn't anticipating how entertaining Halloween is with a kid. We took Jake trick or treating to a few of our neighbor's houses. At the first one Jake just smiled at the guy, the guy would try to give Jake candy but Jake just kept smiling back. BUT then he caught on. One of our neigbhbors gave him a sucker, which Jake immediately dug into. For the next few minutes he alternated between sucking the sucker and saying yummmmmmmm, yummmmmmm. The funnest was visiting the grandmas and grandpas. One adorable elderly couple oohed and ahhed over Jake and then asked if they could carry Jake over to their friend's house next door so they could see Jake too :) Needless to say Jake loved that attention! In contract of course there was the teenage boy dressed up as Kiss that didn't know quite what to do when he saw a one-year-old skunk on his doorstep. I think his response was something like dude here's some candy, which he handed to us. After a lot of fun trick or treating we brough Jake home to eat some candy. I am not sure how, considering how much of a sweet tooth his mom and dad have, but Jake really isn't much of a chocolate fan. He would take a bite of chocolate then stick out his tongue. He does, however, very much enjoy painting with melted chocolate.
So Anyhow there is a play by play of our Halloween. Lots of fun!

FINALLY IN!

Sorry for the long time with no posts but life has been crazy moving in to our new house. We are so excited to finally be in...now we just have to get all the pesky boxes unpacked and walls decorated. Erich's mom and sister came up and spoiled us the first week and helped us get settled in so that gave us a good start, but with both of us working full time and playing with Jake at night it is one slow process. The place is not really put together and decorated yet but here are a few pics of the main floor and part of the outside. I'll try to post some better ones later.

Can't believe it has been one year

Last Sunday we celebrated Jake's first birthday. I can't believe it has already been one year. The one thing I know is that he is changing way too fast.

We had one very fun birthday. Erich's parent's and a few sisters came up to help celebrate. I bought Jake a bunch of presents thinking they were more for my entertainment than his, but boy was I wrong. We must have spent almost an hour laughing at Jake opening/playing with his gifts. There was no mistaking that Jake knew there were toys in those gift bags. He spent a lot of time exploring each toy we got him--most of which were cars as that is his most recent craze.

I even impressed myself by making a German chocolate cake from scratch in the trailer--let's just say I haven't cooked much this summer considering our living arrangements. To my pleasant surprise the cake actually turned out (Thanks to the Petersens for the awesome recipe!). Jake was easy on us though, he hardly made a mess at all. He was much more interested in eating the candle then the cake and he had more fun with the plate than the cake...that's Jake for you!

Anyhow we had a great time and were very appreciative that we had some family around to join in on the fun. Now if Jake would just stop growing so fast....

Labor Day Fun

Surprise, Erich was gone on a fire assignment to UT for Labor Day. He was actually very lucky, he got sent to Richfield which is where his parents and sister lives. While there he met his nephew, Isaac, who was born in July, and got to give the fam a tour of the helibase. While Erich was busy working, Jake and I went to Island Park for a weekend of camping with my parents. It was gorgeous and the perfect relaxation after a fun, but very busy first few weeks of work. Here are some pics from the trip. Can I just say that I LOVE having parents that are retired and so willing to vacation with me :) The weekend was gorgeous, we saw a cool bull moose, we woke up to elk bugling, we rafted down the river, grandpa spoiled Jake with ice cream and pizza (he's officially American now), we drove up to a lookout point, and we visited the headwaters of the snake river. All in all quite one great Labor day Holiday.

The summer goes by too fast!

Life has been crazy busy lately. I decided to take one last vacation before starting work. As usual my trip involved Montana and boating! It is so pretty in Montana, I don't seem to want to go anywhere else.



(I am one happy girl in this pic; there is just something so peaceful and relaxing about boating at night)


(we were laying on the boat catching some rays when I looked over and saw this moose eating...it was pretty fun watching it).

Jake adapts just fine to my vacation style. He definitely loves the boat. His favorite spot is on the back where he can watch the tubers/skiers.

It is nice to get Jake around his cousins and grandparents. My brother has a boy who is only 1 year older (Leyton) and the two of them are already trouble!



(Jake playing with his cousins' fishing rod)

After MT I met up with some good college friends in Pallisades. One of my friends' has a cabin there. It was an awesome weekend of relaxation, a perfect way to live up my last weekend before starting work. We had so much fun boating, staying up playing games, cooking dutch oven, etc. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pics, which is a shame because it was gorgeous.
So that covers the PLAY part of my life...now for the WORK part.
My first week of work was awesome! It is really fun to be back at work and the firm is as great as I was hoping for.
And speaking of work Erich has been traveling for fires, hence the all Kara/Jake post. Thankfully summer is winding up and we'll be seeing more of Erich here soon.