Campout!!

October 27 was our 1st wedding anniversary. I told Julie that I would surprise her and would take care of the planning. I was thinking of some nice places that we could go, when the thought occurred to me that maybe we should go camping.

Now, that's not as crazy as it sounds. Julie and I had talked about going camping before, but had never made definite plans. Still, I realized that I would be taking a HUGE risk by surprising her with a camping trip on our 1st wedding anniversary. So, I decided to run it by her first. To my surprise, she said that she was hoping that we would go camping! That was a big relief. I guess I'm not quite as out of touch as I think I am.

So, on Friday, October 24, I left work early, we packed up the car, and headed north towards Payson. We camped at the Ponderosa campground just east of Payson. It was a great spot. We set up the tent, and then got a campfire going. We unloaded the car and set up a campstove alongside the barbecue grill that was there. We barbecued steaks and cooked up some au gratin potatoes and frozen corn. It was delicious. We were so full that we didn't even get around to making s'mores!

Julie was really looking forward to some cooler weather -- and she got it. The overnight temperatures were around 40 degrees Fahrenheit -- maybe a couple of degrees cooler. She had forgotten what it was like to feel cold!

For breakfast, we cooked up bacon, scrambled eggs, and hash browns. Another delicious meal. We spent the rest of the morning sitting around, playing a bunch of card games and board games that we had brought up with us. It was very relaxing and enjoyable.

I had turned off my phone at about 9:30 p.m. on Friday night, and didn't turn it on again until about 11:30 a.m. on Saturday morning. There were two voicemails waiting for me -- both of them from our next door neighbor. I listened in shock as my neighbors explained that they were just calling to check on us because we had left our garage door open!! Oh, no!

When I got home from work on Friday, I had backed the car up to the garage, to make it easier to load everything in it. After everything was loaded, Julie and I got in the car and drove off -- without even thinking to look behind us at the wide-open garage door that we were leaving!

I immediately called Ashley, who went over to check on the house (and to close the garage door). Fortunately, we live in a quiet and safe neighborhood. Nothing was missing or out of place. Whew!

Julie had told me about camping as a kid growing up, and about the fun she had riding a motorcyle on the trails. When we went camping with her family at the Anderson family reunion in 2007, we had driven ATV's around the trails. So, I tried to find a place that would rent ATV's up in Payson. I didn't find any, but did find a bed and breakfast place that would rent us a Rhino -- which looks kind of like an off-road golf cart. So, we decided to do it.

We loaded up the car and drove back to Payson, and then north, heading towards Strawberry. We turned off at the bed and breakfast to pick up the Rhino. After receiving some directions, and making a couple of wrong turns, we were off on the trail! We saw some really beautiful scenery. Unfortunately, we also saw a lot of areas where campers seemed to have just left piles of garbage around. How sad.

Here's some of the scenery. The autumn colors are from the trees that were right next to a little creek that was running.

Here's a picture of me and the Rhino:

Julie got to drive it, too:

Of course, this is Arizona, so we found plenty of cactus among the trees:

After spending a couple of hours riding the trails, we'd had enough. So, we drove back to the bed and breakfast place, turned in the Rhino, and headed back home.

It really was a wonderful way to celebrate our 1st anniversary.

Julie's Birthday

Well, it happened. I'm 45 years old. This was a tough one for me. But it's all good. I'm happy and healthy (mostly) and life is good! I am looking forward to the next 45 or more!

Scott got me something I have been wanting for a long time, an honest-to-goodness old-fashioned record player. It's sooooooo beautiful and I love it. He also went around to a bunch of places looking for record albums and found six of them to start me out with. He is the BEST!! The Andy Williams album is my favorite. (I know, when it comes to my taste in music, I should have been born 20 years earlier.) And of course, since this is 2008, it has a built-in CD player, cassette player, and you can even hook up an MP3 player to it, so it's way better than the one I had in junior high!! Here are some pics:







Scott sent me flowers too.....



......and got me a Baskin-Robbins ice cream cake...........chocolate cake, chocolate chip ice cream, and chocolate frosting. It was heaven!!

Our new freezer

At long last, our freezer finally arrived yesterday. It was supposed to have been delivered a couple of weeks ago, but when it arrived, it had a big dent on the side, so they took it back.

It fits perfectly in our laundry room:

It only took a couple of hours for it to get to the right temperature, so we went out to Costco and bought a few things to put in it, so that it wouldn't be empty. We also transferred a lot of things that were in the over-flowing freezer section of our refrigerator. There still is a lot of room to add more things, but this is a nice start:

Our new living room

My mom visited us a couple of weeks ago. It was great to have her down here, for many reasons. One of those reasons is that she helps us to accomplish some of the things that we want to do, but have been hesitant to do because we're not sure how they will turn out. For example, Julie and I have talked about painting the downstairs bathroom, but neither of us is very good about visualizing how different colors will look once they're on the wall, etc. And, although I've painted walls, etc. many times in my life, it's still not something that I feel very confident about.

Thanks to my mom's encouragement, we now have a fresh coat of peach-colored paint adorning our downstairs bathroom. It looks great. I would've included a photo, but I wouldn't be able to get a good angle to show what it now looks like. So, you'll just have to come and visit and find out for yourself!

What I can show you are photos of what our living room now looks like. Julie has wanted to rearrange the furniture to give it a more open look. Mom and Julie collaborated, and I provided the muscle, and now we have a great-looking living room. Here are the photos to prove it:

Family Vacation

This picture was taken at our most recent family vacation. In June 2008 we went to Pinetop, AZ. We rented this cabin and just hung out for a week. It was a refreshing break from the heat of the valley and great to all be together for a few days before getting back to school and work. Our next trip will be to Utah for Christmas. Julie is hoping for a white one!!