A Fun Weekend!

This weekend I had a visit from the Horn sisters!!! We had been planning this trip for several months and I was really excited for them to come. We had a great visit. It is not very often that all four of us are together and so we made the most of it! They wanted to see the temple so we went over there on Saturday morning and went through the visitor's center. We watched the Joseph Smith movie. Nancy and LaVern had never seen it. Annette and I had both seen it 3 or 4 times, but it is still very emotional every time I watch it. We also walked around the grounds and saw lots of people waiting for brides and grooms to come out of the temple.

Across the street from the temple at Pioneer Park is a statue of some of the settlers/founders of the Mesa area. One of them, Charles Crismon, is a great grandfather of the Horn's! It was really neat to see him in the statue (he is on the far right) and know that he was instrumental in how this area came about.

But what we spent most of our time doing was preparing for Father's Day in my ward. The Primary was in charge of the Father's Day treats and we had decided to make tie shirts for cards (see below) and make brownies to go with them. Well, at the last minute a couple of the people who were helping me ended up with family emergencies and so LaVern, Nancy, and Annette came to the rescue!! There were some sisters in the ward who baked brownies for me and then LaVern baked the rest (She is an INCREDIBLE brownie baker!) and Annette and Nancy figured out how to make the cards. I was given 70 of them already made and so we had to make about 50 more. They just whipped up the pattern in a matter of seconds, I was amazed! And then we put put everything together. It pretty much took all weekend! It was a lot of work, but it was fun working together. It made it so much more fun doing that with them. Thanks to all three of you for all your help!!!
We did manage to squeeze in time for a couple of movies while they were here too. They were cute girlie ones! Scott was sooooooooooooooo glad they were here so that he didn't have to watch them with me! Thanks, you guys, for coming to see me! I love you!!

Birthday Party!

This past weekend Scott and I went to Turlock to celebrate my grandma's 90th birthday. Happy birthday, Nana! Thank you for your wonderful life and for the example you are to us. It was great to see everyone. It had been a long time since the whole family was together like that. We had a great time.

The weather was beautiful, in the 80's, a nice reprieve for those of us from Arizona. Thank you Aunt Susan and Uncle Bob for hosting the event! They have been working hard on their yard and, as you can see, it's beautiful. It was very peaceful and relaxing. Thank you everyone for putting this together. We love you and happy 90th, Nana!!

Home Updates

Ok, we are finally getting around to updating our blog. See how long it takes for something exciting to happen around here?? Around the first of the year, we had that big huge tree in the backyard removed. It was the one that kept shedding so much and making the pool a mess. We should have done that a long time ago!




We also had the exterior of our house painted. Here is a before (actually it's more "during" than "before") and after:













The living room is also finished (the carpet looks kind of pink in these photos, but it's really not. It's actually a tan/brown color):

























THEN, we put our old living room furniture in the back and made a TV/family room:















This is where we spend most of our time now. As you can see, we don't get rid of anything, including the old TV stand that we now use as a coffee table.

Of course, there's only so much that you can see from the photos. We invite you to come and see everything in person!

Christmas in Utah!

We went to Provo, Utah this year for Christmas and we had a great time. There was TONS of snow!!!!!!! There was already lots of it on the ground when we got there and then it snowed several times during the week, too. We made the most of it by making snowmen, snow angels, and snowballs. We had a beautiful white Christmas, complete with falling snow on Christmas Day!

This is a view from Dan and Nicole's house in Provo:

Julie was in heaven:

Most of the kids started making a snowman, but Cori was the most diligent; she stuck with it to the end:

On Tuesday, we had an evening of bowling and pizza, courtesy of Grandma Klundt. All of our bowling pictures turned out blurry for some reason so go to Dan and Nicole's blog to take a look at their bowling pics. They have some great ones. It was a lot of fun. Thanks, Mom/Grandma!

On Christmas Eve, we continued our tradition of watching "The Nativity" and opening one gift each. Christmas morning we were up early and opened the rest of our gifts.


We then traveled to Kevin and Becky's home in West Jordan for a delicious turkey dinner, lots of pies and other good desserts, and some fun games. Keith and Becky and their family came down from Farmington also. We had a wonderful meal and a very enjoyable day with family.

We drove home Friday on very snowy roads but made it back safe and sound and ready for 2009! Happy New Year to everyone!!

Thanksgiving 2008

I am finally getting around to posting our Thanksgiving trip. At least I'm doing it before Christmas! Scott and I went to Turlock this year for Thanksgiving. It was great to be with my family for the holiday and catch up with aunts, uncles, and cousins. I miss not being able to see them all the time. We had a great Thanksgiving feast and, of course, ate too much. My grandma and I spent two days making candy. It was so fun to be able to do that with her again. It brought back a lot of wonderful memories. Thanks, Nana!

The best part about Thanksgiving: The Pies!!


My aunt and uncle have a beautiful fish pond in their backyard. It was a big attraction.

My two favorite aunts and my grandma relaxing after a wonderful meal.

It was a great day with Nana!

Trip To Utah

My mom was called to serve as a missionary in the Baltic States Mission and was scheduled to report to the Missionary Training Center on Monday, November 10. So, everyone got together for a celebration on Saturday, November 8.

Julie, Ashley, Cori, and I flew up to Salt Lake City early on Saturday morning (our flight departed at 7:10 a.m.). After arriving in SLC, we picked up our rental car and drove to Mom's house. Jared, Nicole, and Dan drove up from Provo to join us.

The kids made themselves right at home, with the girls playing Kerplunk! and the boys reading the newspaper:

My sister Julie had arranged for a photographer to take family photos, so after lunch, we headed over to Murray Park. We arrived first, and waited on a bridge over a little stream for everyone else to arrive.









Everyone else finally arrived. It was great to see everyone; I couldn't believe how much older some of the nieces and nephews had become!

We had a total of 26 people to work with, and with our group, that was no easy task.










He finally put us altogether, and I think we got a pretty good photo of everyone. I'll post the photos when we get them back.

After the photo shoot, we all headed over to a stake center near Mom's house, where we enjoyed an early Thanksgiving dinner, complete with a 25-pound turkey and all the trimmings, plus a dozen or so pies. We had nearly 50 people there. Thanks to all who made the trip to share in the celebration. It was great to see everyone.

Of course, the night wouldn't be complete without an updated photo of Nicole, Ashley, and Cori:

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.