Deck the Halls...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here! Bill's sister, Carrie, donated a tree to our sparse collection of decorations. Thank you Carrie! I was so happy to finally be able to display my olive wood ornaments and nativity scene that I bought in Israel 8 years ago. And thanks to my mom, we also have lights and a garland. We are definitely in the Christmas spirit!

It snowed yesterday afternoon and night. I'm slowly adjusting to the cold, but it seems like it gets harder and harder for me each year. My perfect winter would be 65° through November; then beginning December 1, it can snow all it wants until February 28. Then spring begins and it's back up to 70°. Is that too much to ask?

I've already had my cold for the season and stayed home today with a throbing head and nose. I think I'm on the mend, but am looking forward to a good weekend for more rest. Bill is finishing his classes this week and then it's study, study, study for finals. By the 15th he'll be done and can enjoy a few weeks off!

Gobble Gobble!

Last weekend was spent up at the Whitaker cabin with our friends, Ted & Sarah Gardiner. It was wonderful! The weather was perfect; not too cold, not too warm. It was the perfect relaxing weekend complete with two games of Pollyanna, a lot of food and a motorcycle lesson.

The Thanksgiving chaos has come and gone. Becky and her family arrived late Tuesday night. I took Wednesday off since I had to work Friday. We spent most of the day playing games. Thursday began with a 5k Human Race walk in Draper. It was freezing, but a great cause!

The boys played football while the rest of us worked on Thanksgiving dinner.

Dinner was great and for dessert we decorated sugar cookies.

Friday night Ann and I took Rachel to her first bookclub meeting. For years Ann and I belonged to a book club with a bunch of friends of ours. We were all very faithful until one by one, people started moving away. Now we try to get together for one reunion a year for a fun potluck and book exchange. Always a fun treat to catch up with the Blue Stockings!!

Saturday was spent lounging around playing more games and watching football--I won't say which game :( . Then we all went out to dinner to celebrate Ann & Travis' birthdays coming up and went to see the movie Enchanted. Even the guys seemed to enjoy it!

Thanksgiving kind of sneaked up on me this year. I am usually looking forward to the holidays for months, but this year they were here before I knew it! It's a lot more fun that way! We had a great time and now I am definitely in the Christmas spirit!

This is why I love Autumn

I'm probably guilty of saying that every season is my favorite. Well they are, but for different reasons. I'll start at the end of the weekend and work backward. Saturday we spent most of the day at the Whitaker Family Cabin. I love it up there and you can see why. It is just over the the Idaho border in the Cub River Canyon. It is so beautiful and peaceful up there!

Unfortunately, the reason for our visit was to help Bill's parents get the cabin ready to sell. It's getting harder for them to take care of and none of their children live close enough to do the job.

We've had some fun times up there and I will be very sad to see it go. Hopefully we'll get to squeeze in a couple more trips before it sells!

Friday was a very productive day. It started off with taking the day off work and spending most of it with my mom. We got flu shots in the morning. Then we sorted through the 72-hour backpacks we put together years ago, but needed replenishing. And I wanted to get one put together for Bill. After the sorting came the shopping for all new food, water, medical supplies, batteries and so on. I always hope that we'll never need to use them, but it sure is comforting to know that they are there. I also had a yummy dinner with Jen & Lissy at Chipotle.

Bill and I just got released from our calling. We were teaching the 12-year-old. Yes, that is singular. There is only one, bless his heart. We do get a visitor every now and then, but it's usually two on one. They've decided to move the boy up to the 13-14 year olds a few months early, so they don't need us any more. So today they sustained us in our new callings: Bill is a YM instructor and Assistant Scout Leader and I am the 2nd counselor in the Primary. We are both very excited.

I am not, however, excited for tomorrow. How do the weekends go so fast?!

All in favor?

It was a cold but very fun weekend. Friday afternoon we drove out to Elko, NV with my parents and brother, Dave for the annual shareholders meeting for Ellison Ranching Co. We checked into our motel and then went to dinner at the Basque restaurant, The Nevada. I ate way too much, but it was delicious! Then we went for a soak in the hot tub and hit the hay.

Saturday morning, we drove out to Spanish Ranch in time for the share holders meeting. It is about an hour and a half drive northwest of Elko. There isn't very much out there, but it's still very beautiful country. Ann and Travis had camped out Friday night and met us there. After the meeting, they fed us lunch. And again, I ate too much.

We learned that Nevada has a lot of natural hotsprings and there are many on Spanish Ranch. A Nevada power company is leasing land from ERC to build a Geo-Thermal plant on these hot springs and we went for a drive to see the site. Very interesting! The water on the surface in some places was well over 100 degrees, but below is said to be as hot as 400.

On our way back home we stopped at the 71 Ranch. This one lies about 25 miles east of Elko and, in my opinion, is the most picturesque. A couple of years ago, they started a Guest Ranch at the 71 and it seems to be doing really well. This last summer there were a lot of wildfires that damaged a lot of land and maimed or killed many livestock. The cowboys had to do a lot of the work putting them out.

It had been about 7 years since I had been out there last for a family reunion. I'm always so impressed by their way of life. It's very different than mine. They are very hard working people.

The happiest place on earth

Last weekend Bill and I flew down to Southern California. We spent most of Friday and Saturday at Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure. It had been about 8 years since I'd been to Disneyland. Neither of us had been to the new park. It was great! Our favorite ride was The Tower of Terror hands down!! Of course, we also enjoyed The Matterhorn, Big Thunder Railroad, Soarin' over California, California Screamin', Splash Mountain and the Grizzly Rapids. Ask Bill about his experience on Space Mountain and The Snow White ride!

We also drove up north to Santa Monica to see Bill's old stomping grounds from when he lived there a few years ago. We drove by the the LA temple, UCLA campus, and stopped at Diddy Riese for a $1.25 ice cream sandwich and drove back down south on the PCH. Beautiful! It was a great weekend!