Christmas Eve at the Koehle's

For some laughs listen to the annual Christmas Eve performance at the Koehle’s. You’ll hear Eric’s solo at the very end as he hits (or shall I say tries to hit) a high note, it’s pretty funny!

Our Trip up to Santa Rosa for Christmas

Eric with his family at the parents house

From the right (Johnny 25, Hannie 35, Christian 32, Eric 27 - 28 in Jan, Mike 30, Mom & Dad)

Mom, dad and I went to this super decorated house in Rohnert Park. It was amazing, I was wondering what kind of storage unit they had to store all of their goodies.

Shanny, Emi and I had breakfast together at Em's house. Some of my best buddies, I know I am guaranteed tons of laughter and always the greatest time.

The annual white meat vs. dark meat soccer game (usually takes place during Thanksgiving but got postponed this year). It is always something to look forward to, playing with tons of great friends.

Tis the Season to Make Gingerbread Houses!

So we thought it would be fun to have a gingerbread decorating contest with Justin and Crystal, little did we know that they were professional house decorators - LAME! They had the cutest house ever, Eric and I are hoping for a rematch next year! Tons of fun though!

Justin's and Crystals on the left and Eric's and mine on the right.

BYU vs SD State

We were so excited when our good buddies Brooke and Matt called us up and said they had a couple of extra tickets to the BYU game yesterday. BYU was victorious - hooray and we had great time. We went out to dinner afterward and I wish I could have gotten a picture of the server, especially after Brooke, Matt, Eric and I all ordered the exact same thing (with a little variation here and there of course). The best part was that he brought us out 2 delicious sundaes for FREE! We would have never ordered dessert but FREE, we ate every morsel and were totally stoked! He said we gave him a good laugh for the night :) The night was just perfect until we walked to our new, week old car and noticed that it had a flat tire. RATS! Luckily, Matt came to the rescue and got busy and changed the tire. Eric of course(didn't want to get dirty) so he was reading the user manual of the car trying to instruct Matt on what to do, Brooke and I were shining our cell phone lights on the tire so Matt could see, it was pretty funny! All and all a wonderful evening!

Turkey Cruise 07'

Well, our inaugural Turkey Cruise '07 was a big success! During Thanksgiving, my parents, brother, 4 of his friends, Eric and I headed to Mexico for the week on a criuse. We had a ton of fun and there was of course lots and lots of laughter (probably mostly on my part) but laughter none the same. Here are some pictures from the trip.

Here we are in Cabo, Eric called me a grandma driver until I got behind the wheel of this thing! :)

We're here in Mazatlan and went on a trolley tour. Fun, although I got a little fired up when the tour guide took my $30 and then 3 minutes later came back and said that it was actually going to be $10 more. Needless to say, I threw a fit when Eric handed the guy $10 more bucks, I was ready to have some very unpleasant words with Manuel but I wanted to make it back to the ship alive.

Here's Eric, okay no just kidding, it's actually a local trying to make a few dollars by jumping off this look out point! CRAZY!

Always important!

We thought we lost my parents on the zip line, we had some close calls but mostly uncontrollable laughter!

My cute parents, they celebrated their 28th wedding anniversary while on the cruise!

Formal Night

Back row: Mom, dad, favorite server, Justin (my wonderful brother), Megan - Power's woman Front row: Eric, me, Powers aka Ryan, Justin's bff :)

Well, this pretty much sums up the trip. If anyone is looking at going on a cruise and want a couple of extra of friends to come along, Eric and I are game! We love cruisin'!

The Deseret

This past weekend we went with our friends Celine and Cameron to the Deseret to meet up with the Kuhn Family Clan. The Kuhns go up pretty often and have a ton of cool stuff to do up there. By far the coolest thing was taking rides in the Sand Rail. I think we shortened our life by a few years because it was so exhilarating. Greg Kuhn was the driver with lots of experience so we always felt safe (mostly), but you get up to speeds of 80 MPH and go up these huge dunes -its pretty much the best roller coaster you can get. The other thing the boys enjoyed was some good ole' fashion video games.

Here's a video of Cameron and Greg going off a dune and getting some air off the jump.

The Sand Rail with Greg and Eric. Greg and Eric went off a jump together and got about 8 feet of air. The landing was a little rough, but still sweet.

The Boys and Halo

Here's a picture of a "Bear" that was scratching at our tent door in the morning. We were scared at first, but luckily it only wanted to snuggle.

Cameron, Celine, and Mariah in the backseat of the Sand Rail

Eric, Mariah, Celine and Cameron

2nd Annual Pumpkin Carving Contest

Here are our pumpkins, we had a ton of fun with lots of laughter. This year the participants of the contest were Eric, my brother and a couple of friends and me.

From left to right, myself, Eric, Mario, Krystal, and my brother Justin!

Eric used this oven mitt this year to carve his pumpkin, last year he cut himself and this year his motto was "Safety First!" Pretty cute!

Halloween

Last year we had a pumpkin carving fiesta and this year we are planning to do the same. Below are a few pics from last year and we will add some new ones for this year's pumpkin festivities. No pumkins were harmed during the fiesta.

San Diego Wild Fires

Pictures I took on the way to work today, pretty crazy!

San Diego Wild Fires

Eric, Justin & I are fine and our house is fine too. There is a very small chance that the fires will spread to where we are. Both Eric and I went to work yesterday, but Eric had to leave early because of a recommended evacuation order in the City of Encinitas. I'm not going to work today because of the road closures. Yesterday it actually took me 3+ hours to get home from work and it was pretty crazy. Actually while I was on my way home from work yesterday I took these pictures. It's amazing how close these are to us! Eric is back at work today and we'll see how long he is there. It's crazy, but we are safe and praying for those in harms way.

Richard Walker's Pancake House

We went to a wedding this weekend in La Jolla and had an enjoyable time, weddings are always special events. Before the wedding we went to this absolutely scrumptious breakfast place in downtown San Diego. We went with 2 of our friends that came down for the wedding, Dustin and Mercedes. They loved it too. If you are ever in this neck of the woods I would highly recommend it. Prices are great, food is amazing - Eric was full the rest of the day and he only had an omelet. I had the French toast with blueberries although I was debating on getting this amazing looking waffle, next time!

Picture of Hawaiian Haystacks

Hawaiian Haystacks

So this is a recipe that I tried at my friend's house Celine and I can't stop thinking about it, yes silly I know but I really liked it and you might too!!! It's called Hawaiian Haystacks. Since I'm a vegetarian her and her husband were so sweet and made mine with a side of cream of celery instead of the chicken (you could also use veggie chicken too, sounds delicious!!!) At any rate here it is...

2 cans cream of chicken soup
2 cups cubed cooked chicken
4 cups cooked white rice
1 can chow mein noodles
3 medium tomatoes, diced
1 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
1 20-oz can pineapple chunks, drained
1/2 cup chopped green onion1 cup grated Cheddar cheese
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1/2 cup coconut

Combine soup in saucepan; stir to blend and add chicken. Simmer 8-10 minutes. On individual plates, layer hot rice, chow mein noodles, chicken soup/chicken and remaining ingredients as desired. Serves 8ish.

Also, you can substitute any of these ingredients too. So fun you should try it! Yummy!

After the race! Boy it felt great to lay down!

Race Day - Marathon #1

So I managed to run my first marathon and what an exciting experience it was. I ran the St. George Marathon on October 6th and sweet Eric was my cheerleader! Eric and I actually met up with some of our good friends out there from the DC area and we had such a great time with them.

During the actual marathon I felt great all up until mile 25 or so. I'm not sure what exactly happened but my stomach didn't feel great. I some how made it over the finish but it was a little rocky after that since I didn't feel really well. Long story short I made it in the first aid tent and that is where I received my medal for completing the marathon.

The great news though is that I qualified for the Boston Marathon in April. I needed to get 3:40 and below and I ran it in 3:37 so I was very happy with that. So all is well and I'm recovering just fine now.

A great Monday!

A few of my sweet parents at school surprised me by making me these super darling shoes and hanging them in my classroom. It was their good luck sign for my marathon coming up in a few weeks. Boy what a super fun treat this was. I couldn't stop smiling all day long. What a great Monday it was!!!