Merry Christmas, from Whit, Kern, AND...

... Baby Staheli !

(already sucking it's thumb?! Houston, we have a problem...)

This one's for you Kate...

So the other day we decided to get in the Christmas spirit and go see the temple lights. They are really pretty, but it just doesn't feel right when it's not "cold" outside.... I wore my coat, but could have almost walked around without it. I'm strugglin' with this eighty degree weather and trying to get in the mood for Christmas [I know most are jealous, I know, I know...]

Here are some scenes from the Christmas lights:

A usual activity after doing something such as going to see Christmas lights would be, say, getting some hot chocolate and sitting by a fire. But no, we do things Phoenix style, and went for some SNO-CONES instead! We went to a highly-recommended sno cone joint near the temple, Bahama Bucks. Here we are with our sno-cones and uh... umbrellas.

I love sno-cones anyway, but this was THE best sno cone I've ever had. I just went with the original, but Colonel went all out, and got a Bahama Rama Mama somethin or other with ice cream, sno cone, and cream on top for good measure. It was DELICIOUS. I've craved one everyday since then. Good thing I don't live near it, or I'd get fat. Wait... can you get fat on ice? I may have just found a new addiction. Anyway, thanks for the recommendation Kate! It's our new favorite.

Well, from the only snowman in this desert, Merry Christmas from our house to yours...

Thanksgiving...or lack of....

So I've had this post on my list of things to do, but just never got around to it. And now that it's almost Christmas, I figured I had better post our Thanksgiving stuff. I just now looked at our Thanksgiving pictures we took when we went home, and realized this is the only picture we took:




How lame is that...? Just pictures of the table. We didn't bother taking pictures of actual PEOPLE at the dinner, just the dinner table. Kinda lacking in the picture department. Oh well... maybe next time.


At least I got a picture with my niece and her favorite aunt:








My goal this Christmas is to get pictures of people, unwrapping presents and stuff, not just, well... the wrapping... we'll see how we do.

Disneyland...

In October, (I'm WAY behind),I got to go to Disneyland with my family. It was fun to get away! But wow. Never seen so many strollers in my life, and hope to never see that many ever. again.

I think I ate wayyy too many churros, but Disneyland has THE best churros...

Here's some pictures from the trip-

I got to meet up with my friend Lyssa AGAIN! She met us for dinner and I got to cuddle with Addy- so fun!

Goofy... In case ya didn't know...

In front of It's a small world...

Us playing the buzz lightyear game- I won EVERY time, thank you :)

Me and Jaycee in front of the new World of Color show. It was way awesome!

Twinners

There are way too many pictures to post, so that's just a few. It was fun, but I think I'm good for at least 5 years. Too many people. Too many strollers.

the Jazz are in town.

A few weeks ago, the Jazz came to town to play the Suns. We of course wanted to go, so we bought some cheap tickets, dressed ourselves up in blue, and went to the game. We were pretty much the only ones (plus maybe 20 other people) cheering on the Jazz. We got some dirty looks. But it's okay, cause the Jazz won. Take that Phoenix. (We are Suns fans too, as long as they're NOT playing the Jazz... we're still Jazz fans at heart.)

Here's all of us. Our friends in the middle are Suns fans... maybe not such a good idea to go with a bipartisan group.


Here are the players during a time out:



After we figured out where all the empty seats were at half time, we moved down really close so that when the Jazz were exiting the court, we could reach over the railing and give them high fives. Colonel got to high five Fesenko, after which, he held his right hand sacred for the next three hours.

And alll of us at the end of the game. Love it when the Jazz win. Go. Jazz.

RhoChi

Last Friday we went to a dinner at the school for the RhoChi induction. RhoChi is a fraternity of sorts that you qualify to be in if you're grades fall in the top 20% of your class. Since Colonel is a smarty pants, he qualified to be part of RhoChi. Out of 130 kids, only about 25 got to be in RhoChi!

Colonel standing in line to get his name read:

All of the students in RhoChi:

Colonel with his pin and certificate

And us...

Good thing someone around here's smart.

L.A. Getaway

I got to go visit my best friend Lyssa who lives in California [right on the beach. no fair!] for a few days, while she is still on maternity leave. We did a lot of eating, laughing, sewing, shopping, sleeping, and of course cuddling with her new baby Addy. Oh, and eating lots of candy like we did in our highschool days. It was awesome!

Having a sewing party at one in the morning. Haven't stayed up that late in a while...

Addy!

She doesn't look too sure of me...

After all these pictures, I only got ONE of the beach, and it wasn't even on my camera. Oh well. Colonel may start feeling like a widower, because I have a feeling I may be making this trip a little more often :)

SEDONA

So for Labor Day weekend, we decided to head to up Sedona with some friends of ours. We've never been there, and decided it'd be somewhat of a crime if we never went while living so close. It was a nice day, and about 20 degrees cooler than Phoenix. This picture is over looking part of Sedona from the downtown area.

We started the day out with a hike to what's called Devils Bridge. Here's all of us:


Some pretty red rocks...

Here is me SCARED STIFF. This is once we got to the Devils Bridge. Colonel made me walk out there for a picture. I don't really like heights, and well... lets just say that we weren't exactly on ground level. I think the ground was like 400 feet below us. Not my favorite part of the day for sure.
Our crazy friends who dared to jump while out on the bridge. I had to close my eyes while they were doing this. I couldn't witness a death.

All of us at the top of the arch:
After our hike, we stoppped at this park for a picnic. It was sooo AWESOME. I think the background looks fake...


As we walked behind the trees, we found this river, where the water was shallow and we just waded through it. The rocks were perfect for laying our towels out and taking a nap. I think we stayed here for like 3 hours. It was also AWESOME.


Colonel hangin' off a cliff. Too bad it's only three feet off the ground. Still looks cool...

Here is me feeling totally dumb. We walked past a fire truck in downtown Sedona, and everyone wanted to get in. We were in there with a bunch of 3 year olds, but it's okay, Colonel is good at acting like one... The fire hat doesn't really flatter my figure. I mean forehead.... haha.


As we went into downtown Sedona, there was a lady with some hula hoops. I had no idea Colonel was so into hula-hooping. He was really gettin' into it. I was about to pee my pants watching him. I was only slightly embarrassed :)


After we walked around the town, we went to dinner, and then headed home. It was well worth the trip up there!

summer!

It's been quite a while since I posted. Colonel's already back in school, (started his second year! yahoo!) which means summer's over... bummer! Here's what we've been up to: [beware! it's a long one...]

FAMILY REUNION AT BEAR LAKE... [way back in July!]





Me and Colonel attempting to make a sand sculpture...


We hiked up to this really awesome lake... Long drive, but worth the hike!

Colonel's fantastic bingo prize...


We hiked through Minnetonka cave. Really cool!

And of course did a lot of eating, laughing, and more eating.

THEN, the day we got back, we celebrated our 4 YEAR ANNIVERSARY!


Wow. Time flies.

We didn't really do anything fun, because we were busy doing this:

MOVING!

My parents came down to help us move from one second story apartment to another. Lets just say Colonel's face pretty much sums up the experience:


Yeah. It was MISERABLE. Had to have been at least 110+ outside plus humidity. AND we moved at 12 noon. Smart, I know. I thought Colonel was going to pass out... or die.

And then here's the mess we had to deal with after we got it all inside!

And after a few weeks of organizing, and climbing over a mountain of things, here is a fine display of what seven hundred dollars a month gets you in Phoenix:

A kitchen with pink- yes pink- cabinets.

Not to mention they're mismatching:


The living room's alright. I guess..

So is the bedroom.
Except Kern hates when I have to get ready for work in our bathroom with no door at five o'clock in the morning. It kinda wakes him up...

And here is the guest bedroom/food storage room/computer room/extra TV holding room/junk room. We have a lot stuff, which almost doesn't fit into two bedrooms.

And finally, the patio.


Okay, I guess the apartment's not THAT bad, just quirky. But hey, we're saving 500 dollars a month. Colonel's already put it to good use, trust me.

Well, that about wraps up our summer. It was fun and busy! (And note to self: NEVER move in 110+ degree weather again.)