Twilight....

So I have succumb to the temptation. Something I don't usually do.....


It seems like EVERYONE has been talking about these Twilight books. Now when I say everyone, I do mean EVERYONE. The college girls at BYU, my friends on their blogs, my nieces and sisters-in-law, even the old ladies in my Relief Society! I was absolutely NOT going to join the cult....

Over Thanksgiving we went with all the twilight fans in the family to see the film. I liked it. I must admit, I was a little confused at times. But I really did like it. I was content to leave it at that. Be one of those people who says, "I'll just wait for the movie." After all, this is what I usually do. Then for Christmas break we went back to Washington. There have been massive snow storms here. He are basically snowed in because Oregon is too "green" to use deicing chemicals. The roads are pretty much impassable. This gave me plenty of time to get all my work done, to submit grades, and to prepare for the upcoming semester.

But we had SO much time that I was actually able to get EVERYTHING done, and even watch a bunch of fun Christmas movies too. On Christmas Eve I had some free time before dinner so I decided that since Alaina (Tyler's sister) had been pressuring me, I would start the book. I looked through it and it had over 500 pages. There was no chance I'd be finishing it before I left the day after Chrsitmas. But oh well, why not try to make Alaina happy? After all, I WAS just watching a lot of TV. So I started on Christmas Eve.

Then I couldn't put it down......

So now, less than 24 hours later, I'm DYING to read the next one!!!

I wanted to put a cool picture of twilight on the post, so I went looking for something.... here are a few of my favorites:

I couldn't find this one on a t-shirt, but it's my favorite!!

You know you're in to twilight when you look at your husband and think, "dang it, why don't you SPARKLE?"

And another of my personal favorites.....

Merry Christmas!!

Mele Kalikimaka me ka Hau'oli Makahiki Hou. (Merry Christmas and Happy New Year). Tyler and I are in White Salmon Washington for Christmas this year. There's a HUGE winter storm in the Northwest, we havea about 3-4 feet of snow all around the house. We just finished an amazingly delicious Christmas Eve dinner of turkey and potatoes. YUM. We want to wish all of you a wonderful Christmas and hope you are somewhere safe and enjoying the holiday with family!

Good Information to Know

I could survive for 51 seconds chained to a bunk bed with a velociraptor

Created by Bunk Beds.net

My friend had this quiz on her blog, so I thought I would see what my odds were. Based on the questions I had to answer, I'd say 51 seconds is very optimistic.....

The rest of the Thanksgiving Holiday

We spent the rest of our time in Washington in Tyler's home town of White Salmon. Tyler grew up in a tiny little town built in the mountains overlooking the Columbia Gorge. Pretty much every street in his town is a steep hill, and I am pretty sure the only stop light near there is in the next town over. The views are amazing and reminded me a little of Hawaii when Tyler first took me there. While we were there we went with Tyler's family to choose a Christmas tree at the local Christmas tree farm. Here's the one we picked!

Just kidding. This is the one we all chose.

There were 4 men there with us, and all of them fought over who was going to cut the tree down. So, not wanting the boys to get their hands dirty, I grabbed the saw and went to town.

Tyler's dad loves puzzles. So do Tyler and I. So one night while we were all watching a movie we put this one together. Well, mostly Tyler and his dad I guess.....I had never seen the movie before and it got really interesting....
We tried to go on a hike, but this is about as far as we got. It had been raining and the trail was pretty muddy, so we ended up turning back. But we still wanted to commemorate our try!

I love all the green moss.

My parents decided to come to Utah for Thanksgiving....while we were in Washington.....but we did get to see them for a few hours before they flew out. This is a picture of Kaden, John's son. Isn't he growing up so fast? He is just the cutest little kid. OK, I guess it's a tie between Kaden and Corbin!!

Seattle

We took the entire week of Thanksgiving off and drove up to Washington to spend some time with Tyler's family. For a couple of the days that we were in Washington, we drove up to the Seattle area. Tyler has and aunt and uncle (Dale and Anne) there that he hasn't seen in over a decade, and I have never met. They were SUCH a fun couple! This first picture is of Tyler's dad, Jerry, and his brother Dale, in front of Dale and Anne's house in Clyde Hill, near Seattle.



Their house is just outside of Seattle so Karlette, Bill, Tyler and I spent one of our days driving around town seeing all the fun sites. Tyler and I went to the top of the Space Needle. I hadn't been up there since I was a little kid, and Tyler had never been to the top. Seattle is normally rainy, or at least cloudy, but the skies were completely clear the one day we were up there! Lucky us.
After the space needle we headed over to Pike's Place Market. My parents always took us there when we were little and visited my grandparents. There's so much to see, and such yummy smells!!

The famous pig...

For our Anniversary we went to the Seattle Temple and did sealings. What a fun experience. Definitely worth making a tradition.

After the Temple we went back to Dale and Anne's for one last quick visit before heading back to White Salmon.

We had such a fun time and we were so sad that we were only able to spend 2 days visiting, but we were so very glad that we were able to go! The day we left it rained all day. I still can't believe how lucky we were!!

Spanish Fork

I was looking through our pictures and found these that I had forgotten we took. We were trying to figure out where to take some cool pictures that we might be able to use for a Christmas card. All the pictures were taken around Spanish Fork. We have such a cool town! The first two were taken at a new sports park that has this amazing walking path lined with little trails that lead to tucked-away picnic tables. It's gorgeous and has tons of room to play with kids! We almost bought a house right next to this park, but chose our town home instead. Tyler still regrets it!


These pictures were taken at a reservoir that overlooks Spanish Fork. At sunset, the mountains look like they are on fire! It's amazing how we can drive only a minute or two and find these amazing places.

It's been a while

I know it has been a while. A lot has happened, and we're still right in the middle of a lot of stuff!! I haven't been able to download photos yet, and when I do, I'll add more information. For our Anniversary, we went to Seattle with some of Tyler's family. The day was amazingly clear and we could see for miles from the top of the Space Needle. We spent Thanksgiving with Tyler's family in White Salmon, Washington. We haven't been in Washington for Thanksgiving yet, so it was fun! While we were there, the motherboard on my laptop gave out, so I couldn't access anything I needed to do school work and prepare for lectures. I was a little stressed! All this week I've been working from scratch and things haven't gone as smoothly as I would have liked. On Friday I got a call as I left my classes. Tashina is one of my cousins that is closest to me in age and we spent time together when we were younger. Since we've been older, we haven't seen as much of each other, but we keep in touch through blogs and I have always loved reading about her and her adorable little girls. On Friday I found out that her youngest, Cosette, a 15 month old adorable and happy little girl, had been found dead in her bed that morning. From what I know, SIDS was the cause. Tashina and her husband Matt had just celebrated their anniversary, and she is 5 months pregnant. I just couldn't believe it. I immediately thought of her unborn child, and of my little sister and her new son, Corbin. News like this makes me so very scared to be a mom. I have been trying to work up the nerve to call Tashina ever since, but what can I possibly say? I haven't had children, I can't possibly imagine what she must be going through. With all that our society has discovered and invented, with all the advances we have in the medical world, how can there not be more control over the safety of our children, at the very least while they are at home? Because Tyler and I have been considering starting a family in the near future, this event hit me very hard. We have not changed our thoughts on the subject, but I am much more nervous. We live in a scary world.