Quilting!

For Christmas this year Russ and I had BreeAnn to get a present for... and the category was Homemade Gifts... So I thought I would tackle making a quilt throw for her! It has been so much fun! This is the second blanket I have made if you count Russ' jean blanket (which my mom did most of)... It was an adventure and took a little more time than I had planned but in the end was really rewarding! I really like how it turned out!

Thanks mom for showing me how!

Las Vegas

Russ and I recently went on a vacation to Las Vegas and went to the NFR! We had a lot of fun unfortunately I did not take any pictures at the Rodeo... I'm really bummed about that because we went with mom and dad and it would have been really great to have a good photo along with the memory... but I was way too caught up in the Rodeo and all the people! It was great fun! We stayed with mom and dad at Caesars Palace which was awesome! Russ put a dollar in a penny slot machine and won $3! Then thinking our luck was good I convinced him to move to a $1 machine... and we lost the $3 we'd won... at least we only gambled a couple dollars... and came out even... I can't even imagine the money people loose gambling Oh Well...

Anyways I took some photos of some Christmas decorations in the Bellagio and random one's on the strip!

These polar bears are made all out of flowers! They were amazing I loved them!

All the decorations were GIGANTIC!

like I said GIGANTIC!

Christmas Tree

Here is our Christmas Tree up and decorated!

Fire Fire

So last night Russ went out to put the dogs in their pens... and all I hear is "Ju! Fire!!!"

There was a fire in the dry grass and trees right behind our home! I immediately panicked and started running around the house trying to find anything that would hold water... pans, bowls, buckets... I called my parents and luckily Dad rushed down and fired up the Back-hoe he started putting it out with dirt and spreading it out so that it was just coals... and Russ continued to pour water on the fire while Mom and I just kept filling buckets...

We are just so grateful that Russ saw it as soon as he did because in another ten minutes or less and it would have been our house that was on fire!

We stayed up most the night and kept checking on the burn area because we were afraid that the hot coals might start the fire up again... but we eventually went to bed and to our great relief when we woke up this morning it had snowed! And continued to snow most of the morning calming putting down about 4 cold inches of SNOW... The lord knew we needed his help to calm our nerves and cool down the coals!

WE ARE SO BLESSED

cHrIsTmAs TrEe TiMe

Here are some pictures of our Christmas Tree in the WILD! We had so much fun getting our first tree!!! And it fits perfect in our home :)

iPuMpKiN cArViNg!

On thursday Russ and I decided we better get our pumpkins carved and on the porch for all the little kiddies that will be coming to our house Trick-or-Treating! And even if they don't come the pumpkins are there... and that is what is important :)

Here are some awesome pictures of our pumpkins...

Starting out

Russ' pumkin

My pumkin

I'm so proud of our art!

all lit up!!

CONFERENCE

Last weekend Russ and I were able to go to the Sunday afternoon session of conference! We had a wonderful time. I absolutely could not believe ALL THE PEOPLE! That was my first time going to a live session of conference and I was really not expecting all those people... people leaving the morning session, people going to the afternoon session, people wanting tickets, people protesting the church, just tons of people! It was quite hectic.... until we were inside the conference building. Then everything was all right and so worth it! We both loved it and I'm so glad we went!

I wanted to take a picture while we were there but as I took my camera out of my purse... yep you guessed it... the batteries were dead :( Oh well we made a memory!!!

Russ' Elk Hunt in The Book Cliffs

Russ and his bother Brynnen were lucky enough to draw out for the Book Cliffs Elk Hunt!! They were both so excited the hunt went from Sept. 12-20.  Brynnen shot his elk on the 18 and Russ shot his on the 19.  The said they had a great time and saw a lot of county.  Here are some pictures from their adventure...

Russ' horse Chavez

Russ' mule Harriat, and Mitch's horse Brodi

The Book Cliffs

Russ' Elk '09 and the weapon that brought it down :) his 30-06

Packing out the Elk

High Mountain Stabilization

This summer Russ and I had the amazing opportunity to work in the High Uinta Mountains where we worked on a crew of 13 people and had some really fun times! Russ got to operate a trac-hoe and I operated a skid-steer.  We had fun working and that is mostly all we did but we had Sundays off and were able to do some really awesome things; we went on a DEATH HIKE with our friend Rusty who took us to a bally! The view was really amazing and I did love it, but I would have liked it a lot more if my legs were not shaking and ready to collapse at any moment... Russ and I also got a lot of fishing in.  There was a stream right by camp that early in the summer had a really good stream of water that we were able to fish after work a lot of the days.  Then the last fishing trip we did was one day after work and Russ taught me how to fly fish.... It really was a high light of the whole summer!! We had so much fun!! The pictures I've posted are mostly from the "death hike" :D and the others are random fishing trips and scenery.  

Honeymoon - Cruise

Cabo San Lucas...
Cabo San Lucas was Russ and I's favorite place! To get off the ship we had to ride in the life boats to the port because the port is not big enough for the cruise ships... that was kind of fun but I'm sure glad that is all we used the life boats for because they were not that roomy! when we got to the port there were more sales men than at any of the other ports... we were told that 90% of Cabo relies on tourists! After having tons of people telling us what we should do we decided to take a boat ride to lovers beach and rent snorkeling gear... best idea ever!!! haha we had so much fun snorkeling Russ was like a little kid!!! The water was so clear and there were so many different fish!!! After we had swallowed all the salt water we could handle we just played in the waves, it was great!!!

lovers beach

skull rock

turtle rock

Glass Bottom Boat

Mazatlan...

Mazatlan was our second stop. In Mazatlan we took a bus tour of the city... we learned alot about the city and all of it's culture. Mazatlan is one of the few ports in Mexico that is not mainly supported by tourism... they are a large fishing city. Most the money made is from the shrimp... we drove through the fish market and there were more shrimp than I have ever seen before and the tour guide said it was the "off" season... haha neither Russ or I are huge sea food fans so I'm glad we were in a van... I'm sure the smell would have been very strong haha... In Mazatlan I met one of the nicest women I have ever met... at the beginning of our tour I got very sick and just about fainted (I think it was because I had got so sun burn the day before and then didn't eat much of a breakfast that morning) ... but as I sat on a step outside the cathedral this lady instantly came up to me and then ran and came back with a huge cup of fresh fruit and water!! She would not let Russ pay for it and went back to her stand where she was selling bibles and other religious things... I was so grateful and felt better after eating.

sea lion rocks... our tour guide said that the sea lions live on these white rocks how cool is that!

That is our ship in the distance... and another cruise ship... the people in these coastal cities thrive on the cruise ships and when the tourist get off they are bomb-barded my sales men selling bus tours, boat rides, or what ever else they can to make a living...

The Devil's Cave... crazy cliff divers... the water was only 8 ft. deep so they would wait for a good wave just to jump! plus it is obvious that the cliff is not a strait drop but rather the diver would have to jump quite a ways out to avoid belly sliding down the sharp rocks....

South America's larges chandelier is in the cathedral in Mazatlan

Mazatlan's cathedral...

Puerto Vallarta...

Puerto Vallarta was our first stop. We didn't quite know what to do we got off the ship and took a taxi to the beach where we walked up the beach and then through the city streets just shopping and taking in all the sun we could... I got fried of course and Russ just got tan and started to fit in with the Mexicans.... haha we got alot of exercise in Puerto Vallarta because after walking all over the city we decided that we could see the boat so we could most likely find our way back... wow! it ended up being quite the walk haha but we had fun!!!

These guys were attached to ropes and they would hang upside down and spin in a circle until they came to the ground!!

sand sculptures - amazing!

Puerto Vallarta was the prettiest place we went it had a big city but it also had huge jungle mountains all around and a beautiful beach.

On the Sapphire Princess - our ship...

I didn't take many picture on the ship... I wish I would have because it was really quite amazing I don't know how they make something like that float!! It had a theater where they performed large production shows and also would play movies during the day. There were lounges and bars that had greats shows also like comedians, jugglers, and singers. There were 5 or 6 restaurants that had the most amazing food... (we only ate in the restaurants a few times because some nights a tux and formal dress we required... crazy!) The ship was very fancy on the inside with a great big glass elevator and jewelry shops. The deck of the ship were alot of fun! there were something like 5pools and 6 hot tubs... lounge chair everywhere... we played games like ping pong, shuffle board, and they also had tennis and the electronic golf game... to put it all simply there was anything you could imagine on the ship it was amazing!!!

Russ loves dressing up for things... haha NOT!