Vote - Help us choose!!!

We've decided that we need your valuable input. We like two backgrounds and can't quite decide between them. I'll give everyone a month to decide which is better. You can vote on the right hand side of the blog.

First up...Blue with Plaid. Since I am the one that does the posting, the colors have to be masculine enough for me to be at ease. Here is option #1.


Our #2 choice is Purple with Frogs. It says something about frogs belonging in little boys pocket's. Very cute, but again we're afraid of being a little boy-centric. Let us know what you think and help us make our decision.

New Blog Appearance

I know most of you just check out the emails instead of going to the blog itself, so I wanted to inform you that the Blog has had an upgrade. It now looks a lot different. Check it out at www.jasonandadrienne.blogspot.com and tell us what you think.

Christmas Vegas Trip

We went down to Vegas with our friends for Christmas. Adrienne and I don't usually care for Vegas (we call it sensory overload) but this was a very nice trip. We drove down right after work on the 23rd and went straight to the Venetian. We had 3rd row seats to see the Phantom of the Opera. What an amazing show!!! The effects were fantastic and the singers were absolutely amazing. Our two favorite people in the play were Christine and Raul. Their voices and acting together really made the show work.


On Christmas Eve we went to the roller coaster at New York, New York. Adrienne, Dan, and Bryce rode it. I ran to the top of the parking garage to see if I could get a good shot, and this is what I got. You can see Bryce is 4th row from the back, while Dan is right behind him and Adrienne's face is just visible in the same row as Dan (but just to the right of Bryce's face). Christmas Day we opened gifts and even made a trip to the hot tub and heated pool. Kim made cooked up a Ham with some potatoes and vegetables. It was just a great day. We even took time to watch the church video "Joy to the World". On Friday the Clydes headed home. Little Tyson wasn't feeling too well so they decided to head back just in case. We spent that evening in St. George with our good friends Brent and Andrea (and of course little Gabriel). I even got a good shot of St. George with the snowy mountains int he background.
I started getting sick the last couple days, but we still managed to stop by and see the Todds. They even had more of their family around than normal, and it was great to catch up with them. We decided to head back fairly early since I was not well. The sun set an hour or so before we actually got home so we stopped to take a couple quick photos.

I think this post rambles a little but I didn't know what to cut out. Anyways, I hope everyone enjoys the photos.

MY SISTER IS ENGAGED!

Lost in all the shuffle of my last post is the fact that my sister got engaged last Wednesday!!! Here she is with Austin at Heidi's reception. They make a great couple. I'm so excited for her...even though he is a U of U fan.You can tell Sarah is engaged in the next photo. This was the bouquet toss. She doesn't even lift her arm to catch the flowers even though they were practically thrown right to her. Arms at her sides, she just watches.

Weddings Galore

So we had two weddings this past weekend. I figured people might like to see photos from both. Before we get to the photos though...the weather was crazy. Han was married in Bountiful and Heidi in Provo.I can't believe Han is all grown up. I taught Han and her cousin, My, the gospel in Australia when I was a missionary there. This first photo was taken right as Han and Kyle came out of the Bountiful Temple. I can't believe how well it came out. I love the snow falling and the expressions of those watching.Heidi is my wife's littlest sister. I got to stay behind with Heidi and Trevor while the photographer took all the pictures of just the two of them while everyone else headed over for the luncheon. It was cold, but it gave me the chance to take some really neat pictures. There are two fountains at the Provo temple. One was turned off which allowed us to take this beautiful reflection shot with the temple and the 2nd fountain behind them.

The In-Laws left with Heather and Nick this morning. It was nice having them with us for the Wedding festivities, but it was definitely nice to have this afternoon to ourselves.

Tuesday is the day we head down to the time share in Vegas for Christmas. I can't wait to see Phantom of the Opera with Adrienne at the Venetian. Also, it will be good to spend some quality time with our friends (Dan and Kim plus their kids, Danielle and Bryce).

New Lens

Hi everyone! So I got a digital SLR camera for our anniversary a few weeks ago...now for Christmas I get a second lens. I want to use it at the two weddings coming up, so Adrienne let me open it early. It doesn't zoom, but it is exceedingly clear and fast in comparison. I took a picture of an ornament on our Christmas tree to show just how cool it is. Feel free to click on the image to see a bigger version.

Weddings are getting closer

Less than a week until 2 weddings. First there is Han. I taught her the gospel in Australia almost 12 years ago. She is all grown up now and has moved to the US. She is getting married on Friday the 19th. That afternoon is the luncheon and her reception is later in the evening. I can't wait! The only problem is that Adrienne's littlest sister (Heidi) has her reception on Friday too. So I will miss some of both. Her wedding isn't until the next day, but Friday was the only day it would work for them. Although much of that day will be spent driving around, I think it is going to be a lot of fun.

We went with Heidi and Trevor to the temple in Provo yesterday and took some pictures outside so I'll include them below.

More Photos of the Lights at Temple Square

Christmas Lights at Temple Square

Hello everyone! I know I keep promising pictures, so here is one to tide you over. Adrienne and I went to dinner in Salt Lake City with her department at work. My parents should know the restaurant since we ate there after my last graduation ceremony (the name is The Garden). It is on the top floor of a building at Temple Square. I took this photo as we were walking around Temple Square right after dinner. There will be more pictures added later.

Oh Christmas Tree

So the "construction project" for Heidi's reception was canceled. It turns out that I didn't have to build it. She was able to get what she needed from a friend. It sure saved time, but it would have been fun to build something.

We finished our Christmas decorations this past weekend. Saturday was everything but the Christmas ornaments on the tree. Those we saved for Sunday when Ade's sisters came over. It is always a neat experience to go through the ornaments and put them all the tree. My mom bought a new one for each member of our family every year. I have specific memories with a lot of them from growing up. She gave me all my personal ornaments when I got married. Adrienne and I have continued the tradition in our home. It really is a neat experience to decorate the tree when each ornament has special meaning. I'll try to get a good picture in the next couple of days so that you can see what I mean.

Adoption Profile

We're still making steady progress on the new adoption profile site. It has a ton of new questions in addition to the ones we filled out before. For instance, both Adrienne and I have to answer a bunch of questions each about things like our favorite books, movies, games, etc. I actually think that part is pretty fun. I think it also gives prospective birth parents a greater ability to see different aspects of our personalities.

Will and I still need to find some time to put together "the project" for Heidi's wedding. Maybe we can get together this Saturday...I should probably check.

We put up our Christmas Village last night. It's up on a ledge in the living room. It has its own light switch. We want to add some mirror behind the village to make it seem to have more depth. Still need to put up the tree. Hopefully we'll get that done by the end of the week.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was our 9 year anniversary and Adrienne gave me an Olympus DSLR. While we had everyone in Adrienne's family together, we thought it might be a good idea to take a picture or two.

In the group photo we have all my in-laws including a boyfriend AND a fiance. Front row: Will, Me (Jason), Trevor (Heidi's fiance), Nick (Heather's boyfriend). On the couch: Liberty (my niece), Stephanie, Adrienne, Heidi, and Heather. In the back: Alex, Helen, and Dennis. It's the first time they've had a family photo since the kids were actually kids.

I thought a picture of the Turkey would be appropriate as well. It turned out really well. Since the bird was 24 lbs, it wasn't quite as juicy as last year. I do better with a 16-18 lb bird. It was still really good, but the legs were a little dry. The rest was great. The gravy was awesome, stuffing fantastic, cornbread pudding delicious, and so on. All in all it was a great day.

I also included a picture of Adrienne by herself. I don't seem to get many good pictures of her alone.
The last picture is my niece, Liberty. Will (my brother-in-law) is holding her for the photo. Isn't she cute!!!

Updates, Thanksgiving, and Fun

Adrienne and I spent another few hours working on our adoption profile this last week. There's still a ton to do. It's a just a matter of taking the time to fill it all out again. It's really a shame that the data was not exported very well from the old system. It's ok though, we'll get it done and it will be fine.

We had dinner with my sister and her boyfriend (Austin) last night at PF Chang's. The food was great and it was really fun. They are headed to Missouri so they can meet up with my parents for Thanksgiving. Sounds like a fun trip.

Ade's littlest sister (Heidi) is having her invitations printed today at my work. It's weird that the little girl I met over 9 years ago is engaged to be married on the 20th of December. What's even weirder is that a girl that I baptized in 1997 has just moved to Utah and will be married the 19th of December. What happened to all the little kids I used to know? How did they get so big? I'm starting to feel old.

Speaking of 9 years, Thanksgiving Day marks our 9 year anniversary (and my parents 38th anniversary if I remember correctly). Ade's family is driving up from Arizona to stay with us for the Holiday and help out Heidi get ready for the wedding. We bought a 24 pound turkey to cook up for everyone. I'll be cooking that with 2 kinds of stuffing and a Pumpkin Pie Cake...but that's about all I can handle cooking. I've delegated the rest of the "fixings" to everyone else.

I guess I should mention that BYU Football lost on Saturday to our biggest rival, Utah. It was 24-27 in the third quarter before Utah's defense stepped up and BYU fell apart. Congratulations to the Utes and bring on the bowl game so that we can end the season on a high note. If we win the bowl game, that will make 3 seasons in a row with 11-2 records. Not bad!

While I'm making a post, I just want to wish all our friends and family a very Happy Thanksgiving. This is my favorite holiday. It seems to me to be the least commercialized, and is one that helps us focus on gratitude. I am very grateful for all of you. I am grateful for your love and your prayers. May God bless each of you in your lives.

LDS Adoption Profile Going Digital

So last week we started the "new" online adoption profile. It was supposed to have a lot of our old information scanned or transferred over to it. What we found was that very little of our information made it in the system and even the parts that did make it were out of place much of the time. We spent an hour or two cleaning it up last week and we'll continue the process this week.

Chris and Karissa came down Friday with their son Landon. They just needed to get away from the parents house for a night (their staying at Karissa's parents' house while their new home is finished). It was tons of fun having them over. Landon is growing up so fast (just turned 2). We had a great dinner and watched a movie on Friday. Saturday, we had French Toast for breakfast and took Landon to the park for a bit.

We met the Clydes at the temple Saturday afternoon. Then Adrienne ran a few errands in Orem while I sat in the car listening to the BYU game. We beat Air Force by 14 which sets up a very interesting rivalry game this week against Utah (we have just one loss and Utah is undefeated). I hope we can pull it off this year. Our defense has been ravaged by injury all season long and now our big tight end Dennis Pitta (one of the top 2 or 3 tight ends in the country maybe even the best) sprained his MCL at the end of the Air Force game. I hope it's not too bad and that he can play this weekend, but I don't know.

It's late

I came home from basketball tonight and realized that I hadn't posted this week as yet...so I thought I'd put down a few thoughts for everyone.

Last weekend was the last home game of the year for BYU. It was fun, but not much of a game. It was as close to bored that I've ever been at a football game. The outcome was never in doubt, but our offense is always fun to watch.

We were going to head down to our friends' homes for Christmas again this year, but it turns out that they have family coming in from the 4 corners of the United States and don't have enough room. Now we need to decide on a different plan. We might go down to the time share in Las Vegas and hang out with some other friends, or maybe we'll just stay at home and sleep.

Work has been slow, but seems to be picking up a little. It always does towards the end of the year.

Chris (old mission friend), Karissa, and their son Landon are coming down Friday to hang out and stay over. They've been living with Karissa's parents while their new home is being built and just wanted a night away. It's going to be a lot of fun. We haven't really hung out much over the last year it seems, so this will be some good catch up, good food, good games, basically good times.

Well, I think that's enough for now. I've got to take a shower and go to sleep.

Back from St. George

Last week was tough at work for me. Not much going on with any of my clients. It was great to get away for the weekend to St George and recharge. We stayed with the Todds and hung out with all the kids and grandkids all weekend. It's great when all the little ones just pile up on us and play.

Also, our good friends Brent and Andrea just had their baby (Gabriel) a week ago so we spent time with them too.

I thought I was keeping in pretty good shape with basketball and volleyball each week, but a little game of two-hand touch football has shown me new levels of soreness in some areas that I haven't used in a while. It was still fun no matter how much I'm paying for it now. I do wish I had brought cleats though. It would have been that much better.

Sunday it was tough to leave. There was great food and some great times just relaxing on the couch. We didn't get home until close to midnight.

Well, I'm back to work today and I feel much more energized than last week...so mission accomplished.

Fun Weekend

Another week has gone by. I can't believe how time flies. I helped put on our Stake BSA Court of Honor to recognize the Boy Scouts who earned awards in the last 6 months or so.

Our friend who usually let's us sit in the box with him for the BYU Football games had us sit in the Legacy seating instead this week. It was awesome being so close to the action. Our team beat UNLV in an exciting shootout. Then, later that night, we were able to get together with some friends to play volleyball.

Sunday Steph and Will brought their daughter Liberty over for dinner. Adrienne made Szechuan Steak and it was delicious. Steph made an Apple Crumble Pie that was so good I had two pieces.

We've made plans to visit our friends in St. George for Halloween weekend. It will be nice to take a mini-vacation and see some old friends. Not to mention, the weather is supposed to be GREAT!!! I'm bringing shorts and a swimsuit.

Home Improvements

Since I've already posted about the BYU game and some other things from the end of last week, I thought everybody would get a kick out of our recent home improvements. I can't remember if I mentioned this before, but our insurance changed. Adrienne's MS shots went from $500/refill to $30/refill. This basically means that we have a ton of extra money in our cafeteria plan. To use up the funds we had our doctor write notes recommending regular exercise and bought some equipemnt. Our unfinished basement now has a treadmill, exercise bike, and weight bench.

Also, I was successfull in my front door peep-hole experiment. Our front door is metal with a foam core. The peep-hole I purchased needed a 9/16" bit to cut the spot in the door. Unfortunately, the only bit that I could find that size (in 3 hardware stores) was specifically for wood. It was a speed bit or paddle bit (depending on what you call it). I decided to tempt fate and risk ruining the door. It actually cut through it like butter. Score 1 for Jason and Adrienne.

The last home improvement for last week was in our back yard. One of our neighbors decided to put in a fence, so we now have half a fence in our back yard. It looks great, and we split the cost with our neighbor so we each paid half.

I know these don't sound quite as fun as our normal posts, but they were fun for us. It always feels good to get things accomplished. I get a kick out of putting things together. When I was a kid, that meant GI Joes or Transformers. Now that I am an adult, it means treadmills and exercise bikes. Putting them together is half the fun.

Watching BYU Football with LaVelle Edwards

I don't know how many of you know who this is, but LaVelle Edwards was the BYU Football head coach for 29 years. Last night I went to an event called "Football Night at the Museum" where about 30-40 of us got to eat dinner and watch the BYU Football Game. Unfortunately, we got creamed. Fortunately, I got to meet LaVelle and have a great meal.

View from the Box

So have I let you guys know how cool my friends are? First, a friend gave us Box Seats to the football game. Then a different friend took a compilation of about 12 photos and squished them together. Now I have this great photo of the view from the Box. What a beautiful sight!!!

Crazy Busy

Wow, the week started slow enough, but we ended up crazy busy all weekend. Friday I took off early so that I could show my sister the way to the Oral Surgeon's office. She got her wisdom teeth removed. Her boyfriend and I hung out in the waiting room until she was done. One of her teeth was actually growing in sideways...weird! She's doing much better today.

Friday night we had some friends invite us up to a house they rented in Midway. The house was on the Homestead Golf Course, but it was too cold and windy to play. Instead of golf we played pool, watched a movie, talked, played cards, and ate some great food.

On Saturday, we headed back into Provo for BYU's Homecoming football game. On a cold day it was sure nice to be up in the box seats. The buffet was beef brisket with dutch oven potatoes (Yum!). BYU won 21-3. I thought BYU would score a lot more, but the game was exciting and well played on both sides.

Sunday was busy too. First there was OUR Ward...then I had to leave early to go to 3 other Wards to visit their priesthood meetings. I'm still getting used to having a Stake calling. We had Steph, Will, Liberty, Heidi, AND Trevor over for dinner. AND my sister decided she was feeling pretty good so she and her boyfriend stopped by after to hang out and watch a movie.

Great weekend

Let's see, BYU won, we had General Conference meetings all weekend, and our neighbors cooked us breakfast. All in all, it was a pretty great weekend.

More on the breakfast...Sunday morning our newest neighbors called up and said that they had cooked too much breakfast, so we needed to come over and help them finish. They had cooked french toast, bacon, sausage and scrambled eggs. Talk about a wonderful breakfast. We'll have to invite them over soon to repay the kindness. They have three daughters that are 8, 7, and 4 (to balance out our other neighbors that have 3 sons which are 12, 10, and 6). We feel blessed to be among so many great families.

Progress on the Profile

We are almost done with the online profile for LDS Family Services. It's about time that we finish. In fact, we should be able to finish tonight with all the writing. Then it just comes down to editing the photos to go on the site.

BYU didn't play last week, but they were able to jump in the polls to 7th and 8th (depending on the poll). It's exciting because it makes each game mean that much more.

Last weekend was interesting. On Friday, we ended up going over to our new backyard neighbors' house to play some games. It was a blast and we found out we are very much alike in personality. We had some plans to go shopping Saturday, but that didn't work out. Instead I helped some neighbors put down sod for a few hours and needed a nap to recuperate.

New Website and BYU Wins

So we've decided to route internet traffic to a website as the landing zone. Then people can click on our blog from there. Of course, those that already have the blog address can still go straight there. Our new website is www.SentimentalReasons.us. The website name references "our song" we chose for our wedding. There's not much there yet, but I hope to have it pretty well organized within the week.

BYU had another shutout this week. 44-0 over Wyoming. That makes 103-0 over the last two weeks. The best part is that we are pulling the starters after only 2 and a half quarters. Our 2nd and 3rd string are getting lots of experience and we're still pitching shutouts. I know it's technically hurting our QB's Heisman chances (because his stats would be UNBELIEVABLE if he played full games) but it's the smart thing to do. Keep him healthy and get the backup players ready to go for the future. I'll have to add some pictures from the box at game later.

Great Weekend!

Every weekend is great when BYU wins, but to beat UCLA 59-0 makes it just that much better. It was complete and utter dominance. It looked like the game could not end quick enough for UCLA's players. We watched the game at our friends' house. They have 7 kids and 3 of them came in the last 6 weeks. They adopted two kids from Morocco at the end of July and the mom just gave birth to their 7th last week. It was a lot of fun to hang out with them, cook food, and watch the game.

In other news, it's official...Heidi (Adrienne's littlest sister) is now engaged to Trevor. They are planning on getting married the weekend before Christmas. Her knee is doing much better as well. She doesn't use her crutches or the walker any more.

Just a little more stuff to get done for the online profile. We're excited to finish, but it just seems to always be harder than expected.

Weekend Updates

Jason's mom left on Sunday. She stayed in Denver last night with friends and has left for Missouri this morning. It was great having her stay those couple extra days. She was kind enough to help out with some weeds around the house and clean up the garage some. We even got to go play tennis with her on Saturday. She helped Jason with his serve and hit a few with Adrienne. We hope that we'll be able to go out and visit Jason's mom and dad in Missouri soon.

Well BYU squeezed out a victory against the University of Washington. It was a lot closer than I thought it would be, but I'm satisfied with the victory. We hadn't won against a non-conference team on the road in a few years, so we needed to start somewhere. Everyone is talking about a celebration penalty at the end of the game instead of the blocked PAT which is disappointing. You know you are in Utah when a General Authority for the LDS church references the BYU game the next day in Regional Conference.

So we are done with the adoption workshops and now we just need to finish the online profile at itsaboutlove.org. It's taking longer than we wanted, but we feel it's important to do it right.

Picture Collage Images

Family Updates

My dad flew home yesterday because he had to get back to work. I wish we could have had more time with him, but it was still great to be around each other again. Mom stayed behind (she's driving back later this week), so hopefully I'll get to see her some more before she goes. I got to hang out with both parents and my sister on Sunday, part of Monday, and then a couple hours with just Mom yesterday so far. From what I gather, she's coming down to stay at our house tonight. The plans could change though, we don't seem to do very well at keeping each other informed as a family. I think she is planning on staying until Saturday now. After that, she'll have almost a 2 day drive to get home to Missouri.

Heidi's ACL is recovering nicely. She went to physical therapy today and they are really excited about how well she is healing. She doesn't have to wear the brace any more and she is supposed to walk without crutches now.

Tomorrow is our last Adoption Workshop/Class. Adrienne and I are looking forward to it. There hasn't been one since June, so it's been kind of weird. We need to finish our online profile with LDS Family services, but it's pretty daunting. There is a lot of different sections where you describe yourself. We want to make sure we take the time to make it accurate, clear and easy to read.

Miscellaneous Updates

Heidi (Adrienne's youngest sister) had her ACL surgery yesterday and we've spent the last day looking after her. She throws up every time she has to move, but she doesn't have any pain. She has some friends coming over to watch her while we go to the BYU game. She'll be with us for the next several days as she recuperates.

My family is making good progress on their drive to Utah. They'll get into Salt Lake City tonight around 5 or 6 I think. I believe they plan on going to a nice dinner tonight with my little sister. They are taking their time and finding neat places to stop along the way. I can't wait to see them tomorrow.

Well, I better get going. I'm going to go running, then head to the store for a bit. When I get back it will be time to get ready for the game. I can't wait.

Jason's Parents are Coming

So, I think that we have finally recovered from the Triathlon last weekend. I might even go running tonight. Now that I've done one I want to see if I can do more. My true goal is to finish a full Olympic Triathlon (1 mile swim, 25 mile bike, 6.4 mile run). It is going to take some work, but I think it's worth it.

My parents are coming into town on Saturday and staying through Labor Day. We'll have to take some pictures to add to the blog. We have a friend that would give them tickets to the BYU Football Game (Box Seats!!!) but they don't know what time they will get here. Either way, Adrienne and I are going to the game (GO COUGARS!!!). Hopefully we'll get to catch up with my sister, Sarah, too. We still haven't seen her since she got back from Australia.

We are still working on some adoption stuff. There's a new policy with the financial forms, so we have to fill that out again. Also, we have to finish our online profile so that can be posted. Everything takes time, but we'll get it done.

WE FINISHED!!!

Saturday was the Share-A-Smile Triathlon. We were able to finish and had a great experience. Our friends Dan and Kim sacrificed sleep so that we could have some pictures to share with everyone. It takes true friends to get up at the crack of dawn for a 7 AM race start just to take pictures. Afterwards we took them out to breakfast at Cracker Barrel as a thank you.

Adrienne was 14th or 15th out of all the Women's Novice Division. It took her 1 hour and 34 seconds to swim 1/8 mile, bike 5 miles and run 1.6 miles.

I was in the Sprint Division and they broke it up by age groups. I took 8th in the 30-39 year old men and 30th overall for men. My total time was 1 hour 22 minutes and 46 seconds. The Sprint distances were 1/4 mile swim, 10 mile bike and 3.2 mile run.

Some Pictures from Lake Powell

Lake Powell/Adoption Approval

Sorry that we haven't been posting much the last week or two. We got back Tuesday from Lake Powell. It was such a fun trip and we love hanging out with our cousin's Eric and Machelle (and their kids Matt, Rae, and Sable). We only get to hang out once or twice a year with them and I can't believe how much they've grown. It was just Adrienne and I that went with their family. We parked the house boat in 3 different canyons. The second one (Reflection Canyon) had and amazing echo and beautiful scenery. The finished the trip up San Juan Canyon and our spot had a great view into one of the bays.

The weather was fantastic!!! It only rained one night the entire trip. Everyday we hiked, swam, rode the wave-runners, skied, wake boarded, and road the tube. We watched movies, played board games, and basically had a blast the whole trip. We even ate gourmet food most days. Grilled salmon, shrimp tacos, grilled pizza (trust me, it's awesome), and many more dishes kept us very satisfied the whole trip.

When we got back to civilization, Adrienne and I hurried back to work for a couple hours on Tuesday and even managed to get our materials turned in for approval at LDS Family Services. They had a meeting Wednesday and we are now officially approved for adoption!!! I can't believe we're finally to this stage. It's taken 6 months to get to this point and now, finally, prospective birth parents can view our profile and consider us for placement.

I have tons of pictures from the trip and will definitely add some in the near future.

Home Inspection/Yardwork

Our caseworker came by to inspect our house for the adoption approval. It was good to see her again and get some more ideas of what to do for our house. I get a kick out of learning about baby safety. It's a whole new world for us in some sense, but most of it is just common sense. We have the carbon monoxide detector to install, baby gate, outlet covers, door handle covers, fire extinguisher, and even some cabinet locks to install. We still need to get the window well covers, but we know where we'll buy them. It will just take about a month to save up.

Saturday we ended up working on the yard and other outside projects. I moved about 6 wheel barrow loads of dirt to different areas of the lawn and garden, sprayed some weeds, and even fixed the drain from our roof. Adrienne sprayed even more weeds and did a bunch of laundry. It's always fun to work outside, but it was sure a hot day. Oh, we also installed some brackets in the garage to hang our bikes on (it was like an oven in there).

I forgot to mention a fun night a couple weeks ago. We went with our friends Nate and Liz to "Steel Days" in American Fork. There was an outdoor concert that went on for 3-4 hours and finished with 45 minutes of fireworks. The concert was neat. We got there part way through and A Capella group. There were six guys and it was amazing the full sound that they created. It sounded like they had bass guitars and a drum set with them, but it was all done by voice. The last band was the best though. It was a Beatles tribute band called "The Return". Each member of the band sang EXACTLY like their Beatles counterpart. Paul sounded like Paul, John like John, etc. It sounded just like it was the Beatles 40 years ago. If anyone is interested, you can find them on YouTube. We couldn't stay for the whole fireworks because Nate and Liz had to pick up their kids...but it's probably the best show in the state. You are so close to the fireworks that they take up the whole sky. They've got great patriotic music in the background and the show seemingly goes on forever getting bigger and grander throughout.

Fun Times

Yesterday was a pretty good day. Right after work Adrienne and I both went running to train for the Triathlon. I'm glad we are starting with this shorter one to get into the whole swing of things. I was really excited because I was able to finish a 5K without walking or stopping for the first time...in fact it took less than 31 minutes.

After we ran it was time to go to my company's summer party. It's always fun to get together with everyone's families. We kicked around a soccer ball for a while and later played volleyball. Of course there was a potluck. The food was great.

Adrienne is coming to my office after lunch to start our picture collage. We have a bunch of photos picked out and one of the graphics designers at my office is going to help us put it together. Also, we get to do our home inspection with our Case Worker at 4:30 this afternoon. I'm excited to find out what we need to do to get our home ready. We've already bought door handle covers, outlet covers, a safety gate and a fire extinguisher.

Updates

We finally began our birth parent letter for the adoption papers. It's a strange thing to write a letter to tons of people you've never met before. We're about halfway through the first draft. Hopefully we can finish that draft tonight and get it emailed over to our case worker so she can give some insight on how to edit it further.

Tuesday night I went to the Orem Rec Center to start training for the Triathlon. My plan was to run at least a mile and swim some. I ended up doing the distances for all three stages of the triathlon in opposite order. It took 1 hour and 17 minutes total to do all three parts. That makes me excited for the actual race. I'll be going down to the Rec center again tonight to do some more...wish me luck.

Last night was Heidi's 21st birthday (Adrienne's youngest sister). We met for dinner at California Pizza Kitchen and had a great time catching up with Heidi and her boyfriend.

We are Iron People...

Or at least we will be. Adrienne and I have decided to compete in the Share a Smile triathlon on August 23rd. There are two adult divisions (Sprint and Novice). Neither of us has done anything like this before, but this particular Triathlon is supposed to be laid back. My work is sponsoring me in the race and Adrienne might have hers do the same. The goal is to complete the Iron Man and not die.

I bought new shoes for the race, and both of us need bike helmets. I am headed to the Orem Rec Center tonight to see how far I can run in one shot and get some swimming in.

We are having our home inspection as part of the adoption process in the next week or so. Just an opportunity for LDS Family Services to check out our home and give us ideas of how to make it safer for small children. We still need to buy the kiddie gate for our stairs and various other safety devices to make our home more secure.

Getting back in the Groove

Adrienne's family left on Sunday. It's fun while they're here, but sometimes after they go it almost feels like I need another vacation just to recover from their stay. Between the hikes, bike rides, special events and the 4th of July...it was quite the packed week. We're just getting back into the groove of normal life.

On the adoption front, we went back in last night and adjusted our preferences as the case worker suggested. We are going to set up our home inspection this week and after that we just need to be patient with my background check to come back.

The Broadbents are Coming!

Ok, so technically they are already here. They came up for their summer vacation and to bless Liberty (our new niece). We had quite the crowd in Midway for the blessing and potluck after. There were probably 50 people there for the potluck. The food was great and Liberty is absolutely adorable.

We had a piano delivered this last week, and surprised Adrienne's parents when they made it to our house since they didn't know it was here. It's beautiful both in sound and in looks. It was tough to keep it a secret from them since they were asking about it almost every single day. There's a picture of it in the slide show.

Sunday night, my father-in-law did a fireside on BYU campus for Heidi's ward. He's a triple major PhD Psychologist (crazy, right?). It was fascinating. He went over the normal fireside length, but no one complained. There was even a question/answer session at the end.

Well that's enough for now. I'll add that picture later and talk about more of the fun we're having this week.

Adoption Interviews

So Adrienne and I each had our individual interviews with our case worker this week. It was mostly along the lines of a "getting to know you" session. I am amazed at how long my background check is taking. Adrienne's came back in just 2-3 weeks, while mine has been out around 10 weeks with no response. I wonder what the hold up is.

At the end of my interview I asked about things that we can do to prepare ourselves for the home inspection. She mentioned things like outlet covers, carbon monoxide detectors, safety gates, cabinet latches, a fire extinguisher, etc. She asked if we had a fence around our yard and I was surprised how concerned she seemed when I said we didn't. I had never seen that as a problem since we wouldn't leave small children unattended. Eventually we will have a fence, but we are waiting for 2 of the neighboring houses to have owners so that we can all split the cost.

We're excited that Adrienne's family is coming to visit this next week. They are coming up Saturday and staying through the next weekend. While they are here we are going to our new niece's baby blessing and celebrating a couple of family birthdays. Should be great. I hope that my sister can come down from University of Utah and spend some time with us too. I haven't seen her in quite some time, but I know she's busy.

Father's Day

Adrienne was so great for Father's Day this year. She gave me some fantastic Milano cookies (mint and dark chocolate), a coupon for a free car detail, and permission to go on a full 18-hole round of golf whenever I want. Oh, and she cooked grilled-stuffed red peppers for dinner. Needless to say the car looks great and I'm definitely looking forward to the golf trip.

Stake Priest Activity

This last weekend we had a stake activity. Basically it was for young men 16-18 to come camping with their fathers. We had the most amazing food. The first night was dutch oven prime rib and potatoes...the best I've ever had. The second night was a cook-off. Everyone's food was so good that we didn't even bother with a judging process. We were too busy eating.

In between the two dinners we had a bunch of great activities. The most memorable was a climb to the top of Squaw Peak which overlooks Utah Valley directly behind the Provo Temple. It was quite the steep hike, but we all made it. Here is a great shot of me looking over the view from the top.

Adrienne's Birthday Weekend

Well, I've been meaning to start "blogging" and this weekend provided the perfect opportunity to share some experiences.
Adrienne had a birthday this last weekend and we headed down to St. George to celebrate. Thanks to some very good friends (Brent and Andrea) we were able to stay at a million dollar home right on a golf course for free. Friday, Adrienne headed to a spa for a facial, pedicure, and a wonderful massage. To keep myself from getting bored (wink wink) I utilized my friend's corporate golf membership over at the Ledges. After the fun (for me) and relaxation (for Adrienne) we went over to hang out at a pool.
That night the rest of the vacation crew made it down. Dan and Kim brought their kids down from Utah County and we showed them their rooms in the house. Saturday we headed up to Kanarraville and went on a hike up some slot canyons. We even climbed a waterfall and slid down a natural waterslide. The water was cold, but felt good on the hot day.
We came back down to St. George in the afternoon and swam for a while and had some great food at a local restaurant.