I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas...and other things

Ok folks, I am a slacker. Not a part time slacker, but at consistent slacker. I've come to this conclusion because of how little I have been putting on our blog. We have been so blessed over the last several months that I don't really know where to start. Adrienne is doing great with the pregnancy. She never had morning sickness and all our visits with her doctor show the baby developing perfectly. Ade is definitely more tired than normal, but I try to help out where I can.

Our good friend Henry gave us tickets to a BYU Football game back in November. The weather was great and we sat near the front at mid-field. I took a couple of pictures to commemorate the event. I think the final score was 55-7. It was tons of fun and we even got to bring along a couple of our friends, Jeff and Julie (who took the photo of us).

Both sets of parents were came out to Utah over Thanksgiving and I cooked up most of my usual fare. The turkey was yummy! So were the potatoes, stuffing, cornbread pudding, and everything else. It was really fun to get to see family over the holidays.

Henry has also sent us to a few basketball games. I went to one with my Dad around Thanksgiving and two with my wife...who has become a huge fan of BYU Basketball. The team is 10-1 and really plays well together. Great intensity on defense without fouling and nice offensive rhythm.

The third picture is from this morning. We got about 8 inches Sunday night...which I cleared. Then last night we got another foot or 18 inches. Anyways, this is a shot of our driveway with a friend and I clearing it. I'm sure the snow plow made my driveway impassable while I was at work and I'll have to clear it out again when I get home. TONS of snow...to say the least.

BYU Bowl Game

Well, this is a little late, but I wanted to make sure I did a post about the BYU bowl game this year against Oregon State. We came in as 3 point underdogs, but won 44 to 20. It was a crazy windy day and our team adjusted to the conditions much better than our opponents. Oh yeah, and it was FREEZING.

Here is a photo of the flag they used during the Star Spangled Banner. The band and cheer leaders had to come out and help the servicemen hold it down because the wind was blowing in gusts up to 50 miles per hour.

The second shot is just to prove I was there. You can see the far sideline is emptying out because the game had gotten out of hand by this point.

BYU Bet

I'd like to thank my Brother-In-Law, Austin, for sticking to the bet. BYU beat Utah in Football this year and he manned up to the consequences. Here he is...wearing his BYU tie proudly. My sister says there are some better photos available but hasn't sent them over yet.

Sunday Dinner

We just had some friends and family over for Sunday dinner. My sister and her husband came down with our friends Dane and Bailey from Salt Lake City. I can't believe it took us two and a half months to finally get Bailey down here. We promised to have her over when we were down in Lake Powell, but it's hard when she doesn't have her own car. The food was great and the company too.

I'll be headed up to Seattle for a business trip in less than two weeks. That will be my first time back up that way since my mission farewell. I can't believe it's been more than 13 years. I'll have to take some pictures while up up there.

BYU was thumped in football this week by TCU. There's no other way to put it. We were outplayed in every facet of the game. Oh well, there's always next week.

Helping out friends

We have some good friends that bought a house up the canyon from us. It's at a beautiful scenic spot, but they had to completely gut the house. Adrienne and I have been up there a couple of times to help tear things down and redo some of the wiring. Yesterday was particularly interesting because we found some dead animals under one of the floors that we tore out. It actually looked like a cat had killed a bird and then had died somehow while eating it.

BYU has kept up their winning ways in football. First we blew out UNLV, then we had a bit of a close game with San Diego State. They don't seem quite as consistent as I could wish, but hopefully they get it together for next week's game. We play TCU at home on Saturday night.

BYU wins again

Hi everyone! I need to get more consistent with my posts. Another busy week and another BYU football victory. It's a shame that the team didn't play well against FSU, but they seem to be coming together pretty well the last couple of weeks.

Ade and I bought our plane tickets for Australia. We'll be gone from November 19th through November 29th. It's partly for our 10 year wedding anniversary and partly so that we can go to a friends wedding. We can't wait to go.

Most of the weekend was spent watching General Conference for our church. It's always inspiring to listen to the words of our church leaders. My favorites were Elder Bednar on Saturday and Elder Holland on Sunday. Maybe I can put some links in from those talks later.

Keeping our word

So BYU lost that football game against FSU a week ago and Adrienne and I had to make good on our bets. As such, here is a photo of Adrienne wearing FSU gear to work and one of me wearing an FSU tie to church.

New Job and BYU Football

So I'm all set with the new job. We are so blessed in our lives. I can't believe how well this all worked out. I'll be a PR Specialist with this new company and work directly with our good friend Henry (who is the CEO). The benefits are great and this company really seems to care for the employees. I am grateful for the many good friends I have in my life that really try to look after my family.

Saturday, BYU was beaten rather badly by FSU in football. It's unfortunate for many reasons, but the one that comes to mind currently is the bet I made this summer. Now I am required (as a matter of personal integrity) to wear an FSU tie to church. I will even document the event with photographic evidence and post it on this blog. Everyone knows I am a big BYU fan so it will take some explaining for everyone to understand why I have traded colors for a day.

BYU vs Oklahoma

Labor day weekend we had an amazing opportunity. Through the generosity of dear friends we were able to go to the BYU vs. Oklahoma Football game at the new Dallas Cowboys stadium. It was 15,000 BYU fans vs. 60,000 Sooner faithful (it's only about a 3 hour drive from their campus). The odds in Vegas were that we would lose by 22 or more, but we pulled it out in the end. 14-13 winning on a 4th quarter touchdown drive. Probably the funnest football game Adrienne and I have ever been to.

This first picture is the outside of the stadium. It is unbelievably large. That said, 1/3 of it is below ground. You can't even see the field from the outside windows because it is so far below ground level.

There is a 60 yard wide HD monitor inside to watch game action and replays (actually there are two...one facing each sideline). This was a great shot of the BYU logo.

We flew out on Southwest Airlines. In a strange twist of chance, we were on the flight with the entire BYU cheer squad. They were practicing lifts during the layover in Albuquerque. They even sang the BYU fight song over the loudspeaker on the plane.

Here's a shot of most of those in our group right after the game ended. The Sooner fans took off immediately but most of the BYU fans stuck around to cheer the team and enjoy the moment. From left to right we have Diana, Trent, Dave, Carol, Adrienne and Jason (me).

On Labor Day itself, we played in a 2-2 volleyball tournament at UVU. I'll have to share a picture or two from that later. I took 2nd on the men's side and Adrienne took 3rd on the women's side. It was a lot of fun, but I was cramping up in my right calf the last 3 games of the tournament. I think Caleb and I would have had a good chance of winning it all if I had been in better condition (we lost by two in the championship).