Dirty Desert

Matt and I went hiking in celebration of the new year. We drove a long ways away from home and just picked a couple trails we thought would be fun to explore. I never thought I would see beauty in the desert, but I kinda have to admit, there was some pretty red colors out there that day.

We finished our expedition at the tail end of Lake Mead. It was fun to walk around the marina and eat lunch there. 

Christmas Eve 2011

Here we are hangin' with Matt's family on Christmas eve. It was a fun night.

Christmas, Violins, Snowshoes, and Hot Chocolate

I had the chance to go home for a short time. I love going home in the winter because you can always count on snow being there to greet you. I miss that stuff.  The only thing missing was Matt. He wasn't able to go home with me to visit the family because of work. It would have been a lot more fun if he had been there.

Above is a pic of Mom's back yard out in the "forrest" by the tree fort.

 

I was able to see my little brother perform in his Christmas Orchestra concert. The bow tie doesn't make his black eye look any better.

I embarrassed myself and walked right up to the stage to take this photo of my little brother. I don't think he liked that. I also know the parents of another student didn't like that I was standing right in front of them while I took this photo.

My sister was in town for a short time while I was home. It was fun to see her. She came with us to our little bro's concert.

Mom and Dad love picking out these little "Charlie Brown" trees every year. Sometimes they will even plant them after Christmas out in the back yard. This poor tree was weighed down with all kinds of stuff. Mom is really proud of it.

One of my favorite things to do is take our snowshoes and go on a trek out in the woods near my parent's home.

We stopped a few miles into our hike to eat lunch and Dad made some hot chocolate for everyone. My fa-vo-rite.

Little Bro's Last Football Game

We went to Matt's little brother's last football game yesterday. I snuck down to the field and took some pics of him. I'm pretty sure I embarrassed the poor guy but it was worth it.

Matt is a good brother and took the night off so we could make it to his last game. Here's a pic of the three brothers.

Grandmas and things

I have some things in my home that are from the homes of my two Grandmothers. They happen to be some of my favorite things. My piano was in my mom's home. She actually watched this piano being built in downtown Salt Lake. When I grew up and we drove down to Salt Lake to see Grandma Darlene, I always looked forward to playing her piano. Thanks to that piano, I have been playing for most of my life.
Mom and Dad surprised me one summer by shipping this down to our house from theirs. It was at least a thousand mile trip. We were out of town and when we got home, my piano was sitting in our living room! It had been a really hard summer and they knew this piano would bring me a lot of happiness. It has been a big blessing in my life.

 From my dad's mom, I inherited her dining room table. It's a table that was built and sold right in the town I grew up in. The furniture store is still there on 4th street. Even my dad's best friend of 50 years remembers sitting at that table and eating dinner with Grandma and Grandpa. Along with her table she gave me two little glass birds that she always had in her kitchen window.

Both of my Grandmothers are gone but I like to think about them often. I also think about my mom and Matt's mom as being Grandma's to our kids. They definitely look too young to fill the part of
'gramma' but they'll rock it well.

My Brother's Photo Experiment

My little brother came and visited us and took some pics while he was here. Here are some samples.

The one with the mattress makes me laugh. You'd be surprised at how many old dirty mattress' are out there in the middle of nowhere.

Baseball game in Arizona

Cousin Jill, her husband Jon, and Matt waiting for the game to start.

What an amazing stadium! Half way through the game, the lights and power went out. Pretty strange feeling in such a huge building.

Go Giants! Too bad you lost that night. Such a disappointment from last year's World Series victory.

I like the picture below...especially because the guy to the left of Matt's head is smiling in our picture. Thanks buddy!