Snowshoes and Santas

Our goal of late is to shove as many winter/Christmas activities in as possible to get in the spirit of Christmas.  We've been pretty successful.  The first weekend was Holidate (we forgot our camera).  The next weekend my Dad and Pam were in town and we went snowshoeing to Donut Falls. Later that night we went to a Christmas Carol at Hale Center Theater, which was amazing.  Then we talked in church about Christ on Sunday and had Melissa and Jace and Lindsey over for homemade chili and Santa cookie decorating. Last night we went to the Mormon Tabernacle Christmas Concert with David Archuleta. It was so good as always.  I think it was my second favorite one in the last 6 years that I've been. Sissel will always be my favorite.  Next Monday we plan to go to the Cathedral of the Madeline with Josh and Becca soon to be Clason, and then my family will be in town!  I love Christmas! I'll let pictures tell the rest of the story because I'm tired of blogging.  Hope you've enjoyed the updates!

 Don't I look classy. Pretty normal Sunday afternoon attire I would say.  A silk dress, a cardigan, an apron, basketball pants with tights underneath, a Mexican apple soda, an empty plate formally occupied by a quesadilla. And don't forget the hidden pearls.  When Melissa came to our door later that night I had exchanged  the dress for a sweatshirt and the first thing she said was, "Nice track suit and pearls." I can't think of  a better compliment.  It was kind of like the night I worked a night shift and forgot to take off my pearls after church until somebody asked why I was wearing pearls with scrubs.

And finally, after months of on and off work, we completed our table today by screwing the seats on the chairs.  That is really all we've had to do for about a month and a half now. It just took a while to get to it.  Doesn't it look great?  It was a combined effort, but Brent definitely did most of the work by far and he did a really good job.  Good job on your man project lover!

Catch Up - Boys and Girls Weekend

In mid November, I went on a little trip with Lindsey to San Diego.  She was going for a conference so I figured I might as well tag along and get free food and stay in the Marriott Resort on Coronado for free. It was as good as it sounds.  Luckily she barely had any meetings so mostly we walked along the waterfront, played tennis, and sat on the beach. While she was in her meetings I took a ferry over to San Diego and went on the USS Midway. It was pretty awesome seeing that I love history and had never been inside a navy ship before (unless you count what I've seen on Top Gun...great movie).  I think I shall tag along on another trip with her soon.

Yes, I did walk around the ship all day with these awesome headphones on reading every sign I passed by. Nerdy.

Meanwhile the boyz went to Moab.  They even went all out and got a hotel instead of sleeping in tent and got appetizers when they went out to dinner.  They were really living the high life.  After two day of riding and having a great time, this is the only photo they had to show for it.  They must have a good time though because they can't wait until Lindsey and I go on another trip so they can go to Moab again. 

Catch Up - Thanksgiving

 Whenever I would tell people that I was going to Pahrump, Nevada for Thanksgiving, they would ask, "Why are you going there?". I will tell you why.  Maybe it is in the middle of the desert, maybe there is no grass to be found, maybe the castle your 3 year old niece always wants to go play at is a brothel, and maybe you will get stuck in a snow storm that turns your 7.5 hour trip into a 10 hour trip.  However, maybe there are beautiful places to visit around Pahrump, maybe you can kiss under real mistletoe in a real desert oasis, maybe you have 2 really cute nieces there, and maybe they even have a really good sushi restaurant.  We had a pretty great time. Oh yes, you'll also noticed that I was very fashionable in my stripe sweatshirt and floral scarf.

As you can see we made it to the lowest place on the continent (yes, we are trying to act bad at Badwater Basin), taught our nieces the fun of jumping shots on the salt, tried to get them to lick the salt (not pictured), tried to help a guy get out of the outhouse bathroom with a jammed door (not pictured and unsuccessful), and had a great time all-around with the family.  The final shot shows how terribly insulated our home is.  We love it but it is so cold in the winter. The icicle was taller than me until I karate kicked it down with my skills.

More fun....more fall

 Ashley has apparently regained her confidence and is again contemplating the car jumps. 

 Sugar house park, you can not go wrong. 

 AWESOME

Ben regaining his confidence after falling off a thirty foot cliff mountain biking. No big deal right?

Narrated by Ben Pike

Love!

Fall / Winter Camping

You may ask why we decided to go camping during hunting weekend and the first weekend of our first true snow fall in Utah. First why not, second snow and rain who cares, third it is my birthday weekend, fourth it is not that far away, fifth we want to just sit around and play games, sixth we want to be around a fire without getting to hot, and seventh I have never been up the Mirror Lake Highway. 

We may have pulled a true Foster and found this canopy next to the trash. It only was missing one leg for support and the pole in the middle was not attached to the top of the canopy leaving a metal lightning rod sticking out from the top. We were able to fix both and weather the snow and rain storms with this free easy up gratis the Shady Sholl campground. Yes we took it home, or Jace and Lindsey did.  

Fall Fun!

Mid Mountain Trail Park City

This last week was my fall break. We decided to stay in SLC to enjoy the sun, fall weather, and some amazing local mountain bike trails. The more we explore the great Salt Lake area the more we fall in love with it and the more we see our selves staying here. We both never saw ourselves living here but it may just happen. 

We both don't let a little snow get us down...nor some good mud.

Big Water

On Monday, Ashley had her first good day mountain biking down the bobsled just above the capitol. By a good day, I mean that she finally felt comfortable and fast with all the turns, rocks, and jumps since the infamous day when her face met a tree. 

We also had another successful Thompson Family Home Evening up Millcreek that included great weather, good friends, lots of hot dogs, spliting brauts over the fire, wood chopping 101, and Buddy.

 On Thursday we went to the Mid Mountain Trail up at Park City. It took a while to find but it was so worth it. It is a smooth rolling trail that just makes you want to keep on going. The fall leaves were out in full color also which made the trail just that much better. We did our longest recorded bike ride at 18 miles and we didn't even complete the whole trail.   

I love this pic of Ash 

On Friday we did the Wasatch Crest Trail.

 The spine

Saturday we went up American Fork Canyon and it did not let us down. Jared joined us and helped me fix my bike. My freewheel suddenly stopped working half way through due to a piece of plastic which took all of our hands to fix. Yet we were victorious!

 All this mountain biking did not come without a cost. Yes I desperately need new tires and a good nap.