The last 6 months-Christmas

The last 6 months have not been that that busy, I don't know what my excuse is for not keeping this up but I will try to do better because I know how much I enjoy hearing about everybody else's lives!

I will catch up slowly... This is my belated 2010 Christmas post. So much has changed since then but it's fun to look back:)

Christmas at the Cook's

Christmas at the Murray's

Weston is one tough pup...

This one is Alli's baby shower while we where in Utah for Christmas (these pics are out of order)

Steve was our Christmas elf. He makes a pretty cute elf I think.

I got to hold baby Lincoln and I loved every minute of it!! ( He has probably grown so much since this pic).

Weston sniffing up Lincoln... Weston loves babies. Whenever I babysit my friends kids he is always trying to be as close as possible to them.

Weston and Rona found a friend in each other. They where great playmates! I loved watching them wrestle together.

We had an amazing Christmas (again), and always love spending time with family. Now hopefully I can force myself to do another post soon but first I have to go to work:(

Word jumbalaya (lots of info put together that normally wouldn't go together but does in this one case but could still possibly not unless it does)

I will update this blog someday I keep thinking... It seems like time is getting away from me! I can't believe the last time I updated this was almost 6 months ago. I owe you all (meaning the 1 person that reads this) lots of updating. Not that so much has happened in the last 6 months, just work, Christmas, baby's being born, vacations, an ulcer scare, a funeral, more house remodeling, people visiting us, us visiting people, church callings, yard work, hanging out with friends here in Mesa land and reading books. Lots of reading. Okay, maybe we have been busy but thats NO excuse. We have a fan to please! (Ps. I don't recommend reading Water for Elephants, It's kind of like an "R" rated book and it was recommended to me by a lady in my ward)... What?!? Not even that great of a story. I will, however, recommend The Hunger Games series. Steve and I both finished those 3 books in record time. I really liked them but this is probably old news to most people. They have been out for a while and recommended to me about 10 times before I actually picked them up to start reading them. Maybe even by you...

I just ordered 5 more books from Amazon and i'm waiting patiently for them to arrive. I'm excited and always looking for more book suggestions so if you have any please, please, pretty please tell me! Whisper it in my comments section. Maybe we could even start a VBBC (virtual blogger book club)... Any interest?

Back to the point of this post... I hope that everyone knows we are doing great, and miss all of you that don't live in Arizona and hope that you are doing great too. (I kind of already know that you are since most of you update your blogs on a regular basis). More posts to come soon once I can decide what to post about first... Here is a belated Christmas picture to leave you with.

Merry Christmapril from Weston!

Jenna's Birthday!

My birthday post will be short and sweet. I turned 26 on November 9th and I had a wonderful birthday thanks to Steve. It was just what I wanted, dinner and a movie! He brought me those wonderful flowers below to my work (makes me feel special)! And for my birthday present he got me 2 tickets to see Dr. Seuss's "The Grinch that stole Christmas" the musical tickets! We went last night and it was amazing! We had great seats right in the middle and I loved the show. It was cute and funny and highly entertaining. I totally recommend it when it gets to you wherever you are! All in all I had a great birthday! Thanks babe!

Steve's day of birth, Zions and the Grand Canyon! (Long post)

Steven Michael Murray is 31!

So much to tell about in so little time... Stevens birthday week was CRAZY! We had a lot going on but it was a lot of fun too so we definitely can't complain. It started off on Tuesday October 26th when I planned a surprise dinner party for him that night. It was so much fun! We had a total of 12 people that came which was plenty (I had to make dinner for all of them!!!) It was a huge challenge but totally worth it in the end! Steve and our friends had a great time which is all that matters to me.

For part of Steve's birthday present I got him a few new games to play and after dinner we played one of them. It was a fun game (Liars dice if you have ever heard of it)? It is an easy game to play with a big group of people and super fun! Below are some pictures of the day.

This was Steve's birthday cake that I put together in a hurry. I think it turned out perfect though! Steve loved the mountain bike theme (of course)!

We ate at the ping pong table (Steve's idea) because it was the only thing that would fit all of us!

The birthday boy!

We sang happy birthday to Steve and he blew out his candles, but as soon as they were out they lit themselves back up again! I did't realize it before, but I had bought the trick candles instead of the normal ones and trust me... I did NOT do it on purpose. I was worrying

about the fake little wood trees catching on fire! Luckily they did not.

For another one of Steve's birthday presents I got this picture framed for him. It was a painting he had purchased from the artist directly a few years back that he really liked but had not ever gotten around to getting it framed. It's really neat in real life because you can really see the texture. It's very bumpy and rough.

ZIONS NATIONAL PARK CABIN TRIP!

These are always so much fun and this time it was really special because we got to celebrate Steve's birthday again with his family. The picture below is his birthday cake there that I made. Steve's mom had told me before hand that this was Steve's favorite birthday cake as a kid because the eyes of the ghost were on fire and he thought it was so cool! I tried to re-create it, I'm sure the original was much cooler!

(Boy and girl ghost per Taylyn's request)!

During this trip we played a lot of board games as usual. It was so much fun to just be able to relax after a crazy week and have fun. The board game that we played most this trip was killer bunnies, and boy did we have fun killing some bunnies!

The costume Halloween party at the barn was fun too! We had a great time dancing and playing. (I especially enjoyed the dancing)! I love to dance and I don't get the opportunity to do it very often.

Don't worry, Steve lost! But he sure did put up a good fight, it was a close game!

The Grand Canyon

On the drive home from Zions, Steve and I randomly decided that we wanted to go to the Grand Canyon. It would add about 3 extra hours to our drive home but we decided it was worth it!

I am so glad that we went there. It was so beautiful and such nice weather. We went on a little hike and took a bunch of pictures. I loved breathing in the fresh air and I can't believe how big the grand canyon really was! It was 11 miles across rim to rim. No wonder they can't build a bridge over it! (But it sure would cut our drive time down when we go back and forth to Utah if they could)!

The end!

Circle K moment again

I guess I have only posted 1 of these so far... I suppose I'll let you have another. Don't get too excited nothing beats watching a beer robbery in action and then riding of into the sunset straddling handlebars on a bike. I have already told you I work in the ghetto. A few weeks ago I was walking over to circle K to get yet another Dr. Pepper and noticed there was about 4 cop cars in the parking lot. I looked around naturally curious what the heck was going on and I noticed a man sitting on the curb being questioned by the police. The man was very sweaty and dirty and as I walked past them into the gas station I realized I had seen him before. One day earlier this same man had come into the office where I worked and asked for a glass of water and an air conditioned room to sit in for a while. I'm pretty sure he was homeless. We felt bad for him so we did what he asked and he stayed sitting in the lobby for almost an hour after that. I have no idea what he did to get the cops called on him but the store clerk that day told me they had found him sleeping behind the dumpster there at Circle K a couple of times before.

That same visit as I was waiting to check out in line the guy in front of me was with his son that looked to be about 11 years old. When it was their turn to pay for the items the father asked the son if he could borrow some money to pay for his cigarettes that he couldn't afford apparently. The little boy took out some cash and sadly handed it to his dad. Then the boy paid for his own candy and they left. I can't help but feel incredibly bad for all of these people who are struggling right now. My heart goes out to the homeless man, I have no idea how he came to be without a home and most likely family as well. I have no idea why the cops were questioning him or what he did. I feel so bad for that boy with that kind of a father as an example to him and can't help but feel incredibly grateful for my loving supportive husband and family. I am so lucky to be at the place I am at now, I think I am too happy. Something is going to go wrong just because nobody can be this happy!

So that was my somewhat depressing circle K moment for today. Just so I don't leave you on such a negative note let me quickly tell you about a crazy pill popping patient that has been scamming doctors, pharmacies and her insurance company lately including the doctors I work for! The funny part isn't that she is crazy, or a compulsive liar or even addicted to pain killers. It's the lie she told us the other day that had me laughing. She told us first that her husband flushed her pills down the toilet so she needed to fill them early. Then when we where not giving in and filling her prescription she told us that she had "just forgotten" but she is actually leaving town tonight at 5:30 to go to a wedding in Utah! (how do you forget something like that)? She told us she is going be out of town for a few weeks and they do NOT have pharmacies in Utah so she can't fill her prescription there. "In order to find a pharmacy in Utah" she said "you have to drive more than and hour and a half." I laughed since I know Utah very well and asked her what city she was going to. She said Ogden. Has anyone ever been to Ogden? It's like the 2nd or 3rd largest city in Utah. That made me laugh. Sorry Ogdeners, no prescriptions for you I guess?!?!

My sissy's having a girl!!!

My sister is having a baby girl and I am so flippin excited!!! This will be the first grand child for the Cook family and I can hardly contain the amount of happiness that it brings me every time I remember Alli is pregnant! I can't wait for this mini Alstin (Alli-Justin) to be born. She is going to be beautiful and if Justin has anything to say about it her favorite store to shop at as she grows older will be Deseret Industries! It will be phenomenal! Epic!

I CAN'T WAIT!

Black Bear 2010

Last weekend was our 2nd annual Black Bear cabin trip in Valecito Lakes, Colorado (close to Durango). This trip was such a blast. It's sad to think that it's already over, we had such an amazing time but it was such a different cabin experience from last year. Last year was all about fly fishing and four wheeling. This year was all about mountain biking and zip lining! We went with a bunch of our friends, total there was about 12 people at the cabin with still plenty of space! I just love all of the people that came with us, they were a blast to hang out with all weekend!

This is the cabin from the front with the wooden carved Black Bear to let you know you have arrived!

This was our group that came this year to the cabin!

Steve posing with his amazing new mountain bike.

These guys were crazy! They went on a 21 mile bike ride through some of the back country of Durango. As you can see here they were pretty wiped out by the end of it!

Steve Humble, Steve Murray and John Heiner during the 21 mile ride.

Husband posing by the bear skull.

Beginning of the trail.

The zip lining was so much fun this year! We had 2 engineers on this trip with us and Steve Humble brought all of the stuff needed to make a zip line. It was so much fun I can't believe it actually worked! As the days went on and people got more and more comfortable with the zip line they got closer and closer to the pond that you were supposed to go over. A few people got wet and if you see pictures of the pond below you can tell it looks super gross and why anybody would want to get wet in it is beyond me. But they did, and they loved it!

Ben was the first to try out the zip line.

View of the back of the cabin and pond scum lake!

Steve and I as we watch them set up the zip line.

Steve chopping down that pesky tree that was in the way of the zip line wire.

John hacking off the branches of the tree to set up the wire.

Husband getting off the zip line, It was pretty high off the ground!

Me zipping over pond scum lake.

Probably the coolest shot of the trip. Dave looks awesome here!

So this was our trip! It was amazing and beautiful and I would love it if we could continue this fun vacation tradition every Labor day weekend to come!