Our New Car

Just before I went to Vegas, Jon and I went and test drove a few vehicles. We've been eyeing the Nissan Murano and Rogue for quite some time. We made the mistake of test driving the Murano first, which is the larger of the two, so when we got inside the Rogue, it just felt too small. We fell in love with the Murano as soon as we got inside. I went to Vegas and while I was gone, Jon did some checking with our insurance company and our credit union to figure out numbers. He also went back and took it for a longer test drive and then brought it home for two nights, so it was in our garage when I got home from Vegas. I test drove it a bit and also fell in love. When we went back to return the car, we filled out paperwork and bought it. It is so nice to have a bigger vehicle. We love driving it and can't wait to take it to Utah. The 18 hour drive will be so much nicer!

Las Vegas Trip

My cousin Camille lives in Las Vegas and I've wanted to visit her for some time. Last year, I really struggled through the winter, so I decided that I'd visit her this year, to get away from the Minnesota winter. Our winter wasn't too bad, but I still wanted to visit Camille, so I went two weeks ago. My parents flew down too, so they could spend some time with me as well as with Camille and her girls. I had the most wonderful time!

The girls just love Dad, they played Sleeping Queens (a card game) with him, they played school, and he read books to them. The first night, Macy (the oldest) had Bingo night at her school and her younger sister, Kate, got Bingo and won a bunch of books. When they got home they were barely in the door when they asked Dad if he'd read the books to them. I could tell he was in heaven. He really needs to be grandpa. I think he felt like one, especially when Kate called him grandpa a couple of times.

Dad with Thomas, my cousin Bryant's youngest. They also live in Vegas, and they came over Sunday afternoon for a BBQ. It was good to see them.

A crazy building we passed on the way to the outlets.

Saturday Jason and Camille took us to Red Rock Park. We did some "hiking" it was mostly walking, but the girls had fun hiking, especially Macy. She has no fear of heights, unlike her father.

Macy and Kate found the perfect "house" or hiding place.

The whole family: Jason, Camille, Macy and Kate

Me with my sweet parents

We spent a lot of time in the backyard, and I loved their backyard, so I had to take some pictures. Don't you wish you lived there too? We ate lunch, dinner, played games and read under the covered porch. The weather was perfect with a slight cool breeze every day, so it was wonderful. I loved being outside.

I had such a great time. We did a little shopping, Mom and Dad and I went out to dinner one night, and then we went to Red Rock, but other than that we mostly stayed around the house and relaxed. It was just what I needed. It was the perfect break/vacation. I think I need to do it at least once a year. Next time I want to take Jon, and I think it would be fun to see a show and see the strip. My parents and I were going to go on the strip, but we decided to stay home and relax instead. Thanks for such a great time Cam!

Happy Birthday Tanner!

My favorite Minnesota guys!

My little buddy!

Proud birthday boy.

Carrie invited us over for cake and ice cream. I couldn't resist buying him a gift too. He loves puzzles so we got him a train puzzle that makes a train horn sound when you finish the puzzle. I think it was his favorite gift. After each present he'd open, he'd ask where his puzzle was, so we finally hid it until he finished opening all of his gifts. I'm glad he liked it so much.

I just love this face. He's just so happy and proud. Why wouldn't he be, he got three cupcakes. Who wouldn't be happy?

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Today just feels like such a wonderful day. Not because it's St. Patty's, but because it finally feels like spring. The past week and a half it has been rainy and cloudy. The good thing about that, is the rain has melted most of the snow. I can't believe how quickly all of our snow has melted. Within two weeks 90% of the snow is gone, which does give some concern for flooding, but we haven't been affected. Last week was Spring Break for Jon and unfortunately it was crummy weather. Today is wonderful, I went for a walk with my friend Rita. It felt so good to be out in the sun. I haven't been feeling well the last couple of days and I am feeling much better today, so it was very healing to be outside. It is amazing what a little sun can do. I am so excited for spring! I am hoping that spring will definitely come early or at least on time this year. Hope all of you are enjoying spring weather too.

Happy Valentine's Day

We have had a good week. Jon and I celebrated Valentine's Day a little early. He surprised me Tuesday with a new purple ipod nano. I knew he had been thinking about buying one for me, but I wasn't sure if I would get it for Valentine's Day. He gave it to me a little early, because he thought it would be fun to have when I went to the YMCA to work out during the week. I am so excited to use it!


I wasn't quite sure what to get Jon, since he spent so much on my Valentine's present, so he got to order himself a bunch of new games. The games arrived the same day he gave me my ipod. He is very excited to play all of his new games. I am too, to be honest, he ordered some fun games. He got Pandemic, Ingenious, Cartagena 2, Witch's Brew and some expansions for other games.



Friday evening, we went to dinner with the Stewart's and the Anderson's at Pho Saigon. We had planned to go to the stake Valentine's dance with the Anderson's, but by the time we finished dinner none of us felt like going to the dance. It was really foggy besides, and it's an hour and a half drive to the stake center. We wouldn't have arrived until almost 9:00 and then we could have stayed until 10:30 just to drive another hour and a half back home. Instead we went and got ice cream at Dairy Queen and then came back to our house and watched Transformers 2. Rita fell asleep, so she didn't see most of the movie. The Stewart's ended up going to see Avatar in 3D. Jon and the Anderson's had already seen the movie, or we would have gone with them. I have to wait and watch it when it comes out on DVD or BluRay.



Saturday was another fun filled day. I had a baby shower that morning. When I got home, Jon and I went to see the movie about Queen Victoria, but the company forgot to send the theatre the movie, so we went and saw Percy Jackson for free. I haven't read any of the books, but I thought the movie was really good. Jon said that it was different from the book, but most movies are. That evening we had the best Mexican we've ever had in Mankato, and it wasn't even at a restaurant. Our friend Courtney Stewart made some amazing pork and we made our own Cafe Rio burritos. They were so yummy! We spent the evening eating and playing games. What more is there to life? The Judson's were with us too, but Kurt had to leave early to go to work.



Sunday we ended up spending the evening with the Anderson's. I wanted to take a nice long nap, but I got maybe 40 minutes. It wasn't quite long enough, but what do you do when you have to fix dinner. Rita always makes dinner for us, so we decided that we'd make dinner for them. We had marinated pork loin, papa a la huancayina, and asparagus. It was very good, thanks to Jon's help. I couldn't have done it without him. Rita and Adam fixed crepes for dessert and they were very good too. We had a wonderful Valentine's week and weekend. We hope you had a wonderful day celebrating the love of your life.

Jack Frost

The first few mornings this week, we have woken up to everything being covered in frost. The frost is so thick, that it looks like fresh snow on the trees.

Monday morning, we drove down to Mapleton for breakfast at Tony's restaurant. I was completely mesmerized by the beauty of all the trees, but I was so bummed because I didn't have my camera with me. By the time we got home it had warmed up enough that the frost had melted off most of the trees.

Lucky for me, the trees were all frosted again the next morning, so I bundled up and went out to take some pictures. Jon told me that he never could understand why people would want to have their Christmas tree flocked, but after seeing the trees naturally flocked with frost, he's decided it's quite beautiful. I don't think we'll ever have a flocked Christmas tree, but it is beautiful.

All of these pictures were taken outside our house. What a beautiful view, don't you think? I thought I would post some of the pictures, so you could enjoy them too. Just a few more shots of our Winter Wonderland. I apologize that the pictures are so gray, but it was a little foggy when I took the pictures.

Winter Wonderland

The view out our back door
Notice the red dot to the right of the mail box, that's the fire hydrant.

The view out the front door.

Our huge snow pile from the snow plow.

It's almost as tall as Jon.

As many of you may have noticed from the previous posts, I have been a littl homesick since coming back from being in Utah for Christmas. The day we got back, it was snowing and it ended up snowing all night and all the next day. There was a wind chill advisory for the following day of -35. The weather didn't help lift my spirits much that first day back. We couldn't go anywhere or do anything, because of the weather, so I thought I'd take a few pictures to show you how much snow we have. This is the most snow we've had since we've lived here. The first three pictures were taken Thursday, the day after we got back and the bottom pictures were taken on Saturday when the sun decided to shine. Thank goodness for the sun, and for warmer weather. We have been in the 20's and today we are supposed to get to 30 degrees. Isn't it crazy when below freezing feels warm, because it's above zero. Anyway, as I was thinking about this post, I realized that not all of the Christmas songs we hear are about Christmas. Some of them are about the "frightful" weather, Let it Snow, Baby it's Cold Outside, Walking in a Winter Wonderland, etc. I don't know about where you live, but our frigthful weather doesn't go away just because Christmas is over. Anyway, we are definitely living in a "winter wonderland" right now, and as long as the temps stay up, I can handle all the snow. Wishing you a warm and cozy winter!