O' Christmas Tree

Last Saturday we stopped by Fred Meyer to get a few things. Since Austin started walking, he's been pretty cranky about riding in shopping carts, so it was this day that we discovered the RACE CAR shopping cart! The kid loved it! It has a steering wheel and he was occupied the entire time, didn't even want to get out when it was time to go. We totally laughed at ourselves pushing the huge thing, but it was worth it. I guess you get used to these things as a parent.

While we were there we browsed through the Christmas trees, but ran out of time to buy one. So, we bundled up and headed back out to Fred Meyer the next morning to find our perfect tree in 18 degree weather (a warm spell compared to today's -10 degrees).

Brett and I have a deal. We flip-flop Christmas every year, Idaho Falls one year, Boise the next. This is our Idaho Falls year. So, when we stay home for Christmas we buy a real tree! If we head to Boise, we throw up our fake one. Yuck! So, you can imagine how happy I was to go find our "real" tree this year!

Well, this is what I got the minute we put Austin in the regular shopping cart...

But alas, no fear...we found an empty RACE CAR shopping cart and the kid had visions of sugar plums!


So, here she is folks! Our short and sassy Douglas fir! She currently has ornaments on the top 1/3 of her branches. Austin quickly removed the others.

Oh, so happy I am!

A Thankful Thanksgiving

My brother Patrick's accident gave us more to be thankful for this year than in years past. His back surgery to repair his L1 went well and he's now home recovering. We're hopeful that he'll be able to move around more normally in about 6 weeks. He seems to be keeping his spirits up even though he's dealing with some really severe pain. He catches you off guard with a quick joke or some unexpected funny comment. That's really what I love about him...constant comedian!

We all visited him in the hospital on Thanksgiving day not expecting to do a big dinner. But when my parents got home they decided, "What the heck." Our turkey was still frozen so they headed over to Fred Meyer and picked up a fresh turkey, popped it in the oven and we we're feasting on it by 6:00pm, plus all the fixins'! It wasn't the same without Patrick but he was in our thoughts and our conversations. We were lucky to bring him home the following day.

I made him smile for this picture...told him he'd appreciate the pic someday!

This is Austin's 2nd Thanksgiving feast. A bit more choices this go around. He loves to put olives on his fingers like every kid I'm sure. Oh wait, the bro-in-law, Erik, hates olives so perhaps he bypassed this trick as a kid!

Jakob and Austin had fun on the kiddie couches after dinner. Wish I could have lounged around but dishes had to be done. I swear, that's the only bummer part of Thanksgiving.

This is Austin's version of a hug! He's loves babies, especially Aaron!

Bro

Yesterday my brother, Patrick, was involved in a terrible dirtbiking accident. He was riding in the foothills in Boise and collided in mid air with his buddy, Steve. They both flew about 30 feet and landed hard. Patrick initially lost feeling in his legs and couldn't walk and was rushed to the hospital. A CT revealed that he had a burst fracture in his L1 and a minor injury to his L5 but luckily all feeling was returning to his limbs. He underwent surgery this afternoon to repair his back and now has rods and screws holding him together. He's doing well but says he's never been in so much pain in his life. It's going to be a long road to recovery and possible lifetime repercussions of the accident but we are all thankful and humbled that he is alive and not paralyzed. We are counting our blessings and putting life's trivial moments in perspective. It's in times like this that you realize what's important in your life. I love my brother so much and probably have not told or shown him enough.

I love you bro, so very much. I'm praying for you, for your health and for a speedy recovery.

CANCUN 2009!

We arrived home from Cancun a week ago and reality quickly smacked us in the face. All three of us have been battling some kind of sickness. It's miserable. Can I please go back to paradise...even if it's raining??!!

Our trip was wonderful, definitely something we need to spoil ourselves with more often. Being on vacation in a gorgeous place, without the normal hustle and bustle, really gave me a chance to collect my thoughts, put some perspective on my life and focus on the importance of my marriage. Here's a big shout out to the necessity of vacation!

My goal of the trip was to RELAX and not much else. So, in the spirit of relaxing we didn't pick up the camera much, but nonetheless got a few pictures to share. Among all the relaxing, we did go on a zip line tour and zipped over water and land from 12 different zip line posts (no pictures), visited the Mexican flea market to hear "same crap better price" over and over again from the local sellers (no pictures), and ate like pigs (no pictures). Oh, and no pictures of our ultimate day of relaxation when we visited the Sun Palace Day Spa and enjoyed the hydrotherapy circuit and one hour massages!

So, here we go...

Our first morning in Mexico, the perfect view from my beach chair. Sunshine, heat, white sand and pure bliss.

Our hotel, the Sun Palace. Go today, right this minute, you won't regret it. It's a couples only all-inclusive resort with one of the best beaches in Cancun's hotel zone.

My red head, under the umbrella...with a hat...and sunglasses...and a t-shirt. Let's just say he wasn't complaining when the clouds started rolling in (more on that later).

He was fascinated with the local wildlife and snapped this shot. Might have been the only time he picked up the camera!

Us, snuggling in our white hotel robes on our private balcony.

Views from our balcony...not too shabby if I do say so myself.

All dressed up for a fantastic italian dinner at our hotel. Brett had the best filet mignon of his life, so he says. So, we went back our last night there. Don't pay too close attention to Brett's pair of adidas...we packed light and his dress shoes didn't make the cut! :)

On our third day the clouds started rolling in but we still decided to go on a boat tour of Isla Mujeras (Island of Women). It's surrounded by some of the most gorgeous water in the western Caribbean.

A view of the island from our tour boat. The cloud cover hide the gorgeous color of the water. I bet it's stunning on a bright, sunny day.

This is North Beach. It's where all those Corona commercials are filmed, you know the one's where the couple is sitting on their beach chairs staring at the absolutely perfect aqua blue water and white sand (sipping Corona's of course). Again, cloudy so not a good pic.

Here's my honey partaking in the water from the back of our boat. I'll admit I was a party pooper at this point and didn't get in...thought I'd freeze my butt off but Brett said the water was perfect.

Can't visit Mexico without a little tequila, right? Our boat tour turned into a booze cruise of sorts and everyone took their turn pulling off a bottle of a Mexican specialty...lots of tequila with a splash of some red stuff! Our boat guides were hilarious too, doing parodies of the Titanic and blasting American beach music for all the tourists.

Day 4, the rains came and never left. Tropical storm Ida (soon to be Hurricane Ida) was building up strength and dumping buckets on Cancun. Cancun received 6.5 inches of rain in one day. But we were in paradise and made the most of it.

The rain on our balcony.

They even closed the beach because of rough waters.

Our trip was already awesome and a few special surprises during our stay made it even better...Coca Cola "light"

...A rose given to me at breakfast made by one of the wonderful resort employees (watermelon and radishes I think)

...a "Happy 6th Anniversary" chocolate cake with a bottle of white wine waiting in our room for us on our last night there

...and two swans gracing our bed.

The end...we'll maybe not. We're going back...SOON! Oh, and a big THANK YOU to Grandma Nagel and Rich for taking great care of Austin while we were gone. Love you guys and appreciate all you do for us!

Our Little Dragon

So, these pictures are a bit overdue. We headed to Cancun the day after Halloween and I was too busy packing till midnight to get them posted.

We headed over to a community wide Trick-or-Treat event where Austin scored lots of candy from local businesses. He practiced his dragon ROAR before we even left the house! He totally won over the witches with his cuteness.

After trick-or-treating we headed over to "Boo at the Zoo" where Austin got a close up view of the animals. Needless to say he was right at home in his dragon costume. Oh, and we...I mean he...scored some more candy!

And a big thanks to Grandma Bulson for providing the perfect jammies to wear on Halloween!

Pumpkin Patch

It's pumpkin season and I need to get my carvin' on so we headed over to the place with more than enough pumpkins to choose from...U-Pick Red Barn! Grandpa and Grandma drove over from Boise for the weekend so they joined us on our hunt. The Red Barn was so festive inside so we snapped a quick photo before we headed out the the pumpkin patch.

So, we initially thought this was our perfect pumpkin...

But quickly realized that this guy needed a home as well...

And Grandpa and Grandma couldn't let Austin leave empty handed...

And I couldn't leave without snapping a quick picture of our little fam as well!

Now, you'll just have to wait to see the transformation of our pumpkins...I know the suspense is killing you.

St@te F@ir

Summer wouldn't be complete without a trip to the State Fair! For some weird reason I just love it, always have. We ventured over on the last day (along with everyone else living in eastern Idaho!) and got ourselves some pronto pups, gyros, corn on the cob, tiger ears... Oh, and we visited the animals. A must see....along with the people. The fair is an excellent place to people watch. Each time I go I always think, where do these people come from? People from all walks of life, that's for sure. Keeps me entertained for hours. Add our family to the crazy mix I guess :). We're not big carney ride lovers, so here's our pics of our trip through the barns.

Here's Austin's first glimpse of a goat...as you can see he loved it just a bit!

Mooooooooooo!

This was one freakin HUGE horse. I should have had Brett crawl into its pen to get closer so you could really see how big he was...for some reason I don't think he would have done it.

Austin couldn't take his eye off ol' Bessy...not even for a quick pic.

Top it all off with some buttery sweet corn, yum! This kid loves corn and probably would have ate the whole thing himself I let him.

Ross Park!

Over the long weekend my sister and her family came to visit and we decided to head to Ross Park Aquatic Center in Pocatello. We'd never been there but heard it was great for kids so even though the weather wasn't optimal we decided to go anyway...and we're glad we did! The kids (big and small) had a blast! Our good friend Sadie (from college) and my good friend Jona (from IF) also joined us with their little ones.

The gals and their little ones...the husbands came too but we look much better in pictures! ;0) Sadie's little Lily is totally outnumbered by all the boys!

Here's Austin and I enjoying the sun...for the few minutes that it came out from behind the clouds.


It was all about Dad and Austin most of the time...my heart was bursting for them both! Ah, I can still hear the giggles and screams!