Merry Christmas!

Although it's late, I'd like to still take a moment to say that I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas. It took until the second week of December but I finally found the Christmas decorations (buried under the moving boxes) so we could decorate the tree.

We stayed at my parents' house on Christmas Eve. Grammie had a fun time opening Paisley's Christmas presents!

We spent Christmas afternoon with the Johnson's.


Cory cooked up some crab for a fabulous Christmas dinner.

We arrived back in Salt Lake on Sunday afternoon and the first thing Cory did was break out his Cabela's hunting game that Jaron and Karen gave him for Christmas. I must confess to being completely mystified by how guys seem to intuitively know how to work every video game without reading the instructions. They know what each button is for and how to navigate through the game. I had to ask Cory for help on how to use the Zumba "game" that I got for Christmas. And I'm still not sure that I've got it completely figured out.
We also invested in our first MAC computer. Both of our PC's were dying so we decided to bite the bullet. I've been extremely frustrated with the effort of learning a new operating system. I had to Google instructions for how to eject a CD from the CD-rom drive. Sheesh! Good thing I'm signed up to go to an "introduction to your MAC" class next week. I can also go in for any other classes they offer during the course of the next year. I have a feeling the folks at the Apple store are going to be seeing a lot of me...

I would also like to take a moment to express my gratitude for all that Cory and I have been blessed with. 2010 definitely ranks as one of the worst years ever but it certainly ended on a positive note for us. And I know there are so many out there who have challenges that I cannot even dream of. It makes me feel like a spoiled child to whine about my problems. 2011 has to be better, right?? I wish you all a very happy, blessed and prosperous New Year!

Seattle

I went to Seattle for a conference and Cory came with me so we could celebrate our two-year anniversary together. I have been to Washington before but never to Seattle. It is absolutely beautiful! The Puget Sound is amazing!
I'm told it's pretty rare to be able to see Mt. Rainier (because it's always rainy and cloudy in Seattle). But we lucked out and had a beautiful day for sightseeing.

We ventured to the top of the Space Needle and took in the sights.

We visited the Pike Place fish market and had some amazing sushi for dinner.

We attended a dinner one night that was hosted by one of the suppliers at the conference. They had invited Jason and Molly from "The Bachelor". You can see Jason here and Molly is directly behind him. I have never watched "The Bachelor" but some of the women at the dinner were faithful followers of the show and were clearly awestruck! :-)

We Are Moving!

Well folks, after three years (since Cory and I started dating), we are finally down to one house payment. We are moving back to Utah! The renters moved out of our house just in time for Cory to get a new job. He started work yesterday and seems to really like it.

Oh, and lest you think that life can go too smoothly for us, I'd like to squash that thought by reporting that Cory was driving my mom back to Preston on Sunday (after Paisley's baby blessing in Afton, WY) and hit a deer. They were in my mom's car - poor Cory felt awful. And that brings our grand total up to four car accidents this year...

Boston!

As usual, I'm about a month behind. In September, I went on a business trip to Providence, RI. It's easier to fly in and out of Boston and then drive to RI. My colleagues and I had some free time for a team-building activity. My boss is from Boston so we asked him to give us a tour of his town. I have always wanted to go to Boston (in fact, Cory and I almost booked a trip there last year), and I was pretty excited to see all of the historical sites. We stopped in Concord first. We had the opportunity to see Ralph Waldo Emerson's house (this is the boat house), which was later lived in by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
And of course, you can't stop in Concord and not visit the site where "the shot heard round the world" is located. The writing underneath this farmer says, "By the rude bridge that arched the flood, their flag to April's breeze unfurled, here once the embattled farmers stood, and fired the shot heard round the world." How amazing that a bunch of farmers stood up to the mighty British army (and won!). What great sacrifices our forefathers made for us. Where is that same patriotism now when we need it most??

In order to maximize our time and see as many historical sites as possible, we took a duck tour. Our "duck" was Fenway Fanny. And our driver was a hoot!

Here we are cruising at a whopping five knots. The captain had her at full throttle! :)

We zoomed past Cheers. Which was okay by me - I've heard that going inside is highly overrated.

Al (my boss) knew about a great seafood place to have dinner. I had the best clam chowder ever! Here are my colleagues: Al, Donna (with her superstar glasses on at night), Carole and Joyce. I can't wait to go back someday and spend some more time exploring this wonderful city.

I'm An Aunt!

We had a baby shower for Karen on September 11th. A big thanks for all who came and to Ashlee and Emilee for giving me so many good ideas! Here is the diaper cake.
And the cupcake rattles.

And more yummy treats!

I love my cute family!! We've got Courtney, Bracken (who is expecting a baby in January and looks fabulous!), Landon, Tracie, Afton and Brett.

The cast of characters continues. Here is Great-Grammie, Dorothy, Britney, some of Karen's friends (???) and Aunt Lee in the middle! :-)

The guest of honor. I should mention that less than 24 hours after the baby shower, Karen went into labor. But she said she felt good here!

The Grammie-To-Be and their cute neighbor, Erica.

Whitney and Maylin came all the way from Provo. Thanks guys!!

And here is the new arrival. Paisley Lila Hollingsworth was born on September 13th! She has tons and tons of hair, which works out great for her beautician mother who can't wait to start styling! Congrats Karen and Jaron!!

Teton National Park With The Johnson's

Agh! I'm so far behind!! We went to Teton National Park with the Johnson family back in August. We had yummy food, nice visits around the campfire, fun hiking around Jenny Lake (pictured below) and lots of good laughs.

And don't mind this picture. It's out of order and I couldn't figure out how to move it. But I had to leave it in here - I just love Gracie's face. She had a blast on the slide! The girl has no fear!

We spent a day in Jackson Hole and, of course, had to have our picture taken under the antler arch.

We also had fun riding the Alpine Slide. I'm happy to report that no one flew off the track. Go, go speed racer!!

Recent Happenings

Believe it or not, we have been doing other things besides wrecking cars. Here are a few of the highlights.

I had my 15 year class reunion in July. Wow - can't believe it's already been 15 years! We had a really great turn-out. Here is a shot of a few of those who came. This has been my favorite class reunion thus far. It seemed like people were less concerned with getting somewhere in life and more concerned with sitting down and having a good visit. I must confess that I went with the intention to only stay for an hour or so and I ended up staying for three. So great to see everyone!
I also attended That Famous Preston Night Rodeo. Translation: I ate a rodeo hamburger, a caramel apple and a churro in one night. That's what it's all about, baby!

While I was at my class reunion and the rodeo, Cory was busy hiking for 30 miles in the Frank Church Wilderness. He is still serving as the senior scout advisor for our church and he planned a great adventure for the boys this year. He said it was probably the toughest thing he has ever done in his life. And I believe it. I can still see the scars on his feet (they were rubbed raw even though his hiking boots were well broken-in).

I went on a business trip to New York / Connecticut, which in and of itself wouldn't normally be blog worthy. But...I got to hang out in Times Square and go see "The Lion King" on Broadway. Amazing! I love NYC!!

And most recently, we spent a weekend with my parents at Bear Lake. I had to take this picture to show Jaron and Karen. They gave this little egg cooker to Cory for Christmas last year. It made a pretty good omelet!!

Bear Lake is definitely one of my more favorite lakes. It is so pretty and blue. The only bad thing...the water never really gets super calm, so it's hard to ski on.

We did visit LeBeau's and have a fresh raspberry shake. We also picked up a flat of raspberries to bring home with us. Yum! And Cory got in plenty of fishing time...

You're Not Going To Believe This!

Remember that hit-and-run accident we got in on Friday night? Well...our car got backed into at the church parking lot this afternoon. This cute little old lady just kept going and going and she backed right into our rear bumper. Ironically enough, it wouldn't have happened if Cory hadn't stopped to help another little old lady put her walker into the trunk of her car. If only we would have pulled away a few seconds earlier. No good deed goes unpunished. My insurance company was a little surprised to hear from me again today. They thought I was calling about the claim from Friday... Nope. Just two accidents in one weekend. That's it. From now on, we're walking.

Seriously??

Cory and I went out for date night last night (sushi!!!) and on our way home, we got in a hit and run accident. That's it. I am officially over 2010!!! What a horrible year! They say bad things happen in threes, right?? I totaled my car (that was paid for - can't forget that jab in the ribs) in January, Cory lost his job in May and now this. So we should be done now. Good things are definitely on the horizon (I hope).

We went through a traffic light and immediately after you go through the light, the lanes merge down into one. There was a red truck behind us, so we should have had the right to merge in front. But no. This crazy lady sped up and then side-swiped us as she went by. And yes, we were in my BRAND. NEW. CAR. The one that I've had for five months. The one that has 4,000 miles on it. We pulled off to the side of the road thinking that she would stop but she kept on going. So I started yelling at Cory to follow her. We chased her down and after honking the horn for a few minutes she finally pulled over and got out of the vehicle.

She said she hadn't even felt the impact and thought that she had stopped in time. What?? And then she said that she was in a hurry to go pick up her daughter and she asked if she could just give us her information and we could deal with the accident report later. By this point, I had 911 on the phone and I said that I wasn't willing to simply take her information and let her leave. I wanted to do things the right way and have an accident report written up for the insurance companies. She started to walk back towards her truck and I thought she was just going to get her license and insurance information and try to get us to take it and let her go. Instead, she got in her truck and took off. I started screaming her license plate number at the 911 operator to make sure they got it down. What a freak!

The police officer showed up about 15 minutes later and took our statement. They found the registered owners of the truck and sent an officer to the house but no one was home. Supposedly they will continue to follow-up and try to track them down. I'm not holding my breath. I'm sure that we'll have to take another one up the rear-end and shovel some more money out the window to pay our deductible. I shouldn't be surprised. We're so good at that by now.

Jackson Lake

We went to Jackson Lake in Teton National Park with my family last weekend. It wouldn't be a vacation without at least one mishap. We got a late start on Thursday night and all of the campgrounds were full by the time we got into the park. So we headed back towards Jackson Hole (it's about 30 minutes outside of the park entrance) and figured we would find an RV park for the night. We saw a pull-out just outside of downtown and we decided it would be fine to stay there rather than pay for an RV park (it was already midnight by this point). At 1:45 a.m., the police knocked on the door of our camper. Apparently we weren't outside the boundaries of the park and it's illegal to camp off the side of the road. The officer let us stay there until 6:00 a.m. and then we had to leave. Not much sleep that night!
But here's what we saw on day two. My parents brought their boat and we headed out on Jackson Lake on Friday afternoon. The lake with the Tetons in the background just takes your breath away. See that snow on the Tetons? Well, that's running straight down into the lake. Needless to say, we didn't get in the water much!

I've decided that you cannot count calories when you're camping. Steak, dutch oven potatoes, raspberry cobbler, kabobs, blueberry pancakes and lots of snacking in between. Break out the stretchy pants!

Jaron helped make breakfast on Sunday morning. And someone had the brilliant idea to put a soda can underneath the grill to catch the drippings from the bacon. Yep. That worked out well.

My SIL, Karen, is seven months pregnant. They do have a trailer, but I'll definitely give her a shout-out. It was pretty hot and she was a trooper. Thanks for the great weekend!