Thanksgiving 2011

Thanks to Kjersty's eagerness to please people with her cooking skills, we planned Thanksgiving Dinner 2011 for our home, inviting both of our families. Although I was reminded of my serious anxiety if everything doesn't run smoothly (and even when it does), the dinner turned out super BIEN. I am so grateful for my bounty. Seriously. This month's Ensign has a challenge to name one hundred blessings in your life. I did it a few nights ago after decorating my $25 DI Christmas tree (best deal of my life!). It was so hard for me to narrow it down to 100. I hope that I can be better at sharing my blessings with others.

So the night before Thanksgiving, my inspired mother decided that we needed to make these adorable table turkeys made out of nuts. She got the idea from a lady at work and just HAD to make them... like 25 of them... at 10:00PM. It was so so so much fun. I love my mom. My favorite part about making them was the little snicker (kkhhhee, kkhhhee, kkhhheee) that my mom would make approximately every 45 seconds while admiring her creations. I am so thankful for a spontaneous, creative mother who drags me around making nut turkeys in the night time just for the fun of it.

They turned out ADORABLE!

After much feasting and no napping, Kjersty and my mom went to work while I went with my friends Megan, Atlanta and Keahi to see Hugo at the Ogden Megaplex. I really liked it. The idea is that everyone has an important part in life and that there are no extra pieces.

End of story. I am blessed.

San Diego. Hello, Ocean.

The ocean is magical. I'm in love with her, and I am terrified of her all at the same time. On my drive down the I-5, I could not stop myself from snapping pictures with my $30 Walmart camera phone. I knew the pictures would not adequately capture the Beauty in all of her sunshine-y goodness and glory. Yet, I tried. I sent a text to my mom back in Utah that said, "The ocean says, 'hello.'" She quickly replied requesting me to "tell her I miss her." That's how I know the ocean is a girl. Because my mom says so.

I was grateful for the opportunity to spend time in California. I flew in to the John Wayne Airport in Orange County and drove down to San Diego for the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association (ASHA) National Conference. Although the conference was ever-informing and a good experience, I really wanted to make it happen so that I could see my beautiful Aunt Lisa and family. I can't say enough about how fantastic each member of that family is. My collection of pictures will have to suffice.

Old Town San Diego is a gem.. a little hidden treasure. We enjoyed a good California-Mexican meal complete with our 70-year-old super Caucasian server. Lisa and I just couldn't make ourselves call him the Mexican name we had planned to call our waiter... it just didn't fit.

Speaking of things not fitting...


Hmmm... Look, it's Panchita in the middle! I swear I grabbed the child size...
or perhaps my head really IS that big...

The Mormon Battalion Site was recently rebuilt, rededicated, and was absolutely amazing. A very enjoyable experience!


We got to pan for gold! I found a nice chunk o' gold.

Eliza, Zoe, and Noah helped out during the awesome interactive tour.
Noah would have been a great soldier in the Mormon Battalion.

Patrick, Lisa, Eliza, Noah, Zoe, Me
I really LOVE them.
Thank you for letting me join you for a few BLESSED days!

Notice a pattern?

I tend to blog after the end of every semester, and I just finished my second to last semester EVER!!! I am not counting Spring 2012, since we don't have an official class... so see you at graduation in May! Haha. I will fake walk across the stage... but it will be AWESOME!!!

Now.. let the blogging catch-up begin!

Peace.