Family Christmases

First we hit Idaho Falls.  We played more games, saw Christmas lights, and listed to a tribute concert.  On Christmas Eve I was part of the Stosich program with my dramatic reading of The Cajun Night Before Christmas which was fun.  (I read that to my classes every year because we are reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn at Christmastime.)  Other items in the program included a piano duet and scripture reading.  Here's Clint on Christmas morning:

After opening presents, Clint drove me to the airport so I could fly to SLC then NYC to see my family.  My usual airport jinx applied and after we boarded we had to deplaned because of mechanical problems.  That flight never left, and so I waited for the next flight to SLC...missed my connection in SLC and waited several hours for the next flight in SLC.  Fortunately, I befriended a German guy named Hans who is doing an internship at Mellaluca.  I also passed the time reading The Atlantic magazine, which I am now rather fascinated with.  At any rate, I eventually made it to NJ (despite actually flying into JFK for the first time) and had Christmas part three.  

 As you can see, Megan's children aren't as easy to photograph as my niece on the other side.  Notice grumpy Ben....

 And photo bombing Ben.

Watching Les Mis in the theater was a nice "for old times sake" activity.  As we grew up, Megan was always singing and playing the piano music. (As a side note, I thought the movie was very well done.) We also saw The Hobbit (PART ONE OF THREE) in 3D.  And yes, I was unaware that they were taking ONE book and making it into THREE movies.  And of course, we had to get one kid-friendly activity in. We played "Monster Mini-golf" which was all in black lights and messed around at the arcade afterward.  It felt a bit "Nightmare After Christmas" but it was fun.  If only the fam lived closer...

Our Christmas

Clint and I decided to have our own little Christmas gift exchange before we did our holiday traveling.

Afterwards we visited the new City Creek Center and walked around temple square to see the lights.  This fountain in City Creek was synchronized to holiday music--a different show for each different song.  It's hard to tell from the picture, but there is even a burst of flames in the middle.

I saw these cute little nutcrackers and after choosing one for my department Christmas party white elephant exchange, I decided that I needed to buy a set for myself as well.  (As a side note, in return I got the winner of the evening, a full sized pirate nutcracker! Clint ended up with the most hideous Christmas ornament I've ever seen....which we had brought the previous year. Hah!)

Also this year I put up some of the Christmas houses that used to be my Grandma Maxine's.  It was fun to relive memories of Christmases at Grandma's house--and the New Year's Elf!

Themeless Christmas Party

Once upon a time Clint and his friends had ugly Christmas sweater parties.  But then those became overdone.  So a few years ago they had a Christmas Socks party.  The first year the party was at our house (after Clint and I were married) we had a party with a Christmas chair instead of a tree. But this year we had a themeless Christmas party.  In the invite Clint said to wear Christmas Socks, but I think it was too passe since maybe only one other person (besides me) was wearing Christmas socks.

One tradition that has remained alive, however, is the white elephant gift exchange.  We brought a hamburger press and and hand phone that plugs into a cell phone.  In return I earned rescued sports caps, and Clint a box of expired Twinkies.

Observe the gem that Allison picked--the people of Walmart calendar.  Don't worry, that's not nudity.  It's someone's back.

Here are a few other pics of the party goers:

Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving we were in Idaho Falls with Clint's family.  We had a fun time playing games such as Taboo.  We also bowling and went to a movie, Here Comes the Voss, at the theater.

Clint's niece, Marisol, is very cooperative about taking photos.  In fact, did you notice our nicely posed hands below?  She was very eager to tell me exactly how to pose. Her mother is a photographer (who took my engagement photos) and so Marisol is clearly learning the tricks of the trade.

i

I got a nice shot of the festive fall table setting, but unfortunately not a shot with everyone at the table.  I was too busy eating.  Also, I think I hesitate to be too pushy with Clint's family and demand everyone ignore their food and look at me! So just imagine a long table of family fun and feasting.

A Piano and a Pumpkin

On October 8th Clint and I went on a Fall leaves drive through Guardsman Pass.  Unfortunately, the peak of the leaves had already passed that high up (even though they had hardly started in the valley).  We had a lot of fun anyway.  We drove through Midway which I'm not even sure I've driven through despite the fact that it's right next to Heber.  I tried to take some pictures of the cute Swiss houses, but two two I took before my camera died didn't turn out.  In Heber we had dinner at the Tarahumara Restaurant which was very busy, but delicious. I got the fish tacos which had a fabulous sauce.  To those who have never been here--understand that the restaurant is split into two different sections.  The right side is a more traditional sit down restaurant and bar--but it was full when we got there.  The left side is more of a Cafe Rio style--you order at the front desk then wind to the back to find seats, and they bring your food out to you.  There is a salsa bar with probably 30 different salsa which are fun to try. Unfortunately, the drink machine is really far away and after you've been trying all those salsas, you might run out of water!  Also connected to the restaurant is a little bakery with pan dulces.  I almost bought a little baggie of pinole, a dry corn meal mixture that the Tarahumara eat on runs.

While speaking of restaurants, I also went to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse for the first time as a part of the SLC dine o' round (in Sept).  It was tasty and fun to go somewhere lavish that I wouldn't ordinarily go.

Probably my most significant October happening was that I bought a piano!  I become possessed with the idea one day after reflecting on time spent playing piano/flute duets with my mom and my sister singing along.  I found one listed for cheap on Craigslist, and after much dithering on my part was the owner of a piano later that same day.  I ended up acquiring it extremely cheaply because I discovered mouse droppings in it.  So I spend a long sweaty day after work taking it apart and vacuuming it out.  I also used a judicious amount of Lysol sanitizing spray. Much to Clint's chagrin, I enlisted his help after he got home from work as well.

Halloween this year wasn't terribly exciting.  I had wanted to see Phantom of the Opera at the Organ Loft the Friday before, but ended up attending the SLC track club banquet instead (which was cool, but not festive).  However, I did get invited to a pumpkin carving party the next week, so I had some Halloween festiveness.  On actual Halloween Clint and I ate some soup at the ward party, then came home and watched a movie.  It's difficult to enjoy Halloween because it always falls right near the end of the quarter.  Fortunately, Ron's new wife Allison helped me grade essays that weekend.  Whew!

300 miles...

In early August (before Hawaii) Clint and I went to the Heber Rodeo with my cousins Jennifer and Larra--I forgot to post about it before Hawaii, so here you have it.  It's become a tradition--I think this was our third time.  (And the first time we went, it was my first ever rodeo.)  It's a nice tradition to see family every year--unfortunately we didn't get a pic with the four of us.

 In later August, I ran the Rivalry Relay as an Ultra team with Ron and Tina.  It was a total blast.  We did it as an ultra team, so we ended up running around 20 miles total apiece.  During the race we kept going back and forth with a team in bright green T-shirts (Progression Green Machine) but sadly they beat us in the end.  I was the last leg, and gave it my all--but it just didn't happen. However, we finished first out of all the ultra teams by almost an hour and got sweet jackets as our prize. :)  I was highly enthused.  We also got 13th overall out of 76 teams (and 7th out of the mixed gender teams.)  It was a nice positive racing experience which was good because my past few half marathons have been a bust.  I really enjoyed the course, and the race was well organized.

It was also good because I had a goal this summer to make the 300 mile club (which I think I mentioned earlier).  The extra 20 miles from this race was a help because I got a bit behind my running in Hawaii.  And yes, I did make the club.  Huzzah!  I should take a picture of the excellent T-shirt prize...

Anyway, later in September I went on a nice run on the Millcreek Pipeline Trail for the first time ever. (For the newbies out there turn east onto 3800 S from Wasatch Blvd.)  I have to say, the trails are rather poorly marked.  I started at Rattlesnake Gulch (which was very steep) and connected to the Pipeline trail.  However, I unknowingly headed left at the first intersection and tried to keep pushing past the end of the trail because I knew the pipeline trail was supposed to be long.  So after the brambles overcame me, I headed back and realized that the pipeline trail extends the other way.  Go figure. So I cruised along that way for a while.  Next time I think there are better ways to access the Pipeline which I will try.  Rattlesnake Gulch is just too steep! Anyway, here are some pics.

Day 6: Iolani Palace and Goodbye

On our last day in Hawaii I went on a run and Clint grabbed some more delicious malasadas for us.  Then we headed to one last must-see, The Iolani Palace, where the royal family of Hawaii used to live.  Since then it was turned into a government office building, but now is restored as a museum.  We got to hear lots of stories about how they re-acquired furniture and artifacts that had been sold off or lost.  We also learned some interesting facts--that the Iolani Palace had electricity before the White House did.  Also, that the same furniture maker that made the furniture in the Iolani Palace still makes the furniture for the White House today.

While stopping at the Iolani Palace I was able to get a few shots of the famous King Kamehameha statute which is across the street from the Iolani Palace. King Kamehameha unified the Hawaiian Islands into one nation.  It was interesting to learn about Hawaiian history while I was there.  Clearly not all Hawaiians were pleased with being annexed by the United States, and many weren't pleased to be made a state either.  There was an interesting hand made billboard of sorts that we drove by many times on the East side of the island that said something of the nature of "Shame on you who celebrate statehood and honor the thieves..."

I had a delightful time in Hawaii and would love to go back some day.  Hooray for the "Aloha spirit!" I only wish we had had more time to relax.  Since we had a sort trip I jammed a lot into the few days we had!  If we come back to the island of O'ahu, I would like to make sure to do a session in the temple as well as a few other things we missed--but perhaps we would see a different island before we see O'ahu again.

And so Hawaii, "A hui hou kakou"  until we meet again....

Day 5: Turtle Beach etc.

After the Byodo-In temple we headed to Giovanni's Shrimp Truck which we heard was a must do.  The shrimp was good, I suppose.  Just tasted like shrimp to me.  I guess you have to be a seafood connoisseur to appreciate it.  Who knows.

I became intrigued by the coconut drinks being sold.

However, I quickly discovered that coconut water is actually really gross. Don't waste your money.

Then we tried to find the turtle beach which we didn't find right away, but we did find this peaceful practically deserted beach that we had a nice time walking along.

And later we did manage to find the turtle beach.  I was surprised at how many turtles there were!  There must of been 80-100 turtles (including the ones floating in the water that were harder to see.)  At least 20 were on the actual beach--but they were rather difficult to photograph because they kept slipping back into the water--and keeping their heads down.  I think they all congregate at this beach because it's actually not a sandy beach but sort of a solid rock that is covered with algae.  You can see that this guy is having a nice algae snack.

After Turtle Beach we attempted to go to Mokuleia Beach which is supposedly where some of lost was filmed.  We weren't sure that we found it.  And we realized the bad news--I left my glasses on the pre-turtle beach.  So that put a kibosh on our plans to hit the Dole Plantation again.  We drove back to look for them--to no avail.  After our fruitless efforts, I was bummed so we didn't hit the nice dinner at Turtle Bay Resort.  We ended up going to Formaggio's--which was closed the day before--and I'm glad we did because it was delicious.  We had a mean steak panini and pizza on the cheap becausec it was happy hour.  Afterwards we went to Wailana Coffee House for dessert, and Clint got a Hawaiian fried ice cream that he still raves about.  Basically it was ice cream in a pie crust ball.  Fortunately, the delicious dinner assuaged my feelings about the drama of the day.