Boys will be boys

This week, on his way back to Montana from Colorado, Curtis' best friend since atleast kindergarten came to stay with us. Fletcher and Curtis always have a great time together, and never seem to run out of things to do. He was only able to stay for a day because he had to get back to work, but they had a lot of fun together. They went and shot machine guns together, we went out and ate several times, and ended the night putting mentos in diet coke and watching it explode. :)

Here are some of the favorite pictures from his visit.

Curtis & Fletcher taking turns using the machine gun. You should have seen their faces afterwards... It was so great! :)

Fletcher as the official mentos dropper

The awesome explosion, Fletcher trying to drink from the fountain, and Curtis who is obviously very pleased with their efforts.

We had a great time, and it was really good to see him again.

Sledding

Today, since we have gotten so much snow over the last few days, we went sledding with a couple of friends. There is this fun little place at the mouth of Hobble Creek canyon that has the perfect sledding hill. Unfortunately, by the time we left today, it was pretty packed. We did have a great time though! Thanks Eric and Alisyn for a fun day!

Curtis' legs coming up over the hill

What a stud!

Mariah, half falling off the sled...

Mariah and Alisyn at the bottom... we were racing, but Alisyn won.

Basketball

A couple weeks ago I was talking to my neighbor who joined a city league basketball team in Pleasant Grove, and somehow I let her talk me into joining it with her. I was a little hesitant and nervous at first, since it has been several years since I have even touched a basketball. Tonight was our first real game, and it was a lot of fun! We ended up playing against a team of young girls (maybe 18-21 years old). I am the youngest player on our team, and I am almost 25. So they definitely had the advantage of being in better shape and practice than the rest of us. But it turned out to be a lot of fun, and we won 39 to 17. Not bad for the first game. :) Lets just hope we can keep up that record for the rest of the season. Curtis took some awesome pictures. This one is my favorite cause it's one of the shots I made. :) By the way, did I mention I have Michael Jordan's number? That's gotta say something, right?

Florida

Our poor blog has been so neglected... My apologies to anyone who reads our blog. I'll do better.

This last week, we flew to Panama City, Florida to watch Curtis' brother James compete in an ironman competition. It was an awesome experience to watch, however, I don't think I'd ever have enough discipline to train for one of those. Which made me that much prouder of James for doing it. :)

We stayed in a beautiful condo right on the shore of the most beautiful beach I've ever seen. The sand was so small and soft, and white, and the water so clear and beautiful. The weather was amazing, and it was a very enjoyable trip all around.

James competed in the competition on Saturday, and was in the top 40% of his age group, which was really good. I was SO impressed with all the men and women who competed, and even got emotional when this old man (in his 70's) crossed the line and was crying and so happy! For those of you who don't know what an ironman competition entails, it is a 2.4 mile swim, followed by a 112 mile bike ride, and ends with a 26.2 mile run. And you have to finish within 17 hours, or you don't qualify as an ironman. It was such an awesome experience to watch, and such a fun trip.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the trip.

This is the view from our balcony. Our condo was literally right on the shore of the beach. It was awesome!

This is a view of the beautiful beach. I really think I was meant to live on the beach, cause it's my favorite place in the world!

This is kinda random, but I've always loved the show Ripley's Belive it or not!, and I was so excited to see this Ripley's museum in Florida. It was right by our condo, so we went one day, and it had some really cool stuff...

One of the many cool things in the museum... part of the Berlin wall.

James getting ready for the swim.

All the swimmers. It was utter chaos.

Curtis being supportive, and us waiting for James to pass on the bike portion (his number was 341, that's why it's on the sign).

James on the last stretch of the bike portion.

And James on the last part of the race.

Husbands & Hobbies

My creative husband has been doing stained glass for a long time. His aunt Juli (who is also extremely amazing) taught him how several years ago. Curtis loves doing stained glass, but for the last couple years, he hasn't done a whole lot of it due to his busy schedule. Anyway, this last weekend he got excited about doing it again. We both picked out patterns we wanted to do, and while he showed me how to make one myself (I didn't finish yet, although I will eventually), he made a great little stained glass window for his brother, sister-in-law, and niece Kamryn. Anyway, here are a couple of pictures of the process and the finished project. If it's not super noticeable at first, it's Winnie the Pooh with his head in a honey pot. Super cute. My husband is so talented...another great quality I love about him. :)

California

Curtis had to travel to a business seminar the week of our 2 year anniversary, so he took me with him and we celebrated in California. We stayed at the most amazing resort in the middle of Palm Springs. It was a lot of fun, and a great getaway for the week. Here are some pictures of the resort that we stayed at...amazing.

Room 7112 was the lucky room we lived in for the week

The entire resort was surrounded by water... lots and lots of water. It was beautiful.

In the lobby there were lots of cages of different kinds of birds to make the whole atmosphere more fun.

This is probably my favorite picture. This bridge led out to all the swimming pools. This place was amazing, and we had a blast!

2 Whole Years!

I know this is a little bit late, but better late then never, right? Last week Curtis and I celebrated our two year anniversary. I am so lucky and so blessed to be married to such a wonderful man. He is my very best friend, he can always make me laugh, and there is no one I would rather spend my life with. I am so happy he chose me. Here's to eternity! :)

Beautiful Montana

I realize I have been an absolutely horrible blogger, and I intend to repent. Here is the beginning of that effort… So, in November, Curtis’ parents are leaving on a two year mission to El Salvador, San Salvador to supervise the building of a temple over there. Since we aren’t sure when we were going to be able to go back, we went out to visit the last week of July and stayed for just over a week. We always have so much fun there, and this trip was no exception. We did a lot of kayaking, some bike riding, sight-seeing, and of course, lots and lots of Huckleberry Ice cream eating. Here are just a few highlights to our week long trip.

All of the above pictures are of the little town Curtis grew up in called Bigfork. If you blink you'll miss it while driving through. It's so beautiful and fun. The metal bridge pictured above is a favorite. Curtis and his best friend Fletcher, used to jump off that bridge for fun...and not only just the part where you walk by...they would climb to the very very top of the metal bridge and jump. My husband is so cool! :) Below is a picture of the beloved Huckleberry ice cream. One of my very favorite parts of visiting. Fortunately this trip, we froze six gallons of it and brought it home. Wahoo!

On our way home from staying with Curtis' family, we took a slight detour to go sapphire mining. Curtis went when he was younger, but I never have, and it sounded like so much fun. So, for about 3 hours, we went and mined our own blue sapphires. We ended up leaving with about 66 total carats of sapphires, but only 7 of those carats were big enough to be cut. The experience was awesome, and I would recommend it to anyone traveling up that way.

Felix the Cat

So, randomly we had the most adorable kitten show up in our backyard today. Apparently he has been there for a few days (according to our little Mexican neighbor kids), but today is the first I have seen or heard of him. Anyway, he is the cutest black kitten ever, and yes, I named him Felix! I wish we could keep him (even though I don't like cats), but he is so super cute! However, I am calling the pound Monday to take him unless we can find his owners first. Until then, he is living the high life in our back yard eating all the kitten chow he can eat (in hopes he doesn't puke on our patio...). Here are some pictures of the cute guy!

This picture makes him look a little crazy...and not very cute. :)

Ok, so these pictures don't do the kitty justice. But he is really cute. I especially love that he has one green eye and one brown. He's super cute... :)

Happy 4th of July!

I hope everyone had as wonderful of fourth of July as we did. As shown on our previous post, we did not have the traditional Independence Day celebration this year with the fireworks and BBQ, etc. Instead, we celebrated our freedoms by going to one of the most beautiful places I have seen in a long time. I am grateful for these freedoms that we enjoy, for the country that we live in, and for the beauty of this wonderful world that was created for us by a loving God. I am especially grateful for the men and women who have in the past and to this day risk their lives so we can keep these freedoms! I am grateful for the opportunity that we have to worship freely, and for the many things that I have been blessed with in my life.

God bless the U.S.A.!!!