Valentines Day Weekend Extravaganza!!!

We went to Disney world with a bunch of friends.

We rode rides.

We were cute.

We were dorks.

Wait a minute.

Saw an awesome redwood cross section.

Lucas' victory pose :)

Scary doctor.

The group.

Awesome face paint.

Lego Indiana Jones.

I loved the face paint so much i slept really carefully so it wouldn't get smeared and wore it all the next day too.

Late night weirdness.

Marty came to visit.

We went to see the tarpits in LA. Quite possibly our favorite part of the trip. A must see if you're in the LA area.

Rode the giant sloth.

David helped him get at something.

Awesome large plants.

Crazy tar pit.

Huge crazy tarpit. (The tar is under the water; you can see it bubble up)

Lots of fossils.

Saber tooth tiger.

Mammoth.

Many stupid dire wolves.

Turtles lounging in the sun.

Pit 91. they've found millions of fossils just from this pit.

Marty in real life.

The tar would just come up out of the grass in random spots. The had orange cones over most spots but they hadn't found this one yet so david played with it.

We saw big LA houses.

Did the walk of fame. (overrated in our opinion. don't waste your time.)

Mann's chinese theater. Pretty cool.

Seal Beach for sunset. A perfect way to end the day.

The water was pretty cold but it was still fun to wade.

See the shorts? 85 degrees that day. Beautiful!

We had a fabulous weekend full of excitement and fun site seeing. David and i have decided that we really like the long weekend trips we take. In 3 days you can really see a lot. Next year we plan to take a long weekend trip to see the Redwoods. I love traveling. The world is an awesome place!

For Brooke: although i don't have a cute child to post pictures of i have a sweet dog.

First of all these are in no particular order. The cone of shame is a recent thing. He was neutered yesterday and he has been very sad. He does not like the cone of shame but he is getting better at walking with it. Last night he wouldn't make it more than a step because it would get caught on the carpet since he walks trying to smell everything.

He did get a bigger home for his time with the cone of shame (thanks Carolyn) but he doesn't really enjoy it. He has been so sad. i feel so bad for the little guy but he's a little better today than he was yesterday and I'm sure he'll get back to himself pretty soon. Side note, he has been very afraid of other dogs since the neutering. every time he goes outside and hears the dogs he starts whimpering and shaking. maybe he thinks the other dogs did it to him. hope he gets over that soon.

The rest of the pictures are from Ray Ray's happier days, the days when he still had his manhood. He loves to chew on things, even the house at times :( he can go through a raw hide in three days. he just loves them. we love them too because they keep him from chewing on the banister and chairs.

He loves David.




He is just too cute!

And surprisingly he likes to be swaddled. We started doing this as a game but it really calms him down and sometimes he'll stay cuddling this way for a few minutes.

He's my baby Ray Ray.

Christmas!!! And birthday...

My birthday was awesome! It was the first birthday i had with my friends in years. Usually everyone is home for Christmas and so am i so i don't get to have a party or anything. It's normal so it's not really a big let down but this year was extra great because i did a lot with friends! We went out to dinner at Tucanos downtown then went back to our house to have cheesecake and play games. It was super fun! Awesome birthday! The flowers above are a birthday/Christmas mix. David got me flowers a couple days before my birthday and then still wanted to get me flowers on my birthday, and my Aunt sent us an arrangement for Christmas! Aren't the flowers beautiful?! I love flowers.

Christmas morning our stockings were waiting for us. It was kind of weird to just do each other's stockings this year. There weren't too many surprises but it was fun.

Meet Ray Ray. He is our dog. We got him the day before my birthday and he is so cute and so sweet. He is a Maltese and Yorkie mix. He's tiny and full of energy. He's 7 months old and loves to play. He has been an outdoor dog so we've been working on house training him and he has done really well. He has some anxieties leftover from his last owners but he's getting over them and he's a good dog. He's in desperate need of a haircut and he's going to the groomer tomorrow to get all spiffed up. We love Ray Ray.


David's stocking stuff.

Me and Ray Ray. That toy is Ray Ray's Christmas present.

He loves to play with it and mostly tear all the stuffing out of it.

For Christmas dinner we had all of our friends over. We had a gift exchange and everyone had decided to get Sam drinks in addition to his gift. He's always our drink guy so we thought it would be a good joke. It was.

We had Roclette for dinner. Roclette is really cool. It's a griddle and it has trays for you to melt cheese in under the griddle. So you grill meats and veggies on the griddle and melt your cheese under the griddle. Then you pile it all on top of a potato and enjoy. It's wonderful. We've decided that it will be our traditional Christmas dinner.

Just hanging out.

And what is a post without a picture of cute baby Alice. She's still adorable.

Hope you all had a merry Christmas! We sure did!

Just putting some thoughts down...

David and I teach Sunday school for the 16-18 year olds at church. We've been doing that for the past month since we moved up to Salt Lake. It's a challenge. Some days are great (last week was fabulous) and some days are frustrating (teenagers can be really chatty and not contribute anything at the same time). We've learned that there is nothing wrong with coaxing comments with lifesavers, the kids we teach are really good kids, and teaching is really really difficult sometimes.

Today was one of those difficult days for me. The lesson was on being good citizens. I knew that talking about being involved would lead to politics and that would lead to me getting frustrated because I'm more liberal than the average Mormon. So the kids were pretty chatty which was frustrating but not the worst thing. We got into the lesson and sure enough when i asked "How can we contribute to society by upholding the government?" i got the response, "Vote republican." Oh my. From there it just kind of got worse with the 16 year olds talking about how the country is going to socialism, and how Obama is just like Hitler. We ignored those comments, made it clear that the church does not endorse any political party, and tried to move on with the lesson.

We got through the politics part and moved on to the community service part. I thought it would be a much more neutral part of the lesson and that they would have more to contribute and that we could end on a high note. I was disappointed. I asked what they can do to improve their community and I got nothing. They didn't really bring up any service small or big and the only thing they brought up was that they could improve their school community by getting rid of the gay club. I wanted to cry. Intolerance and hate hurts my soul. David finished his part and it was my turn to leave the last thought and close. All i could say is that the Savior loved everyone regardless of what they did. Everyone, no matter who they are or what they do, are children of god and they deserve respect and love. It is our responsibility to respect others regardless of whether we agree with what they do or not, look for the good that they have to contribute to the world, because they contribute something good to the world, and we should try to make the world a little better. Then we had a prayer and ended.

We had finished a little early so David and i took a couple things out to the car and talked about how the lesson went. We both agreed that it was a tough one and that it highlighted many of the reasons that we never wanted to stay in Utah. Those type of beliefs are so prevalent here.

The whole experience today got me thinking. thinking about who the Savior really is and what he really thinks of us. I do believe that he loves everyone regardless of their choices. I don't believe that he excuses sin (i won't even start to go into what is and isn't sin and what we should and should not do to prevent/punish sin, that's not my place to judge) but i do believe that he loves us in spite of our sins and weaknesses and he wants us to become better and is willing to help us do so.

How dismal the world looks when we look at every one's faults and mistakes! How much better it is when we look at what every person contributes to the world! How much brighter the future seems! How much more love there is! How much more peace! How much more genuinely Christlike the world is!

I admit I'm not the best at finding the high points in life or the best traits in people. But I'm trying to be better. I hope I'm getting a little better everyday and i hope that people forgive me when I'm not super positive about life or people. It's a weakness of mine that i am trying to improve. The experience today helped me to refocus on my goal of becoming a truly tolerant and loving person. And my Christmas wish for the world is that everyone would be a little more tolerant and look a little deeper for the good in others.

That wish goes along with my favorite Christmas song, "I heard the bells on Christmas day":

I heard the bells on Christmas day

their old familiar carols play,

and wild and sweet the words repeat

of peace on earth, good will to men.

I though how, as the day had come,

the belfries of all Christendom

had rolled along th'unbroken song

of peace on earth, good will to men.

and in despair i bowed my head:

"there is no peace on earth," i said,

"for hate is strong and mocks the song

of peace on earth, good will to men."

then pealed the bells more loud and deep:

"god is not dead, nor doth he sleep;

the wrong shall fail, the right prevail,

with peace on earth, good will to men.

till, ringing, singing, on its way,

the world revolved from night to day,

a voice, a chime, a chant sublime,

of peace on earth, good will to men!

Merry Christmas! I hope you all have a peaceful holiday.

PS. thanks mom. I realized that i get my hate of intolerance (kind of seems like an oxymoron) from you. You are probably one of the most tolerant people i know! I love you!