Thanksgiving '09

We had a great Thanksgiving this year and were so happy to spend it with some of my family. My mom and I cooked for hours in my tiny kitchen, took some breaks to watch the parade, Jacob carved the turkey, and we were ready to dig in!

Here's our beautiful cherry pie right before it slipped out of our hands onto the floor...

. . . just kidding!

We did a little shopping on Friday (nothing crazy) while Jacob was at work (boo), then relaxed at home that night. This was my first Thanksgiving with my family since I left home for college over 9 years ago!! Hopefully it won't be another 9 years till the next one.

Thankful...

I'm so excited because my family is on their way here as I write this! My mom, dad, and sister Anna are coming to spend a few days here. I wish all my family could've come, but I will see the rest of my siblings at Christmas. I'm very thankful we will have family here with us on Thanksgiving. I've been baking, cleaning, and getting ready. It's going to be a great Thanksgiving! Where will you all be for the holiday?

Jana's Texas Trip, Part 3

The last couple of days Jana was here were a lot of fun. One day we drove out to Brenham to take a tour of the Blue Bell Creamery. The lady behind the ice cream counter let us try as many flavors of ice cream as we wanted. I was in heaven! After the tour you they give you a scoop of ice cream. We both had snickerdoodle, which was amazing! I can't find it in any of the stores here though, so I guess I will just have to go back to the creamery to eat some more. Other flavors I liked were southern blackberry cobbler, pistachio almond, and pecan pralines 'n cream. You should definitely go try some Blue Bell if you're lucky enough to have it in your state. just a few of the flavors they offer

the original delivery truck

After filling up on all that ice cream we went over to the St. Clare Monastery to see the miniature horses. The nuns there raise the horses and sell them to earn money for the monastery. We didn't see any nuns though, even in the chapel, but we did see lots of little horses. They were so cute!

Jana's last day here we were able to go to the Houston LDS Temple. (For more info about our temples, click here.) Jana tries to go to the temple in every city she visits, but you will have to ask her how many she's up to. Probably around 15 or more now.

After the temple, we also did some shopping, ate a lot of food, and watched our favorite show, The Office. It was so much fun to have Jana here. I'm happy she was able to come and I look forward to many more visits from her and other family members and friends.

Galveston, Oh Galveston!

For part of the time Jana was here we went to Galveston. The weather was beautiful and perfect for going to the beach.

the seawall

finally found a sand dollar at the beach

and we saw a few jellyfish
We went on a dolphin watch boat ride. . .

and actually saw several dolphins! They were everywhere.

This is called the poop deck, for obvious reasons.
We walked around The Strand (historic district) and saw the water line from Hurricane Ike last year.

We stopped at La King's Confectionary and drank milkshakes and ate some yummy salt water taffy.
We also shopped for souvenirs and watched the movie The Great Storm about the hurricane in 1900 that killed an estimated 6000 people on the island. Makes me thankful we have warnings now when a storm is coming. It was good learning about the history of Galveston and we had such a great time relaxing on the beach and eating lots of food (Cajun grilled shrimp, hushpuppies, potato salad). Hopefully I can go back with Jacob and explore the island some more. I think Jana got her fill of the ocean before going back to cold Idaho!

Halloween 2009

We had a pretty good Halloween this year. We carved pumpkins (I forgot to take pictures), went to our ward party where we helped with a game for the kids, and ate lots of candy. We decided to let the pirate costumes have a break this year and show our true colors instead. :) Everyone loved Jacob's horns. It was the only thing he finally decided on at the costume store. I'm just glad he's willing to dress up b/c I know so many guys who won't. Our ward did not do trunk-or-treat and we only had one trick-or-treater so we were left with too much candy. Anyway, here we are in all our glory (and gory)...