Disney World

For Christmas, Chris and I took a trip to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fl. We were excited to get away from the snow for a while (even thought we couldn't escape the cold), and go to the sunshine state (at least one of them). We had a blast!! We ate amazing food (a lot of fancy cheese for Vanessa and steak for Chris), we went on awesome rides, bought a lot of stuff, and just had fun with each other. On Christmas, we decided to visit the Animal Kingdom in hopes of avoiding the huge crowds that would be descending on the Magic Kingdom and we definitely lucked out. For the whole trip, the longest that we waited to get on a ride was 40 minutes. I think that the definite highlight of our trip though, was when we saw Cirque Du Soleil. It was amazing!! We were so impressed by all of the acrobats and the incredible talent that they have. Our second favorite memory was in Germany in Epcot where we had a Christmas ornament made for us by a German glass craftsman. It was really neat to watch him work with glass as if it was water. I love it. We were sad to leave the parks, but happy to be home with Gir and happy to sleep in our own beds.

Exciting Announcement

Chris and I are proud to announce that we are the excited parents-to-be of little Miller baby due next July!! It is currently 11 weeks old and is so far doing really well.

Merry Christmas

"We wish you a Merry Christmas, we wish you a Merry Christmas, we wish you a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!"

We hope that everyone has a Merry Christmas wherever you may be! This year we are doing something a little different...We are going to be in Disney World for Christmas and we can't wait!!! We are going to miss being with our family and friends though.

May your Christmas be filled with love, laughter, and joy as you celebrate the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. We'll see ya (and post) when we get back!!

Kris Kringle Day

Happy Kris Kringle Day! I have been celebrating this wonderful holiday (?) (excuse for presents) since I can remember and Chris and I have been celebrating it together since we've been married. Since last month we got our Blu Ray player, it was no surprise when Kris Kringle brought each of us a new Blue Ray. I got Gladiator and Chris got Star Trek. That Kris Kringle sure knows us well...

For those of you who may not know what Kris Kringle Day is, it is a German holiday celebrated the night of the 5th of December and the morning of the 6th. On the 5th of December, family members put their shoes out into the hall or other open area and while everyone is asleep, Kris Kringle comes and brings small gifts (if you are good) or coal and sticks (if you are bad) in your shoes. On the morning of the 6th, the family runs to see what they received and there is much rejoicing. I have loved this holiday since I was a child and I can't wait to continue it with my family.

Happy Kris Kringle Day!

Winter Jeeping

Yesterday, Chris and my brother Brett had a man's day of jeeping. They met with a bunch of jeeping enthusiasts at around 10am and went to a place out by 5 Mile in Utah Valley. They had a lot of fun and Brett even drove a bit of the trail himself! Way to go Brett!! They watched a dune buggy try to go up a really steep trail (without success) and several of the jeeps had breakdowns (which is fairly common at these events). One Jeep lost its power steering! Bummer!! Overall, they seemed to have a great time and hope to go jeeping again soon!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was a really fun day. Sorry, I didn't take any pictures but in the morning Chris and I relaxed and tried to finish our rolls for Thanksgiving dinner. At around 2:15 we met up with my parents and brother Brett and all of us headed down to Thanksgiving dinner with Amanda, Aunt Julie, Mary Beth, Kevin, and some other people that I didn't know. We had amazing food, an awesome Thanksgiving quiz (bu my Dad and Butterball), and we played the wii for the rest of the evening. It was a lot of fun and I was sorry when it was all over!

Family Pictures

So, for my birthday, I had my good friend Hannah Galli, who just happens to be a professional photographer, take some family pictures. Well, she is amazing!! Here are some of the pictures:

I'll post some more later! I hope that you enjoyed these.

My Birthday

This past weekend held my birthday and I have to say, I was really spoiled! On Friday, Dad and I celebrated our birthdays with family with cake, ice cream, dinner, and presents. I have to say that my family is awesome (cousins and aunts included). I got books, Legos (hehe), the coolest pillows in the world, and more books. Friday was a lot of fun and I enjoyed sharing the celebration with my Dad. Saturday was such a relaxing day! I got up, opened my presents and then we went for a family photoshoot (which the picture below if from) and then played video games until it was time for dinner. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband who made my birthday so special! Thank you Chris, you are amazing!! Thank you to everyone who wished me a happy birthday, I really appreciated it! Now on to my next quarter century!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Happy Birthday Dad! You are an amazing Father, Husband, Son, Brother, and Grandfather. You are artistic, creative, fun, and adventurous and I am so blessed to have you not only as my Dad but also as my Birthday Buddy, Friend, and you are such a great example to me. I have always tried to follow in your footsteps so that I can have great stories to tell my own children. Don't ever change. I love you!

Blu Ray

Yesterday, Chris was really happy and here is why:

Can you guess? We got our new Blu Ray player. We have been talking about getting one for over a year now, and Chris finally found one to his liking that was also a good deal! We had also been collecting movies in the Blu Ray combo packs so that when we eventually got a player, we would have something to watch. I'm glad that we did because we were able to watch Avatar on our player and it looked amazing!! Chris and I are so excited to add this to our ultimate watching experience. Now we just need some awesome speakers, but we'll have to save that for another time.

Halloween

This Halloween was a blast! I was Captain Scrimshaw and Chris was a Karate Master. We went over to my Aunt and Cousin's house for dinner, crafts, and games. Dinner was amazing! My Mom made some sticky Vulture Legs, my Aunt and Cousin made awesome salads and we brought bread. After we ate, we decorated some masks and then my Mom's cousin and son came for a visit. While the adults + Chris were visiting with my Mom's cousin, Brett, Amanda, and I went downstairs and played the Wii. I watched Brett and Amanda play Beatles Rock Band and then we played Just Dance 2 together. Needless to say, we were pretty tired by the time we finished. We then got a game, Curses, and played it with my Mom's cousin's son. He was funny to watch (since he was so much younger than the rest of us). We ended the night on a high note and I for one can't wait until next Halloween.

Pumpkins

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays and one of the things that I especially look forward to is getting together with family and carving pumpkins. I really like odd looking pumpkins and this year, my pumpkin had wart-like growths (which sounds weird but looked cool) and it was my downfall. The skin of my pumpkin was like cement!! It was so hard for me to carve it that Chris had to help me finish my pumpkin (since he had a normal pumpkin, he was finished with his pretty quickly). In fact, everyone had finished with their pumpkins before I was remotely finished. Nevertheless, it did get finished and both mine and Chris' pumpkins look amazing (as does my family's pumpkins). Chris ended up with a mickey head design on his pumpkin and I ended up with an ambigram that says fire (like in the book/movie of Angels and Demons). Maybe next year i'll find a cool looking pumpkin that is easy to carve!

Incredibly Cute

I just have to brag, I think that I have the cutest dog in the world. Chris and I got Gir a stuffed animal from our trip to Disneyland and he loves it. The problem is that he loves it a lot and loves to chew on it (which we totally expected). The funny thing is that he will chew on it one moment and the next he is using it as a pillow. On Sunday the Pluto stuffed animal had all ears, arms, legs, tail, and collar attached. That's not necessarily true right now...He only really has his arm, legs and tail still attached. Well, since Gir loves Pluto so much, I guess that its money well spent. Alright, I'm done bragging about my dog...for now.

Disneyland

I can't believe that Disneyland has already come and gone! It was so much fun!! I was very excited that a lot of the Millers were able to come with us! Chris and I spent most of our time with them and we had a blast! We went on our favorite rides Many, Many times, we ate at some amazing restaurants, we enjoyed searching for pins, trying to stay dry (which is not easy on Splash Mountain), and occasionally met up with the other 5 members of our group. By the end of the trip, I think that all of us were extremely tired (especially our feet) and we had to bid Disneyland ado. It was sad to leave, but I know that we will be back some day. Hopefully it can be another fun family trip. Thank you everyone who came with Chris and I and made this trip so wonderful!

Tracy Aviary

Yesterday, Chris and I met up with my friend Hannah and her boyfriend Michael at the Tracy Aviary in downtown Salt Lake City for a double date. We had never been to the Aviary before and I was impressed. It was a little small, but the birds that they had were fun and interesting to look at. The thing that all of us thought was the strangest was that there was a wedding reception going on at the Aviary. We kept seeing people really dressed up walking around and we were beginning to feel slightly under dressed when we saw the wedding couple. Then it all made sense. The pictures above are some of my favorite that I took yesterday. Overall, we had a great time hanging out with Hannah and Michael at the Aviary! Thanks for inviting us to come with you guys! We had a great time!!

Brett's Birthday

Yesterday was my older brothers birthday and the best part was that his daughter, my niece, Lucy was able to spend the weekend with us! It had almost been seven months since i'd seen her and she has changed so much! It was a lot of fun to be able to interact again with Lucy and see how adorable she has become! She is starting to talk now and everything is "doggie". She is also walking all over the place and its hard to keep her in one spot. I think that the very best thing about her visit is how happy my brother was. I haven't seen him this happy for a long time and it was really good to see; especially on his birthday. Happy Birthday Brett! Thanks for letting us come over and share your time with Lucy! We had a wonderful time, and Lucy is amazing! We love you!!!

First Soccer Game

Last night Chris and I got to experience something new. We were invited to go with my cousin and brother to a Salt Lake Real soccer game. It was a new experience for us because we are not big sports fans, so we don't often go out to games, but we thought that it would make a fun change and it did. It was a lot of fun, especially to watch the other fans and how into the game they get. We were sitting near a group of die hard fans who for the entire game were dancing, beating drums, shouting, and throwing shredded paper into the air. It was funny to watch and i'm fairly certain that they were very drunk. It got pretty tense at the end because Real was down 1 point (well, they didn't have any at all) and it would have been horrible to lose on home turf. But, in the last 3 minutes of the game, they were able to score which means that the game ended up being a tie. I don't really understand how a professional sport game can end with a tie, but I guess it's better than losing. Overall, Chris and I enjoyed our first soccer game and would be open to going again. Thanks Amanda for inviting us to come!!

Exciting Work Day

I never really thought of the dangers that were present when a job is located up in the mountains. Yesterday, I learned what some of those dangers are. It started like any other work day, I got up, was at work by 7:00am and worked. I had lunch with my friend Hannah and its after lunch that my typical work day became less typical. I guess that I should step back and say that yesterday was a bit of a stormy day. It wasn't as bad as a storm that we had a month ago, but that storm combined with the dry weather we had been having in September created a bit of a problem for yesterdays storm. After everyone had started working after lunch, a couple people were asked to go see the managers. This is not a singular occurrence, so no one thought of anything until those individuals came to get their belongings and were told to immediately go home. What? We asked them why and they said that the rain had caused mudslides and the access road to work had a slide across it. Well, now everyone wanted to go home early and we were just discussing the mudslides when one of the managers came and told us that we were all going to be evacuated in groups of three. Lets just say that no one was very upset that we would have to leave work and go home. Oh darn...The manager continued to say that those who had parked close to the mountain (which just happened to be me) could go home first since they were more likely to have trouble getting out (since where their cars were located there was now a fairly strong moving current of water, mud, and small rocks). I was in one of the first groups of three to get to my car which was luckily undamaged. So, I got to go home an hour and a half early from work and i'm now waiting on word from the managers to see if I will be going in today or if it is still to dangerous. I'm hoping that it will be too dangerous so that I can have a nice day at home, we shall see. So, working up in the mountains can give you some exciting days at work, i'm just happy that no one was hurt.

Cheaper by the Dozen?

In one month, Chris and I will be standing at this spot once again. This time however, we will not be alone! Earlier this spring, Chris and I (mostly I) decided that another trip to Disneyland was a definite must for this year. We decided that it would be fun to invite some of our family to go. At first, we just invited my parents, then it was extended to my Aunt and two cousins, then we asked Chris' parents if they would like to join us. One of my cousins dropped out of the trip because she was going on another major adventure which happened to be at the same time. I also let Chris' sister who lives in LA know that we were coming to her neck of the woods and we would love it if she and her husband would like to join our merry band. So, for most of the year the grand total of for sure attending people was 8. This past week, that number changed drastically! Towards the end of last week, Chris' parents let us know that they were for sure coming because they had gotten their plane tickets. We were so excited! Our party of 8 was now 10! I thought that this would be the grand total for our trip. 10 was a good number, right? Well, I was wrong. Over the weekend, another Aunt humbly asked if she could join us to which we said "no problem." Our total was now 11. This time I felt sure that our party was now full. I was wrong again. Yesterday, we got another email from Chris' parents letting us know that another one of his sisters will be joining our not so little party. We are thrilled! For several members of our party this is going to be their first time at the original Disney park (although they have been to Disney World) and I am so excited for them. I can't believe that from our casual talks earlier this year that our party to Disneyland will have 12 people!! This is going to be one epic vacation! I can't wait!!!

Second Blog

I've started a second blog about my attempts to be crafty. Please check it out at http://wannabecrafty007.blogspot.com/.

Tanners Flat Camping Trip

This weekend, we went on our annual camping trip to Tanners Flat which is in Little Cottonwood Canyon, Utah. This year was super fun! We just relaxed the first day, making crafts, reading, and playing games. The second day we did a 8.2 mile hike. It was really hard, but it was so worth it because the trail was stunning and Chris and I saw snakes, squirrels and a dear! My cousin Amanda and my aunt Julie also saw a Moose! We also enjoyed great food and amazing company! I had so much fun and I can't wait for next year's trip!!

Desolation Trail: The Sequel

This morning, Chris, my parents, Gir, and I went on a hike in the mountains near Salt Lake City. Chris and I have been on this hike several times, but this was a first run for my parents and they loved it. I think that we picked the perfect day to go because there was a nice breeze and we almost had the trail all to ourselves for the entire trip. Gir had fun, there were lots of birds out and he tried to hunt them down. It was quite funny, but unfortunately for Gir, the birds foiled his every attempt to capture them. It was a nice hike though and everyone enjoyed it. Thanks Mom and Dad for coming with us, we had a blast!!

Caught!

Chris caught me sleeping on our couch the other night (while he was trying to fix our new computer). I can't believe that I was able to sleep in that position! I must have been really tired. Doesn't Gir look cute!!! He really likes to cuddle when he's tired!

Back to School

Today was Chris' first day back to school. The important thing about this back to school, is that it is the beginning of Chris' LAST YEAR OF SCHOOL (not that i'm excited or anything). The first day went well so far, and he had a meeting with a school councilor to discuss his possibilities of entering the grad program after he graduates next May. They seemed optimistic that he could be accepted in, but it's going to take a lot of hard work on Chris' part. I know that he can do it, and I'll try my best not to distract him while he is supposed to be studying and doing homework. I'm very proud of Chris and how well he has done at school in the past, and what he'll do in the future. We're in the home stretch!!

Model Man

My older brother Brett, gave Chris a great surprise the other day. He came over and presented Chris with a beautiful red and silver Mustang model that Brett had made for Chris. Not only did he build the Mustang, but he built a garage with car posters and tool boxes to keep the car company. It turned out AMAZING!! I have to confess, I was totally in on the surprise. I picked out the colors and gave my opinion on the car in progress! Well Brett, Chris was extremely surprised and he LOVES IT!! Thanks your all of your hard work, it really paid off!

Thomas' Birthday Celebration

This week, my brother Thomas was home on leave from the Air Force, so we decided to celebrate his birthday. Some of our family came over to my parent's house for cake, ice cream, and presents. He got a good array of presents from Converse to Kool Aid (oh yeah). He gave me, my cousin Amanda, and my cousin Liz a spin in his new Ford Mustang which was a lot of fun. We also watched a funny show called Top Gear (which my family loves) and we had some laughs. At the end of the night, we took some family pictures and the top picture is my favorite. Happy Birthday Thomas! You're awesome!!

Geo Cashing

At the beginning of August, Chris took a man-cation (a manly vacation) to go jeeping with some of his buddies from a jeeping forum that he subscribes to. The jeeping trip was held in the Uinta Mountains and Chris said that it was absolutely beautiful. Apart from taking in the nature, Chris had fun driving the jeep around and camping under the stars. He had a lot of fun, but I was glad when he came home. I missed him!

Mt. Timpanogos

So far, out of our four years of marriage, Chris and I have gone on a hike up to the Mt. Timpanogos caves (in American Fork, Utah) for three out of the four years. It is usually a hike filled with both pain (the hike is really, really steep) and awe (the caves themselves are worth the painful hike to visit). This year we were joined by my brother Brett and it was a blast!! We hiked up to the caves faster than I ever have in my life! We took almost no stops and it seemed like Brett was almost running up the steep incline. Once we endured to the end or top of the hike, we were so early that we had to wait over an hour for our appointed time to take our cave tour. I was really surprised to see how many families with very young children were attempting this hike, especially due to the steepness that is the climb up. The caves themselves are spectacular! I can't describe in words how beautiful the cave formations are, but I am always awed by them even though I have seen them many times. The hike down was fairly quick and we grabbed a bite to eat once we made it down to the bottom. Thanks for coming with us this year Brett! You made this trip really special!

P.S. If you ever go on this hike, here are some words of advice:

Go early in the morning

Try to go on an overcast day

Bring LOTS of water

Bring a sweatshirt for the caves, they get pretty cold