my birthday weekend

For my birthday this year I took an extra two days off and went down home to Bicknell. I had a sleepover with Tal, Laine, and Sawyer Wednesday night and it was a lot of fun. We all went to dinner at the Sunglow.

Laine did her own hair-so cute! Sawyer giving high-5's, pounds, & thumb's up.

Tal & Marie laughing and having fun.

On Thursday I was supposed to go with Dad and Grandma Jensen to Richfield but Grandma came down with the flu. So when I got home on Thursday morning Dad said that I was going to spend the day with him instead and go get firewood and maybe build some fence. We went out on the North Slope to get the firewood and boy was it a ride! We crossed Carcass Creek and when I saw the condition of the road I looked at Dad to see if he was serious about driving down it. As far as I was concerned there was no longer a road just a wash with billions of boulders, the smallest being about the size of a basketball. I was a little afraid that Old Green wasn't going to make it and fall apart as we bounced across. I should have taken a picture of it but was too busy holding on and trying not to hit my head on the roof of the truck. When we finally finished that section and got to an open meadow, Dad casually stops the truck and says he better put it into 4-wheel drive. I looked at him in disbelief and said "It's going to get worse than what we just did?!" "Yep." he said with a little smirk on his face.... So below are some picture of what we then crossed in trying to get to Dewey's Upper Road where there was a log that dad wanted to get to.

Here's the part of the road that Dad put Old Green in 4-wheel drive for.

Good Ol' Green was a trooper and held together well. You can see from the sides of the tires that it was quite a little jaunt! We got the truck loaded with firewood and I was even lucky enough to see some fall colors still - not a lot but some.

On my birthday, Friday, I went to Richfield with Mom for a day of shopping. It was a lot of fun. That night Brandon, Marie, & the kids came over for homemade pizza and games. The kids liked blowing out the candles on my birthday pumpkin roll. Brandon finally had to take matters into his own hands!

Saturday we went to the holiday craft fair and that afternoon we had Tal's b-day party. It was a Knight and Princess party so we all dressed up and a make sheilds and had sword fights. It was fun and Tal loved it. He even fought and conquered the Dark Knight!

It was a good weekend and we had lots of fun! Happy b-day to me & Tal!

time to start counting down!

Now that the first snow of the season has fallen I'm feeling the holidays coming!! I love this time of year! On Sunday when I drove into work with the snow falling all around and drinking hot cocoa because it was so cold outside, I was really wishing that I had my Christmas music. I know most of you are probably cringing and thinking that I'm crazy but I LOVE IT!! I even bought my first holiday decoration the other day.

(And no, I don't forget about Thanksgiving but consider it all as part of the holiday season...)

So with that being said...Let the holiday season begin!

together forever

On Saturday Natalie and I drove down to Manti to go to Becca's & Joe's temple sealing. It was awesome. We went through a session first and then had the sealing after. It was wonderful to see them sealed and then to see their little boy Wesley come in dressed in a white tux was adorable. The blessings and ordinances of the temple are so beautiful! After the sealing we went out to take pictures and while waiting for everyone to group up it started snowing! So, all the pictures ended up with snowflakes and waterspots and everyone freezing! Mom came up and went through the session with us. Afterwards, she and I ran to lunch and Walmart before we all headed home. It was a fun day!

a day at work

On Friday it was our quarterly department outing. We had a meeting that morning and then we went up to Solitude ski resort and played a game of frisbee golf. It was a lot of fun! For those of you who have never played it, it's a lot like golf but played with frisbees instead of golf balls (hence the name).

Niki, Dave, me

Group shot of everyone.
Back L-R: Steve, Nikol, Carly, David, David, Kelly, Jerry
Middle L-R: Jason, Allison, Niki, Anthony, me
Front L-R: Nick, Greg, Eric, Sammie, Jennifer


Hiking up to the first hole.


This is the platform that everyone has to stand on when you threw the first frisbee at the beginning of each hole. If you look close you can see an orange flag at the bottom. That's the goal - to get your frisbee in the basket with as few throws as possible. Some were a little tricky because there were trees in the way... or moose...


He was right in our path!


After throwing each time everyone had to go searching for where your frisbee landed (sometimes in trees and you had to get them down or find a new frisbee). Once the frisbees were located you got to decide as a team who had the better shot at the pin and then everyone threw from that spot.


Here's my team - go us!

Bring it on boys!

At the end of the course, which was Brighton ski resort, we added up scores (how many throws per hole) and turns out my team was victorious! We won a free day off with pay! Wahoo!

Overall, it was a great day and lots of fun! Can't wait until the next outing!

Labor Day Weekend

Over Labor Day weekend we got together in Logan. I had gone up to visit and spend the day with Maureen on Thursday and then everyone else came up late Thursday night or on Friday. On Friday Mom, Dad, Grandpa, & I went out to Lynn & Laurie's place and helped them dig trenches for their sprinkling system. Later that afternoon I took Mom and Laurie to get pedicures. Mom had never had one before so we had to go show her what she has been missing out on!



The rest of the weekend we spent shopping, visiting, and eating together. Grandpa has taken over for Grandma and is always planning the next meal after we just finish a meal. It's cute. Love ya gramps! It was a great weekend and it will be fun to do it all again in a couple weeks when Kandice and her family is in town!

good times!

On August 14th I went down to meet up with Lisa and Alynn to see Pride & Prejudice - The Musical. Lisa had got tickets so we went for her birthday. It was a lot of fun! I was a little hesitant about it being a musical...but, it was pretty good!

I had left Salt Lake right after work to advoid rush hour traffic and figured I could easily kill some time in Provo. I ended up at the RC Willey outlet where I met and fell in love with a hutch. I was able to talk the salesman down $600 dollars and ended up buying it! It's so cute! They only problem was that it was now in Provo and I had to figure out a way to get it from there to Salt Lake since it wouldn't fit in my car. So I arranged with Dad to come up the following weekend which he agreed to. But, later I decided to see if Ray would let me borrow his truck and save my parents the trip. He agreed to let me borrow it so we did a car swap on Monday & I drove down to Provo and picked it up. Once I got it back to my apartment I enlisted the help of a couple of guys in the complex who helped me unload it. Once we got it into my apartment and tried to stand it up I found out that it was too tall!! So I had to take the legs off, stand it up, and then put the legs on it again one side at a time. But, now it's all together and looks beautiful!!!

Memory Lane

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

Gone Campin'

Our family vacation this year was to go camping for a week up on "our mountain" - Boulder. It was a lot of fun! It was great to get away from the city and life in general and enjoy nature.

It was a week of firsts for me this week too. After 20+ years of asking Dad if I could try cutting something with his chainsaw he finally gave in and let me cut some firewood. It was fun but after sawing up one log my arms were tired! Guess I need to get back to my weight lifting class and strengthen my arms up again.

Another first was that Marie and I tried out Brandons motorcycle while he was at work one day. I have never attempted to drive it by myself. It was a challenge with my short legs but after tipping it over once, trying to start it a bazillion times andthen getting it started and killing it right off I finally succeeded. Thanks Marie for the tips and help!

Overall it was a great week. We had some rain towards the end of the week so I was able to enjoy my favorite smell of all - wet mountain, pine, & quakies. LOVE IT!!! and it makes for some fun scenic photos.

The Old Torrey Rock Church House

A little piece of Torrey is changing forever on Main Street. This month they are demolishing the old Rock Chapel and building a new and larger church. It's a little sad because this is the first chapel I can remember going to. I remember back to when it was the cultural hall and the front that now has the church name was the front doors and some steps leading up to it. To the right, you walked around on the sidewalk, up 2 steps, and then to the left was another enterance to the small kitchen area or to the left to the small modular trailer where we met for sacrament meeting. I also remember seeing Santa on the front steps and performing dances and singing songs on the stage inside. I guess it's memories like these that we'll keep and the pictures that we have to remember the Old Rock Church by. It's great that Torrey Ward now needs a larger ward house but it's sad to think of no longer driving down main street and seeing this piece of Torrey history.

4th of July

For the weekend of the 4th I went down home to go camping out on Boulder for the first time this summer. I so love it out there! Mom, Dad, & I worked on Friday and loaded the truck with firewood. Later that day Wes & Corinne showed up so we visited for a while and then loaded their truck with firewood too. Rob with the Forest Service showed up and for the first time ever they checked to see if Dad & Wes had wood permits. Mom had to take a picture and document the occasion! We had dinner together that night, dutch oven potatoes, chicken, & corn on the cob. Yum!

On Saturday morning we got up early and headed back into town to go to Torrey Apple Days. Ruby & Wendell came down to go to the festivities and see how us small town folk celebrate our freedoms. They came down the night before and stayed at the house so we all got ready the next morning and went down to Torrey. We watched the parade, walked through the booths on main street, and then watched Mom at sing at the patriotic program that afternoon. It was a lot of fun and great to see some people that I hadn't seen for a while. Ruby & Wendell both enjoyed and was impressed by Wayne County.

We went back out on the mountain Saturday evening. We got about halfway back and Mom remembered that she hadn't grabbed the trailer keys out of her purse so we had to turn around and go back to the house and then head out again. On Sunday we slept in and then went for a 4-wheeler ride out around Lost Springs, down past Antelope Springs and then back to camp. It was a lot of fun and some beautiful scenery.

The trailer got flat tire on the way out so we, and when I say "we" I mean Dad, had to change the tire before we could load up and go. However, the spare tire was also flat so Dad took it into town with us on Saturday and fixed it so he changed it on Sunday before we left. I offered to help... but this was the look I got...