Here's a picture of our Christmas card and our tree that we got. This will probably be the last year we get a real tree for a while. It was quite a chore getting it into our tree stand and getting it to actually stand up straight! Thanks to David's Mom and Grandma for the majority of the decorations. :) Merry Christmas, everyone!
The other weekend, we had a bunch of people come into town for the U2 concert that was on Oct. 23. Andrew (Dadoo) and Mandy came in on Thursday afternoon and we went to dinner and had some delicious steak and lobster before heading to a free Our Lady Peace concert. It was a really fun concert and they put on a great show. Besides all the people smoking around us, I had a great time.
On Friday morning we woke up really early at 5am (giving me roughly 5 hours of sleep) to get to the U2 line at 6am. I think I was number 261 in line. I slept in the car for a little while, which wasn't very comfortable since I didn't have a pillow or anything, and then hung out with everyone in the line for a while. I drove around for a while after that, taking people to the library and various places and picking up some show tickets for some people that wouldn't be going to the concert.
The concert was great, although I was quite exhausted by the end of it. It didn't help that we were again pretty close to some smokers and the whole parking lot was dirt and created a lot of dust, so my allergies were really bad by the end of the night.
The whole big group (17 people) met up the next day to have brunch at the buffet at Silverton Lodge. We also happened to hit it just right to watch the diver feed the sharks in their big aquarium, which was cool.
Dadoo and Mandy were staying at the Stratosphere, so they were able to get 4 free tickets for us all to go to the top, and Laura and Mason also joined us. We also went to the Red Rock casino later to see the fire on the water.
It was a great weekend! We had a ton of fun and it was great seeing everyone!
So, I know a lot of you voted on the puppy names poll and some of you may not know what name we decided on. I don't know why it took me so long to decide, but I guess I wasn't in love with any of the names or they just didn't seem quite right somehow. I eventually had to just decide though, and I ended up with Roxy. She actually hardly ever gets called that though. Roxy is her official name for the Vet, etc. but David had decided early on that her name should be Chompers. She got that name because since we've had her she often bites or chomps at the air when we are playing with her or when she gets frustrated or wants something. So, David wouldn't budge and refused to call her anything but Chompers, which is now usually shortened to Chomps. We do have a lot of other random nicknames for her also, like Flopper, Lil' Pup, Puppy, Pupper Poo, Little Chomps, Frogley, Bug eater, Fattie, Little Wag, Little Bear, and Wet Beard.
A couple of weeks ago my sister Jennifer came to visit for about a week before going on to Oregon. We didn't get to do a lot of stuff since I was still working, but we did some shopping, got to see a free show called Matsuri at Imperial Palace, and Jennifer relaxed in the spa a lot while I was working. She got along well with our puppy Roxy (aka Chomps or Chompers) and she was sad when Jennifer had to go. Jennifer is now hanging out at our parents house in Oregon until she goes into the MTC on the 21st.
David and I went to Oregon a couple of weeks ago to visit my parents and my sister and her family, and David's brother Michael and his wife Kristen, who just moved there from San Diego.
It was good to see everyone and enjoy the cooler weather there. I was able to spend time with my nieces and nephews, although I guess I'm a little biased because my youngest niece got the majority of pictures taken out of everyone.
We went to an art and air festival one of the days with my family. My dad enjoyed looking at the classic cars and the kids got to make some crafts. There was a food booth there with deep fried twinkies and snickers, but I didn't try any. We also went to a rock house/museum with the kids that was pretty interesting.
We went with my parents to Foster Lake in Sweet Home and walked around. It was cool to see the blackberry bushes growing right along the water. My mom and David and I also went on a walking tour of some historic homes in Albany. On the last day staying with my parents, we went to the coast together and ate seafood (of course), went to the aquarium, and saw the sea lions at the pier.
David and I stayed with Michael and Kristen for the rest of the trip. They had just moved there about a week before, so David helped Michael move stuff into his new office at Oregon State and we went house-hunting a little bit with them too. They taught us a fun new card game that we played a couple of times, and we went hiking and saw some historic covered bridges (and encountered a snake). We also went to the farmer's market where I found a delicious orange watermelon, white peaches and yellow plums.
We drove up to Portland on one of the days and went to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry and saw an IMAX movie. After the museum we went downtown to find a place to eat, but couldn't find the restaurant that had come up on the GPS, so David and I ate at this area of ethnic food stands that we came across. David and I then met up with Crystal and her family and took the kids to the Portland Children's Museum while Michael and Kristen went to the Portland Temple. Then we all went to dinner at a Mongolian bbq restaurant at Brian and Crystal's suggestion.
It was a great trip and fun to see everybody and enjoy all the green. Until next year...
More pictures at this link: http://picasaweb.google.com/schmelode/Oregon2009?authkey=Gv1sRgCKPX-tyWkcqKpgE#
My sister Jennifer just received her mission call yesterday. She will be serving in the Hawaii, Honolulu mission and will serve at the Laie Hawaii Temple in the visitor's center. She goes in to the MTC on October 21. I am very excited for her!
David and I just got a new puppy. She is a cockapoo (cocker spaniel/poodle) and is 12 weeks old. We are working on the training process, but she seems to be doing pretty well so far. She doesn't bark and seems to be a good puppy, besides the not sleeping through the night part. Hopefully that won't last too long...
Here are some pictures and a little video at the bottom (no sound though). We haven't decided on a name yet, so if you have any ideas you can give us suggestions in the comments section!
We recently finished getting our backyard landscaped, and we're pretty happy with the results. Our yard was just dirt with a concrete slab by the sliding glass door before. Our yard is L-shaped, so we didn't have a lot of width to work with, and the HOA also said we had to plant things 3 ft away from the wall/fence. We put an area of artificial grass in for the dog that we are hoping to get soon (also, real grass does not do well here in Las Vegas). The plants will be getting bigger and start to look nicer as some time goes by. Here are some pictures!
