Merry Christmas!

Three Months in Review

Here we are again, behind in our blogging. Why have we delayed posting an update for so long, you ask? I like to think it's because we've been doing so much we just haven't had the time. Or maybe its the depression of a future controlled by the Democrats. Who knows, but here is an update on the past few months.


We took a weekend trip to Moab with Bev's sister Heather and her family. We spent the time mountain biking, visiting Arches, pushing the stroller up Slickrock (I think the mountain bikers thought we were crazy), catching lizards, and camping in the beautiful southern Utah red rock.

We watched Megan, Bev's sister, run the Top of Utah Marathon. It was her first and she did amazing, finishing in under 4 hrs! Way to go Meg.





We took a short trip to southern California and luckily timed it just right so we missed the first Utah snow storm. We spent some quality time at the beach, and loved the warm weather. We also got to visit and stay with Bev's old roommate Becky and her family. Thanks again Becky for letting us stay with you.



We rescued this dragon fly from a watery death only to later be devoured by seagulls. ( I think the watery death may have been better)


We rented a tandem bike and road it on a path along the beach. We highly recommend tandem bikes, it's the best way to travel along the beach.
We went to LA and saw the Broadway musical Wicked. Neither of us knew much about it before we went, but we loved it. It was fun to get all dressed up and go to a show.

We also spent a day at the happiest place on earth, Disneyland. They were all decked out for Halloween. If you look closely the A's on this sign are candy corns. Neither of us had been to Disneyland in years, and it brought back a lot of fun memories. I think we leave just enough time between projects to forget all of the pain and suffering that come with them. We painted our living room red. It actually turned out better than expected, but of course was also a lot more work than we were planning on. Just in case any of you are planning on painting your walls red expect to put about 6 layers of paint on before it looks like the color on the card.

We'll try our best in the future to be better bloggers. But this Democrat depression could last 4 years.

We Moved!

We know it's been quite a while since we have updated our blog, but this time we actually have a good reason. WE MOVED!! What do you get when you move from a 3 bedroom 3 bath to a 2 bedroom 1 bath apartment??? A lot of nice lawn funiture! It has been quite the process since the place we moved to is quite a bit smaller than our last place. It is amazing how much junk you can collect in just 1 year.
The place we moved to also needed some fixing up before we moved in. One of the bedrooms was painted a bright turquoise blue (including the ceiling) and the other was a light green and grey. The owners told us that they would pay for the paint if we wanted to re-paint the place. Ruth and Dan were so nice to come help us paint. We are also so grateful for everyone else who helped us move. We couldn't have done it without you! We still have a few projects to complete, like putting door knobs back on, and painting the living room, but for the most part we're finally settled in and enjoying our new place.

As if moving wasn't enough we've kept busy this past month with various other activities, some of which are:

We went on a hike up Adams Canyon with our friends Jeff and Michelle. We are sad they just moved to Oklahoma for Jeff to start Law school.


Jakes parents have apricot trees at their house. They were nice enought to let Jake and I pick a few. We got a food dryer for our wedding and thought we would try it out and put the dried apricots in our food storage. Sadly after drying the fruit we brought it to our new place and our wonderful swamp cooler did a great job of rehydrating them!
For a date night a few weeks ago we went to a drive-in movie. Jake borrowed his dad's truck and their ginormous lovesack and put it in the back of the truck. It was the most comfortable movie I have ever watched and we are hoping to do it again soon. The movie we saw was cute but a little boring for the drive-in (we found ourselves watching some of the other movies on the other screens around us).
We celebrated our 1 year anniversary! I can't believe it has been a year already, but at the same time I can hardly remember life without Jake. This last year has had some unexpected trials, but I feel like my love and admiration for Jake has grown so much more through them. I can't believe how lucky I am!
We ran a 5k in memory of our triathlon last year (we're still bitter we didn't get into it this year).
Jake and I have been trying to find ways to save some money, so I attempted giving my first haircut. Jake was brave enough to be my guineapig. Lets just say that Jake won't need another haircut for a couple months! I also gave a trim to one of our plants that had a hard time with our move. Which haircut looks better? You be the judge!

Jake was so sweet for my birthday. This year he made me breakfast before we headed off to work that morning. When I got home after work he had rented a canoe and had it waiting for us to go canoeing! It was such a fun adventure.
Hopefully you will hear from us again soon!

Reunion Time

What do you get when you take forty people, including three infants, to the wilderness of central utah for three days? Well, besides a lot of people in desperate need of a shower, you get the spectacular Annual Miller Family Reunion. Evey year over the July 4th weekend we get together with the Millers for a few days of camping near Fish Lake. We play games, sing around the campfire, go hiking and biking, have scavenger hunts, eat amazing food, and just enjoy being together as a family.

This year we went a day early with the rest of Bev's family so we could enjoy the 4th of July festivities in Richfield and hike to Lost Lake before the reunion began. The Richfield parade was fun, especially for the kids who hauled away more candy than any two halloweens combined. To the adults the parade seemed more like an excuse for local businesses to get some cheap advertising, there were only two floats during the 90 minute parade, but plenty of average cars and trucks with a company logo. We still enjoyed watching the kids scramble for candy and the vintages cars that were part of the parade.
We then headed up to the Lost Lake Trailhead and began the 6 mile round-trip hike. We enjoyed the cooler temperature on the mountain and the smell of fresh pine. We hiked past a few monsterous beaver dams and eventually made it to the lake. We had fun at the lake and took a much needed rest and some took a swim in the freezing mountain water. The only casualty of the hike were my feet that had 5 blisters each, some the size of silver dollars, by the time we reached the cars (next time I'll be sure to wear some better shoes). It was a wonderful hike and great to finally see the Lost Lake I've heard so much about.
Friday night we set-up camp without any problems, and caught-up with all of the extended family. Of course it rained hard for about 15min, just long enough to soak all of the camp-chairs but we managed. Saturday we played bolo golf (the most popular game this reunion), volleyball, ticket-to-ride, and went for a bike ride. We were also introduced to the game of Sow, a thrilling game that involves everyone (all 40 of us) swinging big sticks at a can and at each other's shins until the "sow" gets the can in a hole and then we all run like mad to the designated area. Thankfully we only had one casualty, Megan took a stick in mouth, however, she is accident prone so maybe this wasn't an actual casualty but just another "Megan" incident. We capped the night with smores and singing around the campfire. Sunday we held our own little sacrament and testimony meeting. It's amazing how close the spirit is when you're in the mountains surrounded by God's creations. We then sadly broke camp and made the long drive home.

We enjoyed the time off from work and more importantly the time spent with family. This was our first camping experience since we've been married and have decided that we need to go more often. So if anyone is in search of camping pals let us know, we're there!