INDIAN RUINS

While in Blanding for Thanksgiving Codee and I went on quite the excursion looking at indian ruins. His aunt and uncle own over a hundred acres of land with multiple indian ruins on them. They gave us each a four-wheeler to ride and we set out for the afternoon.
When we started I thought we were just going to one ruin that they had been talking about. But they took us to 5 different places on their property. I can't even begin to describe how amazing everything is. At each ruin you can find broken pottery, arrowheads, tools, jewelry and many other things. What is so amazing about all of it is that the ruins are from the Anasazi Indians from approximately 1500 years ago. YES I said one thousand five hundred years ago. Some archeologists even believe they emerged around 1200 B.C.
With each site we went to the trip became more amazing! I am now completely fascinated with the history of this region. I even brought home a few pieces of broken pottery. You have to see the pictures I took!!! And I apologize now for the picture overload. Words simply can't describe everything we saw. The first 2 ruins had to be dug out. Yes... someone sifted through all the dirt and has uncovered the ancient homes. And you'll see a picture of my brusied, swollen ankle from when I accidently rolled the four-wheeler over myself while going up a steep hill.
Their dogs that seriosuly ran miles while we rode the four-wheelers.

Ridin' dirty

Welcome home!

The front door

Some sort of work place. They think maybe for grinding grain or working with food.

The next ruin


Writing on the wall

Another location

This one was way up on the ledge of a cliff

I don't think I could live a week here...

They think this is where they would sharpen thier tools and sticks

And they saved the best for last. This ruin was underneath a cliff and seriosuly spectacular!










And my big ankle! This was right after it happened, it was literally black 2 days later.

This is some of the pottery, jewelry and tools they've recovered from their property. All the pots were smashed and have been carefully glued back together. They spent over a month looking for one missing piece on one.

THANKSGIVING

For Thanksgiving this year Codee took me down to Blanding to have Thanksgiving with his grandparents. I have never been to Blanding and all I knew is that it was a very small town. So small, it doesn't even have a traffic signal... just a flashing 4-way stop. They do have a Subway (which almost every small town has) and an A&W inside of a gas station. Oh! And they also had a movie theatre! And it surprisingly wasn't playing "Old Yeller".
Codee's grandparents made an AMAZING Thanksgiving feast! Later that night, Codee's grandma showed me pictures from her genealogy book. She had pictures of her family from the late 1800's. It was so fascinating to see so much history! And it was fun to see the pictures of Codee when he was little and pictures of his mom when she was growing up.
I was very surprised with how much fun we had over the weekend. The town holds a lot more excitement then you'd expect.

Codee's grandpa making the best mashed potatoes I've ever had in my life!

Codee's Grandma, Codee's mom Kitt and his brother Kye

Adorable Sydney!

My Thanksgiving feast!

P-DUB

For those of you who know how much I love The Pioneer Woman you can only imagine how excited I was to get her new cookbook and go to her book signing. My friend Kirie is the one who introduced me to this amazing woman and her amazing blog. Kirie flew all the way up from Las Vegas to go to the book signing!
The signing was supposed to start at 7 which was when I was planning on arriving. Little did I know that Pioneer Woman has a HUGE following in Utah. Codee and I made it up to the bookstore only to find out that we'd have to be in line till at least 1 a.m. before we could meet her and have my book signed. UGH! I was so bummed!! Luckily Kirie and her mom had arrived 4 hours early and were at the front of the line to meet her. So I gave my book to Kirie to get signed. I'm still so sad I didn't get to meet her. But at least my book is signed.
And if you haven't heard of The Pionner Woman then you're really missing out. Go to her website right now and make her Apple Dumplings. Then you can die and go to heaven knowing that you've fully lived.

GOBBLE GOBBLE

Heartland Paper has the cutest holiday crafts! I saw this turkey and I had to get the kit to make him! I know it doesn't seem like there is much to him but it took me 4 HOURS to make him! And I am very proud he's done and sitting on the counter. He's going to look so good when Codee and I go to Blanding next week for Thanksgiving. My friend Anne and I are making a Christmas craft from Heartland soon. I'll have the pictures up when we're done.

HALLOWEEN

Every year my family has a Halloween party where everyone brings a soup and we carve pumpkins. Codee and I brought our famous (yes its famous) chicken enchilada soup. Codee's mom and little brother came down from Logan to go with us. Codee's pumpkin was seriously AMAZING! OH! And I need mention that Codee is the worlds fastest pumpkin gut cleaner. He can clean out any regular size pumpkin in under 2.75 minutes.

And for Halloween night we took Mariah and her best friends Chelsey trick-or-treating again this year. Our costumes were very last minute. I threw together a Little Red Riding Hood costume and Codee wore a scary mask. I promise next year I am going to get us some WICKED costumes to make up for us not dressing up the past 2 years.
We started our trick-or-treating excursion in Draper. We thought the huge million dollar mansions by the Draper Temple would be handing out $100 bills. Boy were we wrong. All the girls got was a couple lame tootsie rolls. So went back to our original plan to go back to Canal Road in Taylorsville like we did last year. The houses were much more generous. Each girl ended up with 11 big candy bars and lots of other good stuff.
And my Togo Love was so ADORABLE in his lobster costume! Everyone loved him! He even got a couple dog treats from some houses.

BAYSIDE

Bayside is Codee's favorite band ever! I'm learning to like them more than I used to. The concert was downtown at "In The Venue". It was so crowded! Codee had to rescue me from a mosh pit. And after the show we talked to the members of Bayside at their merchandice booth. I was going to ask them if they'd play at the wedding but I was too scared.

WE'RE ALIVE

First off, I apologize for my lack of blogging the past of couple months. So be ready for blog overload. Not really... I just have a few posts. Truth is, Codee and I have been so busy lately. Codee has had so much homework and busy with the project on 11400 south. And I've been just been scrapbooking and working. We're lame!

MY LOSER DAD

My dad has always been a pretty big guy (if you know what I mean). This was always great in high school because he could scare away the boys he didn't want coming around to pick me up. Well, starting mid-July he decided that he'd had enough. He started taking nightly walks, nothing too difficult. He would go for an hour to an hour and half and listen to his ipod. The first 2 weeks were pretty hard to get into a routine. His walks consisted of 5 miles daily. He also started eating healthier and taking smaller portions.

3 1/2 months later he has kept up his routine and started using the elliptical machine as well. On the weekends he does 2 workouts a day, at least an hour each. Well ladies and gentleman... today he hit his goal of losing 75 LBS!

75 LBS PEOPLE!!!!!!

I am seriously so proud of him. He has decreased his risk of diabetes and heart disease, which is a huge risk factor in our family. Plus he looks SO GOOD! He has gone from a size 40 waist to a 34. Keep it up Dad! I'm so proud of you and love you!!

This is us at my graduation in May. (He went to BYU so this is him trying to display his "Y".)

And 75 lbs later...this is him working out on the elliptical machine.