All I want for Christmas....

Parents Beware: Think twice before taking your kids to see Santa this year....
Don't be fooled by the "Oh-so-jolly" look.

Is that his serial number below?

What did we do before computers?

I think its a valid question, that I personally cannot answer. I'm sure they got by just fine, it just took a lot more time and work! I'm so grateful for computers!

For the past three days at work, our network has been shut down. And without my computer, I am completely at a loss. I can't do anything here! I've got long lists of things I have to do once the computers are up and running again.

Luckily I've got the internet! So here I am, trying to make it through the day, blogging.

It's finally here!

I've waited so long for this day to come! In-N-Out is in UTAH!

I know there are a lot of lovers and a lot of haters out there. Mostly fence sitters. But I'm gonna put it out there that I am most definitely a lover! It is so delicious and so fresh, i mean you can watch them cutting the potatoes through the window! I think we owe it all to Chadder's for opening up there stores in Utah, the made In-N-Out made and brought them to us! So thank you Chadder's for making my dreams come true!

The Draper store opened up yesterday morning. I don't love it enough to eat it at 9:00am, but we did go last night at like 10:30 hoping the crowd would have died down a little bit. It was LONG line. But moved quickly and only waited 30 minutes! Well worth every minute! It has been long over due that they needed to come to Salt lake county and they finally have! YEA!

If you haven't been yet- GO! You won't regret it! :)

Utah in the Fall

Last weekend Blair and I decided to take Charlee up American Fork Canyon! It was her first time and it was such a beautiful day, I wanted to see all the fall trees before it was too late. It was perfect, and Charlee had the time of her life! :)

Charlee's first time at the lake. It took her a little while to get use to it.

Blair held Charlee over the water and I cleaned off her muddy paws and this is Blair carrying her back to the car so she wouldnt get his car all dirty.

(this picture just makes me laugh)

They never look at the camera when you want them to......

Back in the USA

Blair and I finally made it home safely last Sunday from our cruise to Europe! I know its taken me a while to get our pictures posted, but we've had a hard time adjusting to the time, weather, and cold season. Both of us have been sick this past week.

To brief you on the most amazing trip of our lives: the weather was beautiful! It was 80 degrees and sunny the whole time. We got really lucky! We were there for seven days which just flew by. And it almost feels like a dream now. It was so surreal being there and experiencing the things we did and saw. Its crazy to actually be standing in the Colloseum and thinking that you are standing where the romans stood thousands and thousands of years ago. The architecture and culture and atmosphere of being there is unreal. Everything was exactly how you would imagine it to be, only better. It was such and amazing time and Blair and I both feel really lucky that we had the opportunity to go and see it all.

We started our cruise out in Barcelona, Spain and then hit five more stops: Cannes, France; Portofino, Italy; Florance, Italy; Rome, Italy; and Naples, Italy.

Unfortunatly we didn't really get to see much for Barcelona.. we just snapped a couple pics from the cab as we were going to our ship. So this is the cemetary. Looks crazy their coffins or whatever are actually placed into the walls there.

Barcalona from the streets

First thing we saw when we got up the next morning. Hundreds of sail boats everywhere.

Streets of Cannes, France. Just how I would imagine it! (only better)

Sushi on the back deck with sunset everynight! Rough life huh?

Portofino, Italy - Are we in a postcard? I know I have a puzzle of this....

Pizza del Duomo in Florance - 2nd largest church in the world.

Colosseum - By far the most amazing thing to see!

The Arch and St. Peter's Basillica

Sculptures from the Vatican Museum.

(Couldn't take pictures of the Sistine Chapel but it was breathtaking)

Streets and homes and resturants of the city of Herculaneum.

This was the Ruins of Herculaneum, just a couple miles away from our last port - Naples, Italy. This city was near Pomeii and was devestated by the volcano that erupted in 79AD. The city was built in the 4th century BC and was thought to be founded by the legendary Hercules. (Hence the name) This was an elite Roman resort and instead of being covered by by lava and ash it was buried by mud. Which preserved the city with more detail. It was decovered in the 1700's and only 8 blocks have been uncovered. The excavation and findings are still continuing today. It was so interesting to see all of the detail and history there.

It was such an amazing trip and very surreal to experience all we did. But we are so happy and grateul to be back home in Utah!

Guilty Pleasures.....

There is something about carnival's that draws me to them every time. I have to go every year to AT LEAST one to get corn dogs and cotton candy. I am a sucker for a good greasy corn dog from the carnival, they make them the best there. I know, its shameful it to take joy in such a fattening food, but I can't help it. I love them, and they were delicious! :)

Just a few highlights from the carnival we up this weekend at the Riverton Town Days.

This is the ride we went on last year, that ended up being one ride too many for Blair. Needless to say, we avoided the rickety rides this year!


We got one of the "Carney's" to pose for us! I don't know where all these people come from.

What would any carnival be, without the classic Ferris Wheel?

Twice in a month?

I can only blog when something exciting happens... At least exciting enough that made it worthy for pictures. Unfortunately for those who read this blog, I'm sure you know by now, I'm not a writer! So I have to fill up the blog post with pictures! :) So I'll keep it short and sweet....


Our McDonald Family Camp-out! We went down to Moab this year to hike the arches. I have to say, once again, I was a first-timer! Never had I seen these beautiful arches with my own eyes! I loved it though, we had a blast! We did a lot of hiking and had fun camping together!

"The Delicate Arch" (I can never remember the name of this arch)

Reese had a long hard hike up to the top! She's was not a happy camper (no pun intended)!

"The Double O"

They made it.... Like men (or monkeys-i can't tell)!

Addie on the trail of "Park Avenue"

Park Avenue" By Far the easiest hike we did..... All down hill and one way! :)

I love this picture of Reese! She was loving playing with Uncle Blair

until next time.......

967 miles later...

Memorial day weekend 2009:

Didn't turn out quite as we planned, but better than we hoped.

We had a fun filled weekend planned with some of our friends to go camping in Southern Utah at Calf Creek. Regardless of the weather warnings of flash floods in the area, we were determined to enjoy our extended weekend! After getting lost and driving through podunkville after podunkville we arrived at our destination at 1 AM only to find the very inaccuarate weatherman, just so happened to be dissapointed-ly accurate. We stepped out of the car, grabbed the umbrella and followed the river to our campsite, where at least 8 other tents were soggingly sleeping.

After a brief walk through the camp Blair decided the car would be our tent for the night (wouldn't recommend it - not the most comfortable bed but better than a water bed in the wild). We woke up only to find buckets of water still pouring all around us. Watching the water-logged hikers just didn't appeal, so Blair called a quick audible, and ditched the optomistic "it's gonna stop any second" campers. So, we hit the road, to St. George.

Blair's "tough-guy" look!

We passed these man-made arches on our way through Escalante, it was the most excitement Blair showed since we had hit rain.

We stopped at every other Scenic Turnout to take pictures! It was gorgeous.

Apparently, it costs money just to drive through Zion's. I'd never been, so it just added to the adventure. Our first excited citing through the park.

Half way point of what turned out to be the hardest hike of my life! On the trail of Angels Landing. If you can't tell, i'm not super happy about having to smile for the camera. I was tired!

Nothing a little water and some shade can't fix. I had to have a change of heart if I was gonna make it to the top of that mountain!

We both made it to the top! YAY!


The last 1/2 mile of the hike is on a narrow trail of rock with cliffs that drop thousands of feet on either side of you. Nerve-racking to say the least. As we got to the top we could see dark clouds and lightning in the distance. We knew we had to get off that mountain! We started to make our way down, as we are watching other's still climb and claw their way to top. With only chains and some boulders to save us, 50 MPH winds hit hard! We literally thought we were going to get blown off the mountain and plummet to our death. I said my last good-bye to Blair. We couldn't see with sand in our eyes and the sand was blowing around so hard it felt like pellits as it hit our body. There were still those anxious and determined to make it to the top, we tried to warn them it but wasn't worth the risk. Some listened, some didn't. We'll never know if everyone made it off that mountain alive. ;)


Once we were back on solid ground, feeling weak in the legs but proud, we got back on the road and continued our journey on to St. George. That night everything was sold out except the 1980 honeymoon suite at the Best Western, heart-shaped jet tub and all.... but just didn't know if we were willing to take the risk of actually using it so we passed but laughed at the thought of it!


The whole weekend was a big success full of In-and-Out burgers, rock-climbing, shady hotel rooms, aimless driving, and lounging pool-side.

Morning Sunshine!

Charlee's favorite thing to do is wake up Blair in the morning! It is the cutest thing. Every morning I take her outside and as soon as she gets back in the house she is bolting right back into the bedroom and jumping up on the bed and licks Blair clean! She is so funny and so much fun to have around.

Last week, Blair was out of town for work. And as Charlee's routine every morning she would run to the bed to see if Blair would be there for his daily wake up call. Every day he was gone she would go running back there, and every day would turn around in disappointment. I was sad for her but at the same time, it was so cute to watch her so wishfully hoping that her daddy would be there to give her loves.

The best day of her life, I think, was the day that Blair got home. He came home in the middle of the night, so he wasn't there when she went to bed, but was there when she woke up. And just as usual as soon as we came inside she went rushing back to the bedroom in hopes to find Daddy. She went back there expecting to be disappointed once again and heard her name as Blair called her to him. In such excitement and shock she jumped on the bed and kissed and licked him for AT LEAST 5 minutes!! It was the cutest thing I ever saw!