22 November 2007-- Mario's First Thanksgiving:

We began our dinner preparations at around 7:30 am. After Jared and Jenny arrived at 1:30, we ate, and then we ate some more. We had turkey, ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, sweet and sour meatballs, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, fresh spinach with bacon, carrots, a fresh fruit platter of pineapple, peaches, and strawberries, homemade and canned cranberry sauce, dinner rolls, and croissants. For dessert we had pumpkin pie with whipped cream, banana cream pie, pecan pie, and sparkling ciders. Needless to say, we ate way too much food today!


The turkey weighs 3 times (~15 lbs) as much as Mario (~ 5lbs)



We watched the newest Die Hard movie on DVD after dinner. Later in the evening, winter weather blew in and sprinkled snow all over New Mexico! Here's our front lawn with the beautiful white stuff.

Here's Jenny and Jared's Christmas stocking with Mario in it! We had to pull him out so we could see his face.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING everyone! We are very grateful for our family and for each of you.

Two trips to Provo to see Jessica & Sebastian (Jun & Oct 2007)

June 22-25, 2007. We took a trip to Utah recently between spring and summer term at BYU to see Jessica and Sebastian. Highlights of our trip were: spending a day at Seven Peaks Water Park, driving the Alpine loop with a stop at Cascade Springs, and dinner at Brick Oven for a reenactment of Jessica's first date with Sebastian.

Sam, Sebastian, and "Tuffy", chilling out before the water slide adventures--100-foot free-fall drop slides. If you fail to cross your legs, the water cleans out your large intestine!

Celestine could not resist feeding some horses near Sundance.


Cascade Springs is a good place to cool down on a hot June day:



We packed a picnic lunch with some yummy Funions.
We finished our trip by going to church with our sweethearts and helping Jessica in the nursery.

October 11-14, 2007. For UNM's fall break, we decided to visit Jessica and Sebastian again. We spent most of the time hiking to Timpanogos caves and eating out. It was also my birthday, and Celestine and Jessica made country fried steak and mashed potatoes for dinner. Jessica made an Oreo ice cream pie for dessert--my mouth waters just thinking of it! Here are some cool fall pictures of the hike up to the cave:


As an added bonus, we were able to see Vicky (Tenney) Petterson. We were friends back in our Ricks College days! We hadn't seen her for 18 years!! She remembers holding Sam when he was a baby. Sam wanted to be held again--he misses being a baby.

High Adventure on the Gila River, NM (May-June 2007)

This year, our Venturing Crew went on two high adventures. The first was a rim-to-rim-to-rim backpacking trip in the Grand Canyon. The second was a rafting trip down the Gila River in New Mexico on our homemade rafts. Here are the plans for the rafts:


We made the rafts at Rob Sorensen's yard and finished them up at our yard. Here is a picture of some of the rafts in front of our house:

The rafts were loaded, and then we drove down together in a 15-passenger van:

When we got to the launch site (Grapevine Campground, N 33° 10.802' W 108° 12.394'), we attached the pontoons and secured our gear.

I was one of the first ready to go. The scouts said my tubes looked like clown feet. The Gila River is extremely warm due to numerous hot springs that feed the river. The water temperature was about 70 °F.

Sam's boat was a unique design. Sam made sure each of his girls signed the boat:




Here is Sam's favorite autograph, from Sara Hardy:

This is a dream photograph of Sam and Sara:
Sam leaving the launch site:
Our first campsite was at an old homestead. We found this lost dog who was hours away from being eaten by wolves.
Sean Naegle adopted the dog and named him Gila Baegle. Since the boys had to have both their lifesaving merit badges and their swimming merit badges, we had to give the dog a swim test. We threw him into the river, and Baegle passed the test and was allowed to raft with Naegle.


The second camp site was next to a cliff with small caves.
Dillon Moss looked like a pirate from the Caribbean.
A dainty flower growing out of solid rock cliff:
A brush with death. Landon Yarrington went upside down under water for about 10 seconds before we saved him:

The scenery was awesome. Hope to do this trip again!