Temple Square

This weekend we took the young women up to see the lights and tour around the square. After a stop for greasy pizza we were on the hunt for a parking space in downtown SLC (not such an easy feat at Christmas now that the two malls have been torn down). Finally we found success at the Salt Palace and meandered our way over to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. We were meeting up with the rest of the group, including the young men and the bishopric, who had all been unfortunately (at least for them) waiting for us for quite a while. They had much quicker success with the whole parking situation and since none of us were smart enough to exchange cell numbers we had been listed as MIA. Finally we were reunited and just in time to make the 3:00 showing of the Joseph Smith movie. I believe that this was my third time seeing the movie, and it has always been quite moving but was even more poignant for me this time. In the last week I've been bitten by the genealogy bug again and have spent endless hours searching the Internet for any personal history of a relative of mine. I've only been able to find one, for Martha Payne Jones (married to Daniel Stillwell Thomas) however it was a very moving account. They were living in Far West at the time the saints were driven out and her story of that time was emotional to read. To watch these events unfold in the movie struck me even deeper than before because I was envisioning what my own family had experienced. My great, great great grandfather was born just a few days after the family crossed the river and is listed as being born "in the woods". It was fun to watch the girls experience the message of the movie as well. It turned out that none of them had seen it before. Since it wasn't dark enough for the lights to be on we decided to take a tour of the Beehive house. I always enjoy going through historical homes, and it was doubly fun to see how excited some of the girls got about walking through rooms that Brigham Young had actually walked through and seeing the furniture and clothing they had worn. After an hour of walking through the lights we all split up and headed home. Getting out of downtown was easier said than done. The traffic was a nightmare with a concert starting at the Conference Center and the normal holiday bustle, not to mention all the police activity. We were headed down State St. and when we noticed all the police cars our Young Women's president jokingly said it must be a bomb. Well not five minutes later the bomb squad van turns left right in front of us. After we got past that area we were still on the search for hot chocolate, a lot harder than you think to find but I have now made a mental note that there is a 7-Eleven on the corner of 8 S and West Temple. It felt good to get out of all that mess!

Outside my window

Cruel I know....

but who can resist, well probably a lot of people but I've had this sick habit of dressing up every new kitten I've ever gotten. These guys should feel lucky because it hadn't happened to them before. Of course I don't have doll clothes lying around any longer which is what all my other kittens fell victim to. Merry Christmas! In some ways I can't believe December is already here, and in others it feels like this has been the longest year ever. Around here we rang in the 1st of December the way it should be done, with the first snow of the season (well there was that first snow back in the beginning of Oct. but it melted as soon as the sun touched it). It was really quite beautiful this morning. It was the kind of snow that reminds me of childhood back East, the really wet and clingy kind. All the trees still look lacy with the snow stuck to them. It didn't make for very fun driving but made for the perfect excuse to take a day to curl up on the couch and watch movies. That's the reason I like winter, sometimes it just forces you to sit back and relax. Well I receicved another first today as well, as in the first cold of the season, and since I'm having a difficult time breathing at the moment I'll just wrap this up with a a wish of Happy Holidays to everyone.

Happy Turkey Day!

What better way to spend Thanksgiving than with family, and in the case of this year almost all the family. As I was trying to fall asleep last night I decided to count how many people there were at Mike and Eve's yesterday. I came up with 36! I think that's a new record. The meal was fantastic, and hooray, for the first time we didn't run out of mashed potatoes. Kudos for all those who put the meal together. It was great to see so many of the family and get caught up on their lives. Unfortunately I had movie tickets and couldn't stay as long as I would have liked (especially since the movie theater was insane!). Well until next year here are some pictures to enjoy...not that great but there were a lot of people there.

Pumpkin Carving

I was just doing a little editing and came across our Halloween fun for the year so I thought I'd post the pictures. We took Clay to see "The Nightmare Before Christmas" in 3-D to get into the spirit and then spent the rest of the night making our masterpieces. Now I'm not sure why the boys look stoned in the picture because I promise all we were drinking was Diet Coke :) And this year we had fun dressing up at work...or maybe I should say we threw on some witches hats just as an excuse to wear jeans for the day (but they were darn cute hats). Halloween is still one of my favorite holidays but yeah next week is Thanksgiving. Then I can officially listen to Christmas music...

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A Ghostly Encounter

So it may be a bit late to be talking about October since it seems that Christmas is already here, but whom am I to stick with convention. My mom and I took a very fun trip back East and spent a week traveling through Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and back to our own back yard of Connecticut. Actually I was fulfilling a dream of visiting Salem, MA to see the old witch trial sites. It was so much fun, and so interesting since some of the original structures from 1692 are still there. We went through John Hathorne's (the infamous hanging judge) home. He was the one to sign most of the death warrants for the accused witches. We also visited the Rebecca Nurse farm. She was one of the first to be accused and her actual farm is still there. I could give a complete travel log here, but I will spare everyone the boredom of my ramblings and end with this. Our most exciting experience however was the Haunted Footsteps tour that we took. It takes place after dark and your guide takes you around the city center filling the evening with stories of murders, ghosts, and of course facts about the witch craze. Some of the stuff she told us was educational, some rather gory, and some just plain spooky. We were also invited to take any pictures we felt like along the way to see if we could capture a spectral presence. Now for those that know me well know that that is right up my alley. My mom can testify to what a ghost freak I am. Ever since I saw the movie Poltergeist I've been fascinated by the idea of ghosts and at that time ran to the library and checked out any non-fiction book I could on the subject...I was 11 at the time. My mom literally did think I was nuts! But, excitement, I was successful in my first ever ghost hunt! At the first place we stopped I was snapping some shots while the lady told us the story of the grisly murder that had taken place in the home of Captain Joseph White. When we got back to the hotel I was flipping through the pictures I was ecstatic to see some interesting things. It was a cold misty/rainy night so there were a lot of rain drops in the pictures but the one I'm posting seemed very spooky. I'm totally hooked now!

And in close up:

I know I'm probably silly but it was a thrill for me :)

Here are a few more pictures from the trip....

New Hampshire:

And finally the rolling hills of Connecticut: