Winter wonderland

So I think that after much complaining about it never feeling like christmas time in California the big guy upstairs decided to do something about it. After two solid days of rain it finally got cold enough to SNOW! granted nothing actually stuck in our yard but the hills and mountains around the house were covered. below are the pictures from my drive into the office this morning- it just made me want to get to Utah even more to have enough snow to play in!

Mission Inn Lights

This past Friday we went to go see the lights at the Mission Inn, an old Spanish mission turned hotel and tourist attraction. Some pictures for your enjoyment.

The entrance to the Mission Inn, all lit up

Supposed to be a happy elf in Santa's workshop, but a little creepy if you ask me. This guy is supposed to make children happy and all I could think about was Wayne's World "I'm the Leprechaun"

Heather, Me, and Frosty in a blurry night shot

Heather and the Nutcracker

Everything in the background. It really was pretty cool but the crowds were ridiculous.

Deck the Halls

So with Heather having the week off of work she decided to get the house all spruced up for the holidays. I'm used to the tree going up after Thanksgiving, but this year it went up a little early (Like last week). I decided to pull the tree off the wall in the garage one night when Heather wasn't home yet (It hangs on the wall on her side of the garage and her car needs to be gone for me to get at it). I drug it inside and decided as long as it was there that I might as well pull it out of the bag and put it together. So it has been up for the past week with just the lights (Pre-lit), and now it is ready to go for the lack of presents that will go under it this year.

Ever since the tree has been up Scoresby has taken it upon herself to be its protector. She guards it both day and night. She was also fairly interested when Heather was decorating.

I think the tree skirt will become her bed in no time

Heather has been so excited to get all the decorating done- Just look at her smile! She did an awesome job making our house look as festive as possible- Thanks Babe!

mobile test on my new i-phone killer the Touch Pro!

So I just wanted to show you all what Heather was for halloween,and use my new phone to do the post.

The phone, much like Heather's costume is awesome! picture an i-phone only better looking, faster (thanks to sprints network vs the awful at&t service) and with more features. I'm loving it

Mobile Blogger

Just a test to see how well I could do this from my phone- I don't see where a photo link is but I might be able to figure that out later. If I can't do it from here I'll be able to for sure when I get the new Touch Pro from HTC in about a week!

playing at the park

So this is basically a post for my niece Leah so she can see the dogs she misses so much. Our HOA finally decided to do something with the ridiculous amounts of money we pay to them every month. They enclosed the neighborhood park. now those of you who know our dogs understand that this is a necessity because if they are not on leashes they are GONE! Anyway, now we have a place where we can take them and they can play worry free.

Bailey thought that going down the slide looked fun. She got pretty good at it- going up the slide the other direction proved a little more difficult.

Guinness just liked to run around and THROUGH all the bushes. He got so worn out he'll sleep good tonight. Such a good dog!

p.s. not bad pics for a phone camera- I love my job.

Liberty Jail

So while I was in Missouri I knew that I had to go and see the Liberty Jail. I have a lot of personal history and Genealogy with this point in church history. I am related to two of the individuals that were jailed with Joseph Smith. Alexander McRae is my great-great-great grandpa and Lyman Wight is my great-great-great Uncle. Needless to say it was a pretty cool experience.

The church has recreated the jail inside the visitors center. The only part that is original is the floor since everything else had deteriorated and a house had been built over the top of it. From left to right: Joseph Smith, Caleb Baldwin, Hyrum Smith (standing), Alexander McRae (Sitting), and Lyman Wight (Sitting with leg up).

Me posing with grandpa in the background

Self explanitory

Diagram of how the jail was constructed- from the inside it was wood then loose stones and limestone blocks- Total of 4 feet thick.

I thought that this was a cool picture- you can draw your own object lesson out of this. Liberty Jail truly was a "temple prison".

So Confused

While in Independence I was able to go and see our visitors center and also go and see the sites of the Community of Christ (Reorganized LDS church) I don't want to sound like I'm bashing but this just goes to show what happens when you lose revelation and start practicing the teachings of man.

view from the outside- it is supposed to represent a nautilus shell

Architecturally speaking it was quite a building- just not my idea of what a temple should be

As they have changed their beliefs over the years they have gone pretty far out of their way to be accepted as "Main Stream" as you can see

Anybody can come into the temple and there are no ordinances performed. The reasoning given for this is so that they won't be viewed as "strange and misunderstood". I don't know about you, but I prefer a temple to be dedicated to the Lord.

This crucifix was made from pieces of wood donated by members around the world- they are pretty proud of the fact that they have 250,000 members worldwide.

The entrance to the "worshipers path" depicting the sacred grove and the tree of life in the background. This leads to the upper sanctuary.

on the path- depicting the prodigal son

The upper sanctuary and the organ.

Looking up into the spire from the upper sanctuary

This is their "conference center". It's across from their temple and holds worldwide conference every two years

All in all it was pretty interesting to hear their side of the story, but at the same time it was sad to see how far they have fallen and how confused they are about the Gospel and how things are supposed to be.

Sprint Training

So as many of you know, I was in Kansas City last week for training with Sprint. it was a pretty cool week seeing corporate and checking out all of the new technologies and gadgets ( The Touch Pro is absolutely sweet! 2x the resolution of the over-rated i-Phone) I was also to go and see some church sites in nearby Independence and Liberty (posts to come) Below you see some pictures of the Sprint Campus- If I had to sum it up it would be "Excess in Everything" The entire campus consists of about 20 of these buildings. It was CRAZY! it was it's own little city.

anybody there?

So I have a hunch that no one is actually reading my blog so in order to see if I should continue I need you to leave a comment- anything- just type "hi" so I know that I'm not wasting my time.
Thanks

YES on Prop 8!

For those of you who live in California or know people in California please take a look at this video and if you feel the same way post it on your site as well. There is a whole lot more at stake than just a new title for "Domestic partnerships". We as people who believe that marriage between a man and a woman comes from God stand to lose our right to believe that way and also accept that gay marriage is to be accepted and taught to our children and future children in the public schools. Please watch the video and tell everyone you know about sites where they can get more information.

www.preservingmarriage.org
or
www.protectmarriage.org


but most of all VOTE YES ON PROP 8 NOV. 4th!!!!

Finger Faux Painting

So as many of you know I got a new job and have a couple of weeks off before I start so I've been really bored and trying to find things to do. When we moved into our house 2 years ago we painted the entire house except for the front "Rotunda" Foyer. We left it alone so that one day we could pay for someone to come in and faux paint it, because we figured we'd mess it up to bad. Anyway I decided that I had nothing to lose by trying. Earlier in the day I put down the base coat and then when it had dried I started the faux process at 7pm. Below is the process that finished at around midnight. It wasn't as hard as I thought- It was just time consuming. After you have the base coat down, you smear a mixture of the darker colored paint and glaze around with your fingers and cheese cloth. Let me know what you think.

Me up on the ladder- This thing goes about 1 1/2 stories high. The ladder was flexing and everything- It took a little getting used to. You can see the test spot around the light switch.

Me and the finished product looking all the way to the top.

Looking back at the "Guest Wing"

Front door looking up to the top

BYU 59- UCLA 0

So as many of you know BYU destroyed UCLA 59-0 on Saturday, so me being the fan that I am I made up these posters to commemorate the moment. I'm interested to see which one you guys like the best. (soory about the underlining- it's being weird and not letting me turn it off)

Feeling Left Out

...NO WE'RE NOT HAVING A KID! or ten for that matter, and if we were it wouldn't be me, it would be Heather. I was just feeling a little left out because everyone else and their dogs had these on their blogs and I wanted to see how many fetuses I could fit in one womb. and besides if they were due on Dec 10, 2010 we wouldn't know that we were pregnant!

15 Years

8/8/1952- 9/2/1993

Miss you Dad!

A Mammoth Trip

This past week Heather and I were able to go up to Mammoth on a camping trip with a bunch of teachers from Heathers school. It was a much needed break from the routine and we had a blast. We spent our days hiking, biking and just relaxing. I was able to take the gondola to the top of the ski resort and ride downhill on my mountain bike all day on Friday. It was one of the most amazing things that I have ever done (jumping over stumps and rocks while doing 30 mph downhill is quite the rush). Anyway, I apologize in advance for all the pictures, but it is about the only way I can describe it and even then it doesn't do it justice. Enjoy...

This is on the drive up... We stopped in the little town of Lone Pine to grab a bite to eat at McDonalds and after we left and were a little ways down the road, Heather realized that she had left her purse in the booth. I immediately turned around to try and get back as soon as possible. When we got there the manager recognized Heather right away and got the purse from behind the counter. He had called her Dad, who lives in Oregon, on her phone, who in turn called her brother, who lives in Washington, to call my phone. the whole ordeal was not fun at the time but we can all laugh at it now.

This is from the first hike we took- TJ Lake

Me cooling off my feet in the "Crisp" water. The weather was in the low 70's the whole time and down into the 40's at night so you can imagine what the water was like. It did feel real good though.

This is a large fault line that you can actually see- There was still snow at the bottom!

Me inside a hollowed out tree

This was the view from the bottom after I hiked down in there. There were two caves that had to have been inhabited by some sort of large animal at one time or another.


This was the view on our way up to Crystal Lake. At this one point you could actually see five different lakes all at one time.


The view looking over "Ansel Adams Country". The picture doesn't do it justice- the mountain across the way was an incredible mix of reds, greens, and grays- it looked like a painting


Another view from along the way- I couldn't stop taking pictures it was so amazing


One more of a peak

We had such a good time that we are already planning on going back next year. If you haven't been here I would definitely suggest you plan a trip sometime soon.