Christmas in NY

Here are a few pictures from our Christmas in NY. Unfortunately I didn't get pictures of most of the things we did. We really just hung out with family. Tom enjoyed finally being able to eat NY pizza...something that Saint George is seriously lacking. We were able to go to the city one day...too bad it was raining! We stopped in Times Square, then on to the Hayden Planetarium and the Museum of Natural History...on the way back to the train station we stopped at Rockefeller Plaza to see the Christmas tree. We accidentally forgot our return tickets for the train in the machine...oops! Then, when we got back to Long Island we realized that we left the lights on and the battery in the car died...another oops! It was definitely an adventure. Anyway, here are the few pictures that I was able to get.

Tom and our nephew Nicholas


Tom and our nephew Christopher



Tom and I in Times Square


The Willamette Meteorite. This is a 15.5 ton meteorite made of metallic iron. Only 600 of the 25,000 meteorites found on earth are made of iron...pretty cool...


It's hard to see...but there is a giant whale behind me


I made Tom take this picture...as you can tell, he does not like pictures! It's the dinosaurs from Night at the Museum though...I couldn't resist.


The Christmas tree!

Hello to whoever still reads this....

Hi everyone! I just got finished doing a major cleaning to my house and I figure, what the heck, I might as well do everything on my list...so here I am updating my blog. Tom and I are just finishing up this last week of work and then we are headed off to NY for Christmas and New Years. I'm so excited! Last time I went to NY was in August and I only got to spend the weekend there. This time we have 9 days. I can't wait to see the family and go to NYC to see all the Christmas decorations. There is something about NYC that is just so magical at Christmas.
Well, here are a couple pictures from our latest adventure. It snowed in Pine Valley a couple weekends ago so we decided to escape the heat and go play in the snow. I love Saint George! We only have to drive 30 min to play in the snow. I would much rather drive 30 min. when I want to see snow then have it show up on my doorstep.

Touring Albuquerque, NM

Tom hadn't done any of the touristy things in NM yet so we took him to Old Town and on the Tramway.

Tom and I at sunset before we went up the Tram. Aint it beautiful!


A beautiful NM sunset


Dad, Cathie, JD, J9, me, and Tom


It was sooooooooo cold once we got to the top of the longest Tram in the world! Ugh, we just had to get some hot chocolate once we got up there. Thank goodness there is a restaurant at the top that could accommodate our need.




Old Town: This is a bad picture because it was just a wee bit cold. We actually saw someone getting married here--in a sleeveless dress no less. She had to be cold!

Thanksgiving in NM

Tom and I flew to NM to spend Thanksgiving with my dad and Cathie. I also got to spend time with my long lost brother Robert, and long lost sister Jeannine (AKA J9) and her son JD. I have not been in contact with them for most of my life for various reasons and I hardly knew them at all. This was a great weekend to get to know them better. I wish that Kim, Andrew, Sarah, and baby Allen had been here to share it with us...then it would have been grand! We are so thankful for all out friends and family! Here are just a few pictures.

Dad and I on Thanksgiving morning.


Eating Turkey...


More Turkey....we had to have 2 tables.


My brother Robert, sister Jeannine, and me after the big feast!


Tom and I trying to figure out the TV so we can watch football.


Grandma fell and broke a few bones right before Thanksgiving so we had to bring the Turkey to her. She insisted that she only have the wing. Dad tried to talk her out of it saying that it would be too messy. Grandma then said, "Well, your messy too sometimes." That's my 96 year old Grandma Ruth...we all love her!


Grandma, Dad, Cathie, J9, Robert, JD, and me at the nursing home.


It snowed while we were in NM so since Jeannine and I are crazy we decided to go in the hot tub while it was snowing. It actually wasn't that bad getting out.


The snow...


Dad and his dog Heidi...

New Car :)

YaY! Tom and I got a new car! We traded our 2002 Mitsubishi Lancer with 100,000 miles on it for this 2008 Honda Accord with 5 miles on it. We love it! I'm excited to finally have a car that is an automatic. The pictures aren't very good...but I still wanted to share our latest excitement!

Bryce Canyon

Tom and I had both never been to Bryce Canyon. We live so close to it, so we decided to take a little trip to do a little hiking. The view there is absolutely gorgeous! I still like Zion National Park better...but this definitely blew me away! I am continually amazed by this beautiful world that we live in.
Today at church (stake conference), Elder Holland was talking about the first pioneers who came to Southern Utah. He read an entry from the journal of one of them. It talked about how they thought this place was so barren and had nothing to offer. The same things that we find so beautiful (lava, sandstone, and red rock) they found to be so harsh and chaotic. They probably never imagined that these crazy people 100 years later would pay money to come and see it.
Anyway, I liked all the pictures we took so I just had to put them on here. Hope you like them too...




This is so pretty...


This bird let me get so close to take a picture. Thank you little bird.


A nice couple took a picture for us. Thank you nice couple...


We took this one ourselves as you can probably tell...


Tom was just a bit scared since there was a huge cliff right behind him.




This is where we took our little hike "Sunset Point".

On our way home...

On the way home from Bryce Canyon we took a few pictures. There was an absolutely gorgeous sunset which I tried to capture with my camera while driving...it doesn't look nearly as good as it did in person, but I hope you enjoy!

Me at the arches as we were leaving the Bryce Canyon area...


Sunset from Cedar City

Happy Halloween

Tonight Tom and I went to a Halloween Party that our ward had. We dressed up as 80's rockers. It was a lot of fun going and seeing everyone's costumes. Happy Halloween everyone!





Our good friends Andrew and Megan dressed up as Dwight and Angela from The Office. I loved it! Very creative!

Baba and Petroula come for a visit...

This past weekend Tom's dad (AKA Baba or Patio) came to visit us here in Saint George. We had lots of fun taking Patio and his girlfriend Petroula around to see the sites of Saint George. We went to Zion National Park on Saturday and to Red Cliffs Desert Reserve on Sunday. I'm attempting to learn Greek so this weekend was very helpful since all I heard was Greek--Petroula only speaks Greek so there was a lot of translating going on.
Well...enjoy the pictures...there are a lot!

RED CLIFFS DESERT RESERVE...

Me and Tom obviously


I love these rocks! Have you ever seen anything like this?? Come visit me and I will take you there :) hint hint to Kim!


Patio and Petroula...he is just being goofy ;)


look how big these rocks are compared to us!


Tom and his dad...


Posing for the camera. There is more to the hike beyond this, but we couldn't go because Petroula was too scared to climb the rope. That's ok though because the hike was still gorgeous!


Me and Angelo


PICTURES FROM ZION NATIONAL PARK...

Patio and Petroula on the "River Walk"


Me and Tom relaxing by the river


The scenery


Patio and Petroula by the river


At the end of our little hike...a nice fall picture (good job Tom)


Some crazy people rock climbing


After our day in Zion we climbed a little mountain that overlooks Saint George. No I did not do my hair like that. It was just really windy.