Candle Light Breakfast!

Today is our three year anniversary!!!!

Because we decided to get married in December... every year we get to celebrate our anniversary, Nate's birthday, and Christmas all within a couple of weeks of each other! Which then pretty much leaves very little to celebrate for the rest of the year! But what can you do, what is done is done!

Another thing we've noticed is that every year finals always seem to mess up our anniversary! Today I spent the evening in the lovely testing center cursing my professor for giving us so much to study for one test! But I had anticipated that this is how the night would go... so this morning I made breakfast to celebrate the big three years!! It was still dark out so I turned on the Christmas tree lights and set out some candles! That was our romantic breakfast! But with the table set all nice and the candles lit we sure didn't fit the part having our PJs on, hair a mess and morning breath! But I guess after three years that works! And what a great three years its been!

Nate made dinner for me, which I had to heat up because I got home so late. And he bought me my favorite ice cream! We also have plans for the weekend to officially celebrate it but you've got to actually do something the day of right?! Well we tried to anyways!!

Here is a few pictures from the big day!

THE CHRISTMAS SEASON IS HERE!

Its that time of year! I love Christmas and I sure wish my house could look like this one! Nate sent me this video in an email and I thought it was pretty cool! So to kick off the Christmas season I thought I would post it! Enjoy!!

We had a nice trip to AZ for Thanksgiving, really enjoying the good weather and good company. But I didn't take any pictures! My camera was low on batteries and I hate having people hold that pose while I reopen it to get one good picture just in time for it to die again! So instead of pictures I'll just mention a few highlights of the trip:

A definite highlight was when Tammy almost set Grandma's kitchen on fire... twice in one night! Not to worry though, Grandma was quick with the baking soda to put it out!

Putting together a puzzle.... crazy I know that this would make a highlight moment but you should have seen how many of us were surrounding that table fighting to get the last piece in! Nothing else mattered but finishing that puzzle! They can get addicting!

Watching Bolt with all the kids!

Seeing Ashley Shanghai twice in one game! Way to go Ashley!

Happy late Thanksgiving to everyone but more importantly the Christmas season is here!

Fans from Idaho!

So the other day when I got to school I parked by this car and just happen to notice the licence plate! What a strange combination, IDAHO... GO SUNS... and BYU COUGARS. Luckily I had my camera because I had to take a picture. I miss Idaho, I route for the Suns (even though the Jazz beat us the other night) and I'm a student at BYU! I wondered where I could get one of these, guess we'll have to move to Idaho!

HUNTING

For the past two weekends we been out hunting for deer! No luck though, it was a bad year for hunters... to hot I guess! We saw one two point opening morning but Nate wanted something bigger so he didn't take the shot. Other than that all we saw were doe...

Here is one looking at us now!

The first weekend we went camping and had some friends come along. Micah had a tag and Dan and Stacie brought their horses in case we needed to haul anything out! We had a good time around the fire and camping out even though it was a little cold. The other non-campers meet us early Saturday morning to hunt for the day.

While we were out hiking around we decided to split up into two groups. Me and Nate went higher up while Micah, Dan and Stacie stayed lower... that way we could push the deer to each other. While we were separated they called us on the Rino or "walkie talkie" to tell us they had just seen a young bear. Me and Nate thought they were just trying to scare us so we didn't believe them at first but turns out it was true. We meet back up with them and the those who had a gun had them out and ready to fire. Who knows if there was a "mommy" around so we were being careful! It felt like we suddenly became the hunted rather than the hunters! So needless to say we didn't see any deer on this hike! Here we all are...

The next weekend we decided not to camp and only went out Saturday morning and afternoon. Again all we saw were doe. This time Nate's dad brought the horses. Kent and Danielle (Nate's dad and sister) rode in on the horses then later me and Danielle traded and I rode back out with Kent. It was great, the horses do all the work!

Here is me and Nate in our cool orange!!

















This is random, but can you see whats wrong with this picture?!

FALL IS MY FAVORITE

This fall has been so pretty! But I guess it probably is every year and it must just be that this year I'm actually paying attention! I've had my camera on me so I've snapped a few random pictures of the fall colors... I'm just sad they will be gone so soon!

GIRL FUN... BOY FUN

Last night me, Laura, Jenny, and Heidi had a girls night! Its been awhile sense I had one of those. We went to Gardner Village in SLC to watch A Witch Palooza A Music Dinner Show. Laura had gotten free tickets that Eric had won at work. It was well... ummm... interesting! And the food was... Ok, I guess! We did get to stand up and dance a little, which is never good in my case. I hate looking like an idiot! O well, it was still fun to have a girls night anyways.

So the reason we decided to have a girls night was because the boys were away on their own trip. Nate and his dad along with Eric went down south to do their 120 mile bike ride! Which in my mind is madness... but for some reason they seem to like this stuff! They ride 60 miles a day to make a round trip back to where they started. That means that once they start they have to finish! Last night on the phone Nate said they survived the first day... so we'll have to wait and see how today went.

At least it is a pretty ride through Zions, here is a picture of them on last years ride Last year it was Nate, his dad and brother Adam. This year Adam is gone on the mission and Eric was crazy enough to go with them. If I get any pictures of this year I'll have to post them later.

Guys are crazy, sometimes I just dont understand them! :)

Demolition Derby

We went to the Demolition Derby here in Spanish Fork at the Utah County Fair and I have to say that it was pretty entertaining. I've never seen one before so I didn't know what to expect and I kept calling it the pinewood derby, Nate would just laugh at me. But I loved it. It was a lot of fun, how could watching a bunch of old beater cars bash each other in not be fun! I found this picture on the Internet until I can download the pictures Nate took on his phone... it pretty much looks like what we saw. They had firemen and EMTs all around just in case something went wrong.

Janice and Hans told us about it so we decided we would go and meet up with them. Eric and Laura called us later and told us they were going too. Eric told me that a couple of people that he works with and that I actually use to work with were going to be driving in it. It turned out that one of them won the whole thing... way to go Kurt! Actually knowing who was in the car made it even more fun to watch. Here are the winners:

August 16, 2008-Utah County Fair
1st Kurt Zabriski '76 Impala
2nd Johnny Gullo '74 Oldsmobile
3rd Billy Bowman Shocker
MAD Brad Bowman '78 New Yorker

So if you ever get the chance to go to a Demolition Derby you should defiantly go!

That same weekend we got to have Tammy, Brando and Brando's nephew Marcus come to visit us (to bad they didn't get here early enough for the Derby). Brando had tickets to the Jack Johnson concert so that was fun for him and Marcus and it turned out great for me because I got to hang out with my sister! I love when family comes to visit!!!! :)

ZION NARROWS

The weekend after white water rafting a group of us got together to hike the Narrows. It was me and Nate, Andrea and Eric, Mike, Ash and Dallen, Adam, M.jay and Hans (A little of Nate's family and a little of mine). If you haven't ever hiked the narrows I totally recommend it...but... don't be fooled by the down hill, along a river idea- this was no easy hike. It took us all day to get to the bottom, I didn't think we were going to make it out before dark. That river just kept going and going... and going and going! But... it was beautiful as you can see from the pictures and far worth it!

Here we are crossing the river in the beginning.... easy!

And here we are crossing the river in the end... hard!

Its a good thing we got these walking sticks. At first I felt like a nerd hiking with a stick but I was soon grateful!

This picture of Adam and Andrea (Nate's brother and sister) was actually taken before the hike had even started!

I guess Hans got board with the norm and decided to change a few things up! :)

It was a great hike and one of the best parts about the whole trip is that the boys made breakfast the next morning!

White Water Rafting

So I'm a little behind in my blogging. A few weekends ago M.jay planned a white water rafting trip in Moab. We've never been so we were excited to go! A pretty big group turned out, most of them I didn't even know. We had a blast and would do it again anytime!

Here we are on our way to the river in our "cool" life jackets!

Jayni Dowse and Becky Huff

Me and M.jay ended up on the "flip boats" (in separate boats while Nate road the ducky with Crazy Carl). Both mine and M.jay's boat's goal was to flip, obviously!! The first time my boat attempted it a few of us messed up and high sided to the wrong side (me included) so we only "dumped trucked" as they call it. Those of us still in the boat had to help pull in those who got dumped!

But here is an action shot of the second attempt. We all squished to the back of the boat so the front tip would flip over backwards! The water was freezing but it was worth it! You can check out the fun club blog for more fun action shots!

Camping and more fun!

We camped outside of Moab and the next morning we went for a short hike and did some repelling with M.jay's gear!

Here is M.jay leading me to my death! What a great brother!

Nate and Seth.

You can actually see our camp site in this picture (just to the left of Nate). We camped right on the river. There were no trees though so it was pretty hot but most everyone had fun jumping in the river to cool off.

Nate doing a fancy trick before diving in!

And David catching a Frisbee!

And of course there had to be a seed spitting contest...!

Five years old!

Last weekend we got to go to little Hans's birthday party. He is five years old now and that means he can do everything a five year old can do... you know run faster, jump higher, throw further... the usual stuff! He could even race Eric on his bike down the sidewalk!

Here are all the spectators!

I also wanted to wish Andrea a Happy birthday!

And a late birthday to Alex! Crazy kid.

Allred Family Reunion

Two years in a row, now that's a record! :)

First I wanted to recap a little on last years reunion. It was held in Cedar City. We went skeet shooting, played around the world ping pong, ate some good food, played a lot of games, looked at old pictures and just hung out! Here is a slide show to see it all and a highlight of what happened that year.

(Emily's) Allred Family Reunion 2007 Highlight

While we were all skeet shooting much to our surprise (and at the same time not surprising at all) Grandma Mary stood up and said "isn't it my turn?!" I know she just had another birthday but if you think this lady is getting old you better think again! It was great! :)

This years reunion was just as great! This time it was held in Mesa. Thanks to Jen and Nate we got to go boating. We also got to ride the four wheelers, BBQ, play a few paintball games and some got to go golfing. It was a busy weekend and so much fun being around the family! Here is another slide show of all the great times we had and another highlight.

(Emily's) Allred Family Reunion 2007 Highlight

So this years highlight was definitely when Doug and Caroline rode on the tube at the lake and totally biffed it (we all did but theirs was the best)! I wasn't actually on the boat when it happened but I could hear Doug hit the water from the shore! That had to of hurt. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of this event, but it was fun watching the video Mike took.