Melissa and Brian #4

The Beach!!


After all the pictures at the temple were taken, we headed down to the beach. It was a beautiful day and perfect for some fun beach photos!

As we were driving there, we came around a corner on the Pacific Coast highway and this is the view out the car window. It was breathtaking! I loved it and immediately thought of Mike at home with the kids. I knew he would be immensely jealous. The guy LOVES the beach.

We drove down the Pacific Coast Highway for a bit, passing up Laguna Beach because it was just too crowded and we ended up at Victoria Street Beach. It was beautiful!

Melissa and Brian were stunning. Everyone on the beach started clapping and yelling their congratulations when they walked out and some of the ladies were in awe of Melissa's gorgeous dress. They kept asking who it was by. And just for the record, it was designed by Angel Sanchez. He also designed Sandra Bullock and Eva Longoria's wedding dresses!

Mike, if you're reading this post then all I have to say is that I'm sorry you weren't there. Of course, maybe that is a good thing because I'm pretty sure you would have stripped down to your ginch and jumped right in!

Can't you just tell that this is going to be a great photo? Their photographer was amazing! I would love to follow him around for a few days and just get fun ideas.

Had to get one with the shades on.

Melissa was so much fun! She was so happy to pose and let this day be all about her and Brian. No stress, no nerves, just so HAPPY! The way every bride should be on her wedding day.

Plus she's hot, so that helps things a bit! :)

Melissa and Brian #3

The Temple


Melissa's family waiting outside the temple.


Here they come!


Melissa and her sister.

Melissa's sister and brother.


She's so beautiful!




Parents of the bride and groom.








The gorgeous flowers and bouquets were done by Melissa's talented sister.






Melissa's brother really liked the flowers. A lot! :)


The detailing on Melissa's dress was amazing!


Seriously! Look at that!


Fabulous!


And she and her sisters are just beautiful!

Melissa and Brian #2

Wedding Day!

The night before the wedding we invaded a beautiful hotel, allowing us to all get ready together the next morning. It was wonderful!!

It all started with some hairspray and BIG hair.

Then a gorgeous side swept look.

The hair was perfect!

Melissa's sister and father were there to watch the magic happen.

Once the hair was finished Kimberly stepped in with her make-up to put on the finishing touches.

The dresses waited patiently in the doorway...

Isn't she beautiful?

One last spray of the hair...

And she's ready to go to the temple.

There were a few tears had by all... but they were tears of joy!!!

Good luck girl!

Melissa and Brian #1

First things first...

The Bachelorette Party!!!

Word to the wise... not a lot goes on on Wednesday nights.

But we managed to have fun anyway...

P.F. Changs was great!

And don't mind me... I was up at 3:30 a.m. that morning to be able to make my flight to California. It was TOTALLY worth it!

Tacey's Blanket

This is a quilt I made the other day for a cousin that just had a beautiful baby girl. I made it out of scraps I had from an apron I made at Christmas time. You can read all about that here. I thought the scraps were cute and just perfect for a new baby girl.

Congratulations Tyanna, she's gorgeous!



And just a quick note to stay tuned... I just got back from a whirlwind trip to California to attend the wedding of my Very BEST Friend in the whole world! Be prepared for a five part (at least) series on the events. I'll cover everything from the Bachelorette Party to the Reception!

Happy Birthday Walker!

We celebrated another birthday in our home last week.

Walker turned 4!

Since last year's Nacho Libre party was such a success (read all about it here), Walker wanted to do yet another dress up party this year.

I tell you... that kid could live in costumes if we let him. He probably changes his costumes and clothes at least 5 times a day and that is NO exaggeration!

Anywho... friends and family were notified and we celebrated in style. We had a lot of fun costumes, from Hulk to Charlie Brown and even one little princess showed up!

Walker decided months ago that he would like to be Wolverine and his dad really pulled through with the claws and everything.

We did everything that one would typically do at a birthday bash...

Costumes...


Cake and birthday song...


Blow out the candles...


Presents...


And I just have to show you a couple of pictures of the cake after it was cut. It was, after all, one of my favorite Birthday cakes ever!


Happy Birthday Walker!

We love you so much and are so glad you are a part of our family. You keep us laughing all the time and your brothers adore you. Luke is missing you something fierce while you are in Utah with Grandma and Grandpa!

Love you tons!!

My Baby Brother Is All Graduated!

This is one of the graduation announcements I made for him to send out. And following are some of the grad photos I took. I am LOVING this photography thing!

I Do It FOR Me!

I ran 9 miles yesterday.

9 MILES!

If you had asked me last year if I thought I could run 9 miles I would have laughed in your face then stuffed another Twinkie in mine!

Yep, I am slowly, but surely becoming a RUNNER.

Some people in my life totally get it. They understand why I run. They understand why I put up with the purple toenail and the sore knees. They understand why I am up on Saturday mornings before the crack of dawn (well, it would be before the crack of dawn if I lived someplace a little further from the North Pole!).

Then there are the Others. The people that can't understand why I would do that to myself. Why I would push my body to such limits, or insist on not missing a run, or put up with said purple toenail. The Others can't understand why I am so excited about running a 13.1 mile race. "Just mark 6.5 miles out of town and back and run that instead!" I've heard this about a million times.

I've tried to explain it and haven't been able to get my point across yet.

Then I stumbled upon this article.

I read...

I loved it...

I felt compelled to share it.

There's a stretch of road that I run on that is long and straight and seems to go on forever. I used to hate it, but now it's my favorite place. See I don't have to do anything, just run. I don't have to avoid dogs, dodge traffic, or encounter potholes. It's just me and the road. Breathe in, breathe out. Last night while I was on that stretch I began to think how powerfully simple this all is.

We ask our body to run and it does...at first not far...but then over time it becomes this machine. A simple perfect machine. Breathe in, breathe out. One foot and another. An endless repetition of a series of moves that propels you further and further along. And the miracle of the human body is that it responds by carrying you further and further until one day you show up at work and say, "I ran eight miles yesterday" and all the jaws drop. Yes...you did. Something that your co-workers consider positively superhuman. You did it. You may not look like a superhuman, but at that moment you are.

My mind flashes back to a conversation I've had about running. Every run is a test; a test to see what you are made of. Do you have it in you today? Here on the road there is no way to cheat. It's simple, you either run it or you don't. Either you win or the road wins. And no matter how sick you are, no matter how tired you are, the road still asks, do you have it in you? Even if you had a great run yesterday, the road is still out there today and today you have to prove what you are made of. Breathe in, breathe out.

The road doesn't care if you are good looking, smart, young, old. The test is the same. What do you have in you today? Some days you come home glowing with accomplishment. Other days you lose. You feel fat, heavy, out of shape, tired. Well meaning friends say "why do you do that to yourself?" but you know...you aren't doing it TO yourself, you are doing it FOR yourself. You lose the stress of the day. No matter how bad your day is, you sweat out all those problems on a long run. You shut off the voices. You silence the chatter. Just you and the road, alone. Breathe in, breathe out.

I know we all have goals. Five K goals and marathon goals and negative splits. But on your next run let me encourage you to just run and enjoy the simple pleasure of running. No watch, no time limit, you're not going anywhere, you're not getting anywhere. You just are...a simple lone runner...on a long stretch of road. I'll see you out there.

And that... dear people... is why I run.

*I found this article on a running message board. It was written by someone named Falco.

Con'GRAD'ulations!

My little brother Korlyn graduated high school this weekend. Have I ever mentioned how much this guy ROCKS?!?!

His Grad date, Dayla, is pretty skookum herself!

Because she knows how to have fun!


And she wears shoes like these with a formal...

Congratulations Korlyn! I think you are such an amazing little brother and I am just sooooo proud of you!

And you should consider yourself extra special 'cause this is my 200th post and it's all about YOU!

Cheslatta Falls - take 2

Last fall we set out to see Cheslatta Falls. The excitement was palpable and it was a great let down when we didn't end up finding it! Low gas and the fact that the closer we got the fewer signs there were and we just plain old missed it! You can read all about that adventure {here}.

We gave it a second try on Memorial Day and it was a success! (Mostly thanks to Mike's forethought in getting directions and filling the gas tank. Turns out we were about 5 km from the turn off last time!)

Anyway, here are a few photos of the day. Good times.


On the drive out we saw this tiny bear. He was the size of a large cat. He was sitting on the side of the road and when we got close he climbed the tree but this is as high as he could get. After a minute of trying to climb higher he came back down and ran away through the underbrush. I thought about getting closer to get a better picture but the thought of his angry momma in the brush brought reason to my mind and I stayed put in the car!

We actually saw three bears, a moose a grouse and lot's and lot's of birds. The bears are out everywhere up here right now.


Porter invited Bridger to come along with us. They thought they were quite the posers!

We hiked up the trail to get a better look at the top of the falls.

The trail was pretty narrow and a very steep drop into the falls so Mike went first and kept the boys well away from the edge. Jana, you've succeeded in making sure that Bridger is terrified of water. He stayed WELL away and would only continue if he was holding Mike's hand! Notice the white knuckle grip to Mike's hand and to the sapling! :)

After we hiked the trail we went back down by the bridge so the boys could throw rocks in the water. Every boys dream right?

I tried to take some nicer photos to be blown up so I could replace some outdated ones in the house.

Walker's needs some work :)

There was so much water running, it was crazy. And all Mike could think of was, "What route would I take in my kayak?" Crazy!

It was a great Memorial Day and especially nice because while it's not celebrated in Canada, Mike still works for a US based company so we got a day off while everyone else was working!