In no particular order

Finally, some time to sit and blog about our amazing trip to New Zealand and Australia. First of all, let me just say that if you ever get the chance to go to New Zealand and Australia you should go! If you have to choose between the two, well then, you're left with a tough break, but without hesitation I would tell you to go to New Zealand. Here are some pictures to whet your appetite (and keep in mind, it's winter there so just imagine what it looks like in summer).

Drive by camera shot of countryside. It really was "that green" (greener actually).

Bridal Veil Falls. We pulled off the side of the road a couple times to see waterfalls. All of them were stunning. This one was awesome because we had it all to ourselves as we got there at around 7:30 in the morning.

This unfortunately is not the greatest shot, but I had to include it because we saw so many rainbows in New Zealand. Pretty much daily.

New Zealand is known for having millions of sheep. But did you know that they are an introduced species? In fact, the only mammal native to New Zealand is the bat. Bet you didn't know that.

New Zealand is awesome because you can drive from coast to coast in like 4-5 hours. This is the west coast of the North Island. It was about an hour and a half out of our way, but we really wanted to see the coast.

This tree is famous, but legally I'm not allowed to tell you why.

Part of a farm where the glowworm caves are located.

The New Zealand Christmas tree. My new favorite tree. Especially from far away, these are so ramrod straight they look fake. Apparently in December they blossom with stunning red flowers.

Next, a brief day-by-day of what we did and saw in New Zealand.

New Zealand and Australia...A "Taste" of things to come

What's been going on?

In this post I mentioned I'd share some more about what's been going on in 2010 (since we are practically half way through it already, and you haven't seen any real pictures from it or anything yet).

Well here goes.

These cute kids and their parents were visiting us at the beginning of they year (If you don't remember that, you didn't read the other post I wrote from the link above).

You may recall that the olympics were held in SLC in 2002. Well I had never been to the olympic park and so we decided to check it out in mid-January.

Also in January Heather took me on a super cool Amazing Race themed date, complete with Fast Forwards, Roadblocks, and Detours.


It ended with a fun game of bowling.


We always seem to go to Las Vegas during or in between Martin Luther King Day and Presidents Day. This year was no exception.

Here's Heather with one of the MGM lions.


Amy had a resolution this year to play the slots. She's lived in Vegas all this time and had never gambled before. What a good person she is! Well we're all a good influence on her to make this resolution aren't we? (Sorry Amy I didn't get your permission 1st before sharing these!)

Well she really took to it.

She was gambling all weekend


Not really, but I made it seem that way right? And she actually came out somewhat ahead after like 3 slot pulls, on of which I did (hey it wasn't my dollar right?)!



Anyway, after we pealed Amy's body from the slots we decided to go put our money into machines that don't give you back money (but it was still a lot of fun).


These were taken at the Pinball Hall of Fame. You should go check it out next time you are in Vegas. They had a pretty fun Russia vs. USA game. It was a lot of fun, but I think I lost.



Well after all that gambling Amy felt like she needed to repent and go to the temple so on Sunday we checked out the Las Vegas temple which I had never seen before and I thought it was pretty darn cool. Although they really should have fountains there.


On Valentine's Day instead of giving Heather a real gift I finally finished the puzzle we had started during Christmas (my family is big on puzzles during the holidays). Heather always gets mad at me for not wanting to work on puzzles, when I start them, because I get lazy/bored about them during the time it takes to finish them.
This puzzle is called "State Birds and Flowers" its in a box in our game closet, so we always tease that we want to play the game "State Birds and Flowers" when its really a puzzle.


A few weeks later we finally decided to take the puzzle down.

Maybe more of 2010 next month?

Congrats!

Congratulations are due to Royce, who passed his 4th and final CPA exam with flying colors (I would tell you the score but I don't want to embarrass him--it was pretty darn high though!). Way to go darling. All the studying has paid off. Let's celebrate by doing something crazy. Like going to Australia?

Really...?

Really? We haven't had a real blog post about what is going on in our lives since this one... Sure we've told you we bought a house and other things of the like, but we really haven't shown you any good pictures of what's been going on in our lives since July! Granted by writing this post I'll ruin part of what I'd share in my Christmas letter, but I'm sure you don't want to wait until December. Well without further hesitation this is what's been going on

Early December

Before I begin explaining pictures is there a proper way in writing about pictures? Is it better to write about it before you show the picture as in above or after you've shown the picture as in below? What have you all noticed to work better? Looking at a friends blog they write before/above the picture so I'll do that.

This is at a Christmas parade the city of Bountiful puts on which I thought was pretty great. It's not quite the same as going and seeing the Provo Christmas windows (which I highly recommend, and still try to do despite living about an hour away), but still nifty. Here's one of the better lit floats.

And here is a Christmas moose? that I started to follow. Check out his suspenders!

I think this is temple square. We went a couple of times, but if this was for one of the broadcasts I decided not to dress up. Hopefully it was for the Christmas concert, but I thought I had more pictures of that (which apparently we don't). Please send some if you have some our way!

Christmas Time

This year we stayed in Utah for Christmas which was difficult for me, but ended up being a fun time anyway. Here is a picture of my sister and brother-in-law opening the gift we got for them before they went home for Christmas.

We got them Pompeii (a board game) and they got us Mystery of the Abbey (also a board game).

Heather has an awesome bow on in that last picture in case you didn't notice.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve along with Christmas we spent at Heather's house, but this was the first Christmas ever I didn't go home/wasn't on a mission so it was weird to go to bed in my own bed and not be on vacation during Christmas. It was still a good Christmas however.

As part of Christmas Eve I read the Christmas story as we put up our nativity (not pictured).

The little wooden nativity figures you can see in the back of that picture is not the nativity I was referencing earlier.

On Christmas Eve we have a tradition of opening a present before you go to bed.

So this year we opened a gift from my parents and got...

...a waffle iron. We had one, but not like this. This one is the kind you find in hotels and the cannon center. Flippable.

Christmas

On Christmas we had more present and more time with family (extended family not pictured).

Late December/New Years

Christmas came and went and we decided to celebrate Thanksgiving again.

Not really this is just the picture that goes along with this story.

Anyway, our good friends the Fitzgibbons came out for a visit and a stay despite us having to work and take CPA exams and hopefully had a good time. Their kids seemed to.

I was studying at the time, but they sure do look cute.

And we had a good New Year's Eve Eve party with the cabin crew. Where we enjoyed Heather, Michelle, and Lori opening a 10-year time capsule (whatever happend with putting together a new one guys?) and Amy, Ryan, Wes, and I so happened to have a time capsule that we had put together as well "10 years ago" that so happened to be buried in the snow near our new house.

I don't know why we are looking at Amy reading a water bottle label, but I doubt that is what is going on here.

"Remember when we use to watch "The Office" 10 years ago?"

Anyway, there's the end of 2009 for you. I guess I haven't ruined the Christmas letter for this year yet. Hopefully next month/next week (already!) I'll post some more pictures, and some more recent (well this year) going-ons.

Happy Anniversary

Happy 2nd Anniversary to us! This counts as my post for the month.

Letters

Dear Future Me:

I am so tired today. I have more things to do than you can imagine, and I need a break so bad. So I hope you don't mind that I am delegating some of my tasks to you. Hope you don't mind. You have much more energy than I, and your time is limitless! I know that you can do whatever is put before you and will do things more accurately, more quickly, and with more enthusiasm than I possibly could today. I send you my deepest thanks in advance.

Sincerely,

Present Me

Dear Past Me:

I don't wish to belittle, but I sure wish you didn't procrastinate so much. Your assumptions that I have time for all your leftover tasks is oh so wrong. I am scrambling to complete everything, with pending deadlines staring me down in every direction. I realize that you were busy, but if you had prioritized just a little better you could have completed everything on your plate. Now I am so overwhelmed I don't even know where to start. But I will try. And I guess if I fail, Future Me will take care of it. Future Me is the best!

Sincerely,

Present Me