A Very Utah Thanksgiving

We returned yesterday from our trip to Utah.  We went not because we could afford it, but rather because it my grandparents 60th wedding anniversary and the whole Gillette family was getting together.  With 75 people in attendance we held Thanksgiving dinner in a cultural hall.  We had fun playing games each night and playing ultimate frisbee.  You can't have a Gillette get-together and not have an ultimate game, it really is not possible. My favorite game was around-the-world ping pong.  I felt like I did better at this game than at just standing and playing regular ping pong.  I'll included a few videos, one where a good rally got going, and the other shows how fast we had to run to get to the other side, unfortunately for Josh he didn't get good placement.

When we first arrived in Utah we met my family at the Salt Lake temple.  We walked around the visitors center and then watched the Joseph Smith movie.  I love that movie, it touches me each time I watch it.

On Wednesday night my family went to a David Archuleta concert!!! 32 family members in attendance and it was fun.  It was a Christmas concert, but he did start off by singing some of his own songs, so I had to dance with my tween cousins to zero gravity.

Thurday was spent doing Thanksgiving and games, and then Friday we went up to Ogden to celebrate Josh's dad's birthday.  We had an amazing meal full of seafood, so good.  I ate way too much that night.

When we decided to go to Utah we told my brother to see if he could find us some tickets to the BYU v. Utah football game.  Since I ahdn't heard much I thought he didn't get them, but he was amazing and got us two tickets!  The game was great, it was so fun to be back in the stadium.  I loved that the team wore their throwback jerseys, the royal blue looked awesome! It was cold, so I was pretty sad when they took it into overtime, but it was nice and quick and BYU WON! We decided not to rush the field with everyone but we still had fun.

It was a great trip.  I am grateful we were able to go and enjoy the time we had together.  Josh is now studying for finals and I don't think I'll see much of him until December 11, the date of his last final.

Around the World videos

New Moon

I know I know... I probably shouldn't have, but I was invited and therefore of course I went.  Since I didn't have to worry about getting up early for work I decided to have fun and go to the midnight showing of new moon. We were there 2 hours before so we passed the time by playing speed scrabble on the floor.  I had fun and had no problem staying awake, even though I do tend fall asleep during any movie if it is started after 9pm.  Here's a picture I stole from Alexandria.

Alexandria, me, Ashley, Kaley, and Debbie

  

Now I have to go get everything ready to leave for Utah tomorrow! I am so excited to go and see my family.

I finally put some pictures on our walls.  We were able to get one wall painted for free, so we decided to paint the big wall in our living room.  We had about 12 choices, but we decided to do it a gold-ish color.  We've had it painted now for a couple of weeks, but I didn't know how to hang the pictures, I'm not sure I love it yet, but hopefully I will, or hopefully I'll think of some better way.  I couldn't get the whole room in the picture, but since there isn't anything else to see, I just cut it all out..

The first Saturday of the month is free museum day, so we decided to go to the Denver Art Museum.  It was packed, but I enjoyed it.  We have now decided that when we own a house we will have a totem pole outside, because they are awesome! After walking around for too long we decided to leave, but not before Josh found the kids play area and decided to dress up like a crocodile.  I know he'll be really happy that I posted this picture, but it made me smile, so you all get to see it! I can't say we'll be going back to the museum anytime soon, but the buildings were really neat.

I am so excited to have something real to post next week! Like the David Archuleta Concert!!  YES!!

Happenings

I love living in Colorado! People are so nice.  I'm not really used to it yet, but I love it! Everyone in our ward is so kind and we have been invited to so many homes to play games or do other fun stuff.  It is nice having friends so quickly.

So WICKED is here in Denver for a couple of weeks.  So we took the light rail to downtown (very interesting ride on the train, funny people..) and attempted to do the wicked lottery on Friday night and even though we were the first in line, which should mean we get tickets, our names weren't drawn.  We had fun anyways though, as we were waiting for them to draw the names we went down the street to get some hot chocolate.  We were told it was going to take a little bit because he had to make more chocolate mix so we waited, we were fine, we got to sit inside where it was warm! We ended up getting our hot chocolate for free because we had to wait! It was worth it! Josh also treated me to a nice dinner at the Cheese Cake Factory where we got free sample of the pumpkin cheesecake! SO GOOD! I got a HUGE salad, not realizing how big it was, and the waiter made a weird face at me when he asked me if I wanted to take some of it home, um I guess he didn't realize he was talking to me because I eat all my food and half a piece of cheesecake.  Yes, I felt very fat that day, but it was worth it.

So, more about food.  Since I work mostly at nights, after Josh gets home, I am trying to make more stuff in my crockpot so food can be warm when he gets home, and then still when I get home.  I have gotten many recipe books from the library that have helped, but do you know of any good easy crockpot recipes that you'd be willing to share? Thanks!

Oh, this is a picture I got of Josh while we waited for our hot chocolate.  I was trying to document our journey, but he insists on not smiling and not helping me in my documentation... He better change soon because I just became the ward historian... in other words, I am the picture taker at ward activities. perfect job.

Snow Day

Growing up in California, I was always jealous of the kids that got snow days.  The thought of having school cancelled sounded great to me.  I always loved visiting my grandparents in the winter when they had snow, we had fun skiing, making snowmen, and just playing outside.  I wanted snow.

I have seen the light.

I experienced my first snow day, and although I loved being able to stay home from work and Josh got to stay home from school, it wasn't all I expected.  We started by going to the clubhouse and playing racquetball.  It was great to get out considering that didn't happen yesterday. We then decided to take an adventure and get some shelves for our living room.  Probably not a good decision, but I needed to get out. We went to a couple of stores and ended up with everything else we needed, but no shelves.  Best find of the day: waffle cone maker.  Unfortunately I am no good at making waffle cones.  They all fell apart or burned.  But some of the pieces tasted good, so I am still happy with the purchase (after all it was only $4).

I think the foot and a half of snow will start melting tomorrow, or at least I hope it does since everyone has told me how mild Colorado winters are.

I guess I should be grateful though for the snow because it means I get a whole week off of work, which is crazy and Josh gets a 4 day weekend.

I'm sorry to all those that read this blog, we really don't do anything great so we never have anything good to say, but we are enjoying our time in Denver.

ogden pictures

They changed how you put pictures in a blog and now I'm all messed up! I don't know how to get them straight and in the middle... And I tried to get a good one of the girls, but they all wanted to move a lot and not look at me so it was a challenge...

We had a great weekend in Utah.  It was very short, but it was nice to see family and get away for the short time. We had fun getting to know Zoey, she is such a cutie and so much fun! Now It's back to school and work and the cold cold weather.