Skateboarding at Night

Karen’s brother Kyle came down to stay with her for American Thanksgiving. We found out he was pretty into long boarding, so one night Rick pulled out his board and we all had some fun riding and taking pictures.

Karen & Kyle

Rick & I

Rick

Thanks Giving 2008

Rick and I have had the chance to do some cooking classes with my Aunt Lynne over the past few months. We have learned to make a delicious red spaghetti sauce, chicken fried rice, Asian pork chops and everything has been delicious! (of course it was, Aunt Lynne had a hand in it!)

So it was getting around the time to do another cooking class and she invited us to come help cook Thanks Giving dinner with her for the rest of the family. This woman knows what she is doing and my cousin, Bill and his daughter Maya are always there helping and equally as talented in the culinary department, thanks to their mom/grandma. We helped with the turkey and ham, 3 kinds of stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes, green beans and an array of deserts. It was amazing and as always a fantastic time spent with family!

We appreciate Aunt Lynne sharing so much of her time and talents with us and we look forward to more cooking classes!

German Pancake

This was the result of our first German pancake. Unfortunately

I didn't have the camera ready when it first came out of the

oven because it was HUGE...so proud.

Posted by Rick at 5:01 PM 1 comments

Grand Canyon

We thought we would share one of our recent adventures...

We hiked the Grand Canyon a couple Saturdays ago. It was a day trip, we hiked all the way to the bottom and back up despite warning on this sign...

It was an amazing trip as far as sight seeing, but it was pretty difficult, well, at least the last 2 miles!! I almost lost my lunch about 100 meters from the top and that's right after Rick ran to see the big horn sheep that were just hanging out and posing for pictures.



It was about an 8 hour hike, 3 hours down and 5 hours out, 17 miles total. We spent about an hour at the bottom having lunch and lemonade at a little place called Phantom Ranch. We went with 3 other people, all who work at the gym that we workout at, needless to say we did not finish first : ) However, we didn't finish last either. Rick even took some time to make a friend along the way...

Here are some of the pictures we took during our adventure:

The beginning of a long day.

Mules on the trail.

The Colorado River.

Julie at the bottom

Rick at the bottom

Hiking out

Tour guide Bob.

We finally made it to the top again! We thought we were pretty tough for going down and out in one day, but the guy to the far left trying to get out of our picture did rim to rim to rim in 12 hours! That means he started where he is sitting on the South Rim went all the way to the top of the North Rim and back in one day! He ran all but 7 miles of it. Now that is CRAZY!
Posted by Julie at 9:30 AM 3 comments

Thanks Grandma & Grandpa

My grandparents were kind enough to let Rick and I stay at their house this summer while they were on their usual 5 month stent in Greer. One Sunday after Church while we were changing out of our Church clothes, I was looking in the closet at all of my Grandma’s clothes and had a brilliant idea…we should dress up in their clothes! So we did. And we proceeded to do so throughout the summer and take pictures and send them via email at first just to my Grandparents and then it somehow spread to the rest of the family. We would try to come up with themes for our dress-up times. Below are the pictures along with the email messages that we would send out.

A Gift for You Both

As Rick and I were changing out of our Sunday clothes yesterday and putting them back in your closets we had a great idea... we thought that you would appreciate a fresh look on your wardrobes! So over the next couple months we will be providing you with our personal fashion compilations from your very own closets (see attached photos)! Feedback is appreciated, if you wish to comment. We love you guys and appreciate you letting us stay in your house! We hope you both have great birthdays!

Julie & Rick

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day! And yes, it is once again Sunday, so that means we came home from Church to change our clothes and were intrigued by your closets. Today's theme is "Clothes good for house-work". I now know why Grandma used to frequent that fantastic moo-moo...because MAN, that thing is COMFORTABLE! However, it does have one drawback, only one pocket. Strange. Oh, and as you can tell from one of the pictures, those shorts might be a little short for garments, so you might stick to using them as swim shorts...since that is their intended purpose anyway. Well, hope you enjoy your day and the pictures. Love you!

Julie & Rick

This week, by popular request...

That's right the "bird jacket" has been requested by multiple family members, so here it is! Our theme was "Ranching"; Rick of course had the option to go the more traditional route with overalls, plaid snap-up shirt, straw hat, durable over-coat and Dr. Marten's of course...

while I had to go with more of an urban-rancher look, sporting traditional brown suede cowboy boots, capri length levis, an AOL 4.0 t-shirt, a straw hat and yes, the bird coat! Enjoy. Love you all!

Rick and Julie

"God bless America"

Our apologies for missing last week and getting this one out a little late. We thought it only appropriate to see what you had in the way of patriotic attire...Notice the fine detail in Rick's thermal pants; he's dressed to salute the stars and stripes! I am outfitted for a fabulous 4th of July BBQ...and what else says "America!" like a pair of Mickey Mouse socks? Finally, you can find me reading memoirs from our very own George W's dear mother Barbara while rocking a fat-lip!

We hope you guys had a great 4th of July and are doing well.

Love you!

Rick and Julie

There's a holiday this week?

Yes, and that holiday would be July 24th Pioneer Day...a day I realized actually existed when I lived in Provo and some businesses actually shut down along with Church Headquarters. So, for any of you who get sick of other religions taking their "religious holidays" off of work or school, I say go a head, use Pioneer Day as a religious Mormon holiday!

You will notice that the attire we are wearing seems to be a little large. We are in fact representing those Pioneers who had finally reached their destinations...therefore, we imagine their clothes would have fit rather loosely after pulling handcarts for hundreds of miles and enduring much disease and sickness! Enjoy and don't forget to celebrate on the 24th with some jell-o (or whatever else you consider to be Mormon tradition) :) Love you guys!

Rick & Julie

Sleepover!

So this weeks' theme was "Pajama Party". Rick found a lovely Disney tank top along with some classic grey sweats. He also happened to run into a fabulous red and blue robe that resembles something a championship boxer might wear to a big fight!

I found a classic mint green satin nighty that is accented with some very lovely lace. I also, found a fabulous robe, though not as flashy, still very comfortable and stylish. Finally, I happed to come across a delightful pair of hand knitted slippers!

We hope everyone is doing well and having a great summer!

Rick and Julie


Greer

So, we know it's been a while, but we think this one is pretty good. It is a classic Greer photo op in front of the fish cleaning station taken, of course, by Mr. Dick Hepler with Shirley and Tia spectating.

And this one is special because it includes the very inspirations for these emails! Rick is ready to be your guide for the day, sporting the oh, so familiar waders, fishing coat and fishing hat. I prefer to stay at "the court" in my Levis, Levi button-up with beautiful floral embroidery, my Levi hat equipped with Mickey Mouse pins and Mexican walking stick (or cane) that adds an array of color. Grandma and Grandpa both look at home and stunning in their court appropriate attire; they are always the talk of the trailer trash! We had a great weekend in Greer. We camped, caught some fish, although small, ate potluck, watched some olympics and enjoyed both the rain and the company. Thanks for entertaining us! We absolutely loved our first weekend in Greer together! We love you!

Rick & Julie PS The last picture was requested from Grandpa, "take a picture of that" referring to the fact that it looked like Rick had a load in his pants! Classic.

Thanks again for being so generous and letting us stay in your house…and wear your clothes ;) You really are great examples of love and how to treat family.

Babies!

Whitney and Brad had their first baby, Emily, on July 23rd and

Rick and I were lucky enough to go and meet her in the hospital.

Check out that hair!

It was great to hear their story and how excited they are! Way to go!

Megan and Carl had their first baby, Aidan, on July 24th and once again Rick and I were some of the privileged to get to see this babe in his first days on earth.

He is an adorable little guy with a

quiet, muffled cry. Lucky parents!

We are grateful to have such great friends and are

so excited to watch and learn from them as parents!

Hole-in-the-Rock

One evening Rick and I headed over to Papago Park in plans to meet up with Karen and Holly. Rick and I got there ahead of schedule and decided to climb on top and look down through the smaller hole. I always love to take people to Hole-in-the-Rock who haven’t spent much time in the desert or have never been to Arizona. I think this was Rick and Karen’s first time.

I remember going up here all of the time when we were little. It brings back memories of spending time with the Mineer’s.

It was a great night to take some desert photography and just enjoy the scenery.

Famous Person Siting

So we're sitting in sacrament meeting listening to the same ol' sacrament talks minding our own sacrament business. When the meeting gets over, there's a little fuss from the ladies sitting in front of us who had done a musical number earlier in the meeting. So I look around to see what they're talking about and I see this dude, on the other side of the room who looks a lot like David Archuleta...the real winner of American Idol, so I take a second gander and ask Julie: "is that David Archuleta?" So she looks up and says "yep"...a confirmation of the famous person siting.

Apparently the top 10 finalists have to go on tour or something and they started here in Glendale, AZ. So he and his dad were in our sacrament meeting. All the girls tried to attack him afterwards (even the bishop's wife) but he slipped out the back pretty quick. So anyway...we're pretty much famous too.
Posted by Rick at 7:10 PM 5 comments

Missouri/Ohio Trip

As some of you may know, Julie and I took a little trip out to Ohio to go to a wedding of one of Julie's friends. On our way there we stopped in St. Louis to visit Dave and Patrice and their little family. Patrice and the girls picked us up from the airport and we headed straight for the arch.

Let me tell you something, I don't think all of you quite know how funny little Meghan can be, but she is hilarious.

She is very shy and quiet when she's around a big group, but man can she talk...and she made us laugh so much! We had a great time at their house, which is very nice, Patrice has done a great job renovating.



While we were in Missouri we went to Carthage and Nauvoo. It was humbling to be in such holy places and see where Joseph and other saints went through so much.

After that we headed to Ohio. We stayed with one of Julie's old roomates and her husband, Ciera and Dan Dickson. They were kind enough to show us around a bit and even take us to the official home of the Ohio State Buckeyes. Which also happens to be where Elliott & Ashley met.

Elliott and Ashley's wedding was held in a beautiful cathedral

and the ceremony was beautiful as well.

And it was fun for Julie to see some old high school friends.

After the wedding and a visit with the Dickson's we went to Kirtland. Again it was awe inspiring to stand in two places where it is known that Christ appeared to Joseph.

It was a good time and very educational. We were very glad to have made the trip and hope that if you haven't had the chance to see those historical sites, that someday you will...it's awesome.
Posted by Rick at 12:37 PM 0 comments