Mal's Happy Birthday Shelf

My handy husband and handy brother-in-law whipped up this beauty in less than an hour for me for my birthday. B-E-A-U-tiful! Brian also got me "Despicable Me"... which I love love love.

Turkey Day 2010

Thanksgiving was at Leah and Mike's this year. What a BEAUTIFUL home they have. This is the only picture I have from the day, and the only reason I have it, is thanks to my dear sister-in-law, Laura.

Funny story from Turkey day 2010: Leah put the turkey in the downstairs fridge until Thanksgiving day. Only when she went to get the turkey out of said fridge that morning, she realized the fridge was not plugged in and that poor turkey had been sitting in there for 3 DAYS! So dearest Leah ran to the grocery store early in the morning to get a non-nasty turkey. The only turkey she found was a whopping 30 pounds! Needless to say, there was more than enough to eat.

Thanks Leah and Mike for letting us spend Thanksgiving at your house!

Las Vegas

Do I go to Las Vegas more than most people? Apparently. But I love it. I took my parents and my little brother and his fiance for a weekend getaway just before Thanksgiving.



Let the dam jokes begin!!!

We went on the dam tour...

This was my favorite part of the tour! Obviously, they have to have a way out of the dam just in case the power goes out, so there are a MILLION stairs, you can't even see where it starts or ends. Our dam tour guide told us that his friend took the stairs once and it took him almost an HOUR to do the whole thing.

It was so freaking windy. I could NOT stop laughing! You could lean into the wind and it would support you. But the funny part was, it was only windy in Nevada. As soon as you crossed the state line into Arizona, it wasn't as windy.

This is the part where I told Jake "hey dad is taking a picture so make a dorky face with me"

We walked across the new bridge.

The gift shop.

Las Vegas temple

Of all the times I've been to Vegas, I have never taken my picture in front of the sign. Check that one off the bucket list.

Our last night there we went to see Blue Man Group. SO. FREAKING. AWESOME.

I have seen a lot of Vegas shows, but this one is definatly in the top 3.

The parents went to get our tickets while Jake, Jenna and I went to the M&M's store. My mom called me while she was standing in line and said "how do you feel about sitting in the 'poncho section'?" And I said "not good". You wear poncho's so you don't get paint on you! But I ended up being worried for nothing. We didn't get splattered.

New Callings All Around

After 3 years of being in primary/nursery (and that's just in this ward) guess who FINALLY got released?! ME!!! I enjoyed my freedom for about a month. And then the 1st counselor showed up at my house. I am now, drum roll please....................




Camp Director!

I am excited to work with the young women! I will be more excited when I find a place for us to have camp in 2011.



And here's one definitely worth mentioning.. Brian is getting released after 2 years of working with the Teachers quorum. He is now...........



2nd counselor in the young men's presidency..... the STAKE young men's presidency!


I am SO excited for him! He is nervous and unsure about his new calling, but I think it will be so much fun!

Wish us luck with our new endeavors!

Happy Halloween!

Parties? No.
Handing out candy? No.
Carving pumpkins? Always.

Guess Who's Going to Disneyland?!

My co-worker and I sit in a "room" by ourselves at work, therefore, we get to listen to the radio. However, the "room" that we sit in does not get very good reception, therefore, we can only listen to a handful of stations without the crackle. 101.9 happens to be one of those stations. And everyday, 3 times a day, for 3 weeks, this radio station was giving away park hopper passes to Disneyland. I called diligently everyday, 3 times a day, for 3 weeks. And on the 4th day of the 3rd week, guess who won those prized Disneyland tickets :-) I'm going in May... now only if I can get my husband to come with me...

Pickles!

We received a TON of cucumbers from Brian's friend at work. I said "what are you going to do with all of those?" and Brian said "let's make pickles!

Our haul

Getting crispy

I called Andrea to see how full I could fill my pot with pickles. She said I could fill it pretty full. I took this picture on my cell phone and sent it to her and asked "is this too full?" She said "um, yeah, probably"

Dills

Sweets

The mad scientist

Voila! After all our hard work, and several late night phone calls to Brian's sister, our cucumber's turned into pickles! And they are SOOO delicious!

We Go To Oregon

For Brian's 30th birthday, I got us plane tickets to go visit his sister Andrea and her family in Oregon City. The plane tickets were supposed to be a surprise, however, it didn't work out the way I planned. I was trying to be super sneaky and buy the tickets on a credit card that we never use, and Brian never looks at the bill. Well, of course this ONE TIME, Brian decides to look over the credit card bill. Let me paint you a little picture... it's 12:30 at night, I am dead asleep in bed. Brian comes FLYING up the stairs and says "I think someone stole our credit card and used it to buy Southwest plane tickets!" BUSTED! I told him not to worry about it, but my secret was blown :( Anywho... the trip was SO much fun! We almost didn't come home!

Shopping at the outlet malls. Oh how I love this little girl.

Her sucker was SUPER messy.

I was giving Jessi blackberries to snack on in the car. I turned around to give her another, when she gave me a big cheesy grin and had berries ALL over her teeth!

We drove to Seaside one of the days we were there and rented a surrey! This was SO much fun! It's a huge 9 person bike (they have 12 person bikes too) I kept yelling at Andrea "why have we never done this before!"

At the beach

The cutest Turner family there ever was! This was right after we took Redden on the tilt-a-whirl and just about made him toss his cookies.

A not-so-happy Jessi. She didn't like the sand.

Some manly men

The Turner's walking back from the shore

We wore them out!

The next morning, Brian comes into our room and says "go look at Jessi". I went in her room and found her like this.

Lunch at the Carver Hanger. Brian got the biggest hamburger ever.

Hey Twilight fans: recognize this place??? This is the diner where Bella and her dad eat in "Twilight"

Did you know that a lot of scenes from "Twilight" were filmed in Oregon City? Guess what we did on our last day there???

Thanks, Turner's, for such a fun trip! We hope to be back soon! Love you guys!

Bear Lake... It's Not For Everyone!

We went to Bear Lake the day after we got home from trek. I'm not sure what we were thinking. So keep in mind that I am already cranky.

This is an Andreasen family tradition. I have never been to Bear Lake, so as we're driving up the mountain, Brian is trying to convince me that the water is blue, like in Bora Bora. And I'm thinking to myself "yeah, right, sure it is". But when we stopped at the look out point on top of the mountain, I COULD NOT believe what I was seeing! SO gorgeous!

So... by the time we got down to the beach, it was 2:30 and Brian's dad only had a few minutes left on his jet ski rental. He told us to take it out for a spin. I have never been on a jet ski, so I was like "sweet let's go!"

I didn't feel like this for long.

Having never been on a jet ski, my husband gives me NO instruction what-so-ever except to hold on. I'll admit, when we started off at about 100 miles per hour, I had a HUGE smile on my face. I normally like to go fast. That smile, quickly turned to absolute terror. I was flying every which-way, my legs were getting rubbed up against the seat (which I was hardly touching because someone was driving like a maniac) not to mention the spray was FREEZING! After about 5 minutes of this death ride, I hear Brian yell back to me "get ready to lean!"

I didn't lean.

Brian turned the jet ski just in time to see me fly... about 15 feet... and land with a splash in freezing cold Bear Lake. I hadn't been in the water yet, and when Brian drove back over to pick me up, I couldn't catch my breath because the water was so cold, it caught me off-guard. So after about 10 minutes of panting in the water, waiting for my heart rate to go down, he pulled me back on, and let me drive.

I did not enjoy this either.

How exactly is this fun? I have to go fast enough to keep the ski up on top of the water, but I am also supposed to hold on when I'm going 400 miles an hour?! NOT my idea of a good time.

After that, we went back to the beach, where i gathered my things and went back to the room. Where I spent the rest of the day.

A few things I DID enjoy about Bear Lake were:

The pretty blue water

Spending time with family

Sitting in the hot tub

Eating Ryan's rice krispie treat

Raspberry shakes

and the drive through the mountain

Oh My Heck! I Love Trek!

Can I just start off by saying that I did NOT want to do this. When they asked us to be a Ma and Pa I said "is this a joke?" I was totally being a wiener about going on Trek. But it was the most incredible experience! I still can't talk about it without getting choked up. Beware of the picture overload!

We had the most awesome bus driver! Her name was cupcake and she let us play "American Idol" and sing over the radio. We sure got to know her on our 8 HOUR BUS RIDE!

Brian and Pa Britton singing "You've lost that loving feeling" to Cupcake.

Geared up and ready to walk! Can you tell it's day one? I'm still smiling.

Lining up the hand carts.

Our family with the lead flag. Our kids were SO stoked to be heading out our company. And I was stoked that it was over cast and not blasted hot.

Orientation at the visitor's center. Allie, Kody, Matthaus, Trent, Pa and DJ.

2 of my cute girls! Lexie and Allie.

LOVE this quote!

All of our stake getting started. The gap between the mountains in the background is Devil's Gate.

Some must push, and some must pull. Our tough boys out front, Matthaus and Trent.

Our totally awesome family flag. Our color was light purple.

Taking a rest.

The first night we camped it was UNBELIEVABLY windy. But take a look at this gorgeous sunset! I was pretty much done by this point. We'd hiked 6.5 miles this first day and I did NOT feel good. I hardly ate any dinner and I didn't sleep at all that night because it was so windy. Now that I look back on it, I realize it was something I was supposed to endure to give me a greater appreciation for my pioneer ancestors.

When we woke up the next morning, it was overcast, cold, and still windy. But not near as bad as it was during the night. We had a tasty breakfast and headed off to Dan's cove.

Ma and Pa

One of our girls woke up and couldn't bend her knees this morning, so we were down to 5 kids. They were such troopers!

Kody, Ma, Pa, Lexie, Allie, Matthaus and Trent

Our "license plate". We were in the red company. Brian wrote "Martin's Cove or Bust" on it.

Oscar! This dog lives on a farm about 10 miles away from Martin's Cove. Whenever there are kids doing the trek, he comes over and walks with you! So cute! It makes you wonder if there is more meaning to it... We were watched over in more ways than one.

Still smiling! Can you tell how dirty our faces are!? You don't wear sunglasses because it's sunny. You wear them because it's so dusty!

Brian and Clint, a friend from our ward who was on the food committee. Him and his wife walked with us most of the time.

Dropping off our handcarts and taking a break before we headed up to Dan's Cove. They ask for total silence. This was amazing. We sat down at Dan's Cove and had a short devotional. They asked everyone to close their eyes and meditate. When we opened our eyes, some of our people were missing. The stake members explained that sometimes when the pioneers would wake up in the morning, not all of their family members had made it through the night. As we walked up the pathway to Martin's Cove, the people that were representing those who had passed during the night were lined up along the pathway with white cloth tied around their arm. Brian and I lost one of our kids. It was really emotional for everyone.

After Martin's Cove, we ate lunch. Then we headed onto the reenactment of the Sweet Water River crossing. They ask the young men to carry the women across the river. There is a story of 3 boys who carried everyone across this river in the winter, with ice floating in the water, cutting their legs, but they didn't stop until everyone was across. These 3 young men ended up dying.

My hubby carrying me across the river!

Our manly men pushing our cart across the river!

After the river crossing came the women's pull. If you've ever heard about this, it was the most amazing part of the trek for me. The stake leaders send all the men to go on without their women or handcarts. Once the men were gone, they explained that sometimes the pioneer women would lose their husbands, brothers, or sons, and they would have to continue on without them, often having to carry their babies or small children alone. They asked for complete silence while these girls pushed and pulled with all their might to get those carts up the hill. It's so hard for the men to watch, and not be able to help. It was really amazing to see how much these young men care about their young women!

Me and my girls! We made it up! It doesn't look steep, but holy cow! You go from hard ground, to sand, to ROCKS.. It was crazy, but so awesome to experience!

After the women's pull, the men would NOT let us help with the hand carts. They insisted on pulling all the way back to camp. We came back to a tasty dinner and square dancing, but I think everyone was so tired, the square dancing didn't last long! We also had a stake testimony meeting that night. Brian and I sat there like proud parents listening to our kids!

Our little tent city. No wind that night!

The whole Fox Hollow gang!

Pa Steinke caught a snake at our camp site! NOT a rattler, thank goodness!

Our kids! We sure grew to love them!

Our family getting ready to head out!

So amazing! I'd do it again in a heartbeat! Oh my heck, I DID love trek!