North Carolina with the Duncans (March 2011)

This April, we had the joy of visiting some of our favorite family members. Any guesses of who it may be from this first photograph? Yes, it was indeed the Duncan's!
We went out to down town Charlotte (N.C.) to a Thai restaurant called Basil. It was by far the best Thai food I have ever eaten; super fresh ingredients and not too greasy. Although we all may appear to be sitting still, there was a member of our group that afternoon (whose name shall remain silent) who ended up waving her knife at the passerby’s. Fortunately we discovered her absence from the table in time to prevent any harm.





Revealing herself

1/2 Marathon in MOAB (March 2011)

Moab was so much fun!

Mission Companion (March 2011)

Christmas (Dec 2010)

Listeing to the First Precidency Christmas fireside is becoming one of my favorite traditions.  This year we listened to it at the Larsen's.  It was a reminder of what it is we celebrate at this time.  Finding a balance between tradition and purpose is a work in progress in my mind.  It has been fun for Scotty and I to blend our traditions togather, including Christmas.  This year, Scotty was on call during Christmas, but fortunately we were able to spend most of the week with our families, including my mom who visited us for a few weeks.  The day Scotty worked in the hospital we brought him over some Paella; now if that doesn't say Christmas food, I don't know what does. ;)

Putting up our 1st Tree (Dec 2010)

Putting up our FIRST tree was so much fun!  First off, getting it to the house was quite a "thrill?" ehehe We jumped into our Honda Civic, in hopes we'd find one small enough to fit INSIDE the car.  Lo and behold we did. Ha!  That earned itself yes another reason why we love our civic, yup right under the 40 mile/gallon reason!  Well anyhoo as we contemplated as to what in the world we would put on our Christmas Tree we decided to fill it with things we've collected from around the world... in hopes to keep it filling with those things.  With the help of Mami, we topped off our "cultural" tree with her hand made ornaments.  Gosh she's creative!  She made those bows out of corn husks.... which as she first described over the phone, I thought she was saying "corn cobs." No not her mispronunciation, just my misvisualization.  I wasn't so  hot on hanging cord cobs on our tree, thankfully my mom knew what she was doing.

Honeymoon in Mexico (November 2010)

Is this not the cutest picture or what? This totally takes me back to "yester year." We went to a school parade the first day we were in Mexico. Miraya played her clarinet with her marching band in the town parade. Oh it was classic! Miraya is indeed the tall teenage girl in the center of this picture. My little girls are growing up so much!

We found this very fascinating. This is side walk mosaic in the streets of the capital of Veracruz.

We went to a very neat presentation at the city library in Veracruz. It was a display on the legacy of peace. These are the men that the displayed life histories and their legacy of peace. It was very education indeed.

Mexico's "Dollar Tree." Enough said.

We had another wedding cake! We had a wonderful dinner with the family in Veracruz. They bought us this cake and adorned it with a bride and groom. ;)

This was an amazing water park. It was a school day so we has the park practically for ourselves. I wish I would have taken a picture of the water slide, but imagine you see a huge cement dragon with water slides coming off at every end. The water temprature was perfect! Oh there's nothing like escaping the winter blues of Utah to go back home to Mexico!

Ok the pool is one thing, but the STINKY hot spring is another... wasn't about to jump in that water!

We absolutely loved our trip to Mexico. It was just what we needed!

Honeymoon... with the Family? (Nov 2010)

Yeah, I know, it sounds a bit "no right" but it's not exactly what it sounds like. ;) We did get the pleasure of going home to Mexico in November to visit with the family and also spend some time alone in addition to our weekend honeymoon in Snow Bird. We had a blast! We went white water rafting (no photos included since a CD cost $50, yeah right!), spent time relaxing at the beach, rode bikes near the family's house in Las Vigas, and of course, played with the familia. One particular place we enjoyed was an awesome water park in Veracruz. We also had the chance to visit Puebla and visit with family and friends. Oh did I mention the food was delicious! We probably ate more fried plantains and beans than our tummies could handle, but they were so addicting! Oh, it's always great to go back! * I don't get the underline deal here, can't take it off.