We Had a Very Merry Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. Christmas Eve and Christmas morning were spent at the Rock house and Christmas day was spent up in Logan (it is easy to decide where to have Christmas when all of Kurt's family lives out of the city/state/country). I must say, there were plenty of surprises under the tree on Christmas morning.

Here are a few of Kurt's surprises:

The guitar might be returned and another one purchased (for about twice the price). Kurt is very very excited.

And here is my surprise!

I can't wait until spring!

In additional to that beauty, I also got everything to go with it: a new helmet, shoes, clothes, etc. (thanks to the Als, Kurt and my parents). Most of Kurt's gifts came from my parents because we decided to set our limit at $150.00 this year. Kurt convinced me that he only went over the limit slightly, so of course I abstained from going over as well. That beautiful bicycle up there was a little bit more than slightly over the limit. But I am certainly not complaining.

Even Nibbies had some surprises under the tree:


We are so sad that Christmas is over, but at least we have the Al's Hawaiian wedding to look forward to in January!

Arch Rock

1919-2008

My wonderful Grandpa Rock passed away last week at the age of 89, following a lengthy battle with Parkinson's disease. We attended the funeral yesterday, and though we were all happy and thankful that he has passed on to a better place it was an extremely tearful event.

I was very close to Grandpa growing up. As kids, my brother and I spent a lot of time with him and we have many many fond memories. He was such a crack up and he loved to tease the six grandchildren that he had. Each of us spoke and gave a memory at the funeral, and it was no wonder that each of us spoke of his charm, sense of humor, and his love to pick on us.

With his amazingly positive and fun-loving attitude, Grandpa was truly inspirational and was loved by all who knew him. We are all so sad to lose such a great man, but are thankful that he shared his life with us.

Sushi for Santa

Last night we went to a fundraiser for the Road Home with the Als. It was all-you-can-eat sushi, taking place at the top of the Wells Fargo building. As far as the sushi goes: I think a lot of people probably left still a little hungry, but their were SO many people there I'm sure they raised a ton of money.

As for us, we had a great time, enjoyed great company and got to enjoy some sushi.

Westin has arrived

I just wanted to quickly congratulate Courtney and Ryan on successfully creating an adorable little boy. Westin was born on December 8th, and whether you know them or not you might want to check out their blog. He is adorable!

Christmas Time is Here....

.....happiness and cheer! We busted out all of our Christmas stuff, and I love it. Isn't Christmas time the best? We put lights on the house:

what you can't see here is that half of those lights are burnt out. I think it adds character.

The star on top of the bush really adds to the Christmas-y effect, don't cha think?

And we finally got to put out all of Kurt's awesome decorations from Germany. This old man is one of my favorites:

you can't really see it but smoke is coming out of his mouth. you light incense under his bum and the smoke comes out his mouth. awesome.

I would also like to recognize all of Kurt's ornaments. I have to admit that last year I was not extremely fond of them, but they have really started to grow on me. Here are a couple of examples of the gems hanging from our hand-me-down christmas tree.

yes, that is an ice skating cabbage patch kid

please note: Darth's light saver plugs in and really lights up. he also talks. also, please appreciate the jester frog to the right of him.....need I say more?

Happy T Day!

So Kurt and I drove down to Chino Valley, AZ for Thanksgiving with Kurt's sister Michelle (aka: fox girl) and her husband Rob. I hadn't really had a chance to spend much time with them in the past, so it was great to finally get a chance to get to know them. We had such a blast their, I can't even tell you. Here are a few pictures of the weeks happenings:

I love this picture of Kurt and Michelle.


This is Catcher the cat.


Our hike through the land of the rabid fox.


Rob is the fox, if you can't tell.


Gotta love the Wii.


Up to no good.

Unfortunately, I did not get pictures of the amazing Thanksgiving dinner, our mini golf tournament (congratulations to Michelle, the Shaman of Yavapai County), the Arizona Sun Dogs (hockey) game, and our late night talks. Our Chino Valley trip went by way too fast!

On our way home we made some pit stops:

Lee's Ferry



Balanced Rock


I guess it is back to work.

faves from snorg tees:

What a Great Season

Well, now that I have officially recovered from our semi-final lose on Saturday I can talk about how great the season was. We had so much fun this year watching and going to the games, and I just have to say that I love our team, our stadium, our players, our fans and just soccer in general. I couldn't be happier with this season and I can't wait until it starts back up again in the spring. Now you can all have a break from me talking about it.


I also want to give a special thanks to Kate and Zach for their fan-ness.

Rabid Fox Attack!!!

You will never believe what happened to Kurt's sister, Michelle, last week. Um....yeah, she got attacked by a rabid fox. Isn't that insane?! She was on her weekly trail run in Arizona and this crazed fox came after her. It bit into her leg and then when she was trying to force it off her leg it grabbed hold of her arm and wouldn't let go. She tried to strangle it, but to no avail. She then decided to run the MILE back to her car with the fox still attached to her arm. When she got to her car she managed to throw the fox in the trunk and drive to the nearest hospital.

Is that not the craziest thing you have ever heard? She is so awesome! I don't know though, perhaps she did it all on purpose, because now she is famous. Seriously, she has been all over the news. They flew her out to New York twice, and she was even on David Letterman!





My sister-in-law is one tough cookie.

Happy Halloween...Boo!

Some of my friends and I had a little Halloween get together this week. Here are some pictures of our very spooky event:

Anyone who attended Dilworth Elementary with Aimee and me will appreciate the sumo costume, as they will know that this is a life long dream come true.

I am Manny Ramirez by the way. It was a pity that no one at the party knew who that was.

BOO!

We won! We won! We won!...no wait, we tied.

Last night was the most excited I have ever been about a tie. Real Salt Lake played the Colorado Rapids in the last season game of the year. On the line was a spot in the playoffs, and all we needed to do was pull off a tie. Colorado was up one goal almost the entire game, but right when I was beginning to lose hope that we could score the tying goal...we did! And in the 90th minute! It was amazing!! We watched it at Kate and Zach's and I wish you could have been in that room after the we scored. We went from quiet and depressed to screaming and bouncing off the walls.
What a game!



I love this picture. Even though he is totally posing for it.

I give the MVP award to our keeper Nick Rimando who kept us in the game. He had so many great saves.


This tie not only means the playoffs but it also gave us the Rocky Mountain Cup for another year.

ReAl will be playing Chivas next Saturday at Rio Tinto Stadium. Good thing...we bought our tickets last week.

Park City Dinner Group

Joey and Lynsie had a condo in Park City this week, thanks to Joey's work, so we decided to have a dinner group up there. We love our dinner dates, and it is extra nice when the Mortensen's can join us. Here are a few pics:



Poor little Rubers had been sick, but that didn't stop her from being the cutest child ever.

The Al's Engagement Pics

Which do you like best?

A:

B:

C:


They turned out really well, huh?

Cali Trip

Date: October 11 - October 14, 2008

Last weekend Kurt and I flew out to California to hang out with Ryan and Courtney. We always have such a great time with them and this weekend was no exception.

We got in Saturday morning, just in time to watch a lot of football. We drove up the street and took a little tour of the UCLA campus, just to keep it in mind when Kurt is applying to law school.

we leached food off of all of the groups meeting around campus

Last time we visited Ryan and Courtney we did Disneyland and this time we decided on Universal Studios "Fright Nights". It was so fun. It was kind of like a haunted house on steroids. They had all of the employees spread out throughout the huge crowds scaring people, and because I get distracted easily and startled easily I was the perfect target. They had some rides open too, we loved the Jurassic Park ride and the Mummy Returns ride, which we had never been on making everything unexpected. You should have seen our faces in the pictures. Unfortunately Courtney couldn't join us on the rides due to the child in her stomach.

this is on the back lot tour. behind us is the mother's house in Psycho


Sunday night we went to Ryan's parent's house for dinner. We now feel right at home with Ryan's parents and were so happy to see them again (they are amazing cooks by the way). So, I knew that Ryan's dad Rick was a producer and a director of animated movies (not to mention that he is on the Oscar board that votes on the nominated films), and we also knew that he was working on a new movie that comes out in 2010. He took us to his studio to see some clips and it wasn't until then that I discovered that he is kind of a big deal. He was the director and producer of films like: Fox and the Hound, Pete's Dragon, the Swan Princess, the King and I, and all of those Living Scriptures ones. Just check out his IMDB link. By the way, you better believe that I will do some shameless promoting of his new movie, which is great.

Anyway, Monday was another great day. The boys went to the fourth game of the Dodger v. Phillies playoff series (we won't be discussing it further because of the outcome, however), and the girls went shopping, went out for ice cream, watched the game on their new giant tv, and built their new crib (way cute by the way).


By early Tuesday morning we were back at work. It was a much needed vacation and it came and went way too fast.

Thanks Rich's!

Stadium Opener

Date: Thursday, October 9, 2008

Last night was Real Salt Lake's first game in their new stadium, and it was....awesome! We went with Kate and Zach and had such a great time. The place was packed and there was so much energy. Everything about it was amazing (except the tie).


We had great seats, in a section right next to the one where they put up all the injured or suspended players and their families. We saw Andy Williams and his cute family, and Kate and I got this picture with Fabian Espindola. I love him, and I can't wait until he can start playing again.

What a stud!

Anyway, we love the stadium and we all had a great time. We can't wait for next Saturday's game and hopefully the playoffs!

Rio Tinto

Kurt and I took a tour of the Real Salt Lake's new stadium last week. We didn't exactly have a tour guide, but we did okay without one. It is so nice, and we are so excited for our boys to finally get their own field...with grass! The first game in the new stadium is this Thursday (10/9/2008) and we hope to see you there.