September-December, 2012

So, I'm still having a hard time figuring out where the happy medium between pictures and words is, in a blog post. I'll probably continue to experiment, and still have a fair amount of no-picture ones that are just thoughts. But I'm way behind on pictures but don't want to upload them all here! So instead, I think I'll give some of the highlights, and then perhaps link to my picasa account where more photos can be found. Break!

Early September/late August, we travelled up to Cache Valley for our nephew Mark's baptism. This was really neat for me: I hadn't been to a baptism in years! It was a real treat to get to witness. While up there, we also started work on some nightstands, and got to go canoeing with most of my sis-in-law Jamie's family after the baptism.

 Also, my husband is crazy:

We also enjoyed hiking with our friends, Mark and Halsey Holt, to the Y sometime in September. (I forget.) 

We had another trip up to Cache Valley for General Conference, and it gave Sam the opportunity to enjoy a nice fall ride. 

In October, we had fun at a trip to Cornbelly's Corn Maze with my family. They had so much to do there! I was very impressed. Jori had a great time, and it was fun watching the other grand kids enjoy things as well. 

 For Halloween, we had three occasions to dress Jori up in her beautiful little Chinese dress: a friend's birthday party, the ward trunk or treat, and...I forget the other. We didn't actually take her trick or treating, because we didn't think she'd get the point. Maybe that's just silly of us, though. :)

We also did a murder mystery dinner/game with three of Sam's old mission buddies and their wives, the Friday before Halloween. It was such fun, we decided to do another one on the actual night of Halloween with ward friends. We were less involved the 2nd time, not dressing up, but it was still a lot of fun. :)

Early November, we celebrated Sam's 26th birthday by going out to eat a couple of different times. I think on the actual day, we went to Tucanos, but we also went (without Jori) to the Banana Leaf, which serves Sri Lankan food. Yum! We love fun new places to eat, especially Eastern!! (His food arrived wrapped in an actual banana leaf. How fun!)

Also in November, it snowed for the first time this winter season in Provo. I was thrilled because I'd been afraid it wouldn't snow until after we'd moved to Cali. Yay! So we went on the hunt and bought Jori some good snow clothes, then took her sledding. She didn't like it as much this year as last, interestingly.

 We spent Thanksgiving with Sam's parents this year, and that was right after we'd moved out of our last place. I french-braided Jori's hair for the first time, which (silly as it sounds) I'm very proud of. Jori also got to ride a horse with her daddy for the first time, and she absolutely loved it. She loves loves loves Grandma and Grandpa Hatch's horses! 

Early December, we moved down South! It's insanity, I tell you what. On  the way we stopped to see our good friends, James and Jenna Hess, and their two kids. Ella (their 2-year-old) is 8 months older than Jori, and she was so good with her! I was very grateful. 

 I think little Drake's face is priceless here, haha: 

(We also got to see my good friend and old roommate, Sydney Jackson,  but I forgot all about pictures that time.)

In December, we started enjoying the beach: 

 (frizzy haired profile shot! Beautiful beautiful! Sam's got a trophy wife for sure! :P)

Made some new friends (before they had to go back to Oregon): 

Visited the Mission, in San Juan Capistrano:

 (Look at those humongous, awesome colored goldfish!)

...and I scurried like a mad woman to finish my Independent Study class by the deadline, then my normal classes. (I did, phew!)

After we flew back to Utah for the holidays, we enjoyed the snow: 

And family, a lot. A lot a lot!

After Christmas, we had the misfortune that night of waking up to Jori wailing. Poor thing had a bad fever, and continued  to for about three days (in varying extremities). After Jori got over the worst of it, we caught it, which kind of put a damper on our New Years and family time with Sam's family. But we still enjoyed them and what we were able to do. Everyone loved sledding down the driveway (hill, really): 

And Jori had a lot of fun with the dogs at Grandma and Grandpa's house. 

 She also stole my camera and snapped some pics. This one's my favorite. I love that perfect little foot. :D

While there, we also had the Hatch Family Christmas Party (the main event of the season), but unfortunately Jori was really sick for the first half so I missed a lot of it. Still, what I was there for I enjoyed. And Jotham and Jamie (mentioned them earlier-one of their boys got baptized a few months back) had a game night at their new house in Benson. Love game nights! Sam and I also, for the first time since we've been married, went away for the night of our anniversary and stayed at a Bed and Breakfast in Logan called the Anniversary Inn. We stayed in the "Aphrodite's Court" room, which was beautiful. It was so nice to have some alone time. The only thing that would have made it better were if I hadn't started to have the flu symptoms that night. Drat! 

And that was pretty much the last four months of 2012! I consider myself, officially caught-up on my blog! Phew!