From Search Parties to Craft Parties

I bet you are wondering how our day went from this:

To this:

Well, it all started when dad said, "Let's take the quads out on Saturday!" So bright and early Saturday morning we load up the quads and head up to Saguaro Lake to ride for a couple hours. We got there at about 9:20 (like I said, "bright and early") and around 9:35 my brother in law Mike took off on one of the quads. My family doesn't ride hard...we usually take the quad out on a trail or two for about 10 minutes, then head back so someone else could have a turn. At this point, I should mention that this is the one time we forgot to bring walkie talkies to attach to the 

quads.

 Anyway, around 10:00 we start to wonder where Mike is...he's been gone an awfully long time. We assumed he was just off exploring different trails and whatnot. Well, when we still hadn't seen Mike by 10:30 my dad jumped onto the other quad to go look for him, thinking that maybe the other quad at died or whatnot as it was prone to do. 30 minutes later, dad comes back with no Mike. So TJ jumps on the quad to go look in another area. When TJ comes back without Mike, we all start to worry a little bit (and Lindsey was worrying a lot!). Just as dad was getting in his truck to go chat with the Sherriff, the rangers truck rolled in. So we ran to catch the ranger, he phoned the sherriff's office and pretty soon we had not one but three Sherriff's Department guys pulling up (including the K-9 unit...just in case Mike was smuggling drugs, I guess).

Questions were answered about Mike, what he was wearing, how long he had been gone, whether or not he had been paying his tithing (because of course Mike was last seen sporting BYU and Utah State paraphenelia so it wasn't hard to assume that we were LDS). 

Just as the Sherriff's guys were putting in a call for a helicopter to search the area (because by now Mike had been gone for THREE hours!), a Suburban rolls up with Mike in the back seat! Apparantly, Mike had been out riding around, lost all sense of directions (therefore driving in the wrong direction for quite a while), and eventually was able to find some people who could help him out. 

We were so glad that Mike made it back safe and sound, without any of the broken limbs we were all assuming he had! So after our crazy morning adventures, we headed home to make these adorable Countdown to Christmas magnet boards. The little containers will be filled with candy for TJ to eat each day as we countdown the days until Christmas.

8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...

Just 8 more days until Summer comes home!

Election '08

Can I just say how glad I am that this election is finally over!? It would have been nice had it ended another way, but I'm looking forward to no more commercials or solicitating phone calls. Most of all, I'm excited to have my husband back! He spent the last several months working on the John Shadegg for Congress campaign which meant long hours and late nights.

The few days preceding the election were crazy for TJ. He spent so many hours working at the campaign office, making sure he did everything he possible could before Tuesday. Monday night, he was able to drive up to Prescott for John McCain's campaign party.

Congressman Shadegg was one of the speakers at the party, so the whole campaign office went up for the event.

Then Tuesday finally rolled around and TJ continued to work hard all day. But Tuesday night it was time to party...so we cleaned ourselves up and headed to the Biltmore in Phoenix. McCain's big Election Night party was at the Biltmore and Congressman Shadegg had his party there too! There was TONS of people and press all over the place...I even saw Jon Voight there (but I was too chicken to ask for a picture with him).

TJ seriously fell asleep as we rode to the Biltmore...that will happen when you have been up for over 24 hours without sleep!

TJ's sad face when the presidential results came in.

But we were still able to party with WINNERS because Congressman Shadegg defeated Bob Lord by over 13% of the votes!

All in all, elections are no fun for the "political widows" but I am much happier now that I can spend more time with my husband.

The end.

P.S. Shout out to all the people who voted for Prop 102 in AZ and Prop 8 in CA!! The results of these two important propositions helped to soften the blow of this.

You might be a redneck...

if you spent Saturday night at the DEMOLITION DERBY! That's right folks, TJ and I embraced our inner white trash selves and headed down to the state fair (the redneck mecca) to check out the demolition derby. Not gonna lie, it was kinda fun. But there were people sitting in the stands around us whose lives seemed to revolve around the DD (these same people were also missing most, if not all, of their teeth...coincidence? I think not).

Dallin and Katie are SO excited (mainly because we saved $12 and rode the shuttle instead of paying to park)

TJ loves anything that involved destruction.

Cars getting smashed...

More cars getting smashed...

These two cars were stuck to each other and it took a while to get them unstuck...

After the DD, we walked around and checked out the rest of the state fair.

We saw the Big Snake (and maybe Dallin told a little boy that the big snake likes to eat little boys and maybe that little boy cried).

We gave a quarter to a (working-against-his-own-free-will-and-hating-his-life) monkey for good luck.Ate awesome "fair food" such as these fabulous cheesy curly fries (tasted MUCH better than they look).Katie rode the (same description as the monkey) elephant.

Tried to win giant stuffed things by playing some carnival games...

and more carnival games...

and more carnival games...

and then FINALLY....

Dallin won a giant stuffed thing and TJ won nothing. Bummer.

Before we left we made sure to make the debut performance of our awesome band!

And maybe I failed at singing...Rockband is hard.

All in all, fun times were had by all at the Arizona State Fair.

G-Love

So pretty much all of you are probably now even MORE jealous of me because I now have the coolest phone ever. TJ and I picked up the brand new Google G1 phone and are absolutely in love with them. Best way to describe this phone: 

the i phone and a sidekick had a tawdry love affair and the G1 is their love child...and now it is mine!

The Happiest Place on Earth

 

Movie Reviews

My first week of vacation has been awesome. Literally spent all day Monday in my jammies, finally ventured out of the house on Tuesday (only because I had to go to the grocery store or die from starvation), and finally on Wednesday I started to DO something. And by something I mean see too many movies!

On Wednesday, my mom and I went to lunch at {yummy} Olive Garden then headed to Harkins to see this flick:

I hadn't even heard of it prior to seeing it, but I actually liked it. First of all, not a single man is in the movie at all. They talk about men a lot, but we never see one of 'em! Meg didn't look too plastic, Jada Pinkett plays a lesbian, and Debra is {as always} hilariously funny.

Then on Thursday I, once again, headed to Harkins with some ladies in my ward to see this film:

Again, I hadn't heard of this movie (maybe I should watch more TV so I can see these previews) but it was really good. Very sappy, almost too cheesy at times, but I'm a sucker for any movie that makes me cry! Plus, Sean Faris and Penn Badgley are pretty (even though they tried too hard to make Penn look like a tough guy!).

Then on Friday, I headed up to Harkins again (I know, how lame do I sound?!). This time, TJ and I went with a special needs boy from our ward who was REALLY excited to see this movie (which is sure to win at least 1 Oscar!):

TJ's thoughts: You know parent's must REALLY love their children if they are willing to sit through this with them!
Fun though, that most of the laughter we heard throughout the movie seemed to be coming from the parents. I can see why kiddos would like this, but talking chihuahuas are just not my thing.

This weekend I'm all about General Conference, next week I'll be working with my man for this man, and next weekend I will hopefully be here!