ThAnKsGiViNg 2009

If you look back a year ago at the post I did, the title was...

"A Bitter-Sweet Thanksgiving", well that's exactly what is was this year too.

This is now the 3rd year in a row that Branden has not been home for thanksgiving, next year he should be home but ya never know. I wish he could have been here, but it was still pretty good. First, I had dinner at my mom's house with the Seabolts (my mom's sister and her family) and ate a lot of food...

Here's the fam..
and me...

Later on, Ryan, Ashlee, and baby Carter joined us....

So precious!

My cousin Bryce holding Carter!

And then later I went over to the Binghams for a 2nd dinner,

where I ate a lot more food! And pie!

Thanks Everyone who made this thanksgiving a good one!

New Nephew!

Introducing Carter James Jones!

He was born on November 18th at 1:55 PM

and weighed 6 pounds 10 onces, and was 20 inches long.

Sooo CUTE and TINY!

I had to wear a mask because I had a bit of a cold,

but I am definately smiling underneath it!

Everything went well and mom, dad, and baby are doing good!

Congratulations Ryan & Ashlee!

and welcome to the world baby Carter!

HaPpY hAlLoWeEn!

Last night the Binghams had their annual Halloween Party and it was way fun as usual! Everyone always dresses up, and Branden's mom put together a scavenger hunt, and we had soup and caramel apples! I just wish that Branden could have been there.

Here is my witch costume! (Thanks Ashlee for letting me borrow it!)

Blake and Melissa

Cyndi and Judd......or is it Judd and Cyndi! Ha Ha!

Chantel and Avenley

Dieter and Shay

Buzz and Woody (Ashton and Matthew)

Luke

and Anna!

I didn't get a picture of everyone's costume, but they were all cute!

I especially loved the babies!

I hope you all have a HaPpY hAlLoWeEn!

Random Stuff

These are just some random pictures of some of the stuff we did when Branden was home when we weren't in Hawaii. They're not as cool as the Hawaii pics, but not very many things are! Anyways, here are some pics when we bowling on base, it was only 50 cents a game, and we have our own shoes, so we played 4 games and is was 4$! Cheap date!

I hate looking at these....

I miss him SOOO much already!

Some action shots!

Im cheesin it in the picture above because I was so excited about my score, and I got 3 strikes in a row! I think that's called a turkey? Anyways, I think this is my highest score ever, and probably will always be my highest score!

We also went on a hike up on a mountain right by our house. The weather was perfect! I just wish all of the fall colored leaves were still on the trees!

It was a great view of eagle river and anchorage!

The missionaries also came over for dinner a couple of times, this was one of our meals....doesn't it look amazing! It is called a chicken enchilada ring, and it is soo good, and I don't even like mexican food! It is one of Branden's favorites!

And lastly, Branden has been needing a new suit for a while, he was still wearing the one from his mission which was like 7 or so years ago, so Men's Warehouse was having the buy one suit get the next for $100, so we gave in and got him a couple of suits. He really likes them, and so do I! I made him model them so I could practice some photohgraphy skills, I still need A LOT of practice and learning!

What a Hunk!

I'm flying to Utah tonight, so goodbye my Alaska friends I will see you in a while! And Utah friends and family I will see you soon!

Hawaii Days 6 & 7

Well, the past sixteen days has been like a really good dream, and then now someone just threw a cup of ice cold water in my face. Branden left to go back to Afghanistan on Saturday morning, he has about 4 months left...give or take....probably another year knowing the Army. It was hard to drop him off at the airport, I hated it. But, I guess life has to go on whether I want it to or not. Amyways, I just wanted to post the last days of our Hawaii trip.

Branden tried surfing for a couple of hours, key word "tried".

He probably would have gotten if he had more time!

We also went to Hona Bay, which is where all of the turtles are for some reason, actually I think it is because they eat seaweed off the rocks. We fell in love with turtles....they are just so cool! Here are some pictures we got of them!

And sunsets on the beach never get old!

Our last day in Hawaii we went to Kualoa Ranch,

and went on a "jungle expedition"

We rode in this thing through the mountains, it was beautiful!

Branden loved it because he loves off-roading!

The view was amazing : )

And yet again I just love the plants and trees!

And here is one of the many rainbows we saw while we were there!

What an amazing and beautiful place! We are definately going to try and go again, if not live there!

Hawaii Day 5

So, this day was one of our favorite days. First we went on this submarine called the Atlantis.

Here is a picture of it

We were over 100 feet under the water!

There were a lot of fish!

See!

The further you go down from the surface of the water, the more colors that are filtered out, I thought we looked cool in this picture!

Next, we went snorkling at Hanauma Bay

It was Awesome!!!

It took me a while to get used to breathing under water,

but when I got the hang of it, I loved it!!

You have to look close to see the big fish in this pic.

Here's a turtle! We were so excited we saw one!

A school of fish

and some other cool looking fish

We had so much fun, and pretty much decided we want to be stationed in Hawaii.

And lastly we went on a sunset dinner cruise

The dinner was good...

and need I say more?

Ah-freaking-mazing!