SILVAS

Day 3 - SOMETHING I ADORE

2012-02-14T09:03:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, Chris and I went snowboarding with Brian. It was Brian's second time and he did great... as long as he didn't have to turn. Anyway, I rediscovered just how much I adore snowboarding. It's just such a great feeling. We took the GoPro and filmed ourselves all the way down the run. Later when we watched the videos, I realized I smiled like this THE ENTIRE RUN. I was just perma-grin the whole time and didn't even know it. Chris even pointed out that I have that same smile the whole time I'm wakeboarding too. I can't help it. I'm just in heaven.

Day 2 - BREAKFAST

2012-02-12T17:58:00.001-07:00

Breakfast isn't just a morning thing these days. I eat breakfast all the time. It's become my favorite snack. Honey Nut Cheerios, Oatmeal Crisp, Blueberry Muffin Frosted Mini Wheats, and Frosted Flakes are among my regular cereals. There is a delicate process to eating cereal, though. You can't just fill a bowl with cereal and pour milk in. That's absurd. Your cereal will be soggy within a few bites. Instead, pour your milk in and then add 4-5 bites worth of cereal and eat quickly before adding your next batch. Repeat until milk is gone. I have some strong feelings about this.

Lately my go-to snack is toast with Mom's plum jam. Mmmm... ....or instant oatmeal, or just fruit. I've always been more of a breakfast for dinner person anyway. Now I'm a snack-on-breakfast-foods-all-day-long person. So there you go. Day 2 of the February photography challenge - BREAKFAST.

Day 1 - ME

2012-02-10T21:24:00.003-07:00

Here we go. Lisa started a daily photography challenge and asked me if I wanted to join in. Let's be honest. I have shied away from homework assignments since I graduated from college 9 years ago. (9 years?!? Yikes). Anyway, this one looks really fun, so I thought I'd give it a try. Don't expect one every day, though. It may take me more than a month to get through the list of photo topics. In fact, I'm suddenly reminded of a time when Lisa posted "100 Things about Me" and suggested it would be fun for me to do the same. I started on it shortly there after and finished it a year later. :)

So this is the photo for assignment #1: ME - Amy Silva, age 30, married for almost a year now and happy as ever.

Love Me Do.

2012-01-19T16:19:00.000-07:00

Yep. Another project. I actually made this one a few months ago and never got around to posting it. I really, really love cutting fabric with the Silhouette CAMEO. It just works like a dream. Hand stitching around each letter was perhaps a little ambitious, but I liked the thick stitching. Maybe next time I'll just use the sewing machine though. The chartreuse flower there is done with Silhouette fabric ink and stencil material, which I have also been enjoying as of late. I made a whole collection of t-shirts with a cool, soft grunge effect on them. They turned out pretty neat and I'm excited to try some more.

Magic Mountain

2012-01-08T19:25:00.001-07:00

While we were in California, Chris and I went to Magic Mountain. Here's just a little taste of the awesomeness.

MMCA11 by silva888

Christmas Vacation

2011-12-31T11:45:00.001-07:00

Chris and I had a great Christmas vacation in sunny California. The weather was mid 70s and even got into the 80s one day. It was gorgeous and confusing. I kept thinking I was on summer vacation, especially since we went to Magic Mountain.

With our best friends the Reids out of town, we thought our schedule would be a little more open but we ended up filling it with great friends and family. It was so fun to see everyone.

We spent Christmas Eve with Chris' mom and brother. We had a delicious Brazilian dinner, exchanged some presents, played Cameron's favorite game UNO over and over again and then finished with the traditional Christmas movie Kung Fu Panda 2. Which we rather enjoyed. We finished the evening at Doug and Kristen's playing Carcassone the rest of the night.

Christmas morning with me and my hubby. Chris and I woke up late and came down stairs to find full stockings! We had so much fun opening presents together. Thanks for everything! We feel really blessed to have such great family and friends. Chris got me a 35mm 1.8f lens. I was so excited. I have been wanting that one. It's so sharp and a great mid-length range. Chris got a new laptop, which he desperately needed.

I got some new running clothes for Christmas!

Christmas breakfast: orange juice and chocolate croissants!

After church we went to Chris' dad's house and had lunch, exchanged presents, played pool, and just chatted. It was so fun to catch up. That night we went over to the Redfords and played Dominion all night.

Tyler's new sweet ride. That thing is SO fun!

On our last day we got to see Erik's new alterations shop (very impressive), have lunch with Dave and Vanessa back from DC, do a little shopping with some fresh new Christmas cash, go see Mission Impossible with Greg and then play Dominion with Greg and Laura again into the wee hours of the morning. Awesome. Chris and I are so addicted to Dominion it's absurd. Watch out. We intend to force it upon everyone too! I hope everyone had a great holiday and happy New Year to you!

Merry Christmas to all...

2011-12-22T14:19:00.002-07:00

stockings

2011-12-20T22:23:00.005-07:00

I did it! Phew, and just in time, right? Man, sewing is exhausting, but I'm happy with how they turned out. Now we officially have our own stockings for our first Christmas together!

throw pillows

2011-12-14T19:20:00.003-07:00

I have been so excited about making these, but I had to get the Christmas card off before I let myself start this project. I saw some Christmas throw pillows at Target I really liked and thought, I can make that. I think that's the beauty of the Silhouette CAMEO. I can make anything with that thing, especially since it cuts fabric. I LOVE it, and there will be many more fabric cutting projects to come. Anyway, what I really wanted was throw pillow covers so I wouldn't have to store bulky throw pillows for the rest of the year. I found these red ones at IKEA for about 5 bucks. Sweet! I just cut this snowflake out of grey and white fabric using the Silhouette CAMEO and sewed them onto the pillow cases. Boom! Christmas throw pillows that match my Christmas tree. Now on to my next project. Christmas stockings! Yikes. We'll see how that one goes. We're really stretching my elementary sewing skills here.

Advent Calendar

2011-12-11T15:31:00.001-07:00

This is the Silhouette Advent Calendar. We designed it over a year ago, but it was saved for 2011. It's a limited edition shadow box with a download card to cut all the drawers or a full set of boxes on your Silhouette. I love it. In fact, I placed my order early because I knew they would sell out (and they did). The only problem is I have too many ideas for how I wanted to do it up. I'm already excited to cut out new boxes and change the style for next year.

cute kids

2011-11-20T22:26:00.001-07:00

On Saturday in California, we watched Ryan Reid's soccer game. Ryan was amazing scoring 5 goals! Unfortunately, my photos of Ryan didn't turn out awesome and I spent most of my time distracted by the other cute kids playing in the huge puddles. I just love all of these kids, though. You Reids make cute babies.

California Adventure

2011-11-18T19:19:00.001-07:00

We spent the second day almost entirely at California adventure. This was the first time Scott, Elisha, and I had ever been. Of course, we had been on a lot of the rides at Hollywood Studios at Disney World, but it was still fun to explore a new park. We had so much fun. Thanks Scott and Elisha for such a great time.

Waiting in line.

I just love the Tower of Terror. It's one of my favorites. California Adventure also had the scariest ferris wheel I had ever been on. We opted for a "sliding gondola" of course and just couldn't stop the nervous giggling as we slid back and forth on our little track. Such a weird feeling on a ferris wheel.

Foster was so funny on this slide, he went over and over again while we waited for Molly to go on the rope swing. He'd just squeal all the way down and get off and start running right back up to the top.

Doug is as clingy to his new "best friend" in real life as he is in UP. Foster had a hard time getting away.

This is Foster not sharing his cotton candy with Chris (or Chrissy as he's started calling him. Not as cool as his last nick name "Z", but I think it's still hilarious)

I just love this guy. We have so much fun together.

Disneyland

2011-11-15T20:38:00.001-07:00

Chris and I met up with Scott and Elisha at Disneyland last weekend. I haven't been to Disneyland in ages. It was fun to be there with Foster and Molly too. We also got to see it all done up for Christmas. Now I'm really in the Christmas mood.

Chris enjoying an enormous corn dog on Main Street. Magical.

halloween

2011-11-03T20:59:00.002-06:00

Coming up with a costume this year was a nightmare. Neither of us had any ideas and pretty soon we were burnt out of brainstorming. In the end, Chris and I didn't go in a couples costume. I went with the Sonic Drive In sign dancer costume I wore to work and Chris used his punk rocker costume from a previous year. (I have no photo, which is a shame because it is something to behold).

The sign dancer costume was a hit at work AND at the dance. I kind of LOVED having a sign to dance with at the dance. The whole costume just removes any inhibitions so you can dance like a fool. Awesome. They had a costume contest type thing so I danced down the center to show off my costume, but they didn't give any prizes away. Later that evening a man in a poncho and sombrero came over and tried to give me some cash. I thought it was just some part of his costume that I didn't understand. I just kind of laughed and didn't take the money and he walked away. (After all, I'm not that kind of dancer.) Turns out it was prize money. I'm such an idiot!

It was fun having Mike with us for Halloween... or should I say Jefe! Such a great costume, Mike. You looked spectacular.

Last Train from Paris

2011-11-03T20:04:00.001-06:00

I love murder mystery dinners... well, with the right group, and this was the right group. Chris was the mysterious American arms dealer and I was the spoiled, rich French girl. I'm just glad I got to use an accent (although, it did wander into German and Swedish from time to time).

The hosts: Colette and Marietta

Marietta and Marshall

Colette and Shay

Halloween half marathon

2011-11-02T23:08:00.000-06:00

On Saturday morning, Chris ran the Halloween half marathon starting from Aspen Grove and going down through Provo Canyon. He was awesome, of course, and I enjoyed seeing him 7 or 8 times throughout the race. He was easy to keep tabs on because he was just behind the french fries and the rainbow bright man.

Chris saw me so many times, he started doing a different goofy dance/run each time. Thus all the funny pictures of Chris.

carving pumpkins

2011-11-02T14:16:00.001-06:00

After watching Chris and Mike Reid's soccer game and then stopping for some 7 Eleven hot chocolate (that's the best kind), we spent the evening carving pumpkins at the Reid's house. I decided to go scary this year. I never go scary, it just happened.

This was Chris' pumpkin with the cat eyes and the wicked grin. Love it.

I also loved Mike Reid's French opera singing pumpkin.

people of Walmart

2011-10-31T16:53:00.002-06:00

Yep. This is my McStud that went to our ward Halloween party as a "people of Walmart" representative. It was a last minute costume and everything he's wearing was actually purchased at Walmart... with a shopping basket "borrowed" from Walmart. Beautiful. I grabbed my old Walmart greeter costume and we made a real splash at our Ward party. We're not that well known in our ward yet anyway, so most people couldn't figure out who we were. It was particularly amusing to see the 8 year old kids from our class who crept nervously away as we said "Don't you recognize us?"
This was both of our first of, I'm sure, many trunk or treats. We had fun seeing all the ward kids in costume.

Havasupai

2011-10-12T23:49:00.000-06:00

We woke up on the rim of the Grand Canyon with frost on our sleeping bags. Despite the cold weather, we had stayed pretty warm and enjoyed the star gazing you only get when you're that far from civilization. We made oatmeal by the cars and let the sun dry our bags before setting off on the ten mile hike down to Havasupai.

WARNING: This post has a LOT of photos.

Finally we arrived in the village. I haven't travelled extensively enough to tell you what country it looked like, but it didn't look like the US. Stray dogs and loose mules wandered everywhere. Shacks for houses. Kids running bare foot in the dirt streets... It was like we'd stepped into another land.

This is the LDS chapel. A missionary couple lives in the building. Their assignment is just to serve and have a presence there.

Two miles beyond the village are the campsites and Havasu falls. All along the 10 mile hike the canyon walls look like every other canyon in southern Utah... and then you walk around a corner and see this. It's breathtaking.
Up until this point my knees had been doing great, but the last half mile or so was when they really started to ache. We found a campsite and headed straight to Havasu falls to play in the water. It was a little cold so only a couple people really got in the water, but we all waded around for a bit. When most people decided they were just too cold, they headed back to the camp. I eventually made my way back trying to walk without bending my knees and found them cozied up in sweats and toques huddled around camping burners. Since Arizona doesn't believe in daylight savings, it got dark around six and with no fires allowed, everyone ended up going to bed pretty early. That night I slept incredibly well with a warm sleeping bag and iBupofen all through my body.

The next morning, Mike and I got up at first light, grabbed our tripods and hiked up a mile or so to Navajo falls. It was SO much fun. I was giggling after every photo I took because they were all amazing. The area was just so photogentic. I only left when I couldn't feel my toes anymore and the pain in my knees returned.

So, this is a photo of Navajo Falls from my previous trip to Havasupia five years ago. Since then a huge flash flood came through and changed the course of the river. Now two large waterfalls take its place. I think the waterfall below is most of what remains... I think.

Mike is doing a Sasha in this one, but he's kind of hard to see.

When we returned, we packed up our camp and headed down to Mooney Falls, the 200 ft waterfall. The down climb for this one is set up with chains and ladders so it's a little slow doesn't really accommodate two way traffic at all. We actually had to wait in a line to get down.

We grabbed our packs on the way back and hiked back up to Havasu for a little more swimming time...

... and then back up to Navajo where the boys did a little cliff jumping.

Then a quick jaunt over to Rock Falls where it looks like you've stepped into an episode of Lost.

... and then back up to the village where people bought a few extra snacks.

The missionaries let us stop at the church and use the bathroom and fill up water bottles for our hike out that night. We left the church around 7pm and hiked out in the dark. The hike was slow, but not painful like I had anticipated. Before we hiked out, I had Chris give me a blessing because my knees were still bad. The hike was slow, but it wasn't my knees holding everyone back. Poor Alice limped the whole way back and it took us FOREVER. I couldn't be to upset, though. That could have been me, but as it was I felt fit as a fiddle... with tired feet. We camped at the base of the switchbacks, saving the best part for the next day. In the morning, we finished an easy mile of switch backs and drove the 10 hours back to Provo.

house guests

2011-10-11T13:47:00.001-06:00

Brian came down for conference weekend. It was so fun to have him. He hit traffic that night so we were a little late to the BYU game, but we managed to find three tickets and get in at half time. I'm sure glad we did, because it was a packed crowd and an incredible game. We wedged ourselves in between some of the largest people in the stadium and watched the cougars win it in the last 11 seconds! It sure was a fun one.

On Saturday night, Mike joined us and with him a knack for finding preying mantis's. Brian spotted the leaf bug on Friday and we dropped it in a jar to watch conference with us. When Mike came, he grabbed a preying mantis just outside our door and pretty soon we had a full house. The preying mantis watched the leaf bug intently in their neighboring jars and then eventually, Mike put them together and took some pictures...

Isn't that creepy how it's hovering over the leafy remains?
Mike took the preying mantis up to Scott and Elisha's house for Molly's bug collection. I'm sure Elisha is thrilled.

One year ago today...

2011-10-01T15:22:00.000-06:00

One year ago today Chris ran the St. George Marathon coming in with his best time yet. As he crashed on the grass feeling tired, but in remarkably great shape, I helped him stretch out his sweat drenched legs. In that moment, it became clear to me. I wanted to be the one to take care of him. The impression surprised me, but I felt so proud of him and proud to be the one to help him. Later that afternoon, we sat on the couch of a rented apartment watching the afternoon session of general conference. Dave and Caitlin had taken Mason to the instacare so we were alone. It was here that Chris turned to me and said, "I want to marry you" to which I replied "I want to marry you, too." And that was it. The decision was unanimous. We were going to get married. We laughed that shocked, holy-crap-did-that-actually-just-happen kind of laugh and let the reality of it settle in. From that moment on, it was just excitement.
Now seven months after our wedding day, we still laugh that shocked laugh in blissful disbelief that we are actually married. We love it. Chris has been the greatest blessing in my life. He's thoughtful, patient, and so much fun. I am just so blessed.

fall

2011-10-01T11:27:00.004-06:00

I love fall. The crispness in the air, football, jackets, boots, and colorful leaves. Gorgeous! Chris and I went for a hike up to Stewart Falls the other night. We got a late start and got to the falls just as the sun went down. We kept a pretty quick march the whole time, so I didn't get to stop and take pictures as much as I wanted to, but every turn was just so beautiful. We really went up the canyon at just the right time.

mascot bowl

2011-10-01T00:14:00.001-06:00

On Monday, we went to the Annual Lehi Mascot Bowl where the Lehi junior high football team takes on a team of mascots from all over the US. We went last year, and it's just a good time. The community makes a really big deal of it with an autograph signing before and the game ball delivered by a couple of skydivers. The kids take the game pretty seriously, but the mascots are just goofing around... like mascots do. At any rate, it's always funny to see a little kid get tackled by a huge wild cat that can barely balance his enormous head.

weekend update

2011-09-26T21:30:00.000-06:00

Chris and I had a fantastic weekend starting with the BYU football game. We picked up some $5 tickets outside and ended up sitting with our friends in the East stands. I just LOVE being in that stadium. It was so fun to go to another game and one where we won, too! It was a really fun game. On Saturday, we golfed Hobble Creek with our friends Matt and Emily. That course is so beautiful, but the dense foliage makes it pretty easy to lose balls. Fortunately, if you wander a little into the bushes, you're bound to find other lost balls and in the end, I think we came out in the positive.

The RS broadcast was wonderful, of course, and afterward we celebrated Lauren's birthday with some Bang at her house. Good weekend.

These little guys were all over the place.

catchin' bugs

2011-09-25T19:09:00.002-06:00

Last Saturday, Chris and I headed up to Scott and Elisha's house to watch the BYU/Utah football game. We should have known better. Chris and I have been up there for four important sports games this year and lost everyone. I mean it THIS time when I say, we're never watching a game there again. (I probably don't mean that, Scott).

Anyway, we went up early so Chris could help a little with Scott's roofing project.

Meanwhile, Molly and I went on a bug catching safari. I was in charge of spotting and photographing bugs and Molly was in charge of catching them... which was just fine with me. I don't actually like bugs. This was all Molly's idea. Armed with our plastic bag and a bug cage, we caught a fly, a moth, a worm, two ladybugs, an ant, and a spider. However, Molly explained very carefully that a spider was not an insect and therefore would not be admitted to the bug cage... also she was afraid the tiny spider would kill her two huge grasshoppers. We spotted tons of dragonflies, but were never able to get a ziplock bag on one. We're going to need a net next time.

Fos joined us when he woke up from his nap.

Then Elisha found another huge grasshopper in the garden and Scott trapped it for Molly. That is one happy insect-loving girl.

The other great part about seeing Scott and Elisha in the summer is walking away with TONS of fresh produce from their garden. Thank you so much. The cantaloupe was amazing!

Ludwigsburg and Stuttgart

2011-09-24T16:33:00.001-06:00

On Saturday we ran some quick errands in the morning and then headed down to theLugwigsburg castle (more of a palace, I’d say). It was spectacular with a dramatic sweeping lawn and fountain infront. We had very little time there, sowe just picnicked on the lawn and walked around quickly before Chris, Chris,Ryan, Katie and I were off to a soccer game in Stuttgart.

Stuttgart vs Hannover
Chris was so excited to watch the Bundesliga (German Soccer League) play and I’m so glad it worked out because it was a blast. The fans get so into it with constant chanting, drumming, and flag waving. In fact, some fans are so dedicated to keeping the chanting going that they don’t even watch the game.

It was a hot one, that day and we didn’t even try to smuggle some water in because in America, they care. Unfortunately, when we went to buy food and drinks from the concession stand, we found out they don’t take cash, only fan cards that can be purchased for 20 or 30 euro. Yeah right! We found a small ice cream stand that took cash and tried to quench our thirst with a couple of orange popsicles.

Well, Stuttgart won and both Chris’ were impressed with the German play. I was mostly impressed by the chanting and dancing. After a goal was scored, the announcer would say something and the whole stadium would chant in response. It would go on for a while and I wish I knew what they were saying. Based on some of the international gestures at the other team, it's probably good that I didn't know what they were saying.

You can tell the Germans get really passionate about their soccer teams (if you didn't already know that about Europeans) because they have the opposing team fans all fenced off. Even during half-time, the opposing team fans concession area is fenced off from the rest of the stadium. Funny.

Just look at us with our matching RVCA shirts. We didn't even plan that.
We spent the rest of the evening exchanging photos, settling debts and tying up loose ends. At 1am, we watched the BYU football game. I was in and out for a lot of the second half, but that was the disappointing part anyway.

Rothenburg

2011-09-22T23:23:00.001-06:00

Chrisand I went running in the morning through the gorgeous paths beside theJohnson’s house. The area they live inis so beautiful. It would be fun to havesuch great running paths near us. Atnoon, we picked up Katie and Megan from School and dropped off Luke and Matthewat a sitter’s house. Then the five of usheaded down to Rothenburg. Despite ourforecast for rain all week, we had done really well with the weather. This day was only supposed to be a 20% chanceof rain, but we got %100. When we firstgot there it was raining pretty hard so we headed straight for the covered citywall and walked a good length of it. Rothenburg is incredible. Chrislaughs at how often I used the word “charming” in Europe, but it was soCHARMING. I can’t think of a betterword. Perfect? Picturesque? Quaint? Yeah. All those things. It was so fun and the rain didn’t reallybother us too much. It eventually let upand we wandered the charming streets.

Lisa warned us that the famed Schneeballen was little more than piecrust balls, but we ended up getting one anyway… because that’s what you do in Rothenburg. I kept wanting it to be filled with rhubarb or peach filling. Turns out I just wanted a pie. They should really consider pieballen, though. I think it would sell very well.

Chris went to the Medival Torture museum by himself. The rest of us opted for photography. Katie is becoming quite the budding photographer. She really is a miniature Lisa.

We had a delicious German dinner at a restaurant near the main square and got out just in time to join the night watchman’s tour. The night watchman was funny. It’s amazing that he’s been doing it for 20 years… two times a night for twenty years. He had the whole shpeel down, great stories, fun facts, and dry jokes. It was a great day.

Nurnberg

2011-09-21T22:06:00.001-06:00

Our primary focus in Nurnberg was the Nazi Documentation Center and rally party grounds. The Documentation Center is housed in asection of the unfinished remains of Hitler’s congress hall. Currently, the building stands 39m tall but wasplanned to be 70m tall and intended to hold 50,000 seats. The permanent exhibition there,"Fascination and Terror", studies the causes and consequences ofNational Socialism and Hitler’s rise to power. It was fascinating and horrific (as the title might imply). It’s staggering to see photos of the rowsand rows of Nazis and Hitler youth lined up on the rally grounds and realizing that that happened right here. Coming to Nurnberg for a party rally was anhonor and thrill.

They only briefly touched on the prison camps that were used toquarry the stones used in that very building, and then finished with theNurnberg trials.

In down town Nurnberg, we wandered the streets and markets, admired intricate churches and massive bike ramps being set up all over the squares for an upcoming competition. (Wish we could have seen that. It looked pretty hard core.) We found the Schöner Brunnen fountain (one of the few artifacts to survive the WWII bombings in Nurnberg) and located its two seamless rings locked around the iron lattice. The gold ring is for good luck. The black ring (much more difficult to find) is for fertility. One legend says that you turn the ring once for every child you want to have. So Chris and I got up and turned the ring…

We wandered up to the local castle (every town has one) and walked around and then found a nice place to eat. After spending some time in Switzerland, everything in Germany feels so cheap.

Bacharach and St. Goar

2011-09-21T09:26:00.000-06:00

This was my favorite day. We drove up to the Rhine River to Bacharach another picturesque town andtoured around the cobblestone streets. We saw Altes Haus (Old House) the oldest house in town dating from 1368,the old well, St. Peter’s Evangelical church, ruins of the GothicWernerkapelle, and then just kept hiking up until we got to Stahleck Castlewhich is now a youth hostile. At one point we hiked up through a vineyard to a view point where I took the above photo. It was just so perfect, I couldn't stop taking photos.

We stopped for lunch at a pizza place. I had some kind of Hungarian pizza wrap thing with some powerful red cabbage that I picked from the pretty picture alone. It turned out pretty good. We bought a couple of drinks and the owner brought over some small coke glasses to help share the bottle. All of the sudden in the middle of our conversation we hear a snap and look over to see that Matthew bit through or broke his glass off in his mouth. They cleaned his mouth out and made sure his spit out all the glass and not 20 minutes later, Luke bites his. It was kind of amazing how delicate those glasses were.

St. Goar

We ate a little too long to catch the boat tour down the river, sowe took the train that got us to St. Goar in 10 minutes. Of particular note in St. Goar is the Rheinsfelcastle.

“Sitting like a dead pit bull above St.Goar, this mightiest of Rhine castles rumbles with ghosts from its hard-foughtpast. Burg Rheinfels was huge —once the biggest castle on the Rhine (built in 1245). It withstood a siege of28,000 French troops in 1692. But in 1797, the French Revolutionary armydestroyed it. The castle was used for ages as a quarry, and today — while stillmighty — it's only a small fraction of its original size. This hollow butinteresting shell offers your single best hands-on ruined-castle experience onthe river.” Rick Steves

Man he was rightit was just huge and completely hands on. Thank goodness for the Rick Steve’s walking tour to get us around, butwe took plenty of detours on our own spying dark hallways and secret passageways to explore. We lost ChrisSilva for a little while until he found us in the dungeon exclaiming that hehad found a secret staircase. Wetook the dark, tiny, spiraled staircase up to black room, then feeling our wayto the back we found another hallway, lit lightly from the archer’s slits inthe wall. Awesome. This castle brings out the kid ineveryone.

We had also planned to do the mine tunnel tour.

“To protect their castle around 1600, the Rheinfellers cleverly booby-trapped the land just outside their walls by building tunnels topped with thin slate roofs and packed with explosives. By detonating the explosives when under attack, they could kill hundreds of invaders. In 1626, a handful of underground Protestant Germans blew 300 Catholic Spaniards to — they figured — hell. You're welcome to wander through a set of never-blown-up tunnels. But be warned: it's 600 feet long, assuming you make no wrong turns; it's pitch-dark, muddy, and claustrophobic, with confusing dead-ends; and you'll never get higher than a deep crouch. It cannot be done without a light” Rick Steves

We forgot our flashlights, so we purchased 50 cent candles and down into the mines we went. Well, down somewhere we went. Having not read the previous excerpt before we went down what appeared to be a mine tunnel-like entrance. We weren’t really expecting the three-foot high ceilings and two foot wide walls. Then when we started seeing side tunnels branching out every 15 feet or so, we thought we’d better consult the book to find out if we were even in the right hole. We were, but we’d entered the exit so now we were following directions backwards. We couldn’t stop laughing. Luke and Matthew could run through the tunnels and none of us could even stretch out our legs. At one point Luke followed me down a tunnel to explore what ended up being a dead end. As I tried to back my way out a little I got stuck which made me laugh and blow my candle out. Chris had the matches, so Luke and I had to feel our way back to the group in the darkness. It was pretty fun.

We took the boat tour back up the Rhine River where Castles dot the hills all along the way. The Rhine was so important to trade that it became a popular place to set up a castle and charge tolls for goods passing north and south on this route. A castle would have great chains that went across the river, if a boat came, the castle would raise the chains until the boat paid the toll.

Heidelberg

2011-09-19T16:56:00.003-06:00

Heidelberg was fun to see because I just kept picturing the Johnsonswalked down its charming streets for the first time. How exciting to explore YOUR town for the first time. We walked the stairs to the castle andwalked around the outside of it and then down the other side and back to dosome shopping. I loved the shopsand the busy atmosphere. It reallywould be something to be here at Christmas time. We also got ourselves a crusty roll salami sandwich and astreusel. Both were divine.

We wandered across the Old Bridge and down along the river Neckar on the other side. I wanted my picture taken in the monkey too, but I wasn't tall enough.

Later we drove up to Hitler’s Amphitheater that he had built for Hitler Youth rallies and then on up to the monastery ruins. It is rumored that Hitler used stones from the monastery ruins to build the Amphitheater.

The kids weren’t allowed up on the walls so as not to tempt Luke and Matthew to do the same, but toward the end and with the help of Chris, the were jumping gaps and Chris was hanging them upside down. It was fun to be able to just play on stuff like that. I swear, if we had ruins in the US, they would be roped off and only viewable with a tour guide present.

We dropped the kids off at home and went back to Heidelberg for dinner with just Lisa and Chris. It was so fun to take the evening and talk and relax together. They took us to one of their favorite restaurants and it was SO delicious!

Colmar, France

2011-09-18T17:27:00.000-06:00

The forecast was for more rain. We considered rearranging our plans, but the forecast was for rainpretty much everywhere all week so we stuck with a day in Colmar, France. By the time we arrived we had clear blueskies. What a blessing. Colmar was gorgeous. It’s known as little Venice for its canalsrunning through the city. Between thecolorful half-timbered houses, French shutters, baskets of flowers, and oldornate doors, I just about died around every corner. I just loved it there.

For lunch we ate crepes at an outdoor café. I love this photo, because Katie and Ryan already got their crepes and were just chowing down. Megan and Emily just stared longingly at every bite. So sad. I ordered a sausage crepe. It was the first savory crepe I have ever had and it was pretty good.

Mmmm. I love mango gelato. I always want to try other flavors, but mango is just so hard to resist. Chris really branched out and got rhubarb, which tasted surprising like rhubarb. It was really good.

The Unterlinden Museum.

While Chris, Chris, Katie and I went to the museum the rest of the group went to hang out at the park and fountain in a large beautiful town square. We them there when we were done and ran through the fountain a few times.

Chris Johnson had recorded the BYU game from the previous Saturday and managed to not hear scores the entire weekend (perhaps one of the perks of staying in a 400-year-old farmhouse), so we settled in and watched the game for the rest of the night.

Lausanne and Montreux

2011-09-17T13:07:00.004-06:00

Church started at 10:50 in Lausanne (an hour and a half fromthe farm). We got out the door in a rushbut soon realized we should have left an hour earlier. The drive took us high up into the mountainsand then down into the most gorgeous valley on the other side. It was breathtaking with the lush greenmountains and wisps of clouds still lifting from the morning fog. We stopped a couple of times to take picturesof Swiss cows, but we really had no more time to stop after that. We were already late for church. It was so painful to pass up these incrediblephoto ops, we had to just keep reminding ourselves we love church. We’re going to church. We had hoped that our drive back would be asbeautiful, but it was completely foggy the whole time. Go figure.

Photographing the cows was probably my favorite part of theday. All the cows in Switzerland wearbells and you can hear them tinkling up in the mountain all day (the bells, that is). My cow was very photogenic, but it had a tinybell. After we hopped back in the carand rounded the corner, I saw a cow with an enormous perfect bell. I wanted to stop so badly, but it was toolate.

Church was wonderful. I love attending church in other countries. We sat on the front row because we were late and that was the only spot left and just after the sacrament, the priest that blessed the sacrament came and sat beside us and just started translating without being asked. I was so touched by his recognition of how important it is to hear and understand the messages in church. It was a very spiritual meeting. Afterward Chris recognized an old friend from Irvine and former BYU Volleyball coach who had moved to Switzerland only a week prior. It’s so amazing how you can run into people half way around the world. We had a good time chatting with them after Sacrament meeting and making lots of new friends in that ward. Everyone was so friendly.

We stopped at a gas station and picked up some chocolate croissants (the beginning of an obsession) and then made our way to Montreux where the Chateaux de Chillon sits on an island just off the shore of Geneva Lake. The oldest parts of the castle have not been definitively dated, but the first written record of the castle is in 1160 or 1005. The castle was renovated in the 13^th century. RENOVATED before our country even existed. It’s just amazing how much history is over there.

The castle is really well preserved, so it was fun to wander through the dungeons, great halls and bedrooms. It was mostly raining so it was nice to be in the castle for so long, but it made for some pretty grey unimpressive photos of an otherwise majestic view.

I just loved this round window design. Turns out it was just a result of the latest glass-blowing technology of the day. That's me gazing longingly for my prince out the castle tower below.

Alps

2011-09-15T20:44:00.000-06:00

Saturday morning we headed up through Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen, home of Staubbach falls, the 900 foot unbroken waterfall and popular basejumping location. From Lauterbrunnen, wecaught a train up the mountain to the town of Wengen resting 4170 feet abovesea level. The views were incredible. From Wengen we took the tramup the Mannlichen and then hiked up to the highest point for a great view ofInterlaken, Lake Thun and the surrounding alps.

I just love this picture of Matthew just chillin' with his pants open.

Jumping pictures, of course. Here are some more young budding jumpers.

I wanted a higher angle for this photo so I got on Chris' shoulders for this shot. The other tourists were taking photos of us taking photos.

Three peaks stand above the rest: Jungfrau (young girl), Eiger (ogre), and Monch (Monk). It’s really hard to see what’s going on up there, so Chris, Chris, and Katie helped illustrate that the monk is protecting the young girl from the ogre. I really think Katie’s theatre camp was worth every penny because she nailed that role. Just look at her!

After a salami sandwich lunch, we hiked a couple hours over to Klein and took the train back down to Lauterbrunnen.

We really got so lucky with the weather. It was gorgeous almost the whole time we were up there with a clear view of the Alps. Only after we boarded the train to Lauterbrunnen did it start to rain on us.

Everything in Switzerland is SO EXPENSIVE. We had no idea it would that bad. We were lucky to find a nice restaurant with 30” pizzas for 15 francs. Everything else on the menu was 20-40 francs, but the pizzas covered us pretty well. In fact, it was probably the best pizza I have ever had… including anything I had in Italy.

We retired to the farm that evening for more Dominion and snacks.

Berne

2011-09-14T18:44:00.000-06:00

We arrived in Zurich at 8:30am and quicklycaught a train to Berne. The wholeprocess and train ride went a little faster than we expected so we had a fewhours to explore before the Johnsons would meet us there. The train ride was beautiful, but we werepretty tired. Chris slept for part ofit, while I took pictures that didn’t really turn out. Our first order of business was to locatelockers for our luggage so we could be free to explore the city. When we didn’t find any in the small trainstation we arrived in, we started to get a little worried. Thank goodness most people speak at least alittle English and we managed our way to the main train station, stored ourluggage and were on our way. Berne is abeautiful city, clean, quaint andmodern, and full of flowers. We wanderedthrough the market, grabbed a couple of baguette sandwiches and watched alittle bit of a beach volleyball tournament that was happening just in front ofthe parliament building. Then we walkedout and saw the view of the lower city and River Aare, walked across the bridgeto the Einstein Museum and back and then over to the old clock tower. Hot, still sleepy, and now tired of walking,we decided to head down to the river and a huge park we had seen from thebridge. We found a little spot of shadein the park in an area with the least nudity and relaxed for a bit. That’s when the Johnsons called and we hikedour way back up to meet them.

Then we did the whole tour again with RickSteves guiding us on the exact walk we had just wandered. This time we got the commentary though. We continued on down to the 15th century Gothic cathedral, the Munster, andclimbed the stairs to the top for a gorgeous view and then down to the bearpits in the Old Town section. We even saw some bridge jumpers flipping intothe fast-moving, deep turquoise river Aare. It looked so cool and refreshing, we wanted to join them.

We headed back to the cars and finished our journeyto our very own 400-year-old farm house in the quaint little village of SanktStephans. I’m not really sure how todescribe this little treasure. Weexpected that we would be “roughing it”, but this cabin exceeded ourexpectations. Every doorframe was raisedand I tripped on every one every day. The ceilings were so low that Chris had to do this funny duck and highstep move to get into the next room. The lighting was dim, but we hadelectricity. Fortunately, we didn’t needextra heat, but incase we did, the wood chopping station was located in thehouse not too far from the stove. Itseemed that when this farmhouse was built, it started as a one-room house andthey just added on as needed. That’swhy we had windows from the kitchen to the hallway. The front door didn’t even latch. It just swung open and closed at will. Fortunately, Chris Johnson devised a foolproof security system by placing his suitcase in front of the door thuspreventing Swiss axe murderers from entering in the night, grabbing the axethat was already in the house and some how making it anywhere in the housewithout everyone waking up to the creaky, creaky floor boards. Thebest find in the whole house, though, was a trap door from the kid’s roomupstairs to the living room on the main level. They preferred this to the stairs and were constantly climbing up on theceramic room heater to access it. We laughedall night about the house, but by the end of the next night, it had grown on usall. It was our cozy 400-year-oldfarmhouse. Chris, Lisa, and Ryan taughtus Dominion and we were addicted by the end of the first game. Chris and I were past our tiredness thatnight, so we played well into the night.

Lisa took some great shots inside our little home.

Waltons, water parks, and water guns.

2011-08-26T18:18:00.001-06:00

Another delightful family vacation.
We went simple this year and gathered at the Walton home in Reno, Nevada. Thanks Dan and Sarah for hosting everyone in your enormous (rented) house.

I just LOVE family vacations. It helps that I just love everyone in my family so much. I was blessed with awesome parents that raised six great kids who went on to pick incredible spouses and start raising adorable children of their own. That in a nutshell is what makes family vacations so great. I just wish it could have been a little longer.

Day 1:
Reno is pretty hot this time of year, so we headed to the local water park. We slid on the slides, rode the waves, and lounged in the lazy river. When we were finally too starving to continue (because we refused to pay that much for food), we decided we go... after a little volleyball. Volleyball was great... except that the sand was so sharp and gravelly that you couldn't go down for a ball... or go bare foot... and except for the fact that the game ended with my sprained left thumb. Other than that, it was perfect. At home we showered and changed in time for the babysitters to arrive and off we went to dinner at BJs. A Santa Fe Salad and part of a pazookie later, I could barely waddle myself up to the first hole of miniature golf. Despite my full stomach and injured hand, I started strong in the first 9 holes with a few hole in ones. My second 9 were not quite as good and in the end Mike and Scott played a tie breaker hole that I only missed being part of by one stroke! ONE STROKE! I'll get them next year. We played one long, slow game of BANG and then called it a night.

Day 2:

We were on our way to Tahoe by 9:30 and good thing too, because the beach filled quickly. Tahoe is one of the most beautiful lakes I have ever seen. The water is crystal clear and silky smooth. We played on the beach, tossed the frisbee around and several people swam out to the buoy while I manned the rescue dingy. The kids all got buried up to their necks and they loved it. We finished with a little cliff jumping and headed home for pulled pork sandwiches, telephone charades, and Fireball Island.

Day 3:

This was our relaxing day. We went shopping, played lots of ping pong, ate frozen yogurt, had a water fight in the back yard, jumped on the trampoline, and worked on our cornholing (?) (bean bag tossing). After an incredible BBQ dinner, we looked through Brian's mission photos and then played Seafarers until 1:30 in the morning.

Well, here are some photos (mostly just Tahoe and the water fight, though)

Mike being pulled back up the hill on Dad's van.

Poor unsuspecting Grandpa was just sitting outside reading the paper when he became the victim of a ruthless, unprovoked water-squirter gang attack.

laguna beach.

2011-08-15T21:46:00.004-06:00

We spent Saturday at Laguna Beach. There was an art festival nearby that most of the group wanted to go to. Mike, Todd, Tanner, Chris and I went straight down to the beach and everyone else met up with us a little later. It was an overcast day, but it was fun to sit and visit, play bocci, throw the frisbee around in the water, and go for walks amid the clumps of seaweed. We finished up the evening in the Redfords hot tub. So fun to spend a day with the extendeds.

Mike's sasha was a little weak, but you can't blame him. Those are very pointy rocks he's standing on... and then fell on in the water.

Seth and Nicole

2011-08-15T21:10:00.003-06:00

Seth and Nicole's wedding was just perfect. Gorgeous, happy, fun! It was pretty much exactly what I would have wanted my reception to be if I had the money. (I don't really have any regrets about my reception, though). The venue was stylish. The weather was just perfect. The band was AMAZING. Chris and I danced all night (of course). I just love wedding dances too, when you get a mix of all ages out on the dance floor dancing to some classics like Living on a Prayer and Dancing in September. It was such a fun night and so fun to see so many loved ones. Here are a few photos I took :)

owlz.

2011-08-11T14:18:00.004-06:00

We love using our Pass of All Passes (the one that gets us into Seven Peaks, Trafalga Lehi and Orem, Utah Flash basket ball games and Orem Owlz baseball games). I love the miniature golfing. I could probably go miniature golfing several times a week if Chris would let me. I guess I'm like a kid that way. When I like something I can repeat it over and over long after everyone else is sick of it. So last weekend, we decided to switch it up and spend a nice summer's evening watching our local baseball team. Mostly, it was a night of visiting with good friends and enjoying some expensive cheap nachos, but I watched a little bit of the game too. I just love summer nights. I can't believe this summer is slipping away so quickly.

Andrew and Jessica. We just love them.

heber demolition derby

2011-07-31T19:20:00.004-06:00

Oh. My. Gosh.
Ok, that was the BEST demolition derby I have EVER been to! (Ok, I've only been to three.) Still, this one had it all. Two vehicles flipped over, a couple of cars on fire, countless geysers of hot water shooting out of engines, a car pushed out of the arena, WT costumes galore (and just as many authentic outfits)... we even had a truck get its entire bed ripped off. It was magical. My voice is still a little hoarse from screaming, "FINISH HIM!"

Oh and to top it off, they were throwing boxes of Creamies into the audience. Chris caught one box and I deflected another one into some girl's face. I don't think the evening was as magical for her from then on.

2011-07-27T00:08:00.001-06:00

Well, he's done it again. Completed another marathon. Chris' blog will give you a full run down of the race, but I'll just give you the Cliff's notes. It was a rough one for him. I didn't see Chris until mile 20 and he was pooped. I felt so bad for him, but I'm so proud that he just kept going. When he got to the finish line he was in so much pain he could barely walk to the curb so I could go get the car a good six blocks away.

At least he put on a good face for the last stretch, right? Way to go, Chris. I love you.

growing.

2011-07-25T21:43:00.001-06:00

I spent last week in Chicago at the Craft and Hobby Association trade show for work. It was another successful show for us as we launched the new Silhouette CAMEO, a new electronic cutting tool. Pretty much the same tool as our old Silhouette only BIGGER! Finally we have a 12" cutting tool to compete with the rest of the industry. It still comes with free (and awesome I might add) design software, still accesses all the fonts on your computer, and still cuts everything from vinyl to fabric. Still awesome, is what I'm saying... and I'm not even getting paid to slap on a fake smile and be BFF with every woman that walks into our booth... well, not right now is what I mean. Actually, CHA can be a lot of fun. I kind of love it when people have that "where have you been all my life" moment of realization or when they bring samples of what they cut with their Cricut and what they cut with their Silhouette and show us why they'll never go back. It's easy to sell a product you really believe in.

Along with our new bigger machine, we got a bigger booth. Our first show with Silhouette was a 10x20 spot with a table and a cardboard back drop. Next show we invested in one of these towers below and then added its twin just last winter. This year we jumped to a 30'x30' from our previous 20'x20' spots and got fancy white carpet. I designed a 20' back wall/storage room and a 12'x11' demo table with three CAMEO stations. This job has definitely stretched me. I have certainly never designed a trade show booth before, but when Jake gave me the assignment, I actually enjoyed learning some simple 3D rendering software and designing this display. I like working for Silhouette. It's fun to see it gaining so much momentum.

Isn't that a luxurious demo table? We've come a long way from our banquet tables and table clothes. It was fun to see it all come together.

We didn't do much for sight-seeing in Chicago this year. We were so tired every night that we mostly went home and crashed. However since we had purchased our Cubs tickets in advance, we pushed through the fatigue forced ourselves to Wrigley Field. I'm so glad we went because once we got there, it was great to just sit and enjoy a ball game and a lemon chill. Mmmm. Wrigley field is tiny, old and full of character. It was so cool to see the stadium seating on top of the surrounding buildings.

summer christmas.

2011-07-09T11:16:00.002-06:00

We had an incredible fourth of July spending the entire day at the beach. The weather was clear and hot, the water was cold and the sand was scalding our feet during wiffleball, but otherwise pleasant. We played games, read books, went swimming, built sand castles, and ate whenever we wanted. Chris gives a great account of the whole weekend here.

Poor Katherine tolerated her father's boogie boarding lessons for a little while, but eventually when her pleas for help went unheard, she just gave up. It was so funny to see her clinging to the board and just lying down on the board. Just take me.

zion.

2011-06-28T13:51:00.001-06:00

Chris and I headed down to Zion this weekend to meet up with our friends Andrew and Jessica. They had gone down earlier to get Subway passes for us, but despite getting up at 4 in the morning to get in line, the passes were all gone by the time they got up to the window. Instead, they purchased Keyhole passes for us.
Some of Andrew's friends happened to be camping near by and happened to have two extra passes to Pinecreek. Pinecreek is one of my favorites. I have done it twice. Jessica had no interest in that canyon, so we let the boys go do Pinecreek in the morning and we'd meet up with them afterward.

Jessica and I went for a drive and then settled down at my favorite swimming hole for a while before hiking up the river to meet the boys.

We hiked up to this more remote swimming hole and waited for them there. It was gorgeous and the 90 degree weather made it so enticing to jump in.

After lunch we headed to Keyhole. I forgot how much I liked Keyhole too. It's really short so it only takes a couple hours, but it's interesting the whole time with a few short rappels and a long cold swim.
We had an amazing weekend and can't wait to go again.

Here's Chris pulling cactus out of his hand. Sad.

troping.

2011-06-20T23:25:00.004-06:00

On Saturday, we went with some friends down to the Mona rope swing. They call it "troping". They bring their own rope with a ski handle and tie it off on the perfect rope swing tree ever. It was Chris' first time to Mona and he's officially addicted. He keeps talking about troping and new tricks he can try. He's pretty fearless, trying double flips and one-handed swings. All the boys were a lot of fun to watch. Apparently, the arch of the swing makes it a little difficult for a lot of girls (and some guys) to hold on for the full swing. I can't say I really noticed, but we sure got to watch a lot of belly flops... so I guess the girls were a lot of fun to watch too.

Ok, so this isn't one of Chris' best, but it's funny, right?

Rodmans.

2011-06-20T22:34:00.001-06:00

I just love this adorable family. Jared and Ann came were in Utah for the weekend and asked if I would take some family photos. It was fun, and SO fun to visit with them and get all caught up. Next time we'll have to visit them in Colorado.

Greg and Sherrill.

2011-06-13T18:32:00.058-06:00

Chris' best friend's dad and second father got married on Saturday. We had a great time with all the Reids in town. That mostly means just playing games, but here are some photos from the wedding. It was held in a gorgeous backyard on a perfect evening and Greg and Sherrill just looked so happy.

I just love Tyler. He just cracks me up.

Groomsman Photo Shoot

Dirty Dash

2011-06-04T21:46:00.001-06:00

We had PERFECT weather for our mud run this morning. It feels like summer is finally here. More importantly, the consistency of the mud was exceptional, way better than last year. It was thick and smooth and we were coated from head to foot by the end of it.

We came with a group of about seven, but Colette and Chris and I left them in the dust (well, mud I guess) within the first mile. So just the three of us ran the race together.

This also marks my first organized race since elementary school track meets, or perhaps the first time I have earned myself a t-shirt. Admittedly, if I had it my way, I would just eliminate the running portions and play in the mud, but I suppose there is a sense of accomplishment in completing a 5K. Ok, stop laughing. For ME there is a sense of accomplishment in completing a 5K.

Those are my feet... in camouflage.