He made it!

 
My fabulous, incredibly smart husband just finished his first quarter at the Stanford Graduate School of Business!! This is the first class to study at the new Knight Management Center (named after Phil Knight founder of Nike) and it is SO nice! Studying at the best and newest business school in the world is such an incredible experience that we have both been so grateful for!

An average day equals leaving home at 7am and getting back around 6pm to eat dinner and then studying until 9pm. I used to joke with him before school started that since he was not having to work, school would be his full time job and he was expected to not study past 5 or 6pm. We quickly learned that that would never be the case here at Stanford. Morgan has had some awesome experiences already and we have made great friends here.

Although finals are over, Morgan will still be working hard each day getting ready for internship interviews that happen the middle of Jan. The poor guy just doesn't get a break. He will also be going on a global study trip from Dec. 26th- Jan. 7th to UAE (United Arab Emirate-Dubai, Abu Dhabi) and Qatar. I will be going home to UT while he is off traveling the world again.

Hurray for life and  1 quarter down at Stanford! Great job Morgan!

Christmas!

Oh how I love Christmas...who doesn't. I think what I really like the most about Christmas is the music. I feel so much hope, peace and happiness when I listen to Christmas music!! Morgan and I just watched Disney's "A Christmas Carol" with Jim Carrey and to be honest I was a little skeptical because I don't enjoy Jim Carrey. But it was well done and the music by Alan Silvestri is INCREDIBLE! I immensely love this song by my favorite Andre Bocelli.

This week we decorated our tiny apartment for Christmas and it makes me so happy to see Christmas lights and the nativity scene even if it is 65 degrees outside.

 Morgan wanted to put our Christmas train up and I told him there was no where to put it...he sure did surprise me and I think this is a perfect place for it!

Every time I look at the tree with the statue of Christ next to it, I am reminded of what Christmas is really about. I love it!

Once again we are spending Christmas away from family. This will be our 4th Christmas together and our 2nd time with just the two of us. Morgan is going on a global study trip to the UAE (United Arab Emirates) and Quatar from the 26th-7th so I will be flying home to UT and get to hang out with my family for 2 weeks! I am extremely excited as this may be the last time I get to hang out with Talesha before she goes on her mission.

I hope all of you reading this blog have a wonderful Christmas!!

A Evening with Mitt Romney

An Evening with 

Mitt Romney

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2011

The Marriott

Because Stanford has the most incredible network ever, my husband got to attend this dinner tonight! 

 

ROMNEY FOR PRESIDENT!!

Thanksgiving!

This year we went to Mesquite, NV for Thanksgiving. Morgan's parents just moved there so it was our first time seeing their new home. The weather was fabulous and the company was wonderful. All of Morgan's siblings (except for 3) were there and we had lots of fun playing games and eating lots of food.

We decided to drive instead of fly so we could go through Death Valley National Park and see other parts of CA. Although the drive home was really long (15 hrs. because of traffic) it was fun to see some cool sights.

This is sure different than the East coast! The contrast is incredible and although it's pretty ugly, I am just as fascinated by this type of landscape as I am the beautiful tree covered land.

 In case you need to go that bad...Nevada is nice enough to put a john on the side of the road for you :)

 I was surprised when we would pass these tiny towns in the middle of no where. This one in particular had a giant cow to welcome the 2 visitors that came each year :)

 Here we are in Death Valley- which is within the Mojave Desert and features the lowest, hottest and driest locations in North America. The elevation is 282 feet BELOW sea level.

 These awesome hill things are hardened sand; don't they look super cool!?

 I wasn't fast enough with the camera to get the sign that said below sea level, so here is the sign when we are at sea level.

While passing through Death Valley National Park, we bought ourselves an annual National Park pass. 

CA has 8 national parks and Oregon has a few as well; stay tuned for many NP adventures in the next year.

Ano Nuevo Bay

When we went to Santa Cruz a few weekends ago we drove past this island. One of our friends had told us about it and how it reminded him of the house on the island that the Dursley's run to in the first Harry Potter movie.

Supposedly, some wealthy person decided they wanted to build a mansion on the island in the late 19th century. After it was built, they soon realized that the island was a massive breeding ground for elephant seals.

If this is what my yard looked like, I would probably abandon my house too :)

Because of all the seals, there is also a large population of great white sharks! YIKES! What an fascinating place. I think it would be pretty exciting to go explore the house and see some sharks! Unfortunately, the island is off limits to the public :(

This is the type of thing that just gets my  imagination running wild...I love it!!

Santa Cruz, California!

We FINALLY had the chance to get off campus this past Sat. and do some sightseeing. We headed down to Santa Cruz, which is at the top of Monterrey Bay, with some of our friends the Lundeens. The drive there was absolutely beautiful with thick forests of tall redwood trees. I felt much better about living here rather than the East coast after experiencing the drive!

Our first stop in Santa Cruz is what they called the Natural Bridge State Park.

Lots of pelicans and seagulls just hang out on top of the rock. The waves were pretty big that day and it was fun to see them hit the rock and splash high into the air.

I am pretty sure that my husband is the most good-looking man ever!! 

And he is pretty stylish too!! :o)

As we were exploring the beach, we found a blow hole. It sure did give Old Faithful a run for the money! And it was really loud when the water initially comes out of the hole.

Isn't this just so beautiful!? I could sit and watch the waves crash against the rocks all day long. 

And I love the added color of green!

Our next stop was the famous MYSTERY SPOT! What happens there you ask? Well of course I can't tell you because its a mystery :) Supposedly, there is a gravitational anomaly in this spot where gravitation is a little off. Sounds fishy, but I still find Morgan talking to himself trying to figure out the secret :o)

The cabin is at the center of this gravitational weirdness. I am standing on a level table (we got to check for ourselves with the levels they had) and this is the angle that is most comfortable! It was really weird.

Throughout our little tour, they did lots of demonstrations proving that this was not an optical allusion or anything. They lined people up by height (Morgan being the tallest). Now you look at the beam they are standing on and it is obviously higher on Morgan's side then on the other. You would assume that the beam is slanted down toward the person in the blue. Well here is the catch up...the beam is level (we checked it). And here is an even crazier thing... a ball will roll from the blue lady to Morgan. 

Don't believe me...see for yourself!

Mystery Spot Video

 They switch, and now they are all the same height!

The Mystery Spot really was a lot of fun! If you want to go, you should come and visit us!!!

Next we went to the famous Santa Cruz Boardwalk. Its like a mini Lagoon on the beach! We had fun walking around and eating delicious Mexican food on the pier.

On our way home we stopped to stand next to our first pretty tall redwood tree. We were both in awe and can't wait to explore the huge ones that you can drive through!!

Santa Cruz is a really fun place to visit. I am really excited to explore more of northern California and especially the coast. Its beautiful!!

More Photography

We live on one of the most beautiful university campuses! Every time I walk around I feel like I'm at some fantastic summer camp. I love the strong smell of the trees here and how secluded from the world Stanford feels.

For the past few weeks I have been able to take more family pictures and I am really enjoying it. I love seeing families come together and show their love for one another as I try to capture it with a camera. Pictures are really worth a thousand words, and I love being able to capture moments for them to remember and cherish.

 

 Aren't these kids so stinkin cute?! I wanted to take them home with me!

 Especially that cute little blue-eyed guy! Adorable!!

 

 
Taking all of these pictures makes me so grateful to be able to experience this beautiful campus and this area of the country. It also makes me grateful for little children who are so innocent and who put their full trust in us to show them the way.

Going back to the 90's

Morgan inherited some roller blades and decided to bring them along with us to California. For our family home evening activity we decided to test them out and see if they were as cool as they were in the 90's. After much wobbling and holding hands like 5 year olds, we finally started slowly making out way down the path.

Remember this picture?

We haven't changed much :)

If Morgan could have found elbow and knee pads he would be wearing them.

Me...I try to not look more like an idiot than I already do with these roller blades

I don't know what you are thinking, but I think this looks like a Napoleon Dynamite shot. 

Morgan insists he looks like Apollo Ohno!

We had a great time reliving the good old 90's. Sadly, it lasted about 5 min. and Morgan's feet were hurting, and I had a big blister :)

Halloween

This year I was planning on using my Mr. & Mrs. Potato head costumes again, but my little sister really wanted to use them for her Halloween dance. I decided I might as well make some new costumes and this is what I came up with. 

Morgan was Grinch Green (he picked out the names)

and I was Perfect Purple (isn't he so nice?!)

Hurray for Crayons! They were really simple to make and I had lots of fun designing the pattern myself and cutting out all of the letters while watching lots of movies :)

 

We were in charge of our ward Halloween party (which went well and I am REALLY glad its over) and I did a photo booth so everyone could get Halloween pictures. It was great!

Happy Halloween everyone!

Photography business...

I have decided to start a small photography business....it's a little scary, but the only way to get better is practice, so here it goes. Check out my first family pictures here.