Don't Give Me Free Time and a Bad Idea! I Just Might Do It!

So... Trent here! When Lindz and I moved into our place one of the first things that my father suggested was that I build a bridge across this gap from our pot shelves to run my old Lego train on for Christmas time.
So my dad gave me the idea and Wood/Patel was nice enough to give me plenty of free time. And I ran with it! Of course I couldn't just half ace it. I had to make it awesome. Come on I have little brother-in-laws to impress! So first the calculations.
Once I had the equation for the arch of the bridge and the dimensions of the gap I plugged it into the good ol' TI-89 and wah-la! I had my bridge. I took the coordinates from my calculator and plotted them straight to my desk.The sketch might be a little hard to see on the desk. Once I got it all drawn out, I started to build. I made it out of popcicle sticks and hot glue.


You might see to the right that I built a ramp because the pot shelves were not level. Well once I got the train on there it didn't work that great, so I had to build an elevated track for the loop on the lower shelf. Here is the final creation with the train on it. It goes all over the pot shelves. Lindsay loves it! There is an error with the bridge though. Can anyone tell me what it is?

Say "NO" to "Yes Man"

Have you ever sat through a movie that you know you should've walked out of. Well, I'm ashamed to say that that was the situation Trent and I were in tonight. We decided to go see "Yes Man" for date night and no more than 10 minutes into the movie regreted our decision. Please don't see it! It is so crude and offensive. I know, what else were we expecting from a Jim Carey movie right? Well this one went way too far. I don't want to get into details but just please take my advise and don't go see it. It isn't worth the money you spend or the un-uplifting feeling you get when you leave the theater! We ended up driving around looking a Christmas lights to try to get that movie off our minds. So say "NO" to "Yes Man"!

My Brother The Eagle Scout!

So Tyler earned his Eagle a year ago and we finally had his court of honor a week ago! Just in the nick of time too, he leaves for Alaska in exactly four weeks from today! Holy cow this time is flying by!!!! I can't even think of my baby brother leaving for two years without choking up. I'm so excited for him though, I'll just miss him :)
But here he is with his brothers. A good lookin bunch of boys if you ask me!

Not sure what Jared's doing with his face in this one but it's still a cute bunch!

I Am Woman Hear Me Roar!!!

So I feel like I accomplished something great on Saturday. Since Trent and I started dating he's been asking me to go mountain biking with him. He loves to mountain bike! I don't know why but I just have felt uneasy about doing it. I'm not the most graceful person in the world as anyone who knows me can attest to. I knew it was pretty much a guarantee that if I went I would get hurt, I wouldn't be able to keep up with Trent (which I can't stand by the way!) or something terrible would happen which would keep me from going again. I know I'm a real optimist! But much to my, and Trent's, surprise I actually liked it! I couldn't keep up with Trent, and I almost passed out at the top of a big climb (seriously I was falling over at the top, Trent had to hold me and my bike up just before I dry heaved in the bushes. Sorry for the details) BUT I DID IT!!!! I was pretty proud of my self. If anything it showed me exactly how out of shape I am and motivated me to work harder! :)

Here we are at the top. Right after I just about hit the dirt and puked my guts out. Lovely.

Don't You Love The Smell of Fresh Cut Christmas Trees? (Scroll down for Thanksgiving post)

Last year I was adopted into an Owens family tradition of cutting our own Christmas tree! I went with Trent's parents and their friends the Rollers and despite pleading from me, Trent had to stay home. He was still in school at the time and just couldn't miss any time for homework and studying. However, he'll never live down not coming with me on our very first Christmas as a married couple to cut down our first tree :) Anyway, it was such a fun experience last year and I was so excited to continue that experience again this year. This time Trent was with us. We also recruited my whole family to come join the festivities :)
The Whole Gang!

The finished product :)

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Trent and I had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We had Thanksgiving lunch with Trent's family. His brother Jeff and his wife Leza came to town from Virginia and it was so great to catch up with them and their little girl Addison who will be 1 next month! She's such a cutie pie!!
Trent with Grandad
Addison! Such a Sweetie :)

Grammie, Leza with Addison and Jeff

Cousins

What could be better than one Thanksgiving? Two Thanksgivings! After lunch we headed out to my parents house to have dinner with them and it was delicious! We topped off another wonderful Thanksgiving with some good ol' fashioned Wii playin' fun.



Yet another delicious turkey Dad!

We truly have so much to be grateful for!

I Wish I Could Come Up With Creative Titles

First of all I just want to say that the funeral service for Shane Figueroa on Saturday was the most moving, inspiring, touching and life changing funerals I've ever been to. The throng of friends, family, police officers etc was absolutely impressive. You couldn't help but walk away with the knowledge that Shane's life and death has touched literally thousands. His testimony and love of the gospel was strongly felt. What an incredible person he was. We all will miss him.

A couple of weeks ago we went to a little goodbye party for our good friend and Trent's cousin Scott. We played Rock Band ate yummy food, laughed and had a great time. He reported last Wednesday to the MTC (mission training center) as a full time missionary in Portland, Oregon. We are all so proud of Scott and this decision he's made. It won't be the same without him for the next couple years but we're all 100% behind him and we'll be here ready to party again when he gets back!

Trent displaying his mad skills on the guitar!

Cherish and Kelsey

The gang. Yes this is typical. Trying to get these boys to take a serious pic is near impossible.

We'll miss our Scottie! Can't wait to hear about all the great things he'll do!

I'm gonna be honest, Halloween is not my favorite holiday. I LOVE celebrating Fall and Thanksgiving and to me, Halloween is just a sign that Thanksgiving is coming. Luckily for me I married a man who feels the same way. We're both totally content to not dress up and stay home and pass out candy. This year though we went to my parents to see my brothers costumes and watch movies. It ended up being a pretty fun night.

Jared & his buddies as the 3 Musketeers

Tyler and his friend Ronnie looked awesome! If you can't tell they're Two Face and The Joker

He even went as far as to shave one side of his head!

Agent J and Agent C of the Men in Black :) So cute!

Like every Sunday we were in Maricopa again with the fam. All 9 of us decided to go on a walk. It was a beautiful day and I couldn't resist taking a few pictures

Of course any family outing would be incomplete without my parents "other child" Holly.