While up at Clear Creek, we are at the mercy of the weather. The first week of camp we were bombarded by very, VERY large snowflakes. We had to come up with some fun things to take place of our regular outside activities. We did some really fun and creative stuff, but my favorite was when John Jay showed these videos on the projector and we just has some laughs showing then to the kids. I laughed, so you will too, unless you have no heart, or funny bone! :)

Here are some fun pics for ya!

Isn't my husband so cute! I gotta admit, he is the best! You know now why I love him so stinkin' much!! :)

My Side of the UnKnown Story

Once more, a shocker of all shockers, Bryan is actually going to BLOG. It is about time, I guess, but my wonderful Dani does such a wonderful job, I did not want to (and hopefully don't) bring down the high quality of this blog. If you have not noticed, we have been writing down a bunch of things about when we met, at least we will have them written down in at least one place. So I am going to chime in with a little bit of the story from my point of view (since it happened to me).

My first trip to Utah to meet Danielle was pretty darn good. I loved her before I came, I really wanted to be near her, and it was far being such a distance from her. Our first visit only increased these feelings, I loved her even more after it. Some of the highlights of that visit were first of all meeting her (see earlier blog for details), others were going to the Temple together, and meeting her family for the first time. At my first family "Sunday Family Dinner" just about everyone in the whole family was there, and not only did I get to meet them, but before dinner started, I "got" the "chance" to go around the room and name everyone by name. Now for those of you who do not understand the magnitude of this, you need to take into account a couple of things. This was the first time that I was meeting 75 percent of the people there, and there were over 25 people there. Lets just say it was a pretty nerve-racking event, I really did not want to mess up on anyones name. This was not, however, the most stressful/harrowing thing that happened.

Nope, having to name everyone in the family was pretty easy compared to what went on the day that I left. By the end of my visit I new that I wanted to ask Danielle to marry me, but that she wanted to meet my family before we got to that point. So we knew that she would meet my family the next month when we went to Oregon, but that it would happen before I came out to Utah again. When I came out from California to visit Dani the first time, my wonderful sister Kristen, pulled some strings and got me a room at the Deseret Towers (where she worked), so I was staying there by myself. On the morning that I was going home (a wonderful wintry Tuesday) before Dani picked me up, I knew that I wanted to talk to Danielle's Father, and ask him if I could ask for Danielle hand in marriage. This was the first time that I had ever come near this point, and was very very nervous. In fact while cleaning up my room to leave, and for Dani to come pick me up, I was so nervous that I threw up twice. When Dani picked me up I told her that I wanted to stop by her parents house and talk to her Dad, as we walked from her house to her parents, Dani thought I was going to pass out. She told me later that my hands were all clammy and I was as white as anyone she had ever seen (Jon, so white someone could consider me a snow demon). That was before I ever got into the house. I was so very lucky, because when we got there the only people around were Dani's mom and dad, so I went and asked Joe if I could speak with him, he smiled his knowing smile and said sure while escorting me to the music room. He, being the very wise person he is, knew what was going on (I guess it has happened enough times), so to help me out he first shared a story to try and help me calm down, (or to stretch out the torture). The story had to do with the fact that sometime the time leading up to an event is worse that the event, and it was. I told him that I loved his daughter and wanted to ask her to marry me, and he just smiled and said that it would be a wonderful thing. I was so happy, it was one big step towards Danielle and I starting out our lives together and being together for the rest of eternity.

Our Song!

After my long hiatus, let's continue with our walk down memory lane. Where were we? Oh yes, the first date. (Byran only let me put that comment of me being flat on my back as long as I PROMISED to explain it) So we left the airport and hit 5 o'clock traffic heading back into Orem so we got to talk a good while on the drive home. It was easy conversation, we had been doing that much in our relationship for months now, and it wasn't weird yet cause I couldn't look at him
because I was driving. But Bryan got to just stare at me while I was driving, and it started to unnerve me a little bit. We finally got into Provo and we went straight to where Bryan was staying. His sister, Kristen, worked at the Deseret Towers and they have guest rooms on the bottom floor of the towers (which no longer exist!) She had arranged for him to stay there. So we went to the DT to check him in. While climbing out of the car we noticed that we were parked on a sheet of black ice. It had been snowing on and off, so there was a light dusting. I told Bryan to be careful, and walked to the back of the car to help him get his bags. We got the back door open and he grabbed his stuff, and seriously I was standing up right, nothing happening, and the next thing I knew I was FLAT ON MY BACK!!! We had already talked about how much of a clutz I am, falling down mountains, and so on and so forth. I burst into laughter, and Bryan being really concerned tried to help me up. He almost ate asphalt then too! but I got up, and we headed in to the DT.
We were supposed to go to the Olive Garden for our first date, since it was my favorite restaurant, and Bryan had never been there. When we drove up, it was so packed we decided to go somewhere else. Neither of us were really hungry (too nervous!) so I took Bryan to Sensuous Sandwich and had dinner there. It was the first time I got to sit down and really talk to him face to face. He wouldn't stop smiling, and KEPT STARING!! It made me really nervous, so after a unhuman amount of staring, I finally said, "Why are you staring? He said something to the effect of , "I want to look at something beautiful." Dinner was perfect.

Here is one more tibit. Bryan's mom had heard about Bryan and I and was probably on 7th heaven that one of her kids might actually get married (no offense to the rest of you fabulous soon-to-be married Kennedy's) and she heard this song on the radio and thought of us. She told Bryan about it and he told me, and I did a little itunes searching. It really is the perfect song. It is "our" song. It just fits us so well! Here are the lyrics so you can see why it fits so well.

Chris Rice - When Did You Fall
From the album Amusing

You’re all smiles and silly conversation
As if this sunny day came just for you
You twist your hair, you smile and you turn your eyes away
C’mon, tell me what’s right with you
Now it dawns on me probably everybody’s talkin’
And there’s something here I’m supposed to realize
‘Cause your secret’s out, and the universe laughs at it’s joke on me
I just caught it in your eyes, it’s a beautiful surprise

Chorus:
When did you fall in love with me?
Was it out of the blue
‘Cause I swear I never knew it
When did you let your heart run free?
Have you been waiting long?
When did you fall in love with me?
When did you fall in love?

Make your way over here, sit down by this fool, and let’s rewind
C’mon, let’s go back and replay all our scenes
You can point out the hints, the clues, the twists and the smiles this time
All the ones that slipped by me
I bet my face is red, and you can hear my heart poundin’
Well I guess it don’t matter now that I realize
‘Cause baby I missed it then, but I can surely see you now
Right there before my eyes
You’re my beautiful surprise

Chorus:

Was it at the coffee shop
Or that morning at the bus stop
When you almost slipped, and I caught your hand
Or the time we built the snowman
The day at the beach, sandy and warm
Or the night with the scary thunderstorm
I never saw the signs
Now we’ve got to make up for lost time
And I can tell now by the way that you’re looking at me
I’d better finish this song so my lips will be free

Have you been waiting long, when did you fall in love
I kept you waiting so long, when did you fall
Have you been waiting long
When did you fall in love with me
When did you fall in love?


Now, here is Chris Rice doing a live version of the song. It is a bit different from the CD version. Enjoy!


Download now Chris Rice lyrics on Lyricspy.com

Christmas Vacation

Christmas this year was tons of fun! We had plenty of snow here in Utah, and enjoyed the holiday in the perpetually green Oregon. Here are the plethera of pictures that I have neglected to put up from this past month.

These next few pictures are of Bryan learning how to drive in the snow. We were leaving my school one night and it had really come down while we were inside. So we took advantage of the 3 or so inches of fresh snow and an empty parking lot and he practiced his snow driving.

These next ones are from Bryan's first real snow. I have a movie of him frolicking in the snow with his shorts and flip flops on. It is hilarious. If I can ever figure how to get it off my phone I'll post it.

This is Didi, the dog that I have in my classroom this year. She was a part of the Christmas Assembly, dressed up as Olive the other Reindeer. If you haven't read that book it is a cute Christmas book.


So for Christmas this year we went up to Bryan's Parent's Place in Florence Oregon. It was a really long drive and we left during one of the worst snow storms we've had this year (Bryan is getting to be a really good snow driver!) but the rest was perfect. Kristen drove up with us, and drove back down to Sacramento with Lora. So here are our Christmas Pictures!

This is Bryan's parent's house in Oregon, and their mantel. It was a WHOLE new thing to me to have the stockings hanging over the fireplace since we always laid them on our designated couch cushion. Plus, you couldn't just put them up, you had to have your picture taken of you putting them up and taking them down. You even had to pick these little hook things to hang onto the mantle. It was a new tradition for me but I enjoyed it!


This is an up close picture of the stocking that Vickie made for me! Isn't it incredible!! Please notice that the house on my stocking has a red door, cause she called to ask me what color my door is and I told her red. Bryan was sitting next to me and he was like, "Nuh uh, its a tannish brown." So me being stubborn and said, "I have lived in this house my entire life! I swear it is red!" Well, we both went down stairs to see and.....we were both right. The backside of the door is a dark maroon brown and the front was painted when we painted the rest of the house (years ago) a tannish brown, the same color as the rest of the house! But Vickie trusted me and my false confidence, and gave me a red door! :)


Look the rest of it has SPARKLES!!!


Bryan's Dad is pretty much AMAZING when it comes to Christmas Decorations, this is what I saw in the front windows when we drove up to the house. My jaw dropped! I was like, WOW!! But Bryan and Kristen were like, "Oh, it is small this year!" I COULDN'T BELIEVE THAT!!! SMALL!!! Then later he told me all the stuff he had, and I then understood that it was small!!


This is a HUGE nutcracker of a set that stand by the door in the front room. He collects Nutcrackers, notice there was a huge one in the front window picture, all lit up!


This is his Nutcracker collection. NOT one is the same! He has more than this, like on the tree, and by the door, but no two are the exactly the same!!


REAL TINSEL!! THERE IS REAL TINSEL ON THIS TREE! INCREDIBLE!!


Another tree in the front room area



We went down to the Umpqua River Lighthouse while were were down there. It was beautiful, but OH WAS IT COLD!!!! A wet cold that goes right through you. This is the view from the Lighthouse area, it was actually the first day of whale watching, but we didn't see any. :(


Another view


The waves breaking on the jetty are so amazing, Bryan did a really good job with these shots.


We were all standing pretty close to the lighthouse and all we could think about was Pete's Dragon! Isn't it just like in the movie!


Just picture them walking around it and dancing and singing!



You can drive right up to it not like the Heceta Head Lighthouse where you have to hike up a trail to get to it.


The Sunset was phenomenal!



wow....


I gotta better close up of the tinsel so you'll believe me when I say, REAL TINSEL!!

These are our killings this Christmas, Kristen and mine at least. Derek (not my little bro, but Bry's little bro) got a clarinet, and Emalee got some cool stuff too. Bryan got a cast iron skillet that we use everyday. He really likes it. But the kicker is that Kristen got a Crock pot. Bryan and I both got Crock pots last year. Its a sign!! :)

This is Missy, well that is her nickname. Her full name is Bon Bon Miss Mischief, quite the name hu!

This is the best thing that Missy does. She sits like a human on her couch! Derek says she looks drunk, and you can't argue with that, but I think she is just trying to fit in with the crowd!


That was our lovely trip to the Oregon Coast for Christmas! It was absolutely great! But there is one more thing I have to remember so I of course have to blog about it since this is pretty much like my journal. Derek is a fun kid, and he can be real silly sometimes too. Well, everytime, and I mean EVERYTIME Derek answered the phone the person on the other end would day, "Vickie?" and he would have to say, "No, it's Derek." :) hehehe Well, that won't last for much longer so I am glad that I got to see it so that I can forever remind him of it! :)
Then during the time we were there Derek was notorious for saying these off the wall things. We coined them as "Derek-isms" I started a list of them to keep for posterity sake, well actually to give to his fiancee when I finally get to meet her because Derek says I'll won't get to meet her until after the wedding. Here are just a couple of my favorites.
1. "Elbow Pits" (where he directs all his sneezes)
2. "When I had friends......"
3. "When I was confident....."
4. "There are no egg shells in egg nog."
5. "Emalee, the average garden slug is taller than you."
6. "Brandy and raw Chicken." (what he believes are the ingredients to eggnog)
7. "Hugging and gyrating" (his definition of dancing)
8. "I don't know how to smile."
9. Picture this, he walks into the room and randomly announces to the whole room this statement... "One day in class, I was just like cracking up, we'd read something out of the textbook and I'd laugh, she'd say something and I'd laugh." Then without waiting for any response or reaction of either party he walks back out of the room. :) Yup, thats my little bro-in-law. King of the Random!
But here is the best one of all, and he really did say this and meant every word of it!
10. "Does anyone want to watch me take a bath?" :)

Our Christmas was fabulous, I hope everyone else's was as well. Merry Christmas to all!