My wife the cake-baker-maker

Jennifer loves to make all kinds of goodies, specifically pies, cookies, and kettle-corn. Those are kind of her specialties. She is pictured here with a delicious lemon-meringue (?) pie that she made for a ward auction. I didn't taste it, but I know it was delicious.

Soon after we got married, I noticed the trend that was forming of her always wanting to make 'goodies'. I told her that she couldn't just "make cookies all the time and let me eat them whenever I wanted". It wasn't good for my 'figure'. =) Over the last year, I have come to see and know the flaw of taking such a direct and strong stand on something that she was passionate about. Shame on me for telling her she couldn't "make me cookies" or "have pies around all the time for me to eat." How truly selfish I was. With that being said, I've since changed my stance and now look forward to having cookies around "all the time" no matter the consequence to my figure or my teeth. I've now come to enjoy it so much so, that often I'll wake up on Sunday mornings and ask her if we have all the ingredients to make cookies to A) eat and B) share with home teachings and visiting teaching families. Once the cookies are made, she has come to realize quite quickly that she has to show me which of the dough is to eat and which is to be saved. =) I like cookie dough. Yum.

So Jennifer, here's-to many years of cookies and pies and goodies. I sure am looking forward to the Holidays this year just for that reason. Tis-the-season!

From Summit to Shore...in three days.

This Labor Day weekend we had the great fortune of seeing much of California's natural beauty. We started with a trip up to Lake Tahoe and ended with a day at the beach just south of Santa Cruz at Sunset Beach where Jon grew up visiting with his family as a child.

Late Friday night we arrived at our campsite with just enough time to set up some tents and get to bed. Well, Jennifer went to bed and I stayed up with a buddy whose family we were with and sat by the fire with Kyle's baby cried and Kyle peacefully meditated on how he might get his child to sleep so as to not wake the other campers. With time, it worked and all were able to get some sleep.


Some of our good friends the Bills family joined us for the trip to the mountains.



Saturday was full of morning and evening campfires, trips to an upper lake, site seeing, tin-foil dinners, Peach Cobbler, Filet-Mingon steaks from Jon's family cow, and a BEAR siting 20 yards from our camp. What a day!



Beautiful Lake Tahoe in the Background. Jon took the taller step in this picture.




Here, Jennifer shows off the campsite. Not the best picture, but she wouldn't pose for another.





One of Jon's great loves is skipping rocks. It was a great place to do it up at Eagle Lake seen in the background.


We both loved all the time that we could get around the campfire. The smell has permeated every piece of clothing that got remotely close to the fire pit. But it was worth it. Its a great smell.


And who could visit the age-old tradition of burning your rivals ball cap as a good luck charm to help urge on your team towards a fall playoff run?! Not me.


Beach time was great too. After a quick recoupe from the mountains we headed west to catch some more sun. Northern California beaches are just as much about staying warm as they are about getting in the water. Jennifer decided to stay warm and I decided to get in the water. It was very cold.



My cousin brought some buggy-boards so we tested our luck. We probably got tumbled by the waves more than we road the waves, but it was fun.



We actually made a prior visit to the beach this summer to a place called Morro Bay. Very cold that day. It was quiet and peaceful with significantly fewer people at the beach that day though.