Zappos.com's Halloween

At Zappos.com in the corporate offices we did all of our Halloween celebrating with a pumpkin carving contest, costume contest (individuals and groups) Team Decor contest and trick or treating in the office for children of employees and children from the Nevada Childhood Cancer Foundation. The legal dept. won first place in the team costume contest and as of this writing I have not heard who one the Team Decor contest. We were the Justice League with Wonder Woman (Amber), Batgirl (Lisa), Robin "girl" (Rebecca), the Wonder Twins (Millie & Donna) and I was Super Girl. I kept telling everyone I was more like Super Old Woman but we had a great time. Our department was decorated like the Hall of Justice and Metropolis. It was fun to see all the children come through in their costumes.

Jean and Brian's Wedding

On October 18, 2008 we attended the Temple Sealing of Jean (Jeremiah's sister) and Brian. I love going to the Temple and watching these young people begin their married lives the proper way. We took pictures at the reception with our new Nikon digital SLR. I have wanted one for a long time. It is so much easier to take high quality pictures without worrying about the 35mm film being developed or coming out right. We could see on the camera if we got a good picture or not. Watch the slideshow for all of the pics we took. Congratulations Jean and Brian!

Twins' Blessing Day

We traveled to Cedar City on Saturday October 11 to be there for Braxton and Rykker's Blessing on Sunday. It was so great to spend time with them. They have grown so much. Almost all of Quinn's family were there. His parents and all but one sister could come. They have so many kids and grandkids. What was even more special was that all of Brad's grandkids were there. Shayna and Nyah traveled to Utah for an event in her family. Then she had her cousin drive her to Cedar. It was also very special to finally get to see Derringer. He is adorable. Here are pictures of all of them.


The blessings were wonderful. Quinn did a great job. There was food afterwards and everyone had a nice time visiting.

Matthew's Mission Call

On September 4th, 2008, we finally received the much anticipated Mission Call for Matthew. We invited the Bishop and his wife and kids, Melissa, Craig and his wife Vonnie, Dave, and of course Stephanie, Jeremiah, Brad, Kayla and I were there. Also Matt's friends CheyAnne, Chelsea and DJ came to witness the event. Steven was on the phone to hear Matt read his papers and announce that he would be going to the Spokane Washington Mission! We all shouted as he told us because Steven served in the Tacoma Washington Mission. We are so excited. Before he opened his papers we sang "I Want to Be a Missionary" and had a prayer. It was a great moment.

He reports to the MTC in Provo Utah on December 10th. We have much to do to get him ready! Matt had a map that he posted everyone's guesses on. He took some last minute guesses too and the only one that was close was Kim - she guessed Washington! Good guess Kim!

Labor Day Weekend

On Labor Day weekend Brad and I got in the truck which was hitched up to our 30 foot trailer and headed off for a long weekend getaway! We went to Panaca so that we could visit Brad's Auntie Audrey. She has been going through treatments for Cancer and we wanted to see her. After visiting with her and Barbara Ann who stays with Auntie at night we headed over to Bev and Jack's and parked in the driveway to sleep. My kind of camping. We brought the dog - Cowboy - with us so we slept out in the trailer instead of in the house. The next morning we had some breakfast with Bev and Jack and then headed over to Cedar City to see Heather and the babies. Quinn was working so we missed getting to see him. We enjoyed holding the babies and helping to feed them. They are sooooo adorable.

We left Heather's and headed out for something to eat and some fuel before heading up on to Cedar Mountain. It was dark by the time we got up there and we could not really find a place to camp so we ended up just pulling off the road to sleep for the night. We slept pretty well and woke to rain in the morning. With it looking like rain for most of the day we decided to head back down to dryer ground. We made another stop and spent more time with the babies and then headed out to Gold Butte (an area out between Mesquite and Lake Mead) to camp. We found a nice place to pull off the road and made dinner. It got really windy during the night. So much so that at times I thought we might blow over. We did not sleep very well that night but the wind died down somewhat in the morning and we slept in. After breakfast we took the dog and got on the four-wheeler to go for a ride. We rode for about 15 to 20 miles and only ran into 4 guys while we were out. 2 were out riding and they had a dog with them as well. It was so fun and we had a great time away!

Les Miserables at Tuacahn

On August 9th Brad and I went to see the musical Les Miserables at Tuacahn. It was the first time we had ever seen the play and it was a great production. I always love the shows at Tuacahn because of the natural backdrop of the red hills behind the stage and the use of the scenery. During the scenes of the French Revolution they had men up in the hills hiding behind rocks with authentic explosions and smoke. It made the scene seem so much more real! Very effective. The singing was wonderful and brought tears to my eyes several times. I loved it!

Happy Birthday Stephanie and Jeremiah!

On August 10th we celebrated Stephanie and Jeremiah's birthdays together. It was fun to watch them celebrate together. There was even some debate about how old Jeremiah is. We are happy to have him in our family! We celebrated with dinner at Grandma's and some of Jeremiah's family was there too. We had plenty of cake and ice cream to go around.