"Born in a stable, cradled in a manger, He came forth from heaven to live on earth as mortal man and to establish the kingdom of God. During His earthly ministry, He taught men the higher law. His glorious gospel reshaped the thinking of the world. He blessed the sick. He caused the lame to walk, the blind to see, the deaf to hear. He even raised the dead to life. To us He has said, 'Come, follow me.' "

Merry Christmas!!

Disneyland

Meeting Mickey Mouse

Autopia

Mr. Toad's Wild Ride

King Arthur Carousel

While about to ride the Mark Twain River boat they asked Jordan and I if we would like to steer the boat.  Jordan steered most of the ride while I worked the whistles and bell.  So much fun!

Meeting Tigger!

Indiana Jones Adventure

Jordan's favorite ride in Disneyland.  Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters.

One of my favorite rides was the new pirates of the carribean and the haunted mansion decorted to the Nightmare before Christmas.  So spooky!

Its A Small World at Christmas!

Sleeping Beauty's Castle

Our final night we stayed to watch to fireworks show.  They had fireworks choreographed to christmas carols and at the end of the show huge snow flakes fell from snow machines all over the park.  Magical!

We loved every moment during our trip to Disneyland.  With small crowds we were able to ride every ride in both parks during the three days we were there.  Everything was decorated for the holidays which made it so pretty and festive.  The perfect way to start our holidays.   

Disney's California Adventure Park

Welcome to Disney's California Adventure Park!

Meeting Mickey Mouse

The twilight zone tower of terror is a ride that plunges 13 floors.  Jordan loved this ride and rode it twice!  I found it more frightening than fun and decided that once was enough for me.

Jordan and Stich.

Meeting Kenai and Koda

Jordan was so excited to ride California Screamin' a huge old wooden rollar coaster.  (As you can tell not my favorite ride.) 

The Pixar parade was so fun! 

Englestead Canyon

Englestead Canyon

Distance: 7.4 technical miles
11 Rappels: Longest Rappel 290 feet.

After a day of rappelling one of the greatest canyoneering canyons in the world with his friends Tyler and Jonathan.  I think I have a pretty happy husband right now.

For the beauty of the earth

For the Beauty of the Earth

Hymns, For the Beauty of the Earth, no. 92

1. For the beauty of the earth,
For the beauty of the skies,
For the love which from our birth
Over and around us lies,

[Chorus]
Lord of all, to thee we raise
This our hymn of grateful praise.

2. For the beauty of each hour
Of the day and of the night,
Hill and vale, and tree and flow’r,
Sun and moon, and stars of light,

3. For the joy of human love,
Brother, sister, parent, child,
Friends on earth, and friends above,
For all gentle thoughts and mild,

Hakuna Matata

With two weeks left of our internship in Zion, Jordan and I have been spending many nights talking about what is next for us.  We talk about finances, work and Disneyland.

Since we were engaged we have talked about going to California.  Jordan has never been to Disneyland and is so excited about going.  Knowing how much fun he will have makes me about as ecstatic as he is about this trip.

Being only a few hours away from California we are able to drive, stay at a decent hotel with fantastic rates, and be in the park with few crowds.  We have saved all of the tips we have made while working at the ranch and have just enough to go.  Still we have wrestled over spending the money and have gone back and forth on whether we want to go to Disneyland now or wait until we are more financially secure. 

We finally decided that twenty years from now we won't be disappointed that we went.  Spending the day playing at Disneyland and eating ramon noodles in our hotel room at night will make for great memories........Disneyland here we come!!

Happy Halloween

In honor of Halloween we decided to skip the typical haunted houses, corn mazes and costumes and instead went to Texas Road House for dinner and then saw the movie Vampires Assistant.

  

                                                       Heidi and Jonathan

Sharon and Brian

Jordan and Brook

Kourtney, Dave, Heidi, Jonathan and Mary Vaughn

We had such a fun night together.  Dinner was so good and although the movie wasn't our favorite we still laughed a lot and had a great time. 

Festive Fall

Jordan and I were walking to work one morning when we saw this amazing sunrise.

The first storm of the season came in suddenly and left just as suddenly.  It was a high of 30 degrees with a wind chill factor of ten below. It was so COLD! We were happy when the next day it was back to being sunny and warm. 

 

Sharon and I carved pumpkins in her apartment to decorate the front desk.  It made it feel much more festive and I think we did a pretty good job.

Game night at Zion Ponderosa! 

The very few of us left working during the fall have spent the last few nights playing Skip Bo, Phase Ten and a really fun game called Last Word. 

While Caitlin, Ryan and his parents were visiting the resort we decided to go on an ATV tour.  Jordan just happened to be the guide who could take us. 

Jordan and I were the only one's who had ever driven an ATV before so it was really fun being with them as they experienced handling an ATV for the first time.  They had a few moments of missing the turn off for the trail, rolling backwards on a hill, getting really dirty, and having a lot of fun.    

Angel's Landing

"The route to Angels Landing involves travel along a steep, narrow ridge with support chains anchored intermittently along the route. Footing can be slippery even when the rock is dry. Unevenly surfaced steps are cut into the rock with major cliff dropoffs adjacent. Keep off when it is wet, icy or thunderstorms are in the area. Plan to be off before dark. Younger children should skip this trail; older children must be closely supervised."

Caitlin, Ryan and Ryan's parents came to Zion National Park for the weekend. 

Ryan, Jordan and Ryan's parents wanted to hike to Angel's Landing.  Ryan's parents hiked to Scout Lookout while Jordan and Ryan went up the chains to the top of Angel's Landing. 

Caitlin and I decided to go into Springdale for the morning and spent the day going to see different artists and stopped at the local stores and orchard. We had a great day just being together as sisters.  I loved having family here.  And although we weren't able to spend a lot of time together we really had a great weekend having them here.