Thursday, December 16, 2010

Merry Christmas!

Sam and I fully intended on sending out handmade, handwritten Christmas cards this year; however we just finished our thank you cards from our wedding about a month ago. We decided a nice blog post photo would suffice. :)

My cute friend and coworker Lindsey Briggs shot this photo just in time for a snow covered backdrop. Thanks Lindsey!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
Love, Sam and Jennifer

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Merry Christmas from the Stampin Up Photo Team!


Every year our team at work puts together a funny Christmas card. Hope your holidays are wonderful!

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Happy Halloween!


As some of you know Stampin Up! gets really into Halloween. This year our creative team decided to be Lord of the Rings as a group contest. We created a trailer for the movie and ended up winning the contest for best group costume.

My character was Arwen Evenstar (Liv Tyler), my boss Scott (Golem), Casey (Aragorn), and Lindsey (Galadriel).

As you can see, I work with some very creative individuals. Enjoy!


Saturday, September 25, 2010

XTERRA at Snowbasin

Mike and I somehow got a free entry each into this years XTERRA race (part of a CEO Challenge - actually being a CEO is not required to participate?!?). This was all quite last minute and therefore there wasn't much training put into it, but we went up regardless and had a good time.
The race start at Pineview Reservoir.
The pre-race breakfast of champions...hard boiled eggs.
Laughing at Michael's ridiculous situation...his tube was practically exposed on both tires!





Me and my beautiful wife/team photographer.
Sucking down some last minute energy.
Of course Michael finishes the swim first...I mean look at all those sponsers all over his shirt!
I come a few minutes later...probably the reason I don't have sponsers all over my shirt...

Michael finishes the bike first...
After leisurely riding behind 100+ of my new found buddies on a single-track trail...I finish the bike as well.
Michael finishing the race...
Me trying to catch him...but not really since he'd been done for quite some time...
But we had a good time...and we can submit this as further evidence of who is, in fact, taller.
She still loves me even though I lost, again, to Miguel.
The absensetees of note are Gregory and Douglas:
  1. Mike: Swim - 16:58; Bike - 1:27:13; Run - 27:24; Total - 2:11:35
  2. Sam: Swim - 20:03; Bike - 1:37:35; Run - 25:04; Total - 2:22:42
  3. Greg: DNS
  4. Doug: DNS

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Weekend with the Girls!


A couple of weekends ago my close friends from high school and I decided to get together for a girls weekend. My friend Amber's gracious parents-in-law have a condo in Midway and let us stay for a few nights. Our friend Nikki spent this past summer working as a river guide for Midway Adventure Company for the Provo River, we decided to make a weekend out of our stay and run the river.

Now I know what you are thinking "people run the Provo on tubes all the time," which is true. Nikki said the river run is really intended more for individuals living out of state who apparently eat it up. We thought it would be a blast to have Nikki guide our way to "safety" and even though few of us even got wet, we had a great time!


















This was the first weekend Sam and I spent apart since we have been married. At first I thought I was going to be completely fine having a girls weekend away. As time went on I started to miss him more and more. I tried to convince him to have a guys weekend as well, but for some reason that didn't work out.

Sam sent me a text the first night indicating how excited he was about having our queen size bed all to himself. I have to admit I felt a little sad when he said that. As I returned home I found the truth....Sam ended up sleeping on the couch all weekend. When I asked him why he said he couldn't bare to sleep in our bed without me. We had both missed each other, which is a good thing. We can officially say we made it through our first weekend apart.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Bear Lake and Lava Hot Hot Hot!



This last weekend we spent some time at Bear Lake with the Wheatleys. Despite the near casualties and lost anchor we had a great time!

Here we are - all smiles with anticipation!
Then we pose for the picture once on the boat.
David and Carol were there...
Even Rebecca with her fancy matching sunshades and Carson with his new hat!
And Caleb pulled off the best pose of all.
Here, with Jake in the background (no pictures of Michelle?), Caleb wants to play with the shiny toy making all the clicking sounds.
We decided to go wakeboarding since we had the boat out already on such a nice day.
Here is David rock'n it with a solid run.
Then I tried my luck on the surfboard.
Hanging loose, but not quite there to give up the rope.
Gave up the rope...pumping it...and lost it. What you don't see is 5-7 seconds later the board torpedoes straight up about twenty feet in the air in a perfect spiral (luckily it didn't hit me on its way down).
Nap time after a long day of fun in the sun.
Now back to the subject of all those casualties! So at one point the wind was picking up and we had the boat anchored as we swam around. Rebecca noticed that the rope from the anchor that once was tied to the boat was no longer there and we realized we had drifted a bit. So we go back to see if we can find this anchor - I mean we have some goggles and we have a good idea of where we were.
After about 30 min of swimming around in some wavy water I stumble across what looks like track marks in the sand from the anchor dragging a bit. I follow it 10 yards or so and low and behold there the anchor is! My fatigue gets the best of me as I apparently don't think this next part through...
After signaling the boat over, I go down to pick up the anchor (yes, the heavy metal part that is designed to sink) and swim to the top with it in hand like some kind of trophy I've found. Not surprisingly, I begin to sink and struggle to keep my head above water with the waves making me cough up water a bit. So I realize I can probably just drop the anchor for a second and wait till the boat gets there before I go back to pick it up (yes, it still hasn't crossed my mind to just hold on to the rope - I know!)
As I drop the anchor I realize that the rope has now wrapped around my leg a few times and it is now pulling me to the bottom of the lake (only 8 or so feet here though). I was already out of breath and choking, struggling and panicking a little to free myself from the rope as I sink to my death. Quickly freeing myself, I propel to the top for some much needed air!
Out of strength to dive again, I climb on the boat after waiting, and drifting, just a bit more. We weren't able to find it right away, but David continues to search for it. As he does, we drift too far away from him and a wave-runner is heading straight for him without a flag nearby to indicate that someone's in the water! At this exact moment, Caleb stops breathing after crying so much! Are you kidding!! While trying to revive Caleb, we try to get the boat turned around and headed over by where David is swimming. The wave-runner doesn't see him, and his face is in the water. Luckily they missed each other by about 10 feet...and Caleb, after blacking out, came back just fine. All is well, but those were some tense moments and we were done looking for the anchor for the time being. But we know where it's at, kind of. So we'll be back next time to pick it up!


Earlier this month we went up to Lava Hot Springs with the Whitneys and Williams (notable absentees were the Baths and the Spencers). We floated down the river and camped out at the local RV park. The river was the highlight for me...we have GOT to do that again!



We also spent some time at the pool with all the slides and diving platforms - good times!