Keeping Busy

I've been keeping busy the last week by working on the house. We have so many projects that I have started that need to be finished.

My dad helped me put in the windows sills a week and a half ago. We got all the sills in and most of them trimmed. The ones that were trimmed are now painted too.
Last Saturday I started putting up the tile in the shower. It's not my favorite task but it will be nice when it is completed.


I bought some seeds to plant a small vegetable garden. We were going to build raised beds but I think we'll save that for next year.

Megan's parents bought us a whiskey barrel to plant in. I bought a liner a few days ago so now I can get things planted.

The dogs definitely enjoy the sunny weather. They can spend all day outside if it's sunny.

Arizona Part 2

Sunday March 29th we went to church with the Ellsworths and I was able to participate in the blessing of their new son Mason. Afterwards they had a get together at their house with all the family that came for the blessing. Everyone was so nice. Anthon and Jennifer have an awesome family!

We rented a car and headed north through Sedona and ended up in Flagstaff. Sedona was really pretty and we ate at a restaurant that had the best peach cobbler I have ever tasted. If you’re ever in Sedona, check out Ken’s Creekside Resturant.

Right before we arrived in Sedona.

Monday morning we headed out to Monument Valley. It was a long drive but there was some interesting scenery. It was 32 degrees when we left Flagstaff and there was some snow on the ground most of the way to Monument Valley. We stopped in Kayenta for lunch. I heard about a Navajo Taco stand there but there was just an empty stand there. We ended up eating at Burger King (it was that or McDonald’s). They had a Navajo Code Talkers Exhibit inside the BK that was kind of interesting. We left Kayenta and barely crossed the border into Utah and turned back into Arizona to get to Monument Valley. The views were amazing and we took tons of pictures. We took the Pontiac Vibe on the 17 mile scenic loop. I was surprised we didn’t scrape the bottom of the car because the dirt road was pretty bumpy.

Monument Valley Arizona

The Pontiac Vibe we rented on the dirt road.

A Panoramic that looks better when it's bigger...

Our hotel room Flagstaff was huge and pretty fancy. If it weren’t so cold outside, we would have gone in the Pool. The Chili’s near our house in Portland closed so when Megan found out there was one in Flagstaff, she got excited. The Molten Chocolate Cake was delicious as usual.

Tuesday morning we ate leftovers from Chili’s for breakfast and checked out of the Little America Hotel. I got pulled over on the way to the Grand Canyon. I think being very polite and honest with the officer helped because he let me off with a warning. I drove slower after that.

The Grand Canyon was enormous. We walked along the rim taking pictures amazed at how beautiful and massive the canyon is. We ate at a restaurant there and checked out the gift shop. We even saw a few people on rascal scooters at the Grand Canyon like the commercials. We laughed about that.

Us at the Grand Canyon

A Panoramic of the Grand Canyon that again looks better when it's bigger.

We drove back to Gilbert and played some more Rockband with Anthon and Jennifer. Wednesday Megan watched Mckay while I went with Jennifer to drop off their Suburban at the mechanic. When we picked up their suburban from the mechanic I also dropped of our rental car. I played with McKay in the park and then Jennifer and the kids went to Thatcher to visit her parents for the weekend. Megan and I went on a long walk in the sun. When Anthon got home from work we got pizza and of course played more Rockband.
Thursday we spent our morning lounging by the pool in the sun. Anthon took us to the airport and we made it back to rainy Oregon. We had a great time in Arizona and Megan is convinced she wants to move there. I’m warming up to the idea but I’m not sure I could handle the heat.

Arizona Part 1

We spent most of last week in Arizona. Megan really wanted to go somewhere sunny for Spring Break and we settled on Arizona. We used some buddy passes Megan’s cousin gave us for the flight down. It was our first time flying standby. The flight was very full and they told us that all the seats were taken. Everyone boarded except us and they said we could stick around if we wanted and see if someone doesn’t show up. We waited and it turns out, three people didn’t show up. There was one lady ahead of us on the list and we got the last two seats. We boarded and took off to Arizona.

I have a couple of friends from my mission that live in the Phoenix area. I emailed them a little while ago and Anthon (Elder Ellsworth) offered to let us stay at his house as long as we didn’t mind his kids. Anthon, his wife Jennifer and their kids picked us up at the airport and we went out to dinner. We had a great first evening talking about the mission and catching up on what we have been up to.

The next morning after a huge breakfast Jennifer made we decided to venture out to Wal-Mart. Anthon let us use his car and with our GPS, I was confident we could find Wal-Mart and get back. Turns out the maps on our GPS aren’t all that updated. We found a Wal-Mart a lot farther away then Anthon had described it but it was getting back that was the tricky part. Their address wasn’t in our GPS. I thought we could find our way back, but we got lost and I called Anthon to direct us back.

The weather was so nice. After all that rain in Oregon, it was nice to get some sun. We decided to go on a walk and we found the Wal-Mart we intended to go to in the first place. We wandered into a Target near the Wal-Mart and saw Rockband for the Wii. Anthon and Jennifer had talked about it the day before and we wanted to do something to thank them for their hospitality. They were letting us stay at their place for 4 nights, feeding us, and let us use their car. We bought them Rockband 2 and I carried it on my head back to their house. They were at Costco so I got it all setup before they got home. The look on their faces when they walked in and realized it was for them was priceless.

That night John (Elder Wilson), his wife and little boy came over for some Feijoada. It was a lot of fun to eat Brazilian food and talk about the mission. We also played some Rockband and a game called Curses. I didn't take any pictures so I stole this one off of Anthon and Jennifer's Blog. Here we are playing Rockband. Megan, Scott, Anthon, Jessica, John, and Ethan

Makenna and McKay playing Rockband.

Perfect Day on the Mountain

Friday I took the day off work to go snowboarding. I found out that Timberline was having a Vitamin Water Promotion where you got a free lift ticket if you brought an empty bottle of Vitamin Water. I went up with my brother-in-law Chris and his friend Paul. We heard that Timberline had somewhere around 5 feet of new snow that week.

We got there around 9 and the parking lot wasn’t as full as I expected. They had Vitamin Water booths and banners all over the place. We walked up to the booth with our empty bottles and walked away with lift tickets. The weather couldn’t be much better. It was sunny all day and the snow was nice. It was a little windy up Magic Mile but not as icy as it normally is.

Throughout the day, we went on every lift at Timberline except for Bruno (The bunny hill) and Palmer (Closed). The new lift “Jeff Flood Express” was the best lift but it got a little crowded. We went up Magic Mile in the morning thinking that it might close later because of wind. We flew down the groomed slopes and about halfway down there was a little drop off. I saw it and slowed down so it wasn’t a problem. Chris didn’t see it until it was too late. Chris ate it hard. When he finally came to a stop, he had broken his glasses and had a bad headache from hitting his head. His headache didn’t really go away so at 2 he decided to go back to the car to take a nap until Paul and I were done.

Overall it was a great day. Near perfect weather, free lift ticket and all the Vitamin Water I could drink. They had a mountain of free samples.

Chili Cookoff

Friday our ward had a chili cook off. I made Taco Soup and called it "Southwest Chili." I won most original and I got honorable mention for the "heartiest."

Menu

Here is the actual Menu

Salad
Yellowfin Tuna Carpaccio, Watercress & Basil Salad, Blood Orange Puree, Filet Mignon Carpaccio, Aged Balsamic, and Pecorino Romano

Intermezzo
Blood Orange Sorbetto

Entree
Grilled Swordfish, Arugula & Shaved Red Beet Salad, Champagne Pomegranate Vinaigrette over Crispy Yukon Gold Potatoes
-or-
Seared Lamb Chops, Dijon Buerre Blanc, Basil Tarragon Verde, Strawberries, over Crushed Fingerlings and Artichokes

Dolce
~Duet of Chocolate~
Dark Chocolate Salted Caramel Truffle, Pistachio Chocolate Torte

Valentine’s Day

For Valentine’s Day, I got reservations at Porto Terra. It is one of the restaurants in the Hilton in Downtown Portland. I tried 3 other restaurants before that but they were booked. We had to make our reservation at 8pm.

The restaurant was fancy but our table was uncomfortably close to the people on either side of us. We could easily follow their conversations unless we really tried to tune them out. We got the Valentine’s special which was a 4 course meal. I don’t remember all the fancy verbiage they used in the descriptions but we started with a salad that had a paper thin slice of tuna and beef with it. It was different but it was good. We then had some sorbet as sort of a palate cleanser. Up to this point I was slightly disappointed. The salad was very small and the sorbet was like a grape size drop in a small bowl. Then the main course came. I ordered sword fish with yellow potatoes and beets. It was amazing. Megan had lamb chops with mashed potatoes which sounds pretty normal but the lamb and the mashed potatoes were pretty spectacular. Dessert was chocolate cake with pistachio flavoring and a chocolate covered caramel. At the end of the meal, we both felt good and not stuffed but had the perfect amount to eat.

Afterwards, we decided to check out a Valentine’s Dance that Beaverton Stake always has. My parents and my brother were there. We also saw a handful of old friends we haven’t seen in a while. We danced a few times and it was a nice end to the evening.

Megan got an Ipod for Valentine’s Day. She’s not a huge fan of surprises so I told her I was going to get it for her. That way she could pick what was engraved on it. She took a while trying to come up with the perfect motivating phrase so by the time I ordered it, it wasn’t going to make it here on time. It is actually supposed to be here today.