Merry Christmas!

I got to visit Kirk last weekend in SLC, and we went to see the lights on Temple Square: just a couple pictures from that...

(Pretend I'm smiling in this picture and that Kirk is standng next to me...this would've been a great shot had we been able to find someone who could take a decent picture. Kirk has a great eye for taking great pictures-however whenever we ask someone to take a picture, they can never duplicate the picture very well; they don't quite have the same artistic eye that Kirk does!)

It was crazy cold, but it was a lot of fun. We also went to see the Hogle Zoo lights, but sorry, no pictures from that. It was a fun weekend, too short, as always, but still a good time.

Since I'm working this Christmas, I was kind of intent on doing a lot of Christmasy things before the holiday weekend. In addition to watching Christmas movies, seeing Christmas lights and having an early Christmas dinner with my family, one of those things I did was to go see The Nutcracker ballet with my mom on Tuesday night. I had never been before, and I really wanted to see the PNB version. I had a great time, and enjoyed spending some quality time with the madre, and found out that one of my old high school classmates was in the production; pretty cool! The dancing and music were excellent. Some more pictures...

I was not the biggest fan of the rats in the play, if you couldn't tell...

Christmas tree!

Mom and I doing our best ballet moves :)

Hope all of you have a very Merry Christmas! Thanks to all of you for being great friends and family-I love you all and thank you for being great blessings in my life. Listen to lots of Christmas music, and stay happy and healthy!

Turkey Trot 2009

This is a delayed post, but still blogworthy, nontheless. Kirk came up to Seattle the weekend before Thanksgiving, and we decided to go run a 10k Turkey Trot down in Ft. Lewis, WA with some friends from my ward. It was fun, and a nice little workout for the weekend. Because of some registration difficulties that will take too long to explain, Kirk came in 2nd place in the male 60+ age group...Congrats, Kirk!! :)

Porter ran really well and got 2nd place in his age group, and on top of that, he won a turkey. You think I'm joking, but no. His number won in the raffle to win a turkey. It was a fun morning, and after running, we undid our run by eating out at Lil Johns. Mmm...delicioso!

Kirk, Kelli, Marlena, Porter and Angela

Happy Holidays!

I am very excited for the holiday season, mostly because I get to listen to Christmas music (and now that it's after Thanksgiving, I don't have to be ashamed of listening to it now!). It is also the only thing that redeems the cold, cold winter season. The songs posted on here are some of my favorites; not necessarily traditional, but I really like them. Since I can't go through a post without some entertaining pictures, these are just some pictures playing with my niece and nephew Kaitlyn and Max last night while I was hanging out at my parents house. Mostly I like Max's facial expressions in these pictures. Also to prove that I have the cutest nieces and nephews. Seriously. I'm not being biased at all.

Idaho and Ode to Jenna

As most of you know, I work seven 10 hour shifts in a row every other week. This past week it fell on Thanksgiving weekend (and will also fall on Christmas, darn it!). I have decided it's not worth the extra holiday pay to actually work on the holidays. It's no fun leaving all the family fun on the holidays to go take care of bloody, pukey, messy people; and people who fake pain to get drugs. I do it because I know people can't avoid getting sick on the holidays, but it sure would be nice if we could just close the hospital on the holidays. Good coworkers make it bearable though, and listening to the patients stories on how exactly they sliced their fingers while cutting the turkey as they're getting stitches can be entertaining, as well.

Anyway, with that in mind, I decided to take the few days after Thanksgiving off and head over to Idaho. I know, I know, Idaho really is no Florida or Hawaii, but I have 2 VERY good reasons to visit Idaho. First, Kirk happened to be there that weekend to see his family, so I thought I'd go over and spend a few days with him and his family. It was a very nice, chill weekend. Good food, good company, and I got to experience a little country livin' :). And, of course, I always love spending time with Kirk. I didn't take many pictures, here are a couple of highlights...

Festival of Trees in downtown Boise

Some traffic we hit on the way home from Church on Sunday. The car was SURROUNDED by sheep! It was nuts! Something you definitely don't see in Seattle!

After church on Sunday, we said goodbye to Middleton so Kirk could drive back to SLC for school; I tried to convince him to stay, but he wouldn't. How rude. On the way back, he dropped me off at my brother's house so I could spend a day with him, his wife, and to meet my new niece, Jenna (my second good reason to visit Boise). I am proud to say that I was the first Arnesen relative to meet Jenna. She is a beautiful baby girl, and I'm so happy for Paul and RaeAnn. And regardless what anyone else may say, I AM the favorite aunt! The following are a few pictures of this little bundle of joy...

The proud Poppa

The favorite aunt!! (Sorry, Kim-you may have the namesake, but I'm the favorite!)

Rockin' out

If you look closely, I think she's giving me the "I love you" sign with her right hand. Yup, I see it!

Jenna knows how to captivate an audience!

We also took a little time to visit our friends Kenna and Jason; last summer we hung out quite a bit with them while I was living in Boise. It was great to see them and their kids, Samie, Peyton and their new addition, Dylan. Always great to see them!

I had a great time this weekend! It was so great to see everyone and to be among friends and family on the holiday weekend and to take a litte time off work. A great way to kick off the Holiday Season!!