Christmas

I love Christmas lights.  Every year I have to get out and see Christmas lights.  This year we were able to go to Temple Square with the Cravens and Zoo Lights with the Olsens.  I thought they were so beautiful and fun. 

 

 

Ginger Shed

Every year the Olsens make Graham Cracker “Gingerbread” houses.  We wanted to be creative so we built a gingerbread version of the shed that Dad Olsen spent the whole summer building.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is full of tradition for the Cravens and the Olsens.  We spent most of the day with my family.  It is tradition to go to a movie, have a big Christmas Eve dinner and open family presents. Oh, and I must not forget our Christmas Eve talent show. 

This year Daniel played the piano and I played the guitar.   My parents made a Christmas video of Christmases of the past, then they read us a Christmas story.   

 

Later that night we went over to the Olsen’s.  We sang some Christmas hymns and read the story of the Savior’s birth from Luke 2.   We all received our Christmas PJ’s and opened family gifts.

 

I Love Christmas Eve.  You truly feel the spirit of Christmas.  It is a time to ponder and reflect on the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ.  He is truly the reason for the season.

 

Christmas Morning!

We were spoiled rotten this year.  We were able to have a nice relaxing morning.  We slept in, opened presents and had a wonderful morning just the two of us.

 

We went to Grandma Sugden’s for Christmas breakfast.  We spent the rest of the day with family. It was a wonderful Christmas.  Thank you to everyone who made our Christmas brighter. 

Giving Thanks for Wind and Water

This past Thanksgiving weekend, we decided to take advantage of a couple extra days off of work and go for a quick little adventure down south.

We thought it fitting for the holiday to visit Arches National Park where we could stand in awe, marvel, and wonder as we gave thanks for the beautiful natural creations carved by brush of erosion in the masterful hands of wind and water…

Of course, it also provided an opportunity to get some great photos! Ashley had a fun time playing around with her new camera and got some nice shots while she was at it. (Some of the photos seen below were taken by me, some by her. I’ll leave it up to you to decide which are which. Good luck!)

Of course, we had to visit the magnificent Delicate Arch. I’ve seen it before, but coming around the last curve of the trail and seeing the arch emerge around the corner is still as impressive as ever.

There were a lot of people there enjoying the sunset.

We stuck around to take some night photos after the crowd left. The moon was bright, so they turned out pretty cool.

Saturday morning, we hiked up to Landscape Arch and around the “Primitive Loop” of the Devil’s Garden.

It was a fun hike, but they call it the primitive loop for a reason. If you don’t pay attention you can easily lose the “trail” and get yourself really lost, really quick!

Ya, I know it’s not the exactly the same arch, but it’s close enough.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Balancing by Balancing Rock

That’s my wife!    

And that’s it for our trip. A lot of fun and a great little getaway from the routine of everything!

The Story of Halloween Past

One Olsen Family Halloween tradition is the “Slice ’Em Up Fest” or “Carving Pumpkins”.  We had homemade caramel and apples it was a blast!

  

Daniel was the mastermind behind our Mummy Pumpkin.  It looked really cool lit up!

Our Costumes! 

 

I was a Mad Scientist. I used a lab coat from Daniel’s work.  Yes, that is my real hair.  It was fun getting my hair to go that crazy!

Daniel Dubbed himself  “The Scarecrow from HELL”!!  My two-year old nephew, Myles, was so sacred he started shaking.  My sister had to hold him to calm him down.  Once Daniel took off the mask, Myles was ok and started to play with him.

We had our traditional Craven family Halloween feast of chili and homemade breadsticks. Yum!  We helped pass out candy and played rock band.  I was a fun SCARY Halloween!!

The Red Cross & Ben Franklin: An odd combination indeed.

Talk about luck!!

Our stake had a blood drive this past Friday and Ashley and I decided to go donate some life fluid. It was actually all her idea; I had completely forgotten about it until she called me and reminded me about it.

I thought I’d help the process go a little more smoothly by taking my American Red Cross Donor Card.  I’m actually not sure if this makes any of the registration process go any faster at all, but it makes me feel like it does.

So I was rummaging through my nightstand looking for my card and I saw my old wallet.  I thought, “Hmmm… Maybe it’s in there.”  As I looked through the wallet, I caught a glimpse of a couple corners of currency.  I thought, “Oh, I left a couple dollar bills in here. Sweet!”

Well… Turns out it wasn’t a couple dollar bills, but cool $203.03!!!  (I found a Target gift card with $3.03 on it along with the two Benjamins!!)

Yeehaw!!  Thank You American Red Cross!!

High-Ho A Dairy-O Spelunking We Will Go!

For Labor Day Weekend, we went on a little adventure down to Baker, Nevada with Ashley's parents. You may wonder, "Where is this Baker? I've never heard of such a place."

So then, why would we choose to go there of all places for our one last attempt to squeeze the last drop of adventure out of summer? One word... Speleothems! And lots of them.

We headed out to the Great Basin National Park. After a lot of hunting and a few specially negotiated arrangements, we secured ourselves a campsite (It's a busy weekend and we got there a little late).

We promptly got a fire going and wieners roasting! As all good campers do.

After dinner, we took the opportunity to CHILL (with a capital CHILL). With how hectic things have been lately, it was really nice to have some time to just sit and relax.

I was even able to do some night photography! One of my favorite things that I just don't seem to have much time to do anymore. The moon was nearly full, so it was pretty bright out. It may look like daytime, but this shot was taken at night, I promise! Note the star trails if you don't believe me.

We had a lovely little friend stop by for a visit. Not really that little, I guess. This interesting bug was about 2 inches long!!

I woke up early the next morning to roam around and take a few pictures. Call me crazy, but there's something strangely relaxing and almost therapeutic about wandering around outdoors before the sun comes up and photographing.

So... about those speleothems! I learned this weekend that that's the technical word for "cave formations". Just outside of Baker, in the Great Basin National Park are Lehman Caves. This of course, was the destination of our adventure. It is one of the most densly decorated caves in the country. It was awesome! Here are a few photos.

Spikes everywhere!

Crazy patterns coming out of the ceiling.

I call this one "Petrified Fondue Fountain"

In the back here is "The Parachute". It's the most famous formations of Lehman Caves.

This one is called the "Angel's Wing". Hmmm.... I wonder why.

Happy little pair of spelunkers.

And the whole spelunking crew!

I thought this wall was incredible. Totally covered in crazy formations.

After touring the cave, we went on a short hike, then headed home. This is the little lake that we hiked up to.

This was a really fun trip. We had a great time and were able to see some very cool things. What a great way to wrap up a fun summer season.