Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving day at Eric's parents house this year. His Aunt and Uncle as well as most of his cousins from the Wheeler family joined us. We had a really good time hanging out, playing trivia on the playstation 3, and eating wonderful food. Thank you everyone for a great Thankgiving!

Eric was the first one on our street to put up Christmas lights this year but the last one turning them on. He bought an electronic light switch that can be programmed so the lights turn on and off automatically every night. Eric quickly learned He's not an electrician and ended up calling a family friend who actually is an electrician for help (thanks Dennis!). Anyway, it works great and we don't have to worry about forgetting to turn the lights on/off anymore!

Halloween

Here are our pumpkins we carved this year.

Melissa carved Gizmo from the Gremlins movie.

Eric felt compelled to honor the king of pop. We'll always remember you MJ!

Only one regret...

We recently purchased one of those 'sleep number beds' that on each side you can control how soft/firm you like it. Overall we have both been very pleased with it.


I just find myself after mornings like this asking, "why didn't we get a king?"

Bubbles!

The Barber Family Roadtrip

We took a road trip to Sun River, Oregon during the middle of August. Layne had a family reunion that he wanted us to attend, and so the journey started. We figured we'd take the long way up and see some sights along the way. It was a lot of car time, but we saw some very beautiful things along the way.

Luckily in the back of the car and truck there was enough space to lay down and somewhat stretch out. This was especially nice to sleep, and to relax for those not used to road trips...

We stopped to see the Redwoods in California. These trees are amazing! It's incredible not only how big they are around, but also how tall they are! It was stated they are the tallest living thing on earth. The picture above is of a trunk base that had hollowed, just to show some comparisons in size!

This tree Eric had to climb into the spot he's standing, and it just shows how tall the trees are.

Of course there's the famous tree that you can drive through. We had to do it! It was cool because even though you could drive through the 'shrine tree' it was still living at the top. The redwoods were incredible to see. Definitely a good first scenic sight!

This video is from a boat ride on the mail boats along the Rogue River in Oregon. The scenery was gorgeous! These boats still take the mail up and down the river (fun job!) We got to see a lot of wildlife too including a bald eagle in its natural habitat. That was incredible! There were also seals, sea otters, and hawks. It was a fun boat ride with some educational stuff too.

When we got to Sun River we were a little lost...but the resort town was a lot of fun! In this picture it's hard to see, but 2 deer are hanging out by the front door, their fawn was laying down on the other side of the drive way. This was normal for them. The town has it's own shopping plaza with restaurants, and had music playing at night. The temp was actually pretty cool, especially coming from 90 weather! The house that Layne found to rent was really nice, and we got the master suite!

We went on a hike the first full day we were out of the car. These were called the Benham Falls. This picture doesn't do it justice. This is one river I would not want to be in...ever. This picture at the beginning was also from this hike. Once again, gorgeous!

At the family reunion our host had a Segway that we all got to ride. Those things are fun! You really want to get on it and just see how fast it will go! It's amazingly easy to learn too. Andy, Greg and I played a family game of kickball. We ate and then Andy, Eric and I got on our way since we wanted to drive straight home. We pulled in about 1 am, but we did it! We had a great time on this road trip, but I don't think I'll ever get Eric to go on another 'road trip' again!=o)

A Fun Day in Malad

This last Saturday Eric, Michael and I went four wheeling in Malad, Idaho. Malad is just over the Utah border, so it was close and had good places to go riding. Michael just got new four wheelers for his family and was anxious to try them out. The day was perfect for riding, and we just missed a rain storm that hit later that day.
During the ride we had to go downstream through the river. We didn't know how deep some areas were, and there were a few bigger boulders that we had to go over, but it wasn't too bad. It was fun to ride in the river. This picture is of Michael getting his new wheels wet. He overcame some pretty difficult obstacles that day, I was proud of him. It helps when you have an experienced rider like Eric though, he's a good teacher!

After riding we went up to Eric's parents property outside of Lava where we road into the local gas station on fumes. We stopped and got our lotto tickets in Malad, and I was all excited because it looked as if we were going to win $115. After the lady scanned them, we got $1. Damn lottery! I still don't understand, but I'll get over it! =o)

Of course on the way home, the party wasn't over when Eric noticed that one of the tires on the trailer had blown out. Luckily it wasn't anything too bad, but looked like a real pain in the butt to change. The boys literally had their butts on the line changing the tire, luckily they had a spare! Needless to say that the day was eventful and fun!