Christmas Day

After a fun morning at the Jensen's we headed over to my parent's and got there about 11:30. My mom made an excellent Christmas breakfast of blueberry cream cheese french toast with homemade blueberry syrup, bacon, and hash browns. After we all had completely stuffed ourselves and my mom and cleaned up breakfast (my mom is a complete clean freak. When we were little we couldn't open presents until our beds were made and we had to open presents one at a time making sure we threw all of the wrapping paper in the garbage before we went on to the next present. We have spent a lot of time throughout the years waiting for her to clean something up. That is one way that I wish I was more like her). My parent's have been saying for months that they weren't going to be getting us a lot for Christmas so we were all very surprised at how much they spoiled us. They got us all Jazz tickets so we can go to game together, new perfume or cologne, and $250.00 cash. The cash was a big surprise that none of us were expecting. Trav bought some clothes and Wii Fit. I plan on getting some clothes and stuff for our house. Thank you Mom and Dad for completely spoiling us again this year. Matt and Amanda
The newest "grandchild" my sister's puppy Dexter.

My little bro. K.C.

All of the kids gave my mom a picture calendar which hadn't arrived yet and some framed wedding pictures she had been asking for forever.

We got my dad a Snuggie which has also been wanting forever. He looks hilarious in it. My mom told him he looked like a blue whale.

Years ago my dad said that he was done putting up Christmas lights and all he wanted was a sign that said Bah Humbug! to put in the yard so this year I decided to make it for him. I made it out of spray painted peg board and mini lights. I was up until 2am on Christmas Eve gluing 350 lights into place. Everything I do always takes ten time longer that I think I will.

After presents we all relaxed and watched a movie together. Trav took a little nap with Trigger before we headed home to let the two dogs out that we were babysitting for a frient before we headed back up to Trav's parents for our last party.

Jensen Family Party Christmas Night

On Christmas Night we have a party with the extended Jensen family. The party was at Trav's parent's house this year and they made delicious smoked ham and prime rib and for dessert Trav's brother Cody made caramel apple cheesecake. Of all of the parties we went to this year this one definitely had the best food. Just like the party at Grandma Janice's, only the kids get presents from everyone and all of the adults bring a generic present to share. This was only the second year of doing the generic game and everyone is still trying to figure it out. Maybe next year everyone will get it. Even though we were both exhausted from our two days of fun, we really enjoyed getting to spend time with all of our family to celebrate the holidays. As long as we are able we will continue to run around and go to every party. Neither one of us is willing to sacrifice time with any family and all of the running around is definitely worth it. Trav's cousin Chad, his wife Emily, and their youngest Dresden who is 18 mo.
Trav and his Aunt Karen

Aunt Kathy with the ornaments we made at the Aunt's and kid's party. Mine is abviously the good looking one on the left and Trav's is the ugly one on the right.

Cody, his friend Kyle (or Kyo as Trav calls him) and Aunt Wendy.

Kat got a new knit hat that I made her model even though she was worried about her hair.

Trav's cousin Derek got bongo drums from Nana and Pa which he annoyed Pa with the rest of the night.

We gave Nana a compilation of all of the Christmas stories Trav has written over years. He plans on adding a story every year. He gave one to both grandmas and his mom.

Trav's cousin Sam and Dresden also annoying Pa with the Bongo drums.

Here we are playing the generic gift game. Trav wrote the story this year. It was a cute story about a war between the different colors of christmas gift bows. Each time he said red we passed the gift to the right and we passed it left when he said any other color. (Of course Trav made it into a red vs. blue story and managed to make fun of Max Hall in the process) We ended up passing over 60 times.

The Jensen Party marks the end of our Christmas festivities. This year Christmas seemed to come way to fast and end way to soon. I can't wait until we have some little ones to celebrate with. Christmas seems to lose some of its magic and excitement without kids. Hopefully we'll be able to add some little ones to our family soon.

Denver Trip

We had the opportunity to go to Denver the second week of November. Travis had to take a certification test for work and I decided to tag along. We left Salt Lake on Saturday and got back on Tuesday. It was fun to get away and be together for four days straight. Since Trav is so busy we don't get to spend as much time together as we used so it was a nice change of pace. We went with Trav's coworker Derek and his wife Courtnie. They wre finished with their test at nine thirty in the morning so we got to spend the rest of the day doing touristy stuff. First we headed to the Buffalo Bill Museum and grave. Since I had just seen an episode of ghost of hunters that took place at the museum I wasn't too excited to go. Ever since I was little I have an a phobia of dead things, cemetaries, and ghosts. I felt funny the entire time I was there. I could picture all of the ghost stories I heard that supposedly took place there. Travis made fun of me for it. Here's a view of the city from the museum.
Buffalo Bill's grave.

There was also a view of the Coors Brewery.

Did you know Buffalo Bill was a Bronco fan?

They had cowboy costumes you could take pictures in and a horse and calf to pose on. Here are Derek and Courtnie riding the calf.

Trav roped the calf in one try.

Howdy Partner.

Trav found a cool carved bear chair in the store at the Museum.

After the museum we took a tour of the Coors Brewery.

They give wristbands to anyone over 21 that want to get samples. Even though none of us drink we all had to get wristbands.

They have a recording that explains how the process works.

Here we are in front of all of the copper pots. I hate the smell of beer and the entire building was stinky. You could even smell it outside.

When Trav found out we were going to Denver the first thing he thought of was the Broncos since he is a die hard fan. They Broncos were playing the Steelers on Monday Night Football so we had to go. Trav has been to several gaves in the past but this was my first NFL game. It was a bit expensive but so much fun.

Travis on his way to the Holy Land.

I have no idea what I was looking at.

We were just a tad bit early to the game. Can you tell we were pretty excited?

They put orange pom poms on the back of every chair.

Here's the team getting pumped up before kickoff.

The Steelers have the biggest traveling fan base in the league. Sometimes it seemed like Steelers fans outnumbered Bronco fans.

Half time was dedicated to the Veterans in honor of Veterans Day. I love anything patriotic and it was cool to hear the stories of the soldiers that were honored.

Travis took at least a hundred pictures at the game and several vidoes so these are just a few. Even though the Broncos lost it was a get experience. I love watching football seeing it live and cheering and booing is so much fun. Hopefully we'll get to go a lot more games in the future.

We tried to get a picture of the both of us in front of the sign with the horse statue on top but this was the best we could do.

We stayed at a really nice hotel right in the middle of downtown Denver. This is the lobby.

Just off the lobby was a bar and restaurant.

I loved the architectural details in the hallway.

Travis said several times throughout the trip that he loves Denver that he is going to live there someday so I'm sure we'll several repeat visits in our life. This was definitely one of my favorite vacations we've taken together.

Better Late than Never

So Halloween has come is way gone. Which means so has my 25th birthday. We kept Halloween a little bit more low key this year. Because Trav is so busy working full time, going to grad school at Westminster, playing in a basketball league, and playing in a flag football league we weren't able to plan the party in advance like we should have. By the time we got around to organizing it only a few of our family members could make it. It was nice only have a few people in my house rather than forty though. We just hung out and ate food. Here we are in our costumes.
My mom the clown.

Most of the people who were able to make it.

I was a Ute fan. Notice the horns, tail, and pitch fork.

I swear I got a rash from wearing that awful shirt.

Trav was some kind of a crazy zombie doctor.

He does crazy well.

The yummy punch.

The food I made way too much of so I was eating it for a week.

Mummy pizzas on left and mummy dogs on right. The picture on the recipe for the pizzas looked much more like mummies though. Mine were more like blobs of cheese with two random olives.

These were supposed to be fingers.

Brain dip.

We had the party the night before Halloween since people are usually busy with their own Halloween traditions. Trav ended up going to the Ute game on Halloween since it was the only game he could make to this year due to the hunts and school. This is how Trav went to the game. I'm considering a career change and becoming a makeup artist.

Travis loves to decorate the house and he works so hard on it that I wanted to add a few pictures of the house.

This is his "window display" complete with a pirate skeleton and Michael Myers (you can't really see him in the pic though)

You had to walk under a spiders web to get to the front door. The two lights toward the bottom of the pic are the eyes of the giant turrantula.

Were you aware of the giant monster that lives in our home?

Even though we didn't do a whole lot for Halloween it was a blast. I am glad we decided to the party last minute because I probably wouldn't have celebrated Halloween or my birthday without it. Hopefully we'll be a little more on the ball next year.