Granite Hot Springs

Since I have known Colby, he has told me all about this fabulous place. I never imagined it would be quite what it really was, and I know the pictures do not do it justice. The forest department has taken a natural hot spring and captured the 110 degree water into a partially manmade pool. The place is 15 miles off the road, so to get there most snow mobile, dog sled or cross country ski in. We took the snow mobiles. Even with partially frozen hair after the plunge, the experience was fantastic.

{click collages to enlarge}

small detour

Minus our little detour on our way to Wyoming, our week long vacation to Star Valley could not have been better. We always love when we are able to get out and visit family. Our original plan was to be in SV for Christmas, but after looking at plane tickets, we decided to forgo that option. One night at home, Colby was playing around on priceline. He looked at me with a scared face and exclaimed, "I just bought plane tickets to Wyoming." He had put in his info, thinking it impossible to actually be granted tickets, but we got them--great deal too!


Our flight there left from northwest arkansas regional airport, only 10 minutes from our house. We flew through Chicago with our final destination being Jackson Hole, wy. We arrived to Jackson 30 minutes early and were so excited, until the pilot suddendly pulled the plane back up after nearly landing. There was a snow storm and due to the large size of our plane we could not land until the runway had been cleared off more. Small planes were landing, but not us. We circled over Yellowstone for 2.5 hours (couldn't see anything except clouds though) before being redirected to SLC. Bummer. Because the conditions in Jackson were not improving the airline decided to send the plane back to Chicago (several hours later) because they needed the aircraft the next day. Passengers were told they could fly to Chicago then try to get on the Jackson flight the next day. Wow. Because it was weather related, the airline was not reimbursing any additional travel expenses. If we flew to Chicago, we would need a hotel and were not sure if we could even land in Jackson the following day. We felt bad for all the other passengers who were going to Jackson for skiing and had to lose out on hotel room reservations and ski lift passes they had already purchased. A man across the aisle from us actually ripped the armrest out of his chair because he was so mad. Lucky for us, we had no "real plans" and our vacation could be put on hold. We stayed in SLC with Aunt Malee that night, and rented a car to drive up to Idaho Falls the next day where we would meet the Heiners and go with them to Star Valley. The good side of all of this is we got to see Malee and I got to stop in real quick at Nordstrom!!

Needless to say, we were grateful to finally reach our final destination in Star Valley, 27 hours late.

Black piece is the armrest from the seat in front of it.

Merry Christmas

This Christmas was a little different for Colby and me in that we spent it in Arkansas, just the two of us. I was a little unsure about the idea at first, but after looking at plane tickets a while back to visit Wyoming for the holiday, I decided Arkansas would be just great. And really, it was. Actually, it was more than great. We spent Christmas Eve with some of our favorite people in Arkansas and have an afternoon/evening with food, games, conversation and even a little nativity by the kids and Colby. We left the party and headed home to a very quiet home and loved it. After watching movies and playing games opening Christmas PJs (thanks Mom and Dad), we went to crawl into bed around 12:00. I went to lock the front door and saw SNOW outside. I opened the door and could not believe my eyes. We were having a white Christmas. To most, including Colby, this was nothing noteworthy, but to me, this was bliss. It is my first White Christmas (that I can remember)!

Santa/Colby was very good to me this year. I have been drooling over several photography sites since beginning to plan our wedding 2 years ago and have really been wanting to have a nice camera of my own to see what I could do with one. Sensing my desire to have my own hobby, Colby got me a Canon t1i and I could not be happier with it! I had been wanting this for some time and Colby made it very clear that I would not be getting one for Christmas. I was prepared to not get it--until every gift I opened was camera related--HC memory cards, tripod, SLR camera case, etc. But, I came to the end of my pile and there was no camera. I was slightly confused until Colby dragged (almost literally) me into the bedroom to make the bed and I saw it sitting on the bed. I started to cry. I love it and can't wait to learn everything about it! I know Christmas is not all about gifts, but this made for a great day. I am grateful for a great husband who understands me and supports me in my new hobby.

After gifts, we had a Jergensen traditional Christmas breakfast, omelets! They were delicious and accompanied by a phone call from Mitch in France. We wrapped the afternoon up with a trip to the theater to see Sherlock Holmes.

Christmas was wonderful being here in Arkansas. We missed our families but luckily get to see both families shortly before and after Christmas. Thanks everyone for helping make our Christmas wonderful.

christmas eve


snow

omelet sous chef

Jergensen Visit

Since Colby and I were unable to visit family for either Thanksgiving or Christmas, and we just moved into a new home, my family came out to visit on a quick weekend trip the beginning of December. We loved having them here and showing them our home in NWA! We toured way too many Walmart places, played several rounds of scattergories, ate good food (depending who you ask...), napped, and just enjoyed being together. Thanks for a fun time!

"I never realized how much I appreciate Jessi . . .

...until now."

--Colby, while dying my hair

Until last November, I was one of those who could tell everyone I had never dyed my hair, well except for sun-in, but that turned out horribly and I was 12, so it didn't count. I decided last November that I wanted to dye my hair a little darker for the winter. Jessi, my best friend and roommate prior to the married life, was all about this life change of mine and hurried over to our apartment to dye my hair. Colby watched tv, having nothing to do with this girl stuff.

Well, I liked the results from last year and wanted to give it another go, but Jessi is way too far away now. That is where Colby came in. He was a trooper and I actually think he slightly enjoyed the task. When I wanted to take the dye away from him for touch-ups, he hesitated to hand over the bottle. I miss my BYU girls dearly, and am hopeful to make it back to see them for lovely Juli's upcoming wedding, but so grateful to be married to a man who is willing to do the girly stuff every once in a while because he loves me.

O Little Town of Bethlehem

I love Christmas and the true reason for the season. Unfortunately, the reason, the birth of our Savior, often gets overshadowed by all the glitz and glamour that comes with the season. I so enjoyed last night where we could take an hour or two to reflect on the birth of our Savior at our ward's Christmas party, "Back to Bethlehem" style. It was glorious.


We all came in Bethlehem styled clothing, listened to a spiritual message and welcoming from the Bishop, then as in old times, went to pay our "taxes" (canned food to be donated to a shelter) and signed in for the "census." We were given our coins to purchase dinner then entered Bethlehem's market. There were turned over our gold coins for plates of bread, meat, cheese, fruits and vegetables. As we ate, we watched a beautiful nativity presentation (please excuse the blurry pictures. Mary and Joseph sat with baby Joseph while angels, shepherds and wise men came and sang. These numbers were wedged between a well written nativity script and congregational singing.




I love being reminded once again why I love this season so much and how grateful I am for the sacrifice of our Savior.

Holiday candy

In the Jergensen family, a holiday tradition is homemade English Toffee. Anyone who has had it understands why it is tradition and why a diet is necessary after the holidays. :) Being away from home I knew if I wanted the toffee goodness I would have to make it myself. After a few calls to my mom, success!


And I have to mention how much I loved making this in my amazing wedding pot from my Dad's siblings. They are the best pots and pans ever!! I also loved doing this in my new kitchen. Our builder was weary of building our kitchen to our request, but I wouldn't want it any other way. It was the main thing we changed from his original plan.

{disclaimer: though it appears I am the only one who worked to make the toffee, Colby helped a ton. You have to stir the toffee for about an hour and he did the majority of that! Thanks, babe!}

Deck the Halls

Thanksgiving has past (and we loved it) so we can now bust out the Christmas decorations. While I had Colby home I coaxed him into putting Christmas lights up on the new house! It was much more of an endeavor than we initially thought, and we had to keep laughing at ourselves. In my dad's terminology they are a little redneck-ish (meaning not perfectly straight) but we can live with that for now. I think just having lights up after being in the house for 2 weeks is quite an accomplishment. Our boxes may still need to be unpacked, but we have lights :)

We are officially home owners!!

...and have been for two weeks now. With moving, blogging has moved down a bit on my to do list. Once I locate to camera with the new house pics we took moving in I will get a few up.

costumes

I have some great past times of dressing up for high school dances, football games, "super cute sunday", 80's roller skating at BYU and many nights in the dorms. I am glad I can force Colby into having fun dressing up as well.

He actually is the one who protested against being costume repeater. And of course I couldn't say no (also couldn't commit to having a new costume ready in 20 minutes to be on time to the party, so we were fashionably late). And, if it wasn't for Colby and his brilliant ideas, I would have been swimming in a size 14 pirate dress, but instead I wore it with staples down the inside so it wouldn't hang off me. Pretty ingenious idea. He probably just saw me heading for the sewing box and knew that would take waaaayyyy toooo long so had to come up with an idea to stop me quick!

{disco dancers at the church trunk-or-treat}

{pirates for a halloween party}

{had to throw this pirate picture in to show Colby's classy earing. I had to remove it before he fell asleep...he had forgotten about it}




the best part---each of these 4 costumes were found at the Wal-Mart Associate/sample store for 50 cents each!!

jack-o-lanterns

I love carving pumpkins, possibly more so for the pumpkin seeds I get from it more than anything (really, last year we carved pumpkins after halloween just so I could bake the pumpkin seeds...), and this year we tried to get fancy with our carvings. We were happy with the outcome.






unfortunately, we learned the hard way the impact Arkansas humidity has on the life span of Jack...



this nastiness was growing out of the witch 4 days later. yuck!!

progression

It has been so fun to watch our house be built. We go out there almost every day. You could say we are a little bit obsessed--we are.

Here are WAY TOO MANY pictures of the progression of the house from Aug 21st through now. Most of you probably don't want to look at all of this, but I wanted it on here for my records.

We can't believe how fast this house has gone up. We could be closing as early as this Wednesday--yes, in 3 days!! CRAZY!





















The only things left to complete are the carpet, paint/stain touch-ups, and the yard! Wowsers...

craziness

This is what my bed looks like right now.



But, considering everything going on right now, I am just glad that we had dinner tonight (lunch however, did not happen.)

I took a full time job and we are building this beaut. I think this may explain the mess on my bed. Sadly, it will probably all be thrown back in the laundry bin so we can get a little shut eye tonight.

first day of work, 6:40 am, uck!

We are so grateful for these exciting changes happening in our life. Yes, life is busy and chaotic, but we really are loving it.

sidenote: we had a lovely trip to California last month that I have some great pictures I need to post. Sorry that was kind of pushed to the back burner. Thanks Mom and Dad for a great trip!