Fall Vacations

October has come and gone, and even November has been replaced with December. Time truly does travel quickly when you are having fun, or extremely busy. We went to Oregon to visit my brother and his family in October and then spent the Thanksgiving holiday in Lamar, CO with Trav's family. It was a fun vacation and we got to get things in place for when we move there next summer. I love that I married into a family that can keep up with mine. There is never a dull moment between the Cox and Hall families. 

Antelope Island

Over October weekend our good friends Ryan and Meredith invited us out for an overnight excursion. We made it back just in time to listen to all the awesome conference talks. On the night we arrived, we barely made it through the gate before they closed it down at 7 p.m. Thank you Ryan for driving like a speed demon.

Taking down camp. It got so windy around 3 a.m., so Travis and Ryan had to get out to stake the tents down. Good job men. They were pretty proud of their manly accomplishment of providing for their women.

We didn't bring cups. Thank you washed out cream of mushroom soup can and....

Camelbak water bottle.

It was cold and we weren't aloud to have a fire, but it was a fun camping adventure.

We even had some roaming herds around our camp site. Thank you Antelope Island and buffalo preserve. Friends told us to watch out from Grumpy Pete or something. We may have passed him on our way out..... Just wanted to pass along the message. I think he's a charger. 

 

Oregon 

Happy Birthday to Mom, Amberly, and Chloe bug. Hilary made an awesome hot pink ladybug cake and we had a yummy dinner at New York Richie's. Italian in the country of Oregon is AMAZING!

Above Nick and Hil's house. Myself and the family were campaigning to Travis about moving there someday. Maybe he might......

We could get a good hunting dog like Lucy if we moved there. She hiked all the way to the top of the mountain behind the house with us.

We could see this.

And this. Travis told me he was tired of being in all the pictures.

Most of all we could have horses!

And more horses! This photo takes my breath away. These horses came out of no where. One second we were enjoying the scenery and the next, a horse was nudging me in the back.

I named this one Phillip like the horse from Beauty and the Beast.  I am pretty sure he was the same size, HUGE.

The best part about the whole trip was being with these munchkins and all the family. I miss them so so much. I would love to live near them, but Oregon is probably too far from Colorado and Trav's family. We both wouldn't like to be too far from them. Who knows where our permanent home will be. For now it is SLC and 8 months from now it will be Lamar, CO.

Lamar

We left SLC on Tuesday night at 6 p.m. and arrived in Lamar of Wednesday morning at 4:15 a.m. Thank you Daniel for coming with us because I would not have been a great midnight driver. The first thing we did when we got into to town- check to see what time Daylight Doughnuts opened. The sign said 5:30, so we went to the house to catch some sleep. When the boys found out it opened at 5 a.m. they had no choice but to stay up a bit longer and be the first in line. They told me it would be historical because they had never been the first in line.

How did they convince me to come? I guess I had to be part of the historic moment too. And yes, we were first in line.

We took all the long johns.

Black Friday at Big R, the local cowboy store.

My Black Friday special. The women's boots were too big, so I got a nice pair of the little boy boots. They are adorable!

The 8 man division state championship courtesy of Grandpa Sim.  Those are pretty much the only bleachers other than one more small set next to us. Don't worry, we came prepared with camping chairs. I got to sit next to Grandpa Sim and he gave me a play by play for the whole game:)

We had such a good vacation and now we are counting down the days to Christmas vacation; Travis' comes sooner than mine, but at least I don't have to worry about finals anymore. Part of me misses my classes and learning about the latest research, but the other part is grateful not to pull late nights studying anymore. Thank you again to our family and the good times we had in Oregon and Lamar. We hope to see you again soon!

I married this guy.

Travis likes to express his rebellion and nonconforming attitude through his hair. Here's a little journey.

The mullet. I have to admit I secretly liked it, I did fall in love with him while he had it. But I was glad when he finally cut it off into a respectable hair-do.

The creeper stache. No words. I did tell him to leave it for a bit, a bit turned into a couple days.

The rat-tail. I came home and said, "Travis, you cut your hair and it looks great!" Fast-forward about five minutes, about the time I notice the thing in the back, "What did you do?!" He just laughed, and so did I:)

 

At least I am never bored. I think he is pretty fun and quite hilarious. Glad I married him.

We still date

Travis is the best and still takes the initiative to take me on dates. Here are some of our latest's.

My first time at the Training Table. It is not the classiest, but it was creative and free. When I was 16, and an employee of Lagoon, I was given gift certificates to the Training Table. 8 years later I busted them out. After we paid for the meal with the gift certificates, I heard the cashier whisper to her co-worker, " have you ever seen these?" They still took them:) Sorry they are almost a decade old.

Temple night and Travis' favorite dessert-D.Q. Happy BOGO month to us!

"This state fair is a great state fair!" This is Cedar. He is a 3,000 lbs steer that stood 5'11 at the shoulder. He was so calm and let people pet him and even sit on him!

Fruit pop! Yum.

BYU vs. UofU. Technically this was my date choice and it was sponsored by my good brother Christian. Travis made sure to lay his shirt out pregame. So, my shirt made his company.

Some fans weren't happy but we were....well, until the end of the game. Sorry baby.

Our fans got a little premature excited. Storming the field-once.

Again, hold your horses! Oh wait, too late the game could go either way now thanks to the penalty. Storming the field-twice.

Bless the wind and the nerves that got to the kicker, which was actually the punter. Now Ute fans, Celebrate! Storming the field-three times a lady.

Had the boys over for Monday night football. Seriously the very last slice of the very last pepper. Needed stitches, but they wouldn't have helped where I cut my finger. Bless my safety certified husband and liquid skin.

Elephant Rock.

Dog lake

So serene. What you don't see is the no swimming sign and about 20 dogs swimming in the lake. It was a little like a circus, but we made some canine friends.

 

Life post Alaska

HELLO WORLD! I am so sorry that Travis and I have fallen off the face of the planet. Between moving home from Alaska, sending Travis to Africa, hoping Travis didn't get claimed by Africa, feeling relieved and welcoming Travis home from Africa, moving into our new Apt. in the University of Utah Village, taking some last stand summer family vacations, starting a new job and commuting 45 minutes both ways daily, starting new church callings, wading through political debates, and the occasional zzz's we are trying to catch up on, we have been a little busy. And I can't tell you how grateful we are for all the good things that are filling and that have filled our lives since we got married.

Some fun things have happened since we got home. And off we go.

We had amazing neighbors that loaded us up with salmon and halibut. Never in my life have I prayed so hard on a airplane, and it wasn't so we wouldn't crash- it was for the safety of the frozen fish. My prayers were answered and we have been able to share our Alaskan souvenirs with our family and friends. Thank you Alaska Friends!

These cute little munchkins helped me stay sane while Travis was in Africa. I could just eat them up. And no Travis.... I am not baby hungry.

I got to witness history as the story of the 2000 stripling warriors was reenacted by Davis County. I think they had a little over 2000 marchies.

This is Henry. I apologize that he has not yet made is debut to the blog. He is one of our family cats and is awesome. He is part cat, part dog. Travis often teases that I love Henry more than him. This is not true of course, but Henry truly has a piece of my heart. And I am dog person!

I turned 24:) Yup they made me get on the Texas Roadhouse saddle. 

 

 

Travis turned the big two seven. He celebrated his birthday in Africa. But he had cake when he got back in the states.

We moved into our apt. and all my shoes fit! Well, so far they do.......

I purchased amazing retro chairs for our apt. I spotted them at the D.I. and went into major D.I. shopping mode. This means once you find something you have to mark your territory. I sat on the chairs until I got the green light from the Mister and my sisters to make the purchase. Two ladies kept circling around me as I made my purchasing debate. When I finally made my decision and tore the tag off they both let out a sigh of disappointment. One lady told me that she was willing me to leave the chairs. Sorry:)

Playing cowboy in Afton, WY. Trip #1

Living our dream at Aunt Jan and Uncle Kevin's beautiful home.

Thank you Philip for leading us safely up the mountain. Poco, I do not thank you for putting fear into my heart as you tried to hurdle your large and in charge body up the mountain. Poco and I had a love hate relationship on this ride. He taught me a lot and I scolded him a lot. It was all worth it to sit on top of the mount of Afton.

Back to work, missing the country. I sometimes think that this saying is more for me than my speech kids. Thank you pintrest. "It's okay to not know, but it's not okay to not try!"

 

Too much work, back to paradise- trip #2. This is at the Stewart's Crow Creek Ranch and it's my heaven on earth.

The Labor Day weekend gang. Thank you for making the trip so lively.

And Christian, thank you for loving your brother in-law. They did all the manly bonding. Midnight muskrat hunting, gun slinging, the lot.

 There you have it. I guess we are still as lively as ever.