Doug and Erin Carlson

Baby Carlson Is Here!

2010-02-12T17:36:00.002-07:00

Douglas Nash Carlson
Nash was born on Saturday, February 6 at 9:51pm
He weighed 10 lb. 10 oz. and was 20.5 inches long

Doug and I are LOVING being parents and can't believe how lucky we are!!

Take 2...

2009-12-01T09:04:00.002-07:00

So my first attempt didn't exactly work. Here's take 2:

As is to be expected, a lot has happened to Doug and I in the past year! We have vacationed, changed jobs, and just enjoyed our simple life in Spanish Fork. Most notable is that we are soon to be parents! Our first child is due February 13 and we couldn't be more excited. Doug thought it would be really fun to not find out the gender of our baby and have one big surprise in the delivery room, so this thing growing inside of me is merely referred to as 'baby', even though we have a hunch that it is a boy. Only 11 weeks to go!

I'm going to start out my official blog comeback tonight by posting pics of our Thanksgiving - maybe even our whole November if I feel up to the task. Until then...

Earth to Erin...

2009-04-19T21:07:00.000-06:00

Wow. I know my life has been way too busy when I have ignored my one true love – blogging. I’ve received more than 1 email asking if ‘I was alive’, if ‘everything was alright?’, and people telling me they were ‘genuinely worried’. After the last ‘had I fallen off the face of the earth?’ email, I thought I should take the time, however precious, and reassure the world I am indeed still kicking. I'm alive, Doug's alive, and although I have been absent in the online world, I have every intention of making a strong comeback. I am going to spend the next few nights to catch up on my world in the past 5 months, so stay tuned :)

Volleyball

2008-11-11T11:00:00.003-07:00

I have been on a volleyball hiatus for about 6 years now. Other than a few pepper sessions with Brittany, my run-ins with a volleyball have been...well, non-existent. Until now. Within a time span of about 2 days I was invited to play on an SF city league team (with my old coach Amber Newell and friend Brittany Bushman) and ref for Salem recreation (with Angela Spainhower, wait - married name is Johnson). I was embarrassed with myself at how nervous I was to play again (especially after hearing 'oh, you're on the A team - that's the best one' when signing up at the rec office)! Little scenes ran through my mind about my inability to even pass a ball and being publicly humiliated. Of course, it wasn't as bad as I had envisioned and our practice games went alright! I guess you can say it's like riding a bike - once you've learned the skills, it all comes back to you when you pick up a ball. It really was fun, and I figure at this point, the only way to go is up! Then last night were the first games for which I officiated for Salem city. I got a brand new footstool and my very own whistle! Now, that's official. The competition in Salem is nothing like in Spanish - I believe there are only 6 teams in Salem, and many of them have never played any formal volleyball, unlike Spanish where everyone played and are still in rather tip-top shape. I took Landon with me to watch the games (he LOVES any sport) and he ended up being my score keeper. I told him he now has a full-time position for the next few months! It ended up being a ton of fun and it reminded me of how much I really do miss playing. For anyone who wants some good entertainment, we play Wednesday nights at the high school!

Halloween 2008

2008-11-01T18:34:00.002-06:00

This year, since my Johnson family Halloween party was held on my birthday, Doug felt an obligation to please me and actually agreed to dress up! Last year my debating abilities only got me as far as wearing orange and camo and dressing up as hunters (and to do even this much, I had to agree to let him carry a gun!) He was such a good sport this time around to dress up as GhostBusters with me! I had so much fun getting these costumes together and I think they turned out really good, but you be the judge. Diane was such a good host and had tons of activities planned which included a pumpkin race, piniata for the kids, cake walk, toilet-paper mummy making, and pumpkin carving. Everyone who came this year dressed up and had great costumes!
The night of Halloween wasn't exactly Halloween-y for me, but still a ton of fun. My sister and mom came over for a night of games. This way we were able to be home for our neighborhood trick-or-treaters and got to see all of the cute little costumes. My favorite was when our niece, Ileigh, came over. She was the cutest little butterfly! She is such a doll and we love having her over at our house. Happy Halloween!

My BIRTHDAY Weekend!

2008-10-26T12:11:00.002-06:00

This year I celebrated my birthday in style! Turning 24 (is it just me, or does 24 sound old?) was a weekend of fun! I was able to take off a bit early from work on Friday and head to Park City with my husband. The entire night (I think it was like 5 hours straight) was spent shopping at the outlets. Like every shopping trip up there, Doug managed to out-shop me! We both bought LOADS of clothes for mere pocket change. Ok, that's a lie, but it was really cheap since we hit great sales. Sounds weird, I know, but he is my best shopping buddy! After unloading our loot at our hotel room, we headed off to find a good place to eat. However, I think we missed some memo that told us that Park City at night is DULL!! It was only 9:00, but we could not find a decent restaurant that was open! We really thought someone forgot to let us in on the secret that if you walked down Main Street after dark you will be shot or something! There was no one around for miles and we felt like we were walking through a ghost town. What kind of tourist city closes down shop so early? I just don't get it. However, we finally found a restaurant that was open, called Bandits Grill and Bar. We were literally the only couple in the whole place. It really was kind of eerie. BUT...it turned out to be an awesome dinner with a great waitress. Just give Doug an all-you-can eat plate of ribs and he's good to go! After the long day of shopping and the long night of walking around trying to find an open restaurant, we were dead and headed back to our hotel. What is it about staying in a hotel that is so fun? I don't know either, but I love it. After sleeping in (which is my favorite thing in the world) we headed home via the Salt Lake route. We stopped in Sandy to eat my favorite avocado turkey sandwich and cauliflower soup at Zupa's. It's the girliest place ever, but since it was my birthday Doug ate with a smile and didn't complain! We arrived home to what was supposed to be a surprise party - however, we arrived about 30 seconds before my family and about 5 minutes before Doug's. They never said they were a punctual family! Although I think it bothered Doug, I didn't care in the slightest and was so glad everyone came over for my birthday. We had eggnog and every kind of pumpkin pie, treat, and ice cream since it's my favorite. I got to open an armful of presents which included a massage/spa treatment from my sweet husband, memory chip for my phone to play music and store pics, Cranium Turbo, Cullen sweatpants (for all of you non-Twilight fans, Edward Cullen is the name of the main vampire), hot cocoa maker & cocoa mix, and a movie. I have the best families who made my birthday a hit!

Landon's Visit

2008-10-22T12:00:00.002-06:00

It is time for a LONG overdue blog entry.

Because of this...

we got this...

That's right - we got Landon for the weekend while my mom and dad were vacationing in New York! Can't say that it's an even trade (hehe!) but we had a great time with Landon at our house. Thanks to my Grandpa Al and Susan, he was able to stay with them for 2 nights during the week while I had to work. Then he bunked with us Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. His stay was filled with Brick Oven, Parkers Drive Inn (AF), and pizza. Saturday was the most eventful day. Jill, Doug, Kensie, Brooklyn, Mackenzie, and myself went to watch Landon's horseback riding lesson in Highland. I have been to some of his horseshows recently, but not to a lesson for years and I was so impressed! He walks in and knows JUST what to do - he went right along with his business, preparing the horse by brushing his hair, cleaning his hooves, and putting his saddle on. Seriously, this kid is a pro! It was amazing to see him during his lesson too; he understood every command and executed like a professional jockey! He really did an awesome job and everyone was so proud of him (including himself who LOVED having everyone there watching him!)

I had to point out this picture; it's my favorite! Isn't this the cutest?

Following the lesson Jill and Doug had to run to his cousin Lindsey's house in Lehi to install some cabinets. Meanwhile, the rest of us stopped to grab a bite to eat in American Fork at Parker's Drive Inn (the north Utah county equivalent to Glades). I just had to post this picture of Brooklyn. It's almost creepy now how she is eating like an adult! It's just so weird to see a 1-year-old picking up a hamburger and going to town on it! And I caught an unfortunate side of her in this picture and I think it's just hilarious. Doesn't she look possessed or something? We all got a good kick out of it.

Back at the homestead (after waiting for the two installers for what seemed like an eternity) we had ourselves a little Halloween extravaganza! We made a pumpkin roll, played games, carved pumpkins, ate pizza, and watched Hocus Pocus (which I could argue is the best family-friendly Halloween movie out there). We had so much fun!

Sunday was the day that I missed my parents the most. Since we have been married we have never cooked Sunday dinner. We go to my parent's every single week and let my dad do the cooking. And honestly, it's been even longer ago than that. Since we started dating Doug has come over and eaten dinner with my family on Sunday. I'm talking 5 years that we haven't eaten anywhere else! So, it was a bit strange going to church, then coming home and making dinner at our house. Allison joined us for dinner after getting home the night before at 12:30am from her trip to Washington DC. She went with her friend Janna and had the best time! Yes, in case you didn't notice - we were the only ones this week who weren't on vacation!

Wesley Ordained

2008-10-22T10:00:00.002-06:00

Sunday, October 12, 2008

We got to attend the meeting where Wesley was ordained to the office of a Priest. Of course, we use any excuse for a celebration, so we went to dinner at Doug's parents house with his grandparents afterwards. The dinner was great and Mark gave Wes a really incredible blessing. However, my pictures aren't exactly of Wes, but of Brooklyn. I guess that's kind of what happens when you have a baby - you get overshadowed!

Yes, that would be Brooklyn eating a sloppy joe like an adult. A very, very hungry adult!

Hee Haw Farms

2008-10-22T09:30:00.002-06:00

Monday, October 6, 2008

Every year Doug's parents' mortgage company throws a Halloween bash at Hee Haw Farms in Pleasant Grove for their valued customers. This is the first year I attended, and it really is such a fun place for kids. It was so fun to watch Ileigh - she was so excited about everything! And she was just being so adorable; she says my name in the cutest little voice and let me hold her for a good half hour. Sure, my arm was dead afterwards, but she is just so cute! Unfortunately, Brooklyn wasn't feeling well so I don't think she had the best time, but she still looked cute wrapped up in her snowsuit! Hee Haw Farms is filled with giant slides (which were way fun, but me and Mackenzie went down feeling a little foolish because we were a bit old), hayrides with candy, farm animals (including an ENORMOUS pig...it was disgusting and I felt bad for the fat bugger), pumpkins (that me and Mackenzie had to steal because the workers were being unreasonable about stupid coupons), corn mazes, and free Krispy Kreme donuts and hot chocolate. I wish Doug could have been there to see his cute nieces (he was installing cabinets), but I had a great time with his family and can't wait to go next year.
(Pics to come when I get them from my sister-in-law's camera)

Sundance

2008-10-22T09:00:00.003-06:00

Saturday, September 27, 2008

We were able to go up to Sundance with Doug's family (minus James and Mark, with the addition of Grandma H) to ride the scenic ski-lift. This is one of my favorite things to do at Sundance in the summer time. It's about 45 minutes long and it takes you all the way up the mountain. Since we are in the middle of the fall season everything was so beautiful; the leaves were changing all sorts of colors and the weather was just perfect. No one can go up to Sundance without getting a treat in the over-priced gift store - hence the brownie and drink in our couple picture!

Game Night

2008-10-22T08:30:00.002-06:00

October 1, 2008

I was the first to host the hopefully new monthly tradition of Johnson Girls Game Night! In the past we have tried to instigate a girl cousin game night, but since there aren't a ton of us, if a few couldn't show up we were few in numbers. So I thought by inviting everyone we'd have more 'gamers' and it would be an excuse to get together with my aunts and cousins. And it turned out to be so much fun! We had a great time playing Who What Where, Scattergories, and Pit. The one I thought was the most fun and got us laughing the hardest was Who What Where. It is a drawing game where you have to guess a person, place, and activity that is drawn as a scene by the other players. Since generally most people are not great artists, it makes for a good laugh when people guess what their picture is. Here are some of the grand masterpieces of the night:

Caesar lifting weights in a submarine

(I forget who) being eaten by a shark at the Playboy Mansion

Benjamin franklin being eaten by a serpent in Hawaii

Spiderman cloning sheep at Disneyland

(I forget who) dissecting a frog on a bed

Barbara Streisand putting on makeup in an arcade

Yoda (I forget what he's doing) at the Lincoln Monument

Matilda playing hopscotch at the White House

Medusa (I forget what she's doing) on the moon

Canning

2008-10-22T08:00:00.001-06:00

Aug-Sept, 2008
I wish I had pictures of us actually making the products, but here's the finished product, none-the-less. Towards the end of the summer I got free apricots and a great recipe from Kandas to make bottles and bottles of Strawberry-Apricot and Raspberry-Apricot jam, which turned out great (thanks again, Kandas). Next on the list was my mom and I, who went hard to work at canning salsa with the free tomatoes I got from Jill. Thanks to my Aunt Sue, the provider of the necessary canning tools and recipe, and teacher in all this, I think we did alright! Following next in line was a few nights with Jill making spaghetti sauce and applesauce. If I do say so myself, I believe I'm becoming a little homemaker! (and don't you just love my little labels?)

New Again!

2008-09-24T19:44:00.000-06:00

Before

Doug's brother Steven and his wife, Jessica, gave us this bright barnyard-red chair that their daughter, Ileigh, had ripped and drawn on and they wanted to get rid of. We decided to re-upholster it ourselves and see if we could make it "new" again. Doug did most of the chair covering with a nail gun while I sewed the cushions and pillows. Although it did take us a little while longer than expected we love the way it turned out!

After

Grandpa's Sealing

2008-09-20T22:54:00.005-06:00

This Saturday we were able to witness the neatest thing! My Grandpa Al and his wife, Susan, we sealed in the Provo temple. They have been married for...geeze, like 13 years I think. Everything finally worked out so that they could go through the temple together. Little side note story: Right as Doug and I were walking out the door to pick my mom and Landon up to go to the temple, our home phone rang. I have no idea how he got the number, but one of Doug's mission companions was driving through Spanish Fork and wanted to stop and visit. Since he hadn't seen him for 2 years, Doug wanted to have a quick visit. I went on my own with my mom and Landon to the temple, with the promise that Doug would be following right along and wouldn't miss the ceremony at 10:30am. We got to the temple and while in the waiting room, still no Doug. We were then ushered into the sealing room; Still no Doug. The officiator asked if we were missing anyone, and he was told my Aunt Sue and Doug. My heart was just pounding hoping that Doug would make it. After a few very nervous minutes, in walks Aunt Sue next, with Susan Johnson's nephew walking in right after her. The officiator thought it was Doug who walked in, so they went to shut the doors and begin. As the doors were shutting my heart just absolutely dropped. I couldn't believe that Doug had missed it and I just got the sickest feeling. But, then right at the last second, in swoops Doug! Honestly, it was just like in the movies when a door is shutting and someone sticks their hand in at the last second to catch it. I can't even describe the relief! And lucky for Doug, he did make it on time (I didn't think he wanted to witness the wrath of Erin). He got a good giggle from the group for making his grand entry! I was just so glad he was there to support my grandparents. And I'm grateful to everyone who made the effort to be there - it was really important to them to have their family surrounding them. The beautiful ceremony was, of course, followed by pictures and then a dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory (we should have taken another pic with Allison there at the lunch, since she wasn't able to make it to the temple). We were so glad we were invited to be a part of their special day!

The 'gang' at the temple (from left to right):
Top row: Skylar, Brian, Tiffany, Lewis, Diane, Joyce, Riley, Kandas, Dad, Susan, Mom, Janalee, Doug, Me.
Bottom Row: Brady, Mackenzie, Tami, Lecia, Caleb, Creed, Susan, Grandpa, Isaac, Landon

Family 4-Wheelin

2008-09-13T22:36:00.003-06:00

Since James finally got his 4-wheeler back from the shop (that's right, like the 2nd week he had it, he wrecked it and it's been in the shop all summer long!) we all decided to go and enjoy a day up the canyon. We went with Doug's family + Landon (minus Steve, Jessica, Ileigh, and Mark), roasted hot dogs and rode 4-wheelers. After Jill, Kensie, and Brooklyn went home early we had a brilliant idea to go on a long ride with the 6 of us left. On 2 four wheelers, you can just see how the ride didn't last too long because everyone was squished! Me, Doug, and Landon did alright on ours, because we have a big cushioned extra seat. But from the pic below you can see the uncomfortable ones were James, Wes, and Mackenzie on the other four wheeler. We had fun anyways!

Marley's

2008-09-12T11:08:00.003-06:00

Yesterday Doug was in the neighborhood, so I was able to take a break from the monotony and run away with him to lunch. We tried out Marley's, which is the eatery at the new Harley Davidson store on 1600 North - conveniently 4 blocks away from my work. Although Marley's was an utter disappointment (they call their extra miniature hamburgers 'sliders' so you don't realize you're paying a ton of money for NO food) we saw a celebrity! Recognize the man above? Hint: look at his shirt. This must be all he wears because he was wearing a short-sleeved white BYU shirt today too (I can't say that I blame him - he gets paid a lot to sport the BYU apparel)! Bronco Mendenhall was eating just a table away from us with his wife and son. I wanted to whip out my cell phone and take a picture (discreetly, of course), but Doug wouldn't hand it over. I then wanted to go over and shake his hand, just to say that I have met him. But Doug wouldn't let me do that either. He said he didn't want me to be one of "those people." You know, the kind that get excited and stupid when seeing a Utah County celebrity? Good thing I have a husband who stops me from embarrassing myself in public. But I still can't help myself from thinking it was cool!

Happy Birthday Mom!

2008-09-08T23:03:00.003-06:00

Today my mom celebrates her 4*th birthday (no woman ever reveals her age)! Last night we celebrated with dinner at my Aunt Janalee's, along with a celebration for Todd and Joyce, who both had birthdays at the end of August. We're so grateful for everything my mom does for our family! Happy Birthday 'The Jean'! (Sorry for the lack of pictures: blame it on the co-worker who borrowed it and failed to return. I guess he didn't understand my obsession with picture taking).

The Brunch

2008-09-07T22:55:00.002-06:00

For Father's Day Doug and I gave both our dads gift certificates for 2 to the Little America brunch in Salt Lake. Doug's parents went this Sunday and invited us to go with them (one of the good things about giving those gift certificates is that we get to tag along!) The brunch was, of course, amazing. We all stuffed ourselves to the brim with every imaginable breakfast food, seafood, pasta, meat, and dessert (the dessert table is MOST impressive). Afterward we walked around temple square and the conference center. It was quite an enjoyable Sunday morning!

4-Wheelin'

2008-09-06T22:41:00.000-06:00

Doug and I had a fun time getting away alone for a little four-wheeler ride. We drove up Spanish Fork canyon and entered a four wheeler trail across from the turn off to Thistle. It ended up being a great place with tons of trails to explore. There's nothing like getting away from it all in the mountains!

One Heck of a Post

2008-09-06T01:46:00.001-06:00

Whew! It sure did take me a while to get the energy for this long of a post. I have tons to catch up on from the past 3 weeks. Here it goes...

August 14, 2008 - Brian Regan Concert(This picture shows the kind of seats we had!)

The night before we left on our trip we went to Thanksgiving Point to see Brian Regan! Doug and I just love his comedy and had a blast. We had never been to a concert at the Amphitheater up there and didn't know that 1. it was outdoors, 2. there was no seating. So we failed to bring a blanket, chairs, nothing. The traffic was awful getting into that place and we spent a little too much time enjoying our dinner at Cafe Rio, so by the time we got through the maze and into the theater, there were thousands of people covering the grass and absolutely no where to sit. Thankfully my husband is a conman and was able to sleuth two chairs for us to sit on (and in a crowd that big and people hunting for chairs, I still have no idea how he did it. I really think he may have stole them out from under someone sitting on them. But hey, I was grateful!) Brian Regan was, of course, making us laugh out loud the entire night. Our favorite joke of the night (since Doug served his mission in Macon, Georgia): You can always tell how smart your friends are by reviewing the news headlines with them. "I can't believe that Russia invaded Georgia." "Oh no, really? I hope Bubba's ok there down in Macon!" (spoken in a true redneck voice). Then if another friend says "No stupid, Macon's in Louisiana", and another says "No, I think Bubba got abducted by aliens!" then you really need to get new friends. Needless to say, that was a big hit with Doug and still has us laughing to this day.

August 15 - 24, 2008 - Midwest Vacation
Our vacation to the Midwest was a wonderfully long, fun success! Although I can hardly believe that it's already come and gone. We planned this vacation so long ago that it felt like we waited forever, and now it's over! But we had such a great time and kept ourselves busy 24/7.

Minneapolis, Minnesota was our first of many stops. After quite the layover/problem/hassle in the enormous Denver airport (along with a quick stop at the airport grille for lunch) we made it safe and sound on Friday night. My Uncle John and Aunt Marilynn picked us up at the airport and then continued to cater to us the entire weekend. We drove to their home in the outskirts of Minneapolis, a town called Prior Lake, and got the grand tour. Every time we visit my mom's family we go to Milwaukee and my Uncle John meets us there, so I had never been to his home. Simply put, his house is amazing. His gigantic, perfectly furnished, meticulously decorated mansion sits on a fully landscaped (pond with full grown fish and all) 3 acre lot in the countryside. Our guest room was stocked with colorful towels, Hawaiian lotion, and mints! I felt like I was at a swanky bed and breakfast in Nantucket or something! That night we caught up over pizza and hit the sack early due to our long day of traveling.
John and Marilynn had Saturday all planned out for us beginning with breakfast at Cracker Barrel, to which we drove in style! I got to drive the shiny white Corvette to breakfast and Doug got to drive it back. I hear that Doug was a bit more adventurous testing it's limits than I was, but hey - that's to be expected. We made it back just in time to head to the Minnesota Twins MLB game! I'm the first to admit, baseball games can get tedious and boring, but we were lucky enough to catch a great game. The Twins came back in the 9th inning to beat the Seattle Mariners, which made it a lot of fun. We watched the game in the MetroDome, which is an indoor stadium. The funniest thing was walking out the doors and getting flung forward, just as much as if an over sized, strong man shoved you as hard as he could. I didn't realize the air mechanics involved in keeping the top of the MetroDome up, and was sure surprised when exiting! That night we had a great BLT dinner on the deck and caught a few Olympic events on TV.
(of course we had the lettuce wraps, do you even have to ask?) and thanks to the trusty Sunday proved to be just as event-filled with our first excursion being the Mall of America. I know it's no knew thing, but that thing is huge! With over 520 stores, an amusement park, 4 floors, and over 2.5 million square feet, you could spend hours, no - days, in this place. As you might guess, you can literally find anything you want. And we did. Doug got some new shoes and a Twins hat and I found a hat I liked as well. Following the mall, we ate dinner at PF ChangsGarminNuvi GPS System we made it without so much as a wrong turn! John and Marilynn also introduced us to the crab won tons which is being added to my favorite list. Yum! And unrelated to PF Changs, Marilynn also introduced us to berries 'n cream. Sounds average, I know, but her secret french vanilla coffee creamer does the trick. Doug and I literally have eaten this snack probably close to 10 times since we've been home. Big hit. We are indebted!
We did feel rather sad when we said our goodbyes, but we had a great time. It was so good to spend one-on-one time (ok, two-on-two) time with John and Marilynn. We just don't get to see them very often, so I loved spending time with them. They were such great hosts and made our trip so fun. Thanks you guys!

Monday morning we picked up our rental car and started the 6 hour drive to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I wish I could say that I participated in the actual driving part, but I was just way to enthralled with my book (see last section of post) and so the time flew by really quickly. Aside from stopping at Subway for a quick lunch and being the map girl giving directions (which wasn't hard because although the drive is quite beautiful, there's not much besides fields, fields, and more fields), I didn't do much and we were in Milwaukee before I knew it. My grandparents were kind enough to get us a room in the hotel where they live - The Astor in downtown Milwaukee. After our reunited hugs and hello's, and getting settled into our room, we headed to my Aunt Mara's house for dinner with her family. It was a lot of fun catching up and just spending time with this side of the family that we never get to see. Doug had never met Thomas and the boys, so it was a great opportunity to get together (he met Mara when she came out for the wedding, and my grandparents when they came for my high school graduation). I can't believe how big the boys are getting - Ben is a teenager now, and Sam and Henry are no longer little boys! Mara slaved away for us in the kitchen and made a delicious meal and we ended the night with a bit of Olympics watching.
Tuesday morning Doug, my grandpa, and I walked to the Harley Davidson museum. My mom saw an advertisement for the grand opening of this museum on the Today Show and suggested we go. It turned out to be a big hit. It was so cool to see the first bike Harley made from 1903, all of the early editions, bikes made for the army and postal service, and then all of the crazy tricked out bikes through the decades. We even saw the bike Elvis bought, with the original Bill of Sale and everything! Doug loved it, as you can imagine, and my grandpa was even impressed by how much work had gone into the museum. And impressing my grandpa, the history buff, is not an easy thing to do! The museum was followed by eating at the Milwaukee Public Market (we really need one of these in Utah - quick place to go with tons of vendors offering a huge variety of foods) where we had a delicious lunch. My grandpa then took us to Art Asia, a Milwaukee visit staple, since Doug saw a oriental, intricate bench at my Uncle John's house which was bought there. It's a neat little store with tons of old Chinese furniture - stuff I would buy if I was made of money! We then met my cousin Ben at Discovery World located on the Pier, which has hands-on technology and innovations exhibits. They had things like flight simulators, an aquarium with a fish petting zoo, bed of nails, and a 3D facial scanner. It was fun to be able to try out the different exhibits. The best part? Mara has a family pass so we all got in free! After walking back to the hotel (yes, that whole day was spent walking - like 7 miles total) my grandma, grandpa, Ben, Doug, and I drove out to the Greek restaurant that my grandparents love. Doug and I ventured out on our own after that to try and find the frozen custard joint, Lixx, in Shorewood. And quite surprisingly, we made our way around rather well! I don't think I have to say it, but that night we slept really well.
Wednesday was another busy day. We went to lunch with my grandparents at the Milwaukee Art Museum cafe and then toured the museum with my grandpa. Like my grandpa said, the building itself is more impressive than the things it actually holds! Good thing we rested for a while at the chairs-throughout-time exhibit, because upon exiting the museum we were off again! Doug and I met Tom and Ben across the street to begin our Segway tour! Here is a picture of a Segway in case you haven't seen them. I was not familiar with them until this tour, and so I didn't realize how they ran. Basically, your weight 100% balances the Segway. It is very difficult to fall when riding it - the balance mechanism does not allow for you to fall backward or frontwards. The movement is also 100% controlled my your body. When you lean forward, the machine goes forward. When you lean backwards, the machine reverses. It really is quite amazing and they are SO fun. If they didn't cost so much (around $6000) I would want one for myself! Anyways, we got to ride these little babies all around the lake front while we got a little bit of history of Milwaukee. It was a blast! Following the tour, my grandparents picked us up to go to their favorite little Chinese restaurant (the owners even know them by name!). They had wonderful food and we had a great time. That night, the last one we were in Milwaukee, we went over for another visit with the Kuhlmann's. We wish we could have spent more time with Mara and her family, but we caught her right in the middle of a busy week at work. Leave it to us to plan a trip in the middle of a crazed week! We really had such a great time visiting my family in Milwaukee, and wish we could have stayed even longer to spend more time with them. Thanks to my grandparent's and the Kuhlmann's for all the planning of fun activities while we were there! We were definitely well taken care of on this trip and we are so appreciative! (And Grandpa, we could barely keep up with you!)

Thursday morning we drove (massive tolls and all) to Chicago. Our first stop was actually to Glenview in order to attend the temple. This temple really looks more like a stake center than a temple, but it's still really beautiful. When then drove (ok, sped) to a Chicago Cubs MLB game! It was so cool to see the old Wrigley Field. It is seriously like a time warp - the old school bleachers, manual score board (no jumbo screen), and relatively small stadium. It's really funny - the homeowners across the street can see the game from their rooftops, so they have added bleachers and sell tickets to the games! Of course, we just had to have a 'Chicago Dog' and had a great time watching the game. We got a kick out of these fans. They went crazy after every play. Literally, every play. It could be the 2nd out in the 4th inning and they cheered as though their 'cubbies' had just won the World Series. And every time the other team would hit a home run (I think it happened 2 times) the ball would literally be out of the park. Then someone on the street would throw the ball back into the stadium, the ball landing on the field! The crowd would then go wild! It was certainly a fun game to go to. They ended up beating the Cincinnati Reds 3-2, and we actually saw a husband and wife look at each other with loving eyes and kiss each other passionately because their team won! Crazy fans...
Our next excursion also included a professional sporting event - an NFL Bears game! Although this turned out to be quite a pricey event (we spent $45 on freakin' parking, for crying out loud - we didn't have a choice - stop judging) we had a blast! It was amazing seeing the professional football field and the enormous soldier stadium, which was built like the old Colosseum. Although the Bears lost, we had such a good time and loved watching the game vs. the 49ers.
We stayed in a Doubletree hotel just outside of Chicago (again more tolls, one that we accidentally missed, drove right through, and panicked, thinking we would receive in the mail a ticket the size of Texas) in a city called Downer's Grove. The hotel was actually very nice with a big bedroom, separate living room, a fridge, and two TV's. A funny story about Doug checking into our hotel: He handed our reservation paper to the lady at the front desk and told her our name in hopes of a quick hand off of the key so we could soon get to bed, it being 12:07 in the morning. She then told him that the hotel was expecting him on August 21 and wondered why we were checking in a day late, that we should have checked in yesterday. The lady was rather snippy with Doug and kind of scolded him for making the check-in difficult on her. He finally said to her rather curtly, "We're 7 minutes late lady! 8 minutes ago was 'yesterday'!" Some people just don't get it.
It was great to sleep in on Friday morning, since we were both exhausted for being on the go constantly for days. Friday was just kind of a day to relax and have fun exploring the city. Unfortunately it's impossible to park in the city for less than the price of a small country, so that hindered the amount of city landmarks we could see. We weren't familiar enough with the Subway system or bus stops to get around easily, so we parked our car and took the heel-toe express. We first had lunch at the ESPN Zone (equipped with the best nachos ever) and had a great time. We spent the rest of the afternoon shopping in downtown Chicago and site seeing. We saw the old Chicago Theater and took a stroll through Millenium Park. We saw the Sears Tower, from a distance that is - it was, frankly, just too far to walk. It was really fun to see the city, but it definitely solidified my decision never to live in a big city. It's way too crowded, expensive, and busy! Later than night we had a relaxing night swimming and me: reading my book, Doug: reading the newspaper. Doug, being the nice husband he is, even ran out and got us some dinner at midnight. We had a great time in Chicago and loved the hotel we stayed in.

Saturday morning we got an early start for our day's adventures. We drove the 3.5 hours from Chicago to Nauvoo, Illinois to see some early church history sites. I had been to Nauvoo once before, when my family went to see the open house of the Nauvoo temple. However, Doug had never been there and it was really fun for him to explore (fun for me too - I was a teenager when we went before and let's face it - touring church history sites wasn't on the top of my list). After lunch at the small-town establishment Grandpa John's Diner, we started out touring the old homes of early church members including Joseph and Emma Smith, Brigham Young, Sidney Rigdon, and Heber C. Kimball. It was really cool to tour the Mansion House, Joseph and Emma's 2nd home in Nauvoo. In this home was an original dresser, mirror, stair rail, and front step from when the Smith's lived there in the early 1800's. To think that we stood on the same step where so many early church 'greats' stood! It was just too cool. We also visited the Smith Family Cemetery where most of the immediate family is buried. The story of Joseph and Hyrum's burial was really interesting: The night the Prophet and his brother were martyred they were brought back to the Mansion house and hid in the basement. The caskets were filled with rocks and given back to the Sheriff for burial. This was done in caution because there was still a warrant out for the Prophet in Missouri - dead or alive, a reward would be given. Late in the night the Smith family had their own little service for the two men and taken to be hid in the basement of the Smith family house (Joseph and Emma's first house, and then occupied by Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack). The bodies stayed there for 7 months to ensure their safety. They were then buried underneath a shed in the backyard of the Smith parent's home, along the Mississippi river. This was to be a temporary burial until they were sure the bodies would be safe in a proper burial. With the removal of the Saints from Nauvoo, the death of Joseph Smith III, and the demolition of the old shed, the exact spot of the burial was unknown and the bodies were lost for 80 years. Finally the Church hired out the excavation project in order to find the bodies. Joseph and Hyrum's body was found, along with Emma's just feet away, and all three were given a proper burial. Their gravesite is now located inside the Smith family cemetery, actually just a few feet away from their original burial. Interesting, eh?
We also visited the Red Brick Store that Joseph and Emma ran just down the road from their home. The upstairs of this building is where the early men of the church met for Priesthood meetings, and also where the Relief Society was formed. Also, downstairs is the original desk of Sidney Rigdon, placed right next to a window where Saints would deliver chickens and such for tithing. So cool! It really was neat to see how the city was laid out...it really helps to understand more of the workings in Nauvoo.
In fear that we would miss the last tour through Carthage Jail, we drove as quickly as possible to Carthage, which is about 20 miles from Nauvoo. We caught a tour beginning just as we got there and heard the story surrounding the Prophet's murder. It was amazing to see the room where the Prophet and Hyrum were killed and see the door with an original hole where a bullet entered. It was certainly a very spiritual experience to hear the happenings at that jail and to see the structure. Quite the experience.
We then hurriedly drove back to Nauvoo in order to attend the temple, and made it just in time, might I add. It was such a beautiful temple and so cool to know that it was built in the exact specifications as the original. It was just neat to know that early members of the church attended the temple in the exact location where we were! And the spot was definitely inspired - the hill it sits atop gives an amazing view of the city and river. We came out of the temple just as the sun was setting and had the most amazing view. I was so glad we decided to make time to go to the temple while we were in Nauvoo - it was such an amazing experience.
After the temple we drove another hour and a half to Macon, Missouri, which is where our hotel was for the night. Macon is a small town in the middle of miles and miles of nothing in Missouri. So, naturally, we were expecting a run-down, hopefully clean, hotel. However, we were pleasantly surprised with the hotel. The Comfort Inn was very updated, clean, and decorated in a rustic lodge fashion. The best part about staying in a small-town hotel is the home town service. Everyone was incredibly pleasant and the breakfast in the morning was homemade, delicious, and free - which is pretty much unheard of these days!
Again, we started out early on Sunday morning in order to visit numerous church history sites before we had to catch our plane home. Our first stop was Adam-Ondi-Ahman in northern Missouri - in the middle of NOWHERE. It really was incredible to be standing where it all began in the Garden of Eden, and where it will all end at the 2nd coming. The Church owns so many acres of land surrounding Adam-Ondi-Ahman. But then again, if millions of people need to gather there, I guess there needs to be a lot of room! It was neat to read that Joseph Smith actually prophesied that Nephites had been in that valley and had built an altar thousands of years ago. We were definitely glad we decided to detour a bit and make it to 'Di-Ahman.'
We didn't think we could get much more in the middle of nowhere, but in fact we did when venturing out to Haun's Mill. We were so far off the beaten path, actually driving on dirt roads for part of the time, that more than once we wondered if we were lost. Finally we saw a hand-written sign pointing us in the direction and then a printed Haun's Mill sign a few miles later. Honestly, we were incredibly disappointed. For driving so far out of the way we expected a little more of a monument. The Community of Christ (formally known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) owns this land and hasn't done much with it. There is simply a sign (which was shot multiple times with bullets) marking the territory and an old stone in the ground telling the very basic story. It's not that I expected a fireworks display or anything, but I hoped for a better kept site marking this historic, tragic event in the early days of the Church.
Our next stop was Far West, Missouri. We were able to see the original cornerstones of the temple the Saints planned to build while in Far West. The temple was never completed, but the Church has placed a monument on the grounds explaining the importance of the city and the history when the Saints arrived. Right now Doug and I are reading the 3rd Work and the Glory together, which takes place in Far West. It's interesting to see the dynamic between what the city was: a town bustling with Saints with cabins and buildings being erected everywhere, and now: very few structures and not even a 50th of the population of 150 years ago. When the early members of the church moved out, it seemed like no one ever moved back in!
From Far West we went to Liberty, Missouri in order to visit the Liberty Jail Visitor's Center. The church has built a replica of the jail on the grounds where the original stood. They constructed a building around the jail which is the visitor's center. We were in a rush to see the jail in order to make it to the next sites, so we ran in asking if we could see the jail. Generally they do not let people go without a tour guide, and the whole thing takes about 45 minutes. We told the senior missionary that we didn't have 45 minutes and he asked our hurry. We explained and he asked from where we were visiting. When we answered he was in shock and told us that his wife grew up in Spanish Fork! We then got the family-like treatment. He personally showed us the jail and helped us understand the importance. That is where Joseph Smith had his most trying moments as the Prophet. He was imprisoned on false accusations of treason. The conditions were awful - they were in the basement of the jail with no light and were fed food that the chickens had already gone through. However, this provided the most humbling of experiences for Joseph and it is here that he received sections 121-123 of the Doctrine and Covenants. Again, very glad we stoped to see this amazing church history site.
Although rushed, we stopped in Independence, Missouri at the LDS Visitor's Center. We took the quick version of the tour and saw the dedicated temple lot in Zion. It's really an interesting location - just across the street from the conference center and temple for the Community of Christ. It's quite the spectacle!
From Independence we rushed to the airport. Let me emphasize the word rush. We were flying. We so almost missed our flight. Thanks to the rental car people who were so nice they drove us to our gate instead of making us wait for the shuttle, we did get there just in time. You should have seen us running to check-in (delayed with an overweight piece of luggage - somehow Doug got rid of 19 pounds, shuffling around and only throwing away a can of hairspray and shaving cream, in a matter of about 30 seconds, while being glared at by the angry airline lady) and quickly get through security. We literally exhaled a sigh of relief when sitting in our seats on the plane. My parents were kind enough to pick us up from the airport (we had James drop us off) and take us to get a bit to eat. Amidst the crazy traveling we hadn't had anything to eat, and KFC tasted quite good. Even though it was crazy running from place to place and driving 1350 miles from Minneapolis to Kansas City, we had SUCH a good time. You gotta love vacations!

August 24, 2008 - Olympics Closing Ceremonies
This year I got into the Olympics more than I have in past years. Michael Phelps, of course, was amazing and it was cool to watch him make history with the 8 Golds. It was also a lot of fun to watch the girl's beach volleyball take gold, as well as the men's court volleyball. And what is up with that Jamaican Bolt guy? Dang, he's quick! Being the girl that I am, I loved watching Nastia Lukin and Shawn Johnson win Gold's as well. The US ended up with 36 Gold medals, 38 silver, and 36 bronze, for a total of 110 - more than any other country. China had more Gold medals, but with the Olympics being held in Beijing, what do you expect? Now...on to London for 2012 Summer Olympics!

August 26, 2008 - 2nd Anniversary & Birthday Celebrations

Today we celebrated our 2 year anniversary! I really can't believe we have already been married for 2 years. Then again, a lot has happened and changed since our wedding day, which has made the first 2 years a lot of fun. We bought our condo in Eagle Mountain, built our new house in Spanish Fork, I've changed jobs, Doug has pursued his cabinetry business, and I graduated from BYU. And who could forget Doug's brush-with-death accident on our honeymoon? Two years has brought us a long way! I'm so grateful for Doug and the life we have together and look forward to many more anniversaries!
We just happen to share our anniversary with our neice, Brooklyn's, birthday. She turned 1 year old today and it has been so fun to see how smart she is and how much she. And the most entertaining thing today was watching her go at her personal birthday cake. As you can see, she rather enjoyed it! Our sister-in-law, Kensie's, birthday was on August 21 and we celebrated it tonight as well. In the picture above you can see Kensie was wearing our present - we got her a pink Cubs hat from Chicago and Brooklyn a pink Cubs outfit. Happy Birthday you guys!

August 29, 2008 - Doug Timp Hike

Doug's family has gotten this idea in their head that they like to hike! Now I'm all for the occasional trek to the Y, but hiking to the top of Mt. Timpanogos at midnight isn't at the top of my list. But these crazies did it! Doug, Wes, James, Jill, Steve, and Jessica left at 11:00 pm, to begin their hike at midnight, in order to be at the top to see the sun rise. After hearing how gruesome it really is, I was really glad that I decided to opt out. It was a 10 hour hike total - 6 up and 4 down. When they got to the top it was absolutely freezing. Like, December cold. James was the only one who forced himself to go the absolute top (yes, that boy does have something to prove), while the rest settled for the glacier/pond that was 3/4 of the way up. Despite the rough hike, they said the view was awesome and they were all glad they did it!

While Doug's family was bustin' their butts up a mountain, I had a girls night with my sister :) Allison slept over and we filled our night with game playing. 200 Friends question cards and a few rounds of Scattergories later we called it a night. Allison was the first official person to stay in the Carlson guest room - what a monumental night!

August 29 - September 1, 2008 - Labor Day Weekend
Our Labor Day weekend was nothing extraordinary, but it was so nice to have the time off work and just relax. Saturday was filled with my reading and Doug's sleeping after his all-night hike, followed by dinner at my parent's house. Sunday I substitute taught a primary class (sometime I feel like I fit in better in primary than relief society!) and we had the traditional Sunday dinner at my parent's. The Johnson dinner pattern was followed again on Monday with a steak and salmon BBQ. Nice and relaxing - the way we like it!

And last, but CERTAINLY not least, I have entered the world of vampires. I have been hearing people talk about the Twilight books for who knows how long, and never had the urge to read them. In fact, about 6 months ago I even got the first book from the library, read the first chapter, got bored, and returned it. If I only knew!! Since everyone has made such a huge deal of these books I decided to give it one more go. I figured even if the books sucked it would keep me busy enough while I was on the airplane. Little did I know how it would suck me in! I finished all 4 books in record time and loved every minute of it. I guess I am now what you would call a "Twilighter."
WARNING: THESE REVIEWS CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS! PLEASE RESIST THE URGE TO READ ON IF YOU HAVE NOT READ/FINISHED THE BOOKS!

Probably my favorite book of the bunch. It was just so fun to learn everything about the vampires and experience the new situations with Bella. Although I can't vouch for a quick start (you really need to get passed the first couple of chapters before it becomes even remotely interesting) the book was really compelling. Bella's infatuation with Edward and the dangerous, impossible love between the two make this book really fun to read. Who knew - a book about vampires?

This was my least favorite of the series, but I believe that's mainly due to the fact that Edward was absent during 3/4 of the book. And what can I say...I'm a huge Edward fan. (I know he was just trying to protect her, but, like Bella, I can't bear to have him gone!) However, this was essential to the story in order to introduce Jacob and his special "powers." It also gave us a chance to see the grieving Bella and truly understand her feelings, love, and devotion to Edward.
The ending, with it's intense race-against-the-clock scene, saved the book and made it a really good read.

I really liked this 3rd book of the Twilight series. Granted, I don't understand the things Bella goes through in order to pursue Jacob, and I couldn't help but feel anger towards her when she kissed Jacob! Hello, you have just spent the last year in utter despair due to Edward - don't mess it up chicky! Luckily Edward is the all-too-perfect vampire who instantly forgives her! The dynamic between Edward and Jacob, both in love with Bella, was very humorous at times and really interesting to read. I especially loved the fight scene at the end against Victoria and her newborns. All's well that ends well!

Despite the controversy and heavy criticism given by some, I really liked this book. With so much anticipation for this book, and such an enormous audience, there are bound to be some who like it and some who don't. Yes, there are some things that were weird: 1. Bella carrying a somewhat devil child who is killing her 2. Jacob imprinting on Renesmee 3. Bella drinking blood and liking it. And some things that were down right frustrating: 1. Bella wanting to be such a martyr 2. J. Jenks not being more interesting. But then there are things that I just loved: 1. Bella becoming a vampire 2. Bella maintaining her friendship with Jacob and her relationship with her dad 3. Bella having a cool vampire super power 4. Edward and Bella having their happily ever after. I have to say, I loved it!

Midnight Sun - I was really looking forward to reading Edward's version of the story in Midnight Sun. Unfortunately some dishonest punk leaked the first 12 chapters on the internet and therefore the author is putting this project "on hold indefinitely." Talk about disappointment.

Canyon View Party

2008-08-13T22:34:00.006-06:00

Tonight we celebrated Landon's 19th birthday with our Johnson family at Canyon View Park. Landon got so many great gifts and had just a great birthday. His presents included: a homemade Jazz blanket and pillow from Janalee, an old train clock that was Grandma Susan's fathers, a Yankee jersey straight from New York from Lecia (which made him say to me, "Erin, My favorite team is now the Yankees!"), a bingo game, and tons of new school clothes. Everyone just loves Landon so he is so spoiled!

Y Hike - Take 2

2008-08-09T12:43:00.002-06:00

This time we were able to round up a few more hikers. Along with the cast from 2 weeks ago (Jill, me, Doug, Wes, and Steve) we added my mom, Landon, Jessica, Ileigh, and Mackenzie. Everyone did great and we celebrated with breakfast at Gandolfo's. Although the 4:30 am thing wasn't any easier, the hike was definitely easier the second time around (Doug halfway ran up the trail with Wes and beat us by like 30 minutes...I think he has something to prove!)

Beijing 2008

2008-08-08T12:59:00.003-06:00

I'm having an oh-my-gosh-time-flies-by-so-fast moment. I feel like it was just not that long ago that my aunt Lecia and Joyce took each of us cousins to an event at the SLC 2002 Winter Games (me and my cousin Annalece got to attend men's figure skating and got our picture taken with Steve Young! I'll see if I can't find the pic and get it posted). And now here we are, today is the opening ceremonies for the 2008 Summer Games! Although this showing of the opening ceremonies won't be as momentous as 2002 (my crazy family actually had a party celebrating the occasion - hey, it was SLC, we were excited ok?), I am still looking forward to it! Oh and boy am I happy for TiVo. Since the best events are always scheduled at seriously insane times of night, I am oh-so-happy for the newest technologies TiVo has to offer. This time I won't miss my favorite events due to crazy scheduling. I can't wait for women's gymnastics (men's just really freaks me out, although I will concede that they are talented) and my favorite - beach volleyball! It is so cool to see nations in situations ranging from war, poverty, and political unrest come together to compete and be united, even it's just for a few weeks. Here's to USA domination :)

He's Legal!

2008-08-06T21:49:00.003-06:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LANDON! Well, he's 19 folks. Hard to believe, I know. We celebrated Landon's birthday with lunch at Chili's. It wasn't hard to convince our waiter that it was actually Landon's birthday and that he deserved a free dessert - we walked in with armfuls of presents and a bunch of balloons.
And he walked out with a fridge for his bedroom and root beer to stack it, an electric razor, new swanky tennis shoes and movie tickets. The lucky little sucker even gets another party with our extended Johnson family! It's just so easy to buy Landon things because he is so grateful and loves everything he gets. We are so grateful to have Landon in our family...we just wouldn't be the same without him! Happy Birthday Buddy!

Martina McBride Concert

2008-08-01T00:08:00.005-06:00

I can't even describe how much fun we had going to the Martina McBride concert! My mom, Jill, Jessica, Mackenzie and myself went to AppleBee's for dinner, then headed on out to Usana Amphitheater for the big show. I had never been to this concert venue before, and I ended up loving it. It is so beautiful and there's not a bad seat in the house. And the best part of the night - Martina McBride was amazing. First of all, she has virtually the most incredible voice in country music. Second, she has so much energy! Third, I love every one of her songs (actually, that's a lie: I hate that stupid Concrete Angel song. Who wants to hear such a sad song? Not I). The songs she picked to sing that were not her own were great too; Summer of '69, Lean on Me, and Hit Me With Your Best Shot. We were all having so much fun though, she probably could have sang the Happy Birthday song and we would have loved it! And our night had even more entertainment - just like every concert we had some real winners sitting in front of us. You know who I'm talking about - the drunk, old, barely dressed lady with a beer in one hand, the other waving in the air and dancing around like a crazy woman. People watching at these concerts is almost as fun as anything. There's not a funner concert to go to with a bunch of girls than Martina and we had a blast!
My camera doesn't have the best zoom in the world, but you get the point.

Y Hike

2008-07-26T14:57:00.012-06:00

4:30 am anyone? Yeah, I didn't think so! I still can't believe Doug and I were able to get out of bed that early...we are just not early morning people. Let's just say this was definitely not our idea! However, we were actually really glad that we went with Steve, Jill and Wes to hike the Y (notice how that's not all of Doug's family...yeah, the rest pooped out!) I can seriously say that I have not worked out that hard since high school volleyball! Some of that is attributed to the fact that we hiked for an hour and a half in the wrong direction before starting the actual Y. Don't ask us how me missed the correct trail, but when we hiked back on our misguided path I was dead! I did not think in a million years we would still do the hike we had planned. I thought we'd just call it a day and hike the Y maybe next Saturday. Nope! We trekked on thanks to Jill's do-it attitude (which I blame on the fact that she has 4 bull-headed boys and over the years she has just learned to compete!)
I couldn't help taking 1000 pictures, just because I needed proof I actually conquered this thing. Although there were tons of kids up there too, they have more energy and I didn't think anyone would believe me! Having just celebrated the 24th of July, I must say I have quite the admiration for those pioneers! How they trekked in the dead of winter for thousands of miles over unchartered territory I will never know. I honestly had quite the time making it just those few miles. But once we did make it to the top it was absolutely beautiful. You just can't beat the view and it's quite accomplishing not having collapsed on the way up!

They have a monument at the base of the trail that tells all about the history of the Y, and I thought it was kind of interesting:

HISTORY

The Y first appeared on Provo's Mountains in 1906, after the first materials for Brigham Young University's emblem were hauled to the base of the hill. President George H. Brimhall commissioned Ernest D. Partridge and three of his students to survey the letters B, Y and U on the hill and the letters were soon thereafter laid out. To create the emblem, students stood eight feet apart, stretching from the bottom of the hill to the site of the Y, and shuttled lime, sand and rocks between the person before and after them. It took so much time and effort to cover the Y that no attempt was made to do the other two letters.

Constant repairs to the thin, lime-covered letter prompted students to add a layer of rock to the face of the Y in 1907. In 1908, 20,000 pounds of sand and cement were added to make a three-foot rim around the letter, and in 1910 and 1911, the blocks or serifs were added to create the Y as it appears today. The Y is 380 feet high and 130 feet wide, covering 32,847 square feet and is one of the largest school emblems of it's kind in the United States.

PAINTING

Each spring, on Y Day, male students met early in the morning to whitewash the Y. Faculty cleared the trail, freshmen hauled the water from a spring, sophomores carried up the whitewash and juniors and seniors did the pouring. The job required 500 pounds of salt, 110 bags of lime and 3,000 gallons of water. The whitewashing tradition continued until 1972 when the University began using helicopters to haul the paint; thus decreasing the wear on the mountain. The Y was originally planned to go on private land, but ended up on government property and the student wear and tear from yearly whitewashings concerned government officials.

In 1978, the Y was coated with a sand and white cement mixture called gunnite, eliminating the need for annual whitewashings. The project required 100 cubic yards of sand, 5,400 pounds of cement and 10,000 gallons of water. The Y is now painted every two to five years. The project takes three people 10 hours to apply 155 gallons of paint, which is transported by helicopter.

Pretty cool, eh? And to think, I was just at the top of that sucker!

(Y Info courtesy of http://yfacts.byu.edu)

24th of July Celebrations

2008-07-24T22:53:00.001-06:00

Next to Christmas, Pioneer Day is my favorite holiday (as long as I live in Utah, that is. I can't imagine the Mormon holiday of celebrating "This is the place" would be too big a deal in, say, New York!) But I do live in Utah, and Spanish Fork is probably the best in it's celebrations! Fiesta Days is over the 24th and so many things are going on throughout the week, but the day of the 24th is the best. Since both Doug's family and my family are from Spanish, we have a day filled with tons of activities. First, the city parade. We have compromised on sitting with my Johnson family at Central Bank (oh how I miss the wonderful location of Grandma Brown's house on the parade route). Frankly, I think he has agreed due solely to the fact that every year without fail Aunt Sue brings her famous puffed rice balls and Lecia and Joyce bring warm Krispy Kreme donuts! We were lucky this year and caught an overcast sky for most of the parade, and fortunately there weren't the usual 4,000 baseball and softball teams. The parade was pretty good!
After the parade we headed up to Doug's Grandma Higginson's for their annual 24th party. This is really the only time of year that everyone from his extended family is present. With his family growing so enormously huge (Grandma H just welcomed her first great-great grand baby and has well over 100 posterity) it's hard to get everyone together, so it is always really fun to see everyone. Doug's immediate family hung around long after everyone else was gone and had a fun time just sitting under the old shade tree, listening to the brother's fish stories (sorry, but that's all they are. Every tale gets larger and larger each time we're together!)
After briefly stopping by the craft fair (even though I rarely find tons of stuff I like I just can't help myself from attending - although I did find the most adorable headband for Brooklyn's birthday in a month), Aunt Sue's house was our next stop for dinner with my extended family and the all-too-traditional ham loaf. This isn't as big a hoopla as Doug's party, due to the fact that we see my family at least 2 Sundays a month and we are about 20% the size of his family! But it's still so fun to get together and party it up on the 24th.
Next in line was the Fiesta Days Rodeo! Now I know we already made an appearance at the rodeo this week, but there's nothing wrong with going twice, now is there? And the two occasions are so different because we go with each of our families and always have a blast. It was fun this year with Doug's family watching Brooklyn and Ileigh reacting to everything. Brooklyn couldn't stop pointing at everything she saw, and Ileigh seemed to love seeing the animals (hopefully seeing the animals being whipped, tied, restrained, hung on, and teased won't traumatize the little thing too much!) After the fireworks following the rodeo we definitely called it a night. I don't know what it is about hanging around and doing nothing, but boy it sure drains the energy out of you! That pretty much sums up our Pioneer Day festivities, and I can say that I am already excited for next year!

City of Fun Carnival

2008-07-23T23:12:00.008-06:00

Ok, ok so the carnival is not exactly the most wholesome place on earth. But it's just so hard not to be enticed, what with their sparkling lights and all! Doug and I hadn't been to the carnival since before his mission and so we thought it would be fun to hit a few rides. Aside from the Orbiter giving me a slight headache, us being the oldest people (by like 10 years) on the horizontal spinning one that's like the Magic Carpet, and paying way too much to ride the Ring of Fire, we had a great time! I think the little girl in me just dies to come out when she sees the carnival is coming to town!

Fiesta Days Rodeo!

2008-07-21T23:33:00.003-06:00

Who doesn't love the rodeo? I mean: rodeo clowns, bull riding, mutton bustin' - you have no choice but to love it! Last night after Isaac's 5th birthday party at the City Park (I can't believe Brady's little guy is already 5!) we went with my Johnson family to the rodeo. The thing I love about the rodeo is how it's kind of a Spanish Fork you-gotta-do-it thing. I mean, for heaven's sake, you even get my Aunt Sue to go! (Aunt Sue: Very formal, classy lady who loves Broadway and will probably be invited one day to eat at the White House with the President of the United States). And the best part is: going again with Doug's family on Thursday! (Family Absentees - Allison: in Boston at business conference, Mom: under the weather thanks to my dad and Landon's spout of the flu)

Georgia Macon Mission President Homecoming

2008-07-20T23:29:00.004-06:00

Like most missionaries, Doug just loved his mission president. He worked in the office for 6 months, so he was able to get really close to him. So when we heard of his homecoming, Doug was really excited to go. What wasn't as exciting was the fact that he lives in Malad, Idaho. Not exactly the Las Vegas of Idaho (although, I'm not sure any Idaho city can be described that way!) Luckily his sacrament meeting is last of the 3 block meetings starting at 1:00. So we didn't have to be there until 2:45, which meant a nice Sunday to sleep in. The drive was not bad at all and we ended up having a great time. The thing that astonished me was how many missionaries drove up for the occasion. I was thinking that if it was held in Provo, Utah there would be a ton of elders and sisters around, but not in Malad. Boy was I wrong. After the president's son and wife spoke, President Evanson asked all of the missionaries to come up and sing the Georgia Macon mission theme song. Literally half of the congregation went up. There must have been over 100 missionaries there! The Bishop commented that thanks to the Evanson's sacrament meeting attendance doubled, and I could tell that he was not joking. That old, tiny chapel didn't exactly meet the capacity - we were sitting on folding chairs in the overflow (which was really weird because the overflow was off to the side, instead of the back of the chapel). The coolest part of the meeting was when President Evanson stood to give his talk. The first thing he did was have Doug (sorry, Elder Carlson) stand up! He was all, "I saw Elder Carlson come up to sing...where is he? Stand up, Elder Carlson." Then he proceeded to tell the story of a zone conference when Elder Holland came to speak to the Georgia Macon mission. Doug happened to be sitting on the front row of that conference and was confronted by Elder Holland! He got right up in his face and said, "Ah, Elder Carlson. Answer me this question. What type of change did Alma have?" Although Doug totally knew the answer and had just been reading about the story he went totally blank because he was "star struck!" He stammered and finally gave a stupid (and completely wrong) answer while his mission president was sitting up on stage yelling the answer..."A mighty change - a mighty change!" I guess Doug took quite a bit of heat for that little incident for weeks to come. Well, years to come, since he is still talking about it! Elder Holland then told the missionaries that they were to have a mighty change, and not just while on their mission. And since Doug was his "chosen" to confront in front of everybody, he told him that if he went home from his mission and slacked off he would "punch him in the nose." Needless to say, Elder Holland is now Doug's favorite apostle! After President Evanson's story about Doug (which I think made Doug feel really special, to be singled out of 100 missionaries) he went on to give a great talk. After sacrament meeting we went across the street to the elementary school where President Evanson's wife is the principal. They had prepared for a large group with tons of really good food and Doug's favorite waffle cookies from the mission. It was really fun for Doug to see all of his old mission buddies and I loved looking through all of Sister Evanson's scrapbooks and seeing Doug in most of the pictures. And as his wife I can say, I am so glad that those 2 years are over!!

Drive-in

2008-07-19T12:06:00.005-06:00

We had such a fun time last night going to the Redwood Drive-in theater up in Salt Lake. Thanks to Steven and Jessica for the great idea - I hadn't been to the drive-in for literally like 10 years (since the two in Springville closed) and we had a blast! We saw the new Batman movie The Dark Knight, which despite being kind of dark and twisted (thanks to the Joker, which really was rather creepy considering the actor is now dead) was really good. I really like this new series of movies with Christian Bale as the infamous Batman. Batman Begins was probably my favorite Batman movie to date. Although not pictured, Steven, Jessica, Ileigh, Brooklyn, and Jill were also there. We just didn't think it too smart to add another couple hundred pounds to the already bulging air mattress! It really was a fun place to hang out and just chill until the movie started - fully equipped with a cooler full of drinks, plenty of snacks and caramel popcorn! Anyone who is reading this who has a lot of excess cash, here's my advice: Open a drive-in in Utah County!

Where's My Husband?

2008-07-16T14:15:00.007-06:00

On Saturday night we met my family at the Orem Mall to have dinner together at PF Chang's (which I love, love, love). Landon and my dad were scheduled to go to the Orem Owlz baseball game afterwards, and thought since they'd be in Orem anyways we should do dinner. The dinner was amazing (all inclusive with lettuce wraps) and even Landon, the pickiest eater ever, loved the noodles and sweet and sour pork. The most entertaining part would be my dad poking Landon with the plastic sword placed in his drink to hold the lemon and Landon playfully screaming so loud that the entire restaurant could hear. Never a dull moment...

However, this post was really supposed to be written about what came after dinner. Doug and I did a bit of shopping at the Mall and then went to Old Navy. For any of you who do not know Doug, let me just explain. He has a very, very easily identifiable personality. When playing the game Imaginiff everyone always picks Doug because he is the easiest for everyone to agree upon. He knows exactly what he does and does not like. And that is what makes this story so funny.Doug never veers away from his traditional personality...until tonight! We went to Old Navy since they have the specific type of cargo shorts, which are the only pair he has ever bought since he was a teenager. Well, times have changed! I guess he was in a strange mood and decided to alter his traditional clothing purchases. We made it home with a whole new array of plaid shorts and cargo tees. Note: Doug has never even thought twice about plaid shorts, and has never once worn a shirt that wasn't blank. He doesn't like any words on his clothing - no brand names, numbers, etc - so this was a big deal!
Since then, weird looks have been popping up from people who know Doug every time we go somewhere. Our families have been the first to comment. The funniest was walking into my house for Sunday dinner. I told Doug before we got there that Allison would for sure say something about his new look. As soon as we walked in the door a weird look came over her face and she said (you'll like this one Kandas), "Woa, You look like Riley!"
I am his wife, so of course I think he looks hot in anything. But I do love his new finds!

BACHELORETTE OUTRAGE

2008-07-07T21:03:00.008-06:00

Is anyone else outraged with DeAnna's decision? I mean, what in the world was she thinking? I would have guessed TWILLEY before Jesse! Jason vs. Jesse - I doubt many would have bet their chips on Jesse. AHHH! DeAnna, I'm sorry but I strongly disagree with your choice! (P.S. I cannot believe I have let myself get this invested in a stupid reality television show. Sad. Really sad).

Girl's Night Out!

2008-07-05T21:37:00.005-06:00

First of all, I have to give a huge 'thanks' to Mackenzie and Kensie who suggested a girls night out! We had such a blast hanging out just as the Carlson girls. Not that we don't love the boys, but sometimes it's just nice to get away and do girly things. And that we did! After an awesome dinner at the Olive Garden (you can't really go wrong with that restaurant) we headed to the Orem mall to get our nails done. Since Ileigh and Brooklyn were with us, Jessica and Jill volunteered to fore-go the whole nail thing and chase the two girls around the mall, while Mackenzie, Kensie, and I stuck behind. Glad I wasn't in a hurry to get home because there was one guy doing all 3 sets of our nails, and frankly it just took forever. But we had a blast teasing him and just chatting, as girls do. Kensie sprang for the bright red glittery tips, while Mackenzie (the first nail-timer) and I stuck with good old fashioned white. After, we wandered down to the new Disney store and bought Brooklyn some sunglasses. It was so adorable - every time we would put them on her, she would laugh and open her mouth really wide. I think she is just a big show off! And of course, we couldn't leave without getting the other 2 kids (Mackenzie and Kensie!) Disney princess cups :) It was a great night, and so much fun. Girls - we definitely need to make that a regular occurrence! (Don't you love my bright red face in all the pics? Courtesy of the stupid sun during our 4th of July camp out!)

4th of July Camping

2008-07-05T21:35:00.000-06:00

This weekend we had a great time going camping with my family up Lake Fork. Honestly, there's not much to report - you know how camping goes. Pretty much we spent our days cooking, eating, cooking, then eating some more. In between the eating stints we spent our time on the 4 wheeler or playing card games with Landon. Although his game playing usually consists of nothing more than hundreds of games of "Go Fish" we managed to teach him some knew ones, of which he couldn't get enough "War." Besides the slight mishap of locking my keys in my car (yes, the car with everything in it from our tents, coolers, and food) and having to drive home to get the spare and returning at midnight to prepare camp in the dark, the camping weekend was a total success!

Meet the Hanks'

2008-06-29T14:26:00.006-06:00

Ben and Nanci have been in Utah visiting from Texas for the past few weeks. It has been really fun to see them again - Ben is one of Doug's mission buddies who he gets along with really well and when he got married we had a couple to hang out with! We were able to have them over for dinner (BBQ ribs at Ben's request) and show them our new house in Spanish Fork. We were also invited to see Ben bless their new baby, and he did a wonderful job. I just had to post this birth announcement for Sadie - she is so adorable. The funniest thing is her eyes are always wide open, as if she's just learned the wonder of sight! Thanks you guys!

The Big 5-0

2008-06-28T15:15:00.001-06:00

My daddy-o has hit the big milestone. On June 26 he just turned 50! I guess he kinda had to see it coming, considering he has a married daughter, another daughter a year from graduating college, and his youngest son just graduated from high school. However, he did say that turning 50 really makes you feel old! It was fun celebrating as a family when we went to One Man Band for breakfast on Saturday morning. I can't help it, I like that place - juke box and all. I also think that mine and Doug's birthday present this year made him feel even older. Since he's difficult to shop for, and usually gives his gifts away, we thought we would buy him something he could really use, instead of something he might just want. So we decided to start the tradition of adding to his emergency preparedness and food storage every year on his birthday. However, we did add in a pie, so the gift wasn't too boring! Although he has reached 50, he's still a kid at heart. Anyone who knows my dad knows he is the first to start food fights, crack jokes, and play games with the kids. In fact, just this past Sunday while celebrating his birthday at my Aunt Diane's he joined in on a game of duck, duck, goose. But again he was reminded of his age when he was the "goose" chasing (rather quickly, I might add!) Creed and took a big old spill on the lawn. It gave us all a pretty good laugh. Happy Birthday Dad!

June 2008

2008-06-27T20:19:00.000-06:00

I don't exactly have a good reason for my blogging hiatus. Let's just say that aside from being sick most of this past month, we have also been rather busy. However, I know that's no excuse and people who update their blogs only once a month really irritate me too, so I apologize :) Let me take a minute (ok, probably more like an hour) to give a little update since my last post.

May 28, 2008 - Landon's Graduation
I know I am going to sound like a parent when I say this, but Landon graduating from high school makes me feel old! He is my little brother and I just can't believe how old he is, and how much he has matured in these past few years. I'm also going to sound so sappy when I say that I got teary eyed during the graduation ceremony! Seeing him all dressed in his graduation gown was just too much for me, I guess. But he was so proud of himself and was happy to be the center of attention all day long. He had so much support from everyone who just loves Landon. Along with the five of our immediate family, he had Grandpa Al & Susan, Aunt Diane, Skylar, Aunt Lecia, Aunt Janalee, Colton, Tami (the brave soul who brought her 3 young kids: Isaac, Caleb, Mackenzie) and most of Doug's family including Jill, James, Wes, Kensie, Mackenzie, and Brooklyn. 2 money necklaces and a diploma later we all headed to The Old Spaghetti Factory to celebrate. If you can believe it, the crowd got even bigger when Aunt Sue, Mark, and Joyce, joined us for lunch. Landon was so incredibly spoiled and showered with gifts. His loot included a cell phone, police scanner (Doug's idea, which I couldn't believe we hadn't though of up to this point in Landon's life!), engraved money clip, tickets to multiple Orem Owlz games and Owlz apparel, and a bond from G & G Johnson. It was so fun to watch Landon open his presents - needless to say he hasn't put the scanner or cell phone down 1 minute since he got them! Later that night the party continued when Doug's family had Landon over to celebrate with cake and ice cream and more presents. Aside from the Carlson's losing their keys at the McKay Events Center, everyone had a great day. Especially Landon - and that's the most important!

June 1, 2008 - Mackenzie's 13th Birthday Officially a teenager! Mackenzie turned 13 on June 3 and we celebrated with a family dinner on June 1. Doug and I decided to add her to the list of concert-goers and gave her a ticket to come with the girls to the Martina McBride concert in August. I thought I'd drop a few lines about Mackenzie, it being her birthday and all:
1. She is so patient! Had I grown up in a household with the 4 brothers she did...well, it wouldn't have gone well.
2. She is the PERFECT aunt. Her 2 nieces absolutely adore her. I promise, Kenz, one day Doug and I will give you a niece or nephew - we just haven't been in much of a hurry :) And I'm sure they'll love her too.
3. She is incredibly smart. Mackenzie is such a good student and so smart for her age. I think she'll be the Carlson child who graduates high school with high honors, college at the top of the Dean's list, and someday become a doctor who saves lives! However, if she chooses "mom" instead of "dr" she'll be great at that too! (Or perhaps, maybe a Creator...inside joke (wink, wink).

Happy Birthday Kenz!

May 31, 2008 - Landon's Horse show

My brother is really becoming quite the little jockey! We have been to quite a few of Landon's horse shows over the years, and he is getting better every time I see him ride. He always competes in a few different races. His first was, while mounted on a horse, bending over, filling up a cup of water, trotting across the arena and dumping the water in a bucket. Whoever filled up their bucket the most by the end of 5 minutes won. Landon had the best control of his horse by far, and if he hadn't gone to the other side of the arena and missed the bucket 3 times in a row (!), he would have won for sure. He took second, though, and was proud. Plus, the kid who took first cheated - he was helped by his trainer get the water and dump it in the bucket. So we say that Landon really deserved first place. His second challenge was walking, trotting, and loping his horse and proving he has control of his horse. He always does good in this one, and even though he had a horse who was absolutely not cooperating, I believe he took second in that event too. It really is amazing to see these kids get on their horses and be able to control them. All I could say is I don't think I could do half the things Landon does on his horse!

June 7, 2008 - Eagle Mountain Concert
What can I say? I'm a sucker for 90's country music. So I was really excited to hear that Little Texas, Restless Heart, and BlackHawk were coming to the Silverlake Amphitheater for Eagle Mountain City Days. I will always have a fondness for Eagle Mountain, since Doug and I lived their our first year of married life, and it was fun to drive up there and see how things are developing (they have joined the rest of the million cities in America and are building a WalMart). The concert venue they have up there is really fun too. You just take blankets and sit on the grass surrounding the stage. They always have local merchants selling the goods like funnel cakes, scones, and good old fashioned hamburgers. It is just a fun setting - and the concert wasn't half bad either! In fact, I loved it. This sounds a little pathetic, but this was my 4th time seeing BlackHawk in concert, but just my first seeing the other 2 bands. Little Texas was a tad disappointing, trying to bring in a bit of rock & roll to the twangy country concert. Know your audience people! A bunch of rednecks sitting around in cowboy hats and butt-tight jeans are not expecting electric guitars screaming anything but what sounded like their good-old country sound. But, it was still fun to hear some of their hits, even if they were jazzed up a bit too much. Unlike Little Texas, BlackHawk and Restless Heart stuck with their country roots and sounded just like I remembered them. They both have so many great songs and I loved listening to their greatest hits. Following the concert Eagle Mountain always puts on a pretty good fireworks show. However, we didn't stay to watch since the concert ended around 10:30 and the weather was bitter! Utah chose to give us a late summer, so even though it was June, it was too cold with too few blankets to stick around. This is now our 3rd time attending the concert at the Amphitheater for Eagle Mountain Days (The first year being BlackHawk solo, last year Sawyer Brown - who was awesome, and this year the trendy trio). Like our family does best, it seems we've turned this into a tradition!

June 8, 2008 - Landon's Sermon
A lot of things we have being lately revolve around Landon, hu? Well, this one had to be my favorite. He went to Youth Conference with his ward and then was asked to speak in sacrament about his experiences. This is the first time Landon has ever been asked to speak in church and I was so nervous for him. Sometimes when Landon gets in front of people, especially a large group, he gets really shy and embarrasses easily, so I was worried he might get up to the pulpit and choke. But nope, just the opposite. He did AWESOME! And if I thought I got a bit emotional at his graduation, boy was I terribly wrong. I bawled through his entire talk. I was just so proud of him! He got up and would say a line and then my dad would repeat it. However, there were a few lines Landon said that I swear everyone understood and he didn't even need my dad there to help him. Landon entitled his talk "Things I did and did NOT like about Youth Conference." Of course, he went through his likes - the dance, helpful leaders, making new friends, etc. Then he said "things I didn't like about youth conference" and when my dad repeated it so the congregation could understand everyone started laughing. Then Landon said "Getting whipped in the face with a tree branch." When my dad repeated it the congregation laughed even louder and you could just see on his face that Landon was so proud of himself for making a joke. I couldn't believe how good he did and it was so fun to watch. Good job Landon!

June 13-15, 2008 - Joe's Valley Reservoir
I was so sad to admit that mine and Doug's first camping trip of the season just happened! We love camping and have been waiting to go since April. Unfortunately, there is always so much going on surrounding the weekends, and besides that, Utah has thrown us some harsher than usual June weather. But, we finally did it. For our first camping trip of the year we decided to go somewhere neither of us had ever been. We chose Joe's Valley Reservoir in Emery county as the place. It is about 2.5 hours south east of Spanish Fork, but it was definitely worth the drive. The reservoir was absolutely beautiful and surrounded by tons of trees and great camping spots. The best part about this place is it is so far from everything, so it's really private. The whole weekend I think we saw maybe 5 cars and just a handful of people. We had a great time setting up our little camping spot - we have the best camping equipment which makes it so fun. Doug even had a new outdoor grille to set up, which made for great outdoor eating. On Saturday we spent the morning down at the reservoir trying out a little fishing. I must admit, this was my first time ever fishing - Doug made sure I was set up with my own pink pole and everything. He found a spot in a little marsh-land type thing where the fish were just jumping everywhere. I was so proud that I caught the first fish of the day. It was by no means a trophy fish, but it was my first ever, so I was happy with it. That turned out to be the only fish I caught that day, but Doug caught 4 of what are called splake fish - the most popular in this reservoir. After about a half an hour we ran out of worms before we ran out of fish! They were just squirming all over the place. Following our fishing escapade we spent the entire afternoon on our 4-wheeler. There were tons of trails surrounding the mountain, which makes for such a fun ride. I even found something I just had to take a picture of - "Carlson Lane" which I am now sporting on my blog! We spent the whole weekend without a watch, and it was so relaxing just running on our own time. Even though we spent 2 nights up there, it always seems way too quick that we are packing up and leaving. It's just not that often I get to spend the uninterrupted, quality time with my husband and I just loved it!

Check out how beautiful this place is!

Amazing what you can find in the middle of nowhere - an abandoned car and an old mine cart

June 15, 2008 - Father's Day
For Father's Day this year we spent part of the day with my extended family at my Grandpa Al's and the other part with Doug's family at his Grandma Higginsons. At both places we had great meals and opened presents. For both of our fathers we got gift certificates for 2 to the Little America brunch, which was a big hit. Who doesn't love that brunch? We are so lucky to have great fathers who contribute so much to our family. Happy Father's Day!

We Have a Yard!

2008-05-27T15:05:00.000-06:00

Doug has been working really hard on making our yard look just beautiful! It's amazing how much better a lawn can make your house look - it really adds wonders! The above pictures were the work-in-progress. He was so excited that our lot was leveled and ready for landscaping that he wouldn't even stop when it got dark. Luckily Doug has brothers who were willing to help him lay our sod, or else the day project would have quickly turned into weeks. Doug even paved his own little stone walkway which turned out amazing. We have quickly become the envy of our little neighborhood - we are the first ones to have our yard finished, fruit trees and all. And now, the finished product...

World's Biggest Bed

2008-05-24T11:18:00.004-06:00

Ok, it might not be the world's BIGGEST bed, but it's the biggest I've ever seen. Oh, how I love my husband, but when we are ready to go to sleep, we both need our space. Thus, the wonderful idea for our enormous bed came to life. And since Doug is absolutely amazing at woodwork, this beautiful built-in bed/wall unit only took about a week to complete.
I love this picture because it shows the size of the bed compared to me. And if you'll notice - I even helped out a little bit! In case you have ever tried to find a quilt big enough to cover 2 queen sized beds placed side by side, you know that it's not easy. Therefore, I decided to make one, and I thought it made the bed look that much better! (And this way I can say that I actually contributed to our new bed!)

Doug also built this great dresser to complete our bedroom set. The pictures of both the bed and the dresser don't do them justice - they both turned out awesome!

Memorial Day or Bust

2008-05-23T21:01:00.000-06:00

Unfortunately it was a BUST! All I have to say is WHAT is up with this crazy Utah weather? It totally ruined my camping plans for Memorial Day weekend. I had done my research on a fun place for Doug and I to go for camping, four wheeling, and fishing for this 3 day weekend. With the gift certificate Doug got for his birthday from my extended Johnson family (new birthday tradition) he bought us both new fishing poles. Ok, not new for me - it was the first fishing pole I have ever owned. But I was really excited for the first four wheeler all-day ride of the season, and having Doug teach me how to fish. The weather, however, did not cooperate at all. All week long Utah county was drenched with rain and terrible weather. Obviously, that type of weather is not conducive to a fun outdoor weekend. So, Joe's Valley Reservoir camping weekend will have to be postponed for now.
This is the picture looking out standing on our front porch. In case the picture doesn't show it clearly - it was absolute sunshine with pouring down rain! Utah weather just does not make sense!

Seminary Graduation

2008-05-19T20:29:00.000-06:00

I really cannot believe that my younger brother is getting so grown up that he is nearing high school graduation! Along with high school graduation comes seminary graduation and this past Sunday Landon graduated all 4 years! He was really glad to have us all there supporting him and we were so proud of him. Congrats Lando!

It's Mom's Day!

2008-05-11T22:14:00.009-06:00

We had a great time this year celebrating Mother's Day. One of the great things about being married is having two families to celebrate with! We decided to give both of our mother's a ticket to see Martina McBride in concert in August (well, I decided). And the best thing about it...of course, they have to have someone to go with! I kindly volunteered. Doug and I were both blessed with really great mothers and we are so glad to have them close to us in our lives. Happy Mother's Day!

I don't think Jill was prepared for how quickly her family went from male domination to female domination! The women now outnumber the men...sorry boys.

Disney Movie Club

2008-05-06T15:17:00.007-06:00

Since we moved into our house, our mailbox has been flooded with an absurd amount of ads, junk mail, and subscription offers. Usually these are all directly inserted into our garbage can. However, the kid in me could not possibly let me dispose of the Disney offer, so I am now a proud member of the Disney Movie Club! I have to admit I was so excited when I got my first five movies in the mail (and at a bargain too - $1.98 total for all five!) I had to opt for Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc, Ratatouille, and National Treasure. I have yet to watch the first 3 (of course, I've seen them before, don't be ridiculous) but National Treasure was watched the first day I got it (you gotta love that show), and Doug and I watched Ratatouille for the first time Sunday night. It was the cutest movie! I love how creative and imaginative Pixar is - I'm such a huge Disney fan. There's just something great about knowing you'll be watching a wholesome family film without worrying about the trash! (Even though we don't have kids yet, I still appreciate no trash!) If any of you want to join, make sure you let me invite you - I would hate to turn down a free movie or two :)

Happy Birthday Ileigh!

2008-05-05T15:10:00.009-06:00

Our niece was born a little Cinco de Mayo baby and is already turning 2 today! I cannot believe how fast time flies. Although, to think that she was born before Doug was even home from his mission, makes it seem like forever ago. On Saturday we went to Doug's parents house to celebrate with some cake and ice cream. The cutest thing is watching a two year old open presents - she was just so excited about everything she got. And I ended up being pretty proud - the auto bubble maker Doug and I bought her seemed to be the hit. Although I will recognize two things:

1. We shared the spotlight with Grandma's Higgy's gift of a purse with fake makeup and darling little sunglasses.
2. If Jill's bubble thrower lawn mower would have actually threw bubbles, my gift would have quickly been set on the back burner!)

Besides Wesley's mishap with the silly string that ended up in Ileigh's face, the day was a big success. Happy Birthday Ileigh!

Arctic Circle Follow-up

2008-05-01T12:32:00.002-06:00

Some of you have asked: Landon works from 11:00 am - Noon a few days a week. That makes it a little difficult to catch him, since being grown-ups we all have jobs! But if you could stop in and say hi I know it would make Landon's day!

Where the good stuff is

2008-04-28T14:18:00.004-06:00

I am so proud of my younger brother! Today he started his first day of work at Arctic Circle! He gets to work an hour a day during school and he is so excited about having a job. I can't even believe Landon is old enough and mature enough to be employed - he is getting so big it is just incredible. Now we have even more reasons to stop in for a shake or two! Good job Landon and good luck with your new job!

Joe & Carol Weaver

2008-04-13T22:02:00.002-06:00

Instead of staying in California or Las Vegas for a few days after our cruise, we rushed home in order to attend the temple sealing of a couple Doug taught on his mission in Georgia, Joe and Carol Weaver. And boy, we are sure glad that we did. We felt so honored to be invited - well, it wasn't really me, it's Doug they wanted and I just come as part of the package deal! They were just the sweetest couple and treated me like they had known me for years! It was really neat to see how excited they were that Doug could be a part of their sealing...he was even asked to be a witness. The only temple sealing I have ever been to is my own, and let's face it - I had so many emotions running through me that day I don't remember it at all. So it was really neat to see their sealing and remember some of the things from my own. We were really glad that we were able to be there. The Weavers also had a grandson being blessed on Sunday, and asked us to come. It is amazing for me to think of how many people got really close to and care so much about Doug from his mission and I don't even know them! So I was really glad to finally meet some of them! Congratulations Weavers and thanks for including us in such a wonderful day!

Cruisin!

2008-04-12T22:11:00.009-06:00

Mine and Doug's families joined forces and headed West to board a cruise ship! We had such a wonderful time. Doug and I are very lucky because our families get a long really well, which makes it easy for us to do tons of things together. We started our trip Saturday night and attempted the all-night drive to California. Landon was just the funniest thing. First of all, he absolutely insisted on driving with Doug's dad Mark. Second, he insisted on being in the front seat. He also was so proud that he only slept about 30 minutes total in the 10 hour night drive. He felt so grown up :) Besides the fact the drivers were a bit drowsy the next day, it worked out really well - especially for the car load with the baby!

Huntington Beach; Baseball Game

The first day in California, after a quick breakfast at the all-too-famous Denny's, we spent some time at Huntington Beach. Some of the family crazies (pictured above) spent their time in the freezing cold ocean, while the rest of us watched for sheer entertainment. Again, Landon was so funny to watch. He kept saying "I've never done this before" because he hadn't ever been to the ocean - and he sure lived it up! At first he was a little shy and just stuck his feet in, but by the end he was soaked from head to foot and didn't know whether to laugh or cry about it. After walking out on the pier and enjoying the scenery we headed out to Anaheim for an Angels MLB game. There's just something about being at a professional sporting event that is so dang fun!

Later that night, after a bit of confusion finding San Pedro, Doug and I took off for a little alone time. We had dinner in Torrance and enjoyed driving around exploring the LA suburbs. I couldn't have been happier that night to stay in a nice hotel, and even happier to sleep in a bed rather than a car!

Cruise Ship

I just can't say enough about the cruise ship! We got on the ship Monday afternoon and everyone was just amazed at how big it was. My favorite part of each day was the formal dinners we all had together. The food was AMAZING and it was all you can eat, which was the best part! We kept busy with the after-dinner shows, the chocolate buffet, and shopping (Doug bought a nice watch he had been wanting for his birthday!)

San Diego

Our first port was on Tuesday to the great town of San Diego. As soon as we looked around the port from the ship Doug noticed right away the enormous Navy boat docked just yards away from us. Doug, Landon, James, and I spent the next 3 hours touring the USS Midway, a Navy ship which was retired and now docked as a museum. It really was quite interesting to hear the stories about life for the Navy men aboard the Midway and the 3 wars the US Ship went through. They even had old Navy aircraft which you could get in and tour. It really was quite fun. After that, Doug and I split from our brothers and toured a few more ships around the dock - an old pirate ship, Russian submarine, and an old ferry boat. Needless to say, this was Doug's favorite part of the entire vacation!

Catalina Island

Our second port stop was to Catalina Island. I love this little island. It reminds me so much of Park City - fun little souvenir shops, cute cafes, and beautiful scenery. We walked around the town of Avalon, to the old casino, then stopped at Olaf's for the best ice cream triple decker I'd ever had :)

Ensenada, Mexico

Our third port was to the city of Ensenada in Baja Mexico. This was what I was most excited for, because I knew how much our families were going to love it. We took a guided tour bus the 40 or so minute drive out to the shopping district and La Bufadora (one of 3 natural blow holes in the world). Although the tide was low and La Bufadora wasn't very good at "bufing" we had a GREAT time shopping at the flea market. It is crazy how much you are hounded at the market by local salespeople, however that is what makes it kinda fun. I love shopping here because you come away with the great things at a bare minimum cost. These people will bargain with you until you're red in the face! Doug walked away with an Indian Jones-type leather hat
and I got a magnetic necklace I had been wanting ever since Allison came home with one months ago. The best part of our extravaganza was eating the authentic Mexican tacos at a local street vendor. They were absolutely delicious...what I wouldn't give for a few more of those babies!

As you can see, this cruise was a total success and already people are asking when we're doing our next vacation!

Happy Birthday Douglas!

2008-04-05T22:55:00.002-06:00

This year we had a lot of fun celebrating Doug's birthday multiple times. The first celebration was this Saturday with Doug's family and grandma's and my immediate family. It was good to get together with everyone since some were not traveling with us the next week and wouldn't be with Doug on his actual birthday. Doug had mentioned he couldn't remember the last time he had a full-blown birthday party for just him, so it was a lot of fun to make his birthday a big deal. I love hosting parties and having everyone over at our house, so it was a great time. And I had been waiting for this day for about 3 months. I was so excited to give Doug his presents that I had kept a secret for months - which I usually can't do. I get way too anxious and give presents as soon as I get them, so I was proud I lasted so long! If I do say so myself, I had the perfect presents for Doug this year - a picture he had wanted for years (The Prayer at Valley Forge), Super Nintendo games Donkey Kong and Aladdin, and an Anaheim Angels hat to add to his collection. He also received the collector's book "The Fate of the Prosecutors of Joseph Smith" from my family and a cologne set from his family. He even got his Grandma H to make him a bowl full of her famous rice pudding! Thanks to everyone and happy birthday Doug!

Girl Cousin Lunch

2008-03-28T22:48:00.000-06:00

Since Tami is about to burst into labor any day, and with her first baby girl, we decided to use that as an excuse to get together with just the girls. We need to find more excuses like this one because it was a lot of fun going to lunch, and the Olive Garden food made it even better. Although Annalece wasn't able to make it, 6 out of the 7 girl cousins isn't bad...we even had a tag-a-long Skylar! Tami...here's for hopefully just a few more days!

Happy Easter!

2008-03-28T15:17:00.006-06:00

It took me a while to get this post up here, but I did want to talk about how much fun we had on Easter Sunday. We spent the first half of the day with Doug's family at his Grandma Higginson's house. Since Doug served his mission in Georgia he learned definite Southern styles of cooking, which included many, many foods that were deep fried. So this year for Easter he decided to deep fry a turkey! This isn't even something I had heard of before he brought it up! He was a little nervous since he had only assisted in the deep-frying process, but he ended up mastering the entire meal. The turkey was delicious and he also cooked dutch oven potatoes and apple cobbler. This picture just kills me because you can see how proud he is of his masterpiece - almost as proud as a new father :) We then caught the tail end of my Johnson family party at my Aunt Diane's house, which is the best part anyway, because that is when the easter egg hunt is held. My Aunt Lecia always puts on a great hunt, hiding money and prizes in the eggs. I walked away with $11 and Doug came away with $6, plus a few candybars. Not as good as last year (we got like $30 in gift certificates and like $30 in cash!) but not bad. It was a beautiful day too, so it was so fun to be outside. I can even say that Doug and I got our first sunburns of the season! (Don't you love the shirt I'm sporting? Allison went to the Hard Rock Cafe in Tokyo and brought me back the coolest shirt which I love!)

Allie's Home!

2008-03-22T22:23:00.000-06:00

My sister has been teaching English in Japan for the last 3 months and she is finally home! She absolutely loved living in Tokyo and had the best experiences, but she is glad to be home and with her family again. It is so good to have her home and is really fun hearing all of her stories. Welcome home Allison!
(The picture is kind of blurry but you get the idea)

An Auger Dinner

2008-03-20T22:08:00.000-06:00

Last Monday it was so fun to have Katie and her family over for dinner. Since she didn't hesitate one minute when I asked what I could make that her children would eat, we had spaghetti and it seemed like a bit hit. It was really fun to catch up, since getting together with friends doesn't happen as much when everyone gets so involved with their own lives and families. I just can't believe my high school friend already has 2 kids! I guess me and Doug have a bit of catching up to do!

American Idol

2008-03-12T20:44:00.005-06:00

I have to admit I have been caught up in the American Idol wave this year, along with 30 million other viewers across America! I didn't watch it one season last year, but for some reason this year I am into it. And my favorite is Brooke White! She has such an amazing voice and I just love her. She is definitely my vote for this year's American Idol. However I do like Michael Johns as well. He has a cute little Australian accent and a really good voice. Not exactly my favorite is Jason Castro (the guy with the dreads), but I really loved his performance last week when he did the song Hallelujah. Here's a link to view it on YouTube: http://youtube.com/watch?v=g941SpNT6mk. I'm hoping tonight that Amanda the rocker girl is heading home - definitely not my cup of coffee, that's for sure. But I am having a fun time watching this year. Vote for Brooke!

I've Been Tagged!

2008-03-12T14:56:00.003-06:00

So the big thing in the blog world right now is being tagged by friends to learn a little more about you. Here it goes!

Tagged By Mary Beck

5 Years Ago:
Excited to pick out my dress for Prom with Doug, close to high school graduation.

5 Things on my To Do List today:
-Finish all tasks at work

-Cut out the fabric for the quilt I am making

-Make dinner

-Find out who is kicked off American Idol

-Print flyers for Wesley’s lawn care business

Snacks I enjoy:
Graham Crackers with Nutella

Western Family (has to be this kind) string cheese

3 Bad Habits:
-Overreacting

-Biting my lips when I’m hungry

-Applying makeup and doing my hair in the car on my way to work

5 Places I've Lived:
-Spanish Fork, Utah

-Springville, Utah

-Rexburg, Idaho

-Eagle Mountain, Utah

Sorry, there’s only been 4 places

5 Jobs I've Had:
-Newspaper delivery girl with my friend Jen

-Receptionist at a beauty salon

- Hostess at Brick Oven

- Office Manager/Executive Secretary at The Storm Group

-Accounting Manager at No More Mortgage

Countries Visited Outside the US:

-Belize

-Mexico

Things you don't know about me:
-The sound of taking off the white strip on top of a juice concentrate can gives me the heeby jeebys.

-I don’t think I have ever been on time to work

-I hate Rascal Flatts and don’t understand why I am the only one.

-I screen my phone calls.

-I love the Far Side comics and laugh out loud when I read them, even if I’m the only one in the room.

-I am terribly afraid of heights

-I love listening to books on CD in the car

- My parents got the idea for my name from Erin Honeycut on the TV show M.A.S.H.

Before I Die:

-I want 5 or 6 kids!

- I want to visit all of the temples around the world. And boy the list is growing…now around 120 I believe.

A Few Favorites:

Ice Cream: Farr’s Moose tracks

Smells: Doug’s cologne, Gasoline

Sports to Watch: Basketball and Volleyball

Dessert: Pumpkin Roll

TV Shows: LOST!, 24, Still Standing, Friends

Sound: A Baby’s Giggle

Day of the Week: Definitely Saturday

Restaurant: The Cheesecake Factory

Drink: Pepsi

Disney Movies: Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Hercules, A Goofy Movie, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Monster’s Inc., Toy Story 1& 2 (it’s just too hard to cut down the list).

Books: The Work and the Glory series, Tuesdays with Morrie, and anything Dr. Seuss

Movies: The Notebook, A Few Good Men

Lunch Meat: Roast Beef

Candy bar: Reeses Peanut Butter Cups

Cereal: Cracklin’ Oat Bran – aka doggy cereal.

Food: My dad’s meatballs

Husband: DOUG! Ok, I’ve only had one, but he sure is my favorite :)

Whew! Now consider yourself tagged, but be prepared this blog takes forever!

FHE

2008-03-02T21:54:00.000-07:00

Tonight we had family home evening with Doug's family. We are going to start going through Preach My Gospel every week and getting our lessons from each chapter. Doug started out the book this week with a great lesson on The Restoration of the church. We even got to hear his dad's story of how he gained his testimony of the gospel while in the army, which was really neat. All of you out there...family night is such a good opportunity for your family to spend time together!

Passports

2008-02-29T17:25:00.000-07:00

We are finally prepared to set sail! And if you think that it is easy to get passports for 14 people boy would you be wrong. Mackenzie was left the last one waiting for her passport, but she finally let out a sigh of relief. They all have the new ones too, with a different design on them, from when Doug and I first got ours two years ago. Our families all now have their passports and we are ready for our Mexican cruise! 38 days and counting...

Chester, Utah

2008-02-23T17:40:00.002-07:00

If you are like me, you have never heard of Chester, Utah. Well, I had never heard of it until Doug asked me to go with him to deliver a hutch he made. Good news travels, and apparently word of Doug's furniture traveled all the way to Chester! By the way Chester is just south of Moroni, and if you don't know where that is either, it's about a half hour east of Nephi. It was worth the drive though, because the lady just loved the piece of furniture and couldn't be happier with it. If I do say so myself, I thought it was beautiful as well!

Landon's a Dancing Machine!

2008-02-21T19:59:00.001-07:00

Landon has become a singing, dancing machine! He had a choir performance tonight, although it's not just choir but a whole musical production filled with dancing. He was so funny to watch, he just got into it! Good job Landon!

Valentine's Day

2008-02-14T23:07:00.003-07:00

Valentine's Day has always been a weird holiday for us. The years before Doug's mission he was always in St. George umpiring a baseball tournament, and then he was on his mission, so we never really celebrated Valentine's. We always did something a few days later, but it was never a big deal. So that left me wondering what this Valentine's Day was going to bring. But of course I shouldn't have doubted because I have the sweetest husband ever. He woke me up a little early for work to enjoy a wonderful breakfast in bed with bacon, waffles, eggs...the whole works. When I came home from work he had flowers for me sitting on the kitchen table and we went out for dinner at Red Lobster. It was a really fun night. Happy Valentine's Day!

Superbowl 2008 - Giants vs. Patriots

2008-02-03T22:09:00.004-07:00

Since we are finally settled into our new house, we decided to have everybody over for the first annual Carlson Superbowl Party! We had all the pizza everyone could eat, as well as every dip, chip, and treat you could imagine. It turned out to be a really fun night. We were excited to get Doug's brother Steven and his family over here since they had yet to see our new house. And aside from the party side of it, the superbowl was such a good football game. The Patriots were competing to become the 2nd team ever to produce an undefeated year and the Giants were definitely the underdog. The Giants pulled it out and defeated the Patriots 17-14.
The Guest List: My mom and dad, Landon, Jill, Wesley, Kensie, Brooklyn, Steven, Jessica, Ileigh, Mackenzie, and of course, me and Doug.

The Prophet's Funeral

2008-02-02T23:06:00.002-07:00

Me and Doug spent most of our Saturday afternoon watching the funeral services for President Hinckley. Speaking at his funeral were Virginia Pearce, his daughter, H. David Burton, the Presiding Bishop, Earl C. Tingey of the 70, Boyd K. Packer, President of the Quorum of the 12, Henry B. Eyring, his newest member of the First Presidency, Thomas S. Monson, President Hinckleys 1st Counselor. There were, of course, wonderful things said about his life and service in the Church and what a great man he was. It was truly a great service. And in the words of President Packer, "May our father bless the memory of this gentle prophet and his eternal companion and the sacred work over which he presided."

They're Back!

2008-01-31T22:50:00.000-07:00

My goodness, it sure has been a long year. We've been waiting so long, and I don't think we could have made it one day so it's a good thing tonight was the season premier of LOST! I really can't wait to see what happens to my good old buddies Jack, Kate, Hurley, Locke, Sawyer, Claire and the whole gang. And blast those 'Others'...

Landon's Surprise Jazz Game

2008-01-30T22:43:00.000-07:00

It was Doug's younger brother, James, idea to surprise Landon by taking him to a Jazz game. Me, Doug, and him went over to my house just before the game and James told him where we were going. Landon just about had a hernia when he heard and it was so fun to watch. Along with us came my mom, Jill, Wes, Kensie, Brooklyn, and Mackenzie. The Jazz were playing the New York Knicks and they won with no problem at all, which made it really fun. Landon was on one all night long. Seriously, I don't see him like this very often. He was standing up in front of everyone just dancing and going crazy. And all night long Landon was flirting with James' date. He was latching arms with her while they were walking and smiling and laughing at everything she said. It was so dang funny. And on the way home he was just talking so much and laughing and kept saying "I can't help it" when we said he needed to settle down. But then as soon as his date got out of the car, Landon settled down and fell asleep on the way home. He must have been exhausted from acting like a crazy excited man! Go Jazz!

Favorite Dessert Recipe

2008-01-29T21:56:00.000-07:00

Ok I don't have a picture, but trust me when I say this recipe was the easiest ever, and wow it was so dang good. Although the name is "Easy Brownies" they don't quite taste like brownies, but little bars of heavenly goodness :)

Easy Brownies

1 pkg. graham crackers 1/2 pkg. chocolate chips (or
1 can sweetened condensed milk full pkg. if want very chocolaty)

Mix together; will be thick. Bake in 8x8 inch pan at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes.

(I haven't tried using a full pkg of chocolate chips yet, but using just a 1/2 pkg was really good)

ENJOY!

President Hinckley

2008-01-27T20:11:00.001-07:00

Today everyone received the news that President Hinckley passed away. What a bittersweet moment...although sad, I can't even imagine how happy he must be to be with his wife again. He always said he missed her so much in the time he spent alone since she passed away a few years ago. I bet he was just overjoyed to see her again. What a wonderful life he lived. He will be missed a great deal but what a wonderful legacy he left for our Church.

Doug and Brooklyn

2008-01-26T22:59:00.000-07:00

I just had to stick this in here because I thought it was the cutest picture. Doug's family comes down frequently on Saturdays to ride our 4 wheeler around in the fields by our house. Kensie went riding and we got to watch Brooklyn for a little while. She is starting to sit up on her own and it is so fun to watch her progress. She is just so cute!

Park City 2007

2008-01-22T11:56:00.001-07:00

I think going to Park City in January with Doug's family is going to be a little tradition, since this is the 2^nd annual trip! Jill, Mackenzie, Wes, Doug and I drove up and spent the day outlet shopping while Wes went snowboarding. Literally, that's all we did. We followed up our shopping appetite with lunch at Ruby Tuesday and called it a day. One of my favorite parts about going to Park City is the drive. It is so beautiful going through Provo canyon, especially now that the road by Deer Creek is finished and with all of the white snow everywhere. Hopefully a little bit of this snow will fill that Creek to the brim for this summer's water adventures.

My Husband Can See!

2008-01-18T21:20:00.001-07:00

Today Doug got lasik eye surgery! It was a proud moment when he dropped his glasses into the "donate here" jar. I couldn't believe how quick the procedure is...he laid on that table and like 2 seconds later he was up and he could see. Although his eye sight was foggy for a few hours, he could see almost perfectly by the time we went to bed. You gotta love modern technology!

Our house is FINALLY done

2008-01-16T18:52:00.002-07:00

Well, after 7 months of living with our parents, we are FINALLY in our own place again! After a few delays, we finally moved in on December 27th. Although we had hoped to be in before Christmas, we realized it was the best late Christmas present that we could have ever received! It was much nicer to concentrate on Christmas and then on our home, since it became so time consuming. It seemed like this day would never come and we are so excited for our new home!

Boy what a headache this turned out to be. On moving day we found out that our refrigerator wouldn't fit through our door! So this is Doug taking the door completely off in order to fit it through! Thanks to everyone who helped us move...it would have taken us two months if Doug and I was to do it on our own!

After a few weeks, and SO much work from Doug, we are settled (out of boxes, YAY!) and loving turning the new house into our new home. Doug is so talented and has made so many pieces of furniture that have made our home even more beautiful. After a bit of painting and some last finishing touches we are finally settled.

PLEASE feel free to stop by and visit us...just use the old sugar factory as your guiding star!

I LOVE TiVo

2008-01-15T11:47:00.001-07:00

There has been something missing from our marriage in the year and a half since our wedding. I have discovered it has been TiVo. When we lived in Eagle Mountain the only option we had for television was a satellite dish and we weren't about to pay for that. Now that we are in our Spanish Fork home, we now have a television and a local phone, and therefore TiVo works! I enjoyed TiVo before we were married, and I have sure missed it since then. Television will never be the same. I LOVE TIVO!

Huntsman at the Factory?

2008-01-08T21:18:00.002-07:00

For Christmas Doug and I gave both of our parents a gift certificate to the infamous Cheesecake Factory. Although we weren't hinting for an invitation, we were more than happy to join my parents and Landon for a wonderful meal and trip to Salt Lake. We even made a stop on the way home to IKEA, because my dad and Landon hadn't been since the opening in Draper last year. While we were eating my dad could have sworn we were sitting across from billionaire Jon Huntsman Sr, founder of the Huntsman Cancer Institute. He couldn't quit gawking, but none of us could really tell if it was him. Even after googling his picture when we got home we couldn't confirm it was him, so it's probably a good idea that we didn't hand off our bill and ask him to pay for it! Jon, if you read my blog, let me know if that was you with your family at the Factory! Wink, wink.

Super Mario Brothers

2008-01-06T22:32:00.000-07:00

Look familiar? If so then you have played too much Nintendo too. For Christmas I gave Doug all 3 Super Mario games along with the original Nintendo system. I have to admit I got those for me just as much as for Doug! I know it sounds so childish and like a total waste of time, but I just love these stupid games, especially Super Mario 3!

A Quiet New Years Eve

2008-01-01T17:04:00.001-07:00

This year we spent a quiet New Year's Eve at home with my dad, mom, and Landon. We watched Disney's Cars, which Landon insisted we watched, which was fun. That Mater fellow is a hoot and we had a good time ringing in the new year.

Top National Headlines 2007

2007-12-31T10:31:00.000-07:00

News
Virginia Tech Shooting - deadliest school shooting in US history
Deadly Bridge Collapse in Minnesota
Southern California Wildfires
Rise in Foreclosures and Mortgage Crisis
Recall of Millions of Toys Made in China
Nuclear Weapons Accidentally Flown Over US
Ongoing War in Iraq
Idaho Senator Larry Craig Arrested for Disorderly Conduct in Minneapolis Airport Restroom
350-Pound Tiger Escaped from Cage in San Francisco Zoo and Attached 3 Visitors
McCann Girl Goes Missing While Vacationing with Her Parents in Portugal
Utah Mine Disaster - Collapse Kills 6
Trolley Square Shooting
Gas Prices Continue to Rise Across the Nation - hit more than $3.00/gallon in Utah.
Entertainment
Introduction of the iPhone
Bob Barker of the Price is Right Retires; Drew Carey takes his place
Paris Hilton goes to jail
Britney Spears drama continues - Britney shaving her head
OJ Simpson in the News Again - this time for thievery
7th and Final Harry Potter Book Released
Death of Anna Nicole Smith

Sports
Indianapolis Colts win SuperBowl XLI against Bears
Boston Red Sox win World Series
Roger Federer wins 5th Consecutive Wimbledon Title

The Incredibles

2007-12-26T21:17:00.001-07:00

We caught the last few minutes of the Disney movie The Incredibles a couple of months ago on TV and Doug was just enthralled. So I decided to get him the movie for Christmas. We ended up watching it on Christmas day with my mom and Allison and just loved it. It was the cutest movie. Those Pixar people really have imaginative brains. Without the good man Walt Disney, where would we get our good, all-time favorite wholesome movies?

My traveling sister - Now to Japan

2007-12-26T16:42:00.000-07:00

And she's off! The day after Christmas didn't give her much time to prepare, however Allison left for her Japanese adventure this morning at like 5 am. She is going to be spending the next 3 months in Tokyo, like the biggest city in the world, teaching English to Elementary School children. I am so excited for her! Although she is an experienced traveler, I don't think anything could prepare her for the new Asian experience she is about to have! Good Luck Allie!

Christmas Eve and Day 2007

2007-12-25T12:56:00.004-07:00

We have never lacked numerous family parties around Christmas time! This year for Christmas Eve, of course we went to my Aunt Diane's house. We did the Mexican food and Home Alone, but left a bit early so we could make it to Doug's family party. Down at Doug's Grandma Higginson's we exchanged the siblings gifts since Steve and Jessica weren't going to be here on Christmas Day. I was so excited to give my gift because I had Brooklyn (I know, the luckiest pick of the lot!) and got her the cutest fur boots. It was really fun to have everyone there and Ileigh was just so dang cute. Jill got her a red tricycle and her eyes got so big when she first saw it. Like last year we all had a big sleepover over at Grandma H's so after the party we pulled out the air mattress and bunked on the floor (there are just getting to be too many married couples and we got booted from a bedroom!) Christmas morning, like usual, was wonderful. There were so many gifts it looked like we were having Christmas for everyone in the whole town! Kensie's favorite present was the Magic Bullet she had wanted forever from an infomercial, Wesley got a bunch of clothes from Cabellas, Mackenzie got her Zune, and James got a new laptop. But my heavens that wasn't all - everyone got so many gifts, it was such a great Christmas. The great thing about Christmas morning is that Doug's family wakes up really early and my family sleeps in. So after we were done at the Carlson's we ran up to my house for another bout of present opening. I love giving people presents and picking out just the great gift so everyone will just love it. This year I gave Allison a plaque listing all of the places she has traveled and she just loved it. It was so fun to give it to her. And we showered Landon with Jazz and Hannah Montana accessories that he really loved. I was also proud of the stitchery I did for my mom saying "Everything I need to know I learned in Primary." It turned out so cute, I was so excited for her to have it. To both of our parents Doug and I gave a gift certificate to the Cheesecake factory (hopefully they'll both invite us to go with them!)

This year Doug and I had a great time picking out just the best gifts for each other. I absolutely loved my gift from Doug. I was so amazed that he actually remember something I said I had wanted so bad. When I took a humanities class at BYU I saw this sculpture that I absolutely loved. It was of David, however it wasn't the Michaelangelo sculpture that has gotten such fame, but it was sculpted by Bernini. Doug remembered how much I loved it and ordered me a small statue of David! I couldn't have been more caught off guard and surprised and happy when I opened the gift, I just loved it! He also gave me some really powerful walkie talkies to add to our camping collection, and a pack of Pepsi! I loved giving Doug his present - I had made a plaque of Doug's line of authority engraved with an etching of Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery receiving the priesthood. HE LOVED IT and I was so proud of my gift giving skills! I also got him an original Nintendo with all 3 Super Mario games. He had wanted them since seeing a game exchange store in the mall, and even put his name on a waiting list. So he loved the games and was so excited to play them. We had a great Christmas this year!

This year for Aunt Lecia and Joyce's cousin gifts at my Aunt Sue's party they gave us all $50 along with a stock! It really was the coolest thing and made me want to get a little bit more involved in investing in the stock market. Pretty cool! Merry Christmas everyone!

Higginson Christmas Party

2007-12-23T12:35:00.003-07:00

This year what is usually the Christmas open house at Grandma Higginson's was a full blown party at the Salem civic center. It was really pretty because it sits right on top of Salem pond, which is completely filled with a Christmas light display. They put together a scrapbook for Grandma Higginson about all of her kids and grandkids favorite Christmas memories of her and her husband, Ralph. Doug was one of the grandkids that was chosen to share his favorite memories and he did a great job. I got two great pictures of Doug - one with Brooklyn and one with Jay, his cousin Lindsey's baby boy. We finished the night by going on a carriage ride around the pond. It was cold, but it sure was fun!

Christmas Canoe & Brick Oven

2007-12-22T20:44:00.000-07:00

The subject line pretty much describes it all. We celebrated Allison's 20th birthday pigging out at Brick Oven, then we went for a canoe ride down the Provo river. It was fun to see all of the Christmas lights strung on trees surrounding the river. And the best part was seeing Landon's face when Santa Clause came riding up on a canoe next to us!

Johnson Family Pictures

2007-12-17T10:23:00.000-07:00

My mom has been wanting to get an updated family picture for some time now. The Carlson's getting their pictures done must have reminded her to make an appointment for our family. Again, I am really happy about how the pictures turned out. And it was a long time coming, considering our last professional family picture was when I was in 6th grade!

My husband is talented!

2007-12-05T20:45:00.001-07:00

I just had to show off a bit. Check out my husband's creations!

So close...

2007-11-24T17:20:00.001-07:00

Our home is getting so close to being done. Everything is moving along really smoothly and it looks like we will be in before Christmas.

Day After Thanksgiving Shopping!

2007-11-23T11:53:00.001-07:00

We did it again this year. We were crazy enough to join the after Thanksgiving day shoppers to find that great deal. Honestly this year we really weren't looking for anything in particular, we just wanted to go and join the crazies! We added a double level of crazy by taking Landon and Mackenzie with us, which turned out to be really fun. Both of them insisted they wanted to go, but weren't too sure once we woke them up at 6 am! They said that it was fun to see all the lines of people and both want to go again next year, so I guess that means we were a hit! We ended up all across Utah County from Cabelas in Lehi all the way down to the craft fair in Spanish Fork. We came home with a truck load of presents...we pretty much did all of Doug's mom's shopping for the family in this shopping spree!

Two Thanksgiving Dinners

2007-11-22T11:50:00.001-07:00

Last year for Thanksgiving we were able to attend both Doug's Grandma Carlson's dinner and my Aunt Sue's. This year wasn't any different; we got two dinners again! It was a bit different because Doug's mom did the entire dinner this year which was held at his Grandma Higginsons. It was a wonderful dinner but I tried to not over-stuff myself. Just a half hour later we had the second dinner with my family. This was also different this year because from my immediate family it was just me, Doug, Landon, and my dad. For the first year ever my mom and Allison went to Milwaukee to spend Thanksgiving with my mom's family. After dinner we spent the day looking through coupon ads for the big shopping day tomorrow!

Cheesecake Factory Grand Opening!

2007-11-12T11:36:00.002-07:00

On November 1st the Cheesecake Factory opened in Murray - the first one in Utah and I couldn't be happier about it! I first experienced the magic of the Cheesecake Factory on a business trip in Brea, California and then with Doug on his birthday trip to Denver. Ever since Denver we've been craving those avocado eggrolls, and our craving was finally curbed in our very own Utah. Hurray!

Babysitting Ileigh

2007-11-10T00:03:00.001-07:00

This just may have been another form of birth control for Doug. We spent the night babysitting Ileigh and basically every time Doug looked at her she got all freaked out and started crying. But she warmed up to me and she was just so dang cute! When we tried to put her to bed she kind of had a little episode so we took her in her stroller for a walk outside and she shut right up. She loves going for walks. That calmed her down and she went right to bed. Aunt Erin and Uncle Doug to the rescue!

We now have an upstairs

2007-11-02T17:17:00.003-06:00

They have now finished the upstairs of our soon-to-be house. This part takes the longest, so we are excited that they are done framing!

Nestle

2007-11-01T11:23:00.000-06:00

Our food storage has sure increased since my dad began working for Nestle. It is so nice because we get an enormous discount on Stouffer's frozen foods and all Nestle products. My dad took us on a shopping spree the other day in preparation to fill the pantry in our new home. Thanks Pops!

Hunting for Halloween

2007-10-29T22:09:00.000-06:00

These pictures are from this year's Halloween party at my Aunt Diane's house. This has become a really fun tradition that I look forward to every year. And what do you know...this year I even got Doug to dress up! We went as hunters; perhaps next year I can get Doug to be a little more adventurous, but I'll take what I can get! The funniest part of the whole thing was my dad. I was so glad that he actually was able to come this year, he usually has to work. But he dressed up as an old woman and it was absolutely hilarious. And leave it to Doug...he was the first one to win $10 bucks at the eerie, Halloween dancing cake walk! But I wasn't far behind - I won $5 bucks. Not a bad night for the ole Carlsons! Oh, and here's a picture of our spider carved pumpkin. I mean, I don't really want to brag, but with my mad drawing skills and our fancy special pumpkin carving tools we made a pretty sweet pumpkin!

House Update

2007-10-26T17:10:00.002-06:00

We now have the first level of our house framed! It is so exciting to see our house finally start to take form. And I have just never been so excited about seeing a bunch of wood nailed together!

My BBQ Birthday

2007-10-25T22:06:00.002-06:00

For my birthday today my family came over to the Carlson's and we all had a great BBQ dinner. Doug cooked some steaks and funeral potatoes. Jessica and Ileigh even came over and I had a really fun night. My mom and Jill gave me some decorations for my new house and Doug got me a bread maker. I have wanted one for a long time, and I am so excited to use it! Thanks everyone!

I love sticks with orange things on top

2007-10-23T20:23:00.001-06:00

The best thing about coming home from our cruise was seeing that Fieldstone finally started our home! We no longer just have a whole, but we have foundation! Man, I have never been so happy about concrete and those little sticks with orange things on top.

Homestead Massage

2007-10-22T21:20:00.000-06:00

Since my gift certificate from my last birthday was about to expire, I made an appointment to get my massage at the Homestead up in Midway. Doug drove up with me and just browsed the housing market while I enjoyed my first ever massage. I hadn't done this before, so I didn't know what to expect. I was first ushered into a waiting room with relaxing music, comfy couches, books on serenity and peace, and a cozy robe. After a short wait it was finally my turn. The massage place was actually set in an old-time cottage, so I was taken upstairs into a so-called bedroom. Again, more music and tons of scented oils. I don't know why I had never done this before! And I swear that the girl cheated me out of time, because my hour went by way too fast. When I got done my whole body just felt like mush, it was just the best birthday present ever. Thanks Doug!

The Fall Sing

2007-10-18T21:03:00.001-06:00

Tonight we got to see Landon in action at the Spanish Fork High School Fall Sing as a member of Men's Choir. He always gets so proud when he has everyone there supporting him. And they did the cutest song about pirates and it was so funny to see Landon put on an eye patch and dance around!

Brooklyn's Blessing Day

2007-10-14T21:28:00.000-06:00

Look how beautiful little Brooklyn looks! Today was her blessing day, and she just looked adorable. It was really neat because Doug had the opportunity to give her the blessing. He did a great job and gave a wonderful blessing. She is just so precious!

Brooklyn with her parents, Wesley and Kensie

And here are Doug's two neices, Ileigh and Brooklyn. So cute!

General Conference October 2007

2007-10-14T21:03:00.002-06:00

This General Conference, just like all sessions, was wonderful. There were so many great talks and inspiring words from the leaders of the Church. Also, something that is not included in every General Conference was the announcement of a new member of the Quorum of 12 Apostles. Quentin L. Cook will fill the vacancy left by Henry B. Eyring who joined President Hinckley's First Presidency with President Thomas S. Monson.

I love this picture of President Hinckley "knighting" President Eyring in his new calling. It is so fun to see his personality - what a cute old man!

Mini-me Doug!

2007-10-10T21:42:00.000-06:00

So I just thought this picture was hilarious. Doug and I were out shopping for furniture, when we ran across this freaking giant chair! It takes a lot to make Doug look this small, and boy does it make for a funny pic!

Doug's Wedding Ring

2007-10-09T12:10:00.002-06:00

Sure, Doug is able to hang on to his wedding ring for 6 months, but then as soon as we go to VEGAS he loses it! Sounds pretty bad, I know! We have no idea what happened to it. He doesn't remember taking it off, so we believe it has just disappeared. When we went to get a replacement I was actually really happy because I had wanted to get Doug a specific ring but it was way too expensive for my little budget. But this time around the jewelry line had gone down in price to make it more affordable. So Doug ended up with the ring I initially wanted to get him for a better price. Pretty good lookin', eh?