Unexpected VisiTOR!

As Stephen was finishing class with the 5th grade students today, there was an unexpected visitor. The class had just returned from the library, the door was left open, and a RED-TAILED HAWK decided to try to eat the animated characters on the door poster. After glancing off of the door, it had no where to go, but in the classroom!

It soared to the window on the other side of the room, only to find it was closed. The hawk pivoted in mid-air and swooped over the heads of 16 amazed students. Stephen instinctively dropped to one knee and yelled out to the students "GET DOWN!" The raptor managed to narrow its 4 ft. wingspan and leave through the front door, as quickly as it had arrived. Needless to say the students were wrecked for the last 10 minutes of class and it was all they talked about at recess. Quite a unique experience.

Happy Thanksgiving...I mean HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEPHEN!!!!

We had a VERY busy Thanksgiving weekend!!! For those of you who did not know...it was Stephen's 35th birthday on Thanksgiving :) We had great, crisp Fall weather, which I loved and even some sprinkles of rain to make it feel even more festive.

We started the morning bright and early by attending the Turkey Bowl (organized by our Elder's Quorum) It was so much fun watching everyone give it their all and things were VERY tense at times even though it was flag football...typical LDS competitiveness. I know I am bias...but Stephen is a hottie!!!







After the game, we rushed home to set up our webcam for a scheduled conference session with the Lineberry family back in North Carolina. All went well and we LOVED seeing everyone!! It was the highlight of our day...we miss everyone very much.

While I quickly (45 minutes) made my potato casserole aka "funeral potatoes", Stephen took a well deserved nap.

For Thanksgiving dinner we headed to John and Lynn's house. Lynn is Monet's aunt. Monet is Andy's girlfriend. Andy is my older brother. It was quite the party with over 30 guests, but we had a great time and I admit it was nice to have less stress this year. The food was great and the conversations even greater. I even brought a birthday cake for Stephen and everyone celebrated his special day!!

Our Winter Wonderland Welcome...Disney Style!!

I was lucky to get four free tickets to the private KOST FM party at Disneyland for the kick-off to the holiday season and unofficial lighting of the lights throughout the park! We asked our favorite date night couple, The Parks to join us and the four of us had a GREAT time. We got to walk on all the rides, which is unheard of at Disneyland! My favorite moment was sneaking a smooch with Stephen in the back of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride...it felt so high school :)






We had a fun ride on the Space Mountain Ride...well at least some of us did :)



Scott waiting PATIENTLY to get us some one of a kind yummy Disneyland popcorn!!



A cute pic of the Parks!



The beautiful castle, Main Street all lit up and the festive tree...







The first of many Christmas pictures to come this season!!! I just love Christmas :)

Another trip to the Wild Animal Park..

This past Veteran's Day we headed down to San Diego and met up with friends to go the Wild Animal Park. It was a perfect day with lots of sunshine. We had tons of fun seeing all the new baby animals including some cute as a button baby elephants, zebra and giraffes. I also loved seeing how big the lion cubs are getting...they just turned 1 years old. We have now seen almost the whole park with only one section left to go. The place is so huge, but it is so wonderful to hike around it. We are looking forward to returning at Christmas time and perhaps see the zoo as well.
Interesting info...As seen below, the Northern White Rhinoceros is one of the two subspecies of the White Rhinoceros. They are grazers and live in grasslands and savannah woodlands. These animals may now be extinct in the wild as a recent survey failed to locate the only known surviving population of four in the Garamaba National Park of the Congo. Only 7 captive specimens are left in the world: two at the San Diego wild Animal Park and five in the Czech Republic. They were so sweet as the male and female layed and looked into each other's eyes. The zoologist's are working with artificial insemination to try to have the Rhino's breed. Such a sad tale, but let's hope they can be saved!!