President's Day

President's Day was pretty relaxed.  We went on a short hike with some family and new friends.  Here are some of the pictures from the day.

Sometimes I just really need to grab Jeff's face!

It was a fun little walk in the wilderness.  This crazy warm weather can stay as long as it wants to here in Utah!

Best Valentine Ever!

Jeff is amazing!  Did you happen to read the tear jerking post just before this one?  Well, he sure knows how to make a girl feel special.  Not only did he write such a cute post but we had a GREAT holiday together.  Here are some pictures of the highlights.

I made shrimp scampi with asparagus for dinner on Friday and then on Saturday I made Jeff a steak and potato dinner.

My one request for the day was that Jeff get me chocolate with caramel and nuts.  Jeff got the good kind from See's Candy (good job My Love!)

After Jeff took me out for breakfast we hiked up Bell Canyon.  This is the beginning view of the valley. 

We actually took a detour and found this cool little bridge in the middle of nowhere.

The waterfall we finally go to after climbing up an icy trail.

Jeff didn't like me standing so close to the edge.

I know I look ridiculous but this gives a better picture of what the trail looked like with all the slippery ice.

We had such a great day together.  I'm just glad that we get to have another day together tomorrow.  I wonder what we will do?  I guess we will just have to wait and see!

Happy Valentine's Day My Love

As you know, Valentine's Day is quickly approaching.  I thought I'd write a little something about my valentine.  My wife Robyn is possibly the most amazing person I've ever met.  Sometimes I feel bad for every other man that lives on the earth.  It often occurs to me that every other man should be jealous of me, because it's not humanly possible for any other wife to be as amazing as mine.  (Of course, I hope that all of them feel that way about their wives, even if they are wrong because mine truly is the best.)

I just wanted to share a few of the things that I love about Robyn.  So if you don't want to read mushiness, you should probably walk away now.  You can join me again with my next post.  I promise not to be offended.

Without further ado, here are a few of the things that make Robyn great.


She's funny

Robyn and I like to laugh.  A. Lot.  She makes me laugh all the time.  Her wit is so much fun.  My favorite times are when we are laying in bed before we go to sleep.  We just chat about our day, and we usually find something hilarious to laugh about.  She's funny stuff.

She's Creative
Did I mention that Robyn planned a Nerf archery date?  Who does that?  I love that she is super creative, and always comes up with great ideas.

I'm the assistant cub scout master in my ward.  The cub master is always impressed with the games I come up with.  One time he asked me where I get such great ideas.  I told him that my wife came up with it.  Now I'm always in charge of talking to Robyn to get great ideas from her.  That's how creative and brilliant she is.

She helps me be healthy

As most of you know, Robyn and I have lost a lot of weight over the past couple years.  I've lost more than her, but that's because I had more to lose.  It's also because she has been such a great support system.  She loves to exercise with me.  Together we've gotten into hiking, Scuba Diving, backpacking, and we even tried snow shoeing.  She encourages me to spend time getting more healthy, and she makes super delicious meals that are low calorie but satisfying and scrumptious.  Basically, she should get all of the credit for working hard to lose the weight she's lost, and she should get 70% of the credit for all the weight I've lost.

She's fun

I know I already talked about how funny she is.  Fun certainly includes being funny, but there's more to it.  She's such a joy to be around.  There's not a person on this planet who dislikes Robyn.  Everyone loves to spend time with her.  She has such a joyful personality that you can't help but feel happy when you're around her.

She's kind
Robyn loves people.  She genuinely cares about how others feel.  She cares about the well-being of others and she goes out of her way to take care of people.  She does so many things for me that I can't even count, and she is constantly helping out other people, whether it be at work, or in the ward or in her family, she never passes up an opportunity to serve.

She's a hard worker

Robyn is not afraid to roll up her sleeves and get to work.  Whether it's working extra hours at work, or doing various menial tasks at home, she is always up for the challenge.

She's a thinker

I can't tell you how many times I've heard something in the news and I just can't wait to get home and ask Robyn about it.  I find it so stimulating to hear her thoughts and to get her perspective.  She really thinks about things and I absolutely love hearing what she has to say.

She's Beautiful

She's always embarrassed when I say things about how pretty she is.  But she is, so she'll just have to deal with it.

Basically, Robyn is the complete package.  I'm sorry to every other guy in the world.  I wish your wife could be as awesome as mine.  This list is by no means comprehensive.  I could write a novel.  The point is:  Robyn, I love you.  I love you more than bacon.  I love you more than great books.  I'm so happy that you are my Valentine.  Happy Valentine's Day!

Our Weekend

It has been a CRAZY week.  I had parent/teacher conferences and my coworker/team member had to resign due to health issues.  I worked over time everyday and caught a cold all at the same time.  Jeff has been working overtime too with multiple projects and high maintenance clients.  We were so happy when the weekend came.  We needed to let loose a little.

Every Friday we have a date night.  We take turns planning what we will do (most of the time it is just going out for dinner and then watching a movie at home).  I decided that I wanted to do something a little out of the ordinary.  I went to the store and found some Nerf type bow and arrow sets so we could have an in home target practice.  We were not very good, but we had a lot of fun anyway.  

The targets!

On Saturday we wanted to get outside and enjoy nature.  The weather around here this year has been unseasonably warm (which I have LOVED!).  We decided to keep it simple and just walked along the Provo Canyon Trail from Canyon View Park up to Bridal Veil Falls.  It was just over a 5 1/2 mile walk round trip.  It felt so good to be outside and in the sunshine.  I know we need more rain and snow but since we don't have it I am going to enjoy the warmth while I've got it for now.

I wonder what Jeff has planned for next weekend?

Snowshoeing

As you probably know, Robyn and I have been making an effort to be more healthy and more active.  During this process, we've taken up hiking, biking, scuba diving and various other activities.  However, we've discovered that all of the aforementioned activities are primarily summer activities.  This doesn't mean you can't do any of them in January, it's just more difficult.  (But next week there is supposed to be a low that is above freezing for a few days.  I'm totally biking to work.)  Because of this, we have ventured on a quest to expand our horizons to include more winter activities.

Our first winter activity that we decided to embrace was snowshoeing.  We called up my BFF Jared W and invited ourselves on a snowshoeing adventure with him.  Jared probably thought to himself that he wanted to do something more hardcore, but since he's awesome he planned a trip that would not kill his fat friends.

We went up Guardsman Pass in Big Cottonwood canyon.  Jared supplied the snowshoes, and he took us on an adventure.

Look how cute we are.

It turns out show shoeing is hard.  Have you ever hiked in sand?  You know how you kind of take one step forward and sink a half step backward?  Ya, that happens.  Only, it's like if you were hiking on sand with 25 pound weights strapped to your feet.

The people we were with were hardcore.  Bryce, in particular, likes to get a good workout so he intentionally strays from the trail to make it more difficult.  I told him he could get a way better workout by just being fat.

You're not hardcore unless you live hardcore.

My fatness definitely made it so that my heart rate stayed up as I was climbing that mountain.  I was sure glad I wore shorts.  I was dripping sweat like a maniac.  (I'm not really sure if maniacs sweat more than the average person, but let's just say I was sweating a lot.)

It was hard work, but the scenery was beautiful.  There's nothing like an untouched blanket of snow in the middle of a forest.

Hiking beyond the horizon.

It was hard work climbing up that mountain, but it was almost as hard coming down.  Jared just rolled down.

It looks like he's falling to his death, and he is, but it was on purpose.

I wasn't quite that adventurous. I did my best to walk.  But as I was walking down the mountain in 4 feet of powder, my feet would slowly slide and my mind was too blown to be able to keep me balanced.  I fell down several times, and when you fall you sink.  You don't realize how deep the snow is until you're trying to stand up and everything you put your weight on sinks 4 feet below you.  It was an adventure but I totally got out alive.

All in all, I'd say it was a success.  We had a good time in nature with some great people.

The peeps

I'm pretty sure we need to get in better shape before we attempt it again.  But it was fun, and Robyn sure was cute.

A New Nephew for a New Year!

New Year's Eve was a big day for my family.  My mom finally became a Grandma.

I should note that she's been pressuring me to have children since the day I got home from my mission.  At the time I tried to explain to her that there were some behaviors involved with having children that I probably shouldn't do when I'm a single person fresh home from a mission, but my mom would have none of it.  She wanted grandchildren and that was the end of the discussion.  (In her defense, she hasn't nagged us about having grandchildren since we announced we were trying to adopt.)

Despite not nagging Robyn and I for grandchildren, Mom's desire to have them hasn't been any less.  So I was very happy when I got up on the morning of New Year's Eve to see that my sister-in-law had given birth and Ethan had entered the world around 3 AM.   My Mom finally got to be a cute little granny and hold her new grandson.

Isn't she the cutest Grandma?

I was sleeping when Ethan entered the world, and after that I was working.  So I didn't get to see Ethan until the later afternoon, but I did get to come meet him and wish him a happy birthday.

Look at that preciousness.

The picture looks kind of like he's a redhead, but he's actually super bright blond.  He's a pretty well mannered baby.  He only cried when is parents did cruel things like move him or change his diaper.

Zack was a super cute little Daddy.  He was just enamored with Ethan and only ran in terror once when he had a poopy diaper.

And Robyn was a super cute little aunt.

We're excited to welcome the newest member of our extended family.  Ethan is probably the second cutest Stockett behind Robyn.

Christmas Festivities

We had a fabulous Christmas.  Lots of things happened in just a few short days, so I've put together a list of the highlights.  Sorry this post is ridiculously long.  If the longness offends you, you are free to close your browser and flee from your computer.

Stollen
Robyn made Stollen this week.  Stollen is a traditional German bread that is filled with deliciousness.  Robyn's grandmother is from Germany, and when we were visiting her last Christmas, Robyn made sure to get Stollen lessons so that she could learn the art.  She did it this year without any assistance, and I was very impressed due to the deliciousness of the final product.

Looking cute while she works.

Forming the dough.

Selfie with the final product.

Breakfast with Megan and Graham and Grahams
On Christmas Eve we went over to Megan and Graham's (Robyn's sister and her husband) place to have breakfast.  We did the traditional (for the Wrights) crepe breakfast and it was really good.  Robyn's other sister was there with her 1 year old twins.  Here are a few pictures from that morning.

Will was getting sick, so Megan let him entertain himself with the ipad.  He kept sneezing on it.  It was simultaneously adorable and disgusting.

Robyn likes babies.

He kept trying to crawl over the box.  Around it would have been way easier.

Doing a little dance number.

Snapchat
Last year we started a tradition of sending Snapchat pictures of each other (and especially of Graham).  I promised my niece we would continue the tradition, even though she was in California and we were not.

The first snapchat is away!

However, I quickly realized that Robyn's sister and her husband have the last name of Graham, so we could also snapchat pictures of them.

Teance didn't disappoint.  She may not have had any Grahams to snapchat, but she shared the love with plenty of selfies.

My brother Justin even got in on it.

Robyn made sure to send snapchats mocking me.

Christmas Morning
Christmas morning I woke up early and couldn't go back to sleep.  Normally, Robyn is an early riser on Christmas.  It's the one day of the year that she doesn't want to sleep in, but I had to wake her up.  We exchanged presents at our house and then went outside to shovel the white Christmas off of our driveway before heading to my parent's house to have even more Christmas there.

I put a tiara in Robyn's stocking.  I thought she'd think it was fun and cute.  She was so excited, and screamed, "I get to be a PRINCESS!"  I wasn't expecting that much excitement.

I was surprised to see how big Christmas was at my parent's house.

Zack got lots of ties. 

Justin really liked the beanie he got.  It was made even better by combining it with Robyn's tiara.

All the boys got dinosaur hats.  I think I need to work on my dinosaur impression.

Olive wanted to be a dinosaur as well.  

Near the end of the day, Robyn revealed her secret identity as Elsa.

It was a great Christmas!  I'm just sad it's over.  Maybe we should do it again this week.