First Christmas Together

This was our first Christmas together and wespent it together in Logan since I worked Christmas day. Wendy's family has always had Christmas stockings and my family have always had Christmas boots. Fortunately both types of containers hold candy brought by "Santa" just as well as the other. I am impressed by Wendy's ability to extemporize for a Christmas boot.

We had a Christmas tree with Christmas presents. It's small, but at least it's a tree. There was even a fair number of presents for us underneath it.

Of course, we all know that presents are made to be admired...and poked and prodded until you know what they are.

Any tree is improved with a wife in front of it. No matter how small the tree.

Learning how to surf!

During our recent vacation to the Oregon coast we saw a lot of people out in the waves surfing. I made an offhand comment to Wendy that I've always wanted to learn how to surf. I should know better than that. She spent the next thirty minutes finding a place that teaches surfing and making an appointment for me there. Isn't she great? I had a blast. I even was able to get up a couple of times.

Swim Ben Swim!

I'm up!

Not up.

Carrying the board

Making Cream Puffs

There are few things as delectable as cream puffs. They have a good pastry, soft gooey filling, and chocolate on the outside.  Something for everyone! We decided to make some.

Making the filling

Finishing up the pastries

More filling

Frosting

 

Eating!

 All I can say is...YUMMMMM!!!!!

Frightmares

Last year Wendy and I went to Frightmares as one of our earlier dates. It was a landmark date because it was when we both first realized: hey, this person actually is interested in me and isn’t just going through the motions. We remembered having a lot of fun at the amusement park last year. We decided that we would go again this year. Once again, it was fun.

We do have the strategy down a little bit better this time.  Last year we were still trying to get on rides when it started to get cold. This year we managed to get all the rides finished just in time to watch all of the Halloween shows and to go through all four of the haunted houses. (On that note, Time Warp passes for the haunted houses SO worth the extra $15)

Ben is Wicked

Wendy and lots of webs

Ben in Haunted Junkyard

Halloween Performances

Alimony

 

Wendy and a Big Creepy Crawly

Wendy and Pumpkin Stack

Ben and Pumpkin Stack

Fall leaves in Logan Canyon

We’ve gone up Logan Canyon several times this year. We haven’t been able to quite hit the fall leaves perfectly. Wendy has had more luck in seeing good fall leaves because she travels back and forth through Sardine Canyon several times a week.

Last week The Herald Journal, the Logan newspaper, published an article that stated that the fall leaves at Tony’s Grove in Logan Canyon were perfect. We thought we would test it out. The leaves were nice; not quite perfect but nice.

Wendy and Logan Canyon

Ben and Logan Canyon

Ben and Wendy at Tony's Grove Lake

Wendy at Tony's Grove Lake

Bountiful Basket

Last month the relief society in our ward had a couponing and money pinching seminar for their enrichment. We’ve started to test out the waters for a couple of the different strategies. The one that Wendy was most excited about was a food cooperative that buys fruit and vegetable baskets. We picked up our first basket today. I have to be honest I wasn’t sure that the basket thing was worth the effort; it appears that I may have been mistaken. There seems to be a large amount of food in the basket.

Happy Birthday Ben

Growing up we never had elaborate birthday parties. We got to choose a birthday dinner and dessert. My birthday also was a little more complicated because it falls on General Conference weekend so large fun activities were not usually possible.

This year my birthday being on general conference weekend actually made my birthday celebration larger. We spent the day at the Ashton's house watching the conference sessions.  All of Wendy's family were also there. At some point Wendy decided that she was going to make a cake for me. I saw her puttering around in the kitchen and assumed that I was going to get a sheet cake with candles in it. Wendy had larger ideas. She made a two tiered cake with frosting drippings. Looked great for being a randomly thrown together cake.

Birthday Cake

Birthday Ben with Cake-maker Wendy

Singing Happy Birthday to Ben

Blowing Out Candles

The cake tasted pretty good as an added bonus.