Love Christmas!

Did we say AZ what we meant was CHINA!

Holy Cow! It's been a crazy couple of weeks. One day were packing to move to AZ
and I'm stressin cuz I'm supposed to find an apt
and the only apts I can find close to Ezra's work are filled with drug dealers and roches.

And the next day Ezra gets a sweet job offer to work in China.
And we take it!

We were nervous to call Knight Brokerage and tell them we would be peace'in out days before we were supposed to start. But to our surprise they were totally excited for us and told us to keep in touch because they might have some work for us to do in China!

Needless to say it's been quite the emotional roller coster ride.Ezra is thrilled to be going to China....Me, I'm apprehensive and excited. I never thought in my wildest dreams I would be moving to China. But we are young, in love, and I can't think of a better time to embark on this adventure.We leave the second week in January ... O’er mountain, or plain, or sea to other side of the planet.

We've already been practicing our mandarin and already know one of the most important phrases in the Chinese language....."where is the toilet?" What more do you need to know?

So are we crazy? um...I think so. We're moving to the small subtropical town of Nanning,China -population 6.5 million. Idaho to China. hmmmm It's been fun to tell people where we are moving. Some people give us weird looks and ask if we're joking. I don't blame them I'm still having a hard time believing it myself.


Well start booking your trips-we'll put you up! We'll be back to the US every four months so we can see your beautiful faces in person.CHINA here we come!

Arizona!

Ezra sales equipment, most often skid steers. In July of 2009 Ezra and I took a trip to Arizona to pick up two skid steers. We started our 13 hour trip on a Friday night at around 5pm. We drove through the night and arrived in AZ the next morning. We picked up the skid steers and spent the day in 120 degrees. We were convinced that something was wrong with our air conditioning.

On our way home we had a long conversation about how awful Arizona was and we both vowed that AZ would be the one place we would never live. Well life as you know, is full of beautiful ironies. When we found out that Ezra might have a job opportunity with Knight Brokerage (head quarters AZ) we both started laughing. We might end up in the one place we vowed we'd never live. Well it's happened! And despite our initial repulsion to the area we are so excited and more than ready to start our next adventure. We are heading down the day after Thanksgiving. Arizona here we come! If you would like to be a winter visitor give us a call!

Harry Potter!

CONFESSION:I am a Harry Potter Geek.

Have I read all the books? Yes!

Have I seen all the movies?Yes!

Have I listened to it on CD? Yes!

Am I counting down the days til the Deathly Hallows movie comes out and planning on dragging Ezra with me? Yes!

(Ezra who is not a Harry Potter geek isn't really into the whole Harry Potter thang but will still come with me cuz he's just sweet like that---I think Voldemort scares him or maybe the Dementors)

Do I have a Harry Potter Poster in my bedroom? You'll never know

Okay Here are some of my favorite Harry Potter Quotes- Did I get carried away? um yes, but read them anyway because they're really good!

It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

We must try not to sink beneath our anguish, Harry, but battle on.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

It is a curious thing, Harry, but perhaps those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it. Those who, like you, have leadership thrust upon them, and take up the mantle because they must, and find to their own surprise that they wear it well.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

When you have seen as much of life as I have, you will not underestimate the power of obsessive love.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

People find it far easier to forgive others for being wrong than being right.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince


Differences of habit and language are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Indeed, your failure to understand that there are things much worse than death has always been your greatest weakness.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Dumbledore to Voldermort.

What's comin' will come and we'll meet it when it does.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Dark and difficult times lie ahead. Soon we must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Alkaban

~J.K. Rowling

We just can't get enough

These are pictures from our conference weekend. Ezra and I flew down to Delta we watched conference with his Grandparents. Ezra got to give plane rides to his Dad and Grandpa. He flew them over the family farm. It was really fun!


Ezra talked me into going to the Boise air museum- At the time I was in the attitude "if you've seen one air museum you've seen em all." But it was actually really fun and interesting.




Ezra loves all things that fly- he made me take pictures of all the planes.Here is a picture of a rare and unique tri-wing plane. If you ever go to Boise give the air museum a chance and don't forget to get a yummy cheese cake caramel apple from the outlets on your way home.

This is Funny!

Patrick's Mission Call!

My brother Patrick got his mission call! He's going to be serving in the Barranquilla, Columbia mission! We are so excited for him and know that he is going to be a great missionary!




My grandfather had a stroke about a week ago so we decided to open Patricks call at the hospital with the family. It was such a cool experience. Grandpa is really proud of Patrick and the decision he has made to serve a mission.




Ezra was not able to be there because he was in Arizona for a job interview. But he is excited that he will have another Spanish speaker in the family.


We had a second opening at the house with a bunch of friends, it was such a wonderful celebration! Way to go Patrick!

Happy Anniversary!

I can't believe it's been three years already! Happy Anniversary to the best husband a girl could ask for. I love you.

Canada Eh?

Our family trip to Waterton Lakes National Park was so much fun, it's on the other side of Glacier National Park.

This is the cute little lodge we stayed in, one of our rooms was pink and the other one was purple.


It was amazing to be in place where every view is so spectacular.


The deer in Waterton are very strange and they are everywhere! You go anywhere in town without seeing at least five or six deer. They aren't scared of people at all. Ezra thought it was great and got way too close to them- I told him he was going to get malled by a deer and lets face it that would be pretty pathetic.


On our site seeing adventures we would often spot wild life, wolves and bears. This time we pulled over to take a picture of a mama and baby moose and got a picture of some weird two legged creature instead.


My Grandpa Taylor and Ezra's Grandma Gibby both lived in the small town of Raymond, Alberta. So of course we had to stop there, we went to church and visited the cemetery where Ezra and I both have great grandparents buried. My Dad gave us the tour of the city. We also got to go to the Cardston Temple and do baptisms it was really cool.


This is our tall to short picture we took after our rock skipping competition. The Prince of Whales hotel is behind us. Ezra's great grandfather helped build it.


Cameron Falls


We went on a hike up to Crypt lake I think it's about 14 miles round trip. Being the prepared person that I am I forgot my knee brace, the last thing I needed was for my knee cap to dislocate on a rocky slopes so I grabbed two walking sticks off the side of the trail I called them my Gandolf staffs. They really did work wonders.

Towards the end of the hike you have to go up a few miles of rocky switch backs. When those end you have to climb through a football fields worth of cramped little cave and when you come out the other side there is a huge cliff so you have to hold onto this tiny little cable that has been nailed in the rock. It was quite the adventure.




Eventually we ended up at a beautiful Crypt Lake. We got to see a few mountain goats grazing around the lake.


We brought all our bikes and every night we'd cruise the town. It was funny to see peoples faces as we rode by. Some of them even tried to count us. "Are you all together?" -- "yeah, and we're all the same family"


So much fun!

Here we come!

We are headed to Canada this Saturday and we are so excited! It's been a least 5 years since our last trip to Waterton- It was a great time, we went hiking, roller blading, swiming, we skipped a lot of rocks, and had ice cream for dinner all in one of the most beautiful places ever. Now this time Adam and Ezra get to join us. These are some of my favorite pics from our last trip. You've got to love Karlie's hair it's awsome!

Love These!

San Francisco

Ezra and I took and early anniversary trip to San Francisco with my Mom and Dad to visit Kristina and Adam and to see Wicked. It was so fun!

Even though Ezra is not a huge musical fan he really enjoyed wicked. I thought it was totally awsome! All songs have been running through my head like crazy. It reminded me of the good ole days when all the room mates would stand on the bed and sing defying gravity at the top of our lungs.

On our walk to wicked there were all these creepy guys on the streets, my mom totally thought we were going to get mugged. So funny- I think she forgets that she's married to a man that is 6 feet 7 inches tall and over 250 pounds.




We spent part of a day in Santa Cruz, we took a lovely walk down the warf and ate fish and chips. yum

So Cute! There were like 15 sea lions all piled on top of eachother. What a way to take a nap!

Otter's are cool!


San Francisco you are an interesting place, your streets are so steep no one would ever dare rollerblade, your people flock in every direction and dress like they are blind, Many of your tourist come from China just to go to your little China town, your hobos are little more creative in there methods of money begging than most, and your old guy that works at Burger King is very mean and wouldn't let me into the restroom with out a receipt no matter how nice I was or how bad I had to go.

Zoo!

Ezra and I decided to take my two little bros Nathan and McKay to the zoo. I haven't been to the zoo in forever- I forgot how much fun it is!





My favorite part was the Elephants- they were so fun to watch. I think it would be cool to have a trunk for a day. Baby elephant Zuri was so cute!









Can you see him? Ezra spotted him first and had to do his Sid the sloth impression- it's pretty good!

July 4th

Ezra and I headed down to Fool Creek (closest recognizable city = Delta) for a family reunion and an 80th Birthday party for his grandma Roper.

We attended a parade in Delta. I'm not gonna lie it was a little bit sparse on the candy. But Ezra's little cousins kept us entertained by peeing in the middle of the park and other such activities.




Sand dunes cover large areas of Grandma and Grandpa Ropers farm. This is an arrow head I found while Ezra and I were out on the four wheeler- pretty cool huh!


We lit off some illegal fireworks (you can get away with stuff like that when you're in the boonies). The explosives are more or less up for grabs. I decided that I did not want to start on fire so I found a safe spot away from the commotion.

During this fireworks display there was much of yelling and running. Ezra's brother Rick got pegged in the back by a rougue firework-luckily all it did was put a burn mark on his shirt. There were more than a couple fire works that didn't make it completely off the ground before exploding. Ezra calls it the red-neck firework show. yeah-pretty much!



I love a good camp fire. We slept in a tent in the front yard but that didn't keep the owls from waking us up!





Ezra and I decided to go flying this morning- we flew over the Provo parade and we also got to fly over my parents house and the Draper and Timp Temples. It was so fun! It's been a great summer so far, it's kind of depressing to see it going by so fast- I guess we enjoy it while we can right!