I Guess I Did This To Myself!

For Christmas this year I registered Audrey for the Salt Lake City Marathon. And I couldn't let her do it by herself, so I signed myself up for it as well. Today is our first day of "official" race day training. Audrey does an awesome job of coming up with a workout plan that will take us right up to races, and she outdid herself on this one. I just hope that I can keep up with her!

I can officially say that I have become a runner, and I think that this first marathon will cement that fact even more in my mind. The farthest that Audrey and I have gone so far is a half marathon (13.1) miles. So we are doubling the farthest that we have ran for this marathon.

One day at a time up until April 18th, 2009!

Best Christmas Present Ever! At Least This Year

Well, Audrey and I opened our presents this morning and I was extremely surprised!

Audrey hid a very special present from me for a long time. I had a very long box hidden

under the tree with no idea what it was. I got to open it up this morning, and lo and behold it was

a brand new 30/06 high powered rifle!!!!!

I COULDLN'T BELIEVE IT! WITH A SCOPE AND EVERYTHING! AND FROM A GREAT GUY

IN MY CHURCH AND A GREAT FRIEND DAVE BREWER!

It was incredible! I think I said, "NO WAY!" about 50 times.

We are now with Audrey's parents in Rock Springs hanging out for the day and playing board

games. It has been a great day so far!

Family & Friends

It has been an incredibly busy last week! Travis and Amanda got married on Saturday! WOOHOO! The wedding was really good, and it was great to see a lot of my friends and family there that I hadn't had the chance to see for quite a while.

My good friends Adam and Justin came up to Kemmerer with us after the wedding on Saturday night. Adam did a 100 mile run for missions and our Church supported him in his run, so he preached on Sunday morning for me. It was nice to have a break! Thanks Adam! We got to hang out Saturday night at our house and just catch up on life.

Sunday morning before Church Adam coerced me into running with him in the freezing winter cold. We went about 4 miles I would guess. My eye lashes were frozen, and I was glad to get it over with. Justin and Adam left Kemmerer at around 1:30 p.m. after lunch and made it all the way back to Haviland by 3:00 a.m. Pretty impressive.

Here is a picture of Adam and I after our morning run, you can see that it was cold, and almost see the frozeness of my eye lashes.

wedding day

we are in rock springs for travis and amanda's wedding today.

they are getting hitched at 2:00 p.m.

right now the sun is shining but it's about 10 degrees.

hopefully no more snow, but we are looking forward to all the happenings that are

going to happen today.

Christmas With The Carlsons!

We had our Christmas With The Carlson Clan yesterday. It was a lot of fun, but some craziness was thrown into the mix as well! All of the Carlson 7 kids were there, including their children, spouses, and my parents got to be in the day as well. So needless to say there were a lot of people there. It was also the first chance that I got to use my new GPS that my brother gave to me! It's going to be nice to have! Thanks Jared!

We opened up all the presents first. Audrey and I made out very well! Somebody pulled a practical joke though and snuck in ridiculous gifts to each person there. We couldn't ever figure out who it was though!

After presents we had lunch at like 3:00, I was starving! Then some of the kids put on a play for the entire family, and then Audrey got to read "Papa Panov" to everyone. Thanks to Lia Brewer for her awesome internet skills in finding this rare book that has become a Carlson Family Tradition to read at Christmas every year!

After that Audrey and I took a walk, ate some pie, and then went to the singspiration at the Church. It was a great day, and exhausting as well.

Jackson Trip 08

My parents arrived in Wyoming on Saturday afternoon last week to come and visit us! It has been a blast having them here, and being able to show them where we are now living. We took them up to Jackson Hole Wyoming on Monday and had an awesome time. I even got to drive my dad's new gmc sierra 4 by 4 pickup the entire way there!

1st we checked out the National Elk Refuge, and took a sleigh ride out onto the refuge. We were about 20-40 yards away from 40 bull elk. It was incredible to be that close to them! There are about 2,000 elk total on the refuge right now, and there will be upwards of 8,000 by the time full blown winter hits. We also got to see 2 bald eagles up close.

After the ride we went to lunch at the Snake River Brewing Company. Very delicious. I got a brisket & bacon sandwich w/ fries. Then after lunch we went shopping in the historic downtown distric, and then drove home.

It was a great day and lots of fun, and the sun came out while we were on the sleigh ride which was perfect cause the temperature was about 10 degrees. Here are some pictures!

C-mas Tree Cutting Pics & Video

On Thursday afternoon, Audrey, Maya, and I loaded up in our expedition and headed out into the unknown. Well, at least for me anyway. It was my first trip to cut down a Christmas tree. We left Kemmerer, and headed north to Cokeville and National Forest Land. On the trip there we saw 5 elk sunning themselves on the side of the road.

Once we got to our "designated tree cutting area" we had our eyes peeled for which tree looked full enough, and short enough to fit in our house and still look good. Audrey made the perfect spot, and located the tree that would shortly be located in our living room.

We chopped it down, tied on top of the Expedition and headed home! Here is a video from the excursion, and some pictures as well. It was a blast!

My First Real Christmas Tree

Audrey and I are going to go and cut down a real christmas tree this afternoon.

We got a permit from the forest service, and as i understand it, we just go find one we

want and chop it down and haul it home. It will be my first real tree if my memory serves

me correctly. So i'm excited about getting to pick it out and cut it down.

I'll put up pics when we get back.

Anniversary!

Audrey and I have been married for three years! Woohoo! We can't believe it either... We got to celebrate our anniversary this year in Jackson Hole, WY and Pinedale WY. It was a great time to get out and have some fun together. Friday we went to Jackson for the day, looked at all the shops, ate lunch at the Cadillac Grill (I got a buffalo burger), and then headed back to Pinedale where we stayed at a bed and breakfast. Pole Creek Ranch is the name of the place, and it was awesome!

Dexter and Carole Smith run the B & B, and they are wonderful Christian people. Dexter built their house which has 5 bedrooms, and he also built a log cabin that we rented out for the evening. It had a fireplace, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, and was incredibly built.

Saturday morning we were served breakfast in our cabin, and then we went up to the main house and spent some time talking with Dexter. I truly know that God guides and provides just from this trip. We had no idea these people were Christians when we made our reservation, and because I'm a pastor they let us stay the night for free! How amazing is the Lord! We were so blessed by their generosity.

Last year for our anniversary we stayed at a B & B in Minnesota and they let us stay their for free too! It's been amazing! Here are some pictures from the trip...

Standing underneath the huge antler arch in Jackson Hole.

This was the cabin that we stayed in on Friday night!

It was a little bit chilly outside, but not snowing!

This was at a store in Jackson, they had a bear rug with the head still on it. I think he wanted to give me a little kiss.

The actual date of our anniversary fell on Wed. So we celebrated with a nice meal at home (elk steak and a grilled portabello mushroom). It was a lot of fun.