New Wyatt Baby Slideshow

Hodge party Slideshow

Hodge Christmas party

Every Year Warren's family gets together with his mom's side of the family, the Hodges, and we have a Christmas Party in Simi Valley CA. Usually it is at Bruce and Dottie's or Denny and Diane's house but this year Bruce's son Tom and his lovely wife Becky hosted the party at their house which I must say was absolutely gorgeous. It makes me pine for the older architecture that Las Vegas is sadly lacking. It was also great because their house is set up with a playroom for the kids so this year all the kids had something to do rather than looking at us adults all the time wishing we would take them home. :) So I think we should do this again.

There were several funny events of the evening. Every year someone ends up with a very large pair of purple panties, Becky was the lucky recipient this year. But to add to the fun underwear department Tom donated a racoon pair of underwear which Diana was happy to receive.

Diana first picked out a set of those turning push up handles....she tried to say that they are pushups for her chest, hence the push up picture. But Sandy was not put off and took it from her. I like Ron's Captain Morgan pose, he is a hilarious individual and definitely perks up the room.

I was the lucky recipient of a turkey Fryer which Becky and Tom were kind enough to put in as a present. (don't tell but we stuck it back in their garage..Shhhhhh.....) >:D and Warren picked a reed diffuser which he kept because I wanted it. :) Aren't husbands wonderful?

For Christmas Eve we are going to Warren's parent's house, Linda And Dave, then Christmas day we will hang out with my folks. I am looking forward to this two week break, I'm sure I won't get very much of my things done but oh well, it will just be nice to relax a little. Hope everyone has a merry christmas, Love you.

Whoo hoo look at my skillz!

I figured out how to upload this Jukebox from Jango. I recommend this website to everyone I know. You can listen to all kinds of music and there are no commercials or ads and you can decide how many other artists you want to listen to.

Juke box

www.Jango.com

Update on everything

Well my goodness it has been quite a while since I have posted a new blog. Sorry about that. I just have been very busy with teaching and everything else we have been doing. I took some pictures of my art room at JD Smith so everybody could see where I spend my days teaching. :) It is a great room, with lots of storage space. I would like to paint it a different color because the yellow is a little yuck.

My birthday is October 18, I told the kids about it and they were so nice. They sang happy birthday to me. I got a couple stuffed animals and some really cute figurines. Then the kids decided to write happy birthday on my white boards so I took pictures at the end of the day to show the final result.

The students just love writing on my white boards. I don't mind since I can just wipe it off. We have been having a great time. I think I will be starting up a website with my student's work on it so I will post that when I get it going.

For Nevada Day we went to Sequioa National park with our friends Tara, Travis, and their son Stetson. That was amazing. Our campsite was gorgeous and not busy at all and the trees were awesome.

Our campsite was surrounded by oak trees. Then there is a river that runs through the canyon where we stayed and it is full of big granite boulders. Really I think it was the most beautiful campsite I have ever stayed at. So we shot photos for Tara and Travis's family photos for christmas. And really with a setting that beautiful you can't really mess it up.

The trees were huge. I never realized that they are that tall. And they are soft so if you cut one down you can't really use the wood for anything.

School!

Well, school has started and so far it is going great! I am taking a graduate photography class through UNLV. Warren is taking Business, economics, and accounting. My school is awesome. I am teaching at J.D. Smith Middle school, it is off of Lake Mead and Bruce. I am teaching Middle school art to all grades and so far the kids and I really like each other, I think this is going to be a great year with them.

Nothing much else is going on, we almost bought a house in August. The house was one that I had been looking at, then it went to auction and we won it at the auction, then we put in our offer for it and the bank rejected it and took another buyer's offer. It was a little dissapointing because it was a really great house and would a lot of fun to live in. But oh well, the Lord didn't think it was the right time so in the mean time Warren is doing a great job on getting the backyard done. So when we get that done everyone will have to come see.

School is keeping me pretty busy, I will be doing art claub twice a week, luckily I get paid for it so I am not complaining. Well hope everyone is doing great, love ya!

Family reunion

Well, it is now the middle of August. I have downloaded my photos from the other events in August so I thought I would share them.

August 3rd, 4th, and 5th Warren and I were in Solvang California at the Pfeiffer family reunion. It is Warren's side of the family and they get together every other year in this great little Danish town in California. I took photos of the town last time so I didn't this time, but instead focused on just photos of the family.

This is all of the family that came to the reunion this year. I think last time we had a bigger turnout but this was nice because we were able to take a more intimate photo, where you can actually see everyone. Debbie and I were in charge of the family photo and I think we did a great job.

Aunt Diane threw a tea party for all the young ladies in the family. They each recieved a disney tea set, dressed up in their feathers and hats, and enjoyed the company of their favorite stuffed animal or doll. And of course, each other.

I had a lot of fun taking portrait photos of all the girls, it shows what wonderful young ladies we have in the family and how beautiful each one is in her own way.

And then I had to add these photos in because she is the cutest little girl I have ever seen and so extremely photogenic. I could just follow her around forever taking photos.

So overall we had a great time at the family reunion. If you ever get to visit Solvang I would encourage you to have an eclair, because they are amazing, and stop at a wonderful old looking garden close to the freeway that almost feels enchanted with all of its old statues and forgotten plants.

Love and God bless all our family and friends,

Melinda

Busy August

Well my goodness, it has been an incredibly busy end of July and beginning of August. July 27-29 Warren and I went on a backpacking trip with his sister Laurel, his brother Stephen, and his cousin Kendall. That nearly killed us(it felt like that) but we made it through and were stronger in the end.

So here is our little group at the beginning, you notice we are all smiling(except for Stephen) but that mood would soon change.

We are outside of Kanab Ut at a slot canyon called Buckskin Gultch. The hike is about 13 miles to the safe camping spot, so we planned on doing that 13 miles in the first day, sleeping overnight and hiking out another 7 miles through Paria canyon to our vehicle.

Unfortunately there was a lot of water left over from the past rainstorms. The ranger thought there would only be a few pools to go through, sadly those few pools were quite alot of pools.

We tried walking through barefoot for the first ones, but once we realized they weren't going to end we put our shoes on. But then you have to walk in wet shoes that are full of sand, rocks, and various point objects. Needless to say, that wasn't fun.

Parts of the Canyon were a little tight. But really the entire canyon was gorgeous. I wish I could have taken photos of every step because the light, and the walls were just stunning.

I call this one God's thumbprint because it really looked like a huge thumbprint in the rock.

Again more water.

And more water..... Laurel found a rock that looked exactly like a brain, would have been fun to bring out but our packs were heavy enough as they were.

I like this photo on the lower left because if you look close on the bottom you can see Warren, so you can see the ratio of how HUGE the walls were.

So the first day we got started too late, we didn't get going until about noon, and then the hike was much more grueling than we thought it would be. There is only one spot in the canyon to get out and that is at the middle. Unfortunately we couldn't find the middle so we did the entire 13 miles the first day, we didn't stop until about 10:30 pm. I stopped taking photos that middle third of the trip because I was so tired.

We camped at the safe point. In the morning, Laurel checked out the Paria canyon and it was really wet, with lots of quicksand, and mut that sucks onto your legs. So we decided to go back and find the middle and climb out that way instead.

So the photo below is the 100 ft wall we had to climb to get out. We would haul our packs up, climb, haul em up again, climb, and so forth.

I think the look on Laurel's face really sums up how we were all feeling at that point.

Then we had to walk 2 miles on top of the canyon. This was a really hard trek because it was about 105 degrees on top and it was alot of uphill climbing. Every chande we got we would hide in the shade, and even Laurel, the tough one of the bunch said "I'm struggling."

So you know it is pretty nasty when Laurel says something like that.

So this photo is the view from on top. You can see our little group taking a break in the shade.

This photo to the right is when we reached the trailhead. The thunderclouds were rolling in and there was a big tree to rest under. Kendall was quite the trooper through the whole ordeal.

By the time we reached the top we only had a liter of water and 3 8 ounce water bottles left. Laurel and Warren volunteered to go for the truck. So they took the liter and headed off on what they thought would be a 6 mile walk.

Well it ended up being 10.5 miles.

So while Laurel and Warren were walking, Stephen, Kendall and I hung out at the trailhead. Once we saw the rain coming our way we set up the tent to keep our packs dry.

Laurel had brought a brand new tarp so when the rain started pouring, we pulled it out and collected the rain water.

We figured out to stick it under the tarp of the tent so we got double the amount of water. We collected a whole gallon of water! And boy did it taste good.

Well Warren and Laurel made it back after about 3 hours. We didn't get back to our house in Las Vegas until 2 am on monday morning.

It was an experience that we will never forget but probably not one we will want to repeat any time soon. We are just grateful we made it back alive.