CHRISTMAS!!

Stephen and I really spoiled each other this Christmas, but with all we have gone through this year I'd say we deserved it. After finishing school and Stephen and I both working we figured we could afford to splurge a little. Within the few days Stephen was here we had a lot of fun together--we had our own Christmas with just the two of us on Christmas Eve and Christmas day.
Stephen was so eager to open presents Christmas morning, but I made him wait until after church. Here are a few things we got for Christmas.

 Stephen got a really nice letter opener from Mom and Dad so he tried to open the rest of his gifts with it, lol

 Opening my canister vacuum from Mom and Dad

  Stephen trying to use his LED lantern to find his way

 Sporting my new boots, pajama bottoms, and sweater Stephen picked out for me

 Logan temple I got for Stephen

 The aftermath. Our living room was trashed, as well as the kitchen by the end of the night, but we had so much fun!

Washburn Family Christmas Party 2011

All my pictures turned out really fuzzy, too bad, but Loren and Debbie did a fantastic job on the meal and entertainment this year as always. Santa came for a visit and handed out presents to, not only the kids, but all the adults as well. It was so nice to be with our family, especially Stephen, to make this Christmas a memorable one.

Little Sneaker

I picked Stephen up at the airport last night at 2:00 am and guess what he did as soon as he walked in the door??? He headed straight for the Christmas tree to look at all his presents, ahahaha!!! That cracked me up, so when he was done snooping we went and got into bed--the little sneaker. It's so good to have him home for a few days; if only it was March already....

December Family Home Evening

This last weekend part of my family drove down from Twin for a visit, and I got to take a turn and host family home evening this month. Everyone but Brad and Scott were planning on coming, but, sadly, sick kids and an ice storm prevented my two older brothers from coming. Tim and his family stayed the night for one night, and Becky, Kimball, Mom and Dad came down a few days later. I had been looking forward to this weekend for a month and cleaned and shopped for the occasion the day before so everything would be perfect for my family to feel comfortable staying in my home. With two brothers missing our plans sorta got canceled and we changed everything we were going to do Saturday.

For FHE we were going to walk around temple square to see the lights, but by the time we got out of the restaurant from dinner it was too late, super crowded, and freezing cold outside so we went to the visitor's center to have a lesson and feed the baby, but the building was packed full of people so we ended up leaving in search of a place to have ice cream, but that didn't happen either, lol. These pictures were taken while eating dinner.

 Becky and I were excited to go to the Christmas devotional in the conference center because we have never been in the conference center for conference, so this was our first time going. We got to the doors and waited in line to get in and were told that we had to go to the theater room with the baby, so we watched the devotional on a screen instead of live like we would've liked, but the messages were so good it didn't matter where we were to listen to them.

All of us girls except Mom bought at least one pair of shoes on our little outing on Saturday while the men stayed at the house to watch the kids. Hopefully the next family visit everyone will be able to come; I had a lot of fun making delicious meals for everyone and getting to show off my home and Christmas tree this year.

Home for the Holidays

I constructed my own dresser all by myself today. It, of course, came in a box from Ikea and has been sitting in my bedroom for the past month since I bought it. I was going to wait for Stephen to come home for a weekend to have him help me with it, but I decided that I wanted to spend what little time I have with him at home doing something other than building a dresser and moving furniture around our bedroom. It took me three hours to build, but it feels good to have my bedroom complete since we moved to Utah.

I am really looking forward to the upcoming holidays because that means I get to see Stephen not only at Christmas, but next week at Thanksgiving! I am so excited because he wasn't planning on coming home until Christmas. He called one day and told me he bought a ticket to come home for Thanksgiving, and he is so ready to come home. Stephen is almost half way done with training; key words being almost half way. I get to see him for both holidays, but after Christmas we have to go a whole other three months without seeing each other--what a drag. I have to give mad props and a lot of respect to military wives and husbands, especially when they are gone a whole year on active duty. I could never do that.

Stephen is doing very well in all of his classes and physical training courses. He is the kind of person who makes friends very easily and seems to be a class comedian by all the stories I've heard; he is very witty and quick on his feet. He is learning a lot and having lots of fun at the same time, but is ready to be home; as I am also ready to have him home too. He is such a great provider and husband; I love him and miss him very much.

I have been doing pretty well here at home with work and my new calling in the primary teaching the sunbeams. The next best thing to having Stephen home is having my family come visit for a weekend for family home evening in December. I have been planning and shopping for all the things I need to take care of everyone; it's going to be so great!

Halloween

I spent Halloween by myself this year in Florida. The day started out rainy and cold, but progressively got warmer throughout the day. I checked out of my hotel early in the afternoon so that I could plan what to do for the day since Stephen was in class. My plane didn't leave until 7:30 that night so I drove out to the Kingsley Plantation to take a look at the mansion and slaves quarters. I didn't have Stephen's bug spray with me and my elbows were just ravaged by insect bites. Also, see exhibit A:

I had no idea that bugger was on my eye until I looked at my picture, and yes, I now have a big red bug bite on my eye.

 I just love the scenery out here! There was a crane in this photo but he some how became camouflaged so I can't see him anymore.

I didn't know where to go after the plantation; I saw signs for the Jacksonville zoo nearby so I decided to stroll around the zoo for a few hours to pass the time. I then headed out to Jax beach until I needed to go back to the airport. I spent Halloween night sleeping on an airplane until I got home at 1:30 am.

 This is a tapir. I've never seen one before and he's a lot bigger than I had anticipated. Kind of ugly too.

 Komodo dragon

Kercheck and Kala

Inside that dog house is the worlds smallest deer species; it only grows to no more than 12 inches tall, and this blue little bugger was a nuisance. I walked into the bird refuge with no one else inside. I just walked around the place and this bird came flying at my face--I thought he was going to take my head off! I must have been near a nest or something because he made several attempts diving at my head to scare me away.

Georgia

I finally made it out to Georgia this last weekend to visit Stephen after six weeks without seeing him. I was so excited I could hardly stand it as I was in the air. My flight went really smoothly and I arrived on time. I left the airport to retrieve my rental car only to find the guy who helped me was from Murray, UT. He was very nice and after waiting a few minutes for my car to arrive, since they were still trying to park it, he turned around and asked me how I felt about Mustangs. I looked behind me and there was a brand new 2012 ford mustang and I instantly replied, "I'll take it!" knowing that Stephen would love to drive it as well. With the help of my trusty smartphone navigation I crossed the Florida state border into Georgia and met Stephen at the check-in point at FLETC. The first thing I thought to myself was that he looked SO good! He was waiting for me in the office as I got my visitors ID badge and was all smiles. We drove to his hotel room on base where he introduced me to his friends from his class. We all went out to dinner where one of the girls whisked me away from our table to introduce me to all the other class mates at the back of the restaurant. Everyone was so nice and all I heard from them was, "Its nice to see that Stephen's wife really exists", and "I sit by Stephen in class and boy that kid is a talker", "Stephen is so sarcastic; he's going to get himself into trouble one of these days" Haha, it was a lot of fun to see who Stephen has been spending his time and making friends with.

The next day Stephen and I spent the day driving and touring around the Golden Isles and eating REAL southern barbeque. We went to the sea turtle reserve  and drove around Jekyll Island  and ended up at the beach that afternoon. Then we went to St. Simon's Island to see the lighthouse and walk along the pier as the sun was setting. We ended the day at Sal's Pizza which was, in my opinion, the best pizza I have ever had.

 I found a sand dollar!

A gigantic horseshoe crab. It reminds me of Predator...ewe!

St. Simon's Island lighthouse. It has been shining since 1876 when it was rebuilt.

 Sunset

 We walked into a few shops on our way back to our hotel and walked through this candy shop. Stephen found the world's largest gummy worm. Gummy worms are some of Stephen's favorite candy.

Stephen's birthday was Sunday the 30th so I packed a whole bag just to bring his birthday gifts in. we found some Halloween cinnamon rolls and celebrated his birthday in our hotel room.

We went to Fort King George in Darien, GA--this was the first settlement in Georgia. We had a lot of fun walking around getting eaten alive by the bugs. Stephen warned me about the bugs out there so thankfully he brought his bug spray.

I love the South! Now I know why Becky loved living in South Carolina. I love everything about it--the rich culture, the accents, how down-to-earth the people are, the vegetation, everything! One of the coolest things to see on our outings were the Southern Live oak trees and all the Spanish moss hanging from the branches.

I had an awesome little vacation and, of course, the best part was being with my other half even if it was for only two days. It was way too short and only heightened my longing to be with him again. Christmas can't come soon enough this year until the next time I get to see him.