Ginger Bread Christmas Party

A couple years my Mom put on a great Christmas party for our family and it involved making Ginger Bread Houses. It was a lot of fun. Jenn thought it would be fun to do that with some friends and neighbors this year and we had a blast. Ava in particular really enjoyed making her creations and was a big helper in building my Frank Lloyd Wright style ginger bread house. Here are some pics from the evening and the full story board on Flickr.

Merry Christmas!

Oh Christmas Tree

In keeping with tradition, (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008) we had a beautiful clear day a couple weeks ago to go up with The Tenbusch's for the second year in a row to cut down our Christmas Tree. My camera battery died, so Libby took more pictures as you'll see on her blog.
Permits this year were $5 through the forest service (Thanks Brian for snagging) and we went up in the mountains just south of Mt. St. Helens. I can honestly say it wasn't the best Christmas Tree I have cut down, but as they say it always looks different in the forest.
Ava sure had a fun time playing in the snow and decorating our tree. She was really worried we were going to leave the tree in the woods.

Here are some pics from the days adventure:






















Thanks again for Brian, Libby and Evie for going and making it a blast!

The High Mountain Variety

Last month my neighbors invited me on a hike to Coldwater Peak up near Mt. St. Helens. It was a steep climb, 12 miles round trip, but definitely worth the effort. Besides the amazing views and scenery, I was introduced to the art of gathering Huckleberries. I have never really eaten Huckleberries before and found them to be very tasty, especially the "high mountain variety" as my friend Chris likes to call them.
Enjoy the pics-my camera was lost at the time of this hike, so the credit goes to Chris for the great shots. Flickr

Good Times in the Northwest

As usual, a little late on this post.
I realize its tough for all of my friends to make the trip and spend some time with us here in the Northwest, but some serious props go to Jake and Ryan for taking the time and money to spend an awesome weekend with me. It was a blast. They even managed to come on one of the 15 nice weather weekends we get a year. The weather couldn't have been better. So,while I am still perfecting the art of tour guide, I tried to plan some cool places that would be worthwhile, it was pretty much a 'we came, we saw, we conquered' tour. I am sure I missed plenty of other cool places, but we'll save those for next time. The main points of attraction were:
Multnomah Falls
Peruvian Restaurant in Portland
Mt. St. Helens
Cannon Beach
Cage Fight (no pics, but a random and long story)

I am guessing those two had a good time, because every night I tried to show a movie, they managed to stay awake for about 3 minutes in.
So, for all you people's out there that are on the fence (*my brothers*) about visiting the Gardner Family, hopefully this post made your decision. And, while I am on the subject, we actually have other visitors with us this week too! Check back for those adventures.

Also, as usual...The Storyboard

The 2nd Annual

Here are a couple pics I took with my camera phone cause I forgot my other camera while hittin up Solitude with Ryan, Joel and Jake for our 2nd Annual Ski Day. As always it was a a WORLD FAMOUS day for good times, laughs and shots of money.

Good Times...Great Times...

Livin' The Dream...

Many people tell me that I have the life when I tell them I am taking a trip to Hawaii or where ever my wife and I can snag a free flight. And I guess by some standards I do. However, keep in mind that these flights are stand-by only and sometimes turn out to be quite an adventure. But when you have a day in Maui like we had today, it is all worth it. Despite some excessive wind at the beach today it was beautiful. I love the warm water, hot sun and sand. I also found a small cliff area to jump off of and that was cool. You will see in my pics that Jess and Emily jumped too, but that was after about 30 mins of convincing Jess she wouldn't hit a rock.
Anyways, below are the pics and of course you can head over to my Flickr for the full effect. Tom morrow, we are heading home, so wish us luck.
Aloha!

www.flickr.com

You Know I Had To Do It!

Well, this weekend is a Maui one. We arrived this afternoon and went to Makena Beach and had a BBQ with friends. There is a wedding tommorrow for one of Jenn's co-workers so that is why we are here. Since I am able, here are some pics from today. Aloha!

London to Paris

As I promised here is the write-up for our London Trip. In short the trip was amazing as I said in previous posts. We went with some friends of ours, Marianne and Ike, so when you see another couple in some of the pics you'll know who they are.

We got to fly in Business-Class from CVG to London, and that was awesome. London was a great city. I love their subways ( The Underground, I even found a blog dedicated to just the tubes here. Check it out.) The sights we saw were: Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, The Prime Meridian, The London Eye, Richmond, Henry V's Castle, EPL football game.

Moving along the trip was Paris. An amazing city to say the least, I loved the architecture there. The hostel we stayed in wasn't the best, but it worked. The main sights there were: Eiffel Tower, The Pantheon, The Louvre, Notre Dame, Arc De Triumph.

The way back home was pretty interesting, but after hitting up 4 different airports we finally landed in the SLC and it all worked out. It's going to be really hard to top that trip, but we'll find a way to do it someday!

PS-I took over 500 photos, so I only uploaded some of the better ones to my Flickr page.

www.flickr.com

Salt Lake to London to Paris to Salt Lake

We made it! The trip was amazing. Lots of good stories. Stay tuned as I sort through the pics this week and give you all a full run-down. The two pics above are the first and last pics taken on my camera during this trip.

Yah...It was nice.

On Thursday we decided that Maui would be a whole lot better than Salt Lake this weekend. Lucky for us, the flights were looking good and by Friday afternoon we were there. It was short, but as always, sweet. The party included myself, Jenn, Jess and Brett. For only 2 days we had a lot of fun and saw a lot of things, and that all caught up to me today at work, but it's okay. Here are some pictures I took, and of course for the whole trip, click on my Flickr badge below.

Another Trip Around The Sun

I know someone that decided join the blogosphere today. For blogging purposes I will refer to him as ROGA. Anyways, I think it is a pretty interesting blog. I would recommend this blog for all my readers to check out frequently. The name of the blog is Another Trip Around The Sun. It is about all of his travels that he takes for both business and pleasure. I always enjoy hearing about his adventures, so I am glad he decided to archive them in the digital tubes of the internet. Check it out! LATEZ.

2006 Air Show

Before last Sunday I have never seen an air show or been very close to any military jets before. Nick and Mindy took Jenni and I up to Hill Air Force Base for one og the coolest things I have ever seen. Check out the pics:

BONFIRE

Yep, it's that time of year again! Camp fires in the mountains! To celebrate her almost engagement to the man of her dreams, Jenni's cousin Gina got some people together for a little fire up Millcreek Canyon. Even though Nick didn't know Gina and her friends, I managed to drag him up--we went snipe hunting. Here are some pics: