Very Fancy

So, Saturday night was my work Christmas Party. It was a very enjoyable evening... I even enjoyed getting all dressed up! Well, I'm getting all my stuff packed up since I am moving on Friday.... and then I'm heading to Utah for Christmas, so I don't know when I will have time to blog again. So, here is wishing you all a MERRY CHRISTMAS!

New Nephew

So, Cayden Merle Linton came into the world on Friday, 7 December and he is the cutest little guy! I risked my life to go see him at the hospital on Saturday and he was total worth it! Seriously, there was a foot of snow on the freeway- I thought my car was going to get stuck! No worries though, I made it home okay. So, J&K posted a lot of pictures on their blog, but here are a few more. CONGRATES JARED AND KATIE ON THE NEW ARRIVAL!

Me and my nephew

Just Hangin' with his Dad

Proud Dad!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

I just wanted to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving! I am very blessed and there are many things I am grateful for. To name a few things…. family, friends, memories, the gospel, my job, heaters, my car, computers, cell phones, good books, plants, yummy rolls, pies, my tennis racquet, etc, etc, etc. Mostly I am grateful for the chance to enjoy each and every day… “Could this possibly be another glorious day?” – Sister Hinkley. I hope you have a wonderful holiday! Love you all!

I was in charge of pies, so I made a Cherry and a Pumpkin!!

Check out that crust- I think that is the most pretty crust I've ever made!

BYU Game

Hello all! So, yesterday I went to the BYU/Wyoming game in Laramie, WY. It is kind of random that I went since I have no tie to BYU or Wyoming! I went with friends and knew it would be a fun day. I had the opportunity to go to the Air Force game yesterday with my Squadron, but I opted to drive further and pay more by going to the BYU game instead… that make sense right? Well, it really came down to where I would have more fun. I don’t really enjoy being around drunk people and I am pretty sure work people would be drinking at the game, so I chose the game where I was guaranteed to have a good time. Along the way we got a flat tire… always an adventure! BYU won and I am thinking that yesterday was the one and only day I have cheered for BYU in my life! Good times!

AWARDS

So, I just wanted to share the pictures of my cool awards…. I won the Civilian Category II of the quarter (July-Sep 2007) award for the Squadron, Mission Support Group (MSG), Wing, and Team Buckley! If you win one level you move on and compete at the next higher level. I won at the Team Buckley Level which is the highest you can go at Buckley AFB. This was all very unexpected and all very exciting!!! I owe a lot to my co-worker, Dave, who was my sanity through end of fiscal year!

Disney World

Wow, time gets away from me! I can’t believe it is already November. Just a month ago it was my super busy time at work where I was working 70+ hour weeks. Now that I am not working ridiculous hours I still have no time to blog…. Go figure! I am busy still, but mostly it is doing fun stuff like golfing, baking cookies, going to parties, going to a rugby game, dressing up and going to an Opera celebration (no opera was sung, just Broadway musicals) playing tennis, or playing the Nintendo Wii! Yes, I bought a Wii- I’m such a nerd! It is a lot of fun though… one of these days I’m going to get good at it! So, life is good, busy still, but enjoyable!

Mom is Bugged Out!

Hangin' With Goofy

Well, Mom and I headed to Orlando, FL on Thursday, 25 October and got back on Tuesday, 30 October. We went to the happiest place on Earth- Disney World! We were able to do all four parks (Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, MGM, and Epcot) while we were there. It was a magical experience! We had a great time hanging out together and enjoyed Florida’s warm and humid weather. Even though it rained quite a bit while we were there that didn’t slow us down any. Here are some highlights and pictures from the trip…

Got To Love the Scrunch Pics

When you go to Disney World you also get to travel to many other countries. We went to Africa and did the Kilimanjaro Safari, Asia and did Expedition Everest, Norway and rode on a Viking Ship. At Epcot we also visited Mexico, China, Germany, Italy, Japan, Morocco, France, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Disney does a great job and you really do feel like you are in these different places.

Julie with Brent?

Mom and Mt Everest

Mom in Japan

Man we travel fast!

Mom in San Francisco

Mom in New York City

One of my favorite things while at the Animal Kingdom was the Nemo Musical. They put on a 40 minute stage production of the story “Finding Nemo” (the movie) and the puppetry was just awesome!

Jeana... Does this bring back memories?

MGM was a neat place. I loved the Car Stunt Show and the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular. They really do put on a good show and it is fun being there to enjoy it! While in MGM we also attended the animation studio where we were able to draw a Disney character. We drew Donald Duck and you can actually tell it is supposed to be Donald- Jared would be proud!
It really was awesome just being there… it was a fabulous vacation and I am happy I was able to spend it with Momisita! We had a great time… everyone should have the Disney World experience sometime in their life… it is awesome! Seriously, Disney knows how to do things
right… the details are amazing.

Tree of Life

Grandpa B

This past weekend has been bitter sweet. It was hard to say goodbye to Grandpa B. yet it was nice being able to hang with my siblings. It was awesome that all us kids were able to come and we were once again all together. I think the last time we were all together was at Jared and Katie’s wedding, but even then we were not able to hang out all together. So, really the last time we were all together, and able to hang out, was at Dad’s funeral??? At any rate, it doesn’t happen very often, so you have to enjoy the time when it does.

Saturday, 29 September, was the funeral. The talks were great, the musical numbers were great, and the overall service was very nice. We cried, we laughed some, and we reflected on the wonderful memories we all have of Grandpa. I don’t think I can ever go backpacking or look at the Bountiful Temple and not think of good ole Grandpa B! He will be missed, but there are a lot of good memories of Grandpa, so he will live on. I am so grateful I had the chance to see him often, to hear his stories, and to receive my patriarchal blessing from him. Thanks Grandpa!

Enjoy some of the pictures from this weekend.

Family Photo

The Boys (A.K.A. The Goofballs!)

Reyes- Cute as a Button!

Me and My Bros!

Birthday Wishes

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESS! I'm sorry I never got a chance to call and wish you a happy birthday. I didn't leave work until 10:00pm and by that time I felt it would be too late.... SORRY! I was thinking about you every time I wrote the date today though! Hope you had a great day and I'm excited I get to see you twice in one month!



Love ya!

(Since Jen's blog said you were 29, I decided to post a picture of when you really were 29!)

I’M ALIVE

Hello all! Well, I survived Milestone #1 – Soft Close Out on the 15th! Granted, I’ve been working every day from 6:00am- 10:00pm, but hey, I’m still doing alright. Milestone #2 is the 21st since that is Space Command Soft Close Out (a little more important then the 1st milestone). Of course the final milestone is the Hard Close Out which is September 30th. I’m hoping that things begin to slow down once we reach the 221st, but perhaps that is wishful thinking- there is still a lot of work to do!

Okay, enough about work. I failed to post pictures of when Jenny, Steve and the girls were in Colorado. Jared, Katie, and I were invited to Mike and Susan’s for Sunday dinner so we were able to see them for a little while. It was fun to see everyone and play our traditional croquet game! I also got to experience the new fandangled technology called the Nintendo Wi. Now, there is a “video game” that I like! We bowled, and it really is quite fun…. Hmmm, I wonder how much those things cost. I might just have to buy myself a new toy!

Well, it was only for a few hours, but it really was great to see Jen, Steve, Emmy, Meggy, and Lyssa. Thank you Mike and Susan for dinner and letting us come over. Here are a couple pictures from that night. (I didn’t get any of Emmy, since she wasn’t feeling too great that night- poor girl.)

CAN YOU TELL WE'RE RELATED???

JEN & LYSSA JUST CHILLIN'!

CUTE LITTLE MEGGY!

TRADITION! TRADITION!

FABULOUS WEEKEND

Okay, seriously it is September 4th?!!!! Where does the time go? Well, lately I have not blogged because I haven’t had time or I simply don’t have anything exciting to write about. I mean, really how exciting is it to read about long days at work (6:00am til 8:00pm today to be exact!), go straight from work to a church function of some sort (whether it be a FHE, a baptism, visiting teaching, etc, etc, etc), and then get home between 8:30pm-10:00pm? Well, that has been my life for the past month, so you haven’t missed out on much.

On to more exciting things….. I finally got to meet my cute nephew, JAYSON! I flew home to Utah Friday morning and came home yesterday. It was such a great weekend to just relax, hang with my family, and forget about the cares and stress of life. I loved every minute of it and wished it could have lasted longer.

Brent picked me up at the airport, so I got to hang with him that afternoon. Not very often do I have a chance to hang with my oldest brother- it was fun Brent! That evening it was just Mom and I (like the good ol’ days) since Brent and Ashley had dinner with Ashley’s parents. So, we went to dinner and then played Scrabble. A weekend with my Mom just would not be complete without a game of Scrabble! When Brent and Ashley got home we visited with them until well into the evening!

Cute Mother and Son Picture!

Saturday Brent and I attempted to go play tennis in the morning. Yeah, it is a bit difficult to play tennis if you have no tennis balls! Brilliant Julie! We played that evening instead. Saturday was our adventure at IKEA. We picked Jared and Katie up at the airport and headed to IKEA. That store is huge! After shopping we headed back home and Jess brought Jayson and Rylee out to hang with us.

Gramps and Great Grandson

Sunday was the big event- Jayson’s blessing! I would show more pictures, but Jess used all of mine, so you will have to visit her blog to see them! :^) It was a fabulous day. Sean did a great job with conducting, with giving the blessing, and with grilling the burgers! Thanks Sean! It was great fun to see Tayler and Rylee- both are such fun, adorable girls, and of course, Jayson was an angel all day. The day was fabulous!

CUTIES!!!!

Monday was time to say goodbye to vacation and hello to reality again. My friend picked me up from the airport and we went straight to a bar-b-que. I enjoyed seeing people I know from other wards who I don’t very often have a chance to see. I made it home just past 8:00pm and had a chance to unpack and enjoy being home for a couple hours before heading to bed.

Thanks everyone for making it such a great weekend! I love you all and enjoyed seeing and hanging out with you!

THANKS JARED!!!

Okay, so I have to show off my new piece of furniture and give a huge thanks to Jared. As all of you know, Jared is extremely talented in the art of woodworking and I am lucky enough to have benefited from his talent. He designed and built me a beautiful bookshelf made of cherry wood- I love it! Jared, I don’t think I can express how much it meant to me that you would give of your time to make this for me. I wish I had a talent I could use to repay you somehow. I love you Jared and am so lucky to have you as my twin brother. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

With adjustable shelves!

Two doors to hide all the textbooks!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMMY!

Well this just seems to be the month for birthdays! Little Miss Emmeline, I hope you had a wonderful 10th birthday!!! This picture I have of you is 2 years old, so I'm excited that you are coming to Colorado to visit so I can update my pictures! See you soon. Love you and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! :^)

Happy Birthday Reyes

Wow, it has been a long, but good, week. I had something to go to every night this week- it has been crazy! Monday I went to FHE, Tuesday I went and did Baptisms with my ward, Wedensday I went to a baptism and then met up with Ashlee for dinner. Wednesday was the longest day since I left my apartment at 6:00am, worked until 6:00pm and went straight to the baptism from work. Then I hung out with some friends that were at the baptism for a while before meeting up with Ashlee to have dinner. Ashlee and I visited for a long time and finally I made it home around 10:30pm! Thursday I went to Enrichment which ended up being a party! Friday I hung out with friends and then Jared, Katie, and I went to Wal-Mart at 1:00am to get the new Harry Potter book!!! Today I went in to work for a few hours and now I am going to get ready to go to a ward BBQ. So, it has been a long week... especially since I've been working a ton of overtime!

Anyway, that was a quick update of the life of Julie. Now lets turn our focus to the life of Reyes. My little niece turns 1 today and I want to give her a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHOUT OUT!

REYES!!!

As promised, I'm finally getting around to posting more pictures of Reyes that I got while in San Diego. Enjoy!

Family Photo After Church

Yeah for the Temple!

Reyes' Red Balloon- She Loved Red balloons!

Towel Head Baby!- it was mighty windy by the beach!

Just Hangin' with Grandma!

Such a Big Girl Sitting on the Bench!

BIRTHDAY

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone for your gifts, cards and phone calls yesterday! I felt so loved and you all made it a great day. Even my co-worker who is deployed right now called to wish me a happy birthday. It was very nice of her. Also, a group of us from work went to Sweet Tomatoes for lunch which was nice. After work (I actually left work on time… it was amazing!) I came home to change and had a few minutes to visit with Jared and Katie before we all headed to the theater to see Harry Potter #5! There were 15 people in our group altogether- pretty fun! The show was awesome- probably the best movie yet. After the movie we all went to Coldstone for some ice cream. I took Jenny’s advice and got the sweet cream with bananas, caramel, and almonds mixed in. Yeah, it was pretty much amazing! Thanks for the suggestion Jen! I really did have a great day, so thanks again everyone! Love you all!

Graduation and Mom’s Visit

Wow, what a fun weekend I just had! I picked Mom up at the airport on Thursday, June 14th, and we partied until I dropped her off at the airport this morning. Okay, I actually made her work more then play- but we had a good time! After going grocery shopping Thursday evening we spent the rest of that night looking at pictures and reading blogs.

Friday morning Mom and I went on a walk through Cherry Creek State Park. It was a beautiful day in Denver! Then we went to Park Meadows Mall. When Jared got home that evening we went to Southlands Shopping Center and had dinner at Jim ‘N Nicks BBQ before walking through the rest of the shopping center. We did a lot of walking but it was a lot of fun!

Saturday was the big day. Jared was able to take a half day off so he could come to my graduation and then spend the rest of the day with us. Webster University allows the person graduating to choose who they want to have hood them. I asked Mom to hood me. Aside from my cap falling off and then my tassel falling off and holding up the rest of the line- it went without a glitch! No really, it was kind of comical, but that makes it more memorable so all is well. Thanks a ton Mom for being here to hood me and thanks to the others who came to share the day with me!









After the ceremony we came back to the apartment and had a party. I had chocolate dipping goodies and J&K bought a fruit bouquet which was perfect! We had good food and good company so it was great fun!

On my special day Mom so graciously let me win Scrabble! Thanks Mom! Mom also kept me up past Midnight so I would not miss a minute of enjoying my special day- what a great Mom!


Sunday we had a lazy morning and enjoyed a nice breakfast before heading to church. Mom went to J&K’s ward and I went to mine. That evening we went to Annie and Steve’s house for dinner. Since it was Father’s Day it was nice to be with family. I am very grateful for the 21 years I had to know my Dad. Love you Dad!

On Monday, Annie, Mom, Katie, and I went to the botanical gardens then to Applebee’s. After lunch we came back to the apartment and just talked for a few hours. It was great fun, I’m happy that Annie was able to spend the day with us! That evening we played the card game golf- what a great, mindless game.



Tuesday was the last full day Mom had in Denver. After a somewhat lazy morning (I say somewhat because I framed my diploma and potted my rose plant, etc but other then that it was a lazy morning. Mom and Katie put together a picnic for us and we were off to have lunch in the park with Jared. Jared had to go to work, so we thought it would be fun if we all had lunch together. We also got to see the shop where Jared works and see all the fun stuff he is building. Jared had to get back to work, so us girls headed for more walking and shopping! We walked the 16th Street Mall (a pedestrian only street with a lot of shops). It was fun. When we got home Mom made some yummy scone dough for dinner that night- boy were they good!

That pretty much sums up Mom’s stay here in Denver. It was so great to have her here, I love hanging out with my Momisita! Thanks again Mom for coming. If you want to see more pictures of my graduation here is a link to the professional photographer pictures
http://www.denverzenphoto.com/ - I am in the pictures at the top of the 3rd page. Enjoy!

Well, that will do it from me. Have a fabulous day and good luck staying cool! Love you all!