Disneyland

Nate and I just got back from a fun-filled Stephens family vacation at Disneyland! We had so much fun. I think the reason the trip was so great was that everyone was there. Now we'll always be able to all talk about that trip to Disneyland. Here's the whole crew. The park was still decorated for Christmas. It was really pretty and great for us because we had our own little Stephens family Christmas on Sunday morning.

The weathermen were predicting a less than ideal forecast. We were all geared up for rain all day, everyday, so we were pretty happy when it only rained in the evening. That being said, we still did get pretty wet. As you can see, the rain didn't deter Savannah.

Despite the cold rain, Aaron, Brooke and Nate rode the river raft ride. They said it was really fun, but Jen and I couldn't find the will to ride it because we had seen some kids get seriously soaked on the ride.

Jen and Will on the Jungle Cruise.

Val and Savannah on the Matterhorn.

Brooke and Aaron on the swings at California Adventure.

Dorothy and Savannah on Dumbo. Jen and Will are in the background.

Val and Savannah on Buzz Lightyear. Savannah looks focused.

Jen and I on Buzz Lightyear. We were very focused and determined galactic fighters.

Savannah & Will on the pirate's treasure on Tom Sawyer's Island (or whatever it's called now.)

Val, Savannah, Dorothy and Will on Tom Sawyer's Island.

Nate and JoLee in a Disneyland Shop - how's that for a ride shot! This photo was taken at the 11th hour. We were about to leave the park for good, but first Nate asked the clerk to take our photo.

This next shot is for all the runners that read my blog. Look who I ran into at Disneyland. Courtney Pugmire Meldrum. Favorite Courtney memory: Freshman year when Coach made her run while carrying a cone because she ran her repeats faster than pace.

I bet most of you don't know that Zephyr has her very own ride at California Adventure, but we didn't ride it because it is a spinny ride and because it was closed.

My favorite ride at Disneyland is Thunder Mountain. Look how happy I am. The ride is best at night, but that is not the best time for pictures. Also, never fear family, I made sure to yell about all our Thunder Mountain allergies. This trip Nate also realized the joys of Thunder Mountain.

Happy 2008!

The trip was a great way to dive into the New Year!

Thanks for such a fun trip everyone!

Gramma Scurr's Birthday Party

Another fun thing that we did in Colorado was celebrate my Gramma's 80th birthday. We all trooped up to my Aunt Patti's house and had lunch, cake, and games. We gave my Gramma a book with a whole bunch of handwritten inside jokes that was a big hit. Since everyone was there we took a bunch of family photos. First, here's the whole crew - my Dad and his kids and my Aunt and her kids, only my Uncle Todd was missing.

The Hales: Lincoln and his wife Anna and their son Lincoln, Aunt Patti, Nicholas, Emily, David and his wife Jaylene. (from left to right)

The Gillespies: Taggart, Mom, Dad, Paige and Peter and Me and Nate.


And here we are with Gramma. Taggart makes all of us 5'8" women look like shorties.

We also had cake. It took four people to light all the candles.


Gramma blew out all the candles by herself and here's my Mom showing them off.


Well, Gramma, I know that you will never read this because you don't use the internet, but we loved sharing your birthday with you, and we love you too!

Christmas Morning in Colorado

Nate and I spent Christmas in Colorado. Here are some pictures of Christmas morning. After breakfast (thanks Dad!) we all lined up on the stairs in our new pajamas, as tradition dictates.

We had a really fun time with our stockings. My mom can fit an amazing amount of stuff into each sock. Here's Nate with his pocket kite.


The boys all got a tiny puzzle. They took turns posing with the pieces once they were solved. Peter solved his first.

Taggart's puzzle was really hard. No one solved it until later that day. So Taggart solved Peter's puzzle to prove that he could solve one quickly.

Paige

JoLee and Nate

Dad with awesome hair

Mom took the pictures so she doesn't star in any. Mom also wrapped the presents in tape that was impossible to tear. We had to use scissors to open our presents. Consequently, Christmas morning lasted longer than expected.


The reindeer tells Taggart a secret. I think what he said was that it was a great Christmas morning, and he was glad that everyone could be there together.

Ice Days

We've been having some pretty exciting weather out here in Kansas City. We had about 4 days of freezing rain. Everything is coated in ice. The rain started on Saturday evening. Nate and I were supposed to go to Lawrence to hang out with our friends, Abby and Mark, but that plan was thwarted by the weather. Then church was canceled the next morning. All week long I've been getting emails from KU and the community college telling everyone what to do in case school and finals have to be canceled because of the weather. School at JCCC was canceled yesterday. Luckily, that didn't affect me or my class because the plans for rescheduling finals sound like a real pain. Nate and a bunch of other Hallmark employees worked from home yesterday. I think most of these cancellations were slight overreactions, but there have been some upsides to all of this as well. For example, Nate and I went to the mall on Monday evening to do some Christmas shopping, and the place was blissfully empty.

The Hallmark Band

If you weren't familiar with the Hallmark company culture, you might be surprised to find out that we have a company sanctioned band. We perform at least 4 times a year. Our biggest concerts include the fourth of July concert and the two Christmas concerts. Hallmark holds a family night every year where employees can bring there families in to eat, shop, and listen to the band. Oh yeah, Santa comes to visit the children.

As you might imagine, Hallmark is very good about decorating the premises for the holidays. This tree, one of many, stands in the cafeteria where we hold most of our concerts.

Kansas city is all about crowns. The KC Royals use a crown, the KC Kings used a crown (before moving to Sacramento), and Hallmark uses a crown (e.g. Hallmark Gold Crown Stores). This a picture of the light fixtures in the cafeteria (officially known as the crown room).
Our band conductor comes in once a week to lead our group. He does a great job. We've had several conductors over the years. The founder of the band (pictured here with a Dr Seuss Santa hat) doubled as Santa this year.


I played trumpet for several years as a kid before I got braces. Here I am with the rest of the awesome trumpet section playing a Christmas jingle. To my left is my fellow friend and coworker, Bruce. He used to play in the BYU marching band. We're distantly related, by the way--his niece married my cousin. That makes us...?
The band is fun, and that's why I play. I have to work it into my weekly work routine, but it's definitely worth it. Several band members are excellent musicians, so I count myself lucky to be a part of this group.

Thanksgiving in Dallas

Nate and I had a great time in Dallas for Thanksgiving with Jen, Rod, Savannah, and Will. On Thanksgiving day we had an awesome meal at the Hinze home. We had a full house - lots of friends, all of their kids, and tons of good food.

Here are the cute, Hinze kids. Savannah was always ready for a ride in the car. We listened to some of her fun music, and she sang along for us.

We learned that Will loves technology. When Will would cry (something he did quite a lot because he thinks I'm scary) Nate would take him to play on the computer or teach him how to turn the lights on and off. This picture was taken with Jen's Mac. Will loves playing with the telephone, and that was lucky for us because he brought him a toy telephone from Kansas City.

Jen, Savannah, and Will took us to see some of the cool museums in Ft. Worth. They have a great American art museum. Savannah had a fun time telling us about all the different colors in the paintings, and Will loved the horse sculptures. He pointed at every horse sculpture we saw. Below the four of us pose in front of a Frederic Remington painting.

The next day we went to Fossil Rim. Going to Fossil Rim is kind of like going on a safari. The animals roam through the park, and you can feed them from your car. The European Red Deer were particularly friendly. They stuck their heads all the way into the car and ate from our hands. We also had a really good time feeding the zebras. But we didn't feed the zebras from our hands because Savannah kept reminding us that "zebras bite." Unfortunately we don't have very many pictures of the park because our camera broke halfway through the experience. We had to buy a new camera battery.

Luckily we did get a shot of the ostrich that stuck it's head all the way into our car and tried to steal our food bag. We grabbed it away from her, but not before she ripped a hole in the bag.

Thanks for showing us such a fun time, Jen, Rod, Savannah and Will. We are looking forward to seeing you in January.

The Steamboat Arabia

Mom came for another visit in the month of November. Among other things, we visited the Steamboat Arabia museum, which has preserved thousands of artifacts from an 1856 wreckage on the Missouri River. You can learn all about it at www.1856.com.

The Arabia sank just a few miles upstream from Kaw Point, where the Kansas and Missouri river come together.

The Arabia sank in very shallow water. It turns out that hundreds of steamboats sank during the 1800's due to the shallow water and snags in the river. All passengers safely escaped the wreck, but all the cargo was lost and buried in mud for over 100 years.

The boat was dug out of this old corn field along the Missouri in the winter of 1987. The river had long since changed its course by then. Digging in the cold gave the artifacts a greater likelihood of staying preserved. The dig required several pumps to keep water out of the hole. After salvaging the cargo, the pumps were turned off and the hole quickly filled up with water and mud.

The boat was excavated by a private party of treasure hunters. After uncovering thousands of artifacts, the group decided to preserve the collection in a museum in downtown Kansas City. We got a chance to meet the head of the excavation, Dave Hawley, who is still hunting for another boat to dig up along the Missouri river.


Everything in the boat was perfectly preserved due to the mud and the cold. Even cloth was preserved. What remains fills a display that is somewhat of a 1850's WalMart.

The museum boasts that it holds the largest collection of artifacts from the 1800's. Every piece, including individual nails have to be hand cleaned and preserved. Only half of the cargo has been cleaned so far. The other half awaits in a freezer. They estimate it will take another 20 years before they are finished.

The number of artifacts truly was overwhelming, and it was fun to gain insights into what things these pioneers owned and how they lived.

Every single button found on the Arabia has been preserved. They found liquor and pickles that still hold their taste. There was reports of gold being transported on the Arabia, but despite diligent efforts, they only dug up a total of 23 cents.

Tragically, the Arabia was headed for Council Bluffs, Iowa (across the river from Winter Quarters). A large percentage of the passengers was a group of Mormons heading west. They, along with everyone else, lost everything in the shipwreck. This wall in the museum was dedicated to them and their trek westward.

For Michelle

My friend Michelle recently asked me to share 6 interesting things about myself. So here it goes ...

My memory is my super power. I have always had an uncanny ability to quote back what people say to me. For example, the other day Nate was talking about our cat and how she is really interested in trees but has never climbed one, and I said that I thought she had climbed a tree. Nate disagreed. Then I said, “I thought that you told me about an eventful evening when Zephyr ran down the hill and then climbed a tree.” Nate replied, “oh yeah, how did you remember that when you weren’t even there?”

And speaking of super powers, I decided ten years ago that if I could have one real super power I would like to be able to travel anywhere in the blink of an eye. Think how many places I could go and how much time and money I would save! It would be best if my super power worked in a way that allowed me to take someone with me.

I am addicted to books on tape, and, luckily, we have an awesome public library system which keeps my needs supplied nicely. I actually look forward to my 45 minute commute to school because while I’m driving I’m also doing what I like best – reading. Thanks to Nate for giving me an IPod. I don’t think he had any idea how much it would be used.

I love the Disney show Even Stevens. I got really into this TV show when I was in college and they were still making new episodes. I had a roommate who liked Even Stevens too and that helped me to embrace my love of the show. I started recording all the episodes. I got all my roommates (and Nate too – even before we got married) converted to Even Stevens. Then this past year Even Stevens was on WGN, so I rerecorded them on DVD and now I own every single episode. The really weird thing about Even Stevens is this: Even Stevens is about a family named Stevens that lives in Sacramento, and I ended up marrying a Stephens from Sacramento. Coincidence?

I am a big nerd, and I find nerdy things really amusing. For example, when we were in college, my roommate, Nicole, and I decided to celebrate Copernicus’ birthday. We made a sign that said “Happy Birthday Copernicus! Hoorah for the heliocentric model!” And we included a drawing of the solar system and hung it on our front door. We, of course, thought this was hilarious, but it was actually kind of sad how many people didn’t think it was funny because they didn’t know who Copernicus was.

I own a 1986 Volkswagen Golf with unknown mileage. (The odometer was broken when I got it.) The car has personality and is a really trooper. Despite its old age it still runs like a dream – it’s kind of like the Energizer Bunny. We think the Golf wants to be immortal.

Honestly, I think this pretty much sums me up.

The Dallas Zoo

Nate and I went to the Dallas Zoo with Jen, Savannah, and Will. Our favorite part was the children's zoo. That's where Savannah showed us one of her favorite games.


She was pretty intense about it.


Nate and I loved the bird exhibit. We got to feed all of the beautiful birds pictured below. Some of the birds ate worms and some ate seeds. Some of them were rather pushy about being feed.



This bird is a Golden-breasted Starling from Africa. He's a much more colorful than the North American variety. Unfortunately, I don't remember the names of any of the other birds, but I'm pretty sure they came from exotic locations like the South Pacific and Australia.

Before we left the zoo Savannah had to take a ride on the Carousel. She chose to ride the Triceratops even though we didn't see any dinosaurs at the zoo.