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Happy Turkey Day

We got to go up to the cold land for Thanksgiving and we learned that we have turned in to Arizona pansies...ok I have always been a pansy when it comes to the cold but I just forgot how cold Idaho and Utah can get. We drove up on Tuesday after I got out of school. Donny was so good to drive the entire way. I don't know what it is with guys and driving, they just don't ever seem to get tired. I am like a little kid, I get in a car and it just rocks me to sleep. We made it to Spanish Fork at about 12:30 and crashed at my brother's home, that is after we ate all their food, tried on all their clothes, and went through all their personal belongings. Just kidding ;) We woke up and I felt like a little kids on Christmas morning. I looked out to see the beautiful snow capped mountains, frost on everything, and husband to scrape it off the windshield. We stopped by and got to see Donny's parents. It was so good to visit with them. Then we went on our way to Idaho. It was the on year so the house was full when we got there. All but Paul and family were able to fun and it was nothing short of crazy fun. We began the Thanksgiving festivities with a turkey bowl. Donny and I are still sore, it is pathetic. Donny showed everyone his mad skills, they were all amazed by his speed, I just smiled and thought, that's my husband ;)

Next the feeding began. I don't know what we are going to do in two years, we packed everyone in and it was a tight squeeze. It was so fun to have everyone together.

Then next day we went and took family pictures. I think we set a new record for the Permann family. We were in and out in about 30 minutes!

Then as tradition goes we set out to get our Christmas trees. We hike up and down the hill sides trying to find the perfect tree. This is like the official kick off of Christmas. We did find and tree and squeezed it in to the back of our car and hauled it down to Arizona.

Finally the icing on the cake was when we got to go to the BYU vs Utah game. As always, this game was played to the end. This time in overtime...sudden death. But don't you worry the Cougs came out on top. We rushed the field and joined in the celebrations.

Sunday we went to church with Shaun in Provo and then set off for Arizona. This drive was not too bad. It was fun to listen to Christmas music, Harry Potter, and just talk. This drive has some beautiful sites, anyone is welcome to make it...I know of some great people you can stay with;) It was a great Thanksgiving with many adventures.

So Excited

We get to go home in two days! Donny told our Bishops wife in church today that I am as gitty as a little school girl. I am so ready to see all the family, I even dreamt about it last night. We are so excited to see snow, mountains, the Y on the mountain, etc. It is funny the little things your miss. I'm so excited for the Holiday season. We even broke out the hot coco and Christmas music the other night.

Open the windows and pour you out...furniture?

Friday Night

Donny: Why can't there just be a coupon that says, "Donny and Crystal get everything free."


Saturday Morning
Crystal: I'm so tired of not having a dresser I just want to be able to put my clothes away in a drawer.


At this point we are ready to go on our Saturday morning run. Donny suggests that we go run by the Flahertys, our relatives. We have never ran this way before. We stop by and chat with the Flahertys for a while and then start on our run home when what to our wondering eyes should appear...

a dresser with shelves attached and an end table, sorry no reindeer! But I haven't even told you the best part of the story yet. We were surviving just fine with out a dresser, just one of those modern conveniences that you grow accustomed to. We have tried to find one at yard sales but just haven't been able to bring ourselves to buy one. Which brings us to the climax of this post. The set was FREE, ZILCH, GRATIS. Just one of those tender mercies of the Lord. This Thanksgiving I'm thankful for coupons sent from the Lord where we get what we need for free.

Trick or Treat

Well we know who the artist is in the family...come on look at that finely carved nose. No we didn't have stencils this was all done with original creativity. However, we are thinking of selling our ideas. I realized, once again, that I am like my students and can only concentrate on one thing for so long and then my ADD kicks in and I can't sit still in my seat. Donny on the other hand carved his pumpkin with a steak knife and two hours later finished his masterpiece...ok maybe it was only an hour and a half. It is pretty much perfect. Our ward had a trunk-or-treat and we took the pumpkins with us. We have decided that kids can really score big these days. They can hit numerous trunk-or-treats before the actual blessed candy filled holiday begins. It was nice to see kids wearing Halloween costumes that didn't have to be altered because they were worn over the top of a snow suit.

Why people have kids

Donny and I found some fun cookie cutters the other night and thought it would be fun to decorate some Halloween cookies. Well as you can tell it looks like we invited the neighbor kids over to help us decorate the cookies. Now I know that one of the reasons people have kids is to blame their lack of creativity on the inexperience of their kids...or maybe we were just hoping to do that after we looked at our results. Either way it was fun! Happy Halloween! I don't know if we'll share these ones with our neighbors.

Two of our "favorites"

I Belong to the Church of Jesus-Christ...

Our favorite neighbor Jackie just got baptized! It has been such a privilege to see her make changes in her life as she prepared for baptism. The spirit has been touching her for a while and she has been so prepared. It has been neat to see how different people in her life have helped to lead her to this point in her life. It made me realize once again the importance of sharing our light with others. As I sat in on the lessons that the Elders taught, when we went to the visitors center, or just visiting with Jackie I realized how important the simple things are. I know what my purpose is in this life and there are many that struggle with that. I know that even though I mess up each day that Jesus Christ died for me and everyone to help us overcome those times we fall short. I know I can live with my family FOREVER! I know this life is about finding joy in the journey. Donny and I went over to Jackie's one night after her baptism and we discussed the organization of the church and how it is the same today as it was when Christ was on the earth. I dusted off my cup analogy that I used on my mission (I know you are wondering how I still have these, they are great just need to update the 12 apostles) and we had one of the most exciting discussions about so many things about the church. I love the excitement of new members! We are so blessed to have a great friend that has reminded us that it is great to belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Adventures in Camping

I had a week off of school for fall break and Donny decided to take Thursday off, he doesn't have Friday classes. So we left Thursday afternoon and headed up North to go camping. We wanted to get up in the pines and we found them. We rolled down the windows and smelt the fresh sweet smell of the mountain air.

Donny started the fire and we made tin foil dinners, I LOVE these! They tasted so good, either because I was so hungry I could have eaten my arm or because everything just tastes better when you cook it in a camp fire. We made peach cobbler in our new dutch oven (one of our favorite wedding gifts). We sat around the fire talking and singing Kumbaya. It felt so good to be out and away from everything, and up in the mountains.

When we had decided to go camping we realized we didn't have a tent. Well we figured we could just sleep under the stars and would be ok, it Arizona for Pete sake. Well with a change in 4000 feet of elevation the temperature dropped quite a bit. Well I am a pansie when it comes to the cold (I know you are thinking to yourself but you are from Idaho...well I didn't get the extra layer of skin when they sent me down to Idaho). Luckily we had thrown some old tarps that my dad had given to us to cover our couches when we moved down here. When I say well used I mean they have served their time well. If you look closely in the next couple pictures you can see the few holes in the sides. We coincidentally found a spot where someone had already cut a tree down and laid it side ways between two trees so we had the perfect lean-to spot. We had two tarps, one to cover us and one to put under us. We used some rocks to weigh down the corners and then just like any good camper would do, inflated the air mattress. We put chairs at both ends of the lean-to to keep out whatever we kept hearing move around the brush :) It was quite the adventure!

One year older, wiser, and more good looking too!

Donny just hit his 29th b-day and he is still as youthful as ever! Not that 29 and older isn't youthful :) I just want to take this time to brag about the best husband ever. He gets up at 5 am with me to get breakfast ready and pack my lunch and send me off to teach. Then he goes to school and is in class all day long, comes home and then does his readings for the next day of classes. He always makes time for us each day weather it's going for a run, going swimming, playing a game of scrabble, or just talking. I love to watch him interact with others he is so concerned about others and is aware of their needs. He works hard to do the best at whatever he does. Sometimes this drives me crazy because he can be such a perfectionist, but he says he is just thorough. Whatever the case he does a great job at anything he does even if it does take forever sometimes to do it ;) He is such a kid at heart, I love the playful energetic side of him. I am blessed with such a great man. Happy Birthday Donny, many great ones are yet to be!

Martha Stewart What?

Nothing like pulling out the wedding decorations, adding some crate paper and a garbage bag and vwallah...instant Halloween decorations!

*Side note, Donny and I are debating the proper spelling of the word vwallah or is it
wallah and I just added the v for spice. Whatever the case don't judge me, I teach Math not English therefore I am exempt from spelling correctly.

**Donny said according to dictionary.com it is wallah, but it is more fun to say it vwallah, you are saying it to yourself right now... aren't you!

Donny isn't part of the decorations

Viva Las Vegas

We took a trip to Las Vegas to meet up with my mom, dad, Angie, Christina, and Nate (friend of Angie). We got to take Kim, a cousin that lives down here in Gilbert. I love road trips because it brings out the conversations that you don't usually talk about in "normal" conversations. We talked about everything from sharing your "days of the week underwear with your sister" to how the gun on "Duck hunt" works, if anyone knows the answer to this question please let us know. When we got to Vegas we went to M&M world where they have an entire wall lined with all the different types of M&M's.

Then Kim introduced us to frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity's, sooo good. It was like Christmas to get to see our family again. We all met up in front of the Balagio and watched the fountains. I love mom and dad's double 75 on the back of their shirts!

Then we went to the BYU vs UNLV game. It was so good to get to see the Cougs play, we have been going through college football with drawls. During half time I was standing out waiting for Donny and there was a man that approached me and asked what it meant to be "fully invested" (my shirt says this). So I explained what that meant and he said "so that's what you Mormons are all about." So I explained to him that it was a lot more than that. I got to talk to him about why life is so good. That despite our everyday trials Christ helps us get through them and even ENJOY them!! He told me that he was set financially and I told him that was great and important for sure but I asked him if he had purpose to life. He told me that there wasn't a whole lot of meaning there. It was really fun to just chat with this great man, Rich, about how life is so great with the Christ as the center of it. I love to travel and I think one of the biggest reasons is because we get to meet so many different people and find out about them and what makes them tick. Then I get to do the same for them. It was a great trip!

Home Sweet Home

Donny and I pulled in to Arizona one HOT night. We had some great friends and family unload a lot of our things that we sent down before we got there. We unloaded all of the things we had packed in to our two cars. We were soaked, never move to Arizona during the summer. We had a couple of weeks before Donny started school up so we spent those two weeks getting things situated...we didn't step foot in to Walmart or Target for a while after we finally had everything we needed. It finally feels like home to us. We love our location! We have family within a mile a way, our ward is A-MAZING, frys, the farmers market, and we have three pools to choose from (visitors are welcome). Donny started school and I stayed at home by the pool trying to keep my tan up, just kidding. I emailed every principal in the area and told them I was a certified Math teacher and if they needed any help I was more than willing. Well we figured I would just be substitute teaching for the year and then I was made aware that in some districts they weren't even accepting substitutes. Well only by divine intervention did the following take place. I got a call from Highland High School, the school I wanted to teach at, asking if I could come in for an interview on Monday. Well long story short there was a teacher that was unable to teach due to health reasons and they were in a bind and they had received my email saying I was a math teacher. I was hired on Tuesday and began teaching on Wednesday...at 6 AM, they have a class before normal school starts!!!! Fruitcakes, who wants to learn math at that time of day? Well the nice thing is I am done by 2. Donny is so good to get up and pack my bag and get breakfast ready. He is in midterms right now and works so hard. I am amazed at how much he reads everyday. He gets home and takes a little break and then is right in to his books. He is so great to take time for us as well. We are loving this time in our life we miss family but are grateful for this time we get to be in the Sunshine state.

Utah Bucket List

Utah has been home for us for so long and there are so many things that we love about it. We decided to compile a list of things that we either have never been able to do or just love doing. And since this summer we had a little bit of free time on our hands we had a blast. Here are some pics from our adventures!

Nothing says Utah summers like bonfires.
We both really are enjoying this.

The Alpine Loop...beautiful!

DEMOLITION DERBYS! A lot of noise, smoke, and rednecks.

This is something we will definitely do again.

Camping out on Parkway for the 4th of July

with Tenille and Shaun. It was a lot of fun until the

little hudlum fruitcakes decided to light fire crackers

all night by our tent. But we did have a great seat for the

hot air ballons and parade. That might be a first...and a last.

Timp caves.
First time for me, childhood memory of Donny's

Hiking Stewart falls, kissing under a waterfall,

and getting something nasty in my hair.

WE LOVE BOATING!!!

Lehi Round Up and Spanish Fork RO-DE-OOOS!