The Haircut...

Out of desperation or pure insanity, Justin let me cut his hair on the 8th of November. I think it looks pretty good. It was getting in his eyes and making it hard for him to see, not to mention it was touching his ears. Anyway, take a look and you be the judge!

Halloween

This year for Halloween, Camille (sister-in-law) had the first annual Campbell Halloween Party. Justin and I went as Jim Halpert and Pam Beesley from The Office television show. All the nieces and nephews dressed up as well. On Halloween night, the town of Gunlock had a party. They loaded all the kids up in a pickup truck bed and on a flat bed trailer and took them around trick or treating. We had 38 trick or treaters... all at once... yeah, it was chaos, but then we got to go and have dinner and go through a little "House of Horrors" that one of the men in our community put together. It was really rather fun. Of course we went with Kevin and Sara (and if you don't know who Kevin and Sara are by now, I'm not going to tell you...;-) and their kids. We all had a blast!

Justin's Birthday!!!!!!!!

On the 27th of October, Justin turned 27. We went to Fernley to celebrate his birthday with my family and Jen and Keith (some friends we have up there). My mom made him a spice cake birthday cake that had applesauce in it. He loved it! Then we played Apples to Apples and watched movies until midnight. He got money from my parents and my grandma (with which he promptly bought Transformers, the movie) and a long sleeve shirt and socks from his parents. The best present of all, though, came from his friend Dow, who gave him his extra shotgun and shop towels. Needless to say, he was excited!

Mark's Birthday

Also on the 20th of October, Justin and I went to his dad's birthday at the college's cabin in Pine Valley (did you get all that?). We had dinner and pie and hung out with family. Jack (nephew) and I were monsters and pretended to eat the boxcars of the wooden toy train set that Justin's parents own. We got Mark a Hawaiian shirt for his birthday because he likes them so much. Our reasoning was, however, that he needed some nice, light shirts to wear when they go on their cruise (all his kids are trying to get them to go on a cruise for Christmas or their anniversary or something).

Fall Wheelin'

Justin and I went wheelin' with Kevin and Sara (cousins and landlords) and the Wagners on October 20th. We wheeled up a back road that leads from Gunlock to Enterprise Reservoir. That trail is where Kevin and Sara met the Wagners on New Year's Day of this year and helped them get 'unstuck.' At the end of the trail, there were some caves and cracks in the rocks that the kids got to play in. Notice that most of us are in orange. The 20th of October also happened to be the opening weekend of the rifle deer hunt... safety first, you know... We had lunch in Enterprise and happened to see two of our Cub Scouts and their fathers there. They had been hunting that morning.

Pinewood Derby

On the third of October, our Cub Scouts held a Pinewood derby. Now, we have 8 Cub Scouts and each entered a car into their division. Then we opened it up to the community to enter into a general competition race. Fifty two cars were entered in the general competition race. Check out the cars that were entered!

Anniversary

Okay, so I know that it is not our wedding anniversary, but yesterday (10.17.07) marked the five year anniversary of our first date. To commemorate, Justin and I watched "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" (the movie that we watched on our first date) and ate frozen pizza. It wasn't to eventful, but it was fun and sweet that Justin remembered the anniversary.

Christopher... I mean, Elder Leonard

I have recently realized that not everyone has been able to see pictures of Christopher on his mission. So, I've compiled these here for your viewing enjoyment.

San Francisco Trip

Justin and I went with my parents, grandmother, and youngest brother to San Francisco this last weekend. While we were there, we took a tour on a double-decker bus that tried to take out Alex, drove across the Bay Bridge, and visited Alcatraz. At Alcatraz, we were locked into an isolation cell (the picture of Alex with head phones on). It was dark, but cool. The tour was a recording (thus the head phones) enabling the listener to stop and play the tour at the listener's discretion. The picture of Justin was taken on the ferry out to Alcatraz with San Francisco in the background.

Another Family Reunion

In August, Justin's mother's family (did you follow all that?) held the annual Laub family reunion at the family farm. This year, Grandma Laub rented a bounce house and water slide for the kids. All of her children were there and almost all of her grandchildren were able to make it. Justin's dad and a few others were hitting golf balls out into the alfalfa fields. When lunch time rolled around, his mother wanted to go get them, so she jumped on behind Justin on Merril's three wheeler. She doesn't usually do this, so that's why I snapped the picture. We also went wheelin' while we were there with Kevin and Sara, Matt and Camille, Jared, and Justin's dad.

Photography Hobby

Ever since Justin and I bought our new camera, I've been snapping pictures of just about anything that will stand still long enough for me to push the button. These are a few of the pictures that I have taken in the last little while. The picture of the sun through the trees is my favorite.

Water, Water Everywhere... RUN!

As you may have heard in the news, Gunlock experienced a flash flood on the afternoon of August 1st. This has happened before, however this time, Justin and I were there. Actually, Sara and I were on one side of the bridge while our husbands happened to be on the other. I noticed that the river had risen very high on my way home from work and went over to Sara's to tell her that I was going down to the bridge to take some pictures (the video footage of the beginning of the flood is above). Sara decided to pack up the kids and go with me.
As I was filming, the first property began to flood and Sara had to yell to get my attention. I looked up to see the water starting to surround the first house and Sara telling me that she was going to run up to the door and tell them to get out or they would be stranded in their house. There was no way I was going to let her, a mother with three kids, risk her life to save the people in the house, so I told her I would do it. No one was home in the house, but when I turned around I was surrounded by thigh deep, muddy water. I had to jump the fence to get out of there.
Sara and I made it to safety, with her kids. No one was hurt and the entire community helped with the clean up. There was over 800 volunteers. If you were one of them, thank you so much and thank you to everyone who kept our community in your thoughts and prayers. Gunlock has strong citizens and we appreciate your support.

Rachel's Birthday

My birthday was on the third of August. Unfortunately, we were traveling that day and didn't get to celebrate it with anyone. When this was found out, a party was planned. Sara (our cousin whom we are renting from) made me this cute ladybug red velvet cake. It was her oldest daughter's (Samantha) idea. It was actually the second cake she made for me. She remembered that it had been my birthday and had a cake waiting for me when I got home from work on Monday. We had a lot of fun at the party even though only a few people were able to show up due to the unfortunate timing of having the party the same time as the demolition derby at the county fair.

Mark and Janet Family Reunion - Pine Valley

This is a picture of us outside the historic chapel in Pine Valley, Utah. Every year, Janet and Mark (Justin's parents) have a family reunion with their children at the cabin that Dixie State College owns. Janet works in the Computer Department there, thus allowing us to use the cabin. This year, the family reunion was in May. Usually, we have it later in the year, but this year, many of the other faculty members wanted the same weekends.
There is always a family picture at these reunions and this time, Janet arranged for the photographer to take individual family pictures for each of the children. Each family had a different color (to identify each family's members to people who don't know us) and our color was tan. Notice that my hair is strait in this picture. It took me an hour and a half to get it that way. Stephanie, our oldest niece, asked me what I was doing to my hair. She said I looked funny with half strait, half fuzzy hair. After I got it all fixed, though, she thought it looked okay.
On Memorial Day, we went to visit some family graves then went to a small, state park near Caliente, Nevada. We had a nice picnic lunch while the kids swam in a small wading pool there. Justin's younger sister, Megan also announced that she would be leaving to serve her LDS mission in Sweden on September 19th.