December 5th & December 8th

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

GRANDMA & GRANDPA !!

We love you guys & wish you two very Happy Birthdays! You sure look great! We look forward to seeing you over the holidays! Take Care!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JENNY!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA!!!

We hope you have a very happy birthday Grandma and we look forward to seeing you soon! We love you very much and are blessed to have you as our Grandma!

An Abbyism

I have an Abbyism of my own to post! The other day I was talking to Abby over the computer. Besides our usual friendly see-who-can-come-up-with-the-craziest-name-calling-match (for example "you're a macaroni and cheese chicken peanut butter duck head" or something to that effect..) I asked her how Babbo was doing. She replied that he was at school. I then asked her if he liked school, and she came back with a very serious and contemplative, "It's pretty agressive." I about died. So funny! What 3 year old uses that word?! That girl!! :)

Halloween Costumes

Friday night was our ward Trunk or Treat. We had a huge turnout (over 200 people) and everything went well and everyone seemed to have a lot of fun. I thought KR and I had better dress up since I am always telling everyone else to do so.

I dressed up as a Q-tip (a used one of course) and KR was a convict.

KR heard that someone had said,

"Wow, I didn't know Brother Kirkendall had that many tattoos!"

I won the award for the most original costume. Whoo Hoo!

Murder Mystery Dinner

Several weeks ago we hosted a murder mystery dinner at our house. It was a first for us as well as the friends we invited. Everyone came in character and really got into it!

KR (as a European mountain climber) & I ( a proper secretary) and our friends Brandon & Nycole (a banker & a model - anyone notice she is wearing my Junior prom dress? :))

Shane & Chelsea (a doctor & an actress) and Jeff & Jamie (a golf pro & a writer)

The setting was supposed to be an old English mansion in the 1930s. We had appetizers, dinner and dessert as we played the different rounds of the game. It took several hours and none of us were able to solve the murder, but everyone had so much fun nevertheless!

Waterskiing

Even with the mild weather here in Boise, we don't water ski in October, so obviously this blog is overdue. KR's dad bought a boat late this summer and we had some fun days out on the lake. Actually it's a huge reservoir in a beautiful canyon - the closest thing to mountains we have close by. Neither one of us have a lot of experience water skiing but we tried. KR is much better than I am. The videos are a bit shaky since they are taken on a bumpy boat ride.

KR Water Skiing

Em Water Skiing

With my limited water skiing experience, I never realized how much energy and muscle it takes! We were so sore the next day and had huge bruises! On my last water skiing turn on the last day we went, I actually got up for a long time without falling but as we kept going, my muscles were so worn out I felt like I couldn't hold on another second and waved goodbye to the boat and let go.

Our New Car!!

2007 Hyundai Sonata

The New Do

Before

After

A Visit From The Fam

Last weekend I had the pleasure of having some of my family come up and visit. (Oh wait, you already knew that, you're the ones reading this ... anyways...) It was so much fun! Thank you so much for coming. I wish I had taken a lot more pictures of the weekend though. (I will be adding a few more from the water camera when I get them...)

Abby practicing her glare--whoa watch out!

KR & Abby on the LoveSac watching a movie

Abby & I had fun dressing up in wigs!

Abby was "organizing"

Camping Trip II

Earlier this summer, we went camping with our great friends Brandon and Nycole. We went up into the Boise National Forrest along the Middle Fork of the Payette River. We found a great secluded campsite and stayed for two nights. It was such fun and created some good memories!


Of course it is mandatory while camping to enjoy lots of yummy food. We certainly ate like kings. We had pork chops, BBQ ribs, kabobs, corn on the cob, s'mores, stew, dutch oven cobbler, english muffin pizzas, sandwiches, pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausage, bagels, and more.

Brandon, KR and Nycole

cooking breakfast

Unfortunately, I wasn't thinking when I placed our deliciously marinated kabobs in large Ziploc bags and then into the top of our cooler when we left home. Needless to say, when we opened it that evening at the campsite, the sticks had punctured the bags and the marinade had seeped all throughout our cooler. For the rest of the trip, we had to wipe greasy oil off of all the food packages and drinks and everything in the cooler smelled like garlic, oil and vinegar. Not fun.

KR with his Hitler moustache

Jumping off into our fishing hole in the river...Burrrr!

One of the best parts of the camping trip was hiking a couple miles up to some hot springs. (KR and I had backpacked there before.) The hike was really nice and at the end we got to take a soak in our own personal hot tub in the middle of the river canyon! There was a hot spring in the middle of a creek which had been sectioned off with large rocks. You could let some river water in to cool it down a bit or let more hot water in to heat it up. It was the ultimate luxury nature has to offer! (at least on a camping trip!)

Nature's Hot Tub

Fun in the Yard

Yes, I know, more pictures of my cats! Today we were out playing on the swing set in the back yard and I got some great shots. It's so funny because Brother will go up and down the slide by himself. He has trouble making it all the way up (for obvious reasons), but he seems to prefer sliding down the slide instead of jumping off the top to get down. It's pretty funny! Here he goes!

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I just love these big purple flowers. They wrap around our front porch railing and this year they have really spread!

Be All That You Can Be

As most of you have heard by now, KR has received a pilot slot and finally has his school date this time. He will be starting Army Helicopter Training in Fort Rucker Alabama on February 8, 2008! And soon he will be flying one of these:

He is pretty excited! Unfortunately, he has to switch over to the Idaho Army National Guard August 1st. (update: October 1st)

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:(

Our Trip to Denver

The week before Memorial Day, we traveled to Denver for Dan Bateman's wedding. While in Denver, we visited Casa Bonita! Same great food and entertainment. What a fun restaurant! Unfortunately we were in a bit of a hurry, so we didn't have time to enjoy all it has to offer. They really do have good food although it's not the cheapest, but certainly worth the moola in my opinion!

Remember the "scary" cave walk through? Who said it was for kids. I love it!

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Here is KR with our nephew Kolton in front of the waterfall (you can't see the water too well though)

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It was fun to see the whole Bateman clan at the wedding. In the picture above with KR and Richard standing in the line, that is Kim Bateman on the right. Dan and Katie had a garden wedding and a nice dinner and dancing reception that night. Funny thing was, Dan rented a pricey Rolls Royce to take them from the wedding to the reception, but it broke down along the way and they were almost an hour late!

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Look Familiar?

Devil's Slide

We had a nice weekend in Utah and on Memorial Day, we went hiking. We went to Donut Falls (pictured above) where the waterfall has worn a hole in the rocks which it disappears into before pouring out below into a pool of water and continuing the river through the canyon. Very pretty. (I think some of you have been there too.)

We also got to see some moose on our second hike up around Silver Lake in Cottonwood Canyon. They were right there off the trail. (These two are of the same moose).