Excellent

Read these. Immediately. I have not enjoyed a book series so much since, well, the Twilight saga, and frankly I'm a lot less (or not at all) embarrassed about really enjoying these!

The last book in the trilogy will be released in August. You have my permission to wait until then to read them if you want to get 'er done all at once.

A Weekend on Pine Island

Jeff was on spring break last week and to celebrate we spent the weekend on Pine Island with my Dad and step-mom. Pine Island and its neighboring city, Matlacha (pronounced Matt-Lachay), are interesting places--very colorful, kind of random, but so fun!

We had beautiful weather on Saturday and Sunday and it was a welcome relief from the cold and clouds (to those of you up north or out west, yes, I understand that this is all relative).

We explored the island by bike (beach cruiser, baby! Have I ever mentioned I'm not really good at riding a bike?) and car and found some great treasures--some beautiful, big homes amid trailer parks, some funky and delicious restaurants (if you get the chance to eat at the Sandy Hook, do!), and some small biker bars with great names (e.g., Ragged Ass).

Jeff found some coconuts while out and about...

Any trip to visit my dad would not be complete without a great cookout--steak, chicken and fresh gulf shrimp. Yum! Since the shrimp were fresh, they came as God made them. Dad and Jeff made them suitable for eating. Ashley and I avoided this processes like the plague. Neither of us enjoys seeing our food with a face.

I didn't get a picture of it but, Ashley made quite the entrance on Friday night. She drives a big, four door, Titan that makes sure nothing gets in her way--including the string of lantern lights marking the parking area next to my dad's motor coach. Once she clipped one, she decided to just keep going and flattened the rest of the string. We all had a good laugh about it!

One of the things I love about Jeff...

So, Jeff woke up early this morning to drive to Palm Bay, Florida where he will spend the weekend with Chad and company. I am always nervous when Jeff has to drive somewhere "foreign" alone. He just doesn't have a good sense of direction. And while he's been to Chad's house on numerous occasions, I was still nervous.

He called me a couple of hours into his trip and says, "I was thinking of you. I see the cruise ships and the Tiki Bar!" (one of my favorite places for crab legs and sweet potato fries). I thought this was really sweet and felt bad having to tell him that he has in deed gone too far (maybe 30 minutes passed his turn). I promised him that in just two short months (when my t-mobile contract is up) I will buy him an iPhone, equip it with the GPS application (I'm the IT department at our home in addition to navigation) and then neither of us will have to worry any more about him getting lost.

I've Always Loved Football Players...

Jeff and his buddies are in a flag football league and boy do they take it seriously! The games usually monopolize our Saturdays--the intense focus before, the game itself, and the re-hashing of all of the great (and missed) plays, as well as the new aches and pains, for the remainder of the day. It really is fun for all. Jeff enjoys it and the wives and children usually attend so, I get some good girl time in every week! Plus, it's so nice to be outside when the weather is nice!

They have a good team and are looking forward to the playoffs!

My thoughts on Valentine's Day...

I agree with Ashton Kutcher. Shouldn't we show and celebrate the love in our lives 364 days out of the year and then have 1 day where we let out our frustrations with the people we can't stand? Seems like a much better idea to me.

He's starting to look like a dentist...

Jeff's learning how to use his drill! This whole dentist-thing becomes more real every day!

Our Christmas 2009 Festivities

December was pretty much a blur for us. So, we were really excited to have a couple of weeks to relax, spend time with family and friends, and celebrate the holidays.

This year was our first having a real Christmas tree. I have to say, it was really nice to have that natural pine smell in our home for a month! Much better than what you get with a candle!

We, of course, had our annual Tobler Family Graham Cracker House Build. This year we had the Copelands and the Parrys over. Jeff was our master builder again.

Or, not-so-master-builder... He's a big thinker that is sometimes restricted by the limitations of graham crackers and powdered sugar "glue." Luckily, he has me for the "clean-up crew."

The Parrys were a great team! One would work on the house while the other would wrangle their cute-as-a-button twin girls.

Cassie and Craig worked well together and made a cute house. Cassie almost divorced Craig after he tried to build an "ark" last year--not really, but, she wasn't happy. Everyone went home happy this time and we were all glad that their soon-to-be-debuted son will know the joy of a happy two-parent household!

Jeff was happy to show Heath his small armory... (because nothing says "Merry Christmas" like large guns)

Craig got to practice his daddy skills...

I think a good time was had by all and we ended up with some great, and very different, houses!

Craig and Cassie

Hayden, Heath, Gretchen and Kypri

Me and my lover

After our graham-cracker-house build, we headed down to my mom's house in Tampa to celebrate Christmas. We do our big dinner on Christmas Eve and it's definitely my favorite meal of the year. Prime rib, twice-baked potatoes, green beans, 11-layer jello salad, yum!

I was in charge of dessert. So, I whipped up a new cake recipe--chocolate cake with white chocolate and peppermint mousse frosting. It was tasty!

This is Ashley and her 11-layer jello salad that takes her two days to make. Is it worth it you ask? We think so!

The boys weren't much help in the kitchen but, they provided some great comic relief by boxing each other on the Wii.

After we had dinner, we all settled in to open our one Christmas Eve present (always pajamas),

and take the annual picture by the tree.

Jeff is not a big fan of pj's so, he decided to be the grinch and not change into his for the picture. I still love him but, think this picture would have been cuter if he was in his pjs.

We got a later start on Christmas morning since we're all grown-ups (sort-of) now. I remember those days when it was torture to have to wait until 8am to wake our parents up to open gifts. Now we had to make an effort to get everybody out of bed at 9am.

Ashley re-outfitted Dave in collegiate wear...

Ashley, Jeff and I set mom up with a new Coach handbag (that Ashley and I also have)...

(see told ya we all now carry the same handbag...)

...and her favorite perfume circa 1990. Seriously, I think she's been wearing the Tuscany perfume since sometime in the '90s. It's her signature scent and smells mighty good. Mom was pretty good at doing "the Ashley" for her pics...

We had a fitness/kitchen gift Christmas. Ashley hooked Jeff up with an over-the-door pull-up bar that he really loves and I was so happy to get several great new gourmet kitchen items! We decided to buy a new mattress for Christmas rather than get gifts for each other. I don't have a picture of my new princess bed (I literally have to jump a little bit to get in) but, boy is it divine.

Mom and Dave surprised Ashley with a little blue box. The best kind of blue box that is a big hit in our family!

Braden also had a fitness themed Christmas. He was super excited about these spandex shorts. They are definitely H.O.T.!

We were able to catch a few quiet moments over the weekend to knit/crochet and for mom to give us a sewing lesson--both were so enjoyable! I love creating things and feel so rewarded when I make something from nothing!

We celebrated New Year's with some great friends. We enjoyed a nice big lunch at a brazilian buffet on New Year's Eve and then headed to the Parry's for a party.

The boys managed to beat the girls at Cranium...

But, we didn't let that ruin our fun!

We really had an exceptional holiday and as we reflect on our 2009, we are so grateful for the blessings we received. We really had some great, big, life events last year and couldn't be happier with where we are starting 2010.

A Girls Weekend in Park City

The first weekend in December was Murray family girls weekend in Park City. It was so much fun! We flew in and spent the first night at Grandma's house in Ogden and our first morning together began with an explanation of the "that's what she said" joke for our older counterparts (a.k.a. mom, Bonnie and Grandma). Needless to say, once they got it, they didn't let go of it and it was a frequent exclamation throughout the weekend. So, we started things out right. ;-)

We woke up to a winter wonderland--a cold, snowy, winter wonderland! Ashley was our chauffeur extraordinare for the weekend. I never learned how to drive in the snow so, I was grateful she knew how! There were some treacherous roads!

Greer was extra excited because she hasn't spent any significant amount of time in the snow.

After a not-so-quick trip to sew-n-save and taco time (We love us some crispy bean burritos!) our caravan headed for Park City. About 10 miles down the road, we were all ready stopping for a bathroom break and diet coke. Sadly, this is my destiny--the diet coke needing out about as fast as we can get it in.

We made it to Park City just in time to catch the Gators playing in the SEC championship game (not playing well, but playing nonetheless). The Florida contingent was proudly representin' amid the Western folk.

Some of the girls weren't all that into the game but, were happy to hang out at the sports bar with us!

Just before we left, sad and dejected, an older gentleman (maybe 50 or 60?) set to hitting on Ashley--even going so far as to ask if he needed to upgrade his hotel room to a suite for the evening. She kindly declined and we all cringed on the way back to our condo. Ew, ew, ew.

I think the average temperature for our visit was 0 degrees. So, there was many a fire.

And of course, given my previous remark regarding the diet coke, this is what our fridge looked like. It reminded me of a frat house fridge, except that instead of beer, we shot-gun diet coke.

That evening, we had 26 women and 2.5 girl babies in our condo for gossiping and story telling. Every where you looked...

Women...

Women...

Women...

And more women!

Our reunions are real estrogen-fests. You can imagine the stark contrast between my family gatherings and Jeff's family gatherings. Until the brothers started getting married, there was nary a girl in sight. Even now, with all of the brothers married, they are usually filled with manly displays of testosterone--drive-by shooting contests, farting, posturing, and the like. It's.real.different.

The great thing is, there is a large rising generation of Murray women and they are cute as can be! (see little Clytie above and Skylar below...cute, cute, cute).

And this sacred vessel is carrying another girl! When I found out she was having a girl it just felt to me as if all was right in the world...

Ashley and I missed the after-hours party that occurred after we had gone to bed. It sounded like it was an informative session covering man-scaping (or scape-goating if you cannot remember the real term) and all sorts of strange (naked) behaviors exhibited by my few male cousins (they're real creative). The recap was hilarious (and slightly disturbing) and we all left a little more enlightened. I'm sure once the husbands heard a recap of our trip, they might have reconsidered getting us together for girls' weekends!

The next day we enjoyed a nice brunch out, a little shopping, some card games, a lot of bridge mix, and the LDS First Presidency Christmas broadcast. That was one of my favorite parts of the whole trip. As we watched, we sang along with the Christmas carols (many of the women in our family have incredible voices), sat by the fire and watched it snow. It was one of those magical and incredibly uplifting moments.

Of course, any girls weekend would not be complete without some shopping! It was still snowy and even colder the next day (-10 degrees while taking these pictures! Burrr...)

I wasn't all that confident that I would enjoy spending money in the cold but, then we found the buy-one-get-two-free boot sale and I quickly determined that I did. It's just as satisfying as warm-weather shopping.

And it was even more fun all shopping in the Coach outlet! We found some great deals and all ended up with new handbags!

After shopping, we replenished ourselves with lunch at a delicious BBQ restaurant in downtown Park City (Bandits, I highly recommend it). Apparently, the moose came with the building.

Someone, who shall remain nameless, walked out of the ladies room with two, two-foot long trails of toilet paper hanging out of her pants. As I'm sure you can imagine, it was the cause for many giggling fits.

It was really tucked in there! The bulk was pulled out and left for the waiter the restaurant (Ew..ha, ha...ew...ha,ha), then Ashley found some more, and I believe there was still some left when we got home!

It was a quick trip but, it was such a great one! It's always fun to get together with such incredible women. Each is so wonderful and unique and I'm proud to be part of them.

Can't wait to do it again!