a matter of perspective

today i got gas for $3.38 a gallon and i was stoked (especially since that is almost 20 cents cheaper than by where we live). who would have ever guessed that $3.38 a gallon would seem cheap. i remember when gas was less than a dollar. i guess cheap today is just a matter of perspective. it could be worse. last month when i was in alaska gas was $5.32. yikes!

we are not alone

my sister forwarded me this video last week. she said it's good to know we aren't alone in this fight and i totally agree. i think it's really inspiring.

the art institute of colorado

DAVE GOT A JOB!! after months of diligently looking, the search is finally over (and not a moment too soon)! he starts tomorrow as an academic advisor for the video production students at the art institute of colorado. it seems like the perfect fit...combining his art and education backgrounds.

our faith has definitely been tried over the last few months. although we knew that the lord was aware of us, there were times when it felt like we were left alone. our prayers took on new intensity and we found immense comfort through fasting and attending the temple. but even so, we were amazed at how the doubt and frustration could creep in. more than once i felt like the man in the new testament that said, "lord, i believe; help thou my unbelief." i am so grateful that the lord is patient with us. especially when we doubt him (or his timing) and waver. he is so forgiving and for that i am grateful. we were reminded that the lord always keeps his promises and the promises that both dave and i received in blessings were fulfilled. i am grateful for the prayers of others and the power of collective faith, prayers and fasting. we feel so blessed to have wonderful family and friends who prayed constantly for us (including our sweet nieces and nephews). i am so grateful for the gospel. i honestly don't know how people make it without knowing the lord is there, ready and willing to strengthen, support and provide guidance. we definitely have felt his hand in dave finding this job.

we are so excited and maybe one day i will get dave to actually post about it (i'm crossing my fingers, but not holding my breath)!

boondocks and ben & jerry's

to celebrate dave's new job we headed up to boondocks fun center on friday night to play.

this is the pimped out bmw we parked next to. and for those interested, it is for sale. score! i am sure we can find the phone number for anyone interested.

on your marks, get set...go!
dave and i started out with the go-karts. i think the last time i drove a go-kart was when i was in middle school. i was all ready to burn it up, but my car didn't seem to respond as quickly as i was hoping. other kids were flying by me and i had the pedal pushed all the way down. is it because i weighed more than the other kids and my car was dragging?! who knows. dave's car ended up dying right when our turn was over. he had to be pushed back to the starting line. our cars may have struggled, but we had a great time!

next up...the flight simulator. this thing tossed us all over the place. luckily neither of us lost our dinner :)

next we tested our luck at the batting cages. i don't know if i have ever been before, but it was great! plus it made me feel good because i could hit the ball (i wasn't always that lucky when i played softball). i only wore the helmet for the picture because it was so huge i don't know if i would have been able to see the ball.

next batter on deck

last up...laser tag. our team tore it up! don't mess with us!

we finished up the night with some ben & jerry's. i had to laugh because this is what i found later. oops! luckily we caught it soon enough and no permanent damage was done. back to the *freezer* it went!

so cute

today was the primary program at church and i must say i look forward to this sunday. not only is it totally entertaining...like the girl that held a huge asian fan and fanned herself during her presentation and when the kids sang - random - and of course the kids that wave to their adoring fans in the audience...but i am also always touched by the sweet testimonies and talks that are shared. the theme of the program was "i am a child of god" and as i heard this kids share their testimonies about being a child of god and what that means i was so touched. here were little kids (i don't know what age primary starts at) testifying of an amazing gospel truth that a majority of adults in the world don't even understand. how incredible! and what a blessing that these kids will grow up knowing they are children of god. i sure love this gospel!

dave and i also got to watch darling creed since his parents are in the primary. he is 6 months old and such a happy guy! we loved taking care of him...although dave is the one who mainly took care of his since he seemed to prefer dave to me. i don't blame him...dave is a stud! i wanted to steal a picture of creed from his parent's web site, but i don't know how they feel about me posting a picture of their kid on my site. so you just have to trust me that he is sooo cute!

vancouver, british columbia

every year my department plans an incentive trip for the top retailers from across the country who sell DISH Network. this year the trip was an alaskan cruise and i was lucky enough to go...not as a winner, but to "work" (although i was excited to discover that the work is much less demanding than our other events). the cruise left out of vancouver, british columbia and my 3 co-workers and i arrived a few days before the cruise left to make sure everything was organized and ready. we took advantage of our extra time and saw some of the tourist attractions in vancouver. i fell in love with the city. i loved being by the water, everything was so green, people were active and downtown was really cool. i think i could live there, but i don't know how dave would feel about it :)

i don't know if the following two pictures qualify as tourist attractions, but we thought they were interesting and a little crazy.

i think this is a baby wrapped in the embilical cord in front of the vancouver art museum. pretty creepy, but worth a picture.

we got to vancouver right when the olympics were starting. this guy was part of a huge protest happening on the main road into downtown. he obviously felt strongly about it...look at how high up he climbed. the police officers were just chillin' watching him.

we visited the capilano suspension bridge, vancouver's #1 tourist attraction. the bridge is 230 feet above the capilano river and as you walk across it it bounces and sways (especially when you have tons of people walking across at the same time). it was cool and i had to resist the urge to run across so it would bounce and sway more.



once you cross the bridge you enter a treetops adventure area. it has a series of smaller suspension bridges taking you from tree to tree, giving you a "squirrel's eye view" of the forest. everthing was so green and beautiful.

me, kim, lynne and erin
how could we resist a picture with the big bear dressed as a ranger?!



we left capilano and took the tram up to grouse mountain. at the top is a huge forest that leads to more mountains. we saw tons of runners on the trails and i was jealous.



this eagle was carved into the tree. pretty cool

there was a refuge for some bears on the top of the mountains. not quite seeing bears in the wild, but still pretty cool



vancouver had totem poles all over the place. they are very proud of their native heritage. here are a few we saw.

although eastern and western canada are very different (like the coasts of the US), i loved being back in canada. and of course i couldn't go without getting some timbits. just typing this i am totally craving them. of course i stocked up on candy too...i had to take advantage of the good chocolate i was missing.

after a couple of days of playing it was time to get down to business. pictures of alaska to follow...hopefully sooner rather than later!

crazy in cherry creek

last night dave and i headed to the cherry creek area to check out the "cherry cricket" for dinner (thanks mindy for the suggestion). it was really good, although i made a big mistake when i ordered. i am trying to eat more healthy and so rather than ordering the burger i was craving, i ordered a turkey burger. bad choice. really, i should have just gone with the burger because i wasn't digging the turkey burger. in the end i finished off part of dave's burger (complete with bacon) and some of his fries. so much for eating healthy. i won't make that mistake again :)

after wandering around we found ourselves at "the wizard's chest." it totally rocks and has all sorts of games, costumes and random things. our course we made our way to the costume section and ended up (as we often do) trying on crazy hats. i think it is one of our favorite things to do...we are easily entertained.

"nice bum, where you from?"

"redneck. and darn proud of it"

go rams...not really, but they didn't have a cougar. i am in colorado after all

medusa in all her glory...or at least in her hat

i loved these glasses. i seriously almost bought them.

this visit got me thinking about halloween. so many options...

welcome sophie!

little sophie lynn joined the taylor family (and extended todd family) last thursday. we are so excited she is here! now our number of nieces and nephews is in the double digits..the big 10! she joins 2 crazy brothers and 1 sweet sister. i am sure she will grow up to be hardcore just like her brothers and sister...they are some rough, tough, daring little kids. no matter what, she will get lots of love. she is lucky to join such a great family. we can't wait to meet her!

elitch tickets for sale

a couple months ago dave and i bought a package of tickets to some denver attractions that included tickets to elitch's. we ended up getting season passes and didn't use the elitch tickets. so rather than have them go to waste i thought we would sell them for cheap...$10 each if anyone is interested (there are 2 tickets). elitch's is open through october 31 on the weekends and starting in october it is decorated for halloween and there is a haunted house. lots of fun! alright, there is my pitch. let me know if you are interested in them.

calling all denverites!

dave and i try not to eat out very often but when we do i like to try local eateries rather than chain restaurants. but despite the fact that we've grown up here we don't know very many...a result of not eating out very often. so this is my call for help. leave a comment with any suggestions of restaurants.

ps - can you tell that we are sitting here trying to figure out where to go tonight?! i know the comments won't help us with our predicament tonight, but hopefully it will help us avoid similar situations in the future.

fall is in the air

at least the weather has felt like fall this week and i love it! fall is my favorite season...i love the feeling in the air, the weather, the feeling of new beginnings with the start of school (even if i'm not a student anymore), the clothes, the colors, the holidays...and the new season of fall tv!! i can't wait for it! "heroes," "ugly betty," "the office"...so many good shows (and those are just my top 3). plus we have to make up for a short season last year because of the writers strike. i also have to give a shout out to the show "scrubs" because dave and i have recently discovered this hilarious show. so now we have 7 seasons to catch up on! fall, bring it on!

"baby, did you pack the sleeping bags?"

over labor day weekend dave and i went camping in rocky mountain national park with 6 other families from our ward (14 adults and 8 kiddos). we were about 15-20 minutes away from the campground when all of the sudden i couldn't remember if we had packed the sleeping bags. after asking dave, we realized they were still on our balcony back in denver. nice! luckily we were one of the first families to head up, so we scrambled a little, contacted our apartment complex and anna and chris were all-stars and picked up our sleeping bags. it's a good thing too, because it would have been a *long, cold* night. but we stayed nice and toasty in the great double sleeping bag that dave's parents got us for christmas. it was awesome...but not made for tossing and turning.

an elk viewing spot on our way to our way to campsite

dave hanging with carson and calvin

the girls...minus mindy since she was taking care of kids and stacie because she was still enroute

carson was so sleepy and decided to curl up on the ground with his blanket

ezra helping dave get the fire ready for the dutch ovens

mmm, breakfast was delicious. breakfast burritos with the all the works! we even finally got to use the dutch oven we got for our wedding

payton enjoyed the great outdoors!

the ladies...and payton

the fellas

it was a fantastic hike and we saw some beautiful lakes

mindy...hard-core mom!

we sure love payton...he is such a great little guy!

how does this thing close?

lincoln decided he would walk on the way down and give his dad a break from carrying the backpack

lincoln crashed on the shuttle ride back to the car...and maybe i did too (just no one got a picture of it). dave was a rock star and managed to get us safely home even though we were all exhausted. we had such a great time and are happy to live in such a beautiful place with wonderful friends.