All Together Now...

Does anyone remember that song? Seems like it was popular when I was in high school or something. Anyhow, welcome home Elder Shawny Bubs!

I didn't get any pictures at the airport (forgot my camera - we wasted the "good surprise" on Kato, I guess...), so if anyone has any of those photos to post, please do!

When Shawn stepped off the plane, we almost didn't recognize him. He looked so Eastern European! But it didn't take long for that Shawny sense of humor to come out - and then we were reminded that he may be wiser, more learned, more experienced, and definitely more spiritual, but he's still our Shawn. He's had everyone laughing since he got home, and we're glad he's back...although we're sure the Estonian mission field will miss him!

Now for a few photos of Friday night's Christmas-tradition-shenanigans...

The annual Christmas pizza feast at Litza's.

All the boys finally together, and "stippin' off," as usual...

The crazies line up (still don't know what Kato's doing on the end there...) on Temple Square. From this perspective, Shawn doesn't look so unusally tall compared to his brothers!

All together again - and happy to be so!

Our other RRM (recently returned missionary) Kato, looking decidedly...old-west thuggish.

I'll miss you guys for the rest of the Christmas festivities, but we love you!

Welcome Home, Kato!

Whether Kate really felt like coming home from the mission field or not, us Sloan siblings are always excited to welcome one of our own back to the craziness. We love you Kate!

And as I was going to post a few pictures, I realized that, uh, I don't actually have any pictures of her face...only hugging pictures. But those are pretty telling anyhow.

It's a...

...well, we don't know. The nurse thinks it's a girl, but the wriggly little thing wouldn't cooperate with the right view. And we don't want to assume it's a girl, because what if it's not? Would that mess me up, or the poor kid? Anyhow, voila - the next addition to the Sloan (and Knight) clan.

Devil's Garden

Since no one has posted in a while, I'll just throw an update on here... I changed the dates for our Moab camping trip, I hope everyone's okay with that! :) I changed it to April 18-21, so that Jeff and Mini can come! I hope that's not a problem for anyone... if it's not, put it on your calendars! April 18-21, 2008. Moab. Camping in the Devil's Garden Campground. Sites 33 and 36 (yes, they are next to each other).

Be there.

London Calling

]Thought I'd post some pictures from Jesse's and my trip for you all. We had a blast - but are exhausted and glad to be home! :)

We stopped first at Avebury - a kind of Stonehenge-ish, mysterious place. It's cool because you can walk around the stones and the whole thing.

We decided to drive up into Wales on a whim, so we went to Cardiff. The Welsh signs
were really trippy.

The next stop was Tintagel - the mythic birthplace of King Arthur. It really is all a myth, but the town was really charming, and this super-old post office was cool. It was pretty mysterious - and this picture is for Kate...because of the "glowing orb!"

We spent the first five nights camping, which was a lot of fun. Our camp site in Tintagel was right next to a farm, and the mooing cows woke us up a few times.

The castle was supposed to be Arthur's birthplace, but it was actually built around 1500-ish. It was a lot of fun to wander around and imagine what the old castle was like. It was right on a little island, and there's a cave in the little cove called Merlin's Cave. This was one of our favorite days.

Land's End is the most south-westerly point in England. It was gorgeous.

St. Michael's Mount is the "sister abbey" to Mont St. Michel in France.

We had to take a boat ride out to the Mount.

The castle at the top has been (and might still be) a residence for a long time, and it was fun to climb up to the top and tour the castle.

The Cornish countryside is gorgeous!

Even though we saw the town of Exeter in the dark, it was still very cool, with a very old cathedral and a lot of buildings over 500 years old.

The mysterious Stonehenge...

We spent a couple days in Paris...just for me. :) We ate a crepe while walking around the Eiffel Tower. I couldn't stop from grinning.

The Catacombs of Paris are so creepy! Millions of bones piled in an old stone mine...

One of the highlights of our entire trip was our day at Disneyland Paris. It was so dang cool!

Tower of London...

Jesse and his Jack Skellington scarf in front of the Bloody Tower.

Big Ben and Parliament all lit up at night...

We got to attend Stake Conference at the Hyde Park ward building.

Another major highlight - Wicked! It was awesome to see a show in London, especially such a fun one as Wicked.

And one of Jesse's highlights...the Apple store. :)

We drove a lot (Jesse got really good at driving on the left side of the road), rode trains a lot, walked a lot, played a lot, ate too much chocolate (mmmm...) and saw a lot of awesome stuff. Jesse was so patient with my shopping in Paris, and my crazy-want-to-see-everything mode from time to time. But overall - it was so great!

Where in the world is...

a

Moab Shenanigans

So this past weekend was a 'last hurrah' of sorts - although I guess we just like 'hurrahs' as I think we established in a posting a couple of years ago, hehe. This was our last camping trip of the season. Well, it was MINE, anyway. I'll pass on any snow camping, if people decide to go this year, hehe.
So Friday, we headed to Moab. I went down with Steve on Friday afternoon, getting to Moab at about 8:30 that night. We thought we'd get some wood from the campground host... too bad they were out. No way were we going back into Moab to try to find wood, so we just found our campsite, set up the tent, and sat down to wait.
And wait.
And wait.
We waited for about three hours, then Jesse, Mar, Mike and Dan FINALLY got there. They pulled up to see us sitting around flame-less fire pit. Luckily the weather was nice! Good thing they got there when they did, because me and Steve had just decided that if midnight came and they still hadn't gotten there, we were going out looking for them! Hehehe. So everyone got squared away, and we went to bed. Steve was so nice to let me use his backpacking tent... Anyway, we woke up the next morning to nice, mild weather.
Most of us just sat around and snacked on stuff, and laughed at Mike's 'fro:

This is what Jesse does in the mornings, though:

That was across from our camp site; pretty soon he got tired of us sitting around and told us to get ready so we could go hiking. So we all got changed and went in search of three arches that were close to camp: Tapestry Arch, Broken Arch, and Sand Dune Arch. I took this picture of Mike, Dan, Steve and Mar looking out at Tapestry Arch (I didn't have a good picture of the arch itself, so anyone else can feel free to post more pics):
Looks like an album cover of sorts, doesn't it? Then we went on to find Broken Arch, which Dan doesn't REALLY think is broken because it's just cracked down the middle - there are no real broken pieces like he was expecting. But that didn't stop Jesse - and Steven - from climbing on top of it to get a closer look. I think Jesse just REALLY likes to climb rocks!

Then we kept going to find Sand Dune Arch, Dan singing songs along the way. It wasn't long until we got to the entrance of the path to Sand Dune Arch, and from there it was only a few steps to the arch itself - through lots of sand! I was wearing shoes with no socks, and I got so much sand in the shoes that they were HEAVY - I should have just taken them off! But Sand Dune Arch seemed to be the most popular - there were TONS of kiddies playing in the sand there. And here's Mar waiting patiently while Jesse climbs yet MORE rocks...

Then we headed back to camp... I could have sworn I heard whistling coming from this bunch...

We had bagel sandwiches and took naps and hung out (and Jesse went on a mad bike ride down the canyon and back) until it was dinner time, and Jesse cooked steaks and foil veggies... ooohhh, they were good! Poor Dan's steak ate dirt... and so did Dan, hehe. But it was tasty! Then some went into town to pick up a few things and get ice cream, and me and Mike hung out and kept the campfire going. Fun times. Then Sunday morning, Mar and Jesse made the yummiest breakfast casserole in their dutch oven - hash browns, eggs, ham, and cheese. MMMMMMM. Then we all took two hour naps, while it rained off and on (sprinkled, really - it didn't ever rain hard) and it was WINDY! While we were taking down camp, I almost lost Steve's tent - it blew away! Thankfully it didn't go far...
Anyway, it was perfect! Great weather, great food, fun times! This is just my meager selection of pics - someone else can post more if they want, so others can actually see Tapestry Arch and Sand Dune Arch! :)

Firepit Inauguration and a Snowy Oktoberfest

Last weekend, Jesse got the firepit in the backyard ready, and we had our first bonfire. We sat around, chatted and made s'mores--just like camping! With the rustling of the aspens, the feel of the fire, and the smell of the smoke, if I closed my eyes, I felt like I was in the mountains. Fun!

The next day, a bunch of us went up to Snowbird for Oktoberfest, like we try to do every year. But it was absolutely freezing and dumping snow! But, because of the weather, we did get to hear the alpen horn players. Usually they play on top of the mountain, but they performed in the pavilion this time. They played some cool stuff, like Amazing Grace. Very cool!

Happy Anniversary

Just wanted to say Happy Anniversary to Mar and Jesse ;) Man. Has it really been 4 years? I remember that day. Man you guys were so.... as Strong Bad would say, "makey-outey". Hehe. That should be a good thing for newly weds I guess, eh? Flipping through the pictures I took that day I was seeing some serious smit going on. Best friends and totally in love-- awesome. Although you're a bit more "normal" today, the smit is still apparent and that's excellent :) Love you guys-- Happy Anniversary!

To the Football Fans...

I don't really have anything to say, but Dan, this is for you.

The Blue Team in the Narrows

It seems like every year, Jesse takes us on an epic-style hike. Last year was Havasupai, this year it was the Narrows in Zion.

Mike, Steven, Jesse, and I drove down on Friday night, pulling into the camp site in the park around 11:30. We set up as quickly as we could so we could pass out. I don't think we slept too well - and 5:30 came awfully early. We met up with the shuttle at the visitor's center at 6.

The drive up to the trail head took about an hour and ten minutes, and the last half was up a windy, unpaved road. I almost puked at one point in the drive, and Mike actually did the second we stepped off the van. Quite the beginning!

The first part of the hike was through a ranch, and it took a couple of hours before we actually dropped down into the canyon. There is no trail - you just follow the river. It was rather intense. Here are a few photos.

Some random tractor on the ranch.

Without realizing it, we formed the "Blue Team" by all wearing blue shirts.
I think the boys were trying to send out good vibes for the BYU game.
I assure you that's not why I wore it (but I'll stop my comment there).

Jesse was the happiest camper to be out playing in nature.

We spent about 50% of the hike in the water, from our ankles
up to our stomachs. It made for tricky footing and more
than one fall on my behind. Thanks heavens for the hiking sticks!

Jesse enjoyed the look on my face when he told me we had to find our way down this waterfall. (There was a trail around it - but I was thoroughly freaked for about two seconds.)

The entire Blue Team. The canyon certainly was impressive!

The entire expedition was 16 or 17 miles. That's a lot for one day - even by "Knight" standards! It was gorgeous, though, and definitely an experience to remember.

But I hurt right now. Everywhere. A lot.