Merry Christmas!!

Well, here we are in the home stretch to Christmas! I can't believe it. It seems like we just had Christmas. I can't believe how fast the year has gone by. Since my last update, I got a job at the Sinclair in Sugar City. I work about 5 1/2 hours a day Monday-Friday. Justin just finished his second semester of school with A's & B's. He is ready for a break.

We are going to Marsh Valley for Christmas. We are going to have Christmas for 3 days! It's going to be so exciting. Then, for 2 weeks after Christmas, Justin is going to be in Downey. My parents are going on a cruise (and not taking us! Rude!) so Justin gets to stay down there and watch the cows. I'll be back and forth since I couldn't get that much time off.

I'm really hoping that we get some snow so that we can have a White Christmas!! Also, our friends are going to come down to Downey for New Years Eve and we want to play in the snow. Please pray for Snow!!! :)

Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!!! Ho Ho Ho

Salt Lake Trip

For Mother's Day, my mom got all the girls tickets to:

 

A few of my aunts and cousins were going to go as well. We had been looking forward to it since May. The show wasn't until the week after Thanksgiving, so it was a long wait. Well, the time finally arrived and we all went to Salt Lake. We got a couple of hotel rooms and decided to get some shopping done. The show wasn't until 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday night. We all got ready at the hotel and then road the train to the Energy Solutions Arena. Well, we got off the train and the building was awfully dark. We walked up the stairs and there was only a few people there. It was 7:00 and so we knew that we weren't way early. We walked over and talked to these people and they informed us that the show had been POSTPONED until August 2012!! We were so mad. We wondered how come so many people knew that it was cancelled, but there were a few of us that didn't. A few more people showed up and were just as mad as we were. We knew that it couldn't have been cancelled for too long because on Monday, there were still tickets available. I called Justin to tell him and he started laughing. He said it was really a disappointment since Michael Jackson is DEAD!! He thought he was sooooo funny. We are just hoping that we can go in August and that it won't be postponed again.

Nezperce Vacation

At the end of October, Justin, Wes & I decided to make a quick trip to Nezperce. We hadn't been back up there since we moved and were missing it. Justin and Wes went mainly to go hunting, and I went just to visit. We left early (4 a.m.) Friday morning and got there just around noon. We stayed with the Grobey's, who came to be our very good friends and neighbors while we were there. We had lunch and then Justin and Wes went hunting. They saw a bear across the canyon & were hoping it would be there the next day, since they needed to go to Orofino to get a bear tag.

Saturday morning, they went down to Orofino first thing. They came back and I kept waiting for them to come back. We waited and waited. Eventually, Justin called me and told me he got a bear. We were all so excited and just kept waiting for them to get back and show the bear to us. After waiting for 2 hours, I finally went down the road to our other friend and they were working on some of his horses. They finally showed up and we were all very excited. It's not a very big bear, but hey, nobody else has a bear! Right now, the bear is getting made into a rug. We are hoping it is done this week. We had a bon-fire that night. It was so beautiful and so fun to be outside and enjoy each others company.

Sunday, they got up and went out to try and find a deer. They didn't have any luck so they just came back and we played games and visited. We ate lots of good food and had a lot of good laughs. We left early Monday morning so Wes could be back in time to take his kids trick-or-treating. We had a few stops on the way home (getting pulled over!) so it took us a little bit longer to get home then we expected.

It was such a good trip and we hope to go back in the spring. We really miss it up there and sometimes wonder why we moved.

Major Update!!!

Holy cow....Where has the time gone?!?! It seems like I was just posting, and yet, it was 2 months ago. Well, we had quite the summer. It started with our relay that I talked about in the previous post. Friday, June 10th, Justin was riding in a rodeo in Rigby. We were going to head to Stanley as soon as he got off the horse. We had it all figured out that we would be at the starting line with about 20 minutes to spare...therefore, arriving at about 11:45 p.m. Well, needless to say, the horse had other plans. Justin got hung up and ended up having his shoulder dislocated. The EMT's at the rodeo were of little help and so we high-tailed it to Idaho Falls to the ER. He was in a considerable amount of pain and there was no way to help him. They took us straight back and got some medicine in him. After 3 doses of morphine, he was still in pain. The doctor came in and said they were going to have to put him under conscious sedation to get his shoulder back in. They gave him medicine and he was out for about 10 minutes. They popped his shoulder back in and when he was waking up, he was saying some of the most hilarious thing. He said that his nap was going down in history! They had to watch him for about another 45 minutes and then we were able to leave. April called me at 11:30 as we were walking out of the hospital and wondered where we were. She didn't want to believe me that we were still in Idaho Fall...4 hours away! We were supposed to be at the starting line at this point. We jumped in the car and cruised on over to Stanley. It was dark and I was driving on a road I had never been on. We got to Stanley and started down the road where the relay was taking place. We were going to meet up with our team and be on our merry way. Well, we made it and it was my turn to run. I changed in the parking lot and barely had everything on when Angie crossed the line for me to go. I told everyone to take care of Justin and off I went. I ran my first leg, and then it was Justin's turn. We all knew this was going to be interesting since he was in a sling and his leg was pretty buggered up. He limped for about 1/2 mile and then decided that he couldn't handle it. Luckily, my sisters were awesome and took over his 2nd leg. Amber ended up running close to 15 miles!!We crossed the finish line, ate, and then headed home. At this point, I had been up for over 24 hours and still had to drive home. Needless to say, the drive home was very interesting. I had to pull over for about 10 minutes because I was falling asleep with my eyes open! We finally made it home, showered, and Justin took his pain medicine. It was definately a good experience to run the relay. If only Justin would have enjoyed it as much as we did!!

The finish line. We were all way tired and so excited to be done!! It took us just under 12 hours to run 62 miles! Justin looks a little out of it. He slept most of the day! He had to wear his sling for 6 weeks and keep his leg elevated for about 2 weeks! We are sure glad that is over.

On another note, we have had a busy summer. We have been going to Downey a lot on the weekends so Justin can help my dad. He has really been enjoying it!

We had a family reunion the end of July and it was so much fun. They had these huge water slides to go on! They were a blast. The only bad thing is that if you are going to fast, you hit the tires at the bottom. It never felt good when that happened. Thanks Tami for such a great reunion!!

All of the ladies tried to make a train and go down the slide. It took us a few tries to figure it out but it was really fun.

The next weekend, we went camping with my family to Bear Lake. Justin had never been there and so this was a new experience for him. We used to go a lot when I was little, but I haven't been back in years. We camped up Emigration Canyon. It was so pretty and so nice to be away from the water at night. The first night, we were laying in our tent and saw a big storm coming our way. It rained quite a bit during the night. Nobody got too cold though. We got up Friday and headed to the lake. We were there all day! It was so fun. We were all worn out by Friday night. Saturday we went to the Minnetonka Caves. They are amazing! I can't believe that it all exists underground!

These are a few of the formations inside the caves! Amazing!

We are now just trying to settle back in to the swing of things. Justin starts school in a few weeks and I'm still trying to find a job! Hopefully something will happen soon!!

We are CrAzY!!!!!

Are we crazy?....YES WE ARE!!!! That is what we are going to be chanting on Saturday! Me, Amber, Angie, April, Justin & Adam are running in the Sawtooth Relay this Saturday!! It is a 62 mile relay and we each run 2 legs. We all average about 10 miles between the 2 legs. Our start time is 12:15 a.m. Do you know what time that is? Midnight!! No sleep for us! That is one of the reasons that we are all crazy! I'm sure it will be fun and such an accomplishment, it's just the fact that you see 62 MILES!! That is all the way from Stanley to Ketchum. That's a long way in a car. Imagine running the whole way?!?! I just hope that we aren't all dead by the times it's over!

And a BIG SHOUT OUT to my parents for sponsoring us!! Rico's Runners are going to kick some major boo-tay!!!!!

Memorial Day

This year, we had a very fun Memorial Day. My parents rented a cabin on Bills Island in Island Park. We went up Friday and came home on Monday. It was such a nice cabin, and there was plenty of space for everybody. When we got there on Friday, we all just hung out. Saturday, we got up and had breakfast. In the afternoon we took a drive and got some fresh air. Sunday, we went to Yellowstone. We were hoping to see animals, but it was snowing and snowing. We saw some elk and buffalo. We didn't end up staying as long as planned because none of the kids were enjoying it. On Monday, my parents and Amber and Spence decided they were going to go back to the park hoping to see more animals. I decided to go with Amber and Spence to the park, hoping that I was good luck! It was much nicer than Sunday and we did see some animals. We ended up seeing 3 grizzly bears and a bunch of cute baby buffalo. We saw some people on the side of the road and they said that they saw a wolf. We were hoping to see that! We had such a fun weekend. Thanks mom and dad for the fun time!

  

 

 

I can't believe it has been so long since I last posted. I was going to try and update more. I guess our lives aren't that interesting. Nothing much has changed since my last post. I still haven't been able to find a job. I don't even know how many jobs I've applied for. I'm starting to get really frustrated! Justin started school 2 weeks ago. He is just taking generals right now and seems to be enjoying it. All but 1 of his classes are online, so he doesn't have to take any time off work. I'm really proud of him for going to school. If only I could decide what I want to be and get my degree!


We are ready for the weather to be nice. Today was such a nice day and it made me have spring fever. I'm ready to go outside without a jacket on and wear my sandals. Since it was nice I decided to take a picture of the Tetons from our driveway. It is so nice to be able to look at them on nice days. 

I also took an outside picture of our house on such a nice day. That is also Dunder, getting big!!

Last Friday, Tami rented a house in Inkom and had a girls party. It was so much fun. We ate lots of GOOD food and laughed WAY too much. It was nice to just be with the girls of the family. We finally all decided to go to bed but then Michelle took an ambien and had her cpap on so we just kept laughing at her. There were 6 of us that stayed up until 3am and laughed and laughed. My pillow was wet because of my tears! It was hilarious. I can't wait to do it again. 

I had to sneak a picture of Tami because she always seems to take pictures of us and put them on her blog!

Happenings....

What has been going on in the Allen household? That's a very good question. Our lives are finally starting to settle down. Getting moved and getting everything in its place took a while. We are liking Rexburg. We don't live in Rexburg. We actually live outside of Sugar City. It's nice to not be in the middle of the town. We don't like to have close neighbors. It's nice that we have room to breathe.

Justin is enjoying his job. It's hard this time of year because things are slow in the office. Once spring rolls around, things should pick up a little more.

I am still in the middle of job hunting. I've applied for a few jobs but haven't heard anything. I'm starting to get really bored being at home everyday.

We are missing North Idaho. We really enjoyed where we lived. Although it is nice to embark on another journey in our lives.

We have been going to Downey on a lot of weekends. Justin has been helping my dad with the cows. It's also been nice to get out of town and spend more time with our families. We are just wishing that we had somewhere at our house to keep the horses. Justin is sure missing out on riding when he gets home from work. Our evenings are very boring!

Just thought I would give a quick update. Hope everyone is having a good time in their lives! :)

Our Christmas Season!

I hope everybody had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. Ours was different than what we were planning on. It all started the middle of December. Justin applied for a job in the Rexburg FSA office and had an interview. He drove down and went to the interview and didn't seem very optimistic about it. He thought there was no way that he was going to get the job. Well, the Friday before Christmas, we had our ward Christmas party. We were driving home and his phone rang. He didn't recognize the number and so he didn't answer it. The person that called was the boss in the Rexburg office calling to offer him the job. After much deliberation, he accepted. That changed our Christmas plans drastically!! We had planned on staying in Marsh Valley for 10 days. We were going to stay for the New Year and then go home so we could both be at work on Monday. Well, he had to start his job in Rexburg on Jan. 3rd so we were scrambling trying to figure out what to do. We told everybody our plans and everybody was accepting. We were going to come down for Christmas, drive back to Nezperce on Monday, pack on Tuesday and Wednesday and drive to Rexburg on Thursday. My dad was going to bring his horse trailer and help us, but then we had a turn of events: My Uncle Norm and a massive stroke and was in the hospital. My dad didn't dare leave and so we convinced T.J., Justin's brother to come with us and we would rent a U-haul. We also borrowed Bill Egan's horse trailer so we could get the horses home. I drove the car and we left our wonderful home of 2 years! It took 12 hours to get all the way from point A to point B. We had some awesome help unloading the U-haul at the house in Rexburg.

We were both upset because Uncle Norm didn't make it. It was such a different Christmas for all of us. Mom and Dad went to Idaho Falls everyday to be with the family. For a while, we were hoping he was going to come out of it. The doctors were trying so hard to be optimistic, but then they realized things were worse than they thought. It was such an awful thing to have to go through. His funeral ended up being on the 31st and so we had to drive back down for the funeral. It was such an awesome funeral. His family did awesome and you could tell how much they all loved and adored him. He was such an amazing man and will be greatly missed. We love you Uncle Norm!!

Here are a few pictures of our house in Rexburg:

We also have a spare bedroom and a small upstairs. They are just full of boxes so I didn't take pictures.