Perfect day for skiing! Or in my sisters case...snowboarding (we haven't disowned her yet)
Darren's idea of "putting away the potatoes"
Us in our new hats
Kim told me Santa used to leave socks and underwear in her and her sisters' stockings, so when I saw a big bin of undies at
Kohls I picked out the three cutest ones I could find. No, this isn't a
normal occurrence for me,...if fact it's the first time
I'd ever bought girls' undies ever. I was even a bit
embarrassed for whatever reason at the register and tried to hide them under other stuff as I gave them to the cashier. :) I wasn't sure about the sizes but I think they were a big hit. Direct quote from Tiffany "Yeah right! My butt is not fitting in those!"
A pair of toe socks for each of us. Hopefully you can figure out which one is Darren :)
We went to Auberry, CA to spend Thanksgiving with Darren's grandparents, cousins and other family. We decided it would be fun to go through Sequoia National Park/Kings Canyon rather than sticking to the interstate. Here's a picture of us in front of some gorgeous yellow trees. We loved it! Living in Mesa we don't get to enjoy fall colors until mid to late January. This first one was taken in someone's front yard. Darren saw this short tree/bush with all the leaves lying around it and insisted that I kneel down in the middle of it. It was difficult to try and get a good smile while looking over my shoulder to watch for the owner.
Posing at theYosemite Park Overlook, Half Dome in the background.
As you can probably tell, Darren's left eye looks a little irritated. On the drive out of Sequoia on the way to his grandparents house, Darren's eye started giving him some trouble. When he woke up Thanksgiving Day, his eye was glued shut. His cousin Carrie is a doctor and was working Thanksgiving night so we followed her to the hospital so she could check it out. She gave him some eye drops but the next day (the day we went to Yosemite) his eye was worse than ever. He spent a lot of the day with his eyes shut because the light hurt it and he was tired of trying to keep it open. I felt so sorry for him. He was such a trooper though and we still had a great time. So for the rest of the story...we went back to the hospital that night and his cousin dug out a piece of something that had lodged itself in the middle of his eye. We got some more eye drops and his eye was better by the next morning. Thank goodness!
I had to put this picture on here to show how cool we are (or how ridiculous). We got dressed up for the Ward Halloween Party just like all the other kids (yeah...there weren't many other adults who dared). It was at this point that we realized we were going to be pretty cool parents someday. Darren was wearing gray polyester pants and I was wearing a one-piece stretchy jean jumper. They were both pretty darn ugly but definitely served the purpose for these two hippies!!
Kiluea Lighthouse, Princeville, Kauai
It's my big 3-0!! Good thing I still feel 24-ish...and sometimes I act even younger than that,...just ask Kim. :)
That night we got some good eats at Zipp's Sports Grill and went dancing. Wish I could remember more details but just like the picture, it's all just a blurr.
Look at that forest fire. My old lungs got about 24 to 25 of them on the first puff. I'll either need Kim's help from here on out or a fire extinguisher. Like I told Kim though, I blew out as many years as I feel.
Talk about a blurr. I don't remember this part at all. Just kidding, Kim put up all the decorations while I was in the other room. She even had me turn up the TV so I couldn't hear what was going on in there and ruin the surprise. Brownies and ice cream...mmmmm, my favorite!!
Do remember this. Here's to the next 30 years!! 
Me...not quite sure
