Merry Christmas

To all the loyal blog readers (a lot of whom we have probably seen over the last few days), Merry Christmas.

We have had a great time spending time with family and friends during this week, and we know how lucky we are to have such great people to come home to. We still have a few more days here in Little Rock and a few more groups of people to see, but we wanted to take a minute to post this Christmas message.

We have far too many pictures so far to post a fair representative sample, so just a few favorites from the trip so far...

The first one is a photo of Brian (our nephew in Austin) hiding his eyes while I am cutting him a slice of reindeer cake. I guess he was scared because someone said it was my first eye surgery.


This next one is a video of one of our nephews in Little Rock (Lucas) showing that he now knows how to say our names (he was barely talking at all last time we saw him)!






There are a ton more pictures from the trip, and surely a few yet to be taken. We'll try to post more later...

Getting closer...

We can tell we must be headed in the right direction (South) when we run into folks like these. They were at the Phoenix airport, and were surpisingly excited about getting their picture taken. That kid doesn't have a shot at a normal life.

Will we fly?

Salt Lake got hit hard today by a monster snow storm. This morning there were winds of up to 50 mph and so far it has snowed more than 8 inches in the valley. The roads are starting to get pretty bad. Grant just returned from Home Depot with a snow shovel. I guess we were in denial that we would need one until now. We both left work early due to bad road conditions. We are safe at home now.

Please send us prayers that we are able to fly out to Austin tomorrow morning. It looks like it will stop snowing later tonight, so our chances are getting better. But still send us those prayers. We will need them.

Here is a picture of the parking lot at my work this afternoon before it got too bad. The second one is of our backyard. WOW is about all I can say.

Proud Aunt and Uncle

Welcome Elayna Grace Morshedi. She was born December 17 at 10:45 a.m. She weighed 8 pounds, 2 ounces and was 19 inches long. I think you can tell from the photos that Brandon and Teresa did a pretty good job! We get to see her in 5 days!

Wedding Bells

This past weekend my Aunt Rachel got married. It was a beautiful wedding. I think you can tell from the photos below how in love they are. John (Rachel's new hubby) had his father Steve officiate. He gave an amazing message about not keeping a score card in your marriage. It was a nice reminder for me.

As an extra bonus, I got to spend some time with my Mom. It wasn't too hard to say our goodbyes at the airport because Grant and I fly to Austin on Saturday! I can't remember the last time I got to see her two weekends in a row. Lucky me.

Are you diggin' my mad Photoshop skills with the red rose?

Mi Amiga Areta!

I have been a very bad blogger. I never gave a recap of Areta's visit. Basically, we talked and talked and talked during her 40 hour whirlwind trip. Here is what we did...

Like I said....we talked a lot!

At a random red light, we saw Santa and a reindeer. It was totally out of the blue and made Areta's trip. Who knew she had a thing for Santa.


We went to a great pizza place called the Pie. This pizza was magical. It filled us up for like 12 hours. It was kind of scary.


We went to a festival of trees show. Here I am with a gingerbread version of the Temple. It was mind blowing.


Here we are in front of the real Temple. They have an impressive light display at Christmas.

Grant and me freezing our buns off. It was super cold that night.

A quick trip up to Park City. We had a late snow season this year, so Areta didn't get to see much. If she came now there would be over three feet up there with more on the way.

Today the high is 27 and low is 16. It is currently snowing. Ahhh!

It was a wonderful trip and made me miss being close to family and friends. I can't wait to see lots of you over Christmas vacation.

Areta is here!!!

Areta is here to visit for the weekend. And boy am I a happy camper. We are about to head off to get a pedicure (really just an excuse to talk and talk), and then it is sightseeing time. It is so nice to be around a longtime friend again. Here is a pic of us from a few years ago that I just love.

Santa came early!

Over the weekend we worked on Christmas-fying our house. Although we will not be in SLC for Christmas, we still wanted to put up a tree. The anticipation of Christmas is just as important as the actual day! And then Santa came early to the Morshedi house.

We decided that we were ready to join the exercise equipment ownership club, and so we bought a treadmill. It is starting to get cold up here, and it gets dark really early, so we needed an avenue for working out. We found a nice, gently used treadmill online. Thanks Santa.

Thank an Indian Day

My cube neighbor at work is a Native American. His goal this year was to get all of us to switch from calling turkey day "Thanksgiving" to "Thank an Indian Day." So I have named this post in his honor.

The best part of thanksgiving this year was cooking with Grant. Cooking together is one of our favorite things to do, and we have not had time to do it lately. We woke up early and made cranberries and dressing. They both turned out amazingly well. Then we were off to our friend's Annie and Nate. They invited a bunch of couples that weren't able to travel home for T day.

Annie had a cute little table set up when you walked in where you wrote down what you were thankful for. We then read them after we ate. We certainly have a lot to be thankful for this year.

Grant trying to think of something funny to write.

Me and Annie

Carving away

The group shot

Yummy food!

Slow economy in Japan too

I guess money is an issue now all over the world, as this video might suggest. Although in my opinion, there shouldn't have to be an economic downturn for an excuse to use monkeys as waiters. This should have already been happening.

New blog features

I changed the look of the blog because I was bored, and I was scared you all might be too. I also added two new features down on the right side..."quotation of the day" and "useless knowledge of the day." Hopefully this will help you waste time on the internet.

Sunday happenings

This morning we went to Church with our friend's Annie and Nate. They are a couple that we are starting to become good friends with. Afterwards, we tried a new restaurant (Trio) for brunch. It was a big hit and has been added to our list of favorites to take out of town guests to.

While I worked on laundry, Grant assembled our new outdoor fire place. Now we will be able to enjoy our patio when it is freezing out. Here are some before and after shots.

Update

I haven't posted in a while so I thought I'd better do so...

Things that are new in SLC:

1. I am on my ophthalmology rotation right now (and will be through the end of February). It is fantastic. Makes me happy I chose the right field.

2. I have been near death with some sort of Utah illness since Wednesday (or maybe just a mild cold, but I like being dramatic on the blog). And I have very little voice left at the moment. If you call my phone and hear nothing or a voice that sounds like Estelle Getty from the Golden Girls....that's me. Don't laugh.

3. It snowed a lot a couple of days ago. See Anna's post. Snow like that would've brought in the Army National Guard in Arkansas. Guess we have to learn to deal with it. Funny story about the snow...the first day that it snowed (Wednesday) was the same day that I started getting sick. After clinic that day at the VA, I had to give a ride to a couple of the other doctors (my bosses) down the street to their cars. So we were walking out the door to my car, and there I was all bundled up and shivering/shaking/chattering. But it was because I felt awful and was getting a fever, not because I'm a little wuss from Arkansas who can't stand his first Utah snow experience. Of course I didn't want to whine, so I didn't explain to them that I felt awful and thought I was developing a fever. So I just let them think that I was shivering because I was a wuss.

Blog tag

Areta started up a game of blog tag. Her instructions were to post the forth picture from the fourth picture album on my computer. Here it is. This is Grant working his mojo at the blackjack table in Vegas.

What the heck?

No, no, no that was not my response to the election results. That was more like, "Whaa hoo, YEA, finally, Hooray!"

"What the heck?" was what I said when I stepped outside today and saw snow falling. It is officially really cold here and Old Man Winter has arrived. I just hope I can survive the winter. I think snow is a perfect excuse to buy more sweaters today during my Ann Taylor Loft shift. At least I get the garage spot...poor Grant.

Our vacation told through pictures (and a few words here and there)

After arriving in Sacramento we scooped up Rachel and her friend and headed up to a small town to see a Cake concert. I have been longing to see this band in concert since I was 16. I adore them and this was a dream come true. Here is a blurry picture of the lead singer.

Being the huge fan that I am, I waited patiently after the concert to see if the band would come out to sign autographs. I was one of the last people waiting when a good old boy police man named Reed made me his special project. Before I knew it, there was a swarm of policemen all trying to help me get my poster autographed. They were successful and I now have a Cake poster that has the lead singers autograph along with "Anna is great." It was the perfect ending to the night.

The next day we bummed around with Rachel and ended up on a beautiful hike. It was so good to get to catch up with a lifelong friend.

My factory obsession got the best of us and we ended up at the Jelly Belly candy factory on our way to San Fran. Grant wasn't too upset because he ended up with a sack full of sour jelly beans.

After candy it was time for wine. We found a great picnic spot outside of the Darioush winery. Yes, it is Persian owned and operated. With wine, cheese, and beautiful sunshine it was scarily perfect.

We hit a few more wineries the next day and took a tour of the Robert Mondavi winery. It was quite educational and ended with a tasting of all their reserve wines.

While in San Fran we bummed around and did everything from eating fish at Fisherman's Wharf to bike riding through Golden Gate Park. We rode to the beach and had another great picnic, this time by the ocean. We stayed with our college friends Mandi and Michael and man was it nice to see more friends.

Our trip ended as all good ones do...at the car dealership. Someone...cough Grant...left the inside car door light on for a couple of days and our battery bit the dust. After getting jumped, the radio would not function. We did not have the correct anti theft code. After 2 hours at the dealership we finally were able to get it working again. There was a fancy latte machine at the dealership, so I was taken care of.

This really was one of the best vacations we have taken. It was extremely relaxing and slow paced. It was just what the doctor (aka Grant) ordered.

Days 1-3

Day 1: Drove to Reno, stayed in shady hotel. No gambling this time, unless you count staying in shady hotels as gambling.

Day 2: Drove into Sacramento. The drive was beautiful. We took some videos along the way that we might post later (the internet connection at this coffee shop isn't the greatest so it would take forever right now). Once we got there, we met Rachel and one of her friends, and then drove up to Oroville to watch the Cake concert. Anna had a great time (Cake is her favorite band). The show was a benefit concert for some local volunteer fire department, and it was at the Oroville Municipal Auditorium, which was some old burnt-out gym that held only 1,000 people. Anna got a poster autographed by some members of the band and was very happy.

Day 3: We stayed at Rachel's apartment overnight, and got up Sunday and went on a hike in a really nice area about an hour away. Photos to come...

Day 4: Got up early since Rachel had to work, and now we're sitting at a coffee shop trying to decide what to do next. The choices are Jelly Belly factory or wine tours. At the moment, there is an old man sitting behind me who insists on speaking like Donald Duck (he says his name is Donald so that somehow justifies it??). It's hard to enjoy your morning coffee with an old duck behind you. Gotta go now. More updates later.


UPDATE: upon further review, it appears that the duck man also has a Donald Duck t-shirt and a Donald Duck necklace on. This is actually much worse than originally thought (and probably much more pathologic). We've gotta get out of here right now...this guy could flip his wig at any moment.

California trip

We're leaving this afternoon on our week-long trip to California (it's my first vacation week!). I put in a Google map below for everyone to see what we're doing...or at least what we think we're doing at this point. Our plan is to leave today and hope to make it to Reno, but we probably won't make it that far. We're going to be in Sacramento by Saturday afternoon, but we might stop by Lake Tahoe for a little while to play. We'll meet our friend Rachel in Sacramento, then go to a Cake concert in Oroville, CA. Then we'll go back to Sacramento and stay for a few days. After that, we're going to San Francisco, but on the way we're going to stop by Vacaville to visit our friend Scott. We will also stop by the Jelly Belly factory to eat some jelly beans. Then we'll play in San Francisco for a few days, and have fun with our friends who live there (Michael, Mandi, Christian, Tammy). Then we might spend some more time in the wine areas before driving home next weekend! Should be a fun trip, huh?



View Larger Map

Listen to the Pumpkin

This year I decided to send a message with my pumpkin carving..."GO VOTE." If you have been thinking about not voting because you are sick of hearing political analysts carry on and on, maybe the pumpkin can change your mind.

The other person in the photo is my friend Ashley who works with me at Ann Taylor Loft. After carving I took the pumpkin guts and made some killer roasted pumpkin seeds. Grant was leery, but I converted him to the way of the pumpkin seeds.

Here is a great YouTube video about not voting. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vtHwWReGU0

New blog stuff

For you tech-savvy folks, there is now an RSS feed subscription tool on the left side of the page. I've included a video below to introduce you newbies to the beauty of RSS feeds.

Also, I didn't think this blog was quite depressing enough, so if you scroll down to the bottom of the page there is something to keep you all down in the dumps.

First snow

It snowed last night for the first time since we moved here. There was only about one inch here at the condo, but more like 3-4 inches at the hospital (which was where I happened to be from midnight to 7:00am this morning). My poor little Honda didn't know what to think. It's mostly melted now, but it's supposed to snow again tonight and get down to 31 degrees. This is a little bit different than October weather in Arkansas!

Vegas video blog

The video says it all...sorry for the lack of pictures, but we didn't take very many. The pictures we did take were not that great anyway. You guys can all look up pictures of Las Vegas if you want to see where we were. We stayed at the Wynn hotel and casino (thanks again to Anna's job).



By the way, I'm wearing the hat because it was kinda chilly in the condo today.

Camping in Zion

Even though most of you who voted in the most recent blog poll said we should stay home this weekend and work on our rap album, we decided to go down to Zion National Park for the weekend. The rap album can wait. We left on Friday morning and got back this afternoon.

We wanted to stay at a campsite inside the park, but when we got there all of the tent sites were full. We found a nice little BLM campsite about 9 miles outside of the South entrance to the park, and it was right on the Virgin River (the same river that runs through Zion Canyon). After we set up our tent, we waded out into the river and enjoyed the view...

After spending the night listening to running water and subsequently having to pee all night long, we got up the next morning and went into the park to go on a hike. Saturday ended up being National Public Lands Day, so we got into the park for free! It normally costs $25. We decided to go on the "Angel's Landing" trail, which according to the trail guide was "strenous." It also said it was not for those with fear of heights, which is interesting because I definitely have a fear of heights. Here is the view of the peak we would summit from the bottom of the canyon:

We got started on the hike, and we were thinking that it wasn't that bad. Where were all the "steep drop-offs" and "poop your pants views" that the trail guide was talking about? Anna was feeling pretty confident at that point...

Then we got to an interesting point on the trail...on one side was a nice lookout and relatively honorable stopping point, and on the other side was a trail that led up to the "Angel's Landing" that the trail was named after (first picture below...the one with the death-defying drop-offs on both sides). Note the subtle warning sign.

Anna decided that there was no way she was going beyond the sign with the stick man falling to his untimely death, so we decided to stop there for lunch and enjoy the view.

But, with the newfound courage that tuna and crackers often bestow, we decided to go for it. It also didn't hurt that we kept seeing people coming back down from the trail that made us say "well if they can do it..." Forgive us that there aren't any pictures from that part of the trail, but it's hard to take pictures when you're sobbing, praying, and crawling up a rock on your belly. Here are the pictures from when we made it to the top and cleaned up my face to pretend I wasn't crying...

See the tiny little road down in the canyon by my right arm? It's a long way down...

Here is the view of a particularly scary part of the trail (taken from a nice safe flat spot). I don't know who the girl is, but I had to include her in the photo for perspective. If you are that girl and you are reading this blog, sorry for taking your picture without permission.

Apparently I have unfinished business left on this earth, because we made it all the way back down to solid ground without a scratch. After the long hike (4-5 hours), we made our way back to the campsite, enjoyed the river some more, and then made our way back home a little later.