a busy thanksgiving week

^^^ i prepped the turkey this year. ^^^

^^^ i could hardly get a normal picture of these two...such goofs! ^^^

^^^ a cute sweet shop where we picked up some bertie botts every flavour beans. this may have been a mistake...at least for those who ate the vomit, earwax, grass, and black pepper flavors. ^^^

^^^ somers modeling some candy teeth. ^^^

i feel like i normally do a good job at getting tons of pictures when we have a holiday, but this time i didn't get as many as i wish i had. so many great activities that i didn't get to capture. 

thanksgiving week was super busy since we now have both of our families living in the dallas area. one of my favorite experiences from the week was going through the dallas temple with the entire neibaur family. the spirit was so strong as we shared in this moment together. also, we got to meet keith for the first time. we loved having him around and can't wait to make him an official member of the family in a few weeks! 

st. george temple

more temples

Since we have been in California for the summer, we have had the opportunity to visit some more temples.

#9 - Fresno, CA for Kelsey Smith's wedding.

#10 - Los Angeles, CA with Stephen's parents.

#11 - San Diego, CA  on a day trip with Stephen. 

Each of these temples are beautiful, but I would have to say that the San Diego temple was my favorite.

The design is like none of the other temples and it has a unique beauty.

Temple # 8: Mt. Timpanogos, UT - 9.9.10

We were able to attend a session at the Mt. Timpanogos temple this week. Unfortunately, we forgot to bring a camera, so we don't have our own picture. This temple is gorgeous...Stephen especially likes the blue in the steeple because it glows at night.

The Latest

We had such an amazing time with Mom and Dad when they came up to Utah. We were able to go to the Logan temple the first night that they arrived in town.

Temple #7: Logan, UT - 7.30.10

Park City:

We had a blast in Park City with Mom, Dad, Skyler, and Jill. Frisbee golf turned out to be a lot of fun even though the boys conquered the girls....they are just too strong! The weekend consisted of eating, arts festival, the lodge, frisbee golf, rain, the pool, alpine slide, Inception, church, craziness at the lodge, nature, catch phrase, and family. It turned out to be a great trip... a nice break from work and school.

Skyler on the Alpine Slide

This is us being hyper at the lodge...what a pretty flower! love him!

I only put up these pictures because the Neibaur Family blog has all the pictures from the trip on it...I didn't want to be redundant.

Test Drive:

This last week, Stephen went to the Nissan dealership when I was at work. We normally meet up during my hour long lunch break so Stephen decided to pick me up for lunch in the Nissan 370 Z. I have always liked the car and it was fun to drive and play around in for a bit.

Trip to NYC:

Stephen went to New York City this past week with a group called Pathways to meet with a few accounting and financial firms. He was there for a few days and got to meet with companies such as PricewaterhouseCoopers, Goldman Sachs, Oppenheimer Funds, IQor, American Express, Credit Suisse, and JPMorgan Chase. He got to explore potential options and get a further look into these types of firms and their operations.

I was definitely jealous that I couldn't be there with him since I absolutely LOVE NYC! He had a great trip and I'm glad that he is home now. :)

Farewell to Scott, for now

Temple #6: Draper, Utah - 7.6.10
Since Scott was in Utah to leave on his mission, we all went to the Draper, Utah temple the day before he left. Also, Felipe was able to come through with us. :) This temple was probably one of my own favorites. The celestial room was really tall and there was a extravagant chandelier hanging in the center of the room. This temple was very elegant and simple.
Scott Hill reported to the MTC on July 7th. He will be serving in the Johannesburg, South Africa Mission. We will miss him, but we are excited to get his wonderful emails. He is such a strong and faithful young man.

Trip to California

This last week we were able to visit the Hill family out in California. We had a very busy and fun time with the family.

Lake Perris Trip: It was fun to go out to the lake since we haven't been in such a long time. The wind picked up a lot right when Stephen and I finally decided to wakeboard. My legs were killing me still from the Mud Run, so we decided to go together for a bit. Stephen definitely shows me up on the wakeboarding skills.

We went up to Burbank to visit Stephen's older sister, Kristen, at work. Kristen works for Disney's corporate finance department, which is located on their studio lot.

Stephen and I played at the beach and built some awesome sand castles. We had wall barriers and a mote to protect them. We we thinking that the tide came in at night, but apparently in California the tide goes out at night...so building all the barriers proved to be pointless because the water never even came close to destroying our castles. ha. It was still fun to play in the sand like a kid again! :)

All the boys got to go play golf at Pelican Hill!

The Hills took their family photo while everybody was in town. The photographer thought Stephen and I might like to take a picture of just the two of us. ...as if we don't have enough pictures of us, as of late. :) I love pictures though!

Temple #5: Newport Beach, California - 6.18.10

We had a great time doing many other activities while visiting. We had our open house and were able to attend Scott's farewell. He gave such an inspiring talk that Sunday.

TEMPLES

Stephen and I have decided that we would like to do endowment sessions in most, if not all, the temples within our lifetime. A lofty goal for sure, but a interesting one as well. We will keep a running list of the ones we have been able to visit.

We have recently made some progress on our temple goal. Stephen's dad and brother were able to fly out to Utah to attend a session at the Manti and Salt Lake Temple with us. Those temples both have live sessions, which brought an interesting change and a whole new perspective to the experience. The artwork within these two temples is truly amazing. Some of the artwork done in the Manti Temple is painted by Minerva Teichert, so Randie Sue would appreciate it.

Visiting different temples is proving to be an exciting experience. So many things are different, yet the whole process and experience is always very similar.

Here are the temples we have been to so far:

Temple #1: Dallas, Texas - 4.21.10

Temple #2: Provo, Utah - 5.21.10
Temple #3: Manti, Utah - 6.10.10

Temple #4: Salt Lake City, Utah - 6.11.10
This week we are in California and should have time to visit one of the temples in the greater Los Angeles area.