For all you Lobster fans

Well since Mr. Lobster was such a hit with all you faithful blog readers, we have an update for you.  If you read my previous post and were wondering if Lobster got to go along to the cabin, wonder no more!   One of his many passions is traveling, so naturally we took him along, and we took many photos to document his experiences.

Here he is entertaining Calvin with war stories from his younger years:

Lobster giving out hugs in the kitchen to Thomas:

Calvin liked Lobster so much I figured out he was plotting to take him home.  I couldn't blame him, but as Lobster's guardian, I had to hide Lobster away to keep him safe until Beeper is born.

Lobster sees his first snow:

It's almost Christmas!

My apologies for the lack of recent updates!  December has been a busy month for us.  One of the highlights was getting to spend a weekend with our friends Tommy and Tracy and their kids at Tracy's parents' cabin in Overgaard.  This was the first time either of us had really been to the Mogollon Rim, and it was beautiful.  The cabin was as cozy as could be, and they even had a Christmas tree and Christmas lights up.  I used to picture a cabin as pretty much a one-room little building with a fireplace where you sleep on the floor in sleeping bags, so I was quite surprised to find out that this was more like staying at a bed & breakfast with a full kitchen, two bedrooms and a loft, and two full bathrooms!

We arrived on a Friday night and stayed through Sunday morning.  On Saturday the kids wanted to go sledding so we drove out to the White Mountains to the Sunrise ski resort (which was not yet open for the season) and found some small hills for sledding.  Todd enjoyed pulling the kids around on their sleds and I enjoyed staying warm in the winter coat my friend Cathy let me borrow since all our winter clothes are in storage!  We had forgotten what winter weather really feels like.  On Saturday night when the kids were saying their prayers before bed, they asked God to send snow.  Less than five minutes later it started to snow/sleet and we fell asleep to the sound of the wind howling in the chimney and woke up on Sunday to a blanket of snow outside.  It was beautiful and truly felt like we had a little "white Christmas" - Arizona style!

We decided to drive home a different way, so we continued east to Show Low, where they had much more snow than in Overgaard, and Todd was so happy to try out the Yukon's four-wheel drive in the gas station parking lot that hadn't been plowed.  :)  We headed south from there and the snow quickly disappeared as we reached lower elevations.  We drove through the Salt River Canyon which was another first for us.  It was a long windy road with lots of switchbacks and a number of rocks that had fallen from the cliffs above.  The canyon itself is gorgeous and looks a lot like a mini-Grand Canyon.  We'd like to go back sometime in the summer to go white water rafting.

A Date By the Pool

It was a beautiful November evening in Gilbert tonight.  We decided to make it a date by having a cookout by the pool.  The apartment complex where we are living right now has a beautiful pool area with two outdoor grills that we hadn't used since we moved here in April.  We do have our own grill out on the patio, but tonight we chose to grill our hamburgers on the community grills and save our propane.  It was a lovely and relaxing evening - relaxing for Todd because he got to sit in the hot tub (I'm not supposed to, being pregnant) and relaxing for me because I didn't spot any black widow spiders (which seem to be everywhere around our apartment complex - but fortunately they have all been outside).

Fall = Pumpkin Pie!

I don't even like to eat pumpkin pie, but I do like to take pictures of the ones I make that actually turn out right!  Good thing it's one of Todd's favorites, so it didn't go to waste.  :)

A New View of Roosevelt

We have gone camping at Roosevelt Lake probably at least six or seven times over the past three years.  It took us a several visits to learn that camping in the summer in Arizona is not the best time to go.  Sleeping in a tent when it's 105 degrees for the overnight low along with a sticky, humid, monsoon drizzle on the tent tarp is not the best way to have a restful night.  Eventually we figured out that spring and fall are the best times to camp, since it's warm enough in the daytime to go wakeboarding but still cools off to the 60s or 70s at night.  

Last weekend, however, was by far the most comfortable camping trip we have ever had at Roosevelt, since our "camp" was actually a three-bedroom house complete with a kitchen, fenced-in backyard, charcoal grill, firepit, and most importantly, bathroom with indoor plumbing.  If you've ever been to Roosevelt Lake and seen the dam that makes life in the desert possible, you may have noticed a small cluster of houses overlooking the dam.  The houses were built around the turn of the century when construction of the dam began, to house some of the workers.  (Some of these houses are now submerged under the lake).  SRP now owns the houses and only SRP employees can rent them out.  Our friend Jeff who works for SRP decided to rent one of the houses, so six of us got to spend a relaxing weekend at Roosevelt Lake with all the conveniences of home.

Highlights of the trip included: a salmon and steak dinner Saturday night; picking out constellations and counting shooting stars in our lawn chairs at night; pumpkin cheesecake for Halloween; playing various trivia games to pass the time, including naming the state capitals and naming cities in Arizona that start with every letter of the alphabet; getting a new stamp in our national parks passport at the Tonto National Monument cliff dwellings; and my personal highlight of the weekend was successfully driving the boat onto the trailer for the first time by myself.  It was a much-needed boost of confidence to my boat driving skills, although it was certainly made easier by the fact that there were no other boats in sight and there wasn't even the slightest breeze to blow me off course.

The view from our backyard:

Mr. Lobster

So last Valentine's Day, Todd took me to this seafood restaurant called the Salt Cellar.  It's in Tempe and I'm sure I've driven past it a hundred times and completely missed it, because it looks like a little building that's maybe 50 square feet if that...but that's because you have to walk in the little building and down the staircase to the restaurant which is actually underground!  Todd said we could go all out since it was Valentine's Day, so I ordered a lobster with filet mignon, and I'm pretty sure I ate the whole thing.  It was my first time eating an entire lobster and not just the tail, and I have to admit, we were both a little weirded out by this huge, whole, dead lobster sitting on my plate with his antenna and everything.  Todd seemed really nervous when I would turn the lobster to face him, so of course I kept doing it so he had to face his fears of this thing we came to call "Mr. Lobster."

We had mostly forgotten about our little Mr. Lobster joke until a week or so ago, when a package arrived in the mail from our friends Aaron and Melinda in Alabama, which included, among other things, a giant red stuffed floppy lobster from Maine!  Aaron and Melinda's little girl has one too and loves it, so they decided to send us one too for baby Beeper.  The trouble is, Todd and I are having so much fun with Mr. Lobster, I'm not sure we'll be able to share him when Beeper comes into the world in February.  We might need a lesson first in parental selflessness and sharing your toys with your children.  On second thought, maybe we should just go to Maine and get a second Mr. Lobster...

Anyway, we are having a blast with Mr. Lobster while he's still ours, and he does pretty much everything we do.  For example, here he is updating his blog, just like me!

Picture Problems

Three postings in three days...I seem to be keeping up with this blog better than I thought I would.  It's pretty fun to write stuff on here not having any idea who is reading it besides Todd!

I've been trying unsuccessfully to post several pictures at a time on here.  If I try to upload more than two per post, my computer freezes.  If you have any suggestions on how to get around this problem, please let us know.  In the meantime, I've posted a link over on the right labeled "Photos" that will take you to some photo albums we have on Picasa.  Most of the pictures are from 2006 or 2007, but we'll be adding more recent ones soon.

Ultrasound

Baby "Beeper" Owens

Welcome to our new blog!

With all the changes coming our way (new baby, new house), we thought it might be easier to keep friends and family updated by keeping a blog and posting pictures here.  Plus, those of you who don't want to have your email inboxes inundated with baby pictures can browse here at your own pace.

Here are a few of our recent photos of the house.  Estimated completion date is December 9, and they are building it at a remarkable speed.

Here is Todd standing in front of the garage:

The soon-to-be nursery:

More pictures to come...