The Sam and Kristen Show

Merry Christmas To All!

2011-12-14T13:11:00.002-07:00

The Boys

2011-10-09T21:07:00.003-07:00

2011-08-15T15:06:00.010-07:00

We have been having so much fun enjoying the weather and our new life up here in Tooele, UT! I don't have much to say, just pictures to share:

A few weekends ago we checked out our local aquatic center. Sam and Owen in the water:
We also went to the Raspberry Patch and picked some delicious raspberries! We spent the rest of the weekend making muffins, scones, ice cream and raspberry crisp! It was all delicious!

Cute Gavin!

Owen loves CARS the movie. He plays with all his cars characters constantly, carries them with him everywhere and even wakes up every day and tells us who we are for the day depending on what color shirt we have on. Today I have on black so I get to be Sheriff.
The boys ready for church!
There was an accordion player for our "Concert In the Park" Friday night. We picked up delicious burgers and shakes from a place called Dairy Delight and sat and watched. Owen loved it!
A few pics from our Discovery Gateway Children's Museum adventure with the Melins:

Owen Sings

2011-05-22T15:27:00.001-07:00

He's Arrived

2011-05-05T19:54:00.015-07:00

Gavin Thatcher Layton was born at 4:31 AM on Tuesday May 3rd, he was 6 lbs 14oz and 18.5" long. I'll spare you all the gory details about his arrival, we just wanted to let you know that he's here and he's healthy. Kristen is in some pain, but she's doing very well. I'll stop typing...enjoy the pictures.

Birthday Boy

2011-02-27T13:28:00.005-07:00

Owen turned TWO last week! He is definitely a little boy and not our baby anymore. He is so grown up - says EVERYTHING, knows his ABC's and the sounds all the letters make, can almost count to 20, sings, has entire books memorized, and makes us laugh everyday with something new he has learned or a comment he makes. He loves his cars, trampoline, playing catch, his sesame street "guys", pillow fights, and especially letters. He is a sweet little boy, saying "please", "thank you", "bless you" when we sneeze, "excuse me" when he burps, asks if we're okay when we cough, "how are you today?", "glad to see you" or "how did you sleep?" in the morning, "thanks for breakfast", and "thanks for coming" when someone leaves the house. He surprises us everyday and is just so fun to be with! Here are a few pictures - his actual birth day, one and two!

East Coast Highlights

2010-11-12T19:04:00.008-07:00

We really wanted to share all the exciting things we did on our trip, but there is just so much to cover! We took over 300 pictures so I tried my best to pick out the best and show the highlights. Enjoy!

Niagara Falls:

Palmyra, NY

Washington, DC:

New York City:

Mount Vernon:

Hershey, PA:

National Aquarium

2010-10-28T12:21:00.003-07:00

Owen and I ventured out on our own today and had so much fun! We drove into Baltimore and went to the National Aquarium. Owen did so great and loved to see the fishies and turtles. He wasn't too interested by the dolphin show - mostly because he didn't want to sit still - but we had a great time. Afterward we went to a yummy sandwich shop called Potbelly and had a pineapple-coconut smoothie. It was such a beautiful day to be down in the Harbor. Here are a few pictures!

Hello from Maryland!

2010-10-20T12:26:00.004-07:00

We have been out in Maryland for the past few weeks for Sam's work training and we have a few more to go! We are having a great time; trying to do as much site-seeing as possible. I have been leaving most of the picture taking to Sam and we forgot the thingy to upload his pictures, but I did take a few around our hotel the other day so you can at least see where we are!

We spent the first weekend in Rochester, Palmyra and Niagra Falls and last weekend in Washington DC. Can't wait to show you more when we get back!

Here is the view from our hotel - we are staying across the street from Ripken Stadium and they have about 10 practice fields behind the hotel.

Here is Owen's park looking back at our hotel:

Here is Owen in front of the froggy he just LOVED outside of one of the restaurants we went to:

And here is Cousin Joe! We were so lucky to pick the right ward and run into him! He looked so great and seems to be doing so well.

Happy 18 Months!

2010-08-23T06:33:00.004-07:00

I can't believe I have an 18-month-old already! Owen is so fun - learning something new every day!

Trip to CA

2010-08-04T20:45:00.003-07:00

We had the BEST time Oxnard, CA! We got to stay two whole weeks while Sam was in training for work. We stayed in the Embassy Suites right on the beach, went swimming, played at the park next to our hotel, went for a bike ride, hung out with an old mission companion of Sam's and just had so much fun! Mom and Dad came out for a weekend so we went up to Santa Barbara and a cute little town, Solvang, where Mom and Dad got their engagement ring many years ago. We also toured the Ronald Reagan Library. We spent most nights watching the sunset on the beach! Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Mr. Independent

2010-06-23T10:12:00.002-07:00

It's Been Too Long...

2010-06-06T20:19:00.007-07:00

...since I have posted any pictures of this cute little guy. I think from now on I am just going to put up pictures - no title, no message from me...cuz let's be serious - you aren't really reading this anyway. You came for one thing and one thing only, so here you go:

Hanging out at Grandma & Grandpa's
Visiting Great Grandpa

Cousins!
Just looking adorable...
Gila Valley Temple
Another cute one...
Play date with the Bells
Thanksgiving Point

Draper Temple with Nana and Papa

Mmmmmm Nutella!

One of these days I will learn how to post a video and then you will all be in for a real treat!

Muscles!

2010-03-30T07:09:00.001-07:00

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY, OWEN!!

2010-02-23T20:18:00.008-07:00

This year has flown by...we can't believe we have a one-year-old! Here are some pictures of my cutie...oh, what's with the cast you ask? Well this year has definitely had its adventures - we are actually pretty proud of just having one emergency room visit! It came just hours before his birthday party on Saturday when he fell from a couple steps up on his slide...we knew something was wrong when he wouldn't crawl and found out a few hours later he has a small radial fracture on his right arm. Poor guy had to sport this splint at his party and then I started to cover it with a sock to eat and play outside to try and reduce the dirtiness.

Special thanks to my cousin Brad who was working in the ER that day and actually made it possible for us to make it to the party, as well as Cousin Lacy and the Porters for pretty much getting the whole party together while we were at the hospital including making food, decorating, cleaning and more...we owe you!

He's A Climber!

2010-01-21T09:15:00.004-07:00

Two of my favorite guys:

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-24T10:27:00.002-07:00

Owen's New Look

2009-12-17T07:58:00.003-07:00

Haircut #3 went about the same as #2 - Owen crying and looking at me like "why is this happening and why won't you save me?!?!" I guess that is why Sam decided to go extra short - so we won't have to experience that again for a while! I miss the long locks, but he sure is a cutie. Here are some before and after shots.

Let It Snow

2009-12-16T14:34:00.004-07:00

We went on a little weekend adventure to Utah and it turns out it snows there! That's something the three of us Arizonans just aren't used to - nor do we like it much! We had a great time seeing everyone!

More Owen Adventures!

2009-11-16T08:59:00.004-07:00

My two handsome guys

Happy Halloween! My little skeleton and the Wilcox Pumpkin Patch

Sierra Vista's Festival of Colors

Tucson Celtic Festival (See those pipers in the background??)

Dinner in Tombstone with the Porters

Owen and Cousin Lucy at the Mayberry's

My little guy is growing up!

2009-10-20T20:12:00.004-07:00

I found the baseball hat we bought Owen back in May at Jimmy's tournament. It fits him perfectly right now. Here he is back in May and then a couple pictures from today - almost eight months old!

5/9/09

Love this face :)

10/20/09

Settled In

2009-09-28T09:19:00.005-07:00

We made it through our first month in Sierra Vista! We are finally starting to feel settled in. We have been in our house for almost two weeks. BIG THANKS to Marti and Ralph for letting us stay with them AND for renting us this house! It is nice to have family around :)

We want to post some pictures of the house but I haven't taken them yet. For now, enjoy these cute pics of Owen who is now seven months! He is so grown up. He wants to crawl so bad and gets a little closer every day. He is doing much better sleeping, plays peek-a-boo all by himself and has his two bottom teeth!

We took a trip up Carr Canyon on Saturday to enjoy the sites of Sierra Vista!

Goodbye House

2009-08-29T10:55:00.010-07:00

Farewell Phoenix

2009-08-29T09:26:00.009-07:00

Sierra Vista - HERE WE COME! We have packed up and gone! The movers finally finished yesterday about 2pm and we came down to Tucson for the weekend. Sunday we will head down to Sierra Vista so Sam can start his new job on Monday! We can't believe it is finally here...he says he isn't sure he even remembers how to work anymore! We have had some fun together, but look forward to being back in the "real world."

Of course I need to share some pictures...Owen is Six Months Old now! Time has flown by. He is sitting up on his own and is a very busy boy! We gave him his first haircut a few weeks ago and we think he just gets cuter every day!

Hanging with Daddy

Mmmmm Sweet Potatoes

Owen's First Haircut
Before

After

Owen's First Trip to the Beach

Owen and Addison (he misses her already :)

Montana 2009

2009-07-26T17:06:00.009-07:00

Good day all. I thought I'd drop an update on ya. I'll go ahead an start with the most obvious...(refer to the title of this post). our trip to Montana. We decided a few weeks ago that we wanted to get away for a little bit and thought Montana would be a good place to go...so we went, and we were right. We flew out dark and early from Mesa and landed in a cloudy and chilly Billings, Montana about two hours later. I must say the change in weather was a welcomed surprise (sunny and 116 to cloudy and 65). We stayed at the Melins the first two nights and just took it easy, hung out on the banks of the Mighty Yellowstone, and watched a movie or two. We then went to Helena and stayed with Matt and Amie. While we were there we were entreated to the finest of Helena. We attended a city softball league game where Matt was able to fill in on the Police Dpt. team. He had the opportunity to make a few very heroic plays, for which he was quite sorry in the days to follow. NEWS FLASH MATT.....YOU'RE AN OLD MAN NOW. YOU CAN'T GO DIVING AROUND WITH OUT SEVERE CONSEQUENCES. The next day we took a tour of Helena on a train, we learned a lot about the history and architecture of the city. On our last day in Helena we went to the farmer's market down town and got to see some interesting things. After the farmer's market we stopped by Laura's house for a quick visit and headed back to Livingston. Laura it was great to see you and your family, we're sorry the visit was so short.

When we got back to Livingston, we went out to dinner with Jamie and Rich. They too us to Montana's Steak and Chop House. I had the best Cedar Plank Salmon ever, it was freakin' awesome after that we went to Summerfest and strolled around for a few minutes and then went home. On Sunday we went to sacrament meeting and then headed for Yellowstone. It was a free day at the park so we thought it was a great way to spend a Sabbath afternoon. When we got back to Livingston the Posties were waiting for us at the Melin residence. We spent the evening playing, hanging out, and watching movies. On Monday we woke up and had a lovely breakfast and then we headed out to float down the river. Unfortunately, Rich did not accompany us on the river adventure, he had to go back to work. I guess somebody's gotta act like an adult. Upon completion of our river adventure we went back to the Melin Estate to eat pizza and play Norwegian Golf.
The Posties took off at about 7:30 and we just hung out for a bit then went to bed.
The next morning we woke up a 5:30 and got ready for our trip home. Jamie drove us back to Billings. Our flight was delayed 2 hours due to a lightning storm in PHX. We eventually made it home and we've been here ever since.
Back to real life...crap!

Anyway,I want to thank everyone who made the trip possible: Jamie, Rich and the Melin crew, thank you for the round trip to/fro Billings, letting us crash at your crib, loaning us your ride, for taking us out fro a wonderful dinner, and for the non-stop week long party. We had a wonderful time, thank you guys so much. Matt, Amie, and the boys thank you for your hospitality; it was great to be with you guys. Thanks for making the journey to Livingston to hang out with us, we wish we could do it more often. Finally, thanks to Mike and Brenna for the rides to/fro the airport. Thanks again, we love you all. Pictures below :)

5 Months!

2009-07-24T15:51:00.004-07:00

Happy Five Months Old (yesterday) to the most adorable baby boy I have ever seen!

Independence Day and Some Other Stuff

2009-07-05T11:36:00.013-07:00

We had the privilege of attending a party in honor of Dave's 30th Birthday, Graduation, and Independence Day. We had a BBQ at the Mayberry residence where we partook of an over abundance of tasty food and rocked out on Rock Band. Unfortunately we did not take any photos of the events, you'll just have to picture it in your mind. We were awesome!
After the BBQ we went down to the ball fields for the fireworks. We hung out with everybody there for awhile, but we left early so the boy could get some shut-eye. Anyway, you've probably stopped reading by now and moved on to the photos, so I'm gonna stop typing...Enjoy. Thanks for the good times Mayberry's

Autumn, Brent, and Penelope

My two favorite people. This picture reminds me of what a lucky bugger I am.

Mama and Owen waiting for the fireworks

Owen goes to church

And last of all here's a picture of the 4Runner for Will

My Little Super Model

2009-06-16T21:30:00.003-07:00

Owen rolled over today! He was laying on his back - we were about to change a completely full diaper - and he rolled over onto his stomach! He is growing up so fast.

Here are a few professional pictures we had done about a month ago. Owen looks adorable (of course :)) Annie Miller did a great job - visit her blog here - thanks, Annie!

Pictures!!

2009-06-15T09:35:00.008-07:00

MAY:

My cute boys :)

Owen's First Swim - Memorial Weekend

JUNE:

Owen looking adorable for church in mommy's favorite outfit

A beautiful Tucson sunset

Swimming with the Porters!

First Family Road Trip

2009-05-17T20:15:00.006-07:00

We took our first trip as a family out of state this past weekend. It was a wonderful Mother's Day gift for me. We had a great time in St. George - we watched my brother win his baseball tournament, went to Zion National Park with my parents and even got to see Sam's mom, sister Jill and our cute nieces! It was the greatest!

The champion and his biggest fans:

Owen sporting his Dixie College gear:

Hiking in Zion National Park:

Smiles for Nana:

Cousins:

Daddy and Owen by the new dam bridge:

Snuggling Grover in the car:

Look At This!

2009-04-17T20:23:00.004-07:00

I just stole this pic from Emily's blog because it is my new favorite! What a cute boy we have!!

Blessing Day Pictures

2009-04-06T15:03:00.003-07:00

Thanks to Jamie for posting all those great blessing day pictures on her blog. We are a few weeks behind over here, but there are a few I wanted to share too!

Owen Pictures

2009-03-08T13:05:00.003-07:00

The Joys of Parenthood

2009-03-08T12:46:00.003-07:00

Well we are just loving every second with our little guy...including today. Owen was having a hard time staying awake during his 10 o'clock meal today. I was trying it all - rubbing his feet, a cold washcloth and nothing was working. I decided to change his diaper - maybe that would wake him up. Since Sam and I have both been peed on about 10 times so far I was cautious enough to put a little washcloth over him when I got his diaper off. Well, I started wiping away and must not have done very well with the washcloth placement because he started to go and ended up getting our bed (again) and also his hair and face!

Well we are half way through eating and decide it is time for a bath. Since he is awake now I decide to try to get him to eat for a few more minutes while Sam got the bath ready. By now he has no diaper on...I am just holding the washcloth over his bum just in case...well, you guessed it - one tiny little grunt a minute later and I had mustard poop all over my arm and pants, the couch and pillow - not to mention ALL over Owen.

We rushed to the bath at this point and got him all cleaned up. You would think it would be over by now, but as soon as his was dried off and getting his diaper back on he decided to pee AGAIN on the couch and into the towel as soon as I could react fast enough to point it down...what a fun morning - see what all you parents of girls are missing out on?!

Here he is as soon as we could get him cleaned up. His hair stands up when it is clean - too cute!

The Name

2009-02-26T15:22:00.002-07:00

He will be called Owen Elrey Layton (Owen Elrey beat out Wyatt Arthur in a coin flipping showdown) As for his stats, he was 7-1/2 lbs and 21-1/2" long

Our Sweet Baby Boy Has Arrived

2009-02-25T19:47:00.017-07:00

I announce to the world that Baby Layton is born. He was born at 4:45pm on the 23rd of February 2009. Kristen started having contractions at about 7:30am and then we headed to our appointment with our doctor, at this point contractions were pretty consistent at about 5 minutes apart, they weren't too strong so the doctor told us to go home and walk around and see if they turned into something real. After the appointment we went to run some errands, after about 1/2hour of that the contractions got a lot stronger so we decided to go to the hospital. We were admitted upon arrival at about 11:30 or so. We got Kristen all hooked up with the drugs and whatnot and she pushed the baby out after only 30 minutes of pushing. So anyway, the moment you've all been waiting for......

We are still working on the name, so be patient........ it's gonna be awesome.

Belly Pics

2009-02-13T09:24:00.004-07:00

Here is for all of you curious people I don't see everyday - wondering how large I have gotten!

37 Weeks

38 Weeks - sorry for the bare belly - it was too hard to see in the black shirt :)

10 Days to go!

Who Will He Look Like?!?!

2009-01-11T21:31:00.003-07:00

With only six weeks to go we are starting to think about what our little guy will look like...I pulled out some old baby pictures of the two of us. Can you guess who is who?

And We're Back...

2008-12-27T21:28:00.007-07:00

Here is an update on the Laytons!! We had a wonderful Christmas and look forward to an exciting 2009!!

We finally have the nursery put together...here is a cute picture of the Dad to be pondering what's to come. We still need to hang pictures and add the final touches, but it feels good to be somewhat prepared with only 8 weeks to go!!

Here is some belly progress (At 29 weeks and still growing...):

And finally some cute pictures from our Sierra Vista/Tucson trip for Christmas. How wonderful it was to be with family and celebrate the birth of our Savior.

The live nativity at the Mayberry's:

(This one is especially for Maren because Morgan was so adorable!)

Hanging out at Grandma and Grandpa's:

(Love this one of Sam and Grandpa :)

Sam with his new jacket from Jayna (which he loves, thanks, Jayne!):

It's A...

2008-10-14T19:36:00.002-07:00

BOY!! We had our appointment Friday and Sam and the doctor spotted the boy parts first thing :) He is so cute! We watched him play with his toes and get a drink...he is just an adorable 11 ounce baby. We can't wait to meet him in February!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAM!

2008-10-06T09:56:00.002-07:00

Happy Birthday (yesterday) to my Sam! We had a great day - we spent the night at Grams and Gramps house Saturday, so we woke up and made a yummy breakfast and watched conference. Dave, Lacy and Peeps came up to celebrate too! We hung out in the afternoon - Sam was entertained by his gift from Dave - a remote controlled helicopter! We watched the afternoon session and went quickly to my parents to have cake and sing and then made it to the Phoenix Airport by 5:30. It went by too quickly, but I hope Sam had a great day and knows he is special to all of us!

Sam is back in Colorado Springs today...we are crossing our fingers that it is only for 5 more weeks! He will be home Thursday night - stay tuned for the results of our ultrasound this Friday!

Love to all! (Sorry no pictures...Sam has the computer. Maybe he will post one of himself?)

Off to Colorado...

2008-08-31T15:40:00.002-07:00

No, we aren't moving. At least not permanently! Sam was "asked" to go to Colorado for 10 weeks to work - Colorado Springs to be exact. He leaves this week and of course, I will miss him terribly.

We are trying to make the most of this Labor Day weekend together. We spent the night at my sisters on Friday after a late night of babysitting and came home to a house with no A/C! There had been a huge storm the night before and lightning struck somewhere in the close vicinity of our home. To make a long story short - we spent Saturday night with some friends in our ward (thanks again, Porters :)) and finally got the parts that had burned up in the storm replaced today. Just in time for the Melo's to come stay with us tonight. We expect them any minute! After all that we are thankful that we are still under warranty!

Sam and I look forward to spending a few weekends together over the next two months. I will go out to visit and he will be home for his birthday and our next ultrasound :) Hopefully he will post some pictures of his time away for us all to see!

By the way, Sam would love visitors if anyone wants to check out Colorado Springs!

I've been tagged

2008-08-24T16:27:00.004-07:00

Here ya go Ally-bug

ONE WORD ANSWERS...
1. Where is your cell phone? Nightstand
2. Your significant other? Sweet
3. Your hair? Present
4. Your mother? Loving
5. Your father? Far
6. Your favorite thing? Family
7. Your dream last night? Huh?
8 Your favorite drink? Egees
9. Your dream/goal? Celestial
10. The room you’re in? Living
11. Your hobby? Bagpipes
12. Your fear? Invalid
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Retired
14. What you’re not? Loquacious
15. Muffins? Sure
16. One of your wish list items? Money
17. Where you grew up? Arizona
18. Last thing you did? Typed
19. What your wearing? Clothes
20. Favorite Gadget? Phone
21. Your pets? Crickets
22. Your computer? Slow
23. Your mood? Fair
24. Missing someone? Family
25. Your car? Honda
26. Something you’re not wearing? Nunya
27. Favorite store? Costco
28. Like someone? Kristen
29. Favorite color? Green
30. When was the last time you laughed? Currently
31. When was the last time you cried? Forget

I'm supposed to tag Four others to continue this so you, you, you, and the other guy there looking at this with you, you're tagged.

Well I figured it was about time we updated the blog

2008-08-10T16:23:00.021-07:00

First and foremost.....

Yep, we finally gave in to the pressure and decided to make a wee Layton (it's due in late February).

In other news, we had the opportunity to visit my Mom in Washington. We went up to help for her third chemo treatment. Luckily for us she was unable to take the full treatment and we were able spend more time together. We had a wonderful time, we got to spend time with some family that we hadn't seen in a while.Enough jibber jabbering I will just go ahead and post pictures of the whole thing, that's all you want anyway.

Mom getting pumped full of drugs, Kristen and myself hanging around watching.

Ma and me in Seaside, OR

Jake and me making blueberry pancakes for everybody.

Pictures at the Portland Zoo:

Kristen, Ella and Trent

Jake-A-saurus Rex

The Ride Home From The Zoo

Sammy, Kristen, and Jake

Us at the Portland Temple

Everybody on the banks of the Colombia River

Thank You everyone for making our trip so wonderful, especially you Mama. we love you and hope you are feeling well. You are in our prayers.

An Update

2008-06-22T20:57:00.007-07:00

We know, we know...it has been so long. We don't have much to say other than all is well! Here are some pictures of what has been going on the last several weeks:

Here is a picture of our newest addition - Sam's new Civic. We just couldn't afford to keep the 4Runner anymore since it was costing us $.25 a mile. We hated to let it go, but love our new 35mpg beauty!

We went golfing last weekend with Sam's company. We were paired with Jon and Lori being silly in this picture below. Luckily we played Best Ball and came in just one stroke over par!

This is a picture of some painting we did a couple weeks ago in our bedroom. We sponged an accent wall with brown and cream and painted the cream on the other walls. We love it!

Here is one of my new favorite pictures of us. I love this shirt on Sam - he looks so cute.

Happy Mother's Day

2008-05-11T18:56:00.006-07:00

We just wanted to wish our wonderful Mothers a happy Mother's Day. Thank You for your patience and kindness over the years. We Love you. That goes for all our Mothers, Grandmas, Aunts, Sisters, and so on.

Some Old Friends

2008-04-27T15:41:00.005-07:00

Last Sunday we had such an great time with some of our great friends from our college years. Emily was in town from Salt Lake so it helped us all be motivated to get together. We had dinner at our house and took our friends on our Sunday night walk. We miss you guys and wish we could do this more often!

Ashley and Cameron on the saucer swing:

Sam trying to swing with Emily's dog, Jessie. Emily thought she was getting out of the picture :)

Lee on the saucer swing:

Emily, Ash and me:

Our Week in Paradise

2008-04-03T18:12:00.020-07:00

Hello everyone! I just wanted to share some pictures for those of you that might be eager to see. We had the time of our lives in Hawaii! I am hoping to put together a little video or slideshow of pictures, but couldn't wait to share a few!

Here we are!

Entering the Lava Tube

The view from our room!

Sunset at Shark's Cove

Sam and Will at Kailua Beach

Luau at the Polynesian Cultural Center

Pearl Harbor

Laie, Hawaii Temple

Sunset Sail near Waikiki

Black Sand Beach on the Big Island

Rainbow Falls

A couple beautiful Hawaiian sunsets

I Have Been Tagged!

2008-02-26T16:00:00.001-07:00

The rules of the game are posted at the beginning. Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player tags 4 people and posts their names, then goes to their blog and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they are tagged.

So, I tried to pass this off by telling Sam that he had been tagged, but he went to Jessica’s blog and found out the truth. Normally I don’t do these kinds of things, but Jessica is so nice, I don’t want to disappoint her!

1) Where I was 10 years ago: A freshman at Catalina Foothills High School in good old Tucson, AZ!

2) 5 things on my "to do list" today: 1.) Get this list done and post it to my blog 2.)Pick Sam up after work 3.) Find something for dinner 4.) Iron - Don’t worry, I save the really exciting stuff for the weekend J 5.) Except tonight I get to go to Jessica’s for a cooking class!

3) Things I would do if I became a billionaire 1.) Pay off the house – well, probably buy a new one 2.)Share with family and friends 3.)Buy Sam an FJ 4.) Do random acts of kindness like pay for people’s dinner or their bills, etc. 5.) Contribute to charity 6.)Travel. I think the question should be what wouldn’t I do cuz I could pretty much do anything and everything!

4) Three of my Bad Habits: 1.) I never put the vacuum away, or the ironing board, etc. – at least that is what Sam says. So after I am done “cleaning” he has to go around and clean up after me. 2.) Eating a lot of treats – I am a sucker for chocolate 3.) Referencing Dr. Laura anytime I talk to Sam after work…I think he gets tired of it.

5) 5 places I've lived: 1.) Orinda, CA 2.) Tucson, AZ 3.) Salt Lake City, UT 4.) Chandler, AZ 5.) Phoenix, AZ

6) 5 Jobs I've had: 1.) Lawyers office as a “gopher” 2.) Laura Gibson Designs 3.) JCrew 4.)Pulte Homes 5.)Wife

7) Something Most People Don't Know About Me: That I am really bad at playing these games! Of course, you probably just found that out… Sorry, I don’t have anything interesting for this one!

And I am going to Tag: Jamie, cuz she is a total power blogger and I know she will do it! And Lacy because she will say something funny. Anyone else that wants to, have at it!

Sunday Night Walk

2008-02-17T18:53:00.007-07:00

I just wanted to share a couple pictures from the last couple weeks. Jayna and the kids were in town so here are a couple pictures of my time with them.
We celebrated Valentine's Day with box seats to the Pheonix Suns game on Thursday. Sam got me these beautiful roses and my favorite dark chocolate - yummy - and of course a sweet card telling me how much he loves me. He is the best! Thanks, babe!Finally our Sunday night walk. We went to the saucer swings and enjoyed the wonderful Arizona weather!

Our Trip to Sedona

2008-01-27T17:49:00.001-07:00

Happy Sunday all. It's a cool rainy day here in Phoenix. We just got back from Sedona where we had my company party last night. We had a great time up in red rock country. I sported my kilt for the event, it went over pretty well, I was afraid I would be sent back to by room to change. The best part of the evening is that I won $50 in the raffle, on top of winning it was I, myself, who drew my own winning number, yee haw!

My Sunday Afternoon

2008-01-20T13:44:00.000-07:00

We have had a great weekend! Cody and Tyler (our nephews) are visiting so I wanted to share a few pictures that I took this afternoon. Sam seems to be beating them up pretty bad, but Cody insists he is taking it easy on him "since Sam is old."

Friday night Lisa brought the boys over and we all had dinner together. We also had a surprise visit from our friends Dan, Kristy and Logan. I am sad we didn't get a picture of them too! But it was great to see them. Saturday I got to catch up on some house work while Sam took the boys on some errands, including a trip to his job-site where they got to race around on the mules. Then they cleaned and organized the garage! Finally we went out to dinner last night.

That brings us to today and since Sam won't let them watch TV or play video games on Sunday they have resorted to beating each other up instead. As long as they don't break anything (including each other) I guess I will leave them alone :)

Happy New Year!!

2008-01-01T00:03:00.000-07:00

It's 12:00 and 20 seconds and Lacy just said, "This is the best year of my life; every second of this year has been spent kissing Dave!" Sam is not so sure that the Welch's Sparkling he passed out 20 minutes ago is non-alcoholic cuz Lacy has gone a BIT crazy :)

It's a (late)Christmas miracle!

2007-12-30T16:50:00.000-07:00

HAPPY SECOND ANNIVERSARY MY LOVE

Heeelllllllloooo . Greetings from the desert southwest where, unlike the rest of you, we are not freezing. All I can say is, that's what you get for leaving the mother land. Anyway, the wife thought it was time to either update or take down the blog. So, here I go saving the blog and quite possibly the world.
Much has happened since the last post, I'm not even going to attempt to re-cap everything. I'll hit a few of the high points and allow you to fill in the rest with whatever you want. In fact Your fill-ins are probably far more exciting than reality.
Work takes up most of our awake time. Kristen is still at Pulte working away and I am still building "CityNorth", although, my responsibilities have changed a bit. I am now in the office working on the business side of it. I have a lot to learn and I am looking forward to the new challenges that lie ahead. As a side note I just learned that my new boss is a member of the Church, something I have long suspected but never confirmed. My duties at church have changed as well, I am now the second counselor in the young men's presidency. You all know what that means, I'm back with the deacons! I went from teaching 5 year olds to deacons, not all that different really, except the CTR's will at least try to give a good answer. Kirsten will be teaching the valiant 9 class next year and she's really excited to teach people that can read.

Now, on to our adventures. We had the opportunity earlier this month to go up to visit Mom, we had a wonderful time. We saw beautiful waterfalls and trees, all the things we don't see much of down here. Oregon/Washington is a beautiful place when the sun is out and I'm glad that Mom and Mark get to live there. Thank you so much for letting us come up and visit you, it was awesome. We also got to see Kristen's sister Jayna and her family, which was fun. Here are some photos form our trip.

So that leaves us at Christmas, we headed down to Tucson on Sunday night and stayed with Grams and Gramps. Monday morning we went out to breakfast at The Good Egg. After breakfast we went down to Sierra Vista to the annual Elrey Christmas party. It was great to see everyone, unfortunately there were many who not there, but we look forward to next year. With that we are about up to date. Tonight we have Dave, Lacy, and the Peepster coming to stay for a couple of nights with us, we are looking forward to that. Tomorrow Paul, Kate, and McKenzie will join us, and we might get a visit from the DeMarcos. Soooo, thats it.

Look what I found...

2007-10-17T19:46:00.000-07:00

Sam and I just happened to come across this picture...you may not be able to tell, but here is the original "New Kid in Town" shirt from almost 30 years ago on baby Sam! Then & Now:

Happy Birthday Sam!

2007-10-09T18:13:00.000-07:00

Sam turned 30 on October 5th! We were lucky enough to be able to go to Salt Lake last weekend and celebrate with the family. Here are a few pictures of his birthday celebration at Jill's house Friday night.

And one of Maeby cuz she is so cute!

Thanks to everyone that worked hard to plan the party, let us stay and just hung out with us this past weekend. It was great to see you all; we had a blast!

Hiatus

2007-08-12T17:46:00.000-07:00

Ok we're back from our hiatus. I'm not even going to bother saying that we are sorry or that we are going to get better at this whole blogging bit. Once a month is all you're going to get out of us. If you are really jonesing for an update, give us a call.

Over the last month we have done quite a bit, I will try and give you all a good run down. First, we sold the Scion and bought a 4Runner. We have been very happy with it thus far. We have also had the pleasure of continuing the painting of our house. This month we did two of the three bathrooms, let me tell ya, I am glad we are done with those. Bathrooms are the biggest pain in the tookas!

On the weekend of the 27th we went down to Tucson and paid a quick visit to Grams & Gramps and as a bonus we got to visit with Aunt Marty & Uncle Ralph. We wish we could have spent more time with them. On this day trip we experienced a very nice monsoon storm and I was reminded of one of the reasons I love Tucson so much. We also took some time to visit Kristen's parents and some friends.

The beautiful Catalina Mountains in Tucson we love so much!

On the following weekend we went out to San Diego with some friends in our ward (The Jacksons). We left Phoenix on Thursday afternoon and drove out to San Diego. On our way we stopped at In-n-Out in Yuma and ate dinner. We arrived in SD about 10pm and walked around our hotel a bit. We stayed at the Manchester Grand Hyatt downtown (thanks to priceline.com) and had a great view of the Coronado Bridge from our room. We got up early Friday and ate at Hash House A Go Go, an interesting little breakfast place with massive portions of food. Then we were off to Sea World. We spent a lot of the day there enjoying the shows and then headed back to our hotel, enjoyed laying by the pool in the wonderful 75 degree weather. We spent the evening over in Coronado Island. We walked on the beach near Hotel Del Coronado and ate at the Rhinoceros Cafe. Saturday we ate at Busters in near by Seaport Village and then took a trolley tour of the area stopping at Horton Plaza, Midway the Aircraft Carrier and more...then we went to La Jolla to the beach and back to Sea World to go on some rides and see the "Shamu Rocks" night show. Sunday was short - we slept in a bit, went to church and walked around Balboa Park. It was a great weekend, we enjoyed the weather the most and just had a great time. It was a much needed break from the every day routine, including the 110 degree weather that Sam has been putting up with at work lately. Thanks to the Jacksons for coming with us - we had a great time!

That brings us to this last weekend - we had friends from our ward in Tucson come to town (they now live in San Diego) so it was fun to see them. We went out to dinner with them (the Nielsen's) and the Lowes on Thursday night. Friday we went to the Diamondbacks game with a group of people that Kristen works with. Not usually Sam's favorite event, but we got to sit up in a suite and had some free food and drinks. Saturday we met back up with friends at Canyon Lake to wake board and knee board. We had a great time out in the sun and both attempted the wake boarding thing (pretty unsucessfully). Hopefully we will get to try again soon!

July Fourth Update

2007-07-08T18:16:00.001-07:00

Here is a picture of Sam as he reacts to my encouragement to update the blog. I guess I will have to fill in for him for now...

It is amazing how fast time goes by when pretty much all we do is work, day in and day out. Sorry we have been neglecting the blog, we just didn't think you all would be interested in hearing about what time we got up that day and what we had for dinner. Maybe I underestimate you (??).

Several weeks ago, after that short camping trip you probably all read about, Sam came up with this idea that he needed to sell his car (that he has had for about 9 months now) and get something that is four wheel drive. It is funny how he seemed to be able to convince me that it was a good idea with comments about it saving us money for kids and finding a more family friendly vehicle. What a sucker I am. So Sam put his car up for sale after that camping trip and sold it a short time later. We said goodbye to the Scion and have spent the last two weeks shopping for something new with every spare minute we have - including last Saturday from 9am until 6:30pm - all the while Sam telling me to never let him do this again. Ha ha! I guess we realized (again) that we don't like dealing with used car salesman and having to get up at 4:30am to drive each other to work and wait for two hours in the car for someone to be done with work...okay that last part was just me. Sam works some long, hard hours (and I am very thankful to him) and I felt like I was right there with him these past few weeks. But, finally we found it - a Toyota 4Runner that we pick up tomorrow. Hopefully that will keep Sam happy for a while:)

Here is a picture from our Fourth of July...Some friends in our ward invited us to their cabin that was about 1 1/2 hours away. We played pictionary, card games and guitar hero on Playstation 2. Even Sam enjoyed the games (except when the boys lost miserably at pictionary). We enjoyed the break from Phoenix and the 117 degrees it was that day! We missed you all in Sierra Vista and hope to continue our tradition again next year.

May with Sam & Kristen

2007-06-03T17:58:00.000-07:00

When I started this blog I really thought I would be better at keeping it up. I've decided that I will never be Jamie, and once a month will have to do. Over the last month we have had a couple of welcomed visitors and have visited a couple people.

A few weeks ago, we had the pleasure of having Dave and Lacy for a visit. Dave had drill on Friday, so they stayed Thursday and Friday night, and left Saturday morning. We hung out and enjoyed each other's company Thursday night, parted ways for Friday work and drill, then came back together Friday night. Kristen and Lacy went shopping, we went out to dinner and spent a great evening together. We really enjoyed getting to know Penelope!

Last weekend, we tried to make the most of having an extra day off. We went to Tucson on Saturday and spent the evening with Kristen's family. Sunday we went to the Dever's home ward and ran into the Sam Elrey family that were attending Central Ward for Sam Brown's baby blessing. That was a pleasant surprise. That afternoon we headed up the mountain for an evening of camping on Organization Ridge. Steve and Becca joined us for games, s'mores and shooting little plastic farm animals with air soft guns. Doesn't get much better than that. Sleeping on the ground was a little rough, but the cool air and pine trees made it all worth it. Monday morning we headed back down to Molly G's for breakfast, then back to the Dever's for a BBQ. We finished the day at Grandma and Grandpa's for a visit and headed back to Phoenix. We had a wonderful time with our family and friends.

I would also like to mention that I was finally able to talk to Matt, it was so nice to talk to him and we are so thankful for his safe return home even if it is 1200 miles away.

This week we had Jamie and Rylan East over night, it was nice to see them and be able to hang out with them for a bit. We also got to see Kyla perform at her dance recital this past weekend. She looked so cute!

Work is in full swing, my team and I are running the construction of four buildings, two of which started this last month and two more starting in this next month. It all translates to very early mornings and lots of long hours. In a couple of years from now it will be cool to see the end result and know I had a part in it all.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY !

2007-05-13T17:36:00.000-07:00

Before we start on my monthly report we wanted to take a second to give a shout out to all the moms in our lives. We love you and thank you for all you have done for us.

Since our last post we've been a few places and seen a few things. Let's start with our vacation.

We left Phoenix on 4/21 and went up to SLC and spent the weekend with the Posts, Petersens, Melins, and Brent. On Sunday, we had a family party at Willy & Audrey's and we all hung out and had a good time together.

Monday morning we left and headed off to Park City/Midway for our night at Zermatt, (a resort in Midway). Here we got to spend the rest of the day at the spa, we got a couple's message, hung out in a steam room, then went to the hot tub/pool. It was all very nice, there were only a hand full of people in the whole resort. I highly recommend the "off season".

Tuesday we headed back through SLC and went through the Temple, it was a wonderful experience. After the Temple we ate lunch at the Garden Restaurant and headed off to Island Park, ID. In Idaho we stayed in a nice little cabin for the night.

On Wednesday we left for Yellowstone, we ate breakfast at a place in West Yellowstone , MT.
After breakfast we drove through the park. While in the park we saw buffalo, elk, geysers, and the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. We left the park and met up with Maj and Rich at Chico Hot Springs for dinner and a dip.

We spent Wednesday and Thursday nights with Jamie and Rich in Livingston. Thursday we just hung out - the Lehmans came down and spent the day with us. Jamie and Rich had planned a Hawaiian party. The food was great, the company was even better! We are so glad we had a chance to spend this time with our family!

Friday morning we woke up and headed back to Salt Lake. We stopped off in Pocatello and had lunch with Dad. We continued on through Preston, Idaho to see some of the sites from Napoleon Dynamite. We continued through Logan, and made a stop at the Temple. While in Logan we picked up some candy and continued toward SLC. We took a little detour and visited the grave site of Christopher Layton in Kaysville.

We checked into our hotel in downtown SLC and met up with Kristen's friend Liz and had dinner with her at Gateway. Saturday morning we headed off to Herriman for Melanie and Liam's soccer games. After the games we went to Maverick for some frozen yogurt. After leaving the Post house we had lunch with Emily and her husband Richard at their house . After lunch we went to catch our plane home. We arrived in Phoenix and Damien picked us up at the airport, and we went out for dinner then headed for home.

Unfortunately I am the slowest typist in all the land and I am now out of time. I will have to finish up later.

Back in full effect yo!

2007-04-15T18:57:00.000-07:00

That's right we're back, after our month long hiatus. We've had a pretty busy month and I'll do my best to give you all a good run down of the events that have transpired. Before I start I want to warn you that nothing really great happened, just every day life with some common events.
The first Sunday we missed updating because we had friends and family over for dinner. Bill, Cortney, Paul, Kate, Damien, Amee, Ashley, Cameron, and Lee all showed up for a bar-b-que at the Layton house. We ahd a great time re-living old times and catching up with each other. We decided that we needed to do this far more often. We'll see what happens.

Amee, Damien, Bill and Cortney

Ashley and Kristen

Paul and Lee

Sam working the grill. Look at that tooshie!

The following weekend was General Conference and we headed down to Tucson to visit with our family and friends. We stayed with Grandma & Grandpa on Friday and took them out for dinner for Grandpa's birthday. We stopped by to visit Larkin at Sauce and decided we would just eat there and visit with Larkin. After dinner we took the girls home and went out to get a movie. We picked up "Persuit of Happiness" which turned out to be a pretty good flic. We woke up on Saturday and Grandpa made us breakfast and we all watched the morning session of conference together.

For the afternoon session we went to SV to visit Dave, Lacy, and Penelope. Our visit was good but short, I wanted to get back to Tucson to go to Pristhood meeting with Grandpa. After the meeting Kristen and I went to her parents house to visit with them. Sunday we had a little family party that included watching conference, eating buttermilk panckaes and decorating Easter eggs with Kyla, Ella and Dayne.

The week after that was pretty uneventful - we finished up work early Friday which gave us a chance for a date night. We went to an early dinner at Texas Road House - one of our favorite places - where we split cesear salad, steak, a loaded sweet potato and some delicious rolls with cinnimon butter. Yum! The we saw Blades of Glory and finished off with a little grocery shopping for the weekend.

Saturday Damien came over to keep me company while Kristen attended a baby shower for her sister, Jayna. We met up in Mesa, had dinner with Brenna and Mike and then went to the Easter Pagent that evening. We drove around a while looking for a spot and must have looked desperate becasue a nice old man let us park in his driveway which was right across the church building by the temple. He said he just wanted to do what he could so everyone was able to see the Pagent. He was really nice and we decided to take him something next time we head down that way as a thank you. Jayna and Brenna at the baby shower!

Sunday was Easter! After church we went to Chandler for a Dever family party. We unfortunetly lost the egg toss this year, Kristen decided to stick her finger through the egg. I have to admit I was in good form though. Congrats to Jimmy and Sherree for being the winners - we'll get you back next year suckas!

Beating up on Uncle Jimmy

Jayna and Ella

Monday we got to go to the opening game at Chase Stadium - Diamonbacks vs. Reds. The Diamondbacks one 3 to 2 and we sat in the second row in right field - right behind Ken Griffy Jr. We got hooked up with free tickets, found a free parking spot, and got free D-Back t-shirts.

I think we have finally caught up to this weekend - it was another exhausting one. We had been painting all week so we were already pretty worn out. Friday we had a couple from our ward over for dinner which was fun. I grilled some steak which was pretty good I must say. Saturday we were up early to meet the Dever's in Chandler for a birthday breakfast for Kristen's mom. Then we continued down to Tucson to see some friends. We went to the LaBounty's for a BBQ held in honor of our fiends the Nilson's - Ryan and Sheina and their new baby. They were in town for a few days because Ryan had a some leave to use. It was good to see everyone again.

Ryan and Shiena

Dang I am FINE!

That brings us to today! We woke up late, had french toast and went to church! We just finished another teary episode of Extreme Makeover Home Edition and we will probably head to bed! Next week we will be out of town, but hopefully we will have an update and some great pictures for you after that! Love to you all!

Happy St. Patty's Day to us!!!

2007-03-18T17:19:00.000-07:00

Well yesterday we had the distinct privilege of spending our St. Patty's day with the best Irish rock band in the world, Flogging Molly. We started the day by washing our automobiles, during this time we received a phone call from our friends Paul and Kate Melo. We met up with them and went out for some lunch at a Greek restaurant. After lunch we separated from the Melos and headed down to Mesa. Before we hit the concert we went to get some frozen custard at Nielsen's, that was some tasty junk! By this time it was 4:00 pm and it was about time to rock out, so we made our way to Mesa Amphitheater.

We arrived at the venue around 4;30 , and yikes, what a freak show! I am amazed at the diverse crowd that FM attracts. There were people ranging in age from 6mos. to 70+, and from every walk of life. Another thing I could not ignore was the size of the crowd, the first time I saw FM it was at a small bar with a couple hundred people and it cost me $7 a ticket, this time it was $35+ per ticket and there were probably 10-15 thousand. Needless to say it was quite a different experience this time around.

The first band was pretty lame, the second was only a little bit better. The next two bands TwoPointEight, a punk band from Sweden, and Street Dogs, the singer was formerly the singer of the Dropkick Murphy's, played and were pretty good, but I wasn't really there to see them, so on with the story.

At about 8:00 FM took the stage and proceeded to put on quite a show. One thing I noticed was that they had a replacement accordion player, I wonder what happened to Matt Hensley. I'll have to look in to that. Anyway it was a great show, unfortunately due to the size of the crowd we were unable to do the regular post-show chat with the boys from FM. All in all it was a good time although it was not as much fun as the good ol' days when I was young and stupid and there were only a couple hundred idiots in the crowd with me. Maybe I'm just getting too old for this kind of silliness.

I tried to get some live action for y'all, but it was so distorted it hurts to listen to. This photo was the best I could do for you. One last thing, THANK YOU RICH & JAMIE for those copies of Swagger and The Green Door you gave me nearly 7 years ago that got me hooked from the instant I first put it into the CD player.

Birthday Report

2007-03-18T16:54:00.000-07:00

I know it is late, but I wanted to write about what a wonderful birthday that I had thanks to Sam! First, he got me a brand new Kitchen Aid mixer that I wanted in green to match my kitchen! It is so cute :) Then, Monday he had flowers for me when I picked him up from work and we went to As You Wish to paint pottery together. Turns out, Sam has a secret talent for painting! He jumped right in and made this great clock! I will attach pictures from the event and the masterpieces we came away with. Then we went to Cheesecake Factory and had my favorite Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake! Yum! Thanks Sam for a great birthday and thanks to everyone for the birthday cards and wishes!

no title

2007-03-11T17:03:00.000-07:00

Well we've had a busy couple of weeks. Last week we had the pleasure of attending Bill and Cortney's wedding. It was a sweet experience and it was fun to spend some time with the extended family. I will post some photos of the event hereafter.

On Sunday we went on a baby blessing tour. We started out heading down to Gilbert for Ellie's blessing (Damien and Amee's baby). Unfortunately we were late and had to listen to the tail end of the blessing out in the foyer. After sacrament meeting we went to Damien's in laws' house for a quick luncheon. From there we headed to Prescott for Mckenzie's blessing (Paul and Kate's baby). We had diner with Paul's in laws' and hung out for a bit. I saw some people I had never expected to see there, for example, Ben Vaterlaus. I haven't seen that kid for at least 6 years. It's just a reminder that Mormondom is a small world. Any way we left Prescott at about 6pm and arrived back home at about eight.

Paul, Mckenzie, and Kate.

On Monday we had my old roommate Rob Greenwood overnight because he had a med school interview on Tuesday. From then on the week went on without much excitement until the birth of Cousin Dave and Lacy's baby. CONGRATULATIONS DAVE AND LACY!!!! We will be down to see you sometime over the next few weeks. On Saturday we went to Kristen's brother's baseball game which was a double header, were only there for the second game. They lost the first and won the second. After the game we all headed for our house and had a small family BBQ for Kristen's birthday (3/12). HAPPY 24th BIRTHDAY MY LOVE!!!!!!

Today we had the distinct privilege of speaking in sacrament meeting. Kristen spoke about tithing and I spoke about giving and taking offence. I always appreciate the extra study that comes with speaking, but I really don't enjoy the anxiety that comes from having to deliver the talk. I was also set apart as a worker in the primary. Kristen and I teach the CTR 6 class. They are a cute bunch of kids.

So that was our last couple of weeks. I want to extend an invite to all friends and family to come and visit us at any time. We miss you all.

2007-02-25T19:52:00.000-07:00

This week was rather uneventful, a whole lot of work, eat, sleep, and and not much between. On Saturday we went to the Mesa Highland Games, where we hung out and listened to some bagpipes. We had a good time, the only drawback was the nasty sunburn I got on my face, it was so nice and cool out I didn't realize I was cooking myself. All in all it was good clean fun. Afterwords we went to Kristen's favorite restaurant and ate some lunner.

From Cafe Rio we went to track down Larkin, we found him at Sauce in Mesa working. I sure do miss having that kid around. We were able to talk to him for a few minutes and then headed off to Ikea to find a small table for our entryway. Upon arriving at Ikea we decided to take a quick nap in the car. We slept for about 20 minutes and went in to the store. Unfortunately we left Ikea empty-handed and left the weighty task of finding a table for another day. By this time we needed to hurry to the Temple to meet some friends. After the Temple we went out to eat and headed home.

Today (Sunday), I got called to teach primary with my lovely wife, it will be fun to work along side her. I also had the privilege of attending Scott Mayberry's ordination. it was so nice to be there for that. After church we had Uncle Ralph, Aunt Marti, and Steve over for dinner. It was a lovely afternoon. It makes me wish for an Elrey family compound. So, that was my week.

I'm still toying with content on this thing, so let me know what the heck you want me to write about. I'm sorry if I bored you.

Here it is!!

2007-02-19T20:22:00.000-07:00

It's here, the long awaited debut of the world famous Sam and Kristen show. We hope it isn't a big let down, we will do our best to keep it interesting. I'm terrible at typing, so the entries will be short and sweet.

This last weekend we had a load of family over for Grandma Layton's funeral. It was sad to say good bye to her, she was a great lady. Any way, it was nice to have family around for the weekend. I wish we all lived a bit closer together so we could get together more often. We had a really good time, I'll try and post some photographic evidence of the events in the near future.