Thanksgiving Break and Our Snowshoeing Adventure Redux

This Thanksgiving didn't include the traditional football in Georgia or all of the usual fixins made by the Lunt/Meyer/Barber/Webb clan, but it did entail a yummy turkey feast at Mimi's Cafe with Trent's dad's side and lots of Wii tournaments, card games, and Body Worlds with Trent's mom's side. Overall we had a delightful Thanksgiving.
Afterwards, Trent and I took a little trip up to Brighton to visit our friends, Jake and Alisha, at their cabin. Highlights from the trip include: close games of foosball, delicious food (mmmm, Navajo tacos), several 15 minute intervals spent in their sauna, and of course the snowshoeing adventure.
This so called ‘Snowshoeing Adventure Redux’ of ours began with the layering on of warm clothes- no swimsuits and warm weather this time. We strapped on our snowshoes and started to hike up the side of the ski resort that wasn't open yet for the season- it just so happened to be the exact same starting point as last time. We hiked and hiked, chatting and occasionally falling down along the way, until we eventually reached Lake Mary. We stopped there and took a couple pictures with Trent's snazzy new camera phone, then decided it was time to head back, as it was starting to get a teensy bit dark. On the way down we tried to make our sleds work in the fresh, thick, powdery snow, but the wimpy things weren't in the least bit cooperative.
It was starting to get pretty dark and Trent was determined to get in a good ride before we reached the bottom. So once the cabins were in sight, Trent jumped on one of the sleds and cruised down the last slope. Towards the end of his ride he rolled off the sled in attempts to avoid collision with a big mound of packed snow. He got up, dusted the snow off, then noticed that the pocket where he thought his phone was neatly packed away was actually unzipped, and his phone was not inside. Hmmm, sound familiar*? At least it wasn't his keys.
Trent and Jake immediately took off up the mountain following the trail in the snow that we had made, while Alisha and I ran back to the cabin to get some flash lights. Alisha's brother recommended calling Trent's phone (what an amazing idea, why didn't we think of that?) and he came along with us to help find the lost phone in the thick snow. As Alisha and I shined the flash lights against the powdery snow we decided that the chances of finding the cell phone alone were too low and that we needed to pray. Shortly thereafter we hear a loud roaring noise come from up the mountain. Sure enough after the 15th call made by Alisha, they had seen the little light from his phone peaking though the snow that covered it. What an adventure.*go ahead and follow the link to our previous snowshoeing adventure post if you don't get the parallels.

It's been way to long...

since I've posted about some sort of food. So it is only appropriate for me to share the exquisit experience that occured this afternoon. A while back I signed up to get all these free samples and today my first one rolled in- Orville Redenbacher's Caramel Mini Smart Cakes! They were A-MA-ZING! And I've never been a huge fan of those big popcorn pressed cakes that I was first introduced to in the 90's. But these are... wow. AND only 100 calories!? A very filling 100 calories I might add.
As a cautionary note- despite the fact that the "nutrition facts" on the back of the bag listed 0 grams of trans fat, the ingredient list did contain soy lecithin*, partially hydrogenated soybean oil*, and corn oil*. The stared items are explained further with the following: "* Adds a trivial amount of trans fat." I wonder how many Mini Smart Cakes I would have to eat for that "trivial amount" of trans fat to really amount to something?

Introducing Trent's Side

This weekend we had family pictures up in Salt Lake with Trent's family. We were pleasantly surprised to find the weather to be fairly moderate (as it has been thus far this winter, knock on wood) and our clothing to be pretty well coordinated.

Here are the boys:
Wes is Trent's step dad and Brett is Trent's brother-in-law. Ben is his step-brother-in-law and James, Braden and Bryson are his good-looking sons. Rob is Trent's step-brother and his handsome children are Cameron and Austin.

Here are the girls:Debbie is Trent's step sister and her adorable two girls are Cami and Kaitlyn. Sabrina is Trent's sister and Adie is her daughter. Tyssie is the mother of the handsome boys, Cameron and Austin, pictured above. Although sometimes confused to be another sister of Trents, Judy is actually his mom. And then there is me, with the new brown do.

There you go. Trent's family in a nutshell.

Graduation Application

Having known that the "deadline" to apply for graduation is tomorrow, I made a point this afternoon to go over to my advisement center and fill out the three-layer-carbon-copy application. During my three years of explaining, filling out, signing, and dating the exact same form for engineering students at my job in the advisement center, it never once occurred to me that one day I would get to fill one out on behalf of myself. Reality set in today. Five and a half months left.

Backpack Mishap

When my parents showed Trent and I all the things they had brought home from China it felt like Christmas. We pulled each item out of a big, plastic, Chinese-looking bag one by one, inspected it, tried it on, laughed at it, etc. The process was very entertaining. Although it seemed to never end, it eventually did, at which point we found ourselves adorned with all sorts of crazy items:Trent love love loves the bronze gator. Which is funny because I still remember the day my mom called and complained about how my dad had found a little bronze shop in one of the markets and brought home a few figurines for himself along with the gator for Trent, which of course is now one of his most prized possessions. Trent also loves the pink Burberry tie that my mom picked out and the golden hammock and the Michael Jordan basketball shorts.

As for me, my favorite gift has to be the pink shoes adorned with several "jibbitz." Unfortunately I think I left one of the shoes in Florida. All kidding aside, my true favorite gift is the faux Prada backpack and matching laptop bag (both of which are pictured above, its just hard to see them). But now, after 12 Wonderful Weeks of wearing my faux Prada, I do believe it is time to switch back to the old green one that I had been using previously, before the black one came along. Here's why:

At first I noticed some obscure scrapes on my left arm (sometimes accompanied with blood) which I later discovered to be the result of both removing my backpack and putting it back on. Then, a couple days ago, I noticed a weird, burn-like mark on my shoulder by my neck. Kinda like one of those burns you see on the feet of people who wore flip-flops made in China with lead paint (yes, I do have pictures if your interested, and yes, I did toss around the idea that possibly my precious faux bag had been made with lead paint). Now the bag has started to fall apart, first by the zipper, then by the handle, and just now by the straps! As I walked home from school today I was certain that one of the straps was going to pop since it was hanging by only a couple of threads.

Don't worry, I am sure she can be fixed, but for now I think I am going to switch back to the green one. Just thought both of us could take a little brake. And when she does get fixed I will have to remember to lighten my load, because surely that is the reason for my above mishaps.