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Wow, it's fall! Where did the summer go? We raked all the leaves in our yard on Saturday, and by Sunday afternoon, the whole lawn was covered again. More than before! We had a great weekend. Working in the yard, golfing (it was actually warm enough), a movie with some friends, grocery shopping together, and eating dinner on our new patio. Summer 2009 was a great time: a vacation to Banff national park in Canada, a visit to Ryan's family in Alberta, seeing Yellowstone (Ryan's first time), and some great fun here in Colorado. In September, we got a grand piano! Woohoo! It is so beautiful and we love having it in our home.

Tax season is over! Ryan had his last busy day yesterday. He's taking the day off on Friday and we're going up to Fort Collins to a Brandi Carlile concert, then spending the night there. It will be nice to get away, although the weather is supposed to be really bad. We'll see. You never know until it really happens.

I've been doing a lot of sewing, including two really cute dresses for my nieces. I've also been making myself some new things for summer. It would be great if the weather would warm up a little!

We have really been enjoying the beautiful weather here in Denver. Even though it's cooling off a little, it has been in the 70's for the past few weeks. We have bulbs coming up all over our yard, including right in the middle of our new lawn! They're kind of cute. We're looking forward to working some more in our yard this summer. Ryan got me my own set of golf clubs from craigslist, so we can play together more easily. Who knows if I'll ever be any good! It's fun to try.

My mom and sister and her two daughters came to visit last week. We had so much fun. Nothing gets me more excited than having family come and visit. We went to Disney on Ice, a first for me. It was pretty cute. It was especially fun being there with my nieces. They had a great time. We also did a lot of shopping, and I got some really cute white jeans. I've already had to soak them because they were all dirty on the bottom. I guess that's what you get! Next week, I'm going to Utah for a few days for spring break, then going to New York with my mom and sister. I'm super excited! We're going to see West Side Story and South Pacific. I'm sure we'll get some shopping and eating in as well! I feel bad leaving Ryan for a week. I know he'll miss me, but he has a lot of basketball to watch!
-Amy

I guess it's been few weeks since I've written anything. Things are going well for us. We're stying busy with the regular stuff: work, teaching, church responsibilities -- and we often think about how our lives will change when a baby comes into our home. How exciting it will be! We know it will be an adjustment, but we feel that over time, we've done everything we can to prepare for a family and provide a child with all he/she needs, temporally, spiritually, and emotionally. Our families are excited to get involved as well. We're making plans to clear out our home-office/guest-room, so our new addition will have a room. It's fun to think about. I am busy with my students as many of them are involved in their high school musicals during this time of year. I try to see all of them, which means seeing at least one show every weekend. This weekend we're going to see "Footloose" and next week I'll see "Beauty and the Beast" twice at two different schools! Ryan is enjoying his new job. He's learning some new things and making new friends.

We just got back from a short trip to California for a few days before Ryan started his new job. We had a great time! The weather was at least 70 degrees on the coast and 80 inland. We walked on the beach, went golfing, shopping, hiking . . . so much fun! Ryan went boogie boarding, but I didn't get in the water because it was too cold. He had to wear a wet suit. Ryan started his new job on Monday, and so far he seems happy. Today is my day off, so I'm doing some chores around the house and catching up with friends.

Happy New Year! We are excited to be starting 2009! We went downtown with some friends on New Years Eve to celebrate. Our friend took this picture of us on the light rail. Ryan is starting a new job on January 19th and is very excited. He will be working for a regional public accounting firm, and should get some really good experience. We are going to California next week for a quick trip before he starts. Hopefully the weather will be beautiful.

We spent Christmas in Phoenix with Amy's brother Bill and his family. We had a great time! His kids were so cute and so excited to have us. We went up in the mountains one day to an old mining town where this picture was taken. It was freezing! We thought we would escape the cold when we left Denver for Phoenix in December. Bill's wife Janelle took this great picture!

We can't believe it's November already! Fortunately, we have still had beautiful weather here in Colorado--in the upper 70's for the past several weeks. We went golfing on Saturday in shorts and T-shirts! Ryan almost hit a hole in one! His ball was like a foot away from the hole. It was pretty exciting. We finally have grass in our back yard. It came about a month ago. The night before the sod was delivered, we could hardly sleep -- it was like Christmas! It is so beautiful! All our hard work has really paid off. Now we are already busy getting ready for the holidays. We just booked flights to visit Amy's brother and his family in Phoenix for Christmas. Amy's parents and grandfather are coming for Thanksgiving. Amy is also starting to get busy with Christmas programs and performances with her students and at church. It's a fun time of year! We are praying more intently than ever for a child to come into our home. We know there is a baby for us out there somewhere, and we hope the Lord will help us find him/her.

We had a great time on Halloween! I made both our costumes. I dressed as a witch inspired by a candy corn. I won a prize at our church party for "Most Creative!" Ryan dressed up like a Canadian Mountie. I thought he was hilarious (seeing as how he really is from Canada). After our church party, we went to hang out with our friends. Their son's birthday is on Halloween, and he was turning 2. My friend made tons of great food, including a homemade gingerbread cake with whipped cream. Sooo good! Before we went home, we made one more stop at another friend's house, who works with Ryan. She really wanted to see his costume and was disappointed that he didn't wear it to work. Do you think we'll ever get too old to stop dressing up?

Well, summer is pretty much over, and life is returning to a regular schedule for us. We had so much fun this summer with a family reunion on my side, a trip to Canada to see Ryan's family, and several visitors staying at our house. We are so blessed to have such a big and loving family. On Saturday, I had a voice recital and then we went out to dinner to celebrate our 11th wedding anniversary. I can't believe how long we've been married. I told Ryan that morning "Thanks for picking me to be your wife!" He thought I was silly. I never get tired of him.

-Amy

We had a really fun trip to San Diego last week. Ryan had a business conference in La Jolla, so Amy joined him. Why miss a trip to the beach!? The weather was cool, but nice compared to the scorcher days we've been having here in Denver. Our first day in San Diego, we toured the Midway aircraft carrier that is now out of commission and ported in San Diego. It was really cool. Ryan had some meetings for a couple of days, so Amy shopped, went to he beach, and read by the pool. Meanwhile, Ryan was discussing the exciting issues of taxes for nonprofit healthcare companies. What fun! We also went to the zoo one day and met up with some friends we knew in college at BYU. We haven't seen them for years, so it was fun catching up with them and their three kids.

Our yard is really coming along. We will be getting fill dirt next week to fill in the huge hole from the pond. Then we should be ready to lay sod in the next few weeks. How exciting!

Well, this is our first journal entry! I think I'll just write a little about what's going on our house this week, because it's so exciting! We moved into our house 3 years ago, and the previous owners were Chinese. So, the whole backyard was a Chinese garden. We are finally working on getting rid of the gardens and putting in a lawn. I'm sure this will be much more family friendly. We tore out all the little wood paths, and are working on killing the flowers with roundup (I know it sounds terrible!) We had two ponds. One was smaller and quite easy to pull out. The other is huge! About 4 feet deep and full of fish. Over the last few weeks, we have slowly been cutting out the plastic piece by piece, and allowing the water to slowly soak into the ground. We pulled out about 30 fish! We gave them to some boys who live next door and have a pond in their yard. We finally finished the last piece of plastic yesterday! We now have to get some fill dirt to level it off.

Also, my mom and my sister, Mary, and her two kids, Maggie and Libby are coming to visit today. I get soooooo excited when my nieces come. My voice students have a recital tomorrow night, so it will be fun to have my family here.

Ryan took the day off today to golf. It's nice that his job is flexible this time of year, so he can have a day off to do something fun. He really likes it, so I signed up for a golf class during the month of August. We'll see how I do.

-Amy