Death of a family member

Please join us as we mourn the loss of a very special family member. Suba was 24 years old when she kicked the bucket. She has been a member of the Francis family since 2003, Zeke bought her for $400. She had 312,000 miles on her odometer. Only a select few people were tricky enough to open her doors. In the time that we have known her, her defrost hasn't worked, therefore in the winter, Charles had to bend cardboard under the heater vents to deflect the warm air toward the windshield. Suba has filled us with laughter throughout our marriage. One summer she decided to randomly turn the windshield wipers on periodically. There was no pattern to help us figure out when it would happen next. Usually it would be at an awkward time like at a stop light, so everyone around us would stare trying to figure out why the wipers were going. She got sick of that joke and just stopped doing it one day. She has been a faithful friend on some adventures. Her last big adventure was to take us to the San Juan River for a rafting trip. She looked a little ridiculous with the frame on top, but we loved her for making it back home. We will miss our old friend and family member.

Moab Turkey Trot

This past weekend we headed to Moab to see the musical Maralee was putting on and to participate in the Annual Turkey Trot. The musical was great. It was so funny and well done. Sarah had a part, in which she did a great job. As always, Maralee directed a great performance.

The 5k "trot" was Saturday morning. Maralee, Geneava and I walked with Andy in the stroller. I had a great time hearing all of the mushy details of Geneava's love life. The 3 of us weren't there to win any prizes, so we just had a good time chatting and walking. Charles, Sarah and Jacob ran. This run is so much fun because it is just locals. There was about 150 people. (compared with 3000 for the half marathon). Some people come dressed up, as you can see Pooh bear was ready to run, beard and all. There were also some women wearing tutu's and one lady had an awesome turkey hat. I love it because it is all just for fun, super laid back.

What do you know...... I won a prize! I got a turkey for the mom and tot stroller division. Charles took first in his age group so he got a candy bar. Jacob also took first in his age group, he got a turkey. ( I don't understand why Charles only got a candy bar, but thats ok, we couldn't take 2 turkeys home anyway). Now that you are thinking I am awesome, I have to let you in on a secret....... I was the only one there with a stroller, so by default I won the Turkey. But hey, winning is winning right???

Andy loves his aunt Geneava.

Nap Time

So, I walked in to check on Andy today and found him like this. I can't imagine being flexible enough to sit like that, let alone comfortable enough to fall asleep! Don't worry, I'm not a mean mom, after some pictures I laid him back down.

A few weeks ago we took Andy on a fall hike. It was surprisingly cold, so we bundled him up in his winter bunting and cute hat. Andy loved it! Charles handed some big yellow leaves to him to play with while we hiked-he loved it. This picture is at the end of the hike, you can tell Andy is ready for nap time.

Let the training begin! Andy isn't walking, but that doesn't stop his daddy from holding his hands and chasing the soccer ball around the living room. Andy thinks its pretty fun. He gets a big smile on his face every time he kicks the ball.

ARRRRR, Shiver me timbers

This year Charles and I dressed up as pirates and we all know every good pirate has a parrot! Charles ended up being the creative genius behind our costumes. He even sewed Andy's costume, which consisted of a couple boa's on some red pajamas, a lightning McQueen hat and mesh from a trucker hat. Charles never ceases to amaze me with his creative talents. What a stud!

Here is what Andy looked like from the back. I think his little tail is so cute! He actually did very well being dressed up. I thought he would try to pull the feathers off or eat them, but he didn't seem to mind them.

Our ward had a stomp on Friday night. Charles made the poster for it. Yet again, he busted out some sweet skills. He came up with the design and then used a lazer to cut it out of cardboard. The pumpkin eyes, nose and mouth are cut out along with the information on the poster. It was hard to get a good picture of it, but belive me, it looked really cool.

I am proud to say, I helped Charles with brainstorming for this poster and the way stomp is written was my idea! Of course it came after I threw out about a thousand ridiculous ones, but hey, it turned out awesome.

Here are a bunch of our friends who were at the dance. I was amazed with their creativity. It was such a fun night. Mugatu and katinka won the costume contest.
If you cant tell, this girl is a germ and her husband is wearing scrubs and has a huge syringe.

Storm and wolverine

Pregnant girl with some huge utters.

Kiss even came to the stomp

These guys are our good buddies. Scott was a helicopter with lights and all and Megan was the color black.

Whats a party without smurfs?

These guys were so funny. They played their part the whole night. They would even dance like an old couple. It was so funny to watch them get down on the dance floor with their walkers and old people dance moves.

Cousins!

Awhile ago we got to hang out with my brother, his wife and their cute kids. Jon had meetings in Salt Lake, so Camie and the kids hung out with us for a few days. One night Charles and I watched all of the kids so that Jon and Camie could have a night on the town. Of course, Charles created all sorts of fun for everyone. They had car races on these sweet "ramps", they played soccer and then we ended the evening with a movie and popcorn. We all had a pretty good time. Andy loved having his cousins around. He couldn't take his eyes off of them. He was always so interested to see what they were doing.

I love this picture. Andy is just one of the big kids watching Cadin play a little Mario Kart.
Ryann and Morgann loved to "help" me with Andy. They were very attentive to his needs and were so good at sharing with him. Morgann is still learning how to react to babies, so Andy came out of the weekend with a few battle wounds, but overall she was a sweetheart to him. What I fun time!

We love Leonard

Charles brother Leonard just left for two years to serve an LDS mission in Argentina. We will miss having his fun personality at family gatherings. He is quite the kid magnet, so I'm not sure what all of the little kids are going to do with him gone! Andy sure loves Leonard. These two cute boys share the same vibrant blue eyes (defiantly babe magnets!) We love you Leonard!

Oregon

In the first part of September, Charles, Andy and I drove up to Oregon for Paul & Bev Louthan's wedding. I'm not going to lie, it was a lot of driving, but we had a good time anyway. I think between Thursday morning and Sunday night we drove about 32 hours total! Andy did surprisingly well. He was good in the car, only crying when he was hungry. Putting him back in the car was the problem. As soon as we sat him in his car seat he would start to cry because he knew he would be in it for a long time AGAIN. After a minute or two, he would calm down and just hang out until we stopped again. This is him at a rest stop about 10 hours into our trip, he is such a happy little boy. (I promise, he usually doesn't look this homeless. We had just changed his diaper and hadn't put his pants back on).

Paul and Bev were married in the Portland temple. It was so beautiful. It was hard to get a picture of the whole temple because there are so many trees around it. The trees made it feel really cozy and peaceful.

The happy couple. Bev looked gorgeous. They are such a fun couple, I'm so excited for them!

We stayed in a town called Seaside, right on the coast. After the wedding we decided to take a different route there via the coastal highway. You can't drive through Tillamook and not stop at the cheese factory, so we stopped to check it out. There wasn't much going on inside the factory, but they had some really good ice cream and we bought some awesome cheeses that they don't sell in stores. It was a fun little detour.

The drive up the coast was so beautiful. It was a cold, misty day but it made some really great pictures.


Poor little Andy. We got to see all of this beautiful scenery. I took a picture of what he saw for 32 hours of driving. What a little trooper!

Here is a picture I took off the balcony of our room. The mornings were always misty and cold, but it was kind of fun and different. We didn't have much time to enjoy a nice beach walk, next time we will try to take a longer trip.