Merry Christmas!

We hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas season! We are so grateful for all our friends and family and wonderful blessings. May this season be cheerful and bright to all!

Thanksgiving at the Wrights

We went to Wenatchee for Thanksgiving this year. We took off on Wednesday, so we had a good long vacation, with plenty of time to visit family and friends. It was great. We also took the opportunity to visit Abby's Legendary Pizza, where I used to work. They have the best pizza. Seriously. This is a picture of the family.

Sunday Doodles

While we were paying attention in church we had a little fun with the doodle game where one person draws a simple doodle shape and the other person has to make a pitcure out of it. It started pretty normal.

Then we got on some kind of a kitty bender. I'm not sure how.

Janel drew a doodle of me too.

Apple Cup 2008

Aaron got tickets from his boss at work, so Apple Cup here we come!  I then realized even though I am from here and Aaron graduated from WSU, we don't own any cougar apparel.  But we decided we would root for the Cougars in our own colors.  

This was the first time we have been to Martin Stadium since the renovation.  (Note: This is before the game started, not during the game.  I know both WSU and UW are bad teams this year, there was a good turn out.)

It was cold yesterday, so we had to bundle up, or maybe I had to bundle up.  The seats were nice when the sun came out.

Here come the Cougs!!

 

Here are some highlights of the game.

   

The Half TIme show

I will have to say the UW marching band was so much better than WSU's.  They were very entertaining and had some fun configurations. They did one where they played the Rocky theme and did a formation of two boxers fighting. It was great.

Aaron said if his job at SEL doesn't pan out, this is what he wants to do, be a flag runner.  :)

The Cougars won!  16-13 in overtime.  We are not sure if it was a good game because both teams played hard or if they are equally bad, but we won!  Go Cougs!

 

 

Quantum of Solace

I have a little theory that whoever is doing this James Bond movies is trying to pull together a trilogy. Casino Royal was the first, and Quantum of Solace the second. And like many second acts (Indiana Jones, etc) this movie is not very good.

First I want to comment on what I call copious cut action scenes. They occur in many many movies and you'll know you're watching one when you all of a sudden don't know what's going on or what you focus on. This is when the movie uses 10-15 different cuts per second of an action scene. All of the cuts are filmed close-up with the patented we-want-to-make-you-feel-like-you're-in-the-action-shaky-cam. Add this all together and you get a feeling of "wha?" when the scene is done. It's like leaving out and misspelling numerous words of a sentence. You're not going to get to the end of the sentence and feel like the author got his point across. You're just going to say, "wha?" I guess they do it because it's cheaper. If they made the action scene realistic, so you could put a stationary camera out there and get the whole picture, it would be much harder. I would appreciate it though.

Aside from that, the movie lacks a villain. There's a couple guys you know are doing something bad, and after an hour in to the movie you learn that one of them did something bad 20 years ago, but overall you don't know what they're up to so you can't dislike them and root for Bond. It's more of, "Ok, I guess he should kill that guy. He is pretty creepy looking." That's why I feel this is a second act, and the whole story will come together in the third movie. But this is a bad idea because Bond movies don't do that. People expect Bond movies to be Bond movies, stand-alone with a villain that makes sense.

On the plus side there were some interesting camera shots that seemed hard to do. I liked them because they weren't cut to pieces, and stood out in the action scene because of it.

Halloween Party

Aaron and I were put on the activities committee for church and was in charge of the Halloween activity. We had a door decorating contest, costume contest, pumpkin painting and a scavenger hunt.

This year we decided to go as Indiana Jones and Marion Ravenwood

Aaron and I were designated to do the costume contest. This was our area with backdrop and all.

Aaron's cousin Tracey and her husband Eric and his friend decorated their door with a Super Mario theme. It turned out great! What a good Mario and Luigi they make!

Aaron's New Look

When Janel bought her pattern and fabric for her apron, Aaron bought a pattern and fabric for one as well. 

 

Turned out great, huh?!

 

He had to try it out today while cooking dinner.  Good job Aaron!

A week in Hawaii!

We went to Oahu to be with Aaron's brother, Cameron and fiancé Tiana for their big day. The got married in the chapel at the Hilton Hotel. It was a beautiful, traditional Hawaiian wedding.

While we were in Hawaii we decided to see some of the sights...

The Honolulu Zoo

Aaron, Robyn (his mom) and I went to the zoo while Clark (his dad) was playing golf with Tiana's grandfather.

Went to the beach and buried Aaron in the sand

This was the beach we got our stuff stolen from our car at. So at the end of the day we were without our backpack with Janel's wallet, cell phone and pants, the GPS, some souvenirs, Robyn's purse and camera. We called the police and reported it, but we never saw it again. But, we still had a good trip. We just had to experience ALL of Hawaii!

Went snorkeling in Hanauma Bay

The Hawaii State fish: The humuhumunukunukuapua' a

(say that three times fast)

We saw some really amazing fish and yes, even a sea turtle! This defiantly made Janel's day since she has always wanted to see a turtle while snorkeling!

The Dole Plantation

Enjoying our Dole Whips-delicious pineapple ice cream. Yummy!

Robyn checking out some of the pineapple products in the gift shop, while Aaron make an official Dole squished penny.

The Laie Hawaii LDS Temple

The Polynesian Cultural Center

We went to different villages, a luau and a night show. It is such a fun place to go and see the different Polynesian cultures. It is one of our favorite places to go on the island.

As well as the "Man Eating Tree"

This tree is by the beach in Waikiki across from our hotel and it if you get to close it may eat you! Looks mean, huh?!

A good time was had by all!