My Amazing Wife

So we went rock climbing again this last weekend with the Copa's in our ward. We went out to a dry waterfall called Ortega Falls in San Juan Capistrano. It was so much fun! But the best part about it was seeing Jordan climb! In the climbing world there is an established rating system to indicate how hard a climb is. The scale starts at a 1 which is walking down a trail and goes up to a level 5.15. Level 5 is where rock climbing actually starts, meaning there are vertical ascents required. Well, yesterday we setup rope for a 5.10 climb. Here is the description of a 5.10 rated climb from one website:

5.10 - Very sustained climbing. A weekend climber rarely feels comfortable in this range unless they go EVERY weekend or have some natural talent.

Well, she definately doesn't fall into the first category as we usually go about once a month. We setup the rope and she was the first one to attempt the climb and lo and behold she made it to the top! She never ceases to amaze me! Whenever I think she is at the point where she might give up, she sticks her foot in, grabs on to something and makes it to the top. I'm quite a proud husband....that is for sure.

Oh Christmas Tree Oh Christmas Tree!

So I have never had a real Christmas Tree in my whole life. We always had one of those artificial ones. Jordan on the other hand has always had a real one and has even had the chance to cut it down herself with her family in Oregon. So, we decided to get a real tree for our first Christmas together.

The week before Thanksgiving we found a place that grows their own trees about 10 minutes from our house. You go to their lot, pick out your tree and cut it down yourself...at least that is what the advertisement said. So, we went that day as it was their opening day at about 3 PM and most of the good trees were actually already taken! But after a good 30 minutes of looking we found the tree we wanted, grabbed its tagged and paid for it. We decided to let it grow a few more weeks as we were heading out of town for Thanksgiving and that we would come back to pick it up later. We asked the guy at the cashier what the process was for picking up our tree and how we could cut it down ourselves. Of course, in this world in which we live, where know one ever takes responsibility for their own actions, he gave us the run around and basically said because of liability issues, we couldn't really cut our own tree down...we could take a picture with a saw, but we couldn't really cut it down ourselves. Well, I wasn't about to let some liability issues encroach on my holiday wish of cutting down my own tree. We started planning from that moment how we could get away with cutting it down ourselves.

Two weeks goes by and we have the plan. We drove up to the lot and asked if we could look around a bit. While looking around we planned out the attack. Luckily our tree resided in a remote location out of the main flow of traffic. We got back in the car, drove towards the exit and instead of turning out to the main street we made our way into the middle of the grove of trees (ok...really there was a dirt road, practically paved, that we drove down to get to our tree). We got as close as we could and turned off the engine. There were two families, one in front of us and one in back of us picking up their trees. I got out of the car, casually opened the back door and pulled out our accomplice, a Husky 18 inch bow saw. We briskly walked over to our tree we had picked out and paid for earlier and began to cut. Turns out it isn't as easy to cut down a Christmas Tree as you would think. All the sap... the funny angle. We get about 1/3 the way through and a worker passes by. I dropped the saw and he asks if we needed anything. We didn't, he said ok and left. Back to cutting. After a few minutes the tree (all 6 feet of it) starts to fall, I resisted the strong urge to yell "TIMBER!!". The deed was done. I picked up the tree with my burly muscles and carried to the car where we tied it to the top and drove home. It was by far the most exciting Christmas Tree shopping I have ever done!

Thanksgiving..... A Lot To Be Thankful For

This Thanksgiving a lot of events took place.  All of my siblings arrived either before or on Wednesday November 26th before Thanksgiving.  My grandpa had collapsed a week before from a heart attack which was scary but he made it through and came home after five days of being in the hospital.  

My sweet mother got there Saturday before Wednesday and was babying him and loving him.... She is definately her daddy's little girl.  Well, we got to grandpa and grandma's house and he was resting but my mom told us to go ahead and wake him up and love him.  So all my siblings and I went in and just loved him and hugged him.  He is such a jokester and was joking a whole lot.  Well we were so thankful to see him and shower him with kisses and loves.  We wanted him to rest so we left him so he could nap.  Well within the next hour my cousin Nathan had gone in to see grandpa and couldn't find him.  He told my mom and my mom was confused and ran into the bathroom in his room and he had collapsed.  She screamed HELP ME HELP ME!!! We all ran to the bathroom and Lindsay and Andy had started doing CPR right away.  My Uncle Mark soon came and started doing the compressions.  I was the only one calm enough to call 911.  That was so hard because  I felt like I was trying to just tell them to get there right away.  I asked my sister Lindsay the questions that the 911 person was asking me if I couldn't answer them.  It was because I told them that she knows CPR and so they were asking all these medical questions.  It was so hard to see my sweet grandpa like that.  The ambulance eventually got there and they came in and took over CPR.  I was watching and I knew he was gone and just starting bawling.  All of his lines were flat.  My sweet dad called me and asked me what was going on and I just told him they had been doing CPR for the past 20 minutes and I think he is gone.  

We all raced behind the ambulance to the hospital.  As soon as we got there they put us in this "quiet room" my siblings and I knew the only reason they would put us in this room was if he was gone because they did the same thing when our baby brother Taylor had died.  We all knew and then my grandma, mom, dad and uncle don came in and told us he was gone and we were all going to be able to say goodbye one last time.  Let me tell you this is that hardest part to go through.  All of my cousins, great cousins, aunts and uncles.... every piece of family was there in the hospital.  What a tender experience.  

My entire family was able to love him and see him before he was gone.  I remember when he collapsed a week ago I just prayed and prayed that at least my mommy could be there with her daddy before he went.  Well, he waited for all of us.  What an angel!  

November 26th is a very hard day for my immediate family but a very tender one.  16 years ago my brother Taylor died on November 26th and now my sweet Grandpa Gage Behunin died on November 26th.  I told my dad this was a really hard day for our family and was just crying.... he just replied "Juji now look how much more we have to be grateful for!"  It was very profound.  Anyway, It was a very emotional week but spiritual as well.

Mattie's Gingerbread House

We are actually Brock had a gingerbread house because he was eating of the candy! He is so funny

Rooga and her finished product

Our first house built by our four hands! Amazing!

My Gorgeous momma still being the awesome mom she is! 

Brock loves Mattie and Rooga! He is so cute with them.  He makes us all laugh!

She is such an angel!

Rooga, Mattie, Aubrey and Brock fighting over Aunt Becky!

My newest cousing Elias.  My whole family just wanted to hold him the entire time! He is the best baby!  

Me, B, my sweet grandma, Roog and Lou at Elias's blessing  (my cousin)

Nick was so supportive this whole week!

He is so handsome!

B, Me, Matti May, Andy Rice and Lando

Events that happened this week in order:

Grandpa Past away

Thanksgiving Day

Planned the funeral (This is HUGE if you haven't done it)

Went to church

Family dinner (Every Sunday my grandparents have the whole family over)

Elias' Blessing

Flower market doing Flower arrangements (6 hours)

Grandpa's Viewing (Day before funeral)

Grandpa's Viewing, Funeral, Burying (the military did a tribute to him! So awesome) Family Dinner

Drive home in Blizzard! 

This really was a crazy week.  These were the main events but we were all exhausted from crying so much and doing so much.  We still had a great Thanksgiving.