San Diego - Christmas 2005-New Years 2006

Christmas '05 was a Colby family Christmas (we switch of Thanksgiving and Christmas between our 2 families every year) and we had decided it would be fun to take Ryan's family to my families beach condo in San Diego to celebrate it. Ryan didn't have as many day's off as the rest of us so I went a few days early to Las Vegas to spend some time with my family and his family headed to the beach a little early, then we all met up in San Diego on the 23rd. We had a great time touring around San Diego. We went to the zoo and the Wild Animal Park with his family. Ryan and I tried our first shore dives (we had just been scuba certified a few months before) while his dad and sister snorkeled. Unfortunately, Southern California was experiencing the largest waves they'd had in over 20 years I believe - 15 feet. The conditions would occilate from treacherous to dangerous to poor. We would try on the poor days. We were not too successful on any of our attempts. I do believe we would have been successful one time if we had had enough weight on our wieght belts because we had finally made it far enough past the waves, but we couldn't get down. Anyway, we learned a lot and got a lot of excercise and wore ourselves out. We visited with some of Ryan's uncles, aunts, and cousins he hasn't seen in years and I had never met. We found a great Mexican reseraunt in Old Town that has the best flan. And we celebrated Christmas and had great time. A few days after Christmas his family left and our friends arrived to bring in the new year with us. We went and saw the seals, saw soem pelicans, went to Point Loma tide pools, and had a great time. It was a really fun trip. After that I was able to go back to Las Vegas and celebrate Christmas with my family, also fun. What a blessed life I live.



Upper lieft hand corner and then clockwise - Us at the zoo with some prarie dog things - I can't think of what they are really called but they are cute, my friend Wendy holding a tiny brittle star at the Point Loma tide pool, Ryan in the sky-tram-thing at the zoo, the pelicans on a big rock, a mama and baby panda at the zoo, a bunch of seals, my best-friend Wendy and me. (I am so excited to finally have learned how to do a collage - this will save space :) ).










It is my families tradition to act out the nativity every year for Christmas. As you can see, I did it when I was a kid. Now that I have so many nieces and nephews (20 currently), and cousin's kids, I don't really have to participate any more except to be an in keeper occasionally. But I have many memories of these re-enactments and I enjoy it every year. The kids are very cute. I always enjoy Christmas with my family, I always enjoy Christmas.

Valley of Fire - November 2005

When Ryan and I went to Las Vegas for Thanksgiving 2005 we went to Valley of Fire with Jenny and Cam and their son Nathaneal, Maggi and David, my parents, and Mary and Adam (my sister Molly's kids). It was Ryan's first time and he was very impressed, we had a great time hiking all around.

Ryan with the petroglyphs

Cam and Nathan

Maggi and Mary "holding" up the rock while Adam watches

Ryan and me

Nathan the great rock climber like his parents

We liked this little nook

The desert really is beautiful, don't you think?

How do you like the friend we found on our hike?

Our Garden - August 2005

We started planting a vegetable garden each summer a few years ago. Our best crops are generally tomatoes and zucchini. We are not great gardeners and I hope to improve, (I would appreciate any advice,) but we have learned a lot and we enjoy watching it grow each year.

Our garden looking quite healthy I think.

Aren't our zucchinis so pretty?



A healthy zucchini plant



And that's not even one of our biggst zucchinis (now we pick them smaller though)


So, we found a critter on our drive way and thought it was a wrom at first but on closer inspection found out it was just a tiny snake.

Mt. Charleston - August 2005

After the wedding was over my parents took Ryan and me up to Mt. Charleston. I had been telling Ryan about it for awhile but had never taken him there before. He was amazed that there was a place just 30 minutes outside of Vegas surrounded with great pines and where you would need to wear a jacket in the middle of August. It is quite amazing. We didn't actually get to spend much time there because it was raining quite a bit so my parents were just waiting in the car for us as we hiked, but it was still fun and beautiful. It is quite exciting as you are driving up there to see the vegetation change so dramatically so suddenly.

Maggi and David's Wedding - August 2005

In August, 2005, my babysister, Maggi married David. Unfortunately the night before their wedding David got food poisoning or the stomach flu or something, so he was not too well that day. His dad carried a green bowl aroundthe temple for him, just in case anything should happen. He was a good sport for pictures though.



Our nieces and nephews greating the happy couple when they came out of the temple. Mary and Sophie love their job of carrying the bride's train.



Don't they look so happy?



Me and my sisters



My whole family (at least allt here were at the time)



Maggi with all her brides matrons, maids, and flower girls



Me with Wendy Lewis (one of my very best friends - and Maggi's too)



Me with Steve Roberts (one of my closest friends from BYU - we met the second day of our freshman year in chemistry)



Ryan and me

Maggi and me with Aubrey West (one of my closest friends brom BYU - she was my roommate, as well as both Maggi's and Jenny's)

Isn't the cake beautiful, my sister Emily made it

My dad with my niece Elli

Atlanta and Camping in the Smokies - July 2005

In the summer of 2005 Ryan had to go to Atlanta for a business trip. Not wanting to be alone, I decided to go with him, and then we decided to extend the trip and visit Smokie Mountain National Park. We had a great time!



Stone Mountain in Atlanta


A plantation home at Stone Mountain


The Atlanta, Georgia Temple


The river where we ate lunch in Smoky Mountain National Park


Pretty Rivers




A black bear


Here you can see the fog caught in the mountains, the reason they are called "The Smokies"


Pretty overlook on the way out

Camping at Mineral Wells State Park - May 2005

In May 2005 we went camping with our good friends Robert and Shauna Bastian (Rob and Ryan grew up together and have always been good friends) and Robert's sister Sarah and her husband Preston. It is the perfect time of year to camp in Texas and we had a great time, we love camping. We are so greatful to have friends that are so well known that live in the area.

We went on a little hike and had agood time. I was way impressed with Shauna because she was pregnant and still kept up with us. And Rob did great carrying their daughter Ginny around.

Molly's Family Comes for a Visit - April 2005

In April of 2005 I asked my sister Molly and her husband Bruce to do a seminar in our ward on communication in marriage and just some things to kepp your marriage healthy (they are both marriage and family therapists). They were super nice and said they would, which was great because that meant they came to visit me, and it just so happened that their trip overlapped my birthday! I haven't had many birthdays since I graduated from college that I've been ablet o share with family, so it was fun. We had a great time having them with us, plus two of their kids - Mary and Adam.

One of the first things we did with them was take them to Fossil Rim, this drive thru zoo thing. We've gone there several times, and love it. You can feed the animals right out of your hand - it is awesome. Everyone has a great time when they go - and if you were to come visit us we would take you there, too.

You can even feed the giraffes out of your hand - which is quite fun.


After Fossil Rim we went to one of the biggest patches of blue bonnets we know of - it is really beautiful, especially when we are having a good wild flower year. April is the best time of year to visit Texas, not only is the weather nice but the flowers can be amazing. They get really deep and Mary and Adam had a great time playing in them. They played hide and seek and would just lie down to hide and you couldn't find them.

We took lots of pictures and had agreat time in the flowers. (Bruce didn't join us until later.)

Next on our busy schedule for the day was a horse race. There was a lot of down time, but we still had a lot of fun.

The night before my 26th birthday Molly made me a cake so Ryan could join - yummy!


The morning of my birthday they greated me with a poster they made and a super yummy breakfast - I really liked it.

I took them to the Dallas Texas Temple, just to walk around the grounds. After we went for a yummy lunch at the Cheesecake factory, they had to leave. I enjoyed spending my birthday with some of my family and having them come to visit.