End of Summer 2009

Overall, we had an amazing summer! We were extremely blessed! The summer also brought a few accomplishments: the reading craze and the Nintendo Wii. During those short few months, I managed to read a dozen books (which is quite a feat for one who used to hate reading)! Some of the books I read included: Lord of the Flies (I had never read that before....um, interesting...), all of the Twilight saga, Harry Potter's 1, 2, 3, 6, and half of 4, Children of the Promise 1....and that is all that I can think of off of the top of my head. That's a lot of reading!!! Now that I am officially graduated from college, I'm looking forward to picking my leisure reading back up.



During July, my department at work was doing a "Throwdown Competition," and I won first place!! No I didn't have to knock anyone out...I was just rated the top Scheduler for the month of July. Is that bragging? Maybe. As a result, Jason and I are enjoying our (then new) Nintendo Wii.

And that pretty much sums up the exciting summer of the Grubers! Until next summer...

The Gruber Family Reunion

In honor of George and Nancy's 40th wedding anniversary, everyone gathered for a fun family weekend in Alpine. Part of the fun was taking care of everything with the siblings so that George and Nancy wouldn't have to do a thing while we were there. Needless to say, there was lots of food, games, kids, and fun.

On the way to Alpine after Girl's Week...

Lots and lots of Nertz...cute face Jason...

Uncle Karl taking kids for a ride


I don't know how they eat those things....


Preparing dinner

April, Capri, Emily and Mya

Saturday was filled with fun activities. We kept the Gruber family tradition alive by making breakfast up American Fork Canyon. And of course the boys couldn't let go of their fishing fantasies, so we went up to Tibble Fork Reservoir for a small fishing session. Later that afternoon, we all went to the park for an intense game of kick ball. I hadn't played kick ball since elementary school, so I was quite excited about that.

Alex and Harlan

Clara and Amy

Grandma and Grandpa with the grand kids

At the park before kick ball

Sunday was spent with extended family and friends. We had a great feast and spent the rest of the afternoon watching Jason and brothers flying his plane. Everyone was very excited and the kids loved it!

Homemade ice cream - a Gruber tradition

The pilot

Waiting for the big show

The crew

It was a very eventful and special weekend! It's crazy to think about what our 40th anniversary might be like!?! One year down....39 to go...!

Gruber Girl's Week

Each year, Jason's mom, sisters, and sisters-in-law, get together for what they call Girl's Week. Last year they went to Colorado and stayed with Jason's sister, Amy. This year, it was April's turn. So, towards the end of August, all of the girls gathered in Riverton. Rather than a week of activities (as is usual), we crammed everything in two days... because the weekend was going to be spent with the entire Gruber family to celebrate George and Nancy's 40th anniversary. To say the least, it was a very exciting week.

Spending Girl's Week with April meant April planning the entire itinerary. She did an AMAZING job, filling the two days with fun activities and surprises. We arrived Tuesday night (August 25th) to a yummy Papa Murphy's pizza dinner. Each year they have certain things they are supposed to include, like making/sharing a new recipe and attending a temple session. After dinner, the recipe April had planned for us was for Microwave Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Treats. They were so quick and easy, and they tasted delicious! That night we went over the agenda, which (of course) April had all printed off for each of us. She also surprised us with a little gift: a lavender scented packet that we could put anywhere in our house and it would make it smell amazing!

Arriving at April's, Robby picking up kids

Alli, Capri, and Nancy

Preparing dinner

April had every activity listed to the exact time we would leave, arrive, and return home. Just to give you an idea of how fun-packed those two days were, I'm going to list all of the different things we did for Girl's Week:

Wednesday

8:00 Breakfast
Get Pictures taken by Laura (her photographer friend)
Lunch at Trellis Cafe (at Thanksgiving Point, where she also gave each of us our own nail polish to get us excited about one of our next activities)
30 minute facials, or chemical peels, at Alpine Aesthetics and Wellness Clinic
Pedicures at Nails & Spa in Alpine
Dinner at JCW's
Movie at Sandy Movies 9 (we saw Star Trek)
9:00 Arrive home and play white elephant game (I won a fruit squeezer!)

Pictures by Laura:

April, Alli, Amy, Nancy, and Emily

Before our pedicures

Hair of many colors...

Lunch at Trellis Cafe

About to get our facials

Pedicures

Thursday

8:00 Breakfast
Good Things Utah Show
Lunch at Blue Iguana
Memory Park (where we took pictures and April surprised us with pictures from the previous day's photo shoot, with one in a nice frame)
Session at Salt Lake Temple
Dinner at Texas Roadhouse
Show at Desert Star
9:30 Arrive home, relax, and play games (she gave us cute thank you cards)

Good Things Utah

Our souvenirs: taffy for the State Fair

Lunch at Blue Iguana

I love this! Nancy leaving Blue Iguana...

Memory Park

At the Salt Lake Temple

Desert Star

Girl's Week turned out to be such a blast and it was such a great opportunity to really get to know my new "sisters". I got to see sides of them I never would have known before and really developed a great friendship with them. I am so lucky to be a part of the Gruber family and can't wait for the next Girl's Week. April did such a great job that I hope it is many years before I am asked to be the host sister! :)

The Fishing Obsession

As I kind of mentioned in my very first posting, it has been the summer (and year) of fishing. I'm not really sure what came over Jason, but his interest in fishing seems to have quadrupled since we've been married. He just says his childhood passion has been "re-birthed"!

Whatever the reason may be, he goes fishing any chance he gets. Whether it's at 6 in the morning or on his way home from work before school, he manages to find time to squeeze it in there somewhere. On more "special occasions", he'll make a day of it and go somewhere more exciting with his brother, Max. He even got a fishing license for me and took me a couple times (not as much as he would have liked though). Let's just say there was a lot of fishing talk at home and at family gatherings.

Max and fish...

Jason and fish...

Feet and fish...

Eventually, I told him he had to stop bringing them home

Here are some of his homemade jigs:

I'm such a proud wife

Here they are fishing middle Provo River near Heber:

I "can't wait" to see the fish that 2010 brings!!