Long Distance Valentines!

I am grateful for this man, he is my best friend, eternal companion, and so much much more. He is such a great husband and father, I could never have hoped for more.

We are apart way to much but technology makes it bearable. Noth of our Mother's had spouses who were gone a lot. They didn't have the benefit of cell phones, instant messaging, facebook, or skype. I am not sure how they did it so well, it makes it easier. This trip we have been using skype in the evenings and it is nice to see him and hear him at the sametime. We have even been doing our nightly scripture study this way, pretty cool. While I miss him terribly while he is gone I am so grateful for technology.

Happy Valentines Day to my Sweetheart and Companion, I love you with all my heart.
Sorry your package was a little chessy!

It has been a fun basketball season again at BYU even though not as dynamic as last year! I am a true blue fan so it is fun to go to the games even if they do lose. Part of the fun is taking different family members with us to the games. Today I invited Rachel, Cameron, and Jack to go with me but Cam couldn't. Jack was adorable as always. He still performs for the camera and it so cute. A video of the game is on the bottom of this post.

BYU played Pepperdine and the game went quickly in favor of BYU so it was easy to just sit and play with Jack. It was fun to watch him take in all of the new things.

This picture really doesn't give the scene justice but the sunset coming out of the Marriott Center was just beautiful.

This is as we walked across the bridge and headed toward the new Alumni Building. BYU won the game 86-48. I was a little relfective that this season is in the sunset of the year. Silly I know but it has been a lot of fun to go to the games the last couple of years.

Oregon Coast--BYU vs University of Portland

This is a weekend that Rebecca has been looking forward to for quite awhile, enough so that she had a countdown on her on blog for it. It had two things she loves Oregon, and of course BYU Basketball.

Upon arrival we went and got our rental car and Kerry decided to find the place BYU would be playing so we weren't trying after dark to locate it and to know where to park. After we did that we headed to one of our favorite places to eat in Portland. Happy Garden.

We have never found a place that makes Szechuan Chicken like this place. We literally loved it!

After we checked into the Hotel in Newport we walked along the beach until it started to get dark and then decided to go and find a place where we could watch the sunset with theYaquina bridge in the forefront. It was beautiful to watch the sun go down from the other side of the bay.
Watching Kerry try to get the perfect shot is as much fun as it the view. Rebecca called him paparazzi all weekend long.

After the sunset we headed to Mo's our favorite place in Newport! Then to check out movie times but decided everything was to late for us as tired as we were, at least some of us!

After breakfast on Saturday we headed down to the beach by Otter Rock to check out the tide pools which was hard because the tide was in quite high. There was a lot of damage from winter storms along the cliffs again.

Rebecca couldn't resist making her mark for the Cougars!

This is the most water we have seen flowing down this cliff in a long time.

Paparazzi at it's best!!!!

What a cutie!!!!

Time to head back to Portland after stopping in Lincoln City Mo's for one last meal on the coast.

When we arrived at the game we realized how close the players were to where we walked in. We couldn't resist taking some pictures.

While taking some pictures of Reb right behind the bench she realized Greg Rubel (the voice of the Cougars) was also taking her picture. It appeared on a post of Twitter talking about how many BYU fans were there, at least double maybe even triple that of the Portland team. it was fun to see her in that post and for him to respond back to her.

This guy was hilarious as he came into the game, you would have believed that he was really blind. It is his way of expressing his displeasure for the refs in the WCC. We thought it was just people from BYU who felt that way.

Our seats were on the very top row but because the arena is so small, like a High School gym, they weren't bad. We were also in the middle of the aisle so we had clear vision and could stand up all we wanted. We were happy there were so many BYU people there, it was fun and so was the game.

oops, back to the beach, oh well.

Depoe Bay

Sunday before we flew out we went to Multnomah Falls and walked around and up to the bridge. It was freezing!!!! The wind was blowing in the Gorge so bad you could hardly stand up.

Horsetail Falls

Crown Point the wind wouldn't allow us to stand up at all.

Rebecca also wanted to walk around the Portland temple so we went. I had forgotten how beautiful this building was.

Time for one more trip to Happy Garden and then to the airport to head home. What a fun weekend but wow did it go fast!

Night Terrors

Mysterious noises in the night outside my home, even scared my dog! I have a feeling it's going to be a restless night.

Brian Boyd Gun.
Lauri Smith Stevenson For me it was lock and run!
Brian Boyd Call 911.
Rebecca Stevenson Mom... Can I come be with you?
Krista Davies Where's Kerry? Have someone stay with you tonight. And I like Brian's idea.
Lauri Smith Stevenson Kerry is in Honolulu. And I am fine, just may watch TV until I can't keep my eyes open,
Colleen Bradshaw Be safe Lauri. Like Brian said 911 if you hear anything else!
Lauri Smith Stevenson Thanks everyone.
Rebecca Stevenson I'm coming! My stubborn-ness beat yours! :)
Lauri Smith Stevenson You got that right...thanks kiddo.

The previous conversations took place on facebook last night. As it was approaching bedtime I let Quate out for the last time before I locked him up for the night. After he scratched at the door to tell me he was ready to come in I opened the door and heard a noise like re bar hitting the sidewalk on the side of the house. There were no lights on and my heart was racing very fast. I hurried and locked the door behind Quate and put him to bed. I turned all of the lights off and tried to see if I could see anything out of place from the windows. Still shaking I went upstairs and tried to calm down knowing it probably wasn't much of anything. I posted on facebook and Reb said she was coming home so I called her and told her not to, but she proved to bemore stubborn than I am and came anyway. I am glad she did because we were able to talk and catch up, she was my knight in shining armor, female style!!!

I found this on the bottom of the stairs this morning when I let Quate back in again. I went around the side of the house and inspected to see if anything was out of place. Nothing I could see.... I sent this picture to Kerry and he called to tell me that he had found that pipe in the garden and had placed it on the stairs by the sliding glass door last week and that Quate must have knocked it off the stairs as he was begging to come in. The sound sounded much further away but everything is much worse in the dark late at night. Kerry put the correction on todays version of my post, boy do I feel stupid and silly!!!

Rebecca thanks for being my hero even though it was super silly!