Dear Friends,

Thank you so much for taking the time to get to know us. We understand that you and your family are going through a difficult time and we pray that you will be comforted and will have peace in your heart. We would like to start off with how we met... Breanna was working for a bank at the time of us meeting. Joe walked in with a friend. While we were chatting, Joe's friend cut in and asked Breanna out on a date for Joe. Apparently, Joe was taking to long to ask her out so his friend did it for him. YES! We know what you are thinking, "Why in the world would Breanna even consider going on a date with him if he couldn't ask her himself?" Well, we will let Joe answer that... To be fair, my friend jumped the gun. I was getting to it. Breanna didn't even answer right away, she made me stand in the corner of the bank while she finished helping the customers. Once she was finished with her work for a bit, she basically interviewed me, like I was applying for a job or something. Brea, do you remember the first question you asked me? Yes, I do! I asked you how old you were and then asked if you had been on a mission. When you said yes, I was sold. Oh and to be fair about the "JOB INTERVIEW", you were applying for a job. You were APPLYING to date me! During our first date we discoverd that Breanna had gone to school with Joe's cousin, which makes family gatherings fun. It is always nice when you have friends that become family. After dating a few months, we were married in the Manti, Utah Temple in August of 2000. We always knew that we wanted to start a family, but after trying to get pregnant, we realized that having a family was not going to happen the traditional way, so we began looking at our options and adoption was at the top of the list. Even though our children may not be ours biologically, we will love them just the same. We know that we are extremly blessed to get the opporunity to have a family no matter how it is created. We know this to be true because we have other adopted children in our extended families. Breanna's sister's oldest daughter was adopted. We all love her just the same as we do the other kids who were not adopted. Breanna comes from a family of three siblings, one brother who she is close to. He is fun and outgoing. She has one sister who is a bit younger, but they are still close. She has a fun and outgoing personality. Breanna also has two parents who love their children and would do anything for them. They support them in all they do. They are all very close and participate in many family activities, such as camping, fishing, and weekly family dinners. Breanna has two nieces and three nephews whom she loves to death. Joe comes from a family of seven siblings (one sister and six brothers). Even though there is only one girl, they still like to wrestle around and tease each other. His sister can hold her own. On this side of the family there are five nieces and three nephews. Joe is really close to his brothers, sister and parents. When the family is all together, there is sure to be lots of energy and fun. Joe served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the Knoxville, TN mission. Joe loves karate and anything that goes with it. He has a black belt in Kishindo which is a Japanese style of karate. Joe loves collecting guns, swords and knives. He likes to go camping, hiking, 4-wheeling and just spending time with family and friends. Joe is also really good at remodling homes. There is always a project going on at our house that keeps him busy. Joe also works construction which is where he gets some of his ideas. Breanna loves, and I do mean loves NASCAR and Dale Earnhardt Jr. She likes gymnastics and cheerleading especially the University of Utah. She loves doing crafts, but mostly enjoys scrapbooking. Breanna loves to go 4-wheeling with the family, fishing, camping, and hiking. She also loves to go on long drives up the canyon to see the pretty scenery. Breanna has her Accounting Degree, but loves the tax side of accounting the most. In fact so much so that she works very limited hours during the tax season. She is commited to being a stay at home mom once we become parents. Our hopes and dreams for our children are that we can teach them to be honest in their dealings with others. We want them to get an education. We feel that it is important that they experience family vacations, camping and sports. We want them to succeed in whatever their hopes and dreams are. It is very important to us that our children always know that they are adopted. We will tell them stories about their adoption and our experience. We want them to always know where they come from. Adoption is a very open topic in our home and with our family and we want it to stay that way. We are wanting to keep our options open for pictures, letters, emails and possible visits in the future. We will always have a blog set up that will be centered around our family and different activities. Again, our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family at this time. We hope you will find peace in your decision, whatever that might be. Best Wishes, Joe and Breanna

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Moab, Utah 2011 Day 1: 08/19/2011

We left early Friday morning and headed to Moab. It took us about 3 hours to get to our camp spot (Kings Bottom).
While setting up our tent, we realized that the Colorado River was right behind our campsite. It's so cool, except I wish it were a creek. You see, I love to hear the water rushing down the creek over the rocks. The river has been so quiet except when a  tour boat goes rushing down it, then the water sounds like the ocean beating against the shore from the wake of the boat.
Now the crickets on the other hand, they are supper loud and remind me of our trip back east last year. Its not just a chirp chirp sound, it's a constant whistle of sorts, but I love it. It is one of the things I grew to love on our 15 day road trip. I have missed that sound.

1st Tourist Stop:
Pizza Hut for lunch after we got our camp set up.

2nd Stop:
Monitor and Merrimac Viewpoint
Not much here except a lookout point you can walk to, to look at the rock formations and cliffs.

Stop 3:
Dead Horse Point


We could not figure out how they came up with that name and we still are not sure except that the main attraction is where the Colorado River forms a horse shoe shape. So cool and a breath taking view. Also at this destination you could see rock formations and cliffs for miles, but another cool thing you could see was some awesome blue water. From what we were told, its some sort of settling pond that they collect some sort of chemical to use as fertilizer. Not sure if this is true or not, but whatever it is meant for, it is still a cool view from a top a cliff.

4th and Final Destination: (Most entertaining part of the story)
Back to camp to cook dinner and relax.
Before going on this trip, we went grocery shopping for the food we would be taking. I even made out a menu...
Well this morning, I went out to water our garden before leaving and left Joe to putting food in the cooler and grabbing other odds and ends we needed...

1st Mistake:
I left Joe to pack

2nd Mistake:
I didn't double check. I was just so excited that I did not have to pack it all this time.


We knew we had forgotten the milk so while in town, we were able to get that.

Fast forward to us getting ready to cook dinner...on the menu: Tinfoil Dinners!
Joe looks at me and asks "Did you bring the potatoes?" I said, "No, I thought you grabbed them". So since we didn't have the potatoes and we did not want to run back into town, we decided to have hot dogs.
We would have to grab the potatoes the next day.
Well, there is more to this story...
Joe decides that he wants corn for dinner as well, so he BBQ's it and when he went looking for the butter, there was no butter either...no harm done on this one, except that for breakfast the next morning, we were planning on bacon, eggs and potatoes.
So again, we switched our menu around and we had sausage gravy instead.
So much for the menu planning right!?! Oh well! I am just grateful that for once I didn't have to pack everything and the car by myself this time, so my reaction was to laugh at the situation instead of getting mad. Lesson learned...I will double check the coolers next time...LOL
On day two's agenda... Arches national park and shopping.
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1 comment:

  1. AnonymousSeptember 7, 2011 at 11:30 AM

    Looks like fun even if the menu didn't work out. You kids know how to have fun. Makes me jealous. I will do it again one day when my kids get a little older and can hike on their own for a short ways. Keep enjoying each other and the time you spend together.
    Love ya Aunt Teresa

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