Beautiful Montana

Please choose the most beautifulRoad to the Sun
Avalance Lake
The Goat Lick
A waterfall that has a name that can not be remembered by Two Medicine

Artistic Montana

Please choose your favorite
Shades and Color by SKA

Avalance Falls in light and dark by RCA
Falls with Depth of Field and Framing by RCA

Happy Birthday to Krista... on Friday

Happy Birthday To...
The best aunt(okay, ONE of the best aunts) in the world
The girl who is fluent in Ghettology
The perfect baby of nine.
The computer whiz. Let me be more specific- the Myspace whiz.
The girl who remembers and can find anything. Tawna is lucky to have you.
The human with THE thickest hair.
The one who got that great dark skin.

Have a great day and an amazing time in Paris(you lucky son of a gun).
We Love you and Miss you.

Baby Contest

Please choose the cutest baby and post your choice on this blog. Please do not be intimidated by any particular mother. Just vote your conscience.

Tawna's Graduation

Sue shows off her beautiful new smile, Tawna can't believe the she really did it and Roger proudly displays his fanny pack or the other name that Laura and Jessica like. Please notice Sue's necklace which is a memento of our family reunion.
Krista was happy with Tawna too
Tawna makes her triumphal and dignified entrance.

Happy Birthday to Steven

Uncle Bryce

Playing Pick- We decided to take a one week break from Settlers

Krista helped the kids make Rice Krispie Treats. The rest of us had Mom's delicious apple crisp.

Tawna's failed attempt at dressing Blake in something presentable.


For Steven's birthday, we all got together at my house and had a break-the-fast dinner. It is SO nice having so many people home right now. As you all know, the Landon Allred family has been here for a couple weeks now. My kids are LOVING Aiden, and he thinks they are pretty great too( except when Kea throws boxes at his head. Sorry Aiden). It is so fun having them here. We've been swimming, to the temple and had some fabulous meals. I'll be sad when the summer ends. But, there's always Dallas...
And this weekend we got a bonus Allred in town. Bryce surprised us all yesterday afternoon. He is only 3 hours away and we've been wondering when he would make his way down. AFter seeing my kids with Bryce today, I want him to move here also. He has just the right amount of energy to wrestle with Davin and throw balls at Kea. Davin follows him around and went to Mom and Dad's to sleep tonight because he wanted to be with Bryce.
It's been a great day- great year really. So, when are the rest of you coming for a visit????

The Seminary Graduates

Both Tawna and Kory Petersen were happy to receive their Seminary Graduation diplomas. It was a good day for the parents also.
I have no pictorial proof yet, but Landon, Sarah and Aiden are with us. We are having a great time!

Spring in the Sequoias

As is our pattern, Dad and I chose inclement weather for our trip to Sequoia. Some of the walks reminded me of when we went to see Sequoias during Thanksgiving 18 months ago, but we had a warm place to stay and no small children to worry about. When we arrived, it was snowing slightly, so we hurried to our hotel in case they started requiring chains. We were at 7,000 feet and it was great. The hotel is nice and was full (102 rooms). Most of the people didn't have children with them. I liked thinking they were all anxious to get back to the mountains. We saw waterfalls and moss that we have never seen in the summer in Sequoia. The high was predicted to be 50 and sunny, it was about 37 and foggy and wet.
We walked over 3 miles on this, the Congress Trail. Dad was able to go up the steps so we were very happy. These steps are on the way to the General Sherman tree.
I like Dad in this picture of him surrounded by a fallen Sequoia. To me, they both look very strong. Because the tree has turned grey with age, it looks petrified, so it appears that it will last forever.

Dad relaxing by Tharp's log house. Can you imagine spending 30 summers here? It would be beautiful.
We had a wonderful, relaxing weekend together. We enjoyed being together with the cell phones not working. We are greatful for T and K making good decisions and Laura and Brian being there for back-up.

Read the post below before this one.

Sue welcomes you to Mr. Tharp's log. He is dead now so it's OK.The sign says "Cresent Meadow The Gem of the Sierras John Muir." Cresent Meadow was beautiful but the gem of the Sierras on this day was my sweet and thoughtful wife.

Birthday Bash Blog

This is the Birthday present extravaganza from your mom. It included Cherry Mountain candy bars, SMALL tube of Pringles (my salt indulgence), trail mix, black cherry soda, cheese & crackers and more candy. I was thrilled. Then I read the card that said your mom had made reservations for us at the Wuksachi Lodge in Sequoia!!! What a wonderful present!!!

This is the view on the front of our hotel. My favorite view is the one in red & white.
I had filet mignon and a your mom ate a little duckie that night. We ate here for breakfast and after our hike too. It was goooooooooooooooood.
This is your mom and the General Sherman tree in the background.
Enlarge this one to see the beautiful creek as a backdrop for the beautiful woman. This was on our 3 mile hike of the Congress Trail. It was awesome.

See the next blog for the last two pictures.

weekend

So....this last week has been just about one of the best weeks of my life, minus finals. Which when half well and half not well, but we'll see when I get the total grades. On thurs I went to the aquarium in slc with friends I hadn't seen, and fri. was the good day, I picked heather up at 7 am, we were together until 2 am. She is nobody special, but we do have a lot in common and I loved being with her. We drove above sundance and went on a 10 mile bike ride through the mountains to 'stewart falls,' which was quite impressive. after the falls we were descending, and my bike doesn't always want to stop as quickly as hers (she has an $800 Gary Fisher) and so I kinda flew off the side of the mountain, she said that I did a flip in the air, I don't remember, but I ahve some nice scars on my leg as a resultAs a result of wanting to take a new trail out, we had to bike up hill 2 miles of extremely sloped mountainside, and then she decided that we were going in the wrong direction, so we turned around and coasted down (lots of fun) and then she decided that it was right, and since we were not going to bike back up, I hitch hiked. We got home mid afternoon, went swimming, made dinner, went out to ice cream, and then were invited to go to the hot springs in spanish fork, so we went and had a marvelous time until 2. Saturday I had a wedding in the morning, which was beautiful, and then again at night, followed by a drive to bako from 8pm to 5 am. We also had a lot of partying as an 'everyone is leaving' last bash. Now I am in modesto with 2 new roommates, the job is coming along well, it is much much easier than last year, I will make more money, so I am thrilled. My roommates are less active professional halo players (going to competitions and what not), but we get along surprisingly well.
friends eating out at the endof the year


part of the falls, we didn't get the whole shot
that is heather
hot springs with about 10 ppl from the ward
bride and groom both have closed eyes, I know him from fresh year, and she and I have become close since they got together

The Great American Clean-up

This is evidence that most members of the Allred household participated in the clean-up effort on Saturday morning. I will let you guess as to what the missing girl was doing.

Happy Birthday

This is a picture of your mom at her birthday celebration. She (with a help from Laura) made this trifle cake. I offered to get Hostess Ding Dongs - Rejected.

I gave her scriptures and a new watch. I put her name in gold on the scriptures. She will keep them. The watch goes back.

Krista's Concert

This is a picture of a BHS Chorus concert. You will notice Jessica Ellsworth doing a solo, with Krista as a back-up singer. It's like Jessica is Diana Ross and Krista is one of the Supremes.

Thank You Sarah and Landon

Thank you, Sarah and Landon, for the great t-shirt for Piko's birthday! We love it, we all startted laughing. She wore it for most of the evening. She actually looks better in it, it covers her nasty hair.

The birthday girl gets ready to blow out the candles to the delight of the guests.
Davin and Blake are appropriately festive.
Kea and the guest of honor share a moment on Piko's birthday, April 15th.
Laura baked a cake (she acted like she didn't know it was Piko's birthday) and Landon said that Sarah sent a gift.
We sang happy birthday, the kids helped Piko blow out the candle ( she didn't like the fire thing), we ate cake and Piko had a MilkBone. A good time was had by all.

Question #4

Do you feel that you have much impact on the lives of people you come in contact with, excluding family? Who, if anyone, significantly influenced your life?

Question #3

If you could change ONE THING about your life, what would it be?

Question #2

If you could take a one month vacation anywhere in the world and money was not a consideration, where would you go and what would you do?

Question #1

Every time I call up our blog, Bryce's blue and white face startles me. I am going to fix that now.

I have heard, "Small minds talk about people, good minds talk about events, but great minds talk about ideas." I know that all of you have great minds. I also know that we are not together enough to enjoy the chance to talk, and even when we are there is always a baby to take care of (like Piko). I would like to hear what you think. So, I am going to post a question/task each week for your response. Anyone is invited to participate, even son-in-laws! I will also participate later in the week.

Describe the three year period that you experienced the the most personal growth and change, since adolescence.