A new Tradition in the making!

Jason's dad's birthday is the 27th of November. We crashed his Turkey day in '07 and only felt like it was necessary to crash this years since we would be able to be up there for his dad's birthday too! We set off for New Harmony, Utah as soon as Jason and I were off work on Wednesday. We wanted to be on the road by noon, but didn't get going til about 4ish. We stopped to fill up on gas, and get some snacks. We made it to St George at about 6ish and I wanted Cracker Barrel! So of course we stopped cause Jason can't pass up good down home cookin'! I think he only likes going there to play with the toys.


We arrived at New Harmony and was so excited to spend the next day with his dad. We got him Dancing with the stars for the Wii for his birthday, and we all had a hoot trying to learn it! I was of course fantastic! It must be my amazing dance body that lets me be so flexible. HA HA HA right. The Graf men dance. It's quite awesome how great they are. =)


The weather there always has something to report. I loved how cold it was, but I loved bundling up and snuggling with Jason the most! We decided to leave earlier than planned cause the weather was making a pretty good layer of ice on the roads. After living in Missouri for 3 years and being the only to make it to seminary in the winter (thanks to the Bronco), I didn't want to drive home on icy highways, so we left early. We said our goodbyes and as we stepped out the back door, the backyard, mountains and sky were incredibly beautiful! You can usually see the mountain they call The Hand of God as you are leaving their house, but there were so many clouds so low to the ground that you could hardly see the mountains! It made me want to grab a blanket, a mug of hot chocolate and snuggle with Jason on the back porch for the rest of the day. I was so sad to leave Jason's dads after a great day and beautiful weather. We obviously arrived home safely and on our ride home, we made a decision that Turkey Day every year we will be going to New Harmony.

Canada Eh?

Getting married on February 29th was not a surprise to anyone that knows us. Going to Canada for our Honeymoon was no surprise either. We were wanting to learn to snowboard so we could go snowboarding in the great white north, but after a mishap on our first trial run, we decided we'd hold off til the following year. Though we missed out on snowboarding, Banff, Calgary, Alberta, Canada still had a lot to offer us.

We flew from Vegas to SLC to Calgary. What a welcome we got! Customs was very happy to have us there. The rental car company was a little bit of a joke. The gal helping us told us that she couldn't use our debit card. After she insisted we pay with our credit card, Jess asked her to just run the card as a credit (not as debit) and if it still didn't work, then we would happily pay with our credit card. She was amazed when it worked! We got our little "dingo" and were on our way to Canmore.
Canmore use to be an old mining town back in the day. Now that the mine has closed and due to it's location, it has become quite the tourist town. It's located just south of Banff. It is a great location for honeymooners. Close to almost everything!

We stayed at the Falcon Crest Lodge. Though Jess would describe it as friendly and home like, Jason describes it as Mary Poppin's-esk. Everyday we walked past the reservations desk/check-in, they always asked, "How are Mr and Mrs Graf today?" It wasn't rhetorical either, they really seemed to care how we were doing! HOW AWESOME! We had our own little kitchen, living area and balcony that had a BBQ! Not to mention 2 hot tubs that were accessible that you could hang out in at the end of the day and look at all the beautiful stars. Jess was really hoping to see the Aurora Borealis, but even in the little town of Canmore, it was too bright and not the right season. The hotel package we got included tickets to a few different activities in the Banff area. There was...

The Banff Gondola - You take a ride in a little carriage like thing to the top of the world... it was a peak of one of the beautiful mountains, but you could see over other mountains so to usit seemed like thetop of the world. It was absolutely beautiful, and cold. Once we exited the gondola, we saw a thermometer that read -5 degrees celsius. YIKES!!! That's roughly 30 degrees fahrenheit. Then we hiked about 2 miles to the meteor observation site. It was totally worth every step.

Banff Hot Springs was a great place for us to relax one of the last days we were there. Much to Jess' surprise, it didn't smell like rotten eggs. We were told that Banff is famous for it's hot springs. This particular spring has been there since th 20's. They even had 1920 style bathing suits to rent, should you want the whole experience. We enjoyed the nice dip.

There is a little theatre house that we spent one night at on a date. They had the play Snoopy going. Though the show was cute, the food was GREAT!!!