Sometimes interesting...or maybe not at all.

For lack of better things to write about, I must write about the weather. Whether (get it!) you know someone well enough to share your deepest secrets or you have just barely met them, the topic of weather is always available. There are sunny days, rainy days, windy days, snowy days and sometimes all of those combined days. It is a good topic for starting a conversations or even discussing the whys and reasons for not getting something done.

But here in St. George the weather is normally predictable and therefore a boring topic for conversation. Infact, the number one reason for moving to St. George is weather, and as boring of a topic as it might be, St. George is a great place to live. There is lots to do and plenty of things to see. Because the weather is sunny and normally warm during the winter, there are always outside adventures to go on. There are bicycle trails, hiking trails in Snow Canyon and Zions, running trails, ATV's and rock climbing.

However, yesterday and today have been quite different. Yesterday it rained and not just a little...It poured. Last night the wind was blowing and a storm rolled in. It has been snowing all afternoon. It is not sticking that much but it is still snowing. In a way, apart from the disruption from the norm and I am sure it will be the topic of discussion around all the elderly in the community, it is refreshing and nice. Sometime we miss the change of seasons...until I think about shoveling the walk and defrosting the everytime I stop to go somewhere.

For the lack of a better topic, here are some pictures of the weather and the views from the house we live in. We love it.

The story behind our cats and some reasons for having them.

We don't want to be thought of as nasty cat people because we post pictures of our cats on our blog. However, we do have cats. Furthermore, we don't have kids, so we kind of think of our cats as our kids. The reason being is that having cats is enough responsibility for us right now. And since kids are kind of out of the question right now for us and because everyone else puts their kids on their blogs, we thought we needed to put some of our kids on too.
Because it has been a while since we have posted anything about them we thought it was time. For those of you who don't see us all the time, we have two cats. Roger and Fiona. We got Roger almost a year ago as a kitten (he is the one in the box.), and we got Fiona a few months later when we decided that Roger needed a friend when we were not at home. Roger is a definite boy. He really loves women. In fact, he only purrs when a girl holds him, especially Laura. On the contrary, if a man picks him up he begins to growl and will swat them on the face. Naughty. He is really fun, loves to play and get into things he is not supposed to. Fiona on the other hand seems to be quite the opposite. She is a tiny and petite, loves to talk and whimper when she wants attention. She doesn't really like to be held but will purr when you get close to her. She loves to play with things that dangle or little pieces of paper. At times we think she might be down syndrome because she hits her head on things all the time and falls down the stairs. She gives out a little whimper when she does anything stupid. Together, Roger and Fiona have a blast. They chase each other all the time, swat at one another, sleep together, give each other baths, hide and jump out when the other is not expecting it and, if you can believe it, they even make out. We aren't just meaning a little smoochy smoochy, but more like french kissy, "I want to jump your bones and break the commandments" lovin. Its really fun to watch and we really enjoy having them. We know most people prefer dogs, and we still like dogs, but for us and for right now, we like cats.
Here are 10 good reasons for having cats:

1. They might love you back. Then again they might not...still, its a thrill of a challenge.

2. They are warm. If you are lucky enough to share your lap with a cat (or in our case your whole body especially with Roger) , you will find out that they make a nice warm pet. We use ours as a heating pad. It's great. We just put them where We want warmth. Of course, if you move around, this does not work and you might find yourself full of holes. Also, beware the cat who likes to knead or paw a place before resting. That can be painful. None of mine do this, thank goodness. Ow.

3. They catch mice. OK, some cats do. It's what they do with the mice afterwards that is most important. The cat that leaves the whole mice mess on the floor is a loser. The cat that eats the whole thing is a winner and usually a heck of a good hunter. The cat that just wounds mice and lets them go needs to be put out. The cat that leaves little mice tails and feet behind needs to be a bit hungrier before hunting mice. Yuck.

4. They eat leftovers. OK, mine do. Eggs, tuna, cake, pie, quiche, bacon, sausage, vegetables, lasagna, pizza...mine will devour. We don't really like that, but its cute at times. We do feed them cat food, they just like leftovers for dessert.

5. They come when they are called. And, if they don't, opening a can is sure fire way to get them to your side quickly or just say "kitty treat"! They even come every time we use the microwave, open the pantry or cuboards.

6. They are affectionate. If they aren't, sprinkle some catnip around. They become very loving. Warning, some cats go crazy when exposed to catnip. Be cautious!

7. They are curious. OK, some are just plain nosy. Still, they care. They show it. Ours like to play a game called "what's in the bag and/or box" and can go in and out of a bag for hours. If something is actually in the bag, this game may last for days. Do not try putting your hand in the bag while they are in it. You may require stitches afterwards. Never pick up the bag with the cat in it! I warned you. And if you don't like being scratched, declaw them like ours. But only do it if they are little kittens.

8. They love to sleep. Watching them sleep makes me want to sleep. OK, it relaxes me. Yes, it makes me lazy. Still, they always have something to do. Sleep. Shhh.

9. They like adventure. You may wake up and find them on your head, face, under your chin, in your aquarium or on the table. You never know. Then again, they might not move for days. Cats are a mystery. I have not figured mine out yet.

10. They purr. This is a great noise. I love it and sometimes, I can hear the purr clear across the room. That is one happy cat. They make you smile. You have to. It makes up for all of the darn hair that they shed everywhere.

All Aboard! Wood Family Cruise

Here we are ready to go! It snowed the night be left. We took the red eye to Ft. Lauderdale...not recommended...as you see some of us were tired waiting to get on the ship. We are so excited!

Day #1 - Key West

Our first day was spent at Key West. We went snorkeling out on the reefs and then afterwards Sam set up the slackline between the docks. No one make it across completely. Sam make it the farthest.

Day #2 Cozumel Mexico

Day #2 = Cozumel! We had a blast at the Tulum Ruins. I was fun to walk around all the old buildings. Afterwards we spent a little time on the beach while Sam set up the slackline. It was hot and tiring...but really interesting.

Nap time

After our long day in Cozumel some took a nap on the bus ride back to the docks! These are some just pictures that make us laugh.

Grand Cayman Day #3

Day #3= Grand Cayman. This was suppose to be our funnest day of the trip..We thought anyway. We were supposed to play with the sting rays and walk around the town. Well that didn't happen. Early in the morning we were informed that a storm was rolling in and we had to be back on the boat after only being on the island for a couple of hours. Because we had to tender to the island the process was going to take a while. Since most of the family did not want to spend time waiting in line they decided to stay on the ship while Saun, Wes, Laura and I decided they wanted to go to the Island anyway even though they knew they could not see the sting rays. Unfortunately for us, the storm rolled in earlier then expected. We ended up going going to seven mile beach and playing in the water which was really fun. The most exciting part came when we headed back to the ship and ended up waiting in line for five hours because the tender boats couldn't make it back to the ship. The ocean was too rough and some of the people got stuck in the little crammed tender boats for almost two hours. Eventually they decided that they were going to have to bus everyone to the other side of the island. So we all got on buses and met the cruise ship on the other side where we finally made it back to the ship.
Since we knew the rest of family was going to make fun of us for getting off of the ship in the first place we made up that we got to swim with dolphins and pet the little turtles. It was pretty funny. We kept the joke going until the last day. They were asking too many questions and none of our stories were the same so they eventually caught on.
Well the weather never got better and we ended up not even stopping in Jamaica so in the end we were glad that we got off the ship in Grand Cayman because otherwise were would have spent over 3 days straight on the ship.

Dinner on the Ship!!!

As most of you know eating is an hourly occurance. These pictures were taken on different nights throughout our cruise...we are not sure which nights they fall on. As you might have notice one night was New Years Eve and we had a really good time. We hung out with all the drunks, danced and just played around the ship. It was a good time.



Bryan never gets kanker sores, but for some reason on this vacation he got a kanker. All we heard at dinner was how bad it hurt. I made him put salt on it because it is suppose to make it go away...you know one of those things that makes it hurt worse so when you wash the salt off you think it doesn't hurt as bad....lol. Jokes on you honey!!!
Anyway eating was a lot of fun. The dinners were really good. The buffets, though a little bland and very pretty, were ok too.

Christmas Day!!!

The big day finally came and now it is gone. Although Christmas is always something to look forward to it feels good to have it over. On Christmas morning we did the usual wake up early and open really nice gifts that our parents got for us. Then we had a good breakfast. We had a good time but it was time to go since we had to be back in St George for work. We had a 9 hour drive ahead of us. So we packed up and headed home. This is were it got interesting. As most of you know we don't have the best of luck. We just past Filmore and were listening to Dan Brown's "Angels and Demons" when we realized that we needed to stop to get gas or we would not make it to Beaver. So we pulled off of the exit and filled the tank. As Bryan was getting in the car he noticed that the back driver side tire was low. We drove over to the air to fill it up. We pulled up behind a van who was also filling his tires. Apparently he didn't notice anyone behind him and backed right into our car. When he realized what he had done he jump out and yelled at us to turn our lights on...but they were on the entire time. He felt stupid and drove off. Luckily our car only had some small scratches. Well we pulled up to the air and we filled the tire only to hear a loud hissing sound. The tire had a pretty bad leak. So here are the pictures of us changing the tire at the Chevron in Cove Fort. It was below 8 degrees and the wind was blowing. Its just our luck to have a flat tire and get backed into at the same time as well as have it be freezing cold. Just to recap I posted the pictures of our lucky day before we left on this trip. We left for Twin Falls on Thursday night and it started to blizzard between Beaver and Cedar City. It was so bad we couldn't even see the cars in front of us. We pulled of to get a Hotel but heard that the storm was supposed to last into the next day so we turned around and canceled our trip. It took us over seven hours to get back to St. George. Furthermore the night before, I already posted it but as another example of our luck I thought I would repost it, someone turkeyed my car. It didn't get egged it got Turkeyed!!! Well anyway...we are greatful that we made it home safely and that although trying nothing terrible happened. Thanks to everyone who made this a good Christmas. We are leaving on a cruise to the Carribean this week. We are so excited.

Christmas Eve!!

Christmas Eve was spent at Russ and Diane's with the whole family. We watched TV and of course played more guitar hero, put together gingerbread houses and ate. It was fun just to hang out and do stuff together. Here are some pictures of the gingerbread contest.

Christmas Eve!!!

Christmas Eve Day!!

On sunday we went to Boise to visit the Grandparents. It was good to see them since we haven't seen them since the wedding. We ate at Cheesecake Factory while there and the only reason we are letting you know this is because if you haven't had the limoncello torte you have to try it next time you go...it is better then any of their cheesecakes. Anyway on Monday we spent the morning at my moms house in Burley. She moved into a new place and it is nice. We were opened presents and played Guitar Hero. We think we are addicted now.