Full is Right.

On my mom's side of the family, everyone was in for the holiday at some point during the span of 4 days. We celebrated new lives given to Christ, new friends, new adventures, and being together. We also made something like 5 trips to Wal-Mart. I wish I were kidding.

Thankful for home.

Thankful for my grandparents' home and table.

Thankful for Grannie's dressing and
that man helping himself (my daddy!)

Thankful for my mother, and that I
didn't have to put the ice in the glasses.
(Seriously, my least favorite chore ever.)

Thankful for family.
{Grannie, Aunt Sheri, Pop, and Mom}

Thankful for my super husband. I am a blessed girl.

Public Service Announcement

{From Etsy seller 3LambsGraphcs}Their stuff is cool.

He Makes the Impossible Possible.

I lost my engagement ring and
wedding ring this past week.

Thinking about it makes me want to throw up even now.

We were at a park having some family pictures made. We set up for a tossed leaf picture, and on three, we threw the leaves up in the air. As soon as we were done, I looked at my left hand which no longer had rings on it and said to my husband, the man who gave me these rings, "MY RINGS ARE NOT ON MY HAND. I HAVE LOST MY RINGS."

I am convinced that those must be the most feared words for any man who has worked and saved to buy his fair lady a beautiful, shiny diamond.

Immediately he told me, "DON'T MOVE."

I froze like a statue while he and our wonderfully talented photographer began canvassing the area that was covered in leaves and grass. Feeling dumb for not helping, I finally marked my spot with my scarf and tried to search between pleas like, "Lord, help us" and "I'm so sorry."

Within 5 minutes we had retraced my steps, and Brad found my engagement ring. SWEET RELIEF. Praising God for that HUGE MIRACLE, we set about looking for my wedding band. The sun was setting, and after a while we were unable to look any more. The "Citizens on Patrol" car in the burb we live in came rolling through the park, asking what we'd lost. He mentioned that he had metal detector, but it was too late for him to come back that night.

After a long night of me sobbing over my sweet little wedding band, that patient, kind, and wonderful man of mine went back to the park at first light with a flashlight. The thought of him out searching makes my heart melt even now.

Unfortunately, he did not find it.

A few hours later, our citizen on patrol and his wife met Brad back out at the park with metal detectors. After two more hours of searching, the wife glanced down and saw the sun bounce off of something in the grass. What was lost was absolutely found. If you saw this park and the ground they were searching, you would understand that what I am talking about is an absolute miracle.

I am absolutely convinced that God cares about even our small things. This was a moment--a tangible reminder to me--that He is GOOD and faithful in all things, whether the answer is yes or no. Praise His Name.

(P.S. My rings were insured for loss, but who wants replacement rings?)
(P.P.S. I love how our pictures turned out. Check them on Facebook.)

OH NO I DIDN'T

Oh yes, I did.

At the theater at
7:45 PM last night
for a showing of New Moon
that began @ midnight
and was over at 2:30 AM.

I am tired.

Everything but Bella
was much improved,
and I enjoyed the movie
about my least fave book
of the series.



Edward is nice, but
I'm 100% Team Brad.

The Great Outdoors

I seriously could go on and on about Salt Lake City, but it's time to move on. I'm currently typing this on 2.5 hours of sleep (more on that later) so if my humor (if there is any) is lost on you, I apologize in advance.

On Friday the 13th, we embarked on a camping adventure with a bunch of friends. I told no less than 20 people the week prior that we were camping in Weatherford to which each responded, "I didn't know there was a place to camp in Weatherford." Well, clearly I did not make our reservation since it was in Mineral Wells. I had no idea where we were going other than somewhere west of where I live where there are no solid roofs or fluffy mattresses and down comforters. Instead, there are spiders and dirt.

I watched Brad set up the tent. Good job honey!
(He's an Eagle Scout. He certainly doesn't need my help, right?)

Grand theft pictorial: this came from Ashley's blog.
If someone knows where that long hair came from, let me know.

Ashley and Brad were on a quest to drink two gallons of sweet tea.
That equals 1 gallon per person. You're welcome.

They have rock climbing and all sorts of cool stuff out at Mineral Wells. After our
campsite was invaded by Boy Scouts on Saturday, those of us remaining left to explore.

The Laramores win the prize for travelling the farthest to camp.
Oklahoma OK!

The Gentry Family and sedimentary rock.

Overlooking the lake

Caroline by the cave

SLC Public Library

Public libraries have been on my brain lately. A library is so cool. Seriously. For all the taxes we pay, it's so nice to go and have all these free fabulous books to check out and read. Be a fan of your public library!

While our own local library system is wonderful, the facilities are not quite so fab, so I nearly died when I read up and subsequently visited the Salt Lake City Central Public Library.

It had me at the the bike rack. How cool is that?

READ BOOKS.

The inside

Bookshelves to the left, study/reading areas to the right. Amazing.
On the first floor, there is a Friends of the Library store (selling old library books and other fun literary paraphernalia), a coffee shop, and an art gallery.

The right wall slants inward, and the architecture is beautiful, although this pic doesn't do it justice. It's 5 or 6 floors. More details found here.

And up top, a rooftop garden.

Wow.



All my faves are there.

Fort Worth, I want this library.

Hiking Adam's Canyon

On my last day in Utah, my dear husband suggested we go hiking. Let me first say, "Hi, my name is Emily. I do not hike, and I do not like dirt. I prefer leisurely strolling in climate controlled shopping centers." But I knew it would make him so happy because, like most boys, he's into that kinda stuff, so I threw my hat in the ring for Wife of the Year.

He had done his research and decided that Adam's Canyon would be our destination for the day. After stopping by Del Taco for some jalapeno rings (YUM-O) and a gas station run for bottled water, we parked the car and got out for what was described to me as a "moderate hike."

At the trailhead, the path was immediately a steep incline. We could still see the neighborhood where our car was parked when I started asking, "how much further?"

After 3/4 a mile, it levelled out a bit, and we stopped so I could take a few pics. Of course, our stop had nothing to do with the fact that I was completely winded. Some senior citizens came by and pretty much made fun of us for resting so soon. After that, we saw some people trail running, so we decided that clearly we had not adjusted to the altitude and that must be why we were having such a tough time. My pics from there were worth the humiliation. Gorgeous!

Anyway, onward and upward. Finally the path took us back into the wooded area and up the side of the mountain. The sights and foliage were amazing. I tried to limit how many times I asked, "how much further?" unsuccessfully. Everyone we passed on the trail would say it was only 15 more minutes to the end.

Finally, I had reached my limit. I was actually scared to go any further. There was some climbing involved, and I'm not that graceful, nor can I pull myself up, and I was convinced I would fall off the ledge and die. So my knight-in-shining-armor did exactly what you would expect him to do: he left me right there, by myself, in the Utah Wilderness.

[insert huge fit right here]

I calmed down after about 15 minutes when I saw a little girl around 10 come hopping down the wall that I refused to climb, one-handed. ONE-HANDED. At that point I was all, "I will show Mr. Gentry who can climb a mountain!" And y'all, I climbed right on up, rounded a corner to find another huge ledge, got scared again but kept right on going. I even surprised my man who met me as he was coming back from the end.

He turned around with me, and we went back to discover a beautiful waterfall that trickled all the way down through Adam's Canyon. Here are some pics from the end.

Just call me nature girl.

Park City and the Olympic Training Center

The next day we slept in and got a late morning start up to Park City, only 25 minutes outside of SLC and home to the Olympic Training Center.

Since we were starving, we started out our visit with lunch along Main St. and some shopping. This is the perfect little mountain ski resort town. Loved it and would love to go back!

After we finished up some shopping there, we headed onto the Olympic Training Center, the site of the 2002 Winter Olympic bobsled, luge, skeleton, and nordic events. It was insane. It costs $4000 a day to keep the bobsled track iced. While we were there, they were taking test sleds down. Piloting this one was Pat Brown (the guy John Candy played in Cool Runnings.)

Wave, everyone!
Here you can see the giant Nordic hill. The nets and such are there because they were converting from summer training to winter.

Note the Olympic logo on the landing spot.
Here we are at the top of the Nordic hill. Note now that you can't even see that Olympic logo because the hill is that steep.

Nordic, no thank you.
At the top of the nordic jump.
Athletes only, of course.


This was one of the coolest sports venue tours I've ever taken. It has me seriously begging Mr. G to take me to Vancouver 2010, but I'm mostly interested in the ice skating, of course!

We Did the Mash.

Not too many days before Halloween, we decided to throw a party.

Word to the wise: do not forget what you are doing and scratch your eye while de-seeding 30 jalapenos. You will be left very sad and thinking bad thoughts about yourself. At the end of the night, the Pioneer Woman jalapeno cream cheese things had vanished so it was worth it. I think. We also dined on hot dogs, frito pie, and cupcakes by Ashley Cooks Cakes!

I must give a HUGE shout out to my husband. I knew when I demanded ardently requested party lights be strung on the patio, it would be quite a task, but he did it with minimal grumbling. He's the best!

Many hours later, after my hair had been placed in very small sponge rollers, the first guests began to arrive. Flappers, Mr. Potato Head, a mad scientist, a 50s Girl, Adam Lambert, Captain Jack Sparrow, Dorothy, a vampire/worker, Things 1 & 2, and even the very famous Rubix cube. There were so many creative costumes--I know I'm forgetting someone--so sorry! Oh yes...Super Mario and Princess Toadstool, of course.

The Ladies!

The Gentlemen!

And Dorothy!

Temple Square and Good Eatin'

After arriving in SLC, I spent a few days exploring the city. That's code for shopping. A list of fun stores to come.

A few days later, I picked up Ashley and Chris from the airport. Delighted to have some people to spend the day with, we headed downtown for a delicious patio lunch at Gourmandise, which had some amazing desserts.

After settling them in to their hotel, Brad finished up work for the day, and we headed back downtown for some SLC nightlife which might be an oxymoron. For dinner, we had pizza at Stoneground, a restaurant set atop an old record store off of 400 S. You can see the mountains in the background--absolutely beautiful view.

I was delighted to find out that Thursday nights are open rehearsals for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Although you must be LDS to enter the Temple, the general public is welcome into the Tabernacle. The sound was absolutely beautiful, and the acoustics were a marvel for a building built so long ago. The choir geeks among us were loving it.

After that, we wandered around Temple Square. I don't know why, but it seemed haunted to me. See below and you be the judge.

Only Treats, No Tricks.

Hope you had lots of treats too.

I would like to title this picture "When Bad Sponge Rollers Happen to Good Hair."