Hope to see you soon!

It's official. We're bound for the mainland this Christmas. I just bought our tickets today and Eric and I both will be there for almost an entire a month so we hope to see as many of you as possible.

Our travel dates are 12/9 - 1/7. We'll mostly be in Boise, but we're also planning to spend at least a week in SLC to spend time with the Nellies.

I think this calls for a list of what I'm looking forward to (in no particular order)...

1. Mom's cozy home and yummy smelling candles
   
2. Shortly after arrival, girl's movie night (Twilight, 12/12). You're all invited.
   
3. Snowball fights and building snowmen (and snowwomen) with the wee ones.
   
4. Watching Christmas Classics (Christmas Story, Elf, Little Women, etc.)
   
5. Stephen's Gourmet Hot Chocolate - Mint Truffle, with whipped cream
   
6. Snuggling by the fire - with either Eric or a good book. :)
   
7. Sledding (although I'm not sure how I'm going to come up with winter clothes)
   
8. All of the lovely restaurants I've been missing. Def. going to Cafe Rio when we're in Utah.
   
9. Meeting "Little Miss" Patalie!
   
10. Temple Square Christmas lights
    
11. This one's obvious, and really it ranks as #1 on the list, but seeing friends and family (in Boise & Utah)
    
12. Strangely enough - not sure what Eric's done to me - but college football bowl season
    
13. Swimming in John's Hot Springs while it's snowing
    
14. Playing silly games (Ticket to Ride!)
    
15. Having some free time to work on my digital scrapbooking

And so much more! Now I just need to get through the next 5 months...

Love my nieces and nephews

Isn't she beautiful?? Talia is one of my little cutie patootie nieces, and she was baptized last month. Click here for more photos of Tals. These shots were taken by Audrey Lewis (my brother's sister-in-law) - a very talented photographer. Click here to see more Honn photos by Audrey. Sooo cute.

If you're in the Boise area and need family pictures taken, you should give her a call!

Managaha Beach Mural

Isn't this cool? Del Benson took a sequence of photos of us on Managaha (directly below) to create a massive panoramic. I just sliced out a few of the sections. The images will stretch across 84 FEET of wall (on 7 x 7' panels) in a new local store.

Lft to Rt: Reece, Skylar, J.V., Nathan, Gus, Daniel, Kyle, Limson, Van

That's me - way in the distance, about to pass the volleyball. Apparently, Del had plans for Eric and I to be kanoodling on the beach for the shot, but, alas, Eric wasn't there. Too bad. Lft to Rt: Lius, Taylor, Tikla, me, Elizabeth, Leona, ?, Reece, Skylar

Lft to Rt: Matt & Carter Smith burrying Harrison, youth in the background, Voutilainens, Riders

Jari & Chantelle

For Sale

Eric has basically had to peel my fingers off the steering wheel, but it looks like we're selling our Nissan Pathfinder.

It's been a great car for us, and we love it's brute strength, but since there are only 2 of us, we've decided to downsize.

Please let me know if you're interested or know anyone who might be.

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

Since Eric became Branch President, I've tried my best to be a supportive wife, but I would be lying if I said it hasn't been hard to adjust to the realization that we're no longer moving back to the states in August - not this Aug. anyway.

I do miss "home", family, friends, all of it. So, I know it's a little early, but I'm thinking about flying home for Christmas. You know a girl's homesick when she's willing to travel about 60 hours and spend $1300 on airfare. Unfortunately, I'm not sure that Eric will have the time or the money to join me, but I'll work on him. Maybe if I dangle the bowl season in front of his nose (TV is a week late here, and the games are always on at funny times, if at all).

Persuading men to do things is so much different than persuading women isn't it? I remember when Eric and I were playing with the idea of moving to India, and I was concerned about living in such a foreign culture and raising a family there and putting them through school, etc. Eric didn't seem to think those were very big issues, but as soon as he heard that they don't serve red meat there, India never came up again.

I know it sounds a little strange to want to fly away from a tropical island in the middle of winter, but since no one's mentioned a family Christmas on Saipan as of yet, I think I need to go to them - before I forget what my nieces and nephews look like. Plus, it's not just about family; I'm not ashamed to admit that one of my first items of business is to run into Target and Wal-mart and kiss their floors. And I think I'll go to a new restaurant for every meal, just because I can!

I'm excited for so many things - taking a bath (bathing doesn't work so well in our 2x2 shower), having electricty...Aww, heavenly splendor.

Obnoxious Shopper

When shopping for large purchases ("large" being $100+), I can be a little obnoxious with my shopping research. For example, right now we're in the market for a new digital camera, and not only have I spent a ridiculous amount of time on websites such as CNET, dpreview and B&H, but I'm also asking everyone I know who has ever taken a decent picture what kind of camera they have (or recommend).

The sad thing is I was pretty happy with our humble little Nikon Coolpix L6. Eric actually won the camera during law school, and we've been pleasantly surprised. Unfortunately, it stopped working a couple weeks back after a very wet hike so now we're looking for a replacement - which is entirely too much fun for a tech nerd like myself.

I've looked at the smallest ultra-compacts, I've browsed wi-fi cameras, I've dreamt about the Nikon D40, but I think I've narrowed it down to 2. Although, I would still love any advice I can get!

It's between the Canon SD870 IS & the Panasonic Lumix DMC TZ5. Here's the DP Review side-by-side comparison.

Basically, the "Can" has 8 megapixels & 3.8x zoom, whereas the "Pan" has 9.1 pixels & 10x optical zoom. They both have the image stabilizer, high res 3" LCDs, wide angle lens, but the "Pan" is supposed to be pretty great for its HD video capabilities. Ok, ok, so I'm leaning toward the Lumix. The only advantage I can see that the Canon has is the reputation and size/design, but the Lumix has a 10x zoom! Of course it's going to be a little chunkier!

Ok, so it sounds like I've basically made up my mind. Now I just need to come up with the money. Suggestions and donations are welcome!

Which would YOU choose??

History Repeated

James Bell, photo by Jacqueline Hernandez

He made it! James Bell, a member of of our church, called Eric ("President Nelson") a couple of days ago to inform him that he wanted to celebrate his 70th birthday by swimming from Tinian to Saipan (completely alone). That's a 5 mile distance in pretty rough water. All we knew was that he'd done it once before almost 30 years ago, and it took about 12 hours, and everyone was really concerned that he wouldn't make it. As you can imagine, we were even more concerned this time. Amazingly, not only did he make it, but he made it in 4.5 hours! Wow. Happy 70th Jim! Here's the Saipan Tribune Article.

Pretty please??

C'mon Eric, you know you want one!

Here are some more great shots of the Young Women, courtesy of Del Benson. Unfortunately, we're missing almost half of the girls.

Sarah & Lisa's Visit

I have to confess, I am a little burnt out on the blogging (my job probably doesn't help) so I'm going to cheat a little on this one and, rather than upload an obnoxious amount of pictures to the blog, I'm just going to give you this link to our Picasa Album. By the way, I should give credit to Sarah for all of the pictures...I had to steal them from her after our beloved camera suffered an unfortunate death shortly after their arrival.

I will say, however, that it was fun to have Sarah & Lisa here. We did all of the typical touristy stuff - Banzai, Suicide, Bird Island, Forbidden, Grotto, Hidden Beach, King Fisher, American Memorial, etc. We did do a couple of things that we didn't do with previous guests though. We got to climb into a scary, dark cave with human skeleton remains. Sarah and Lisa camped out on Managaha one night. And, they were fortunate enough to help me chaperone the Youth/Single Adult "Prance" which, by the way, the youth absolutely love those girls and are trying desperately to get them to move out here.

Thanks for coming Sarah & Lisa. I hope you enjoyed it!

Big Kahuna

It's been a crazy couple of weeks. I've been struggling to find the time/motivation to blog these days so I was thinking about just copying a lengthy email that Eric just sent out to the family detailing the events but decided against it since it's probably not the type of content you want to post for the world to see.

So I'll just keep this post short and sweet. If you're really curious, shoot me an email, and I'll respond with Eric's much more detailed message.

The abridged version: Eric Frank Nelson, at the ripe age of 28-years-old, is now the Branch President of the Saipan Branch in the Guam District.

Matt Smith (1st Counselor), E.N., Eddie Tamayo (2nd counselor)

E.N., President Marshall, President Brown