All Four of Us
It was so nice to see Matthew and Krista. We enjoyed talking with them and going for walks. They came out for Thanksgiving and though they were tired we enjoyed it a lot. We hope they come back someday and won't be tired:).

Matthew, Mr. Forte, and Krista playing checkers. It was intense. Mr. Forte is really good.

I love this picture of Jonathan and his brother both laughing. It is nice to see siblings smiling with each other.

Jonathan's Dad was throwing the clay pigeons and Jonathan was hitting them..sometimes. Matthew is a fantastic shot, as is Krista.

We left the Salerno's and headed down to the Forte's house. This is the day we went trap shooting with Jonathan's brother, his Dad, and his brother's girlfriend Krista. It was a blast!

Cozy on Christmas
Christmas Day at my parents house. This was neat. My mom, my grandma, and my cousin's daughter who is adorable.

Siblings on Christmas Day
My (Candice's) Dad and his sister. This is one of the best pictures I have of the two of them. It was great to see Aunt Gloria as well as my parents and her husband, Doug.

My parent's house on Christmas day was really nice. We talked and I even talk until I lost my voice the next day (laryngitis). Christmas was nice.

Christmas Play
Jonathan was Joseph and I was Mary in a Christmas play depicting the real meaning of Christmas at the Miranda household. It was great to see all the people we haven't seen for 2 years and catch up. Miranda house at Christmas...where else would there be Polish sausage and enchiladas? (Michael, the shepherd, takes a bow)

We'll be back!
But when you do...you'll be pushin' up daisies! The whole house had been redone to recreate the movie set. Across the street was a museum. It was really well done. Worth all 5 bucks to check it out.

Christmas Story House W 11th St.
Ah! The infamous Christmas Story! It was really cool to go to see the actual house that it was filmed at on West 11th Street in Cleveland, OH. My grandmother even went!

Maumee Bay Brewing Company
Pat and Bridget were awesome to meet us for lunch on a Friday at the Maumee Bay Brewing Company in Toledo, Ohio. It was great getting to catch up, but too short a time together. Hopefully we will see them again in Oklahoma!

Women's Luncheon 2006. We exchanged cookies. These are some good friends from church...On the bottom picture Summer, Lisa, Elizabeth, Andrea, Tonya, and Sada. On the top Chellie, Katie, Jana, Michelle, Rachel, Jo Anne, and Candice (Me).

Snowstorm
A week after Thanksgiving (which was almost 80 degrees out) we had a terrible snowstorm. My work was canceled on Thursday and many didn't brave the elements Friday either. The two lower pictures are while it was still snowing. The others are Friday's aftermath. The wind blew so hard there were several foot drifts and due to the amount it snowed and wind velocity, it was declared a blizzard. For a state with little to no snow removing equipment, something like this is disastrous.

Oklahoma City Memorial
The bombing of the Murrah Building on April 19, 1995 in Oklahoma City is one of our nations greatest tradgedies. 168 empty bronze chairs sit in the middle of a field (19 smaller children's chairs) honoring and remembering the victims of the tradgedy. From the photo we can see the black wall opposite us. There are two black walls with the numbers 9:01 and 9:03 on it, the earlier time representing before the bombing and the latter representing when the dust settled and the world was changed forever. The reflecting pool in the middle is only a few inches deep. It is a very somber experience no matter how many times you have been there, but along with the sadness it fills you with a desire to end terrorism.

Witchita Mountains in....Oklahoma
Mountains in Oklahoma? I think so. It was a fun day with Matthew (Jonathan's brother) and Krista (Matthew's girlfriend). They came to visit for Thanksgiving. We hiked around a gorge and almost had to swim back because we only at the last minute found a place to cross back over the river. We also went up on Mt. Scott and took pictures. You can drive up it.

Birthday
We went to the Haskews house for a little birthday celebration for Abby, their little girl. She's 3. It was fun and we met new people.

Chicago...my kind of Town
I went to Chicago for a trade show just before Halloween. It was awesome! I had been there only once before. This time I took advantage of the opportunity and walked down Michigan Ave. in the morning before most people were awake. We went up in the Hancock building the night before. You could feel the wind blowing. I stayed right by the Wrigley building.

Chicago from the Hancock Building.

It was a Saturday so everyone was decked out for football. We all had hotdogs. The picture of Luke and Amy we put in here because they are also some of our best friends (and they are not moving away) and they went to the Mark Harmon baseball game with us.

Halloween Party
It was a beautiful night at the North's warm house and huge property in Edmond, Oklahoma. Everyone enjoyed the fall weather and fun games.

A year before this date we were just deciding to build a house. Now we have landscaping. We planted three trees which are visible in this picture and we got our flower beds in shape out in front of the windows.

Here is the house in August. Jonathan worked hard to seed what wasn't sodded in the front yard and then some. We have beautiful grass all over the house. Next year it will all fill in.

We had two double rainbows this fall.

We went to Ohio in August just after my birthday. I saw Mary White and we had a great time. We have been friends since 2nd grade.

We went to a Japanese Steakhouse for my birthday and Holly's birthday. Matt and Holly are two of our other best friends here. We have had so much fun with them. They moved a little further away so we see them less now. We miss them.

We went down to Albuquerque on our way home. It was a long drive and an exhausting trip, but we saw a lot. Petroglyphs was our last stop of the 6 park tour. It is a park almost inside the city. It was neat to stand on top of the volcanic rock and look down at the houses (not to mention seeing actual petroglyphs.

We had gone to Pecos (no pictures) which is by Santa Fe on our way from Fort Union. We stayed in Santa Fe and then headed out the next morning to Bandelier where we enjoyed a day of hiking and checking out the Indian Cliff Dwellings. We also climbed up some really high and petrifying ladders to go to a kiva which was a religious place for the Indians. It was really interesting to see the ruins. Then we went for a scenic hike down to the Rio Grande.

Fort Union was rebuilt two times. Here is the ruins of part of the Fort. It was a pretty day in New Mexico.

No, we weren't on the coast. There are dunes in the middle of the Rocky Mountains! We hiked up a big one in the ice cold rain. The clouds cleared enough after a while that you could see the mountain range just behind the dunes, but by the time it was really clear we had left for our next destination.

It was cold, but beautiful. We left the morning of this picture, but not to never return. I often return to it my my daydreams. We had other stops to make and more things to do. This was only the end of the beginning of our trip.

After dinner we would take walks together around the park. It was a nice way to work off dinner and enjoy the scenery.

Jonathan did catch some fish. They weren't here. All that was here were black flies and wild strawberries (we liked the strawberries slightly better). It was a very picturesque spot to fish and was on a river bend, but not worth the agonizing attacks of the flies.