Our puzzle obsession

Matt and I have had an obsession lately. I gave him a puzzle for Christmas of the famous Neuschwanstein castle in Bavaria, Germany. We visited this castle a couple years ago so I thought this would bring back some memories. I didn’t realize when I bought the puzzle that it contained 2000 pieces. Yes, 2000 pieces. This is the biggest puzzle I’ve ever seen. Three weeks ago we dumped the pieces on the kitchen table and tried to “organize” them. We have a decent sized kitchen table, but it was barely large enough to hold all the pieces, let alone try to organize them and still leave room to assemble the puzzle. Even though it was a difficult puzzle to assemble, each evening we would find ourselves glued to the table for a few hours. After a few days we both commented to each other that we were experiencing eye strain so we decided it would be best to take a night off. It was not easy. Each time we would walk by the table we noticed the lonely pieces scattered about the table just waiting to be put in their place. We couldn’t resist. We found some nice lubricating eye drops and gave in to the puzzle. The next day we both commented to each other that our backs hurt from bending over the table. We thought it would be a good idea to take a day off and give our backs some rest. That didn’t last long either. We were right back at the table. I don’t know what it was about this puzzle, but we couldn’t peel our eyes away from it. It became our obsession until last night when Matt found the last piece. It was a liberating moment for us. One that I don’t want to repeat for a long time!

Happy Birthday to Matt

Happy Birthday to Matt! He turned 40 last Friday and to celebrate I made him a special “Over the Hill” cake. Some people will say you’re not “Over the Hill” until you turn 50, but I just had to tease him a little. I decided to turn the cake into a snowboarder going “downhill”. It’s hard to see the details from this picture, but you get the idea. The snowboarder is really him!

In honor of Matt, here are just a few of the qualities I love most about him.

He has a calm demeanor
He is a very kind person (I can’t recall him ever saying anything bad about anybody)
He is very intelligent (I love that he refers to himself as “An encyclopedia of useless information)
He is humble
He is quick to forgive

Greek Festival 2010

Two weeks ago was the 35th annual Greek Festival in Salt Lake City. Each year my family attends the festival to partake of the delicious food and watch the folk dancing. Matt wasn't able to join us this year, but that's okay because he was with us for the one last year........the real one.

The food was yummy, as always. I think my favorite dish is the Pastitsio. A close second is the Loukamades. Here are some pictures from this year's festival.

Dane and Justin eating dolmathes.

Asher eating a meatball. He loved them and ate a total of 3 (they're quite big).

I think this was Dane's reaction to trying his first Greek olive. Not a fan!

Mom and Liz (Sheldon's girlfriend) sharing some Greek beef stew.

Christina talking to our cousin Jason.

Dad holding little Sawyer. Jason's daughter Baylee is "helping".

Asher wearing a Germany shirt at the Greek festival.

This one's my favorite. Asher crawling up the steps to the Greek Orthodox Church.

The Millers at the Middle

Matt and I decided to take a spontaneous trip over Labor Day weekend to the Tetons. It should be obvious by now that we love this place! It seems that every time we go there we end up hiking the same trails, not that there's anything wrong with that. All the trails there are beautiful. This time we decided to hike on a trail that we haven't been on in a while: the Garnet Canyon trail. This is the route hikers take if they are climbing the Middle or Grand Teton. We decided to hike until we got to the bottom of the Middle Teton. The views are amazing! Now you can see why this place keeps drawing us back every year.

After hiking through the trees for a couple hours, we came around the corner to this view.

At the base of the Middle Teton....so close!

Matt demonstrating his spectacular rock-skipping skills.

Element

What do you do when you’re fishing and a buffalo starts to cross the river next to you?
If you’re Matt, you ignore it and continue fishing. If you’re Amy, you quickly snap a picture and really, really hope it keeps moving opposite your direction.

I like this picture of Matt. He is in his element. He is doing the one activity he truly enjoys and nothing will bother him, not even a buffalo. I tried my hand at fly fishing and actually picked it up fairly well even though I didn’t catch any fish. Matt caught about a dozen. Quantity didn’t matter. It was a great feeling to be outside in such a beautiful area (Yellowstone National Park), see a buffalo cross the river, look at the pretty wildflowers, and enjoy wading in the coolness of the river. So I guess you can say that I, too, was in my element.

Welcome to the family!

Here is the newest member of the Kargis family.

Congratulations to Justin and Tina.

Born yesterday, July19th, at 5:05pm. As of right now, he doesn't have a name yet.

Isn't he precious?

Perfect in every way.

Life Elevated

A couple of years ago Utah's motto changed from "The greatest snow on earth" (which I won't argue with) to the new motto:

I realized how fitting that motto is last night when Matt and I were on a hike and came upon this view.

We live in a beautiful state!