The Johnson Clan

We didn't get to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with family, but we did get to see them this weekend. My family was in Ohio visiting our grandparents, so we decided to meet halfway between Miamisburg and Buffalo in Cleveland. First stop was the A Christmas Story house. It was super cool to walk on the set, and it put me in the Christmas mood. People pinned where they came from on a map. There were so many pins on the northeast side of the country that you couldn't even fit another pin in there. Next we went to the West Side Market. It reminded me of the market places in Romania. We bought a big bag of corn, a bucket of fruit, and several awesome desserts. Which we promptly ate picnic style. Clayton and I recently bought a fancy shmancy camera with the intention of documenting our lives in higher quality. I brought it to Cleveland and made Hannah and my mom models. It was fun! I got tons of great shots of Hannah, and selected a few good ones to ...

(This is our friend's backyard. Can you see the swing set in the left corner?) (This was taken at the beginning of our drive) This fall in Buffalo has been B-E-A-utiful! The weather was clear and crisp most of the time, the colors of the trees was gorgeous, and it was what everyone was calling "unseasonably warm." I thought that this was all a precursor to a mild winter. But then the lake effect happened yesterday, and it's all gone down hill since then. Yesterday the south towns got 3-7 feet of snow! We have friends that live down there who sent us pictures of their car that was so covered in snow that you could only see the top of it. There was a driving ban, the highways were shut down, and every business and school was closed. Unlucky people who were driving that morning were stuck in their cars for hours, and many still are. There are a couple places that haven't been reached yet by emergency vehicles, and the stuck cars have been stuck the...

We have been crazy busy lately. I started working at my new job last week, and it has been exhausting. I work for a company located in Niagara Falls called Community Missions. There are a lot of divisions of the company, but our jobs all overlap a little. I am a Case Manager, and it has been a whirlwind learning the ropes. We work with clients who have a mental illness but are trying to gain independence to live in the community. Already I've had some interactions that have blown my mind.  Aside from work, we have been enjoying the weather. We went on a hike called the "Eternal Flame". It's a permanent methane gas leak that allows there to be a constant flame. It's in the middle of a small, slippery waterfall. The hike was really pretty and fun. We also hiked the Gorge, down by Niagara Falls. Before the actual falls, there is a long stretch of whirlpools and rapids. They are classified as class 6, and are considered unnavigable. There is a trail that ...

One great perk of having the Palmyra temple as our home temple is that there are church history sites nearby. We were able to visit the Hill Cumorah, the Smith farm, and the Sacred Grove after going to the temple.  The weather was beautiful, I had that handsome man by my side, and visiting the sites for the first time was a special experience for me. I'm so grateful for my eternal marriage, my life in the gospel, and the beautiful legacy of the church.  www.mormon.org 

Last week we bought tickets to go to the Foster the People concert, and I literally counted down the days. I love them, and now after going to their concert I love them even more. The beginning was a little slow because we didn't love their opening band, but as soon as the real show started it was amazing. We had so much fun! It was cold and late, but so worth the discomfort. This was Clayton's first "real" concert, and he loved it. They preform really well live, which is something you definitely can't say about every band. After we got home our ears were ringing, we were freezing, and the smell of being outside and beer was saturated in our hair, and we both agreed that it was a great night. Just an update on the job search, I've gotten offers and have a couple of options to choose from. It's kind of a tough decision though. The job offer that I really want to take has lousy hours and not great pay, so I'm leaning to...

This past weekend was the peach festival in Lewiston. We met up with some friends from the ward who had kids, so the carnival was pretty fun. Carnivals are always more fun when there are little kids with you. They had rides, food stands, the Peach Queen contest, etc. We got the peach short cake, and Clayton won us a little fishy friend. Knowing from previous experience that goldfish don't live long, at least not under my watch, I held up the Vulcan hand sign and told him to live long and prosper, after which Clayton named him Spock. So welcome to the family, Spock! After the carnival, we all walked down to the river. I'm pretty positive that the other side was Canada, since the Canadian boarder was the next exit on the freeway. It was so beautiful. For some reason it seems like you can never really capture the beauty of nature in a picture, although this one is pretty dang good if I do say so myself. There was a restaurant on the river that we stopped ...

This past Thursday there was a concert at Niagara Falls. We had planned to go to the concert, then see the falls, and wait until 10 PM to see some fireworks over the falls. However, when we got there we hated the music. It was a weird alternative style mixed with a little bit of screaming and the occasional digital alien noise.  So instead of staying for the music we walked around the shops, got some ice cream, and saw the falls.  The falls were beautiful, but since the American side is the side that the water falls off of I can see why everyone says that the Canada side is better. We walked around the park that is around the falls until it started POURING rain.