Wednesday, December 22, 2010

2

Last Friday after skiing we went over to Mike and Lisa's to celebrate their son Carter's birthday which is actually today.  He is one of our favorite little kids.  I love going to little kids birthday parties.  They are just so cute.  Carter loves trains, so Lisa made him an awesome train cake.  It was funny to watch him eat it.  Happy 2nd Birthday Carter! 


He was having so much fun

Skiing!

Let me preface this post by saying that I have tried to convince Eric to go skiing for years.  He always says that it's too expensive, etc...  Well, last Friday Eric and I both had the chance to go to Sundance for free.  I will explain why in a later post.  Since it was free, Eric had no excuses.  He told me he would try because he knows how much I like to go.  What a sweet boy!  So Thursday night we went and rented him some skis for $12 at Outdoors Unlimited here at BYU (what a deal) and borrowed my brothers ski stuff.  Friday morning we went up to the mountain and after a delicious free breakfast, we hit the slopes.  Let's just say that Eric's first time skiing was not the highlight of his life.  Like any first time skier or snowboarder, Eric fell a few times.  I tried to teach him what to do, but let's face it, I'm not a ski instructor.  I couldn't really put into words what I was doing and how to do it.  Eric gave it a try and then decided that he would like to take a lesson.  I was surprised at that.  I thought he would never want to go again!  So, hopefully over Christmas break we'll get him a ski or snowboarding lesson and he'll soon be a pro! 

I actually quite enjoyed the day even though I was alone most of the time.  It wasn't crowded at all, which was nice.  I hadn't been skiing in almost 4 years so it was great to do it again.  I can't wait to go again!

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Festival of Trees

It has become a yearly tradition of ours to go to the Festival of Trees with our good friends Kirsten and Aaron.  We always start out the evening by going to Five Guys and then we head over to the festival at the South Towne Expo Center.  The room is just filled with Christmas trees, big and small, wreaths, quilts, gingerbread houses, kids games, crafts and food.  We usually just look at the big trees and the gingerbread houses.  People decorate Christmas trees in all different themes and then sell them.  The proceeds all go to Primary Children's Medical Center.  I think it's a great way to start off the holiday season. 

Here are some of my favorite trees and gingerbread houses from this year.  There are some fun ones and some really cute ones.  I should probably take less pictures the more we go though, because I'm sure I have over 100 pictures in the three years we've gone so far.  I just love Christmas trees!!


After looking at all of the trees we decided to go to The Cheesecake Factory for dessert.  We had gone together a few months ago, got there at 9:30, and were seated right away.  Well that wasn't the case this time.  We didn't want to get it to go, so we had to wait a little while.  A security guard let us go into the Fashion Place Mall after it had closed and sit in a seating area.  Aaron and Kirsten's son Lincoln decided that these little stools would make a perfect train.  This was the end result.

We had such a great night with our great friends.  Can't wait until next year!!

Sunday, December 12, 2010

I'm Feeling Crafty

So the other day I was looking at my friend Katie's blog.  She had made this cute wreath out of bows.  I wanted to copy her idea, so I did!!  I went to the website where she got the idea, got the needed supplies, and made myself a cute Christmas wreath.  Here it is:


If any of you out there want a cute, fun and easy wreath, you need to make this.  Click here for instructions.  I followed the instructions exactly, but I think I am going to buy more ribbon and add some more bows.  You can see through the wreath in some places so I want to make mine a little fuller.  That's just my personal opinion.  I'm really happy with how it turned out.  Thanks for the idea Katie!!

Birthday and Thanksgiving

I know it' been awhile since Thanksgiving, but I've been a little busy.  Thanksgiving happened to be the same day as Eric's birthday this year.  It was a weird day for us though because we were traveling to North Carolina.  However, we did have a little celebration two days beforehand with some of our friends at Texas Roadhouse.  A whole bunch of people surprised Eric which was nice because usually people are already out of town for the holiday on Eric's birthday.  It just so happens that our friend Aaron's birthday was a few days before Eric's, so we had them celebrate together.  At Texas Roadhouse they make you sit on a horse saddle and Yee-Haw.  Aaron and Eric sat on it together.  C.U.T.E.


We didn't get to North Carolina until around 6:30PM on Thanksgiving day, so it didn't really feel like Thanksgiving.  It was still nice though.  Eric's mom made a DELICIOUS meal and a lot of delicious pies.  After dinner we celebrated Eric's birthday.

We had a lot of fun in North Carolina.  While there we went to the North Carolina Museum of Art to see a Norman Rockwell exhibit.  He was an amazing artist.  We also ate some delicious BBQ, played A LOT of games, saw the new Harry Potter, enjoyed the sunny weather and spent a lot of quality time with family.  It was such a nice vacation.  I can't wait to go back to visit again.

I was really bad a taking pictures this vacation.  The only thing I caught was when we fed some ducks at the lake near Eric's parents house.  There were a lot of them.  I was afraid they were going to attack!  Eric's dad was brave and let them eat out of his hand.


Sunday, November 14, 2010

Medieval Times

The Saturday that we were in Virginia, we met up with Eric's Aunt and Uncle and cousins to go to dinner and a show.  What kind of show do you ask?  A medieval show!!  They have this place in Maryland called Medieval Times.  When you walk in, you a given a crown in a particular color.  When it's time to start you are called in by your color, and you are all seated together.  Everyone in this section becomes your team; we were on the red team.  By team, I mean the knight that you are cheering for.  Each section has their own knight and then one knight that you are supposed to cheer against.  In our case it was the green knight.  He turned out to be evil. 

We were given a whole meal.  We ate off of pewter dishes and didn't have any utensils.  That was fun.  We ate tomato bisque soup, bread, chicken, ribs, potatoes, and an apple turnover.  The food was pretty good.

While we were eating we watched an entire show about a King, Prince and Princess.  There were knights who jousted, did some other tricks, and fought.  There were a lot of horses who did some horse tricks too.  It was very entertaining.  Unfortunately, our knight was the first to get killed.  He was still awesome.  He threw me a carnation. :)

My favorite part of the event was that the workers called you My Lord/Lady.  Just to make it more fun, I kept calling everyone My Lord (all the workers around us were men).  It was so funny.  We were all getting pretty into it.  If you have one of these place near you, I highly suggest that you go.  It's really fun even if you aren't into that kind of thing.

Outside of the building

The arena.  It's a dark picture, sorry.

Eric and his cousin Peter.

Eric's parents, his cousin Will, and Uncle Al
   

Wedding Week-end in Virgina

Last week-end Eric and I headed out to Virginia for our friend Craig's wedding.  Craig is the friend that we met through so we figured we better support him and fly out for his wedding in the DC Temple.  It was really great to go back to the same temple where we were married.  What a great reminder of the best day ever!  Eric's parents came up from North Carolina, Eric's sister Carly lives there, and our friends Ryan, Amber and Sean flew out there too. 

We had a lot of fun eating, talking, dancing and catching up with old friends.  I'm so glad Eric and I were able to make it out.  Congratulations to Craig and Liese.  What a beautiful wedding! 


Craig and Liese

Eric's Parents, us, Sean, and Andrew and Emma Weber

Friends in front of the Temple
Waiting for the happy couple to come out of the temple.  It was chilly and windy!

First Dance
The Boys: Andrew, Eric, Craig, Ryan and Sean

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Once again...

...I have been spoiled by my husband.  Yesterday when I got home from work, I walked in and saw this:


It made me smile.  What girl doesn't love a bouquet of roses?  He got them to thank me for all that I do.  What a sweet guy.  Have another look.


Aren't they pretty?  Also, have I ever mentioned that I have the best husband in the world, because I do!!

Monday, November 1, 2010

I got spoiled on Saturday!!

Well the title is only partially true.  I get spoiled almost every day by Eric.  I just might be the luckiest girl alive.  This Saturday was a day of extra spoiling though.  First of all, I got to sleep in which always makes me happy on a Saturday.  I got to go for a nice run in the brisk fall air, and then I got to play tennis with a friend.  I'd say that's a great start to a great day!

Now comes the good stuff.  Eric told me he had something planned for me, and that I needed to be ready at 2:00.  I usually ask a lot of questions, but I actually restrained myself this time.  I only asked a few.  2:00 rolled around and there was a knock at the door.  It was Lisa.  She was told to be at my place at 2.  She didn't know what was going on either.  A couple of minutes later there was another knock on the door.  It was our friends Dan and Katie.  Now I was really confused!!  Turns out we have awesome husbands and they surprised us with pedicures!  Seriously, I love being surprised with something like that! The three of us headed off to be pampered and were told to be at Red Robin for dinner at 4:00.

The pedicures were obviously wonderful.  It was Katie's first one and I'm sure it won't be her last!  Here's some proof:

Don't they look so happy?!

I decided to go with orange to celebrate Halloween and Thanksgiving. 

After our relaxing pedicures, we met up with our husband's and cute little Carter at Red Robin for a delicious meal.  It was a good time.  It always is. 

After that Eric and I, and Dan and Katie headed up to Costco to pick up some needed food.  Eric and Dan both like to walk up and down every aisle so Katie and I went along with it.  Eric loves Costco so he was having the time of his life.  Dan and Katie also found a little gem there.  A pack of Harry Potter movies 1-6 for $32.99!!  That's a steal.  Dan and Katie bought it and I was a little jealous.  Eric said we'd get it later, but he has this philosophy that you never pass up a deal at Costco.  He was acting weird, and I had a feeling something was up but I just played along.  Well, once we got home, it turns out he had a Halloween gift for me.  The movies!!  He had bought them the other day and wanted me to have them before the new one comes out.  Isn't he the best?  We also noticed that there were two coupons inside for $7.50 off the new movie.  That makes it an even better deal.  I think it makes each movie about $3! 

Moral of the story is, I have the best husband in the whole world, I have pretty toes, and now I own 6 great movies.  I am one lucky lady!   

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Mockingjay


I was looking through my blog the other day and noticed that I never wrote about the third book in The Hunger Games series.  I don't know if any of you out there even care, but I just couldn't leave the third book hangin'!

I was beyond excited to read this book when it came out in August.  I pre-ordered a copy from Borders and picked it up a couple of days after it came out.  For the next two or three days I pretty much did nothing but work, eat, sleep and read.  I was dieing to know how it ended so I just read and read.  When I got to the end, I was not that impressed.  Want to know why?  I'll tell you, but if you haven't read it and plan on it, don't read any further!

After all of the preparation for invading the Capitol I was hoping for this great climax and then resolution of everything.  Sometimes I like predictable, but apparently that's not what Suzanne Collins was going for.  Now I didn't hate the ending, I was just hoping for more.  Before I even get to the ending though, I want to talk about Katniss.  In books one and two I liked her a lot.  She was this symbol of hope for everyone.  She was strong.  I didn't see that in her in book three.  She was boring and weak.  After all that she had been through I don't blame her, but people were looking to her for guidance.  She would just mope around and do whatever she wanted to.  While everyone in District 13 was preparing themselves for attack, she would skip out on everything.  She wasn't above that.  She needed the lessons just as much as everyone else did, especially since she wanted to fight.  She also wouldn't listen to anyone.  In the end, it turns out President Snow was a punk, but there were good people on her side that she just wouldn't listen to.  Bottom line is Katniss bothered me a little bit in this book.  I did feel bad for her when they got Peeta back and all he wanted to do was kill her.  That would be awful.

Moving on, I was really into the book until Katniss and her crew were on their "secret" mission to the Capitol.  Everything was fine until Finnick got eaten alive by those skeleton monster things, or whatever they were.  I really liked Finnick and didn't want him to die.  It made me really sad.  I know this book is about war, so I couldn't expect everyone to live, but I wish it wouldn't have been him.  What made it even worse is that in the end you find out this his wife Annie is pregnant!!  So sad.  After I got over that I was getting anxious for them to get to the Capitol.  As they approached the gates, they were bombed, and everything went down hilll from there for me.  First of all, I was so confused about what happened.  Katniss said she saw a girl with a long braid helping some of the children, and then the second bombs went off.  Boom.  Chapter over.  Next chapter started and I didn't really understand what was going on.  I thought it was a dream or something, and then all of a sudden Prim was dead, and apparently I was supposed to know that by the description of the girl with the braid.  It didn't register to me.

Then the whole thing with Gale really got to me too.  All that happened was they talked, she pretty much said she couldn't forgive him because he created the bombs that killed her sister, and then he left.  That's it!!  He didn't fight for her at all.  After all that they had been through he just gave up.  I was hoping for more from him.  Then in the end it just said that he moved to a different distract.  Done.  In my mind I was telling myself that they talk on the phone every once in awhile.  I still wanted them to be friends even though they couldn't be together.

Wow, this is getting long.  I'll get to the point.  The whole thing with President Snow was confusing to me.  She hates the guy, then goes and talks to him in his garden, then she believes his whole thing about President Coin and in the end kills President Coin instead of President Snow.  Wasn't that was pretty much the whole point of the book; her getting to kill President Snow?  In the end he dies by being trampled over, but that's anti-climatic.  Also, I was a little angry that when President Snow asked the previous gamers(or whatever they're called; I can't remember) if they wanted to make the kids from the Capitol compete in their own Hunger Games, Katniss and Haymitch said yes!!  Isn't that what they were fighting for?  To not have to have children and families go through what they went through?  They didn't go into any further detail about it since Snow died.  I just couldn't believe she said yes.

Three more quick things.  1.)  I was a little sad about how the relationship was between Katniss and her mom in the end.  They never had a great relationship, but in the end her mom moved to district 8, I think, while Katniss went back home.  After everything they went through, and all of the losses, you'd think they'd want to stick together.  2.)  I was always rooting for Peeta, so I was happy that they ended up together, but it felt like they ended up together because Gale left and it just happened.  There wasn't any romantic anything that led to them being together.  It just happened.  Once again, I was just hoping for more.  Oh, but there was the cute thing about him planting primroses outside.  That was sweet.  3.)  What happened to Haymitch?  Collins left us hanging with him.  I'm sure he turned back into the same old drunk, but it would have been nice to hear about it.

So there you go, you now know how I felt about the book.  From all of my comments it may seem like I hated the book.  I didn't.  It was a good book, but my least favorite of the three.  Number one was indeed my favorite.  I can't believe I had that much to write.  Anyone else out there have any opinions they'd like to share?  If so, leave me a comment!

Oh, and one last thing.  I like how in the end Prim's cat was alive and at their house.  She hated the cat but now they're friends since Prim is gone.  Now I'm really done, promise. 

       

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Witches Night Out

For two nights during October Gardner Village  in West Jordan hosts "Witches Night Out."  I had never heard of it before until my friend Becca invited Lisa, Kirsten and I to go with her.  One of Lisa and Becca's long-time friends was in town, so her and her sister joined us as well.  To learn more about what it is, click on the Gardner Village link above.

Since it was a night for witches, I decided I was going to dress up a bit.  I have always wanted to wear black and orange stripped tights, so I bought a pair.  They were pretty awesome except for the fact that they only came in adult or child size, and apparently the adult size was made for someone who was like 5'4".  Well, I'm quite a bit taller than that so I had to be creative in order to make the tights work.  It was actually pretty funny.

Anyways, so on Friday night we headed up to West Jordan to hang out with some witches.  After dealing with traffic for a good hour and a half, we met up with Becca and headed to Chic-fil-A for dinner.  I hadn't eaten there in a long time, and it was pretty good.  We then all piled into one car for the short drive to Gardner Village.  We were amazed at how many people were there.  Some people got really into it.  I saw some people who actually painted their faces green.  Now that's the Halloween spirit!  Gardner Village was decorated for Halloween and had fake witches all over the place.  There was a lady with an owl (it reminded me of Harry Potter), some guys on stilts, a fortune teller, food and dancing.  We walked around for awhile and then finished the night off with some dancing.  It was pretty fun.  I haven't danced like that for years it seems.

The event ended at 10pm so we took Becca back to her car and then had to deal with more traffic to get home.  Thank you I-15 for being terrible even at 11pm.  :)  Overall it was a fun night had by all.  Thanks for the fun idea Becca.


A witch riding her bike through the air.  Her legs were actually moving.

The whole crew.  The top from L to R: Lisa, Sarah, Caroline, Kirsten.  Bottom L to R:  Becca, Me

The random guys on stilts.  None of us were quite sure what they were supposed to be.

A witch bathroom.  So clever.

Becca and some witches.

Lisa and Kirsten and some witches.

Becca, Kirsten and Lisa taking a break from dancing to smile for the camera.


I'm sad I didn't get a picture of my tights.  Maybe another time...

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Oktober Fest and The Peruvian Chair

Back in June when I did my triathlon, Lisa and I got free tickets to ride the Peruvian Chair or Scenic Tram at Snowbird Ski Resort.  While waiting for us at the finish line, my parents won two more tickets from the emcee for being the loudest spectators there.  It was perfect because then Lisa and I could go with our husbands for free!!  Since Eric was gone in LA all summer we weren't able to go.  I actually forget about the tickets until a couple of weeks ago when I found them in a basket.  I looked up Snowbird and found out that the trams were still open until this week-end.  It also happened to be Oktoberfest up there.  I was sold!!  Mike and Lisa got a babysitter and we all headed up to Snowbird today.  There were some vendors up there (I wish there would have been more German booths though), traditional German food, people dressed in traditional German attire, and of course beer.  After looking at some stuff at a German booth, we headed up to the food tent to eat some brats and German chocolate cake.  It was pretty good.  In the tent there was also some entertainment.  There was this yo-yo guy who was pretty good and a whole lot of people drinking beer.  We were pretty much the only one's who weren't drinking!

After eating, we headed up to the Peruvian chair to go on a ride.  After figuring out a missing ticket, we were off.  The Peruvian chair is a four-person chair lift so we were all able to sit together.  The lady at the bottom told us that it was 15 degrees colder at the top.  It was about 50 degrees at the base, so that meant we were heading into 35 degree weather.  BRRRR!!  She also told us that there was snow!  The ride up wasn't too bad.  It got cold as we got to the top but it was bearable.  We got off and walked through a tunnel to the other side of the mountain.  It wasn't as cold over there.  Then we headed back down.  IT WAS FREEZING GOING BACK DOWN.  We were going against the wind and were frozen by the time we got back down.  We were all laughing about it and having a good time though.  It definitely makes for a good memory.  We finished off the day by walking by the vendors again and then going to the car.  It was a really fun day.  I'm glad that we got free tickets and that we were able to go with our good friends! 

Eric and I in Lederhosen and an awesome dress:)


Mike and Lisa on the way up the mountain

Eric and I on the way up








The view looking down at the top.  It was cloudy.

Walking through the tunnel

The view from the other side

We look cold.  Our wind blown hair looks so awesome!

Haha, Mike looks miserable!
  Thanks for the fun Eric, Mike and Lisa!

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Guess Who's 26

I bet you didn't guess it was me!  Actually I bet you did.  Last Wednesday, September 22, was my birthday.  It was a really good birthday.  It all started the afternoon before with my work throwing me a Hawaiian birthday party.  My boss was going to be gone the day of my birthday but she still wanted to celebrate with me.  The good thing about starting to celebrate the afternoon before is that the party carried over into my actual birthday and the day after because we liked the decorations so much.  Working on your birthday isn't the most fun thing, but it was alright this year.  About ten minutes after getting to work, my friends Katie and Amber serenaded me with a very loud rendition of Happy Birthday.  It was awesome.  I think everyone on the whole floor could hear it.  I went home for lunch and Eric had gotten me Taco Bell.  I know it sounds gross but I just love their nachos.  After work I came home and got to open some presents and my cards.  Thanks everyone for everything!  After that my brother Jason came over to join us at Texas Roadhouse.  I LOVE that place.  Eric told me it was just the three of us, but when we checked in, he checked in for 10.  Yeah, he had invited some of my friends.  It was great.  



After eating our yummy food, our waitress brought out a saddle that I had to sit on while everyone gave me a "Texas" sized yee-haw!  I look a little silly in the picture but here I am:


After dinner all of the people who were at dinner and then some other friends came over for cake and ice-cream.  It was fun to see people I haven't seen in awhile.  I have great friends.  Thanks to everyone for a great 26th birthday!!

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

11,479 Feet

That's the height of the mountain that I climbed about a month ago. The hike is about 13 miles, but the group I was with went about 1.5 miles further than that because we went the wrong way. Oops. What mountain did I climb you ask? I hiked one of the tallest mountains in Utah, Mount Timpanogos. Ever since I've lived in Utah, I've wanted to hike this mountain. It looks down on me every single day. I had to do it. Since I knew that we could be moving at any time, I had to do it this summer. Emily, my co- worker, said she would do it with me, and then we convinced another co-worker, Emma, that she wanted to go as well. It also turns out that the week-end we were going, that Emma's brothers were going to be in town and she wanted to take them to do something adventurous, so they came along too. I picked everyone up at 6:00 in the morning to drive to the trail head. We got on the trail about 6:45, but... we actually started on the trail at 8:00 because of the little detour. It was the perfect day to hike. It was a little warm but that's to be expected in August. The scenery was so beautiful. One of my favorite things was all of the mountain goats near the top of the mountains. One of them actually ran right in front of me on the trail because a dog was chasing it. It was awesome.

Getting to the top was absolutely amazing. I'm a little scared of heights, so getting to the top made me a little nervous, but I did it. You could see forever up there. I loved it. If you ever have the chance to hike this mountain, you MUST do it. It is so worth it. It will take you the majority of the day, and you will be tired and smelly afterward, but I promise you won't regret it!

Want to see how beautiful it is? Check out a few of my pictures:


Yeah I'm not sure what's going on with the Pets thing on my Slide show.  You just have click on the X to close it out.