Jimmermania

If any of you don't know who Jimmer Fredette is, then I suggest you stop living in a cave and turn on the news:)  Well, if you don't live in Utah, then watch ESPN or any other sports station.  He is one of the most, if not THE most talked about college basketball players this year and he happens to play for my Alma Mater and employer, BYU!!  Yeah he's pretty awesome.  He shoots an average 26 points per game or something like that.  He scored 52 points against New Mexico in the Mountain West Conference Tournament.  That's crazy.  He is up for the College Basketball Player of the Year.  No big deal.  Let's just say that even President Obama is a fan of him and so is most of the country.

JIMMER

I don't want to leave out the rest of the basketball team he plays for.  The whole team is pretty awesome.  I just might have a little crush on Jackson Emery.  Don't worry, Eric is fully aware.  He might have a crush on Jimmer and that's OK.  Haha.  They are currently playing in the NCAA Tournament and made it to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time since 1981!!  Everyone in Utah is crazy about this team right now, and you should be too.  They play Florida tonight at 5:27 MT and everyone should watch the game even if you don't like Basketball or BYU.  It's going to be great, and I REALLY hope BYU wins.  That would be awesome.

I really am not a sports blogger of any sort (obviously), but I had to give a shout out to this awesome basketball team.  I'm so excited for them.  Here's to hoping for an Elite Eight appearance.  Go Cougars!  

    

Aerial Ski Jumping

Last night our friends Mike and Lisa invited us to go with them to the Aerial Ski Jumping World Championships.  It was up at the Deer Valley Resort in Park City.  The event started at 7:30.  We got up there around that time and I was surprised at how many people were there.  The jump was just a little ways up the mountain, so we took a lift up there and stood  and watched for about an hour and a half.  They were doing both the mens and womens finals.  The jumps were pretty impressive.  I could never do what they do.  I would be too scared of breaking my neck.  A couple of people didn't land their jumps perfectly.  Mostly the would land, fall back and hit their backs/necks on the snow and then stand back up.  It looked painful.  One woman had a little fall where she kinda landed on her shoulder.  You could tell she was in pain. 

The jumps were crazy.  I can't even tell you the jumps that they were doing because I had no idea.  They kept saying things like: full, full, full or full, double full, full.  I couldn't tell the difference.  They all looked cool.  The men would get so much air and then spin like crazy.  I loved it!  There were contestants from the U.S., Canada, China, Switzerland, and Belarus.  I'm sure there were more, but that's all I can remember. 

Also, the weather was pretty nice considering we were on a ski slope in Park City at night.  I would say it was in the 20's.  That is definitely bearable.

We stayed ad watched most of the jumps.  We left a little early so we would beat the traffic.  It really was fun to go to.  Thanks for inviting us Mike and Lisa! 

Mike and Lisa.  How cute!

Me and Eric with the jump behind us.  You can also see the mogul course on the left.

The ski jump

If you look closely you can see a jumper upside down

Another jumper.  My camera isn't that great at zooming in super far.

Eric and I bundled up.  He's so handsome.

 

2011 Auto Expo

It has become a tradition to go with our friends Kirsten and Aaron to the Utah Auto Expo.  We usually go eat at Five Guys before going to the show.  Unfortunately we couldn't go to dinner beforehand because I had to pick Eric up at the airport at 7:45PM.  We grabbed a bite to eat really fast and then met Kirsten and Aaron at the Expo.  It's always fun to sit inside of all kinds of different cars and figure out the ones that you like.  Sitting in expensive ones is always fun too, because you know you won't be driving a car like that for a long time!  The car I still want currently is a Toyota Highlander.  They added some features this year that I really like!  We really want one, but I don't know if we'll actually buy one anytime soon.  We do need to replace our little Neon.  That car has seen better days! 

The Expo never disappoints.  If you have an auto show nearby, you should definitely go

Me and Lincoln taking a ride on the handicap lift/chair.  It was a pretty cool feature to the Sienna.

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Lincoln standing by the Lincoln sign.  He thought it was awesome that there were cars with his name!

Aaron by a Ford Flex (I think).  He likes them.  They actually were pretty cool inside.

Eric and I inside of a car.  I can't remember what kind though...

Kirsten and her dream car

 

 

 

 

 

Sleepover

It's been quite awhile since I had a sleepover.  About two years ago I slept over at my friends Ryan and Amber's house when Eric was out of town.  That was the last time.  Well, in January Eric had to go out of town for a week-end and one of my friends just moved back to UT from CA.  So what did we do?  We had a sleepover!  After going to dinner we went to her place, watched a girly movie (naturally) and then chatted and giggled.  It was great to catch up with Megan again.  I'm glad she moved back here so I can hang out with her more often.  It was a fun little sleepover!

We had to take some pictures to remember the night.  I'll spare everyone the silly ones...  Aren't we cute?

100th Post!!

It's pretty sad that I've had my blog for 2.5 years and I am only now reaching 100 posts.  Someday I will be a good blogger, but let's face it, that probably won't happen for awhile!

When thinking about what to write about for my 100th post, I was trying to be creative and do something exciting.  Well, I'm just not that creative, so I decided that I should probably give you all a little update about our life.  I probably should have done this back in December but we were busy...  Well, Eric got a job!  A real big person job.  It all happened really fast.  He applied on a Tuesday evening, he got called on Wednesday for an interview that day, then again for an interview on Friday, and then offered the job Friday afternoon.  He is now the Director of PR and Marketing for the Utah Valley Chamber of Commerce.  Yes, that's right, we are still living in Utah, and it looks like we will be for at least a little while longer.  Apparently there is something in Utah that we still need to do:)  For now it's working out well.  I was able to keep my job, so we are now a double income family and we like it.  Eric likes his job so far.  The good thing about it is that the title is Director so it's not entry level.  That will definitely look good on his resume.  We feel very blessed that Eric was able to get a job during this time.  We also are happy that we get to stay around our friends for awhile.  We have some great friends here.  Now we just need to find a bigger place to live OUTSIDE of Provo and get a dog.  Eric is dieing to get a dog!

So there you go.  That's what's been going on with us lately.

Happy 100 Posts!

I'm a Blogging Slacker

I know that Christmas was almost a month ago, but since my blog is kinda my journal, I figured I should still write something about it.  While in Colorado, we did the following:

*drove down to Broomfield to play games with our good friends the Walton's.  Charlotte had made her famous cinnamon rolls that I ate far too many of.  The girls chatted while the boys watched the Broncos game.  Afterward we played a game that I can't remember the title of now.  All I know is that you had to know famous people's names.  I was bad at this game...

*while in Broomfield we took Eric to Tincup Circle.  There is this house that goes all out for Christmas that we used to always go to growing up.  Eric had to see it.  Here are some pictures:

I can't imagine what this guy's electric bill is like!! 

*on our way back to Castle Rock we stopped at some botanical gardens place.  I had never heard of it before, but my mom got us some tickets to walk around and look at the lights.  It was really pretty and really cold, but we still had fun!

*my parents live right by the outlet stores, so naturally we had to take a shopping trip to take advantage of all of the great deals.  Both Eric and I got some great stuff.  We're spoiled!

*one day we went down to visit my grandparents in Colorado Springs for dinner.  We took a little detour to The Garden of the Gods.  This place is beautiful!  We then spent the evening with my grandparents and ate so delicious pizza!

*we met up one day with our good friends Mike and Lisa and their little guy Carter.  Lisa and I had bought a Groupon to Nordstrom Rack but weren't able to go before we left.  Since it expired on 12/31 we met up in Denver and shopped a little.  Then we met Lisa's parents on the 16th St. Mall and ate at The Cheesecake Factory.  YUM!

*we braved a snowstorm to go visit my sister Heather at her work, Johnny Carino's.  I hadn't eaten there in years.  It was good. 

*my grandparents were staying at my Aunt and Uncles house, so one day we went to pick them up.  We took a little detour to go and eat at the BBQ place that I worked at for many years.  I just have to stop in whenever I'm in town. 

*For New Year's Eve we played some games, had some root beer floats (Eric's tradition with his family) and set off a canon at midnight in negative degree weather.  BRRR!!

*New Year's Day my mom's family came over and we celebrated by eating a lot of food and playing even more games.  We also had to get ready to leave the next day....  I wasn't ready though.  Vacations are just so nice, but we had to get back!

Our Christmas vacation was fun and very relaxing.  It was great to spend so much time with family.  I wish we lived closer together so we could see each other more often.  Maybe someday...

Christmas

This year Eric and I got to go to Colorado for Christmas.  I was excited because Eric could finally experience a DeLange Christmas like they were when I was little.  We spent the evening with my grandparents, aunt and uncle, 3 of my cousins, and their children.  We always have cheese soup and clam chowder to eat.  I LOVE both of these soups.  We had pies galore and apple pudding.  Also very delicious.  After stuffing ourselves the little kids acted out the Nativity.  My brother Jason also joined in by playing the donkey:)  It was pretty cute.  Afterward we played a mixed up Christmas story, a family tradition, and then we played the chimes, another tradition.  It had been 4 years since we had all been together for these traditions.  It was great.  After visiting awhile longer, we left to go home to open our Christmas PJ's.  I always look forward to getting cute new PJ's to wear for the year.

Mary riding the donkey with an angel in the background.

Christmas day was very relaxing.  We woke up around 9 and walked downstairs in true DeLange style, youngest to oldest!  Santa made it to my parents house and brought us some great stuff.  I really got lucky this year.  Some highlights are the  beautiful bracelet Eric got me from Brighton, snowshoes from Santa, and a food processor from my parents.  Thank you everyone for the wonderful gifts!!

After opening our gifts we ate a delicious breakfast prepared by my mom.  My other grandparents came over in the afternoon and then we ate a delicious ham dinner.  Later in the evening we web-chatted with my brother's family.  We sure missed them this year.  To finish off the Christmas day we watched Inception.  It was a great Christmas holiday.  I'm glad I got to spend it with my family. 

Christmas Trains

It's been nearly two weeks since Christmas, but I have been too busy/lazy to blog.  Therefore, you get to hear all about our Christmas now!  Before we left for our Christmas vacation we got together with our friends Chris and Corey to make candy trains.  This is a family tradition in Corey's family.  Eric and I had a lot of fun making our train.  Eric really got into it and had a lot of great ideas.  He is one creative guy.  We went with the traditional train model with an engine, a coal car, a log car, animal car and passenger car.  There was also a lake with bears fishing.  It was a great little train.  We liked it so much that we transported it all the way to Colorado to show it off, and to eat it of course.  Check it out:

Here are Corey and Chris's train.  They did a train robbery theme.

Thanks for inviting us over Corey.  We had a lot of fun.  I think we have a new tradition now!

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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!