Family Reunion #2

After visiting my family, we headed straight to Park City for Sam's family reunion. It was a nice, relaxing week. We stayed in these cute condos and had fun just relaxing catching up. A few highlights of the week:

• We skied at Park City and The Canyons. The Canyons was awesome! I stuck with Sam and his brothers the first half of the day, and the second half went off on my own. It was so relaxing. When I was off skiing on my own I reached the bottom of a lift just as Sam and his bothers did, so I jumped on the chair behind them. When I got to the top I realized that it was only for two double black diamond runs. Definitely not my level. Lucky for me, there was ski patrol right there who took me down on the lift. Embarrassing... good thing I am used to situations like this.

• At night we played tennis on the Wii. I cannot help but move around and swing like I am really playing tennis. His family kept trying to get me to play just so they could get some good laughs.

• We all brought a bunch of candy, divided it up, and betting with our candy, played Texas Hold Em'. So much fun.

• We got to spend time with family that we hadn't seen in way too long.

Looking Back...

Has ten years really passed from the year 2000? I really can't believe it. I am going to follow my friend, Jessica, and reflect on the past decade...

• New Year's Eve, 1999. 16 years old. Party at my house, and the boys turned off my next door neighbor's power. Turns out he worked for a hospital, and was working when the power went out. He had a bunch of equipment he had to reboot and my parents heard about it in no time (thanks for reminding me about that, Jessica!). The "cops" called and Jason was the only one who would talk to them, and tried to explain we were just drinking Martinelli's.

• Got accepted to BYU. Made all housing plans, and at the last minute canceled them, booked a flight to Hawaii, and went to BYU Hawaii instead. One of the best decisions of my life.

• Ran cross country for BYU Hawaii. I never hurt so bad as the first week back each season. Many of my best friends came from that team. Red eye flights, doing everything but studying at the hotels, and running more than I ever thought I could.

• I met Sam. Went to the beach daily, studied on the beach while he surfed (aka watched him with an open book in front of me), Friday night dates in Waikiki, and fell in love.

• Sam left for his mission in Brazil. Never knew I could miss someone so bad.

• My sister, Ashley, joined me at BYU Hawaii. We were joined at the hip. Having family there made that place complete. Never did homework, always at the beach, worked in the cafeteria, learned to surf, never laughed so much.

• Graduated from BYU Hawaii. Sam came home, and it felt like he had never left. So happy to be back with him, waiting for him to propose, missed Hawaii so much, time to move onto new things.

• Got MARRIED to Sam. Moved to Utah for Sam to finish school. Sam graduated. Realize more and more everyday what an amazing person he is, and how lucky I am to be married to him.

• Sam graduated, got a job, and welcome to real life!

While it's hard to see it while it's happening, it's easy to see how Heavenly Father has guided me every step of the way throughout each year. Can't wait to see what the next decade holds for us!

Thank you, Sam.

On our drive back to Utah (from Arizona), Sam some these caves from the road and insisted we hike up to them. So after hiking through snow up to our knees and me complaining for half an hour, we made it up. It was worth it, they were awesome. Thank goodness for a husband who makes life exciting.

The boys

After growing up with all girls, it is so fun now to have all nephews. Boys are so much fun. Rhett is 8 and always wants someone to jump on the trampoline with or to talk Star Wars lingo to. Ethan, who is 5, is a master burper, and can do the hugest burps on demand. With Sam egging him on, he burped the loudest burps I have ever heard for a good ten minutes. Really gross, but we could not stop laughing at him gulping down air as fast as he could. Kade is 2 and so darn cute.

Santa brought the boys a puppy for Christmas. Whenever Sam held him his legs would shoot straight up in the air, it looked so funny.

Family Traditions

It seems like Christmas is packed with us trying to get in every last one of our holiday traditions. I love it. I have so many good memories of doing these things that I love each Christmas season. I didn't get a picture of my very favorite tradition- our all day shopping trip with a break at Oregano's for lunch. Sam's tradition includes baby sitting the kids all day while we shop (what a great husband I have).

The traditional jumping picture.... Brooke is about to go down.

I love this picture. Expect for Brooke who is missing (on the floor, which explains why we are laughing so hard) , I think it captures how much we love being together.

We got to be there for Britt's big day - 19 years old!

And the traditional donuts... I love these things. The donut holes are impossible to stop popping in your mouth.

Christmas Break, Part I

This Christmas break we spent the first week with my family in Arizona, and the second week with Sam's family at a condo in Park City. It was a BLAST!

The traditional Christmas Eve nativity play, with not-so-traditional costumes. You didn't know Batman was part of the nativity? You really should read your scriptures more. Cody was Joseph, I was Mary, Sam was the donkey, Brittany the angel, and everyone else some sort of shepherd.

The traditional white elephant party. There were lots of rare finds, as always. Why does no one ever trade at this party? Ally got the only PG-13 aerobics video ever made.

Ashley got some rocks covered in dog doo-doo

And I got some Preparation-H, applicator included and all. It was used. Gross.

He did it!

Sam graduated Friday at the Dee Events Center. After 2 years at Dixie and 2 1/2 years at Weber, he was definitely ready. Sam started out college basically hating it, but knowing it was something that would be good for us. He ended college loving it, doing awesome in every class he took, and wanting to go onto the Masters program.

Sam's dad and sister came up for the day. His mom's flight got canceled due to the weather, she was so sad to miss it.

We had a fun day. We woke up early and met Wayne and Kenzie at Mimi's for breakfast. We LOVE eating breakfast there. Then was graduation, which went a lot quicker than I expected, with only a few short, but great, speeches. We came back to our house with everyone for a late lunch and spent the night at our ward holiday dinner. Congratulations, Sam! Now what?

Thanksgiving Thanks

I am thankful for... family, sunshine, a Heavenly Father and Savior, a husband who makes me happy, Christmas lights, summer, ocean, education, sisters, Breyers ice cream, friends, food blogging, the outdoors, Costco, my job, Friday night pizza and movies, cell phones, cars, laughing, Sam graduating, and so much more. So much to be thankful for.

Thanksgiving weekend brought... Brittany! I love having her got to college so close. She had a whole week off so we spent the first couple of days shopping, eating breakfast at Mimi's, watching chic flicks (including New Moon - better than the first one!), and laughing.

Brooke and the boys stopped by and spent the night on their way up to Cody's parents house. Nephews are so much fun. Sam's burnout video game is our only "toy" for the boys. They love it. We had fun staying up late talking, eating, and doing glitter toes.

We spent the last part of the week down in St. George with Matt and Jill and Sam's parents. We met up with Rachel and Richard and had so much fun rock climbing. Sam and I can't get enough of it. We spent the rest of the weekend just relaxing. Thanksgiving day after the big meal me and Britt fell asleep reading, one of my favorite things in this world.

This needs to be documented: Me and Brittany at possibly the dumbest movie ever made... Old Dog. Friday night we went out to dinner and to see Blindside with Matt and Jill and Sam's parents, but unfortunately Blindside was sold out, thus we saw Old Dog. It was painful. Both being broke, it was killing Britt and I that we spent almost 10 bucks on Old Dog.

mr. xavier rudd

Recently we got to see Xavier Rudd in concert with Rachel and Spencer. His music is great on CD, but AMAZING in person. I have never heard anything like it. The instrumentals were crazy. Xavier sings and plays the guitar, the didgeridoos, and a tons of other instruments while two other guys play a ton of instruments as well. Almost as good as the music was the entertainment from the crowd. Xavier tends to draw a hippie crowd, and this concert did not disappoint. Hippies galore. So for the price of being surrounded by BO we got a lot of good laughs. One lady repeatedly came up to Spencer and Sam and said, "I think you are ticklish!" in a freaky voice, and tried to tickle their legs. Another man, who was dressed in tie-dye gauchos and definitely on drugs, ran around, very fast, in little circles right in front of us for about 15 minutes. I could go on and on. I am already excited to see him when he comes back around next year.

What's so great about Fall?

That's what I used to think, having only lived in Arizona and Hawaii where there is no fall. But now I know. The camera can't to it justice- the combination of reds and oranges and greens are breath taking. The air smells like trees, and I feel guilty if I don't spend every second outside enjoying it.