Melissa's Blog

My Valentine

2012-02-11T16:59:00.000-08:00

Photo of us in Beaver taken on the drive home-April 2004

I was going through some of my old photo stuff and I have a manila envelope full of all my wedding photos and memorabilia. I always meant to make some sort of wedding album but I have never done it. Looking through it, I found a letter I wrote to my Grandma Newey about meeting Jace and my wedding day. She was on a mission that year and didn't get to be there for all the fun. Reading through it made me laugh and with it being February & heart day, I thought it'd be fun to share the story of how we met. (Copied straight from the letter I wrote-almost 8 years ago)

I met Jace after he got home from his mission to Utica, New York. I was over visiting my college roommate, Lacey, and he was there visiting her husband Sam, who was his good friend from high school. We spent the whole night talking with our friends and didn't say much to each other. Throughout the next couple months, Jace called a couple times to ask me out but I always had other plans on those nights. I heard a lot about Jace from Lacey in stories that she told. Lacey and I worked at the bank together and Jace often came up in conversation because he hung out at their house.

One Friday, I was planning on driving up to Salt Lake for a missionary homecoming but it was raining really hard so I was trying to decide if I should go. My phone rang and it was Jace. He said that he had heard that I was going up north this weekend and wanted to know how the road conditions were. I told him that I hadn't left yet and asked if it would be possible to catch a ride. Jace was actually already to Hurricane about 15 miles north of St George but he said sure. He picked me up at my house and we drove to Salt Lake together. We talked the whole way and I found him really interesting. He had very strong opinions about everything and was very talkative. He liked music that I had never heard of before but he made me feel comfortable. He dropped me off in Provo at my girlfriend's (Lindsay & Alicia) apartment and went to his missionary reunion. We didn't talk the rest of the weekend until Sunday when we made plans to drive home. It was Easter Sunday and we talked the whole way home. He dropped me off at my house and about an hour later called to invite me to Lacey & Sam's house to play games with all our friends. It seemed like after that we hung out every night. Spring semester ended and we decided to take an early morning theatre class over the summer. We had a lot of fun dates. We donated blood, stayed up all night running at "Relay for Life", stayed the weekend at Lake Powell on a houseboat with our friends, camped at my manager's cabin in the mountains, shopped in Park City & Salt Lake, drove to Vegas for a concert, countless movies in the theatre and rented, and every Sunday night playing games with Lacey & Sam. My favorite thing we did was sit in his living room on the couch at night and look out his huge windows that overlooked St George. His house sits on a hill and you can see the whole city lit up at night. It's just beautiful!

Happenings

2012-01-29T17:33:00.000-08:00

January is definitely our month to stay home and just relax. By relax, I mean we've been extra lazy. I've been reading a lot and watching too much tv. But there have been a few fun happenings this month.

Photo taken by Jill's sister in law. Hopscotch studios.

Baby Zoe was born on January 10th. She is the second niece on my side of the family. She was 8 pounds and 12.9 ounces. I've seen a few photos and videos of the two girls together and LaNea seems like a great big sister. Jill & Eric are blessing Zoe in March and we are planning on flying to Texas for the weekend. Can't wait to hold this little one.

We drove down to SG last weekend for a little getaway. We haven't been down since October so it was really fun to see everyone. We had dinner with Laura & Fernando on the first night at Peppers. It's a cheap Mexican place in Bloomington. Real good! I ran/walked in the SG half marathon on Saturday. The weather was overcast when I started but a complete downpour the last few miles. It was a fun race with lots of people. I'm hoping that run will help jump start me to being more active in 2012!

Last but not least, we had a few friends over for game night at our new house. I love that we have room to have people over now. We ate some treats and played Pictionary. Jace & I can get a little competitive with games. We love that our friends will put up with us!

Andy's Daycare Fiasco

2012-01-10T17:19:00.000-08:00

Sorry guys, I know I'm one of those super annoying people that are obsessed with their dogs. But until I have kids and somebody takes Andy's spot, you'll have to deal with my dog posts. I forgot to blog about Andy getting kicked out of daycare. It's a funny story now...back when it happened, I was in tears and blaming Jace for being away. Andy is a nervous dog, extremely high strung and freaks out a lot. Anybody who has the pleasure of dogsitting him knows this. He cries and howls whenever Jace leaves, he shakes uncontrollably on car rides and panics anytime you put your shoes on. Eventually he calms down but it takes him awhile. Jace works from home so Andy doesn't get left alone very often. But when we go out or on vacation, we take Andy to the Puppy Lounge. Its a little daycare for small dogs in SLC. He loves it there! The girls are very sweet, everyone knows his name and they take really good care of him.

But after the move, Andy started getting moody. He stopped liking to go to the Puppy Lounge, hated going into the bathroom (even when we offered ham or bacon) and seemed over all kinda sad. After the move, we headed to Lake Powell and then to Europe and on top of all that Jace started having to go to Phoenix for business for a week each month. I work 8-5 so I would take Andy to Puppy Lounge on my way to work. In December, I went to pick him up and one of the girls asked if she could talk to me. She said Andy has been acting very upset lately, showing aggression at times, avoiding all other dogs and basically being unhappy. She said we should probably take a break from the Puppy Lounge. I felt terrible! Its bad enough to take him to daycare for 8 hours and now I was going to have to leave him in the bathroom instead. I asked her what she thought I should do and her response was that I should sit him down and explain the situation to him. She said a really long talk between the two of us might straighten things out. (OK, Crazy! I've been laughing abou this comment ever since)

I left Andy in the bathroom the next day while I was at work and came home to find the entire bathroom covered in poop. It was on the floor, toilet, walls, everywhere. And Andy started getting up in the middle of the night with diarrhea too. If I woke up in time, I could let him outside but if not he would sneak downstairs and poop. This kept up for a few days until Jace got back. Anders kept having tummy issues until we finally took him to the vet. He had lost 2 pounds (which is a lot for a 11 pound dog), got a bacterial infection and need an IV from being so dehydrated. Poor little guy!

Since then, we have tried not to leave him for extended periods of time and exercise with him more. But I'm still not sure what's going to happen next time Jace goes out of town. The things this we do for this dog!!!

Happy 2012!

2012-01-03T12:44:00.000-08:00

2012…Can’t believe it! That’s ten years since I graduatedfrom high school. I swear I don’t feel that old! 2011 was an eventful and crazyyear for us. We had a lot going on and the majority of it was pretty awesome. We got to do so many fun things and accomplished a lot of stuff on my bucket list.

New House

Graduated with my Bachelors in Accounting

My first trip to Europe

Bad news about the condo

San Diego with Hirschi Family

Lake Powell with friends

Andy was kicked out of doggie daycare

Almost moved to San Francisco

Hanging with Newey family in SG

Photos with Shar

Lost iPhone and dumpster diving

And as always a few trips to Park City & Vegas

I have a feeling this next year is going to be a great one. Even years tend to be! Happy 2012!

CHRISTMAS

2011-12-26T12:30:00.000-08:00

Christmas this year was exceptionally great! We had fun just taking it easy and hanging out with family and friends. We spent Christmas Eve in Ogden at the annual Bonnemort Christmas party. Definitely wasn't the same without Steve and Shelley but it was fun to see everyone and eat all the good food. Christmas day, we worked on a puzzle my dad sent in the morning. Jace loses patience real fast with puzzles but I think it's fun listening to Christmas music and working on it. Later, we headed over to Kassi's house to have lunch and see what the girls got from Santa. We ate a ton again (notice a pattern, lots of eating) and had a good time getting to know their new German Shepard puppy Dixie. Plus I got to talk to all my family on Christmas. Lots of phone calls and texting with everyone. I'm sad December is just about over. It's been so fun to check the mail everyday and find cards and gifts from everyone. Hope you guys had a great Holiday season!

Tis the Season

2011-12-13T17:09:00.000-08:00

Do you love or hate Christmas gifts? I kinda wish Christmas wasn’t so centered around the gifts. I love buying gifts for other people, especially for my niece LaNea. But sometimes the Holiday season gets a bit stressful and trying to find a last minute gift in the crowded mall can be a nightmare. Ask Jace, last year I nearly had a panic attack in Bath & Body Works. Too many people in a small space! So this year, I rushed to get all my Christmas shopping done early. Now I can sit back and enjoy all the really fun stuff about December. Like coming home to a mailbox full of Christmas cards, Holiday parties with friends, Christmas treats, baking pumpkin or gingerbread treats, skiing, Christmas music, cinnamon candles and watching Elf.

Robyn invited me to join her family for dinner and seeing the lights. We ate at the Lion House with their awesome rolls and honey butter and then walked through Temple Square. Luke & Jake got so excited about all the lights, cracked me up when Luke called the tree a "fire tree". Reminded me of stuff we used to do in high school for date nights.

Thankful

2011-11-27T09:44:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving is such a great holiday because it always makes me think of the stuff in life that I am most thankful for. I spend a lot of time thinking about all the things that I want and sometimes I forget to remember how much I have. I am grateful for so much but mostly the people in my life! Jace, my family, my friends, my co-workers, my neighbors, everyone! This year my relationships are the thing that I am most thankful for.

We spent Thanksgiving here in Salt Lake. That almost never happens. Normally, we head to St George and spend the day with Jace's family but this year they came up. Kassi, Jace's sister, cooked an awesome Thanksgiving meal. My favorites-the mashed potatoes, homemade strawberry jam on rolls and asparagus! Before dinner, we ran in the Farmington Turkey Trot, a 5k race around the park next to the Udy house. Scott, Wick, Jace and I ran the 5k and Eliza and Naomi ran the 1k. It was such a fun way to spend the morning. Plus you felt a little less guilty about overeating later in the day. After dinner, we saw the new Muppet Movie. So funny! I especially loved all the music, I heard that Jason Segel wrote most of it.

A few weeks ago, we spent the weekend in Park City with friends. We wanted to have a little getaway from the house stuff. We tried snow shoeing for the first time at Deer Valley. I definitely overdressed! I wore all my ski gear in preparation for the cold but I was sweating by the first 15 minutes. Once we made it to the trail, we had a lot of fun just roaming around. I love staying in Park City during the off season. We were basically the only ones at the resort and had the hot tubs to ourselves every night.

Where did November go?

2011-11-21T17:47:00.001-08:00

I'm having a hard time figuring out where October and November went! We have been spending every weekend working on the house, mostly just cleaning, painting, driving to IKEA and making small adjustments. But I'm happy to say that the whole upstairs is finally looking decent. We definitely still have tons more work but I could finally have people over without dying of embarrassment.

We've also spent a bunch of time wandering and enjoying our new neighborhood. We found a new dog walking route, raked a ton of leaves, and I have even had to start scraping snow off my car in the morning. Sure do miss the heated garage! This was the first Halloween where I've passed out candy to the trick or treaters. I gave out candy while watching Hocus Pocus and eating handfuls of Skittles & Laffy Taffy.

And like everybody else, I'm in love with the Instagram ap! I think it's so much fun to play with. Mostly I just take tons of photos of Andy since he's the only one who will let me.

Bonnemort's Mission

2011-10-25T16:50:00.000-07:00

On Saturday night, I said goodbye to the Bonnemorts for 2 years. Steve and Shelley are headed on a LDS medical mission to the island of Tarawa Island in the Marshall Islands. Tarawa is a tiny little place between Fiji and Hawaii. Shelley will be the nurse for the missionaries on the island and Steve will be assisting her with the work.

I know they are going to love their new adventure but I’m going to really miss them. Steve and Shelley have been second parents to me since both my dad & mom live out of state. I lived with them during my senior year in high school, stayed with Steve during the summer he was working in DC, attended lots their family get togethers, partied on almost every Christmas Eve and my favorite, the frequent dinners at their home. They are both so easy to talk to and I always love spending time with them. Growing up, their house was always the place our friends ended up at. I can’t imagine what their food bill has been over the years! I was looking through old photos and I swear half my high school photos were taken at their house. They are such amazing people and mean so much to me. Good luck Steve & Shelley!!!

Our backyard

2011-10-16T19:22:00.000-07:00

Having a backyard is one of the things we were looking forward to most with our new house. We can't wait to use our patio and have some summer BBQ's next year. Our backyard has 6 fruit trees and one of them is a pear tree. A few weeks ago, we picked a whole box of pears. Neither one of us is a huge fresh pear fan so we've been trying to give some away. I'm going to try canning the pears next year, Jace grew up eating canned pears that Glenda made and he loves them.

Andy hasn't loved the backyard as much as we thought he would. He'll go outside and play a little but he'd rather nap inside. His favorite spot in the new house is right by the front door in a little sun spot. He also has the hardest time with all the wood floors. His feet don't get enough traction and he's constantly running into walls when we play fetch. It's really funny to watch! We bought a few rugs to try and help him out.

Paris

2011-10-09T18:03:00.000-07:00

Last but not least is Paris! We really can't say we got to explore Paris at all. We took an overnight train from Florence but flew home the next day. By the way, the train ride was hilarious! Cram 6 people into a tiny room with bunks three high and you'll have quite the night. Funny now but a disaster then. We had 24 hours to see a few of the sights around Paris and we decided we wanted to see the Eiffel Tower, Champ de Elysees, and Arc de Triomphe. The Eiffel Tower was stunning and I'm so happy we got to see it on our trip. Since we were only in Paris for one day, we walked everywhere and tried to see a lot and by seven we were exhausted. So exhausted that we ordered McDonalds and ate dinner in our hotel room! We never even tried real French cuisine!

Florence & San Gimignano

2011-10-07T14:33:00.000-07:00

We flew from London to Pisa and as soon as I stepped off the plane I know I was going to love Italy. The weather was PERFECT! Sunny and warm the entire time. After two countries of overcast weather and wearing a coat, Italy felt ideal. We rode a bus to Florence and wandered around the city. I found everything in Italy to be beautiful, the cobblestone streets, the people, the language, the food. We sat on a bridge and watched the sunset that first night while eating gelato. Heaven! Later we took a short bus ride to San Gimignano, it's a little town on a hill in Tuscany. We stayed at a bed & breakfast just outside the town that had a pool with an incredible view of the landscape. Jace & I barely left the pool! We sat outside, read & relaxed. Each night, we walked into town for dinner where we ate pizza, pasta & gelato. Italy might have ruined all other pizza and pasta for me, nothing is ever going to compare. I can't say enough good things about Italy. I felt like everything I saw belonged on a postcard. I can't wait to go back and visit Rome, Venice, Naples & Capri.

London

2011-10-06T19:12:00.000-07:00

After four days in Ireland, we took the ferry over to England and rode the train to London. It was strange how much London felt like New York City minus the skyscrapers. It really didn’t feel foreign to me at all. We stayed at a hotel just across the Thames river from Big Ben. We spent the first few days in London hitting all the major tourist sites-Big Ben, Westminster, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, Trafalgar Square, and Tower Bridge. I loved just walking through the neighborhoods especially Chelsea. I should have brought a pedometer on the trip to track our miles around town. We walked all over! We found a few restaurants that I loved-Pret A Manger had awesome take away sandwiches & Wagamama had the best ramen I’ve ever had. I’m hoping both of these make their way to the US.

We took a day trip to Salisbury and Stonehenge one day. The little town of Salisbury was really neat in the middle of the English countryside and it had a gorgeous cathedral. Stonehenge was my favorite part of our trip in England. It’s completely picturesque and we learned a lot about the history there. We spent another day touring the Wimbledon tennis park. We really wanted to get tickets to watch a tennis match during Wimbledon this year but the tickets are given out through a lottery process. Sadly we didn’t win but we toured the place anyways. Maybe next year!

Dublin & Dingle

2011-09-29T19:32:00.000-07:00

We had so much fun on our vacation and got to see so many great places, I want to remember everything! I thought I would break the trip down by country so up first is Ireland. We were so excited about seeing Ireland. I've seen “PS I Love You” and “Leap Year” so I was thrilled about seeing the landscape. It didn't disappoint! We spent the first day in Dublin exploring the city. We saw Trinity College, Christ Church Cathedral, and the famous Temple Bar. We then drove from Dublin to Dingle, a small town on the southern peninsula. You drive on the left side of the road in Ireland which took a minute to get used to but the real challenge was the very narrow roads. Driving on a two lane road with no shoulder going 100 km per hour is scary! Dingle is a cute little fishing town which is only about a block wide. We stayed a fun bed and breakfast that served us a full Irish breakfast each morning with the best homemade bread. Slea Head loop is the famous drive around the peninsula that has amazing views of the cliffs and Blasket Islands. We stopped halfway through the drive and went on a hike through a sheep pasture along this rocky cliff. It was so dramatic with the green everywhere and the ocean below. We weren't too far off from the road but it felt like you were the only people there. I swear the photos don’t do it justice. We kept saying we would give anything for our yard to look like that. We got really lucky with the weather and we were able to go out each morning and see things before the rain would pick up. The rain never lasts long but it’s rains off & on every day.

Lake Powell

2011-09-28T19:57:00.001-07:00

After buying the house, I think time sped up! It seemed like there were five million things that we needed to do in order to get our condo ready for the renter and our house ready for us to live. We had packed up our entire condo and cleaned the new house so I felt prepared. Friends asked if we needed help and I really didn’t think we did. I WAS SO WRONG! Note to self: Ask for help when moving! We rented the Uhaul on a Saturday morning and didn’t finish moving our stuff until after 2am. Our friends, Will & Mari, saved us by showing up at 10pm to help with the last load. I know people say that moving is a lot of work but I completely underestimated how much work it was going to be. So glad we won't be moving again for a long while!

The Wednesday after the move, we drove down to Lake Powell to celebrate Adam Mulcock’s 30th birthday. After such a stressful week, it was so nice to relax on the houseboat with friends. The weather was perfect and the lake wasn’t busy at all. Mostly we just hung out in the sun, played games, read, competed in a bocce tournament and eat some good food. (We had an delicious avocado and corn salad!) Crazy thing happened on Friday morning, I decided to try wakeboarding. I had tried it once before when we went to Lake Powell with the Mulcocks a few years ago. I got up and was going along, I thought I was doing ok but then I crashed really hard. The boat hurried back around to get me after my fall and they helped me into the boat. I was really shook up and they started asking me questions about where I lived and how old I was. It was the strangest thing but I couldn’t remember! They rushed me back to the houseboat where Jace was still sleeping and I took a couple Tylenol. It took me an hour or so before I felt normal. I went to the Dr after we got back and it turns out I ruptured my ear drum from the fall. I probably won’t be wakeboarding again for a while! I did try surfing behind the boat after and it was really fun. Plus the falling part was a lot easier. Natalie really set the bar high with 30th birthday parties!

Shauni's Wedding

2011-09-26T18:43:00.000-07:00

Shauni and I have worked together now for almost 5 years and she has become one of my bestest friends. We sit just feet away from each other and so she gets to hear every minute detail of my life. She is the person I turn to when I need to rant about something, complain about my day or just talk. She is the most amazing listener, she is supportive of everything I do and I know she always has my back. We’ve had some of the best times going to drinks at Bayou after work! When things in my life have been crazy, I’ve been able to turn to her and she’s been the greatest friend. It’s the best thing to be able to completely open up to someone and know that they won’t judge you or love you any less. She’s my person and I can’t imagine what I would do without her.

Shauni & Mike met through a mutual friend and were married on July 30^th. These two are such a cute couple; they bring out the best in each other and want the same things in life. I couldn’t be happier for the two of them! I had so much fun getting to hear about all the details while she was planning her big day. The day itself couldn’t have been more perfect! The weather was warm, flowers were beautiful and she looked AMAZING!

Shauni had Camilla Binks as her wedding photographer and her good friend Becky Monsen took their engagements & groomals. I think the photos capture her personality and the night perfectly. She's absolutely gorgeous in these. Check them out!

Camilla Binks

Becky Monsen

NEW HOUSE

2011-09-24T08:33:00.000-07:00

GUESS WHAT!!! We bought a house!!!

We are so excited and relieved and overwhelmed! Jace & I rented in Sugarhouse for the first few years we were married. I immediately fell in love with the area. All the houses are super old and have tons of character, the streets are lined with big trees and it’s still close to downtown SLC. We looked a buying in this neighborhood back in 2008 when we bought our condo but everything was way out of price range. The only upside for us to all the housing market drama is we can actually afford something here now. We (mostly Jace) have spent months and months looking at homes, searching the utahrealestate.com website, stalking real estate agents, and peaking in peoples windows. I love looking through other people’s homes! It’s so fun to see how they are decorated and imagine yourself in their place.

Our house is on a quiet street really close to the elementary/jr high. It has a big backyard and a doggie door ready to go for Andy! The home is definitely a fixer upper. We have so many plans for the house that we can’t wait to get started. It’s going to be super long project as we save up for the renovation but I’ll keep you updated on the changes we make. I’m really going to miss my big bathroom, walk in closet and pool/gym at the condo. But I’m super excited to have a backyard, a dining room and my own mailbox at the new one.

Here is a little blog Jace made to post photos of the house for our family to see while we were considering purchasing it. As you'll see from the photos, the house needs a lot of work. I'll post more as we make improvements. http://1916texas.blogspot.com/

Feels good to be home!

2011-09-20T04:46:00.000-07:00

Our trip to Europe was amazing! We got to see so much in the short time we were there. I can't wait to post all our photos but for now here are the photos from my iPhone. The last half of summer was a whirlwind of moving, vacations and craziness! I'm hoping to get myself caught up and organized.

Loving Summer

2011-07-31T09:30:00.000-07:00

Wow! This summer is sure flying by. I'm always so anxious for it to get warm and when it does I think time speeds up. We've been real busy this summer but I've failed to take many photos. We've mostly been spending time with friends, enjoying the pool and gearing up to buy a house. More on the house in my next post! Jace's dad gets tickets to the Bee's game every year and we go eat a little picnic before. This year was no exception. I love that we get to see Jace's family so often!

Three weeks ago, we headed to Vegas with our friends Will & Mari. It was a short weekend trip to lay out by the pool and eat lots of good food. We stayed at Green Valley Ranch in Henderson. The hotel was in a great spot, away from the strip but right by tons of restaurants and shopping. Dinner was at Grimaldi's and we tried a new Mexican place that overlooked the city, Lindo Michucan. The first night, we saw Norm MacDonald at The Orleans. Norm was looking really old but he was hilarious. His bits on cheese sandwiches were cracking me up.
I was recommended this book by a girl from work and I borrowed it from Glenda. So far I love it! I was nervous because I definitely didn't like "Grapes of Wrath" in high school but this book seems way better. It's a great story that has sucked me in.

Park City

2011-07-30T07:41:00.000-07:00

We spent the weekend with friends in Park City. I can’t begin to tell you how beautiful PC is in the summer, especially this year from all our rain. Everything was soo green! We rented a condo near Kimball Junction and spent the weekend just hanging out. The first night, we tried this pizza place called Maxwells. I’m a big pizza lover especially when they have really flat crust. It was pretty good. We spent Saturday going a little bike ride, laying out by the pool, shopping the outlets and finally dinner at good ole Baja Cantina. We hit the Sunday farmers market “Park Silly Market” before we headed home. Alicia made some amazing fruit pizza for us all to snack on at the condo. It's the best dessert plus its really easy to make. And if I'm saying that then it's definitely true.

The weekend was the perfect escape. We've been having lots of stress with our condo and it was sure nice to get away. I love that our friends still get together for weekends like this! It’s so great that we’re able to live close by and travel together every once in a while. I sure love these girls!

San Diego

2011-06-21T20:01:00.000-07:00

Every year, Jace's mom, Glenda plans a trip for the whole family. This year we headed to San Diego with all 9 kids and 10 adults. We went to Sea World, San Diego Zoo and the beach. Every morning, we would all head out and wouldn't get back to the hotel until around 9. I would immediately go straight to bed! It's amazing how much energy kids have. I love spending time with all the nieces and nephews; they are still at an age where they think it's really fun to hang out with me. I'm sure that's not going to last long!

The beach day was my favorite part of the trip. We packed up tons of snacks, drinks, towels and toys and headed to Coronado beach. It was great weather and Coronado has some amazing sand-it sparkles gold when it gets wet. I would give anything to live by the ocean-especially if it meant I didn't have six months of winter each year!

Glenda says next year we're going camping. That will be an adventure, can't wait.

Can't wait...

2011-06-12T17:44:00.000-07:00

We bought tickets to Europe! I have always wanted to go and we're headed in September. So far all we have done is get the plane tickets, I'm nervous about planning the rest. We got lucky when we went to Thailand and Ben planned our whole trip. For now, I'm reading a lot of guide books and trying to find as many travel blogs as I can to get advice. The plan is fly into Ireland, England, Italy and finally Paris. I can't wait!

Dirty Dash

2011-06-05T17:37:00.000-07:00

This Saturday, we headed up to Soldier Hollow for the Dirty Dash. It's a 5k with hay bales to climb, walls to go over, mud pits, slip & slides, and lots & lots of mud. Jace, Tiffinie, me, the Barkers and the whole Mulcock family made up our team. We took over an hour to complete the run but made sure we got really dirty the whole way. The entire race was hilarious!

U2 and NO TV!

2011-05-25T19:09:00.000-07:00

Is it summer yet? I can't believe all this rainy weather we've been having. At least it's almost June and I'm sure the sun is just around the corner. And I've decided I'm not watching any TV this summer! I hate when I waste my evenings watching television shows I don't even care about. I want to spend as much time outside as possible, plus it's my summer of reading.

Yesterday, Jace got two free tickets to the U2 concert. We took trax up to the Rice Eccles stadium and luckily the weather held out. U2 put an a great show, those guys are awesome performers. The set alone was incredible.

Family Time

2011-05-03T18:57:00.000-07:00

I got to spend the last week with my mom, two sisters and little niece. We headed down to Saint George on Friday. My mom rented us a condo in Green Springs and we had a crazy busy weekend. Jace & I went on a small bike ride up to Gunlock, we shopped the outlet mall, laid out by the pool with a good book, played card games & Scattegories, watched some HGTV and ate TONS of food. I think it's funny how many of our vacations are completely centered around where we are going to eat.

Laura wanted to visit Zion National Park while we were in town. We headed up and went on the hike to the Emerald Pools. It was a beautiful day! We brought Andy with up to the park and realized halfway up that dogs weren't allowed in that part of the park. Whoops! Luckily nobody noticed until we were headed back to the car. After the hike, we had lunch at Oscars-my favorite restaurant in Springdale.

Jill, LaNea, Linda, Laura and her boyfriend Fernando. It was Laura's birthday on Monday and Fernando surprised her with a little party at their apartment. He decorated, had flowers, presents and a cake. He's a sweetie!
Andy got soo dirty on the hike but he loved every minute of it.

I couldn't get enough of LaNea! She is the happiest little girl and makes the funniest faces. She has the sweetest voice especially when she says "bye" and "love you". I think we spent half the weekend fighting for her attention.

Summer of Reading

2011-04-16T12:53:00.000-07:00

I've decided that this summer is going to be my "Summer of Reading". I'm going to sit outside and read every weekend. (Unless we buy a house or start this new business we're talking about-then it might be the summer of something else) But if we don't, then it's definitely reading.

I'm trying to get a good collection of books to read. My problem with good books is I can never put them down. I can't wait to find out what happened next and I'll stay up late and get up early to finish. Which means my books don't last long, so I'm going to need a big list. Any suggestions?

On my list so far:
Bossypants by Tina Fey
Opposite of Me by Sara Pekkanen
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey

Oh and did you see the two movies coming out "Water for Elephants" and "Something Borrowed"? Both books are definitely worth reading-hope the movies are good too.

Vegas

2011-04-06T14:55:00.001-07:00

We went to St George & Vegas this last week. We got really lucky with the weather, it was sunny and in the 80’s the whole trip. Definitely makes me ready for some sun in Salt Lake. We rode our bikes up Snow Canyon, laid out by the pool, and mostly just relaxed. We barely even shopped! I just wanted to spend as much time outside as we could. The highlight of the trip was probably dinner at Grimaldi’s in Sumerlin (just outside Vegas). It was the amazing. I’ve heard of Grimaldi’s in Brooklyn but we’ve never been. They just expanded and opened a location in Las Vegas. Everything was soo good. Ceasar salad, fresh cheese pizza and cheesecake. YUM!

Oh and exciting news! My mom, Jill and LaNea are all coming to visit the end of April. I can’t wait!

One month closer to summer!

2011-03-21T10:11:00.001-07:00

I can’t believe March is almost over! Seems like this month has been a bit of rollercoaster, but I’m excited we’re one month closer to summer. The park next to our house opened for the season today, now Andy can run around and get some of his pent up energy out. I graduated this month with my BS in Accounting! It feels so amazing to FINALLY be done. I’m excited to spend the summer reading tons of books and not feel guilty about procrastinating my homework. I decided not to walk but Jace happens to have a cap & gown because of his job at WGU. I might take a couple pics of me all dressed up and pretend that I walked.

A while back, we spent the weekend in the St George. It was a super short trip but the weather was amazing. It’s weekends like this one that make me think I could live in St George. We took our bikes and went on a little ride around Ivins with Jace’s dad, Scott, and our friend Greg.

I have a funny story! Jace & I went to lunch at Paradise Bakery on Friday. I left to refill my drink and the waitress took my tray & dumped it. I headed back to work for the rest of the day but when I headed home, I realized I didn’t have my phone. I drove over to Paradise and asked the manager if they had found a phone. Nobody had seen it! I drove home to check in Jace’s car to see if it had fallen out there but I just KNEW it was at Paradise. I remembered having my phone on the tray and assumed it had been thrown away. I got home and told Jace my theory so Jace drove back with me to Paradise and I asked the manager if I could check the garbage in the kitchen for my phone. He led me back and we looked in the garbage and tried to call my phone. But the phone was on vibrate so we couldn’t hear it. I was totally embarrassed so we left and drove home! I kept thinking about it and decided I should give it one last try. We drove back to Paradise at 8:30pm and asked one last time to check their garbage. The workers spread out all the garbage bags from the day on the kitchen floor in the back and we called my phone. We all listened to see if we could hear it vibrate but we couldn’t hear anything. Disappointed, I decided it was time to give up. But that night, Jace had a great idea! My phone is set up with Bluetooth to my car, this makes it so I can receive calls through the speakers of my car and don’t have to pull my phone out of my purse. Jace figured that if my phone ended up in the Paradise dumpster then the car would still be able to pick up the signal. It was a long shot but we decided to get up early the next morning and try. We drove the Paradise dumpster for the 4th time and Jace called my phone. Sure enough, the phone rang on the speaker system in my car! Now we definitely KNEW it was in the dumpster but we still had to find it. Four bags later, I found my iPhone. SUPER GROSS BUT SO AMAZING!!!

Food Love/Hate

2011-03-05T16:07:00.000-08:00

Can't believe it is already March! We've had a couple sunny days and I'm completely & totally ready for summer. I can't wait for it to stay bright outside until eight, for the park next to our house to open and for my car to be soo hot that it burns my hands to touch the steering wheel. I love EVERYTHING about summer.

And in preparation for summer and swim suit season, I'm trying to be careful about what I eat. But it seems like every time I try to diet, all I can think about is food. Like how much I love:

Claussen's Kosher Dill pickles. I became obsessed with these in high school and I still love them. It's normal to eat a jar of pickles in a week right?

Bajio's small ensalada. Yep, Bajio has replaced Cafe Rio as my favorite food. I think their smaller portions and corn won me over.
Sugar cookies! Jace's sister Kassi makes the best sugar cookies in the whole world. I've tried to make them myself but they never turn out correctly. Hers are amazing!
Sushi. Takashi is my favorite sushi place in town but I'll even eat Costco or Harmon's sushi. Love the stuff.

Still HATE peanut butter!
And definitely HATE tuna noodle casserole. Tiffinie brought this to work the other day and I just about died. My dad used to make this for me and my siblings. He'd make a huge pot and we'd eat it for what seemed like weeks. DISGUSTING!!!
I'm still trying to decide if I like tomatoes or not. Some days I think I do. Like when I eat caprese salad with lots balsamic vinegar.
And I'm still deciding on Indian food too. I keep trying it and I can't make up my mind. Chicken coconut curry is good but I'm not sure about some of the others.

I think I must be hungry! :)

So Close...

2011-01-17T16:07:00.000-08:00

I am SO close to graduating! Really really close! I'm getting my degree in Accounting from Western Governors University. Its been the perfect school for me because everything is online and I can do it all at my own pace. I have basically spent January trying to complete all my homework and exams as fast as I can. I still need to complete two more assignments and one final paper. Then I'm done! Hallelujah!!!

But since I can't concentrate all the time, I've been finding tons of stuff I love on the interweb.

I love my current duvet cover but I hate the duvet. It slides all over and I feel like I'm constantly adjusting it. Plus its way too hot in the summer for a duvet so I've been looking for a quilt to replace it with. I love this one in white! west elm

These books are adorable and I love the bookends too. anthro & west elm

Alicia posted about this book on Goodreads and I can't wait to read it. Sounds really interesting!

Love this dress! Just hoping it will go on sale. anthro

And I keep daydreaming about my next vacation! Vegas, San Diego, Mexico, anywhere with lots of sunshine!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

2010-12-26T10:27:00.001-08:00

Our Christmas was exactly what I wanted this year! We had the best time just relaxing with family & friends. This year we stayed home in Salt Lake for Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve at the Bonnemort's Annual Christmas party. So many people & tons of food! You should have seen the giant roast beef that Steve cooked. Christmas morning, I talked to everyone in my family on the phone and then we went to see the Udy family, Jace's sister, in Farmington. Kassi had lots of good food for us to snack on while the girls showed everything Santa brought them. We had dinner with the Marcottes at this Indian restaurant, Kathmandu, and we came home and watched Elf.
I hope you guys all had a MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Holiday Season

2010-12-21T17:54:00.000-08:00

I just love this season! There is always so much stuff to do to celebrate Christmas. Trying to find time for everything seems to be the hardest part! December flies so I'm making sure I enjoy every moment. As a gift to myself, I took every Friday off work this month. Best gift ever! Robyn hosted our annual friends Christmas party at her parents' house. It was so fun to see everyone and we had lots of great food. Thanks so much to Steve & Shelley for letting us come and take over your house.
We stayed the night in Park City with the Heisers, Berlins & Ryan last weekend. We had dinner, shopping at the JCrew outlet and then hot tubbing. On Saturday, we skied at the Canyons resort. The weather turned out to be perfect and the resort is huge. This was Jace's first time on skis in 15 years-he normally snow boards. He had a couple good falls.
I decided I wanted to try building gingerbread houses this year from real gingerbread. Wow! It's a lot of work! Tiffinie gave me a great recipe and it basically took me all day to mix, bake, roll, cut and decorate the house. But they turned out great! Plus I got to spend the whole day singing along to Christmas music with Jace & Andy.
Don't you love Jace's mid century modern house!

Thanksgiving

2010-11-27T14:55:00.000-08:00

We headed down to St George to spend Thanksgiving with the Hirschi family. Jace's sister, Kassi, cooked dinner this year and it was delicious! I love her sweet potato casserole, homemade jam and rolls. We had a full house with 10 adults, 9 kids and 3 dogs. After dinner, we went to the movie "Megamind". I love kids movies like that-I think I find them funnier than the kids do. We spent the whole weekend just hanging out and relaxing.

And now it's officially the Christmas season! I love this time of year!

Scott, Glenda & all the grandkids

Laura spent Thanksgiving day with the family she lives with so we met up on Friday for some breakfast at Bear Paw. It's our favorite place-love the home fries. We spent the rest of the day shopping at Santa Workshop & the mall.

Jace & Scott all decked out in their biking gear. Jace was able to go bike a couple times while we were down; I chickened out because it was sooo cold.

Grateful....

2010-11-19T23:46:00.000-08:00

Tis the season to be grateful...

Jace, cuddling with Andy, my supportive mom, Salt Lake, family, amazing girlfriends, my job, health, long phone calls, page-turning books, my home, slippers, good night sleep, a successful long run, vacations, in-laws, my part-time job at JCrew, nights out with the girls, chips & salsa, cute shoes, holidays, the feeling when I've done a really good job, prayer, clean house, almost being done with school, our budget, photos, laughs that make you cry, shopping trips, hitting my goal weight, second chances, blogs and any day in the sun. The list goes on & on!

Happy Birthday Mom!

2010-11-09T18:06:00.000-08:00

Aren't moms the best? I was just talking about my mom today at lunch and how I'm turning into her. I have so many of her quirky habits and we tell stories the exact same way. It's funny how that happens! You swear when you're little that you'll never be like your parents. I always said I'd never make my girls wear curlers and I'd give my kids their own room. But the older I get, the more & more I sound, act and even look like my mom. Good thing I love her to death! Happy birthday mom!

Happy Halloween

2010-11-04T21:01:00.000-07:00

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

This is the first year Jace & I have ever carved pumpkins. We had a date night with dinner and pumpkin carving. Turned out to be a lot of fun! We'll have to do it again. On Halloween night, we went trick-or-treating with our in-laws, the Udy family. It was rainy but we were still able to stop by a couple houses.

FIREDOG! Andy goes to a doggie daycare, The Puppy Lounge, a couple times a week because Jace and I work all day. The Puppy Lounge had a Halloween party where everyone dressed up. I couldn't help but get Andy a costume. I thought he'd hate wearing the costume but he really didn't seem to mind it other than the hat. I think he looks super cute!

Witches Night Out

2010-10-24T12:25:00.000-07:00

Alicia heard about the Witches Night Out at Gardner Village and we decided to check it out. Everyone dresses up as a witch and you wander around the Halloween town, shop and eat treats. I was shocked at how many people come to this and everyone gets really dressed up. It a fun way to get in the Halloween spirit!
Emily and I were saying that that Gardner Village reminds us of the town in Hocus Pocus. Makes we want to rent this movie. It's a Halloween classic!

LaNea

2010-10-20T15:38:00.000-07:00

This is my niece! Isn't she adorable! I mostly get to watch her grow up in photos and through the videos that Jill posts. Last time I held her she was tiny. LaNea just turned one last month; she's growing up so fast!

SG Marathon

2010-10-11T17:58:00.000-07:00

I made it! I had so much fun at the Saint George marathon. I got up early Saturday morning and Jace drove me & Scott downtown to the bus drop off. The starting line was packed! Thousands of runners huddled around little bonfires, tons of port-a-potties and music playing. Everyone is so excited, it’s really contagious. I know this is nerdy but I got really choked up and emotional during my first mile. I was just so happy to be able to run and all the runners around me and the beautiful morning. I LOVED IT! I felt really good for the first 16 miles. But when I hit mile 18 and Winchester Hill, I just about died. It was so hot by that time and all of a sudden I was exhausted. I walked for a couple miles and then my friend, Tiffinie, & my sister, Laura, met me at mile 23 and ran with me to the finish line. Finish time 5:50:34!

My favorite part of the race was all of the support along the way! All of the volunteers at the aid stations were so encouraging and happy to be there. They would read my name off the race bib and yell “You’re doing great Melissa”. The course was covered in the posters, signs and balloons encouraging the runners. Plus my family & friends were an amazing support! Jace, Glenda & Andy met me in Veyo, Snow Canyon, Bluff street to see if I needed anything and cheer me along. My mom flew in from Missouri to be here for the race. She took tons of photos along the course and at the finish. At the finish line, I was met by the entire Hirschi family, my mom, Laura, Tiffinie & Jace. Jace has definitely been my biggest support! He encouraged me to run on the days I really didn’t feel like it, asked how my run went after every run, helped me pick out shoes & running gear, and stayed on me about eating right.

While training for the race, I told myself I would NEVER want to do this again. But after crossing the finish line and getting that huge rush in adrenalin, I can see why people get so addicted. It was fun to be a part of something and it felt good to reach my goal. Plus I’m already thinking I could do better! So who knows, maybe I would give a marathon another chance.

My mom, me and Glenda

Kassi made Scott and I signs to cheer us on! This was Scott's 10th St George Marathon and his 17th marathon overall. He gave me tons of pointers about running and how to train.

Countdown

2010-09-30T10:14:00.000-07:00

So…this is it! My marathon! I can’t tell you how excited and nervous I am for the race. I’ve been counting down to this day all year and the anticipation is killing me. Training for this race has required so much more time and energy than I ever realized when I originally signed up. I started in January thinking five miles was forever long, ran the SG relay in March, 10 miles in the Riverwoods race in June, 20 miles in the Provo Canyon Marathon in August and now FINALLY the marathon on Saturday. I’ve definitely had my ups and downs in the process! I don’t think I’ll want to run the Legacy Parkway ever again. :) But hopefully Saturday will be a HUGE up! Wish me luck!!!

New York

2010-09-12T07:54:00.000-07:00

Our anniversary is over Labor Day weekend so we always love to plan a vacation around this time. The last couple years we've gone to New York for the US Open. Tennis is one of the few sports I really like to watch plus I love New York so its a win win. We stayed at Cooper Square this year and it was the perfect location. Great restaurants everywhere in that neighborhood and really close to the shopping in SoHo.

This trip had a lot of tennis! Thursday night, Andre Agassi was speaking at Townhall and we went and listened to him. I read his book "Open" and all his stories are so entertaining. He talked about stories in the book, about other players and his life now. I love Andre! Saturday, we sat in Madison Square Park and watched tennis on the big screen. They show all the matches and everyone comes out to watch. Sunday and Monday were spent at the Open. We got to see a lot of people I've never seen play before. Andy Murray, Sam Querry, Novak Djokovic, Maria Sharapova and Roger Federer. It was really sunny during the day and got nice and cool for the evening matches. Perfect weather to sit outside all day.

We got lucky and were able to see all our friends in NY this trip. We went to dinner with Trav & Mel to this sushi place called Bond St. Best sushi I've ever had! Nick Potter had us over to his restaurant Public and we tried their tasting menu which included Kobe Beef tongue, anchovies, oysters, and eggplant. We even made our way to Brooklyn which I've never done before to meet up with Joe & Heather for breakfast. The rest of the time we spent shopping, eating or watching HGTV. I heart NYC!

Running & Biking

2010-08-30T15:42:00.000-07:00

WOW! This weekend went by sooo fast! I ran 20 miles in the Provo Canyon Marathon on Saturday morning for part of my training for St George. We had to be on the bus by 4:45am at Riverwoods in Provo. Lucky for me, Bev Larsen lives just up the street and she let me stay the night with her on Friday. I got on the bus and there were only 50-60 other runners. We headed up Provo Canyon to the little town Walsburg and the bus stopped to let me and six other people out for the 20 mile start. No starting line or time or anything. But it was a beautiful run down the canyon as the sun came up. Plus Jace and Andy drove out to cheer my on! I felt awesome for my first ten miles and then I ran into a few snags. iPod crashed, rain started and the course for the race had us running on a dirt trail that got very narrow and muddy. I only made it 15 miles and then I started walking. I’m so happy I was at least able to finish and hopefully next time I’ll do even better.

After the race, we headed up to Bear Lake to meet the Heisers, Berlins & Marcottes. We ate dinner at a Mexican joint, Café Sabor, got shakes from La Beaus and then hung out at the condo for the evening. In the morning, we got up for our 50 mile ride around the lake. Beautiful day and the lake was so blue. We headed out and I was super slow from the start; we barely got going and my legs were burning. I only made it 25 miles before the wind started. A super sweet family passed me by in a truck and they could tell I was struggling. They offered to give me a ride and I’ve never been more grateful for anything. They took me the around the lake and dropped me off just a couple miles from our condo. I can’t thank that family enough-makes me want to do something kind for a complete stranger! I would have died if I had to continue. But everyone else in the group did AMAZING. They all powered through the wind and biked it out. We thought the ride would take around 4 hours but it ended up taking closer to 6. Crazy wind! The trip really motivated me. I can’t wait to get a road bike and start riding so next year I’ll make it all the way.

Recipes?

2010-08-22T13:05:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while, we decide to try cooking new things. Mostly we stick to the very few (5) items that we actually know how. But I'm so sick of everything I know how to make. I've been trying to find some good recipes recently and I haven't been having much luck. Its hard for me to know what recipes on the internet are good. What do you guys eat for dinner? Any recipes you want to share with me?
I did find this one recipe blog called Mrs Harding Cooks from Rockstar Diaries and her food looks delicious and normally the instructions & ingredients don't seem too overwhelming. I made the Mexican lasagna the other night. Turned out great! Jace said it's the best thing I've ever cooked and it was way easy. Hardest part was cleaning the food processor!

Navajo Lake

2010-08-08T15:46:00.000-07:00

We spent the weekend at Navajo Lake with the Berlins & Heisers. We headed down to Cedar on Thursday and drove up together to the cabin. The drive up the canyon is so beautiful! You can see all the way to Zions. I should have pulled over to take some photos. The cabin had a great little covered porch so Jace and I were able to sleep outside every night. We spent the weekend hiking, eating, biking, a canoe ride, playing games and made a little trip to Duck Creek for some pizza. We spent a lot the time just hanging out in the cabin talking and "snoodling" around.

Brian, Lola, Lindsay, Melissa, Ben, Jackson, & Alicia

Lindsay made some cupcakes for my birthday and we celebrated again at the cabin. I love the rainbow chip frosting!

Lucky Me

2010-08-04T10:27:00.000-07:00

Today is my birthday and I’m 26! It’s funny how birthdays change as you get older. As a kid, you can’t wait for the party and the presents. Now none of that matters. I LOVE my birthday because I get to hear from all my family and friends this day. Everyone makes an effort to contact you through texts, birthday cards, Facebook, phone calls and emails. Nothing makes me feel more special and loved than this. So thanks to everyone who sent me a little love today. I’m so lucky to have so many amazing people in my life!

And speaking of amazing people, I’m also fortunate enough to share my birthday with my GREAT friend Robyn. The Bonnemorts threw us a little party on Monday with Mexican food and banana crème cake. Lots of candles this year!

VEGAS!

2010-08-01T11:04:00.000-07:00

I don't know if you can tell but Vegas is my favorite vacation. It has everything I want. Sun, shopping and good food. We drove down to Vegas last weekend with our friends Xavi & Mel and stayed at the Hard Rock. We did all of my favorite things! Laid out at the pool all day, shopped at Town Square, Fashion Show & Caesars, went to a comedy show and played Blackjack at the Sahara. But I swear the majority of the trip was spent eating! The girls always wanted Mexican (Gardunos & Pink Taco) and the boys always wanted hamburgers so we made sure to eat at both every day. Even stopped by this place called Terribles for a huge breakfast on our way out of town. Maybe we can squeeze one more trip to Vegas before the summer ends!!!

Summer Crazy!

2010-07-18T11:44:00.000-07:00

So I think I've gone a little summer crazy. For the last six months, I was doing so well with my training schedule for the race and completing my classes for school. But now that summer is here, I've completely fallen off the wagon. All I want to do lately is be outside as much as possible, wear summer dresses, sit by the pool and read novels, and plan my next sunny vacation. I need to focus!

Jace's family came to town this weekend and we went to the Bee's game on Friday. It was super hot but really fun to see everyone.

4th & Park City

2010-07-12T15:38:00.000-07:00

I spent the majority of the fourth just hanging out around the house. I went to Logan to go swimming with Robyn and her boys. And on Friday, Jace & I went to the REAL game. We bought matching jerseys a while back and I was excited to finally get to wear them.

The Twilight concert series started on Thursday and Modest Mouse was the first band. They are one of my FAVORITE bands. Plus I love outdoor concerts especially when they are free! The concert was really crowded; I’m hoping next week will be a little less busy.

We had a packed house this last weekend! My mom and Josh came to stay with me on Friday. They had just spent the last two weeks in Mexico with some friends and stopped by Salt Lake on their way home. And we had some friends from St George come up for the weekend and stay with us too. We rented a condo up in Park City from the travel website I love, Jetsetter. The condo was at the Canyons and it was amazing. Jace just bought a new road bike so we went biking near Echo reservoir, laid out by the pool, dinner on Main St and mostly just sat out on the patio and talked.

Emily's Wedding

2010-06-13T10:29:00.000-07:00

This photo turned out super grainy. Hopefully I can steal a better one from somebody else! :)

Yesterday, Emily and Andrew were married at Log Haven up Millcreek Canyon. It had been a really rainy week and I thought for sure the ceremony would be rained out. But just as we took our seats, the sun came out. It was perfect! Everything was so green. Emily looked amazing! I'm so happy for these two. They've been together since high school and are a perfect fit.

And Saturday morning, I did my first 10 mile run. The Riverwoods 10M race in Provo. I got lucky with the weather here too. No rain! It was a beautiful run and just about all down hill. I'm still really slow but I finished. 1:53. Just 16 more weeks til the big race!

Pine Valley Cabin

2010-06-09T12:14:00.000-07:00

Every year Jace's mom, Glenda, plans a family vacation. The last two years, we have all gone to Disneyland. This year, they rented a cabin in Pine Valley-about an hour from St George. We spent the weekend eating, playing lots of card games, swimming at the Veyo pool, hiking, pictionary, fishing, watching movies and just enjoying the weekend. It was full house, really fun to see everyone!

I brought both my cameras but barely took any photos. :( Sad! I have nine adorable nieces and nephews and I never take any photos.

Josh's Graduation

2010-05-17T16:50:00.000-07:00

This weekend, my youngest brother Josh graduated from high school. Graduations are not normally a big deal in my family but it worked out that all the sibling were going to be able to attend. It's been way too long since that has happened. We had the best weekend together just relaxing, playing games, eating and talking. We went hot tubbing, shopping at my new favorite store Frencesca's, saw IronMan 2 and Laura cooked us all Mexican on Sunday night. She makes the best guacamole! Plus we made my mom start watching Modern Family. Best show on television. Saturday we had family photos and I can't wait to see how they turned out.

Adam was such a trooper. He drove up from Texas on Friday night after work and had to leave early Sunday in order to be home in time for work on Monday morning. He only got to spend one day in Kansas City but it was so great to have him there.

We all couldn't get enough of LaNea. She was so happy and is getting so big. She army crawls all over and can stand up with the help of a table. Plus she talks and talks. I love her blond hair and huge eyes. Such a sweetie!

I loved this book. I thought it was so interesting. It's about these women in the 1960's and their lives as nannies for the white women in the South. The women get together and decide to write a book about what it's like. I fell in love with the characters and kept rooting for them the whole book.

May...

2010-05-08T10:00:00.001-07:00

It was Andy's birthday on the fifth this month. He's now 3! Hopefully now that he's out of the terrible twos he'll automatically be better behaved. No more barking at other dogs and freaking out during car rides. I can hope right! We were planning on having a party for him but we really couldn't figure out where to have it. Next year we'll have a house and we can invite you all over to celebrate.

My niece, Bella, invited us to come to St. George and watch her get baptized. Isn't she just so cute in her white dress!

Good news! I got into the St. George Marathon-guess it's official now! I better start training a lot harder!

Happy Birthday Jace!

2010-04-20T18:01:00.000-07:00

It was Jace's 28th birthday on Saturday and to celebrate we planned a trip to Vegas. There was this good deal on Travelocity for flights, 3 nights at The Hotel and tickets to a show. Flying to Vegas is the best because the flight is less than a hour as opposed to a 6 hour drive. We stayed the The Hotel at Mandalay Bay and it was by far the best hotel I've ever stayed at. The room had two bathrooms, a living room, ginormous bathtub, great shower head and best of all an amazing pool! (Wave pool & lazy river too!) Perfect for me since it was 85 degrees the whole trip. Saturday night, Greg drove out from St George and we all went to the concert "Them Crooked Vultures".

On Sunday, we saw the Broadway version of the Lion King. I didn't love this one as much as Wicked. The songs are great-who doesn't love singing along to old Disney songs. The show had amazing costumes and scenery. Each animal was acted out by a person, it's incredible how good it looked. Monday was shopping day! We headed to Town Square for H&M.

It seems like the number one thing we do on vacation is eat. Not great since Jace is still doing the big diet but you can't go to Las Vegas and not eat. The best thing was the frozen yogurt. I've been seeing these places all around in Salt Lake where you fill your bowl with any type of yogurt and then get to put as many toppings on it as you want. When you're done, the place charges you by the weight of your yogurt. My favorite was cheesecake and strawberry yogurt!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACE!!!

MIAMI

2010-04-05T19:24:00.000-07:00

The first thing I wanted to do when we landed in Miami was head to the beach. We walked up and down the beach on Wednesday night and Thursday morning I was ready for a full day of sun. I've had some really bad sunburns over the last couple years so I came prepared. I put 70 SPF on my face and covered the rest of me with 30 SPF. We spent all day on the beach. PERFECT WEATHER! Warm and a little breezy. We headed back to the hotel around five to get ready for dinner. I showered and when I got out I realized that I had missed a couple spots with my sunscreen. My right ear, right butt cheek and both feet were FRIED! I have no idea how I missed these but I did. I looked ridiculous, my feet swelled up and my ear turned into a giant blister. So much for avoiding a sunburn!

Friday, we had tickets to see the semi-finals for men's singles tennis at the Sony Ericcson Open. The first match was Roddick vs. Nadal. Great match! Then women's & men's doubles and the other men's singles semi-final that night. Berdych vs. Soderling. I wore a hat to spare my ear more sun.
Apple's new iPad came out on Saturday. I thought for sure Jace would want to stand in line to make sure he got one. But there's a different iPad coming out in a couple weeks that's better so he decided to wait. We did shop on Lincoln Rd and even played with the iPad for a bit. We headed that night to Joe's Snow Crab, a restaraunt that lots of people recommended. Manhattan clam chowder, basket full of bread, fish, asparagus, sweet potato fries and topped it all off with some traditional key lime pie. So yummy!
I've just about finished the book "Open". Both Jace and I have been reading this and I LOVE it! Andre Agassi is so captivating and entertaining. I can just picture so many of his stories.

Mr AndyPants

2010-03-21T09:17:00.000-07:00

Sorry its blurry, I took this with my iPhone, it's just more convenient than grabbing my camera.

Can I tell you how much I love this guy? Andy and I have spent the morning cuddling together on the couch blog stalking everyone. He loves to wedge himself as close to me as possible. I've never really had a dog before and I had no idea that a dog could have such a big personality. Andy constantly makes me laugh. He tries to bury his treats in the carpet with his nose, he shakes uncontrollably in any car ride, he is extremely protective of Jace, he attacks the vacuum, he loves to play fetch with his toy Senator Longbottoms, he will do anything for a bacon treat, and he barks in his sleep a little if he's dreaming. He's the cutest little guy!
Jace took this photo of us during our Sunday nap a couple weeks ago. It cracks me up every time!

My First Race

2010-03-13T18:00:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday, I ran my first race the Lake to Lake 50 mile relay with my in-laws. We each ran around a 5 mile leg twice. My first leg was on the Bloomington bike trails, flat with great weather-sunny & a little breezy. It was perfect! My second was the final leg. Much more uphill and really windy which slowed me down a little. All the nieces & nephews drove along side me and cheered and the whole family was at the finish line. I know 5 miles isn't very far but it was really fun to finish it.

I was planning on running the Salt Lake half marathon in April but we booked a trip to Vegas over the same weekend. I think instead I'm going to do the Bear Lake Half or the Freedom Half. We'll see! Jace said he might even do it with me. He's been running a lot because he is in a new diet bet with his buddies. They all have to lose 30 pounds by May or it will cost them $500. Plus his 10 year high school reunion is this summer which is added incentive.

The Torgersons

2010-02-28T20:31:00.000-08:00

Lacey and I went to college together at Dixie College in St. George. She is an amazing person. Very sweet, loving and such a great mom! Sam and Lacey are looking to adopt and want everyone to put the word out. You never know who might read this and then consider them. Take a look at her adoption blog!

http://torgersonadoption.blogspot.com/

I ♥ FAMILY

2010-02-25T16:49:00.000-08:00

Don't you love looking through old photos? I swear I could do it for hours!

Josh graduates in May and hopefully (fingers crossed), all the kids will be there for it. This will be the first time in years and I'm way excited. We'll definitely have to get some family photos while we're there!

February

2010-02-18T10:01:00.000-08:00

We listed our house with an agent, Ed Federov, in January. Ed had a "stager" come by to teach us how to set up our home for an open house. The stager came in and told us what to leave on our counters, our walls, what to put away when people come over and what rooms needed work. It was kinda fun-like being on one of those HGTV shows. She gave us lots of tips and said we especially needed to work on our bedroom. We have bought furniture for every room in the house except the bedroom; the stuff in there was hand me downs and completely mismatched. So we headed to IKEA and got a new bed, new dressers, new picture frames and Jace even sewed us some new pillows. Hopefully the finished product looks alot better than the original. I'm still trying to find white picture frames & vases for on top of the dressers and new curtains-it's still a work in progress.

Other than listing the house, nothing too exciting is happening. We watched the superbowl at the Mulcocks this year and ate tons of their amazing cheese dip, we went to Vegas for a day and learned how to play BlackJack on the dollar tables at the Sahara, Jace bought me a new purse for Valentines Day-LOVE IT, Andy is now enrolled at a doggie daycare so we don't have to lock him in the bathroom anymore and we booked tickets to Miami Florida! I always get so anxious to get out of town in February so I'm really excited I have a trip to look forward to now.

I love how everyone has been posting all their favorite things! It's so fun to go through and see everything, but looking at it all gives me a big case of the gimmies. Here's what I can't live without right now.

www.nordstroms.com

www.alternativeapparel.com

www.jcrew.com

www.nordstroms.com

www.anthropologie.com

Oh and I'm obsessed with this new travelsite "Jetsetter." http://www.jetsetter.com/ They have the most amzaing vacations listed. You have to sign up to be a member but they offer great deals. Wish I could travel everyday!

Resolutions

2010-01-04T19:41:00.001-08:00

I have a big goal this year-to run the St George Marathon on October 2nd. It's something I've always wanted to do so I might as well give it a shot. I figured that worse case scenario even if I walk the entire race I should be able to make it in the required 6 hours. So most of my New Year's resolutions were around this. No more Diet Coke, run five times a week and get in shape! I'm on day four of no Diet Coke and I'm doing alright so far. But I've already been thinking about how there's nothing better than a fountain Diet Coke with crushed ice especially in the summer. It's going to be a long year!

The Hirschi family is running a 50 mile relay in March to get me started. Then the Salt Lake half marathon in April and the big race in October. Fingers crossed I don't loose all my toe nails again from all this running. I'm sure my girlfriends will die if they have to hear one more story about my feet. Right Linds! :)

Wish me luck!

Christmas 2009

2009-12-27T18:11:00.000-08:00

I can't believe Christmas is over already. 2009 has flown by for me! It's crazy to think that a year ago we were headed to Thailand. December went by especially fast. Guess its time to come up with all my New Year's resolutions. Christmas parties are always my favorite part of the season; well the parties and the food. We had some really fun parties this year.

Company party at Deer Valley

Ugly Sweater Party at the Heisers

Jace and I were planning on spending Christmas at home just relaxing but we woke up on Christmas eve and decided to head to St. George. We surprised Jace's family by showing up at their Christmas Eve party & spent the night eating out and decorating sugar cookies. Christmas morning, we woke up and Glenda made us waffles. Then we went to the new George Clooney movie with my sister Laura before she headed into work. We had dinner with Jace's family and all the grandkids got to open gifts. I haven't spent Christmas with kids in forever and it was soo fun to see how excited they get over all their gifts. I also spent the whole weekend working on my Christmas puzzle. I love puzzles! I get obsessed with finishing them. The entire weekend was really relaxing and great weather.

My brothers spent Christmas with my dad and had a big family get together with the entire Newey family. They took a picture of my grandparents and their five kids. My dad is the guy in the middle.

Selling the Condo

2009-12-05T08:04:00.000-08:00

We've decided to put our condo up for sale. I love it here and I get spoiled by a lot of things here. Especially in the winter! I have a heated garage and never have to shovel snow. BUT...Jace and Andy are ready for something more. They want a backyard and a garage to work on projects in. Plus I have to admit I wouldn't mind moving into a new house too. So we're moving! Well if we can sell then we're moving.

So if you know anyone interested, check it out:

http://millcreekhollow.blogspot.com/

Kansas City

2009-11-15T10:30:00.000-08:00

Jace & I went to visit my mom in Kansas City for her birthday last week. My mom was so excited for us to come that she had a bunch of things planned for us to do. Josh taught us all how to skeet shoot, we tried some new barbaque places, she cooked my favorite meal chicken brocoli casserole and we got to do my favorite thing. SHOPPING! My mom even spoiled us with gift cards to Nordstroms. Thanks so much mom! We had a great time. :)

We ordered the meat platter from Gates so we could try everything. Ribs, roast beef and pork. My favorite was the potato salad.

We walked around the power and light district in downtown Kansas City. Here's me with Josh's gun. Shooting was really fun and I did pretty well too. Every time I shot it, I jumped. It's so loud and really kicks you back.

Dinner at a Mexican place for my mom's birthday. Happy Birthday Mom!

College Girls

2009-11-15T10:25:00.000-08:00

I got to go to dinner with my old roommates from Dixie College. We haven't all been together since Natalie's wedding which was six years ago. Everyone still seemed so much the same even though it's been forever. We didn't live together very long but I have so many fun memories from that apartment. American Idol nights, our whiteboard, all the water bottles, our fish, and especially the trip to San Diego. I love you girls!

Piper & Chloe

2009-11-03T15:54:00.000-08:00

Kim told me about this Holiday Showcase in Farmington. They are hosting a boutique at their home and some of the cutest things are going to be there. MD Sparks, Winborg Sisters Design, Modern Thread. I've never be to this before but looks like fun. Check out their blog.

http://piperandchloe.blogspot.com/

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-31T18:01:00.000-07:00

Matt & Robyn had a Halloween party at their home in Logan. We had the best food! Robyn & Lindsay made chowder, Alicia made homemade rolls, Keri made bean dip and Sam made the best caramel apples. I say everyone has to make the same things again for Christmas.

Happy Halloween!!!

Baby Lanie's Blessing

2009-10-17T11:37:00.000-07:00

Baby Lanie

I got to go to College Station, Texas for LaNea's baby blessing last weekend. She is the cutest baby and super cuddly. I just wanted to hold her all weekend. I don't have many photos because the battery in my camera died and I was only able to take a couple. Hopefully other people took more and I can copy theirs. LaNea looks so much like Jill's baby photos; we pulled out Jill's scrapbook and compared. And both Jill and LaNea spit up all the time. Like mother like daughter. Sure glad I was able to visit them.

Adam

2009-10-05T19:27:00.000-07:00

Adam came home this weekend from serving in the Army in Korea for the last year. I haven't seen him forever and couldn't get over how big he is. In my head, he's still 12. He'll probably always be 12 to me.

We drove to Vegas to pick him up but nobody knew his flight or his airline. All Laura knew was that he was supposed to land at 12:10. Adam doesn't have a cell phone so we wandered around the baggage claim until we bumped into him.

He told us story after story all weekend. Soo happy he's home and I got to see him.

Officially the end

2009-09-28T17:47:00.000-07:00

Well I guess it's time for me to face the facts. Summer is officially over; it's October this week! I still can't believe how fast this year has flown by. At least we have all the good things about winter to look forward to-cozy days inside, holiday parties, skiing and pumpkin pie!

We had a picnic at Beus Pond on Friday; it was fun to get together and hang out at the park. Everyone had their kids and I even brought Andy. (He's still not well behaved, but we're working on it) Did anyone else get eaten alive by mosquitoes? They bit me through my sweatshirt and jeans. HORRIBLE!
*Alicia took the only pic so I'll post it once she does. ;)

Ladyhawke played at "In the Venue" on Saturday. I love her! There were probably only 30 people at the place so we got to stand front and center.

LaNea Brooke Jackson

2009-09-20T11:07:00.000-07:00

Jill and Eric had their little girl on Tuesday and named her LaNea Brooke. They are in College Station, Texas right now for Eric's work. I'm flying out to see them all in October but until then I get to enjoy her through all of Jill's photos. Don't you just love all her hair!

Girls from my office

2009-09-13T12:21:00.000-07:00

Jenn Sturgis, Kristin Chadwick, Tiffinie Marcotte, Shauni Siddowy, Me, Melissa Sugden and Alexis Aylor

I was looking at my blog and I have hardly put up any photos of the girls from my office. I've worked at a lot of really great branches while working for Wells but this office is extra special. All the girls are so fun and easy to talk to. They are the only reason I make it through work week.

NYC

2009-09-09T18:50:00.001-07:00

Scott and Glenda took Jace and I to New York. We stayed in Times Square, visited the Statue of Liberty, Wall Street, Empire State Building, Natural History Museum, ate the BEST cheesecake at Juniors, shopped in SoHo, ran in Central Park, went to Wicked and the US Open. New York pizza is my favorite and we made sure to eat plenty of it. The best was Angelo's in the Ed Sullivan's theater.
The four of us at the US Open. This was my favorite part of the trip! We watched Zvonareva vs Pennetta and Murray vs Dent. It was a really chilly night so we bundled up and drank hot chocolate.
We went running in Central Park. It was the most beautiful day; there were tons of sun bathers in the park. I was surprised by how many people in the city have dogs. So many! Jace missed Andy every time he passed a dog.
I rubbed the bull for Good Luck!
We went to Wicked on Friday night. I LOVE this play. I can't get enough of the soundtrack.

On Monday, we got to have dinner with the Olsens. They took us to Spice, a Thai restaurant, and then we walked around the city. It was so good to see them, wish they lived closer!

Thanks Kassi for watching Andy! And I can't thank Glenda enough for taking us!

Family Photos

2009-08-28T13:30:00.000-07:00

I wanted to get our photos taken so we'd have them for Christmas this year. I didn't do it last year and thought my cards looked really boring. Sharstin took our pictures last Saturday and just posted a preview on her blog. I love them! We wanted Andy to be in the photo but he really wasn't behaving that day. He was pretty nervous about the basket on the bike and kept barking. You can't even tell in the photos. Check them out! She is amazing!

http://sharstinmillerphotography.blogspot.com/

Book #2

2009-08-24T19:07:00.000-07:00

I finished Time Traveler's Wife and then went to see the movie. I liked the book but found it difficult to get started. The ages and dates kept confusing me and it was hard to keep track of everything, once I gave up I got really into it. I found myself constantly trying to analyze how time travel works. Everything was circular instead of linear. But I found it really entertaining.

I didn't love the movie. I think I spent the whole movie comparing it to the book. And I never felt like you really saw Claire and Henry fall in love. Their love was just kinda assumed but you don't really see it develop. I'll have to watch it again when it comes out on video.
Alicia picked our Book Club Book #2. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld. I laughed when she picked this book because my step sister Kara who is 10 was reading this series when she came to visit last month. But I LOVE IT! Maybe that means I really enjoy a book written for seventh graders. I liked the idea of the book. The story takes place in the future where everyone is ugly until they turn sixteen and have an operation to make them a pretty. But there is a downside to being turned a pretty that Tally (the heroine) discovers. I've already read the first two books in the series over the weekend so calling the books an "easy read" is an understatment.

I think everyone should join GoodReads. I like seeing what everyone is reading and seeing what people thought of books I liked. So do it!

Craft Show

2009-08-09T07:44:00.000-07:00

Yesterday there was a craft show at the Gallivan Center. There was some really great stuff.

Winborg Sisters Design
She makes the cutest paintings for a little kids room.

MD Sparks

I love this jewelry!

Isabell's Umbrella

Adorable little characters!

Pineview & Logan

2009-08-02T12:25:00.001-07:00

We went boating on Saturday at Pineview Reservoir. Ben's aunt lent him the boat. My favorite thing about summer is being out in the sun so this was the perfect day in my opinion. Water skiing, swimming and laying out!

After boating, we drove up to Logan for dinner and to see Robyn's new house. Logan Valley is so pretty right now. Still so green from all the rain.

Summer

2009-07-26T16:06:00.000-07:00

I just finished The Time Traveler's Wife; I thought it was great. The story had lots of twists, I wonder how they are going to be able to put all that into the movie. And Sophie Kinsella came out with a new book "Twenties Girl". I'm excited for this one!

The summer so far has been great! I think I still feel so bad about all of June being rainy that I'm trying to do as much as possible outside. REAL games, Bee's games, Gallivan Center concerts, and always try to eat at places that have a patio. We even went camping this weekend in Brianhead with some friends from SG. Andy especially loved the outdoor weekend.

Dog Question: Andy is really agressive when meeting other dogs; he barks and nips at them. Any tips on how to get him to play nice?

Vegas

2009-07-07T18:38:00.000-07:00

Spent the 4th of July in Vegas. We stayed at the New York New York (Don't recommend it) The pool is in between the hotel and the parking garage and it only gets sun from 1-5pm. But Vegas is Vegas and I always LOVE going.

It's funny how many times I've been there and I always do the same stuff. I've been eating at Gardunos (This Mexican restaurant at the Palms) since I was in high school. I need to start trying some new things! Gardunos was really good this time, new food and we ate outside by the pool. The Palms has the nicest pool, next time I hope we stay there!

The malls closed early because of the holiday so I only made it H&M. It's such a big store that I'm always in there forever but I found some cute shirts & a perfect 80's denim skirt.

Book Club

2009-06-30T19:47:00.000-07:00

Hollie was visiting Utah and we met up for dinner in Layton. It's always fun to get together. Sad Sam couldn't be there. :(

And we're starting a book club. The first book is The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger's. The goal is to have the book read by the first week in August just before the movie comes out.

ANDY

2009-06-16T20:44:00.000-07:00

Guess what! I got a dog! His name is Andy. He’s a 2 year old Maltese poodle mix (Really he’s a mutt) from an adoption agency in Ogden . He’s such a cutie! He’s completely potty trained and doesn’t chew or scratch anything. The only bad part is he barks and he has a really loud bark. He does really well so long as you stay with him but try to leave and he’ll start barking.

I haven’t been up to much since I last posted. I’ve mostly been hating all the rain and wishing it felt more like summer. Oh and I cut bangs! My girlfriends have been telling me to do that forever and I was always too scared. I’m not good with change and I assumed I’d hate it. But I love them! I think they give me more of a hair style. I need to stop being so scared of change; in high school it took my girlfriends years to convince me to straighten my hair. But I loved that too.

My mom and sister Laura came to visit this last weekend. It was great to see them! I can't believe we didn't take any photos! :( Too bad the family doesn’t live closer. My sister Jill is pregnant with a little girl. She’s due in September. She’s going to be a little doll I can already tell. My brother Adam is still in Korea but is coming home soon and promises to visit Utah at some point during his leave. And Josh is spending the summer in Cali with my dad before he heads back to school.

Well this isn't a very exciting post but at least it's something. Maybe I'll have something new next week. Hollie is coming to visit Utah and all the girls from high school are going to try and get together. Should be fun!

Confessions of a Shopaholic

2009-02-15T16:20:00.000-08:00

Lately I have been obsessed with the Shopaholic books. When I start reading one I can't put it down. I love the way she writes and think Bex is the cutest character. Last night I saw the movie. It was so cute! Not as good as the book of course but a really fun chick flick. Plus I LOVE Isla Fisher!!!

GNO

2009-02-07T14:55:00.000-08:00

Last night was Girls Night Out. We went to dinner at Z Tejas and to the movie "He's Just Not That Into You". It was cute but very cliche. It's always nice to get together and talk. Thanks for coming out guys!

Skiing

2009-02-07T14:53:00.000-08:00

I haven't been skiing in years but a bunch of us from the office went last Friday. It was the perfect day to go. So beautiful! I had a a great time but was unbelievable sore the next day. I think I need a lot more practice!

Toilets

2009-01-19T15:55:00.000-08:00

I keep telling people about the toilets in Thailand because I found them soo surprising. The first time I saw it, I had to have Alicia explain how to use it. Makes me glad I live in Utah!

I'M HOME!

2009-01-13T12:18:00.000-08:00

19 days, 9 flights and 6 hotels later and I'm home! The trip was AMAZING but it's always nice to be back. I took over 1000 photos in Thailand plus Alicia and Ben took more. I'm just going to post some of my favorites but it's still seems like a lot.

Thailand

2009-01-07T20:13:00.000-08:00

Day 11: Scooters We boated to Ao Nang and rented scooters. I’ve never actually driven a scooter on my own but I loved it. Only one small scare around a sandy corner but it was a fun way to see the place.

Day 12: Kayaks After laying out all morning, we rented kayacks and paddled out to see on the small coves off the side of Krabi

Day 13: TIRED I’m exhausted and ready to go home. I think I got too much sun yesterday. I’m not sunburned but I’m sore and tired. 4 days left! I think today I’m going to hang out in my hotel room and watch TV. We only get four English stations but I’m sure I can find something. There’s even this little shop nearby that sells DVD’s for four dollars.

More Thailand

2009-01-04T18:32:00.000-08:00

Day 7: Sukhothai We bike rode around the ancient Sukhothai ruins which are over 1000 years old. I liked these ones a lot better; not so much gold and bright colors, just stone. Then we drove to Chang Mai and arrived there in time to shop at the Chang Mai night market. We even ate dinner at Burger King. Lame! But we were really craving something American.
Day 8: Elephants We were picked up from our hotel today and taken to an elephant camp. Each elephant has one trainer; a young boy is placed with a young elephant because elephants have about the same life span as humans. We watched the elephants bathe, drag logs, and even paint. Then we rode the elephants into the jungle to a small village outside the camp and then up the river. We rafted down the river on a small bamboo raft after. Then we visited the temple high on the mountain that overlooks Chang Mai. Quite the view.
Day 9: Travel Day We dropped off our rental van and flew from Chang Mai to Bangkok and then from Bangkok to Krabi. Krabi is on the southern side of Thailand and has some of the most beautiful beaches. Here our hotel is only reachable by boat, so we took a bus to the pier and loaded our suitcases into a little boat that drove us around the coast to our hotel. The boat stopped about 100 yards from the shore and the drive looked at us and said we had to walk the rest of the way. Now Alicia is in jeans and heels and I’m in my new shorts plus we have heavy suitcases that we have to somehow carry. But the driver isn’t kidding!!! We jump out of the boat and the water is only knee deep and we throw our bags on our backs and hike to the shore. There has got to be a better way to get to this hotel! But the place is gorgeous and we’re staying here for six nights.
Day 10: Laying Out I know I should want to explore the island and see all the beautiful sites that are on all the postcards from here but today is all about laying out. You can’t come to Thailand for three weeks and not get at least a little tan. Hopefully NO SUNBURNS.

More Thailand-Still no pics

2009-01-01T06:28:00.000-08:00

Sorry I just haven't had time to go through the hundreds of pictures I've taken so you'll just have to hear me ramble on about the trip for now.

Day 3: SHOPPING DAY! I normally consider myself a pretty dedicated shopper. I can spend a good ten hours at a mall but Bangkok is overwhelming. With the exception of visiting Jim Thompson's House (Thai Architect), day three was spent entirely at the MBK. Booth after booth of knock off jeans, purses, shoes, etc. Sooo much to see! All the prices are negotiable but the sales people are really pushy. Funniest part is how much bigger I am than most the girls here. Nobody even carried shoes big enough for my feet. When I'd tell them my size, they'd laugh and say "Too Big."

Day 4: Khao Yai We rented this huge van and drove to Khao Yai which is north of Bangkok and much more rural. There is this cave outside the city where millions of bats fly out every night at dusk. 6pm on the dot, all the bats flew out in an enormous stream. I'd seen this on Planet Earth but it was amazing in person.

Day 5: New Year's Eve Khao Yai has a national park with a lot of wildlife, waterfalls and amazing scenery. We drove around the park all day. The views from the top of the mountain were amazing. This was the first time that Thailand has actually looked like what I imagined. It felt like being in the middle of the jungle. There were monkeys all over but we were hoping to see a wild elephant. For New Year's Eve, the city was having a Cowboy Party. (Not sure exactly how that ties in with the new year) Everyone was dressed as cowboys and Indians. Live music and dancing.

Day 6: Lop Buri (City of Monkeys) Drove our van to Lop Buri today which is the city of monkeys. I've always thought that I would love to have a monkey as a pet but after today I'm not so sure. This city is full of monkeys and they were more like rodents than the cute friendly cartoon character I'd imagined. At first they were just amazing to watch and be so close to but I bought peanuts to feed them and they became really aggressive. One monkey attacked Jace for his bag of peanuts and when he wouldn't give it up; the monkey bit his hand. Hopefully no rabies! We continued driving up to Sukhotthai. This entire area is covered in rice fields that are so green they don't look real. With the sun setting behind the fields it's really picturesque.

Side note: Being outside of Bangkok, we have been one of the only white people around. Locals have asked to have their pictures taken with us and today some kids asked for our autographs. Makes me laugh everytime!

Thailand-No Pics

2008-12-28T03:11:00.000-08:00

I'm in Thailand! No pictures yet!

Christmas day was spent flying to LA then to Taipei then to Bangkok. The trip took about 30 hours but surprisingly went by really fast. I read the book "The Road" (Really sad and I'm not sure I understood the moral), watched three movies and slept. I was expecting much worse.

We landed in Bangkok at 2am and somehow our luggage didn't make it. I've never had problems in the past but now I understand why some people only do carry ons. We slept in our clothes and bought the essentials the next day at the local Tesco which is basically the Thai WalMart.

The first day, we biked around Ancient City and then went to a play "Siam Niramit". We were all so tired from traveling and time change that we basically slept through half the play.

Today we boated through the floating water market, visited the Grand Palace & reclining buddha and shopped at the night bazaar.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!!!

2008-12-24T20:33:00.001-08:00

Thanks to the Bonnemorts for the invite to their annual Christmas Eve party and Merry Christmas everyone and Happy New Year!

Christmas Party

2008-12-24T20:09:00.000-08:00

Robyn hosted our annual Christmas party this year. As always it was great to see everyone.

Bad News

2008-12-14T11:22:00.001-08:00

I didn't get Wicked tickets! :(

I got to Capital Theatre around 6:30 but the line was around the entire block. People had showed up the night before at 7pm and spent the night. I really wanted to go to the show but not enough to camp out. I tried to buy them online or on the phone at 10 but the website was overwhelmed with people. Maybe I'll have to travel somewhere to see it.

Books from 2008

2008-12-07T11:05:00.000-08:00

I read a bunch of books this year and it's kinda nice to remember what you've read so I'm posting all my books from 2008. I've got a small list started for what I want to read in 2009. Let me know if you have any suggestions.

Sidhartha by Herman Hess

The Other Boleyn Girl by Phillippa Gregory

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls

Wicked by Gregory Maguire

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Remember Me by Sophie Kinsella

Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella

Water for Elephants by Sara Green

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

Sway by Ori and Rom Brafman

Hissy Fit by Mary Kay Andrews

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer

IV by Chuck Klosterman

Host by Stephanie Meyer

Can You Keep A Secret? by Sophie Kinsella

Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris

I started a couple other books but if I don't immediately fall in love with the story I have a hard time finishing. Natalie invited me to join her book club and I'm really excited. There's nothing better than being able to talk to somebody about a book you've just finished reading.

Wicked Update

2008-12-07T08:54:00.000-08:00

Okay, I'm really excited but nervous about getting tickets for Wicked. My boss bought tickets early because she is a season ticket holder. She said there were already quite a few nights that were sold out. So here's more info on buying the tickets, they go on sale the general public this Friday. (12th) I'm planning on standing in line to buy tickets Friday morning before work. If you would like to go to Wicked and want me to buy your tickets, let me know. But I can only buy 8 tickets at one time.

WICKED
April 8 - May 3, 2009
Capitol Theatre

TICKETS ON SALE:
DECEMBER 12TH
(TICKET AVAILABILITY WILL BE LIMITED)

Tuesday - Thursday Evenings: 7:30pm
Friday & Saturday Evenings: 8:00pm
Saturday Matinee: 2:00pm
Sunday Matinees: 1:00pm
Sunday Evening: 6:30pm

Tickets for the show go on sale on Friday, December 12 at 7:00 a.m. at the Capitol Theatre ticket windows. At 10:00 a.m., tickets will be available for purchase online at www.arttix.org, by phone at 355 2787, or in person at Capitol Theatre, Abravanel Hall, or at the Rose Wagner Center. Ticket prices are $150, $98.50, $77.50, and $55.00 plus fees.

There are limited tickets available and an extremely high demand. Please consider several dates, and if you plan to purchase tickets online and do not have an account with ArtTix already, please visit www.arttix.org, and create your account now. This will help speed your online purchase process.

For WICKED, ticket limit is 8 per order.

Forgotten Carols

2008-12-07T08:50:00.000-08:00

I went to Forgotten Carols on Friday with the Bonnemorts & Maughans. It was very Christmasy but not as good as I remember it. My mom used to read us Forgotten Carols every year. She'd read a chapter every night and we'd listen to the soundtrack as the songs came up. She always animated her voice to sound like Constance and Uncle John. You know how you develop how somebody looks and sounds in your head and then we you see a play or a movie and they don't match; it's just never the same. But it was my goal to do some Christmas stuff this year so Forgotten Carols was a good start.

Laura

2008-12-07T08:35:00.001-08:00

I had a couple pictures of me and Laura at Thanksgiving and I finally got them downloaded to my computer. She's living in St George and came to the Switchback at Zion's with me for Thanksgiving dinner.

Thanksgiving

2008-12-02T17:01:00.000-08:00

We spent Thanksgiving in St. George. It was such nice weather! I ate a ton of food all weekend. It was fun to get together with family and friends. I didn't take many pictures but here's a couple.

Blankets and Slippers

2008-11-16T07:30:00.000-08:00

I love putting my slippers on in the morning and wrapping myself in a big blanket and watching TV or reading. Especially when it's cold outside! This morning I'm all bundled up and watching "You've Got Mail". Not exactly a productive start to the morning but SOOO enjoyable.

Christmas is Coming!

2008-11-09T08:46:00.000-08:00

Some years I get really annoyed that you start see Christmas stuff in all the stores before Halloween is even over but this year I'm really excited about it all. Last year Christmas came and went and I didn't do anything Christmasy to celebrate. No caroling, no decorating, no Christmas shows and no Christmas music. I didn't even get all my Christmas cards out before the big day. I've decided not to miss out this year. I've already bought tickets to some Christmas shows, I've got my Christmas cards and have started gathering addresses. It's still a little early to decorate but I'm going to get started as soon as Thanksgiving is over.

So far the shows I've found are:

Peter Breinholt @ Rose Wagner Theatre December 20 & 21st

Forgotten Carols
@ Dee Events Center December 1st
@ Cottonwood High School December 4th thru 12th
@ Cox Auditorium December 20

Savior of the World @ Conference Center Theatre Nov 14th thru Dec 27th

The Last Lecture

2008-11-08T09:17:00.000-08:00

This last week, I was given this book by a wholesaler at Nationwide. Jace had been telling me to read it for a while and I'd never got around to buying it. But I just finished it and love it.

It's a really easy, short read but so many good lessons. Randy Pausch, 47 year old husband and father of three, found out his was going to die in 3-6 months of pancreatic cancer. He was a teacher at Carnegie Mellon and gave his last lecture on September 18, 2007 and later it was made into a book.

My favorite part of the book is where he talks about critics. He said that you should be grateful for the critics in your life. Your critics care enough about you to speak up when you're making mistakes in your life.