Resolutions

I made a big list of resolutions for 2010, and I was able to complete most of them. The majority of them included running races, and I am proud to say that I was able to complete a 5K and 10K and a HALF MARATHON! That was such an accomplishment for me since I am not a runner.

This year I have decided on my resolutions and I figured I would post them here to help keep me on track.

1. Run/walk a 5k each month of the year (or a half marathon)
2. Pay tuition in cash every semester
3. Temple attendance at least once a month
4. Visit teach every month (this is a tough one)
5. Participate in a triathlon
6. Hike the Narrows
7. Read 100 books and make a list
8. Try a new recipe every month

There are a few more, but they are more personal. I'm excited to start this year out and work hard to obtain my goals/resolutions. I hope you all have a great New Years!

Slacker

I have been horrible keeping up on this blog. I guess I should do an update from that last few months.
September:
September was a busy month full of camping and hanging out with "outside friends" and family. This pretty much sums up our summer as well. (*Side note: when we first moved into this home we didn't meet a lot of people and we started getting discouraged, but in about April or May we started meeting some GREAT friends that live around us. Since we met when the weather was warm we always hung out outside, hence the term "outside friends." These friends have made living in Yorkshire so much fun, and I will be really sad when it is our time to move).

October:
October was awesome. Once again we did a lot of camping! We camped at Zion's National Park with my family and did a lot of hiking. My favorite hike was Angel's Landing. What a view! This hike is not for those weary of heights, but the view is absolutely amazing and worth the effort. We also went camping with Luke's family in Mantua, which was a lot of fun. We love camping! We also spent a weekend in Park City with my family shopping, riding the Alpine Slide and relaxing. I always look forward to Park City, but my parents are working on selling their timeshare so we won't go as often. I'm fine with that because we will find something new and exciting to do.
Luke and I are CTR 4 Primary teachers and we helped get our kids ready for the primary program this month. They did such a good job. I love being in the primary!

November:
This month he had three different Thanksgiving dinners. We had one with our "outside friends", one with my side of the family, and one with Luke's. They were all fun with lots of really good food. I really enjoy getting together with family and friends and I am glad that we had the opportunity to do so this month.

December:
What a busy month! Luke finished this semester with a 4.0 GPA. I am so proud of him! We did a lot of Christmas shopping, decorating, and eating. We had an "outside friend" Christmas party which was a lot of fun. We went to the Festival of Trees and looked at all the amazing Christmas Trees. I can never get out of there without at least one tear. Luke and I also celebrated our 3rd year anniversary at the Anniversary Inn. It's crazy to think that we have been married for 3 years! Time goes by fast when you are having fun. We were able to spend Christmas with both sides of the family which is always nice. It seemed like this was a camping themed Christmas, Luke and I got a camping table, dutch oven, and a camp stove. Luke's family members also all got things to go camping with. I can't wait to do a ton of camping this summer!
In just a couple days it will be the new year. It's crazy to think that 2010 is almost over, the year went by way too fast. I am just thankful that I was able to do a lot of fun things this year and that I was able to spend it with some amazing people.

Skydiving!!!

I can't believe I jumped out of a plane 12,000 feet in the air and lived to tell about it ;). What a rush! Skydiving is probably one of the most exciting things I have ever done. I was extremely nervous about it, but once I jumped out of the plane I was fine, and I loved every minute of it. I can't wait to do it again! ( I will post pictures when I get them)

Bryce Canyon Half Marathon

I finally did it! I ran a half marathon! I have been wanting to run one for so many years, but after about a week of training I would get frustrated and give up. This year I was finally able to work through my training and complete my goal. It was so exciting to cross the finish line and have people cheering for me. The best part was to get the finsher's medal. I think I am hooked on races now :) I am planning on running the Mesquite half in November next. Wish me luck.

Customize a picture collage

NYC Day 6 and 7

***Warning: Long posts! I don't know how to change the order so they are not very organized.***

The 6th was our last site seeing day because we went home early afternoon the next day.
The 6th day we met up with Jay, Shona's cousin, again and he showed us around Central Park. I loved Central Park! I want to go back there as soon as I can. We spent a lot of time in Central Park and I took a ton of pictures so I will post them when I can. We also went to the Lincoln Center, the LDS Manhattan temple (I need to go back so I can do a session there), and The Museum of Natural History (the one filmed in The Night of the Museum).
The temple was cool because it blends in with the city so well, the only thing that really sets it apart it the Angel Moroni on top. It was neat going there. The museum was cool, but there was a lot to it. You would have to spend over a week just in the museum in order to see everything. We got to see quite a bit, but not close to everything.
After the museum we tried to find the restaurant Serendipity 3 because I heard it has really good frozen hot chocolate. Well we walked forever to find it, and then it had a 30 min wait. We didn't have time to wait so I took a picture by it and then we were on our way to BROADWAY!!!
That night we went to see the Phantom of the Opera on Broadway! I loved it! I am so glad we were able to see it. I think I am the only one that felt that way, but I don't care. It was awesome! I loved the theater it was in and I loved...pretty much the whole thing. After the show we walked around Time Square some more. It's a cool sight to see a night so I am glad we were able to experience it.
Then we took our last subway ride back to the hotel and went to bed.
I absolutely loved this trip and can't wait to go back! Luke even said he would like to go back.
Day 7 We went to breakfast, packed up, went to the airport, and then went home. I have never been so sad to leave a vacation before :( I kept thinking we should stay a couple more days, too bad we all had to work when we got back home.
New York, I will be back!

NYC Day 5

Today we got to see the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and the Financial District!
We first went to the Financial District and saw the Bowling Green Bull (the one in Hitch), Wall Street, the National Stock Exchange, and Tiffany's. I could handle working in the Financial District one day.
When we were ready to see the Statue of Liberty we got in a really long line and waited for a while, until we got close to the front and realized we had reserved tickets and didn't need to wait in line at all. We were a little upset with ourselves. We took a boat out to Liberty Island and took a tour around the island. We wanted to go into the crown, but those tickets usually sell out 4 months in advanced, luckily we bought our tickets early enough that we at least got to go into the pedestal of the statue. For some reason I always though the Statue of Liberty would be bigger then it was. Don't get me wrong, it is the biggest statue I have ever seen, but I thought it was be a lot bigger. After Liberty Island we went over the Ellis Island and took a tour there. It was really interesting and I was able to find some of my ancestors on the registry.
We spent the majority of the day visiting the 2 islands so by the time we were back in from Ellis Island we were ready to go home and go to bed.

NYC Day 4

The 4th day was Sunday so we decided to make it a very low key day. I needed low key, by this day my feet were killing me!
We took the Subway to the Ground Zero to see where the World Trade Center was and walked around that for a little while. It was crazy to think that there were 2 huge buildings at the sight. Right now they are building one WTC and it will have fountain to recognize that day. There is a tribute center set up in one of the buildings that was close to the WTC and we were able to go into that. It was very sad to see the quotes from people who were around on that Sept 11, and to watch the videos they had set up. It makes me so mad that someone would do that to our country, but I am so proud that America united after that and I am so grateful for the troops who fought for our freedom.
The WTC is really close to the Hudson River so we walked along the river for a little while and then walked to the Brooklyn Bridge. On the way to the bridge there was a guy selling purses and he had one that I wanted!!! I was so excited, a purse was the main thing I wanted when I came to New York. We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge and had pizza at a nice pizzeria there. Then we took the subway back to the hotel.

NYC Day 3

By this day we were getting tired of walking because we walked at least 5 if not more miles every day, but we kept going. Today we went and did a tour of Madison Square Garden. It was neat to see the locker rooms (we even got to see where Wayne Gretzky's locker was), and the auditorium where they host The Draft. I think Scott and Luke liked this tour the best. I thought it was really interesting and I am glad that we were able to go.
After the tour we took the subway down to China Town and Little Italy. It was a neat experience, but I don't need to go back. There were so many people that you literally had to push through crowds to go anywhere. I hate that! We had lunch at a pizzeria in Little Italy, it was yummy. We also had fresh made gelato...also very yummy! I wanted to buy a purse on Canal Street but I never found one I wanted :(. While we were in that end of town we ended up in Soho which I thought was really cool. It had a lot of good shopping and the biggest Hollister store I have ever seen!
After Soho we took the Subway to Washington Square and got a picture of the Arch and was able to relax for a little while. The cool thing about NYC is that the parks always have something going on. While we were at Washington Square there was an India festival going on and a lot of cool things to see.
By the time we were done at the park we decided we were done for the day and headed back to the hotel.

NYC Day 2

After a much needed rest we were up and ready to go for our second day in New York. Today was cool because we spent a lot of time at Rockefeller Center. We got to see all the flags outside and recognized places that have been on TV and in movies. We took the NBC Studio Tour, which was interesting, but not as great as I thought it was going to be. While we were on the tour they told us you could get tickets to see Jimmy Fallon's (Sp?) monologue and standby tickets for his show that day. We got the tickets and then did some more site-seeing. We went back to Time's Square for a little while, had lunch, and then came back to the "Rock" to get in line for the monologue. That was really neat to get to see Jimmy Fallon in person and to hear his jokes before he puts them in his show. One of my favorite jokes was his thank you jokes it was; "Thank you mirrored sunglasses for letting me look at you, looking at me, look at you, looking at me..." He was really funny. After the monologue we had to wait to see if we would get into to see the show, but we were numbers 86-92 and they let in the first 70 people, so we just missed it. At least we got to see the monologue.
After that we did a little shopping at H&M (which I am a big fan of now) and I bought a really cute dress and a shirt. It's not very expensive and the clothes are really cute. We also went shopping at some souvenir shops and got a lot of magnets!
For some reason I feel like I am leaving something out, but I can't remember, if I remember I will post it later.

New York City Day 1

I don't even know where to start with this blog.... this trip was amazing!!! I loved New York and I would like to go back ASAP! I don't do well with tons of people around me because I get a little anxious, but surprisingly it didn't bother me at all while we were there. Wait.. I take that back I didn't like how busy it was in Chinatown and Little Italy, that made me anxious. Other then that I was fine.
I took a million pictures so I will post a few later.
So, our plane left SLC at midnight and we got to NYC at 6 AM (NYC time). I thought that I would be able to sleep on the plane, but boy was I wrong! I was way too excited to sleep, I think I slept for about 30 minutes, but that's it. We got a shuttle to take us to the hotel and that was a scary ride. I felt like we were going to hit every car we were next to. NY sure has narrow lanes! Anyways, we couldn't check into our hotel until 3 PM so they let us leave our suitcases in the lobby. I was not happy about that, I worried all day that someone would steal my luggage. No worries, when we got back our luggage hadn't been touched. We stayed at a Holiday Inn in Long Island City so we were 2 miles from Manhattan. We were 4 blocks from the subway which was nice. I feel like I understand the subway there (I'm a pro)! The first thing we did in NY was take the subway into Grand Central Station. That place is so cool, but very busy. We met up with Luke's mom's cousin and he showed us around the station and then took us around town. He showed us the Chrysler building, and some buildings that I can't remember the names, we went to Times Square (which was really neat), and we went to the Empire State Building. It was really cool to be on top (well close to the top) of the ESB and see the city. You could even see the Statue of Liberty from there. While we were enjoying the views it started to rain on us, and it was raining hard! We decided we had seen enough and wanted to go down, well everyone else had that same idea so the elevators were packed! Instead of taking the elevator down we got to walk down the stairs for a couple floors before we could get back on the elevator. As soon as we got to the bottom it had stopped raining and the sun came out.
After the ESB we went to the Rockefeller Center (we went there a lot so I will talk about that one in more detail in day 2), FAO Schwartz and played on the Big Piano (the one in Big), went shopping in Saks 5th Avenue (all I got was a Chanel ribbon ha ha) and saw the St. Patrick's Cathedral. By 3 PM we were exhausted so we went back to the hotel, checked in, and were all sound asleep by 6 PM. What a day! I would never recommend a red eye unless you had a hotel to take a nap in when you got there.

Memorial Day

This year my dad's birthday was during Memorial Weekend so we had a surprise party for him. He turned the big 5-0 so we wanted to make it a big deal. Tristan (my sister), Luke, and I towed up all of my dad's 4-wheelers to Coalville without him knowing and set up for the party. We even tried to cover the fact that the 4-wheelers were missing by putting tarps up where the 4-wheelers usually are. Apparently that didn't fool him; my mom told us that as soon as he got home from work he saw that they were missing and asked where they were. My mom's response was "what 4-wheelers?" She doesn't do well with surprises ha ha, but she did keep this one!
Well everyone arrived for the party 30 minutes before my dad was supposed to be there, and I think we got a good turn out. When my dad arrived he was blindfolded and had been since they left Salt Lake, since my dad drives Parley's everyday in the winter he knew exactly where he was at. I think he knew something was up, but he didn't know what.
When he arrived he was very surprised! I think he was so happy to see his close family and friends there to support him. Overall, it was a really nice party and I think we all had a good time.
My immediate family ended up camping at the church where we had the party and then we hung out and played games the next day. Luke's parents were also camping in Coalville so we went and hung out with them as well, and we camped with them on Sunday night. On Monday my family, and Scott and Megan went 4-wheeling in Coalville and had a blast. I only was able to take a couple pictures before my camera died (I will post later), but the views were amazing and the riding was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, the ATVs my dad Scott were on both broke down so we had to fix both before we could keep going. We never did get Scott's to work that day, but we were able to get my dad's running.
Sometimes I feel like these weekends go by too fast!

Race Against Child Abuse 10k

On Saturday, May 1, 2010, Luke, my mom, and I ran a 10k in Wellsville, Utah. That was a very tough 6.2 miles. There were a lot of hills so I got tired really fast. I have been training for a half marathon in July and thought I would try a 5k, and a 10k along the way. The 5k was mostly flat so I didn't have to walk at all, but I had to walk up all of the hills in the 10k. What a bummer! Oh well, I finished in 1:24:38 which was right around where I thought I would. The time is probably longer because I accidently cheated :( I was so focused on running that I missed one of the turns and just went straight. Well, there was a turn off that I was supposed to take which added about 2 blocks to what I ran, but oh well, I am counting the time I got. I am really slow so any help is appreciated even if I know the timing is a little off. I came in 2nd to last place, just in front of my mom who walked the whole thing (she did an awesome job; coming in at 1:46:something). That's ok I knew I wasn't going to be breaking any records. Luke, on the other hand, finished third place overall and 2nd in his age group. He did really well, his time was 45:22. I am so proud of him.

I am starting to really enjoy running and hopefully as time goes by I get a little faster! (Pictures coming shortly)

Easter

For Easter this year we camped at Green River and then went to Arches and Goblin Valley. It was such an awesome trip. The first day we were there we went to Arches and hiked the Delicate Arch hike, and the Double O hike (even though we didn't make it to the Double O). The hikes were wonderful and the views were incredible. For those of you who haven't gone to Arches, I highly recommend it! The scenery is breathtaking and the hikes are a lot of fun.

Here are some pictures from Arches:

The next day we spent the whole day in Goblin Valley and a slot canyon ( I can't remember the name of it). This was my first time at Goblin Valley and I loved it. I felt like a little kid again because it is like a big play ground. I will for sure make another trip there. I would once again recommend this to everyone. We played all day and took a lot of pictures but I will just post a few. We hiked to the top of the plateau and could see for miles all around us, we found an awesome cave and we had so much fun in the slot canyon.

Here are some of the pictures:

Here are some pictures of the slot canyon (these pics don't give it justice, it was so cool):

99 Things

To participate just copy and paste in your own blog, and bold all of the things you have done. Mine are in Pink

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty (Will do in June!)
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you're not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Ran a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38.Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo's David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain.
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square (Will in June)
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car.
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating.
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone's life.
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one.
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

New York here we come!

This will be my first visit to NYC!
I am so excited !!!!
I can't wait until June!
If you have any advice for me (what to do, where to eat, what to see) I would greatly appreciate it.