2 year anniversary

Luke and I celebrated our 2 year wedding anniversary on Dec 20. We decided to keep it low key so we just went to dinner at The Iron Gate Grill (I highly recommend, it was so yummy) and then went up the (snowy) canyon to watch a movie. It was a really enjoyable night. I am so lucky to be married to Luke, he is such a sweetheart. He even sent flowers to my work, which was shocking because he typically doesn't do things like that.
I am so blessed that I was able to marry my best friend. I love you Luke!

Christmas

I love Christmas, it is my favorite time of year! I love decorating the tree, and looking at Christmas lights, I love spending time with family, I love shopping, and I love Christmas music. We went to Salt Lake to celebrate Christmas with both our families. It can be extremely tough to have both families within a mile of each other because they both expect you to do everything with them. We have had spread ourselves thin in order to go to both sides of the families' Christmas parties. We have a lot of fun, but sometimes it can get really stressful.
Luke's brother and sister-in-law left for New Zealand Dec 21 so we celebrated the holiday with his family a little early. It was nice to get together with them.
We were able to spend a lot of time with each family this year, which was really nice. I had a very good time. Luke spoiled me for Christmas! I feel that he made me look bad ha ha. We got a Wii (it has been a ton of fun to play), he gave me a diamond bracelet, among lots of other things. It was a nice Christmas.
I hope everyone else had a great Christmas too!

Disneyland and Thanksgiving

This is a little late, but better then never I guess. Luke and I celebrated Thanksgiving in Parowon along with his parents and his dad's side of the family. I've only seen that side of Luke's family once or twice so I didn't know a lot of them. Fortunately, the group was pretty small so I was able to get to know them a little better. The funny thing is we ate Thanksgiving dinner at the only hotel in Parowan (it's the biggest gathering place in Parowan as well). Thanksgiving day we stuffed ourselves and then decided to go to a movie. We drove into Cedar City, a 15 mile drive, to watch Blindside, but by the time we got there all the showings were sold out. I was kind of bummed because I really wanted to see it.
On the Friday after Thanksgiving we drove down to St. George and saw Blindside at the theater there (it is a must see), went to the Pizza Factory for lunch, visited some of Luke's cousins on his mom's side, and then met up with my family to go to Tuachan to see the Nativity. While we were there we stayed at Luke's aunt's house, which was really nice of her.
Saturday we started our long caravan (Luke, Tristan and myself in one car and then my parents and Jantzsen in another) to Sunny California. We looked at buying plane tickets, but it ended up being a lot cheaper to drive, so we chose the frugal route. When we got to CA Saturday afternoon we went to Laguna Beach. I can't even explain how much I loved it there. I love the beach, and I love the sand, and I love the water. It was relaxing to just hang out at the beach, and we got a lot of good pictures (which I will post later). Did I say that I LOVE the beach?? ;)
My cousin lives in Southern CA so we met up with him on Sunday and went sightseeing in LA. It was pretty cool, but not as great as I thought it was going to be. Now that I have seen LA once I don't think I need to go back. There were way too many people for my taste. It's a good thing we met up with my cousin because he was able to show us around the town. He also showed us the LA temple which is beautiful.
Monday and Tuesday we went to California Adventures and Disneyland. They were a lot of fun and I am really glad we went, but I can wait another 15 years before I go again. I was surprised how many people there had young kids in strollers. I would never want to have a stroller at Disneyland with that many people around. It just seems to inconvenient.
Well, we took our pictures with Mickey, Mr. Incredible and a few other characters and we rode all of the rides. Unfortunately, we had to wait in quite a few lines. Last time my family went to Disneyland we didn't wait any lines, so I was expecting that because we went at the exact same time of year last time. Oh well, we had fun
On Wednesday we went to Knott's Berry Farm, which was awesome. The rides are geared more for adults, and there were no lines at all. We were able to get on rides as soon as we walked up to them. It was awesome! I think that was Luke's favorite part about the trip.
On Thursday we left CA for Las Vegas where we stayed at the Stratosphere. The room was nice and cheap, but if you want to walk the strip I would recommend getting a hotel that is centrally on the Strip. We walked the length of the Strip from the Stratosphere and we figured we had walked 8 miles. I was tired be the time we got back to the hotel room. While we were there I even played a couple slots (for the first time) I only gambled $1, but I lost that dollar. Gambling sucks ;) We only spent one night in Vegas so I think it would be fun to go back and spend a couple days and maybe go to a show. We'll see.
On Friday we drove all the way back to Salt Lake City. It only took us 6 hours, but it took my parents 8 because they took a little detour and then ran out of gas ha ha. Thankfully, they got back home just fine.
Overall our vacation was a lot of fun, and I can't wait to go on another one!

Here are some pictures:

I have a ton more, but it takes forever to upload so maybe I'll put more up later

Halloween

I love Halloween!!!!

There are also pictures of us playing chubby bunny and trying to eat donuts off a string, but it was taking too long to upload so I will try again later.

4-wheeling

A couple weekends ago we decided to go 4-wheeling with my parents, which was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, we went during hunting season so we had to wear bright orange sweaters, and there were a lot of places we couldn't ride because of all the hunters. Next year we will NOT go during hunting season!

Conference and Park City

I love Conference weekend! It is always nice to hear the talks and feel the spirit. Usually Luke and I go to Salt Lake on weekends, but we decided it would be nice to hang out in Logan, relax, and listen to conference. I have never really explored Cache Valley, so on Sunday we decided to take a drive and listen to conference. We drove south past Hyrum and ended up at Porcupine Dam. I never even knew that anything in that area of the valley existed, but I am glad we ended up there. The leaves were changing colors and there was some snow on the ground so it made the view breath taking. I took some pictures, but they don't give the view justice. We drove to the end of the road at Porcupine Dam and then turned around and drove south some more. The road turned into dirt and it was raining really bad, so I am glad our little Nissan made the journey. We followed the dirt road south for quite a while until we ended up in North Ogden. Our drive took us about 3 hours to get to Ogden and then 45 min to get back, but it was well worth it. The view was amazing and we found a lot of neat places to camp and ride 4-wheelers so we will be back.

This past weekend we went to spend time with my family in Park City. My family has a timeshare there so we go every year. I love going to Park City, and I love spending time with my family. We took family pictures, which was a lot of fun (I'll post as soon as my mom sends them to me), we went shopping, we went to dinner, and we just hung out and relaxed. The only bad part of the weekend is I got sick, and I am still sick (that is why I am updating my blog). Its not fun. I am proud of myself though, I have been saving money to go shopping, and I only spent $25. That is a record for me when I am in Park City. Overall it was an awesome weekend and I can't wait to go back next year.

Top of Utah Marathon

This past weekend Luke ran the Top of Utah Marathon again, and I am extremely proud of him. He ran it last year, but 3 days before the marathon he got really sick and was throwing up everything he ate, but he still ran it. He wasn't too happy with his time, but I was still happy for him. Well, this year he beat his previous time by about an hour and 45 min (he finished in 4 hours 2 min.) He was planning on finishing in less then 3, but if he would have finished any sooner I would not have seen him cross the finish line, so I am happy he waited a couple minutes :). Luke's brother, Scott, ran it as well and beat his last year's time too.

Megan, my sister-in-law, and I hung up encouraging posters along the course (we did this at 5:30 AM) and then we had to hurry home, shower and get to mile marker 15 to watch them run by. We then went to the finish line to barely catch Luke. Luke's parents, his other brother and soon to be sister in-law, and my mom came up to watch the event. I think that we all had a good time.

I am really jealous of Luke and his brother that they were able to run the marathon. I want to be able to run a marathon one day. I think I will start small though and train for a 5k and then work my way up to a 1/2 marathon, and then possibly try a full marathon. I think that would be a good accomplishment.

Summer 2009 (so far)

I was thinking the other day that summer is almost over and I felt like I haven't done a lot, but the more I thought about the more I realized I have done a lot this summer. Hopefully I will be able to do a lot more things with whats left. So far this summer I went to Moab with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law, which was a blast and I can't wait to do that again. We were supposed to go for Memorial Day weekend, but I told my sister-in-law to book our hotel the last weekend in May (usually Memorial Day weekend is the last weekend in May) so she did. A couple weeks before we were going to go she checked up on our reservation and noticed it was for the wrong weekend, we tried to change it but they didn't have any vacancies so we decided to keep our reservation. We are glad we did because it was probably not as busy as it would have been the weekend before.

(I took a lot more pictures, but it will take all day to upload so I will figure out how to do a slideshow).

This summer we went camping a few times with friends and family. We hiked the wind caves, which is an awesome hike to go on. We went to a sealing for our brother in law and sister in law and their 2 little girls. That was such a neat experience. My other brother in law got married and for their honeymoon they came up to Logan, so we got to spend time with them. We floated the canal, which froze my behind. We went boating at Flaming Gorge (I didn't get any pictures). We went to the George Strait concert. We've gone 4-wheeling several times. We sold one of our cars, and bought a dirtbike, but still don't have a truck to drive it around in. We went to Cove Fort Days, which was suprisingly fun. Oh... and we are the proud owners of our own home. We bought a townhome and we love it! It's nice to know that we are building equity instead of throwing our money away at rent. So far we have had a good summer, but there is still a month left!!

Happenings!

Like I have posted before I am a procrastinator, I take forever to post and I always put it off. I also hardly ever have time (good excuse huh?) to write down what is going on in my life. Luke and I both have been extremely busy with life which can be stressful, but we are enjoying it right now.

I have been snowboarding for a little over 12 years now and last week I decided to try skiing (I did ski before I started snowboarding). I must admit that I did a pretty good job. I am so use to riding a snowboard that switching to skis was a little of an adjustment, but I got the hang of it and was even doing turns on my first run. I did stick to the bunny hill all day which was kind of a bummer because it was an amazing powder day and Luke bragged about the knee deep snow in some areas. I wished I was out there with him, but it was nice to hang out with my dad while he taught me to ski (he is a ski instructor). I had such a good time that I think next season I will try skiing some more however, I will not give up on snowboarding.

I also have some great news!!!! I got promoted at work with a big pay increase. I will now be an employment counselor for the youth at DWS. This is such a good opportunity for me to learn and to advance, but I will miss the team and supervisor that I worked with. My supervisor was absolutely amazing and I will miss having him as a supervisor, but I am excited for this new position.

Getting this promotion will make it so much easier for Luke and I to get into a house this summer which is really exciting. We are planning on buying in June and we are so excited to get out of Aggie Village. We are most likely going to be buying in Logan or somewhere close because Luke has decided to go back to school this fall. I am excited for him because he has taken time off to get me through school so I am happy that I can work to get him through school. I have promised Luke that when he graduated we will go to New Zealand for his graduation present, so hopefully he graduates soon ;)

Sorry this is a pretty random post, but it will have to do.

I Love Weekends!

It is really nice to work 4 ten hour days because then I have 3 day weekends. Anyways, last weekend was Valentine's Day so Luke and I went to Downey, ID and stayed the night at Downata Hot Springs. We stayed in a yurt, had a candle lit dinner, and went swimming in a hot springs. It was a lot of fun, and it was really nice to have a relaxing weekend.

This is the Yurt we stayed in.

The inside of the Yurt
Our Candlelit dinner

That same weekend we went up to Arimo, ID to hang out with Luke's friend and fiance, Jeremy and Shelby. They live in the middle of nowhere, but it was a lot of fun being there. While we were there Jeremy suggested going swimming at Lava Hot Springs, so we drove up to Lava and ate dinner and then went swimming. The pools were crowded, and it was snowing like crazy, but we had a lot of fun. Luke and I are looking forward to the next time we can go up there.
This most recent weekend Luke and I decided it was time to go home to Salt Lake to spend time with our families. I love Salt Lake and miss it when we are away too long, so we usually go there quite a bit. The weather was great this weekend so we went 4-wheeling with my parents at Grantsville Reservoir.

(I didn't bring any clothes to go riding in so I am wearing my mom's sweat pants with her hiking boots and my dad's coat! LOL, I didn't want to get my clothes dirty)

My brother, Jantzsen and my Dad fishing

My brother, Breylen and his wife, Quichee

My parents on their "toys"

My sister, Tristan with her roommate, Emily, and friend, Aldrin

It was pretty muddy, but we had a lot of fun.

That night Luke and I went to a Grizzlies hockey game with a couple of his brothers and his brother's fiance. We had pretty good seats and we won which made the game a lot of fun. There weren't very many fights which was a little disappointing but it was still a good game. As much as we love being in Salt Lake with our friends and family we had to come back, so we drove home Sunday night to get ready for the work week :(
I can't wait until next weekend!

One Year Older

Yesterday I turned the big 2-3. I feel like I am starting to get old jk. It really is crazy how life goes by so fast. Well, Luke and I were planning on going to Salt Lake to hang out for my birthday, but then he had to work over the weekend (they didn't tell him until last minute) it was really upsetting at first. I got over it and we ended up having a nice relaxing weekend. On Saturday we went to a movie and dinner. We saw the movie "He's just not that into you." I thought it was going to be a romantic comedy, but I don't think it was that funny. It may have been cause I was in a bad mood, but I thought the movie was pretty sad (not a good sad). It is one of those movies that make you lose faith in love. If you are going to watch it I would recommend Red Boxing it so you don't waste the money. Actually, it really could have been a good movie but since I was in a bad mood I didn't like (so don't take me word for it). After the movie Luke took me to Hamilton's for dinner. It was nice, but nothing compared to Johnny Carino's ;) Yesterday on my actual birthday we really didn't do much except go to church and veg around all day. It was pretty relaxing and laid back. While we were chilling Luke suprised me with a heart shaped diamond necklace. I was really excited because I have always wanted a real one, and my fake one broke while we were on our cruise. I had no idea he was going to get it for me, so I was really pleased. He is the best!

House Shopping

Luke and I have been trying to figure out what step we want to take next in life and buying a home is one of our options. We are sick of paying rent and we would love to live somewhere that is bigger than Aggie Village! If you have ever been in the apartments in Aggie Village you know what I am talking about, they don't even have a full size oven. We have decided that it is time to upgrade so we went and looked at townhouses today. It was really fun and I am very excited at the idea of owning a home. After looking at a few different townhouses I have realized that I am pretty picky, but I figure that's a good thing since I will be living there for awhile. The home we buy must have a big master bedroom with a master bath and a walk in closet, a dishwasher, 3 bedrooms (we might be able to get away with 2), and a living room that is big enough that we could have more than 2 guests over. I can't wait until we buy because then I can paint and decorate everything the way I want!

Right now is the perfect time to buy so I hope can we can get into something soon, but we will see. There is a $7,500 tax credit that is available for first time home buyers that we could take advantage of or there is talk of a $15,000 tax credit that would be available to home buyers if the bill passes. We would rather have the $15,000 credit to use towards a home so we will see what happens within the next couple months.

Randomness

25 things...

Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you. Or I just want to torture you.25 things about me, In no particular order:

25. I love to travel. I have a whole list of places I want to go and I will get to all of them eventually.
24. I love my job right now, but I would really like to be a financial counselor one day.
23. I am a very stubborn person, and I like to have things done my way.
22. I'm waiting to see if I got a job offer in Italy, if my current job becomes permanent, or if I am going to move to Salt Lake. It's a stressful situation!
21. I collect movies! I have so money that there are still a lot that I haven't even opened.
20. In high school Luke was one of my best friends, and I never would have imagined then that we would be married now. I am so happy that we are!
19. One day I will get my doctorate degree.
18. I am a very sarcastic person and have probably offended people because of it. (If I have offended you because of my sarcasm I am sorry.)
17. I love moving, well I hate the actual act of moving, but I love the change from moving. I have moved 22 times in my life and I can't wait for the next one.
16. I have been snowboarding for 11 years now, and you would think that I would be really good, but I'm not. I can hold my own, but the park kills me.
15. I have a degree in Family Consumer Human Development with an emphasis in Finance and a minor in Sociology.
14. I love talking about money and how to budget/save/spend it. I track where ALL of my money goes and I love trying to find new ways to save more money. I'm a little obbsessive.
13. I don't like to cook so Luke does it most of the time. He is so amazing!
12. I hate doing the dishes with a passion!!! The next place we live has to have a dishwasher.
11. I hate when it snows or rains and the bottom of my pants get wet, it's one of the worst feelings. When it rains or snows I have to wear boots and tuck my pants into them.
10. I love popcorn from an airpop popper. It's the best!
9. I am scuba certified, and have only gone scuba diving at Catalina Island, but I have several other places that I am planning on going.
8. I can't live without my planner!
7. I love making to do lists! I have a to do list for everything and I love being able to cross things off the lists.
6. I still have printed out my wedding pictures, and I got married over a year ago.
5. I love going to the Aggie Hockey games, they are so much fun and I love seeing us win!
4. I really love to scrapboook, but haven't done it for over 6 years. I have a lot of pictures that I need to catch up on.
3. My favorite color is pink (I don't hide it very well).
2. One day I hope to be independently wealthy so I can travel the world.
1. It might not seem like it, but I use to be a cheerleader in high school and sometimes I really miss it.

Procrastination

Procrastination is one of my worst habits! I literally procrastinate with everything. I have even put off blogging for a little while. I am going to work on getting things done in a timely manner including writing in my blog. I feel like I never have time to write on here so from now on I will do better.

So far this year has started out great; I graduated in December so I didn't have to worry about going to school. I have a good job with the Department of Workforce Services with really awesome supervisors and manager (they won't read this so I'm not trying to brown nose). I got to go on a cruise for my graduation present, which was fantastic. I will have to post pictures from it as soon as I can. Well, thats all I feel like writing for today so I will post pictures in my next post