Happy Happy Joy Joy!

SCHOOL IS OUT!!!!! I'm doing a little happy dance in my head seeing I'm at the school library and there are other humans present in front of which I could embarrass myself. I'm so happy the semester is over! I checked out two new books from the library on Sat for a nice leisurely read over the break and I'm less than 100 pages to the end of the first book. Its been lovely. Another reason I am elated is that I will be graduating in May with my Bachelors Degree!I didn't think I'd be able to do it but my advisor figured everything out and so I'll be taking 15 credits next semester and finishing my last 4 credits in the summer. Everyone is invited to graduation if you want to come. I know they're terribly exciting affairs . . . wait, no they're not. You're all still invited though. :) Now the problem is knowing what I want to do as far as a career . . . . haven't figured that part out yet. Hopefully I will have it figured out by August 2010. Wish me luck!! :D

P.S. Couches will be getting to my house this Saturday thanks to my awesome brother. We've been sitting on a pile of quilts in place of a couch for almost a week. Not the most comfortable thing ever but I am burning more calories having to expend more energy getting up and down from the pile. :)

Whit

Happy Birthday To Us!

Another year has come and gone. Sam is now 25 and I am 22. My birthday was on Friday and his was on Monday. This year we agreed to get each other new couches as gifts instead of little gifts. We bought the couches off the KSL Classifieds over a month ago from a guy in Orem. They are brown microfiber. We got a couch and a loveseat. They are sitting out in my in-law's carport waiting to be picked up and brought down to us. The White's offered to get them for us this weekend so I'm pretty excited. :) Most of my family stopped by on Sunday and had birthday dinner and cake with us. I made my mom's awesome Cheesy Potato Soup (which I will be posting on my food blog later) and I made Sam's mom's lemon poppyseed cake for dessert. Both were divine! My family got me a curling iron and Sam a new pair of Levi's jeans. Practical, but its what we asked for. Haha. We went to Milford for a friend's wedding on Saturday and had a great time with our friends. All in all our birthdays were a success. :)

In other news, it is finals week and that means I'm so close to being done for the semester I can taste it! I have a psychology and a mammalogy final tomorrow and an evolution final on Friday then it will be over. I'm getting my classes figured out for next semester and it looks like I won't be graduating till this time next year. Oh well, free rent is always nice.

Whit

Belated Thankfuls

My friend Tiff posted things she was thankful for and tis the season to be thankful so I just wanted to post a few things that I'm thankful for:

- Sam: My wonderful, wonderful husband. He puts up with all of my insanity and immaturity. He is my world. He really is my best friend and the love of my life. I love that we can talk about anything and everything and at the same time we're perfectly fine with being quiet too. He is my support and I wouldn't be where I am today without him.

- Family: I am so very grateful for my family and my new family (aka in-laws). My family is amazing and has grown so close in these last few years and I couldn't love them more. They've always been there for me even when I didn't think I needed them. I love the great relationships I've gained with my mom and sisters. We're best buds now. I love my brothers too. :) My in-laws are just wonderful. They've taken me in as one of their own. I love all the new older siblings I have since I've been an oldest child all my life. Loves to all my family, immediate and extended!

- Friends: I really am thankful for my friends. They listen to me vent and complain all the time and we have great talks too. I've made some wonderful friends in Cedar since I moved up here. Girl talk always brightens my day. :)

- Gospel: I'm SO very thankful for the gospel. I love the peace it gives me as well as the strength and motivation to do better. Knowing families are forever is a wonderful thing. I'm also very grateful for the atonement and the huge part it has played in my life.

- Sam's Job: I am grateful that Sam has job and that we are able to pay all of our bills. Having any job in this economy is a tremendous blessing and I'm glad he's found a job that he loves so much and that it provides for all our needs and wants.

- Holidays: Lastly, I'm thankful for the time of year between Oct 31st and Jan 1st. This holiday season brightens my spirit and makes me nostalgic and warm and fuzzy. Snow is not my favorite thing but celebrating such a wonderful time of year and all the many blessings we've been given is always the best part of my year. :)

Till next time,
Whit

Pie's Bitter Enemy written by Sam

The best thing about this time of year is by far the pie. It is officially the beginning of pie season. The season in which our sweet tooth, salt tooth, and any other type of tooth is satisfied with all varieties of food, but my most valued tooth is by far my pie tooth. I am from a family steeped in the tradition of pies. Most memories of my past birthdays include me blowing the candles out of my birthday pie. Now don't get me wrong, cake is great I love cake but pie just does it more for me. On thanksgiving we hurry through the boring turkey, potatoes, yams, and stuffing so that we can enjoy the real reason for thanksgiving. That is, the variety of pies to choose from. Each year my mom and each of my sisters brings 2-4 pies each. . . I have 5 sisters. Las year we had something like 15 pies between 12 adults or so. It's the best!

But as you surely noticed from the title of this post, pie has a mortal enemy. I know what you're thinking: cake. You would be incorrect. Cake isn't the enemy of pie its more like that friend of yours that you like to have over sometimes because he is mostly fun and buys you candy and slurpies but still just kind of annoys you. So sometimes, maybe 1 out of 5 times he rings the doorbell you pretend you're asleep so you don't have to answer the door. You like him, but only when its convenient for you.

In fact pie's mortal enemy is not cake it is cinnamon. Never and I mean never have I bitten into a cinnamon peach, apple, cherry, or any potentially cinnamon-y pie and thought "Mmmm that is much better with cinnamon than without". No, not once, not ever. You may like cinnamon pies, good for you. It is just my personal opinion that they are better without that particular ingredient. Cinnamon has the same affect on me as do people with peircings or tattoos. I can honestly say Ive never seen a person with tattoo or peircings in which the person looked better with it than without. This is one instance in which less is more people!

But again allow me to explain, I will eat a cinnamon pie, and I will enjoy it. But mostly what I taste is it's potential to be an amazing pie. It reminds me of the time I was playing high school basketball and the coach told me that of all the players on the team I had the most potential. I'm sure the coach's thought process was like this: "that kid tries hard and he needs a compliment. But how can I say that of all the talent on the team, Sam has the least by a long shot without sounding mean? Wait, the 'potential' speech. That's it!" Sometimes I eat a piece of cinnamin peach pie and I just want to hold the little piece of pie in my hands, lightly stroke it's crumbly crust and and say "Aw, even with all the pressures around you, you still have the courage to be you. You are so brave! You just keep trying and maybe someday you can actually have something to be proud of."

Come to think of it, my coach gave me that same speech as well.

Halloween 2009

We had a great Halloween this year even though we couldn't go down to St. George to take my two youngest siblings trick or treating. I was a nudist on strike and Sam dressed up as the hottest Chuck Norris I've ever seen. :) We went to a Halloween party at a friends house and Sam's costume won second place in the costume contest. I was a runner up. After that Scott and Lexy came over to our house and we all played Rock Band on our Wii. Super fun. :) We only had three trick or treaters and two of them were planned so we had a lot of Halloween candy to eat. Scott and Lexy helped us with that though. We carved pumpkins with them a few weeks earlier and it was a blast. Sadly ours were killed by massive amounts of mold only a few days later but they looked awesome while they lasted. Enjoy the pics!

My pumpkin is the first pic and Sam's is the second. In other news, we're hopefully getting new couches soon! Sam's brother said he's pick up some couches we were interested in that we found on KSL. Hopefully all goes well. :)

Little Tid Bits in Recent Events

• A month or two ago my grandma gave me her piano and I love it. Its an upright. Needs a slight tuning but other than that its wonderful. :)
• Sept 30th, 2009 was a great day. I was in genetics lab and Sam texted me and said, "So Byron just called and I guess they hired someone else for the ICYC job." I responded, "Ok, what else did he say?" and he responded "And then he offered me the same job but in the detention center!" It was all I could do not to squeal in the middle of class. Sam REALLY wanted the job at ICYC but secretly he wanted to get full time at the detention center so it was like Christmas came early. 40 hrs a week, a pay raise and benefits. Another bonus is he got to quit his second job at Lin's frying donuts.
• Today I am filling out my graduation papers. I will be graduating May 2010. I'm not sure if I'll have to finish my last few classes in the summer of 2010 but I will be walking in May. Happy day! The end will be here soon. Then I will hopefully be able to get a high paying, interesting job.
• I survived my first genetics exam and I hope I can live through the rest of them.
• Financial aid is amazing. Grants and scholarships are just awesome. :)
• That is all in news for now. Please stay alert for more.

Whitney out.

WHO IS YOUR HERO? written by Sam

Who is your hero? And don't say "my dad" or the guy who donated a billion dollars to cancer research. BORING! I mean a real hero. I think Dwight Shrute defined it best when he said, "A hero kills people, people that wish him harm. A hero is part human and part supernatural. A hero is born out of childhood trauma, or out a disaster, that must be avenged. . . We all have a hero in our hearts" THAT is the kind of hero I'm talking about.

My older brothers were big

into comic books and anything super hero-ish or fantastical. Thus, following their footsteps, I'm a sucker for those things as well. I still have my oldest brother's old comic books, I loved the idea of having powers that made one unique and superior and glorious. For that reason I have always been fascinated in flying. Thus my senior year I saved up and went sky diving, it was extremely awesome even though I forgot to breathe. Yes, I know, I FORGOT to breathe, at least I think that is what happened. I was too excited to breathe.

My stomach dropped when the side door of the plane slid open 11,000 feet up. Until that moment I wasn't nervous. then sitting with my legs dangling in the wind just behind the wing. A thrust with both legs and I was flying.

I was trained prior to jumping that to be able to breathe with so much wind I had to do so through my teeth, otherwise it would be like drinking from a fire hose. I remember inhaling through my teeth right after jumping from the plane.(you just tried to breathe in through your teeth didn't you! sucker!) However. . . I think that was the only breath I took until I hit the ground some 2-4 minutes later.

Upon landing, my instructor (who all too close to me, being strapped to my back like a backpack. . . a spooning, overweight guy shaped backpack) unhooked me and told me to stand up, as I did I passed out and fell over.

It was amazing.

A few years later while I was serving a LDS mission in Connecticut I began to worry that my imagination was dying since it really wasn't being exercised as I was in my strict routine and studying habits as a missionary. So I invented a hero. Obviously the hero was me and I had only one power, I could fly.

~side not~ I love superman but does anyone else find it lame that he has EVERY super power available. Pretty selfish if you ask me.

As I pondered what my hero could do with merely one super power I realized I couldn't crash through walls or even crash for that matter,

I finally figured out how I could fight crime. My hero would be equipped with a lasso, yes, a lasso. Then I would just

sneakily drop a lasso over the bandit and use my flying power to hoist him high in the air and if he tried anything sneaky I'd just drop him.

In the end my hero was equipped in football pads and equipped with a lasso. Pretty lame sounding but practical. That is my hero. The glorious Lasso Sam, or Cowboy Awesome, no the Peace Partner, no no the Feather Duster. . . Ok my hero has flaws, his biggest being that he is nameless. I must find a decent name, and I am up for suggestions.

Who is your hero?

Go and Read!

I just posted two entries, a total of 4 recipes, on my food blog. Go check it out and let me know if you try any of them out! My food blog is goodeatinrecipes.blogspot.com

Don't You Wish You Were Me?

Fresh peaches + heavy cream = total bliss

P.S. Check out my food blog for my fresh peach pie recipe as well as directions on how to bottle peaches. :)

A Few Sweet Mysteries of Life of My Own

I got my hair cut! We're talking chopped. I took around 6 inches off in length and added layers. Kelli is awesome and I'm way grateful she cut it for me. I love it! Its been a year since I got it cut so the change was great! Here are the before and after pics:

Before

After

I styled it curly yesterday and it looks great! The sweet mystery in this is why is feels so good to run my fingers through my freshly cut hair. That first shower after a hair cut is great too.

In other news, I was a regular domestic housewife yesterday. I stained a quilt shelf that my mom gave me and I did 5 bottles of peaches! I love the red oak stain! It makes the shelf look like its made out of cherry wood which is awesome! Its sitting on cans of green beans right now to dry for a few days but I can't wait to hang it. :) We got a big box of peaches from Bro. Johnson in our stake and I decided to bottle a bunch of them. I had to call my mom 4 or 5 times to clarify and make sure I was doing everything right but they turned out great. They're now sitting in the pantry in food storage. The mystery in peaches is that I hated helping my mom bottle tons and tons of peaches as a kid but now I love doing it! Thanks mom for bringing me up right even if I didn't appreciate it at the time!

Snowbird 2009!

I'm back! I haven't blogged in forever but no one seems to read it any more so its more for my records that I write these things. Haha. So we just got back from Snowbird with Sam's family and it was awesome! We were able to stay almost the entire week and the rest and relaxing were just what we wanted. :) Here's a break down of what happened:

Day 1: Saturday August 1st

Left Cedar in the early afternoon and got to Snowbird around 5:00 and hung out with family for the evening. We had dinner at Josi's apartment. White chili with mango cornbread, it was super tasty. After dinner we went to the adult pool with Nick and Crystal to relax and spend time with Nick since he had to leave the next day.

Day 2: Sunday August 2nd

Got up and went to church at 9:00 with the family. Went back to the room after and had breakfast. 3:00 we had family bingo in 613. It was super fun, especially since I won twice. The prizes I picked were strawberry Pop-Tarts and a Warm Delights thing. After bingo we had dinner in Jen's room. AMAZING roast, baked potatoes, frog-eye salad and home made strawberry ice cream for dessert. We watched the Glen Beck story with the whole family then it was off to our rooms to chill.

Day 3: Monday August 3rd

We bought all day activities passes and got to do all sorts of fun things. First it was the bungee tramps which will work you out hard core! I loved it but it made Sam sick. Next we did the alpine slide. It was my first time on an alpine slide and it was pretty fun. Then we rode the ski lift to the top of the mountain and walked through The Peruvian. We hiked to the Tram and rode it down. It was pretty awesome. We took a break for lunch because I was getting grumpy, haha. After a nap we went and climbed the rock wall. My forearms and hands got SO sore! It was crazy hard. Sam mastered the expert side of the wall and wants everyone to know it. I was very impressed. :) We then rode the zip line. Now, for everyone that doesn't know I have a phobia of zip lines. I don't know why or when it started but I've always been afraid of them. This zip line was pretty awesome though. Its my favorite one I've ever tried. Then it was time for dinner in 613 with Crystal W. Delicious enchiladas and rice with trifle as dessert. It was awesome. All the exercise wore me out and more so because I had gone to the gym that morning. After dinner I taught Crystal S., Eric, Jen, Breanna, and Josi how to play Nertz. I ended up winning for the first time in my life. We had a great time. We went to the pool that night too.

Day 4: Tuesday August 4th

Sam and I spent the day in Salt Lake shopping for nothing in particular. I got two new shirts, Sam got new flip flops and tried a new restaurant, Ichiban. Neither of us was impressed with the food though the ambiance was great. We hung out with Ryan, Emilee, Madison, Mike and Melissa that night for Mike's birthday. Ate a lot of sugar and played a lot of Wii. Great night.

Day 5: Wednesday August 5th

We spent the morning relaxing and watching tv. We went to Mom and Dad's room for BLT's for lunch and played ImaginIff with them and shot the breeze. It was really fun. We went back to our room and I took a nap. That night it was our turn to make dinner with Crystal S. We made tacos and had cinnamon rolls and ice cream with peaches for dessert. It was a big hit. :) After that we played Moods and ImaginIff with Eric, Jen, Mom, Breanna, and Madison. We went to the pool with a handful of family members before bed.

Day 6: Thursday August 6th

Sam and I went down into SLC and had a private pole fitness lesson with Lizz. Oh. My. Goodness. It was so hard but SO fun! She and Sam were impressed at my almost-splits while doing a worship handstand. Haha. My calves, thighs, triceps, forearms, hips, back . . . ok everything was and still is sore! A bruise just showed up on my right thigh. I totally want to go again! She recommended Este's pizza for lunch and it was awesome! We went to two different gun shops and Sam got a plug and two grip extenders for his gun which he was totally excited about. We went to the Hogle Zoo with Josi and her family. Sam and I hadn't been in many years so it was a fun trip. We went and relaxed at Mom and Dad's house till 6:30 and then we met Ry, Em, Chelsey and Dan at Cafe Trang for dinner. FYI Cafe Trang is absolutely amazing! I totally recommend it! Sam and I went there in Park City on our anniversary trip and it was awesome so we wanted to share it with our friends. Everything we had was great. :) We all headed up to Snowbird after that and went swimming and hot tubbing for a while then went back to our room to play Beyond Balderdash. I miss all our friends!

Day 7: Friday August 7th

We spent the whole day in our room watching tv and relaxing until 4:00. Then it was time to end the fun and head home. We went the long way home through Milford so I could experience the "tickle bumps" and the scenery. It was pretty cool.

We spent a lot of time at the pool and stayed up late till like 2:00 in the morning watching tv and playing on the computer. We played a few games in the arcade and just had an overall great time. Now its back to the hum drum life in Cedar. I gotta find a job ASAP so Sam doesn't have to keep working two jobs. If any body hears about anything let me know. School starts the last week of this month so finding a job fast is in the forefront of my mind. Any way, it was a great vacation and we can't wait till next year!

The Man Crush written by Sam

I wonder if, like me, everyone else in the world has that one actor who they love today only because they loved that particular actor when they were kids. You know, that actor who's movies you seemed to always watch growing up (And cartoons don't count or else this post would be all about the ninja turtles . . . and it's not. That's for another day). When I was growing up it seemed like we were always watching movies like Overboard, Captain Ron, Backdraft, Tombstone, Stargate, and the infamous Big Trouble in Little China which is one of my all time favorites. Now, what do all those movies have in common? Yes, the Oh so talented Kurt Russell. The "Kurt" is awesome. How can one NOT like a "Kurt" movie. I mean they are all so crowd pleasing. Just try to watch Captain Ron and not laugh or watch Tombstone and not get that rush of adrenaline that makes you want to go shoot something, a lot of something! And watch Big Trouble in Little China. . . and then watch it again because usually the first time you ask yourself "What? Huh? Was that for real?" because it is slightly ridiculous. So when you watch the movie the second time be aware that yes, that was "for real" and while the movie sure seemed like it was trying to be a "real" action flick it is actually very funny and fun to make fun of. I mean just look at this photo from the movie below. Need I say more.

 Awesome! This guy's super power is filling himself with air. . . And look at this guy. His secret weapon is a mini leaf rake.

And this guy shoots light out of his mouth and eyes and he is also able to send warriors of light from his grossly long pinky nails.

But all their powers pale in comparison to "the Kurt" who's secret power is that he's an all too confident american truck driver who delivers pork chops.

And yes, that is lipstick smeared on his face, what a playa! Wow, this movie sounds better and better every time I explain it to others. So there you go, today's sweet mystery of life is "the Kurt" and his movies, with a special emphasis on Big Trouble in Little China. I own it and will let anyone borrow it if and when they get the itch to. Watch it, love it, and respect it/him with a cult like loyalty!

This Made My Day . . .

Be brave . . . . but its ok to be afraid sometimes

Zombies! written by Sam

I really like writing with the "sweet mystery of life" theme, which is my way of telling you of things that make me happy or that I hate. That way I get to do you all a favor by letting you know of things that are awesome just because I said so, and also those things that suck. So far I've never been wrong, and if you disagree with me then. . . you're wrong, sorry. Today's sweet mystery is, yes, zombies. Lovely lovely zombies. This takes some background to explain. I do not do horror movies well. I just don't like them, mainly because I'm a man and thus am expected to be tough and unafraid, however, when I watch horror movies I am neither of those things. I once walked a girl home after watching a scary movie with a big group of friends only to find that once she was inside her warm house that I was very very alone. In the dark. In a small town. . . alone. So I ran to catch up with the other guys who were walking girls home blocks away only to NOT find anyone. alone. Then I ran home but only made it to my friends house scaring his mom to death when I leaped though the side door and slammed to door behind me. So yeah, I don't do horror movies well. Maybe part of it is from the time I dressed up in the Scream costume and scared the girls who were watching that movie in the other room. All I got out of it was a few screams and a hooker boot in the crotch and maybe the inability to procreate. The latter is yet to be proven. Now with all that background it would seem odd that today's sweet mystery of life is, in fact, a horror movie, a zombie movie. But I just like it! If you haven't seen 28 Days Later, you must. I would say it's my guilty pleasure because of the R rating and blood and cuss words but I really don't feel guilty. I am of the opinion that the movie rating system is not divinely inspired and that in this case the R stands for "R-eally R-eally good" and that sometimes PG-13 are worse than R's. I make it a point to research movies before I see them for a little clue of what I'm going to be exposed to. The reason this graphic zombie is awesome is that it is not your ordinary zombie movie. Usually zombies will have their head cocked to one side, slow walking, spasms, and easily avoided as well as killed because they are just slow and dumb. However in 28 days later the zombies don't slowly stumble along chanting "braains, braains", they run at top speeds and are not easily thwarted. The movie starts with a man waking up in london in a hospital only to find the entire city abandoned. Turns out the zombies are just people who have been infected with "Rage" and they are just hiding in the dark and starving because they have run out of fresh meat to eat. And as odd as it seems this zombie movie is very artsy and has deep lessons embedded in it and that is hard to do with a zombie movie. My only hurdle in enjoying this movie is the wife, she watched it once and liked it but doesn't want to see it again, so it will be MY movie from now on and since I just bought it at a pawn shop for $3 I can enjoy it whenever I want, as long as she is not present. Woot! Go Zombies!

Oh The Irony

Good thing I did that post about working at the same place for a year . . . I just got laid off. It took me forever to find that job in the first place. Cedar is not an easy place to find a job. I'm hoping to find something fast as well as get into my photography more seriously. If any one needs any kind of photos let me know. I have very reasonable prices. :) Also, if anyone hears about job openings in Cedar please let me know and keep me in your prayers. Thanks.

One Year Down. . . .

I just realized that I have been working this job for 1 year this month. In my personal opinion that's one year too many. It started out ok but has gone down hill from there. My boss treats my manager like crap (and that's putting it lightly) and the other secretary gangs up on her too. I don't know about you but I get very upset and defensive when people mistreat my friends. I'd go in to detail but this post would never stop. I'm SO ready to find a job that I love. I can hardly wait to finish school then get to pick where I want to work and be able to ask for a much higher hourly wage. This is the most dramatic and unprofessional workplace I've ever been in. The work is not terribly hard (I finish all my work in no time and have nothing to do a lot of times) but being handed "grunt work" is ridiculous. I want so badly to be the one that hands the lowly worker things I don't want to do. *sigh* Any way, enough of my complaining.

P.S. If you hear of any stellar job openings in Cedar City let me know.

At last I found thee

Along with some new changes to this blog, Whitney and I have made the decision to share this blog because it is nice to share. So just so you know, this person writing this entry is Sam, Whitney's hubby. How are you? I am fine. I want to start by sharing a sweet mystery of life that I have found just recently. My wife, along with you or your wife reads and loves the Twilight series (I may not know you, but I know THIS about you). She convinced me to give it a try and I read the first book and . . . I liked it. Then the next and the next and next. I was pleasantly surprised. But the "sweet mystery of life" I found was that I read it and remained heterosexual as well as not attracted to Edward in the least. I'm not sure how I did it, I'm fairly positive that I am the only Twilight fan to ever have this happen to them. Now on an unrelated note. Do you know what is NOT a sweet mystery of life? Any and all Old Navy commercials. Every time I see one I just want to say "Really? Are decent writers THAT hard to find in this market? I'm ok, I mean I could write a commercial that was not dumbtastic or that didn't involve weird awkward stop-frame-photography manaquins. my application is in the mail. . . idiots." That's all I have for you today, it was a pleasure meeting you, here's a picture of me so you can soak me in.

1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY!

I totally forgot to post about our 1 year anniversary in my last blog but that's ok because this one deserves its very own post. Sam just LOVES being sneaky and surprising me! While I hate the suspense I really do love the surprise at the end. So around February I asked him what he wanted to do for our anniversary that was coming up and he wouldn't give me a straight answer for like a week and when he answered he said, "How about I get to plan everything?" and that was that. I was left wondering for 3 months about what he was planning. The suspense almost killed me! I'd ask him what we were doing and he'd just say, "You don't really want to ruin the surprise do you?" and I'd shut up. On May 8th we left Cedar for "some where". He kept saying weird things to try and throw me off the trail. We headed in a northerly direction on I-15 and then we ended up in Midway which was our favorite place on our honeymoon. I figured out we were heading to Midway once we got to Provo Canyon but I didn't know where we were staying because we'd stayed in two different places while we were there. We stopped by the Zermatt Hotel and he pointed to stuff and such and said "What number is that one?" and I told him and he said, "Cool, we're not staying there."! He was dragging it out as long as possible! We finally pulled up to a condo at Zermatt and the garage opened. We pulled in and walked in. There were eggs cooking on the stove and I was thinking, "We just walked into someone else's house!" then Ry and Em jumped out of a closet!! They were there to surprise me! They totally helped Sam plan the whole thing. Em's parents own the condo and she let us stay there for the weekend! It was SO fun! We hung out with them till like 2 am then we all went to bed. We got up the next morning and had a leisurely morning then we headed to Park City to see X-Men Origins: Wolverine! SO good! After that Ry and Em headed to Idaho to visit family and we had the rest of the weekend to ourselves. We walked Main St. in Park City and went into different shops. This saddle was AMAZING! My father in law wants to make a saddle like this in the near future. Check out all the details in the leather and silver! I don't remember how much they said it was worth but it was many thousands of dollars!

Our favorite gallery by far is this one. I don't remember what its called but we went to it on our honeymoon and loved to so we were determined to find it again and we did. We BADLY want one of these brass frogs. They are way heavy and WAY expensive but they are GORGEOUS and have so much personality. The big frog was $7500 and the little ones were several hundered each. The giant octopus (which we also want REALLY bad) was thousands as well. They are just all so gorgeous! The guy tried to get Sam to buy me one but we just don't have the money right now. Maybe next year. :)

That night we went to Teriyaki Grill which is kind of like Panda in the sense that its fast but its Japanese food. SO yummy! Then we went back to the condo and relaxed and watched tv. The next day we got up and drove around Heber. We went to some shops and found a painting that we found on our honeymoon that looks just like me! We had lunch at an authentic Mexican restaurant that was awesome! Went back to Park City that day and Sam took me on a shopping spree as his gift to me! We went bowling in Heber just like we did on our honeymoon and I actually beat Sam!! That's the first time that's ever happened. We were the only people bowling. So fun!

He had Ry and Em get Kung Fu Panda for him so he could give it to me when we got up there but they gave it to us as their gift for our anniversary so he had to think of something else. Haha. I got him and I a couple's massage since he'd never had one. We got it done a week after we got back. Any ways we went to The Outlets and shopped FOREVER! It was a record for us. He got me new flip flops since mine broke, a new purse since mine was ugly and falling apart. We got him some new shirts, a bunch of kitchen stuff, and other odds and ends. It was great but we were SO ready for dinner when we were done. We went to Cafe Trang for dinner that night. Its an Asian cuisine restaurant. They had Japanese, Chinese, Mongolian and Thai food. Sam and I are kind of obsessed with Asian food. It was DELISH! We got gelato at Zermatt that was divine on our honeymoon but just ok on our anniversary. We left on the 10th (the actual day of our anniversary) and stopped by his parent's house to wish his mom a Happy Mother's Day and we had dinner with them. On the drive back to Cedar I called my mom and talked to both my grandmas. It was a wonderful, wonderful weekend. I loved every second of it! Thanks honey for a wonderful anniversary! One year down, eternity to go!

I'm Alive I Swear!

I didn't die! I only have a few excuses for my long absence to the blogging world:

1. We moved (here's our old place all cleaned out)

2. I'm in summer school (here's one of my pictures from my photography class)

And . . . that's about it. We love our new place. We moved into the Northfield Apartments when the school granted us a housing scholarship so now they pay our rent. :) We also got permission to plant a little garden in our front yard and we love it. Two tomato plants, one crookneck squash plant, a jalapeno plant (Sam's idea) and 2 corn stalks.

These are our little budlings of plants. SO cute. They make me happy every time I walk by. I am SO looking forward to fresh veggies this fall. MMmmm.

In other news, Sam is working nights at Lyn's as a donut fryer. He likes it, the hours are just weird. We see each other about 3 hours a day. 6 pm - 9 pm since I get off work at 6 and he goes to bed at 9. Its a crazy schedule but we're making due.

We got to St. George quite frequently and go to SLC when we can. We've made some really great friends here in Cedar and are becoming more attached each day. I'm drawing a blank on other things we've done as of late but once I remember I'll be sure to post them.

Also, I just posted a new recipe on my food blog, Good Eatin', that I cohost with my friend Brittney. Check it out everyone! Its in my list of friends under "Good Eatin'" haha.

Loves to all!!

Time Travel . . .

Last weekend we went to SLC to go to Sam's mission reunion and that was way fun but THEN we partied with our friends Saturday night. Ry, Em, Chels and Dan are awesome! We watched Conference with Sam's family and then when all the boys were done with Priesthood Session we all met up at the dollar theater to watch Push at 10:00. Great movie, lots of action. After that we decided that we wanted to go back in time and relive our high school days. Well, I wanted to live the high school weekend I never had because I had curfew until I got married. Haha. So we headed to Dee's for some hot chocolate and snacks. While we were there we saw a man dressed as a woman. Waist length mink coat, short black skirt, black nylons, heels and a blonde wig. I would have taken a picture but I didn't want he/she to beat me up. We had fun talking about the movie and other random movies while watching Ry and Chels mess with their Blackberries. Sam and I are out of the Blackberry loop but that's ok with us. Haha. As we were leaving he/she followed us out with his/her friends and we did our best not to stare. We decided to head to Ry and Em's house to play games. We played killer bunnies first and since it was so late it took those of us that had never played ages to catch on but once we did it was way fun. After that we played the vegetable game, one of my favorites. If you've never played ask me about it and we'll get together and play. All I have to say is "mushroom" hahaha. Then it was on to ERS (Egyptian Rat Slap). I'm awful at that game and promptly got out and just watched everyone else. Chels has a screaming problem. Haha. Once that game ran its course us girls got into playing speed and guess who came out on top? ME! I love that game. Sam won't play with me so finding TWO friends that would play with me was awesome. After Chels and I finished our last game it was time to head home. It was 4:00 a.m. Yeah, be amazed. Sam and I had taken a 2 hour nap around 5:00 p.m. so we were wide awake but we crashed when we got back to my in laws for bed. I felt so alive that night. Can't wait to do it again. Love you all my friends!

Pic 1: Notice the bottom of Sam's seat is on his back. The cushion flipped up but the plastic bottom went down. He was thus confused.

Pic 2: At Dee's. A very impromptu picture. It was late.

Pic 3: Sam got a little excited about the "fluffy whip" on his hot chocolate and tried to snort it.

Pic 4: Chels decided to be creative about getting out of the booth and got stuck. Laughing hysterically because its late and its darn funny. Haha.

Great News, Great Weekend

Great news everyone! Sam and I got awarded a housing scholarship! What that means is we are moving the first day of May and from then on the school will be paying our rent! Downside is that they don't allow any kind of pets whatsoever so my parents have become foster parents to our 3 fishies. :) We'll be living by the hospital with almost half the people in our ward. The news got better yesterday when we found out our friends Spencer and Kelli got the same scholarship for the same complex so we'll be neighbors!

Any ways, on to the good weekend. The good part of the weekend happened Saturday night. Sam and I both worked until 4:00 but then we headed down to St. George and we met Amy and Mike for dinner at Frostop which was great. Then we headed to Tuachan to see Boys Like Girls in concert! Thanks to my parents, who have season tickets to Tuachan, we got to go for free! I'm a big fan of Boys Like Girls so I was totally stoked. Amy and Mike went to and were 8 or so rows behind us. City of Ashburn and Fearless Fearless opened the show and were pretty good. As we were waiting for Fearless Fearless to come on stage I noticed my friend Cassie's husband walking to his seat so I texted her and she said she'd be there in just a second. It was great seeing them there and talking about how we were the oldest people there. Haha. We really loved the Boys Like Girls concert. They're pretty good live. The lead singer is a bit of a spaz but it was still really fun. The weather was great too, thank heavens for spring.

Excited for the concert!

City of Ashburn

BOYS LIKE GIRLS!

First Camp Out!

Sam and I went camping, just the two of us, for the first time ever! We camped from 3/14-3/16. It was a great time! My cousin showed us a great spot on Gooseberry Mesa and we camped right on the edge of a cliff. Hiking, biking, dutch oven and camp fires were what filled our time while we were there. A short disclaimer: there's going to be a bunch of photos here. :)

Blowing up the air mattress

I'm the king of the world!

View from the cliff

View from our front door

Our little camp

Pretty view at sunset

Filet mignon, YUM!!!!

Dutch oven potatoes! Best ever!

Sam found the house he wants to buy, haha.

Pink Jeep Tours? Its a Dodge with weird van-ish back.

Edge of the cliff we biked too. Super steep drop off!

Sam's spikey face. Kissing a cactus, yeah. Haha