Living Happily Together

Childhood Past- Montana the Horse and Gracie the Chicken

2012-02-10T11:10:00.000-08:00

While in high school we had some neighbors with horses and chickens. My mom has always loved horses. So we all went over there to introduce ourselves. Sometime later one of there chickens hatched a baby chick but kicked her out of the nest. So they gave her to me to take care of. We put a box in my closet with a heat lamp. I named this baby chicken Gracie. (I had a big thing for Miss Congeniality the movie. The main character Sandra Bullock is named Gracie Lee Freebush.) The first night Gracie was lonely she would not stop chirping. I had a little stuffed animal bear in her box but she wanted something warm. I than laid on the floor trying to sleep with my hand dangling in the box while Gracie nestled up next to me.

She stayed inside for a long time while we waited for our chicken coup to be built. We would set her on the floor and she would run around while we feed her pieces of grapes. Once she got a bit bigger we moved her in the living room. I would take her outside so she could play in the dirt and grass. After she moved outside we would still let her inside in the kitchen and throw grapes to her and she would run so fast and swallow the grape whole. I had Gracie for about 4 years. My mom gave her to someone in our 4H group that a had a little boy. I kinda forgot about Gracie and than asked my mom one day about her and she told me Gracie died. She was a really cool chicken.

Montana. The same neighbors boarded horses and had Montana. He was so tall. My 9th grade summer I would go over to there house and muck the horse stalls. I remember the first day I was not drinking enough water and walked home sweating up a storm. I learned to bring water bottle over and actually got pretty fast mucking the stalls. The reason I mucked the stalls was so I could ride Montana and get riding lessons. I than joined 4H and did a few horse shows. I really liked riding English and jumping. I got a few Blue Ribbons (not to brag).

The Spider costume. My mom made 4 legs and then Montana had 4 legs.

I would sometimes get very frustrated during the shows and start crying. During every show they usually had a fun competition. They had one were it was a costume contest. My mom came up with the idea to make a spider costume. It was really cute. I had my own helmet and saddle. It was fun bathing the horses. I really enjoyed learning to ride and think about Montana quite often.

Diary Past

2012-02-10T10:33:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago we went to a funeral and they read excerpts from a childhood journal. I was never great at writing in a journal plus as a kid it was mostly about boys or what my brother did to make me mad. Looking back I really wish I would of took the time to journal about what I did back. Things that are just memories now. Luckily I have a pretty good memory and have decided to write one now. I figured on my blog would probably be best and than I can put them into a photo book. I have no idea how I will organize my stories on here. They will most likely be about middle school one day and being 6 years old the next. I will try to put some pictures on here with the stories to help me remember. I think this would be a great way for my kids to read about my childhood. I look back and wish I would of asked my grandma more about her growing up in Poland. I will see my other grandma later this year and am definitely asking her some questions.

Dad's Birthday

2012-01-20T14:13:00.000-08:00

On my dad's birthday he wanted us to go down to the bar and play darts. Nate and I bought some cupcakes and went to the bar with my parents. Most of the bar sang for my dad. It feels really weird not having my brother and sister gone. We all had a great time though.

New Years Eve

2012-01-01T09:35:00.000-08:00

We had a party at our house this year for New Years. We had Gabe, Jenna, Dan, and Christina come over. We ate some yummy food that Nathan made and played some games. I have really wanted to have a Minute to Win It party so we came up with about 5 games to play. The boys won and it immediately goes to there heads. We definitely have some extremely competitive husbands. We also played Would You Rather. It was a pretty funny game. I had to do an Interpretive Dance for 30 seconds about a cat stalking its prey. We also play Just Dance 3 on the Kinect.

Jenna, Christina, Dan and I than did something stupid and jumped in the pool at midnight. HOLY CRAP!!! I have never jumped in anything so cold before. Nathan said it was about 50 something in the water. Once we jumped in all of us shrieked and ran out of the pool. Nathan than jumped in for 2 seconds and Gabe swam a lap. I did jump in 2 more times. Luckily we had the hot tub on so we would jump in there. Seriously not kidding about it being so cold. It felt like ice shards were stabbing my legs. It also gave you a brain freeze. I did lose one of my contacts in the pool and had no more. Bummer.

After soaking for a bit and planning our in case zombies attack plan we got out and re watched the fireworks on TV. Everyone stayed till about 2:30am. I did not get out of my PJs all the next day. It was a lot of fun having everyone over. Welcome 2012.

Tissue Game. Jenna won.

Stacking the nuts on top of each other.

Just Dance 3. They look like they could be in a boy band.

Blurry but this was at Midnight.

2012

Goodbye 2011! Welcome 2012

2011-12-31T09:58:00.000-08:00

I can not believe that it is going to be 2012. Life does go by so fast and it really freaks me out. I just wanted to look back at my goals at the beginning of the year and see how well I fared. Here is last years Goals....

Here are a few New Years Resolutions for myself.

1. Read 30 books. ( That is easy for me)

2. Get into shape. ( I do not mean lose weight. I mean get off my lazy butt and do something.)

3. Be less negative and more positive.

4. Make lunches to bring to work.

Hopefully I stay up on them.

1. I totally completed this one. I read 48 new books last year. I did reread books but did not put that toward my count.

2. I did not get into shape if anything I am in worse shape.

3. I still am negative but am trying to be positive.

4. Well I do not work anymore so I guess I did pass this one. :)
I originally was not going to do any resolutions this year but than decided too. I am really feeling the fresh start of this year and am excited to make some goals.

1. Read 45 new books.

2. Try new things. (Examples include learn napkin folding, trying new food, watching a different kind of movie.)

3. Slow down. I really need Nate to slow down and enjoy life more. He is so stressed about work all the time that he does not really take time to enjoy things. It really makes you appreciate the world and life. ( I totally sound like a hipee)

4. Write hand written letters and make cards. I really want to send letters and home made cards to family and friends randomly just to make the smile.

5. Take my placement tests and go back to school. I really want to have a teaching degree. I also really want to take a creative writing class too.

6. Have a baby. Not that this is really in my control but hopefully this will be the year that my body cooperates.

I really am happy about these goals. Hopefully I can be inspired to complete them.

Goodbye 2011 you had your ups and definitely downs but it could of been worse.

Holiday Hang Time

2011-12-30T09:58:00.001-08:00

The week between Christmas and New Years was a lot of fun. No one really was working and we had my brother in town. Jon came over a few times and we played Call of Duty all day. It was a blast. One of the days we went shooting with Jenna, Gabe, Daniel, Gabe's Uncle, and my brother. Jenna and I only shot once and than messed with our shadows. We are such nerds. Afterwards we went to a Hibachi Grill. I have never been to one and it was some yummy food. The night before my brother left he came over with my sister. We had a fun time playing some kinect and eating food. I will miss those two. We did get a sibling picture though. I had an extreme amount of fun and am not looking to go back to reality next week.

Christmas in Las Vegas

2011-12-26T09:57:00.000-08:00

This Christmas was a bit different. My sister had to work until 2pm. So we waited until 3pm to open the presents. It was really odd since we have always had the gifts open before sunrise. My brother came into town so we were all pretty excited to have him around. Jon, my dad, and I went to visit Jenny at work on the way there we had Aerosmith blasting so loud through the speakers. It was pretty fun.

Once Jenny got home we opened the gifts. My sister made me a wedding album from her pictures. It is really cute. My brother bought me an Xbox Kinect. I also got a lot more stuff and so did Nate. We than ate a yummy Prime Rib dinner. It was definitely fun having the whole family together. All we need was Colin though.

After dinner we had another Christmas to go to at Jenna and Gabe's house. We brought my brother along too. Jenna and Gabe had a full house. They had a yummy pasta and than we hung out for awhile. It was also little Aidens birthday so we ate some cake too. Then we opened even more presents. It was a wonderful Christmas and we are both very lucky to have such wonderful people in our lives.

Christmas in Alamo

2011-12-25T09:57:00.000-08:00

On Friday we went up to Alamo to have Christmas Eve with Nathan's dad, Katie, Roberta, and her family. It was a lot of fun. We played games, rode the 4-wheelers, saw Bald Eagles at the lake, ate food, and opened presents. It was nice to just hang out.

Katie and I after our 4 wheeling adventure.

The unwrapping

Nate got a WIFI helicopter.

Bellagio with The Holts

2011-12-22T10:11:00.000-08:00

We finally made it to the Belliago this year to see the Christmas Decorations. We met Nathan's cousin Richard there. Nathan drove Heather and the kids there. Meili kept asking Nathan if he knew where to go. When the light was green she would yell "Go Nate! The light is green." Nate then would say, "Meili your so cute." She got so mad and told Nate to stop bothering her. She also told Nate she was never coming over to our house again. Later while we were at BJs she said Nate was her best friend. She is so funny. I guess I should get back to Bellagio. We walked around and saw the garden. It was busy but so pretty. Afterwards we went to BJs for appetizers and pizookies. Yum.

There is high possiblity we might steal him. So cute

Love these guys.

Moving

2011-12-17T09:57:00.000-08:00

This was something Nate and I kept to ourselves for a while but now that we have actually done it I can write about. In November we started talking about trying to sell our house. We are upside down and this house is not a house we want to raise kids in. There is no backyard and it is 3 stories. So we are going to try to short sell. Nathan's dad bought a house just down the street in Lamplight Village. Nate came up with the idea to rent his dads house out for a while. This way we could save lots of money (rent is 600 dollars cheaper). I was not too excited about the idea but once we started fixing up Dan's house I got real excited.

Nate and I did so much work in the house. It just needed some updating on things which I will tell you about in another post. I can absolutely say that I love this house more than my other one. It is way smaller but also has a pool. The neighborhood is so wonderful. They had a Christmas party and the HOA got a horse trolley for the kids that went around the neighborhood. It is not a permanent home but it is a good home to stay in while we start a family. We both decided that we will build our next house which would be so cool.

My Stressful Week

2011-11-28T09:59:00.000-08:00

If you look back a few blog posts you will see that my sister was engaged and planning a wedding in the Spring time. Well two weeks ago I get a call from her saying that she is getting married the day after Thanksgiving. 13 DAYS!!!! Yep! She gave us 13 days to plan a reception for her. Talk about stress!! Plus it is the day after Thanksgiving!

See Colin was coming home from the Navy on Thanksgiving for a couple days. He wanted to get married than so Jenny can come and live with him out in Florida on the base. So that is reason they pushed it forward. The planning of this wedding caused excitement, tears, anger, and even a bloody nose. I am also pretty sure I could feel wrinkles forming in my skin from stress. I even had nightmares about it. After all that though we successfully planned a reception.

My mom was going to make the meal. Prime Rib!! I was in charge of cake. We came up with decorations and had it at my parents neighbor's house Ellen. Let me run you through my week of how busy it was.

Monday: Help Clean Mom's house, Put together wedding stuff
Tuesday: Grocery Shopping, Clean my house, make 2 Oreo pies
Wednesday: Make pumpkin pies and rolls in the morning, and make Thanksgiving dinner in afternoon
Thursday: Make three 10inch cakes, Turkey day at moms house, start icing cake, make photo board for wedding
Friday: Rolls, Decorate cake, Wedding day

I am so glad my sister had a photographer friend take pictures because I took none! After Thanksgiving dinner I went home and made a photo board with Jenny and Colin baby pictures. Friday I was at my moms house by 8 am. We went to Michael's and bought some purple fondant and more icing. Nathan was such a trooper he drove us there and helped out so much. Than we decorated the cake. I finished icing it and tried to get it as smooth as possible. I think I did a fantastic job as my first wedding cake ever. (Nathan even cut out a heart boarder out of the fondant.)

The rest of the morning consisted of bringing things over to Ellen's house and start cooking the food. At noon the photographer showed up to take pictures of the dress and Jen getting ready. Jen told me I was going to curl her hair. I don't know how to curl hair pretty so I called on Katie to do that job. She did a fantastic job too. Colin's mom even surprised Jenny with a limo to the chapel. They got married at the Little White Wedding Chapel. Colin was late about 30 minutes but did finally show up. They got married right outside under a gazebo where we could all crowd around and watch. My dad was crying his eyes out. It was so cute. They then went and took pictures at the park while we set up the food. After everyone left we had to clean up. Nathan and Katie stuck around the whole time and helped. The reception turned out pretty good for having been planned in 13 days. Here are some pictures.

I have a new brother.

The cake I made. With help from Mom, Nathan, and Jen.

Jen. She look gorgeous.

Love this picture

The board I made.

Facebook picture time

Her flowers

Thanksgiving

2011-11-27T09:48:00.001-08:00

This year we had a pre-Thanksgiving dinner at my house with Katie, The Felicanios, and The Rodrigues. The morning was a bit stressful for me while making pumpkin pies (technical difficulties). Christina and the kids came over early while the men were golfing. She helped me make rolls and we played with the kids. It was fun to hang out. We than ate dinner and had pie. Everyone was stuffed. I was so busy that I did not take any pictures. Christina did and I am hoping I can steal some of them.

On Thanksgiving we went to my parents house. My mom was having 14 people over. We went over early because we had to frost Jen's wedding cake. We ran out of time so we had to pause the cake decorating until Friday. The Felicanio's came over to my parents too. The kids fed the chickens and then we walked to the park. By that time dinner was ready and Jen, Colin, and Colin's mom had just arrived. Colin had just flown in a couple hours ago too. We all ate a yummy dinner and talked for a while. Then later we played darts with my dad and the Felicanio's. It was pretty funny. My mom still has a lot of our toys and brought them out for the kids to play with. My parents sure enjoyed having kids in the house again.

It was a really fun time. I am thankful for so many things. I am glad we have good friends and family to celebrate with.

Dan Got Married

2011-11-07T09:29:00.000-08:00

This past weekend Nathan's dad got remarried. He married Roberta Hess. She is a family friend. On Friday they had a family dinner. We stayed at Windmill with Katie and the Holts. We had a nice big party in the room. Just kidding we played board games. On Saturday they had a small wedding at the church. I was in charge of taking pictures with Dan's camera. Yeah I hope I got some okay ones. Christina grabbed some great shots with her camera. Here are a couple pictures that she put on her facebook. Thanks Chrisina for helping. It was a fun weekend.

Halloween

2011-11-01T09:10:00.000-07:00

I did not decorate at all for Halloween. I really saw no point since we just got back from Hawaii. I did really want to do some Halloween crafts but that is far as that thought went. We did however go to a Halloween party at Dan and Christina's house. I dressed up as Harry Potter I already had everything anyway so it was pretty easy. Looking at this picture (which I stole from Christina's friend Amy) I totally see why Nathan laughs every time I dress up. I look so silly.

Over the weekend Nathan surprised me with pumpkins. We sat and watched football and carved pumpkins. I had to clean Nathan's out since he would not do that part but he did carve it. They turned out really cute. All they did was sit in my kitchen for a few days before I tossed them.

Nathan's pumpkin

My Harry Potter pumpkin

On actually Halloween we went with The Holts to the District and walked around. That place was crazy packed. We watched the kids do a costume contest. It was fun. Afterwards I had to help Nathan with something from work. We made it home around 8pm and I was sure glad we did not get any trick-r-treaters because I did not buy any candy. Hopefully next year we have a kid of are own to dress up.

Jenny soon to be Reed

2011-10-29T14:54:00.000-07:00

My younger sister is engaged to Colin. Colin is in the Navy. He just graduated boot camp when Jenny went to his graduation where he popped the question. The whole family new for a few weeks. He wrote a letter to my parents asking for there blessing. Jenny is pretty excited. She is going to end up moving to Florida too. So congratulations you too. We are excited to have Colin in the family.

Hawaii- Day 8

2011-10-25T09:48:00.000-07:00

On our last day our flight did not leave until 11pm at night. Nathan was able to get us a late checkout of 10pm. So we were able to go to the beach and then come back and shower. That is what we did. We went back to Black Rock all day. There was a turtle almost on shore that was there the whole day. There were so many people surrounding it taking pictures. You get fined in Hawaii for touching the turtles too. Nathan and I went snorkeling together later on. We saw a star fish, an eel, and a crab. When we were coming back in the sea turtle was right in front of me and I almost stepped on him. Time to leave came way too soon. We took a couple of pictures together and then went back to shower and pack.

Here are some random tidbits I did not want to forget about our trip.

-We got offered to buy pot 3 different times (That I remember)

-Shave Ice is so yummy. It totally beats snow cones any day of the week.

-Nathan walked into the women’s restroom at the airport.

-OMG a man in a thong on the beach!!

-Saw lots of guys in speedos.

-We had birds fly into our room when we left the doors open.

-Everyone made fun of me because the first couple of day everything I said started with “I read about.”

Hawaii-Day 7

2011-10-22T09:30:00.000-07:00

Nathan, Gabe and Jenna booked surfing lessons for early this morning. I was going to take pictures of them. They all did really good. Nathan had cut his finger pretty bad on Thursday. He needed stitches but did not want to get them because he would not be able to swim so he just bandaged it up. It opened up while he went surfing. After surfing we bought a CD with pictures of them. They were funny seeing them fall. The picture guys camera did a really good job. I got some good ones too but had to walk out on a rock wall.

We ate some breakfast and then went to Blackrock to go to the beach. It was a really nice beach. We did some snorkeling and relaxing in the sand. Nathan and Gabe went to jump off the Blackrock. We were told it was 30 feet. A bunch of locals go there and were doing some cool tricks off. Nathan and Gabe said it hurt when jumping in. We saw another sea turtle while there too.

Hawaii- Day 6 Part 2

2011-10-21T22:15:00.000-07:00

After our helicopter ride we took a road around the west side of the island to get back to the resort. We were told it is harder than the Hana Road. Nathan and I gassed up and tried it out. At first it was really pretty and it was an easy road. Not too scary. A few houses were sitting on cliffs over water it was crazy. Than all of the sudden the road goes to 1 lane. Not 1 lane each direction I mean 1 lane for both directions. There were sharp turns along the mountain. It was pretty scary. Everyone was pretty safe and drove slow. After a while we came upon this little town nestle in between two green mountains right on the water. They had some people selling banana bread and fresh fruit. We bought some coconut to try. I actually tried. Finally after a while we came on the two lane road again and saw a blow hole. We than finally made our way back to the resort. It was a really cool adventure.

The Road

The cool little town

Blow Hole

That evening Jenna and I took some funny pictures. We also went to watch the sunset again on the beach.

Hawaii- Day 6 Part 1

2011-10-21T21:40:00.000-07:00

On Thursday we planned to drive the Road to Hana but Gabe had to end up working. I was pretty sad about not going but Nathan really wanted to do a helicopter tour. I was a bit iffy about doing that but he talked me into it. We drove to the airport to catch our chopper. They gave us life vests to wear and took down our weight. Nathan and I ended up sitting in the front with the pilot. At first I got pretty nervous but once we were up and I saw how smooth it was I relaxed a lot. She took us on a tour over the west side of the island. We saw lots of waterfalls and a part of the island is where they filmed part of Jurassic Park.

Taking off in Maui

She then flew us over to another Hawaiian island called Molokai. There are not many people on this island. We flew over to see the world’s largest sea cliffs and more waterfalls. We than went back to Maui and saw our resort. It went by way fast. We bought a DVD of our flight which will be cool to watch sometime. I guess I owe Nathan for making me do the helicopter ride it did turn out pretty cool.

Sea Cliffs

Molokai

Hawaii- Day 5 Part 2

2011-10-20T18:16:00.000-07:00

After snorkeling we headed back to the resort. Before we did we stopped at a Shave Ice stand. Yummy! That was so good. We ended up going back every day. There was also a Farmers Market right there where I bought some banana bread and a pineapple. Once we got the room we showered. Jenna napped and Nathan went to work out. I went to the beach to watch the sunset. Beware I took lots of sunset pictures and feel it should have its own blog post. They gradually progress as it sets further. It was so gorgeous. Nathan finally did join me and we walked the beach together.

Hawaii- Day 5 Part 1

2011-10-20T17:43:00.000-07:00

We booked a snorkeling tour to the island Molokini. The snorkeling was okay there. It was pretty murky but we had fun taking pictures of each other. There was a lot of people there too. After an hour at Molokini we went to Turtle Town. Jenna and I stayed on the boat and were one of the firsts to get lunch. The boys came back and saw a turtle and a seal. The seal than popped up a few times by the boat.

After lunch we than went to look for dolphins. The captain took us on a little tour too. We saw Tiger Woods’s Maui home. We also saw lava tubes from the volcano. On the way back to the marina we finally saw 6 dolphins. They also had some babies too.

Lava Tubes

Dolphins

Hawaii- Day 4

2011-10-19T17:22:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, Nathan and Gabe had a little work to do so Jenna and I went to the beach and snorkeling. While snorkeling we saw an octopus. The boys came later and we played at the beach. Nathan booked us for jet skiing later that afternoon. So we went to the Whalers Village for lunch and bought some sun protection.

We got to jet skiing and they took you on this little boat out into the water where they had all the jet skis. I was not overly excited for doing this. I do not like going fast on things and plus I did not want to fall in the water. That is why Nathan and I rented our own jet skis. We had set boundaries we had to stay in for the hour. That worked out great for me. I topped my speed at 21 miles an hour while the boys topped their's at 65. Jenna did 50. Oh well I was perfectly content with my going in circles. We bought a CD of pictures from the jet ski place too. Nathan and Gabe were doing crazy stuff on them.

After that we went back to the resort to clean up and went out to dinner. My throat was hurting really bad and so I had a Bloody Mary. It was so gross but totally fixed my sore throat.

A rare smile.

Hawaii- Day 3

2011-10-18T16:58:00.000-07:00

The next morning Nathan, Gabe, and I went to go deep sea fishing. Jenna stayed back at the resort because she gets sea sick. It was a nice little drive to the marina and we caught a nice sunrise. Pardon my pictures. This is while driving.

We had a 5 hour fishing charter booked. It was part sport fishing where you catch the big fish and need to be strapped down and the other half was bottom fishing. We were on the boat with about 7 other people. I had a good time chatting up the people on the boat. The fishing could of been a whole lot better though. Gabe and Nathan both caught two fish each that they kept. I caught a total of 3 fish and they threw 2 back and they used one for live bait. Nothing caught on the big lines though. They did get a bite on the live bait and when they reeled the line in the fish was bite in half. They said a shark must of did it. I had a really good time fishing and really want to do it again. I have a back up plan in life now. If need be I will move to Hawaii and work on a tourist fishing charter. I just need to get some more muscles. On the way back to the harbor we saw a sea turtle.

After we got back to the resort we ate lunch with Jenna and us girls went to the beach while the boys took a nap. While swimming at the beach Jenna and I saw a turtle swimming in front of us. He was so cute.

Later that evening we went to a Luau at the Sheraton Hotel. When we got there we got lei'd. They had the natives showing us some games. Where you throw a spear and try and get it threw two sticks. They had a buried pig that they dug up too. We ate some dinner and talked with our table. We had a couple from Italy. After dinner they put on a show. Jenna and I went up there to learn how to hula dance. At the end of the show the dancers picked people to come up and dance. One of the men was coming to our table and I kept saying not me not me and than they picked Jenna. Phew.. that was close. It was about this time that I started getting a sore throat. Jenna was sick in the beginning on the trip.

I just got done throwing a spear

Nathan's turn

No, I am not pregnant.

Jenna and me are in the back.

Hawaii- Day 2

2011-10-17T16:10:00.000-07:00

On Day 2 of our Hawaiian adventure we made a few reservations for activities we wanted to do. While renting our snorkeling gear we ate at Aloha Mixed Plate. It was right on the water. I ordered the Hawaiian sampler. It came with pork, Poi, and Haupia. I was pretty proud of myself for trying some Hawaiian dishes. The poi was a weird texture and did not really taste like anything. I did like the Haupia it was just a little different.

image

After our lunch we did some snorkeling over by our beach. I really have never been snorkeling and really enjoyed it. We saw lots of cool fish. We than ate our dinner and called it a night. Three hour time difference kind of wears us out.

View from our room

The hotel. Our room is labeled.

Hawaii- Arriving

2011-10-16T15:32:00.000-07:00

Our journey to Maui started early in the morning. We had a plan to catch at 6:00am. That plane than took us to San Fransisco. Neither Nathan or I have ever been to San Fransisco and plan on going back. It definitely looked like a cool city to explore. Than we caught another plane to Maui. That flight was almost 5 hours over the ocean. Kind of freaky. Once we landed the first thing I noticed was it was so windy but it was so nice outside. The temperature was perfect. We went to get our bags and get our rental car. We rented a jeep because we had a lot of bags.

This is us cruising in the jeep with the top down. This was the only time we took the top down it was a serious pain to put up and down too. We drove about 45 minutes to the west side of Maui. This is where our resort was. We stayed at the Honua Kai. It was a condo type hotel. We were not sure if we were going to be able to check in but they let us. :) We went up to our room and were immediately disappointed because we paid for an ocean view and only had a partial and it was facing the mountains. The boys went down to front desk to see if there was another room they could move us into and she did. It was SO much better.

We ate a quick lunch at Dukes and then changed into our swimming suits to go swimming. The water was definitely warmer than California. The beach by our hotel had a lot of coral so we walked a little bit down and found the perfect spot.

Lion King

2011-09-24T15:22:00.000-07:00

We finally went to see the Lion King at Mandalay Bay. This is the last year and I have been pestering Nathan to take me. We went with The Holt Family and Katie. The show was really cool. I loved there costumes.

I like to think I am creative

2011-09-13T15:30:00.000-07:00

My sister turned 19 and I made her a sucker bouquet. I think it is pretty cute.

My Passing Out Adventure

2011-09-01T10:04:00.000-07:00

I have had a gym membership forever and have yet to go. Nathan finally talked me into going on Tuesday morning. We woke up at 6:30 in the morning and I got dressed really quick and made myself somewhat presentable. Then we went. I worked out for about 10 minutes and told Nathan I was done and did not feel good. He kept saying we just started you can not be tired. I started to walk away to the car when I started to black out but was still there. I told Nathan to walk with me. While he got my keys out of his truck I was leaning up against my jeep and went to open the door. The next thing I know I am on the ground with Nathan yelling my name. I could not believe I passed out! I am so lucky that Nathan was right there and he caught my body but my face hit the space in between the open door and the car. I am very happy that it did not hit my eye.

Nathan drove me home and mad me eat some cereal. Later that afternoon Nathan was still freaked out so he told me we were going to the doctor. The doctor said if I passed out I have to go to the emergency room. I tried to talk Nathan out of it but he insisted. We were able to right through in the ER. They checked my blood sugar and it was 50. They than made me drink so OJ with sugar. Then I had to sit in a bed for awhile while they hooked me up to an IV, drew blood, and did some other tests. A few hours later a guy came that got his stomach pumped and we heard the whole thing. I was kind of put on the back burning at that time but had to go to the bathroom soooooooo bad. Finally all my tests came back and they said I probably have hypoglycemia.

Nothing really changes just have to make sure I eat. Nathan was so nice to me. He even gave me a foot massage. :) I did get a bit of a bruise on my face. I am just extremely lucky that Nathan was there to catch me. It would of really hurt bad if he was not there.

Picaboo

2011-08-30T09:50:00.000-07:00

I bought a Groupon for Picaboo last year. It was a great deal. I spent 25 dollars and got to spend 100 dollars there. I bought two photo books and a calendar. I still have money left over but not enough to buy anything else. :( Anyway I have bought a book from Shutterfly before and it turned out really good. The thing with Picaboo is that you can move your pictures around where Shutterfly has set layouts.

I finally made my books and ordered them. It was super easy you just download the program and away you go. Than one week later I had my photo books. The price was really great too. One photo book hardcover 8x11- 20 pages was $49.00. They had a deal going on that took 10 dollars off and free shipping so the book was only $32.00. I was impressed. I will keep an eye out for more groupon's for Picaboo.

The calendar turned out really great too. I used pictures that my sister took. She seriously is a great photographer. I am such a proud sister. Here are a couple of my favorite pictures she took.

Jenny's Scrapbook

2011-08-29T09:42:00.000-07:00

These last two weeks one major project has been taking my attention away. I started making my sister a scrapbook almost 2 years ago. The original plan was to get it done for graduation. Yeah none of that happened. Finally I got the motivation to finish it for her so she could show her boyfriend before he leaves for the Navy. I really love how it turned out. My parents really liked it too. Here are a few of my favorite pages. I had 50 pages! I am not sure if I will scrapbook like that again though.

Book Update!

2011-08-15T10:21:00.000-07:00

I try not to spend a lot of money on books through the Kindle. It is really cool that Amazon has a bunch of 99 cent books that are really good but I had an idea. I have been saving our coins from the last year and decided to go to Coinstar. I have always just got cash back instead of a gift card but when you do a gift card they don't take out a fee. So that's what I did I got an Amazon gift card to spend on books. I asked Nathan how much he thought I had and he thought 40 bucks. I actually had 136.00 dollars.

I am pretty excited. Also to catch you up on my goal to read 30 NEW books this year. I am currently at 27. So I will totally reach this goal. You can look at my goodreads account where I keep track of all my books. It is pretty awesome.

Nathan turned 26!

2011-08-13T10:02:00.000-07:00

Saturday was Nathan's birthday. We had a little celebration with our friends Gabe, Jenna, Daniel, and Christina on Thursday night. We went to Texas de Brazil and than went to Pete's Piano Bar. It was a lot of fun.

On Saturday I woke up and made Nathan a nice breakfast. He went golfing with Richard, Gabe, and Daniel. Katie and I watched Richard's kids Kailer and Meili. It was fun. I had the kids ice the cake.

I made sure not little fingers went into the cake either. I am very proud. We decorated the outside with chocolate chips.

We did some arts and crafts while we waited for the guys to be done.

Once the guys got back we had some cake. We bought Nathan this silly hat at the Dollar Store and he had to wear it.

Later that night we all went to Nathan's dad's house to go swimming. Daniel and Christina came over with the kids. We had a little BBQ and swam. They were so nice and brought cheese cake over and we sung again to Nathan. Nathan said it was a really good birthday.

The only part of the house Nathan owns.

2011-08-12T09:48:00.000-07:00

Not really but that is what he says. I have all these plans for our house and Nathan said he wanted to do something with the little cubby hole the tv goes in. He said that is my only room in the house I want to do what I want in there. It really is not though. He will totally veto anything that I wanna do in the house if he doesn't like it.

Anyway Nathan's company got an office so they took our big 65' TV from upstairs. It is 3 years old and Nathan bought a 55' on last November that is super nice. So he wanted to hang the TV on the cubby wall and hide all the boxes in the closet. I was a bit uneasy about this. He also wanted nothing else underneath the TV. We argued about it for a couple weeks. I wanted something underneath there for storage but he wanted it all cleared out. I won that argument. haha. I painted over our accent blue/gray wall and than Nathan and hung the TV up. Okay Nathan did they hanging part. I helped lift it up. He set up all the boxes in the closet. The universal remote that I bought him works with all the boxes in the closet too. While he did all that I put up the two shelves and baked his birthday cake. See I am becoming a house wife. We sat and appreciated our hard work. I really like the end result.

The wood matches the coffee table, dining table, and buffet table really well. I am going to IKEA this weekend and trying to find white baskets to fit in some of the shelf cubbies. I also wanted to do a stencil on the wall but have yet to find one I really like. I can do that later though. I am super excited to put stuff up on the shelf too.

I wanna be a DIYer!

2011-08-11T09:38:00.000-07:00

So I am starting to decorate the house now that I am here. We bought these mirrors a few years ago I believe at Ross.

We had them in our guest room but Katie took them out when she moved in. So I have been saving them. Now all our walls our gray and I am not a big fan of this brown look so I spray painting them. I have learned that I love to spray paint things. I have white, yellow, and purple spray paint. ( My color combination for our living room.)

So one morning I told Nathan I was going to spray paint in the garage. ( Our garage until very recently use to be Nathan's office. He built a wall and put it around the garage door. The boys just moved out of there and so it is empty but still has the carpet in there.) It was too hot outside to spray paint and patience is not a strong point in me. So I went at it. Then my head started hurting and I opened windows and doors but the spray paint smell stayed through out the day. I guess I learned my lesson. So from now on I will be spray painting outside in the evening.

BUT!!!!

The mirrors turned out really good. I painted them white and they will look great on the walls. That is not a break in the mirror it is a can light reflection. :) I want to spray paint so many things now. I will keep you updated on these adventures of mine.

Becoming a House Wife

2011-08-06T09:29:00.000-07:00

I seriously have been neglecting my blog duties. I feel like I have been super busy but I probably am not good at managing my time. Anyway these last three weeks I have been becoming a house wife. Since we are all done in Utah (just one more quick trip) and I am not going back to work full time I have decided I can become a nice house wife with dinner done when the man comes home. :) Nathan is a SUPER picky eater. He does not venture away from things he knows he likes. So I studied up and found some recipes to make. I have been cooking for 4 people. We have Katie that lives with us and Nathan's Dad who I invite over since Nancy passed away. It has been interesting. I have learned that I need to make an apron because I am one messy cook.

I did make some yummy cookies too. They are called Martha Stewart Chocolate Cookie Crackle. They kind of took a long time to make but I did it. Than I ate almost all of them myself because Katie and Nathan are being good and going to gym. There loss. Here is what they turned out to look like.

Here is the recipe if you want it. They are good but a lot more work than I am used to making cookies.

Martha Stewart Cookie Crackles

Mary Jane Falls

2011-07-19T09:18:00.000-07:00

Nathan's Dad and his sister Katie go hiking quite a bit. They planned a day trip up to Mt. Charleston to hike Mary Jane Falls. We invited the Holts to come with us too. It was so nice up there. It was in the 80's while the rest of Las Vegas was in the 100's. I have not hiked in a long time. I believe since my honeymoon. I was doing pretty good till the end and I wanted to quit but I pushed myself. I was not even carrying anything either. Nathan carried Meili on his back in back carrier thing (not quite sure what they are called). She was mad at him the whole time. We made it to the top and there was a little waterfall. We chilled up there for a bit taking in the nice view. We had a great time up there and want to go back.

I was concentrating on not rolling backwards.

Yes, this is the waterfall. I am sure it is larger in the spring when the snow is melting.

The End is Near

2011-07-12T15:02:00.000-07:00

Yes, I am devoting a whole post to the End of Harry Potter. I have always been so excited to see the movies(books are way better). This year I am excited but I am really sad too. It is the end! No more books or movies to look forward too. My mom says I am suffering from Harry Potter Depression. I sure hope the movie helps me cope with the end because if not I might just start carrying my wand in my purse. (Oh wait I already do). I know I am not the only one that is feeling like this.?

4th of July

2011-07-08T14:44:00.000-07:00

This years 4th of July was a bit different since Nancy's funeral was the same weekend but we did come back to Vegas and have a good time. We went to the Boulder City Parade with the Holts. This year we brought Dan with us. I held baby Tristan the majority of the time and it saved me from getting sprayed with water.

After the parade some of us went to the driving range. It was very sticky out. We than went to Dan's house and had a BBQ. We swam for a few hours. Than we went to Boulder City to watch the fireworks. They were the best fireworks I have ever seen. It was a nice Fourth of July.

Tourist Time

2011-07-02T14:31:00.000-07:00

We had some of Nathan's family his Aunt Judy and her daughter Allison in town. Allison has never been to Las Vegas so we made a whole day of touristy things. Nathan's brother Robert was in town too with is wife Lacy. We also had the Holts with us which made it so much more fun with those cute little kids. First we started the day off at the Shark Reef. I love the Shark Reef. Next we ate some pizza while a certain 2 year old napped. After that we went bowling at Sunset Station. That was a good time. After that it was dark out so we went to the Belliago and watched the water show.

Really blurry. It was a fun time though.

Aunt Judy and Allison.

After the water show we did something that I have never done before and I have lived in Las Vegas my whole life. We went and watched the Mirage Volcano. It was pretty cool. We than called it a night and headed home than to be diverted to a 10:30 at night Steak-n-Shake burger run. That was fun because I had a good time embarrassing Nathan with my magic wand. I sure hope that Allison and Judy can come back to Vegas soon. I kind of like playing tourist.

Nancy

2011-06-30T14:20:00.000-07:00

On June 24, 2011 Nathan's mom, Nancy passed away. We know she is in a better place but she is dearly missed. It was very sad time but her whole family was by her side. You will be missed and we love you.

Currently Addicted

2011-06-15T09:41:00.001-07:00

I had signed up for Pineterst awhile ago but just recently started pinning stuff all the time. Pinterest is a website where they have random pictures from food, clothes, crafts, house decorations, etc. You sign up and you wait a few days and they let you on like your in some super cool club. :) You can than look through all these pictures and anything that you like you can repin it to one of your boards for future reference. I have found all sorts of cool stuff on there. You should totally sign up and be my friend on there. Pinterest

Nitro Circus

2011-06-05T09:17:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, Nitro Circus came to town. Nitro Circus is a show where they do all sorts of crazy stuff. They jump dirt bikes, skateboards, bikes, shopping cart, skis, and much more. We went with Gabe and Jenna. It was actually really fun but a bit long.

Bob Burnquist

Minnesota-Fishing and Family

2011-06-01T14:27:00.000-07:00

After adventuring through my Mom's home town we drove up the road to Lake of the Woods. This lake is HUGE! I felt like I was on the ocean. On the water I could not see the other side (which was Canada).

We stayed in a 2 bedroom cabin with my family which was right on the Rainey River which is attached to Lake of the Woods. On Saturday we had a guide take us out on the lake to fish. It was a lot of fun. My dad and I out fished everyone else. After about 4 hours there was a storm coming on to the lake. There was also a tornado warning for the other side of the lake. So we decided to head back in. On the way back in out boat broke down in the rain. We were all in good spirits and joking with the Captain. They had to send another boat to tow us back in. It was quite the adventure.

Jen does not look to happy.

All the fish we caught.

I caught a pike off the dock. I have incredible fashion while freezing too.

That night my Mom's brother Roy and his girlfriend came to our cabin and we had a fish fry. I am not a fish eater at all but I did give some of the fresh fish a try and it was actually very good. The next day we drove back to Bemidji to spend some time with family but we did some more fishing there as well.

My sister said my dad looks like a highlighter.

It was also my Uncle Frank's birthday so we took the WHOLE family out to dinner. On Monday the weather was kind of sucky so most of the family came over to out hotel and went swimming. The night before we left there was another tornado warning for Bemidji. I tried to stay awake but kept falling asleep. I did catch a few minutes of the awesome lightening storm. You just don't see lightening storms like that in Nevada. We had a really great time. Minnesota was very pretty. It was great seeing family that I have not seen in forever too.

Grandma and grand kids minus Katie

Minnesota- Baudette

2011-05-29T11:44:00.000-07:00

My whole family and Nathan went up to Minnesota over Memorial Day weekend to visit family and do some fishing. The trip was a long trip. We flew from Las Vegas to Minneapolis and than took a very small jet that fit 36 people to Bemidji. That airport was the smallest ever. You got off on the tarmac and they set your bags down in the one room building. It was interesting. We drove up to Baudette the next day. Baudette is where my mom was raised. It is right on the Canadian border. When she was growing up she did not have running water. Crazy! We also stopped at the cemetery and saw my grandpa, great-grandparents, and great great grandpa's headstones.

We than drove through town and went and saw my mom's old school house. It is now closed and really old. It was a one room school house. In the back they had a little house for the teacher to stay in during the winter. It kind of reminded me of the Little House on The Prairie. My sister snapped a picture of me walking to the front of the school and something flew out at me. I screamed like a girl thinking it was a bat but it was just a bird. She took the picture of me looking for more.

It was really cool seeing my mom's home town and getting to hear stories. I definitely take granted my running water.

Minnesota!

2011-05-29T09:32:00.000-07:00

The trees are big!

Everything is green.

There are crazy squirrels.

I thought he was going to attack me.

This place is way more exciting than the desert.

4 Year Anniversary

2011-05-22T16:33:00.000-07:00

I can not believe time has flown by. I have been married for 4 years. Crazy. We were in Utah on May 19th so we went to a restaurant called Carvers. It was good but not great. On Friday we drove back to Las Vegas and Nathan had made a reservation at Vdara. It is at City Center. When we checked in the front desk man joked about us having traveled a long way. He also upgraded us to a suite on the 53rd floor. (Only 55 floors) It was an awesome room. It had a kitchen, two televisions, a nice bed, huge bathroom, and the VIEW was wonderful. We had three big windows and could watch the Belliago water show.

That evening we walked through the Cosmopolitan. I really liked that casino. It was so pretty. We than ate at the Wicked Spoon Buffet. I love buffets but this one was gourmet food. I really did not know what half the stuff was. The dessert table was great though. After dinner we retired to our room for the night. We watched River Monsters while the sun set and took lots of baths. It really was a great night. I am super happy to have Nathan.

Life in Utah

2011-05-19T16:09:00.000-07:00

Nathan and I rent this cute apartment in Draper. I really like them because they feel more housey than actual apartments.

Liberty Hill

We have two bedrooms and two-half bathrooms. The bathrooms and living room are extremely small but we have made it work. Our TV currently sits on the floor in the living room while our TV in the bedroom sits on the ironing board. It is pretty funny.

Ghetto!

I really enjoy our view from our bedroom. I look out about 5 times a day trying to spot the deer that I have seen. Also we have seen so many people paragliding. I wish I would of taken a picture. We have seen about 40 people in the air above our apartment.

Our view from the guest bedroom is pretty nice on a clear day. We can see Ikea and downtown SLC.

Oh its raining!

I really do like Utah it is just not home. There are a few things I do like about Utah though.

My brother! I get to see Jon and we hang out quite a bit.
Deer. Driving down the freeway in the middle of Draper and you can see deer on the side of the road.
Nathan's cousins. We can hang out with them which is awesome.
Movies are cheaper.
TV shows are on earlier.
Outdoors stuff that you can do.

But than there are things I do not like very much.

The roads suck. There are pot holes everywhere.
Olive Garden is horrible up here. I think it is the elevation. :)
Cold
Things are closed on Sunday.
I miss Jenna.

I am sure the weather will be on my good side this summer. Now you have seen where we live in Utah. We do totally prefer Las Vegas though.

Driving Utah

2011-05-18T15:58:00.000-07:00

I have started dreading that drive to and from Utah. It is long but Nathan and I have a system usually when I drive and he drives. The drive was not to bad this last time because everything is so green and it is very beautiful. I truly do love all the mountains and green grass all over them. I can usually spot some deer too. It amazes me how big of a difference the elevation change makes the landscape from Nevada. Also I do not think it has not rained one time since driving.

Nathan usually gets tired of my playlist of music when I am driving. It consists of 90 percent of Taylor Swift, 5 percent Aerosmith, and some other random songs. We really should invest in a radar too. There is always highway patrol hiding in rain or shine. I am very happy that I can travel with Nathan now. That drive by yourself would suck.

A Blessing and A Graduation

2011-05-16T20:49:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday we were pretty busy. We saw Nathan's cousin Richard graduate Medical School and earlier in the day we saw him bless Baby Tristan. I am super happy that we were able to go to both of these. After the graduation we went with there whole family to the buffet at Sunset Station. There was a total of 20 of us there. After dinner we all headed to the Belliago to try and check out the water show. I would be lying if I was not scared to go on the strip with 9 kids under 8 years old but it was not that bad. We hiked down to the water show and saw Darth Vader. We were not in luck because of the wind they cancelled the water show. We waited for another 15 minutes in the cold but they still cancelled it. So than we headed back to the car. We had a great time and am really happy the Holt Family let us barge in on there fun.

I Can See

2011-05-10T18:17:00.000-07:00

I always thought that I could see pretty well. In high school my mom took me to the eye doctor and I got glasses for driving and seeing the white board in school. I was not to fond of them but would use them sometimes. That sometimes turned into when I saw a movie or play video games. Nathan would test my sight while he was driving and call me blind. Jenna would get on my case about going to the eye doctor. I always came back with "Yeah I do" but never make an effort.

This year I had to renew my drivers license and I was hoping that they would not test my vision again. Luck was not on my side and they did test it. I seriously barely passed. I had my glasses on and was squinting so long. That was when I finally said I am going. I walked into Walmart to make an appointment but they did not accept my insurance. I than waited a few months and after much pressure from Nathan and Jenna I made myself an appointment.

It was quick and painless (sort of). One of the ladies threw contacts in my eyes and I was like "hmm.. didn't I always see like this?" It took me 45 minutes to take a contact out and put it back in. After I left I had a bit of an emergency inside Walmart. I felt like my contact was going to fall out so I ran to the truck and tried to get it out. It was in backwards. After awhile I was finally looking around and realizing that I could see a lot better.

I do have an odd story to tell though. The other night I went to take my contacts out and I was missing my left eye contact. It sill has not been found. I am kind of weirded out that I did not feel it fall out or had trouble seeing.

Here is a couple pictures of my old glasses from Junior Year in high school.

They are pretty beat up.

Yes they are really lopsided.

Easter Camping

2011-04-25T18:01:00.000-07:00

My parents were originally were suppose to come to Utah but my brother is not getting married anymore. I am super sad about it too. So instead we all went camping at the Ruby Marshes. We drove up with my brother from Utah. On the way there we helped the local cowboys herd the cows.

My parents, sister, and Colin (the sister's boyfriend) had camp set up and then we did some fishing. The record rainbow trout was caught in the Ruby Marshes two months earlier. So we were all pretty excited to throw our lines in. The boys did catch a few fish. I did not.

The next morning we woke up to snow. Do not worry though Nathan and I had a heater. :) I even tried a sun dance. I tried sacrificing seasonings to the fire trying to bring the sun back. Yes, I know I am a bit odd.

Finally the sun did come out and we did go fishing again. We drove around the refuge and saw some baby geese.

The last night we were there we had some cake for my brothers birthday and he opened up some presents around the fire. I can not believe my little brother is 21.

We had a great time camping and fishing and want to go again soon.

Summer Time

2011-04-19T17:47:00.000-07:00

Nathan's parents bought a house two minutes away from us. So on Saturday we had a BBQ with some family. Nathan's cousins Richard and Matt came with there family. We ate some food and swam our hearts out. After swimming I had downloaded a funny camera ap that makes your face distorted. The kids had such a fun time posing while took almost a hundred pictures. It was a really fun time. Here are few pictures.

Spring Cleaning

2011-04-15T17:38:00.000-07:00

I am such a sucky blogger. I quit my job and have more time than ever but am to lazy to blog. Nothing to exciting has happened though. Since March I have been with Nathan. We travel back and forth between Las Vegas and Utah it has been getting quite tiresome. I do love not having to go to work and seeing Nathan everyday now. I do miss Jenna and not seeing her everyday. That makes me sad. :(

One week while in Las Vegas I had the nerve to clean. It must be the spring cleaning fever. So I went nuts in my house. I painted and cleaned out closets and cupboards. I was so exhausted but it felt so good. I have a huge pile of stuff waiting to go to goodwill. I will show you one picture of all the clothes and shoes we got rid of. REMEMBER we have never went to goodwill so a lot of this stuff is from 5 years ago just sitting in bags waiting. I have lots more stuff too. It feels so good to get rid of stuff too.

Monster Trucks

2011-03-31T09:37:00.000-07:00

This last weekend our friends Kristen and Brady came into town. We have not seen them in sometime. Nathan was able to get some free tickets to go see the Monster Trucks. So on Saturday night we all went to watch them. We took Kailer and Meili with us. Monster Trucks were really cool. It would of been a lot cooler if it was not so cold and windy out. We did have lots of fun though. Thanks to Richard and Heather for letting us keep your kids for awhile. Even if Nathan just fed them candy for dinner.

Sportsman's Expo

2011-03-29T09:23:00.000-07:00

Well we are in Utah now. Well actually not right this second but we were. :) Nathan and I have moved into our little apartment thing. It is actually very nice and I saw deer behind the apartment one day. Anyway one weekend we went to the Sportsman Expo. It is an expo about hunting and fishing. We went with my brother and his fiance Sarah. It was actually pretty packed and cool. I got to hold a baby bear too. I also sat in a huge camping chair. I really wanted it but new it would be more of pain when camping than it is worth.

Later that afternoon Nathan and I went to the movies. This was my first time going to a theatre in Utah. We went to in the South Town Expo area. Well we walked in and you were able to buy your tickets from a machine. That is not too different but than you were able buy your concessions too. Than you had to choose your seats. It was just a bit different than we were use too. It was cheaper though. :)

Another weird Utah thing I have noticed is... EVERYWHERE you order a house salad they put egg on them. Well I have learned my lesson and will always so no egg. :)

Living in 2 Places

2011-02-22T09:09:00.000-08:00

So I have not written in a bit. Things have been a little bit busy. Nathan has been working up in Provo and coming home every weekend. The traveling is really taking a toll on him. He has been doing it since June. We thought the job would be done already but he got another part of the job. So after much much talking and waiting for what feels like forever, we have decided to temporary move. I will be quitting work and moving with Nathan. We are going to rent a place in Draper, UT. This will be much easier on us. I will be able to go with Nathan to Las Vegas, Utah, or wherever he has to go. We are keeping are house here in Las Vegas because we will be coming back about 1 or two times a month. We both are pretty excited about this. So expect to see more blog posts.

Our One Night Dog

2011-01-28T10:47:00.000-08:00

Last night I come home and I am laying in bed when the doorbell rings. Katie is downstairs watching TV so she answers it. She yells my name and tells me to get down here. I had a bit of a panic attack thinking someone was trying to break in or something. Come to find out someone left a dog tied up to our porch and ran away. I was pretty much in shock that someone would do that to a puppy. We walked to a few neighbors asking if they had seen the dog before. When no one knew anything we went inside and I called a few people. They told me to see if the puppy was microchiped. So we drove to the pet office and he was not. They said that he looks to be about 3 months old and has some lab in him. They were super nice and gave us a puppy box with food.

We than drove to Nathan's coworker Jared's house to borrow a kennel and went to PetSmart. I spent about 50 bucks on chew toys, shampoo, bed, and bones for the little puppy. We went home and I posted a picture on facebook hoping to catch someone into wanting the puppy. I felt like I was fishing. I would get a few bites and I would try and reel them in but than would lose them. :) The puppy I started calling Muggle, went upstairs with me and we tried to sleep. He did not like the kennel it was a soft kennel and he was going to break out of it so I let him out. I tried to sleep on the floor next to him but he just kept wanting to play and bite my hands. Finally he fell asleep for an hour. I was almost asleep when he woke up and wanted to chew on my face. He wanted to play some more but I was to tired. It was about 12:00am now. I went to look out the window and he peed on the floor. So we went outside and he finished his business. I thought he would want to fall asleep again but nope. I called Nathan to vent and he told me to put the dog in the bathroom downstairs. So I felt super bad but got over it pretty quick. I slept for about 4 hours off and on. I went to check on him at 6pm. He had pooped 3 times. I woke Katie up and she watched Muggle while I cleaned up the smelly mess. I gave him a quick bath and than got ready for work.

I came to work determined to find him a good home and I did. Someone from work took him. I know he is going to have a good life too. I am glad that he is going to have a permanent home now. I am also still extremely mad about whoever dropped him off like that. In the end though it made some people really happy.

I have been out.

2011-01-18T15:01:00.000-08:00

Sorry for not posting in quite some time. I have been deathly ill. (Okay not deathly just a cold.) Nathan has been working super hard up in Provo and I feel like I barely see him. BUT do not fear I will have some posts for you coming up. Maybe my next post will be about how I still have my christmas tree up. I know know... I plan on taking it down tonight.

New Years Resolutions

2011-01-03T14:06:00.000-08:00

Here are a few New Years Resolutions for myself.

1. Read 30 books. ( That is easy for me)

2. Get into shape. ( I do not mean lose weight. I mean get off my lazy butt and do something.)

3. Be less negative and more positive.

4. Make lunches to bring to work.

Hopefully I stay up on them.

New Years Eve Brianhead Trip

2011-01-03T09:55:00.000-08:00

This year for New Years we went up to Brian Head, Utah with our friends Gabe and Jenna. We left Thursday night and drove up to the condo/cabin we rented. We drove up the mountain and it was snowing and we did not need snow chains until the last 50 yards to the condo. It was pretty cold but we made it. Friday we rented snowmobiles. This was our first time on snowmobiles. We wrecked three times and that is when I got really cold and scared. I have a fear of going fast and getting hurt. Towards the end of the snowmobile trip I loosened up and enjoyed it. I was just really cold.

That night we got cleaned up and went to watch the Parade down the mountain. They have skiers ski down the mountain holding flares ( I think). We stayed in the car where it was warm. Then they had some fireworks. The lodge through a Prime Rib dinner that we went too. We left to go back home and enjoy the condo. It was -17 degrees outside. I was shocked. I have never been in anything that cold before. We all went to bed at 11:30 and missed the countdown but we did fake some pictures before.

Saturday everyone went skiing. I stayed at the lodge and read. It was fun. I than went outside to take some pictures of them coming down the mountain. Everyone was pretty exhausted so we ordered pizza, played pictionary, and watched TV. Sunday we left and came home to nice 44 degree weather. I had a really great time.

Putting the snow chains on.

View from our condo.

Our condo had three floors.

We slept on the second floor.

Jenna getting ready.

Snowmobiling

See me freezing while snowmobiling

All decked out in my snow boots going to eat Prime Rib.

Our fake new years kiss.

Getting ready to ski.

Panoramic Shots.

Packing the truck to leave.

Utah Trip

2010-12-30T09:49:00.000-08:00

Nathan had to work up in Provo the week after Christmas. I had the week off so I went up with him. We went to a Jazz game on Monday night. It was so much fun. I wish Las Vegas had a NBA team. I also did some shopping and ate at Brick oven Pizza. We drove back home on Wednesday through a snow storm. It was scary at times but Nathan is a really good driver.

Worek Christmas

2010-12-26T09:05:00.000-08:00

Christmas Morning we went over to my parents house. We opened presents up and had some cinnamon rolls. I bought my mom a kindle and had to set it up for her. I got a bunch of books and a kindle cover too. We had a Prime Rib Lunch which was incredibly good. I had a little photo shoot with the animals too. After we left my parents house we went home and Nathan slept for 14 hours.

The animals checking out the presents.

My mom unwrapping her kindle.

Reagan, Lilo, and Chelsea

Park Christmas

2010-12-25T08:45:00.000-08:00

We had Nathan's Family Christmas on Christmas Eve. Last minute I made dinner. I am actually a little peeved with Nathan and his father for being so ~~slow~~ manly. Yes, manly is the word I need. Men they wont plan anything. :) I learned this year though. So Thursday Night we went grocery shopping and bought a ham. Luckily hams are already cooked I just had to heat it up. So cooking did not stress me out like Thanksgiving.

Friday afternoon Nathan's brother Robert and his wife Lacy came down from Utah. Lacy is in hair school and highlighted and cut my hair for Christmas. I like it a lot. Everyone came over for dinner and we opened presents. I have been saving my Bertie Botts Every Flavored Beans(BBEFB) for awhile. BBEFB are jelly beans that have normal flavors but there are some really gross flavors. Earwax, Vomit, Rotten Egg, Dirt. So I dumped them in a bowl and we each took one. Nathan's Dad and Robert wanted the bad flavors so I sat there picking out the bad ones and they ate them. They were totally unfazed by the nasty flavors. It was really funny.

After all this some of us went over to Nathan's parents new house and went in the hot tub. That hot tub is Nathan's dad's pride and joy. :) It was a really great Park Christmas.

My ham.

We had a salad bar too.

I did not go full out on the table decor but it was festive.

The tree with all the presents.

Mirage Tigers and Dolphins

2010-12-19T08:38:00.000-08:00

The weekend before Christmas we took Nathan's Cousin's Kids( I am not sure if they would be 2nd cousins) to the Mirage to see the Dolphins and Tigers. It was tons of fun. They bossed us around with radio on the way there and we bought they a few things from the gift shops. They are super cute. We even bought them some ice cream on the way home. Here are some pictures of the trip.

Some crazy worker was dancing around behind me trying to get Meili to smile.

Ugly Sweater Party

2010-12-18T08:13:00.000-08:00

On Friday Night we went to an Ugly Sweater Party. Nathan was in Provo for the week and flew in that night. I met him at the party all dressed up. He was a bit shocked to see me all like this but I won 3rd place. :) We ate and played some games. It was lots of fun.

My First Author Signing

2010-12-11T08:22:00.000-08:00

On Friday, Lauren Kate came to Borders way across town from me. My nice husband Nathan drove me to see her. She is the author of Fallen, a book about angels. I was not sure what to expect from a signing but it was pretty cool. She showed up and read a passage of her new book, she than answered questions, and than signed our books. She signed two of my books and my kindle. I was very happy I went and sure hope more authors come to Las Vegas (hint hint Richelle Mead's tour people).

Christmas Time Once Again!

2010-12-06T08:08:00.000-08:00

It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas. This weekend I braved our closet underneath the stairs to find the Christmas decorations. Decorating is hard work. It is a job that takes at least a couple of days. I think I am about done with decorating for this year though. It is not much but at least you feel jolly when you are downstairs. I have my nice beautiful tree up and my snow man village.

On Sunday I decided to bake. I made some banana bread and monster cookies. Monster cookies have oatmeal, M&Ms, Peanut butter, flour, and a few more things. I even made a pot roast too. I sure am on my way to being a great house wife. :) I did make a big mess of my shirt though. If I ever decided to bake a lot during the year I am going to have to invest in an apron.

I also bought Nathan a present this year. He is one of the hardest people to buy for. I did come up with the best gift though. I can not wait for him to open it. I will stay strong and not let him open it early either. My favorite author in the whole wide world is going to Salt Lake next week. Richelle Mead!!! She is amazing. I will not be able to make it to the signing. I even asked my little brother Jonathan (who lives in Salt Lake) if he would go for me and that would be my Christmas present. He said no and crushed my heart but no worries I came up with another idea. You can order her books from a bookstore in Seattle and she can sign them. So I ordered 4 books that I do not have anymore and she will sign them with my name. They even had the option to gift wrap them. I told Nathan this would be my present since I just bought a whole paycheck worth of stuff at Harry Potter Land. At least I know I will like what I got. :)

Florida--P4

2010-12-01T10:05:00.000-08:00

After sleeping in on Monday we drove back to Tampa to catch our flight. We did have a while to spare so we went to the Florida Aquarium. It was so cool. I loved how they set up there exhibits. That only wasted about an 1 hour. So we went back to Smokey Bones to eat. Nathan over ordered so we left with full bellies. We than drove to the Clearwater Beach just to look around. I found my second retirement home. I would actually move there now if I could. We than drove to the airport but I had to buy another bag for all my souvenirs. ( My facebook has more pictures)

Florida--P3

2010-11-28T18:56:00.000-08:00

I am a fanatic. I probably should seek professional help with how much I am obsessed with Harry Potter but I think I will be fine. I felt like a giddy little girl trying to catch glimpses of Hogwarts from the parking garage. We got there pretty early to wait in line. Nathan bought front of the line tickets. So we were ready to go. NOT! Nathan has a problem with buying Universal Studios tickets. Over the summer he bought the wrong tickets for California and he bought the wrong ones for Florida. He actually bought tickets for California while we needed ones for Florida. Silly Man. We resolved the issue and waited in line to get in.

Everybody and there nieces go to the Harry Potter park the rest of the park was deserted. Well we were one of those people and almost ran to the Foribbiden Journey. That is known to be the best new ride in the Nation. It did not disappoint. The queue line to the ride was so long but they make it worth the wait. The line goes through the greenhouses, then in the castle, Dumbledore's Office, and so much more. I was snapping pictures like the paparazzi. We than went and watched Ollivaders Wand Show. They also have a mini rollercoaster called flight of the Hippogriff. Then we watched the singing frogs. The other pretty cool ride was the Dragon Coaster. They have two going at the same time and it looks like you are going to hit each other.

Than it was time to SHOP!! Someone from work gave me a list of stuff she wanted me to buy for her and I planned on buying a lot of stuff too. We went into to Zonkos and bought some chocolate frogs, Bertie Botts Every Flavored Beans, and Acid Pops. It was so busy there that they had a line to go into Deverish and Botts. We went in there next to buy some more stuff. I got myself a wand too. Than we went to Filches Emporium. Nathan needed to go back to the hotel to change shoes so I grabbed a butterbeer and pumpkin juice to take for the long walk.

We came back to the park and walked around the other rides. We were so tired from Busch Gardens that we did not last very long. We rode the Hulk and Spider man. Than we went back to Harry Potter. Nathan wanted to ride the Forbidden Journey again. So we did that and then caught another show of the Drumstrung and Beauxbants students. I hate to admit it but we went shopping again and I got myself a robe. We were dead exhausted so we went back to the hotel and took a 3 hour nap. We woke up at 8pm and than ordered pizza. (See my facebook page for lots more pictures.)

I absolutely loved the Harry Potter Park. Nathan kept saying if they sold condos above one of the shops I would live there. Which is true. They did such a great job making everything. There was so much detail and I would love to go back.

Florida--P2

2010-11-27T18:48:00.000-08:00

I have such fond memories of Busch Gardens. We use to go as kids when we visited my grandma. Nathan likes to go full out on things and he bought this VIP Adventure Tour. It included a Tour Guide that stayed with us the whole time. It was werid at first but was actually really cool. She knew facts about some of the animals and things happening at the park. We got front of the line on rides. Breakfast and Lunch. A safari tour where you get to feed giraffes. They even saved seats for us at the Christmas Ice Skating show. It was a bit pricey but worth the money. I got to touch and feed giraffes, touch a kangaroo, feed birds, and touch a snake.

It looked about the same as I remember it. They had a new rollercoaster that was really scary. My favorite part was probably the giraffes. They were right there and I got to touch them. So here are a bunch of pictures. After the park we went drove to Orlando. I have a bunch more pictures on my facebook page.

Florida--P1

2010-11-27T18:40:00.000-08:00

Nathan promised me earlier this year that he would take me to the Harry Potter Park in Orlando. So we went the day after Thanksgiving and flew into Tampa. The plane ride was sweet Nathan and I watched movies on his laptop and cuddled. We landed in Tampa and went to get our rental car. A Mustang Convertible. We stayed at the Westin in Tampa. It was really nice and I would of liked to stay there longer. They had a private beach and we had water views.

The private beach

The Mustang

Tried to grab a quick shot of the hotel

We drove to Clearwater which was 10 minutes from our hotel to eat. We ate at this Smokey Bones restaurant. We do not have any here in Las Vegas. Nathan was in love. He loves BBQ. We ate and went back to the hotel to get some rest for our Busch Garden Adventure. Time Zones suck. It was 10pm in Tampa but only 7pm in Las Vegas. I had also been up since 2:30am. I finally fell asleep but was like a little kid and kept waking up because I was to excited. I opened the curtains in the morning to watch the sunrise. We than headed to Busch Gardens.

The sunrise and our water views.

New Camera and Black Friday

2010-11-26T18:32:00.000-08:00

" I am nuts!" this is what I was telling myself on my way to Kohls at 2:30am on Black Friday. I really felt nuts it was 26 degrees outside and I was in flip flops going to go find some deals at Kohls. I went with my friend Jenna but at least she was dressed appropriately. There was so many people. We went inside and divided up. Jenna went to look at boots while I went and got some new stainless steal knives for 50 bucks. I also ended up with some nice warm boots and a couple of Christmas gifts. We were done shopping with in 30 minutes but had to wait in line to check out. That is were it took almost 2 hours.

We were vigilant and waited in line. I showed Jenna my new camera that Nathan bought me. It is a Sony Cybershot. I really like it a lot. It does these cool Panoramic Shots. Here is one I snapped in Kohls. I tried not to get any people in it. After shopping I went home ate some pie and finished packing to go to Florida.

My First Thanksgiving Dinner

2010-11-25T18:24:00.000-08:00

I feel like a real woman now. I have made a Thanksgiving meal and it actually was not that bad. This year we had Nathan's family's Thanksgiving on Wednesday. I left work early to start the meal. I probably called my mom 10 times that day asking her really stupid questions. I was really excited to decorate the table and my new buffet table for the occasion too. They looked very festive and I think I could have a future with Martha Stewart.

Nathan, Robert, and Lacy all flew in that afternoon from Provo. I had a bit of a panic attack at the end of making dinner. I was by myself and I had to make the gravy, stuffing, and rolls. We than ate after Nathan's mom got off dialiys. Nathan's dad is doing yoga to get rid of headaches and was showing us some poses. We than all got on the floor and started doing them too. I tried to imagine what it might look like if someone was watching us outside. They would of probably thought we were nuts.

On Thanksgiving we went to my parents and had really great dinner over there too. I am actually starving while I write this and wish I had some leftovers.

My Dark Mark Cupcakes

2010-11-22T18:22:00.000-08:00

In honor of Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows coming out I attempted to make Dark Mark Cupcakes. They did not turn out how I envisioned them but they were delicious none the less. I have seen the movie twice so far and it is by far my favorite movie. They changed a few things but overall I was really happy with it.

Guess Where I am going?!?!?

2010-10-26T10:29:00.000-07:00

Next month for a few days I will be in the magical world of.....

Wizarding World of Harry Potter

You all should be really jealous. I was planning to go in February but Nathan wanted to go sooner. That little Harry Potter nerd. Just kidding I am the nerd. I am so excited to buy stuff and take pictures. We are actually flying into Tampa so we will also be going to....

Busch Gardens

You can click on the link under the picture to get an idea what Busch Gardens is. It is super happiness in a park. It is a zoo and rides jammed together. It is so exciting. I use to go as a kid and have not been since 2003 ( I think). I am super super super super super stoked. We leave the day after Thanksgiving. So that is a month away. Whoooooo.... I just had to share. Can you feel my excitement?

Party Party Party!!!

2010-10-26T10:18:00.000-07:00

So last Friday we drove to Mesquite for a little Halloween Party with Nathan's cousins. I had so much fun and the kids were so cute. Nathan even put on a witches hat for one of games. ( My little hubby is growing up). I also learned what a candy run was. Oh I can not wait to do this with my kids. It is where the kids run across the room trying to get a piece of candy while the adults shoot them with Nerf guns. It was pretty entertaining. Here are a few pictures.

The Game was pin the wart on the witch.

Nathan with his warts.

Nathan and Richard preparing for battle.

Jon and Sarah are engaged!

2010-10-17T16:39:00.000-07:00

These two crazy kids are engaged. My little brother Jon popped the question to Sarah. He went to a local park in Utah where he wrote it in the sand. We joked around that we were surprised he did not spell marry wrong. We knew he was going to ask for a few weeks now and knew he was not going to be able to wait until Thanksgiving but that is okay we are excited. Even though her name is Sarah and my name is Sarah so we will have to figure something out. Congratulations you two.

Deer Hunting

2010-10-17T16:18:00.000-07:00

The adventure of deer hunting. We were very fortunate to have drawn 6 tags for deer hunting. Jon, Nathan, Mom, Dad, Dad's Friend Ivan, and Me. We have not drawn in 3 years. My parents were getting kind of upset they wanted meat. Nathan wanted to stay in Ely because he needed cell phone service for work emergencies. Our whole hunting party than stayed in Ely too. It was a good thing because it rained a bunch of the time. It got pretty cold to. I have a picture of it 31 degrees one morning. We stayed at Hotel Nevada again. They are cheap rooms and actually pretty decent. When we got to the room we saw this big pink carebear on the bed.

The hotel is very interesting. It was open during 1929. Some old time celebrities use to stop here on there way to Idaho. They theme some of the rooms around the celebrities too. We were in the Mickey Rooney room.

We were 50 percent successful in harvesting. Ivan, Jon, and Nathan each got a deer. Here is a picture of Nathan's deer. Hopefully next year my mom will get more meat. It was really fun though.

Haha... Thats funny

2010-10-08T15:32:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to write some of the funny things that happened during hunting so I dont forget them.

1- On Monday when we got to Ely the boys went out scouting and my mom, Sarah (Jon's girlfriend), and I stayed at the lovely Hotel Nevada. We got kind of bored since Sarah is not yet 21 and I did not have a car to drive. My mom took us to her room so Sarah could try some camo on.

We than came up with the idea to walk to the grocery store because we had to get a few things but we wanted to wear camo so we weren't cold. My mom warned us not to do it. She said it was really far. Ely is a small town but after the walk it sure did grow in my mind. So Sarah and I set off in the rain covered head to foot in camo. Are heads were covered so no one could tell we were girls. The walk was a lot longer than I thought. I thought maybe it is a half mile but no it felt like it was forever (I just googled it and it was 1.7 miles). That might be because all the camo was getting kind of heavy. We both started to get really hot too. When we were almost there I called Nathan hoping that he was on his way back from scouting. Sure enough he was. I told him meet us at the grocery store.

Sarah and I than get up to the store and start shopping in our camo. My mom made us a list and everything. We did not get looked at like we thought but there were a couple old men laughing at us. We than beat them to a pulp no one laughs at "The Sarahs". ( DISCLAIMER: NO OLD MAN WERE HURT IN THIS STUNT) Nathan then called us at the grocery store and could not find us. He was actually at True Value and we were at Ridleys. Believe me that is not a common mistake in Ely. Jon and Nathan did eventually find us. They did a double take in the aisle and did not want to be seen with us. So that is the one funny thing that happened.

2-- This did not happen while hunting. This actually happened in Utah. We went to Cabelas Deli to eat. Nathan and I were looking at the menu in the grill area. Nathan than asks, "What is in the elk burger?" I started laughing and so did the two older men. He than realized he said that and he did not live it down all week. I love you Nathan.

3-- At dinner one night I was eating chips and salsa. Someone at the table caught me blowing on my chip with salsa like it was too hot. I am pretty sure that is not what I was meaning to do so I just told everyone I was trying to blow the salsa across the chip.

4-- Nathan's Moutain goat! We were out driving around when Nathan says I bet we can see a mountain goat up here. Jon and I start laughing because mountain goat are found in two places in Nevada. We were not near them. So through out the weekend we would point out the window saying there was a mountain goat. I really don't pick on my husband that much.

5-- Ghosts! One afternoon after hunting we went back to the hotel. Jon and Nathan went to go practice shooting. I was in the elevator with some of the maids where one of them says something about the "ghostly spirits." I have a sort of panic attack and call Sarah and tell her to come to my room since I am scared. Let me point out that this is at noon but the hotel is super old. Like 1929 old.

Sarah comes down to my room and she had asked the maids about the ghosts on her way down. They told her about a little girl ghost that likes to tickle peoples feet and a tall guy in black that stares at you. They also told her the most haunted room was 518. I was 412 so my mom than joined us on our tour of the hotel for ghosts.

That night I had the worst sleep of my life. I practically slept on top of Nathan. I woke up one time and freaked out because I swear someone was just whispering in my ear. It turned out to be some people in the hall. I was hoping that it was almost time to get up but it was only 11:45pm. I made Nathan open the bathroom door for some reason. It was actually pretty funny to rethink now. The next three nights in the hotel I was okay. I just remembered to sleep with my legs crossed Indian style.

A Corny Title

2010-10-05T15:16:00.000-07:00

The weekend before deer hunting Nathan flew me up to Utah to have a little getaway. We would then drive to Ely, Nevada to go deer hunting. So for a couple years now I have wanted to go to a corn maze. Las Vegas does not have any but Utah has a few. On Saturday we went to Cornbellys with my brother and his girlfriend Sarah. There was a bunch of cute little things to take pictures with.

We then went in the corn maze. It was fun for about 10 minutes and than I wanted to get out of there. I came up with the great idea to split up boys vs girls and see who could get out first. So Sarah and I (confusing right) set off to show the boys up. Well 8 minutes later Nathan calls me and asks us where we are. We were exactly where we left the boys at. So about 10 more minutes in the corn we made it out by cutting through the corn. I know we are horrible we cheated but it was so hot. I thought Utah was suppose to be nice in October. I only took one picture of the corn because I was totally concentrated in the beating the boys. We found the boys destroying pumpkins at the Destruction Zone. Another cool thing was the tether ball courts. I remember this game from elementary school. So Jon and I had to have a little game. Here are some awesome action shots.

After all this I was hungry and bought a carmel apple. I love fall time I just wish Las Vegas did some fall activities or had leaves that change.

Dadcation

2010-09-18T13:30:00.000-07:00

My mother wanted a Dadcation aka a vacation from my dad. So I planned this manly man trip for my dad to go visit my brother in Utah and go fishing. Nathan has been working up there so they would have a manly trip. While antelope hunting I showed my dad the brochure I made advertising this wonderful trip. He shed a couple tears and was pretty excited to go.

So on weekend we flew him up Friday morning for his vacation. In the meantime we had a girly weekend here in Las Vegas. On Friday my sister, Mom, and I went to lunch and shopping. I showed them the magnificent Hobby Lobby. This is also the weekend I painted my bathroom. We also went to Salvation Army and they had these huge Sesame Street characters. It was a good weekend with the girls. The guys had a wonderful time too.

Jenny Turned 18

2010-09-13T13:22:00.000-07:00

That is right my little sister Jenny turned 18. I honestly dont think she is 18 I still picture her as my little sister that should still be in high school. Well now she is 18, has a job, a boyfriend, and a opinion ( she has always had one of those). One day after church we had my family come over for some food and cake. We played a couple games and after a few little fights from each other we had a good time. The only person missing was my brother. The picture above is of the birthday girl herself. --Side note: I went to the dollar store and bought some candles they did not have a 1 and an 8 so I had to improvise.

Antelope Hunting/ Camping

2010-08-27T14:21:00.000-07:00

This is probably going to be a long post.
I was very lucky to draw an antelope tag this year. So the whole family went up camping past Ely, NV to come hunting. I have never shot an antelope before but I was determined that I would do it. My dad and brother laughed at me. Nathan use to laugh at me until I got a bullseye while shooting the new gun. We went up on a Friday after I flat tire. The camp was really cool but scary there was some mountain lion tracks and it was in the middle of no where. Saturday we went spotting since the season did not open until Sunday. We than met up with my brother and his g/f Sarah and they joined us camping. The weather was really nice except for some very strong winds in the afternoon.
My mom cooked Prime Rib in the dutch oven and we played Blockus and spoons. I actually got my little sister to start reading Hunger Games too. She than wanted to start making spears and try to spear the fish out of the creek. Sunday morning came we woke up at 4 am. I shot at one buck that morning but he was really far away. Nathan had to leave that night too. He had to go to Provo for some meetings. So we hunted Monday and I did not get anything. We than went out Tuesday. My dad said only for a few hours and than we have to break camp. Just when we were about to go back to camp we saw one. I shot at him. The one thing I did not anticipate was that my adrenaline would pumping so much that my leg was shaking bad. The antelope started to run away but we followed him. He was a bit preoccupied licking his leg and I shot him again. My brother says it was about 250 yards away. I did not believe I shot him until I saw him. The thing he was licking was his leg that I shot the first time. I was so happy that I finally joined the ranks of my dad and brother. Here is some pictures of the trip. It was fun but I was glad to get home and shower.

Nate's 25th Birthday

2010-08-14T14:01:00.000-07:00

Nathan turned 25 on August 13th! He drove back from Provo that day but I had plans for him. I decorated out house for him, made him a special spaghetti dinner, and bought him a pizza cutter. Yes, I bought him a pizza cutter because he always eats pizza and we lost our old one. This is a nice one though it is very nice. I also made him a little spa too. He loves when I massage him and pamper him. So I put on some soothing music and gave him the longest foot and back massage of my life. He needed it though since he has been working pretty hard. I did not take any pictures. Sorry! Love you Nathan.

Suprise Utah Trip

2010-08-10T13:51:00.000-07:00

Last minute Nathan was not going to make it home from Utah for the weekend. I was pretty sad because Katie (his sister) was going to be gone too. I really did not want to be myself but Nathan bought me plane tickets to fly up to Salt Lake to see him. I was super happy and excited because I love the airport. I left work early to get some clothes and then I was on my way to see him. I landed about 9:15pm we drove to Provo. We stayed in the 5th Wheel that the guys have been staying in. It was actually really nice. The next morning Nathan went to work for a bit and I wandered around Provo for awhile. Later that day we drove up to Strawberry to check it out. We stopped and took a picture of a cool waterfall. We than met up with my brother and his g/f Sarah at Cabelas. We had plans to eat with Nathan's cousin for dinner but before hand we went to a place called Triflaga. There is minigolf, rides, and lasertag. We hung out there with my brother. It was really cool to see him. On Sunday we drove around so much looking at anything I wanted too see. Nathan took me to his favorite golf course Hobble Creek we ate lunch there. It was so pretty. It was hard saying bye to him since he would be up there for the week still. It was so much fun up there though.

Camping with the Parents!

2010-07-22T13:51:00.000-07:00

Nathan was going to be gone one weekend in Utah working so I decided to join my parents in a camping trip to Cave Lake. It was fun. We ate some yummy food, watched my dad shoot a gun, and looked for animals. We also did a little fishing but not much. I slept in a tent identical to my parents. It was fun.

A Freaking Kindle

2010-07-19T13:46:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I think to myself that I have the best husband ever. Well I know I do but he does things sometimes that just that make me sooooo happy. Lately Nathan has been out of town working in Provo. His company has a huge job there so he has been gone. :( I have been doing research on Kindles. I really like having a bookshelf full of books. It just looks way cool but a kindle was kind of growing on me. I told Nate I wanted one and he told me that I should just get a IPAD. I told him I do not need an IPAD and will do some research to prove it. Here is my research......
IPADS-
Pros- They are kind of cool, can do lots of stuff with them, and that is all.
Cons- Have backlight, way expensive, and a contract for your wireless or 3g

Kindle
Pros-Only 189, buy books in 60 seconds, no monthly contract for 3G
Cons- NONE!!!!

So I told him my list and said I will save up my money and get one. So I started doing some chores for my mom. I know kind of lame but she pays nice. haha... Well I did not get very far in the saving my own money because Nathan bought me one. It was going to come the next day too. So I got home from work the next day so excited to see it and it was broken. It overheated on my front porch!!!!! The nice man at Amazon sent me one the next day. Let me tell you I LOVE IT! Nathan hid it from me once and I contemplated torturing him for it back. It did not get that far but it could of. So anyway that is the story of my Kindle. I have tried to think of a cool name for it something Harry Potter related but nothing has stuck.

The Fourth of July

2010-07-15T13:26:00.000-07:00

Our 4th this year was pretty laid back. On July 3rd we went to Boulder City with Nathan's cousin in law Heather (umm not sure what to call you Heather) and her kids to watch the parade. It was a pretty cool parade except it felt more like a political parade. The next night was the 4th of July and we went to Boulder City again to watch fireworks with Nathan's cousin's family. The fireworks were aweasome! I am amazed that they can create fireworks that make smilie faces. WOW! Anyway that was our 4th.

Eclipse

2010-06-30T11:04:00.000-07:00

I do not have any pictures of the actually movie watching because all of us did not have cameras in Las Vegas but I will upload a picture of Jenna and I with our shirts on this Friday.

Another most anticipated event in my life the movie Eclipse. Nathan was out of town the week it came out so I went with Jenna, my sister Jenny, Katie, Katie's Friend, and Jenny's boyfriend. We decided to try something a little crazy and different for us, we decided to go to the Midnight Showing. (ahhh) We mapped out our game plan Tuesday with where we were eating and what time we would be arriving. We also had a plan of what we were going to say to the movie workers if they did not have a line set up yet and that we wanted to be the first ones.

So we met up at KFC at 1900 hours ( I am kidding 7pm). We then attacked the dollar store for candy and then drove to the wonderful South Point Hotel and Casino. We arrived around 8pm and there was lines already started for the 12:01 and the 12:10. We had to buy the 12:20 one which worked out wonders. We get there and I pounce on some Cinema Workers asking where are line is. The movie worker woman with such a kind heart told us where she thinks it would be after the other line moved. So we played some cards and than the kind lady came over again telling us it would be somewhere different so we waited over there for 3 minutes. Then the kind lady came back again saying that our theatre was already ready so we could go sit down. I wanted to hug this woman we got to go in before the advanced 9pm seating.

So we got in the theatre first and then two other people came in. It was like that for about an hour. We went and sat down on the floor in front of the handicap chairs and played spoons and hearts. It was a lot of fun. We went back to our seats when people started coming in and played the old school game MASH and a funny drawing game. While we were waiting the cinema workers came in and sold shirts and cups. The cups were a dollar and I got three they have Edward, Bella, and Jacob on them. Finally the movie started. I LOVED IT! I was really happy with how it turned out. I know they changed some things but I thought it worked great. The acting was much better and the movie was funny. I can not wait to see it again which will probably be this Saturday or Sunday.

Huntington Gardens/Homeward Bound

2010-06-15T20:29:00.000-07:00

Saturday we packed up and decided to visit Huntington Gardens. I went there in high school for a class trip. I warned Nathan it is like a giant park but he could tell I was excited so we went. We walked around for awhile and took some pictures. We then tried to become sophisticated, intelligent people and visit the museums too. After that we drove home to hot Las Vegas! I am glad to be back but had a great time on vacation. Next vacation will be the Harry Potter Park! (I hope)

Dodger Game

2010-06-15T20:27:00.000-07:00

Friday Night we went to the Dodger vs Braves game. We had great seats that we got for a great price. We actually were sat behind people from our church. It was a great game but a little chilly. Nathan went to buy me a blanket but came back with a Dodger Snuggie. I love it! I feel like a wizard in it too. Here are some pictures of the game.

Universal Studios Pictures

2010-06-15T20:24:00.000-07:00

The NBC building. The ABC Building

Universal Studios

2010-06-15T20:20:00.000-07:00

Friday we went to Universal Studios. We splurged and got Front of The Line Passes. They were awesome. We went on almost all the rides and saw the Waterworld Shows. Our favorite ride was the Simpson Ride. I loved the Studio Tour. It was a trolly that took you around to wear movies were made. We saw a bunch of cars from movies. We drove down Wisteria Lane and saw Jaws. My favorite part was the War of the Worlds plane crash. We walked around for awhile and I got some good pictures with some cool people. Some Asian lady even stopped us and wanted a picture with Nate and I. WEIRD! We walked through City Walk too. After Universal we went and check into our hotel. Our hotel was right next to NBC/Universal I got pretty excited think that in this building people discussed Chuck. We also ABC Studio and I thought they probably made big decisions about Lost in this building.

THe little rascals car

Jurassic Park truck and bones

Flood from Big Fat Liar

Whoville

War of the Worlds

Sea Day and Leaving the ship

2010-06-15T20:14:00.000-07:00

Our last day on the cruise was a sea day. The captain let the ship just sit in the ocean for awhile for us to go swimming. Nathan and I played Bingo, taught Katie how to gamble, and watched the Hairest Chest Contest. The Lakers game was on that night so there was a bunch of cruisers that were all watching it in one of the bars. We had another big dinner that night and did some more gambleing. The next morning we waited in some long lines to get off the ship and then off we went to our Jeep and head to Universal Studios. Here is a picture of Snuggles.

Ensenada

2010-06-15T20:12:00.000-07:00

I woke up the next morning before we docked in Ensenada and watched out the window. There was so many seals. I was snapping pictures all over the place. After breakfast there was a seal that was just floating around and I snapped some good ones of him, who I named Oscar. Nathan and I went into town to do some shopping. Ensenada was a bit scary so we went back to the ship to eat again. Nathan went golfing again but I was booked for horseback riding. I was with a big group from the ship and we drove about 20 minutes to a mountain with a ranch on it. They threw us on horses and we rode for awhile. I got some really good pictures of the pacific ocean. We were so high up on cliffs I was kind of scared. My horse did good. After riding we went back to the ranch for tacos and then back to the boat. Nathan was not back yet so I went up to the pool deck to read for awhile. While reading all the seals were leaving the marina it was a pretty cool sight. Nathan was about 10 minutes late for dinner but we both stuffed our faces and went to bed.

The view from Horseback riding.

Catalina Pics

2010-06-15T20:08:00.000-07:00

Catalina Island

2010-06-15T20:06:00.000-07:00

The next morning we were in Catalina Island. Nathan went golfing with some people from Alamo and I went to shore to explore. I ended up shopping with Katie for awhile. Katie and I went back to the ship for lunch and then layed in the sun while we waited for Nathan. Finally Nathan got done and we both rented a golf cart to drive around the island to get some great pictures. BEWARE there are a lot of pictures. We ate another big dinner and went to a comedy show on the ship. Next stop Ensendada.

How you got off the ship.

The golf course Nate golfed at.

Cruising

2010-06-15T20:01:00.000-07:00

The next morning we woke up and went to the ship to get on. We saw Nathan's sister Katie and hung out with her while we waited. Once on the ship we ate and wondered around a bunch. Our cabin had a nice window which I also sent a lot of time looking out of. We went up to the front of the ship when we left Long Beach. It was pretty cold up there. I ate soooo much. After dinner I went dancing with Katie and some of her friends.

The Queen Mary!

Our Cabin.

Long Beach

2010-06-15T19:58:00.000-07:00

So Nathan and I just got back from a wonderful vacation. We left on Sunday, May 30 and drove down to Long Beach. We got a great deal on a hotel where we could park our car for the week while on the cruise. We made it into Long Beach in one piece and no speeding tickets. Nathan and I went to the Aquarium of The Pacific which was a total let down. The shark reef at Mandalay Bay is much better for your money. After the aquarium we putzed around the marina which our hotel room looked over. A little adventure we did was drive to Walmart down the street and had to park in the parking garage which cost $2. So glad I dont have to do that down here. We at ate wonderful Chilis and went back to the hotel and watched Deadliest Catch (not very smart to watch before the start of a cruise). I loved the view from our I sat there for so long just watching. In the morning we could see our ship dock too. Here are some pictures.

Goodreads

2010-04-23T15:38:00.000-07:00

I go on this awesome website called Goodreads. It keeps track of all the books I have read and I can save books that I want to read. I added a little widget (that is what is called but sounds funny) on the side of my blog where you can see all the books I have read. You should join to and become my friend since I only have 2. I really like the site the only thing I wish it did is tell you when a new book you want to read comes out. I solved that problem and made a Yahoo Group where my friends and I can add to the calendar when the books are released and it then emails you the day before they come out. I have it made. haha.. So you should check out Goodreads and see how many books I have read. I am proud.