Earthquakes in Lehi

I have been told that Utah is supposedly going to have a big earthquake one day but I never really thought much about it before. Well, I think it was Monday night, we ended up going to bed later than usual, Ryan had just fallen asleep but I still had not yet, it was about 1am in the morning when we heard/felt it. Ryan woke up in a panic for some reason thinking it was some one in our attic and actually opened up our attic for the first time since we moved in to inspect, luckily finding no intruder. I on the other hand have actually already been in two small ones while I lived in Washington so I thought it felt like the ones I had been in before but just never expected there would be one here in Utah. Come to find out it really was one (2.9 ) and it originated in Saratoga Springs, the next city over and there has actually been three in the area the past month. Our ward has been very focused on emergency preparedness of late and had actually dropped by a preparedness packet just the day before. I know its important to do, I just have such a hard time doing it and really believing it will actually be needed but I am sure it will be, or they wouldn't tell us to do it, I just hope its not too soon, cause we are definitely not ready unless we plan on dining on canned corn for every meal in the event we can't go to Walmart 3 times a week like we do now.

The Bachelor

Ok, who is watching the bachelor this season? As you all know I am a dedicated bachelor fan, but even I admit, this one was so cheesy, Jake is cheesy and all the girls are cheesy too, they all had these one liners & awkward opening speeches. If I was on the bachelor I would just be like Hey hows it goin, nice to meet you, see you inside, something short, sweet, casual, try to make it as normal as possible. Anyways, as usual there is the token crazy girl who confesses her undying love for this guy she has barely met but is already desperately in love with and ready to bear his children. I wonder, when they go home and watch the season do they die with embarrasement because they recognize how desperate they seem or are they really crazy and don't even get it? Don't get me wrong I am still a loyal fan so I will still be watching the "most dramatic season ever"...

New Year's Resolutions

I decided my last day of this year at work that I do like New Year's and got into that organizing mood, where you want to get everything organized. I would have previously listed New Year's near the bottom of my favorite holiday's list, mainly because it seemed like in the past New Year's Eve was usually full of high expectations and ended up disappointingly (in the single days). I realized though its nice to have one day a year set a-side for new beginnings. Its perfectly timed too, since December is full of over eating ( I've consumed way too much chocolate the past week), over-spending and general busy-ness. So, its nice to have a specific time to think of what you can/should change in your life to make it better. As I start thinking about my resolutions, I realize they are exactly the same resolutions I had last year and the year before...etc. Does anyone else have this problem? Also, how do you follow through? Lets be honest, who lets say by June is really thinking about what their N Y resolutions were? I think this year my resolution is going to be to figure out how to make them stick. Anyways, Happy New Year to everyone!

Christmas Things

So, you can just call us little social butterflies, last saturday we attended four different parties: Our ward Christmas party, my work party, (dinner at the cheese cake factory), Ryan's sister's engagement party, and our friend's April & Clint's Christmas party and in between Christmas shopping, so a busy but fun day. Then sunday we tried making cafe rio pork recipe, it was our first time ever buying or cooking pork and also the first for using the crock pot (that we got 3 years ago for our wedding), but it actually turned out pretty good. Its so nice when you find something new to make for dinner.

Also, two weekends ago we went to a Jazz (basket ball) game with our friends Aimee and Justin and afterwards we went up to the top floor of where Justin works that over looked Temple Square. That was my version of seeing the Christmas lights because it was a lot warmer than walking around in the freezing cold :)

Me decorating our little Christmas tree.....

3rd Anniversary

So as some one once said blogging tradition dictates that you have to write a post for your anniversary, not that I don't want to, I just haven't yet. We did kind of count Hawaii as part of our anniversary, so we had a pretty low key anniversary day, just a few days after we got back. I had the day off since its Veterans's Day and we bankers get those random days off and I am in no way complaining about that. Ryan had to work so I offered to do the planning for this year and he gets to do it next year. So, of course I did some shopping and got Ryan a tool box which he has often complained about because we were previously keeping all that kind of stuff in a flimsy box and he also complained of not having enough tools. I say I've been just fine with out them for 30 years and so has he but I guess a man has to have manly tools, like a hammer since he usually hangs up our pics in the house with my high heels, so thats what he got along with a black v- neck sweater cause I like to buy clothes, tool boxes aren't that much fun to shop for.
Then I made a romantic candle light dinner with his favorite food (that I cook at least), Chicken Alfredo. And Ryan brought me home roses and made a good effort at picking out some clothes for me and a very sweet card. It was kind of nice to stay in for our anniversary for a change.

Thanksgiving's past now and I just realized that I think I've forgotten to be grateful for the blessings I have and tend to think of all the things I want or don't have and on Thanksgiving I admit I mainly just think about the food, but I am very thankful for the season and for family, friends, a home, having a job, and for a very loving husband who I probably don't tell often enough that I love him.

Finally the Internet & other random thoughts

I finally broke down and purchased the internet! I've been talking about doing it for I think like a year now (we've never had internet the entire 3 years of our marriage) and finally I am sitting here at home in my bathrobe writing a blog and surfing the internet and connected to the real world, I guess, if being connected to the real world means only communicating on-line:)

My mom and Ryan's mom both had surgery today and both went well:)

I was watching the news for a bit last night and watched a little bit of Obama's presidential address and I don't get it. We're deploying 20,000 more troops and there will be troops there for many years to come I can't remember the exact year they predicted but it was like 2020 something. Let me just say I am not very well informed at all about this and I don't even know where I stand on the whole war thing so forgive me if I don't know what I am talking about, but it seems to me when Bush was president everyone (and by everyone I mean the media) was way against the war, right? And then the election last year one of the big issues was the war, Republicans wanted to go stronger and Democrats (obama) wanted to get out of it, at least thats what I thought. It seems to me like the minute Obama was president the war all of sudden became not a bad thing and lets support the troops (which I totally agree with), but why was it bad when bush was president but now that Obama's president its good? Anyways, again these are just my general impressions so inform me if I'm way off base here.

Ok, thats all for now....

Hawaii

We're back to the real world and I've been racking my brains how to figure out how to get back and live in the tropics somehow. Here are the highlights.

Friday- 2:45 am. We board the plane from Las Vegas to Hawaii. I was so worried about falling asleep so that I could play all day when we got there that I couldn't go to sleep. We get to Hawaii about 6 am and find our way to Ryan's cousin house on the North Shore. We're all so exhausted that we have to sleep for a couple of hours before we can start to enjoy the sun and ocean that on high tide hits the beach house. This is our first beach day.

After playing and body boarding at the beach most of the day we go to the grocery store on our way back to pick up some groceries. After putting them in the car we decide to order a pizza and grabbed an ice cream and sat out side eating it while we waited for our pizza. When we got back to the house we went to get the groceries out of the trunk. And there were no groceries. They had been stolen along with a few other things. So, from that time forward no one left anything in the trunk anywhere. Lesson learned. I had been warned about the theft problem but I didn't think it applied to groceries.

Saturday- We randomly stopped at this beach on our way to Waikki beach and it was by far my favorite beach. It was gorgeous and the waves were awesome. Like a little scary because they were so big and of all the signs posted saying strong current and the life guards making announc ments to only swim if you're a strong swimmer. But we had a blast playing in the waves and the water was really pretty and the moutains in the background and light house.

Afterwards we stopped by this cool place where Ryan's cousin said he had been a week before and seen cameras there filming for Lost. So, I can't wait for the new season to start so I can see if I recognize it.

We finally made it to Waikki and ate here at Cheese Burgers in Paradise. I was never really sure it actually existed as it was always the office joke to eat there when we were thinking about where to go to lunch. And it was definitly paradise.

Then we walked along the boardwalk, watched the sunset and saw all the crazy Halloween costumes.

Sunday- We checked out the temple, relaxed, walked along the beach played some cards.

Monday- We hiked the Sacred Falls hike, which has actually been closed for 10 years because of a rock slide that killed 7 people. The only way we knew we were on the right trail or not was by following the warning, area closed due to dangerous conditions signs along the way. It was a pretty crazy hike, pretty jungly and we had to climb over rocks across the river, but really amazing.

Later that day we went on the tour where they filmed some scenes in Jurassic Park & Lost, not as cool as I was expecting but still fun. Here's ryan trying to be like Jack (from Lost).

Here's the group at dinner that night.

Tuesday- We went to the famous surfing beach Pipe Line, no swimming allowed, you can't see from the pic but the wave were big.

And got some yummy pastries at this popular bakery everyone goes after surfing.

Afterwards we were off to the PCC. (Polynesian Cultural Center)

We learned the Hula

Got lei'd

Ate an authentic luau dinner.

And me and Ryan got to dance up on the stage in front of everyone because they were celebrating Nov. anniversaries. Unfortunatley the pic is a little dark.

Wed. - We totally got hooked on the shaved ice. Its not just shaved ice it has ice cream at the bottom and they drizzle the shaved ice with sweetened condensed milk. I think we had one almost every day. But this place was the coolest place, there's all sorts of pics of celebrities eating here and it was the coolest little surf town.

We went to the Swap meet, thought it was great, like a big flea market where you can buy a bunch of cheap stuff and Pearl Harbor.

Also, Ryan and Josh thought it would be cool to catch crabs on the beach. Crabs are so creepy looking.

Thurs- Went snorkeling at Sharks Cove, really fun. And then more swimming at Waimea Bay.

Friday- Our last day. We did some more body boarding, went to Chinaman's hat, started paddling out to the little island there and then realized how long it would take.

Then decided to head back to our favorite beach and stayed until got dark.

And then took our final pic in Hawaii before heading to the air port.