Old news

Well, I wish I could post a blog with as much exciting adventures as Orson, really cute baby pics like those of you with kids or at the very least some thoughtful insights about life but nothing much is coming to me right now so so I'll resort to what we've been doing recently.

A few weekends ago we went to the jazz game in salt lake which was pretty fun. We spent the day in Salt Lake doing some shopping and then met up with some friends for dinner and then headed over to watch the game. Larry H. Miller owner of the jazz had recently passed away so they did a little memorial to him which was kinda cool to be a part of and then we watched the Jazz beat I think it was New Orleans. (our best player and their best player have a long standing competitive thing going on and although I prefer watching games that are a little closer it was still good) This picture is really bad by the way our heads are really really big and the game looks really really far away and little which it kinda was :)

We've also recently been to the Draper temple open house which was pretty cool. You park at a church near the temple and then they have you wait in the gym for a while and then you go into another room and watch a short little movie about it and then you bus up to the temple. You walk thru a big tent covered walk way thing to get into the temple so unfortunatley we couldn't get any pictures of us. We tried to take picture of it in the bus but it didn't really work out. There was a ton of people there, you kinda shuffle along thru all the rooms. Anyways it was pretty cool to see all the rooms there was an amazing chandlier in one of the rooms. After you've gone thru all the rooms you end up in a church right next to the temple where they have cookies and drinks and then they bus you back to the church where you parked. There are some huge and I mean mansion homes surrounding the temple which is basically on top of the mountain, so the view around the temple is pretty cool.

PS. Happy Friday the 13th today

Coincidence?

So, I moved to Utah, I'm thinking its been about 9 years ago. One of the first girls that I got to be friends with was my friend Aimee. I think we've lived together at least half of those years. So what are the chances of two really good friends getting proposed to at the same place, same way?

My Proposal: We had gone ring shopping together the past few weeks, so I was expecting a proposal at some point. Ryan texted me at work and said not to eat he wanted to take me out somewhere nice to dinner. So, of course I knew what he was up to. He took me to the restaruaunt the Roof in slc which has a really cool view of the temple and really good food. Afterwards he took me to Liberty park. (We had gone there together on a date in the first couple months of dating- where we actually broke into the bird sanctuary next to the park thinking it was a playground and he told I think it was my family when he was on the what they call the "hot seat" a little later that was when he started thinking I could be the one) As we were walking along the path way in the park there was a blanket with roses, sparkling cider, and candles lit up and he popped the question.

Aimee's proposal 2 1/2 years later: They have been ring shopping for a while so she also was expecting a proposal some time. It started out as a regular night. They ate dinner together and then planned to meet up later to go to the gym. But he called her later and said is it ok if they went some where to talk. He told her he wanted to go to the slc temple but really took her to, you guessed it Liberty Park, where he had a blanket, candles and roses set up and asked the question. I think she said the reason he proposed there because that is where his grand parents got engaged there or something like that.

Other similarities- They were both mid-week proposals, tues for aimee, wed for me.
Both our rings were too big and we had to get them sized after the proposal, (its hard to part with your ring when you've waited so long for it) and both happened about the same time of night.

Anyways I just thought it was crazy that two good friends got proposed to at the same place with the same blanket, rose, candle plan. I mean 5 years ago when we were hanging out complaining about guys and not being able to imagine marrying anyone, would you think it was possible that both of our future husbands would propose to us at the same park in the same way? Really what are the chances?

Recent Activities

So, last weekend we went to my friend Aimee's boyfriend's parents cabin in Midway. We went to an outside skating rink where I tried to ice skate. I'm definitly not very balanced on skates but I didn't fall either probably because I was going so slow. I never really ventured out on my own either I was always holding on to somebody. Afterwards we went to the hot springs and when I say hot I mean it felt like your skin was going to be burned off if you moved at all. Slowly we made our way to a little cove where the water wasn't quite as hot and then afterwards we had some dessert and played a few games so overall pretty fun night.

This weekend: Saw the movie "Yes Man" with Jim Carey at the dollar theatre with our new bachelor buddies (April & Clint) and a couple of their friends, the movie was better than I thought it was going to be actually. Valentines Day Ryan made me breakfast got me some roses and a pint of Haag & Daas ice cream and I got him some Jazz tickets and a sweater. That night we went and saw the movie Slum dog millionaire, It is rated R but it is a really, really, good movie, ( there is no language, no sex scenes, no nudity, no graphic violence) I'm guessing it is rated that because of the seriousness nature of parts of the movie. But if you want to see a really good movie I highly recommend it. Then we went to the Outback for dinner. So to sum it up a pretty good V- Day. Made even better because of the nice 3 day weekend. Sunday is so much better when you know you don't have to get up the next morning and go to work.

Also, I've decided to get into this whole face book thing, because I've realized lately, everyone is on that thing, even my mom. (no offense mom) It might be time we get the internet at our house so we can join the 21st century.

California Trip

Work out place at Venice Beach.

This is Ryan's creative photography work (above) I like the pink flowers, this is right by our hotel.

Us at Hunington Beach Saturday night

Ok, this blog is for Penny since she said my last blog entitled "Updates" was no longer valid, which she is right about. So, last weekend Ryan's company was sending him to Anaheim to film a covention for one of their clients and I decided to tag along at the last minute. A very good decision on my part since we left slc on friday morning and an hour and half later we were in 83 degree weather with palm trees. We stayed at the Hilton Hotel where the convention was right next to Disneyland. Our room actually over looked part of the park. Friday afternoon when we had checked into our hotel we walked to this outdoor mall place and ate at the Cheese cake factory for a late lunch, so yummy. Then unfortuantely for Ryan he had to go do some work for a couple of hours and I relaxed at the pool. That night after he was finished we went back to the outdoor mall did a little shopping and ate at this old fashioned hamburger place that cost as much to eat there as it did for us to eat at the cheese cake factory, go figure. Anyways, sadly Ryan had to work all day on Saturday starting at 7am and wasn't done until 6pm that night. Meanwhile, I leisurely slept in, went to lunch with my bro Orson and then we headed to Venice Beach. (see Orson's blog for additional photos) which was really cool. The weather was sunny and nice, we walked on the beach for a while and then walked along the boardwalk, saw some street performers and some weird people and a bunch of ways to "legally" get marijuana for medicinal purposes if we had been interested. Then we headed back to the hotel picked up Ryan and decided to eat dinner at Hunington Beach at this mexican restraunt across the street from the beach. It was so hard to leave the next day, I was beating myself up for not planning better so we could have stayed another day. Oh well, I guess we'll just have to go back again. ...

updates

Ok, its been a while... so here is what you've missed. We went to St. George for Christmas in hopes of warmer weather which did not happen. We had a surprise visit from Santa at ryan's grand parents and no Santa's not drunk, but its a great picture. Then for New year's eve we had a small get together at our place which was fun. Addie enjoyed herself on the love sac before the party. I went to Spokane for a quick work trip. There was so much snow there it was crazy. I found out that all the flights got cancelled a few hours after i left. Anyways, I just wanted to do a quick post since its been so long, i'll do a better one soon.

Our First Christmas present & Tagged

1.) For our Christmas present from my sister, Annaliese, offered to paint a room for us. The room she painted was our main floor bathroom and we gave her an extra challenge because we picked out this really cool looking textured "suede" paint which we had really liked in one of our friend's house. So, Annaliese came over and slaved away for hours while I got to play with my adorable little neice, Addie, they spent the night and she slaved away again the whole next morning. It turned out really awesome. I don't know if you can see the texturedness from the picture but it looks really cool in person, so THANK YOU ANNALIESE!!

2.) I have been tagged several times on this 8 things tagged and each time I have had good intentions of doing it but never followed thru, so here I go. (They have also all been different 8 things so I am going just do the ones I liked)

8 Favorite Books

1. Ender's game

2. Pride & Prejudice

3. Count of Monte Cristo

4. I have liked a lot of books by Harlan Coben recently

5. Kite runner and another book by the same author that I can't remember the name of right now.

6. I can't think of any more right now, I've read so many books that they all tend to get blurred after a while, I am sure I am forgetting one of my favorites.

8 things that happened yesterday

1.) went to work in a blizzard practically, was tailed by a snow plower that wasn't plowing

2.)went to Walmart, finally bought some tights, I was much warmer the rest of the day, amazing how dressing warmer makes the winter a little more bearable too bad it has taken me like 8 years to figure this out.

3.)drove home from work

4.) offered to baby-sit Addie for Annaliese so she could have girls night out

5.) got invited to enrichment by my neighbor I am trying to be friends with.

6) asked Ryan if he wanted to watch addie while I went to relief society dinner, (and asked Annaliese if that was ok)

7) Went to the dinner with my two neighbors ate yummy food and then right as the spritual part was going to start got a call from ryan saying to come home as he wasn't sure what to do with a crying baby.

8) came home calmed Addie down much to Ryan's amazement, it must be a girl thing, watched re-runs of the Office, hung out with annaliese when she came to pick up Addie, then went to bed with the kitchen messy from our cooking adventures of our first time making sugar cookies the night before.

8 things to look forward to

1.) Christmas

2) New Year's eve party we want to have

3.) starting a new year- crazy how fast time goes- following thru on my new year resolutions

4) hanging out with my friend Nicole in town for the holidays

5) hanging out with my cousin Arielle coming to town in Jan

6) our new tv we are buying for our christmas present to each other, admittly Ryan is way, way more excited about this than I am.

7) my work trip to Spokane, get to hang out with orson while I am there.

8) California trip in January, I'm tagging along on a work trip of Ryan's

8 things on my wish list

1. a million dollars :) (if I got this item it negates the following)

2. cruise with my husband ( and friends if any of them want to come)

3. new pair of jeans

4. house decorations

5. A baby (this list is not in order I should add)

6. I'm feeling greedy, should I say world peace now or solving world hunger

7. better economy would be nice although I am enjoying the gas prices lately

8. if I get some of the above I'd be pretty happy

8 things I love about winter

I don't think so, any one who knows me knows anything I put here would be a lie, I'm ok with it until after Christmas and then I hate it.

8 restaraunts

1. Outback

2. Tree Room (a once a year opportunity)

3. Red Robin

4. Olive Garden

5. Thai village

6. Texas Road house

7. Goodwood BBQ

8. Anything mexican

9. Kneader's bakery

8 TV Shows I watch

1. The office

2. 30 Rock

3. Oprah

4. Grey's Anatomy

5. What not to Wear

6. HGTV (sad but true)

7. Chuck (Annaliese has got me into liking this as of recently)

8. Kath & Kim

8 places to visit

1. Tahiti

2. Italy

3. Paris

4. Ireland

5. England

6. Hawaii

7. New York & DC again

8. New Orleans because of their rating of the #1 Murder Capital in the US, Oh yea and to visit Annaliese, Spencer & Addie while they are there.

8 People I tag

1. Ryan

2. Orson

3. Penny

4. Mom

5. Nicole

6.Kirsten

7. April

8. Richard

The Best Meal of the Year

and no its not Thanksgiving or Christmas. So, for the past several years my company has gone to the Tree Room for our Christmas Party and it is honestly the best meal I have of the year. I look forward to it all year long. I felt a little silly taking a picture of my food but I had to do it. Now that I am a blogger I take way more pictures than I ever used to. Anyways, for those who don't know the Tree Room is at the Sundance Resort up in the mountains and it is a 5 star restaraunt and I don't know what half the things on the menu are but they are delicious and is served in courses. One main entree alone (what i get every year the Pepper steak so tender you could cut it with a butter knife and the most delicious mango sauce comes with it, sounds weird but its not) is way more expensive than what me and Ryan would spend going out to dinner for the both of us. The dessert that I took a picture of is this amazing chocalate truffle cake with a warm pudding inside and this yummy bannana ice cream. I think this meal is also so wonderful because its free. If we went there on our own for a birthday or anniversary or something with every bite I would be thinking this bite cost me $5, so half the fun of this dinner is not only is it absolutely delicious but I can order what I want (and believe me I don't pass up anything, drinks, beginnings ( their fancy word for an appetizer), salad, dessert) and it is free. We eat hardly anything the whole day in preparation for this meal and dinner lasts almost 3 hours. The great thing is the portions are small and they serve each part separatly so your stomach has time to get ready for the next course and you get to try so many different things. Ok, I am done bragging about our wonderful dinner but I had to because it was wonderful.