Busy Week!

This didn't really happen this week, but since I rarely take pictures at work I thought I'd post a little something about what I do. This is in front of our office (obviously with a Boy Scout statue). The girl standing up on the statue with me just had a baby 9 days before this was taken! We got together because we won an award called the "High 5 Club" for starting five new Boy Scout units in one year.

But this week:

Temple #7: Mt. Timpanogas

Instead of just going with Matt and Jessica, we invited ourselves to Matt's family Temple trip. Thanks for letting us join you, Tiner's!

Happy Pioneer Day! Buck and I stopped by the much anticipated "Taste of the Valley" here in Provo. We sort of cheated the system (don't tell!) and only paid for one adult. I got all the samples, and anything I couldn't finish Buck ate. Seems honest to me!

There were only 25 vendors, and between 2,000 & 3,000 people, so we waited in a lot of lines. Much to our disappointment, many of the vendors that participated were national chains. We were hoping to find new local restaurants, but basically every place there we had already been too. Bummer! On the upside, for $10 we got WAY more food than either of us could handle. We basically ate lunch at: P.F. Changs, Tucanos, Goodwood BBQ, Sizzler, Gloria's Little Italy, Denny's, Spoon Me, Costa Vida, California Pizza Kitchen, Pizzeria Seven Twelve, Noodles & Co, and Froyo all at once! The "samples" were HUGE at some places, and just okay at others. I would recommend going sometime if you're in the area.

We also made it to a wedding reception! Below is Buck's beloved accounting group from the fall semester of the Junior Core. They really love each other. The one on the far right is getting married next week!

Here we all are together! Buck and I were particularly excited for the wedding since we've known both Glen and Jamie since before they were dating. Getting to see a love blossom is so fun! We're so excited for you guys!

We were pretty excited about their party favors...

Jones Cream Soda with pictures of the happy couple!

Here's to you, Glen and Jamie!

Happy Anniversary/4th of July/Honeymoon!

Two years ago we were married

and celebrated the 4th of July on our Honeymoon in St. John

Boy how the time flies! It's been a fast and fun two years, and we look forward to oodles more to come! In fact, instead of planning my wedding like I used to I've taken to planning our 50th wedding anniversary party.

Here we are bright eyed and bushy tailed at 6:30 AM. The Balloon Fest is something Provo City puts on annually with the Freedom Festival. I LOVED it! You get to watch them blow up the balloons, take off, and return to the field you begin at to drop a "fox tail" (if you remember the Klutz yard game with the tennis ball with a tail on the back) on a gigantic "X" without landing. Pretty crazy stuff! It starts so early because as soon as the sun comes above the mountains the Earth heats up causing air currents which keep you from being able to navigate as well.

Our anniversary was technically on Monday, but because of my slack planning we didn't get a chance to do much. Instead we saved what we really wanted to do for the long weekend. We went on a fairly easy hike in Sundance (love it) to Stuart Falls. We packed a picnic to enjoy once we got there. The picnic consisted of chicken sub sandwiches and chocolate pear cake from our favorite french bakery, Elaine's. The sandwiches were out of the world! This pretty much made our anniversary.

After our hike we went to the movies! I know...gasp! I can't remember the last time we went to the real movies not counting when we got free tickets. Buck and I have decided to just be (very) patient and wait for them to arrive on Netflix. It's not too hard since we don't have TV so we miss all the previews. We ended up watching The Proposal which was cute.

Then for the actual 4th of July we just HAD to go to the parade. I love how the Provo parade actually has these blown up characters. We sit with a friend at her family's house, so for two years we have watched the poor parade volunteers struggle with getting these giant things around the street lights! Bless their hearts...

We headed to 7 peaks to polish off the sunshine, then headed over to the BYU campus to watch fireworks from the Stadium of Fire. Too bad it's Monday already...

Manti: Temple Trip #6 (of 12)

Growing up my favorite temple was always Manti. This is the picture I typically saw:

I thought it kind of reminded me of the Biltmore House (I guess because it huge, beautiful, and in the middle of nowhere) that I love so much. Pretty good guessing on my part considering the Manti Temple was completed in 1888 and the Biltmore House was built in 1895.

After all these years of looking forward to some day visiting this temple, I just want you to know it did NOT disappoint! It was magnificent. It's about 1 1/2 hours from Provo, but totally worth the trip!

The Tiner's!

We stuck around for the Pageant which was good if you like that sort of thing. This area of Utah is known for Turkey farming, so we just HAD to eat at the official Pageant Turkey Dinner...served in a Tabernacle/Church building no less. They served grilled Turkey which was really good, and even shared the recipe!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Look at all the beautiful cards and presents I got!  I am really thankful for all the birthday wishes, phone calls, cards and presents I got.  Thank you everyone!

This is me being surprised by the iPod Touch my husband coordinated for me to get for my birthday.  Thank you Buck, Dad, Angie, and Landrum!  I love it!  I also got a beautiful bike from my Mom, Lani, and Aaron.  It's so cute, but I haven't taken pictures of it yet.  I will take pictures as soon as my basket comes in the mail.  Thanks y'all!

Unfortunately I did have to work in the morning on my birthday (first time EVER!), but still managed to do some of my favorite things the rest of the day.  We headed over to 7 Peaks (our local water park-we have season passes) with our favorite neighbors, the Tiner's to soak up some sunshine.

Then we went out to eat at one of my favorite restaurants, The Art City Trolly in Springville.  This is the first time we actually got to sit in the trolly, so we just HAD to take pictures.  They have the best salads, ribs, and onion rings.  If you haven't been there, I highly recommend trying it!

Here we are playing with my new iPod touch.  I just love it!  Thanks for a wonderful birthday everyone!

Mini Vacay!

We went on a mini vacay with this lucky couple, the Tiner's.  Bless their hearts!

Our first stop, and main reason for going at all, was to visit the St George Temple.  This will make the fifth temple in our 12 temples in 12 months goal.  Hooray!  Since St George is a short two hour drive from Las Vegas, we decided to make a weekend of it.

We left St George early Saturday morning to check in early to the Ritz Carlton, Lake Las Vegas.   This way we were basically able to get in a full day at the resort with only a one night's stay.  Pretty sneaky!  Before you start thinking we spent a ton on this trip, just know we shared a hotel room with the Tiner's and we held back in St George so we could splurge in Las Vegas.  The resort was worth every penny!  We ended up eating lunch by the pool so we didn't have to miss a drop of sunlight.  I would go back again in a heart beat.  Now visiting the strip again...that's another story!

Things started off great with a quick fountain show at the Bellagio.  Who doesn't love that?

Buck does!

We even found a Serendipity 3 and split a Frozen Hot Chocolate.

After several brain freezes we mostly finished it.  Yum!

And then comes the ugly!  We decided to go see the show at Treasure Island.  Bad idea!  The women in the show wear barely more than the women on the baseball card sized porn the hispanic men try to hand you all over the strip.  The story line is beyond stupid.  And the worst part, about six times too many people show up to watch it!  Buck and I got a bad case of the giggles when we finally got so wedged in to the crowd that I had to take a picture.  We were stuck watching this trash, until we got a lucky break when a man in front of us decided to nearly pass out.  One of his friends carried him out, the sea of people parted for him, and we snuck in right behind them to leave.  Thank heavens for extreme temperatures in Las Vegas!

By the time we got out of that mess, we were pretty much gross and tired.  Needless to say, it wasn't the highlight of our trip.  But then again, what did we expect?

Ahh, back at the hotel.  It's hard to believe we were in the middle of the desert.

The views were quite pretty.

We even had the chance to go to church there.  This was especially exciting for me since my brother is a missionary in this area.  I didn't plan on seeing him, and I'm not even sure which church he would have been going to.  It was cool at least being in the same general area he's been in for the last 1.5 years.  I met some missionaries that serve in this exact area, but they didn't know Xan too well.  Think that's hard to believe?  Well then you don't know Xan.

And to top it all off, we had (what these Utah people like to call) a BBQ for Memorial Day.  In the South, if you said you were having a BBQ people would darn right expect pork.  Here, no one expects more than hamburgers and hotdogs.  That's what I like to call a "Cook Out."  It only took a few church BBQ's before I stopped even getting my hopes up for pulled pork.

We had a great time, and boy are we tan!  Just kidding, we wish.

Traditions

For Family Home Evening last night, Buck and I finally hiked the famous BYU "Y" on the mountain. This is a view of Provo from the top.
This is the massive "Y." Why the "Y" you ask? The original intention was a huge "BYU", but after the intense completing of the "Y", "B" and "U" were postponed and later the whole idea was abandoned. It's so huge, I have no trouble understand why they gave up!

Can I just say, this "easy" hike is completely different from "easy" hikes in South Carolina. I had to take at least 3 breaks on my way up! The sad part is that I run almost every day too. At times it is extremely steep, and walking down isn't as easy as you'd think. Kudos to those fellow BYU people that hike it regularly.

If You Can't Tell, Why Should We?

One of these pictures is of me in my $200 Target glasses, and one of these is of me in my $8 Zenni Optical glasses.  Can you tell the difference?  If you're like me, you need both glasses and contact annually, but eye insurance only covers one of those per year.  That leaves me to shell out the extra $200.  I don't think so!

Sorry for the terrible pictures.  My lovely assistant was busy when I was ready so I had to take matters into my own hands.

After a quick google search I found all kinds of websites that offered cute glasses for much less than any eye doctor.  I decided to go with the cheapest I could find since I usually just wear them around the house.  Zenni Optical was great to work with.  All you need is your prescription (your property by law available from your eye doctor, I just claim I need a copy for my own records after my appointment) and you're good to go.

I've been wearing glasses since I was in 4th grade, so I have tried on my fair share of frames.  I was okay with ordering glasses without trying them on since I had an idea of what I wanted (and at these prices you can order 2 pairs if you make a mistake and still come out on top).  The only complaint I have is that this particular company didn't offer the "thinning" feature often needed in stronger prescriptions.  I'm blind, okay!?  So my lenses turned out a little on the thick side...but like I said, I just wear them around the house.  Also since I had a stronger prescription I had to pay about $4 extra dollars for the extra strength.  When all was said and done it cost me: $8 frames & lenses + $4 extra strength + $6 shipping.  My new pair of glasses for less than $20 arrived within two weeks.