Life according to us...

February Date Night - Baja Beach Party

2012-02-15T21:46:00.004-07:00

Our February date night was a lot of fun! We took a cooking class at Harmons Grocery Store. We both love to cook so I thought this would be a fun date to start with. The class was FANTASTIC! We couldn't believe how nice the cooking facilities were there. We went to the brand new Harmons store up in Farmington. There were about 15 people in the class. The chef did some of the cooking himself and then had us do the rest. It was great because they took care of all the prep work and the dishes. We just got to do the fun parts - cooking and eating!

We made Swordfish Vera Cruz - Swordfish with a yummy tomato, lime, and capers sauce.
My favorite part were the crab and mushroom enchiladas. The salsa we poured over them had simmered for two hours beforehand and was really yummy! Then we mixed crab and cheese with some sauteed mushrooms and baked it until it was warm and gooey. So good!!!
Although the pictures we tried to take of the finished product didn't turn out very well. It was tricky to get them out of the pan in one piece!
And then? Fish tacos! We had a really great slaw to put on them and they were super fresh - we friend them ourselves!

At this point, we were getting pretty full. Don't worry though. We pushed through and ate everything on our plates! Including some yummy fresh chips and salsa (made from canned tomatoes!) It was delicious. Nice to know you can make good salsa even in the wintertime. Let me know if you want the recipe. I'm willing to share.

We finished things off with some really yummy tres leches cake but I was so excited to eat it that I forgot to take a picture! Whoops!

First month's date night? A tremendous success!!

Valentine's Day

2012-02-15T21:37:00.002-07:00

I came up with a pretty fun idea for a Valentine's Day present for Jim (if I do say so myself!) I have him a membership in the "Date of the Month" club. I have always had a tendency to over-schedule my life and now that we're married, I tend to over-schedule our lives. So, I planned a year's worth of monthly date nights where it will just be the two of us - no double dates or group dates. Just us having fun together. I think it will be a lot of fun for the two of us. And I'm planning on taking some pictures for fun blog posts along the way!

Along with the "date of the month" club membership, he also a couple of weekend getaways for us together and some fun reward tickets to use whenever he wants. I was probably more excited about it than he was but I think it will be lots of fun!

Sushi....again?!

2012-02-15T21:21:00.003-07:00

We had another very successful sushi night with some friends this last weekend. It was great!! We had some yummy rolls (we even tried to make our own spicy mayo and eel sauce!), tempura veggies, teriyaki chicken (for the non-fish eater), and edamame. We had some small friends come to play too. Made me realize that our house is definitely NOT childproof.

My first attempt at tempura veggies. They tasted delicious! Butternut squash, sweet potatoes, green beans, squash, and onions. So good!Our sushi chefs hard at work:Our good friend Zach. He's adorable! If he makes eye contact with me at church, he'll get really shy for a minute and pretend to not see me and then get a giant grin on his face. Makes sacrament meeting much more enjoyable! :)

Fun with Friends

2012-02-12T16:58:00.002-07:00

I got to spend some time with some fun friends this Thursday. My friend Emily was in town to spend time with her parents before they left on their mission and luckily she made time to see us and show off her cute kid Andrew! (Who wouldn't look at the camera. :) )

We had some delicious Mexican food and had a great time catching up. We were missing a couple of people though. Hopefully we can all get together again soon!

#52

2012-02-02T14:36:00.005-07:00

It's official, I finally crossed another one off the bucket list. We went to Vernal this past weekend and had a great time. It's really not that far away. Just a quick little road trip. Jim forgot his sunglasses so he had to borrow some of mine. :)We spent the night in the Holiday Inn Express on Main Street in Vernal (well, technically Highway 40 but you know what I mean!) We had a great dinner at the 7-11 Ranch House, relaxed in the hot tub, watched Blackbeard's Ghost on PBS, and slept in. After a delightful continental breakfast, we headed to the Vernal Temple.
I had a goal of doing an endowment session at every temple in Utah. Vernal was the last one on the list. I've been talking about going for years but it never seemed to work out. Now that I have a built-in travel buddy though, it makes things a lot easier to plan. People keep asking what I'm going to do when they finish the other planned temples in Utah. Obviously I'll go to them but I'm marking this one complete because #1 - I've done a session at all the dedicated temples in Utah and #2 - it's my list so I say it's done. :)

Next on the list?? Conquering the Rubik's cube. My very thoughtful husband looked at my bucket list and saw that was on there so he gave me one for Christmas. It even comes with instructions for completing it. (Thank goodness!)

New Beginnings

2012-01-28T19:15:00.003-07:00

We had a great New Beginnings for Young Womens last week. We talked about Personal Progress and introduced some really cute girls who are coming into our Young Women this next year. My favorite part though were the refreshments - fruit pizzas with fruit in the colors of the values. Who knew that I'd still remember all of the value colors from way back then???
We had white cookies (faith), blueberries (divine nature), strawberries (individual worth), kiwis (knowledge), mandarine oranges (choice and accountability), pineapple (good works), grapes (integrity), and bananas (virtue). We were supposed to have mangos for virtue (gold) but I guess mangos are way out of season right now so the ones that we picked out were semi-disgusting. So the bananas were a last minute improv. They were delicious though. Yummy fruit pizza!

And check out this super cute fruit pizza that one of the girls made! Aren't you so jealous?!

Sushi Anyone?

2012-01-26T21:55:00.003-07:00

Jim and I have been on quite the sushi kick lately. We took a class a couple of months ago and since then, we've had plenty of chances to use our skills. Saturday, we went over to some friends' house for some delicious sushi!

Jim was even brave enough to try making his own tempura roll! It tasted delicious. Apparently, it's not too hard - well, he at least made it look easy.

Our friends Holly and Brent aren't fish lovers but they even tried their own vegetarian sushi rolls and thought it was pretty darn good. We had cucumbers, avocados, carrots, sprouts, crab, shrimp, and all kinds of yummy sauces. And Whit made some delicious tempura vegetables. Much better than your average sushi restaurant because we got to make it ourselves.

And for our extreme fish haters? Well, they brought their own Carl's Junior burgers to the party. :)

We had a great time. If you haven't given sushi a try, you definitely should! It's delicious!

Christmas with the Wadsworths

2011-12-27T22:35:00.002-07:00

After breakfast with my family, we headed over to the Wadsworths for "brunch." They always have finnan haddy (I have no idea if I spelled that right but it's fish) with toast. After Jim's dad joined the family, they added sausage and eggs to the menu. This year they also had caramel rolls and a hot cocoa bar. The Wadsworth's never do anything on a small scale - check out the toppings for that cocoa!!!

I love their tree. It's super fun with bright red and green balls and these fun red lights. Plus it's like 10 feet tall so it fits perfectly in their house! Love it.
Jim's brother and his grandpa about to sit down for brunch. The food was sure yummy!
We were able to surprise Jim's mom with tickets to Lady Antebellum. She knew that something was up but she had no idea it was going to be something like that. It was great to see her so excited. I think that means we did something right. :) She returned the favor by surprising Nicci and I with tickets to see Wicked when it comes to town. I was super surprised and so excited about it!!!
Overall, it was a great Christmas! Juggling the two families was a little bit tricky but I think we've got a system worked out for now. Wish us luck when we start adding kids and nap times to the equation. (This is not an announcement, by the way!!)

Christmas with the Childs

2011-12-27T22:25:00.002-07:00

We spent Christmas morning with my family. It was so fun!! We gave my mom and dad this really cool picture. The picture is the Ogden Temple - the really cool part is that it's a mosaic made up of little tiny pictures of our family. They loved it!!!

My parents were super generous!! They're great. And it was fun to hang out with the family. We ate and played games and exchanged presents. It was awesome!!
And what blog about the Child family would be complete without a picture of my favorite niece Lucy. Isn't she adorable??

Christmas Morning 2011

2011-12-27T22:10:00.002-07:00

I finally remembered to take my camera with me on Christmas and I took a bunch of pictures. I'll start with Christmas morning at our house. Santa Claus came to visit!! He brought a game, a crepe maker, our favorite cereals (how did he know?!) and a couple of well-stuffed stockings. Plus this picture shows off our beautiful tree in the background. :)

Jim was so sweet! He paid attention to the fact that I didn't have a nativity from China so he went out and found one. It's beautiful!! And extra staticky. I guess the air in our house is pretty dry.
Yep. I'm a dork. Probably going to regret posting this picture later but this is what I look like first thing in the morning. I was so excited about Christmas morning that I didn't sleep well the night before. Yep. It was kind of like being a little kid again. Only this time I was super excited to give Jim his presents rather than the ones that Santa brought for me. :)
I LOVE this picture of Jim. He's super cheesy and really excited to see what was in the big box. (An air compressor - boy was that a disaster. Don't ever try to buy an air compressor for your husband when you don't know anything about them. Hopefully we've got everything worked out now though.)

And the after effects. We were very blessed this year. Santa (and others) were very generous. Jim gave me some gorgeous leather boots, some golf shoes, and pink golf balls. I know you're all jealous!!!

"Progressive" Dinner 2011

2011-12-20T22:38:00.004-07:00

About five years ago, some friends and I started a tradition of having a progressive dinner at Christmas time. We'd pick two or three houses for appetizers, entree, and dessert and we'd travel between them for a fun dinner. We've added some spouses and children now so this year's progressive dinner wasn't quite so progressive. We just hung out at our house. It was so fun to get together. We had 17 people and 5 babies for a visit at our house this year!!

Here's my friend Houston. He is almost 7 months and I think he's adorable.

Brooke, Lori, and Miles just hanging out during dinner. The babies tend to get passed around quite a bit during our gatherings so Brooke was probably enjoying some baby-free time while she ate her ham and funeral potatoes.
Our house is big enough to seat the 17 people but just barely. To get to the kitchen, you have to go around two big long tables. Mandy decided to take a shortcut under the table.
Here's Houston again with his dad Jeff. We have this Christmas moose in the corner that we use to hang our stockings on. My dad carved the wood and my mom painted it and gave one to all of my siblings for Christmas one year. I think it's cute. Houston sure didn't though. He took one look at that moose and started crying. Jeff held him over near the moose and Houston started screaming and trying to wiggle away from the moose. We finally covered it up with a coat because Houston was so upset but that didn't fool him. He kept looking over at the coat and his poor little bottom lip would tremble every time he saw it.

And here's the traditional baby photo. We like to line them all up (usually according to age - though that's not the case here) and take their photo. I'm sure that they'll hate it when they are 13 or 14 but we're going to keep it up as long as possible. :) I love that Karlee and Miles are practically holding hands and Houston's hand is on Lexie's knee. And then there's Winston, just chillin' on the end trying to wiggle his hand free. They're fun!

Thanks everyone for a fantastic time! Let's do it again next year. Though my house might require some childproofing by then. :)

"Fakesgiving"

2011-12-11T16:28:00.003-07:00

Last month, we got the holidays off to a rockin' start by hosting our own version of Thanksgiving with some friends - 20 of them to be exact. It was quite the adventure. Everyone had their own food assignment and we brought up all of our folding chairs and even borrowed a couple from some friends. It was tons of fun though! It was the second annual "Fakesgiving" at the Wadsworth home - I just wasn't living here for the first one. :)

Here's a picture with two fun friends - Gennie and Melanie. Gennie's Canadian and we asked her to bring a jello salad....just to be funny more than anything. It was her first time making jello and she did a great job!

Here's Jim carving the turkey. I got the turkey started in the oven and then he took over once he got home from work. Thank goodness!! Otherwise, we might have had a very raw bird when people got here.
Everyone had a food assignment. We had all the usuals - turkey, mashed potatoes, veggies, stuffing, rolls, etc. We also had cranberry salsa, fruit salad, a yummy green salad with pomegranates, and tons of dessert. Delicious!!
A couple of years ago my parents gave me a folding banquet table for Christmas. I wasn't sure where I'd use it. Turns out, it makes a great addition to our regular kitchen table. We really were able to seat 20 people easily. Well, once everyone was seated anyways. The kitchen itself isn't quite up for the task of having 20 people reheating side dishes. We'll get there. Someday we'll have a giant house with plenty of room for our ever expanding Fakesgiving dinner.

Chopped

2011-11-13T22:02:00.004-07:00

Do any of you watch the TV show Chopped on the Food Network? The one with the mystery ingredients in the basket? Lately, I've been obsessed with it. We decided to implement our own version with some friends this weekend. It was a lot of fun!! We definitely need to do it again soon! Ben was so excited he said he'd worn his apron all day to get excited.

We put the three courses into a bowl and each couple picked their own course. Everyone had brought 4 mystery ingredients. We put them all in a bag and everyone pulled out 4 new ingredients to use in their course. We had some wild stuff to work with! And of course, they could use anything else in our pantry and fridge that they could find. Jim and I may have had a slight advantage because we knew where everything was in the kitchen but we were definitely the underdogs in the cooking department so we didn't feel too bad about our advantage. :) The other couples are definitely gourmet chefs (one even brought her own Flavor Bible!) and so we needed every advantage we could get.

Here's a photo of all the mystery ingredients.:
Our first competitors were the Gilgens with the appetizer round. Their mystery ingredients were cranberries, pecans, Crema Mexicana, and cumin. They made their own version of Tuna Tataki with a cranberry pecan relish and a brown sugar soy dipping sauce.
We got the entree round. :( The most stressful part in my opinion because if they didn't like what we cooked, they'd go home hungry. We'd provided the meat (pork chops) so we wouldn't have to worry about that. Our other mystery ingredients were apples, bacon, Buddha's Hand, and Bread in a Can (with raisins!). The apples and bacon were perfect for the pork but I'd never tried Bread in a Can (though I'd seen it recently on an episode of Chopped) and I'd never even heard of Buddha's Hand. It was kind of like a sweeter lemon without any kind of fruit on the inside. Really yummy though but apparently very expensive so I don't know if I'll be using it any time soon.
We went for the obvious German idea. Jim cooked these excellent juicy pork chops and I made a cranberry apple chutney to put on them. We both thought the chutney was our favorite part of the course. It was SO yummy!!! I'll definitely make it again. Then we also made green beans with bacon bits and a creamy citrus sauce (from the Buddha's Hand). And at the last minute, I decided to try spaetzle for the first time. Ridiculous I know but it wasn't too bad. We need a colander before we try it again though. The recipe we used called for toasted bread crumbs to sprinkle on top but we used toasted Bread in a Can. The bread was pretty gummy so it didn't toast very well but the sweetness of the bread contrasted nicely (I thought anyways) with the salty spaetzle. We're not great at the plating really but no one got sick or refused to eat it so I guess it was okay.
The dessert round was a little bit tougher. Luckily our friends the Elkins were up to the challenge. Their mystery ingredients were tempura batter mix, parsnips, cashews, and a red onion. Jim picked out the red onion. When I reminded him it could show up in a dessert round, he insisted that it wouldn't be that bad. Apparently, Nathan thought it was THAT bad.
They really did great though. They served us a tempura ice cream filled crepe with a parsnip whipped cream and an onion infused balsamic vinegar reduction. The balsamic reduction was surprisingly delicious! And what could be better than ice cream fried in tempura batter!! It was delicious!! The picture (with my amateur photography skills) just doesn't do it justice. Needless to say, we were all impressed that they could make onion and parsnip taste good for dessert!

(I do feel the need to mention here that after the courses were selected - before mystery ingredients were handed out - the Gilgens and the Elkins decided to switch courses.) If you look at the ingredients they were both given - red onion, parsnips, and tempura batter, these would have made an excellent appetizer. And cranberries, cream, and pecans??? And excellent dessert! I feel like Karma was trying to tell them they shouldn't have tried to cheat the game. :) Oh well, they both did an excellent job and we'll definitely be doing this again soon!

October

2011-10-31T16:52:00.006-06:00

October's been a busy month for us. We've had a lot of fun and we've gotten some projects done around the house too!

We spent Conference weekend (and some of the next week too) up at Snowbird with Jim's family. They do it every October and it's lots of fun. We did some hiking, played games and spent plenty of time in the hot tub. We've got to get one of those somehow!!

Young Women's has been keeping me pretty busy. We've got activities every Wednesday. In October, we made life-sized statues, had facials, worked on babysitting kits, made "bucket lists" (guess who was in charge of that activity!) and had a pizza party at the Wadsworth house. It's a time-consuming calling but I sure do love those girls! They've got more energy than I remember having at that age but it sure does keep me on my toes!

We also went to a Real soccer game with my family. It was beautiful weather, we were full of yummy Red Iguana tacos and salsa, and it would have been just perfect except that the other team scored with less than a minute left in the game tying it up. Soccer is frustrating for me in that respect. They're one of the few sports I know where teams are perfectly content to leave a game in a tie. Doesn't everyone want to know who the winner is?!

Our house is really starting to come together. We finished up the siding on the garage (before and after pictures below) and we're mostly organized on the inside. We even hung up pictures (and clocks) inside the house! (More pictures to come soon!) I'm really starting to like this house of ours.

After a little furniture rearranging, we were able to provide the perfect setup for a murder mystery dinner for 7 couples and 5 young babies. It was a little bit loud at times but I think everyone had a good time. Jim and I were an innocent couple - golf pro and stenographer. I think we put together a couple of great costumes considering we started worrying about it the night before. Don't you agree?

And had two yummy Halloween dinners with our families - Jim's on Sunday and mine on Monday. I sure do love soup weather! And check out the photo of my super cute niece in her costume!

Mmmm! Dutch Oven!

2011-10-25T08:14:00.005-06:00

Last weekend I got to be a judge for a dutch oven cook-off my work put together. Apparently, once you've competed, you can do all kinds of fun things with dutch ovens. It was great! I showed up at 2:00 and the food was almost ready. I ate lots of yummy food and then I gave them scores and got some fun prizes for being a judge. It was great!

Here's the yummy stuffed pork loin that the team who won made. It was stuffed with cheese, basil, pine nuts, and who know what else. It was delicious!
The whole crew together (and some friends and family besides). I know I look retarded with my hand on my knee like that. But there's nothing I can do about it now. So, just ignore the hands and concentrate on the happy smile due to a very satisfied tummy. :)

The Reception - the Details

2011-10-15T23:27:00.005-06:00

Most of you probably don't care but I really wanted my photographer to take pictures of the details of the reception. Yes, I wanted pictures of the people but I also wanted pictures of the event itself so that I could remember what it looked like when I was 80.

Here's the sign-in book:

The reception center. We had an ice cream bar for dessert. I haven't seen pictures of that yet but I also haven't gone through the big disk of pictures yet. My photographer made me two - one of her top 200 favorites and then one with everything. I'll get to the everything disk eventually but I just haven't done it yet.
One of our centerpieces. Jim's a golf pro, I love to golf so we added that to our reception. There were two types of centerpieces. The other one had small patches of grass with a golf ball and a tee stuck in the grass and some gerber daisies coming up out of the grass. I'll try to find a picture of them. I thought they were super cute.

The candy bar. We had colored popcorn, chocolate covered cinnamon bears, taffy, peachees, watermelon slices, and cute little takeout boxes for people to take the candy home with them.
And the cake. In keeping with the golf theme, my cake lady put some golf balls and tees on the cake too. I thought it was really pretty. And yummy too!!

The Family Pics

2011-10-14T22:42:00.006-06:00

Before the reception, we did the traditional family photos. Here we are with Jim's grandpa:

And my dad. I know, my hand on my chin looks a little bit silly but it's too late to change now.
The parents and the happy couple kissing. Another typical wedding photo.
I loved this one of Jim's siblings. Thought it was a great picture of all of us.
Jan brought some fun umbrellas to use as props. I didn't have to jump because of the huge wedding dress, Brittney was 7 months pregnant so she was also excused. But Nicci and Rachel really made up for it with the height on their jumps. I'm super impressed!
So, this picture has a story. Last year when Jake got married, they had the same photographer. Jake gave her a half hour at the temple and a half hour at the reception where he would smile. Other than that, Jan was just hanging out trying to keep herself entertained waiting for the reception to start. So the girls had an almost hour long photo shoot - complete with umbrellas, jumping pics, and feather boas. I swore I'd get even with Jake and Jan agreed to help me out. The other guys were pretty good sports about the whole thing though. (I think they secretly liked the attention.)
Before the reception, my sisters-in-law got a bit bored. Decided to have a mini photo shoot of their own. Looks like fun.

The Temple

2011-10-14T22:29:00.003-06:00

We've been waiting for pictures for quite awhile now - 3 months almost. We had an awesome photographer. She was just a little bit busy so we had to wait awhile. So, now without further adieu....the wedding of the century!! :)

The new Mr. and Mrs. Wadsworth:
Your traditionl Salt Lake Temple photo:
One of my favorites - just because my eyes aren't squinty. :)
I like this one too. I thought it was going to be weird when she took it though. She was in this really uncomfortable position laying on the ground and she just kept telling us it was awesome. We thought she was crazy. Turns out, she was right!
All of our friends and family celebrating with us:

My Supplemental List

2011-09-01T08:09:00.004-06:00

So, people ask me all the time if I'm going to add to my list. A lot of them seem to be concerned that if I finish everything on my list of 101 Things To Do Before I Die that I'll just give up and die at that point. Silly people. Don't you realize that I can still do cool things that aren't on the list? The past couple of years, I've been keeping a list of things that aren't on the bucket list but that are still pretty cool things to do.

Experienced the Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington D.C. (March 2007)
Went to a Price Is Right Taping (Hollywood, CA, May 2007)
Saw the Terra Cotta Warriors (Xi'an, China, June 2007)
Visited Buchard Gardens (Victoria, Canada, April 2008)
Went on a humanitarian trip (Built a bathroom in Bermejillo, Mexico, July 2008)
Hiked the Subway (Zions National Park, UT, July 2009)
Served as the Relief Society President of some AMAZING women in the University 48th ward (Salt Lake City, UT, October 2009 - January 2011)
Went to the Olympics (Vancouver, Canada, February 2010)
Participated in a Curling Tournament (Salt Lake City, UT, March 2010)
Watched an NBA playoff game in person (Energy Solutions Arena, April 2010)
Went to Germany, Austria, Czech Republic (July 2010)
Visited the Holy Land (Israel, March 2011)
Floated in the Dead Sea (March 2011)
Rode a camel (Petra, Jordan, March 2011)

So, there is a definite possibility that I've forgotten a couple of things on my list. I've only been keeping this supplemental list since I wrote the bucket list. If you're reading this and you think of something you've done with me that you think is worthy of this list, let me know. I'm definitely trying to add to it! It's probably the closest thing to a personal history that I've got for right now (until I cross #88 off of my "bucket list"). So, please help me!

The fruits of our labors

2011-08-29T16:51:00.006-06:00

A couple of months back, I posted some pictures of our garden. We didn't have any produce to speak of when I posted the pictures but I just couldn't wait any longer. Now we've got produce coming out of our ears so I thought I'd share some pictures with you.

I went out to weed the garden on Saturday and decided it was time to do some freezing of our produce. We had corn, beans, zucchini, tomatoes, yellow squash, peppers, and onions. We've still got plenty of stuff growing out there so don't think we're going to starve to death. And you can't freeze yellow squash or bake it into zucchini bread so we've got PLENTY of that!! (Anyone need some???)

And, I had a bet with my father-in-law. We planted corn in rows at the beginning of the season. He didn't think it would grow and that I should have planted in squares. My parents have planted in rows for years so I was pretty sure it would. We made a bet. If we could grow 10 (or 8 or 12 depending on who you ask) ears of corn, he would take us to dinner. If we didn't grow that many ears of corn, we had to take him to dinner. Well, look at what I picked on Saturday:

16 ears of corn!! Guess who won dinner!

Every night we cook, we go out to the garden and check to see what's ripe. That's usually what we have for dinner. Jim made a really yummy dinner last week - salmon, zucchini and squash, and corn - all from our garden (well, except for the salmon), and all grilled. It was DELICIOUS!! I know you're all jealous! Another night we had teriyaki chicken, corn, and green beans. Sure glad I married a man who can cook!

I'm over halfway there!!!

2011-08-25T14:41:00.003-06:00

Jim suggested it was time for an update on the bucket list. I guess he's pretty proud of the fact that he's helped me cross some off the list. With the wedding and the honeymoon, I've officially crossed the threshold of being over halfway there!! 51 things done, 50 to go. And a husband to help me do them!! (Have I mentioned that I love being married?! Because I do!!!) Now remember if you read this list, don't judge me. I was a lot younger when I wrote the list. Some of them are completely random. But if you have any connections to help me cross an of these things off of my list, I'd love to hear about it!!

1. Walk on the great wall of China (June 4, 2007)

2. Take banjo lessons

3. Sleep in a hammock

4. Go to Yosemite National Park

5. See a play on Broadway (Mary Poppins – June 11, 2010)

6. Read all the Newberry Medal Books (November 7, 2008)

7. Visit Washington D.C. (October 5-October 11, 2005)

8. Go to Hawaii (March 1 – March 8—Oahu and Kauai)

9. Learn to play the harmonica

10. Attend a session at 30 temples

11. Ride an elephant

12. Learn to wakeboard

13. Ride on a sailboat

14. Take a helicopter ride (March 5—Kauai)

15. Get married in the temple (July 21, 2011 – Jim Lynn Wadsworth)

16. Have children

17. Serve another mission

18. Give up chocolate for six months

19. Take organ lessons

20. Have a professional massage (July 27, 2011 – Sun Palace Resort)

21. Go fly-fishing

22. Own 20 clocks at one time

23. Be in a community play (February 2008—Singin’ in the Rain)

24. Drive a zamboni (February 24, 2006)

25. Invite a friend to hear the missionary discussions

26. Fly first class (July 4, 2010 – to Prague, Czech Republic, July 19, 2010 – from Prague, Czech Republic)

27. Do temple work for someone I find while doing geneology

28. Do a session at all the Utah temples

29. Make a quilt (pieced, quilted, bound)

30. Eat escargot (January 29, 2006)

31. Get my MBA (May 4, 2007)

32. Use frequent flyer miles to buy a plane ticket (November 1, 2005)

33. Run a half-marathon (March 18, 2006—Moab, Utah, March 21, 2009—Moab, Utah)

34. Own a stick shift car

35. Go snorkeling (January 30, 2006—Cozumel, Mexico, January 31, 2006—Roatan, Honduras)

36. Buy a house (July 25, 2007—429 Park Oak Place)

37. Watch every movie Cary Grant starred in

38. Eat at a cereal bar

39. See the ruins in Central/South America (Chichen Itza, Tulum – July 25-26, 2011)

40. Take a photo editing class

41. Own 50 creches (Nativity scenes)

42. Go to a high school reunion (10 year—July 18, 2008)

43. Learn to dry flowers

44. See Mt. Rushmore (May 28-31, 2010)

45. Visit Niagara Falls

46. Play in Central Park (NYC) (June 13, 2010)

47. Stay at a Disneyland Resort Hotel

48. Learn to complete a Rubik’s cube

49. See the running of the bulls or a bull fight

50. Go on a carriage ride (July 13, 2010 – Neuschwanstein Castle, Germany)

51. Get a raise at work (July 2006, June 2007, March 2008, March 2009)

52. Read all the books on the Barnes and Noble Classics book list

53. Learn to swim

54. Go to a drive-in movie on a date (Jim Wadsworth, Kung Fu Panda 2 – July 7, 2011)

55. Write a book (Mother’s Wisdom—May 2008)

56. Ride a tandem bike

57. Get a Canadian stamp in my passport (Victoria, B.C.—April 12, 2008)

58. Shake hands with the prophet

59. Ride in a hot air balloon (Park City, UT – October 17, 2009)

60. Participate in all type of temple work on the same day (baptisms, confirmations, initiatories, endowment, and sealings)

61. Attend general conference in the conference center (September 30, 2006)

62. Go to the Utah Shakespearean Festival

63. See Old Faithful erupt in Yellowstone National Park (October 2009)

64. Ice skate at an outdoor ice rink (January 2007—Murray Park)

65. Take a train ride

66. Go Backpacking in a national forest

67. Sleep under the stars (Scipio—July 23, 2006)

68. Bike across the Golden Gate Bridge (October 26, 2007)

69. Go to the top of the Space Needle in Seattle, Washington (April 11, 2008)

70. Own my own piano (December 2007)

71. Camp on the beach

72. Drive a convertible

73. Fly a trick kite

74. Eat in a hotel dining room (May 24-June 4—China)

75. Go to the top of the Empire State Building (June 12, 2010)

76. Run in a relay race (June 23-24, 2006—Wasatch Back Relay Race)

77. Hail my own taxi (June 8, 2010 – New York City, NY)

78. Plant a garden (Summer 2008—tomatoes, peppers, beans, strawberries)

79. Learn to can/Make jam (July 11, 2006—Raspberry Jam)

80. Go to the beach in Mexico (January 30, 2006—Cozumel)

81. Learn to whistle

82. Play the guitar around the campfire (Summer 2009)

83. Catch fireflies in a jar

84. See a meteor shower

85. Sleep in a snow cave (January 23, 2009—Jordan Pines Campground)

86. Enter a cooking competition (August 18, 2007—West Jordan Days—2^nd place)

87. Be a witness couple with my husband in the temple

88. Write my personal history

89. See the Grand Canyon (June 2009—Havasupai)

90. Participate in a triathlon (June 16, 2007—Greenwood Triathlon)

91. Go to Nauvoo

92. Get a pedicure (June 9, 2007)

93. See the leaves change back east in the Fall (October 16-20, 2008—New England)

94. Change a flat tire on a car

95. Drive along the Oregon/Washington Coast

96. Decorate my own house (August 2007—429 Park Oak Place)

97. Sew clothes for my children

98. Ride a unicycle

99. Sleep in a yurt (January 15-16, 2009—Big Water Yurt, Millcreek Canyon)

100. Learn to scuba dive

101. Create my own wedding video (July 2011)

All-inclusive resorts....a fantastic concept!

2011-08-20T17:01:00.015-06:00

So, while we're waiting for wedding pics from the photographer, I thought I'd post some pictures of our honeymoon. We went to the Sun Palace Resort in Cancun and it was beautiful!!! Check out the poolside view from our resort. I know you're jealous already. The Sun Palace was a couples only resort so we were surrounded by other ridiculously happy couples. Don't worry though - we fit right in!! :)

We could go to any of the other Palace resorts in Cancun with our special, pink, honeymoon wristbands. We could try all of the resorts' restaurants, pools, amenities, and non-alcoholic drinks - all for FREE!! This is the view of the pools at Moon Place - a large resort just to the south of us. It was a family resort. We went there to play in the pool one day and we had a great time. But we were definitely glad to go back to our couples only resort. It was so loud there!! We did love the poolside bar. Pina coladas and strawberry daiquiris all day long.

With our $1500 resort credit, we got to do lots of excursions. Our first stop was to Chichen Itza. It's this really cool pyramid about 3 hours away from Cancun. But it was so hot and humid!!! By the end of the day, I didn't even want Jim to touch me on the bus ride home. We were both radiating heat. Chichen Itza was full of tourists and local people trying to sell popsicles, handkerchiefs, cheetah whistles, and magnets.

Our next excursion was to Tulum. We both liked this one much better. For starters - it was right on the coast so it was cooler and beautiful. There were really great ruins right on the water. The beach is supposedly one of the best beaches in the world. It was much cooler and less humid (surprisingly). And there were fewer people trying to sell us crazy things while we were exploring. It was beautiful.

I also got to try my very first cold coconut juice! They take these coconuts and chill them. Then, when you buy one, they chop the top off and put in a couple of straws and you drink up. It wasn't nearly as delicious as a cold pina colada (can you tell we were obsessed??) but it was pretty good. Jim was annoyed that they cost about 5 times as much in Tulum as they did in Brazil but I decided it was worth it. Especially for the great pictures we got from the event!!

Another morning, we went back to Moon Palace and did some golfing. It took some convincing to get my golf-pro husband to go golfing. Apparently, he didn't think that was an appropriate thing to do on a honeymoon. But we had some money left on our resort credit so we went golfing. We ended up getting lucky and were between two foursomes. I played pretty well, even in the rain. We played 18 holes and had a great time!! It was really fun. And we got to have a delicious lunch at the clubhouse afterwards. Later on that day, we also had a special couples massage with more of our resort credit. Jim had never had a massage before. Now I think he could be a bit addicted.

Because we were on our honeymoon and were wearing the special pink bracelets, we were eligible for a special honeymooners dinner. It was supposed to be out on the beach by candlelight but it was rainy and kind of cold so we moved inside one of the restaurants. The food was really good. We had yummy appetizers, soup, steak and shrimp, and then fun desserts. The desserts were funny. They came out on plates that they'd drawn a bouquet of flowers and the words "I LOVE YOU" in frosting. It was very entertaining. Between that and the rose petals on the table, we felt like it was a very romantic evening. ;)

Another day, we went on another excursion - a zipline through the jungle! Jim had never been on a zipline either so I was excited for him to try it. The zipline was really fun. We even got to ride one upside down!! (It was scary and I'll probably never do it again but I'm glad I tried it once.) We did get eaten alive by mosquitos though so I was kind of glad to leave the jungle and head back to the pool and relax.

Our last dinner in Cancun was really great. We ended up going to another resort for a tempanyaki dinner - served by a Mexican chef!! It was great. He did the flaming onion and everything. We were very full by the end of the night though. We'd gotten to the resort early so we had a couple of virgin drinks and some sushi before they seated us for dinner. And then after dinner, they brought out the dessert menu. We simply HAD to try some tempura ice cream. It was delicious!!! But we were so sick that night. Guess that's one of the dangers of all you can eat and drink resorts, huh? Overall, a very nice place to go on a honeymoon!!! I'd highly recommend it.

We're still alive!!

2011-08-18T16:15:00.001-06:00

We've just been really busy getting married, going on a honeymoon, and downsizing two households into one house. Pictures of the honeymoon and life since then are coming. As far as wedding pics go - we're still waiting for those from the photographer. I promise as soon as they come, we'll put some up. I know you're all DYING to see them!

I don't have anything better to do tomorrow....

2011-07-20T14:45:00.004-06:00

....so I guess I'll get married!!!!!

(unless anyone has any better ideas.)

And our garden.....

2011-07-17T00:28:00.003-06:00

While I'm showing before and after pics, I thought I'd share pictures of our garden too. Here's the before. Scary, no?

Our families helped till the garden, mix in some mulch, frame it in, and plant some yummy vegetables. My dad even built some HUGE tomato cages for our tomatoes. Jim thought they were too big but he's starting to eat his words now. :)

Because of the new grass, it was a pretty interesting experience to get back there. We climbed through a hole Jim made in the front fence and then walked (balance beam style) along the edge of the neighbor's fence so we didn't step on our newly planted grass.

Look!! We've got some pretty big plants! I just picked our first zucchini today! We don't have time to cook it until Monday so I'll have to let you know how it tastes later. We've got 4 kinds of tomatoes, tomatillos, zucchini, yellow squash, butternut squash, cucumber, cantaloupe, potatoes, cabbage, peppers (3 kinds!), beans, corn, and 3 types of herbs. Mmmm!! I'm excited just thinking about it.

Jim's dad seems to think that you can't grow corn unless you plant it in squares (they self-fertilize or something like that). My parents have grown corn in rows (at least 2) for years. So we have a bet. Jim and I have to grow 10 ears of corn. If we do, Gary buys us dinner. If we don't, we owe him dinner. I think we're off to good start. Today we looked and noticed we have corn tassels on the top!

And a picture of our tomatoes - just for fun!

I know a lot of people think we're crazy for trying to put in a backyard, plant a garden, and plan a wedding all at the same time but it's been a lot of fun. We've learned to work together, to rely on each other and we're pretty good at sprinkler systems now too. :)

Introducing our new backyard!!!

2011-07-15T23:47:00.006-06:00

Our backyard still needs some work and the grass isn't nearly full enough yet but we're definitely getting there. I was going to wait and post the pictures when we get the siding on the garage but I'm so excited about the progress so far, I just couldn't wait any longer.

Here's the yard before we did anything. Lots of trash, weeds, dead grass, and a couple of weird cement columns.

Jim and his dad got their hands on a backhoe one Saturday and they scraped off a couple of inches from the backyard. Just enough to get rid of weeds, cement, etc. Then they rented a trencher and we put in a sprinkler system. After a couple of problems (plugged drains, broken pipes, etc.), we got things set up and ready to go.

Next step, leveling the ground and adding top soil. Then we planted grass. Luckily, June was cool and rainy so the grass grew really well. This picture is just the beginnings of grass growing. I've never been so excited to see green things growing in the dirt. :)

And here's our forest. It's mostly weeds but there are definitely hints of grass in the picture. But the weeds seriously got to be about 18" high before we finally cut it. It was crazy!!!

And here's the grass after our first mowing. It looks pretty good if I do say so myself. There's still a lot of weeds but we're on week two of mowing. One more week or so and we'll put down some fertilizer and weed killer. By next sumer, we should have a really great looking yard. Good thing I'm marrying a grass expert, huh?

A Preview

2011-06-15T23:40:00.004-06:00

If things go according to plans, most of you should be receiving something exciting in your mailbox in the next week and a half or so. But I thought I'd share a couple of pictures from our engagement session last week. I think they're pretty cute and you probably should too. You could even vote for your favorite if you'd like.

House For Rent

2011-06-10T00:22:00.004-06:00

In six weeks, I'll be moving here:

Jim's got a really nice house - beautiful kitchen, HUGE garden, and slight less closet space and I'm excited to move in. But that does leave me with a bit of a dilemma. I've got this really cute townhouse that needs some people to move in. I'm hoping my friends can help me find someone to move in.

I've got two rooms available August 1 and a third room available September 1 (my roommate's staying until she gets married).

The master bedroom (available August 1) has vaulted ceilings, a GIGANTIC walk-in closet and a really nice bathroom. Rent is $425 a month (including all utilities but cable and internet) A $425 security deposit is required. The room is HUGE and I'm really sad to leave the closet behind.
The other two bedrooms (one available August 1, one available September 1) has a smaller closet (but still roomy), a shared bathroom, and ceiling fans in each of the bedrooms. Rent is $385 a month (including all utilities but cable and internet) A $385 security deposit is required. The rooms are good-sized and the bathroom is a big one with lots of cupboard space.

The townhouse is in a nice area - close to everything - and in a gated community. It's a really cute place and I'd really appreciate it if you'd send any friends/family/neighbors my way. Email me at kaseychild@yahoo.com or call/text (801)971-6606. We've got about 6 weeks to get things figured out. Wish me luck!

Here are some pictures of the rest of the place (just to make you jealous that you don't live here!)

Spring Fling 2011

2011-05-27T08:54:00.002-06:00

Between planning a wedding, a ridiculous work schedule, and getting Jim's yard put together, it's been a busy couple of weeks. But it's been exciting. And I've had the chance to have a little bit of fun. A couple of weekends ago, I got to play in my very first golf tournament! It was lots of fun. I played with my boss and a couple his friends.

I warned them that even though I'm marrying a golf pro, I wasn't very good. They didn't care because I helped them out with two extra strokes because I was a girl (there are some definite advantages to that, you know?) And I even had a couple of really good hits that they used in our scramble so I didn't do half-bad. It was fun, the weather was gorgeous, and I got FRIED!! I've been so used to cloudy weather that I completely forgot to wear sunscreen on my arms and neck. My neck was burned so bad that I actually peeled twice! It was awful and I'm never going to forget again!

8 weeks and counting!!!!!

July 21!!!!!

2011-05-01T16:45:00.003-06:00

Guess what!! This week, we picked a wedding date. Hurray!! July 21st I get to go to the Salt Lake Temple and marry my friend Jim. I'm super excited about it!! (Though I sometimes get confused and tell people I'm getting married on the 29th. But it really is the 21st so if I tell you differently, don't worry.)

A couple of people have asked me to tell them more about Jim. Here goes:

Jim and I met in our ward in Salt Lake. He asked me about one of his home teachees and then we talked later that day at the Mingle about golf. Golf's kind of a new hobby for me so I was secretly hoping he'd offer to give me some private lessons or something. :) Jim's a golf pro out at West Ridge Golf Course in West Valley City.

He's a pretty handy guy. He bought a crazy house near Nibley golf course (are you sensing a theme here?) and he completely gutted the inside and it looks amazing. Now we've just got the outside to get fixed up and it will be the perfect house for a couple of newlyweds.

Jim graduated from the U (though he's an avid BYU fan) in Finance a couple of years ago.

He comes from a really close family in West Valley. We hang out with them quite a bit. He's only got 6 first cousins so I've already met the whole family!!! (He's still got about 30 of my cousins still to meet, plus spouses. Poor guy doesn't know what he's in for).

He's new to the whole idea of playing board games and the like but he's definitely willing to play them with me. He's even won a couple of rounds of Settlers!! (He made me write that!)

He's completely willing to put up with my teasing personality and he's even started to return the favor.

He makes me completely happy. He listens to me when I'm frustrated, lets me cry when I'm upset, and makes me laugh the rest of the time. I am so grateful I met him and that he asked me to marry him. It's sappy but it's definitely the truth!!

A couple of pictures

2011-04-26T01:26:00.006-06:00

Just in case you're interested, I thought I'd share a couple of pictures of the big event from yesterday. We've almost picked a date. Just waiting on a final confirmation from a couple of people/locations and we'll announce the big day! Until then - no one make any vacation plans or family reunion plans in the month of July!!!

Here's the happy couple, pre-engagement:

"Will you....?"

"Hmmm....Let me think about it....Well, I guess so. YES!!!"

An even happier couple, post-engagement:

I think I took about 10 pictures of the ring trying to get it to look as good in the picture as it does on my finger - no dice. This one's the best one. Just know that it usually looks much better than that. It's super pretty and there's a really nice wedding band that goes around it with more diamonds and sparkles and adds symmetry to the overall wedding ring picture. I LOVE IT!!!

Wonder of Wonders! Miracle of Miracles!!!

2011-04-25T00:06:00.009-06:00

The moment that you have all been anxiously awaiting has finally arrived!!! Okay, so maybe it's just the moment that I've been waiting for has finally arrived. Either way, it's here! Tonight I had the most exciting Easter egg hunt of my life. Jim's family (his entire family - aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings, etc.) invited my family over for dinner and their Easter egg hunt. It was fun - but there sure were a lot of people. Both sides of Jim's family come so it's a big party. We had sack lunches with chicken, potato salad, chips, cookies, etc. Our parents seemed to do okay together. They had enough to talk about and it didn't seem too awkward.

After dinner, we headed over to Jim's aunt and uncles house for their annual Easter egg hunt. Everyone has their own color of eggs to find and they're hidden all over the yard. Also hidden are 4 or 5 gold and silver eggs and the finder of these eggs gets a $25 gift card. It's tons of fun. We do it in the dark so everyone carries around headlamps or flashlights and runs around the yard like crazy looking for eggs.

Jim had already found all of his eggs so he was helping me look for mine. He told me to go ask his aunt Sue for help. She'd helped hide the eggs so he though she might be able to help. I asked her and she told me that there was a very good egg hidden somewhere in her general area so I kept looking until I found a golden egg hidden in a glove on the picnic table. I thought it was weird no one had found it yet but I wasn't about to complain. I wanted that gift card! :)

I spent the rest of the night hiding from everyone else. They also had hidden a bunch of confetti eggs and if you found one, you could smash it over the head of someone else and steal an egg from their basket. So, I wandered around in the dark trying to avoid letting people looking in my basket. After everyone had found their eggs, we all got back together and awarded the prizes. The silver eggs got their prizes (gift cards) and then it was time for us to open our gold eggs (Jim's brother had also found one). So, I pried open the egg and inside there was another wooden egg with a paper diamond ring on it. There was also a little gold bag with something round and shiny in it. I looked up and saw Jim heading towards me with a whole bunch of pink tulips.

He got down on one knee and said, "Will you marry me?" (He's not a man to mince words. :) ) and I thought about it (for about 0.3 seconds!) and said yes! The ring is VERY pretty. He picked it out all by himself. We've been shopping around for awhile now and he knew that there were certain things that I really liked. So, after he checked them all out, he decided to buy something completely different than all the other ones I'd liked or picked out. And it's perfect! It's so pretty. I've probably looked at my hand about 120 times since I've been typing this little blog entry of mine. :) We're still finalizing dates and I don't have any pictures of the actual proposal (his cousin took a bunch though so hopefully she'll share.) We haven't picked a wedding date yet but I'm hoping we can get one narrowed down this week and you all can put it on your calendars!!

Where did April go?!

2011-04-24T01:26:00.004-06:00

I can't believe how fast this month has been flying by. I'm just not sure where the time has gone. I've played a little golf and tennis (in between rainstorms), started planning a garden, worked a million hours, hosted a birthday party for a friend, went to see the tulips on temple square, etc. Nothing really big but lots of fun. Here's a couple of pics - just in case you're interested.

We even had our own balloon artist at the birthday party. She was a very talented girl - palm trees and monkeys, hats, giant diamond rings, it was lots of fun!

Temple square was gorgeous as always. Sure do love those tulips. If I even get married in the springtime, I'll definitely be getting married in the Salt Lake Temple just so that I can have pictures with those GORGEOUS flowers!We switched photo taking services with a couple of girls. And these girls kept trying to get pictures of us. I felt like I had to hold this pose for about a minute and a half! (I don't think Jim was complaining too much! :) )

Real Soccer

2011-04-24T01:19:00.003-06:00

So, my family's always been pretty into soccer but the past couple years with the Real team, they've been really into it. For Caleb's birthday, we all got tickets to go to a game against David Beckham's team. It was a great game!! Real won!!! Lots of fun.

Here's the fam - all together and FREEZING!!! It rained super hard that night - don't worry though. They kept playing and we kept watching.
Caleb gets really into these games. REALLY into them! He was even singing a Lady Gaga song or two as they scored goals. Now that's something you don't see Caleb doing every day!

March 14 - Home!!

2011-03-31T23:56:00.002-06:00

I had a great trip! Sure glad I went but I was awfully excited to come home again afterwards. (Might have something to do with a certain golf pro that I left behind.) I'm so glad I went! I took a million pictures (well, only 1300 actually) and I filled up an entire journal. It was life-changing. The Bible has certainly come to life for me in ways that I never could have imagined. The girls I went with were super fun - no drama at all. The food was amazing! I hope you all get the chance to go on a trip like mine.

March 13 - More Athens

2011-03-31T19:02:00.003-06:00

And now for our last day in a foreign country? We had a great day. Nice and relaxing. We had great plans for the day. They didn't work out exactly as planned but it was still fantastic! We started our day visiting the tomb of the unknown soldier. The guards wear these really funny uniforms with millions of pleats on the skirt and funny pompoms on the shoes.

We also picked up our tour guide dog - Yannis - he started following us near the tomb of the unknown soldier and he stuck with us for over an hour until we got on the hop-on/hop-off bus. He was very protective! He even growled when other strange dogs came near us. It was sad when we had to leave him behind.

We visited the nearby gardens. They were so pretty! Lots of fun orange trees and we took some excellent shots. It will be great to update my modeling portfolio. :) Thanks Linds for making me look so great!!

Yannis led us to the Temple of Zeus next. One of the few places in Athens that isn't being rebuilt. The temple had something like 216 columns at one point in time. I'm still amazed that these people could build these amazing buildings without lots of fancy modern tools. Incredible!
We went to our first real museum of the day, wandered around in this park with a bunch more Greek ruins, and went back to the Acropolis. It was just kind of a low-key sort of day. There was this really great shoe store near our hotel with super cheap, super cute shoes. Turns out though that Greece closes at 6 pm Saturday night and doesn't re-open until Monday morning around 10. :( So we missed our chance for the shoes. But we got some great outdoor pictures.
Then it was time for our final dinner in a beautiful country with delicious food. We ate REALLY well. I got kabob (roasted lamb on skewers with pita bread, yogurt sauce, and tomatoes). Lindsay tried pasta, Allyson had chicken, Star had a Greek salad and fries. And we all got dessert - baklavah, crepes, chocolate pie with ice cream. We were so full we were sick. But it was definitely delicious!! Loved the food in Greece. LOVED IT!!

March 12 - Corinth and Ephesius

2011-03-30T00:51:00.005-06:00

This day is a little bit hazy. We had been running practically non-stop for over a week and a half. So it was kind of nice to get on a bus and let someone else drive us around and tell us where to go and what to do. We took a day trip away from Athens and went to Corinth and Ephesius. Yet again, I sure to wish I remembered more Greek mythology. :)

Our first stop was the Corinth canal. The water was incredibly blue and saved major ships lots of time so that they could go through Greece rather than around Greece. We only stopped for "coffee and gifts" at the gift shop nearby. But it was nice to get out and walk around for awhile.

This picture's kind of funny. There's a small fort in the background. We asked one of the women on our tour with us to take a picture of the four of us. We really just wanted the four of us and the water but she tried to get the fort two. We really aren't fighting in their picture. It just looks like Lindsay's mad at all of us.
Another great shot of the valley and surrounding area. Greece really is a pretty country with lots of orange trees, greenery, and the blue waters of the Mediterranean. If I go back to Greece though, I'll definitely make sure to go in the summertime when it's warm and I can spend some time on the beach.
We stopped in this really great amphitheater near Ephesius. The amphitheater is actually open now and can seat 13000 - 14000 people. The best part is that you can stand in the center of the stage and whisper and people can hear you on the top row of the amphitheater. The accoustics are crazy good!

After the amphitheater, we got back on the bus for a two hour bus ride back to Athens. It was a very pretty ride all along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. But we did have a great time talking and laughing. Everyone else on the bus were super quiet though so I kind of felt silly talking about some of the stuff we talked about (boys, dating, honeymoons, etc.) Highly entertaining for all other people who may have been eavesdropping on our conversation.

Our hotel was in this great shopping area of town. There was a fantastic little shoe shop just around the corner from our hotel and we had great plans to go buy some super cute pairs of shoes (for very little money!) Turns out, Greece closes at 6 on Saturdays. :( So, no shoes for us. The restaurants nearby were also closed so we did something that I hardly ever do - we ordered Pizza and had it delivered to our hotel room. It was delicious!!!

March 11 - Athens!!

2011-03-30T00:25:00.003-06:00

We had to leave SUPER EARLY in the morning from Tel Aviv. We left the hotel at 2:30 a.m. for our 5:40 flight. We were at the airport for just over 2 hours going through security (they hand-inspected EVERY piece of luggage!) and almost missed our flight! But I got some good sleep in the plane and then after a delicious pastry with spinach and cheese for breakfast, I was ready to sightsee!

We took a hop-on/hop-off tour of the city. We started at the Acropolis. It was really fun to see. I only wish I could remember more of my 6th grade Greek Mythology class. :) The only thing I didn't like about the Acropolis is the fact that it's being re-built. For whatever reason, the Greeks have decided that they don't like the ruins so they are going to rebuild things. I'm not sure if they'll bring it back to its original glory days or if they are just making it more safe with what they've already got. I just know that there was some old marble and some new marble and I was kind of disappointed.
Here's a pretty good shot of the one section of the Parthenon. The rest of it was full of cranes and scaffolding and stuff. But I've got some good photographers as friends and they make me look great!
We also stopped at the Panathenaic Stadium. The first modern Olympics were held here in 1896. How crazy to think that Athens has had the Olympics twice!
We also went to a fun street market with lots of earrings for sale. Luckily, I was able to restrain myself and only buy two pairs. But boy are they cute! I love them. We then stopped for dinner at a restaurant with a great view of the Acropolis. It was fun. I tried Mousaka - kind of like a Greek lasagna with some eggplant, mashed potatoes, and cheese. Sounds weird but it's actually very good. That's one thing I'll definitely say about Greece - they have some delicious food!

After dinner, we went back to the hotel and went straight to bed. We were EXHAUSTED!!!

March 10 - Petra Part II

2011-03-29T23:57:00.006-06:00

We got up early again (5:00 a.m) and headed into Petra. I love getting up early on vacation because you can get into places before a lot of people are even out of bed. It's great! So, we got some fun pictures of the Treasury that didn't have any other tourists in them. Then we started hiking. We had 800 stairs ahead of us so we thought we'd better get started.

At the top of our 800 stairs, we found the Monastery. It's a building that's almost untouched like the Treasury only it's not as well known because you have to hike 800 stairs to get there. But it was well worth it!! If you get the chance, definitely take the hike to the Monastery. If you're feeling particularly non-active, you can take a donkey.

We had some time to kill and some extra Jordanian dinar so we decided we had just enough time for one more camel ride. I loved it so much the day before, I just needed another "fix" before we left Jordan behind us forever. This time, we rode it from the center of town back to the Treasury in a mini camel caravan. A couple of the camels even decided to race!!

Don't you love this picture? It was definitely one of my favorites!!!
After another (LONG) taxi ride back to the border, we picked up our rental car (Hurray! It was still there!!) and stopped for a view of the Red Sea before heading back to Tel Aviv. The Red Sea was gorgeous with these really nice beaches and warm weather. I wished we could have stayed longer but we had a five hour drive to get back to Tel Aviv. :(

March 9 - Petra

2011-03-28T00:58:00.005-06:00

Wednesday, we got up early and headed to the border. Crossing into Jordan was like something out of a movie - involving a prisoner exchange. We got our passports stamped, paid our money to leave the country and started walking along this asphalt road. There were men on both sides with large guns, a chain link fence lined with barbed wire, and signs on both sides of the asphalt road warning about land mines. A little bit scary but we survived.

We took a taxi from the border into Wadi Musa - just outside of Petra (about 2 hours) and dropped off our luggage at the hotel. From there we walked in about a half hour or so through a slot canyon until we happened upon this lovely little treasure. Does it look familiar? It should. It's from one of the Indiana Jones movies. The Treasury looks exactly like it does in the movie. But don't ask me what it looks like on the inside (most people do) because they won't let you in.
My one request for this part of the adventure was to ride a camel. So (learning from my Pisa experience), we did that first thing. Camels stand up with their back legs first. I didn't realize this so I was a bit surprised. This is my face as the camel stood up. Perfect timing, huh?
The whole town was incredible! There was an amphitheater that would seat 7000 people, tons of cave dwellings, a couple of tombs, and a palace - all carved out of the rock. Very detailed. And I loved the different colored layers of sandstone.
It was colder than expected though. Freezing, in fact!!! But we wore jackets, braced ourselves against the wind, and braved the elements. It was well worth it! If you get the chance, you should definitely visit Petra.

One thing about Petra, it's much cheaper to stay in the town of Wadi Musa nearby for the night. If you just get a day pass to the park, it will cost you about $125. If you can prove you've got a reservation in the town, it's only about $70. They really want you to stay there!

We had a couple of interesting experiences that day. After we left Petra for the day, we took a taxi back to the hotel - or tried to anyways. Murad didn't speak much english but we managed to ask him for a ride back to the border the next day. He called his boss to arrange things. As we started working out the details, Murad drove us past our hotel and headed over to the other side of the town. We actually thought we were being kidnapped. Star had a plan to wreck the car, take Murad down, and run away in case we needed to escape. Luckily, we didn't need to to do that but it's always good to be prepared. He wanted us to talk to his boss directly so he took us over to his house to finish negotiating. Silly Murad.

March 8 - Masada and the Dead Sea

2011-03-27T09:12:00.006-06:00

Yet another early morning (it was generally a theme of the whole trip) as we woke up at 5, packed, and left Jerusalem - tried to, anyways. Our beloved GPS (Greta) had a hard time figuring out the road construction in Jerusalem and we ended up driving around the city for about an hour before we finally found Highway 1 and we were on our way to Masada. We caught a cable car up to the top (to save time - any other day we totally would have hiked up to the top!) and explored the ruins of this amazing civilization. And the view of the Dead Sea from up high was incredible!!We did hike down about 200 stairs to get to this section of Masada called the North Temple. This isn't the best picture of the temple itself but aren't the girls standing in front of it so much cuter??
After a Magnum bar (yummy ice cream goodness), we changed our clothes and went to the Dead Sea. It's the off season at the Dead Sea so it wasn't super crowded but it was warm enough to get in. That Dead Sea is super salty. It's okay while you're in there (as long as you don't splash any water in your mouth) but when you get out and the water dries, it leaves this super crusty film of salt all over your body. That part is not my favorite. But the floating?? Awesome!!
You're super buoyant in the sea. My favorite thing to do was to bob in the water with my legs pointed down (no matter how hard I tried I couldn't touch the bottom once we left the shore). As we floated along, feet down, I'd lean forward ever so slightly and my feet would pop straight up. I was highly entertaining and we kept doing it over and over again.
Lindsay and I really wanted a picture of ourselves with Dead Sea mud all over our bodies. Problem was, we weren't sure where you could get the dark mud so we just used the nearby dirt and mixed it with the mineral rich salt water. :) We look ridiculous, I know but it was still fun and we got a couple of great pictures out of it.

After the Dead Sea, we tried to wash off all the salt (somewhat unsuccessfully) and then went on a hike to an oasis in the desert. They call it Ein Gedi and apparently, it's where David hid from Saul after he made him a little bit mad. It was really pretty with about 5 waterfalls. We didn't stay very long but it was nice, cool, fresh water.

We changed (again) and drove along the Dead Sea and down the entire length of Israel (or at least it felt that way) to Eilat. We wanted to make it there in time to wade in the Red Sea but it was dark before we got there. :( But we did get there in time for some delicious dinner at a really great place. For $3, we got all the pita bread we could eat along with unlimited salads. Some of them we weren't sure what they were but it was super fun to try all of them. We did order meat too but I probably would have been fine with just the salads.

Then, bedtime. Another exhausting day finished!

March 7 - Jerusalem

2011-03-22T17:12:00.009-06:00

We woke up again early for day 2 in Jerusalem. First stop, the top of the Mount of Olives. We pulled up and our first sight (besides the Japanese tourists) was a donkey. There was a man there who offered to take us for a ride on the "Jesus taxi." We said no but we definitely got a giggle out of it. Jesus taxi?? Really?? The Mount of Olives is covered with Jewish graves because they believe that they'll be resurrected first. Mormons believe that the Mount of Olives will split in two and Christ will come through the center to the temple mount. And the Muslims have blocked off the closest gate to the Mount of Olives and put a cemetery on top of it. It's an interesting mix of history.

We walked down the Mount of Olives and headed to the Garden of Gethsemane. It was crowded and touristy and not my favorite. But across the street there was a private gate and the gardener let us into the less crowded area of the garden for a small "donation." We all split up and had a chance to think/pray alone for awhile. I'm so glad we had that opportunity. It was great to stop for a little while and think about the Savior and his sacrifice. Even now I can't believe that I actually had the chance to walk the paths that the Savior walked. It's an incredible place!

We then walked up a steep hill to the ruins of the City of David. We changed our clothes and our shoes and hiked through Hezekiah's tunnel. The tunnel was a way to provide water to the Old City of Jerusalem and Roman soldiers hiked through the tunnel to conquer the city. And we got to walk through it! It was pitch black, the water was about knee deep, and super narrow. Ignore the crazy face I'm making in this picture. It was a lot of fun! Except for the part where Allyson's camera fell out of her backpack and into the water. :( The camera didn't survive but her pictures did!

We changed into dry clothes and hiked up another steep hill (who knew Jerusalem was so hilly?!) and went to St. Peter's church. It was built over the supposed site of Caiphus' prison where Christ was tried and where St. Peter denied Christ three times. It was a really pretty (French) church. Near the church were some stairs that have been tested and proved to have existed at the time of Christ. So, it's possible Christ actually walked along these stairs:

And then another hike up a hill (really this was just a continuation of same hill as before). We bought tickets from a very grumpy ticket agent and walked along the ramparts walk - the top of the Old City wall. It was fun to see how the whole city is laid out. I love to go to the top of things so that I can see how everything fits together. We had to climb quite a few stairs so we were pretty sure the next day but it was worth it. I liked it.

Lindsay tells me that President Hinckley said the Garden Tomb was his favorite place in Jerusalem. After our visit there, I can totally see why. Most of the sacred spots in Jerusalem have these gaudy, crowded churches on them. But this one was still a garden. We had a British tour guide who was great. He gave lots of scientific evidence about how this could possibly be the tomb where Christ's body was laid but he was careful to point out that they couldn't guarantee that this was actually the spot. But the most important thing he kept reminding us about was that He's not there anymore. The most important part about the tomb is that He lives!! He rose from the tomb (wherever it was). It was a very sacred experience and I'm glad we saved that for the end of our trip.

We stopped at St. Anne's church and the Pools of Bethesda where Christ healed a lame man. It wasn't crowded and it was really simple. Loved it!

Last stop in Jerusalem was to visit our friend Omar for some olive wood. He's a very talented man who sells most of his work to Mormons who are sent there from the BYU Jerusalem Center. I spent A LOT of money there but I am so excited for my package to come. This is my favorite piece that I bought. A statue of Christ with a little boy. I got a little bit teary-eyed when I saw it for the first time. Omar's got definite talent.

March 6 - Jerusalem

2011-03-18T23:22:00.007-06:00

It was an early morning for us our first day in Jerusalem. Lindsay had packed our two days there FULL of stuff to do. So we got up early and headed to the Dome of the Rock. We went through security and walked on this long ramp over the Wailing Wall. Dome of the Rock was really cool. We couldn't go inside but we took a ton of pictures outside. Here's one of my favorites (because of the palm tree - not the cheesy smile!)

After the Dome of the Rock, we grabbed a taxi and headed up for our tour of the BYU Jerusalem Center with Sister Marilyn Bentley. I think my favorite part of the tour was her pep talk about being single. She spent a lot of time talking about her oldest daughter that didn't get married until she was 32. She said that she wished all of her children had waited until they were older to get married. :) The rest of the tour was good too. Great view of the city.

Next stop was Mt. Zion and the Upper Room. It was simple but bigger than I expected. But I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting but I was surprised. The room was really pretty. We also went to a nearby church that was really pretty.

And then the Wailing Wall and a tour of the Kotel (the western wall of the temple). I really liked this part of our day. For some reason, the Wailing Wall was one of my favorite things about Jerusalem. It was really neat to see all of the people praying together. And the Kotel tour took us underground and explained more about why the western wall was so important.

There's a walk through Jerusalem called the Via Dolorosa (which I can't say without using a spanish accent.) It's the path that Jesus supposedly followed as he carried the cross along the path. It's a lot of churches and holy sites that didn't mean a lot to me. In between all the churches and holy markers there were tons of shops selling prayer shawls and nativity sets and stuff. It was an interesting combination. I think my favorite part of the tour was our stop at the Holy Rock Cafe. I had some fresh squeezed pomegranate juice. DELICIOUS!!!

The Via Dolorosa ends at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. One of the most interesting churches I've ever been in. There are four different churches who all have a section of the church for their own type of worship. The key to the church is actually controlled by a Muslim family who lets everyone in each morning. The church didn't have any real flow to it.
Here's the tomb. There was a really long line to get into the tomb and we were exhausted and didn't want to wait so I don't have any pictures of the inside. We decided it wasn't worth the wait. We were hungry and tired and had other priorities to take care of.

After a dinner of falafal (YUMMY!) we headed back to the BYU Jerusalem Center for a violin/piano concert. I'm sure it was a great concert. We were all so excited after our long (and very active) day, that most of us slept right through it. But the view of the city at night was amazing!!

March 5 - The Sabbath

2011-03-18T18:16:00.005-06:00

March 6th was a Saturday (in case you aren't keeping track) but the LDS churches meet on Saturdays there so we woke up early to get started with our day. First stop was the Cliffs of Arbel. It's a national park in Israel with a great view of the Sea of Galilee. We didn't have time for a long hike but we did go for a nice little walk to the nearby "cliffs of insanity." (It's not actually called that but it looks a lot like the cliffs of insanity on The Princess Bride.) It was gorgeous!Then we went to church. There's a small branch that meets in the area. We were expecting church in Hebrew or English. Turns out it was mostly in spanish! Star got to translate for the spanish speakers and I got to say the closing prayer in Spanish. It was awesome! Lots of fun. The church owns a house where they hold sacrament meeting and the back porch had another amazing view of the Sea of Galilee. How cool is that that every week they get to meet and talk about Jesus Christ while overlooking the Sea where he performed miracles and walked on water???
One last stop before we left the Galilee area - Allyson had a goal to put her feet into every body of water she could on the trip. So, we stopped at the Sea of Galilee and went wading for a second - a very brief second. There were a couple of families nearby who probably thought we were crazy for doing it but bucket lists sometimes cause people to do stupid things. (Allyson's list - not mine. :) )
We headed towards Jerusalem with a brief stop-off at Caesarea. I'm not entirely sure about the history of the city. It was a ruined city that existed at the time of Herrod. I think he might have actually built it but I'm not entirely sure. Right on the Mediterranean Sea, gorgeous blue water, pretty ruins, etc. It was beautiful!!
And what blog post would be complete without a picture of Star on an iron carriage? :)

We pulled into crazy Jerusalem about 6:00 and I was sure excited to leave the car in the parking lot for a couple of days. Driving in Jerusalem was CRAZY!!!!

March 4 - Galilee

2011-03-18T17:47:00.007-06:00

We woke up early in the morning to get on the road. But we couldn't leave our beachfront hotel without making a stop at the Mediterranean Sea. It's beautiful. Nice and blue. But we were on a schedule so we didn't stay long.

Our first stop was Nazareth. It took us awhile to find the place. Nazareth is a BIG city now. But eventually we found a place to park the car and walked up to the church - the Basilica of the Annunciation. The church was built on the site where Mary was visited by the angel Gabriel. It was a really pretty church with lots of mosaics on the walls that had been sent from different countries. It was interesting to see different cultures' interpretations of Mary. Some were oriental, others were dark skinned. But all were very pretty.

Next stop?? The Jesus Boat Museum. It's got another name but I have no idea what it is. Everyone calls it the Jesus Boat Museum. In the 80s a fishing boat was uncovered in the mud of the Sea of Galilee that existed at the time of Christ. It's eroded and beat up but cool to see.

The loaves and fishes church came next. Supposed the miracle of the loaves and fishes took place here. Most of these sites have churches on them. There isn't proof that these are the actual sites. It's mostly based on tradition and conjecture but it's fun to visit the sites and imagine what took place there. There's a gorgeous Byzantine mosaic of loaves and fishes on the floor of this church but we couldn't get a good picture of it so you just get a picture of me in a pretty archway instead. :)

I think one of my favorite spots in the Galilee area was the Mount of Beatitudes. There's a really simple church on the site and then a gorgeous garden surrounding it. We took the time to read the sermon on the mount while we were there and it was an awesome experience! The Mount of Beatitudes wasn't nearly as crowded as the other churches we visited so it was a lot more peaceful and spiritual. Loved it!

We finished the night eating dinner on the Sea of Galilee. Allyson and I both had the St. Peter's fish with some potatoes, pita bread, and hummus. Delicious!

After dinner, we stopped by for a light show over the Sea. It's not a great picture but you get the idea. Please notice the palm trees in the picture - they were inflatable! :) It was a little bit hokey but a fun concept, nonetheless.

And then? An early night again. The jet lag was killer for a couple of the girls on the trip. But I was pretty tired myself so I didn't complain one bit.

March 3 - It begins

2011-03-18T17:35:00.005-06:00

I'm back!!! Miss me? We survived and I think you could probably say that we had an amazing trip without any "glitches." I took 1300 pictures though so I'm not quite sure what to do about a blog post. I'm thinking I'm going to do a day at a time. Might be information overload so if you'd like to skip a couple of days in between, I'll try not to be offended. :)

There were 4 of us who went on this little adventure. Here's Star (left) and Lindsay (right) getting ready to get on the plane to Tel Aviv. It was a long flight (11 hours) but I'm a pretty good sleeper so I was able to sleep for about 7 hours of it. Not bad. These long flights are definitely getting easier. But poor Lindsay and Star had a much rougher time of things. Luckily, we were on a plane with private TVs for each seat and they had about 60 movies to pick from so they were pretty entertained.
Ignore the face and my jet-lagged eyes. This is me with some new money - Israeli shekels. It's about 1 shekel to the quarter so the math was pretty easy. And I love dealing with foreign money - it's so colorful and exciting!

We landed in Tel Aviv about 5:40 pm, picked up our bags and our rental car and drove immediately to our hotel. We were exhausted but starving so we walked to a nearby grill for our first Israeli food. We all got shwarmas (kind of like a Greek gyro). It was DELICIOUS! Meat, yogurt sauce, some tomatoes, and some other stuff I'm not sure about in a pita. All washed down with some gelato for dessert. Mmm!
After that, we crashed. We planned to leave early the next morning and we were all tired from the long flight so we hit the sack!

I'm not going to die!!!

2011-03-02T01:00:00.004-07:00

Tomorrow afternoon at 3:35 pm, I'm leaving for Israel. Eek! Even as I type it, I can't believe it's true. But I'm going to do it. I know the Middle East isn't the calmest of locations right now but let's be honest, it's never been the calmest of locations. As I've been getting ready for and talking about the trip of a lifetime, most people give me this look of horror when I tell them where I'm going - or that I'm going with a couple other single girls - or that we are renting a car - or that we aren't going to with a tour. I know it's not your traditional way of seeing things but we're going to do it. And it's going to be a blast!! We've got this crazy busy schedule, jam packed with lots of fun and educational things to do - seeing the Jesus Boat, going on a tour of the Wailing Wall, walking through Hezekiah's Tunnel, hiking to an oasis, riding a camel in Petra. Wow! It sounds amazing, don't you think?? I promise I won't do anything stupid, I promise to be careful, and I promise to do my best not to die. Wish me luck!! Pictures to follow!

31!!!!

2011-02-24T23:12:00.004-07:00

Eek! Can you believe that I turned 31 years old yesterday??? In honor of my 31st year, I thought I'd come up with a list of 31 things that I have been blessed with in my life. It's not my typical blog post, but I wanted to do it anyways. Here goes:

1) My super amazing family

2) Jim

3) Great friends

4) The Gospel

5) Good job

6) Health

7) My talents

8) 8 stamps in my passport (with another 3 to come in 6 days!!)

9) Ice Cream

10) Sunshine

11) A savings account

12) Good news!

13) Heater vents in the wintertime

14) Computers

15) Clean teeth

16) Pedicures

17) Girls' weekends with friends

18) A nice boss

19) A great roommate

20) 47 things crossed off my bucket list (54 to go!)

21) My super cute house

22) Temples

23) Two college degrees

24) Game nights

25) Things I learned as RSP

26) Music

27) Lasik

28) Electricity

29) Chocolate

30) New hobbies

31) 31 years worth of happiness and fun!!

Dinner at the Elkins'

2011-02-24T22:59:00.004-07:00

We have these friends. On occasion, we'll get together for dinner. Jim and I made fajitas. We put the meal on the table and everyone served themselves. I thought it was pretty good. But dinner at the Elkins' is, well.....indescribable. Nathan's a great cook. And his presentation is impeccable!

For an appetizer, we had homemade tortilla chips with pico de gallo, salsa verde, and guacamole.

And for the soup course? Rich man beans. (I think that's what he called them.) Pinto beans, cheese, peppers, cilantro, and yumminess.

The entree consisted of a baby taco (with a homemade taco shell - hecho a Larrie) filled with red cabbage and chorizo and a couple of beefy enchiladas verdes with some spanish rice. It was so good!!! I used to get so excited when we'd get served enchiladas verdes on my mission. It was phenomenal!

And for dessert? Gluten-free peach cobbler. Another friend of ours was there and he was recently diagnosed with celiac disease. So, it was gluten free. And delicious!

Overall, one of my favorite dinners - you can have me over anytime Mr. and Mrs. Elkins!

Ski Jumping in Park City

2011-02-24T22:52:00.003-07:00

A couple weeks ago some friends and I went up to Deer Valley to see the ski jumping competition. It was AMAZING!!! Those people are super crazy to do the flips and twirls and stuff that they do. You should definitely go if you get the chance. It's really fun...and FREE! It was freezing that weekend but after we hik
ed up the hill to watch the jumping, we were so hot we were stripping off our layers. By the time we'd cooled down, the competition was over. My friend Trevor offered to help us down the mountain. We sat on his blanket and he pulled us down the mountain. It was so fun! And much faster than the hike up there.

Southern California

2011-02-12T00:41:00.005-07:00

As if my big trip that's coming up in 18 days wasn't enough, I got to go visit one of my favorite places on earth a couple of weeks ago with some really great friends. Southwest was having a sale on airfare a couple of months ago and we all decided to head to southern California. We stayed in a hotel that was about a 5 minute walk from Disneyland. We had a great time!! We got there first thing in the morning and spent the whole day there. I ended up riding the Tower of Terror 3 times. This picture was my first one. That look of terror is definitely genuine. :)

Yep. Character photos with the Toy Story characters. We also rode the new Toy Story ride. It was incredible!! The ride itself isn't anything spectacular but the technology was fantastic! They put you in a car and give you some super styling 3-D glasses. And then?? You start shooting balloons, targets, and ducks. It was awesome!!

The group that went to So. Cali was great! I have never laughed so hard for so long on a trip. Poor Christi was recovering from a horrible sickness but she was a trooper. She made until almost the bitter end. The park wasn't too crowded so we got to ride just about everything that we wanted to (except Space Mountain). We watched Aladdin on "Broadway," had some great food, and saw the amazing World of Color light show at California Adventures. I think I took about 120 pictures the first day in Disneyland alone!

Jim convinced me that he needed one of these giant turkey legs so he bought one. I've got to admit that it was pretty good. I ended up eating more than my fair share of it. :) We also tried mint julips, scones, mickey mouse ice cream bars, steak gumbo in a sourdough bread bowl. And that was just while we were at Disneyland!! We ate really well on this trip.

Besides Disneyland, we went to the Newport Beach temple, Huntington Beach, Ruby's on the pier (delicious chocolate turtle shake!!), a pirate dinner theater show, Santa Monica pier, H&M, and church (where the first speaker talked about placentas and seepage from surgical sites for most of his talk). It was a fantastic weekend and I'm so glad I got to go!!!

Ice Castles

2011-01-21T10:36:00.004-07:00

Nope. Not the old movie from 1978. These ice castles are much cooler. Up in Midway there are these really awesome castles that this guy has made out of PVC pipe and frozen water. It's amazing! One of my co-workers told me about them and they sounded awesome so we decided to go up and see them for ourselves. It was well worth the trip. The guy who makes them started a couple of years ago to help raise money for his sons' missions. This year, he's raising money for one of those missionary's weddings. It's $5 to get in and I thought it was worth it. But just in case you can't make it up there this year, here are some pictures of the castles. Enjoy!

Big news!!!!

2011-01-16T01:19:00.008-07:00

I HAVE BIG NEWS!!! I can't believe I almost forgot to tell everyone. Huge! Silly me. All those other blog posts and I almost forgot something incredibly important!!!!!

I bought another plane ticket!!

(Bet that's not the news that everyone thought I was going to announce, was it? :) THAT NEWS will probably come with a couple of pictures and some plans and maybe a "save the date." But THAT NEWS isn't coming anytime soon so don't get too excited.)

Last week I bought a plane ticket to take one of these:

To fly a million and a half hours and end up here:

And see this:

And ride a camel to explore this:

And take pictures that look like these:

In less than two months, I'll be headed to Israel, Jordan, and Egypt for the trip of a lifetime. Excited for me??? I sure can't wait. It's going to be AMAZING!!!!

My latest decorations

2011-01-10T17:16:00.006-07:00

WOW! Three posts in one day, are you impressed? Part of it could be that I've been sick at home on my couch and I'm desperate for something to do to keep my mind off of my cough and stuffy nose. :)

My really nice dad made these fantastic wall decorations for me and I just had to show them off. For my "America" room. I've got Paris, London, Italy, China, Honduras, etc. but I've been to some really great places in the states too and I wanted to show them off. So, my office/craft/music room is the America room. Each of these boards has pictures of the skylines and key spots from different cities I've been to. It's really fun and I'm super excited about how well they turned out!! You can't see the individual pictures very well but here's Chicago and New York City:

And here's Chicago, Seattle, and Boston:

Between that and the textured wall with the clocks on it (see my earlier post here.) I think it turned out pretty well, don't you?

Relief Society

2011-01-10T17:01:00.003-07:00

So, for the past 15 months or so, I've been serving as the Relief Society President in my ward. I've been working with about 140 amazing women and it's been an incredible experience. I am so grateful for the opportunity to serve with them. Every month we'd have about 10 new girls move in and about 10 girls would move out. So, I got to meet a lot of girls in those 15 months. And I was amazed at the girls that I met - teachers, nurses, doctoral students, a personal trainer, a professional skateboarder, returned missionaries, divorcees, etc. And every one of them with these incredible testimonies of the Savior.
I got released last weekend and I cried like a baby. My mom and I both got called about the same week and she told me that people say you cry when you're called and you bawl when you're released. It's totally true. I think I cried 8 times the day I was released. I was just so sad to be leaving those experiences behind. But I'd managed to marry off two counselors and a secretary and scared off another counselor completely (she moved to Oregon) so I guess they figured it was time to just release the whole presidency. The new presidency will be fantastic and it will be nice to be able to focus on some other areas of my life that have been neglected a little bit.
I came home this past Saturday to find my house chock full of hearts. So many of the sisters in the ward wrote me these super nice notes and I just sat there and read all of them and bawled again. I'm good now and relieved to be stress free for a minute but it sure was nice to read notes from those girls. I'm going to miss them but I'm sure glad I get to stay in the ward and learn from their testimonies and their lessons. They're fantastic!!!

December

2011-01-10T11:28:00.003-07:00

December was a busy month for me. I'm sure it was for all of you too. I'm still waiting for some updates on a couple of blogs so those of you checking mine should probably get busy and update your blogs too!! :) I had a great month. We had a great RS activity with those amazing sisters in my ward. Lots of fun, soup, cookies in a jar, etc. It was great!!! Sure do love those girls!!!!

My family had their annual candlelight soup in a breadbowl dinner with our traditional cork and funnel game afterwards. Poor Jim wasn't quite up to the challenge yet. He only ended up with 50 cents at the end. But we'll be sure to practice and he'll be ready and waiting for next years game!! At least he didn't take last place though. Dad's got that spot locked up. Every year he runs out of money before the game is over. :) I won again!! I left the game $10 richer!!

I took a couple of friends snowshoeing for the first time this season. We went up to Neff's Canyon and it was really pretty. Sure do love snowshoeing. It's so fun to be up in the mountains and in good company with friends. Can't wait to do more now that the Christmas season is over and things have calmed down a bit in my life.

Jim and I went to see the lights at temple square a couple of times this season. I must admit - it's a lot of fun to see the lights while you're holding someone's hand. And the lights at temple square were gorgeous just like they always are. Did you know they actual import trees from the mountains so they have enough to put the lights on?

Christmas was lots of fun. I spent Christmas Eve with Jim's family (steak and shrimp - delicious!!) and then he came up for Christmas Day with my family. My mom made the girls in the family aprons and gave us all turkey roasting pans and basters and the like. Good thing L-3 gave me my annual turkey "bonus" so I can try it out, huh?

So, there's my December. How was yours? Anything new to report? I've got more posts to come. I just have to download the pics from my computer. Hopefully I'll get around to those eventually.

Turkey Day

2010-11-28T10:37:00.004-07:00

Thanksgiving needed it's own post because I took too many pictures to include in November's post. So you'll have to just read both. (Do you love that I always assume there's a million readers out there just anxiously awaiting my next post? There's probably only three people out there who ever check this thing but I just can't help but feel like I'm the next Julie and Julia waiting to be discovered. :) )

I was in charge of the pies again this year. Not sure why I keep getting this assignment. I guess that means my pies aren't horrible to eat, right? Or else they just don't want me to ruin any other part of the dinner so they give me something that everyone's always too full to eat by the end of the dinner. I did take a picture of my apple pie this year. I was pretty proud of the way that it turned out. Not perfect but it looks delicious, don't you think? And I don't even like pie!!

I made some candy turkeys for my family this year and I thought they were so cute I had to take a picture. It's a couple of double stuffed oreos, some candy corns, a whopper, a reese's peanut butter cup, and some darn cute eyes I bought from Orson Gygi. I think they're super cute and my family loved them!

My dad decided he needed a family picture to put on his Christmas card this year. This was our serious picture. I know I ruined it but really what happened, was the camera didn't go off like it was supposed to so I was making a surprised face. Then it decided to work. Not sure what Jake's excuse is. :)

That was the best serious shot though. The others had someone with their eyes closed or someone sticking their tongue out at someone else (that was me :) ) or someone not smiling. So we opted for a not so serious shot instead:

Do you see why I love this family???

November

2010-11-28T10:14:00.002-07:00

November has been a busy month! But they all are so why would anyone be surprised? After one crazy double date involving delicious ice cream from Leatherbys, my friend Brad came up with the brilliant idea to host a "fakes"giving day dinner to get everybody excited for the big turkey day. Then he decided to make it for couples only! So, of course, I had to find a date. (Lucky for me, it hasn't been too hard to make that happen lately.) ;) Everyone brought a side dish and Jim cooked the turkey. It was DELICIOUS!! We played Fall Catch Phrase, ate WAY too much, and had a great time with some other couples we'd met in our ward.

My friend Christi also hosts a Pre-Thanksgiving dinner every year. It's a ton of work for her and she does it every year and loves it. I think this year she had about 30 people come (last year I think there were almost 50 so this was a small year for her!) It was lots of fun but my favorite part was this cornucopia that she made from refrigerated breadsticks. It was awesome! This picture just doesn't do it justice.

At the Pre-Thanksgiving Party, a few of us decided it would be a good idea to go down to Provo for the BYU/Aggie basketball game. We bought tickets and headed down there. I was so sure my Aggies were going to win. But they disappointed me again. Stupid missed free throws. Those BYU fans were sure excited.

Luckily, I like him enough to keep dating him - even if he is a Cougar fan. :)

Up, Up, and Away.....

2010-10-29T01:25:00.002-06:00

I just got back from my ward's Relief Society activity. Roller skating at Classic Skating. It was a lot of fun! So glad I went. Here's a couple of key photos from the event. This is my friend Allyson and another guy in our ward. Brendan's dressed as a knight from the middle ages. Allyson's dressed as a L.A.R.P. (Live Action Role Player). Her t-shirt says, "My medieval club can VANQUISH your medieval club!" They had a mock sword fight and everything! It was great!!

Here's your first view of my costume. I wanted to be a hot air balloon. I had all kinds of guesses - the house from "Up," a balloon vendor, and a lot of confused looks. Didn't really matter though because the judges liked it. I got "Most inspirational" costume. I guess they were inspired??? I won a gift certificate to a new Japanese restaurant in town. Yum! Sushi!!

Some friends of ours - Lindsay and Brad were the stay-puff marshmellow woman and a Ghostbuster. Lindsay made her costume all by herself! In an afternoon!!
Cruella Deville, Cousin It, a BYU golfer, and Dallas (I have no idea what he was - a ninja, maybe??) Cousin It's costume was pretty intense. He made it by himself (with a little help from roommate Dallas) out of yarn from JoAnn's. He bought out the store. Not going to tell you how much it cost but I will say it was A LOT!! Looked great though. He won the grand prize in the contest. Darn it! I thought my hot air balloon was a shoo-in!
A friend of mine - Jim. We've been spending quite a bit of time together lately and I'm pretty excited about that. He's not really into Halloween (hasn't dressed up since he was in high school) but he made an effort tonight and came as a bowler. Just to come with me. Isn't he nice?

Halloween 2010

2010-10-26T00:23:00.003-06:00

My first Halloween party of the season - Hermione is a repeat costume from a couple of years ago. My main costume for the year is a little bit too large for a house party. Don't worry though, I'll be wearing it to our ward's roller skating party on Thursday. More pictures to come!!

It's been awhile....

2010-10-26T00:14:00.002-06:00

It's been awhile since I've taken any pictures worthy of a blog post. Actually, I don't know that I've taken any pictures at all since Trial Lake - whoops. I've been a bit distracted lately (in a very good way) and now I'm trying to repent.

Have I mentioned lately that I LOVE my Fridays off? The weather's been pretty good lately and I've been on couple of hikes with some girls in my ward. Last Friday, we went up to Donut Falls. It may have been our last hike of the season - until snowshoe season starts, that is. :)

Most of the leaves were gone on the trees up by Donut Falls but it was still really pretty. One week earlier and it would have been perfect! We did get a little bit lost for a minute. Wouldn't have been scary at all if it hadn't been for Erin. We were wandering around looking for the trail and we wandered by a small, creepy looking cabin. Erin said, "This is exactly the type of cabin you would see in one of those scary movies right before a guy jumps out with a chain saw and kills the two poor girls wandering around the forest." Eek!!! Luckily, we survived and made it back alive!

Trial Lake with the fam

2010-08-25T01:19:00.004-06:00

Well, because I haven't been traveling enough this summer, I decided to go with the family for a little trip to one of my favorite places on earth! Trial Lake. It was gorgeous. We had some really great food, did some hiking and fishing, played the guitar, and relaxed by the campfire. One of the things on my bucket list is to learn to fly fish but I feel like fly fishing is more advanced than regular fishing so I thought I'd do some regular fishing first. I got myself a fishing license and I cast my pole into the lake for the first time in over 15 years! Who knew I was such an expert?

I caught 6 fish in a single day. They were all too small to keep but it was fun to try. Caleb helped me take a couple of them off the hook but this photo is proof that I actually did touch a couple of fish! The first one I touched myself, I ended up having to cut the line and leave the hook in because the stupid fish had to go and swallow the thing. After I cut it, Caleb said, "now gently put the fish back into the water." Right as he said, "water" that crazy fish jumped right out of my hands and flew back to the water! Could wait to get away from me.

The fishing was fun. I'm headed back up to Trial Lake this weekend and I think I'm going to try it again. Wish me luck....

We're done!!

2010-08-25T01:12:00.002-06:00

I'm sure that I've lost a couple of readers because the posts were so long and boring but I thought I'd share some pictures from my trip. It was a great trip. It just took awhile to get them all put up on the blog. I've done all kinds of fun things since then so more posts are coming. But the Europe trip was definitely the highlight of the summer. You should all go sometime!

The last post....

2010-08-25T00:56:00.004-06:00

Our last day with the car, we drove out to this town about an hour east of Prague (the name escapes me at this late hour. :) ) We went to see this church that had been decorated with the bones of people buried in the crypt. It was a little bit on the creepy side. The chandelier had at least one of every bone in the human body. There were piles and piles of skulls behind these cages. JaNae tried to put a coin in one of the mouths and set off an alarm in the process. Luckily it was quiet and short so no one really noticed.

We also stopped at a couple of churches. We got to go up in the attic of one of the churches. It was cool to see the organ from up close, and the pulpit from a different view. Nothing spectacular but the churches were pretty. I loved that they weren't super ornate or gaudy - for the most part.

After the church tour, we stopped for lunch at a Czech restaurant. I got the old world pork dish with spaetzel and cabbage. It was delicious - except for the anise. Why do people like to eat something that tastes like black licorice? Weird. This picture is horrible though. It was another hot day and my face was super red. :)

Karlovy Vary

2010-08-25T00:38:00.004-06:00

After Munich, we headed back to the Czech Republic. We stopped at a store on the border and spent the last of our Euros - chocolate souvenirs for everyone! Then we headed to Karlovy Vary. It's a kind of resort town about an hour away from Prague. A couple of movies have been filmed there, including the famous - Last Holiday with Queen Latifah. ("Famous" might be a bit of an exaggeration. It's cute but kind of cheesy and most people haven't heard of it.)

The town was great. We just stopped to walk around and had some lunch there. We saw some beautiful old buildings, the famous Hotel Pupp (pronounced "poop" in Czech), and JaNae took a drink from the spring which is supposed to have healing properties. She didn't feel any different afterwards but she figured it was worth a shot. I, on the other hand, didn't want to risk drinking from some crazy unknown water source. I'm a chicken. I admit it.

Munich

2010-08-24T23:41:00.006-06:00

After our long, hot day at the castle, we drove in to Munich and attempted to find a place to stay. After a couple of tries, we found a hotel that let us park our car and it wasn't super expensive. Problem was....no a/c so it was SUPER hot. I took a cold shower before bed, splashed cold water on my body, and still couldn't cool down. Luckily, it was just one night.

The next morning, we got up and went to Dachau - a concentration camp near Munich. We went on a tour of the camp, saw a lot of photos of the camp from the war, visited the memorial. It was a little graphic in parts but overall it was a great experience.

JaNae and Wendy's friend Laura is living in Munich for the summer and she took us on a tour of the city. It was awesome to have our own personal tour guide. She took us to Englishander Gardens. It was super hot that day and everyone was playing in the river. We even saw people who had stripped down to their underwear (or less!) and just swam the day away. We were all so hot that it sounded like a great idea. But we had other places to go and things to accomplish. We saw "the surfers" in the park. There's this pipe in the river that makes the perfect wave for surfing. It was awesome to watch. The surfers would take turns, wipe out, and get back in line again.

We also stopped in a biergarten for a pretzel "as big as my head." That was one thing Holly told me I had to have while I was in Munich and I was happy to follow her advice. A bit salty but overall it was delicious.

We went into a couple of churches, stopped by the new town hall, saw the Glockenspiel, and made a new friend. A girl in the plaza near the new town hall heard we were speaking English and stopped us to ask what she could do for 8 hours in the city. Turns out she was from Michigan, went to BYU, and was on her way to India for the summer. So, she hung out with us for the rest of the day. We saw some fountains, took some pictures, ate a doner kebab (delicious!) and some ice cream. Had a great time. We didn't spend long in the city but it was a fun one to see. I'd recommend it - just not in July. It was super hot that day and I was so grateful for air conditioning in the car. Fabulous!

Neuschwanstein

2010-08-18T00:47:00.002-06:00

I have no idea if I spelled that right. :) So, this castle is in Germany and Walt Disney based his Disneyland castle on this castle. It's the most famous of King Ludwig's palaces. It was fun to see but I probably wouldn't waste my time seeing it again. We waited in line for about 45 minutes to buy tickets for our tour. Then we ended up waiting another 3 hours to actually go on the tour. We walked around, took some pictures, had a snack, and then baked in the sun waiting for our tour to start. Poor Wendy and JaNae were so exhausted they ended up sleeping on the steps. :)

The tour was good but kind of overrated. Definitely not worth the almost 4 hours we had to wait to go in. The tour was only 30 minutes long!! But we did take a carriage ride up to the castle which was fun, walked across a swinging bridge, and took a lot of pictures. It was fun but probably a one-time trip.

Salzburg

2010-08-04T23:08:00.004-06:00

After a long delay....more about Europe.

Salzburg was probably my favorite city that we visited. It was a smaller city with a lot of great things to see. We went to Mirabell Gardens and walked around. There's a great view of the fountains, the gardens, and the fortress but Wendy's got the pictures and I still haven't downloaded them onto my computer. Whoops. :)

We took ourselves on a sort-of tour of the Sound of Music sights. We saw the back of the palace where the family played, the church where Maria was married, and a couple other spots. I need to watch the movie again and remind myself of the spots that we saw.

We bought the Salzburg Pass for 20(ish) euros. The pass got us into all kinds of different spots - the Fortress, the cable car, the gardens, Mozart's birthplace and residence, etc. Saved us about 10 euro - would have been more but a freak rainstorm kept us from riding the cable car up to a nearby peak. :(

We ended up taking 3 different audio tours in Salzburg. I really do hate those things. They talk so slow and share so many stories that it takes too long. I wish I skim a little bit but those darn audio guides just won't let you do it!

I think that my favorite part of the day was our trip to Helbrunn Palace. It's a palace just outside of Salzburg with some trick water fountains. It was SO HOT out that I volunteered to be one of the "guests" at the trick table. When the guide turned on the water, we all got SOAKED! But it felt so great!!! There were a bunch of other fountains that we could walk through, deer antlers that sprayed water, and a mini theater that was operated entirely by water pressure. It was a lot of fun. The actual palace was pretty boring but we had a great picnic on the gorgeous grounds of the palace and had a great time there.

Sure do love Salzburg!!!!

Eagle's Nest

2010-08-04T22:43:00.005-06:00

On Sunday after church we went up to Eagle's Nest - Hitler's hideout in Germany. There was a big museum with lots of pictures about Hitler and his life. It was all in German but we paid an extra 2 euros for the audio guide so we got A TON of history about the place. The problem with audio guides is that you can't skim. With written words, you can skip the boring stuff and go straight for the good info. But there are audio guides all over Europe. We probably listened to 7 or 8 of them on our trip.After our audio guide tour, we took a bus up the side of the mountain to the actual Eagle's Nest. There wasn't a whole lot to see in the actual building but the view was amazing!!! We took a bunch of pictures and did some walking around the building. Austria is really a beautiful country.

Hallstatt

2010-08-04T22:21:00.004-06:00

I'm not normally a fan of road trips but we drove through some really pretty countryside - 1800 miles in 10 days!!!! It was great though. We could stop when we saw things that needed to be seen. Like the lake in this picture. It was HUGE!!!! And really pretty. Apparently on sunny days, people in Austria go to the lake. It was super crowded with lots of people on beach towels and umbrellas and no sand. What a great concept, right? No sand but plenty of water and fun in the sun. I loved driving through Austria. It's a gorgeous place!!!

One of the places we stopped by was Hallstatt. It's a little town near Salzburg. Lots of big square houses with gorgeous flower boxes on all the windows. There's a salt mine there and you can go on tours of the mine. We took a cable car up to the entrance of the mine and it was really pretty up there! I thought it would be cooler because we were up higher but we were out of luck. It was still really warm up there! But still worth the trip up there.

When we got to the entrance of the mine, they gave us some special suits to put on. The suits had these linings on the butts of the suit. When we got into the mine, we got to slide down wooden slides deeper into the salt mines. No safety harnesses, no seat belts. Just going down the mine as fast as possible. JaNae actually got up to 35 km per hour on one of the slides! The mine itself wasn't the most exciting but it was cool down in there. By the end I was wishing I'd put my jacket on under my salt suit.

Europe Posts

2010-07-30T00:33:00.002-06:00

I've got a TON of pics from Europe (660 or so) and it's taking me longer than expected to make some posts. I've never been good at the whole putting pictures in my posts thing. They never end up right where I want them to go and my OCD-ness comes out and causes problems. :) So, I've posted a couple and I'll keep posting as I get them written. But that means they'll be out of order. So, start with Prague and work your way up. I've put more pictures on Facebook so if we're friends there and you're dying to see more of the beautiful continent of Europe, check them out there.

Enjoy!!

Vienna

2010-07-26T22:27:00.004-06:00

Our first foreign stop was the Freiburg Temple in Germany but that was just a day trip without many pictures so that doesn't really count. :) Our first major stop was Vienna. We went to this amazing palace there - Schunbrunn Palace. It's a lot like Versailles in Paris. Big palace, littler palace, lots of pretty gardens. We did the classic tour - the palace, the private gardens, the garden maze, and the imperial bakery. It was a lot of fun. The whole place is gorgeous! We got up early and went running through the gardens and then went on the palace tour about 9ish. It was already starting to get hot. I'll never understand these Europeans and their lack of air conditioners.

Schunbrunn Palace is a bit outside of the main part of the city so after we were done at the palace, we headed into the city. Vienna's a pretty big city. We went to St. Stephen's Cathedral. The inside looks just like all of the other cathedrals I've seen except for the roof. The cathedral is really gothic looking with lots of dark steeples.

But the roof? It's green and blue and yellow tile. It's weird. Totally out of place. So out of place that I can't even bring myself to put a picture on here. So, you'll have to enjoy a picture of me with some street performers instead. :)

Prague

2010-07-26T01:01:00.006-06:00

So, I just got back from the most incredible trip. I went to the Czech Republic with a couple of friends. We also drove through Austria and Germany and saw some amazing things. I thought I'd share some of my favorite photos with you - just in case you're interested.

Whenever I go to Europe (I don't go that often but I have been a couple of times) I have a policy. When you get the chance to go to the top of something, DO IT! We climbed to the top of the bell town at St. Vitus' Cathedral (187 steps!) The view was gorgeous. I've been told that Prague is the city of a thousand steeples. We sure saw a lot of them while we were there. The skyline of Prague is beautiful with lots of orange tile roofs.

We stayed with my friend Janae's parents in Prague. They are on a mission there and they were excellent hosts. One day, they left the mission office at lunch time and took us to the Vietnamese market. We wandered the streets, looking for souvenirs and other necessary items. The only thing I bought was a magnet for my mom. But we did take the time to try on these crazy Asian looking hats while we were there. I think we look pretty attractive if you ask me. :)

One of my favorite places in Prague was the

Prague castle grounds. There's a castle, St. Vitus' cathedral, some museums, etc. There's also this random well in the middle of the square. There were a bunch of coins in the fountain. I'm not sure if it was a wishing well or what but I thought I'd through a coin in and make a wish - just in case.

There are some pretty incredible views in Prague. This one here is from the St. Charles Bridge just before the sun set. The colors aren't nearly as cool as they were in person. The bridge is great. We walked across there Sunday night. It's so pretty with the water and the steeples and the sunset. There were all kinds of street vendors and performers. We heard a violinist, an accordian, an opera singer, and a guy playing crystal water glasses. I took a video of him. He was incredible. The video's not the greatest but it's definitely fun to watch him. Enjoy!!!

#45 - Fly first class

2010-07-24T13:22:00.001-06:00

Okay, so technically it was Business Class but since I'm not really sure what the difference is and neither is anyone else really, I'm counting it. Plus it's my list so who else really cares? :) I just got back from a trip to Europe and I'm jetlagged and it's 4:30 in the morning and I can't get back to sleep. So I thought I'd officially cross #45 off the list. I had a very nice friend who's a retired Delta employee and she let me use one of her buddy passes to fly to Europe (don't worry pictures and more details to follow). It was AMAZING! I was so sure I was going to get stuck in every airport I flew to. After all, it's summer time, lots of people travel, no empty flights, right? But I got VERY lucky. I got to fly Business Class the whole way there (SLC to JFK, JFK to Prague) and then I got to fly Business Class from Prague to JFK. JFK to SLC wasn't the greatest flight. I was sitting in seat 41C next to a couple with a very restless and grumpy 11 moth old. But since I was the last person to sneak on the flight, I wasn't complaining bit. I still can't believe how perfectly everything worked out. And now I'm home, trying to sleep in my own bed and crossing #45 off my list. I wish I could fly that way all the time. I wouldn't mind a bit.

WBR 2010

2010-06-24T23:21:00.002-06:00

So, this is definitely not my most attractive picture but it's the only one I've got for now until I get my co-worker's pictures so you'll have to just use your imagination. This last weekend, I ran the Wasatch Back relay race with some people from work. We were team "Livin' Life Large" ("L-3," get it?) I ran three times - 6.7 miles, 3 miles, and 3.3 miles. I didn't trade as much as I probably should have but I managed to hit my projected times and I didn't die. It's a super fun race with all kinds of crazy people who run. You should definitely give it a try sometime!

One crazy weekend!

2010-06-15T21:36:00.005-06:00

I just got back from a whirlwind trip to New York City. I had to go for a couple of work meetings so I ended up staying the weekend. A couple people from my ward were in town at the same time so I had some people to hang out with. I like trips but trips by myself to a big city aren't always my favorite (unless it's DC - then I love it! :) )

I crossed three things off the bucket list - play in Central Park, see a play on Broadway, and go to the top of the Empire State Building. All totally cliche but well worth the hype! I also went to the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, the NYC temple, Chinatown, and Serendipity 3 (for delicious frozen hot chocolate!!!) I had a great time!

Another one down.....

2010-06-02T22:59:00.009-06:00

I crossed off #41 this weekend!!! A friend and I decided to drive to Mt. Rushmore for the weekend. It was really cool! We stopped at Devil's Tower, Deadwood (a small Park City-ish town), and stayed in Rapid City for the weekend. We stopped by Mt. Rushmore and walked around the monument. Saw Crazy Horse (it will never be finished). Drove through Custer State Park looking for buffalo (found some). Monday we spent all day in the car driving home!!!! South Dakota is beautiful in the spring. It was incredible! If it weren't for the fact that you have to drive through Wyoming to get there, I'd go more often. :)

Everyone said that Mt. Rushmore was a lot smaller than they were expecting so I was expecting these teeny tiny heads on the tip of the mountain. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they were much bigger than I thought. And we went back for the lighting ceremony that night. There was a video, a flag ceremony, and some giant spotlights on these amazing faces on the side of the mountain.

Definitely worth the trip.

Next week....#42, #43, and #44.....in New York City!

Another season down the drain.

2010-05-12T00:02:00.005-06:00

I'm sure that those of you reading this blog know that I'm not the biggest sports fan in the world. I like to play them, I'll watch them if they're on, but I don't necessarily seek them out. For some reason though, I REALLY love the playoffs. I get really excited, watch all the games, and I even try to go to them when I can. My friend Brad made a poster for the first home game against Denver. He got a little bit carried away though and ended up making a poster that was 18 feet long!!! (The sign says, "Rest up Kirilenko....We've got Fesenko. Go Jazz!!!") They wouldn't let him open it up in the arena (I guess you can't have a sign that is wider than two seats but the security guards loved the sign so much that they let him take it inside even though they weren't supposed to.) Last night was a heartbreaker!!! Even though they lost, it was still a fun season and I had a great time. Just thought I'd post a couple of pictures so you could see how much fun I had!!

Dessert Sushi

2010-04-02T23:33:00.003-06:00

Are you ready for the next edition of Kasey's crazy cooking inventions? My friend Brooke had an asian-themed shower. We had pot stickers and spring rolls and cherry blossoms and sushi for dessert. Disgusting, you say? Actually, it wasn't half bad. We had three different kinds - nigiri (rice with blood oranges on top), and then two types of rolls - fruit rollups with orange rice and then chocolate coconut rolls. The filling involved lots of sliced fruit (kiwi, strawberries, and mango), cream cheese and coconut, and then it was all wrapped in a chocolate cookie dough. I had visions of things looking better than they did but I think it turned out pretty well for my first try. And some of them didn't taste half bad!!

D.C.

2010-03-30T23:53:00.008-06:00

I went to Washington D.C. a couple of weeks ago for a class and ended up having more fun than I probably should have while on a work trip. I promise I did go to all 16 hours of my class though!

I sure do love D.C. I think it's beautiful city with so many things to do. And I love that so many things in the city are free!!! The cherry blossoms were so close to blooming. I was just about a week early for the peak season. :(

While I was there, I went to the American History museum (my favorite Smithsonian). I saw the Star Spangled Banner, Julia Childs' kitchen, and the famous red slippers from

The Wizard Of Oz.

I went to see a play at Ford Theater (Little Shop of Horrors). It was a little bit weird to sit in a theater with a picture of Abraham Lincoln in one of the balconies and knowing he was killed there. It shouldn't be weird, right? But it was.

Another night after class I walked about a million miles! I went to see an exhibit of the Terra Cotta Warriors at the National Geographic Museum. It was interesting to see the traveling exhibit after I'd already been to Xi'an. The traveling exhibit was great but the actual dig site is MUCH cooler. After the exhibit I walked over to the monuments. It had been a couple of years since I went to the Jefferson Memorial and I'd never been to FDR's Memorial so I walked there too. Later I ended up walking across the Potomac towards a Metro station that was closed (closed at 7 pm every night). So, then I walked back across the Potomac, back down the Mall to another Metro stop to get back to my hotel. I figured it out later and it was really 8 miles!! And that was after 4:00 in the afternoon!

It's I stayed an extra day in the city to play. I got up early in the morning and headed up to the Library of Congress to see the building. AMAZING!!!!!!!!! I'd never been there before but I'd really like to go back when I can get more time. It's an incredible building and the books!! Tons of them.

I also went to see the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. This is one amazing country we live in, you

know?

After a quick stop at the Holocaust Museum - I didn't have time to go inside. I just walked through Daniel's story (for kids) and a special exhibit they had on military propaganda. (Fascinating stuff!) Then I headed back to the hotel for my suitcase and caught my flight home.

I actually really liked traveling by myself. I could go where I wanted, eat what I wanted, stay as long as I wanted. There wasn't any worrying about whether people were bored or annoyed or frustrated or whatever. It was great! By the time I got home, I was so excited to talk to someone that I was talking a mile a minute with everyone I knew! :)

I know I'm a dork but.....

2010-03-20T23:49:00.004-06:00

I couldn't help but share pictures of a new past time I've discovered. My friend Jennie Prue loves pizza and loves cupcakes so for her birthday, I thought I'd combine the two. Pizza cupcakes, you ask? That sounds disgusting! But these turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself:The cupcakes are pretty normal - just a boxed cake mix with a semi-homemade strawberry filling and store-bought cream cheese frosting. But the pizza....that's where my genius comes into play. :) The "crust" is a shortbread cookie with strawberry jam "pizza sauce." Coconut makes excellent "cheese" and then I sliced red vine rope as "pepperoni." Pretty darn cute, don't you think? And Prue loved them too. I think she wasn't quite sure about the pizza cupcakes beforehand but once I explained what they were she was all over it. :)

And here's project number two: A sunflower cake! The cake's a yellow cake with a pudding filling frosted with chocolate frosting. Then there's some peeps to make the petals and chocolate chips as the seeds. I'm taking it to family dinner tomorrow - I hope it tastes ok. My mom loves peeps though so she can't hate it too much, right?

Curling for Dummies

2010-03-07T01:42:00.004-07:00

Are you ready for the next segment of Kasey's crazy life? A couple of months ago, I took a curling lesson at the Olympic Oval with some friends. It was a lot of fun. Then last month I went to a curling match at the Olympics. So, what's the next step in my curling crusade? Oh, why not get a couple of friends together and enter an amateur curling tournament? Tonight at 6:30, Dallas, Dustin, Ina, and I, signed up for our very first curling tournament. There were some crazy teams. One team had matching green jackets and I was a bit intimidated for awhile until I found out they've only played together 3 times! There was one team - the black unicorns - with uniforms and a fan club!! They were super obnoxious and guess who we played right off the bat! Oh, that's right, the black unicorns. We lost MISERABLY!! In fact, our only goal for the night was to score a point and we failed. :( We had a couple of really great shots that got knocked out of play at the last possible second. But it was sure a lot of fun and we're definitely going back for another round!!

Olympics 2010

2010-02-26T00:27:00.007-07:00

Last month my friend Emily called me and asked if I'd be interested in going to Vancouver to see the Olympics. She had been working with a Canadian friend of hers to get tickets and her boyfriend had planned to go with her but ended up not being able to take time off work. So, I got to go in his place!! We went to a couple of events - Russia vs. Czech Republic men's hockey and mens curling. The energy at the events is amazing!! The fans might not be cheering for their own country but they aren't afraid to yell loud when something exciting happens!!

We also watched the USA vs. Canada game in a restaurant with a bunch of Canadians and it was incredible. Those Canadian fans were determined that they were going to slaughter us but we sure showed them! They kept getting quieter and quieter as the night went on. :) Canadians sure love their hockey. Everywhere we went there were TVs with the hockey games on (even McDonalds had a couple of TVs in it!) and we watched along with the best of them. If I weren't a hockey fan before, I definitely am now!

There sure were a lot of people in Vancouver this last week. Everywhere we went there were lines of people waiting for something. We went early in the morning (8 am!) to stand in line at the zip line and it was already about 8 hours long!! (We didn't wait.) There was a 4 hour line to see the Olympic medals at the Royal Mint, 2-3 hours for skate rentals at the outdoor ice rink, and even a line to get into the official Olympic store! But we did

find time to wait in a few lines:
- The Ontario pavilion. We waited about an hour to see a 6 minute 4d video about the province of Ontario. It was actually a really cool movie but not exactly worth the wait.

- The Russian pavilion. Russia is hosting the 2014 Olympics and they had a huge exhibit with free Russian treats, Russian dancers, and a Russian movie with a plot that was VERY similar to Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.

- The Olympic Store. I know, I know. It's ridiculous but we actually waited about 45 minutes to get into the store full of official Olympic memorabilia. Emily and I both wanted those super cute red mittens everyone seems to have in Vancouver but they were all out.

- The Saskatchewan pavilion. Definitely not worth it. It was the first line we stood in and we picked it because it was moving pretty fast and wasn't too long. Turns out?? There was a reason it wasn't very long! We ended up in this really cool air-filled dome and were assaulted by marketing professionals from the lentil, canola oil, and tourism industries of Saskatchewan. :)

Oh, and I did turn 30 while I was there. It was a great way to celebrate a big birthday!

Snowshoeing

2010-01-31T01:02:00.003-07:00

It's that time again. There's snow on the ground, inversion in the air, and beautiful mountains to climb. So, I've broken out the snowshoes again and it's great. I love that Utah has some beautiful places to hike to - and the best part is that they're so close!! New Year's Day we went up Big Cottonwood canyon with a bunch of friends. Last weekend after all the big storm, I went with my friend Wendy up Nef's Canyon. Less known - except to the dog lovers. If you haven't been snowshoeing, you should DEFINITELY give it a try!! You'll love it.

Dallas

2010-01-31T00:49:00.003-07:00

I went to Dallas a couple of weeks ago to visit my friend Tara. I met Tara while "Singin' In The Rain" a couple years ago. She and her husband and her new baby moved to Dallas about 6 months ago. I had some frequent flyer miles to use, it's freezing in Utah, and I'd never been to Dallas so I decided to go visit. Turns out, Dallas is a fun place. We did some shopping, went to the 6th floor museum where Lee Harvey Oswald shot JFK, and FROZE the entire time!! Dallas was hit by some freak winter storm and it was freezing!!! I tried running outside one morning and I only made it about 20 minutes before I had to go inside. My arms were bright red and my hands didn't thaw for about a half hour. :) Don't worry though, the next week? It was 55 degrees!

Dallas had some really great old buildings to look at. I didn't take many pictures (weird but true) but it was fun to see them. My favorite was this building - "The Old Red Museum." The inside didn't have anything to write home about but the outside was gorgeous. It was a quick trip - Wednesday to Saturday - but I had a great time. Thanks Tara!!

2009 In Review (Part 1)

2010-01-02T01:26:00.006-07:00

2009 sure flew by!! I thought I'd do a quick recap for anyone who's interested in seeing how I spent mine. :)

January - I spent a lot of time playing in the snow in January. I went "yurting" and slept in a snow cave. I also did lot of snowshoeing (New Year's Day, Donut Falls by the light of the full moon, etc.) I didn't lose any toes to frostbite though it was touch and go for awhile. :)

February was a great month - I went cross country skiing to celebrate a friend's birthday, went to a hockey game to celebrate mine, and spent a long, relaxing weekend down in St. George with some of my favorite people.

March - I went to Hawaii for the very first time!! The weather was horrible (we only had two half days of sun the whole time we were there!) but it was still really pretty. I went on my very first helicopter ride, spent some time with some great people, and almost saw the filming of an episode of Lost while we were there.

April - I went to my first Bee's game of the season, saw Wicked for the third time, and watched as the Jazz miraculously made it to the playoffs. I actually got to go to two playoff games against the Lakers. It's AMAZING to be in that arena during a game. You can't believe how loud it gets in there!! The fans were insanely loud. It was fun to get excited when they won and heartbreaking when they lost.

2009 In Review (Part 2)

2010-01-02T00:54:00.006-07:00

May - I went to a friend's cabin and discovered a love for golfing and tennis. I also sprained my ankle for the first time ever. It was so bad that I actually called in sick to work because I couldn't drive! I went to Denver to visit my friend Paul and had a great time in a new city. I also went to Rocky Mountain Raceway for the Jet Engine races and probably lost about 50% of my hearing. It was definitely a once in a lifetime experience.

June - June was quite the busy month. I went to the Strawberry Days Rodeo for yummy strawberries and cream, I drove 10 hours and then hiked 10 miles to spend time at Havasupai Falls in the Grand Canyon, I went golfing in St. George with the family, and saw some great fireworks (complete with a Neil Diamond impersonator!)

July - I went camping at Flaming Gorge with some friends for the 4th of July weekend. I also went river rafting in Moab for a ward activity, drove seven hours in one day all over the state to see a friend get married, and I hiked the Subway down in Zion. The Subway is a slot canyon that's gorgeous!! We hiked about 8 miles through a river. I had to do a little bit of repelling and took a TON of pictures.

August - August was another busy month (are you surprised??) Bees games, a dutch oven cookoff, camping with the family at Trial Lake, more golfing, and the Brad Paisley concert.