Danny and Rachel

Phone Photo Dump

2012-02-11T21:44:00.001-07:00

I looked through the pictures on my phone and realized they were kind-of building up. Some are pretty old, some are pretty new. It's fun to look back at a lot of this stuff, especially in since most of them were taken in Utah.

HANAair Professional Hair Dryer Review

2012-02-08T13:38:00.004-07:00

Disclosure: The HANAair Professional Hair Dryer was sent to me in exchange for a personal review. All opinions are 100% mine.

A little while back I was contacted by a representative from Misikko to review their top hair dryer - the HANAair. I was a little skeptical; I mean c'mon, a hair dryer? I believe the quality of straightners can make a difference, but a hair dryer? However, I was assured that this dryer was top notch - the best of the best. It also helped that my $10 hair dryer from Wal-Mart had recently started shooting sparks out of it. So I took them up on their offer.

When I got the box, I was super excited. The thing was big. I have to give props to the people from Misikko - they included the hair dryer, a detachable nozzle, shampoo and conditioner from Paul Mitchell, a heat shield serum, a sleeping mask, an eyelash curler, lip gloss, nail files, a heat proof mat for my flat iron, flower bath soap thingies, this cute little monkey plush toy... they went all out. I'm all about presentation, and they made a dang good first impression. Even the box inside the packing box was pretty and sleek. Well done, Misikko, well done.

The first time I used it I used everything at once - the shampoo, conditioner, straightner, etc. My hair was shiny sleek and so soft. I wasn't sure if it was the dryer or the products I put in my hair, so I decided to use the hair dryer, just the hair dryer, for the next few days. I used it, tried out the different settings, and even went back to my old hair dryer for a few days to make sure I was really seeing what it could do.

The Result?

I love it.

It took a while. I wasn't used to more than an "on" switch and the whole thing seemed just so dang fancy, but I feel like I just stepped out of a hair salon everytime I use it. Here's a breakdown of my personal pros and cons for the product:

PROS:

1. It smooths out my hair

I honestly don't need a straightner on my hair after I've used the HANAair dryer. It smooths my hair like nothing else. I've tried that a million times with my cheap hair dryers, with roundbrushes and everything, but I've never had hair sit as well in place as I've had with this thing.

2. It doesn't feel like it's damaging my hair

I've never really felt like my old hair dryers damaged my hair, but again, this goes with #1 - my hair is just so smooth and it feels so healthy.

3. The cord is super long

A lot of the reviews I read hated how long the cord is (and it is looong) but I love that it gives me more freedom to go where I want while I blow dry my hair. Honestly I could probably plug it up in our bathroom and sit on our bed and it would still reach fine

CONS:

1. The price

It retails for $334.99. What?!?! Right now, though, it's on sale for $194.99. But still... so expensive.

2. It never gets hot enough

It frustrated me at first that the hair dyer doesn't seem to get hot enough. My old hair dryer got super hot and dried my hair super quick. But, then I realized, it's probably a good thing that it doesn't get super hot - it means it's not damaging my hair as much and it's retaining a lot of moisture. This is really more of a pro, but it took me a while to get use to it.

3. It doesn't dry my hair as fast

The dryer is suppose to increase drying time by up to 60%. Most of the reviews I read from other bloggers like myself talked about how fast it dried their hair compared to old dryers. For me, though, it takes a little while longer than I'm use to. Not much, but just a little. I think that's because I feel like there's so much moisture left in my hair I can't get it dry enough with this new product. However, I'd still choose it over my old dryer.

I'm really impressed with my new hair dryer and I really do love it. Misikko's got some great products out there, including CHI Hair Products - my straightner is a CHI. I've been using it for about 4 years now and it's still going strong. They've also got some other great professional hair straighteners and the best hair dryers. Definitely worth checking out.

Los Hermanos

2012-01-25T14:08:00.002-07:00

One good thing about moving is that you have a pretty good excuse to get together with lots of friends you haven't seen in a while. We got the old Los Hermanos crew back together on Friday to have one last shindig before Danny and I take off. I'm positive, though, that it won't be the last time we all get together.

I'm amazed at how well all of us have stayed in contact. For some reason, around the two and a half years I worked there, this group just got really close. My last day was over a year ago, I think Russ has been gone for close to three years now, and the rest of us left and went our separate ways anywhere from a couple years to a few months ago. But we still hang out. From summer BBQ's to our Los Halloween parties, we still get together. Working at Los Hermanos was such a huge part of Provo for me and I'm really glad that I got to be a part of it.

Change in Plans

2012-01-09T22:28:00.002-07:00

This post could also be titled: "Good-bye, Utah" or maybe "Hello, Arizona."

So if you've recently heard some rumors floating around, Danny and I have been trying to make a decision. Move to Arizona now, or wait until med school starts. The original plan was to move to Arizona in July, right before classes started. Long story short: Danny lost his job at the end of the year after his company did some downsizing, and at the beginning of this year he recieved a job offer down in Phoenix. One that would let him work up until his classes started. I talked to one of my jobs (I have two) and because it's a corporate company, I can transfer down to one of their locations in Phoenix. After a lot of thinking and praying and debating, we've decided to make the move.

We leave in 3 weeks... wait, 3 weeks?!

For Danny's job, the sooner we can move the better. We've already told our landlord (so glad we're on month-to-month right now), I made the announcement official at the office today, and we've already picked up a ton of moving boxes. We'll be out of here by February 1st.

So, dear friends in Utah! We know this announcement is sudden, but we would love to see many of you before we leave! Let's do dinner/lunch/a double date/game night or whatever in the next 3 weeks! I still can't believe we're going... I'm excited, but Utah has really become our home. I'm really, really, really (x a million) going to miss this place. But I'll save that sappy post for later, 'cause I'm sure (positive) I'll write one.

Totally bummed that we're going to miss out on weather like this. Snow, will you please come before we leave? We'd love one more good snow day.

new year. new resolutions.

2012-01-06T10:00:00.000-07:00

Last year's resolutions:
1. Don't change blog design for 6 months ............. check
2. No impromptu chocolate runs ............. check-ish
no caffeine ............. fail
no french fries for an entire year ............. CHECK
3. Almost quit facebook ............. check-ish
4. Read scriptures/write in journal every day ............. fail
5. Escercise at least 3 times a week ............. fail

2012 resolutions:
1. No soda for a year
2. Run a half marathon
3. Write in journal 3x a week

.........................................................................................................................

I've decided that I like a shorter list of goals/resolutions. I've also decided that I like my new year's resolutions to be more "to-do" list oriented. And after going off french fries for a year, I kinda like the idea of giving up something each year. Danny decided to join me; for 2012 he's going to go off candy.

A picture of my first french fry in over a year - January 2, 2012 at Red Robin. It tasted so good. And then I had a second one. And then it didn't taste so good. I only had two and a half before I had to stop. I thought I'd love being able to eat them again, but what I love even more is that, after a year, I don't really love them at all.

Kymbra's Wedding

2012-01-05T10:00:00.002-07:00

My friend, Kymbra, recently got married this last weekend. It was a really beautiful reception and she made a gorgeous bride. We went out to dinner a few weeks back for our other friend's (Jennifer) birthday and met Kymbra's fiancee for the first time. Danny and Justin hit it off; Justin applied to DO schools, too, and had just been excepted to one in Florida. It was right before we found out Danny was excepted to Midwestern, so it was nice to have someone to talk to who was going through the same thing we were. Kymbra and I were talking about how it was too bad that we'll be wives of DO students on opposite sides of the country - it'd be fun if they were going to the same school! Oh well, they'll love Florida. I was born in Panama City, my Mom's family still lives there, my sister and her family live on the LDS church ranch in St. Cloud, and Danny and I were married in Orlando. We're pretty fond of the Sunshine State ourselves.

Kymbra had her bachelorette party a few weeks before. Jen and I went shopping together for her; it's so much fun shopping for new brides. I love the whole newlywed phase and how giddy happy the couple is. I remember how it was with me and Danny and I love seeing friends go through that same wonderful part of their lives. Marriage is one of the best things in the world, and being together forever is one of the sweetest promises we could ever be given.

One of my favorite videos about love, marriage, and the promise of forever can be found here

Georgia, You're Always On My Mind

2012-01-04T11:00:00.000-07:00

Here's the video of our Georgia Christmas vacation along with a few more photos from our trip. I miss my family so much already; I can't wait until we get to go back.

Hunting

2012-01-03T21:54:00.001-07:00

One thing I was really looking forward to during our trip back home was going hunting. I love the outdoors, but I particularly love the outdoors in Georgia. The trees, the green, the woods... it's so serene out there and everything feels so alive.

I've had my hunter's license since I was 12-years-old, and my sister was only 9 when she got hers with me. Our final test scores were the highest of the class - we beat every single boy. I'm still pretty proud of that fact.

On Monday afternoon, before we got ready to go to Lights of the South, Daddy took me, Danny, and Rebecca over to our friend's property where we would be hunting. He had recently moved his deer stands, so Dad wanted to scout them out and figure where to put us. He found a double seater and had Danny and I climb up there and try it out. He gave us his .30-06 and then drove off to find my sister a spot and scout out some more stands. We were only up there about an hour before it got dark and we had to take off to get ready for dinner.

The next morning, we woke up at 5am to rain pounding outside my window. Great. Stormy weather can sometimes be the best kind of weather to hunt in, but it doesn't make it any more fun. Rebecca actually bowed out; it was too early and too cold for her. So it ended up just being me, my Dad, and Danny. Dad put us up into a condominium - a nice, boarded up stand that hung about 20 ft. off the ground. We sat there, dozing off, waiting for the sun to come up, while the rain pounded down on the roof above us. It was really nice, actually. I love the sound of rain and wind - it's calming. It also helped that I had on a pair of shorts, two pairs of sweat pants, a pair of jeans, 3 t-shirts, a cardigan, and two jackets. I was nice and toasty even though it was absolutely freezing outside.

One downside to hunting when it's a little too stormy is the crazy wind. Deer don't like a ton of noise, so they will hunker down and not move until the woods get quieter. We were up there for about five hours and saw nothing but a big group of wild turkeys. Too bad it wasn't turkey season. And poor Danny, he had such a hard time being still. I kept feeling the condo shake every now and then and I would think it was the wind, but I'd turn around and Danny would be bouncing on his legs. Besides the rain, freezing cold, not and not being able to really talk or move, I think he enjoyed his first hunting trip.

Later that day, after it had stopped raining, Dad and Rebecca went back out. I was too comfortable and too tired to go with them, but they came back an hour or so later. The wind was so bad that their tree stands were shaking in the air. Rebecca is terrified of heights, so she got down from hers real quick. I wish I could have gone out more; hunting is just something I grew up with. My Dad graced us with a few of his hunting stories on the way and back from our trip out to the woods, some I knew by heart and some I hadn't heard before. I love listening to his stories. One day I'm going to record him telling them and write a book about it.

Going back to talking about how much I love Georgia outdoors, I'm going to grace you with a few pictures of my backyard. Before we left on Wednesday, Danny and I took a little trip down to the creek on the edge of my parent's property. We walked around and just soaked up the warmth and the beauty of it all. I love that my parents live here and that I got to grow up somewhere this beautiful.

Lights of the South

2012-01-02T11:05:00.003-07:00

Lights of the South is a huge Christmas light display right outside of Augusta. Every year, they decorate acres of land in thousands and thousands of lights. Usually, they clump the lights together in certain themed areas; we passed by a fantasy theme (with Peter Pan and Snow White), a military theme (with a huge American flag you could see from the freeway), a superhero theme (spiderman and batman's bat symbol were there), and a Santa Claus theme, to name a few. You can walk around and see all of the lights, but we opted for a hayride. Much more comfy, especially in since it'd been raining all day and the ground was muddy.

I loved seeing all of the lights and wonderful displays, but my favorite by far was the castle - the thing was huge! It was big enough for the entire hay ride to pass right through it! I have no idea how long it took them to put it up, but it was gorgeous. When we passed it on the hayride, the castle peeked out at us in between all of these gorgeous, tall trees decked out in lights. It was really magical. They even had Cinderella's carriage that you could sit in and take pictures with. I'd actually never been to Lights of the South before, so I was really glad we were able to go, especially in since Danny and I didn't make it up to Temple Square this year to see all of the Christmas lights. This definitely helped make up for it.

Before we went to Lights of the South, we stopped at one of my Dad's favorite barbeque places, Sticky Fingers. Mm, I love good barbeque. I forgot how much I missed real southern food. Every morning, my Mom and Dad would get up and cook us grits, eggs, bacon, and crispy potatoes. That is seriously one of my favorite things I look forward to every time I go home - waking up in the morning and smelling that wonderful deliciousness wafting up the stairs. It's like the official start for my trips back home.

And of course, for Danny, his Georgia vacation starts when he finally gets his hands on some Zaxby's. We went there his required two times, plus some. Zaxby's is every Georgia missionary's favorite food spot. Danny texted all of his old mission buddies when we stopped there - there was a lot of crying and sad faces sent back to him.

Christmas Day

2012-01-01T13:27:00.003-07:00

Didn't my Mom do such a great job at decorating our tree? It was so gorgeous!

In since Christmas fell on a Sunday this year, we decided to go to Church and wait to open our presents until after we got back home. I was all for it; I didn't really want to get up extra early just to open presents. And my nephew, Landon, is just young enough that he didn't really know what was going on anyways, so we could get away with sleeping in a little later. We didn't get to sleep in too late, though; my Dad had to get to church early to set up the chapel and my Mom and I had to practice singing for the Christmas program. Church was nice, short, and sweet; we sang a lot of Christmas songs, listened to some beautiful thoughts given by members of our ward, and then we headed back home to celebrate Christmas with our families.

Danny and I waited until the last minute to wrap presents... again. I tried wrapping everyone's presents in kraft paper this year. My Mom thought it was a little weird that I was using brown paper as gift wrap, but with a little bit of embellishing they turned out exactly the way I'd pictured them.

Here's our tree, loaded with presents. All of the big ones are Landon's - I was so excited for him to open them! I think we had more fun than he did, watching his face as he handed out gifts to everyone and then finally got to open his own.

We took lots of pictures by the Christmas tree, all dressed in our Sunday best. Although as soon as the pictures were done I ran upstairs and changed into pajamas. It just doesn't feel like Christmas without opening presents in your pj's.

Christmas was so wonderful this year. Danny and I agreed on what we would get each other, but he snuck in a few surprises for me - and I accidentally found out what they all were. Sorry, honey! I think everyone got what they wanted this year. My Mom has always said that her only Christmas wish was to have everyone home for the holidays. I never really understood that (I mean, come on, my Christmas wishes can often be filled with sparkly, expensive things), but now that I'm older and not living closer to my family, I completely understand what she means. Having us all together really made it one of the best Christmases.

The rest of the day was spent in a food coma. My Mom loaded our stockings with candy - white chocolate for me and Sour Patch Kids for Danny. Later that night, we had a huge Christmas dinner with turkey and dressing and green bean casserole and buttered rolls. We ended up passing out all over the house as we each drifted off to sleep. When we woke up, we watched The Grinch with Jim Carrey (love that movie) and played board games until it was time for bed. It was a perfect Christmas.

I had Danny pose beside the tree because the lights were so pretty. I think he said this was his Brad Pitt sexy look. I think it looks more like his Zoolander face. I can't always tell the difference between the two.

Friends, Friends, Friends

2011-12-31T12:00:00.014-07:00

The day after Danny and I flew into Augusta, we headed up to an old favorite Mexican restaurant and met up with two of my best friends to have dinner. Me, Teena, and Stacie were inseparable back in the day. We were in the same ward back in Augusta - Stacie was the Bishop's daughter and she and Teena had practically been best friends since birth. When I moved to Augusta at the end of my freshman year, it didn't take long for us all to become best friends.

The next night, Nada, one of my really good friends from high school who just got married, threw a little Christmas party at her and her husband's place. It was so nice to get together with so many girls from high school! I hadn't seen most of them since graduation four years ago! It's crazy to see where we're at now - most of us have graduated from college, a couple of us are married, Allegra's moving to New Zealand in a few weeks, Gloria is done with her first semester in med school, Sam is subbing at our old high school... I'm telling you, this was one good crowd to be around, and still is. I'm sad that I don't get to keep in touch and visit with these girls as much anymore, but it was so fantastic getting together one more time!

I got to see a lot of old friends from Augusta during this trip. There are still a few people I would've liked to have seen and visited with; I ran into one or two while I was out Christmas shopping with my family, and it was definitely nice seeing their faces and catching up for a few minutes. I'm hoping that the next time we come out to Georgia we can get ahold of a few more friends we missed out on this time around.

It was kind-of funny, though, introducing Danny as my husband. I remember how weird it was when we were first married. I'd say something like, "Oh, this is my... husband. Yeah, husband. I'm a wife now. That's really weird. Sorry, I'm still not use to this whole marriage thing yet." Now, it's not strange at all. We've been married for two and a half years. He's my husband. I'm his wife. And I've noticed that I say husband before I say Danny - instead of saying, "This is Danny, my husband," I usually introduce him with: "This is my husband, Danny." A couple of people didn't know I was married at all. Someone thought he was my boyfriend. Allegra said it was weird hearing me say "husband" all night. Even though we dated for two years before we got married, I was one of the first girls in my high school class to tie the knot. Now I think there are at least 10 of us who are either married or engaged, which is kind-of a lot when you consider there were only 88 people in my graduating class. It's so exciting, seeing everyone and hearing about what they're up to in their new stages of life! And Allegra and I decided that when she moved to New Zealand, Danny and I would move to Spain for the summer so we could visit each other and swap houses and stuff. Maybe one day it'll happen.

ps- Did anyone notice that we're wearing short sleeves, fip flops, and dresses? I kid you not, it was like in the 70s while we were down there. I couldn't wear half of the clothes I'd bought because they were all long-sleeved and too warm. Ah, Georgia. I miss that weather.

Georgia for the Holidays

2011-12-30T11:00:00.022-07:00

This year, Danny and I were able to spend Christmas down in Georgia! I was so excited to go. I miss Georgia and I miss my family like crazy! Danny and I haven't been back in two and a half years - since our wedding! So this trip was long overdue.

Our holiday vacation started on Wednesday night. I took on a little too much work the day before - we ended up packing and running trips to Walmart at 11pm the night before we had to leave. We also made Christmas treats for my office that night - I don't think we even went to bed until 2am. It's just not the best idea to try to cram everything you need to do on the night before you leave on a trip. A lesson I never seem to learn.

We had a layover in Phoenix and a layover in Charlotte. We were exhausted - I tried to sleep as much as I could. And you better believe I brought my sleeping mask. Best thing ever when trying to sleep on a plane. That, and a neck rest. Danny had fun snapping pics of me as I dozed off.

We didn't have the best of luck with traveling this year. We were supposed to land in Augusta at 11:30pm on Wednesday. Every time I powered up my phone after turning it off from a flight, we had a lovely voicemail telling us that our plane from Charlotte to Augusta had been delayed a little bit. With every new voicemail, our delay got longer and longer. When we finally arrived in Charlotte, our plane wasn't even scheduled to take off until 1:30am. So we waited. And waited. And basically starved because every single store in the Charlotte airport was closed. The food we did manage to get was expensive and disgusting. And the people in Charlotte just weren't all that nice. The second we landed in Augusta, the people there chatted and laughed and joked around with us. It felt so good to be home in a place where people are just so darn nice.

On our way back home to Utah, we had another layover in Charlotte and one in Houston. Our flight from Augusta to Charlotte was bumpy. It's only an hour flight, and the planes are always small. So small, you have to walk out onto the airport tarmac just to get on the plane. At one point, when I was halfway dozing off, our plane jerked and fell for a second. Like turn-your-stomach-on-a-rollercoaster jerk and fall. A couple people laughed nervously while a few just gripped onto their seats a little too hard (like me). Danny looked over at me and said, "I've flown a hundred times, but that is the first time I've ever been scared."

When we finally landed in Charlotte, we went straight to our plane and boarded. All of our layovers gave us just enough time to get off one plane and get on another. After sitting at the gate for a while, the pilot came on the intercom and announced that the flaps on our plane weren't working and that they would keep us updated with what was going on as mechanics looked it over. Um, talk about scary. We said lots of prayers our whole trip to Georgia, both there and back. After a while, the mechanics decided that it wasn't safe for us to fly, so we all had to get off that plane and go to another gate in the airport to board another plane. We ended up taking off almost two hours after we were originally scheduled. So, needless to say, we missed our connecting flight in Houston. Danny and I decided that the Charlotte airport just isn't a good airport for us.

There were five of us in all that missed connecting flights. We were in the airport for probably another hour while figuring out what was going on with getting new flights. The airport ended up putting us in a hotel for the night (nice) but did not give us any food vouchers (not so nice). We went to bed at 1am and woke up 4 hours later to call customer service and figure out when we were flying out and what was going on. Finally, about 12 hours after we were supposed to be home, we landed in Utah. It was exhausting, tiring, and slightly amusing. Oh the joys of travel. We're glad to be home, but we miss our family. We're so thankful for the holiday season, for the time to celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and that we were able to spend it with those we love. Danny and I were talking about how we've lived in so many places and we don't know where we're going to eventually call home, but we know that our true home will always be with our families.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

2011-12-29T18:56:00.003-07:00

A few highlights from this past year:

Danny getting accepted to Midwestern University in Phoenix for med school (his top choice)
Rachel graduating from BYU with her Bachelor's and Danny walking after graduating in December
Going to Lake Powell for the first time, and Rachel experiencing Disneyland for the first time
Danny going hunting for the first time, ever!
Having the Musgrove family spend a week in Utah, then getting to spend a week with them in Georgia for the holidays
Celebrating our two year anniversary

We're excited for this upcoming year and all it has to bring. We wish you all the best in 2012!

Ward Christmas Party

2011-12-11T01:10:00.000-07:00

We had our church Christmas party tonight. We did "breakfast for dinner," so we all dressed up in our pj's and ate tons of eggs, hash browns, stuffed french toast, and bacon and sausage. Santa came and stopped by to say hey to the kids (I was in the bathroom when he walked into the gym - I heard one little girl scream from all the way down the hall), we tied blankets and donated canned food for a service project, and then we had a nice little talent show from some of our ward members. It was a fun little get-together. And I'm still recovering from all that bacon I ate. Probably will be for a while.

guess who got accepted to med school?

2011-12-06T13:12:00.000-07:00

this guy.

and we're pretty dang excited about it.

(ps- i wasn't there when he read the letter, but I'm pretty sure his expression looked something like this)

funnies

2011-12-04T01:06:00.001-07:00

I've been in a blogging mood lately. And, of course, when I come across goodies this good, I just have to share. If you haven't heard of Kid History yet, shame on you. Just kidding. But seriously, it's the best stuff ever. And today they uploaded their latest and greatest Christmas episode:

This list is called "23 Adult Truths." I found it the other day on facebook, I think. They are pretty funny and oh so true. Here are my favorites:

1. Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.

3. I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

4. How the crap are you suppose to fold a fitted sheet?

5. Was learning cursive really necessary?

6. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on #5. I'm pretty sure I know how to get out of my own neighborhood.

7. I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind-of tired.

8. Bad decisions make good stories.

9. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren't going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.

10. I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page technical report that I swear I did not make any changes to.

11. I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

12. How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear or understand a word they said?

13. I love the sense of camaraderie when an enitre line of cars team up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers and sisters!

14. Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty and you can wear them forever.

15. Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and pinning the tail on the donkey - but I'd bet everyone can find and push the snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time, every time.

thanksgiving

2011-12-01T17:35:00.000-07:00

Thanksgiving was really nice this year. Danny and I spent time with my Aunt Sandra (on my Mom's side), all of her kids, and all of their kids. It was nice to sit around the table, talking and eating, getting to know each other a little bit better. Afterwards, we headed up to my sister's in-law's house. We've practically adopted each other as family. We ate and ate and ate, and then talked, watched movies, played games, and even snuck in a little nap as we slipped into a food coma. Thanksgiving this year was a pretty big hit, I'd say.

10 things I'm grateful for this holiday season:

1. My husband

2. Family

3. The Gospel

4. Getting to spend Christmas in Georgia (cannot.wait.)

5. Med school interviews for the hubs (so proud of him)

6. Friends

7. Rainy days

8. Scarfs/boots/sweaters to keep me warm

9. New dressers (i'm in love)

10. Our home and the life we've built here

obsessed

2011-11-27T18:48:00.000-07:00

So I was at my friend Elise's house at the end of last week. Danny and I were returning some books she and her husband, Kyle, let us borrow on our roadtrip down to Vegas. We got to talking about books and what we've read lately and I mentioned that there was a book series I had been meaning to start for a while now. They've been super big these past couple of years and I had heard all sorts of hype about them. Plus, I heard the first movie was coming out soon. Elise mentioned that she had the first book and asked if I wanted to borrow it. I said yes, took the book home, and read the entire thing that night.

I - am - obsessed.

After I finished the first book, I checked every library in every town remotely close to me. Both the 2nd and 3rd books were either checked out or reserved until the end of the year. I texted around until my friend, Kendra, let me know she had the rest of the series. I literally locked myself in the bedroom and read and read until I was done with all three books. I went out on Black Friday weekend and bought the entire trilogy, which, for me, is big. I NEVER buy a book or a movie unless I am more than 100% sure I will want to read/watch it again. Danny and I own all of 3 movies and have barely any books on our bookshelf because we watch/read something once and don't really care to watch/read it again for a long time. Guys, I've already read this entire series - twice. I have never read a book and then immediately re-read it after I was done. Ever. But, I think it's safe to say that I am officially obsessed with the Hunger Games trilogy.

A few more things on the movie/series in general:

1. Movie Peeta is perfect. I have never ever looked at a movie version of a book character and thought, "That's him." But after reading the books and watching this trailer, I've decided that Josh Hutcherson IS Peeta.

2. I've decided that Peeta is my favorite literary character of all time

3. I'm not the kind of person who has favorites - I've never had a favorite book, a favorite movie, a favorite song, etc. I can now say that the Hunger Games are my favorite books. Who knows, come March I just might have a favorite movie, too.

Vegas

2011-11-07T23:05:00.001-07:00

Danny and I spent this past weekend down in Vegas to see our dear old friend, Robert, get married. Robert and Danny were mission buddies back in the day and they were also roommates at Glenwood when I was living there. In fact, I met Robert at the same time time I met Danny, out in the big field across from the football stadium. It's crazy to think that that was four and a half years ago. And even crazier to think that we're all married now!

Robert and his new wife, Shari, looked so happy. It was so great to see them in all the beaming stages of being newly married. Their reception was so lovely - I couldn't stop thinking about how it felt and how it all was those first days that we were married and we were going through the same thing. It's such a wonderful, beautiful part of your life. One of my favorite parts was dancing with Danny at the end of the night. The MC at the reception kept reminding Shari and Robert that they were so blessed to be spending the rest of their life together with their best friend. It was nice going out onto the dance floor, spinning around with Danny, realizing that I get to spend my life with my best friend, too.

We planned to make an entire weekend out of our little Vegas trip. We left on Friday and got back late Sunday night. Unfortunately, we didn't leave Provo until almost 7pm on Friday - we didn't even pull into Vegas til around midnight. We were so tired from an exhausting week of work and getting in so late (our bedtime is like 9:30) that we crashed in our hotel and slept in until almost 1pm on Saturday. The next day we took forever getting ready, headed out into Vegas to get the couple a wedding present and find out where the wedding venue was, and when we actually looked at a clock, we realized the reception was starting in our hour. So we ran back to our hotel, changed, headed back to the wedding venue, and enjoyed a lovely two and a half hours of a wonderful reception.

After the reception, though, we realized that we were going to be leaving the next day and hadn't really done a lot with our mini weekend vacation. So, we planned a night out in Vegas with Mike (another one of Danny's old mission buddies who was also rooming with Dan and Mike when we were all at Glenwood) and some of his friends. Problem was, we're old. Ok, so we're not old, but we feel old. It was way past all of our bedtimes. We all secretly wanted to cave in and be the one to suggest that we not go out, but we all felt like we'd be made fun of for being so lame. Turns out, we all just wanted to go to bed. But, we braved the night and trucked out into the heart of Vegas. Mike ended up taking us out to Freemont Street, a place Danny and I had never heard of before. ...Let's just say that I might have seen a few things that I never really want to see again. It was an experience for sure, just not one I'd really want to have again. One cool part, though, was the ceiling - the whole place was outdoors, but it had an indoor feel because there was this huge ceiling up above your head - it ran the whole length of the street and it was a gigantic TV screen. They had music videos flashing up on it, or just backgrounds going to the live bands that were playing all along the street. And they also had a zip line set up - people were constantly zipping by up above us.

After Freemont, we went to IHOP, then dropped everyone off back at the places they were staying, then went back to our hotel and crashed again. The next morning we got on the highway to leave Vegas about an hour and a half later than we had planned. We had a short drive to St. George where we stopped and visited Danny's Mom's best friend for about an hour (Danny's first friend ever was her son - they grew up together in California). Then we hopped back on the road and took off to Provo. Right after Cedar City, we ran into a huge snow storm. The side of the road was covered and the snow was just piling up - we were going 40mph in an 80mph zone. There were a couple of miles where we could barely see the road at all. So it took us almost two hours longer to get home. But we definitely made a weekend out of the whole trip. And it was a fun vacation. It's nice to get away for a bit, even if it is only for one weekend.

Halloween

2011-10-30T22:38:00.002-06:00

Danny and I had all of our Halloween festivities on Saturday night. We dressed up as Johnny Cash and June Carter. It was an easy costume that was a lot of fun. And Danny got to carry his guitar around all night. Definite plus for him.

Our first stop was our ward's Halloween party held down at our Bishop's barn. We had a chili cook-off, minute-to-win-it games, and hayrides going on throughout the night. While we were out on one of the hayrides, Danny lightly serenaded us with some Johnny Cash tunes. We wanted to learn a Johnny and June duet, but I had just barely gotten my voice back from a bad case of strep that knocked me out all week. I was just glad there was so much food at the party - it was nice being able to finally swallow and eat again.

After the ward party we stopped by at our annual Los Halloween Party. We pigged out on candy and food, played a couple of games and battled it out on Guitar Hero, told some scary urban legends and ghost stories, and found out who knew the most about zombies and vampires and werewolves, etc. I love our Los get-togethers; these guys are always the best to hang out with.

And best costume of the night? The Blatters, hands down. I mean, come on - Leslie Knope and Ron Swanson... does it get any better than that?

Fall Festival Day 2011

2011-10-16T22:27:00.000-06:00

While my sister and nephew were out here, we decided to have a huge fall festival day. We started out by trying to go to Hee Haw Farms and do some family friendly activities with the little guy, but it rained all day. It was muddy and cold and they had half of the activities shut down. So, we planned it for another day. Danny and I actually started the activities early; on Sunday we drove up into the canyon and walked a couple of miles down the Provo River Trail. The leaves haven't all completely changed yet, but it was gorgeous. And it was that perfect fall weather - slightly chilly, cool, and crisp.

Monday was our big "fall festival" day. Danny started out by sending me a bouquet of fall flowers. He had them delivered to my work. It was so sweet - the card read "To get our 'fall' day started off right. Love, Danny." I had those beauties sitting on my desk all week. It made me smile to come in every day and see them there.

After work, Danny and I drove up to West Jordan to meet Rebecca and Mac. We went out by the Jordan River and took some gorgeous pictures with some tall wheat-looking stalks. It reminded me of the engagement pictures Danny and I took out by Utah Lake. It was so pretty. After our little picture taking session, we drove to Starbucks. This was essential to our fall festival day - well, for me at least. Any time I want to do any type of fall activity, I have to start it out with Starbucks and a Caramel Apple Spice drink. Or a White Hot Chocolate. Or a Salted Caramel regular hot chocolate. As soon as the weather starts getting chilly and holiday season starts up, Starbucks is my first stop. It just puts me in that fall/holiday mood.

After our Starbucks stop, we drove down to Cornbelly's. I've never been to Thanksgiving Point during Halloween. I was so excited to go and see what they had there. It really didn't dissapoint. It was pretty chilly and a little drizzly, but that just put us more into the fall mood. We splurged a little and got the "best deal" to get in. We went and got lost in the corn maze, we shot pumpkins and corn ears out of cannons, we rode a mechanical bull, we went rock climbing and climbed through some weird cave thing, we took pictures by the pumpkin tower, and we went through "Insanity Point" with a trip through a haunted corn maze.

Haha, I love this picture. We were just so excited to get our fall festival on!

We ended the night with some yummy hot chocolate. We continued our big fall festival on Tuesday by driving up to Sundance and riding the ski lifts for the Full Moon Lift Rides. It was the perfect way to end this year's fall festival. And we realized that we kind-of had one last year, too. I think I see a promising yearly tradition in the making.

Family

2011-10-16T21:37:00.001-06:00

Isn't this little guy the cutest thing, ever? We just can't get enough of him.

My sister and nephew came out to visit a couple weeks ago. Danny and I have loved having these two over; it's always nice to have extra noise in the house, especially with our little bundle-of-energy two-year-old nephew. He's such a cutie. Danny and him really bonded over this last week. He just adores his Uncle. He likes me, but "Uncuh Danee" lets him play with the guitars and take stuff out of the cupboards and go up every single escalator the mall has.

The little guy may be a Ute fan, but we still love him. Also, we're planning on getting him tons of BYU stuff for Christmas.

Uncle Danny

2011-10-11T14:02:00.000-06:00

Danny and our nephew, Landon, were having a lot of fun playing around on Photobooth. Landon would pick the effect ("that one!.. that one! yeah, Uncuh Daneee") and Danny would snap the picture.

Rebecca and I got a little jealous that they were having so much fun together. So we decided to jump in and have a little fun, too.

Danny is in this picture with us - he's just smooshed together in the middle, haha

Halloween Cruise

2011-10-04T22:54:00.002-06:00

Danny was caught a little off guard in this picture, haha

Tonight was mine and Danny's weekly date night. We've got into the habit where each date night is a suprise. Whoever is in charge for that week does all the planning without giving anything anyway. It's a lot of fun; I like being in the car not knowing where we're going until we pull in, or watching Danny try to guess what we're doing for the night while I drive around. One time we went and saw a movie in the dollar theatre and, to keep the surprise, Danny didn't watch me buy tickets or look at what door we were going through so he wouldn't know what we movie were watching until it actually came on.

This week, it was my turn. And I was coming up with nothing. I wanted to just get a redbox movie and have a stay-at-home date night, but there was nothing in there that I wanted to watch. Time was a tickin' and I still didn't have a clue as to what we were going to do. I think that's one reason why Danny likes "suprise" date nights so much - he can come up with something at the last minute and I would never know. Anyways, Danny and I put Castle on Hulu and while he was playing on the iPod, I was googling a bunch of Event Calendars for Utah County. Lo and behold, I found a "Halloween Cruise" at the CLAS Ropes Course down by Utah Lake.

It was nice and fun. And Danny didn't have the slightest clue as to where we were going - I loved that part. The cruise is definitely geared towards families with small children, but we enjoyed ourselves. The weather was absolutely perfect - it had that hint of cold just barely brushing at your face that I love so much. We waited outside, ate some Sportz Dogs (delicious!! kind-of like J Dawgs), and had some guy in a cave man costume entertain us while we waited for our boat. Once the boat came we loaded up and took a small cruise down the river. They had over 100 carved jack-o-lanterns out by the bank - some were flipped upside down so you had to look at their reflection in the water to tell what they were. They had lights, and scary sounds, and some pirate dude "attacked" the boat. It was cute. I wish I could've gotten a better picture of the lights and lanterns on the side. They were pretty cool.

It was the perfect way to start out October and the whole Halloween/Fall season. And some of the employees there told me that they around Christmas time they do Christmas cruises, too. We just might have to go back in December for that one.

Conference Weekend

2011-10-02T20:05:00.003-06:00

Thanks to my sister, Danny and I were able to attend the Sunday morning session of General Conference. I love being in the Conference Center and listening to our Prophet's voice and to the wisdom and counsel all of the inspired speakers provide to us. Every year I get more and more excited for it and every year I realize just how divinely appointed these sessions are.

And.. some wonderful news they announced in the Saturday morning session - the Provo Tabernacle is going to be rebuilt to become the second temple in Provo! I am so excited!

source

BYU vs Utah State

2011-10-01T20:34:00.005-06:00

Thanks to our good friend, Keith, we were able to attend the BYU vs Utah State game. We were up in Salt Lake when Keith called and told us he had extra tickets. By the time we left, game-day traffic had gotten pretty bad; it took us almost 2 hours to get back down to Provo. So we watched what was left of the first half at home and then ran over to the football stadium during half-time.

I haven't been to a BYU game since my sophomore year! It was crazy being out in the stadium. And coming during the second half was perfect - it turned into a great game at the end. Every time something good happened, the fans went crazy. It was awesome. Danny totally lost his voice because he was screaming so much.

And we won the game! Woo-hoo! Our seats were down by the end zone where the winning touchdown was scored. The ball glanced off of one Utah State's player's fingertips, but then a BYU player caught the ball in the end zone. The crowd went NUTS.

At the end of the game, people very slowly started to rush the field. I don't really think it was a rush-worthy game, but everyone was going anyways just for the heck of it. We figured why not? So we stepped over the fence and walked onto it, too. Now I can officially say that we've been on the BYU football field. It's been on my "things-to-do-before-I-leave-Provo" list.

While we were out on the field, we ran into JD Falslev (#12, wide receiver). He was already taking pictures with a couple of other fans, so took some with him, too.

End of Summer

2011-09-25T21:15:00.002-06:00

The first day of Fall was officially on Friday. Danny and I had three BBQ's this past weekend to squeeze in the last little bit of summer that we could.

(1) We went to one on Saturday morning with friends from our old ward before it was dissolved (even the bishop and his family showed up!)

(2) We went to another one on Saturday afternoon with Danny's friends from back home, along with their wives and kids

(3) And on Sunday evening we went to our final BBQ with friends from work

Saturday afternoon BBQ

Goodbye, summer. We had a good time. See you next year.

Clayton

2011-09-07T01:22:00.001-06:00

Danny and I just got back from a trip to Clayton, his hometown. We haven't been back since our open house in Danny's backyard two years ago! It was so nice to spend a long weekend hanging out with his family.

Every morning except the day we left, Danny and I would get up and go run a couple of miles. We wanted to keep up the exercising we've had going the last couple of weeks, and we also wanted to be able to eat pretty much anything we wanted without killing the scale when we got back. A couple of times we went out to a reservoir about 20 min. away from Dan's house. Danny and I would run the 3 miles around the lake every morning, and on one of the days we went out there Mom and Dad O'Brien came with us and we busted out the kayaks.

The whole trip was so nice and relaxing. We went golfing, out to dinner, did some shopping, walked up Mt. Diablo, hung out by the pool, and just plain enjoyed ourselves. We're already missing our family and can't wait to get back out there.

Playing "better ball" out on the golf course. The picture below is my "victory dance" after finally having hit a ball that plopped more than two feet away from me.

We went out to dinner. A lot. Did you know that in California every restaurant is required to have calories of each individual meal on their menu? The first couple of days it totally phased me and I picked the lowest calorie meal I could find. The last couple of days... eh, not so much. You kind-of learn to not look at it to keep yourself from cyring.

Walking up Mt. Diablo.

Love, me

2011-08-27T13:48:00.000-06:00

Dear morning runs:

I am really starting to like you. I'm not quite out of breath so much any more and I haven't bit hit by a car yet. Good job. ps - i appreciate the shrinking waist

Dear computer:

We're friends, I know that, but I need a break. You're just too charming. It's not you, it's me, really. Although secretly it kind-of is you.

Dear work:

Can you please not keep me out so late? My bed misses me. In fact, I think said bed cried a little when I got up this morning.

Dear future clothes:

I know you're out there. I don't appreciate the fact that the second I come to find you, you go off and hide. Please be nice and show yourself today, ok?

Dear Costa Vida:

I'm starting to have separation anxiety.

Dear kitchen:

Please clean yourself. And please convince our landlord that you really need a new floor. In fact, if you got a whole makeover I bet you'd look pretty darn spiffy.

Dear Georgia (aka #13 on that colony list):

Can you come out for a visit? I heard you missed me.

Dear breakfast food:

Who cares if we meet at 11 o'clock at night? We like each other and that's all that matters.

Dear Danny:

I love you. Lots.

Love, me

For the Very First Time in 17 Years...

2011-08-17T17:37:00.002-06:00

I am no longer a student. Straight through, from kindergarten to my senior year of college, and this is the first semester that I won't be in school. Part of me wishes I was - I wanted to go straight from high school to college, and straight from college to a grad program. But, I decided I wanted to get an MBA, and that requires a few years of post-graduate work experience. It's weird, not going school shopping and planning what I'm going to wear on that first day. It is exciting, though, to go on with the rest of our lives and plan for those next steps.

So I'm a super nostalgic person. I always get a little sentimental, even about the smallest things. Seeing all of these new and younger kids moving into Provo, getting so excited for college, hanging out and making new friends, excited to walk through those doors on their first day of class, so giddy for that first date.... I've been a little bit sad. Super nostalgic. So, being the great husband that he is, Danny took me on a BYU date. We started out with dinner at J-Dawgs, got some ice cream from the Creamery, and went bowling at the WSC Games Center. The best part - I'd never done any of those things before. It was absolutley perfect.

All nostalgia aside, though - I am officially graduated from college!! I didn't feel like it was 100% official until I got my diploma in the mail. I just knew that I was going to get a letter saying that I had to take two more classes and that they had counted my credits wrong and that I would have to do another entire semester... But the diploma came in. And the graduation pictures came in. And I am officially a college graduate. Woo-hoo!

Here's to life after our Bachelor's!

Boating on Deer Creek Reservoir

2011-07-25T10:53:00.002-06:00

I love when my sister is in town. Last week, we went boating on Deer Creek Reservoir with the Evans family. It was a little windy and the water got a little choppy, but the weather was gorgeous. It was a perfect day to be out on the lake.

It felt so good to get out on a wakeboard again! I could totally tell that snowboarding helped me remember how to stand up in the water - the problem was staying up and going back and forth over the wake. Jeff also busted out the slalom skis - he got some pretty good air with his jumps. Later, all of us girls got on the tubes and tried to hold on for dear life as we rammed against each other and swung across the water at full speed. I was always the one who fell off first. I felt like a rag doll on top of that thing. And I haven't been able able to use any muscles in my body for a few days now. Being sore, though, is totally worth a fun-filled day out on the lake.

Lake Powell Video

2011-07-22T15:04:00.001-06:00

I'm loving the whole making-videos-for-big-trips thing. Danny and I decided we want to save up for a really nice camera/camcorder so we can start saving recorded memories for our family. Pictures are amazing, but videos of the people you love is incredible. I love seeing their personalities and expressions saved through something like this. I also want to get a nice movie editing program for our computer. Any suggestions?

Rainbow Bridge

2011-07-22T13:00:00.001-06:00

Another amazing place we hiked to was Rainbow Bridge. It's a huge, natural arch - it's actually the world's largest bridge! It is so impressive. And so beautiful.

Rainbow Bridge is sacred to several Native American tribes, particularly the Navajos. One version of the story is that two mischevious Native American boys amused themselves by catching lizards and then pulling their tails off. Lizard tails grow back when they've been pulled off, but one day, one of the lizards whose tail they had pulled off kept growing. It grew and grew until it was a great lizard monster. The lizard began chasing the boys, eager to get its revenge. The two young boys began praying to the Great Spirit to save them. The Great Spirit sent down a rainbow for the boys to cross, but they could not touch it because they were mortals. So the Great Spirit turned the bridge to stone. The boys ran on top of the bridge, but the lizard followed them. The boys prayed again to the Great Spirit and the Great Spirit saved them by turning the lizard into stone as well. You can still see the lizard today, frozen forever in stone on the side of the arch.

Another cool thing about Rainbow Bridge is that there is a 200 million year old dinosaur footprint right off the trail! Supposedly it's the print of a Dilophosaurus (similar to the dinosaur that attacked Newman in Jurassic Park). It's really hard to tell at first what it is - apparently some paleontologist was visiting Rainbow Bridge and was blown away when he noticed it. You can kind-of see it better when you pour water in it - which we found out is a huge no-no. The park ranger got a little bit flustered when some kid started jet spraying it with his water bottle. Apparently the rangers use to do the same thing to show people where the print was, but another paleontologist came along and saw one of them doing that and got pretty upset. With thousands and thousands of people visiting Lake Powell and the dinosaur print each year, you'd think that betweent the touching it, pouring water over it, and having all sorts of feet step over it it just might slowly start to erode. 200 million years is a long time for something that amazing to stay in such great condition.

Hole in the Rock

2011-07-21T19:06:00.009-06:00

Early in the week, Kyle and Elise's family took us to go hike Hole in the Rock. I'd heard of it before, but I had no idea the place was in Lake Powell! I was blown away that we were actually hiking a real, historic trail the Mormon pioneers had come through.

The Hole in the Rock is literally a crevice in the side of the mountain. The Mormon Pioneers pulled/lowered over 80 wagons through this crevice - and they all made it. It's seriously incredible; I have so much more respect and admiration for those brave pioneers. Walking/climbing the trail in tennis shoes and with a Camelbak was hard enough - I can't imagine doing it with wagons, children, horses, and oxen.

See that crack? That's where they came down. With wagons!! It's just amazing.

This was a little less than halfway up.

At the top with the crevice right behind us.

At the very, very top. The view was incredible.

On another day we actually found the trail where the pioneers came out on the other side. Everything about their story is just awe-inspiring. And to actually see and walk in a place where people who greatly impacted your life made an incredible journey... it's amazing.

Lake Powell

2011-07-20T23:01:00.001-06:00

Danny and I recently got back from a trip to Lake Powell with the Blatter family. We'd never been, so we were ridiculously excited to spend a week out on the lake - and on a houseboat to boot! The drive down itself was pretty cool - the scenery changed from green rolling mountains to desert sands and red-orange buttes. And Lake Powell itself was incredible - I've never seen or experienced anything quite like it before.

We slept up on top of the houseboat, so we were up as soon as the sun hit our faces. We'd walk downstairs, eat breakfast, change, pack lunches and snacks, and then head out on the lake. We did a lot of exploring; we hiked some famous spots and then climbed on whatever random rocks we could get up to; we swam around and threw footballs back and forth between the boats; we went cliff diving (it took me forever to get the courage to jump); we ate lunch out on the boat; we went tubing; we laid out and relaxed and just enjoyed the weather and pretended the vacation would never end.

Around 4 or 5pm we would head back to our little part of the lake, eat dinner, talk, play games, and then when the sun went down we would go upstairs and sleep up on top of the houseboat, right underneath the stars.

It amazes me that something like this is only a few hours away from us. I'm so glad we got the chance to spend a week out there - it's really an experience. And we had the absolute best time. Plus, the Blatter family really made the trip for us. There was a lot of laughing, a lot of storytelling, a lot of playing around, and a lot of hanging out and just having fun. It was tough having to leave after such a fun week.

Video mix

2011-07-12T13:00:00.016-06:00

We took a bunch of random videos on Ashley's camera while she was here. We got the idea right before she left to mesh them all together with some music to have a video montage of her stay. It turned out super good! It's so much fun to see live action of what we did while she was here.

I think we watched this video a couple times a day. It was our favorite out of all the Kid History clips. We quoted them all week long. I had to include this link as part of Ashley's trip - it just wouldn't have been the trip it was without these videos.

Jump on It and Nickel City

2011-07-11T13:00:00.004-06:00

On one of the days Becca came down to hang out with us, we went to Jump On It. We actually went there twice - the first time we showed up, there were about a hundred kids under the age of 7 jumping around on all the trampolines. We asked the guy up front when it started to thin out - he said that the later it got, the older the crowd (on Friday nights from 10-midnight they only allow people who are 16 and up). When we came back, the crowd had thinned out a ton, so we took a section of the trampolines and did our own thing. It - was - awesome! We had so much fun - we didn't want to leave!

Later on in the week, me and Ashley also hit up the new Nickel City. I kind-of liked the old Nickelcade a little bit better, but this one is definitely growing on me. And they have laser tag! We didn't play, but next time I go I definitely want to sneak in a game. Oh, and they also have Guitar Hero. I think Ashely spent 3/4 of her nickels on that game. Danny caught up with us after work and they battled out like 5 songs in a row.

SLC and the Ski Lifts

2011-07-10T13:00:00.003-06:00

What's a trip to Utah without going to Salt Lake City and touring Temple Square? Ashley had been to SLC once before - she came out for EFY 6 years ago. But she didn't really get to see much of the sites. So we toured the Conference Center, walked through both Visitor Centers, and took lots and lots of pictures.

Later on in the week, me, Ashley, and Rebecca went back up to Sundance and took a scenic ski lift ride. I've only ever ridden the ski lifts during a full moon, so it was pretty cool to see everything during the day. The sun was so warm and we had the perfect breeze up in the mountains. It was the perfect day.

Provo Canyon

2011-07-09T11:56:00.001-06:00

Everytime someone comes and visits us in Provo for the first time, we give them a tour. We always hit a couple of main spots - BYU and UVU, the Y, the Provo Temple and the MTC. We also go up into the Canyon and take them to Squaw Peak, Bridal Veils Falls, and Sundance.

When we got up into the canyon we took our time, enjoying the scenery and the weather. Ashley had never seen a waterfall in person before, so Bridal Veil Falls was especially a treat. After we mozied our way over to Sundance and walked around the grounds for a little bit, we decided to drive up past Sundance, towards Aspen Grove camp. And then we kept driving. I think we decided we were going to try and find out where Timpanogas Cave was, but it was also just to take a nice, long, relaxing drive.

We drove for over an hour or so. I think Danny and I have been down that road once before, but it was a while back. We kept turning around bend after bend; we got higher and higher as we climbed up. Eventually, we could see that we were level with some snow close to the top of the mountain. We stopped at a couple lookouts and rolled down our windows to hear the river running and watch the forest get thicker and thicker. At one point, we turned around a sharp bend and almost ran our car straight into the legs of two moose standing in the middle of the road! We all kind-of screamed a little bit. Ashley got a picture of one of their butts, but they took off before we could really see them (plus, Danny was convinced they'd attack our car if we upset them - I've heard moose can be pretty vicious).

We eventually hit the summit and started driving down. The road dumped us off somewhere near Thanksgiving Pointe. It's a great scenic drive; a long one, but pretty nice if you have the time.

Fourth of July Weekend

2011-07-08T00:21:00.003-06:00

My lovely cousin, Ashley, came to stay with me and Danny for the week! She's been wanting to visit us for a while, so we were super excited when it all came together - and it was a huge plus that she flew in right before the Fourth of July! Within a few short hours of her getting off the plane, we started celebrating the holiday. Danny and I figured that the coolest thing we could do for the fireworks was hike up to the Y and watch them from there. We did it two years ago, and we could still hear the music from the stadium, so we figured that Ashley would love sitting on the side of a mountain, above an amazing view, watching fireworks that would go off below us because we were so high. You just don't get views like that in Georgia...

You also don't get as much air in as you do in Georgia. We were so excited about the hike and the view that I forgot just how hard it is to breathe in Utah when you're coming from such a lower elevation. Poor Ashley - we made her hike just two hours after she'd gotten off of a plane and had been traveling all day long. I felt kind-of bad for that one. But, after we got to the top and finally caught our breath, and once the fireworks started, she admitted that she was pretty dang glad she did it. It really was an incredible view - we could see fireworks going off all over Provo and Orem. And it was fun listening to the music coming from the stadium, trying to guess what song Brad Paisley was playing.

On Sunday we debated spending the night out by Center Street to watch the infamous Fourth of July Provo Parade Monday morning, but we were all pretty exhausted. Sleeping in felt pretty dang good. But we did drive by the street that night - it still amazes me how many people camp out. Hopefully one year we'll be able to do it.

After hitting up the Freedom Festival Monday morning, we headed over to the Evans' house. Another thing that was so great about Ashley coming when she did was that my sister was out here at the same time! It was so much fun having the three of us cousins together! We had some good food, played a few games of lacrosse and Bocce Ball, and jumped on the trampoline to our hearts' content.

Once it got dark, we watched the neighbor's fireworks for a little while before eventually lighting off our own. We set off some super big, super colorful ones. And when they were all gone, we lit up some sparklers.

It was a very fun, very relaxing Fourth of July. We sure loved every minute of it.

Going Private

2011-07-07T11:54:00.001-06:00

We have decided to go private! If you'd like to keep viewing our blog, please leave your email in a comment or send it to obrien.rachelmarie@gmail.com. If you're someone we've met in real life; a friend of a friend; or if we just know how you know us, don't be shy to ask for an invitation.

Arizona, Las Vegas, and St. George

2011-07-01T16:37:00.008-06:00

Before we left LA, Danny and I swung by a medical school that Dan was planning on applying to. After discussing it, we decided to take it off of our list. LA just isn't for us. After we left that school, we followed Casey down to Arizona. We stayed with them for a day, toured another med school there, and decided we never wanted to leave. It's hot, it's a desert, but it's beautiful out there. Not to mention we absolutely loved the campus and all the people we met.

After an all too short stay, we left Arizona and drove up to Las Vegas (I'm telling you, those audio books really held us through with all that driving). We happened to be spending the night in Las Vegas during our two year anniversary! It was fun timing. But we were too tired to really go out and do anything. We got to our hotel and passed out 10 min. later. That morning we woke up, toured another med school, had lunch with a friend we hadn't seen in a while, and drove up to the Vegas Temple.

We also found out that we had driven over the Hoover Dam the night before and hadn't even realized it! So we took a short 20 min. drive back up the highway to go check it out. It was pretty cool. We walked over the Hoover Dam Bypass - it's 900 ft. above the Colorado River! My legs shook just a little bit as I looked straight down. It's pretty cool now that we've officially seen such a huge U.S. landmark.

As we were driving to the Hoover Dam, we saw signs for helicopter rides over the Dam! What! We really, really, really wanted to. Neither of us have ever been in a helicopter and it was our anniversary. Two perfectly good reasons to go. But - they were a little pricey, and we still had to drive to St. George that night. So, we passed. But now we're determined to go on a cool helicopter ride someday.

Before we left Arizona and Vegas, I convinced Danny that we needed to tour housing. You know, just in case we ended up living there. I wanted to know what prices were and how the living looked, etc. It may have been a bad thing. Both the complexes we walked into had granite countertops in the kitchens and bathrooms, huge walk-in closets with built-in shelving in both bedrooms, brand new tile and carpet, an entryway closet (swoon!), windows and natural lighting all over the place, not to mention a huge clubhouse (with mini movie theatres!), two pools, and 24 hour gyms. Um, yes please. I now have the "I-want-to-move-right-now" itch. We also toured some houses outside of Vegas, just for the heck of it. The guy in the office just chilled at his desk and let us walk around the different houses by ourself. It was nice. That way we wouldn't have to hide our amazement at the fact that the master closet was bigger than our current living room.

After Vegas, we drove up to St. George and stayed with Danny's aunt and uncle. They totally spoiled us. They fed us paninis and apple fritters; chocolate candies and homemade blueberry pancakes. They showed us around the St. George Temple, drove us to some historic landmarks, and we stayed up late and talked til one in the morning.

All too soon, our vacation was over and we had to head back up to Provo. We had a great time hanging out with so much of Danny's family! It was the perfect way to officially start our summer.

Two Years

2011-07-01T15:54:00.000-06:00

Two years ago I married my best friend.

Two years ago we started a whole new life together.

Two years ago we began the rest of our forever.

June 24 was our two year anniversary.

I couldn't be more blessed to have Danny as my husband.

We love each other more now than we ever have, and we know it only gets better from here.

Happy two year anniversary, baby.

Fireworks

2011-07-01T12:25:00.004-06:00

One of the things I was most looking forward to about Disneyland were the fireworks over the castle. I was so excited for them! I wanted to sit right in front of the castle and watch Tinkerbell fly around it at the end. We were able to go up on top of the roof of our condo and watch them on Sunday night, but I was excited to see them up close in the park.

Danny's parents got a spot early and were waiting for us near the castle, but we were trying to cram in a few last minute things before we caught up with them. We were ordering a strawberry funnel cake (delicious) from a little store out by the lake when someone announced that "Fantasmic" would be showing soon. We'd never heard of it before, so we thought we'd stay and watch. Holy awesome, it was amazing! And we got fantastic seats - mainly due to my insisting that we sneak under several ropes to get closer. It was incredible. I wish we had gotten a movie or pictures or something of it. Disneyland likes to go all out. It was a really incredible production.

After Fantasmic, we headed over to meet Dan's parents by the castle. Danny was pretty sure we'd never get to them - the crowd out there was unbelievable. I don't know if I've ever seen so many people in one place all pushed up and crammed against each other. But, I've got a knack for being able to slink through crowds - and crawl under ropes. We got a spot pretty dang close. We would've gotten even closer, but two security people were blocking the spot right where I wanted to cut across. Dang it. The show was good, although Dan and I liked Fantasmic better. And for some reason, Tinkerbell never flew across the castle! Honestly, I don't even know what it looks like, I've just heard that Tinkerbell flies around the castle. And so does Dumbo. Weird. I'd never heard of Dumbo flying out until we were there. But something was wrong because he didn't show, either. I was bummed, but at least we had a good view of the fireworks.

We were going to try and go back on Tuesday to see the fireworks again, but we were all a little too pooped. We went home early and I fell asleep so fast I didn't even remember Danny coming to bed a little while later. Disneyland is a magical, fun, and (somewhat) exhausting place.

Disneyland

2011-07-01T12:08:00.003-06:00

Although we started out in Indio, the real reason we came to California was to go to Disneyland! This was my first time, ever. I've never even been to Disneyworld down in Orlando. I can get why people absolutely love the place, and maybe someday I'll just totally love it and want to go every year, but I will admit - my first time wasn't the greatest. For one, it was hot. Excruciatingly hot. And the day before we went, I fell asleep at the beach and really burned my legs, so I had to stay covered up in long pants. That made the heat ten times worse. The crowds weren't so bad - and I didn't mind the long waits. But it was my first time, our neice and nephew's first time, and the rest of the group hadn't been in years. So we tried to cram in every little thing we could. It was exhausting. At the end of the first day, Dan and I broke off from the group around 7pm and stayed in the park till 10:30pm. I've decided that Disneyland is amazing when it's dark, the weather has cooled off, and you have no agenda whatsoever. I'll be excited, though, when we plan another trip out there.

So like I said, it was our neice and nephew's first time there. We tried to keep it a secret from them, but when you're staying in a condo 1 block away from the park and there are signs everywhere, it's hard to keep anything a secret. On the day we were going, Danny, his sister-in-law, and his mom sang a bunch of Disney songs and had them guess where we were going. Poor little Shane got fed up with it, put his hands over his ears, and politely told us that it was okay and that they could "please stop singing now." It was pretty cute.

I think my favorite ride was Indiana Jones. I really liked that one. Splash mountain was fun, too, but I could go without all the singing puppets next time (I'm not the biggest fan of puppets). I hated "It's a Small World". I'm glad I had the true Disney experience by going on it, but I will cross that off my "to-ride" list next time we come back.

The fairies were just eating up Shane. They thought he was the cutest thing, ever.

We spent two days in Disneyland, but for the most part we spent all day Tuesday in California Adventures. The one thing I really really wanted to do and didn't - go on the Hollywood Tower of Terror. Casey, Dan's brother, was the only one who wanted to ride it, too, and we just ran out of time. And I was just amazed in general at how much there was to do. We did a ton of stuff, but we didn't get any Micky Mouse ears, we didn't stand in land to meet Goofy or Mickey or one of the princesses, we didn't take some of the standard Disneyland pictures that everyone takes when they're there, etc. I'll have to make a (short) list of things to do next time we go back.

Indio, California

2011-07-01T11:29:00.001-06:00

Danny and I went to California a week ago to take a much needed vacation with his family. We got a late start and didn't pull into Indio until 3:30am. Before we left, we rented some audio books from Cracker Barrel to listen to while we drove. I don't think I'll be able to take a long road trip again without getting an audio book - they seriously made the drive go by super fast.

The next morning we were woken up a little bit earlier than we wanted to, but then I got dragged off for a graduation surprise - my wonderful sister-in-law treated me and my mother-in-law out to a professional massage! Can you say relaxing?! I've never had one before, but it was awesome. Definitely something I'll want to keep indulging in every now and then.

We were only in Indio for two days, but it was a relaxing two days. Danny, his dad, and his brother all went golfing. I slept in as long as I could (it was heaven) and we spent our time drifting in the lazy river and playing in the pool, relaxing in the jacuzzi, playing tennis, and just sitting at our condo enjoying each other's company.

I've been on a food network kick lately - apparently Anthony Bourdain stopped at this date shake place a while back, so we had to stop and check it out. They weren't half bad. If anything, it was just nice to get out of that hot California sun and have something cool to drink.

Summer BBQs

2011-06-14T08:02:00.005-06:00

This past Sunday we got together with a bunch of friends I use to work with and had one of our summer BBQs. It's kind-of funny - hardly any of us work there anymore. But I love that we still get together. You know it was a good job when you get some great friends out of it.

Me, Kelly, and Becky were all walking around taking pictures.

Nathan was such a little cutie. He was in heaven running around and playing with all the games.

We all finally got to meet Mike and Greta's little Vienna! She is a doll! It's always fun seeing the new little babies (and cute preggo bumps) and watching everyone's family grow.

mountain biking in park city

2011-06-08T00:52:00.000-06:00

We went mountain biking in Park City this week! First thing I realized about mountain biking - it's hard. Like "5 minutes in I couldn't breathe and was praying for a break" hard. I really enjoyed the downhill parts, though. Some of my classmates said that they like going uphill because they had more control, and granted, even though I did almost crash my bike twice going downhill and my professor told me that how fast I was wanting to do down was dangerous, I loved the downhill.

This was our last class. Cue the crying, please. Seriously, though, one of my favorite classes I've ever had at BYU. We all carpooled up, and on the way back we stopped and got dinner together to have one last little get-together before it was good-bye for the summer. I had some incredible experiences and met great people who I developed amazing friendships with in this class. I am seriously going to miss hanging out with all these guys every week. It was a wonderful way to end an awesome 4 years at BYU.

kayaking

2011-06-01T01:23:00.002-06:00

The flood warning here is no joke. We literally kayaked through a couple of parking lots. My favorite was when we paddled right by the "No Swimming in Harbor" sign. The whole trip, though, was surreal. It was so gorgeous and so peaceful. Kayaking out on the lake on a beautiful sunny day with gorgeous mountains all around... it was a dream. And we only had 3 people tip over. Score!

CLAS ropes course

2011-05-25T12:48:00.001-06:00

For class this week we went to the CLAS ropes course down by Utah Lake.

I've never really felt like I had a problem with heights, but I'd be lying if I said my legs weren't shaking a little bit every time I looked down.

If anyone wants to go, they take groups of at least 8 at $10/person for 2 hours and they have all sorts of classes and activities. I want to go back and Danny definitely wants to try it out sometime.

baby mila

2011-05-18T22:26:00.000-06:00

Our dear friends Christy and Chase just had a beautiful baby girl this Tuesday. She is one of the prettiest newborns I have ever seen, and her little crying has a squeal to it that just melts your heart.

They named her Mila (mee-la), which roughly translates from Russian to "cute, sweet, cuddly."

Miles and Kendra also brought in Mila's future best bed/husband. I think they hit it off :)

just dance

2011-05-18T06:49:00.000-06:00

On Easter we played wii at the Evans' house. After some boxing (my Dad's character punched my Mom's character's legs right out from under her), Mario carts (I was holding the remote upside down), and swordplay (we all got pretty competitive with this one), we picked up Just Dance. I'm hooked. I think we danced for at least an hour. I couldn't move the next day. Ali and Becca whooped me - big time. At first I thought it was because I was in the back and my remote wasn't getting recognized. So I moved to the front. They had like 4000 points and I was barely hitting 1000. Oh well - I dance like a white girl. I think Landon beat us all. He was shaking his little tushy and watching the moves like a pro. I tell ya, he's a talented little 22-month-old.

the quarry

2011-05-17T18:34:00.001-06:00

we went rock climbing for class today.

my arms are burning.

it's one serious workout.

and tons and tons of fun.

crossing my fingers

2011-05-17T09:07:00.001-06:00

Silhouette giveaway over at Tatertots and Jello.

I seriously want to win one.
If you blog about it you get an extra entry. So I blogged about it.

danny and his chicken

2011-05-15T23:21:00.000-06:00

Danny has made a dear friend - a grey speckled chicken. Actually, this chicken is Jeff's, and it is his pride and joy. Danny stole him for a quick couple of pictures, and then Jeff quickly took him back and set him on his shoulder. Peyton and I were laughing and watching from the window. I think Danny really likes his new friend.

best class, ever

2011-05-11T00:42:00.003-06:00

I'm done with my major, I'm done with my minor, and I've already walked across the stage and "graduated." But I'm still just a few credits short of having the minimum required amount of credits to officially graduate. It's turned out to be a blessing in disguise. For the first time ever I'm taking classes that I thought I'd never be able to take. In one class, we're learning all about the living prophets. In another, we're learning about stress management - I wasn't particularly interested in it, I didn't feel like I had a lot of stress in my life or anything, but it fit with my class schedule. Now I'm totally loving it. Each class period we turn the lights off, lay on the floor, and breath deeply for 15 minutes, or do some other meditation exercise. That's not the only reason I like it, but hey - I'm a big fan of taking some time to relax.

This last class is probably my most favorite, though. It's called Introduction to Recreational Activities. Today we went snowshoeing. In the middle of May. It was freezing, but by the time we were done everyone had all their extra layers off. Later on in the class we'll be going kayaking, rock climbing, we'll do a rope course, we'll go mountain biking... This class was made for me. I almost wish I had another semester to take it again.

rooftop concert series

2011-05-07T00:47:00.000-06:00

I've been waiting for the Provo rooftop concert series to start this year! Danny had to work on his birthday (double boo) and I didn't want to be by myself on a Friday night, so Elise and I headed over to the top of a parking garage downtown, grabbed some spots, and enjoyed a great night. Honestly, I wasn't expecting the whole thing to be so good, but it was awesome. And Fictionist was incredible! They're in a competition right now to be on the cover of Rolling Stone - and they are in the final four! Sorry if I'm biased, but if you'd been to the concert you would want to vote for them, too. You can vote for them here.

How gorgeous was our view? Right in front of the mountains and all

The lead singer, Stuart Maxfield, crowd surfed during one of the last songs. This picture is right before he came over to me and Elise... and right before we dropped him. Yeah, we dropped him.

C. Jane is one of the organizers of the whole series and we got to meet her! I almost ran right into her, looked up and said, "Hey! I read your blog!" Then I touched her on the arm like I'd known her for forever and asked her for a picture. Another girl next to us noticed her and did the same double-take that I did, then said, "Wow, I'm a little starstruck right now!" To which C. Jane laughed and said, "Ooo, you should be." Haha, love her. If you don't know who she is, you probably at least know some of her family - she's Nie Nie's sister.

Me, Elise, and lead singer, Stuart Maxfield, the guy that we dropped. When we went up to take his picture, I told him that we dropped him. Probably not my smoothest move. And the guy that was taking the picture made us laugh, hence our cute little squinty-eyes.

happy birthday, danny!

2011-05-06T17:10:00.000-06:00

Today is Daniel's birthday! We've been trying to lay back on the junk food, eating out, and sweets, but when it comes to special occasions, there are no food restrictions. I felt this card was pretty appropriate for the situation.

Besides the "28" cake we had at home, we went out and had a couple of celebrations for Danny's birthday. First, when his parents were here, we went out to Texas Roadhouse for a graduation/birthday dinner. To celebrate birthdays, the servers bring out a horse saddle, make you sit on it, then get everyone in the restaurant's attention and yell out "YEE-HAW!" Ha, I loved that one.

Danny had to work this whole week, even on his birthday (boo), so we went out last night to Mimi's Cafe with some friends. No singing or loud cowboy yells this time, but he did get a super delicious piece of chocolate cake.

I'm all about celebrating things on the day they are suppose to be celebrated, so even though Dan was working all today I couldn't not do some kind of celebration. So I got him a Burger King crown, picked up one of his favorite Costa Vida dinners, and met him at work during his lunch hour.

Happy Birthday, baby!

danny's graduation and o'brien visit

2011-05-02T17:36:00.001-06:00

Danny graduated in December, got his diploma in February, and in April he finally got the chance to walk! Danny's parents flew out and spent the weekend with us to celebrate. Originally my parents were going to be out here all week so they could be here for Dan's graduation, too, but their first grandchild (and my niece and best friend, Jessica) got married this weekend! A day after they got home from Utah they took off to Mississippi to be at her wedding. I wasn't able to go (stupid expensive plane tickets, stupid 6 credits I have to take just to have enough credits to "officially" graduate (even though I'm done with my major and minor) stupid $80 books, stupid pell grant that didn't cover all my tuition when I was expecting it to) but we sent lots of love and lots of well-wishes to each other and are saving up some moolah to visit each other asap.

Wasn't she the most gorgeous bride, ever?!

Back to graduation! Bright and early Friday morning Danny walked across the stage!

Dan's parents made sure to get UVU souvenirs to support their son. They both got t-shirts and wore them all day :)

It was freezing outside (it started snowing later that day)! But we braved it all and took some gorgeous pictures outside by one of the UVU fountains

Later that day, Mom O'Brien had me put my cap and gown back on so she could take a picture of us graduates together

It's also Danny's birthday soon! Mine and Danny's birthdays are exactly a month apart. My handsome man will be 28 this week! I made a "28" cake for him (it looks nothing like the Martha Stewart cake picture it was based off of) and we had a mini birthday celebration for him. Danny and I aren't really cake people, so this is the first cake we've had in almost 3 years for our birthday celebrations.

family

2011-04-27T13:15:00.005-06:00

Mom and Dad, and Rebecca and Landon (who flew out to surprise me) came out to Utah for my graduation! The last time my mom and dad were out here, they were dropping me off for my first semester of college. I was 18, I was young(er), I had just graduated from high school and I was living on my own, 2,000 miles away from home. It was so exciting. I was so ready to go to college. Looking back, I can't believe how much happened in 4 years:

I met Danny after being out here barely a week. A year and a half later, he proposed. After almost two years of dating, we were married.
I went horseback riding in the mountains and saw the Draper and the Oquirrh Mountain Temples still in construction.
I hiked the Subway in Moab.
I met President Uchtdorf.
I traveled out of the country for the first time to Mexico.
I traveled to San Francisco and Vegas for the very first time.
I was on a team that won a BYU intramural championship.
And, during all of that and more, I finished four whole years of college.

It was so great having my parents and family come to celebrate. I went almost two years without seeing them during my Junior and Senior years. It's hard, being separated from family like that. And this trip was not long enough. Danny and I seriously feel like empty nesters now that they are gone. But we had lots of fun while they were here. I wish we could have a whole other week of it all.

We also spent a full day in Salt Lake, hung out with my brother and sister and other nephew, spent Easter dinner with the Evans hunting for eggs and playing Wii, went to the Carl Bloch exhibit, drove up the lookout spot on the Y, and went to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point. And.... we forgot our camera for all of those. Nice. We did get some pictures from the Evans' camera and our parent's phone, so once those pop up I'll get them on here.

and it feels so good

2011-04-22T00:41:00.000-06:00

took my last final today.
got all dressy, put on that cap and gown, and celebrated with the fam.
it feels so darn good.
bonus - my parents are here AND my sister and nephew flew in and totally surprised me!!
the good times are rolling, my friends.

i did a tutorial, yo

2011-04-20T00:10:00.000-06:00

My wonderful, talented, seriously crafty gal-friend Kacey has a little ol' tutorial of mine up over at her blog. Be sure to check it out here. Also be sure to drool over all the other wonderful stuff she has over there at her blog Stay-at-Home Artist. Jewelry, artwork, printables... you name it. The girl has skill.

lots of pink

2011-04-16T11:24:00.001-06:00

the cute little girl in the middle wearing the white dress is getting married soon!

both her and the girl on the right with the blue shirt and boots are from south carolina - we're all in the same stake back home. our stake is just so cool that it includes two states, haha.

her bridal shower included lots of lace, lots of chocolate, and lots and lots of pink.

congrats, katie! married life is the best, you're going to love it!

graduation announcements

2011-04-11T14:47:00.000-06:00

Graduation announcements!

Ah!

It's official!!

I decided to design and print out our own graduation announcements instead of ordering some super formal looking ones from BYU. I got the ideas for these from here and here. I enjoy design stuff, but for crying out loud, these took me forever. I love fun, modern, colorful stationary and I've decided I just need some extra money to buy some cute, crisp-looking ones from etsy or something.

1+1=2 and 11+11=22

2011-04-06T00:25:00.002-06:00

I couldn't get a bigger picture of this, but that little girl rockin' the stylin' bangs and big yellow bow turns 22 today. She's pretty cute, if I do say so myself.

Let's hope this year instead of Barbie doll coloring books and Little Mermaid dolls I'll maybe get a nice dinner out or something (although the birthday party at Burger King was always a hit back in the day). I told the hubs to keep it a secret. I like being surprised (but I somehow manage to ruin the surprise - totally on accident. One day I'll have to tell you about the time I accidentally found my engagement ring before the boyfriend (hubs now) proposed).

Happy Birthday month to all you April birthday-ers out there!

becky's bachelorette party

2011-04-05T20:08:00.001-06:00

This wonderful, loveable, amazing girl is getting married! Kelly threw her a great bachelorette party - there was a lot of laughing, a lot of sushi, and whole lotta panties. Congrats, Becky! You and Quinn are the perfect pair :)

Brilliant idea for a panty clothes line - she had to guess who got her what

She liked my wrapping job :)

I'm sorry, Becky, I couldn't resist

Oh the sushi.. the glorious sushi

Some of the Los girls

Most of the gang

we could see the stars

2011-04-03T01:25:00.004-06:00

We went shooting the other night with Keith and his lady friend. As you can see, the pics were from my phone. I think the whole silhouette blue night sky thing looks pretty cool, though. The only picture I got with any real light was when Keith was shooting. We were using our car lights to see.

It got dark on us quick (hence the car lights) so we took off and got some grub at this tasty little place in Spanish Fork. And then Danny and Keith started talking about this really cool tunnel they'd both been to. Dan had told me about it before and I'd always wanted to go, so we did.

It was super cool. And super creepy. You walk down this loooooooong tunnel, with no lights whatsoever, and then all of a sudden you see this tiny tiny little circle of light ahead of you. It gets bigger and bigger until it finally opens up and you're standing on a rocky ledge with a great view in front of you.We sat down at the edge of the tunnel and just looked at the stars for a good twenty minutes, pointing out the big and little dipper, looking for other constellations, trying to guess how many stars are in the milky way. It was super pretty out there. A fun night with some good friends.

it's your birthday, hooray!

2011-04-01T07:40:00.000-06:00

Dear Daddy,

Happy Birthday!!

I sent you a card in the mail - hope you get it soon.

And seriously, April Fools is like the best day ever for you to have a birthday.

You crack me up, you tell funny jokes, and you love praying pranks on people. So this is a good day for you.

Hope Mom makes your favorite pie tonight!

Wish I was there to celebrate with you!

I love and miss you!!

-Rachel

it's that time of year

2011-03-27T14:55:00.002-06:00

It's that time of year again, people. Time for the Utah Holi Festival of Colors at the Krishna Temple. Holi is the Festival of Colors, a traditional Indian holiday that celebrates the beginning of spring and pays tribute to the triumph of good over evil. You can read more about the history behind the festival and see more pictures from our trips here and here. Everyone at the Krishna Temple is so welcoming. They love sharing this tradition with everyone and embrace all of the culture and diversity around them. It's so much fun to go and experience something new and celebrate it with people from all over.

This year we went with our friends Brett and Shauntelle. It was their first time, so we made sure we got right in the middle of the crowd. The whole thing was amazing like always.

I thought the audio on our camera didn't work - turns out it does, it's just really really really low and you can't turn the volume up loud enough to hear it. Ha, the only way we were able to figure that out is when we were looking a few clips from the festival - everyone was screaming so loud you could hear a light "ahhhhhhhh!" coming from the video. I've been wanting to try out iMovie ever since we got our Mac, so here's a little clip. I might be using this thing more now that I (sort-of) get how it works.

#42 on my bucket list

2011-03-24T12:32:00.008-06:00

Th e Aurora from Terje Sorgjerd on Vimeo.
(watch it full screen)

ok. so i don't really have a bucket list.

i probably should make one sometime.

maybe dan and i will do it for f.h.e. one night.

but seeing the aurora borealis will definitely be on my future bucket list.
video found here

53

2011-03-21T11:59:00.002-06:00

that's how many pages of research i have to write this semester.

two 10 pg. essays

one 12 pg. essay

one 21 pg. essay

grand total = 53 pages

i've lived on kool-aid and popcorn this past week. i hardly every get out of my pj's and all i can think of is how much i want this semester to end.

i've got one down. i should be done with another one by tomorrow, and then another one by saturday.

hopefully.

meanwhile, i've been taking breaks by going on pinterest.

it's my new favorite obsession.

i've pinned things like:

source

you can go to my page here to find more pictures with their sources.

i love this thing. it automatically saves the original link for you. awesoooome.

it's especially a great way to get ideas for tutorials and stuff.

there isn't a tutorial for the blue bracelet up there, it's actually sold in a shop, but i went out and bought some stuff and made the little sucker last weekend. and i am in love with it. so nautical and summer-y.

if anyone wants an invite to pinterest, let me know.

i know i have invites, i'm just not sure how to dish them out and i'm not sure how many i have.

anywho - i'll figure it out.

i do know i need your email address, though, so leave it in a comment or if you don't want to publicize it email me at obrien.rachelmarie@gmail.com

first come first serve

peace out

christy's baby shower

2011-03-15T14:13:00.002-06:00

my friend christy is having a baby girl! her baby shower was last saturday and it was so gorgeous! the hosts did a great job putting it all together.

Yay for babies! I can't wait to have a cute little girl and dress her up.

On Danny's side, however, they pretty much have all boys.

But on my side, it's almost all girls (I do have 5 sisters).

So I'm hoping we'll have both. I can't wait for ruffles and cute shoes, but I'm so excited for muddy little hands and baseball uniforms (just don't tell Dan - he swears up and down they're going to be soccer stars)

snapshots from our week [kind-of]

2011-03-12T15:57:00.001-07:00

These aren't all from this week.

Maybe I should have titled this post "phone photo-dump."

{left-right}

1. Snow. It comes, it goes. It won't make up its mind

2. My lunch every single day

3. Danny is the best husband and stands out in the rain to get us a redbox. And I take pictures of him standing out in the rain while I sit in the warm dry car ....I should be a better wife

4. Sunday walks on campus

5. I usually find a picture or two like this when I go through our camera

6. New cooookbooooook! My mother-in-law sent this in the mail and I can't wait to bust out some new recipes! It may say "diet", but I purposely get cookbooks like this for a couple of reasons: (a) I can't cook without a recipe, so I need a cookbook period (b) I don't count calories (c) I have no idea what proper portions are (e) We do want to make sure we're eating healthy stuff. So getting a low-fat, diet, low-carb, lose weight, whatever cookbook means that it does all of it for me. I just shop and cook and don't think twice about it

7. In Sunday best, busting out the guitar

8. My hair looks kinda looks blonde. Will I ever go blonde again..? Last time it wasn't too pretty

9. Got these for a friend's baby shower from Old Navy. I melted when I saw them. I think I just might get all my future kids' clothes from Old Navy. Ridiculously cute stuff

10. No idea what this is. Love the swirly colors, though

11. Dan's video game. Is it sad that I know all the players' names, what their "missions" are, and who fights best in certain battles? Yes, yes it is.

12. Popcorn? Check. Blanket? Check. Water bottle and kool-aid? Check. Laptop? Check. This the "zone" for me when I'm writing a paper. I figure I'll probably live on that couch until the end of the semester

we couldn't help it

2011-03-09T13:48:00.000-07:00

we went back to yogurtland.

danny said that i ate most of it last time (true) so it was only fair that we he got some more.

it was delicious. again.
we might have found a new favorite dessert place.

the new kids in town

2011-03-07T14:39:00.006-07:00

A couple that recently moved into our ward opened up a Yogurtland down by the mall. A bunch of us stopped by for their grand opening weekend. I've never been a big frozen yogurt person, but this stuff is divine. All the flavors, all the toppings.. hello yumness. And they charge less by the ounce than the other yogurt places around here. Danny met up with us after he got off of work and I kinda sorta almost ate the whole bowl I was suppose to share with him.

ps - sorry christy and courtney. danny and i apparently like blocking people's faces in pictures with our big heads

phase 10

2011-03-04T11:55:00.003-07:00

One of Danny's favorite card games is Phase 10. We bought it the other day and busted it out during some down time. I have issues with holding all the cards in one hand and figuring out what I'm going to play next. I decided to just lay all the cards down on the table so I could see them better. Dan thought my method of hiding the cards was hilarious. He could also still see some of them. I need a better method.

no pain no gain

2011-03-02T21:14:00.001-07:00

I was out of my foot brace for about close to two weeks but the swelling never went down. Neither did the pain. If I ever pulled my shoe off too fast or if I ran into something my foot would pulse and throb uncomfortably. It wasn't really bad - until Danny was playing around and accidentally hit my ankle. My foot exploded in pain. I rolled off the couch and busted into tears. Poor Dan - he thought I was laughing. So he laughed with me until he saw my teary-eyed mascara-smeared face. I made a doctor appointment the next day and he put me back in the brace for another two weeks. I have to take meds and keep my foot elevated for the swelling. Buuuummmmerrrr. With my brace, my foot won't fit in my new boots. And I can't play in our ward basketball games. Poo.

The first time I went to the doctor he said to avoid the gym for a couple of weeks. This time around he said it'd be okay if I lifted and got on the bikes. So Dan and I went to the gym two days ago. And I am sore as all get out. It hurts. My arms hurt, my legs hurt, my back hurts... stupid weights. Stupid wanting to get in shape to run a half, then marathon, then maybe a triathalon. Stupid eating too much over Christmas break and finals week. Bleeech.

Sorest I've ever been - the day after I learned how to wakeboard. My first boyfriend lived right beside the lake and his family were huge into watersports. I fell in love with it the second I got on the board. I went for over 2 hours out there. It was heaven. The next morning I couldn't feel a thing. No, scratch that - I could feel everything, I just couldn't move anything. I had to roll/flop about of bed because my legs and arms refused to work. Nothing really wants to work right now, either. At least I can move my fingers to type. That's a plus.

i'm over here today, too

2011-03-01T12:46:00.001-07:00

Little miss Ashlee over at Lady Ashlee posted up my "favorite things" list. Be sure to swing by and say hi. She is absolutely adorable. She married her high school love and took karate as a kid. Just simply darling.

fajitas, chocolate, and french fries

2011-03-01T07:03:00.002-07:00

What is it about big fireplaces that makes hot chocolate taste that much better? It makes it sweeter, more rich, more warm... although I might just be feeling the heat off of the fire. If there is any object that radiates heat, I will sit as close to it as I possibly can. I will inch and inch and inch more towards it until I'm either touching it or my shirt could catch on fire. Danny politely reminded me, though, that it might be a good idea to sit in a chair and not on the stone, seeing as how we were in public and all. I just love the heat. Give me 80+ degree weather and I'm a happy girl. Heck, you could push close to 100 and I probably wouldn't complain. Add some humidity and talk about bliss. Huh - I'm starting to see a trend here... I don't like naps, I thoroughly enjoy moving, and I love humidity. I think something might be broken on my "things-normal-people-do-and-don't-like" meter.

Back to hot chocolate. There are several things I am always on the hunt for, some of which are fajitas, wedge-like fries, and hot chocolate. If I go somewhere and the menu has one of these items, I have to get it. It's like Rachel-code or something. In my opinion (in Provo), Red Robin has the best fries, Los Hermanos has the best fajitas (although oddly enough Wingers has decent ones), and Nordstrom's cafe has the best white hot chocolate. I may not have mentioned before that if I see anything thing with the words "white chocolate" in it, I will order it, hands down everytime. I'm in love with white chocolate. Danny knows about our affair. He might be a little jealous, but ever since my no-chocolate-except-on-special-occasions New Year's Resolution he's gotten over it. But back to hot chocolate - seriously, Nordstrom Cafe's white hot chocolate is the most delicious hot chocolate of all hot chocolates. I'm not sure why... their regular hot cocoa is kinda nasty. But even Danny agrees its deliciousness breaks the taste-o-meter. We've had to start avoiding the mall. With a ginormous fireplace and hot chocolate close by there's just little chance my will power will kick in.

reasons why i love my husband

2011-02-28T07:58:00.001-07:00

#794: He participates in and helps coordinate blood drives for our ward. Then he comes home and makes faces like this.

(washi tape from here)

thoughts on graduation

2011-02-26T00:37:00.008-07:00

Just yesterday I went in and talked with my counselor about graduation. I can't believe it's so close. I can't believe I'm almost done with college. Everytime I think about it, I think about how I went through 4 more years of schooling. It's like I repeated high school all over again. I thought high school would never end. More than once (lots more than once), I thought college would never end. And here I am. Almost done.

It's hard to believe, too, that I've been married for almost two whole years. That's almost 730 days. Danny and I have almost been together four years now. The other day I tried to think back to when we were first dating; how it felt to not really know each other, how it didn't seem all that long when we were too busy to hang out for days on end, how it never bothered us to go to separate homes each night. It's hard for me to remember back then; it's hard to picture just how it felt, how the world was for us.

But here I sit. Married. Almost a college grad. Wondering how on earth I'm going to find a good job that will give me the right experience I need to get an MBA. I've never worried about getting a job, never worried about where I would live or how I would put food on the table, never worried about how bad things could get because I knew that everything always worked out. I wasn't scared of marriage or living on my own or moving over 2,000 miles away from all of my family and friends. But lately, I've almost been able to feel the slick edge of being scared creeping up on me.

I wonder where I'll get a job. I wonder if we'll be able to move up to Salt Lake. I wonder if we'll be able to pay off our student loans and my car as quick as we want. I wonder if I'll get accepted into an MBA program. I wonder if we'll be financially able to buy a house, or when we'll want kids, or where we'll end up living for an extended amount of time.

Although I'm wondering a lot, I am extrememly excited. I love change. I love jumping into the unknown and going at it with full force. I also really really enjoy moving. I don't know why - it's one of those strange mysteries, like why I don't like naps. It's really nice knowing that Danny will be there with me to go through it all. As terrifying and exciting as it is doing things on your own, having someone there to do it with you can make it a pretty sweet journey.

We went and watched The Voyage of the Dawn Treader tonight at the Dollar Theatre. Eustace wrote in his journal throughout the movie. A couple of weeks ago I went through some of my old journals. I read about the first time I Danny. I read about how much I hated Utah, and then how much I grew to love it. I read about the way I felt when I stood in the middle of a storm in Georgia, how I loved listening to my Dad tell his stories, how sick I felt when my wisdom teeth were removed, how crazy it was to realize I was growing up. All little, inconsequential moments in time. Now, I treasure them. Just like I'll treasure this time. Thinking about graduating, wondering what's next, and documenting the journey the rest of the way.

ice ice baby (dun dun dun du du dundun)

2011-02-25T12:06:00.002-07:00

Awesomeness. These ice castles are grown. The guy who makes them harvests the icicles, attaches them together, and then sprays water over them throughout the night. When we stayed up in Midway over Christmas break we passed a field with weird little spikes poking out of the ground. It looked like someone had taken big icicles and just stuck them in the dirt. Turns out, that's exactly what it was. These things are huge now! My friend Adri posted pictures and suggested that we go out at night so we could see the lights in the ice. I'm glad we took her advice! It was freezing, but awesome. So so cool.

carl bloch exhibit

2011-02-23T12:58:00.001-07:00

Danny and I went to the Carl Bloch exhibit last night at the MOA on BYU campus. It was incredible. This is the first time the paintings have been moved since they were first installed in churches in Denmark and Sweden in the 1800s. It's all so gorgeous. Walking through the exhibit, seeing his paintings of the life of Christ, the originals, in person... it's so calm and peaceful. You can rent an Ipad with headphones to get extra information and messages from church leaders to explain in more deatil the elements and backgrounds of the painting. If you're in town and you have a chance to go, please do.

picture sources

Tickets are free and an Ipad rental is only $3. You can reserve tickets here. The exhibit runs through May 7.

a few of my favorite things [brought to you by the letter "f"]

2011-02-22T12:05:00.003-07:00

Ashlee over at Lady Ashlee is doing a "these are a few of my favorite things" segment. Love the idea, can't wait to see what everyone shares!

winner winner!

2011-02-21T07:54:00.000-07:00

I let random.org do all the work on this one. There were a total of 18 entries but only 17 actually counted towards the giveaway. Drumroll please!

And who is lucky #11??

Congrats, Shorty! I will be contacting you in just a little while to send this wreath to you!

Thank you to everyone who participated!

it snowed. then it melted.

2011-02-20T18:45:00.004-07:00

I've been in a polaroid kind of mood lately. I just really like the way they make pictures look. Cute and simple.

I love Sundays. I do. But - I get so sleepy on Sunday afternoons. I've mentioned it on here before, and a lot of people who know me know this, but I hate naps. I don't know why - they should be one of the most wonderful things in the world. But I always wake up from them feeling awful. I feel groggy and sick and just out of it. So we went up to the canyon to see if the cold would wake me up (it snowed last night in Provo, but now it's all melted and it's semi-warm down here). Sadly, the snow and cold didn't wake me up. I just wanted to curl up in a ball under one of the picnic tables and close my eyes. I was vaguely aware of Danny picking up a snowball and saying something about aiming it a guy running up the hill above us. So we didn't stay long. And now I'm home. And it's warm. And it's peaceful. And if I could just close my eyes for two seconds...

Maybe I should tell Danny to play some Metallica. That always wakes me up. It also sometimes wakes up the kids in the apartment above us. But then again, sometimes I hear them running around upstairs at 4am. And the older one can play a mean beat on his kitchen pots-and-pans drum set. Maybe they are little rockstars themselves. But right now - they're quiet as mice. Probably means they're already asleep for the night. Only 2 1/2 more hours and I can crawl into bed.

p.s. last chance for the giveaway! you have until midnight tonight. good luck!

rainy day shopping

2011-02-19T15:59:00.002-07:00

Rainy days are my favorite. My absolute favorite. There is nothing better than a gray, cloudy day with overcast skies and a foggy landscape (although a bright sunny day out on the lake isn't half bad, either). The window out in our guest bedroom overlooks a woodsy, tree-filled area. It's so pretty. Reminds me of home.

I'm cuddled up in a blanket, watching Top Shot, wishing the hubs didn't have to work on weekends. But we had a nice, lazy morning shopping in the rain. New shirt, new tights, and a new pair of shoes - it's great when you go out and find everything you're looking for. It's not so great when everything you see is on sale and your wallet is silently crying inside your pocket. Oh, Target. Darn you and your good deals.

we like to pretend we're on road trips

2011-02-18T23:38:00.001-07:00

Anybody else ready for summer road trips? I especially love summer road trips at night. So in since tonight was a full moon we took a long drive up the canyon and turned around and drove some more whenever we hit a dead end. We talked... we held hands... we pretended that we were on our way to California and not on some random road in Orem.

We definitely swung by Del Taco too. We didn't mean to... it just kinda happened. You know how you're driving along one road, and then the next thing you realize you've driven five miles and find youself in line at some fast food place and there's nothing you can do about it? We decided not to question the process and just went with it. And heaven knows I can't resist anything on a menu that says shrimp. Or white chocolate. Curse you, you delicious goodness!

I tried to get a good picture of the full moon, but I guess he (or she.. whatever floats your boat) is a little camera shy. When we first noticed that tonight was going to be a full moon, Danny said, in true Danny fashion, "Oh, wow, I hope there aren't any werewolves out tonight." To which I laughed a little but at the same time gave him a you-can-be-really-weird-sometimes look. And then I drew a howling wolf on our calendar right beside the "full moon" caption. And then I realized I just drew a big howling wolf on our calendar right beside the "full moon" caption. And now I have to live with it for the rest of February. It's cool - I guess were just really big into wolves, werewolves, and full moons over at the OBrien household. You learn new things about yourself everyday people.

i feel like it's finals week

2011-02-17T11:02:00.001-07:00

Last night I cuddled up into one of my favorite blankets, busted out the finance notes and the calculator, threw my hair up into a very messy bun, got into my byu intramural shirt for good measure, and splurged on Costa Vida and chocolate dipped ice cream from DQ.

Dear Senior Year,

Finals week isn't until April. I'd just like you to keep that in mind.

Sincerely,

Rachel

salami sandwiches

2011-02-16T13:42:00.009-07:00

I have a husband who sometimes likes to do cute things. Like make my salami sandwich just the way I like it (extra mayo, extra lettuce, with a pickle) and write my name on the bag with a little heart so I know it's mine.

Speaking of, I really want a salami sandwich. With extra mayo, extra lettuce, and a pickle. I think I've had that lunch for days now. I've noticed that I get into sort of a rut and eat the same things over and over again. And then eventually I get tired of it. Like soft tacos from Del Taco, snickers bars, and even ranch flavored corn nuts. No.. I still like the corn nuts. Mmm, kind-of want some now.

So the snow. It's not here yet. Neither are my boots. Since 4am yesterday they left Sacramento and haven't been dropped off at their next destination yet. Ever wonder if people do that on purpose? Like the guys at FedEx just know there is a storm coming and that you ordered a pair of boots especially for the storm, so they're just toying with you, laughing and saying, "Haw haw - she thinks she's not going to get those boots before the snow hits! But she totally is! HA! We're so awesome 'cause we're totally going to surprise her!" Ok, so that probably never happens. But thinking of a bunch of guys in uniforms sitting on a bunch of warehouse boxes eating salami sandwiches with extra mayo and lettuce (and a pickle!) and laughing about something silly puts me in a silly mood. And it's so much better to be in a silly mood than not.

Haha.. and this has nothing whatsoever to do with what I've been talking about, but I'm watching Hulu right now (if I'm blogging I will 99.9% of the time be watching Hulu, too) and I just saw the State Farm commercial with the buffalo. Reminds me of that scene in Tommy Boy with the deer. Danny and I were at someone's house, they were flipping channels, and we got a .1 second glimpse of some antlers breaking through the roof of a car. Danny kind-of snorted, shook his head, and said, "Tommy Boy." Isn't it amazing how you can get a .1 second glimpse of something and know exactly what it is? That's true skill, my friends, true skill.

picture source

And for your viewing pleasure, the buffalo commercial:

oh weather.

2011-02-15T11:11:00.002-07:00

I've been talking about how I want to build a snowman. But that's before it got up into the sixties. The sixties! I wore open-toed shoes and no jacket - and it was pure bliss. But the weatherman says it's suppose to snow this whole weekend, and it might even start tomorrow. Ohhhh. Maybe it's because I'm getting use to the sunny days and no mittens and scarves. Maybe it's because I'm watching The Bachelor on Hulu and they're sitting on a beach in Anguilla. Either way, I feel bittersweet about this cold weather coming. At least I've got some good snow boots on the way (both pairs of my boots have holes in them... I'm tired of wet socks).

So here's to (hopefully) warmer weather coming soon and more sunny days down by the river.

amore

2011-02-14T11:32:00.003-07:00

Happy love day from us, closed eyes and all.

Wishing you lots of chocolate, a friend to be with, and a sweet acts of kindness on this happy day.

Go HERE to enter the current giveaway (ends Feb. 20th)

GIVEAWAY! [you bet your sweet tushy we're having one of these]

2011-02-13T13:39:00.007-07:00

Oh you guys. You are all my favorite. I can't tell you how awesome it has been getting to know you through comments and emails. You are so sweet and so kind, and today, Danny and I reached a milestone. We officially have 100 followers! I know some of you have us linked up in your sidebars or just type us in your browser, etc., so technically we have more of you awesome peeps out there, and we're just glad to have you here. So - hows about a giveway, mm? Yay!

FELT ROSE WREATH GIVEAWAY

This little giveaway product was made by moi. It is my most favorite wreath, ever. I love it. Love love love love love it. And when I decided to do a giveaway when I reached 100 followers, I thought - why not give away something that I love?

I got instructions on how to make the wreath from the lovely ladies over at The Pretty Poppy. Not long after I made it, I showcased it with some other stuff at a church activity (I taught a class on how to decorate on a budget). I got tons of compliments on this wreath. Everyone who comes over and sees it on our door says something about it. I love it. They love it. We all love it, woo! And so I made you guys another one just like mine so I could share all the love going on around here.

It's a 14" wreath, made solely with felt that I rolled up into little roses. And that's it. Badda-bing, badda-boom! You have until Sunday, February 20th to enter. You can enter up to two times. Make sure to leave a separate comment for each entry. If you mess up an entry, delete it, then go back and try again.
(Open to US residents only)

--- ENTRIES ---

(1): Tell me what two random food items you always have in your kitchen
(2): Blog/tweet/facebook or whatever about the giveaway with a link back here

And that's it! Good luck!! And in case you were wondering, the two things you can always find in our kitchen: pickles and green bananas (we'll have up to 4 pickle jars in our fridge sometimes, and I think unripe bananas have a better flavor than ripe ones)

it was a perfect day

2011-02-12T20:57:00.001-07:00

Lyrics from "Perfect Day" by Lady Antebellum

Picture idea from THIS post by Aura Joon