Sunday, August 30, 2009

A few months ago I was looking into different races Matthew and I could run this year. One that sounded like a lot of fun was one in Bryce Canyon. We went to it this weekend. It was awesome!!! We had such a great time. We left Friday after I got off work. We drove down to Bryce. We got there when it was dark, so we tried our luck with finding a place to camp in the dark, just off the road. We found a place, but we were still worried we were on private land or something. It was way windy that night and it kept blowing our tent. It made it sound like there was person or animal footsteps outside. Needless to say, we didn't get much sleep. We both woke up and said we felt like the night would never end. End it did, and we were up ready for our race. It was a five mile race. We ran along the Bryce Canyon rim. Matthew took some pics on his phone/ipod/run tracker while we were running. Such talent! Here are some of those pics: It was so beautiful!!! I was hoping all of our run would be along the rim but only a short part of it was. The rest was running through all the pines, which was still beautiful! It was a 5 mile run and we finished in 55 minutes. That's the furthest Matthew has ever run before. Yeah Matthew!!! There were a lot of people who intermittently walked and ran, but Matthew and I ran the whole way! It was awesome! We both finished 5th in our age group. However, there were only about 200 hundred people in the race, but no one has to know that. This was our picture after the race - and look we're still smiling!
After the race Matthew and I went exploring in Bryce canyon. There are some sweet trails through the canyon that we decided we want to come back and hike. We were just too worn out from our race. It was so beautiful!!! I couldn't believe it! It was so wild to see the red rock with so many pines. What a fun combination! I was also amazed with how many foreigners there were! It seemed like every stop we made we heard a different language. We were beginning to wonder if there were any Americans. It was cool to see and hear so much diversity!

Matthew was starting to look like a bear with his scruff. Hee hee
Mr. Crow posing for his photo shoot
I took this picture on self-timer. Except I didn't leave enough time for me to get in the picture. Oops!
So we decided to switch places, this picture turned out lots better


The lone pine. It looks like there is snow on the mountain. It also looks like the pine is on a cloud. We thought it looked super cool.

Walking


We were so pooped with our race, sightseeing and walking. There was one lookout we almost didn't go to because we didn't want to walk to it. We are so glad we did, because this is what we got to see. It was awesome! It was one of our favorite views!
The cute little couple
We got free tickets to the rodeo in Bryce that night from running our race. Matthew and I hadn't been to a rodeo before, so we were excited to go. Matthew even indulged me by wearing cowboy boots! It turned out to be a junior rodeo, which was still fun. We had a great time. It got us excited to see a real rodeo someday.
Here we are sportin our cowboy boots. It was fun to get a little cowboyed upWhat a fun weekend! I will admit though, we were so excited to sleep in our bed!

Thursday, August 13, 2009

We have Seatbelts!!!

As long as I've known Matthew, and we've been crusin in his car, it has only had one seat belt in the backseat. We always wanted to offer to drive places because we can get gas cheaper, but oh yeah, we only have one seatbelt. A couple of weeks ago, our trusty lone seat belt finally died. Now we were down to having a 5-passenger car that was really a 2-passenger car. It was time to do something about it. I went to checker and asked them about it. They sent me to the Springville junk yard. They had an old Ford Contour that the worker and I took the seat belts out of. With a little bit of tweaking and working, Matthew's help, Matthew's dremmel (thanks family!), we now have 3 functioning, working seat belts!!! Yipee!!!! Now you are all invited to ride in our car!
A couple of side notes to this story:
1-When I took the seat out we found a ton of rice from our wedding - thanks everyone!
2-I was so facinated with the junk yard! I thought it was so cool! There were hundreds of cars there that they have and can take the parts from to fix up other cars. What a great way to recycle and get things for cheaper! I loved it!

What do you get?

What do you get when you have two boys in the house?

THIS

On the kitchen counter!!! I went to get some ice cream last night and found this furry, large friend just like this on the counter. YUCK!!! Matthew found him, and he'll also be the one to dispose of him when he's done with him.

Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House

Matthew and I went with Brittany and kids to the Oquirrh Mountain temple open house. It was so beautiful! We had a great time. I can't believe how many temples are in Utah now. We are so blessed. I'm excited for the dedication and to do a session sometime.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

My Poor Neglected Blog

Well - ready for a feast?! With my poor neglected blog, it's time to catch up. So now you'll get an overload for my blog!!!
My sister-in-law, Brittany, told me about this warehouse craft/scrapbook sale going on last week. We went together to check it out. I did not give myself enough time. There was so much to look at, and so many great deals! I only had about 30 minutes, so I went through everything so quickly. I put my name on their email list. I can't wait to go back and check out their stuff! I got this frame and saying for $5.00
This one was $3.50
This one was also $3.50. I love that saying! I think these are so cute! Great for the price! This is our little date reminder table. It's our extra decoratives that I just didn't quite know what to do with them. So, I put them all together. I was especially pleased with the flowers. Matthew gave me these roses for our 1 year anniversary. They hung upside down in our room forever. Then, I remembered this vase we got from the Krisna temple in Salem a while ago. It was perfect! They were the perfect addition to our date table. I was so excited!!!This is our US map. We have dots on it of where we have gone and where we want to go. You can't really see the dots from the picture. It made me want to learn more about the US and where would be some fun places to visit. I can't wait to go to the places we have marked. Someday we'll get a map of the world, but for now we'll focus on the states.
Matthew's brother, Jonathan, moved in with us about a month ago. We put a wall up, and now it really feels like we have our own apartment. It looks really good!
I went to a friend's baby shower a couple of weeks ago. I thought it would be fun to try to make baby booties to take. I tried a pattern and this is what I got. I didn't like it.
So I tried a different pattern. I got this far into it, but found I had messed up, so I started over.
Attempt #3. I finished the bootie, but it was totally messed up! You can't tell from the picture, but it was totally lopsided, ugly and asldkfj;askldjfl;kaj!
Attempt #4 - I tried different yarn. I didn't like the yarn I used previously. This one was HUGE!!! Her kid could be 4 years old by the time he fit into this! It was lopsided as well. At this point I was starting to think I was either messing up on the pattern or the pattern was messed up.
Attempt #5 - By this point it was time for the baby shower. I ended up just buying a gift. I was so bummed and sad and upset about buying a gift. I so wanted to make something instead. I should have bought something from my friend's cute baby selection of stuff - http://chloeco.blogspot.com/. I didn't think about it at the time. But you should check out her stuff - it's so cute!!!
This time I went to my mom for help. She and I crocheted the booties together, but still no success.
After this last attempt by my mom, we finally decided either the pattern is wrong or we are really bad at figuring out the pattern. We gave up. It was time to give it a break. They are so cute! I'm sad I couldn't get them to look like the pattern. Maybe another day I'll get up the courage and motivation to try doing baby booties again. For now I think I'll stick to the burp cloths. They are way easier compared to the booties. This is what they were supposed to look like. http://crochetme.com/patterns/simple-baby-booties
When we went to visit Michael in Oregon, he showed me his sketch book. I loved his stuff! I asked if I could take one. He said yes. So I brought this one home. It was quite the challenge to find a back that would look good. I didn't want to do just a frame. I wanted to do something a little more artsy and creative. First I was just going to do posterboard. Then I thought I might get a piece of tile. Tile would be too heavy, and I couldn't find one I liked. My mom suggested a chalkboard. I went to so many places to find a chalkboard! They are non-existant! I was surprised, but not at the same time - whiteboards are way better than chalkboards. I found some foam posterboard that I thought I could use in place of a chalkboard - PERFECT!!! It ended up having the same effect as a chalkboard - just what I was looking for. A few finishing touches and now we have some fun artwork in our kitchen! Thanks Michael!!!
I'm doing a baby shower for my sister, Natalie. This is the invite I made for it.
Now that you're done reading my novel, you'll never want to check my blog again. Hee hee! Sorry to bore you, but I had to share!!

Saturday, August 1, 2009

What a Great Day!

What a great day today! No pics, sorry. Matthew and I did a fun bike ride up the canyon. We live so close to, so we ride our bikes about 10 minutes and we're in the canyon. It's so beautiful! We had such a nice ride. The best part was cruisin home down the canyon!
This afternoon I checked out a boutique my friend was selling some of her cute baby stuff in. It was so fun to see what she's made! You can check out her stuff at chloeco.blogspot.com. Tonight we needed sushi redemption after our not so good sushi experience on Matthew's birthday. So we made it tonight. We are getting to be pros at this! It's so yummy! We love trying new stuff in or on our sushi. Matthew made a new sauce tonight that tasted really good on the sushi. So good! Love it! The best part about making sushi is the time we get to spend together making it. I love that!