The Answer to Your Winter Blues

Lets face it. Winter in Utah sucks. 

Last weekend, Troy and I were lounging around our apartment in complete boredom due to the fact that we can't enjoy being outside any longer. We decided to go to Target just to wander.

Thats when we stumbled upon the wonder that is Nerf. Naturally, we bought 2 guns and a larger than necessary bag of darts. 

We set up our playing field and gave each other a base to reload. We have strict rules on how many shots it takes to kill someone. One shot to the chest and you're done. Same with a head shot.  However, if you get an appendage shot, it takes another appendage and a belly shot before you're out. Let me just say... Best. Saturday. Ever.

Be warned though. Your house WILL look like this afterwards and you WILL continue to find random darts throughout the house for the next week or so. 

The Pink Series Half Marathon 2011

Time travel back to October 8th with me. That will make this post seem like its not completely outdated.

Back in July I was talking to some girls in my ward. A couple of them said they had completed a marathon and I was very impresed. They also all agreed that it's mostly a mental challenge. So then I got to thinking that maybe it was possible for me to do it. I decided to start with a half marathon though in order to decrease my odds of dying. And that is the story of how I signed myself up for a half marathon.

I created a training schedule for myself and stuck with it pretty well...even though it involved waking up at 5 am everyday for a 12 weeks. Naturally, the day before my race was the first day of snow this season. Troy and I had to take a last minute trip to the store to get warm running clothes. I was planning on wearing my tank top and shorts but clearly Mother Nature had other ideas.

The race was in Park City so it was even colder than I thought it would be. When I got on the bus to drive to the starting line, I probably had 20 layers. I regreted this decision once I was on the sweltering bus for 30 seconds. Our bus driver got us lost on the way too which was exciting. We almost crashed into a mountain. Seriously. Who would have thought it was even possible to crash into a mountian? We finally got to the start line and froze a little while longer until they would finally let us run.

The first 4 miles went SUPER quick. I was shocked. The snow wasn't as bothersome as I anticipated either. I actually didn't get tired until mile 9 or so. But by then you're so close to finishing that you want to just keep going. Pretty soon I was finished. Weird. It actually wasn't that bad! I wanted to finish in 2 hours and 10 minutes. My time ended up being 2 hours and 15 minutes but I was still happy with it. Considering the weather, altitude, wind, and it being my first one I think I did ok.

And now for the pictures...

Troy was my awesome photographer. This is the finish line area before being invaded by runners. 

Apparently I run with my thumbs up. I'm such a cheerful runner. 

Getting my "charm". It was an all women race so we got charms instead of medals. 

Best part of running 13.1 miles is eating all the free food after. Totally worth it.

All in all it was a great experience. I'm totally converted. Right when I finished I thought that I'd like to stick with half marathons rather than doing a full marathon...but now I've changed my mind. Who would have thought I'd ever like to run.

Utah Marathon Relay 2011

In an effort to build "office culture" our office has started doing all kinds of random actvities. So far we've had the boat trip, the horse riding excursion, and the Utah Marathon Relay. Troy and I have been pretty busy so the only one I've been able to attend was the relay...go figure. Luckily, I'm currently training for a half marathon so I was actually a tiny bit excited about this one. 

We got there bright and early. Don't even ask what time Troy and I had to get up that day. It was definitely not a Saturday appropriate wake up time. They said they were starting at 7 sharp...that was a lie so we stood around for a while before the race. 

Once things got going it was really fun though. Basically they take a full marathon and divide it into five sections. Each runner does a leg and then you can say you did a marathon without actually having to do it. 

Photo credits go to Troy Boy. 

 I was the third runner on my team. So grateful that I wasn't the last person to go. It got quite warm once things got going. 

You're right, this is a great picture of me.

I had set a goal for myself to finish in 50 minutes. But, because I'm awesome, I did it in 48. Speed demon right? 

Overall our teams were pretty great. We didn't win. In fact they were already giving out the awards before our last people were even back yet but it was still a fun experience. Troy did catch that hilarious looking monkey for me while they were throwing out prizes though...thus we were the real winners. 

Welcome Back Boys!

The change in the weather lets you know its that time of year again. You know where I'll be tonight. Fingers are crossed for more Civil War reenactments!

Our New Adventure

Guess who is the newest member of the YSA 67th ward bishopric?

THIS GUY

Yes, Troy and I are back in a Singles Ward. I'm convinced that we got sent back since we weren't very good at it the first time. The last two weeks have been filled with ward prayers, FHE activities, and opening socials. No signs of things slowing down any time soon either. Next week our FHE/social is going to be catered by Malawi Pizza (one of the benefits in being in the Belmont Condos singles ward I guess).  We're pretty excited to get to know everyone and participate in all the activities. Especially since we don't have to worry about the awkward aspects of a singles ward. It is pretty funny to be back though. I thought singles wards were funny when I was in one...well, its MUCH funnier the second time around. 

Also, this week I found out I'm getting a promotion(?) at work.  We're not really sure if its a promotion or not actually. I was told to hire someone to take my place. Then they told me I'm going to be the new accountant for the law firm. Considering I have zero knowledge of accounting, prayers are much appreciated. 

Summer Cleaning

Last week in preparation for all the visitors that we would be having in the coming days we decided to do an extremely thorough cleaning of our apartment. That's when we stumbled upon this gem...

Yes those are all mine...not to mention the two other pairs that are in the trunk of the car.

You may now all comment.

Get me some ginkgo biloba

This may seem confusing but stick with me through this. 

In high school all my friends and I had a livejournal. (“El Jay” if you were cool). We were really good at it. We would all post at least every day, sometimes up to 5 times a day but we won’t get into that. Occasionally I still like to go back and look at my livejournal account. I didn’t keep a handwritten journal at the time but this website has a pretty good history of my life on it.

Fast forward to present time. I love my car. That car has been with me for years. First car I ever drove. Learned to drive in it, had my first accident in it, took it to college. The whole sha-bang. Sadly, the car is getting old now though. He's loosing some paint up top and getting wide around the middle. But the real bummer is the fact that my fog lights turn themselves on. Its gotten to the point that the only time they turn off now is when I turn on my left blinker. I found out about this because my car battery would constantly die due to the lights turning themselves on. I now have to leave my blinker on while the car is off in hopes of maintaining some semblance of battery life. 

Fast forward to today. I was at work and I thought about a specific time I went to the movies with some friends. I remember thinking I would never forget that movie but alas, I have forgotten. I can’t even remember what it was about. The only things I remember are the year and the company that I was with. So of course, I can’t stop thinking out what movie it could've been. So I turned to the livejournal in hopes of finding out.

While reading through some old entries, I stumbled upon this piece of literature from September 18, 2004. (I hope you enjoy the high school writing style)

“ok so yesterday my car battery died while I was at school so there was no getting home for Ms. Alex. Durham and I had to wait for mi madre to come and pick us up. Then we had to get Matt and drop him off at this bowling thing then get Kritter then take Durham home so then of course I missed guitar. Its ok that I missed it though because I already know my song so now he won’t freak out when I actually know what I am doing since he gave me 2 weeks…if that makes any sense.

So then when my dad came home we went and jumped my dear car and got it home. At home, we pulled some stuff apart and took out the battery and such and brought the battery to Auto Zone…(get in the zone…AUTO ZONE!!...yes that Auto Zone) they charged up my battery while my dad and I went to Subway. We got the battery back and put it in the car and it worked. But I do have a short in my ‘lights wand’ so that my fog lights randomly come on so I have to watch that”

The wiser version of myself. With my best friend...who remains my best friend. So lucky

16 year old version of myself, thank you for trying to help adult version of myself. You are so wise. Unfortunately, adult version didn't even remember that. I remember the car breaking down, but not the helpful warning. Go figure. 

4th fun...Part I

Anybody who religiously follows blogs has probably read all the 4th of July posts...or so you thought! We decided to hold off just a little longer on reporting about our holiday weekend simply because, well, we went up to Rexburg Idaho. Just to educate those who have never been up to the biggest little city in Idaho I am including a map of Rexburg in this post:

Now you may be asking yourself if this is a legit map. Well, I got it off Google Maps, so it most certainly is.

Rexburg is just a ton of nothing with four main roads that form a square (in talking to people from Rexburg I have since found out that there are actually only two main roads. Seriously?!)

Our reason for going up is because my sister Corinne went through the temple for the first time. She is heading on a mission to BRASIL!! I'm super excited for that. Anyways, we went up there to join her in that occasion. 

In front of the Rexburg temple

It was nice being able to spend time with family. The next day we went on down to Logan for the fireworks show there. All the family from the surrounding area was there. The fireworks ended late and anybody who knows me knows that I cannot stay up late. We lucked out and found a room in Logan so that we could head back down to Provo.

Olivia and Corinne were able to come down and join us for the weekend in Provo. We always think that there is not a ton to do in Provo, but my sisters reminded us that they are coming from Rexburg. We really enjoyed spending time with them and are glad that they came down, even if they had to ride back up north with complete strangers.

Also, the Next Food Network Star is on, so we are going to break this bad boy into two parts. Stay tuned. 

We really want a dog...

It’s been a while since we bragged about the dogs.

This weekend we had the chance to go up the Humane Society. The weather was pretty crazy so we only had the chance to play with one dog. But goodness gracious was she adorable. I'm pretty sure if our apartment allowed dogs...or even if we thought we could get away with it...Troy would have brought this one home in an instant.

Meet Coco. 

She is a 7 month old Labrador Retriever. This dog has some spunk. We were playing with the tennis ball but then she found some tennis ball fuzz (you know that stuff that peels off the actual ball part). I almost think she had more fun playing catch with the fuzz than with the actual ball. She is super playful but also super cuddly. She's definitely a puppy though. I checked yesterday and Coco still hadn't been adopted . If she stays there much longer we might find ourselves looking for people to dog sit while we find a new place to live. Any takers?

A Promise To Return...

Pop Quiz!!

The lack of blog updates from us means that…

a.     We got a dog and are now too busy throwing tennis balls that we no longer have time for anything else.
b.     We decided we hate technology and have shunned all forms of social media.
c.      I got a new job.
d.     None of the above, we’re just lazy.

If you went to high school in America then you’ll know the answer is always C. Duh.

That’s right people of the blog world, I have a job. A full time job actually. Which apparently takes up more time than not having a job. Go figure.

I’m working at a law office that is actually three different companies in one. There is a financing company, an asset protection company and an actual law office. Just try to figure out how they all mesh together; it’s quite the puzzle. I’ve actually really liked it so far though. I’ve been there since April but due to the blogging hiatus you might not have known that. So I’m basically a law genius now. What, you want to set up an LLC? Yeah I can do that for you, no problem. And yes, I’ll even get the EIN for you.

And because no blog is complete without a photo, here is evidence that I am not lying.

Surprise, it’s my desk!

In conclusion, yay for having a job but boo for ditching the blog. Therefore, I hereby resolve to do better and still do fun things even though my life is slowly being consumed by pleadings, holding companies, and blueprints.

Why does my life revolve around food?

Alex and I have a favorite sandwich shop, but the sad part is that there are none located in Utah...or at least none were located in Utah. Oh, I should probably tell you what place it is yeah? Well I'll let you in on the secret that is Port of Subs. So good.

Previously the only time that we would be able to get sandwiches from Port of Subs was when we would go to visit family. In Vegas there is a shop just down the road from Steve and Anna's, and we always make it a point to stop by and grab a sandwich before we come back up to Utah.

Oregon is a little more tricky since the Port of Subs is actually in Idaho. Yes, we typically call the sandwich shop there when we are on road trips to make sure that they are open when we are passing through.

The question on everyone's mind is 'What makes Port of subs better than (insert generic sub shop)?' Simple answer: the bread. They don't need to church up the bread by adding herbs and cheeses . Also they slice the meats fresh kind of like getting them straight from the deli.

Yes, we love our Port of Subs

Anyways, the best part of this whole story is that there is now a Port of Subs within reasonable driving distance of where we live. Alex spoiled me a few weeks back by going all the way up just to grab us subs and brought them down so we could enjoy them together. Just another reason why I am so in love with my wife. 

My Friend the Fish

This past Friday we made our way up to the Cheesecake Factory which I would have to say was a great move on our part. Now everyone reading this is probably saying to themselves right now something along the lines of "oh I'm totally jealous." or "Hunny, we should go to Cheesecake Factory this weekend and get some cheesecake."

I will let you in on a little secret though. You see when I go to Cheesecake Factory my mouth is not watering over the kagillion different types of cheesecake they offer, but instead I am focused on one thing, and one thing only:

That my friends is the Mahi Mahi Mediterranean. Best. Dish. Ever.

Don't worry though, we did get cheesecake as well (Red Velvet and regular with strawberries). All around solid weekend that's for sure.

We make grocery shopping fun

This is our favorite smoothie mix. Mainly because it makes us laugh. We've never actually bought it so we can't say for sure if its even good. We're just constantly speculating about what could actually be in that bag.

You see according to almost every basic strawberry smoothie recipe the only thing that can be in this bag is either lemon zest, sugar, ice cream, or yogurt. It's clearly not ice cream or yogurt so some smart person is basically selling sugar for $2 a bag? We don't get it. If you're going to add strawberries, milk AND ice, why don't you just make the whole smoothie.

b-b-b-bowling

I come from a family of bowlers. Everyone loves bowling. I, however, am missing that gene. Which has always been ok. I tag along, sometimes I play, sometimes I don't. Never an issue.

Then, I married a bowler. He never made me go bowling with him, but he owns his own bowling shoes, so that qualifies him as a bowler right?

Well I bit the bullet last weekend. I am proud to announce that I, Alex Non-bowler Treanor, went bowling. Not only that,  but I scored over 100. Thank you. Thank you.

And now to brag a bit...

Check out bowler husband's form

I'm sure the lady on the right would love to know this picture is now in the Internet. Sorry lady on the right. 

Some notes on Pizza

Wednesday night is Pizza night in the Treanor household. We used to Papa Murphy's it up every week but since we're trying to be healthier, I've started making homemade pizza. This week I decided to take things to an even higher level...healthy homemade pizza.

First of all, healthy pizza is a dumb idea.

I found a whole wheat pizza dough recipe...which didn't turn out like something you want to eat while enjoying the craziness of Phillip on Survivor.

Yes, I did take this picture this morning after the dough sat out all night. However, the photograph makes it especially unappetizing yeah?

We tried rolling it out but Troy Boy smased his finger under the rolling pin (not a fun thing, I'm sure) and then the thing wouldn't get bigger than 6 inches without ripping so we gave up.

Luckily, we had some left over whole wheat pitas from an earlier meal (which is wonderful and you should get the recipe from me because it will change your life). So we put on some ingredients and made ourselves some "healthy" pita pizzas. Now I'm not really sure where we went wrong from here. 

We cooked them on our pizza stone. But I'm thinking it was just the type of cheese we used. You see, the healthy recipe wanted healthy cheese. But, healthy cheese does not a pizza make. It was the weirdest thing I have ever seen. Lets just say I felt like a dog eating peanut butter when I ate this pizza.  I took a picture with my phone but I'm not sure it accurately portrays the oddness of this cheese. 

In the end, I ended up just peeling off the cheese and eatting a pita with sauce...that should tell you how crazy this cheese was because I am not one to deny the cheese. 

Needless to say, there was a quick In n Out run last night. 

So lesson learned: Don't even bother with healthy pizza. Just splurge one night a week and go for the real thing. 

Mother Nature: 2342452345 Alex: 1

Here is a lesson I have learned quite well over the past year.

Any time you plan on doing laundry (which in our lovely apartment, requires walking down 3 flights of stairs and across the complex to the laundry room) it WILL rain or snow. Guaranteed. 

However, this week I knew it was supposed to rain so I hurried and got the laundry in first thing in the morning. While I was bring down the first load, I saw a couple of snow flakes. I groaned audibly because I foresaw me writing this blog post about having to carry 3 loads of laundry through the rain/snow. It appears someone was on my side this time though and things miraculously held off.

Fast forward two hours....I'm safely sitting on my [lumpy] bed, folding completely dry laundry when I notice this lovely view.

So in your face Mother Nature! You may have gotten me every other time I've done laundry. But today was my success!

The Tale of the Lumpy Mattress

So let's go back in time together. Close your eyes for a second because this is going to be an epic field trip...

For the first few weeks of our marriage we slept on a queen sized air mattress. Now it was actually a pretty good mattress for us. We purchased a memory foam topper figuring we we throw that on top of the real mattress that we would eventually get.

In the meantime we were shopping. We went just about everywhere looking for a good mattress that would suit us perfectly, but also in the

hopes that it would not break the bank.

We finally found one that we liked at Macy's and got all set up to purchase it and have it delivered. The only down side to it was that it was a little pricey.

The following day at work I was talking with some co-workers about the purchase we had made the previous day. One guy mentioned that he had recently purchased a mattress for about half of the price that we had found ours for. So we cancelled the order. Looking back, I would say BIG MISTAKE.

It was almost as if the signs were warning us against switching our minds from the get go.

First of the name of the place to get the cheaper mattress is Furnish It. Yes, you got that right, Furnish It. It's really a place, here's the link to prove it.

Anyways did you get it yet?! Just think about the name a few times if you feel like you are missing out on something, I have faith that you'll catch on.

Anyways, we showed up to this place at mid day and walked in. it's a huge warehouse in the location of an old snuggle bag factory or something. We were walking around the place and realized there was nobody there. We could have walked out with thousands of dollars worth of furniture (well, as least thousands according to the prices marked...I'm not sure anything is actually worth what they have it marked down as there. I'll remind you that the name is FurniSh it).

We tried out all the mattresses that they had, and still nobody showed up. We even yelled at the top of our lungs for people, and didn't

get an answer. Finally after about 15-20 minutes this guy came from some back room that I swear I had checked. We ended up getting the mattress and it was delivered that same day.

Now let's flash forward to today.

Now we used the ironing board to illustrate how lumpy the bed has become. You can see the two distinct areas where we sleep and the high area in the middle. Yes, I know that I am overweight, but I also know that my wife is itty-bitty, so there is no way that you can blame her side on weight. This mattress is just crappy. Try snuggling on something like that. It's pretty hard having to get over the hump in the middle.

Anyways, I am about ready to get rid of it because even though it doesn't look like much of a dent in the picture, let me remind you that there is no body there to weigh it down further, because it goes down a lot further than that.

Moral of the story, just buy from a legit place. You can still find bargains at big name chains.

My Thursday evenings for the next month

Let me tell you about Charlotte. While I was finishing up my senior thesis, this girl saved me. She is an anthropology genius and was always willing to bounce around ideas with me. We spent several hours in the computer lab together endlessly working on posters and rewriting our theses. She became one of my best friends as we bonded over the stress of trying to finish everything.

After the semester was over, I was sad that I wouldn't get to see her as often. We kept in touch and decided that we should sign up for a cooking class or something since we both enjoy that. Somehow our idea morphed though. And that is the story of how I got enrolled in a cake decorating class.

Yesterday was our second class and we actually got to make a cake and ice it. I'll be honest, I am fairly awful at these types of things. I got all the different tools now though so hopefully I'll get better at it. Here is how my cake turned out...

Trust me, I'm fully aware that its not beautiful...BUT, I at least got icing to cover most of the cake so thats an improvement for me. And the icing on the edges isn't a complete disaster. Thus, I am happy with it.  (P.S. It may not be pretty on the outside, but the actual cake inside is bomb. The cake leveler will soon by my new best friend if it provides me with excess cake every time I use it. Oh yum.)

In the end, I'm so glad I'm taking this class! It's nice to have something to do, even if it is just decorating a cake. (I never thought I'd say this, but I was so excited to have a syllabus in my life again too). Also, I'm extremely glad to be taking this class with Charlotte. We basically just laugh at how lost we are the entire time. Who knew cake decorating could be such a science. 

The Small Things

Please take a look at my kitchen. Notice the cute tea kettle and bright yellow Kitchenaid. There are also cookies on a cooling rack on the microwave. Don't you just love being able to see all these things. I'm writing about this because for the last 6 months or so, our kitchen has looked like this...

Our light bulb went out and we just kept forgetting to get a new one. Lets face it, it's not very often that we are browsing through the light bulb aisle. Thus, we used all these small lights instead. Thankfully, our kitchen has these small lights throughout or else we would have been in big trouble. 

So wonderful to be able to see again. Aren't the small things in life the greatest?

A normal conversation

While climbing into bed last night:

          Me: Do you know how much I love you?

          Troy: Your hair is like spider webs. 

He always makes me smile. Love you, Monk. 

Love me some dogs

Considering I seem to have plenty of excessive free time lately, I decided to start volunteering at the Humane Society of Utah. I've done the orientations and such but yesterday was my first official day volunteering. Can I just say, most fun volunteering experience ever.

They wanted us to start of walking the small dogs just to get a feel for it. I ended up walking 4 of them. One of which was this little joy, Frankie.

Frankie is a character. We were racing to the park bench and I was winning. He decided to be a sore loser and stopped dead in his tracks. Then right after stopping, he took the opportunity to empty his bowels. So I looked like an idiot running around then to add insult to injury, I then had to pick up his crap. Thanks Frankie. You should have seen the smile he had on his face though. He was quite proud of himself. 

After playing with the small dogs, I looked around at the big dogs. They had all been walked already but I asked about it just in case. They said that since they have all been walked, they can get a second round. One dog stood out to me so I took him out. 

Meet Bucky. 

Cute face right? He took some time running around, playing with other dogs, barking, exploring, and then we played some ball. After a few minutes he jumped up on the bench with me and just sat there. Who knew the energy crazed pup was actually a lap dog too. Love it. 

The other dogs I played with were Mojo, Landi, and Bruiser. You can see them here. I'm excited to keep going back and getting to know the other beautiful dogs there. 

A dog teaches a boy fidelity, perseverance, and to turn around three times before lying down.  ~Robert Benchley

Thank you Universe

Lets just get this one out in the open...I get attached to inanimate objects.

The day we sold Rita, everyone was in a hurry and in all the rush I realized I never got to say goodbye to her. I didn't have that last moment where I watched her drive off into the distance with her new family. I got pretty sad whenever I thought about it. What if she didn't know how much I loved having her in our lives for a few years? That would be horrible.

Well the universe likes me and the other day I was driving to Michaels when I got stopped at a red light.

I looked to my left a bit and guess who I saw...

RITA!!!!

They happened to be going the same way that I was for quite some time (don't worry, I didn't stalk them) so I had some time to catch up with her. She seems to be doing quite well. 

Thank you universe. Best. Gift. Ever. 

My Next Project(s)

This year for Christmas Troy got me a sewing machine. I've had a lot of fun playing around on it the last couple months. I've made some pillowcases and a simple quilt. However, I wanted to start trying to make clothes. I went to JoAnn's just to look around.

Well apparently its my lucky day. Sewing patterns were on super sale. Actually they were just on normal sale but by my standards it could've been called a super sale.

Check out my loot.

I spent about $25 and ended up getting 5 different patterns plus some fabric to make a skirt with. It'll be cute I promise. 

Here is the best part of my trip though...

I'm a savings genius. End of story.

A Friendly Reminder

Troy and I don't plan on living in Utah forever but occasionally we have those days where we're reminded that we definitely should not permanently reside in here. Yesterday was that kind of day.

For starters, I spent the morning looking up beignet, gumbo, and jambalaya recipes. I finally decided on a Cajun Crawfish and Shrimp Etouffe recipe for dinner. I knew crawfish would be tough around here so I was already set on just doing shirmp. However, apparently grocery stores in Utah are not sufficiently stocked for about half the ingredients in a Cajun recipe. Strike one.

Next, Troy wore his "Mardi Gras" shoes to work.

Go figure that all the big bosses who run his company decided to show up yesterday as well. He spent the whole day trying to hide his feet so as not to confuse people into thinking he always dresses that way.  Strike two.

Finally, I made cupcakes since I couldn't make a festive dinner.

While they may look like your average cupcakes, don't be fooled. These are special cupcakes. 

Special Mardi Gras  cupcakes. We brought some down to Neen and Jon who thankfully understand Troy and I. However, we also brought some to another couple in our ward.  They looked at us like we were crazy. Strike three. 

Apparently while Troy and I were busy incorporating some Louisiana into our day, the rest of Utah was completely oblivious to the fact that yesterday was supposed to be the greatest party day of the year. The ward may think we're odd but at least they got free cupcakes out of the deal right?

How to spend a perfect Saturday

Well within the last week I both scored my dream job and got laid off from my dream job. Curse you budget cuts. Thats life when you work for a nonprofit organization though huh? We decided to make this weekend extra fun to make up for the huge bummer.

Saturday morning I had an orientation at the Humane Society of Utah. Since I can't own a dog, I figured I would at least go play with dogs that are looking for homes to make their day a little better. I'm so excited to start volunteering there. I already can tell I'll have a couple favorites. (I may or may not have started looking at different apartments just so we could add a four-legged friend to our family.)

This is my new buddy. Her name is Paula and she is about a year old. I want her to be ours but as long as she gets a happy home I'll be loving life. She is a super smiler and so happy. Just try to tell me you aren't falling in love.

After our adventures there we headed up to Salt Lake and walked around the Gateway. Apple store...check. Sports store...check. Forever 21...no check...how did that happen? I do not know. 

We did stop at Z Gallerie though. Love that store. We had a particularly good time playing with these. Probably spent a good ten minutes bonding with the magnifying glasses. We're mature adults. 

After a quick nap on the side of the road we went to...The Melting Pot. Words cannot even describe. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures, not that you're surprised by that fact. It was probably one of the best meals of my life. I'm sold on the fondue idea. We had a cheese sauce with bread, apples, and veggies. Salad. Lobster. Chicken. Steak. Duck. Shrimp. Ravioli. More Steak. And then there was the chocolate....oh boy the chocolate. 

We stopped at REI on the way home and spent a good hour and a half just wandering around. We are big fans of that store. We'll see if I'm still a fan when we have to wake up super early for the garage sale they have though. 

It was honestly a perfect day. No lie.

El Presidents Day

We're behind on the blog again. My bad. Brace yourself for some updates though.

Through some tricky planning, Troy happened to get President's Day off from work. Miracle yeah? We decided to take advantage of the situation and went down to Vegas for some time.

Friday, Olivia came down to Provo so we got to eat dinner with her and chat a while before heading off. Hopefully next time she comes we are able to see her for more than a few hours. We ended up leaving pretty late and the drive was cah-raaaazy. It was pouring rain...in the desert. Of course the second we got to the city the rain stopped though. We got to Vegas around 4:30 am Utah time. That was fun.

Saturday we took advantage of some warmer weather. First we went out to Valley of Fire to look around. We did a hike called Mouse Tank. Its the classic Valley of Fire hike.

Kritter apparently turned into a mountain goat some time over the last few months.

The hike has lots of heiroglyphs along the way. My personal fave...the snake dance glyph. I made Troy Boy go touch it so I could take a picture. Such a good husband. 

At the end of the hike you get to the actual "tank". The story goes that an outlaw used this area as a hideout because he knew there was water there. I've been here tons of times and never seen water but luckily due to the impressive rain storm the night before, there was actually water! You can kind of see it here. We threw some rocks in the water and it sounded pretty deep. Nice little swimming pool if you ask me. That Mouse was a smart man. 

After we left Valley of Fire we headed to St. Thomas. If you haven't heard of it before, its definitely worth your time to google this bad boy. Be sure its the one in Nevada and not the island though...although I wish we had gone to the island. I think this picture accurately describes our journey through St. Thomas...

The rain made things nice and muddy so we all had about 8 inches of mud on our shoes at all time. Nothing like journeying through the wilderness on 8 inch mud-platform shoes. 

We had so much fun just hanging out with family. Lately our visits to Vegas had been a bit hectic so it was nice to get to relax and do some fun things. 

I didn't have my camera with me but we also went to Bass Pro Shops and ate at this awesome new burger place. It was definitely a keeper. 

Don't be too jealous but also visited this little gem. Don't let the sign fool you though, they aren't really open 24 hours. 

 

Overall it was a great escape from the cold and snow. So grateful for my family! Especially family that lives in the sunshine. Thanks for letting us come visit!

THE Valentine's Day 2011

Now that I have a permanent Valentine, I think I could get used to this Valentine's Day thing.

Troy and I had a lovely dinner. I made Pecan Crusted Dijon Salmon on a bed of Rice Pilaf and Cajon Asparagus. With a fancy lemon granish, mind you. Feel free to be impressed. Troy surprised me with some candle sticks (and a basket full of V chocolates...oh boy!) that made our table look pretty.

After dinner was dessert. Lava cake with strawberries and ice cream. Just like the cruise. We'll definitely be making this one again. In fact we had 2 left over so I'll probably eat them again today. And then make another batch for the next day.

We had a pretty calm night. Troy let me watch The Notebook and I fell in love with the 1940s all over again. We went to bed pretty early but I think we both agreed that it was by far the best Valentine's Day ever. 

Something every girl should have...

I have been converted. 

Every girl needs

a men's razor.

In other news....my amaryllis finally blossomed!

Over Thanksgiving my wonderful mother-in-law got a few planting kits. We had a good time planting our bulbs and getting dirt everywhere. I've planted things before without the best results but these are actually turning out pretty well AND they bring a little summer to my life. I love having something bright to look at.