Boy it has been a long time! I know you are all sitting on the edge of your seats waiting to see what is going on in our lives! I wish I had some amazing things to tell you, but normal life just keeps keepin' on.

Some of my family and I have committed to running a 10k in September so the training begins! Today was the first day of training and it was NOT FUN. I only needed to run 2 miles, but my feet felt like lead, and my chicken fajita dinner came back to haunt me in the form of an excruciating side ache (okay not that bad, but it wasn't a good feeling). When I'm running I like to picture myself on the cover of this magazine:


I hope to someday run like this, but I am afraid to admit I look more along the lines of this:


I didn't go too slow, but I know I can improve! I will try to keep updated on the progress and will definitely post pictures when we complete our first ever 10k!

In other news - Jake did get a new truck. He loves it, which is all that matters. I am glad he found a good thing out of a not so fun situation. An image for your viewing pleasure:

We have been doing alot of fun things lately - we went fishing for my first time ever! Jake has gone before so he helped me figure out how to throw the fishing line out and sit there until a fish comes. I didn't catch anything, but I did get some bites on my bait which was equally exciting. I screamed when it bit my line, which probably scared it away. I am excited to go again - and maybe catch something. Of course I will not touch the fish or eat it - i will give Jake that pleasure. Jake wasn't able to catch anything either, but our friends did catch some small fish.

We went camping a couple weekends ago and had fun with some friends. We went up Provo Canyon and stayed at a campsite with a camp host who wore a kilt. We did all the fun camping stuff - sitting in front of the fire for hours and eating nonstop (hot dogs, smores, roasted starbursts, etc), playing games in the tent, and then hiking in the morning. I LOVE living in Utah. You can drive 20 minutes and be in the mountains to hike or camp, whatever you choose. It is great!

This past weekend our nephew was baptized. My parents flew out, and my sister came down with her family and it was wonderful! We also had another nephew have his baby blessing and were able to see Jake's family. It was great to spend time with both of our families! Nothing is better than hanging out with family. We are off to go boating and camping this weekend with some of Jake's family, and we are excited to be out on the lake. I'll be sure to take pictures!

In other news - I planted my very first garden! I planted carrots, green peppers, squash, watermelon, corn, cucumbers, peas, tomatoes, and lots of lettuce. I am hoping we get at least one piece of fruit or vegetable. I will be happy with just one piece! I decided to start some seeds inside first, and after planting them I only have three seedlings left alive outside. I am guessing i wasn't doing things right because we had a neighbor come over and explain to me how i needed to soak the base of the plants with water, rather than shower them with water. We'll see how it goes!

Our friend Elisa with her prize fish!

Jake getting ready to fish!

Maureen, Austin and me before our 5k "Race for the Cure"

Cutie McKell riding a horse at Thanksgiving Point

Cutie Tyler

Cutie Austin

Grandma and Ellie watching the horses

I knew you were wondering - YES this horse is wearing sunglasses because MAN it was sunny!

Stinkin' Punk Kids...

before you read this, please know that everyone is safe and i would have not been so upset if someone had actually been hurt....

Last night was quite an experience. Jake had just left for work, I was settling in bed watching the great "gilmore girls" when all of a sudden I heard a crazy crash outside. I thought it was a garbage truck (it sounded like a garbage truck slamming it's crane down), but to my suprise I opened the blinds to see this: (click on the pic if you want to see a larger version)

the boy in the cast was NOT in the accident - he is our neighbor and I have no idea what happened to his leg.

sorry about the fuzzy picture - i'm not the best photog

That's right - there is a random car flipped on it's side, slammed into Jake's car. Jake's car was parked on the street when somehow the white car flipped over and totaled both cars. So, I ran outside the house and first came to a lady who was on her cell phone with 911 screaming at me to tell her my address. After I said it about 10 times I ran up to the scene and saw the two punk kids climb out of the driver's side window. I guess at first the driver was knocked out for a minute, but then came to and was fine. He just had a small cut on his hand, and the other kid was fine. After I saw them jump out, i ran inside to call jake and tell him to come home. Of course I didn't know how to handle my emotions and started crying the second I heard his voice. He turned around to come home.

I don't want to go into all the crazy details because I start remembering how ticked off I was, but i will tell you a few key facts:

1. The two punk kids claimed that someone cut them off and they had to swerve out of the way, thus slamming into Jake's car. The two witnesses both stated that there were no cars that cut them off. (how would this happen anyways when we live in a neighborhood where no one can drive fast on the street because there are speed bumps?)
2. The mom of the driver was explaining to Jake how it was sad that this happened because the kid had just gotten his car out of the shop a couple days ago after a "hit and run accident" ( i guess the guy who hit him ran off because he didn't have insurance or something). To say the least I was not feeling one bit sorry for the car or about the money he spent to "supe" his car up.
3. The punk kids called all their friends and probably every family member to come check out the damage. Once again - I was not amused. By the time their car was towed away i think there were 40 friends and family who came to "check out the damage"
4. After Jake's car was towed away and the white car flipped back on it's wheels, the punk driver proceeds to say "Hey guys (announcing to all of his crowd) you wanna see $10k down the tubes?", then opens his hood for all to admire his "stellar" engine or whatever is under there. - once again not amused.

It stinks, but at least no one was hurt. Once again, as in probably every crazy situation, I was the one in hysterics and Jake was extremely calm. It must be that police training. I was about ready to throw some punches once I found out everyone was okay. It was nice to have our neighborhood come out to make sure everything was okay (also to investigate what had happened), and our neighbors help me and jake get everything out of the car and make sure everything was taken care of. It's nice to know that people are there to help. I think Jake's favorite thing about this whole situation is that he can now look for a truck! Oh the joys of car shopping...

Side note - the car was driving down the street the opposite direction it is facing in these pictures. It was driving the same direction Jake's car is faced. So spin, flip, and whatever else it had to do to get into this situation.

On a random note - i know you are all wondering, but I haven't eaten ANY french fries since my last post about Hawaii!

After Jake and I went shopping for new clothes for me tonight I left with nothing. Shopping for clothes always makes me sad. I decided I need to take slow steps to make shopping happier for me! Jake made a bet with me and I HAVE to follow through! If I don't eat french fries for a year (which are my all time favorite thing, besides diet coke) we will go to Hawaii, either on a cruise or trip, for our second anniversary! Starting today I cannot eat ANY french fries. Wish me luck! Hawaii here I come! (in a year)...

So i was looking at the Martha Stewart site, as I so often do when i am trying to not go to sleep, and came across some asparagus recipes. I clicked on the link and flipped through lots of recipes and it made me think... I remember when I was little and I absolutely hated certain vegetables. I hated tomatoes (still to this day - except for in salsa i LOVE them), broccoli, asparagus, green beens, basically anything green that was cooked. I hated steamed vegetables and would always pick them out of anything we had for dinner.

Times have changed....It is funny how tastes change. I now like things that i used to hate eating. I love spinach (not cooked) and like eating roast. I also suprisingly branched out and now love eating some cooked vegetables. I have my sister to thank for the asparagus. She is an amazing cook and can make anything taste good. She made asparagus with mozzarella on it and I LOVED it. Thank you Maureen! I also like it because it can make any meal feel fancy. Just look at this asparagus...doesn't it just scream fancy?

One other thing I discovered I like is edamame. I tried it first when I was at a business lunch and we went to Happy Sumo. Everyone wanted tons of sushi to share between all of us (I do not like sushi or the smell of fish for that matter), so i ate a lunch of edamame. It is the tastiest thing ever. It is the best when you have lots of salt on it, and pop the little soy beans in your mouth...yummy! I introduced it to jake a couple weeks ago when we went to Pei Wei. And the other day i found some in the store! If you haven't ever had any, you definitely should try it.


I know this is a random post, but it's just my thoughts for the night. I have some other fun things to post about later- our trip to vegas, more indoor skydiving, and a fun weekend backyard tilling adventure. But for now, I thought I'd leave all you working people out there with a thought I came across tonight....

So i decided to go to a Yoga Class at the gym this morning. I went to a yoga class at a gym when I was in high school and loved it - ever since then I have been wanting to go to yoga regularly, but i am what they call..."lazy". I went to a class a couple weeks ago and loved it! So i decided I would go this morning and was excited to feel relaxed and calm. I showed up and she said we were doing a core workout today - it seriously killed me. My legs were shaking because I haven't worked them out in so long! At the end she had us do this pose:

(side crow)

I was really proud of myself because I did it for 1/2 a second. Later today I was telling Jake about the crazy workout and then wanted to show him my side crow. This is what it looked like when i showed him:

I knew i should have practiced a little more before I showed him. I don't think he believes i even did it for one second. We both laughed pretty hard...

SKOOKIE!

My mom sent us an early anniversary present and it is wonderful! It's called Skookie. It is a cookie that you make in a cast-iron skillet, and then you put ice cream, hot fudge or caramel, and whatever else you want on top. We got it and made them the same night! They were so wonderful! They remind me of this place in Craigo's in Rexburg, ID. They an amazing dessert "the cookie monster" that was the same type of thing. I ate so many when i was up there going to school - i think that's what helped me gain my freshman 15. Here are some pictures so you can be jealous! And yes, they tasted as yummy as they look!

This is the one I made

holding both mine and jake's

Finally! I get my act together!

Back by popular demand, to report about the MEXICAN RIVIERA! I know you have all been losing sleep over me not posting until NOW about the most exciting foreign trip we have taken as a married couple- but after getting back and having over 245 emails to look over at work, and plan my sister-in-law's baby shower, I needed some time to gather my thoughts! So i have been thinking about how to exactly relate the amazing time we had, and after endless debates with myself I have decided to say it with pictures of course!

First things first: after my previous Valentine's post, I received some lovely flowers from a lovely husband.

Now on to the meat of this post: We flew out saturday morning and got to LA on time! I had multiple people warn me that the ship would not wait for stragglers, and would sail off without us if we weren't there on time. After an almost deadly cab ride with a creepy looking driver, we arrived and got on the ship! The weather was a bit chilly, but as true vacationers do, we (and our friends) were the first ones in the pool. That was the first and only day we played frisbee in the pool- a good game of 500 can only last so long with a deck patrol guy who looks like Ivan Drago from Rocky IV- who takes his job VERY seriously. After a scare from the incredibly loud horn on the boat, we were off! The first two days we were at sea, and the first full day was the day we got rocked by the sun. Like an idiot i didn't wear any sunscreen, and the others would put sunscreen only in the spots they felt were getting burned - we were quite a crew later that night. I had left my sunglasses on all day so I had a white raccoon mask around my eyes, and everyone else had white spots and weird sunburns.

right before dinner - a little hot to the touch

(that's cabo in the background)...what's vacation without some good old clown hair?

Our first port day was beautiful Puerto Vallarta. We planned the excursion of the Eco Island Discovery. We took a boat (complete with breakfast and spanish music) out to the Marietas, which are islands made of rock. We couldn't actually stand on the island because it is protected by some law. So, we put on our snorkeling gear and jumped into the saltiest water I have ever been in. That was a huge shock - we didn't even think about it and somehow i jumped in with my mouth open. Lesson learned. I had this beautiful picture painted in my head of crystal clear waters and tons of tropical fish, but reality was that we were swimming in what seemed like lake water, and you had to get about one foot away from the underwater rock to actually see anything. Before you think it stunk - it was awesome! We saw tons of different kinds of fish - my favorite was the blue bodied, white necked, yellow faced fish. And we saw some purple, white spotted coral - way cool! With our surfer dude, Pepe as our leader we had an awesome time. Pepe was swimming with only one fin and no wet suit. He swam down and picked up a sea star. He had our friend Tanner put it on his hand and Pepe described how "he is not holding onto the star, the star is holding onto him!" After everyone else got back on the boat, the four of us kept snorkeling. If you went under the water and just sat there, you could hear whales singing and it was the coolest thing! Allie and I were waiting for the boys to come out of a cave and had birds poop on us, which added some excitement when we started screaming and swimming as fast as we could away from all the birds. Once we got back on our excursion boat and had lunch, we went out for a kayaking tour. We kayaked around the islad while Pepe told us about the history of the islands - we saw lots of crabs crawling around and creepy looking birds staring at us. There was a pelican who was seriously the grouchiest looking bird I have ever seen - Allie and I were nervous he was going to fly at us and try to kill us. After we got out to our destination for kayaking, Pepe said we could take our time to get back to the boat or race each other. Of course the first thing Jake and I do is try to paddle as fast as we can to beat everybody - and we did! Who knows if anyone else was trying to race us, but we beat them all! On our way back to Puerto Vallarta, we saw whales, dolphins, and a manta ray! It was the coolest thing - the crew had girls at the front of the boat that they were trying to teach a dance to, and when everyone saw a whale, the boat stop so fast that the girls looked like they were going to flip over in the water. It was so much fun!

right when we got of the cruise ship, a lady asked us to take a picture with her parrot and donate to something


Tanner and Jake on the way out to the Marietas. Jake is also showing his dance moves.

Allie and me - we both couldn't stop saying "I can't believe we're in mexico!"

Of course we couldn't leave without a picture with Pepe!
Our beautiful, enormous cruise ship as seen from our excursion boat

The next day we went to Mazatlan to do zip lining! We heard everyone talk about their zip lining adventure in Puerto Vallarta - in a jungle, zip lining through gorgeous landscape, and repelling down a waterfall. We went with the greatest picture of how gorgeous it was going to be, and we ended up zip lining over dead trees. Don't get me wrong, it was still fun, just not as gorgeous as those lucky people in Puerto Vallarta. We were picked up off the ship by a guy who told us his name was Silver. I didn't really believe him, but called him Silver anyway. We got onto a bus and tooke the bumpiest ride I have ever been on through, what i am convinced, what are some of the most run-down parts of Mazatlan. We saw houses made from whatever you could think of - with straw ceilings. I saw people selling plumbing supplies out on the sidewalk. I felt bad for the people! Then we arrived at the zip lining place. We got all suited up and then were herded into these old Swiss army tanks. After climbing up these steep sand hills and holding onto the ceiling straps so we wouldn't fly out the windows, we got up to the start. We went on nine zip lines over dead vegetation and sweated like crazy because it was boiling hot. The workers were tons of fun, and when Alex (our guide) asked me my name, i thought he asked me if i was ready so i said "yes". From then on he called me "si" because i told him my name was "yes".

I know you can't see him very well, but that's Alex who thought my name was "Si"

The next day was our last port in Cabo San Lucas. It was also our shortest port, so we decided not to do an excursion. We just walked over to a beach and hung out there for a couple of hours. Of course we were bugged like crazy to buy things by the vendors, but after Tanner told a guy selling sunglasses that he wanted two pairs for $10, the guy called him cheap, and must have told all of the other sunglass vendors about him, because they didn't bother us much after that. We did, however, have about 20 people come buy selling the exact same thing - bracelets with your name on them, and Henna tattoo services. Sorry to say, we didn't take advantage of getting the Henna tattoos.

All of the resorts where we hung out at the beach

Some lady was walking around with an iguana. She let it down into the water and then it started running away and she had to chase after it.

We buried Tanner in the sand with some help from the people who worked at the bar - notice the shovel- this guy's got experience!

Our ports were all so much fun! I was nervous that the days spent on the boat would be boring, but I didn't get bored once! There were games by the pool, which we participated in, and Jake won! He entered the "Mr. Sexy Legs" competition. He told me I needed to be a judge so that he would win. So, we pretended we didn't know eachother, and I entered as a judge! There were five guys in the contest and Jake took the win with no problem! The guys had to walk around the pool all together, and then once individually. Jake definitely put on a show - when it was time for him to walk around individually, he took his shirt off, twirled it around his head and threw it into the crowd. Everyone starting screaming and cheering! He then dove into the pool and stuck his legs out of the water and did some synchronized swimming moves. Afterwhich he lifted himself out of the pool by doing a hand stand (which was amazing) and flexed his leg muscles in the air. Everyone loved him and I didn't even have to say anything to the other judges about him being "mr. sexy legs". They loved his little show and chose him without seeing everyone else! After that, we would walk around the boat and people would say to him "Hey Mr. Sexy Legs". It was hilarious - our friends have the contest on video, so we need to get it from them! Tanner also participated in the Pool Olympics game and his team won! A few days later, Jake and I entered to do "the newly wed game" and we were put on the show! Of course we lost after some embarassing and stupid questions. It was funny because that night and the next morning, we had lots of people come up to us and say how they wish we would have won. They also announced that we were from Salt Lake City, so we had people coming up to us who had either lived in Utah, or currently do. It was funny.

And last but not least - I know you want to hear about THE FOOD! We had been told by everyone we had talked to that the food was the most amazing part. Sorry to say, we weren't super impressed. We chose to do the anytime dining option- meaning we could eat at anytime instead of having to eat at either 6:30 or 8:30. We had four restaurants we could choose from, and they were all super fancy. By the last night I was tired of the fanciness and just wanted a burger. The dinners were good, but there was one night when i got the turkey dinner and it came with lots of giblets, the potato was disgusting, and the corn patty (or whatever) was the worst part. I went to bed a little hungry that night:) We did, however, enjoy the hamburger bar and the pizza bar. I will never forget sitting in the hot tub eating pizza and drinking diet coke - that's luxury!

Overall, our trip was awesome and we can't wait until we can plan another one. We are thinking the Carribbean, but if you haven't been on a cruise - book one now!

This should entice you, if nothing else! This is the rose I got after we did the newlywed game.

I thought I would leave you with a wonderful video - after my sister-in-law's baby shower this morning, Jake sucked helium out of the balloons and sang a song.