Salt Lake City

Last weekend, Chris and I drove down to Salt Lake for his cousin Bruce's wedding. We left Friday morning at about 9am. We got into Salt Lake a little after noon, and checked into our hotel at The Crystal Inn.

We changed, into our Sunday clothes, and then went to Cafe Rio for lunch! :) After that we headed over to Temple Square to attend the sealing! It was both of our first time inside the Salt Lake temple and it was BEAUTIFUL! The ceremony was great and the bride and groom looked so happy. We then went outside for pictures and I got to meet more of his family that I hadn't met yet. They were lots of fun!

By then it was almost 4pm and the reception was starting at 6pm. We wanted to drive down to Orem to my dad's grave site since Chris hadn't been there before so we headed off! What normally takes 40 minutes, took over an hour. Lots of traffic, construction, and accidents. Ugh, not a very fun drive, but we finally got there! The cemetery was beautiful with lots of flowers and people visiting. Driving through Orem brought back a lot of memories for me.....Family dinners at Aunt Millie and Maizies, kickboxing classes with Beth at Gold's Gym, my job at Provo Canyon School, and the day Ryder was born. It was nice to reminisce and share these things with Chris. We literally had 5 minutes to plant the flowers we took and enjoy the moment for a second before we had to get back on the road to get to the reception.

Thankfully the drive was smooth and quick! We arrived right as dinner was being served. It was held in the Joseph Smith Building. The dinner was delicious and the room was decorated so nice. We ate a nice dinner, had a few toasts from family members, watched a slide show of the couple, and then we started dancing!

It was lots of fun, but I couldn't dance very much cause I was still trying to get over a cold and it hurt my chest. But it was still awesome. We had the last dance and then the couple was gonna leave for their honeymoon, so we all went outside with sparklers and made a little tunnel for them to pass through, and waved goodbye! It was a wonderful wedding and so glad I got to go. All the cousins was going to come to our hotel to play in the pool, but I wasn't feeling well so I just went to bed while Chris went and swam.
Saturday we were going to go to Lagoon, but when we woke up it was POURING! So we decided to stop by the new City Creek mall to check it out. It was really nice! Lots of fancy stores that we can't afford, but it was fun to window shop! :)

Then we got on the road and headed back to Idaho Falls. It was a short trip but very fun! It's always nice to get away for a couple days. But now we decided to not take anymore trips till our Anniversary in September where we will go on a cruise! :)

Sicky

That is how I have been feeling today....woke up with a yucky sore throat as well as a headache and a little bit of a tummy ache. I have been downing Vitamin C, Echinacea, and Water! This is a bad time to get sick cause we are going to Salt Lake this weekend and I don't want to be sick! We are going to Chris's cousin Bruce's wedding in the Salt Lake temple Friday afternoon, and then in between the sealing and reception we will drive down to Orem to visit my dad's grave. Chris hasn't been down there yet and it will be nice to go there again since I haven't been there in years. We will then go to the reception at the Joseph Smith Building, and then go up to Layton to our hotel. We are staying at the Courtyard Marriott in Layton. They had an awesome deal that gives us a hotel room and then 2 tickets to Lagoon which is where we are going to go on Saturday! I am so excited cause I have never been there! Of all these years that I have lived in Utah and Idaho Falls, I have never been to Lagoon. Craziness! So that is why I can't get sick. :)

I have lost 3 pounds in the past week which makes me very excited. I have gone to work out a few times in the last week, but only moderate workouts. Not very intense. But hey, any kind of workout is better than nothing right?? I have been super busy at the salon which is awesome. I love doing hair! My sister had her baby on Thursday! Yay! His name is Owen Drew Crowther and he is adorable. I wish I could be down there to see him and help her with things around the house. Hopefully I won't have to wait too long to be able to meet him and hold him. Other than that, things are going well! Just living life and trying to figure out the Lord's plan for us. Sometimes that can be extremely frustrating but I know whatever it is we are waiting for, it will be worth it.

We went and saw "Think Like a Man", and "Lockout" this past week. "Think like a Man" was funny, and "Lockout" was okay. Probably won't watch that one again. So yeah, hope you all have an awesome week! I will be back again after Memorial Day! :)

Mom's Day and Such

Well it's been another week and I am keeping up with my posts! I am very impressed with myself! :) I actually haven't weighed myself today, I was gonna do it tomorrow. It was kind of a crazy week with lots of stuff affecting my weight loss (or lack of). I wasn't feeling very well the first few days of the week so I didn't work out, I actually only worked out once all week and that was only for 20 minutes and then I went and sat in the steam room and hot tub. :) Awesome Aunt Flow decided to make an appearance so that definitely caused some bloating and sluggishness, and eating of lots of chocolate and ice cream! So I think this week will be much better. Especially since I already worked out today! Woohoo! I also have some good motivation to keep going. Chris and I are planning a cruise for our 1 year anniversary in September, so I gotta look good for that! So I am definitely going to keep trying. Cause I will get to see this!

Yesterday was Mother's Day, so I just wanted to say how much I love my Mother! She has helped me with so many things in my life. She is always there, supporting me, helping me, and listening to me whenever i need her. Thank you Mom for always being there and being such a great example to me. My mother in law gave me this as a gift:

She told me that since I wasn't a mother yet, she thought it would help me get there. Haha she is so funny. Chris and I decided we would start trying for a baby when we hit our 1 year, so just a few more months! :)

Beth, I hope you are feeling ok and your little boy comes soon! I can't wait to meet him. You are an awesome mother and I love your little family. :)

Week One

Alrighty, so it's been a week and I told you I would post each week on my progress....well, I worked out 4 times last week, tried really hard to count my calories each day. It was hard though. I did pretty good except one day we had Chris's aunt and uncle in town and every time they are here they like to go to Chuck a Rama. But, I must say I did pretty good there! I only had 1 roll (their rolls are so good! I usually have like 3!), 2 plates of salad, and a teeny piece of pizza :). Then the next night Chris really wanted me to make brownies.....and, yes, I had 2 brownies. haha but I still tried to be good the rest of the week! And guess what? I gained 2 pounds!! UGH!! Maybe it's just impossible for me to do it. I have been at the same weight for the past 2 months and then this past week when I am trying to be good I gain 2 pounds! Geez, maybe this will be harder than I think it will be....I have had stomach issues all day so I didn't work out today, but I will try to get there tomorrow. I did make a good dinner tonight of Salmon and salad (with chocolate milk :), so I am starting the week off pretty well! So, hopefully next week I will be back down to where I was a week ago! haha One step back, 2 step forwards right?? :)

Oh, and I got my toes done all pretty by my friend Jenn. We did a trade, I did her hair and she did my toes :) And I am excited to go to Utah in 2 and a half weeks for a wedding and then LAGOON!! Woohoo!!

Lazy Bum

I have decided that I am gonna be a Lazy Bum NO MORE! I seriously need to lose about 20 pounds and I just need to get myself in gear and do it! When Chris and I got engaged I was really strict and was able to lose 10 pounds during the 7 weeks till our wedding, but 7 months later, and I have gained it all back! So, I need to be strict again and lose it!
I want to be able to look good in skinny jeans, I want to look good in a swimsuit this summer, I want to get rid of this huge roll I have in my tummy! :) So, starting tomorrow I am going count my calories again, just drink water, not eat after 8pm, and be better at working out.
I will try to post my progress each week so I have someone to be accountable to. So if I go more than a week without posting anything, you guys better let me know and make me do it, okay??
Oh, and if any of you have some great advice, I would appreciate it as well. Let's see if I can lose 20 pounds in 10 weeks! Whoop Whoop!

Slacker

I know, I know, I have been a huge slacker with my blogging....maybe it's because we haven't had a whole lot happening around here.....or maybe I am just a slacker! :) Here's what's been happening: we are still living in Chris's parents basement. They have been so nice to let us live with them while we get some debt paid down and figure out where we want to be living. It's been a little frustrating trying to know where we belong and be patient for the Lord's timing. But He always takes care of us so I know that something really good is going to be happening soon since we have been such great patient people. :)

We have made 2 trips to Boise in the past month which has been really fun. We went the end of March to check out the city and see what kind of options are for us. I had never been there so it was nice to finally see the city. We stayed at the TowneSuites by Marriott and it wasn't the greatest experience. There was some gymnastics competition that weekend so the hotel was FULL of little girls and their families who liked to stay up super late, yelling from room to room, running down the hall, hogging the computers and the pool, and running up and down the stairs (our room was right next to the stairwell, so that wasn't fun listening to while we are trying to sleep). And also the food for breakfast was super cold. The muffins were frozen still, they were out of butter and syrup for the waffles, and the biscuits were hard. We definitely won't be staying in that hotel again. The rest of our trip was fun though. We visiting some salons and walked through the awesome mall (ours is really small and lame, so even just going to a 2 story mall is exciting for us :), and ate lots of food! I went to the Kelly Clarkson concert with a few girlfriends and it was AWESOME! She is such a great entertainer and puts on a really fun show.

I was really glad to finally see Boise. What a cute and beautiful city!

Our second trip to Boise was just this past week. I had gotten a call last week from one of the salons I had left my resume at last time, and they wanted to interview me! It's called Panache Salon and Spa and they are opening a new location in the Boise area so they wanted to see if I wanted to become one of their stylists. So I was super excited for that and told them I could come this past Thursday. We spent the next week researching job openings for Chris and see what we could do for him while we were there, but Thursday came and nobody had responded back to Chris about interviewing him, so we just got on the road and hoped we would find something when we got in town. Well, while we were driving there, Chris got a call from one of the jobs he applied for, The Boise School District! He told them we were actually on our way to Boise and so they were really excited to be able to meet him that afternoon.

I went to my interview at 1:30pm, right after we got in town and got checked into our hotel (The Holiday Inn Express). It was a super fancy salon and smelled really good. Everyone there just seemed a little stuffy and serious. I didn't know if I would be able to fit into that place. The lady who interviewed me was even more serious and intimidating. I was really nervous and probably sounded stupid in the answers I gave, but I was just myself so that's all I can do! :) She told me she wanted me to come back for a 2nd interview the next morning with a male and a female model to show my cutting and blowdrying skills. I told her I didn't know anyone in Boise but I would try to find someone!

After that we went over for Chris's interview at the school district. Chris was in there for an hour! So I waited in the car and hoped that it was going well. When he got back in the car he told me he had the best time during that interview and really liked the people he met and was really excited about the job. He really wants to get it. They told him they would call him this next week to let him know if he got it! So cross your fingers for us! :) That night I scoured our hotel, and the street it was on, as well as the BSU campus for someone who wanted a free haircut and could be my models for the next morning, but I couldn't find anyone!! A bunch of people were kind of rude, and wouldn't even look me in the eye and tried to keep walking when I tried to talk to them. So that was a little frustrating. I had to call the lady and tell her I couldn't find anyone. But that's ok cause I havent' been feeling good about the job anyway, and if Chris gets that job then I wouldnt' want it anyway cause it would be too far away.

Friday morning we got up and had a very delicious breakfast at our hotel. The hotel was also super quiet, we had the pool all to ourselves, and the beds were COMFY! :) A much better hotel experience than last time. We went and looked at a few apartment buildings downtown. They were nice, but really small, so we might need to look at places a little further than downtown. Overall, it was a great trip and we will be waiting for the call next week to see what happens!

VEGAS!!

Last weekend, Chris and I got to fly down to Vegas to see my sister and her family, Stephanie and Lyndon, and have some fun in the city! After our flight being delayed 2 hours out of Idaho Falls,we finally made it down there Friday night at about 7pm. We grabbed some Jack in the Box on the way home and got to sit and visit with Beth and Doug till it was time for bed. The next day we got up and went out for a YUMMY breakfast buffet at one of the casinos near their house. They had every breakfast food that you could imagine, and I definitely ate enough breakfast for about a week :)

That night we were wanting to go see Phantom of the Opera so we headed over to the Venetian Hotel and bought our tickets! Because Doug and I still had our BYU ID's, we were able to get student discounted tickets for only $35! What a steal! I had been wanting to see that show for YEARS, so I was very excited to see it, as was Chris. When we got back to the house, Chris and I decided to check out the city of Henderson. We are wanting to move somewhere new, so we wanted to feel it out and see if Henderson was for us. We stopped by an Auto Body shop for Chris to check out a job there. He loved the boss and the feel of the shop. It made him happy to know that there are happy work environments out there unlike his current job. We then went and looked at a house. It was a decent size, lots of light and space. It definitely needed some work done, and we could make it super cute, but it was a short sale, and those are always really risky. But it's a fun town, lots of salons, and things to do, so we will see.

We rested for a little bit when we got back to the house (and Ryder is always there to entertain :), and then we got ready for PHANTOM! I couldn't believe I was finally going to see the show! I have loved Phantom of the Opera since I was really little. We all went out for Chinese food before dropping the boys off at some friends of Beth and Doug, and then went to the Venetian. We got some pictures taken before climbing a million stairs and getting to our seats which were at the very top! Which I thought was perfect cause we were able to see everything that was happening. Their set is amazing, and as soon as the lights went out and the music started, I got chills all the way up my spine. :)If you ever get the chance to go see it, TAKE IT! It's well worth the money.

Sunday morning we woke up and Beth made a very delicious breakfast for us, and then we got to lounge around and take our time getting ready for the day. I love lazy sundays :) While the boys took their naps, the four of us played Ticket to Ride. I LOVE that game! And it was fun to teach Chris and then get beat badly by Doug. haha We then piled in the car and drove to North Las Vegas to Stephanie and Lyndon's new house! I have missed them a lot since they have moved, so it was so nice to see them. Their house is beautiful and they are so happy in their new place. We ate a very yummy meal of ribs and potatoes and salad and got all caught up in each other's lives. Bethany made some amazing peanut butter cup cupcakes that were to die for (yes I ate 2!) and had some good laughs together. It was then time to get the babies to bed, and Chris and I had an early flight the next morning so we needed to get some sleep as well.

Thank you Bethany and Doug for letting us crash your house and visit! Can't wait to come to Vegas again!