Ready for a Recap?

It's been a while, I know. So here's a quick blog dump of my life since last I posted.

Let's go way back to the first week of August when I went to Lake Powell for the first time and learned how to wake board (something that's been on my list for years). How I have never been to Powell before is beyond me, because it is AMAZING there.

Me + Boats = Happiness

Then in the beginning of September, my Dad came to visit me and my brother and we spent Labor Day weekend together (for some reason I can't find any pictures of that...)

And then... Football season started. Which you all know is my FAVORITE time of year. 

AtTask Tailgate Party for BYU's first black out (which was totally sick)

Black Out. 

Black Out Cosmo

Duh I have season tickets with these awesome peeps. (And my lil bro.)

Pom-stache.

Me + Football = Happiness

(Unless we lose, which we have 3 times.)

And then there was Birthday Week. Turning 25 has never been so awesome! My ladies Kathryn and Erica flew in from DC and AZ to spend my birthday with me and they, along with Jayni (aka Roommate Extraordinair), made my Birthday Week so much fun. We saw South Pacific, the movie Pitch Perfect (twice, actually), had birthday sushi, did photo-shoots, and even had birthday gelato (heaven).

Birthday Sushi. It was the guy on the far left & the guy on the far right's birthdays too! 

Birthday Italian & gelato with my girls. 

Erica. 

Kathryn.

And we can't forget that my brother made me a Grandma's Chocolate Cake for my birthday and my Grandpa/Mom & Ron got me a spa-day (coming this Saturday!) and Jayni got me tickets to see A Christmas Carol with her.

My life is so wonderful.

Roadtrips and Disneyland

Last weekend, item 1 on my "looking forward to" list (*see previous post*) was accomplished. And it was so much fun! Here, I made you a video so you can experience the fun too!


Sometimes when you go to Disneyland, you act (and sound) 15 again. Don't judge. Just embrace it.

April 2012

After our adventures at California Adventure and Disneyland (have I mentioned that I had never been to California Adventure and that I hadn't been to Disneyland in 10 years?), we drove (and by drove I mean sat in traffic for 2 hours on the 91 freeway) to my parent's place in Temecula where my sweet little niece Jane was waiting for me! (she's 2.5) And the next day, we celebrated, albeit a little early, my baby sister's golden birthday (17) with home made chocolate, oreo, cream cheese cake balls, pizza, and watching The Hunger Games. She got showered with gifts and is now all set for our trip to Hawaii in a few months:

 Isn't she precious? I haven't been able to spend a birthday with her in 7 years, so I was so happy to be there this time! Can't believe my little Elly Belly is 17 now!

Such a great weekend. It was too short, but definitely a winner.

Sometimes I'm Spoiled

It's a funny thing - everyday I go through my blog list to read the latest from my favorite people that I rarely get to see and most days, there's not many updated blogs. I hate it when that happens and I find myself thinking, Really? Come on! I've got like 40 blogs listed here and the majority of them haven't been updated in over two weeks - what is that? Shows how much I love reading about your lives. And then I remember, well... I guess I haven't updated in awhile either.

So, here's my update - which I hope will inspire you to go update. :-)

Let's see, the last time I updated was my birthday, but I didn't really give any detail. Ok. Here I go -

This year for my birthday I felt so spoiled. Usually for my birthday I'll go to dinner with a group of friends and then have a dessert get-together at my place that I planned myself. This year, seeing as how the majority of my close friends don't live close by anymore, I decided I didn't want to plan anything so I just invited my friend Jayni over to watch a chick flick in our comfy clothes and order Chinese take-out (which was so kindly provided by my roommate). Turns out, not planning things yourself is the way to go. The week of my birthday, Chad took me to dinner at Texas Roadhouse (all I wanted was the loaded mashed potatoes because mmmm those things are good!), my friend Kathryn visited the weekend before and treated me to a pedicure, then my brother took me out to a sushi dinner and a movie of my choice (I chose Midnight in Paris and was very pleasantly surprised) AND he brought me some awesome gifts - once of which was "To the Rescue", President Monson's biography that I've been wanting to read for awhile now. Then my grandparents sent me a gift and a card, my Dad sent me a gift and a card - actually I'm wearing his gift right now; hold on I'll take a picture...

Pretty, huh? Then, my mother treated me to a morning at a day spa where I received a 60 min massage (which is a funny story in and of itself!), a 30 minute facial, 30 minute Sauna, and a 30 minute pedicure. Fantastic.

And then, to top it all off, last weekend Chad and I were leaving the movie theater (we saw Footloose - SO cute) and he said to me, "So... you're probably wondering why I didn't get you anything for your birthday..." Me: "No, I wasn't actually..." Him: "Well, I didn't because I've still been working on it and I think I finally got it so, can you get November 6th off of work?" Me: "Yeahhhh...?" Him: "How would you like to come with me to Arizona that weekend to see the Cardinals/Rams game?? (He has a side job some weekends where he travels to NFL and MLB games, meaning that I get to see him EVEN LESS during those times) Me: (So shocked I couldn't even show him how excited I really was) "Really? I would LOVE that!"

So, in a few weeks, Chad and I will be going on our first trip together. Warm weather and football will be involved. That's three of my favorite things in one weekend - and I'm really excited!

All-in-all, a GREAT birthday!

Two Birthdays and a Wedding

Here's a few quick pictures from my weekend.

Last week my friend Brittany was in town for our friend Emily's wedding. While she was here it was also her birthday. Brittany lives in Maryland (which, for those of you who struggle with geography, means that she lives on the opposite side of the country as me) so I hardly ever get to see her. So having her in town made me feel like I have friends again!

Brittany's birthday dinner!

Then on Friday night I conned Chad into going to the wedding reception with me (HATE showing up to those things alone). Ok, I didn't have to con him. He's so sweet that he said yes. Plus, I went with him to a reception a couple of weeks ago, so I guess he owed me.

Rachel, Brittany, Nikki, Brittany, Raechel - totally accidental!

And the bride. (She and I used to be roommates)

By the way, I heard a quote recently that made me laugh: "At weddings, old people always poke me and tell me, 'you're next!' So I started doing the same thing to them at funerals." Story OF my life.

On Saturday it was Chad's nephew Tyson's birthday, so we went to his brother's house for ice cream and cake. But Tyson doesn't like cake, so his mom made him a super cool donut-hole tower instead. We all sat outside and watched him open presents, then after that I soon found myself playing catch with 5 small children and simultaneously. Which then turned into keep-away (which I do not think is a fun game! Especially since I'm usually in the middle!) For some reason these kids think that I am so much fun. Did you read that people? I'm fun! Anyways, and then Chad and I tossed a football around for awhile. Loved it. Loved all of it. And now my butt is sore from running around on the grass. Pathetic.

Some Other Random Things From Recently

I forgot to show you what the MASSIVE sandstorm that stranded us in the Phoenix airport looked like:

Sorry about my reflection in the window.

Also, in the last two weeks I have celebrated two of my favorite guys' birthdays: Chad and Andrew.
Chad's birthday was July 4th (conveniently easy to remember) and, because I know he wouldn't like it, I wont tell you that he turned 29. (Ooops! Sorry babe.) He was determined not to do any celebrating (he doesn't like the attention he says) and I was still in CA on his birthday, so the next weekend I made him a nice meal of Hawaiian Haystacks (his choice) and one of my Grandmother's famous chocolate cakes (mine tasted nowhere NEAR as good as hers!):

Then I remembered that he doesn't particularly care for chocolate on chocolate cakes. FAIL.

My little brother Andrew's birthday was July 13th. 22! I can't believe it. So, I took him to dinner at Happy Sumo (mmmm... sushi...), made him a [non-chocolate] cake (because he doesn't eat chocolate. What is with these guys and not wanting chocolate? Does not compute in my brain.) and then I took him to a 6:15pm preshowing of Harry Potter 7.2 the next day.

Yellow cake with a homemade cream cheese frosting. He said it was DELISH!

A horrible-quality pic of us in the theater.

Hopefully later tonight I'll have another post about my weekend!