The one when I had a bridal shower

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Last week was craziness, but awesomeness. I had two friends (Kathryn and Shannon) come in from out of state, plus my Mother in town visiting me, all so they could be there for my bridal shower. Last week included the Fourth of July, my second wedding dress fitting, and a trip to the dentist as well.

And it looked a little something like this:

Taking Mom to Zupas (or Soupas as she always mistakenly calls it).

Watching Fireworks (my favorite!) at Thanksgiving Point

Spending the 4th at the pool (also favorite).

Fireworks with Mom.

Wedding dress fitting #2. Dress is still unlined, un-hemmed, and in 3 separate pieces, but here's a sneak peek!

A fun and beautiful bridal shower put on by the best roommate of all time, Jayni.

Lots of fun presents!

Yummy yummy food.

Besties.

Like I said, lots of yummy food.

Fun games... this one I won! It was guessing 40 famous on screen kisses. I got 36.

And that game where they ask your fiance questions and film him and then you have to guess his answers. If you guess incorrectly, you have to put a huge piece of the nastiest gum you've ever tasted in your mouth. 

I think I had 6 pieces. But Devon and I actually did really well!

More fun presents!

LOVE my friends.

And as if throwing the bridal shower wasn't gift enough, Jayni also made me this beautiful quilt with a sweet inscription on it for me and Devon. 

Me and my mom with some of my new family.

All that NASTY bubble yum gum.

My mom, me, my sister-in-law Ashley.

I've gotta say, I never used to really think bridal showers were fun. But now I do! Loved it and I am so grateful to everyone who came and/or helped in any way. The best!

An Open House, Surgery, and a Valentine

A week after my brother's wedding in San Antonio, I found myself back in CA for his open house. It was small, so we hosted it at our home and worked hard on all the decor and food. I think it turned out pretty nicely!

Top: 92 y/o Grandpa and my nieces
Middle: Sister and niece, Me with the bride & groom, Sister & Mom
Bottom: Outdoor decor: smore's bar, cake table, drinks

A week after the open house, I found myself at the Provo Hospital, getting my schnoz worked on...again. When I say "worked on," what I mean is I had a deviated septum fixed and nasal polyps removed so that I can breathe properly again. I had this surgery (minus the septum part) once before, about two years ago. So, hopefully this time is the last time. Luckily, coming out of anesthesia came with some funny stories... like taking my latex glove full of ice and putting it on my head exclaiming, "Look, I'm a rooster!"

Top: Surgery
Middle: The Super Bowl, Top Gun in 3D
Bottom: Valentines Day in Vegas

Now, let it be known, that I had the best Valentine this year. You may think yours was the best, and that's great, but I know in my heart that mine was. For Christmas, Devo got me tickets to see the Cirque du Soleil show of my choice. We were already planning a trip to California for President's Day weekend, so we figured we'd tack an extra day on to that and go to Vegas for the show on the way down. Well, naturally I chose the Beatles Love show, because I heart the Beatles in a major way. And it just so happened that the day we ended up being there was Valentines Day.

Before the show, Devo took me to a really nice and delicious restaurant for a filet mignon dinner inside the Mirage hotel. He also got me a beautiful amethyst necklace and hand made me the cutest, most hilarious, pop-up card. The show was amazing, naturally, and the night was perfect. And we were just so thankful to get out of the freezing cold here in Utah!

We spent the rest of the weekend relaxing at my parent's house in California. We had Taco Shop, played games, watched movies, visited my Grandpa, went shopping, and enjoyed 70 degree sunshine and happiness. It was a great long weekend.

Coming up next: in less than 5 weeks, two of my girlfriends and I are taking a chick-trip to Hawaii for a week. Yesssssssssssss. I. Can't. Wait.

Christmas and a Wedding

Yeah, I know it's almost March. I've just been too busy to keep up! So, here's a whole mess of pictures that capture what the rest of December until early January looked like for me.

Top: Christmas time in Utah
Middle: Coworker and playing with my Niece (she turned me into a boat)
Bottom: Christmas Eve, My niece's cute new outfit, Talking to my missionary bro.

3 Days after Christmas we flew to San Antonion, TX for my little bro's wedding.
We took time to visit the Alamo and do the Riverwalk.

The wedding at the San Antonio Temple. I now have a new Sister-in-Law, Ashley.
And she let me do her up-do for her wedding. 

The Perfect Thanksgiving

Can I please just tell you how much I love Thanksgiving? 

I mean, I'm not talking, "Oh, I love Thanksgiving like I love puppies or like watching a good movie." That's not real love. That's kid stuff. My love for Thanksgiving is beyond comfort or lust - it's a straight-up romantic, I want to have Thanksgiving's babies, head-over-hills, totally committed kind of love. And that's why Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday... and this year's did NOT disappoint.

This year I planned to drive to sunny Southern California with my little brother and his fiance (Oh yes, have I mentioned that my little brother is getting married? In one month? Because he is) for Thanksgiving. Well, a week or two before we left, I found out that the guy I'm currently seeing didn't have plans for Thanksgiving, so I invited him along for the fun... and he came! It was a road trip party, basically.

We got to my parent's house late Tuesday night, visited, and then went to bed. Wednesday we woke up, lounged a little, and then commenced a morning of pie-baking. Now, in my family, we believe in tradition. And tradition says that the pies must be home made. And that the pies must be plentiful. So, we made apple pie, cherry pie, 2 pumpkin pies, and then on Thanksgiving, another apple pie and a pecan pie showed up. That's 6 whole pies for 10 adults. Needless to say, I had pie for breakfast AND dessert almost every single day. And I'm not even upset about it. Oh, and don't worry, we aren't such sticklers for tradition that we never let in anything new. This year, mom decided to introduce the fruit pizza to the dessert menu:

Now, usually at my house, things get a little crazy on Thanksgiving and Christmas days (AKA, big meal days). Everything has to be timed just perfectly so all the food comes out hot at the same time and the oven schedule must be stuck to...precisely. This usually results in increased levels of stress, too many cooks in the kitchen, and pure exhaustion at the end of the day. But this year, well... this year was beautiful. It was like the sun came up, the birds started singing, the light shone through the trees, and somewhere in the sky the stars had aligned to make our Thanksgiving beautiful. And it was. And the food was glorious. So glorious. And the company was even better.

Cooks in the Kitchen. 

The Mom.

The 77 degree, most perfect November weather.

The beautiful Thanksgiving Table.

The sweet little cousin.

The only thing(s) missing from Thanksgiving this year, were my step-brothers and their families and my Grandmother, who passed away this July. She always loved Thanksgiving and she would have really enjoyed this one. And, now that I think of it, the deviled eggs! Somehow we missed the deviled eggs. (A dirty, rotten shame that I'm going to try not to dwell on right now.)

The rest of the week included lots of reading, enjoying the perfect weather, seeing Breaking Dawn part deux with my mom, sister, and soon-to-be sister-in-law (and laughing our heads off at the creepy CGI baby and the rolling vampire heads), eating real, can't-get-that-in-UT Mexican food, showing the guy around the hometown that I love so much (the wineries, the Old Town shops lit up at night, Christmas shopping at the Promenade), and playing dominoes with my family.

Oh, and don't forget putting up the Christmas tree. 

All-in-all, the trip was perfect and I have never been more sad to see my holiday time off end.

Group picture, Sunday morning after church.

Lucky for him, my family was on excellent behavior. :-)

And this is where I should probably list all of the things that I am grateful for this year, but that would take too long, so I'll spare you. Just know that the gratitude is there.

Aloha and Mahalo

I have lots to say about Hawaii. But mostly that I love it with one of the purest loves there ever was. And until I have more time to tell you all about it, please enjoy this mini version of my trip:

Hawaii 2012 (large) from Raechel Logan on Vimeo.

An Abundance of Fun-Having

Remember that time that I got lazy about my blog? Oh wait, that was the last three months. And now I have so many things to blog about that this post just might end up setting some sort of world record. But, for your sakes (and mine), I'll try to keep it as brief as I can.

As you may remember, my personal goal for this year is "No Fear" - or basically not to let fear keep me from doing things. So, I've made it another sort of, unspoken, goal to just have as much fun as I can. And really, that's what I've been doing. I've been having so much fun!

After my Disneyland trip with Jayni in April, my Mom came up to visit me for Women's Conference, our tradition for the last 6 years.

Then in May, Jayni and I took another trip up to Idaho (AKA The Ranch)for Memorial Day weekend, where I rode a horse for the second time in my life. (First time was in February, also at The Ranch.)

On Memorial Day, we drove home from Idaho and met up with a bunch of friends to see Pentatonix in concert. Also included in this show were BYU's Vocal Point and Delilah. All three are a capella groups (you may remember them from the TV show, The Sing Off - or you may not, whatever). And let me tell you, that show was SO much fun. Pentatonix are extremely talented.

The next weekend I had the pleasure to attend my first sealing ceremony for my dear friend Brittany's wedding. My friend Kathryn came to visit from AZ and we had a BLAST at her wedding. Yes, I know the last part of the previous sentence is counterintuitive, but really, her wedding was so much fun and I was just so happy to see her happy. She deserves it!

Two weeks later I hopped on a plane with my brother and his girlfriend and headed out to Southern CA for my step brother, Ryan's, wedding. It was lovely to spend time with so much of my family - especially my "Step" family - including nieces and nephews.

Look at this little munchkin. Is she not ADORABLE?

When I got back from the CA trip, I got the surprise of my life when I was called into my boss's office one day and asked how I was feeling about my current role on the team. The next thing I know, he's asking me how I would like to be promoted to a manager position with an extra 15K a year for my salary. Definitely wasn't expecting that. But, I graciously accepted (even after he told me to "go buy a damn Elantra." Apparently nobody takes me seriously in my little rolli polli car...weird.) I was pretty much on cloud nine for the next few days.

The promotion was announced the next week at our quarterly team offsite, where we went to the Park City Olympic Park and did team activities that included a Nordic Sprint and a Street Luge/Biathlon. Not going to lie, I almost crashed right into the side of a mountain my first time doing the luge (which was, I suppose, a better option than the alternative, which was to fly off the side of a cliff), but I learned from my mistake and figured out how to steer when it really counted.

Which brings us to the Fourth of July, which I spent lounging by the pool in the daytime and rocking out to The Beach Boys live during the night. Yes, I said The Beach Boys. So what if only one of them is an original. These guys are ancient and they still rock! Besides, their music makes me feel like I'm at the beach in CA, so it's pretty much the sound of home. Can't beat that.

Stadium of Fire was amazing, truly. I can't believe I've lived in Utah for 7 years and this was my first year going. The production was spot on, the fireworks were incredible, and I must be growing up because I think this year was the first time I really thought about what it means to celebrate our freedom. Everyone knows that I'm an England lover - heck, I even spent one of my July 4th's traveling around Southern England. But my experience with living out of the country for just two short months made me appreciate America 100x's more. Ever since then (4 years ago - can you believe that?), The Star-Spangled Banner gets me emotional. And so does watching fireworks explode in sync with a choir singing America the Beautiful, apparently. I love this country.

Mixed into all of those events were a number of pool parties, BBQ's, pedicures, book-reading, and other fun activities. Now, there's just one more (the grand finale) thing to do on my list of things to look forward to this summer: go to Hawaii. Which is happening in a week and a half. And I seriously can't wait!