Good Bye Teal Car You Will Be Missed

So I finally said goodbye to my faithful teal '99 Toyota Corolla. He had 185000 happy memory miles on him. I will miss him... a moment of silence please.........
Ok now on to my new (well new to me) 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid... He is a dark blue/gray color on the exterior. And 3 toned interior, tan/grey/blue. The pictures I posted are off of Edmunds because I didn't want to take pictures of my car because its all dirty from the salt and snow. But it looks just like the pictures with a few minor scraps on the paint. But I love this car, it has Navigation, granted the map is from 2006 so my house doesn't exactly show up on the map, but it works for now. If anyone has an updated map version they would like to let me have, let me know. But I love it, it runs amazing and I am currently getting 45mpg for this tank of gas. I plan on trying to get closer to 50 as I learn to adjust my driving style for the hybrid. But I just thought I would tell you the exciting things in my life.

I Hate Humidity

We just went on a fantabulous trip to Missouri and Nauvoo. It was really fun, after the 20 hour drive of course. We got to St. Louis at about 1AM on Thursday. We slept for a few hours and then got all dressed up (some of us more than others) to go into the city and see Wicked. The best musical, definitely on the top of my list with Les Mis and Phantom. I love this play. It was a fantastic performance too. Brandon, Michaelene, and Robert had not seen it before and I was excited for them to see it. They all loved it and I was perfectly happy to see it again. I thought that the guy who played the Wizard when I saw it in LA was better, but overall still really good.

Us Oustide the Fabulous Fox Theater

Oh BTW I hate humidity. I don't know how people stand to live there. Don't get me wrong, my skin loved it, but every time I would walk outside it was like walking into a wall of water. And my hair hated it. I didn't even try to do it the whole trip (as you can tell from my pics). Anyway back to my story, while in the city we stopped by the St. Louis Arch. Really big and cool. I wish we could have gone up to the top, but we didn't. But we did walk underneath the arch (not as cool) and see the Mississippi River for the first time (big river). The St. Louis Arch

Then we headed back out of the city to Robert's brother's house. After spending the evening getting to know Robert's brother and sister in law and their kids we went to sleep so that we could wake up and drive to Nauvoo on Friday. We got to Nauvoo which is about a 4 hour drive from St. Louis and went around to all the different shops and learned about the different houses that people from our history had lived in and left. We got to see Joseph, Emma and Hyrum's graves, which was actually really cool. It was too bad that they are on the Community of Christ Church's side. I think it was the only place that I could feel the spirit at all while we were on their side of Nauvoo. But we eventually made our way over to the LDS side and enjoyed ourselves; except for the fact that the temperature was around 109 degrees with 70% humidity (just shoot me). I did end up getting my Nauvoo brick though.

The Brick Place

But we ended up going to the shows that they put on when the sun goes down. They had the Young Ambassadors from BYU performing and they were really good. It was too bad that a storm started rolling in just as they started their Wicked medley. They started singing Defying Gravity and the wind was blowing her cape and the lightning was flashing behind her as she is doing the final part of the song that is so dramatic. The thunder is booming through the sound system and I'm thinking wow they have great effects. She's almost done and one of the leaders of the Nauvoo Mission comes out and stands right in front of her with a mic and she keeps going, until they suddenly stop the music while she is in the middle of singing and the poor thing just collapses because she's laughing so hard. I felt so bad that they stopped her. She had like two more lines. Lame! Anyway they stop the show and send everyone on their way because they have a severe storm warning in effect. And we are planning on camping, LOL right. Luckily Robert's parents were also staying in Nauvoo that night and they had a hotel room that they graciously let us stay on the floor of, so that we didn't get poured on. Now I will give that part of the country this...they have THE most incredible storms. Brandon and I sat outside and watched the lightning for awhile, we came in just before the downpour started. The storm went on strong for hours. In the morning it was its usual muggy self outside. So we went and did a sealing session at the Nauvoo Temple, which was really cool, we kind of felt like it was appropriate since before the saints left they did a bunch of sealings. We decided not to reenact the scene too fully, we omitted setting fire to the temple, we thought it was best to leave that part out.

Beautiful Nauvoo Temple

So we left Nauvoo and headed back to Missouri for the Cardinals game. Now I'm a sports fan, I enjoy basketball, football, I would even watch a soccer game, but baseball... not so much.

Busch Stadium, Home of the St. Louis Cardinals

(that's Robert's Dad and Brother in the Pic with us)

Everyone kept telling me "Oh its so different to go to a major league game." No its not. Nothing exciting happened for the first 5 innings. I was actually hoping that it would get rained out. So much for that. It cleared up just in time for the game to start, yeah. But the Cardinals ended up winning the game, they had 1 home run which was exciting and that's about it. Its official I really don't like baseball. Sorry America.

Cool Shot from inside the Stadium

So the next day was Sunday (Happy Father's Day!!) and we did stuff with Robert's family and I was so jealous of Michaelene, she got to fly home because she had a photo shoot to do on Monday, and she left the 20 hour drive home to us. But I'm getting ahead of myself, on Sunday we hung out and ate dinner with Robert's family and I was introduced to the game of D&D. I must say that the story isn't half bad (I guess that would depend on the people that are playing) but I wouldn't want to be a character in the game again. I didn't know what to do and ended up killing my own allies in the battle. So I think its the sidelines for me next time the dice are brought out. Then the next morning we woke up at 6AM and drove home. It was a long and uneventful ride, we got home around 2AM. And that sums up my first trip to Missouri and Nauvoo. Hopefully I'll be able to post something again soon. Loves until next time.

Finally Something Exciting

So here are the long awaited pictures and story of my trip to California in March.

So Brandon and I and the whole crew went to California. We went up to see the horse races. His dad had a horse racing that day. So we met the horse and had some fun watching the races.

Best Apple Juice in the World

Nice Horsey

The next day we went to the beach, which was kind of cold because it was March. I probably would have been ok with it if it hadn't been windy.

Sitting at the Beach. Wow I need a tan.

The next few days we spent at Disneyland and California Adventure. And thanks to our friend Michael, we had lots of fun. Michael works for Disney and so can tell us all the best spots to eat and all the fun facts about Disneyland which can help keep you entertained while standing in line.

They are totally redoing Tom Saywers Island and California Adventure. A brand new water show to watch in California Adventure. They are taking down almost everything to do with California and making it more Disney. Some new rides that will be opening soon, and a whole bunch more awesomeness. I'm not too excited about them redoing California Adventure, but what do you do.

So the funniest part of the whole trip was when we were walking aross the main cross roads to all the different lands of the park, and all of the sudden I hear whoosh and then Brandon screams "OWW" and drops my hand and I duck just in time to see this dark object fly over my head. I look back and Brandon is holding the back of his head looking like he had just had a baseball hit him smack in the head. I look and see the dark object land. Brandon was hit by a duck. How funny is that? I still laugh when I think about it. I asked him if he had a "duck egg" on his head...ha ha ha. I thought it was funny.

Sorry I don't have a better story. I should have written this right after I came back. But anyway here are some pictures from the trip. We had fun and I'll try to get some from my trip in June up sooner than these.

The Yard Progresses

Ok so we are finally done with our part of the yard. It is now time to call in the professionals for some help. We did all the stuff for the hardscape, moving the dirt and rocks around and making the base for everything that will be pretty when we are done. I don't have any pictures of the after, but I have some of the before. I would just go out and take some now, but its raining pretty hard and I'm am sick of getting rained on today. So I'll post the after pictures at a later date and tell you what everything is. But we should have the guy here for our water feature and sprinkler system next week. That will be awesome, because then we can plant the grass and start seeing the whole thing come together. But anyway as I said here are the before pictures and I'll get up our current progress pictures as soon as it stops raining.

These are just some shots of our trees that we cut down and sold for firewood. Some of these weeds were seriously 8-9 feet tall. They were beasts. And then we have a mound of dirt in our backyard that became our water feature. So check back for updates.

My Summer

Ok so I haven't posted for awhile as I have been reminded by quite a few of you lately, so here is a quick sum up of my summer.
June was pretty much boring, work, sleep, work, and then sleep again. But July we had some fun.

For the 4th we ended up taking trip with Brandon's family to Jackson Hole, WY (not to be confused with Jackson Hole, MN) We drive up there and start looking for our campsite that Michaelene booked for us and can't find the highway that the map says that the site is by. So we stop to ask a local and they tell us that they are search and rescue for the area and have no idea where that highway is, it doesn't exist. So we call the campsite and find that they are in Minnesota. Go figure that there would be a Jackson Hole by a Snake River in MN. So the nice local directs us up a nearby canyon to camp for the weekend. This property is part of the National Forest and is free to camp on, just don't bother the cows that pasture there. So we made our way to cow pie heaven where we set up camp and gathered wood for the fire.

Our very own tent

It was getting dark by the time we got there and went right to bed. Now, I'm not a huge fan of camping in the first place, but this was really roughing it. I at least expect restrooms when I go camping so I don't have to squat over a bush, but I guess that is too much to ask for when you just show up without a camping spot reserved. Needless to say I basically dehydrated myself for most of the trip so that I wouldn't have to find my favorite tree. But anyway, the next morning we woke up and went to pick up our raft, which thankfully was in the right state. This was my first time down a river in a raft, but I decided that I would have a good attitude and I wouldn't chicken out.

Getting ready for what turns out to be a long day

So we get in the raft, its a little chilly, but not too bad, as long as we don't get wet. We were doing pretty good, until we hit our first patch of bigger rapids. We hit them sideways and dumped half the people out of the raft. After getting Makenna, Wendi, Monette, and Patrick back in the boat we went to get Robert, but it turns out the Robert is about 100 feet down the river so we have to chase after him and he makes a superman leap from shore to get back in the raft. Now that we are all soaked and shaken we continue down the river because we have no choice. I'm now at the front of the raft and every wave we hit comes crashing into the boat and soaking me. But we are doing pretty well. Then we come upon Lunch Counter. The biggest swell on the river. The swells were 11-12 feet. And we were terrified, we had tipped on much less. But we went for it head on. I was freaked out, but totally having fun, which you wouldn't believe from the pictures that were taken. In the end we totally hit it perfect and went down the rest of the river without problem.

Lunch Counter on one of the more happy trips down

By the time I got out I was soaked. It looked like I had fallen in, but it was all just the water splashing in the boat. We went down twice more without incident and I was completely soaked everytime. It was awesome and I can't wait to go again. The next day we went into town and walked around all the shops and made friends with the stuffed animals.

Let me get that for you

Meoww

The next day was the 4th and we drove home. Brandon and I made it to sit outside Stadium of Fire to listen to SheDaisy and the Jonas Brothers. They were both awesome. But that was pretty much my 4th.

The 24th we ended up getting tickets and taking Stephan and Jo up to Kamas to have the Best Burgers in the State 2009 at the Drug Store, then we headed over to the Demolition Derby to be a little red neck and cheer as cars crashed and fires erupted.

Having fun at the derby

This is THE best derby in the state. I know it sounds really stupid, but we all had a lot of fun. And I hope we do it every year.

CRASH!!

But I guess that was my summer so far. August was spent working on my yard that I will post some pictures of in the next few days. Hope this post appeases you all for a few days.

My Babies

As I sit here on a Friday night, my husband playing with his "home projects" and wondering what I am going to do with myself, I decided I had two options; help him or write on my blog. Obviously the later won out, cause here I am. I don't know what to really write about because we haven't done much exciting except work for the past couple of weeks. So I decided to write about my babies. As most of you should know I don't have actual human babies yet, but I decided that my dog and cat were close enough. And I'm bored so bare with me while I procrastinate actually going and helping Brandon finish "projects."

So lets start with the oldest shall we?? Mia, she's our dog for those who don't know. She will be 9 years old this July. She was the puppy of my family dog Trixie. She was born under the couch while I was at work one evening. My grandma was none too happy to find our dog giving birth on her carpet. I immediately fell in love with the little brown and white spotted puppy. She was just too cute, she fit right in the palm of my hand. Long story short I convinced my grandma to let me keep her. Mia is a very anti-social dog for whatever reason, but she is your best friend as long as you have food and play with her and her toy. She'll eat almost anything. Most recently we have discovered that she enjoys grapes, carrots, and lettuce. She loves playing with her squeaky toy with currently has a broken squeaker, but she doesn't seem to mind. She also has many talents such as; playing dead, rolling over, shaking hands, begging, and my personal favorite "who's a snob." She also enjoys "playing" with our other baby, Roxy.

Mia loves her Hippo

"Who's a Snob?"

Now Roxy is our cat. She is currently 3 years old. She doesn't like doing much of anything but laying around the house, oh and playing with the feather toy that we bought her. She plays fetch better than Mia. She dislikes the dog immensly, probably because Mia tried to eat her when we first brought her home. But they do seem to tolerate each other for the most part. She hates to cuddle and if she is to be pet, it is on her terms. I've had a hard time convincing her when we moved to our new house that its ok to not hide under the chair all day long, that she won't get locked in the basement, and that eating is a good thing. But I think she's finally getting it after 2 months of living here.

Roxy, the Great Escape Artist

She is ready for her close up!

I'm sure this was a very exciting blog for most, but it gave me a reason not to work on the stupid low voltage panel in the basement. But I guess that's all I really have to say about that. Check back next time for a hopefully more exciting story.

Anni-Vegas-ary

So as you may or may not know Brandon and I celebrated our first anniversary last Friday. We spent most of the actual day working, so we didn't end up eating at all until 9:30 that night. Pretty much the same story on Saturday, but Sunday after church we packed our bags and headed to Vegas for a couple of days. It was so nice and warm I think it was above 80 degrees everyday. Sunday we didn't do much because we got there late and it was Sunday. We ate some dinner and just walked the strip and through some of the shops. We stopped at the Belagio and saw there gardens and the fountains. At the Belagio

We were pretty much exhausted and went to our hotel room at the Luxor. The next day we went to buy tickets at the half price ticket place by the M&M factory. We bought tickets for the Tournament of Kings and Mystere. We decided to go and lay by the pool during the day to maybe get some color in our albino skin. Luckily we had some sunscreen or we would have come back as lobsters. After a couple of hours of sun bathing we went back to the room to get ready for the night. The Tournament of Kings was of course awesome.

At the Tournament of Kings (Our King Won)

We met a lady that owned a McDonalds in Pennsylvania and they were apparently having a world conference there in Vegas. We went to our next show which was interesting. If you haven't heard of it, its a Cirque Du Solie show. Once I realized there was really no story, I just started enjoying the acrobatics, and the comedy acts in between the performances. On our way back to the hotel that night we saw a motorcyclist, but the odd part of this was the dog perched on the front of the bike enjoying the ride and barking at people.

I am getting Mia that Helmet and Sunglasses

It was pretty funny. The next day we checked out of the hotel and headed home. That's pretty much the weekend. We had fun and having a weekend away was well welcome. Hopefully we will do something else fun that I can blog about soon.