Christmas Vacation

I really wanted to go on a vacation to Disneyland for New Years. But since the Utes ended up going to the Sugar Bowl and Matt went to New Orleans to watch the game, my New Years in Disneyland will have to wait until another year. Since I was kinda disappointed, Matt took me up to the Homestead in Midway for a little mini-vacation before he left for Louisiana. It was so much fun!

We wrote our names in the snow and made snow angels.

We went snowshoeing and saw this beautiful view of the Heber Valley. We also saw some hot springs.

I really like snowshoeing. It is so much fun! And a good workout.

We stayed in this adorable little cottage up there in the woods by a little stream and we even saw some deer out our window in the morning.

It was SO COLD though! Our water froze in the car! We also went to the Park City outlet stores and I got a new coat and I broke down and bought some real bike shorts. Matt got a new bike jersey.

This was out by the pool area. We thought it was so funny that it was covered in snow. Hee hee!

We also went on a sleigh ride. It was so fun. I have always wanted to go on a real horse-drawn sleigh ride though the woods. We had this little two-horse open sleigh all to ourselves.

It was so pretty up there.

And we got some yummy free fudge.

And I got to ride a horse! Well, sort of. :)

It was a fun little vacation.

And now it is time for my 2008 New Year's Resolution follow-up. I think I did a pretty good job.

1. Increase my temple attendance by at least 50%. I did this up until the wedding. Then we set some new goals as a couple, and we did pretty good at keeping them.

2. Lose 10 pounds. I lost 5.

3. Strive to become more Christlike. I am not sure how I did on this one. I did try though, which is what matters.

4. Make every effort to get married. I think that one was pretty successful!

I had a few other silly resolutions, some of which I actually accomplished....

1-Recruit as many people as possible to participate with me in the races I do this year. I think I did a pretty good job at this one. At the May triathlon, I had about 10 friends do it with me, and we had a pretty good turn out at some of the other races too.

2-Leave the country. I went to China! And Canada! That's leaving the country TWICE!

3-Meet new people and network as much as possible. I didn't really do this one because I started dating Matt at the beginning of the year, and you know how that goes.

4-Run the Disneyland 1/2 marathon wearing Minnie Mouse ears. I looked into doing this one, but the race was on a Sunday and in my efforts to keep the Sabbath Day holy, I decided to not do it.

5-Figure out what I want to do with my life. (Regarding school/career/etc) I did it! I got into my grad school program in Educational Leadership and I am loving it. And I got a job that I really love!

6-Move to Phoenix. Or somewhere else where it is warm. That didn't happen.

And I ran almost 350 miles this year. I will have to post my 2009 New Year's Resolutions soon. Happy New Year everyone!

Christmas

Christmas this year was so fun. We had four different Christmases. We started out on Christmas Eve at our apartment, where we exchanged gifts from each other. Here I am getting ready to open the first gift.

Here is Matt opening his first gift. Then we went over to Matt's parents' house for Christmas Eve dinner and his family tradition of watching Nora's Christmas and Muppets Christmas Carol. We also all got pj pants.

Kyle was so cute...he just wanted to open all the presents under the tree. He kept getting them out and bringing them to us.

We got him this little guitar. He was just so excited to actually be able to open a present.

Then we went over to my family's house to spend the night. We played our usual Christmas Eve game, but we decided against playing the traditional Risk because it was already so late. So we played Battle of the Sexes instead. All of my siblings came home and slept over so it was fun to have everyone together again.

Here we are on Christmas morning tearing into the gifts! Laurie woke us all up at 6 a.m.

Allison got this cool Disney Princess blanket that had a crown that lights up. She proudly wore it all day.

Matt got a giant tub of homemade chocolate chip cookies.

Here we are with our cute cute stockings.

Matt found a pear in his stocking! It was hilarious! We always get a piece of fruit in our stockings, and Matt got a pear because he always makes fun of our pear pie! I got a caramel apple in my stocking. Mmmm.

Here we are sitting in all the wrapping paper and stuff after all the presents were opened.

Matt also got a roll of cookie dough in his stocking. He loves cookies and I rarely make them, so he got some cookie dough. The funny thing is that I got some chocolate chips in my stocking as a hint that I should make cookies. Ha!

Laurie gets this giant peanut butter pie every year.

After we had breakfast at my family's house, we headed down to Spanish Fork to my grandma's. All the cousins come over on Christmas and we have a cousin gift exchange. My cousin gave us a lovely six pack for our gift! Ha ha!

He put a note on it that said, "Make sure to drink responsibly or don't drink at all." Don't worry, the bottles were empty. And it had a gift card in it.

Scott and Mystie weren't there so Michael decided to open their gift to see what it was. Here he is carefully slitting the tape.

After that we headed to Lehi to Matt's grandma's house for dinner and more presents. Here I am concentrating on opening my gift from Grandma Lively. Apparently I stick my tongue out when I am concentrating.

We had lots of fun and got some awesome presents! We even got this cool House Divided hot chocolate mug.

We got snowed in at Grandma Lively's that night, so we didn't make it back to our apartment til the next day. But we had a super Christmas. Here I am enjoying our new indoor bike trainer.

It was such a fun Christmas, and I'm glad we got to spend time with each other and with our familys. Merry Christmas to everyone!

Snowed in

I will blog about Christmas later, but I had to share this great adventure we had. On Christmas Day we were enjoying a lovely time at Grandma Lively's house in Lehi. We were getting ready to leave when we noticed it was a complete blizzard outside. It had snowed quite a bit in the morning, but the afternoon was pretty clear, so we thought we'd be ok. Anyway, we got in the car and started to make our way to the freeway. It was a complete white out. We could barely see two feet in front of us. So we decided to turn around and go back to Grandma's house for a few hours to wait it out.

Matt's dad and brother decided to try themselves and came back a few minutes later saying that the road was closed. To make a long story short, the road didn't open back up again so we all spent the night at Grandma's. She got out all the blankets and pillows and we all spread out all over the house.

I was laying down on the couch and the dog jumped right on up next to me and weasled his way in there. (I'm not the biggest fan of dogs.) Anyway, we were all spread out on the floor and watched a movie while we waited in hopes that the storm would clear up.

But it never did, so this is where we spent Christmas night. It was quite the adventure. But the funniest part was when I got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and there was Matt's uncle sitting at the table in his boxers eating cookies! Hee hee! But we ended up getting probably about a foot and a half or two feet of snow. It was crazy!

And the stockings were hung

I decided that we needed these stockings for our first Christmas together. I saw them at the store and thought they were adorable, so I got them for us. And Matt's is not deformed, it just has stuff in it! Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

I love to see the temple

Last night for FHE, we went to Temple Square to see the lights. This is one of my favorite Christmas traditions.

It was very cold. But we had a lot of fun.

Matt especially loved the orange lights.

And I liked the pink ones. And they had this new display of Mary and Joseph that was on top of the reflection pond. I absolutely loved it!

Hurray for the temple lights!

Who needs a reindeer?

Who needs a reindeer when you can have a horse on your balcony? I am totally not kidding, an apartment at the complex just up the street from us has a horse with a wreath around its neck on their balcony. See....

It is one of the weirdest things I have ever seen in my life. So of course I had to take a picture of it. I made Matt pull off to the side of the road, and I had to take like 12 shots to get a decent one. WEIRD!

No room in the inn

So Matt and I got into the Moab 1/2 marathon in March. Apparently there are so many people that want to do it that they have a lottery drawing to see who actually gets to run. Well, we got into the race and the other day I was trying to book us a hotel room. Come to find out....they are ALL BOOKED. Everyone I talked to said they have been booked for months, and that I should reserve a room like a year in advance! Who knew?

So we are staying in Green River, which is about 50 miles away from Moab. So I guess we'll be getting up earlier than planned on the day of the race. But it was better than Option #2, which was camping out on the Moab church lawn or something of equal discomfort. And if I'm going to run a 1/2 marathon, I'd rather not sleep with a rock jabbing me in the back the whole night before.

P.S. Marathon training is going quite well. We've made it through the first 4 weeks of training, and we're starting on the 5th. Go us!

Today I am grateful for...

...the bus! Otherwise I would be stuck driving all the way to Provo in this...

...instead of taking a little nap on my way to work. Good thing the blizzard at least waited until after my morning run!

O Christmas Tree

Here it is....our precious little Christmas tree that we risked our lives to bring home safe and sound! Isn't it darling?

Here I am making sure the tree skirt is just right.

And here is Matt making sure it is standing straight up in the tree holder thing.

And here we are enjoying our decorated tree. We mostly just have a hodge-podge of ornaments that have sentimental value to me. My mom gave me an ornament every year of my life that had something to do with something that happened that year. And I also started collecting ornaments from my trips. So when I decorate my tree I get to relive all those fun moments!

We continued the tradition by getting an ornament on our honeymoon in Canada. It's a gold Canadian maple leaf. Oh I love Christmas!

Christmas card

Here is our annual Christmas card. If you click on it, you can see the full-size version. Merry Christmas!

Our Christmas Tree Adventure

The other night we went to go get our Christmas tree. We found the perfect little tree, we bought it and took it out to the car to take it home. Well, the guy who worked there (it was his second day on the job) obviously did not know how to properly tie a Christmas tree to the top of a car. He tied it on very loosely and even though Matt was driving very slowly, the tree started sliding backwards.

Well, we were not about to lose our most perfect tree, so we did the most logical thing. Matt opened the sunroof of the car, and I stuck my hands out the top and held on to the tree for dear life. Matt decided he needed to help me, so he drove with one hand and held on to the tree out the sunroof with the other hand.

I had gloves on, but the space between my gloves and my coat sleeve were freezing! And Matt didn't have gloves on, and by the time we got home, he couldn't move his fingers. So here we are driving down the street holding our Christmas tree onto the roof out of the sunroof. And of course we were laughing hysterically the whole way. It was quite the sight. But at least we got our Christmas tree home safe and sound.

Why are these so funny?

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Bread and Jam

So, all of you who went to high school with me, remember the Bread and Jam club? Well, I got this lovely card in my box at work the other day and it made me laugh!

The Dean's office next door is having their own Bread & Jam event. And it's today! Gotta love it! (Our club's fame must have spread clear down here to BYU!)

I've had a full life

I thought this was kinda fun. The bold ones are things I've done.

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Totally copied a post from someone else's blog to your own

59 out of 100. I've had a very full life. And there's still so much more to come! Gotta love it!

Thanksgiving wrap-up

So we are totally lame and didn't take any pictures on Thanksgiving. We got up early to run our (my) traditional Turkey Trot 5K race. It was raining, but it was fun. Then Matt went to go play in the turkey bowl.

I spent most of the day cooking. I made a cherry pie that exploded in the oven. (I do have a picture of this! I will have to find it and post it.) I made rolls that didn't raise. I made layered jello, which turned out pretty well. It was mostly a cooking disaster! But at least I tried to be domestic.

We went to Grandma Lively's for Thanksgiving dinner. And it was divine. Matt has been raving about his grandma's stuffing for months now, and it really was quite tasty! We just had a good time with family. It was a little weird for me because there were only 7 people there (and 4 dogs). I am used to having at least 25-30 people for Thanksgiving. But it was a lot of fun.

Later on in the evening, we went to my family's house to play games. Matt got into a long game of Risk with my brothers and cousins, and I played Settlers with my parents and uncle. It was lots of fun. Mostly it was just nice to have a break. The rest of the weekend we pretty much just lounged around. We put up our Christmas decorations. And I saw Twilight. It was ok. And we went to dinner with my old roommate, Shannon from Georgia who was in town for the weekend. So fun to see her! And meet her husband who is from Argentina.

And now....it's time for Christmas!!!! 24 days left! Woo-hoo! I love Christmastime. And, here's a funny story. So in my last post, I said that I wasn't a fan of black and brown together in clothing. Well, I just remembered that I have an adorable swimsuit that has both black and brown on it. Hee hee! So maybe I need to post a retraction. Or maybe not. We still need to get a picture of Matt's outfit that didn't match. But I do agree that you can wear brown pants with black shoes. Maybe Matt's outfit would have been ok if he'd worn a black belt and black shoes with the black shirt and brown pants.

Do they match?

We are taking a poll. The question is: Do black and brown match? As in clothing items. For example, can you wear a black shirt with brown pants? Or black shoes with brown pants? Please leave your reply in the comments section. Thank you for your help.

Sniff, sniff

I'm sure you all know the outcome of the big game....very sad for me and very happy for Matt. We decided to have a little pre-game BBQ and here we are with our beverages of choice. :) Hee hee, we are so funny! We were going to take our little grill up to the stadium and have a tailgate party, but since it turned out just to be the two of us, we just had our party at home.

Matt did a great job at cooking our lunch and we had a really fun time. We decided that the loser of the game had to drink the rest of the winning team's colored beverage. It was pretty funny.

Here we are at the game. It was a really good game for the first 3 quarters. And then it got ugly. And it wasn't just the game. I'm trying to forget about what happened because it was so awful, so I'm not going to write about it, but I'll just put it this way. In my scripture reading this morning I found a good way to describe how things went off the field...

And it is impossible for the tongue to describe, or for man to write a perfect description of the horrible scene of blood and carnage which was among the people; and every heart was hardened, so that they delighted in the shedding of blood continually.... And they were driven and slaughtered with an exceedingly great slaughter, and their women and their children were again sacrificed unto idols.... And there never had been so great wickedness among all the children of Lehi, as was among this people. --Mormon 4

For the most part, everything and everyone was fine...just a friendly little rivalry, but I was just not prepared for the few idiots who have to ruin it for everyone. And I think it is very sad that football is not a family-friendly environment. However, I am very happy that I had a very happy husband!

Here is Matt celebrating with his sister and friends. After the game, we hightailed it down to Draper to go to my good friend Jared's wedding! We didn't have time to change out of our game-day clothes, but at least we made it before they left.

And I got to see my other good friend Kremer. We were all in the same BYU ward in college, and we had so much fun. After the wedding, we beelined over to our other friend's birthday party, and then to another friend's get-together. It was a very busy, but very fun day.

And, Matt got a new calling at church. He got called to teach Primary with me. Hopefully that will help. And hopefully he won't hate it, too! Is anyone else as excited for Thanksgiving break as I am???? Bring on the turkey!!!!