St George

Since the beginning of January, Bryce has been saying he wants 'sun' and warm weather. this was a daily occurrence... For valentines day, I came up with this smart idea to take Bryce to st. George. I would be able to give him what he had been asking for, for a month and a half. Welllllll to make a long story short... hot wire sucks! They really got me good. after hours, and I mean hours, of fighting with them over them booking a hotel room that wasn't even available, I was able to get my money back. I was really sad that I could not give Bryce what he had been asking for. My plan failed miserably! Since I had been on the phone 6+ hours fighting with hot wire I decided to tell Bryce what was up. I guess things work out better that we didn't go. The weekend we were scheduled to go was beyond busy. I had 3 people from work go down there and Bryce had a co-worker down there and it was so busy that they couldn't get in to eat at a restaurant. It was the first weekend that was nice down there in months, there was conventions and it was a holiday weekend. Fast forward 2 more weeks - I jumped on to hotels.com and saw a great deal for a hotel. This was on a Monday... I ho-hummed over it until Wednesday. I decided that it was the perfect weekend... a perfect 75 degrees, no conventions, no holidays and no pre-arranged plans for us. I went ahead and booked our hotel and got going on packing things. I had our bags to pack and went shopping for some 'snack' food to eat on the way down. Friday came and I could not get out of work fast enough. Bryce even got home 3 hours early from work. When I got home we threw our stuff in the car and headed south.

The drive down there was long. We had to stop and get gas and dinner. It was too dark to be able to see where the warmth had hit. The only thing we saw on our way down was snow. We got there about 830, checking in to our hotel and called it a night. We talked about all the things we could do and places I had picked out to eat. Our hotel package came with more than a continental breakfast. They had hash browns, eggs, french toast, doughnuts, bagels, waffles, fruit, all kinds of drinks and much more. I am not for sure if it was the fact that we were up super early or that it wasn't that great of a breakfast but I hardly ate anything. Bryce had eggs, hashbrown and a morning ritual of oatmeal. When were done we headed back to the room to change and get going for the day. With the warm weather - even at 8 in the morning, a light jacket was beyond warm enough for me. We changed , grabbed our water packs and snacks and headed across the street to grab stuff for lunch.

After we grabbed the few things we needed, we decided to head over to snow canyon. Neither of us have really been to st George so we were not for sure what we were in store for. When we got to snow canyon, we decided to drive to the top and work our way down. I did not expect to get to the top of the canyon 8 minutes later but we did. so we hit the parking lot at the top and what turned into 'I just want to see what is at that point over there' turned into us hiking 3 different trails. Did I mention that we did not pack sunscreen??? By this time it is almost 1 and there was nothing that we could do about it. Something that was only suppose to be a minute turned into 4 1/2 hour hike. By the time we made it back to the car, we were starving. and I was burned.

There was a small area in the canyon that had a few tables. We got there before the crowd. As soon and we starting eating - everyone showed up. after lunch we decided to head down the canyon to go grab some sunscreen for my already burned shoulders. As got towards the end there was a parking lot that Bryce wanted to check things out.... that 'check things out' turned into us hiking all the way back up the canyon to where we stopped before lunch. By this time I was already toast - so why rush. There is rock everywhere. tons of places to climb, all different kinds of trails. When we got back to the car it was 4 and we were hungry again. We decided to head back to the hotel, get cleaned up and head to an early dinner.

After dinner, we did a little window shopping, and by now my legs were sore. Neither of us had hiked that much in a long time. after about an hour of window shopping, we headed over to get dessert. By this time we had gotten so much sun that it was cold even though it was still 60 degrees outside. After ice cream, we headed back to the hotel with plans to hit the pool but the only thing I hit was the bed. I don't think I even remember getting in to bed.

The next morning, Bryce wanted to go to a dinosaur museum and go to a Mongolian BBQ place for lunch. I didn't think much of it so we took our time getting going. We headed over to breakfast, which was better but I only ate a bagel. We went back to our hotel room and packed up. When we checked out it was still really early and neither place was open. So we headed towards sand hallow to check it out for future trips. Only Bryce didn't stop at the exit... he kept going and before you know it we ended up at Zion's national park. It has been a really long time since I have been there that it doesn't even look like the same place. We drove up the 'non- senic' side through the tunnel to the east entrance and back down. Just before we went through the tunnel there was a hike. The board said that it was a mile round trip - when we got back to the car it was over a 2 mile hike round trip. This hike I did not like. We were on the side of the rock without anything to keep you from falling over a 300 foot drop. Who does that??? well apparently alot of people. over half way through - as we are walking along the cliff that is literally a half a foot to my left - we come around a bend to see a 'bridge' out of wood. Only the bridge has nothing below it but the drop off to the scary ravine. My first response was 'hell no!' and I told Bryce I would wait for him to finish... only the problem was - where I was at there was no where for people to pass. So I would have to go back down part of the pathway by myself on the side of a cliff or continue on. This is something really difficult for me. I have dreams of falling off cliffs and I can feel my body hitting the bottom - where ever the bottom is. It is horrible to feel/see that. Bryce almost lost his hand as I was crossing that bridge but I did it. eventually we got to this amazing lookout over Zions... was it worth it? yes. Would I do it again? Probably not. going back, there was this cloud of doom hanging over me. Had we not been hiking on a cliff I probably would have ran all the way back just so I could be done with it. again, Bryce almost lost a hand on the way back. I am surprised I didn't break it. Once we got back down we jumped in the car and headed through the tunnel. You are not allowed to stop in this tunnel. It is very narrow and very dark. Luckily we had no one behind us so we broke the rules and stopped a few time for pictures. only for a brief second though.

After the tunnel we then headed up the 'scenic' drive to check it out. By the time we were hungry again it was close to 3 so we headed out of Zions and found the only place open to eat. The place it is called 'wildcat willies'. Let me tell you that this is the best food I have ever had in my entire life. Bryce even agreed. It is about 1/2 mile before the entrance to Zion's and if you ever get a chance to stop... do it! I got this amazing salad and Bryce got a BBQ burger. For being a tourist place it was just the right price.  but if it was just in the city - it would have been overpriced. By the time we got done eating it was near 430 and we needed to head home. We got home just before 830 that night and we were already ready to go back. Once we hit beaver, it rained all the way home. we both already missed the sun. This trip was a much needed trip for both of us.

Overlooking zion's

This is the looking down on the long tunnel you have to drive through

The end of the trail...

I made it!!!!!

There is the bridge of death... it doesnt look like much but when you look down you are looking down into a 300 foot drop. ugh!

Driving through the tunnel looking out of the opening (see picture above)

This is about half way through the tunnel. It is almost 2 miles long.

Another look out of the opening of the tunnel. SOme amazing views, and I am glad we broke the rules :)

Snow canyons, our first trail... bryce with my car right behind him. It is the last 'trip' for my car since I am getting a new one!!!!

While bryce was exploring - I looked down and saw this lizard. He was black - I have never seen one blend in withe the black rock.

and he ran away from me - or so he thought.

Snow canyon - rock everywhere....

As I said - rock everywhere. You can literally spend all day running around on the rock.

Year in review

I think it is that time of year to do my year in review. I am still standing by the fact that if I make goals at the beginning of January I am automatically setting myself up for failure. So here we are getting ready to start February, so I think it is time to review last years goals.

Here were my 'wants':
Get off of the phones at work - switched departments. Check and check! I have to cover phones every once in a while for 'breaks' It comes down to twice a month. can I tell you that I absolutely hate it! I do not miss that job! Every time I have to go up there it is a nice gentle reminder to be grateful for what I have.

Go back to the Paiute.. yep! We did that. Paiute - 2 us - 1. We will be back with a vengeance this year. Paiute will not kick our butts!

Go back to Island park.... did that too! It was such a great time, yet a harder time leaving. I'm considering moving up there.

Do something fun and different for myself. As I stated last year, I took a cake decorating class last year. I also helped my sister photograph a wedding... quite an experience. I also took my friends family photos... Cherry hill, Moab by rzr... I am sure there are many more things to add to that list but that will make one very long post!

Get back to grocery shopping bi-weekly. I did ok on that. It made it extremely difficult not having an oven. I got a new stove the week before Christmas. it wasn't a complete fail but it wasn't a complete success.

Now on to my goals:
I want to lose 20 pounds and keep it off. What I didn't know was that about a month after that I went to the doctors for a routine check up. Sad to admit that the year prior I gained 20 pounds. Can I say emotional eating. Do we need to mention work??? Yeah - scary point in my life. It was awful! I made myself an agreement that I wanted to drop that 20 pounds before island park. I did it! It was a success. I was hoping to kick another 20 by the end of the year. I have not done that. but I have kept off the 20 that I gained...

Get back to kickboxing - not to lose weight but to enjoy myself. Check! It was the best thing I did last year. I love kick boxing and it has helped with my stress levels. There are weeks that I don't want to go, there were weeks that I didn't go... but I went on a regular basis.. enough to say that i did it!

Wear make up once a week. I tried that, I did really well at the beginning of the year - then I forgot about it and once again, that 10 minutes extra of sleep became more important.

Start 'my favorite things' post. Yep! did that too... I still have more coming, don't worry!

Buy a new pair of shoes every other month. I got through 4 out of 6. 4 great pairs of shoes... but I sucked at taking pictures.

Try a new restaurant every month. FAIL!

Goal as a couple: Dress up, get out and do something together. Last year was a tough year for us and we did not do this. Kinda sucks to look back on that goal and realize that it was probably the most important and we failed miserably.

Now for the past month I have been racking my brain of new goals that I want for the new year and only one comes to mind.

Be Happy

I spent far too much time last year stressing and worrying about the 'what ifs' and 'could bes' It effected me personally and professionally. There are things that are out of my control and at the end of the day it is up to me of what I make of it. This year I am not going to worry about the small little things. I am going to embrace life and enjoy it as it comes. Sounds pretty easy right? Well only time will tell.

Now that I have that out, here are a few things I am going to do this year:

Bi-weekly lunches with my dad
Island Park
Piaute
Cut back on hair - just cut back on days
Kickboxing
change my hair style (just the way it is colored....)
facials
Get my first hand gun (pink! nothing wrong with being powerful yet girly there)
massages
spend more time with my sisters
More niece/nephew dates (scary frankweenie was a HUGE success)
get a new car (SUV actually - already in the works. SO. FREAKIN. EXCITED!)
rzr trips
camping
backyard bbq
redo the kidney bean out front
Last but not least... love my man and spend more time with him.

Sounds like lots of fun??? Yep, this year is going to be epic.

What a weekend!

I cannot believe we are into December. I am ready for the snow! If it is going to be cold, it might as well be pretty not ugly. This past weekend I had a surprise birthday party for Bryce! I cant believe I pulled it off. There is always a little bit of drama surrounding stuff like this but I pulled through and kept it a surprise. On Saturday I told him that we had reservations for dinner. When we got to dinner, I thought he was far enough away when I told him I didn't have reservations but he wasn't! He seemed a bit irritated so I told him I did have reservation but I didn't say where... so again I quickly lied and told him I reservation for dessert. Whew! only he didn't eat very much because he thought we were going out for dessert. Oops! After dinner we headed over to Keys on Main to meet up with a few friends and his family. We had a blast! He was surprised! We didn't get home until 2 am. He kept saying 'thank you' and 'I cant believe you did this for me!' I am glad I was able to pull off this one thing and that he had a great '30th' bday party (even though his bday isn't until tomorrow). Sunday we woke up around 9 and decided we were going to lounge around. We stayed in our pj's and only left to go get junk food and movies. We took naps and watched movies all day yesterday. My house was a complete disaster when I left for work this morning but I didn't care... It was one of the greatest weekends for us! I was so sad to see it come to end, but it had to. This weekend goes down in the history books for us.

NBPM day 2

My cute parents!

I am suppose to be working, but I know that if I wait to make a post I will for sure fall asleep in the middle of writing. I am fortunate enough to be able to bring some work home with me (did I really say fortunate enough to bring work home with me?!?!?!?). Well I am. It saves me about 2 hours of my day at work to get other, more pressing things done AND I get paid to sit at my table going over numbers. Who doesn't love working in their pajamas????? So... this will be quick. Last night I had my parents over for dinner for the first time since being on my own. We have gone out to dinner but they have never come to my place. They also got to see the house for the first time since Bryce's mom moved out and it has been (minimally) redone. What was suppose to be a 2 hours help-my-mom-and-have-dinner turned into a 4 hour sam-wants-to-swear deal. My computer was not working for me properly. Correction: My photoshop flat out refused to cut me a break. So for today - I grateful that my computer is working AND photoshop is behaving. Temporarily.

On another side note... after my parents left, the only thing bryce said was: "I really enjoy spending time with your dad. I like talking to him, he has great things to say and very interesting stories." (MELT MY HEART!!!!) There is many reasons why I love Bryce - and that is one of them. My dad is my life and so is Bryce.

Something we both enjoy....

Bryce and I have had it with the weather. We were like bears in hibernation. I spent 90% of the winter bundled up... in blankets sitting on the 90 degree angle of our couch. I found a new love for netflixs and I didn't care to change it. I like mocking a bear. but now the bears are coming out of hibernation and I suppose I should too. It is not warm enough to hang out outside but it is time to accomplish SOMETHING. Bryce and I have decided to take a photography class. We love taking pictures and spending time together so what a better way that to take on together. We are already a few weeks in to our class and have learned so much, coming soon will hopefully be some great pictures but for now I thought I would post some of my favorite pictures/photographers....

Laine Images

Thomas D Mangelsen

D'Andrew International

Coming soon: Hardman wannabe's

Island Park

Yesterday we spent the day supports my family at the outdoor expo for the Worlds Dutch Oven Championship. I will get to that in another post here in the next week when I have pictures. While we were there we took some time to walk around and see all the booths. We even bought some cinnamon almonds and cashews (they are good but they are SOOOOO easy to make at home. Click HERE for the recipe I use). Alot of the booths were booths for far away trips. Not the kind you think of sitting out the beach. The kind where are are aiming the gun at some animal and using them for food (or a trophy mount, whatever floats your boat). There were a few other things there (Bear world, catch and release fishing, dog diving, etc.), we ran across a booth for Island park. I have awesome memories of that place and long to go there often. The only problem is: It is a long drive for a Friday-Sunday trip.

I was only 12 when my grandmother died. I was only a few months when my grandfather died (on my dad's side). My grandmother lived in a completely different state and with being the youngest of 8 children, it was very difficult for my parents to take us to go see her: Gas, food, packing all of us up, not to mention where would we stay to fit 10+ people? I love my grandma Stella. She was the best grandma I could ask for. I was devastated when she passed away. Island park is the place that i have the majority of the memories of her. We only got to see her once a year and it was always at our family reunion in Island park. My grandfather built a cabin there with my father. When my grandfather passed away the cabin went to my dad. Having a new born baby (that was me!), 7 other children and living 6 1/2 hours away my dad thought it would be impossible to take care of it properly. With much regret (now) my dad sold the cabin but every year we still went to island park. This is what I remember of it:
The best memory was heading to mack's Inn lodge. We would always go into the lodge and get candy and other goodies. We would also get tube rentals, my parents (usually my dad) would drive us up the river and drop us off. We would float down the river past the lodge and go under the bridge. We knew when we saw that bridge the adventure was over. My dad would be waiting on the bridge for us, waiting to pick us up and take us back to camp. We would do it all over the next day, and the next until it was time to pack up camp and make the long drive home. In 1989 the Lodge burnt down but the memories still remain the same, only instead of seeing the lodge, we saw the remains of the lodge: a brick fire place was the only thing that remained standing in that fire. Here is what Island park looks like now:

I have never been there during the winter but I hear it is amazing. All the pictures of the lake is the lake that we actually stayed by every time we went.

My dad had the opportunity to go back a year an a half ago to see the cabin he built with his own hands. The people who bought it from them still own it. They not only kept the original structure but they added on to it since then. My mom described my dad "like a kid in the candy store" when he saw the place. The couple was even kind enough to invite them in and in return they got information about the original structure they have been wondering about all these years straight from one of the two people who help build it.

I am hoping very soon that I will be able to take Bryce back to the place that has stolen my heart so many years ago....

Moments to Memories

Today was a day that was productive... really...

I got some Christmas shopping done: 1/2 of Bryce's mom, 1/2 of grandma, all of my dad's, 1/5 of Bryce's done, and I even manage to pick me up an item or two.

The house is clean...

I have uploaded some 'recipe cards' into walgreen photo center to be developed for a gift for my brother and sister...

I also went through my camera and cleaned everything off of it...

Now I just need to go through and organize my computer desktop but that will have to wait.

I thought I would share a few pics I had in my camera.

Here are a few from my work Trick or Treating

Emi and Brooklyn (Fairy and Fish)

Kaleb and Jayce (SWAT Member and Transformer)

I also thought I would show some pics of my indoor decorations. I know I posted these last year but I have added a few new items! I love decorating for the holidays!

The 'Autumn' is new this year.

So is the acorn

Still love the not so new spiders

Oh and Last but not least I thought I would share some 'moments to memories' with you. This is not to bash on Bryce but to help myself from losing it I have to take a step back and laugh a little bit so I thought I would share this. Bryce is known for taking our tupperware and placing them in misc places for me to find. The last time I found some tupperware in some random place i took it upstairs to rinse out. Apparently it had been there for a while and when I opened it up the smell was so horrid that I literally threw up. He has been trying really hard to not leave them in 'random' places for me to find. Well as of lately this is what I find....


Oh wait lets take a closer look.....


For those who cant really tell, These Tupperware are EMPTY... and they had been sitting in the fridge for about a week... So instead of leaving them in random places for me to find all rotten he now sticks them into the fridge to keep them 'fresh'. As I said sometimes I have to just laugh to prevent myself from hurting him...

Persistence and patients

It is 10:30 at night, I am logging on to blogger since I cant sleep. Maybe because for the first time in a week I got to actually cuddle up to Bryce today and took a nap. We had a good talk tonight, one we don't have often.

Have you ever loved someone so much it hurt???

Have you ever seen the one you love suffer?

Have you ever cried so hard that you ache?

Have you ever thought the one you loved was going to die???

I will answer all of those for you... yes, yes, yes, yes. All of those happened this weekend. I have never had a weekend so miserable in my entire life. I have never had to witness the one person I love most struggle for a breath. I have never had my body ache until it convulsed. those too happened this weekend.

Bryce has been terribly sick, yet we are still waiting on answers, getting the run around and still feeling helpless. I have had to learn patient and persistence the last couple of weeks. I refuse to give up and watch him lay around for he cant even help himself. I refuse to sleep alone in my own bed for the 2nd week in a row.

My 100th post was suppose to be something great! It wasn't... Here is my 101st post so I will try to end it great.

Cherish the person you have in your life for you may not know when their last breath will be.

Hold the one you love tonight for you never know when you will HAVE to be separated for a long period of time

Always push forward TOGETHER, alone obstacle are big and tedious. together you can conquer the world

Always kiss them goodnight... even when you may be upset with each other. The small shit doesnt matter...

I spy... a snoop

Ok so I have a little snoop running around. I was told that I forgot one Vegas picture to upload from my camera. How did this snoop get into my camera?? I am not for sure, but I appreciate the great reminder that I forgot this picture... one day I will learn, soon...

Thanks again little snoop

The rest of our Vegas pictures are below... sad that we only got 5.. I mean 6 pictures.

PS we went to hang up our curtains last night so I could FINALY take pictures of our room.... well the curtain rodds dont fit! That is just great. So I am on a mission to find curtain rods to hold my cute curtains up that fit... Anyone need some curtain rods??

I wish my little snoop would have found that out for me months ago for me when I bought them so I could have taken them back...

Lightening strikes but not in vegas!

ok so I finally downloaded my 5 pictures from vegas. What happens in Vegas stays in vegas so I will only mention we had a really good time, we hit some shows, went shopping and.. and... well that is all I am saying. Sorry!

Our last night in Vegas

Didn't know Johnny and Elvis existed together but they do!

The show at Treasure Island

This is the yummy dessert we got at the Bilagio. It was so good but so rich! and guess what.. I ate gold! Real gold!

It was hot and this is the only place that was somewhat cold. I was dying with the heat...

Jelly Belly anyone???

We Ordered room service the first morning we were there, we were living the high life until we got the bill :(

Time to come home, one last photo.

Do we really have to come home???

A view from our room

Now these pics were from Monday nights storm. They were awesome! and even though it was dark we thought we would try to get some pics... Here they are!

The clouds

Hell's Fury!

we did actually get strikes on these ones but you can definitely see the The storm lighting up the night