Living It Up... Logan Style!

Josh and I have been keeping ourselves busy this past week! Last weekend, Spencer (Josh's brother) decided that he liked our scooter so much when he came up to visit us the week before, that he wanted one himself. So, of course when he came to buy one he brought my little sisters with him! Laura just got back from a month in Europe so it was fun to hear her stories, show her our house, and get European souvenirs! And Katie's always up for a free ride to Logan! Too bad Spencer's scooter got in a minor accident within an hour of him getting it, but with a little bit of paint to touch it up, the damages will be unnoticeable!

SCOOTER TIME!

Here are the boys with their matching scooters...
Me taking Katie for a ride...
Just Another DAM Day!

So Josh and I usually go to First Dam on Sunday afternoons, but since we were in Salt Lake this past Sunday, I decided we needed to go sometime during the week. So, on Tuesday while Josh was at work, I picked up some fried chicken, some Mountain Dew, and treats to munch on and packed us a picnic. As soon as he got home, we headed to First Dam and spent the whole night there eating, reading, napping, and playing frisbee. I haven't had a real picnic in SO long so it was fun to surprise Josh with one!


The Rockin Rodeo

One of my favorite summer activities is attending RODEOS! I have missed them so much since living in Alaska for the past couple of summers and I was so excited to go to one this past weekend! I love sitting outside on a warm summer night watching all of the events while eating nachos and snowcones cheering on all of the cowboys!

Kim and Nick (our friends from Murray) stopped by Logan on their way to Bear Lake and went to the rodeo with us...
Cute Danielle and her husband Brian also joined us. We used to work at the hospital together and they're newlyweds too!
One of the most popular events is the Mutton Bust'n... poor little children are put on a sheep and told to hang on for their lives! I still have a hard time seeing what sane parent puts their children up for this... but Kim and Nick said they'd totally have their kids do it, and Danielle used to Mutton Bust when she was a kid! Josh agreed with everyone else and said that our children will participate in this event too. We'll see about that. Anyway, this is the kid who won. If you look closely, you'll see that he's on backwards and his face was pretty much in the sheep's butt the whole time. He was able to hold on like a champ and we were all quite impressed. The trophy he won was almost as big as he was!

Poor cowboy was bucked off while competing in the saddle bronc riding. We soon found out that he had a compound fracture on his left leg.
Of course, to pass the time while we waited for the ambulance to come, we had another ugly face competition. Everyone participated, but Danielle said I couldn't post their picture (even though they performed very well considering it was their first time competing). We all decided that Josh won this round. I think he looks like a vampire.

Finally, about a half hour later, the ambulance came, hauled Mr Compound Fracture Cowboy away, and we continued with the show.


Sunday Ride

This Sunday we decided to pack up the scooter and head to Hyrum Reservoir. We found the beach area, laid our blanket out, ate some snacks, and relaxed! It was an amazing day and I wish we would have had our swimsuits on so we could have cooled off in the water. The water was freezing though so I don't know how long we would have lasted anyway.




After the lake, we decided to head up Providence Canyon. We found some campgrounds, walked around a bit, and decided to test out the waters up there. FREEZING! Much colder than the water at the lake! I could barely stand keeping just my foot in the water. We won't be floating down that river any time soon.

We decided we'd keep our eyes out for some wildlife... you know... birds, bears, mountain lions... anything. Well, other than a chipmunk we saw in someone's yard, this is the extent of wildlife that we came across. This snake was definitely dead but Josh made us stop and made me take a picture. Disgusting- I hate snakes!

TAG! You're it...

This is a hubby Tag...

What is his name? Joshua David Hankins

How long have you been together? This is actually an interesting question... we've been best friends for 8 years, we started cuddling about 2 1/2 years ago and we've been together for 2 years.

How long did you date? Previous question, please. We dated for 1 1/2 years before we got engaged, and were engaged for 7 months.

How old is he? 23

Who eats more? Josh eats constantly throughout the day, but I'm more of a 3-times-a-day eater so my meals seem to be a little bigger than his. Unless he's got a "powerful appetite"- he's been known to order 2 meals when we go out to dinner.

Who said I love you first? He did, on Christmas Eve when he gave me my Christmas present

Who is taller? He is by a couple of inches. 5'11 vs 5'6

Who can sing better? I would have to say Josh- I can't carry a tune to save my life. I think that's why my parents always had me take piano lessons- so I was never part of the choir, just accompanied them. Josh will rarely sing while playing the guitar, but I LOVE it! He thinks his voice isn't great, but I think he's underestimating himself

Who is smarter? We both have our strengths. I am more educated and have a lot more of the "book-smarts" than he does. I'm really good at math, english, grammar, anatomy, and the sciences. Josh has a lot of the "street smarts." However, if he puts his mind to it, he can pick up on things super quickly, much faster than me. He knows the random things in life that I couldn't care less about and don't know how he retains the info. We balance each other out pretty well- when we watch Millionaire, between the 2 of us, we can usually win 1 million almost every night!

Who does the laundry? i do

Who pays the bills? josh physically pays them. i let him know what is due and when

Who sleeps on the right side? Josh does

Who mows the lawn? our landlord takes care of our lawns (speaking of which, our grass is turning yellow, it's so dry here!) but when we actually have a house, Josh will be doing the yard maintenance. He says I'll be in charge of the gardening, but we'll see.

Who cooks dinner? I do. Unless we're bbq-ing, then I prepare it and he cooks it up. I think it makes him feel manly to bbq.

Who drives? He does. Even on the scooter he's the driver.

Who is more stubborn? We are both super stubborn. He usually is the first to apologize though. I usually just like to have time to let things blow over.

Who kissed who first? That's a toss up. He and his friend Dan were up in Logan visiting me and Chana. Josh and I were cuddling on the couch and had been for a while. Our noses were practically touching but he didn't go in for the kill. Finally I said, "Josh, are you going to kiss me? Because if you're not, I'm going to my bed." He immediately kissed me. Haha! He hates that that is how it happened, but I think it was kind of cute.

Who proposed? Josh... I didn't think he had a ring yet, but he and Chana planned the proposal while we were traveling through Costa Rica. It was on Oct 13, 07 at the beautiful Arenal Resort at the base of the Arenal Volcano. I couldn't have asked for anything better.

Who has more friends? That would be me. Josh has a few close friends but I definitely branch out more and stay in contact with my friends more than he does.

Who is more sensitive? That'd be me, but I'm a girl so it's ok. Josh is great about it- he's always so patient and understanding with me which is amazing.

Who has more siblings? Me. I have 2 sisters and a brother, and he has 2 brothers.

Who wears the pants? It depends on the situation. Josh always says "I'll do what I WANT!" and all I have to say is "No you don't" and he immediately agrees. We both try to make our decisions together, but I'm definitely the one who plans things out more.

Well that was kind of fun... Let's see, I'll tag any of my friends from high school who are married (Sorry Stace) or anyone else who wants to kill some time!

Happy Father's Day to our Favorite Padres

So, tomorrow is Father's Day and while Josh and I were at Hallmark earlier, we couldn't find a single card to get either of our fathers. Most were not cheesy enough, not sarcastic enough, and didn't have enough humor in them to go to either of our dads. So, we decided to do the whole blogging thing to tell our fathers how much we love and appreciate them and their great attitudes. In order to keep things fair (haha) and even, we'll list some of 5 favorite things about each of our dads. 5 things should be easy enough seeing as how we have hundreds of things to sort through.

First, meet Trent, AKA Daddy BringhurstSorry I don't have a better picture of him, I don't keep too many pictures on my laptop. Anyway, this one was taken while the Bringhurst family came to visit the Alaska gang in Juneau last year. One of the highlights of the trip was a kayaking excursion out to Sandy Beach. Neither of my parents had ever been ocean kayaking so it was quite the experience.

Anyways, top 5's:

1- He's known everywhere for his contagious laugh. I remember many times throughout my childhood of being somewhere (at church, in the neighborhood, at the store, etc) with friends and all of the sudden you hear this explosion of LOUD laughter. Immediately my friends would turn to me and say, that's YOUR dad. It didn't matter where we were or who I was with, everyone knew he belonged to me.
2- His dance skills are amazing. I wish I had pictures from my wedding to post on here. He was dancing his heart out- the band loved it and my photographer loved it! He was definitely the hottest dancer at the party. I also remember him giving me ballroom dancing lessons in our kitchen when I was younger. I loved it!
3- He is the most giving person I know. He is constantly looking out for others and finding ways to serve them. He will always donate his time to help others- from going above and beyond in his home teaching callings to doing all the yard work for cute ladies in our neighborhood to volunteering to be a chaperon at any school or church function. He's an awesome example of Christlike behavior.
4- My friends all love him. Throughout Jr High and High School, it was hard for me to know if my friends came over to hang out with me or my dad. Everyone referred to my house as "Trent's house," never "Liz's house." Lindsey and my dad even had pet names for each other- Pumpkin and Cupcake. (Don't ask). And most of the time when we'd be hanging out talking or watching tv, my friends would invite him to hang out with us. Trent was right there with us in the conversations and everything, and no one seemed to mind that it was my DAD, not just another FRIEND! :)
5- He cares. My dad is constantly doing the little things that show he cares about his family. Since we've been living in Logan, my dad has been up a couple of times to help us move in, but also to help beautify our garden (or lack thereof). Josh showed up at our house one day on his lunch break and saw my dad fixing up our soil and planting flowers. It means a lot to have him drive an 1 1/2 hours just to make the outside of our house look cute.



Now, Meet Mr. Dave Hankins....
This picture was taken at one of our favorite Hankins family activities- Saturday lunch. We all look forward to spending the afternoon at Rumbi or Jason's Deli so we can hang out and catch up on the week's activities.

Our Top 5's-

1- Dave's love for movies. He watches so many movies and quotes all his favorites all the time! (He has taught his boys to do the same). Sometimes while sitting at the dinner table, they have a whole conversation with each other just based off of movie lines. Stuff like this goes way over my head, but Dave and his boys LOVE it!
2- Dave is full of great advice. He makes time to talk with Josh about dealing with challenges in life, he has given him pointers on his relationship with his wife (me!), and can recognize the things in life that really matter.
3- He has a great sense of humor. Dave is always doing things to keep everyone smiling. As long as Josh can remember, Dave and Kristi constantly debate as to who is the comedian in the family. Josh apologizes to Kristi, but he says Dave wins. One thing that always gets me laughing is his famous Ape Walk. You've gotta see it to believe it. :)
4- He loves to be where the party is at! He loves to hear every story, see every picture, and hear every joke. When Josh and I got into the Prison Break seasons, Dave was right there with us every night until the wee hours because he didn't want to miss watching an episode with us. When we got home from our honeymoon, he stayed up late with us asking questions about our trip and listened to all our stories despite how tired he was. He cares a lot about what is going on in everyone's lives and shows it with how attentive he is.
5- Dave LOVES his boys. He lucked out by getting 3 boys who like sports, hiking, tools, all of those typical "guy"things. Josh has told me a couple of times how he wants Dave to help him build or refinish something. All the boys have fond memories of having "boys only" camping trips ever since they were younger. Dave taught his boys how to work hard, and how to play hard.

To sum everything up, Josh and I are so lucky to have such great dads. They are amazing examples to us and we love them both so much. We both consider our dads to be our fathers (whom we love and respect) as well as our friends.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

A Day With The Kids

So Josh and I both had the whole weekend off (something that will probably never happen again) so we decided to make it a fun one. Josh's brother, Spencer, had said he wanted to come up to see us and decided to bring Nate along (Josh's other brother). They called us Saturday afternoon to tell us they were coming and I told them they should call up my little sister Katie to see if she'd want to come, too. A couple of hours later, they all showed up at our front door. We decided to go to this place in Logan called the Celebration Center. I'd heard of it before, but had never been... it's one of those places that have go carts, slick tracks, mini golf, climbing walls, and bungee jumping. It also has some proto-type high thrill rides that we were pumped to do.

One was called the Sonic Boom. It's a 370 foot tall free fall (supposedly the tallest free fall in the country) and doesn't have breaks. Basically it's air that stops you. It's kind of like the Rocket at Lagoon, but about twice as tall and twice and fast. This ride freaked me out! This is us BEFORE the ride (that's when I was smiling still).

A video clip of the ride.


The kids... Nate, Spencer, Katie
They're bad to the bone...
Me and Katie... Laura is in Europe so she missed out on the fun...
Nate and Spence on the Sonic Boom...

The Sky Sling. Another crazy ride. There are 6 seats on this ride- 4 are harnessed and 2 aren't. Basically it's like a giant sling shot that shoots you into the air at 2.5G. I don't know exactly how fast that is, but Katie and I were freaking out. The unharnessed seats tilted back and forth and you were basically betting your life on a seatbelt. I can't imagine getting up the guts to do that- but Josh and Spencer loved it.
Screamin Swing.... WAY FUN! You swing like 65 feet above the ground at like 50 miles per hour. We did this one over and over again.

Mid Air!

My oh-so-attractive husband...
Mini Golf... Nate rocked us all...
Rock Climbing... Spencer, Nate, and Katie....
Josh, Nate, and Liz...

After hours at the Celebration Center, we were hungry and headed back to our place. We barbequed up some yummy steak with mashed potatoes, rolls, and veges. Our parents should be SO proud! The boys also had a fun time taking our scooter out and about in the neighborhoods. Sadly, we had to say goodbye to the kids so they could head back to Murray.

Josh and I spent Sunday at our new ward (which we really enjoyed) and lazying around at First Dam. It's about time the sun is coming out and making it warm enough to lay out, read a book, and take a lazy Sunday afternoon nap outside!

The Last of the Honeymoon Adventures!

Day 8 & 9- Sea Days... So after our adventures in Tortola, it was time to head up north again. We spent our lazy days at the pool, in the casino, participating in the ship's activities, eating, and sleeping. After dinner on our last formal night, Josh "forgot his chapstick" in the room. We headed back to get it and much to my surprise, Josh had them decorate our room and had roses and chocolate covered strawberries for me. What a sweetheart! I didn't know he had it in him! :) I loved the flowers and was so sad that I wasn't able to take them off the boat!





We both can make a killer monkey face!

I love the Gala Buffet! They usually have one on the last formal night. Basically it's a midnight buffet (like we need to be eating any more at this point!) but this time they go all-out! I especially love the ice carvings... this dragon was quite impressive!
This chicken was one of my favorites!
umm... can anyone say... heart attack?!
I love the Game Show Network... on the very last night of the cruise, they hosted "Sea Fued" which was a spin off of Family Feud. I rock that game so Josh had me go on stage to participate. Our team dominated... thanks to me... the two guys to the left of me hadn't ever heard of the game! Pathetic!
We were patiently entertaining ourselves while waiting for the show to start! This was our ugly face competition.



Day 10- Hello New York! So it sucks to wake up the last day of your caribbean cruise to cold, rainy, and windy weather! We were so excited to spend some time in NY before we headed home but this weather didn't make the city quite as inviting as we had hoped. Our hotel was right in Times Square but we weren't able to check in until later in the afternoon. We were able to drop our luggage off though, they handed us an umbrella, and we headed out to do some rainy sightseeing. Josh instantly decided that he didn't care too much for New York City. He hated all the chaos, all the people, all the "up and coming" rap and r&b artists trying to get us to buy their cds, the shopping... everything. Haha... what a guy. Despite all his complaining, I made him follow me around to all the different shopping districts in the pouring rain. He was a good sport, but I can read that boy like a book. By the time we were able to check into our hotel, we were soaked from head to toe and were definitely ready to change and get ready for Mary Poppins that night. Oh yeah- an important detail I forgot to mention earlier-- one day while on the ship, we met this super nice couple at breakfast. They were from Long Island and were talking to us about the plans we had for when we were going to be in NY. I had mentioned that we were going to see Mary Poppins (even though Wicked had been my first choice). He then tells us he is the head accountant for a company that runs about a dozen of the theaters in NY. He tells us that they are over the Gershwin theater (where Wicked plays) and tells us he has access to house tickets if we wanted them. UM, FOR REALS?!?! I got so freakin excited! He said he'd have to email his secretary who would get a hold of the box office and check that Sat afternoon matinee (that was the only show we'd be able to go to since our flight left Sat night) to see if they could get tickets. A couple of days later Herb (yes, that was his real name) found us and said that everything was all set to go. I wanted to give the guy a kiss I was so excited! To go from not being able to see the show to having front and center tickets was amazing! Herb and his wife Maddy were so nice to us and we are so grateful that there are such wonderful people out there who will go out of their way to help strangers! Ok- back to Friday... we checked into the Time Hotel, showered up and got ready, and headed to a restaurant that Herb had recommended to us. It was this little Italian restaurant called Da Rosino and I thought it was yummy! After that we headed to the Mary Poppins show. Can we say amazing!? I know it wasn't my first choice, but I absolutely loved it! I highly recommend it to anyone who is able to see it! We were exhausted by the end of the day and all Josh could do was complain about all the people and the 'umbrella dance.' Since it was pouring rain, everyone had their umbrellas (big and small) and Josh kept getting frustrated at having so many umbrellas in his face and people dodging each other and using their umbrellas as shields. It was definitely bed time for him.




"Spectacular" is right!




Day 11... Our last day in Times Square. It finally had stopped raining on our last day in NY. We headed out to do a little more shopping and sightseeing before Wicked started. We found the NBA store and it was practically the highlight of Josh's NY experience! It made so he was a little more patient with me when I wanted to keep shopping! We ate lunch at Ellen's Stardust Diner- it's a restaurant where all the servers are Broadway hopefuls. They wait on you and take turns singing to everyone. Our server dedicated a song to us for our honeymoon. How sweet. Shortly after lunch, we headed to the theater to see Wicked. It was amazing! I loved every minute of it and would see it again in a heartbeat if I could! Again- I highly recommend seeing it if possible (but plan ahead! haha). After the show ended, it was time to get our luggage and head to the airport. Josh was relieved to be leaving the big city with all its people and traffic, but I told him I'd be coming back again (even if it is with all my girlfriends). Our flight got us home just in time to spend Mother's Day with our families. It was nice to see everyone again and talk about the wedding and the honeymoon. The next day was my birthday and we spent it packing my stuff up, loading up our cars, shopping, eating at Tepanyaki, watching the movie "Ironman" and driving up to Logan. It was a crazy and eventful 13 days but we loved EVERY MINUTE OF IT!

Wicked? Yep, that's where we're headed!

One Month Down!

So, today makes it officially one month since Josh and I were sealed. I can't believe how fast the month flew by- half of it was spent relaxing and enjoying the sun on our honeymoon and the other half was spent getting our house all situated. Everything is finally starting to come together and it's actually feeling more like a home everyday! Josh and I wanted to celebrate our 1 month mark at the temple- it's so important to keep going often so we can remember the blessings the temple has in store for us. I'm so excited to be married to my best friend and I'm so excited for what the future has in store for us!

Well, enough mushy stuff... I'll continue with our honeymoon...

Day 5- Puerto Rico! This town was crazy! Our cruise ship docked right in the middle of downtown Old San Juan. They were on the last day of their annual 9 day Art Festival so practically everyone from the whole island was downtown walking around looking at all the vendors and all the fun things they had made. There were about 200 vendors and thousands of people everywhere. In the middle of all the chaos, there was a big stage set up and Puerto Rican bands and musicians were blasting the music- you could hear it throughout the entire town! It was fun to be in the middle of all the authentic festivities and to hang out where all the locals were! Josh and I walked around for a while, did some exploring and some shopping. We then decided to take a carriage ride through the town so we could see some of the highlights. We saw the capitol building, many of their cathedrals, some old historic buildings, and the St Christobol Fort. We really enjoyed doing some sight-seeing in this town and we were exhausted after just walking around for a few hours! Puerto Rico was one of our later ports so we didn't even leave until 11:30 that night. The cruise ship put on a bbq and dance party as we left and it was fun to see the city all lit up while we sailed away!

Day 6- St Thomas, US Virgin Islands--- This stop was one of the highlights of our vacation! We had heard that St Thomas was known for it's amazing beaches- Magen's Beach is one of the top 10 beaches in the world. We decided to make the day a lazy beach day, but we did want to either go snorkeling or jet skiing. When we got off the ship, we found a taxi driver who said he'd take us to whatever beach we wanted to go to. He informed us that Magen's Beach doesn't allow any type of water sports so jet skiing would be out. He did recommend another beach to us that was known for their amazing jet skiing so we had him take us there. He dropped us off at a beautiful resort where there was an amazing beach and you could see St Johns, Tortola, and St Criox in the distance. We were able to find a guy with a couple of jet skiis and he let us go out for a couple of hours. He gave us a map of the islands and said we could go wherever we wanted to. We went down the coastline of St Thomas and found a bunch of beaches and coves that were amazing. We then ventured out towards the other islands and were able to find small, unpopulated islands that were gorgeous! It was fun to be chillin on a huge beach with no one else around! After our jet skiing was over, we chilled on the resort's beach for a few hours. It was absolutely amazing!

Day 7- Tortola, British Virgin Islands--- We had another amazing day on this island. We had booked a "swimming with the dolphins" excursion and I was so excited for it! Tortola was a short day so we had to get off the ship early and head right to beach where the dolphins were. We booked the most interactive session we could because I figured if we were going to do it, we were going to do it right! There were about 8 people in our group and we were able to swim around with the dolphins and pet them. We also had a chance to hold on to their dorsal fins and had them pull us and we also had 2 dolphins push us through the water by our feet. I have always wanted to swim with the dolphins ever since I saw that Full House episode where they went to Hawaii and swam with them there. Pathetic, I know, but it has been my dream! :) I haven't been able to scan in our pictures yet but as soon as I do, I'll have more pictures of us actually in the water swimming around and playing with the dolphins.