so much to do...

i haven't posted for a while and figured it was about time to highlight some of the things we have been doing these past few weeks.  last weekend, my sister, laura, and our friend kevin (from alaska) came up to visit.  we didn't have a whole lot planned because we mostly wanted to be able to just hang out with them because we rarely ever get to see them.  we were able to fit in some good buffalo wings, pizzookies, chinese food, a toga party, some texas hold 'em, and kevin's favorite... carl's jr... all into 2 1/2 days.  saturday ended up being a great day for me because i got my hair done that morning and then that afternoon while the boys went shopping to best buy and other techy stores, laura did my nails and my toenails.  her acrylic nails are fantastic and she also does great pedicures (this is my little business plug for her if anyone is interested).  anyway, i felt like a new woman after laura was done working her magic on my nails.  it's actually really nice to have a little sister who will come to my house, let me watch tv, and also lets me lay down while doing my nails.  you don't get that good of service in those asian nail salons.  

this weekend, we had some fun events going on in murray so we decided to make a trip down on saturday.  it all started with a yummy lunch at rumbi's with josh's family.  we then split from them and headed to my house for a bit where we were spoiled with gifts of clothes and peaches.  fabulous!  then it was onto the mall to do a little bit of birthday shopping for josh.  remind me never again to take him shopping with me.  even if whatever we're buying is for him.  it's just not worth the hassle.  anyway, i got a craving a few days before for the fabulous pumpkin cheesecake at cheesecake factory so we headed over there only to be disappointed by the news that pumpkin cheesecake doesn't come out until october.  it was september 27th.  lame.  i guess i'll just have to go back.  (another plug- cheesecake factory's pumpkin cheesecake is the best around.  i would know.  trust me).  it was good to see some of my friends i worked with though.  i've missed them.

after our mall experience we headed over to murray park to get some hankins family pictures taken.  kristi did a fabulous job of coordinating the boys' outfits with the outfit i was wearing.  leave it to a mom to be able to pull that off.  can i just say that she has an amazing amount of patience to deal with those 3 boys of hers?  every shot we were taking they would stick their tongues out, punch each other, make googly- eyed faces... you name it.  it wasn't anything like my family taking pictures where all of us girls are trying our best to look as cute as possible.  thank goodness she has another girl in the family to help her out against all that testosterone.  

after picture time it was crabfest time.  josh's neighbor sanford throws this event every year for all those who enjoy crab.  basically he buys a ridiculous amount of king crab and invites a bunch of people over to eat it.  sounds awesome, right?  well, josh was in heaven.  it's basically "all-you-can-eat" crab and that's what josh did. he and kristi were downing it at an unbelievable rate.  i was amazed.  i like crab, but honestly, it takes way too much work to get the meat out of the legs... and i wasn't so thrilled about the idea of being covered in crab meat pieces and butter (unlike josh, he had it all over his face, hands, shirt, pants... i was wondering where a bib was...).  basically i ate one leg of crab and called it quits.  josh pretty much ate my portion, dave's, nate's, and spencer's... as well as his own.  that boy loves his crab!
josh's plate (after one tray... they went through about 4)
my plate

following crabfest was another party we were excited to attend.  taylor and jen price are moving to china and tyler and sarah howland were kind enough to throw them a little going away party.  it was great to get together with everyone, especially people i haven't seen in years!  i feel like i'm fairly up-to-date with people's lives via blogs, but to actually see them in person is even more fabulous.  it was great hanging out with everyone and we were so happy we could finally come down for a party at tyler's dad's house  :)  (that house is amazing, fyi, and has the pool/slide that any kid would dream of).  we had to leave earlier than most everyone else due to the 1 1/2 hour drive ahead of us, but it was worth it.  maybe if we throw a party up here in logan, everyone will come up here.... maybe....

today has been a great sunday.  church was awesome as usual and i'm really starting to get to know the members in our ward better and i'm loving it!  we had a linger longer after church which was fabulous because a) the food was great b) i was starving and c) that meant one less meal to cook at home!  after church i was able to finish the corsages and boutonnieres that i had been working on on friday.  remember the bouquet i made earlier?  well, i finished the rest of it and everything is all good to go for this girl's wedding on the 10th.  (yet another plug- anyone want a flower arrangement/bouquet/boutonniere/corsage... you let me know... i can do artificial or real flowers, however i can't get fresh flowers wholesale so it's not much cheaper for me to do those... yet...)

other than all that, life has been same old.  school is going well for me and i'm really enjoying it.  i'm learning so much in my classes and i finally am starting to feel like i'm in a field that i'll be able to work in forever.  i just finished one of my hardest classes- a neuro pathologies class... it was a lot of work but i feel like i learned a ton and have gotten a lot out of it.  josh is still working on rv's and will start up school again in january.  we're getting so excited for all the dr's appts and his treatment to be over with so he can have the energy and the time to get back into school again.  if anyone is interested, the leaves are starting to change in sardine canyon and they are amazing!  if anyone has some spare time to make the drive up to see the beautiful colors, let us know!!  that pretty much sums it all up!

ninja night

so our friend eric had his birthday this past tues.  josh and i really wanted to do something special for him for his birthday.  a couple of weeks ago, we did dinner with andrea and eric and i brought those smores treats (remember previous post?) and he loved them!  so, we decided that we'd make him this treat and take it over to their place monday night so he would wake up to a fabulous birthday surprise as he was headed off to school.  so, monday night after i got home from sabor, josh and i got to work.  we made the treats in record time (and they were definitely delicious).  then, we had to wait while the treats cooled down and also till we figured the rubens would be sleeping.  it was after 12:30 when we finally decided to execute operation eric.  and what would this operation be without a little costume change?

so josh and i became ninjas for the night.  i think deep down inside, it was a dream come true for josh.  if any of you know josh well, you'd know he has a secret (well, not really secret) desire to be a full time ninja.  he will bust out his black shirt to cover his face at the drop of a dime.  i think he was proud that now he can dress up with his wifey.

we were sneaky as we scoped out their apartment.  we made sure all the lights were off and that their neighbors wouldn't bust us.  how funny would it have been if we would have gotten busted though?  would you ever expect two married adults running around at 1 in the morning dressed all in black with shirts tied around their heads?



everything went according to plan and we were quite proud of ourselves.  maybe we'll start making all of our friends' birthdays an excuse to bust out the ninja moves... watch out!

white trash weekend

i'm a little late posting about our past few weeks, but that's ok.  last weekend we headed to brigham city for peach days.  i had never been before and josh hadn't even heard of it but we decided it was worth the 30 minute drive even just for a bushel of fresh peaches.  when we got there we met up with lindsey and ryan and mikkal and ben and were able to catch up for a bit.  lindsey and ryan have the cutest baby boy, reagan, and i know i have posted about him before but i can hardly stand how cute he is!  every time i see them, i want to hold reagan the whole time.  we're buds.  i only wish lindsey and ryan lived closer so we could play more often.

we then met up with jill and angie (some of my alaska girls and now good friends) and we played around the peach day festivities with them.  i love carnival food so i was in heaven and it was fun to walk around the little venues.  i especially love events like this so i can do some major people watching.  i was amazed at the level of white trash surrounding us.  i saw more nasty wife-beaters on fat old men and more butt cheeks hanging out of girls' shorts than i have seen in quite some time.  it was really quite entertaining.  this picture of us is pretty bad but i laugh when i see it because it shows our two personalities quite well (it's also the only picture we took at peach days).  josh is pulling the "i'm sick of this and want to go home" face while i'm saying "let's go get another funnel cake."

after playing at peach days for a bit, we headed back to logan where we wanted to attend yet another white trash event... the demolition derby.  another thing that has been on my list of "to-do's" but i'd never been.  it was a riot!  the place was packed and it was fun picking out the trucks/cars we wanted to win.  we saw a couple of trucks flip over and start on fire and that definitely got the crowd going.  i think we migrated from brigham city to logan with all the white trash people because many of them were at the derby too.  had we planned better, we would have dressed for the occasion.  josh said he wanted a pair of overalls and flannel shirts so he could fit in at those kind of events.  i shot that idea down instantly. 

like i said earlier, josh and i have been keeping ourselves busy with school and work.  well, me with school and him with work.  but i did find some time this week to do a little project that made me happy.  my manager at work has a sister getting married.  she wants silk flowers at her wedding and they knew that i do flower arranging and asked if i'd put together her bouquet and then later do the corsages and boutonnieres for the wedding day.  i was excited they asked me, but a little nervous that it wouldn't turn out how i had imagined.  i found some time thursday to go to the store, pick up some essentials, and put the bouquet together.  her colors are mostly green, brown, and a cream color with a little splash of red.  i worked on it for an hour or so and was quite pleased with how it turned out.  my manager and his wife loved it, too, which was a relief to me!  i've always wanted to do flower arranging and wedding flowers for a job but really haven't had too much time to invest in it so this was a fun way for me to get to do something i love to do.  josh even helped me out which i was very excited about.
we were also fortunate enough to have josh's aunt, cousin, and parents come up to visit us this week.  his aunt and cousin were here from california and they made a special trip to come see where we live, where we work, campus, and our lives up here.  it was fun to hang out with them because with them living in california, i haven't had a chance to get to know them very well.  i'm excited that his whole family lives in cali because now we have an excuse to go visit and a place to stay!!  it was fun having them all here and it was sad they had to leave so soon!

this weekend has been pretty low key.  josh and i had to work friday and saturday but we did make some time to watch a quite disappointing game between usu and utah last night.  we decided it probably wasn't worth our time to venture up to the stadium so we had kellan and shelly over to watch the game from the comforts of our living room.  we were grateful we weren't out in cold watching our fellow aggies fall to a 58-10 loss.  our football team is quite sad and everyone knows it.  but you can't help but have a little school pride even though you know you're going to lose.  josh and i both wore our utah state shirts but halfway through the game, i was tempted to put on my utah shirt.  i was raised a ute fan, but am now a true aggie so the game could have gone either way for me!

mexican jumping beans

so i haven't posted for a bit, mostly due to lack of events worthwhile of posting about.  but i figured i'd give a little update about what we did over the labor day weekend.  we decided to head to murray for the long weekend so we could catch up with our friends and family and not have to cram it all into one day.  so saturday morning we drove down, met up with the hankins gang and had some yummy cafe rio lunch.  we sure do love saturday lunches!  we split for a bit- i had some girl time with my mom doing some shopping and attending a bridal shower and josh ran some errands and was put to work in the yard helping his parents.  we met back up later that night and headed to the gateway where we purchased my new macbook!  i love it and have been excited to get it for a while now!  josh was hesitant about getting one- he had never really seen how macs differ from pcs but after the fabulous tutorial cam (the apple  man) gave us, josh was convinced that our purchase was a good one.  we followed up our shopping trip to the gateway with dinner at red rock with lindsey and cameron, and josh and emily.  after hanging out downtown for a bit, we headed to see josh and emily's new house in taylorsville.  they've done a great job fixing it up and it looks awesome!  we stayed up way later that night than we usually do and rolled in around 3 in the morning.  of course, i had my camera with me but took no pictures of the day's events.

sunday we went to church with my family and lazied around all day.  it was just what we needed.  we headed to lindsey and cam's that night for our macbook tutorial as well as the addition of many movies, tv shows, and music that cam so kindly put on our computer.  we can't wait to get an apple tv so we can be just as cool as the romeros.  look what they're doing to us!  one of the highlights of the night, and the only picture worthy event, was when lindsey brought out her mexican jumping beans she had for her classroom.  josh had never in his life heard of them or seen them and it was hilarious watching him hold the beans in his hands as they were jumping around.  we learned about what makes them jump and josh was captivated by such a weird concept.  moth larva chillin inside a bean until it's about to bust its way out... weird

we returned back to logan monday afternoon, but only after the bringhurst/hankins luncheon we had together.  it's great that our families get along so well.  i had to work that night, which was a bummer, but we were grateful we had a whole weekend off to play.  since then, it's been nothing but school and work.  my schedule is keeping me super busy.  i have classes and clinic all day everyday and when i'm not in class, i'm usually on campus studying.  my program is hard and very time consuming, but it'll pay off in the end.  josh continues to be busy working full time so he can support the two of us!  the great thing is we have this weekend off and are going to be attending peach days with our friends jill and angie from alaska!  we're also hoping to hit up the demolition derby later tonight.  hopefully i can remember my camera this time and actually take some pictures!

to all you parents out there

so, i'm not a parent and won't be for a while, especially after watching a video like this. jaynann sent it to me and i couldn't resist posting it on my blog. if you're in need of a good laugh, you've got to watch it. it made me laugh over and over again after a 14 hour school day... i'm positive it'll make you laugh too.

cheater- faces

these girlies should wipe those cheesy grins off their faces... they're not 16 and they know it. i'm glad that the IOC is finally looking into this whole situation. i think the entire world could tell these girls are barely into double digits, how did the olympic committee not see it?! i've been watching the olympics all night (well, for the past 2 weeks obsessively) and they are finally saying that if they are able to find proof that these girls are not 16, they will be taking away their golds. which they should. i wonder how big their smiles will be then when the whole world knows their big fat lie.

in other olympic news, i'm sad it's ending soon. josh and i have been glued to the tv (as many of you have been, too) and it doesn't help that we have 3 channels that have been playing non-stop olympic events. we're getting events i never even knew existed. josh has even used the olympics as an excuse to get chinese food on an almost daily basis. some of our favorite events have been the swimming...of course, phelps... he's amazing. womens beach volleyball was amazing! misty may and kerri walsh were fabulous to watch. the track and field events have been quite interesting. i never thought i'd get so into the high jump. also, my heart broke when the mens and womens 4 x 100 baton both ended in disaster. at least they both redeemed themselves in the 4 x 400 race. womens gymnastics has been great (minus the stupid chinese chicas). i was rooting for shawn johnson the entire time. i think nastia is a little crusty and needs to smile more. she's a fabulous gymnast and i think she deserved the gold but i think a smile would help her countenance a bit. diving was interesting- i found myself liking the synchronized diving too (josh said he wasn't impressed with that event). i really like the dives off the high platform and ones that include twisting and flipping. they are a lot cooler to watch. mens basketball.... the gold medal game is on tonight and josh is making me watch it. it starts after midnight and i only agreed on the conditions that he attend church wide eyed and happy tomorrow morning and that i make a quick run to coldstone for a chocolate/m&m/gummy bear dessert in a wonderful waffle cone. i've been content ever since.

some events i haven't been a fan of (but have been forced to watch either by josh or because another event would follow soon after).... speed walking. seriously? c'mon. dreadful to watch. field hockey. i tried it out for a while but got bored very quickly. all equestrian events. i find no thrill in watching horese jump. sorry. the mens marathon.... josh made me watch it tonight and i just about poked my eyes out. 2 hours of watching men running. not exciting one bit. boxing. sorry, can't handle it. especially since there were about a thousand weight classes and it seemed like it would never end. handball.... it was only bearable for about 15 mins.

one last thing- i was impressed with the mormon girls on the new zealand basketball team. they told their coach before they were even on the roster to play in on the olympic team that they wouldn't be able to play on sundays and were going to accept it if their coach decided he didn't want them on the team. the coach still put them on the team and they stuck to their guns and both sat out on their game sunday morning against the usa. they lost but i was proud to see 2 girls so dedicated to their faith that they were able to sit out and do it with a smile. you go girls.

so with the culmination of the olympics at the closing ceremonies, josh and i will finally get our lives back. what are we going to do with ourselves now? what is everyone going to talk about at work and with friends? and what is there to look forward to on tv?! maybe it's a good thing cuz school starts on monday and an olympic games obsession would definitely take precedence over school work anyday.

into the wyoming wilderness

josh and i have been itching for a weekend in the mountains all summer long. we talked to a few friends of ours (kellan and shelly) who have family living in star valley, wy. they have access to horses, know some great camping spots, and star valley is just a short drive from jackson. so, friday after work, we packed our bags and headed to star valley where we met up with kellan and shelly, and mike and ashley (more friends of ours from my program at school). kellan told us about a great camping spot called cottonwood lake so we headed up there. on our drive up the dirt road through the small canyon, all of the sudden josh and i heard a huge thud that scared the crap out of us. we hadn't seen any large rocks in the road that would cause such a large bang but we didn't know what else the noise could be. we continued driving for about a half hour (it was starting to get dark at this point) and finally found a camp sight. the guys put up the tents and started the fire while us girls watched the fire and kept warm. oh, and we prepared the dinner of hot dogs and smores, too. once at the camp sight, josh and i decided to take a look at our car to see if it had any noticeable damage. well, what we noticed was that my muffler was non-existent and my bumper was super loose on that side as well. we figured that a rock or something must have hit the muffler, it detached, hit the ground, but not without boucing back and hitting the bumper. hence, the loud noise.
anyway, we spent the rest of the night eating, talking, and laughing. kellan, mike, and i have been good friends for the last few years because we've been in the same study group since we met the beginning of our junior year. we called ourselves the "a" team because we were bound and determined to get a's in all our classes. our group expanded a bit throughout the year and lauren and kelsey joined us. we were basically an unstoppable group and rocked all of our classes our junior and senior years. we became great friends through studying and it's fun to be able to hang out outside of the classroom, too.
mike, ashley, shelly, and kellan
josh and i realized that we have never really been camping together. we've traveled all over the world and have been friends for years and the only time we've really attempted camping was right after high school... it was that trip that i remember telling stacy i wanted nothing to do with josh because he was too weird for me... too confusing... and i couldn't handle being his friend anymore. little did i know 4 years later we would be married. life sure does throw curve balls at you. anyway, this is me and josh sharing our first tent together. precious. i was freezing and throughout the night i tried to cuddle up next to him. all he could do was push me away. he's a true sweetheart.
the next morning, we got up early, made bagel, cheese, and bacon sandwiches (we forgot the pan to cook the eggs) but they turned out delicious. we packed up camp in record speed and were heading out before our neighbor campers had even stepped foot out of their camper. the drive down the canyon, i kept my eye out for our muffler and it was quite easy to spot once we came upon it. we were just going to leave it off the side of the road and continue onward, but josh had a guilty moment and decided he didn't want to litter. that's a first. so, we threw it in the back of the car and went on our way.
so, josh has never been horseback riding (or at least not any times that he can remember) so that was another reason we headed up to star valley. kellan's brother owns a ton of horses and said we could ride them. all we had to do was "run" them in from the field. being a city girl, i didn't quite know what that meant but i stood with camera in hand waiting for the horses to come. as the boys were getting on their motorbikes and 4 wheelers and heading out to the field, i played on the tractor by the horse corrals.

please don't notice my terrible fashion disaster of an outfit. i know that no one really looks good when they go camping, but i was at an all-time low. not only was i wearing green, brown, cream, and grey all together, but i topped it off with socks and chacos. i know someone out there is envious of my great fashion sense.
soon enough, i saw the horses running towards us...
i wasn't too nervous until this point... they seemed as if they were going to trample right over us. about 30 unfamiliar horses running at you makes your heart jump a wee little bit.
lucky for us, the horses were quite smart (and liked to play follow the leader) and headed straight into the corral.

i immediately started picking out which ones were my favorites and which one i wanted to ride.
while the boys saddled all the horeses up, i got the job of brushing them. i felt so important.
once everyone was on their horses, we headed up the mountain where we got a great view of star valley. i was at the back of the line so i kept taking pictures of the group ahead of me. i especially kept taking pictures of josh because i felt like i was documenting a monumental event in his life! it actually made me feel like a mom who keeps making their kids look at the camera and i think josh was getting annoyed.


what a view

my horse was named bob. he's not the type that likes to be at the back of the line so he kept trying to pass everyone. that made for an interesting ride for me. he kept holding back and then trying to run to catch up. i was bouncing all over the place.
this was some animal (cow, horse, deer, who knows) who bit the dust and all that remains was his skeleton. there were a few of these that we passed and i couldn't resist taking a picture.

josh was such a happy boy. he smiled from ear to ear the entire ride. it was cute.
this is josh's horse, ranger. if you look closely, you'll see he has a beard. this was definitely the right horse for josh.

after horseback riding, we changed, packed into the cars, and headed toward jackson. we made a pit stop at the red baron for some yummy burgers, fries, and shakes, and then headed to meet mike's cousin lj who is a river rafting guide on the snake river. we had a great time going down the river! we had a great group and lj was able to lead us into every rapid perfectly!! after going through the big kahuna, we pulled off to the side and a few of the boys had some tubes that they wanted to ride through the big rapids. us girls just watched. i get nervous on some of the rapids on the bear river... not a chance on earth i'd risk my life on the big kahuna! :) the ride down the river was great and was something i've missed doing the past few summers.

after river rafting, we headed back to star valley where we were staying at kellan's sister's house for the night. not long after we got there, we realized that smokey, the family's dog, had gotten himself into some trouble. he must have come across a porcupine, got curious, bit it, and paid the price.
poor smokey had about 100 quills stuck in his nose, surrounding his mouth, and about 20 were inside his mouth. kellan tried to pull them out himself, but the dog was freaking out and biting and kellan was worried he'd lose his fingers. so, the vet was called. he came over late sat night, tried a mild tranquilizer to mellow smokey out, but it didn't work. so, he said he'd come over the next morning with a drug that would actually paralyze the dog just long enough to get the quills out. it was quite the process and my heart went out to poor smokey! it reminded me of disney's homeward bound where chance comes across a porcupine and the same thing happens!
this was sun morning after the vet had left. smokey was just coming out of the drugs and was still in pain, but the other dogs kept pestering him. especially the little puppy, miley. they are cute dogs though and it made me want a puppy even more than i already did.
we had a great weekend overall despite all the minor setbacks! it's sad to see the summer come to an end, especially since this is one of the best summers i've had in a while. i loved living in alaska, but i was so happy to finally do all the things that bring back many of my childhood memories with josh! we were able to do almost everything on our list of summer activities so i am quite happy about that. we have one more week of fun, laziness, and warmth before school starts up again. it'll be weird being a student again (especially since that will be my title for the next 4 years) but i know it will all pay off in the end, even though we'll be poor college students once again. i hope everyone else has had a fabulous summer as well!