The Festival of Trees

The other evening Talena and I volunteered as hostesses at the Festival of Trees. What is Festival of Trees, one may ask. It is a fund raiser for Primary Children’s Hospital. There are trees, gingerbread house, wreathes and more donated and then bought by the public with all the funds going to the hospital. Talena, being the good person that she is, suggested we volunteer about a month ago and I agreed.

We arrived and were assigned to watch over the playhouses. The only directions we received were don’t let people touch the playhouses, they are only on display. I stood protectively next to the playhouses and displays for over 2 hours. In this time I received questions such as “Where are the bathrooms?” “How long does this last?” “Are these for sale?” “Can you help me find my mom?” and so forth. I didn’t know the answers to all of these questions, but being the good hostess I was I made up answers, well more like educated guesses, and I feel that went well. Don’t worry, I did help the lost little girl find her family. I also had the pleasure of seeing old high school friends with their families and multitudes of children. (Multitudes being more than one.) It was fun.

Right before the Festival of Trees closed, Talena and I walked around and looked at all of the displays. The trees were gorgeous and some so extravagant. Also, I can’t think of a better way to get in the Christmas spirit than doing a little volunteering. Great idea, Talena!

A view of some of the trees there.

One of the playhouses in my section. It was the theme of the 7 dwarfs, which I found adorable.

Me, Grumpy and Talena.

I also had a puppet show stand in my section. I wanted so badly to put on puppet shows for those passing by, more for my own entertainment than theirs. However, I felt the need to be a good example for the children and not touch the displays. Talena didn't feel the same way, haha just kidding.

The hall of wreaths. My question is if you buy one of the wreaths, do you get the door too? Just wondering...

The Day BYU Unbroke My Heart

After the TCU game, I sent my plea to BYU football out in the vastness of the internet in hopes that the next BYU game I attended would be better than the sadness I endured during the TCU game. Well friends, it worked! My sister, Noelle, invited me to go to the BYU vs. U of U game last Saturday. Get ready to be jealous, our seats were on the second row of the north end zone. How my sister pulled off getting such great seats, I do not know, but I was grateful.

Me and Noelle during half time.

It was in the north end zone where we cheered the Cougars on to victory in overtime! The final score was 26-23, a perfect ending to an exciting game. (The Utes really did have me nervous when we went into overtime.)

Right before the Cougars scored a touchdown. Not the winning touchdown, but still a touchdown.

Special thanks to Noelle for getting me the ticket and for the nice girl named Emily standing next to us. We didn’t even know Emily and yet she still offered us one of the blankets she brought because Noelle and I were freezing. We gladly accepted this offer. I think I’ll mention Emily in a Church lesson or a sacrament meeting talk someday.

Thanksgiving Weekend Activities

I bet you all thought I was done with the Thanksgiving report, but alas, not so. While we were down in Nevada, we put together a few events that were highly entertaining. No football and naps for my family, there were much more exciting things going on. (Ok, maybe there was some napping.)

Activity #1: Valley of Fire

I went with my brother’s family down to the Valley of Fire, which is gorgeous, by the way. Miles of red rock formations to climb and explore, so fun! Oh, how I love the desert red rock, I never get sick of it. Of course I had to encourage this same love to be planted in my nephews at such a young age. Speaking of nephews, here are some adorable pictures of them!







Isn't my sister-in-law JanaRae the cutest mom? I think so too.





Me and my brother Mark.

Sand angels!!

Petroglyphs! Now if only I knew what it actually said...

During our drive, Jake and I took more random pictures together! This has become our new favorite past time together.







Activity #2: Pinewood Derby

It was announced that there would be a pinewood derby at this Thanksgiving, which is something I’ve never experienced, since I was never a boy scout. (And actually still haven’t fully experienced, since my car wasn’t ready for racing.) However, it was great fun to see each person’s car design and who ended up winning.

JanaRae, Heidi and Jake all ready to race!

The fam proudly displaying their cars.

The grand prize to the fastest car goes to...(drum roll) little Ryan! I was so proud.

Why my car wasn't entered into the race.

Activity #3: Toenail Painting

Among all the excitement, my girl cousins and I had to indulge in a little pampering. We spent one morning searching through the rainbow of nail polish to find the perfect color for our toes. I don’t have any pictures of this event, but I chose dark blue with sparkles in case you were wondering. One can never go wrong with sparkles.

Thanksgiving!!

I spent my Thanksgiving at my Aunt Jan’s house, not too far from Las Vegas. That’s right friends; it was near 70 degrees outside, meaning I didn’t even have to wear a jacket for the few days I was there. Perfect. The feast was delicious, but you know what my favorite part of Thanksgiving is…having pumpkin pie for breakfast the next morning. This is something I look forward to every year and is vital for my Thanksgiving joy. I didn’t really take any pictures of the festivities (shocking I know) but before dinner, my nephew Jake and I had fun taking pictures together. Here are a couple of them…

Happy faces!

Sad faces...

And in the spirit of gratitude, even though Thanksgiving is over, I feel the need to share a few of my favorite things from my blessed little life (not in any particular order).

The fam • The Gospel • my friends • employment • my cute car • my bed • mountains • flip flops • education • the beach • toothbrush • the internet • the power of prayer • toenail polish • photos • England • my iTunes collection • health • art • electricity • H&M • agency • sunsets • the different seasons • the scriptures • European chocolate • road trips • Christmas lights • concerts • my humble abode • Mexican food • contacts/glasses • trees • water heater • wild flowers • the ability to read • dancing • holidays • things that make me laugh •

At the Planetarium

Last weekend I went to the Clark Planetarium and had a splendid time. It brought back such fond memories of field trips from my elementary school years. Well, actually those field trips were at the Hansen Planetarium, but the Clark Planetarium replaced the Hansen Planetarium and still has some of the same displays, so close enough. Displays like the huge pendulum that is supposed to teach you about how fast the earth is moving or the large plastic funnel called the black hole that you watch money roll down. Something that an elderly man told us was a waste of money, but honestly, childhood memories aren’t a waste of money! Anyway, we had fun looking around, taking random pictures (well that was my doing), playing with merchandise in the store and finishing the evening off with a Pink Floyd laser show.

We had fun trying on the crazy glasses at the store.

We look awesome, I know.

Brittany!!

Danny and Me on the moon.

The planets aligned. I really was happy that the Clark Planetarium still includes Pluto as planet.

Our Rocking House Warming Party!!!

*Sorry for the delay of this post, I'm sick, again. This is so lame.

Most people have a house warming party right when they move into a new home. However, we didn’t have enough furniture to accommodate our guests, so it was postponed for a few months. And what is a house warming party you may ask? (I received this question via text from one of our friends an hour before the party started.) As far as I’m concerned, it pretty much is inviting people over to eat our food and mingle. Speaking of food, we had amazing baked goods provided by Julia. We had these sweet potato turnovers and an ice cream bar with homemade ice cream, delicious. Anyway, enough of my rambling, here are some pictures…

The sweet potato turnovers, mmmm.

Talena was our first guest to arrive, therefore she gets a picture taken of herself.

Eliza and Talena, two of my best buds. I love these girls!

Chatting in the hallway...

Chatting in the living room...

Me and Danny

My favorite action shot of the whole evening.

Annie enjoying the goodies.

Here I am giving a tour to Rachel and Becky of our humble abode. Yes they really were as excited as they appear to be.

We even had friends come up from P-town. Adrian and Lauren, you girls are the best!

Then things got a little crazy and Matt put a pumpkin in his mouth. (I have no idea what is going on in this picture.) The end.

Scavenging for Photos

*I blame the randomness of this post on a mix of a lack of sleep and a large sugar intake in a short period of time, which shall be discussed in further detail.

For F.H.E. (family home evening, a little get together encouraged in the LDS church to strengthen the family, unless you are in a single’s ward, like myself. Then it is a get together in hopes that you find your one true love, marry and start a family. True story.) We broke off into groups and had a photo scavenger hunt. We had 30 minutes to fulfill a list of 15 requirements. Then we came back and had a slideshow of all the photos for everyone to enjoy. My posse, which included myself, Brittany, Julia, Talena and Melissa (ha, we were in a group of all girls; thus, thwarting the reason why single’s wards have F.H.E.) had great fun in collecting the requested photos and were very creative in the process, if I do say so myself. We went down to Temple Square in SLC and I just had to share a few of my favorite pictures from the evening.

We had to take a picture of a yellow car.

Another requirement was something that start with a "Z". I really like Julia's expression in this photo.

We were to follow the instructions of a sign exactly. Every other group acted out stop signs, I thought ours was much better.

We were supposed to take a picture of a hot couple. (These are statues of Emma and Joseph, in case you didn't know.)

A human pyramid (also on the list.)

We were supposed to act out a scene from the movie "Elf".

We were to imitate The Beatles, "Abby Road". Props to Julia who took off her shoes to represent Paul McCartney.

Also, off the subject (but really when am I ever on the subject) I am usually a relatively healthy person; however, the sugar cravings lately are through the roof. I have had at least 5…make that 6 handfuls of peanut M&M’s (mmmm) just while in the process of writing this post. It makes me think that my body recognizes winter is here and is preparing for hibernation. Unfortunately, I am not a bear, therefore I do not hibernate, but I would fully support the idea if possible. Anyway, this sugar madness has to stop! Well, maybe after Thanksgiving. I’m rambling. I’m also over using parenthesis, it’s addicting. Stay tuned, next post will be of our rocking house warming party that was last night!!

The Food Chain

This weekend there was a lot of movie watching as I recovered from my cold. It is all I really felt like doing. One movie I watched for the first time was “Earth”, which is a nature movie by Disney. It isn’t really a new movie, since it came out in April, but I’m going to share about it anyway.

During the viewing of “Earth” I came to recognize that I have a very hard time with the food chain. I found myself yelling at the screen for the prey to get away from the predator through the whole movie. However, the antelope never gets away from the cheetah, so sad. Even if the tables are turned and the walrus successfully protects her young, there was little relief, because then the poor polar bear, who has been lost at sea and is starving, now doesn’t have much of a chance. This movie was very stressful for me. I came away being very grateful that I wasn’t the one to figure out world peace. I seriously felt sorry for every animal. That is except for the great white shark. I have an unrealistic fear of sharks (considering I live in the middle of the desert) which stems from watching “Jaws” when I was 5. I still had to close my eyes during some of the shark footage, because it freaks me out so bad. Should I admit that? Oh well, I just did.

Luckily, my fellow audience members were there to comfort me/calm me down. Actually, Danny was the one who comforted me. His roommate Rob just threw a cheese stick at my head. Ok, that was on accident, but it was so funny I had to mention it. I'm glad cheese sticks are a relatively soft food.

Anyway, back to “Earth”. Besides the stress, I thought it was a very cool movie. The cinematography was amazing. If you do watch the movie, make sure to watch the making of the movie afterwards. I found it fascinating and I sound like a nerd saying that, but I mean it.

Sick Day

The pros and cons of my sick day yesterday…let’s start with the cons so we can end on a good note.

Cons
• Waking up at 4am burning up with a sore throat and the sniffles.
• Not having much of an appetite, which is sad because I really like eating.
• Daytime television

Pros
• Getting to sleep in
• Wearing my pajamas all day
• Having a certain significant other come over and set up his extra DVD player for me so I could watch movies, since my DVD player is broken.
• Having the individual mentioned in the bullet point above willing to put his arm around me in my whiney, sickly state and chance getting coughed on.
• Watching the Coldplay concert, “Elf” and “Confessions of a Shopaholic” all in one evening.
• Having roommates that laugh at the movies mentioned above just as hard as I do. Not so much the Coldplay concert though, because that isn’t a laughing matter.

Overall, yesterday turned out to be pretty good day.

Pinback!!

This past weekend Danny and I went to the Pinback concert at the Depot, which was a blast. We had the best seats up in the balcony, right over the stage. We had a great view of the band as well as those dancing crazily/awkwardly in the crowd, both great forms of entertainment.

I can’t even remember the name of the opening band. It was a guy with his guitar and harmonica and while I try to find the positive in most performances, because at least they had the guts to get up on stage, I couldn't with this one. Honestly it was bad, really bad. However, it gave me hope in my own chances of starting a musical career. Look I found a positive!

As for Pinback, they were awesome. They played their music at a faster tempo than on their CD’s, but I liked it. They have such a unique sound and really sound good live. So in all, I highly recommend the music of Pinback. Now for pictures and a video, yay! (Warning about the video, I didn’t really think to turn my camera, so just lay on your side to watch it. Enjoy!)

The stage before the band came out, I thought it look artistic.

Danny and Me

Pinback, Live!

The sideways video...