A weekend in Utah

Last weekend, we took a quick trip home to Utah to visit our family and friends.  This was the first time (since moving away from Utah) that we've been back to visit for something other than a 2 week + trip during Christmas or to stay for the whole summer.  This time we were only there for 3 1/2 days.  It was weird being there for such a short period of time, but it was still really great to see everyone.

We got smart this time and finally bought a barrier for Sal in the car.  It keeps him from trying to sit up front with us, but it doesn't stop him from still trying to get as close as possible!

Friday:
We hung out with Brody's mom in the morning, then went to my parents house to check out their newly remodeled kitchen (It looks awesome! Click here for pictures) For lunch, Brody went with his mom to the Coppermill and I went with my mom, aunt, cousin and niece to Costa Vida.  Then I met up with some friends at Zeppe's for a yummy treat before heading out to Brody's sister's house to see our adorable niece and nephew.  They are growing way too fast!

Dylan is a pro at going cross-eyed. I guess that's his idea for a pose, silly boy!

Dylan and Devin- love these two!

That night we went to Fredrico's with Varsi and Con, then back to their house to watch the new Mission Impossible.


Saturday:
We made sure to schedule a hair appointment while we were there, because my aunt Stacie is amazing and knows just what we want.  It turned out my dad and brothers also had a hair appointment around the same time, so my mom and grandma joined us and we had a mini party at the salon!  Brody cut off quite a bit of hair, so I decided to do before and after shots:

Sooooo much hair!

I think he looks great!! :)

After a delightful lunch at Great Harvest, we did a hike with my mom, dad and cousin on the crimson trail.  It was perfect hiking weather.

Sal loves hikes, but he tends to get a little bossy.  If dogs could talk, I'm pretty sure this is what he'd be saying in this picture...

That night my cousin Lindsey and her family joined in the fun at my parent's house.  We made dinner and spent the whole evening talking, playing games and eating dessert.  It was so great having them around for all the festivities!  I truly feel like Lindsey is my older sister, so it only seems fitting that they were there for everything.

Emma and Lydia- I love these two as well!

Sunday:
After church, we headed back to Brody's moms house to visit with Bergendi who came up from Salt Lake.  I just think she is the best and I'm so glad we were able to see her even though she doesn't live in Cache Valley anymore.

Later in the day, we went with my family to the park for an adult recess.  It was a blast!  They have a new playground structure that seems like it's more for adults than children.  We played tether ball, basketball and had relay races. It was a lot of fun.

I'm sure we were quite the sight to see walking down the street!

This picture looks like it was staged, but I promise you it wasn't.

Monday:
We went to lunch with my mom, dad, grandma and grandpa to the yummiest crepe shop ever!  Crepes have to be one of my favorite food items in the world.  After that, we went back to Brittney's to visit one last time and say goodbye.  Then we left around 2 to come back home. 

So again, it was a short trip, but it was just what I needed!  I loved seeing everyone and spending time with the people I love.  Thanks everyone for making it such a great trip!

5 Years

Last Saturday, April 14, Brody and I celebrated 5 years of marriage!!  It feels like our wedding day was just yesterday, but at the same time it also feels like we've been together forever.  These last 5 years have been amazing and I can't imagine my life without Brody.  He is such a great husband and we always have so much fun together.  I can't wait to see what the next 5 years (and many more beyond that) will bring.

To celebrate, we spent the entire day in Denver.

We started off by visiting the Red Rocks Amphitheater.  This is the main venue in Denver for all the big bands and musicians and although we didn't get to see anyone perform, it was still a pretty neat place to see.  The venue is completely outdoors and is located in a beautiful location in the mountains.  That morning, there was a cross-fit training group doing a huge work out session on the steps of the amphitheater.  They were doing some pretty intense stuff (like crawling up the whole thing on all fours- backwards) I thought that would be a great place to get a good workout.

After that, we headed to a park for a picnic lunch.  It was such a nice day (at that time) and there were tons of people out and about.

Our next stop was to Hammond's Candy Store for a free tour.  I found this place online, where it sounded a lot more interesting than it really was.  It was still a cute, old fashioned type candy store, and we got some free candy at the end.  Worth it enough for me!

We then went to the Denver Aquarium.  Now, let me preface this by saying that I don't normally go to just any aquarium- most of them are so similar to each other and a lot of them aren't that great.  However, ever since moving to Fort Collins in August, we've heard from countless people that the Denver Aquarium is worth seeing.  After about the 10th person giving it a great review (and getting zero bad reviews), we decided to go.  And boy were they right!  There were so many cool/out-of-the-ordinary things including: sea otters, paranas, sharks, sting rays, a scuba-diver hand feeding some large fish and even a mermaid! (Yeah, they really had a lady dressed as a mermaid swimming through the water. ha!)

Is that top left picture not the weirdest/creepiest thing you've ever seen???
It's the underside of a sting ray.

At the end, we got this surprise

Tigers! Kind of a random thing to see at an aquarium, but still cool.

After the Aquarium, we headed to the 16th street mall to just walk around and check out some shops.  By this time, the gray clouds had started to roll in, which we were expecting (thanks to weather.com) so we stopped by the car to grab our rain jackets, rain boots and umbrella.  I'm so glad that the weather held off until the end of the day, but we had come prepared just in case, determined not to let bad weather ruin our day.  However.  Rain boots are only comfortable for so long.  And we did a lot of walking up and down 16th street, so in the end, I decided it would be less painful to just walk barefoot than wear my rain boots any longer, so that's what I did!

We ended the day with dinner at Macaroni Grill (this might be a new tradition, since we ate there last year as well- their bread is to die for!)

It was a fabulous, fun-filled day!!

Spring Break, Conference and Easter

Spring Break
Back in March, Brody had a whole week off school.  I still had to work, so we didn't do anything fun, but Brody however, did something amazing during spring break.... he cooked dinner for me.  Every night!  And they were amazing dinners too- like chicken fettuccine alfredo with homemade bruscetta!  It was awesome.

General Conference
We spent most of the day on Sunday at our friends parents house (who live here in Fort Collins).  We watched both the morning and afternoon sessions there, and in between, his mom made an amazing meal and we had fun checking out all the animals on their ranch.  I love General Conference weekend and this one did not disappoint.

Easter
For Easter, me and Nicole planned and made the most delicious dinner.  (I forgot to get a picture, but trust me, it was amazing!)  We also dyed eggs with Coy and Suzie the night before.  It's been a while since I've done that, but it was a lot of fun.  I very much enjoyed eating Cadbury Eggs all week (my favorite) and focusing on the resurrection of our Savior.

Rock Climbing and April Fool's

We went rock climbing this last Saturday- outside!  I've only been once in the last 2 years, so I was very excited.  There's a great spot right by Horsetooth Reservoir (which reminds me a lot of Pineview in Ogden Valley).  We brought Sal and the 3 of us had a great time.

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We've never really done a lot for April Fool's, but this year, we were introduced to a great new tradition.  On Sunday night (April 1st), our friends invited us over for dinner... only it wasn't a normal dinner.  We were given a menu and got to pick what we wanted and the order we wanted it.  But, each item was different than what it was listed as, so some people got dessert first and appetizers last, others got an entree but no fork and so forth.  We also wore mustaches, just to add some more fun! 

It was a great night and I think we'll continue the tradition.

78 degrees in March!!

Like the rest of the world (or at least the country) we had extremely warm weather last week.  On Saturday the high was 78 (the record on that day BEFORE this year was 76 - I checked).  So I think it's safe to say that was the warmest St. Patrick's Day in history!  We spent the whole day outside and loved every minute of it.

In the morning we went on a hike with my friend Kristin.

After that Brody and I went to 7-11 to get an icee.... GREEN for St. Patty's Day!!

That night we had tin foil dinners at a park with some friends.  I have 2 funny things to report about that:

1. When I went to the store to buy the meat and veggies for the dinner, I came across an item in the produce section that I've never seen before.

I thought to myself "huh, that's an ugly looking fruit".  Then I looked at the name of it....

It's actual name is UGLY FRUIT!!! 

2.  We bought some coals to cook the tin foil dinners on and I noticed this funny sign on the bag...

 In case you weren't already aware, it is not safe to burn coals INSIDE of a car or a teepee.  They just wanted to make sure we all knew that.

The tin foil dinners were delicious and we had a good time with our friends!

  We made smore's afterwards on the simmering coals.  Not just normal smore's though, smore's with JUMBO marshmellows!

My smore had eyes.

Sal kept himself busy by chewing on a branch.  Not a stick, a branch.

A random post of events

Winter is a hard time of year when there's not enough time/snow/money to go skiing.  Because of that, we haven't been up to much.... BUT the last few days have been so nice and warm!!  We spent as much time as we could outside and loved it.  I can't wait till spring!

Here's a bunch of random pictures from the last 2 months.  Some were taken purely for the sake of making a more exciting post (you'll see what I mean at the end)

This is at our stake adult-only-chili-cook-off party.  There was some yummy food and some {interesting} entertainment.  The best part of the night was when everyone stood up and did the chicken dance..... It was pretty comical.

flash face!

We helped my friend Nicole celebrate her birthday since her husband was out of town at the time.  I made her favorite meal and invited some friends over for cake and ice cream.  I think she had a good day.

For a couple weeks, Sal had something wrong with his eye.  It got all swollen and then turned red.  We never figured out what it was but it's slowly getting back to normal.  Poor guy.

Last month, we became official Colorado residents.  

2 years ago I was saying the same thing about Arizona in this post.  I was much more sad to say goodbye to our UT license plates than our AZ plates.

Yesterday it was 68 degrees.  It was the perfect day for a walk (or two!)

There is an awesome neighborhood right by our apartment that has a ton of cool houses surrounding a beautiful private lake.  The loop that goes through the neighborhood is the perfect length for an afternoon walk.

This beautiful 'masterpiece' is Brody's unicorn, whom he named Atreyu.

He bought it from Goodwill in December as a white elephant gift for a party we were going to.  Well, something came up and we didn't end up going to that party, so now, much to my dismay, he just wants to keep it forever. 

His ideal home for Atreyu is here...

But it's actual home is here....

This might be a battle that goes on for a while.