m+a (old blog+engagement story)

We have a new blog!

2009-08-29T13:11:00.001-06:00

When we first got a blog, every single combination of our names/nicknames together was already taken. So I settled for ashleylovesmatt, and then felt silly--like a love-struck 3rd grader--every time I had to tell someone the URL. (Although, I guess that's not entirely inappropriate, considering that I did, in fact, have a crush on Matt when I was in 3rd grade...)

I've since learned that you can use hyphens in a blogspot URL and figure there's no better time to switch the blog over than when we've had so many big changes and I'm a few months behind in the blog anyway.

So, without further adieu, please update your links and check out our new blog :-)

www.ash-and-matt.blogspot.com

And we're off!

2009-06-21T19:11:00.004-06:00

We're married!!!

Our wedding day was everything we could have hoped for and we're still in the clouds,

just happy to finally be together every day--forever.

(Snapshot from my Liz. Pro pictures coming next month.)

I'd love to get caught up with a few things on here but we're taking off for Europe tomorrow, so the blog will have to wait! We're spending a few weeks touring Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Italy and France. Plenty of pictures sure to come :-)

In the meantime, check out our first family picture! For a little date this week, we played with the talented Jessica Kettle and her camera at Wheeler Farm. Jess posted a lttle sneak peek on her blog here.

See you next month!

Busy Getting Married

2009-05-31T21:44:00.019-06:00

So, we've been really busy with a lot of great things lately! Everything from finishing my last two weeks of work to wedding planning to Matt's MWC track meet (came home with a medal) to going through the Temple to throwing April a baby shower to Matt's commissioning and graduation from the Air Force Academy to moving Matt home to Utah.

I plan on playing show & tell about all of that later, but for now I get to spend some quality time with my Matt.

After 2 1/2 years together, I still can't get enough of him. I sure love that man.

We're getting married on Tuesday, you know.

(Dancing the night away at USAFA's Graduation Ball last Tuesday)

Back in a couple weeks as Mrs. Davis!

Did I mention he's fast?

2009-05-11T09:51:00.009-06:00

A couple weekends ago... We were in sunny California, watching Matt race against collegiate and elite (Olympic development) athletes at the Beach Invitational. It was definitely more fun to watch the races with a parter in crime than all alone.

Because, seriously, who can get away with signs like this all by themselves?

One of the elite athletes said he'd kill his girlfriend if she ever showed up with a sign like that. Good thing Matt loves me. Besides, I think it helped! Matt had a few solid races, including a PR in the 100-meter dash. He ran a 10.7 against the wind! They'd just had a false start called back after 4 seconds with little recovery time, so Matt started a bit slower than he would've liked. But watch him catch up to take second in his heat! (He took 8th overall out of 80-something elites, D1's, etc.) The guy in the yellow who wins it is an Olympian who ran for Great Britain in Beijing.

Doesn't it seem like that video is in fast forward?? Yeah, it's not.

After about an hour, Matt ran the 200M, followed by the 4x400M relay an hour after that. He ran the third leg this time around and Air Force was behind when he got the baton... but they didn't stay behind for long :-)

Such a beautiful day for a track meet.

Two weeks later and 50 degrees colder, Matt was at it again at Colorado University in Boulder.

This time, when everyone was running slower because of the pouring rain, Matt managed to PR in the 200-meter dash.

I swear that boy still has more speed in him.

Then, after successfully completing our 6+ hour transformation into wet dogs, we cleaned up and celebrated
with buffalo burgers at our beloved Ted's Montana Grill at Briargate.

We're headed to Laramie this week for the MWC Track Championships. Go Falcons!

My Life is Like an Episode of The Office, Part 2

2009-05-06T08:25:00.002-06:00

Customer service always has big potluck parties.

The marketing and accounting staffs are never invited.

So, my boss decided that we would have our own Cinco de Mayo potluck and that it would be better than theirs.

Boy 1: But how can ours be better?
Boy 2: A pinata!
Girl: And sombreros.
Boy 3: But how will they know that ours is better?
Boy 1: We'll break the pinata outside of their windows so they can watch us having more fun than them.
All: Brilliant.

But, our building is new and therefore has no trees from which to hang a pinata. We toyed with the idea of having someone hold it for awhile before coming up with the ingenious idea to just pitch the chile pinata with the batter's eyes closed.
All in front of the customer service windows, of course. Observe (push play):

I'm sure they were very jealous.

*If you missed Part 1 last summer, click here. **Wish you were here, Lace!

We could get used to this

2009-04-30T15:06:00.006-06:00

We had a lovely time in Southern California. Again.
It was especially nice knowing that we'll get to call this place home in just a few short months. A few highlights from our weekend (which was actually a couple weekends ago):

Barefoot walk on the beach at sunset...

A 7,000-calorie Nutella Banana crepe from our beloved Cafe Crepe in Santa Monica...

A visit to Downtown Disney...

Grabbing dessert at ESPNZone in Anaheim...

And - of course - seeing the sun, visiting the Hunts, driving by our future home, staying at the Hotel Kerr, chowing down at In-N-Out, sitting in horrendous traffic for two hours and therefore missing Sprinkles Cupcakes by five minutes, getting free dinner at Olive Garden, eating Susie's bacon waffles, and spending time with some of our favorite people.

Yeah, we could definitely get used to this.

Minus the traffic, that is.

I still date other boys

2009-04-27T11:31:00.005-06:00

And they're pretty cute, too! The only downside is that I have to pay for these ones :-) Before Matt and I get married, I'm taking each of my five brothers on a "date" with just the two of us. I've been having fun spoiling them and (hopefully) giving them some fun memories with their big sis. Three down, two to go!

First, Kaleb (6) and I went mini-golfing and grabbed some dessert afterward. It was his very first date and he was such a little gentleman! He opened every single one of my doors and even "paid" for our activities (handed over my debit card).

I took Matthew (12) to see the Harlem Globe Trotters when they came to Salt Lake a couple months ago. They were so much fun to watch! Matthew's an incredible athlete so he especially appreciated their dunking skills. After the game, Matthew even got to meet the star, Big Easy, who autographed his brand new Globe Trotters jersey.

Most recently, Christian (15) lucked out and got to go to Six Flags Magic Mountain with me. Matt had a track meet in LA on the 18th, so I took Christian out early to get some serious roller coaster riding in. We soon discovered that the only problem with taking your 6-foot-tall little brother on a "date" is that other people end up thinking you're actually dating (e.g. the photographer who told us to kiss for a picture?!). I really hope I don't look young enough to be dating a fifteen-year-old.

Any ideas of what I could do with Josh (4) and Gabe (2)? Matt and I have already taken them to the zoo, but I was thinking of Jump on It or Kangaroo Zoo... or maybe the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point?

Engagements {Great Salt Lake}

2009-04-22T11:57:00.001-06:00

We ended our day at the Great Salt Lake, where the storms had brought with them an incredible backdrop.

I love him, you know?

A HUGE thanks to McKenzie Deakins for being such an amazing photographer.

And that, friends, marks the end of our engagement pictures recap. Hope you enjoyed!

Engagements {Capitol Hill}

2009-04-16T17:18:00.003-06:00

Next, we changed in our little portable closet (suburbans with the back seat taken out and deeply-tinted windows, anyone?) and headed up to Utah's own Capitol Hill for some classic shots with my soldier.

Next: Last but not least, casual pictures at the Great Salt Lake.

Engagements {City Hall}

2009-04-14T16:49:00.004-06:00

It was important to us to take traditional Sunday-dress pictures to send out with our invitations.

So, Matt brought out his favorite suit, my mom sewed me a pretty dress (they just don't make modest dresses for tall girls), and we started our engagement session at Salt Lake's City Hall and The Exchange Place. Here's a little sampling of all the great pictures McKenzie took at those locations (I'll post the others separately). You'll have to be watching your mailbox to see our favorite picture from this series, though :-)

Next up: My man in uniform.

An Easter Lesson

2009-04-12T20:44:00.017-06:00

There is something so innately powerful about the pure and simple testimony of a child.
Tonight, my family watched The Testaments to celebrate the real reason for Easter, Christ's resurrection.

Immediately after the movie ended, 2-year-old Gabe stood up and sweetly announced to everyone,
"My Jesus loves me."
It was a neat moment.

Then again, I guess there's always room to learn. Gabe has been struggling lately with the concept that you can love more than one person at a time (and therefore takes turns loving Daddy, Mommy, or the favorite sibling of the moment).
When Gabe repeated the same statement a little later, we (forgetting his current love hang-up) asked him if Jesus loved Joshie, too. "No," he replied. "My Jesus loves me."

Banquet at the Broadmoor

2009-04-11T17:09:00.001-06:00

Every spring, Air Force hosts their annual football banquet at the beautiful Broadmoor in Colorado Springs...

...which means that, thanks to my handsome football-playing fiance, we get to enjoy a nice little date at the 5-star hotel.

It was kind of crazy to officially mark the end of Matt's time with Falcon Football at the banquet last weekend. Even with all the injuries he had to deal with, it was an incredible experience that we're both grateful he was able to be a part of.

(Matt's senior media day picture)

And now, with that said, I can get around to posting the rest of our engagement pictures. Stay tuned!

All the world is waiting for the sun

2009-04-09T17:23:00.002-06:00

Although, a little rain never hurt anyone.

This would be a little preview of our engagement pictures, taken by the fabulous McKenzie.
Care to see more?

PS- the title comes from a Breaking Benjamin song that Matt sings to me with his guitar. Just in case you were wondering.

Sharks & Stingrays

2009-04-07T10:22:00.008-06:00

So, after two years of begging and pleading, I finally convinced Matt to go to the Denver Aquarium with me. Everyone says it's a must-do in Denver--which was good enough reason for me to go--but we didn't know much about it other than that. I think we were both pleasantly surprised by how entertaining (and educational, of course) it was.

In fact, Matt was entertained from the moment he got to put on his scuba gear.

The aquarium takes you through different ecosystems, showing you which fish (and a few other animals) live there and providing some fun activities along the way. Matt went mining for gold in the mountains...

... and then we got the weather report in the desert. Bet you can't guess who's more excited about the warm desert sun.

We especially enjoyed the rainforest, which had a bunch of fun animals like a tiger, turtles, parrots and PIRANHAS! I dared Matt to stick his finger in their tank (because we're really mature like that), but he didn't (because we actually are somewhat mature). I think he was a bit creeped out by their beady little eyes:

Since the tiger was asleep, the turtles took home the prize for the rainforest section. Maybe we're just easily amused but they were cracking us up! They'd be sitting on their rocks and then carefully inch toward the water... and inevitably dive/fall in before they were quite ready. It was pretty cute.

Then we got to the "ocean," where Matt tried (unsuccessfully) to communicate with the fish.

The ocean section had a few of these tunnels, which are always fun.

Even more impressive, however, was the huge shark tank that let you get up close and personal with the, um, precious things.

Matt was a little apprehensive at first...

...but then he warmed right up.

And just when we thought our little aquarium tour was over, we walked into the stingray exhibit and got to pet the little guys! I may or may not have been a bit jumpy every time they'd turn and look at me while I was petting them.
Matt, on the other hand, didn't seem to mind.

It was a good time.

General Conference

2009-04-06T11:03:00.000-06:00

Wasn't General Conference incredible? Thanks to the snowstorm that canceled Matt's track meet, we got to enjoy the sessions live at Steve & Jodie's instead of having to TiVo them. We loved the timing of it this year, just one week before Easter. While we usually think about Christ's birth for the entire month leading up to Christmas, we don't tend to spend much time preparing for Easter and the celebration of His resurrection. This Conference, we learned so much about our Savior and the Atonement (especially from Elder Holland), and it really puts things into the proper perspective. We're so grateful for leaders of the church and for the the opportunity that General Conference gives us to hear from them.

Spring Training & Sprinting

2009-04-03T09:01:00.009-06:00

I was on cloud nine walking off the plane into 85-degree weather in Phoenix. Seriously, give me Matt & the sunshine and I'm a happy girl. Adding best friends and sports to the mix? Even better. Matt's roommate, Anthony, is from Scottsdale and was home for spring break, so we had our own personal tour guide of the city. We figured there was no way we could visit Arizona in March without hitting up a spring training game, so we ended up at the A's stadium to watch them play the Padres.

The next day, Clark & Shelley flew in with the same idea, so off we went to another baseball game. This time we saw the Angels take on the Mariners. Working for the Bees made me an Angels fan, so it was fun to see them play!

We had to leave the game early to get some pre-race pasta in Matt, so we enjoyed a late lunch at Macaroni Grill while catching the Sweet 16 action. Then it was off to Arizona State's Sun Angel Stadium for the big meet.

It was a night meet, beginning at 5 and ending at 10. Not only was this incredibly convenient with the heat, but it created a really cool atmosphere for the races. Matt tore it up on the track, placing 7th (of 40 big-school athletes) in the 100, shaving another two tenths off his 200 time, and running a solid first leg in the 4x400.

100 Meter Dash:

200 Meter Dash:

Prepping for the 4x400:

Fresh out of the blocks:

Impressive, no? I was glad Clark could be there to get these pictures of Matt--I'm always too busy cheering to focus on my camera, and he's always moving too fast for my little point & shoot to take a halfway-decent picture anyway.

After all that hard work, Matt definitely deserved the 4x4 meal he ordered at In-N-Out late that night. I'm not sure my sitting+cheering efforts were really worthy of the cheeseburger, fries & strawberry shake I devoured, but they sure were a great ending to a lovely little vacation.

Show of hands...

2009-03-31T22:16:00.009-06:00

Um... that'd be me. While I was lucky to spend last weekend in sunny Arizona, there's almost nothing worse than leaving gorgeous weather and landing home in a blizzard. It's times like these I couldn't be happier that we're moving to the desert :-) Mother Nature isn't all bad, though--she was nice enough to give us a long enough break from the rain/hail/snow last Tuesday to take our engagement pictures. Sure, it was freezing cold and horribly windy... but at least we weren't wet.

On our way home from our little picture-taking adventure with McKenzie (our very talented photographer), we stopped by the Draper Temple (since Matt had never seen it). I'm still amazed at how beautiful our temples are.

The next day, we put my PTO to good use and headed down the street to do baptisms together at the Mount Timpanogos Temple. It's been neat to share those kinds of experiences with Matt throughout our engagement.

We spent the afternoon at Temple Square finalizing wedding dinner plans with Shelley and got to spend some quality time with my dad during rush hour. That night, we stayed up late playing with my family and our favorite brunettes.

And the next morning, we woke up at 4:45 a.m. to get Matt to the airport in time. Talk about a short spring break!
Good thing I got to join him in Phoenix the next day :-)

Basketball, babies & such

2009-03-23T11:44:00.015-06:00

Matt's in town right now! He only has a short spring break inbetween track meets in Arizona, but I'll take what I can get. The main purpose of the trip, aside from spending some quality time together, is to take our engagement pictures tomorrow. Since this is our one shot, the weather is mildly unfortunate. Here's hoping Target carries cute umbrellas. Anyway, Matt flew in Sunday and we went straight up to Kaysville, where we got to hang out with these cute kids:

(Picture shamelessly stolen from Nate & Laci's blog)

Our newest niece, Annsli Claire, was born on St. Patricks Day and is such a beautiful baby. I'm lucky to be inheriting so many adorable nieces and nephews through Matt's side. We can't wait to add our own to that mix :-) From there, we headed over to Dave & Monica's to attend the Draper Temple dedication and spend the evening with them. Matt didn't get to come to Utah for the open house, so it was neat to share the dedication with him.

That would be my family at the Draper Temple Open House, if you couldn't tell.

And in other news... just thought I'd give a quick update on my pretty little ESPN bracket which, despite a less-than-perfect Day 2 (seriously, Cleveland State?), is still in the 99.4 percentile in the country and has every single one of my Elite Eight picks playing in the Sweet Sixteen. I remember when I used to be in the 99th percentile on all those standardized tests in school and let me tell you, this is way cooler :-). Go Tigers.

Perfect 16 for 16!

2009-03-19T22:41:00.014-06:00

Excuse me while I interrupt the regular blogging schedule, but it's finally March Madness... and my ESPN bracket just went 16 for 16 today! I'm feeling a bit like my buddies over at Western Kentucky:

Here's a closer look :-)

K, fully aware that this is totally unimportant in the grand scheme of things, but still. Though I've had some pretty impressive brackets in the past (finishing in ESPN's top 2% overall in high school haha), I've never had a perfect first round day... And since I picked Utah State to win tomorrow (what?!), I'm living it up while I can :-)

Le Fantome de l'Opera

2009-03-15T21:25:00.007-06:00

Once upon a time, I read The Phantom of the Opera in French (you know, back when I could speak a bit more French than just "quelle heure est il?")... and ever since, I've been dying to see the Broadway version. After all, Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom is a classic. So when we found out the national tour of Phantom was coming to Denver, we jumped on it! We got the tickets last fall in lieu of Valentines' gifts for each other and had a wonderful time at the show last weekend.

It was AMAZING. Mesmerizing. The part of the Phantom was played by John Cudia, who just finished playing the actual Phantom on Broadway for a few years. Let me tell you, he is impressive.

We originally bought our tickets with the Hendrickses, but Steve's brother came into town that weekend so we ended up going with Mikey Bear and Jaleah, one of my best friends who flew to CO with me this time around:

It was such a perfect night! I'm so lucky I got a fiance who appreciates these kinds of things. Other snippets from the weekend: We spent Friday night at the Pann's with Mike & J, Chase & Haley, and GP.

Matt and I had a friendly little game of pool, in which I blew a 4-ball lead because I couldn't get the 8-ball in. Typical.

And since Matt didn't have a track meet on Saturday (they had a break before outdoor starts next weekend), we had time to go to a ballroom dance class that morning to learn the basics of the Waltz. He is such a good sport.

Just Another Weekend in the Springs

2009-03-05T15:16:00.002-07:00

Matt had his last indoor track meet. Can't wait for outdoor to start!

One of my favorite high school friends, Chelsey, runs for Utah so she was in town for the meet. We got to steal her from the team hotel for a bit on Friday night and had a great time just hanging out at the townhouse:

On Saturday night, we went out with Anthony and Caroline for New York-style pizza and bowling:

And since Anthony had to wear a sling on his right arm and bowl lefty, the rest of us did, too :-)

I don't think anyone broke 80. Since that's rare for me anyway, I enjoyed the company on the scoreboard.

100's Night!

2009-02-25T19:19:00.010-07:00

Hundredths night (aka 100's night for all of us to lazy to pronounce the "th") is one of the most anticipated traditions at the Academy. 100 nights before graduation, the seniors all go to a big dinner where they are given their first assignments. Then they take off for the weekend while the freshmen "decorate" their rooms. Supposedly, the more they like the senior, the more they'll mess up their rooms--& if they really hate the senior, they'll clean his room to white-glove perfection. A little backwards, but it's sure fun! Since there was a track meet on 100's night, the track team held their own dinner for all the seniors & Coach was nice enough to let me come. So while we were chowing down on pizza & celebrating our new assignment...

...the freshmen in Matt's squad were busy making his room into this masterpiece that we found on Monday:

Those cups strung along the rubber bands were all full of FLOUR.

You can't see it in the picture above, but blocking the doorway was rows upon rows of paper cups filled with water... and stapled together so we couldn't pick them up. The "0" and "9" in the middle of the room were also stapled. Nice.

Cleaning it up was actually quite entertaining--it felt kind of like one of those spy movies where you have to be careful not to set off an alarm (except our nemesis was millions of tiny cups of flour that might spill all over us and we were cleaning, not saving the world... but close enough).

The best part, though, had to be the annoying music playing on Anthony's radio on the OTHER side of the room.

Those freshmen put in some serious effort! I think it's safe to say these seniors are well-liked.

Oh, and just in case you were wondering, not only do we have less than 100 days till Matt's graduation but we also have less than 100 days till our wedding!!! It feels like it was just barely 384 days. Or 731 days. Time sure flies.

Roses are Red, Falcons are Blue...

2009-02-22T17:00:00.005-07:00

When Air Force's track coaches talked to Matt about joining the team as a sprinter, we assumed he would spend a few months conditioning and then start racing when the outdoor season began at the end of March. After all, he was just getting over his hamstring injuries and hadn't run track for, oh, SEVEN YEARS. Turns out the coaches had a different time frame in mind! After just a couple weeks of training, they had Matt in an invitational, running sprints for the Academy.

It's been such a blast! Matt's been tearing it up on the track and I've had a lot of fun cheering for him. In fact, plenty of people have had fun cheering him on--Matt's had quite the fan club, thanks to the Hendricks fam and his buddies :-)

In his first race, his 60 meter time (they run 60M instead of 100 in indoor) was just one tenth off of what it was when he was the state champ as a junior & senior. Not bad, right? He's just been shaving time off in each consecutive meet. And while we're giving the update, Matt had another meet this weekend, where he took 4th in the 60M and 2nd in the 200M!

Last weekend was a busy one, with 100's Night (next post), a big invitational, Valentine's Day and Presidents' Day.
Matt and I got up bright and early for his races on Saturday morning...
...only to have the power go out at the meet! Hard to host an indoor invitational with no power. The meet was delayed three hours, so we went back to the Hendricks' and let Matt take a nap (compliments of the sleep mask that treats me so well on all of my flights). Back up at the Academy, Matt took second in his heat and made it to the finals in the 60M (out of 50+ runners)! So fun. The meet ended much later than scheduled because of the blackout, though. Luckily for us, we went on our big Valentine's date to the Cliff House two weekends before so it didn't spoil our plans.

With the big date checked off, we just laid low that night with Texas Roadhouse, serenades by Matt, and homemade fondue.

Hope you all had a sweet Valentine's Day, too :-)

California, Here We Come!!!

2009-02-18T16:58:00.045-07:00

Well, the results are in and we’re excited, to say the least! We didn’t get our #1-Los Angeles or #3-Boston (props to those who know me so well!), but we got a pretty decent runner-up: Edwards Air Force Base—an hour and a half outside of L.A.

Apparently, we'll get to enjoy goreous sunrises and sunsets (in my case, sunsets...), as well as the occasional space shuttle landing.

Full disclosure: Back in August, when we were making our list, I only half-jokingly told Matt that if he gets Edwards, I’m not coming. When Jodie picked me up from the airport on Friday (since Matt was racing), I told her I’d be happy with anywhere on our list-just as long as it wasn’t Edwards. And then, when we opened up our base assignment and saw Edwards, I almost expected them to be kidding. For those of you who aren’t aware, Edwards is the one in the middle of the Mojave Desert.

Thankfully, there’s WAY more to Edwards than meets the eye (literally). Turns out, Matt’s job will be pretty amazing there. Edwards is in the middle of the desert because they need all that space to test their new toys (it’s where they first debuted the F-22s and other cool things like that). As an engineer, Matt gets to work with that. According to a few high-ranking officers we’ve talked to since we got the news, his time spent working at Edwards will do incredible things for Matt's career in the future—both in the Air Force and out. Not bad.

Meanwhile, we’re actually loving the location. Obviously we would have preferred the big cities but besides those two, the rest of the locations on our list were also at least an hour away from the next major city. And if you’re going to live 90 miles from a big city, it might as well be Los Angeles! Within a two-hour drive we’ll have: a temple, the beach, Disneyland, Six Flags, plenty of college and pro sports, Broadway plays, and all sorts of shopping, restaurants and entertainment. Plus, some of our closest family friends are in Bakersfield, which means if I need a mom Tamara is just 80 minutes away. Oh, and home? A quick 8.5 hour drive, with my extended family three hours closer than that. And let’s not forget my most favorite thing since we’re in the middle of winter—the weather! According to the monthly averages, it's really similar to Sacramento's. Year-round marathon training, thank goodness.

We’ve now officially learned the whole “Needs of the Air Force come first” thing first-hand. The majority of guys with Matt’s specific job ended up at either Eglin AFB in Florida (two hours outside of Mobile, Alabama) or Wright Patterson in Ohio (an hour between Columbus and Cincinnati). So, we actually feel pretty darn lucky to be heading where we are. And while I'm sure there will be times when I just sit at home and wonder how we got there, at the end of the day it's comforting that the Lord knows what He's doing.

And let’s be honest: after spending 2 ½ years apart by the time our wedding rolls around, we’re happy to be living anywhere as long as we’re together :-)

The fact that I get to move back to California with my Matt is just icing on the cake.

Many adventures sure to come.

PS-Remember those track pictures I talked about? And Valentine's Day? And the infamous 100's Night festivities? I'll be home in Utah this weekend so I plan on actually getting caught up in life, including one months worth of laundry, wedding plans, taxes, and this blog. Stay tuned :-)

Guess where we're moving!

2009-02-11T13:07:00.017-07:00

No, really--guess!

Matt & I don't find out until Friday night and (as a planner who at age 14 had her life mapped out through age 20) the wait has been driving me CRAZY! So I figured we all might as well have a little fun with it :-)

We submitted a list last August with the top 8 bases we’d like to move to ranked in order of preference. When Matt did this with his job, he got his #1 pick so we’re pretty hopeful we’ll at least get one of our top 3. Although we’re happy to go anywhere as long as we’re finally together (and we want to eventually live in a few of these places), we're crossing our fingers that we get to go to our #1 or #3 pick pick this time around (#2 got its ranking for the job description). Technically, though, the Air Force could send us wherever they want –on our list or off—so this is way up in the air!

So… back to the little game. Feel free to make two guesses (and say why!): 1- What our #1 & #3 are (let’s see how well you know us!) and 2- Where the Air Force will actually send us.

In no particular order...

A: Georgia
We'd be smack dab in the middle of Atlanta and Savannah.

B: Los Angeles
Matt would work downtown and we'd live in the base housing, which overlooks the Pacific Ocean.

C: Florida
We actually have 3 different Florida bases on our list, giving us a 37.5% chance of moving there.
When we made the list, this is what I had in mind...

Now I'm thinking more along these lines...

Yes, that is an ALLIGATOR on the doorstep. Anyway.

D. Boston
We'd live just outside the historic and very expensive city.

E: Vandenberg
In between San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara, Matt (the engineer) would be involved in the west coast shuttle launches.

F: Other
Colorado Springs, Utah, New Mexico, Middle of the Mojave Desert...

Results coming SOON!!!

A few snippets...

2009-02-07T22:13:00.022-07:00

...from January:

Matt and I celebrated our 2-year anniversary! We had big plans for that night, but after long flights and layovers, decided to scrap the date plans in favor of watching football in our sweats. Perfect.

01.01.07 ........................ 01.01.08 ........................ 01.01.09

Once upon a time, Matt and I went ice skating at the Gallivan Center on our second date. That's when sparks really flew, so it was fun to reminisce when we went back a few weeks ago.

We all enjoyed the last few days of April & Alex's visit. One event on our list was the big debut (for them) of the famed "Off Road Jam" & "Mission: Colorado" -- movies made by Christian, starring the babies.

My fam also spent an afternoon bowling--again, always a treat with the babies.

Now that it's *finally* 2009, it's actually time to focus on some wedding planning. Matt came home over Martin Luther King weekend and we checked another big item off our list--his wedding ring. We finally found the perfect one AND got a HUGE military discount on it (hence the excitement).

Matt gave Disney Scrabble to Kaleb for Christmas, but Kaleb refused to play it without Matt. Needless to say, he was pretty excited when Matt came to town and he could whip it out.

We (well, Matt, but we) got a new nephew! Baby Samuel, Dave & Monica's 7th. That makes 20 (soon-to-be 21!) adorable nieces and nephews that I'll get to officially call mine in--get this--less than 4 months. Can't wait :-)

I scored a cheap flight to Sacramento so I could visit my "little sister" Jena for her 18th birthday. It was SO good to be back in NorCal, spending time with the Eppersons. I used to babysit Jena & Ben back in the day, love their parents, and basically like to think of myself as a part of their family (I'm sure you can see the resemblance...). A few highlights were shopping at my old favorite mall (Roseville Galleria, anyone?), going out for some delicious sushi, grabbing In-N-Out and playing plenty of Crazy 8's and Egyptian War with Jen. Just like the good ol' days.

And... one of the most exciting bits of news--
Matt started sprinting for Air Force Academy's track team in Jan. & is already tearing it up!
Pictures and THAT update coming soon :-)

Armed Forces Bowl + NYE

2009-01-30T13:22:00.002-07:00

And the reason for the Texas trip (in case anyone forgot my previous couch plea): The Armed Forces Bowl on Dec. 31st.

This was Air Force's second straight invite to the Armed Forces Bowl. I couldn't afford to make the trip last year so I was glad to be there with Matt this time. It's a beautiful setting for a bowl game:

Air Force lost a heartbreaker to Cal when their star quarterback went down in last year's Armed Forces Bowl. We were looking forward to another good match-up but were slated to play Houston, who the Falcons already beat earlier in the season--lame. Needless to say, the boys weren't as excited for the game as they could have been and it showed when they took the field.

...not that they (especially the coaches) didn't look great while taking said field :-) ...

Anyway, General Petraeus was there for the coin toss and a half-time recognition:

You would think that having him there would be some sort of a good-luck charm for Air Force but no luck there--the Falcons ended up losing by a field goal. Matt's a good sport to smile at a time like that:

After the game, we hung out with the Melville's for awhile before getting dinner at a steakhouse they recommended...

... and then freshened up for a night on the town for New Year's Eve:

That "night on the town" didn't last too long, since there wasn't much to do in downtown Fort Worth except drink. We ended up back in the hotel lobby to sip our sparkling cider and watch the ball drop. Not too exciting but hey, it worked!

ICE!

2009-01-26T09:50:00.012-07:00

I told Matt we should go see the incredible ICE! exhibit I heard the Gaylord Texan put on.

He envisioned thousands of swans on tables. I think he was pleasantly surprised.

What ICE! really is: 14,000-square-feet of hand-carved sculptures made out of two million pounds of ice by artisans who are flown in from China. It takes them over a month to complete! To keep the ice from melting, the temperature inside the exhibit is kept at 9 degrees. All guests are therefore, thankfully, required to wear the provided parkas (very fashion-forward).

We were impressed from the second we stepped into the exhibit! It was amazing to realize that every single thing we saw was carved out of ice...

... including the above bridge and this forest:

Seriously, how cool is that? The icy forest led to Gingerbread Land...

... where Matt was a little too tempted by the giant ice candy:

Luckily, we avoided a Christmas Story-like incident and got to go see Santa...

... and ride down the ice slides carved out of his reindeer & sleigh:

Our hands were freezing (I forgot to bring gloves) so we tried not to take very many pictures after that (we could have taken hundreds, it was all so neat). So I'm not sure how we managed to take a picture of the candles and not the larger-than-life angel right next to them, but feel free to imagine what the angel looked like--she was beautiful.

Our favorite part ended up being the nativity. You can't tell from the pictures, but each member of the nativity scene was so detailed--even down to the baby lamb's wool. It was the last scene of the exhibit and a perfect note to end on.

We HIGHLY recommend ICE! to all of you Texans out there! Definitely beats dinner & a movie.

The Gorgeous Gaylord Texan

2009-01-22T09:50:00.004-07:00

Before heading down to Texas, Matt and I planned one big date night at the Gaylord Texan to see their ICE exhibit. ICE was amazing (we'll get to that later), but the hotel alone would have been worth the trip. It is BEAUTIFUL.

The view from the lake (the hotel is this big from every angle, by the way):

The lobby:

The skylight:

The entire design of the Gaylord Texan is pretty impressive.

The "lobby" is actually 4.5 ACRES of indoor gardens with a "river" running through it. All throughout, there are elements from every part of Texas, including the San Antonio Riverwalk (hence the river) and the Alamo:

If you couldn't tell from the pictures, all of the actual rooms surround the atrium. This means that every room has a view--either of the amazing Gaylord Texan itself or of the pretty lake and resort surrounding the hotel.

We walked around for a good while, just enjoying all there is to see in the atrium, and then went to the ICE exhibit.
Pretty sure if we can ever afford the pricetag, we'll be back for an extended stay.

Ride 'em, Cowboy!

2009-01-19T18:01:00.007-07:00

Welcome to Fort Worth, Texas!

I flew in late Monday night and stayed with an awesome family in nearby Coppell. They took me shopping in Dallas while the team practiced on Tuesday morning, and then that afternoon Matt and I hit up the Fort Worth Stockyards.

One of the first things we saw was a mechanical bull that you could pay to ride. Maybe I'm easily entertained, but that seemed like the best thing you could ever do while visiting Texas. We were so excited! I decided it wouldn't be the same without a cowboy hat, though, so we went hunting for a semi-affordable one first (those things can be expensive!). We finally found one that was alright for about $15 and were at the register to buy it when I saw a sign that said "Damaged hats: $3.99" with this good looking black hat above it. Not bad, eh?

Matt took the first turn on the bull and put the hat to good use.

Someone was definitely going for style points:

Matt stayed on for awhile and was pretty darn proud of himself when he finally let go :-)

And rightfully so! I quickly found out that it's not half as easy as he made it look--I almost had to do the splits just to climb on.

But then I hung on tight and enjoyed the ride (and the padded landing)!

Turns out this cowboy business is pretty fun stuff.

Our Very Merry Christmas

2009-01-08T13:14:00.007-07:00

Our Christmas was full of fun suprises, the first of which being the arrival of these two lovebirds from Virginia:

I used my frequent flier status to help bring April & Alex home on Christmas Eve as a surprise present for my mom (and the rest of my family). We (me, A & A) planned this way back in October and let me tell you, I was so excited that it was the hardest thing to keep secret! So to keep myself from telling my family, I told every random stranger I met throughout the past two months. You know how it goes.

After spending the night in the Dulles airport (in Washington, D.C.), April & Alex's 6 a.m. flight was delayed a few hours, which would have made them miss their connection in Cincinnati. It turned out to be quite serendipitous, however, because Delta ended up putting them on a non-stop flight that brought them home a few hours earlier than their first flight would have! The surprise worked out perfectly and it was the best thing ever to have the whole family together for Christmas.

Then, while April & Alex napped, the rest of the family went up to the Huntsman Cancer Institute to go caroling and deliver some presents. My best guy friend from high school, Jason Long, passed away from leukemia in 2007 and was treated so well at HCI. Now, his family carols there every Christmas Eve and they invited us to tag along this year. It was the neatest experience to remember Jason, put smiles on the faces of those who really need them, and remember what Christmas is all about--honoring our Savior Jesus Christ and sharing His love with everyone around us.

That night after dinner, Santa stopped by! The kids were all excited to get their final requests in ...

... and Gabey Baby was really excited to see Santa from afar ...

... but up close it was a completely different story:

Luckily, he cheered up quickly when we took him to see Grandma and Grandpa.

We did our annual reenactment of the nativity scene later that night. This year, Matt was cast as a shepherd and I was an angel with Christian. Doesn't he look just like one of those Greek statues in this picture?

After the play, Pixie came! Pixie is our elf that peaks on us for Santa the three nights before Christmas. If we're good, he leaves presents on our doorstep Christmas Eve.

Pixie's a big hit with the babies:

Then came Christmas morning! It's always a bit crazy at our house with so many kids, but we love it.

Matt had a big surprise waiting for me:

My own piano!!!

It's gorgeous and has the most beautiful sound. I'm so excited to be able to have that music in our future house! I love that Matt's gift to me will not only entertain the two of us but will also really benefit our future family.

After breakfast, we headed up to Brigham City to spend Christmas Day with Matt's family. We had a blast playing Wallyball, eating Shelley's sticky buns, and just hanging out with everyone. The next morning, Matt flew to Dallas first thing and I got back to work... but then joined him a few days later :-) We had a fun little adventure in Texas, and I can't wait to show you all about it!

Before Santa Came...

2008-12-29T10:04:00.004-07:00

We were plenty busy! Matt wrapped up his finals while I spent some quality time with my girls...

... then I flew out to Colorado to celebrate the end of his second-to-last semester.

We went out for fondue at the Mona Lisa in Manitou Springs, which was all decked out for the holidays.

Then bowl practice ended and Matt got to come home! He made it just in time for my work's Ugly Sweater Christmas Party.

I took home first place for my tacky ensemble (those are jingle bells on the tree) but had he been eligible for the contest, Matt would have beat me by a landslide. Feel free to click on the picture below to see what I mean!

We traded in our ugly sweaters for nicer attire that night and went to our friend Kristalee's gorgeous wedding reception before seeing the lights on Temple Square and heading up to Brigham.

Lokalgrown (Matt's brother Nate's band) put on an awesome Christmas concert that Saturday.

And then we enjoyed the Morman Tabernacle Choir at Music and the Spoken Word that Sunday with my family
(it's a tradition of ours to go the Sunday before Christmas).

And in other good news... one of Matt's best friends, Mike, just got home from a semester in Spain! We went to the Candlelight Christmas at This is the Place State Park with him & his super cute date Molly.

Then came Christmas... which I'll get to when I get back from Dallas :-) Happy New Year, everyone!

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-24T10:07:00.002-07:00

It's Matt's winter break right now so we've been busy!
I'll have plenty to blog about when he heads back to the Academy, but until then we just wanted to say

Merry Christmas!

We're so grateful for our Savior and the true meaning of this holiday.

PS-Isn't this Simon Dewey painting beautiful?

To answer your questions...

2008-12-08T09:14:00.006-07:00

Nicole is apparently 50 years old. And I am 60.

Remember that good ol' broken hip I had a couple years ago? And the water aerobics rehab?*

Yes, well on top of that, Nicole and I just recently discovered that we have bunions (it's genetic).
I don't have time for surgery and she did, so she is now the proud owner of a walking cast and normal feet. I hope to get my normal feet in approximately two years when I've accomplished my running goals.

In the meantime, all Coley and I can think about is that awful commercial with the grandma from a few years ago. You know the one: "I've always wanted to dance at my daughter's wedding, but with my painful bunions..."

No laughing, please.

*Just for the record, Liz and I fully enjoyed my water aerobics rehab. AND we were very good at it--beat the grandma's down the pool every time :-)

Is it December already?

2008-12-04T09:47:00.010-07:00

Wow, that one flew by fast! I guess time flies when you're having fun... and it especially flies when Matt's in town. He got here Tuesday night and we kicked off the holidays my favorite way on Wednesday by going to Savior of the World, a beautiful play about Christ's birth and resurrection. The Savior and His gospel are the two things I am most grateful for in my life, and I love being reminded of that in such a powerful way this time of year. I've been lucky to spend this holiday season with the other things I’m most thankful for—Matt, my family, and good friends.

That includes our favorite brunettes, Sterling & Alicia, who came to the play with us :-)

We spent last Thanksgiving with the Davises and this was an off-year for the big Graf Thanksgiving, so we just had a nice Thanksgiving at home with my family and my Smith grandparents.

It was rather relaxing.

After shopping on Friday, we headed up to Brigham for the weekend. I somehow managed to get zero pictures of the festivities up north but we had a good time watching football (OU-OSU anyone?), playing games and just hanging out.

We also did some shopping with Matt's mom and sisters in Salt Lake on Saturday, which allowed us to sneak away for a little bit to join my family (including my aunt Janell from NJ!) on our annual Temple Square lights trip.

I think Joshie was glad we (read: Matt) made it.

Know any Texans with a couch?

2008-11-25T10:03:00.002-07:00

Looks like there's about a 99.7% chance the Falcons will end up in the Armed Forces Bowl in Fort Worth, TX.

Seeing as I promised Matt I'd go to Air Force's bowl game this year and the airfare to + car rental in Dallas are already going to cost me 3 arms and 2 legs, I'm looking for a nice someone with an empty one of these:

Any variation within a 1-hour drive of Amon Carter Stadium in Fort Worth will do.

I'm not kidding.

Bleeding blue!

2008-11-20T09:08:00.014-07:00

Last Saturday was the long-awaited Air Force vs. BYU game in the Springs! Just for the record, Sydna was right about me taking the diplomatic route when it comes to that.
Go blue, right?

Matt's family was in town, so we started the weekend off with a visit to Denver's 16th Street Mall and the Cheesecake Factory and went to the new Bond movie later that night.

On Saturday, we got up bright and early for the big game! Even though Matt's injured, it was still his Senior Game so I wore his jersey... and had a heck of a time explaining myself to all of my old BYU friends--athletic directors, football staff, Cosmo...

Matt snuck up to the stands for a quick group picture while the team was warming up:

And then was recognized with the seniors before kickoff.

For those of you who missed it, it was a GREAT game.

The Cougs won, so it was more than a little somber in Air Force territory after the game. Matt was a good sport, though, and still obliged to last-home-game-ever pictures on the field.

I did my best to cheer him up :-)

After the game, there was a senior reception in the press box.

Before we left, Matt took one last look at Falcon Stadium. After being dedicated to Air Force Football for so many years, I can only imagine how that felt. Randy Pausch said in his last lecture, "You know, when you do something long enough and you train for it, it just becomes a part of you." This place, this program, is a part of Matt. It's been a long road with plenty of ups (top of the depth chart) and downs (nagging injuries that eventually ended his playing career) but I don't think we'd trade his experience with Falcon Football for anything. I'm so proud of him for his hard work, perseverance and great attitude through it all. He’s accomplished so much and I can’t wait to see what else we have in store!

Crazy to think that the next time we'll be in Falcon Stadium will be Matt's graduation.

Also crazy that in two days, football season will be over and we'll be getting ready for the bowl games. Both the Falcons and the Cougs have big ones on Saturday (@TCU and Utah, of course)... Go blue!

Falcon Football

2008-11-11T10:42:00.005-07:00

After having so much of my life (literally) revolve around BYU football for so long, it's kind of crazy to switch gears and have entire weekends devoted to Air Force football... but that's how it goes these days! I flew in early last weekend so I could watch Matt coach the JV game on Friday...and get pictures of him doing his very favorite coaching activity: blowing the whistle.

It was their most intense game of the season and they won 23-20! (In case you were keeping track, that means Air Force JV went undefeated this year.)

Most of Matt's receivers:

And Matt's fiancee :-)

Saturday was a night (read: FREEZING) game against CSU. The Falcons had an awesome 2nd half and won by 21... which happens to be about as many degrees it was by the end of the game (hence why I'm wearing all of Matt's clothes over mine in the post-game picture, of course).

After the game, I got to dress up like a girl again and go out to dinner with Matt. We always end up going to the same places over and over, so we decided to branch out a little and tried a new (for us) place downtown called the Metropolitan. It's mostly a cocktail lounge with a cool NYC-type atmosphere. We liked it.

We mostly just liked being together after being apart for so long.

Now we're gearing up for the big weekend--BYU @ Air Force this Saturday. Oh boy.

Charlie Knows Best

2008-11-05T19:01:00.013-07:00

"Absence makes the heart grow fonder,

but it sure makes the rest of you lonely."
-Charlie Brown

Due to Falcon Football road trips, Matt and I haven't seen each other for nearly 3 weeks--the longest we've gone since he was in Germany for 3 weeks last summer. To be perfectly honest, Charlie nailed it. Long distance relationships are H.A.R.D. Good thing I'm flying out tomorrow! (Bad thing I'm deathly ill at the moment. But whatever.)

On the bright side, I got to take the babies out trick-or-treating last weekend for what might be the last time, and we had a blast! Kaleb was a ninja, Joshie was a ghost (he alternated between that, a pirate, and a "wock" star), and we were just lucky to get Gabe into a skeleton shirt (he woke up that morning very anti-costume).

My mom came up with the awesome idea to have Matthew and his friends be the Blue Man Group. They pulled it off pretty well! Check out those wide-eyed, blue-skinned, expression-less boys.

Christian and I went the athletic route. Sure comes in handy when you have your fiance's jersey lying around! As for Troy Bolton, girls, he's still underage.

Meanwhile, Matt was in West Point, NY, for the Air Force vs. Army football game. (Falcons won!)

Can you believe how BEAUTIFUL their campus is?!

Though, I must admit, I'm pretty partial to this one:

...and can't wait to be there with Matt tomorrow!

PS-For the record books: I believe in voting for qualified leaders who share your core values (i.e. sancitity of the family, human life, smaller government, etc.) and therefore voted for McCain-Palin. Still, I am proud to be an American, grateful we even have the right to vote, and will continue to support our country's leaders.

Viva Las Vegas

2008-10-26T18:03:00.003-06:00

Last weekend, Air Force played at UNLV so I drove down to see Matt. (Thanks to Priceline and their $55 Marriott hotel rooms for making that possible.) Although we obviously wish Matt could've stayed healthy this season, there are definite benefits to being a coach instead--one being a later curfew. So we hit up the strip, of course, and watched the fountains at the Bellagio... three times. Mr. Engineer was loving it.

We also spent some time at the Forum Shops at Caesar's Palace... which, as you can see, Matt thoroughly enjoyed.

On Saturday, we hung out in the team's hotel lobby and grabbed lunch here...

... before heading to the game, which the Falcons won 29-28!

All the while, my family was busy going on some ridiculously beautiful hikes with the Grafs. Case in point, Kolob:

I did, however, get to hang out with them in Cedar for a bit on the way home. I have such fun aunts and uncles (and grandparents! Hi grandma!). Pretty sure you can tell my aunt Lisa and I are related.

The Vegas streak continued yesterday when UNLV came up to Provo to get beat 42-35. Matt was down in New Mexico coaching so I got to play Cougar United VP again for the day! Oh, I miss those CU days. I spent the first 3 quarters with my great friend/CU President Josh Reschke on the sidelines before meeting up with my dad and 3-year-old brother Josh. Joshie had been crying at the prospects of only getting to watch BYU football on TV so my dad took him to the game. He had that smile on his face the entire time...

... especially when I brought him onto the field with me so he could watch BYU score a touchdown. Go Cougs!

Over, Under

2008-10-14T08:41:00.009-06:00

My younger sister Heidi is always telling me how lucky I am to get so many airport scenes because "they're so romantic." I always tell her they're actually a bit overrated. Even though the arrivals are lovely, the mere fact that we have to have them--instead of always getting to be together--makes them a little bittersweet at the same time, and you'd better believe that saying goodbye gets old fast. Then again, sometimes the romance factor does win me over... Like when I left Colorado after Conference weekend.

Matt dropped me off at the airport as usual and we said goodbye, for two weeks this time. I was cutting it close for my flight so I hurried past ticketing, down the escalators and to the other end so I could go through security. Right as I'm about to enter the TSA line, someone touched me so I turned around... and saw Matt there, breathless, with a dozen roses in his hands. They had been in the car but with my hurried goodbye he'd forgotten to give them to me... so he left his car in the passenger drop-off lane and sprinted through the airport to get my roses to me in time. Yeah, that's my fiance :-)

Meanwhile, I've come to find that, although I miss Matt on our off-weeks, the ability to stay home and relax for a weekend is most definitely underrated. Traveling so much can really wear you down, so sometimes its nice to skip out on my TSA buddies and enjoy virgin cocktails with good friends instead.

Many thanks to Josh for having a Mad Men (high society Madison Ave. in the early 60s) themed cocktail party for his birthday celebration.

Beat by a Goat.

2008-10-10T09:30:00.011-06:00

Last weekend was the Air Force v. Navy football game. This is a huge deal, because the winner of this game (once they beat Army) wins the Commander in Chief trophy... which is presented to them by the President of the United States in the White House on an all-expenses paid trip to Washington, D.C.

Talk about a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

The football program kicked off the weekend well as the JV team pulled out another win on Friday night!

Must be that awesome coaching those receivers are getting :-)

Saturday was a bit of a different story. I learned from the Utah game that it's a good idea to take pictures before a big game, just in case. So I present Matt, me, Anthony & his dad Randy, pre-game.

Although they are the Navy Midshipmen, for some (very) odd reason, their mascot is a goat.

A live goat. Sure strikes fear into the hearts of their opponents, don't you think?

Well, must've worked with the Falcons because they CHOKED. They lost 33-27, thanks mostly to not one but TWO blocked punts returned for touchdowns along with TWO fumbles that led to Navy points. Just makes you cringe reading that, right? Without those embarrassing mistakes, it would have been an Air Force blowout and Matt would be waltzing his way into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in just a few months. Oh well. It's times like these I'm glad I have my Cougars (although, 34-14 over Utah State? Kind of embarrassing, too).

On the bright side, however, there were some pretty sweet flyovers. First, a stealth plane that was unbelievably quiet and, well, stealthlike... and then two F-22s (the most powerful fighters in the world) that just rocked the stadium. Navy might have Top Gun, but Air Force is where the real pilots are at.

Also on the bright side: When the sight on the field was too awful to even look at, I averted my eyes to a rather attractive coach on the sidelines. Not bad, right?

After the game, Matt rushed off to the Priesthood session of General Conference (which was GREAT, because his post-game mood definitely called for a pick-me-up) and then we went out for dinner at Biaggi's...

where our friend Shawn and his super cute girlfriend Whitney met up with us :-)

Then, on Sunday, we got to enjoy an entire day of General Conference with the entire Hendricks family, Steve included! Can't beat that.

Back to My Roots!

2008-10-06T11:34:00.008-06:00

Although I grew up as a Cali girl (with a couple stints in Utah), I was actually born back East and lived there for my first few years while my dad was working for Goldman Sachs on Wall Street (before he decided to work for CES). I love it so much that I moved back for a semester when I was 18 and always planned on working there after graduating... until I got engaged to Matt. Funny how boys can change your plans like that :-) Anyway, once the "moving there" plan was thrown out the window, I planned on taking my mom on a trip out there once I graduated. Well, 9 months later, we finally got around to it!

We planned our visit around my aunt Janell's birthday (she lives in NJ) and had a blast! Like the good ol' days, we rode the train into the city and tried to decide what we wanted to do that day. We'd already seen/done all the big things, so it was kind of nice to have that must-do-it-all toursity pressure off and just get to enjoy our time there.

We ended up choosing...

Times Square (always something new),

Central Park (always so beautiful),

and shopping (always fun in New York!).

We happened to choose to visit on a weekend with a tropical storm and were preparing ourselves for a torrential downpour, but we lucked out and just got rain.

Once upon a time when I lived in NJ, I had tickets to see the original cast of Wicked. I ended up moving home a week before and have been kicking myself for the three years since. So naturally, when planning this trip, the #1 thing on our to-do list was to see Wicked with Janell and Sidney. In fact, we bought those tickets before booking our flights.

It was INCREDIBLE, of course.

I know I could have seen the traveling show sooner, but I'm glad I waited to see it in New York.

There's nothing quite like a show on Broadway.

With item #1 complete, it was on to #2 (okay, there were actually only two things on the list):

Amish Ice Cream!

I fell in love with it during that same semester I took off. You haven't lived until you've eaten this ice cream. So we stopped at an Amish market in Princeton...

...on our way to Philadelphia, where we walked along the historic streets, ate Philly cheesesteaks, and took a picture at Independence Hall to commemorate our visit :-).

We spent the rest of our time hanging out with Janell, John & my cute cousins and were sad to leave. All I can say is that it's a good thing the Air Force is deciding where we'll live because I'd never be able to decide between my east and west coasts.

The Big 2-5!

2008-09-25T09:08:00.002-06:00

Happy birthday to my dashingly handsome fiance!

As I'm sure you all know, the 25th birthday is a big deal because 25-year-olds can rent a car from anyone, anywhere. Such a momumental birthday requires an extra-long celebration, of course, so we kicked it off by letting Matt come to a Girl's Night on Thursday.

Just kidding. Kind of. See, I happened to be on the exact same flight as Jodie's sister, Becky, so Matt & Jodie picked us up together and we headed to Cheesecake Factory... which happens to be in a great mall... where Patsy happened to be running errands... so we happened to do what girls do best: shop. I helped Matt feel included by letting him pick out a shirt for me to wear for his actual birthday. I think he did well! Oh, and Cheesecake Factory was delicious as usual.

On Friday, Air Force's JV team beat the #7 JC team in the country 38-36! Matt's parents, brother & sister-in-law came into town for the Utah game and got to see Matt coach as well.

We went out to Ted's for a little post-game meal. If you don't remember my previous tribute, Ted's holds a special place in my heart thanks to their juicy buffalo burgers... even though mine looks like it's sticking its tongue out for the picture? Maybe I should lay off on the ketchup.

Since Matt's family was leaving shortly after the Utah game on his real birthday, we decided to have a little birthday party with them and some of Matt's best friends Friday night.

Matt's parents basically made his year by giving him the Garmin he's been obsessing over since he was in the womb. (Not that Matt really needs it, since he only ever drives to the airport or Anthony's, but that's beside the point.)

The highlight of the night, however, was the PINATA! These boys had fun trying to hit the ref...

...although Matt & Chase were mildly upset that Anthony broke it open and not them.

I guess beating up a referee the night before a big game is bad karma. The Falcons led Utah for most of the game but lost it in the final minute. Shoot, huh? Good thing we took our picture before the game.

(Also a good thing my Cougars continue to win in rather convincing fashion!)

If not for Texas Roadhouse's pork dinner, I don't know if Matt ever could been consoled.
Matt's family flew home after dinner, so it was just the two of us that night. We began our laid-back birthday date with free ice cream at Cold Stone (you have to love those birthday clubs)...

...and then went back to Anthony's to watch a movie, open presents from me & my fam, and just enjoy our alone time together. Being in a long distance relationship, we never get enough of that.

My life is like an episode of The Office.

2008-09-19T10:06:00.002-06:00

Every rose has its thorn, right? Now that you all know I don't hate my job (I work as a marketing communications specialist and actually like it a lot), let me tell you about a big, fat thorn in my side right now:

My working conditions.

Picture, for a moment, Michael Scott & Co. getting kicked out of their office and moving in with Darryl at the warehouse. For three months. Someone please send in this storyline because you can't make this stuff up.

Here's the short version: My company decided to move to a brand new building right by my exit in Pleasant Grove when its completed in October. Heavenly. Not so heavenly? The fact that our old building in the Riverwoods threw a fit about us not renewing our lease and kicked us out. And what happens when a company becomes temporarily homeless? Why, they move into their warehouse in Spanish Fork, of course. Amuse me for a moment and take a little tour!

THAT would be the outside of our warehouse/manufacturing facility, right next to my parking spot. THIS would be the sound that it makes:

I only wish I could record the smell. Feel free to conjure up burnt rubber mixed with rotten fish and take a whiff. Anyway, so the sound is slightly obnoxious when I'm trying to talk to my fiance who lives one thousand miles away on my lunch break. Naturally, I try to walk away from the noise by going around to the back of the building, where I'm greeted by this:

This may come as a surprise, but those semi trucks aren't exactly quiet, either.

Thank goodness for our quiet next-door neighbors:

Too bad their fields attract every wasp in the Northern Hemisphere. My solution? I tend to walk along the cracks in the middle of the road for the duration of our phone calls (Good thing we're in the middle of nowhere).

Now, you may ask, why don't I just stay inside? May I present to you the mental asylum hallway, lovingly named for its appearance... and the fact that there were two scientists in white lab coats at the other end on Day 1.

Not convinced about its psych ward charm? Check out what's inside the doorways on the left:

At the end of the hallway & around the corner is a storage room that we, the marketing department, have adopted as our own (the track lighting & hanging cords are my favorite. Then again, when the room gets FULL of boxes, that's pretty fun, too).

We even got to choose our table buddies! (Anyone else flash back to 5th grade for about two seconds?) Luckily for me, I love my table buddy. See, Lacey and I even look happy in our corner:

For now, the wedding countdown has been put on the shelf and replaced by the countdown to the move-in date for the new building (which was just postponed thanks to a flood).

I may or may not have already made a paper chain.

Why thank you, Job.

2008-09-16T21:12:00.003-06:00

After years of working at my dream jobs (BYU football, Cougar United, Utah Jazz, Salt Lake Bees...), I sold out and took a corporate job because it was best for me & Matt. Honestly though, for not being in the sports industry, I seriously lucked out--I have awesome coworkers, great bosses and just a good situation overall. Oh, and a few perks too. For example, last weekend my job required me to:

Fly to Long Beach...

Stay in the lovely Anaheim Hilton...

Play Guitar Hero & hang out with my work friends...

Make new friends...

Wear pretty dresses and play "Vanna" with Lizzy...

Go to Disneyland...

Enjoy a few of my favorite rides...

Stay in California Adventure after hours for a dessert buffet in Stage 17...

And watch the Cougs kick some serious trash.

(The Falcons weren't televised thanks to the hurricane, but they won, too! 3-0!)

Not bad, eh? Granted, I worked 15+ hour days... in heels... but still.

Sometimes work is fun.

Put Simply.

2008-09-10T09:01:00.013-06:00

Last weekend...

I flew.

Matt coached.
FALCONS won (so did the COUGS!).We celebrated. And watched lots more football.
Matt baked cookies.
Very yummy cookies.
The rest of us reaped the benefits.

The end.

Still engaged and (finally) legal!

2008-09-05T13:20:00.004-06:00

Tuesday was the 1-year anniversary of this:

If I may say so myself, it was the best proposal ever.

Because of our 1-year engagement anniversary (who has those?) and my birthday, Matt took me to the Cliff House for dinner last weekend. It was delicious, the service was incredible, and I was thisclose to convincing Matt to order something other than steak.

After dinner, we went back to the Hendricks' to open my birthday presents. Matt gave me a couple new AIr Force shirts and the Jessica Simpson shoes I've been wanting for months (I was pretty excited, as you can probably tell).

My actual birthday was pretty anticlimatic, considering I turned 21 and don't drink. Although, I am pretty excited about the prospect of getting a horizontal driver's license (they're vertical in Utah until you're legal). My baby brothers, on the other hand, were extremely excited to celebrate another birthday (they don't care whose birthday it is as long as there are candles to blow out, cake to eat, and presents to open).

They are always in every single picture with me and are also responsible for my cake's design inspiration. When I turned 19, I got a dinosaur cake. This year they decided that I should have a flower cake since Matt sent me flowers. I was only a little disapointed I didn't get a pirate cake or something similar :-) They all helped me blow out the candles...

And open my presents:

But they called it quits when we turned on the Republican National Convention immediately afterward.
Go figure.

E is for Engineer, F is for Football, G is for Germany...

2008-09-02T21:41:00.026-06:00

Last weekend was Parent's Weekend at the Academy, which means we all got to go to class with our cadets on Friday, watch one of their big parades and enjoy parking in the middle of nowhere. I go to school with Matt a few times a year already so I can: a) know what on earth he is talking about when he tells me about all of his classes, b) get him plenty of attention, and c) continue my studies to become an engineer. Just kidding about those last two, but I do like pretending I know what's going on in those ridiculously hard classes.

Anyway, school was especially fun on Friday because Matt's capstone partner was gone so I got to fill in. Right now they're working on building something that can get this 3.7 million pound machine:

In and out of this one safely & easily:
(Trust me, it's a lot more complex than it sounds--I just wanted to spare you all the gory details.)

Good thing I was there to solve the problem for them.

That would be me getting a kick out of the sketch I drew during the brainstorming session. I'm not really familiar with the technical terms for things, so the main components of my creations were labeled football crane, lazy susan, pizza pan and grocery store belt. Genius, right? There's a reason I majored in Communications and not some technical headache.

Onto the parade! It's not too much fun for the cadets to have to march and stand at attention for an hour plus, but it's really neat for everyone else to watch.

Matt's squad (13)--the Bulldawgs. He's in the second row, third from the left.

Matt was happy when it was over:

Then... it was on to football! Matt coached his JV boys on Friday & then the varsity team whopped SUU 41-7 on Saturday.

Go Falcons!

Matt was busy with the team, of course, so I tailgated with Jodie, Preston & all of his buddies (they came for his birthday party) and then watched the game with our friend Kristi (who's boyfriend is a cadet).

On Sunday night, the Hendricks' neighbor Sarah was having a dinner party and invited us to tag along! Sarah's friend from Germany, Matthias, spent the summer with them so they were having a big authentic German meal with their friends before Matthias went home. Matt served his mission in Munich (where Matthias is from), so we were really excited to go.

It was fantastic! We had so much fun making friends with everyone, hanging out with Matthias and gaining 7 pounds each from the delicious German food. Matthias immediately became one of my favorite people in the world when he told me that I'd be able to get around Germany saying "ick" instead of "ich." (I've been trying unsuccessfully for the past year to learn how to hock up a hairball to pronounce "ich." It means "I" in German, which means my learning has been stalled while I've focused on trying to learn that basic little word haha.)

Matt's taking Matthias to school tomorrow and we're hoping we'll get to see him in Munich next year!

Flash Forward

2008-08-27T09:01:00.006-06:00

We got a fun glimpse into our future this weekend as we babysat the Hendricks kids! Nothing like getting to tell Matt that it is his turn to change a diaper while I make dinner and keep an eye on the other kids :-) Actually, we've already established our future diaper duties--me during the day, Matt at night. It's only fair, right?

Wish me luck with that game plan.

Anyway. The other babysitter came over during the day on Saturday so I could go to Air Force's Blue & Silver scrimmage. Thanks to two bum hamstrings and tendon damage in his wrist, Matt is sidelined for the season. He joined the coaching staff, though, and is loving it! Since he's a coach, I got to go to the team luncheon in the press box afterward. It's always fun/interesting doing team stuff with Air Force after spending years doing it with BYU's football program. We sat with some of Matt's receivers (he coaches the JV receivers & helps run the scout team) and had a blast!

Although, I felt a little out of place being the only girl in a room of 150 boys :-)

After lunch, we took a quick nap before heading back to the kids. I made a delicious Stouffers dinner (I told you it was a glimpse of our future!) and we played in the backyard. Matt & Preston, of course, got to play football...

...while I assumed swing pushing duties. Currently, that's one of my 5 major functions in life:

work, eat, sleep, run, and push my baby brothers on the swings. Why should Colorado be any different?

(PS--I'm definitely adding my future daughters to Mason's waiting list. Hey, it worked for me and Matt...)

Once dinner had settled, we headed over to Maggie Moo's for dessert. It started out innocently enough. But then the kids and their bright blue cotton candy ice cream started looking like this:

So we went with it :-)

Good thing baths were already the next thing on the agenda!

Here we go!

2008-08-22T10:51:00.009-06:00

I'm used to flying a few times a month, but we're about to enter uncharted territory.

A glimpse of my calendar for the next 9 weekends:
Colorado, Colorado, Colorado, Anaheim, Colorado, New York, Colorado, home/Colorado, Colorado.

Keep in mind that every time I fly, I have to work overtime Monday-Thursday so I can catch my plane on Friday.

I'll try to fit breathing into my schedule.

Matt Goes to School, Ash Goes to Brian Regan

2008-08-19T10:15:00.005-06:00

For some reason, I think I got the better end of the deal! USAFA decides to make their semesters about a month longer than everyone else, so they jumped right in on August 7th. This is actually quite exciting for me because it means new freshmen to be entertained by. I'm not sure Matt feels the same way, though...

If you look closely, all of those little dots are cadets coming back from lunch. Can you find Matt? :-)

Okay, he was actually right behind me... But I made sure I got a picture of his last 1st day of school. He is such a good sport.
I brought our buddy Preston to watch Air Force's football practice that Friday and Matt stayed late to play catch with him on the field. I love that second picture of them together! So sweet.

(In case you were wondering what that black thing around Matt's calf is, it was holding the ice around his injured hamstring & just slipped down.)

All of the seniors in Matt's squadron had their annual dining out at PF Changs that Saturday & I got to tag along. Here's Anthony, Matt & me enjoying the Chinese cuisine. (Our FAVORITE food, right Matt?)

Bulldawgs, Class of '09
And our obligatory picture by the horse:

After dinner, we finally made it to The Dark Knight. Great acting & cinematography but, well, dark.

On Sunday, there was a full rainbow after dinner at the Nichols' and Anthony, of all people, decided that we needed to take a picture with it. Probably just so Matt could make the squinty face below:
Then it was back to Utah for my off-weekend. Usually those are pretty boring, but this one was definitely not--my uncle Brian & aunt Sharla gave me their extra Brian Regan tickets! Christian & I had fun with Kyle & Michelle:

Sometimes we think it's fun to wear matching t-shirts. Oh, and

Brian Regan is hilarious.

The best part of the night? His impromtu act about football.
Or maybe the part about a model prisoner. No reason.

Missing July already...

2008-08-15T09:19:00.007-06:00

We spent Pioneer Day with Matt's family up in Bear Lake and came back home for the legendary Cedar Hills fireworks that weekend. The weekend before, though, we ate lunch at the Lion House Pantry with both of our parents so we could check out our wedding dinner location... which we booked! That means we officially have all the big items done for the wedding, 10 months in advance. Love it. Despite rain earlier that week, we lucked out and enjoyed beautiful weather on the lake.
We whipped out Bocce for a few games in the sand. Matt and I were undefeated--thanks to Matt.

Please excuse the following interruption from regular blogging...

Missing: my most favorite sunglasses in the history of the world (pictured below).

Last seen on the boat while I was on the tube.

They are about 200 yards off of this beach.

Efforts to find a suitable replacement have been fruitless.

Reward for their safe return!

Now, back to the blog...
Matt had never been on a jet ski (?!) so we felt the need to rent one. We had SO much fun!

Now he's on board with its position as #1 on our wish list of future toys.

That night, Matt won the rather intense gummi bear guessing game. He guessed 816 & there were 808. Good thing this wasn't Price is Right... Also a good thing that all the nieces and nephews ate his spoils instead of me.
Pretty view of the lake from the condo's back porch on our last night...
Then back to my babies (okay, they're my mom's babies) in Cedar Hills.

Despite what you see in this picture, Gabe really enjoyed the fireworks :-)

As you can probably tell, the boys L-O-V-E Matt and want to be with him every second that he's around.

They were pretty bummed when he had to go back to "codowado."
Me too.

Can't wait until next July when we won't have to say goodbye!

We come in 2's.

2008-08-08T13:18:00.002-06:00

It seems so simple, but one of the things that I really miss with having a long distance relationship is being able to go on group dates with friends. We always make sure we get our fix whenever Matt comes into town. It's fun getting to be just a normal couple and do normal couple things, if even just for a little while.

We started off with a double with my super-long acronymn Liz and her husband, Ryan. We went bowling at the Fat Catz in Salt Lake...

...which happens to be where Matt & I went after watching the Fiesta Bowl on our first date.

Maybe that's why it was so lucky for him--he bowled a turkey! As you can see from my pitiful score below, never in my wildest dreams will I get three strikes in a row :-)

After bowling, we ended up at an Iceberg--always so good.

A few days later, we got to go on our long-awaited cousin date! My dad is the oldest of 9 kids and there are almost 40 grandkids on his side alone. We were all born into these little cousin groups who we're really close with. Mine consists of the oldest 4 grandkids--myself, my big sister April, Kyle & Angie. We're all grown up and married (or soon-to-be married in my case) now, which means our little group has doubled. We love our cousin's spouses so it makes it even more fun! ANYWAY, for our cousin date, we went up to my uncle Brian's cabin for dinner and games.

From left to right... Kyle & Michelle, Matt & Ash, Angie & Klane

Good times.

Next up was my high school friend Brooke's wedding! She and her husband Nick have been together for almost as long as Matt & I will be by the time we get married. Crazy!

Her reception was at the 23rd floor, which just happens to be where we had prom our senior year. Great place for a little reunion with some of my best HS friends! They hadn't met Matt yet so I was more than happy to show him off :-)

And, of course, we went out with Alicia & Sterling! Sterling is a golfer and Matt is currently obsessed with golfing, so the four of us spent an afternoon at Thanksgiving Point.

It was my first time golfing and boy, do I need some work! I shot a 61 on 9 holes and called it a day haha. If only it didn't take me 5 strokes to get where everyone else's drive goes...

Oh well. We followed up our round of golf with a dinner date that night at Pizza Factory.

Can't wait till we get to do that again in... oh right, November. In the meantime, looks like it will be single dates for us in Colorado!

The great outdoors

2008-08-03T17:16:00.012-06:00

Big annoucement, people: Just ten more months till we get married! I remember talking to Liz about it walking to class one day last fall and thinking it would be so exciting for the countdown to be on two hands (only ten fingers instead of fingers, toes, eyes, etc.). Well, my friends, the day has finally come and it is that exciting (for Matt and I, at least). Anyway, onto Matt's whopping 2 1/2 week summer break here in Utah:

We'll lead off the picture parade with mini-golf at good ol' Trafalga:

Joshie demonstrated to Matt the most effective way to get the ball in the hole:
just drop it in.

Wish I had followed Josh's advice--I barely got under par. Gone are the days of my serial-dating mini-golf prowess, I suppose.

Shifting gears... We live 5 minutes away from AF canyon and most definitely take advantage of it. Matt had never kayaked before so we had a lot of fun out at Tibblefork.

He can kayak a lot faster than me (surprise, surprise).

Bonus points if you can name the movie that inspired this next picture:

"I'm a sailor! I sail! Ahoy!"

Nevermind the fact that kayaking isn't exactly sailing, of course.

My family took up a couple fishing poles just for fun. As you can tell, we're really into catching fish... (notice Nicole's disgusted face when she caught one haha)

On the way back home, we stopped off at a campsite to make s'mores.

Then, since we are such hard-core outdoorsmen, we set up our big family tent in our backyard and camped out... Although, to my dad's credit (he is an outdoorsy guy), we wanted to camp in the mountains but couldn't get a reservation at a campground. Apparently those things are in high demand. Who knew?

The one where we get swallowed by the ocean.

2008-07-16T13:21:00.005-06:00

After a yummy 4th of July BBQ with the Kerr family, Matt & I decided to spend the afternoon being touristy in LA before watching fireworks on the beach. Our first stop was Hollywood, where we spent a whole 15 minutes--we knew that it actually isn't that exciting but still wanted to check it off the list.

So Matt fulfilled his picture requirement with a thumbs up to John Lennon and I took one with Audrey Hepburn's star (just in case we choose to name one of our daughters Audrey instead of Aubyn/Autumn/Aubrey).

After our pit stop in Hollywood, we spent a couple hours window shopping in Beverly Hills before heading to the Los Angeles Temple to walk around the grounds. It is so beautiful.

Then we stopped by the Santa Monica pier to eat at Bubba Gumps!

Matt isn't particularly fond of seafood (okay, he hates it), so Bubba Gumps was a bit of a stretch for him. It's such a fun place to eat, though, that Matt agreed to try it. He ended up loving the shrimp! Guess they cook it better than the military does, go figure.

Okay, now for the little story... When it got dark, we took a quick picture with the pier and then headed down the beach to watch the fireworks at Marina Del Rey. We set up in about the middle of the sand but since the fireworks were a bit further away, anyone walking by would block them so we moved a little closer to the ocean. We were still up on a tiny hill a good 10 yards from the highest point of the tide so we felt pretty comfortable with it. Here's the "before" shot with the pier (notice the color of my jeans):

Picture this for two seconds: lying on a towel on the beach, watching fireworks in the distance, and listening to the ocean waves crashing below you, all as you're cuddled up with your fiance. Pretty romantic, right? Cue the rogue wave--we're just lying there enjoying the moment when out of nowhere and with zero warning, a huge wave came in and over us! Classic. I thought it was hilarious, as you can probably tell from this picture we took right after the incident:

Yeah, we were slightly drenched. Me more than Matt, since I was closer to the ocean and sat up fast, giving Matt slightly more time to react. The cell phone that was in my pocket? Toast.

Meanwhile, the blanket-size towel we were using was super heavy & dirty with all of that water & sand in it so Matt dragged it across the beach back to the pier. It left a big trail along the entire beach. I was in stitches when I took this picture. It's the funniest mixture of Will Smith dragging that parachute in Independence Day and Linus (from Charlie Brown) dragging his blanket:

I eventually convinced Matt of the hilariousness (is that a word?) of the whole ordeal and we were both laughing as we realized that we'll probably never be able to top the memorable factor of this 4th of July.

Luckily for me, I had another pair of capris in the car so I just changed and we kept our little date going, eating delicious Nutella crepes on the Third Street Promenade. Oh, and as for the soaking wet cell phone, we were going to put it in a bag of rice to suck the water out but were too impatient, so Matt decided to try nuking it in a microwave. Kids, don't try that at home--it nearly started a fire.

Sunshine & Summertime

2008-07-11T11:12:00.014-06:00

California was perfect, thanks to the awesome Kerrs who adopted us for the weekend! They are such a neat family and we had such a great time playing with them. Hanging out in the L.A. area was also great because we there's a good chance we'll be living there in just a year (I grew up a NorCal girl but I'm pretty sure I could make the switch to SoCal just fine)... Oh, and just FYI--since our 4th of July has an entertaining story, it gets its own post. Which means this one covers every other day our our trip.

I flew into Long Beach on Thursday. Matt and I went straight to In-N-Out for lunch and then to Huntington Beach! It was a gorgeous day:

Matt had never built a sandcastle (shocking, no?), so after we constructed the world's best moat, we threw together this rather elementary sandcastle. The castle itself might not look that impressive but I'm telling you, that moat stood strong for at least 3 hours.

Fast forward to Saturday, when we went swimming with Jodie and the kids... Matt decided to sneak around the pool underneath his little floatie. Jodie pointed out that he looked like a pineapple picker. True.

That afternoon, we headed down to Newport Beach...

...so we could get our Sprinkles cupcakes. The verdict: Cute? Yes. Yummy? Yes. To-die-for delicious & worth the cost? Not so much. Magleby's & Costco's chocolate cakes are definitely more drool-worthy.

That night, we all went to see WALL-E at the drive-in. Matt had never been to a drive-in before (I was starting to question his childhood) and neither had Taylor or Mason, so it was a lot of fun! And the movie was just as great the 2nd time around for me.

After church on Sunday, we hung out with Susie and Jodie and the kids and then went for a Sunday drive before Matt had to leave to get back to the base. How beautiful is Hacienda Heights?

Thanks again for having us, Gene & Susie & Jodie! Can't wait to see you in Colorado!

Seriously?

2008-07-08T13:28:00.014-06:00

Introducing the most stupid woman in America:

Full disclosure: I'm so not a big TV watcher. Let alone reality TV. However, both Matt and I were way into this season of the Bachelorette. You'd better believe that a long-distance engagement is a good enough excuse for at least one ridiculous tv show obsession. Anyway, Jason is perfect, Jesse is immature, and Jesse and DeAnna are awkward together. That is all.

East Coast, West Coast

2008-07-02T17:46:00.009-06:00

The best New Jerseyans in the world decided to spend some of their summer in good ol' Utah. This made us especially happy because they happen to be my mom's closest sister Janell, her super fun husband John and their adorable kids.

We celebrated their arrival with a picnic and playtime at the creek.

By the way, this is the same Uncle John who, 15 years ago, would park us right in front of the cemetary just to watch us freak out because we couldn't hold our breath that long. Well, some things never change. I was a little late to the festivities due to work but I sure got a nice welcome--when I went in for a hug, he instead threw me over his shoulder (in a skirt, no less) and proceeded to pretend that he was going to throw me into creek.

The Zulicks left us for a few days to visit Old Faithful and got back just in time for our big Smith family party on Sunday. The highlight of the night was definitely watching my sweet Grandma go bowling on the Wii. I love her reaction when she got her first spare:

My Grandpa Smith took a turn, too, and they kept up with their bowling game even after everyone had redirected their attention to other activities. Well, everyone except Gabe, who remained their biggest fan:

He was so into it! It was so cute watching him cheer for them. We made sure to get a shot of Grandma with almost all of the grandkids).

Everyone got together again on Monday night to see WALL-E at the drive-in (p.s. drive-ins are another summer must!). It was such a cute movie! We all loved it & highly recommend it.

And on another note... California, here we come!

Okay, here I come--Matt's already there! He's spending 3 weeks at Vandenberg Air Force Base (which is about 45 minutes north of Santa Barbara)... before getting to come home to Utah for his 17-day summer leave!! Matt's halfway through his little vacation right now so I'm hopping on a plane in the morning to come visit him. Jodie & her family are so kindly letting us stay with them in L.A. and we're all in store for a super fun weekend!!!

So, since we won't be around... Happy 4th of July, everyone! It's such a neat thing to stop and celebrate our liberty, and remember that we have brave men and women still fighting for it every day.

We're so lucky to be Americans.

Baseball & Buffaloes

2008-06-29T20:12:00.005-06:00

You may not know this, but it is a requirement to go to at least one baseball game every summer (and hopefully more! I was working for the Bees last summer so I went to like 50. It was great). So, naturally, Matt and I went straight from the airport to the Rockies vs. Mets game. The atmosphere at those games really makes me miss working in sports... Anyway, the Mets killed the Rockies but it was still a lot of fun!

Matt had to move his dorm room on Saturday so we spent some time doing that before heading to Ted's, which is my ultimate obsession in Colorado Springs. Why? They have the most incredible bison (buffalo) burgers. Gotta love 'em. I used to make Matt take me like twice a month but then he got a little sick of it, so we took a break for awhile... which made me even more excited to eat there this time!

That (above) would be Ted's. And this (below) would be us in our booth at Ted's. See how happy we are to be eating there? K, me more than Matt but still...

That night, we just hung out at Anthony's with all of Matt's best friends. This is the 2nd to last time they'll all get to be together until January because Mike (the one on the right) is spending fall semester in Spain. We'll miss him!