Oops, a summary of the past few months...

August
I don't think anything out of the norm happened in August... or I just can't think back that far

September
Sam left his job at Telos
I started my job at Telos- I'm working as an Executive Functioning Coach, helping mentor boys with Executive Functioning deficit (time management, organization, task initation and completion, memory recall, etc)
Peaches came into our life (Sam's parents cat that we took care of until they came home)

October
Threw my good friend Whitney a baby shower (pictures below) Sam celebrated when this event was over since it consumed my life for two months :) well worth it!
And hunting season for Sam, no Bucks this year (Sam's dad was the only sucessful hunter)

July Part 4- Sam's Vacation

Just last week Sam and I took off for a little getaway! Since I just went home to Michigan, I let Sam completely take control of this trip. We had a great time! Wednesday night the plan was to leave after work and drive to Vegas. As I called him to tell him I was on my way home, he tells me he's highjacked the plans! He decided he wanted to play a game of ultimate frisbee with his best friend Rich and that we would be leaving later, but only driver to Cedar City, which is about 3 hours or so away. Like I said, this was Sam's trip so I went along with whatever! We didn't get into Cedar City until about 1am! The next day we went to see a movie at the historic Cedar City theater on Main Street. We saw the Croods, we didn't love it. Next we grabbed some amazing local BBQ that they had smoking outside of the restaurant! It was called Sonny Boys and we highly recommend it! http://sonnyboysbbq.com/ Before leaving for St. George, we checked out a huge earth-mover that was outside of a museum for the town. 

Four Kegs

 We then headed to St. George for 9 holes of golf during 'twilight' hours. Ugh, but let me tell you, St. George stays HOT until the sun goes down. So even this twilight golf was almost unbearable. Sam teased me that I might have been kicked off the greens because after one hole I went back to the car and changed into yoga pants and a tshirt just to try to stay a little more cool! But Sam played really well (I just sit in the golf cart or help him collect his balls). We were finally Vegas bound. For a late night snack we hit up a joint featured on Diners, Drive ins and Dives called Four Kegs. Sam ordered one of their famous Strombolis :) we had a great waitress and we're really impress with the little hole in the wall place!

Next stop was the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop of course! If you haven't seen Pawn Stars on the History Channel then you're missing out! Its one of our favorite shows. We went after their shop was closed, but there was an extremely friendly security guard outside who chatted us up a bit. We knew we would come back the next day before taking off. So the picture of us in the shop is out of order, its from the next day. But isn't it great?! We went back to the shop the next day right before closing, so practically no one was in there. We had time and space to look around at all of the really cool memorabilia that has been featured on the show. Sam and I were trying to take a picture of ourselves and the gaurd next to the door offered to take the picture for us, again, a really nice employee. And can you spot the awesome photo bomb? Well, we knew he did that right after it was taken, but I think it makes the picture even better! My favorite part of going inside of the shop was seeing the chairs where a lot of the conversations between Rick, Old Man and Corey take place. Before going, we read a lot of negative reviews of visiting the pawn shop, but to be honest I loved it. One of the highlights of the trip for me!

 The other big highlight of our trip was going to a live taping of Wheel of Fortune!! We had VIP tickets since we booked our hotel at the Venetian through a Wheel of Fortune promotion. We started about 10 rows back, and got a better seat during each taping (there were three total). Our last seats were two rows back right in the center! They were SO close and such a good view! It was fun to watch how fast paced the show was in real life. Pat and Vanna were charming and friendly, engaging with the audience during breaks. All three of the shows we watched be taped had high winners, it was great! Our three shows will air during Valentine's week, watch for us in the audience! I'm wearing my bright teal lace shirt!

 So whether you believe it or not, Sam and I left Las Vegas Friday night around 9:30PM and drove through the night home. We didn't get home until 4:30AM!! But we both thought the drive home went quicker than the three hours that it took to get to Cedar City the few days prior. Finally, the following was plotted on our drive home, Sam being the main force behind it....

 I CHOPPED OFF MY HAIR! Sam is obsessed with it and I love it too :) Out with the old and in with the new!!

July Part 3- Smitten with the Mitten

I got to go home to Michigan. The main reason for my trip was to meet Rodger's lovely girlfriend Valle. She was visiting the States for the first time, she is from Spain. As usual, each day of my trip was planned out. Here is a summary of my week :)

Friday: Travel to Michigan, family time and Kelly (best friend time) in Downtown Plymouth (DTP)
Saturday: Luke's Washer Tournament, family time, dancing in DTP

Sunday: Church, time with Rachel, her sweet baby boy and Stephanie in DTP, Hang out time with Kat and meeting her fiance Brent (a real winner, I loved him!)

 Monday: Frankenmuth and Birch Run (shopping) with my mom and Valle, lunch with my grandma and aunt, special Bridesmaid dinner in DTP for Kat (seriously, one of the highlights of my visit)

One of the most inspiring women in my life, my grandmother Verda. She is turning 92 this month!

At Bronners, the world's largest Christmas store in Frankenmuth, MI

The most stunning bride-to-be, so so excited to be one of her bridesmaids!!

Tuesday: family dinner with Valle and Rodger in DTP
Wednesday: Movie with my mom and Kelly, special Luke and Jenny time
Thursday: Final BFF lunch + Hobby Lobby with Kelly, fly home

 To summarize my trip, I'd say it was a lot of DTP (one of my favorite places in the entire world) and lots and lots of Kelly time. After whatever plans I had I usually ended up at Kelly's house for a couple of hours before turning in and going home for the night. Seriously blessed with the most amazing best friend in the entire world. She arranged her work schedule so that she'd have my whole visit free! I love going home, but being away from Sam for a week was killer. Lesson learned, next trip will have to be shorter or he'll just have to come!

Best friends for 18 years and still going strong!

July Part 2- Anna Visits!

Our niece Anna came to visit Utah this past month. And we were the lucky aunt and uncle she asked to stay with! We felt honored (okay, I did, I was pretty stoked to have her stay). I joked with my best friend Kelly, and growing up you always read in books about the main character going to stay with her aunt and uncle for the summer. But those stories usually included a farm... are you following? If not then Kelly and I live in our own world haha anyway, we had a really great visit with Anna.

Saturday of her stay I picked her up from the airport and she came home with me and we went grocery shopping for the week. The next day we were hosting a niece dinner for all the Utah girls to get together with Anna. So we prepped that night for the dinner as well. I don't think our kitchen has ever been such a disaster. I couldn't have done all the prep without Anna's help, so glad she was willing. We roasted vegetables for lasagne roll ups, and canolli cups for dessert. Here are the recipes for each:

Lasagne Roll Ups: http://www.recipegirl.com/2013/06/18/roasted-vegetable-lasagna-roll-ups/

I substituted my favorite veggie tomato sauce from Rago instead of her creamy sauce. I felt like we were all eating enough cheese for the week with these roll ups!

Mini Cannoli Cups: http://www.cookingwithsugar.com/mini-cannoli-cream-cups-recipe-how-to-make-cannolis-the-easy-way/

Note to readers, the sugared pie crust needs to face inward, NOT touching the pan. We learned the hard way, and half of our pie cups were stuck to the cupcake tins!

Our Cannoli Cups, so cute right?!

The girls and me at our Niece Dinner, seriously, could these girls be any more gorgeous!?

There was a large family get together Sunday night which was great because then Anna could see all her Utah cousins and aunts and uncles. Other fun activities that took place while Anna was here:

Lots of shopping, no complaints by me

Pool time

Scary movie nights X2 (something I've avoided since getting married, I turned into a little scaredy cat!)

Temple Square + City Creek

Mani-Pedis 

I think one of my favorite things from Anna's visits was having her and Emily both spend the night and hear them giggling in Anna's bedroom into the wee hours. We will miss having that amazing girl here! 

                                            The nieces in Salt Lake, shopping at the new City Creek Center

 

      All cozied up on our last night together!

July Part 1- 4th of July

Well, because July was so fun and SO busy I haven't had time to post any of our great fun. So today I am creating a 4 part post of our past month of July. Enjoy!

So Sam and I hosted the 4th of July family party at our house. This post is basically to document how 'Martha Stewart crazy' I went for the event. I told Sam it was like a mini 4th of July Wedding, which he thought was a ridiculous analogy. Anyway, I really enjoyed making the patriotic pennant banners and pinwheels, as well as the heavily food-colored 'fireworks' cake. In addition to the lovely decor (if I do say so myself) we ate sliders and delicious sides. Once again, no pictures of actual family, oh well, I promise they do exist.

Owlz Baseball Now and Then

A pretty good recap of Sam's and my conversation after dinner:

Me: Hey, want to do something kind of crazy?
Sam: I already know what you're gunna say. But go ahead and tell me, I'll tell you if it's what I was thinking.
Me: What do you think it is?
Sam: Just tell me, I'll tell you after.
Me: Uhhh okay, do you want to go to the Orem Owlz game tonight?

Sam's eyes widen

Sam: Really?! Ya! Well maybe!

Haha, he thought I wanted to discuss the possibility of us going to Las Vegas to see a live taping of Wheel of Fortune, seriously, that is no joke. But no, it's officially summer and summer means baseball. And baseball in Utah only leaves us one of two choice, the most convenient being the Orem Owlz (yes, Owlz with a 'z,' and for you Michigan folk, the Orem Owlz are to baseball what the Plymouth Whalers are to hockey). So after dinner we headed to the game. We got there at the end of the third ending, but I'm not complaining because it was still really hot out at 7pm, and we got there around 8pm (and because the game went to the bottom of the 11th! We lost). As we made our way down to our seats we were extremely happy to run into our good friends, and old neighbors Allie and Jordan! We sat right in front of them and had ourselves a really fun evening.

So normally I probably wouldn't create a post about this, but almost 2 years ago exactly, at our one and only Owlz baseball game previous to tonight, I made a very intriguing prediction to Sam. We had been dating a month or so, and I knew Sam wasn't 100% feeling 'us' yet. I wanted to invite him to a big family BBQ, but wasn't sure if he'd be willing to come yet or not. Sadly, my exact wording is becoming slighty hazy (maybe because I'm starting to not believe I even said something like this!) But I told him, "I know I don't have you wrapped around my finger yet, where you'll say yes to anything I ask, but eventually you will when you fall in love with me..." WHAT?! Oh geez! Needless to say, Sam has admitted that he was taken back by that statement and it made him want to see what I was talking about (and he did come to the family party)! Well, it looks like I was right :) and now we will have been married 1 1/2 years on Sunday. I'm glad Sam stuck around, even when he wasn't so sure about this 'girl with a feather in her hair' (his words not mine). Enjoy a few pictures from our Owlz game 2 years ago.

back when I was happy just to get a picture with this guy!

what a cute boy!

happy girl :) mmm, missing those side bangs!

Cornhole- Yea, I said it!

Does anyone remember what I gave Sam for his birthday? Lovely bags filled with corn feed (remember the bugs, is this ringing a bell, if not go back to April and read about the horror of making these bags) to go with the game Cornhole. The catch was, Sam and I would have to make the cornhole boards ourselves. Sam loves projects, and knowing that we have access to a fabulous workshop while living here in American Fork I knew he'd be excited. But, to be honest, I wasn't sure we would actually get these boards finished. So for one Family Home Evening (whats that? read here ---> http://www.lds.org/hf/fhe/welcome/0,16785,4210-1,00.html) we headed to Lowes and purchased $50 worth of boards, bolts and wood nails. After an hour in the shop I was bored, so Sam took over the project 100%. Little did I know that these cornhole boards would become his baby. Every waking second that Sam didn't have to work or that we weren't watching our nightly Wheel of Fortune (yes, we DVR it every night) he was in the shop working on the boards, for like a week straight. Not that I'm complaining, I got to get away with extra time on Pinterest or other time wasting activities. But Sam truly did an amazing job on this project- his first woodworking project like this to be honest. He followed some very detailed tutorials and self-taught himself how to use the misc saws and power sanders, very impressive indeed.

We debuted the completed boards at the Kerr's family Memorial Day BBQ and they were a hit. For the first few minutes of watching the nephews chuck my (remember 'lovely') corn filled bags I was sure they were done for. But they have held up (although I'm sure I will be the unofficial corn-bag lady, its only a matter of time before one of those suckers breaks open). All the men got into the competition of the cornhole game. Even the ladies went head to head. Now I wish I had pictures, but of course I don't. Imagine us all having a wonderful time with good food and cornhole.

So Cornhole. The name has given Sam and fellow family members a hard time lol. Not being from the midwest its been hard to get everyone on board, but after working with some rebranding- 'Tillman Toss' or 'Bags' Sam decided that the game is called Cornhole, so Cornhole it will stay. After Memorial Day Sam took his boards to the next level, he designed and spent hours carefully staining them. They have turned out gorgeous, and we are very proud of them. I will post pictures soon with Sam and his finished boards!

Other fun summer happenings so far:
Hot tubbing at all hours of the night
Babysitting our nephews and niece for a night, wake up call to reality of having kids!
Going to the pool
Spontaneous putt putt nights using our Pass of all Passes
Weddings
experimenting with our grill, burnt squash anyone?!
lots of mowing for Sam (this grass grows fast!!)

Seattle and British Columbia

So its taken me a few days to start this post because I was scared of all there would be to write! Sam and I had such a great time together on our trip. I can honestly say it was one of my favorite trips of all time and we came home closer to one another than when we were when we had left! 

Day 1: We had 5 days of non stop adventures starting with Sam's sister Christi taking us to the airport where we flew out to Seattle. Upon arriving in Seattle we jumped on their light rail train and took it to the very last stop downtown. We walked with our luggage down to Pike Place Market. I had been so excited to visit there and it did not disappoint! There were lots of funky shops and stands. We tried weird jams and breads as we walked through the market. I really wanted to visit the famous Pike Place Fish Market, and we walked up right in time to see them throw a fish! We didn't spend too much time looking at the goods to buy but did have lunch there. I found a yummy middle eastern restaurant where we grabbed some chicken shawarma, yum yum yum! While at Pike Place, we found the famous 'gum wall' and added a piece each! Sam found a musician he liked and threw some money in their guitar case. Sam has been on a mango kick lately and purchased a fresh mango from the produce stands which we ate after lunch. It was really tart and actually a disappointment... oh well, all a part of the experience. As much as we loved the market and all the fun shops on the streets around, it was sad to see so many homeless/drug-addicted people all around us and in the park next to Pike Place. 

Rachel, the market's mascot

We headed away from the market and walked along the pier. It was such a beautiful day and we explored all the shops along the pier, and even considered visiting the Seattle Aquarium and taking a ride on the big ferris wheel (but we didn't, both were too expensive for what they were, okay we're party poopers). I ended up buying a tiny sampling of this amazing fudge from a shop on the pier, 1/8 of a pound to be exact! We kept heading towards our next destination Pioneer Square. So to my dismay, there wasn't as much in that area to see and do as I thought. We shared some tacos from a place we were recommended to go by a local we chatted with in the streets. Sam tried a 'Cow Chip Cookie' from a little bakery across from the park. It was only around 4:30 at this point and we had walked down near where our bus would be leaving later that night to go to Vancouver. At this point we decided we either needed to change the time of our bus, or go find something fun to do to kill the rest of our time (Sam and I are probably the only people who saw everything they wanted to see in Seattle in 4 hours). So instead of paying more money to get on a new train to Vancouver (which would take an hour longer than our bus), we took a public bus back up to Pike Place and went to see Iron Man 3! The timing worked out perfect and by the time the movie got out we were able to catch another bus to the Amtrak station with time to kill!

The pretty atrium at Pioneer Square

Pioneer Building, don't ask me what that is

 We got on our bus at 9:30PM and got into Vancouver around 12:30AM. At this point we were starved and  headed to the 24 hour Burger King. However they made us walk through the drive-in and wouldn't let us in the restaurant. We were surprised as to how many people there were walking around Vancouver at this time of night, especially for a Tuesday. But this gave us an opportunity to chat it up with a local girl in the BK line. She was on a bike and gave us her opinion of places to go and see (none of which we actually did) and described to us what some of the pretty lit up buildings around us were. Sam told her we wanted to buy her meal for her because she was so helpful! How cool of Sam! I think he was kind of sad that a young(er) girl was out so late at night alone... what a guy. We decided we had walked enough for the day and grabbed a taxi to take us to our hotel. We're pretty sure he conned us into paying more money than we should have, but gave us a little tour of Vancouver at night, which was good because we didn't have time the next day to see any of the places he showed us!

Day 2: We knew we didn't have a ton of time to see Vancouver so we left our hotel and headed towards a bus stop that would take us to Stanley Park (the #1 attraction to see in Vancouver according to TripAdvisor). We rented a tandem bike to ride around the park! This was definitely one of the highlights of our entire trip. Words and pictures cannot describe how great that bike ride was. We had another beautiful day (where was the rain that we were supposed to have?! no complaints here!) and the fresh air and wind in our faces was so invigorating! It was truly a beautiful place from every direction. We rode along the seawall the entire time with the bay on one side of us and the park on the other. There were lots of beautiful monuments and picturesque scenery to snap pictures of, but I only posted a few on here.

Our tandem bike!

View of Vancouver from our spot of the seawall

Sam liked this message on a bench in the park

 After our bike ride we took a cab that took us to our ship! We spent the evening exploring, dining and hot tubbing before calling it a night.

Day 3: Today was our first stop off of the cruise ship. We were in Nanaimo, British Columbia on Victoria Island. We knew there wasn't much to do in town, but were pleasantly surprised that there was a complimentary shuttle that took us to the downtown area. There, the locals had a farmers market set up for the cruise goers. At noon we were able to watch a cannon being fired off. Sam was very impressed by that! Then we walked around all of the cute shops in town (not Sam's first choice). Sam wanted to find another place to rent bikes so we asked around to some locals if there was anything like that in the area. We decided that it wouldn't be worth it since all the parks we wanted to visit were a ways away. We made sure to grab a Nanaimo bar before heading back to the ship to go swimming. These Nanaimo Bars are a baked good that originated in the town. I had a bite and left the rest for Sam.

Here is a link to the recipe http://www.nanaimo.ca/EN/main/visitors/NanaimoBars.html

Hot Cocoa in front of the ship

the delicious Nanaimo Bar

We spent the rest of the day enjoying the sun in the heated pool on the ship. Then more dining of course as well as enjoying the movie Red Dawn before bed (well, I feel asleep). The ship had lots of newly released movies playing all the time. We got to watch Here Comes the Boom the next night!

The sunset in Nanaimo

Day 4: Today was Victoria! I had been so excited based on all the pictures I'd seen of the city. Of course we woke up to the sound of rain! Our first day of rain (when it was supposed to rain the entire trip, we consider ourselves lucky). But it was really only a light sprinkling, so we headed off the ship and into the city. We saw the gorgeous parliament building as well as the Empress hotel (both designed by the same man). We took a self guided tour of the parliament building and peaked into the hotel lobby. Hmm, once again, we saw the sights fairly quickly. We decided to splurge and head up to the Butchart Gardens. We took the public bus there, and it was extremely crowded. Once again, Sam, the gentleman, offered his seat to an older woman who was also on her way to the gardens and he stood almost the entire ride (45 minutes).

In front of the Parliament Building in Victoria

The weather was clear by now and it was the perfect temperature to explore the gardens. Sam especially liked the effect of the overcasted sky.

The Sunken Gardens

kisses everywhere

The Japanese Gardens

 We both were so glad we decided to see the gardens. Everyone we had encountered from getting to Seattle that found out we were heading to Victoria told us we had to go. Words and pictures can't do them justice, but we were amazed at the gorgeous settings around us and the abundance of flowers and beautiful trees. After we finished exploring we headed back to Victoria where I explored some of the shops and then we headed back to the ship.

Another benefit to the rain was we saw this beautiful rainbow over the city!

Our last sunset of the trip

 Day 5: Today was crazy! We thought we would be able to walk right off of the ship because we had no checked luggage, but we didn't leave our room early enough for that and we walked straight into madness. The line to get off of the boat was SO long it wrapped around the entire 7th floor of the ship. The gangway was so congested with people exiting the ship into customs that they had to stop allowing people off. At this point I knew Sam and I were in trouble. Our plane was leaving in just a few hours and we would still be in line at this rate! I spoke to the main employee at the guest services desk and told her our dilemma. She told us to wait where she could see us and she would have us escorted off of the ship once they were allowing people off again. She took us through a private door and we got to leave from where the guests staying in the private villas and penthouses left. Woohoo! We got to skip the entire line and most of the line on the gangway. I'm sure there were some not too happy guests that we went in front of, but this woman had the power! We still weren't in the clear though! We had to power walk to the light rail station, and then take our 45 minute ride to the airport. I finally thought we were good to go when we arrived at the airport, but the security line was at least a 45 minute wait! I haven't had to wait that long in a security line in years! I was panicking until I saw our plane was delayed! A miracle that bought us an extra ten minutes. We made it, although Sam and I weren't able to sit next to each other (just across the isle from one another, not too far) since we were almost the last ones to board the plane. I told Sam we'd make a great team on the Amazing Race, but then we both laughed because he knows I get fiesty in situations like that one and that would never happen. My aunt Onalee was kind enough to offer us a ride home from the airport. It was so good to be home, but I still cannot say enough good things about our time away. We were able to visit 4 amazing cities in 5 days. We both hope to return to British Columbia together one day.