Hawaii: Part 1

Day 1:  Brian and I both made it to Hawaii just minutes apart, even though he was on a direct flight from ATL to HNL and I flew stand-by through Salt Lake.  I found out later that I would have made Brian's flight, but it was ok because I got to eat Cafe Rio in the SLC airport. :)

Lorrin and Amy met us at the airport with leis and a baby pineapple (pic above,) and then we set off for the Waikiki mall.  I had a Jamba Juice in celebration of our Hawaiian adventure. :)  Then we drove to Laie, unpacked a little, and promptly fell asleep due to jet lag. The picture on the right is the view from Amy and Lorrin's front door.  Nice, right?!?








Day 2:  Brian and I woke up really, really early because of the time difference, so we decided to walk out to the point and watch the sunrise.

After our morning fun, we took a tour of Laie.  We went and saw BYU-H, where Amy works, the temple, ate shaved ice, and went to the beach for some ocean fun!

Friends in Georgia

One of the best parts of this past month, was getting to spend time with some of my favorite people in the world.  Renae and I both came home for the summer, Erin already lives here, and a couple of weeks ago, Amy flew in for a weekend visit.  It was fun to have the group all back together again. :)

Disclaimer:  I "borrowed" all pics from facebook, thus the poor quality.

Also this month, Jessica drove down from South Carolina for a visit.  We had a crazy adventure getting rained out of Stone Mountain (sorry I didn't take any pics.) We also took Brian to Bruster's for his first time.  Birthday Cake will always be my favorite. :)

Funny Family Fashion

Preface - I have spent a lot of my free time the last 2 weeks scrapbooking.  I've been scrapbooking my brother's life partly because I am a good person and the best sister in the world but mostly because he will never do it, and my poor mother won't throw anything away until it gets done.  It has been taking up too much space in the bonus room for too long!

So I have been scrapbooking.  I don't particularly like scrapbooking (and I so am grateful for the invention of photobooks - my future memory capturing method,) but I do like looking through old photos and reliving good childhood memories.  It was while sorting through old pictures that I found the picture below and made a connection with a picture Brian had shown me the day before.

Picture 1:  Travis, Me, Lyndsey, and my cousin Andrew in Provo.

Picture 2: Emily, Laura, Brian and Justin in...?

Emily (my sister-in-law) and I must have had similar fashion taste.  :)  Check out the matching outfits, blonde hair, and glasses!  And I must have really loved that outfit because I have found several pictures of me wearing it on separate occasions.  Gotta love the 90's...

life changing events

I haven't been the best blogger recently, but I feel that I need to at least mention two really important events that have occurred so far in June...besides of course finishing my second year of full-time teaching, moving to GA for the summer, starting swim lessons, and celebrating Brian's birthday and Father's Day.

1.  First of all, on June 2, 2012, my brother-in-law, Justin, got married!  It was a beautiful day, with only a little rain in the afternoon.  And Macy made such a beautiful, blushing bride.  Here is a picture of them coming out of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple.

2.  One of my very best friends had her baby boy on Sunday!  Levi Daniel Badger entered this world via c-section after 60+ hours of labor!  HOLY COW, Erin is a trooper!  She went into the hospital Thursday night and didn't get to see her baby until Sunday morning.  Still, it was a great Father's Day present for Justin. :)  Renae, Brian and I went to visit them in the hospital tonight, and he is such a calm, cuddly, beautiful, baby...with a full head of blonde hair no less!

Happy Birthday Babe!

Today my very best friend and amazing husband is 25 years old.  That's right, a quarter of a century!  Considering his accident prone tendencies and medical history, this is actually a pretty impressive feat. :)  (Just kidding, Bri.)   Anyway, once again,  I am not with him to celebrate his big day because he is already in Georgia teaching swim lessons, and I am here in Utah signing yearbooks because it is the last day of school.  If all goes well, I should be in GA by tomorrow night.

So here are

25 Reasons I love Brian

1.  He has the best laugh.  I love it especially when he laughs at funny parts in movies.

2.  I love his determination to always to the right thing.

3.  I love that I can 100% completely trust him with anything.

4.  He is a hard worker and spends more time studying than I ever did.

5.  He wakes up early to scrape the ice off my car so I don't have to.

6.  I love that he sometimes brings me homemade chocolate chip cookies at work.

7.  He gives great back massages!

8.  He runs with me even when I'm slow, and he could go faster.
9.  I love that he puts gas in my car so that I don't have to go out in the cold.
10. He can quote movie lines like nobody's business.
11. I love that I met him wakeboarding at Lake Powell.
12. He has the best looking green eyes ever.
13. I love that he makes sure we are never late to church.
14. He's pretty clean...for a boy. :)
15. I love that he wants to travel the world with me.
16. I love how excited he gets about food...especially cheesecake.
17. He is the best gift giver.  He always knows exactly what to get me, even when I don't know myself what I want.
18. I love that he has big dreams for the future.
19. I love that we read books together.
20. I love that he kills bugs for me.
21. He gives the best hugs.
22. He's good with kids.
23. I love him because even when he is away from me, he calls me or texts me to remind me to wake up for work.
24. I love the way my hand fits into his.
25.  I love Brian because he makes me a better person!

Happy Birthday Brian!

My New Hobby

So...I've only been a couple of times so far, and none of my rides have technically counted as Mountain Biking yet, but I'm getting there!  I have at least been on lots of dirt trails, so that's a start, right?  Anyway, I am enjoying acquiring some new skills.  Thanks Judy for letting me borrow your bike this month!

Erin's Baby Shower

This weekend, I flew home to Georgia to throw my very first baby shower ever for my best friend Erin.  I also got to spend some time with the family, check out the new pool liner, go swimming and hot tubbing, and eat at Schlotzsky's!  Here are some pics from the shower...Special thanks to my Mom and Amber Gardner for helping out!

Jocey had her baby the next day...

Best friends since Kindergarten!

Half Marathon 2012

We did it!  And I have a shirt, medal, and sore muscles/joints to prove it.  :)  Brian and I have both decided that this one was a lot harder than the first one we ran two years ago.  Despite my New Year's Resolution to beat my time, we were slower... a lot slower...14 minutes slower to be exact.  Factors that most likely influenced our sluggish time include but are not limited to:
1.  Weight gain.  Brian and I are both significantly heavier than last time around.. Although I'm working on that, which leads to...
2.  My diet.  I started the Paleo Diet and followed it strictly for about a week and 5 days before the race.  While there are a lot of legit runners on the diet, you aren't supposed to do a lot of exercise the first two weeks so that your body can adjust to life with less carbs. You are also supposed to train on the diet (I did our 10.5 mile practice run pre-paleo) before racing on the diet.  Duh!  This is probably the biggest reason I hit such a hard wall just after mile 10.  Good News is that although I may have sacrificed my race time, I am losing weight.
3.  Not enough cross training to strengthen core muscles.  Last time around, Brian and I cross trained with P90X.  This time we only ran according to our running schedule.

Still, I'm grateful that we finished and that we at least met our goal to run it.  Brian is the best husband in the world and most supportive friend and ran with me the entire 13.1 miles.  Our finishing times were exactly the same at 2:37:34. (This was a serious sacrifice of his previous time.)  I love him.  I also I hugely grateful for Travis and Whitney who came to cheer us on near the finish line!

Our times from 2010

Our time from 2012

Here are some random pics from the race thanks to professional photographers.  I had to do some creative cropping in order to cut out the giant "proof" going across each picture. :)

Spring Break

I feel like I have been avoiding this blog.  In fact it's more than just a feeling; I know that I have been.  I just feel that my life the last little bit hasn't been all that eventful.  Nevertheless, last week was my Spring Break, and even though it was probably the least exciting Spring Break in the history of all Spring Breaks, I'm going to tell you all about it. :)

Sorry no pictures...mostly because there weren't really any picture worthy moments...

My weekend started out pretty great.  Brian and I went down to Highland so that he could work on his train (pics and videos to come in a later post,) so that we could do our long run somewhere with better weather (It had just snowed in Park City,) and so we could spend Easter Sunday with family.  The most exciting and gratifying part of the whole trip was the fact that we ran 10.5 miles without dying!  Kind of a big deal!  It was also great to go to church with the family and get to enjoy both the lessons in Sunday School and Relief Society which I usually miss because I am in Primary.  Easter Dinner was pretty delicious as well. :)

Once back in Park City, I decided to fill my days with as much productivity as possible.  I spring/deep cleaned our entire apartment, deep cleaned my car, started the Paleo diet full force, made a two week menu and went grocery shopping, scheduled swim lessons, went through my closet and got rid of about 1/3 of my wardrobe, kept up with my running schedule, and babysat one night for my favorite kiddos.  That lasted me through Wednesday, then the boredom hit.

We spent the next 3 days in Highland for a change of pace.  Brian still had to go to school everyday, but I enjoyed for the most part my R&R.  Too bad the weather took a serious turn for the worse, and I was stuck indoors without a car for the most part.  I read two good books though:  Playing for Pizza by John Grisham and One for the Money by Janet Evanovich.  Somewhere in there I got to spend some time with some of my favorite people: Jessica Porter and Renae Clarke.  They were both a definite highlight to my Spring Break. 


And that sums it up folks!  I look forward to the day when Brian will be done with finals, and I will finally get him back!  I also look forward to the day when we actually have vacation breaks at the same time. :)


P.S.  I'm running the Salt Lake Half Marathon on Saturday.  Wish me luck!

Fun Quotes from General Conference

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