Life Lately

So, I have been horrible at the whole blog thing.... again. By the time I get home from work, we get dinner made, dishes done... spending time on the computer is not on my list of things I want to do! I want to be with my hubby!

Braden and I have been up to lots of fun things! For Thanksgiving we were able to go to Washington D.C. and visit family out there. We had a direct flight (and can I just say that those are heaven sent??) Braden and I went to the mall and visited a few museums. I made us stop and eat a really gross cookie because I was starving (and if you know me, i get grumpy when i don't eat) and i was not happy about the trek across the city in the rain to find the metro, but we arrived at the station, picked up by the family, and off to cafe rio we went. Did they know i was grumpy and craving cafe rio?? they must have! bless them.

The next day was Thanksgiving. There was lots of cooking, eating, sleeping, eating, soccer, more eating that day. I also was in the middle of the book the hunger games.. i couldn't put it down! So I spent most of my day in the kitchen or in bed reading.

The next few days were spent going to Virginia for some black friday shopping, going to an orchard and cutting down their christmas tree, lots of walks, and of course eating. it was a great trip!

Since then, we have celebrated our 4 month anniversary, bought our very own christmas tree, decorated our apartment, gone up to midway, made a gingerbread house( thanks mom for all of the stuff!) (we came in second place... we had an ice fishing pond with teddy grahams as fishermen and goldfish swimming around... even had brown sprinkles as you know what in the pond...details friends... details!)) visited a live nativity here in Salt Lake in the glen, where there was a live camel!, im in the middle of making the star for the tree, (i tried making the tree skirt, but there is no way it will get finished for this christmas, but don't worry... next christmas will be here before you know it!), i am trying my hand at my moms AMAZING toffee, spoke in church--inspired by my mom and her amazing heart, gone to school, gone to work, gone out with friends, subjected to braden to hours of christmas music and movies, and much much more!

we are so happy to be in our fun apartment and making friends here. we are thrilled to see where we end up and what is in our future together!

St. George

quite a while ago, a fairly big group of us went to st. george for a long weekend.

we let the "old people" hidden inside of us come out as we played croquet in the pouring rain

we celebrated presidents day with cake with countless candles and fun facts about past presidents

we taped tacks on our foreheads and balloons on our bums tucked our arms in our shirts, and all crammed in a garage trying to pop each others balloons (hilarious!!)

played soccer, had a home-run derby on a muddy baseball diamond (runnning in the mud isn't as easy as it may seem, but it's also a lot more fun that it may seem), ate lots, and laughed even more. we don't see these friends very much because they live in provo, so it made it that much more fun!

California

How lucky am I? My boss goes on a yearly trip to California, aka I have an entire week off of work. Usually I stick around Salt Lake and feel really lazy for the week he is gone. Not this year. I ALSO went to California the same week he was there! Braden invited me to go with his family, and some of their family friends. Okay, okay, so I was lazy this week too, but I think it's okay to be lazy when you get to sit at the beach all day, every day, for 8 days!! What a vacation!

We didn't just sit at the beach. We....













Went to sea world!! This was my first time to Sea World and I think I was more excited than the kiddos that we were with. Turns out, the sign that says splash zone...means it! We were drenched by the end of the show. While we were there we also saw some of these...
















If you know me at all, you know how much I adore these creatures! It was fun to see these fellas just hanging out, waiting for people like me to take hundreds of photos of them.

One night Braden and I decided to go to a baseball game. Dodgers Vs Padres... Hello Dodger Stadium, highest tier in dodger stadium (I got my work out for the trip just walking up the stairs) dodger dogs, nachos, and sprite! I know gross right? Wrong. It all tasted so good! The drive home wasn't long, traffic in L.A. can be wild, but thanks to the GPS, a wrong exit onto the toll road, we made it back to Laguna beach in no time!






















This trip was so much fun! We ate lots (at a yummy place called wahoos at least 3 times), had a baby announcement, had a proposal, had a few dolphin sightings, as well as a shark sighting, right under us! It was a little guy, but don't worry...shark week would not have been complete without that happening right? boogie boarding, body surfing, naps and paddle ball on the beach! I was also able to meet Bradens oldest brother Ryan and his wife Camille and their 2 kids Bennett and Eliza, and soon to come baby #3. The drive home was a bit less exciting than the trip. I ended up catching a terrible cold, but thanks to everyone in the car for putting up with me!

Thanks for making it such a fun trip Brades!