Easter 2013

John and I had a fun Easter this year. We got to hang out with family and enjoy a delicious buffet at Little America, dye Easter eggs together, and get Easter baskets from the Easter bunny, of course. Here are a few pics from our Easter this year.

 

St. George, Vegas and Vernon

A couple of weekends ago we went to St. George to visit family and to Vegas to visit our good friends Cristie and Mike. Then last weekend, John and I took a little day trip to Vernon, which is out west in Tooele County. We had a great time both weekends....and now we're stuck inside this weekend due to the snow. Blah! Anyway, here are some pics from our adventures!

Me, Evon, Keeyla, Heather, Belle, Kara and Stephanie at Kara's bridal shower!
Yep, that's right, my aunt Kara is finally tying the knot with her
boyfriend of eight years, Sheldon. I am really happy for them!
They are a great couple and I am so excited for May 10 to get here!

John had so much fun with Cristie and Mike's dogs, Cooper and Truffles.
Truffles loved to bury her nose in John's elbow. Such cute puppies!

I'm not sure why Cristie and Mike tried to get out of this photo...but anyway,
this is at Hash House A Go Go. SO GOOD! It was featured on Man Vs. Food
and you can see why. Look at that portion size!

My cute hubby eating at Hash House. :)

Switching gears back to Northern Utah...John and I stopped at the Camp Floyd Cemetary.
It's on the way to Vernon and was pretty creepy. Here's John entering the cemetery.

And here's me in front of the monument there.

All of the headstones are marked "unknown" because they don't
 know who is buried where. But they have a sign up that tells
you how each person buried there died. Things like murder, suicide, dysentary,
typhoid fever, etc., were listed. The 1800s must have been rough!

Our drive took us all along the Pony Express trail. We got to see lots
 of these cool markers along the way.

Vernon Reservoir. It was really pretty, but still iced over so we didn't stay long.
 

The Silver Sage! Vernon's restaurant, gas station and grocery store in one.
Very cute and delicious food! Even though I've worked in Tooele County
for over a year now, this was my first time eating at the Silver Sage. I highly recommend it!

Valentine's Day

Since we decided our weekend away to Midway was our real Valentine's Day celebration, we just kept it low key on the real Valentine's Day. I made a nice dinner for John of chicken fried steak, salad, potatoes and croissants, and a chocolate cake for dessert. After that it was kind of a typical night....we went to the gym, did some laundry and watched some of our TV shows together. I really couldn't think of anything better though. Spending time together doing everyday things is what I like best, because no matter what we're doing, we always seem to have fun if we're doing it together. :)

This cake was really fattening. It had chocolate chips,
nuts, coconut, butter, caramel, etc. in it. But soo good!

John sitting at the table getting ready to eat. We lit candles and
put out a tablecloth to make it a little more special. Also, the mirror
on the far left side is one of my Valentine's gifts from John.
I have been wanting to get that exact mirror forever, and he
surprised me with it!

A Weekend Away

Usually every few months John and I like to spend a weekend away from home, even if it's just 30 minutes away. It gives us a reason to forget about all the stuff we normally do around the house on the weekends...laundry, cleaning, cooking, washing cars, etc., and just have fun and focus on each other. Earlier this month, we went up to the Heber/Midway area and stayed at a beautiful B&B. We also went showshoeing, tubing, shopping, and out to a nice dinner in Park City. It was a really good weekend! And I learned that snow can be fun, contrary to popular belief. Anyway, here are some pictures from our fun weekend!

John all ready to go right outside the Soldier Hollow lodge.

And here's me, ready for my first showshoeing experience!

Add caption

We drove by these horses like five times a day going back
and forth to Soldier Hollow. They were really sweet. We named them
Clyde and Dale....get it? Clydesdales? Haha.

We also saw this bald eagle sitting in this same tree
on two different days! It was really cool to watch him.

Right in the middle of the town of Midway they had this ice climbing
thing set up. It was also fun to watch people climb it.

Our room at the The Invited Inn B&B!

The awesome jetted tub!

The sauna in our room! It was so nice to sit in after a long day!

This little deer loved hanging around the grounds
of the B&B. It was fun to watch him.

This picture is unrelated to anything above, but it is just
showing my new reddish hair color. I love it!

Look what came in the mail!

John got his diploma!! Yay! He will get to actually "graduate" on May 4, and then he will be gearing up to start his master's degree program. He worked really hard for his degree. I am definitely a proud wife! :)

 

New Year, Big Changes

I can't believe it's 2013! I have a feeling this year is going to be really great for us. Not only did John finish up his degree at the end of December, but just a few days later he was offered a promotion and raise at work! What a great way to start out the new year, right?

John won't get to officially graduate until he walks in May, but we have already started celebrating. It's so nice to have him all to myself and not have to leave him alone in the evenings so he can do homework. He basically started school when we started dating, so I never knew him to not be in school. Now that he's got his bachelor's degree done, he's going to start studying for the GMAT so that he can start on a master's program in January 2014, or at least that's the goal. I'm so proud of him for working so hard!

John has been working in the billing department at his company, but was offered a step up and new position. It's really exciting for him because he's only been there a little over six months. I'm really happy that he's meeting his career goals! It's going to be great for us in the future, especially if and when we start having babies. :)

We don't really set resolutions each year, but some of our goals are to work out more, try new things (we're going showshoeing in a couple of weeks, which takes care of goal one and two), and finish decorating our house. We are already on our way with all three, as we decorated our guest bath this weekend! See pictures below.

 

We're going to put "decorative" soaps in the yellow
dish, we just haven't found any yet.

Christmas 2012

John and I had a really busy month last month. Not only did we have Christmas to prepare for, but we got to do a lot of extra fun stuff too. It seemed like every weekend we had something else going on. We got the opportunity to go to my old company's Christmas party as the "dates" of a couple of our good friends, had a little Christmas get together at our house, went to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's Christmas concert (with Tom Brokaw!) and got to see the Nutcracker at Capitol Theater. Anyway, here are a few pictures of the fun things we did plus us opening gifts on Christmas morning.

Prasad, Gaya, Ashley, Me, Charlie and Becky at our Christmas party!

All of us...or maybe just some of us...goofing off

John and me :)

Ash, Becky and me!

John and I messing around with the camera
before our night at the MoTab concert.
 

 

The tabernacle before the concert started.

Alfie Boe is a British singer. He was amazing! He's won a Tony
and performed for Queen Elizabeth, and it shows. His singing
was beautiful. Tom Brokaw told an amazing story about the
candy bomber in WWII, and the guy was actually there!
It was such an inspirational and beautiful story.

Our tree before we tore into the gifts!

Me with all my gifts on Christmas morning. John/Santa was very good to me!

And here's John with all his gifts on Christmas morning. He was really excited.