Busy Bees

We haven't had vacationers to our house in a long time. Also the weather has been perfect lately. Perfect! So naturally we've been running around everywhere showing Debi and Barry all of our favorite places. First things first though, Valentine's Day.

Valentine's Day was a Friday so naturally.... we climbed. And hiked. We hiked out to Turtle Wall and spent the afternoon climbing, taking pictures and videos and just enjoying nature. It was perfect. We thought maybe we would go out to dinner once we got home but we were all pooped from the afternoon/evening. It was late so we ordered pizza and breadsticks and stayed inside :) Chocolate covered strawberries and Swig sugar cookies rounded out our meal! We had a blast being outdoors and sharing what we love with Debi and Barry.

A Lovey List for a Lovey Day

From way back when at BYU when we first started dating.

Happy 9th Valentine's Day to my very favorite person. In honor of 9 big ones together here are 9 things that I absolutely love about Chad in no particular order.

1. He does the laundry and the dishes on a regular basis. In fact, I rarely do the laundry, and "rarely" is being generous. Also, I never vacuum. Or clean much of anything really.  #spoiled

2. His curly hair.

3. His generosity. He's given away his last $10 before to a (crazy) man who said he really needed it, we've turned the car around so he could help people with car troubles or chase down loose dogs for kids, and he'll always buy coupon cards from any kids that come to our door.

4. His passion for new hobbies. Once Chad gets excited about something he learns everything there is to know about it. He eats, breathes and lives it. Whether it's photography or climbing he's all in!

5. He pushes me to be better and to try new things. I'm a creature of habit and comfort. New things, people, experience, places all terrify me. Thanks to this guy I've become much braver and done things that I never would have dreamed of, and loosened up a little along the way.

6. His love for kids. Chad loves kids, loves being around them, talking to them and (duh) playing with them. Our primary class stole his heart in the Clarkston Ward and his nephews and nieces are his absolute favorite. We routinely come up with plans on how we can steal away our nieces and nephews and bring them home to live with us :) You've been warned parents.

7. His love of our fur babies. At one point we had a dog, 2 cats and a rabbit. We may be down to a cat and dog, but he loves them and we never would have gotten them if it hadn't been for Chad.

8. His love of the outdoors. Camping, Hiking, Climbing, Biking, he loves it all. I love it too but I know I wouldn't be out in it nearly as often without this guy. I love all the adventures that we go on and the many places that we've been able to see and enjoy together. We've hiked Angel's Landing and camped in Arches National Park among others. We've got many more on our list! I adore being outdoors with him.

9. That he truly is my best friend. There isn't anyone else I would rather spend my life with. I love waking up with him in the morning and spending all of my time with him until we fall asleep. I love adventuring with him, shopping with him, walking our dog, running to the gas station for caffeine, making dinner with him, driving around aimlessly late at night, doing crazy yoga poses with him, and just living my life with him. I love all of our fun adventures, but even more, I love the everyday with him.

Happy Valentine's!

Surprise, Surprise

Last week I was a lazy bum. While most people seem to be recovering from the flu I was recovering from.... Vegas. Slightly better than the flu. I was also recovering daily from all of the freaking nursing homes we went to. 4 in 2 days my friends. It was as awful as it sounds. Probably more so. On the third day we had a group of 30 mentally challenged 20 somethings come into our office that morning. While they are fun, they are draining. So I'll pick up where I left off... last weekend, the weekend of L-o-v-e... and Vegas ;)

We celebrated Valentine's Day last weekend because celebrating holidays on a weekday is sad and way less fun. And while I already told you we went to Vegas I'm sure you already knew that considering we like to celebrate everything in Vegas. Birthdays, Holidays, "we're bored and have nothing to do" days...

We had work and school until 7:30 last Thursday, Chad had a camp out with the boys from church on Friday and got back Saturday afternoon. That afternoon we had a fun little photo shoot for some kids going to Preference in our ward.

Luckily, I had President's Day off, woot! So Sunday morning we packed up and headed down to our favorite town. We left all of our hanging clothes at home, so that gave us something to do that afternoon :) We found some new fancy clothes to wear that night and then returned them all the next day... I know, we're horrible. But we weren't going out to dinner in our jeans and t-shirts.

Dress: H&M, Tights: old, Shoes: Target

Unfortunately we wandered around a bit too much and by the time we were trying to find somewhere to eat dinner we were outta luck at most restaurants. We finally ate around midnight at the only place that was still open. I got pad thai and Chad got Udon noodles.

That night we wandered around the city, took lots of pictures, got some new eyelashes (well, I did) and made some friends out on the strip! The next day we took it easy and just hung out together. People watching, eating pizza, and dressing up one more time for dinner at our new favorite place at the Encore.

After we were thoroughly exhausted, feet too sore and bellies full we headed back home to St. George. Always kinda a let down after a whirl wind weekend in Vegas. We didn't want to leave our fancy hotel suite :)

'Till next weekend Vegas.

*And while I was joking as I wrote this post last week, we did in fact just get back from Vegas again last night. We have a problem. A big, Vegas sized problem. Someone should really come out here and talk some sense into us, we'll pick you up at the airport... in Vegas....

Valentine's Awkward and Awesomeness

I thought I would share a little Awkward/Awesome story about Chad and my first Valentine's day after we were married.

Valentines fell on a Sunday, so naturally the Saturday before Jared  was over (Chad's best friend since they were born, literally). I don't remember if they were playing video games or watching something ridiculous. Either way he spent the night since he was over so late. Then the three of us all woke up and got ready for church together. After church we all came back to our little apartment. Just the three of us :)

Jared did leave though and Chad and I finally got some alone time...

What did our "romantic" first married Valentines look like? We got a cheap-o $5 pizza and watched whatever show we were into marathon style. I'm sure there was some kind of chocolate involved as well. There usually is most days, Valentine's or not. All in all, it really was a great day.

And whenever I think of our "first" Valentine's day, I think of Jared as well. So Happy Valentines Day Chad! And you too Jared ;)

 I hope all of you have an awesome day with those you love and lots of dessert!

A Very Vegas Valentines

My parents came down to visit us and the grandparents on Valentine's Day. After Chad's last class we packed up our things and headed down to Vegas. Unfortunately we haven't really met anyone in our ward yet :( so our plan to have one of our awesome new friends let our dog out while we were gone was kinda thrown off by our lack of any kind of friends... So, we needed a new plan. We have an enclosed little patio out back and thought we would just let Rukia stay out there and set her up with some blankets in her cage as a dog house, of course with the heated blanket! We even have a fake grass rug thing out there that she could use for a potty. Nice plan huh? We were quite satisfied with our solution until we found out it was supposed to rain/snow the whole time we were gone. Bah! Now what? Well.... next best idea... barricade her in the kitchen! We set up some blankets for her, drug the rug inside hoping she'd potty there and gave her all her toys. We didn't feed her or give her much water the day before and didn't leave her with any either! I know, we're awful! We blocked off the rest of the house with our couch and bike, she's terrified of the bike so we thought it would do the trick. More on that to come...

We picked them up and headed back to our hotel at El Cortez. From there we all went to see the craziness at Freemont Street. We saw the awesome light show above the street that we'd heard so much about, it was awesome! There were men in leopard costumes, a man playing the sax, and men in bikinis and stripper shoes. We have pictures of two out of those three, I'll let you guess which one we didn't get ;)



We went out later that night and took a ton of pictures of Vegas all lit up. The next morning the grandparents told us all about their wild adventures in Vegas. They definitely had a good time getting into free shows and seeing all that Vegas is known for (wink, wink)! Who knew I had such wild grandparents!




The next morning the grandparents taught Chad and I how to play the slot machines. With some direction, their money and a little luck I was a big winner!!!! Well... I was in the positive, $17.04 baby! Woot! Never mind that to get that we put $15 in. I'm way too cheap to gamble. I'd rather go shopping :)


Chad and I headed back home Wednesday night anticipating an easy drive. Most of it was until we hit the mountains right outside the Utah border. Then the rain came. Oh boy did it rain. And we could handle the rain until it turned to snow as we climbed higher and higher into the mountains. Ok, no big deal, we're from Michigan, if there's anything that we know how to do it's drive through a bunch of snow in a blizzard. FYI driving through a blizzard in the mountains is just a little bit different than driving down 1-75 in one. Lots of turns, lots of hills and twists, and lots of me closing my eyes hoping that we weren't going to slide into the side of the mountain. We could barely see but Chad was a champ as usual and we finally made it home. Who would have thought that we would have to drive through a snowstorm here in St. George? Clearly not us!

We were back home and hesitant to see what kind of destruction had occurred in our home. Did she get out and rip everything up, chew on all the moldings, pee everywhere, poo everywhere? We opened our back door to find.... nothing. She held it the entire time! Probably helped that she had nothing in her! It was a nice surprise after the horrible drive. Ok, well that's enough talk about my puppy and her potty habits! Probably more than you needed to know ;) Good news for us though, we can leave for 24ish hours and our puppy will be fine without us!

We hope everyone had an awesome Valentine's Day whenever you decided to celebrate!

The Weekend of Love!

Happy (late) Valentines Day!

Last Saturday Chad and I celebrated our Valentines Day! He made me a wonderful card, does it look like I'm enjoying it!? He also got me an awesome new purse to replace the ones lost to Penny. Afterwards we went to Olive Garden for Dinner, yummm. Next was my portion of the evening....

There was a long wait at the resteraunt so we got a pre-dinner snack!

I made a fun game for us to play ;) I got the idea here! Don't you love all the wonderful things you can find on pinterest!

I figured any old YW leaders or YW that I used to teach didn't need to be able to read every fun space in my game!

Our actual Valentines Day was spent in Vegas picking up my parents!!! YAY!!! But more on that later....